Stupid Customer Tricks

[Phil B.]

Had a customer many years ago when the devices were analog and had no touch screen available. She called in saying she could not enlarge any copies and I figured she must have broken the plastic actuator under the key pad as they were all hard keys. When I got there the copy ratio key worked and you could cycle through the complete enlarge and reduction ratio menu. I showed her that it worked and she claimed that the key was in a different spot on the control panel prior and I must have moved it during the previous call, which would be a real engineering feat to carve out a new spot on the c/panel and have it activate the bubble pad underneath, not to mention somehow filling the previous spot seamlessly with the exact color of plastic. I wondered how she got to work everyday.

bet she worked in the public school system.

[gneebore]

Not a copier topic and also an old recurring weird one. It concerns the old IBM selectric typewriters and the newer wheelwriters and some special calls about wrong letters printing when typing. On the keyboard for the selectrics there were two different upper case characters on some of the numbers key buttons. You actually had to buy a separate element to use them. Can not count the number of times I had service calls for the "wrong letter typing" when they had the special element installed. Along the same lines was the language feature on the wheelwriters. At least once every two weeks there were calls for the "machine is not printing the correct letters" Even got to the point that I would specifically ask over the phone if the "language light is on" Most of the time the answer would be where is that and you need to come and fix this machine now. Then a nice fifteen or twenty minute drive to show the ding-a-ling user how to use the code and x key to turn the feature off. Of course then they had to ask. "Why do they have that silly feature there for?" Answer: some people actually buy these machines and put a Spanish or French lettered printwheel in the machine and they can type in another language without buying a new typewriter. Worked especially well in Canada where the feature could be used as a sales point. Oh and the worst part was this. Most of the language feature calls were on machines where there was no service contract. Had quite a few that refused to pay for the service call until I pointed out they insisted I make the trip to repair the machine. And even after I tried to save them the trouble and expense by trying to tell them how to "fix it" over the phone. Almost as much fun as going out on service calls where inexperienced people could not even follow the directions on the box on how to install a typewriter ribbon.