I have probably run into the dumbest customer ever in 35 years of repairing office machines. This customer has been repeatedly told to not run metallic paper through a Kyocera 5015N color laser printer. One of their customers brought in an aluminum washed 110 pound paper they wanted wedding invitations printed on. Twice I told three different people(the owner and her daughter and a clerk) in this shop "Do not run that paper through this machine. This machine uses static electricity to attract toner to the drums and the paper. If you put a metal coated paper in this printer it will short out and VOID THE WARRANTY." So what is the very first thing they ask about when having yet more trouble with pre-printed paper. They asked about using a heavy 120 pound (machine will not accept above 80 pound paper) greeting card with glued on glitter. I even picked up one of the cards and showed them with a finger tip that the glitter will fall off.
Me: "If it falls off that easily with light pressure from my finger then it will fall off inside the printer. And short out the electronic circuitry." Not much plainer way to explain something than that I figured. They still asked why not.

One of the other problems they can't seem to understand is this. The machine will feed 80 pound paper from the tray. However the machine does not feed their cardstock paper slow enough to properly fuse the toner. The tray can not be set to cardstock. So today we had yet another call to "fix this damned printer because the ink is still running" To top it off. Their in house computer guru told them to not set the printer driver to cardstock. "Because that slows the printer down"


Ah well some place to rant a bit about a really dumb customer. There is probably not going to be much else we can do with these dimwits. Except pick the machine up and run as far and as fast away from them as we can. I did post a question in another thread about how to stop this machine from constantly having to hit the go button when using the MP tray. That solution worked fine. Now how can I pour some brain power into the minds of these morons.

Try Thick setting, both on mpt tray and driver. If its going to fuse, this should do it, and the media will shoot straight out the back. It seems the client is looking for a printing Press, and a baseball bat...thus the THICK setting....

The machine has the optional face up tray and the driver is set to cardstock. The control panel setting have the MP tray set to cardstock. The 110-140 pound "paper" is just too thick to be picked up by the MP tray rollers. It won't bend that tiny amount needed to feed into the machine.

Bill em for every stupid visit you have to make. And if they're not on maintanence, just smile and take their money.


Idiots should have to pay double!!

Issues like this, I usually turn back over to the sales rep. Have them go out to "fix" this problem because it isn't a matter of service. The machine isn't spec'd to do it. Would you take your Corvette to the mechanic and expect them to cover the repairs under warranty or insurance when they are trying to do "rock crawling" with it?

I deal with customers like this often, and I agree with J.D. Power: Give them the benefit of explanation the first time (which you've done)and then warn them that further instances will result in billing them when they don't follow your instruction. At that point, it's classified as either "operator error" or "operator abuse". But you have to be polite and tactful when explaining this, else your manager gets a call from the customer for a poor attitude on your part (and that's never good).

The owner of the company has already decided. Anymore of these types of calls from this customer we will be picking up the machine and refunding the money. They have only had the machine for one week. And they have had five calls of this type already. They also seem to think we should immediately drop everything and be on site within an hour. They are becoming exceptionally rude because they are too stupid to have learned to not put cardstock in the paper tray.

Probably best to bail if you can on that one if it's that early and you may be able to sell the machine to somebody else.
Any time we run into a situation where someone is re-selling prints that would otherwise be outsourced to a priting company, you may be looking at trouble. Frequently the business owner wants to maximize profits to pay for the machine and wants to be able to put anything in it to print. We even had a place that we had to explain why the colors were all wrong when they printed on blue paper! Anyway - the staff that has to use the printer are usually your fast-food employee quality and can't or won't understand anything crazy like 'specifications', 'paper type' or 'coated stock' terms.

It's one of those sore points for me, because if they bought it on the internet they would have just figured out how to use it as best as they could, but since you're a full service dealership they assume you're making tons of money to hold their hand on everything. The reality is you're probably lucky to make a couple hundred!

We just recently had a lease expire on a customer just like this. We had to work with her for 4 years. Needless to say, when we finally picked the machine up from her office and brought it in... we handed out cigars and champagne! Well, we didn't really do Champagne, but I promise: I DID GET A CIGAR!!! If you're only a week into it, then I agree: pull out now. Else you'll lose money on service unless you stick to your guns and bill them for these type of issues. Also, you'll get bad mouthed by the customer and could lose potential customers. So use tact and be graceful when explaining that this is not the machine for them and you'll save face. Just my 2 cents.

I definately agree with Dan here - it's better to get your sales guy involved with them to smooth things over and say "We are happy to help you in whatever way we can, but we don't currently have a piece of equipment that meets your needs for this application".
We have had long term situations as well - where the person that initially makes the purchase decision understands that the equipment won't work very well for their application - but nobody else's will either. The unfortunate result is that nobody else there really understands that and ultimately thinks it's our fault, so they don't want to buy anything else from us down the road.

This type of customer is not going to be pleased with anything out there. But they haven't called in three days now. I suspect they will be calling again. Or what I have been saying has finally sunk in. "Use the MP tray for everything but regular paper."

I'm still wondering just what sort of person puts metal washed paper or glitter through a copier or a printer. Even if the glitter is plastic, that crap will melt in the fuser. If it's metal then the blasted drum or transfer will be shorted out to ground. I can understand a Xerox Phaser printer because those beasts used wax as an ink.

Actually the C2230 uses a wax based toner as well. Just in case your ever on Jeopordy.

Just a bit of an update with this dimwitted customer. They called today about the mp tray not feeding. I went and cleaned the pickup roller, absolutely filthy. They print on of all things greeting cards with all sorts of crap on them. Tested machine, and printed six cards not a single problem. Then along about 4:45 pm here is same customer. The machine says it needs a waste toner bottle. They have no supplies at all, never ordered any. They are demanding someone drop everything and bring the waste toner bottle to them right then. Through rush hour traffic 20 miles in the wrong direction. And then got extremely nasty and rude because the secretary told them we had one in stock and would be able to deliver it tomorrow. Nope not good enough they want it RIGHT NOW. So the boss has a call to make tomorrow. They want the machine picked up and a full refund tomorrow before noon!

Customers like this scphinter muscle orific are better of dropped like a lead ballon. Too bad they actually went two weeks without a call.

The good news, you get the unit back, and then they have nothing. Knowing that some other company is losing money and that you dont have to worry about it any more should have you sleep a night a whole lot better. If you dont pick it up, they will be running t shirts through it next week. Good luck.

I agree with furn.. did the customer lease?? If so pick it up and the lease company can deal with them!!