Client has spent over $400 troubleshooting a $90 printer.

[thecomputerguy]

I have a client who owns a Law Firm with a few employees, there is plenty of money to go around. She and her employees constantly pester me about her 2 year old Officejet 8710 and 3 year old Officejet 8610. Sometimes it will stop printing, sometimes her computer will disappear from the scanning list, sometimes it prints too slow etc.

They have a giant Konica Minolta printer in their conference room but no one seems to use it unless they are doing mass printing. Everyone wants to print to their little crappy inkjets.

I've told her countless times, if she wants to reliably scan then her best bet is to get a Scansnap or use the Konica. If she wants to reliably print then she needs to get a business class laser printer and wire it to the network or use the Konica.

It's frustrating because even though I'm making money troubleshooting these printers, every couple of months they come back and say, hey it's doing that thing again that you said you fixed, I thought you said it was fixed. I feel like all I can really do is reinstall the printer which usually fixes the problem temporarily, but whatever the issue is it always comes back.

I've told them the replace this junk and get Business quality equipment and they basically say that they don't believe the issues are because they aren't business quality. They basically try to make me feel I'm trying to dodge them because I don't want to try and fix it.

The latest issue is that when she sends a print to her 8710 it takes longer for the print to reach the printer than another computer. Were talking seconds here. So here we go again, another hour and now up to $500 to troubleshoot two $90 printers.

Could've had two scansnaps by now.

Idiots... /rant

 

[Sky-Knight]

Yeah, I take money to do this junk too. But I never tell them it's "fixed". I say "it's working now", because it will stop working at some point in the future. People that are dumb enough to not do the right thing, but still pay us to fix it are gold clients honestly. It's like earning a bonus on their stupidity.

 

[nerd2u]

This is why I put clients on leased printers with maintenance plans.

Have a problem? Ring the printer guys and they will be on site within 4 business hours

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[Archon Prime]

You can't fix stupid.

 

[nerd2u]

Had a customer pay me once to pick up a printer and move it across the hall to another office and plug it in.

The employee was switching offices and needed the printer moved. When I asked them why they didn't just move it themselves they told me it's corporate policy to have an outside firm handle it as it's considered a MAC request.

They paid 150$ for that printer move.

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[thecomputerguy]

So I login to the computer and it prints perfectly fine UGHSGKLSDHGFLKSDFGHSDKFJHSDFKLWJENFGVWIOEKGHNWEOISGKHNEWRGOIPNSERDG

 

[GreyWolf]

@thecomputerguy It's normal once the doctor is there everything works just fine. at this point after the 10th consultation do like loyalty cards throw in a printer =)

 

[mikeroq]

I frequently move computers and other equipment. Most customers don't want to deal with hooking it back up. If they can hook it back up correctly. I've moved a scanner at one law firm at least 6 times.

 

[sapphirescales]

hey it's doing that thing again that you said you fixed, I thought you said it was fixed.

Time to drop that client NOW. My clients can make as many stupid decisions as they want so long as they don't BLAME ME when it blows up in their face. I have another client that refuses to replace a 2 year old piece of junk consumer HP printer. She'd rather call me every few weeks and pay me to remote in and "fix" it. I tell her every time that she needs to replace it and that one of these days I won't be able to, but she just says "I know" and keeps using it. So far I've charged her over $600 in remote support tickets YTD. The printer is worth about $175. Despite this, I keep her as a client because she doesn't blame me for the problems. It's her money. If she wants to p*ss it away, that's her prerogative.

 

[fencepost]

I've flat out told people "I can probably fix this but it may break again and I'll charge you more than just buying a better (printer|scanner)."

 

[brandonkick]

I have had nightmares worth of problems with those stupid HP printers Officejet / Laserjet.

Someone just get trashed every time windows install updates. Some stay offline permanently if the host machine goes to sleep. Some lose the ability to scan. Some just quit doing anything. Most of the time a removal and reinstall gets it working, for a while. JUNK. JUNK. JUNK.

I'd explain those printers are known to throw fits and not work after a while requiring constant messing around to keep them going. No reason to just not get a real printer that is high quality (or use the one they already have... but I digress)


I will say that I recently had an issue with a cannon imageclass D1320. The machine used to have Win 7 on it, and the copier would scan to the PC (connected via USB) just fine through the "built in" windows software (go to printer in control panel --> devices and printers --> right click --> start scan). Worked great. Upgrade that workstation to Windows 10 (fresh install) and that doesn't work any more. You'd think I'd have crapped right on the guys desk, he was so irritated. I dial up Cannon tech support, low hold time (2-3 min?) and an american speaking person who was more than helpful. Walked me right through setting up and configuring the cannon toolbox and got the machine humming along like a champ. I can highly recommend cannon business grade printers. I can highly recommend using those HP Office Jet printers for skeet shooting practice.

 

[nerd2u]

I had a customer who was using a bunch of little HP laserjet printers in their operation. They were spending about 2 grand a month on toner, they were printing upwards of 1000 pages a day.

So I finally get them to switch to a leasing option with .01 cents BW and .07 cents colour.

They come to me after the first bill and go you told us it would be cheaper!?! So I look at the bill the total for all the leased machines was just above $400 for the month.

So I ask what the problem is and they go we are still printing the same amount of paper!

I look at them and have to explain I told them it would be cheaper to print not that they would print less paper (although that wouldn't kill them either) and have to explain how previously their monthly cost was around 2 grand and they are now at $400.

Even after showing them this hefty cost savings a few head honcho types still asked if they could have laserjet again so they wouldn't have to walk across the office to get their print jobs...

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[John Ashleigh]

Had a customer pay me once to pick up a printer and move it across the hall to another office and plug it in.

The employee was switching offices and needed the printer moved. When I asked them why they didn't just move it themselves they told me it's corporate policy to have an outside firm handle it as it's considered a MAC request.

They paid 150$ for that printer move.

Sent from my SM-G870W using Tapatalk

I'm in the wrong job.

 

[GreyWolf]

I'm in the wrong job.

Nah it's called being at the right place at the right time...

 

[ell]

wash, rinse, repeat. I don't do printers for this reason, I'm afraid when that $70 inkjet acts up again in a couple weeks they'll blame me that I didn't fix it right the first time. I get enough of that crap already from clients who call months later about their pc's. I prefer challenges for my brain not my patience.

 

[nerd2u]

Nah it's called being at the right place at the right time...

Spot on.

I don't drive around moving printers for big bucks for a living. These are one offs.

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[cypress]

Oh goodness I have definitely been there before. Got a couple clients that have HP Laser jets and they keep wanting to fix the printer problems instead of getting a better one.

 

[Markverhyden]

I've had customers call me up wanting to repair a low cost printer because they had bought a bunch of ink cartridges. I tell them the only thing to do is look around on eBay for the same model. Parts can't be had at any price for those machines.

 

[Porthos]

because they had bought a bunch of ink cartridges.

I hear that one all the time.

 

[JoeTech]

I've had customers call me up wanting to repair a low cost printer because they had bought a bunch of ink cartridges. I tell them the only thing to do is look around on eBay for the same model. Parts can't be had at any price for those machines.

It get that a lot here too. It's not until after they buy the ink that they realize their mistake. Then it's not about fixing the printer it's about trying to correct the mistake of buying the ink.