How many can you come up with?

[andy1mack]

Years ago I started this with other techs in our office, schools and so on. I used to have hundreds of these but I guess the fedron finally got to me. I'd like to see others input - might be fun. (Just joking about the fedron - is that stuff even legal anymore?)

YOU KNOW YOU'RE IN TROUBLE WHEN...

The customer asks how the wife and kids are.

The print job comes out in Japanese

The technician asks "Any messages?" (yes, before cell phones)

[blackcat4866]

...YOU KNOW YOU'RE IN TROUBLE WHEN...

The print job comes out in Japanese...


How about Korean?
The service call read "jams when printing". So I had been there for 20 minutes, jabbering away, and I ask this nice elderly gentleman to send a print job. When he does, the machine displays "Paper Mismatch". My customer has loaded "Letter" size paper in his Samsung CLX-3175FN/XAA, but has programmed the tray as "A4". So I program the machine for 8 1/2 x 11, and I ask him to re-send. Now I get a page of non-ASCII characters, that looks a little like Chinese, maybe Japanese.

So I walk around his desk to get a glance at his laptop. It's a Windows XP OS but I still can't make anything of the characters. Now I realize that he hasn't said a single word to me. I think he might understand a little bit of English, but doesn't speak any. (Duh! No wonder he's not so talkative!)

So what I really need here (other than to speak his language) is an Auto A4 setting, so these A4 size print jobs are automatically converted to letter size paper. I call the Samsung hotline to hear "No, that's not an option on that model...".

I've got the print driver on my laptop, and I'm clicking through the options when I realize what I need to do. I set up my laptop next to his, and I tell him (and stupidly mime) to follow the same clicks on his laptop as I do. So I click, He clicks. I click, he clicks. We finally get to the Fit-To-Paper option and default to it. It works perfectly. As he's closing out screens I see Yahoo (Korean) in one of the windows.

So I'm leaving, and considered that I didn't understand a single word he said, overall it went pretty well. At the door his daughter says "So did you get that problem fixed?" (Duh! His daughter speaks both English and Korean perfectly! I sure could have used her help earlier!)
=^..^=

[SCREWTAPE]

...YOU KNOW YOU'RE IN TROUBLE WHEN...

When your wife gives you that 3 second stare!

Or

Calls you by your first name.

[D_L_P]

...YOU KNOW YOU'RE IN TROUBLE WHEN...

You realize your cell phone has been off and when you turn it on see there are a half-dozen new voice messages...

[fixthecopier]

you hear the phrase "it is doing it again" followed by the name of one of your most dreaded customers.

when you are almost to the call, your shop calls to say you left your parts on the counter.


as you look for that one special tool you need, you remember leaving it somewhere else.


you misquote the price of a part, quoting the customer what you paid for it.


the customer says "it didn't do that til you worked on it."


you can't really hear the noise they want you to make go away.


you have to ask the customer questions about the machine because you have never seen it before.



when you start to explain how it works, you get that "deer caught in headlights look"

[KenB]

...YOU KNOW YOU'RE IN TROUBLE WHEN...

You drive just over 200 miles (one way) to a remote office to help a tech out, work until 7 PM, get home at 11 PM, and realize the following morning that you left your laptop in said tech's car.

(I did this about 2 years ago. :mad:)

[CopierTechofOmens]

...YOU KNOW YOU'RE IN TROUBLE WHEN...


You get onsite to realize you left your tools at the shop...

I realize I have a letherman in the glove box and manage to do an entire machine cleaning using some paper towels and water from the sink nearby. They never knew...

[mrwho]

... when you empty part of a waste toner bottle onto the customer's toilet... and flush without taking proper precautions. Man, happened to me once and it was nasty!

PS: What's "fedron"?

[KenB]

Fedron is a rubber rejuvenator chemical that is used to clean / condition rubber feed parts.

Nasty stuff!

[mikadonovan]

...YOU KNOW YOU'RE IN TROUBLE WHEN...


You get onsite to realize you left your tools at the shop...

I realize I have a letherman in the glove box and manage to do an entire machine cleaning using some paper towels and water from the sink nearby. They never knew...Had to do that before, too. Gotta love a good multi-tool.

[fixthecopier]

Had to do that before, too. Gotta love a good multi-tool.


yep, been there done that, now I feel naked if I have less than 3 Phillips screwdrivers, lost 1 just yesterday.

[Stirton.M]

Ditto to that improvizing the tools thing. I even used windshield cleaner once.

[nmfaxman]

...YOU KNOW YOU'RE IN TROUBLE WHEN...

The server dies after installing the print driver.

[ToshibaTech]

...when you open the ADF and there sits the scanner cocked to one side and the cables look like spaghetti.

[blackcat4866]

...YOU KNOW YOU'RE IN TROUBLE WHEN...

The server dies after installing the print driver.


I've done that. Samsung drivers.

[blackcat4866]

...when you open the ADF and there sits the scanner cocked to one side and the cables look like spaghetti.

Seem that too. It was probably a Ricoh AF550/650. Looks like a demolition derby inside the scanner. =^..^=

[KenB]

...when you go out to install a trial machine where "everything must go perfectly, because if this goes well, they'll buy 50 of 'em", and the machine doesn't get delivered until almost 4:00, is missing manuals and CDs, starts doing funky stuff as soon as you turn it on, and there's no network drop (or person) in sight.

Murphy's Law at it's finest!

[fixthecopier]

the customer says "my old copier would do that, why won't yours?"

[Vulkor]

perfectly my life

you hear the phrase "it is doing it again" followed by the name of one of your most dreaded customers.

When you are almost to the call, your shop calls to say you left your parts on the counter.


As you look for that one special tool you need, you remember leaving it somewhere else.


You misquote the price of a part, quoting the customer what you paid for it.


The customer says "it didn't do that til you worked on it."


you can't really hear the noise they want you to make go away.


You have to ask the customer questions about the machine because you have never seen it before.



When you start to explain how it works, you get that "deer caught in headlights look"

[Vulkor]

You guys are putting Gems up. Heard and experienced almost all of this.

You know you are in trouble with the your customer when Scanrouter Doesn't give you the option Not to Reboot and does it not once, but twice on a Company's Server!

I'll never forget that day. Lots of people lots work they had been doing on Architectural and Plumbing designs.

[andy1mack]

The machine was working when you got there, but when you leave - it's down.
(How many times has that happened? Not a good situation to be in.)

[jonhiker]

You follow the shutdown properly, do some maintenance like rebuilding the fuser, and when you power it back on.....

HDD failure!

[20gaugeO/U]

Your "tech in training" wants to get a better look at the dev unit on a Savin 9965 and tilts it towards the add toner opening. When toner/dev dump out of there from 5 ft in the air it creates a mushroom cloud that goes a long way.....at least the two office ladies that he was standing between laughed their heads off. I just showed him how to use the vacuum.

[gwaddle]

... when you empty part of a waste toner bottle onto the customer's toilet... and flush without taking proper precautions. Man, happened to me once and it was nasty!

PS: What's "fedron"?

Am the only one that thinks this is an odd thing to do?

[blackcat4866]

Yeah, I've never flushed waste toner down a toilet. Never. That would be like dumping the waste toner in somebody wastebasket, then just leaving it there loose.

The 1 gallon zip lock baggie has worked for me for many years. =^..^=

[Zackuth]

http://www.copytechnet.com/forums/images/misc/quote_icon.png Originally Posted by ToshibaTech http://www.copytechnet.com/forums/images/buttons/viewpost-right.png (http://www.copytechnet.com/forums/rants-raves-everything-else/37009-how-many-can-you-come-up-post151146.html#post151146)
...when you open the ADF and there sits the scanner cocked to one side and the cables look like spaghetti.

I've seen this, after about 8 months in the business. I worked on it for about an hour and a half and got it restrung at the customers place--before I knew that there were special tools and a procedure to restring the cables. It worked for about a day and a half before it died again. The service manager and I restrung it the correct way that time.

[fixthecopier]

Your "tech in training" wants to get a better look at the dev unit on a Savin 9965 and tilts it towards the add toner opening. When toner/dev dump out of there from 5 ft in the air it creates a mushroom cloud that goes a long way.....at least the two office ladies that he was standing between laughed their heads off. I just showed him how to use the vacuum.


You want to talk toner cloud. The machine was a Minolta Di620. The waste toner bottle was about 4 pounds full and we had to dump them. I was in a copy room on the third floor of a building. I emptied the waste toner bottle into a trash bag. I stood up and lifted the bag. It seemed like slow motion as the seam on the bottom of the bag began to split open and the toner poured like a waterfall down the front of my pants, hit the floor and began to crawl across the floor, came to the walls and began to slowly walk up the walls to the ceiling with little puffy black clouds. I was there for 2 hours with a trashcan full of water and a box of paper towels cleaning the mess up. Every since then, I double bag it.

[andy1mack]

I've been doing this for 32 years and have come to the conclision that toner is not water soluable. Am I wrong? I wouldn't recommend emptying a waste tank in the toilet. Sounds like a good prank though!!!

[mrwho]

I perfected a method to dump it in the toilet: dump it slowly, then throw some detergent on it (something that makes a lot of foam), then use several squares of toilet paper over the toner pile. Cover the toilet with newspaper sheet, close the lid and then flush several times. The toilet paper along with the foam help grab the toner and send it down, and the newspaper sheet stops the cloud from coming out.

[D_L_P]

LMAO

This cracked me up. Down the toilet?? Also, I can just picture the spill in slow motion going around the room. Those clouds do seem to move very slow after the initial "boom". I like the ziplock bag idea, sounds quick and easy.

[jonhiker]

You want to talk toner cloud. The machine was a Minolta Di620. The waste toner bottle was about 4 pounds full and we had to dump them. I was in a copy room on the third floor of a building. I emptied the waste toner bottle into a trash bag. I stood up and lifted the bag. It seemed like slow motion as the seam on the bottom of the bag began to split open and the toner poured like a waterfall down the front of my pants, hit the floor and began to crawl across the floor, came to the walls and began to slowly walk up the walls to the ceiling with little puffy black clouds. I was there for 2 hours with a trashcan full of water and a box of paper towels cleaning the mess up. Every since then, I double bag it.

Double bag it. I usually put the empty trash bags in one of the customers garbage cans for support. Also, on the Ricoh 3260 and MPC series, take in 2 sets of double bags. That thing holds a lot of waste toner!

[anka monki]

I perfected a method to dump it in the toilet: dump it slowly, then throw some detergent on it (something that makes a lot of foam), then use several squares of toilet paper over the toner pile. Cover the toilet with newspaper sheet, close the lid and then flush several times. The toilet paper along with the foam help grab the toner and send it down, and the newspaper sheet stops the cloud from coming out.

whats the procedure for a piss trough

[mrwho]

You know you're in trouble when you've got a troubled machine at the shop (http://www.copytechnet.com/forums/ricoh-savin-gestetner/35925-sp1000-blank-copies-after-new-toner.html). You've swapped everything on it and the trouble won't go away. It's your last day before your holidays and the boss tells you that you need to solve it before going on vacation.

[Vulkor]

You know you're in trouble when you've got a troubled machine at the shop (http://www.copytechnet.com/forums/ricoh-savin-gestetner/35925-sp1000-blank-copies-after-new-toner.html). You've swapped everything on it and the trouble won't go away. It's your last day before your holidays and the boss tells you that you need to solve it before going on vacation.
LMAO Ouch I'd order ever part known to Ricoh for it just to po the boss

[mrwho]

Well, I'm with 5 minutes left before leaving and the machine stays the same - better call the wife to send me dinner and a sleeping bag.

[WOETC]

You want to talk toner cloud. The machine was a Minolta Di620. The waste toner bottle was about 4 pounds full and we had to dump them. I was in a copy room on the third floor of a building. I emptied the waste toner bottle into a trash bag. I stood up and lifted the bag. It seemed like slow motion as the seam on the bottom of the bag began to split open and the toner poured like a waterfall down the front of my pants, hit the floor and began to crawl across the floor, came to the walls and began to slowly walk up the walls to the ceiling with little puffy black clouds. I was there for 2 hours with a trashcan full of water and a box of paper towels cleaning the mess up. Every since then, I double bag it.

Went to install a machine on day, no tools no vaccuum cleaner. The customer then asked me to empty the waste toner on another machine. The bag split, and left a fair old mess. The customer gave me a vaccuum cleaner to use. I was vaccing away unaware that there was a cloud of toner billowing out the back of the vac. What started off as manageable mess ended up as a major cleanup. I share your pain.

[prntrfxr]

You know it's a bad day, when one of your clients comes to your office with a big box and asks how much to fix the machine inside. It appears they purchased a fax machine through ebay and the idiot who sent it to them left the toner in it. The normally white fax was a dark grey. I told the client it was not economical to repair as it would be cheaper to buy a new one with a warranty. They wanted to fix it anyway since they could not return the fax (bought as-is). Stripped it to the frame and after 3 hours of cleaning it miraculously worked!!! They just smiled and payed the bill (twice the price of a new one!).

[mrwho]

You know it's a bad day when it's monday.

[lonesome]

You know you're in trouble when the boss calls you into his office instead of into the pantry.

[mrwho]

Wow... your boss calls into the pantry? Hope it's a female boss (or that you're a female tech with a male boss).