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Stirton.M
06-26-2010, 10:19 AM
And then there are days I wanna kick the daylights....:mad:

I went to a service call today, customer complaining about image shifting problem, and that they did not want a specific tech there anymore, to send someone else.

I go talk to the two girls who made the service call and find out from them what the problems were. Image shifting, front side to back was somewhat a strange one on a Konica Minolta C451. That particular problem is intermittent, and is currently on a watch and see if the machine exhibits the problem again after all of what I did to it. However, this was not the only problem on the machine, and was not the cause of the ire these girls had with the other tech.

They complained about copy quality, and jamming issues.

Copy quality, was lines in the prints. Basically uneven density in any solids across the page, as well as fuser line marking (which was not as easily seen because of the other lines). This other tech had told them that there was nothing he could do about the lines.

When I saw the sample prints they were having, I was dumbfounded, unable to comprehend what possessed this other tech to say that. I queried them on specifics. Such as, did he mention that he needed parts but the parts were unavailable today and that he would return when those parts came in? No, was the answer. Can't do anything about this problem.

What I found was a transfer belt that had been reset at least twice. The belt had severe worn lines in the surface, which would affect the image, uneven density. The fuser, after I replaced the belt, had paper edge marks worn into the surface that couldn't be seen in the printed image because of the uneven density.

The jamming, had to do with the finisher. Anyone familiar with the FS519 (514/517) will know these finishers are not flawless, but with some adjustments and such, they can be fixed so they work fairly reliably. The problem in this case was paper exiting onto either exit tray. A 30 page document, corner stapled, 5 copies. Typically in this case, the third document would not exit the machine properly because the previous two copies wouldn't stack correctly and the 4th copy would butt up against the trailing edge of the third as it stacked for the corner staple operation. End result would be a jam in this section.

A few fixes available for this. In the case I was dealing with, firmware was the fix. The firmware on the machine was at 6M. This is almost factory release level, something that should have been dealt with at some point in the past couple years this machine was at the customer's site. R6 is the most current. Our office has a policy of updating the firmware to the latest level (we test each in the shop to look for possible issues before we make it final to the customer). R6 is trusted by us to be reliable and has many fixes, such as fixing the jam issue above. Customer complained this problem since last fall.

Long story short, in one or two trips to the customer's site, the other tech could have resolved ALL the problems with a firmware update and replace the transfer belt and fusing unit. Instead, he chose to give the customer a bs line "nothing he could do about those problems".

I passed this on to the supervisor, who is a pretty non-confrontational kind of guy, because the customer was livid that I was able to fix what the other tech said could not be fixed.

I heard through a co-worker that this other tech was pretty upset with me about what I passed on, he got shit from the supervisor.

Most situations, I would have talked to a fellow tech without involving the boss. I would expect no less from them if there was anything they might have found I missed on a previous call. It is how we learn and improve our performance.

This guy, this problem is constant and has been for going on 3 years. This is not an isolated issue. I've lost count of how many customers do not want him back, I've lost count on how many calls I had to go to that he supposedly went to fix and never did, finding easy things that would have taken a few minutes time to do. I've lost count on how many times he's been talked to on such issues as this...it's like talking to a brick wall. I've pretty much crossed that line of "I really do not give a shit what he thinks". There are too many other issues I have with him, but those are issues the boss sees. When it comes to customers, many do not voice their dissent beyond the dispatch or another tech, or worse, diss the company, costing us potentially in customers.

There....

Got that all off my chest....

I feel a "little" less agitated....
:)

zed255
06-26-2010, 04:16 PM
I think every shop has one of those guys. In our team there's one guy who will call out for help with a call (i.e. he wants you to relieve him of it, not actually help him) just about every time anything over 25ppm needs a frickin' PM, or if its been a problem and is causing call-backs. I don't even respond to this guy's cries for help anymore, been stung once too many.

Stirton.M
06-26-2010, 05:11 PM
We get the song and dance that we are in a hiring freeze, so if we fire him, we don't get a replacement. Truth be told, I wouldn't care if we lost him. The amount of extra work with him gone would not change.

Other things he does....

He runs out of gas money almost every pay period. The latest excuse to that was he lost his bank card and therefore cannot get gas. When pressed that he simply go to the bank and get a new one, his excuse immediately was to say he could not do this because he has a joint bank account with his girlfriend. (I personally know that is a load of BS). The next day he runs out of gas. My question was, why did he not talk to his girlfriend to get the tank filled? I've yet to hear the excuse for that one.

He mixes up plastic and steel screws regularly, is constantly late when coming to work, rude to some customers and lies to others.

As I said elsewhere, I hate to diss co-workers. But this guy is really pissing me off and the PTB are doing nothing about his crap job performance.

TonerMunkeh
06-26-2010, 06:26 PM
To be honest, I'd just bite my tongue and be happy with the fact you're 20 times the engineer he'll ever be. At least you get the satisfaction of knowing you've fixed the machine properly and have a happy customer. He'll get his come-uppance soon enough.

Mr Spock
06-26-2010, 08:26 PM
Have the service manager send him on all the dirty/filthy machines (or the ones in a warehouse with no a/c). And make life totally miserable so he wants to quit. That is how we got one to leave....
I know about those hiring freezes. We lost a tech (passed away within 5 weeks of diagnosis of cancer) and we still have not replaced him. Looks like we may not be any time soon.

Stirton.M
06-27-2010, 08:23 AM
To be honest, I'd just bite my tongue and be happy with the fact you're 20 times the engineer he'll ever be. At least you get the satisfaction of knowing you've fixed the machine properly and have a happy customer. He'll get his come-uppance soon enough.
Thanks for the compliment... :P

And I do agree that I'd bite my tongue and leave it alone and have in the past. I am just getting fed up with his inept and lazy work ethics making KM look bad, that and the extra work I have to do because he is inept and lazy.

And of course, having to deal with some extremely emotional issues regarding recent events my parents are going through... (getting old, mortality kind of things)....I try to keep that out of work and seldom ever let my personal life interfere with my job, but damnit...

Anyway.... :)



Have the service manager send him on all the dirty/filthy machines (or the ones in a warehouse with no a/c). And make life totally miserable so he wants to quit. That is how we got one to leave....
I know about those hiring freezes. We lost a tech (passed away within 5 weeks of diagnosis of cancer) and we still have not replaced him. Looks like we may not be any time soon.


Man, cancer can be fast...my condolences.

As for giving him the crap jobs, if I was doing the dispatching another coworker is handling (Dispatch sends him all the calls and he doles them out because he knows the city better than dispatch does), I would be doing exactly that. Empty WTB, change IU and absolutely nothing else. And I wouldn't care if he drove all over town doing just that, but I don't have that responsibility and don't want it. And unfortunately, the colour machines rarely ever get all that dirty...maybe when emptying the waste toner bottle, but even that....environment dust, a couple spots on the glass maybe....clean the sync roller....at one time, it used to take me about half an hour at least to do just a basic cleaning. These current machines, 5 minutes, most of that dust on the outer body.

And considering his work ethic, I would not trust him to even remotely do a decent job.

blackcat4866
06-27-2010, 04:22 PM
Many years back we had one of these idiots, that after only 15 yrs in the business had learned almost nothing. These kind of things drove me mad:
1) oiling clutches and torque limiters (oiling everything)
2) De-adjusting the optical shades on light source one ("...because the sharp metal cuts the back of my fingers...."). Never mind that you just screwed up your image quality.
3) No PMs, ever.

The moment he had to think of something for himself, that's when it went all wrong. It turned out that he was somebody's brother-in-law. We were told that the best thing we could do was cherry-pick the easiest calls for him, because he would work here as long as he wanted to. It was exasperating. =^..^=

KenB
06-27-2010, 08:58 PM
We've got one of these idiots, too.

Twenty years in the business and still doesn't know squat. Any time we show him something that any sane person should already know, it's a revelation to him; either that, or he complains that it was never a part of his training...yeah, right.

The fact that he's still here amazes us all, pretty much daily.

It really makes me wonder why I continue to bust my hump, while this numbnuts continues to walk among us. :mad:

D_L_P
03-05-2011, 05:20 PM
I thought I'd share this one. I am assembling a copier someone else raped for parts. While putting it back together I was trying to figure out why this panel was off. There wasn't anything missing as far as I could tell. The only thing behind it was a sensor. Then I found out why someone had it off. They had added a few wraps to the spring on the actuator. The thing had so much tension it could fling quarters. WTF were they thinking? I haven't got it to the point of running paper yet but I know it would have jammed every time at that spot.

I thought it might a practical joke but I've ran into 3 copiers now with jamming issues that someone has the idea adding a wrap to a spring on an actuator is some miracle fix. In 15+ years I've had to add a wrap on a spring before, but it is an extremely rare occurrence and usually related to one particular sensor on a specific model. Like the registration sensor on most NP3050's. I can't wait to talk to this guy about the catapult in the fuser!

tcs04
03-05-2011, 07:44 PM
We feel your pain!. I had one yesterday where a "tech" attended more than a week ago, found a fuser code, fitted a themistor, reset the code and when it wouldn't reset correctly told the customer he would return. He put a note in in the message box that the machine needed either a fuser lamp, (another) thermistor, thermostat, complete fuser, or power supply.... BUT didn't actually TALK to anyone with tech knowledge. The customer called for the second time after 7 days to ask what was happening. As a consequence I spent about 2 Hrs yesterday (The other guy went "sick" that morning!) shifting old machines to find a junker in our warehouse and rob a fuser and PSU. I then spend 90 mins travelling to the customer and 30 mins waiting for the customer to return, only to find he hadn't used the correct sequence to clear the code! It's an old machine and needed an extra button pressed compared to newer models. If he had booted his laptop and read the manual he would have fixed it in 15 minutes!

zed255
03-05-2011, 09:24 PM
If he had booted his laptop and read the manual he would have fixed it in 15 minutes!

Don't get me started on all the guys who refuse to use the company provided laptops to read a manual! These are the same lazy bastards who will take the time to call me to ask something I would have to RTFM to find out! I figure about half of the local 'team' is scared of a computer.

CT Copier Repair
03-06-2011, 12:19 AM
Been there had them
and i am still doing this while they are working at McDonalsd asking about supersizing and screwing that up
Be a technicain and help out those that truly need help
i had a tech in Michigan
i was in Connecticut well after 4 phone calls and sending him self extracting zip file ( that put all the files in the proper folder) i had to fly out to Michigan and unzip the file i sent him and fix the machine by oading system software
well to make a long story short I punched him in the mouth and told my boss I quit
well after getting back to CT i was greeted by our VP of service who took me out to dinner and i got a raise for doing my job
he finally got fired as he cost the company 2800 dollars for me flying out there
so take them with a grain of salt don't let them get to you they will screw themselves
it just takes time ( and a good right hand works wonders but i wouldn;t advise that)

and always smile as they are broken when they call us and the worse they can be is still broken
'
as i once replied to a VP when he asked what was wrong with the machine i said "BROKEN" he said well waht are you going to do about it
I replied "FIX IT ????"
whgen i got aclled into the office for my tone and sarcasm i asked him what he was going to do about not being profitable
well i got written up
he got fired


they are all assholes

tcs04
03-06-2011, 09:34 PM
Don't get me started on all the guys who refuse to use the company provided laptops to read a manual! These are the same lazy bastards who will take the time to call me to ask something I would have to RTFM to find out! I figure about half of the local 'team' is scared of a computer.

I told our "team" for 5 years "learn to use the tools (Laptops) to ensure you keep your job"................... The ones who didn't were the first to go when times got tough!

It's amazing that if you "Miss the call" and phone them 20 mins later that 90% of the time they've fixed the thing anyway!!

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