This is why we can't have nice things!!!!!

[Dave1982]

Ugh...just....ugh....

I got reassigned to my mother's hospital today for extra coverage. As I've mentioned a few times, they just renewed their contract with us and are getting new copiers. And FINALLY after many fits and starts, everything has been signed and the machines are being delivered. Quite a few have been installed already and they're getting 11 more tomorrow.

One of the first departments to get a shiny brand-new copier was Ambulatory Surgery.

Want to know how long it took them to break it badly enough that the machine has been rendered inoperable?

Three days.

Yes...THREE DAYS!!

I have no idea how the hell they managed this, but they got a paper jam and rather than call us like they are supposed to (which is why the hospital pays for our company to keep staff on site to handle these problems) they decided to fix it themselves. Never mind that this was a new machine that they were unfamiliar with (all the more reason to call us....)

And somehow, they ripped out...RIPPED OUT the duplexing gate.

So now it's been down for a WEEK, because this isn't a part that they expect to break, so they've had to have it shipped over from Japan.

And that department has had the nerve to ask at least twice if they can just get a new machine!!

NO! You can NOT get a new machine! YOU JUST GOT A NEW MACHINE AND YOU FUCKING BROKE IT!!!!

[Raveni]

How does your contract handle the extra work when the client destroys the equipment instead of call for service?

[Dave1982]

From what I'm told it's being taken care of this once as a courtesy, but that if it happens again they will receive a bill.

Of course, who knows if that's really the case but I'm not involved in those decisions.

[emax4]

3 days though, and they destroyed it, and they get a courtesy replacement? C'mon... Ok, yes it's great that they GOT a free replacement, but they just used up their first and only "get out of jail free" card.

They want a new machine? Sure! Just cough up the cost of the machine they want, in addition to $x.xx for installation and $x.xx for a warranty, and they'll be set.

[Dave1982]

Well, they aren't getting another new machine; they're getting the week-old one fixed as part of the service contract.

[Bright_Star]

Did they ever hear of reading the instruction manual thoroughly BEFORE using it?

[Sandman]

Dave.. one of our accounts they don't hesitate to bill out the part if it is shown that it was a customer abuse that caused it.... although they do document it big time!

If these people treat machines like this.. AND can't follow directions to call us.. I don't want to have any medical procedures there. It just shows to me that the people charged to take care of me can't follow simple instructions.

[Slave to the Phone]

I'm the only one allowed to do anything that involves opening doors and whatnot on our copier. Everyone else slams things, and yanks things out the wrong way and just generally abuses the poor thing.

I get interruped a lot to clear jams, but its worth it so the machine doesn't go down and we have to wait for the poor, long suffering repair guy to open the machine, make a sad face and start fixing something that shouldn't have been broken.

You have my sympathy.

[TheSHAD0W]

Quite a while back I was equipping my father's new office, and found an old used Xerox copier. It was a real workhorse, could take 8-1/2 x 14" paper and zoom and shrink. $300 used, but it was a steal.

It ran for 3 years without any service at all, no toner, nothing. Then one day my brother slammed the front panel closed and broke it. He decided it was an old piece of crap and threw it away.

Then he went to Staples to buy a new copier. Couldn't find anything that'd do legal sized; duh. Then he found out how much a copier that could do legal sized copies would cost... Needless to say, he wasn't happy, and we were taking stuff to the local print shop to copy for a while after that.

[LillFilly]

That's pretty messed-up. At least you'll never want for a job! You might run out of migraine meds, but never work!

[mharbourgirl]

Oh, you have my sympathies. In buckets. I've trained my co-workers in the fine art of running for me whenever the machine so much as beeps at them. Anyone who messes with the settings or starts opening panels to 'find the problem' is going to get an earful on the fine art of leaving MY machines alone because it's MY job to fix them. I know how (and I have several phone numbers for technicians who can fix the things I can't). They don't. Fortunately, my co-workers aren't blindly stupid, so they actually learned the lesson. I've worked places where I wasn't so lucky.

I'd be finding the head of that department and having a come-to-deity chat with them about how you won't go and mess with their patients because that's not your job, so their staff had better not mess with expensive new copy machines because that's not THEIR job. When your expertise is medicine, that does not carry over to mechanical objects.

Wanna go for a drink? I could use one, sounds like you could too.

[Sientara]

I'm just surprised that it didn't involve tape. The users at my hospital are fond of trying to cover their tracks by trying to tape it back together. If it makes you feel better, I said the same thing after they broke one of our "business-rugged" Toughbooks (AKA the not-so-toughbooks) after they had been in service only a week.

[Skeen]

I'm the only one allowed to do anything that involves opening doors and whatnot on our copier. Everyone else slams things, and yanks things out the wrong way and just generally abuses the poor thing.

I get interruped a lot to clear jams, but its worth it so the machine doesn't go down and we have to wait for the poor, long suffering repair guy to open the machine, make a sad face and start fixing something that shouldn't have been broken.

You have my sympathy.

I'm that person at my office. The copier/printer repair guy is on my speed dial. He's the only one on my speed dial, actually. My coworkers can't even change toner reliably.

[Dave1982]

Wanna go for a drink? I could use one, sounds like you could too.

Sure! I'll have a double Chivas on the rocks. You were buying, right?

[An Haddock]

Doesn't surprise me at all.

We sold a laptop to a local young guy a few months ago... inside of 2 weeks he was sitting on his bed with it, got the power cable tangled around his leg, and when he climbed out of bed the laptop fell on the floor and cracked the screen.


Even better - sold an almost brand new Lenovo to a guy about 3 weeks ago. Mint condition, we had acquired it from a client who only had it for 3 months and decided to switch to Apple. The guy who bought it from us FUCKING SPILLED JUICE ON THE KEYBOARD last week. I have to order a new keyboard for him today.


People don't know how to take care of jack shit.