Checking the obvious switch FAIL

[bhskittykatt]

So, we have ancient track-feed printers at work. Today, one stopped working. It wasn't feeding paper. It seemed like the motor was busted or something, because you could hear the motor whirring while the tracks weren't moving. Other MOD and I both tinkered with it, and couldn't fix it. So we called the help desk.

The help desk walked me through everything we'd tried before, as well as pushing some fancy button configurations. We played with the ink cartridge. We pulled the tractor feed out and put it back in. Nothing worked. So I began reading off the serial number to the help desk so he could put it in the ticket and escalate it. And that's when I saw it.

Me: "Okay, and the serial number is blah blah blah."
HD: "Okay, I'm putting this in the ticket and...."
Me: "Oh...my...God.........oops."
HD: "....is something wrong?"
Me: "You're going to laugh. I feel so stupid. But I think I found the issue. Now that I'm down here looking at the sticker...I just noticed that it's not switched to tractor feed."
HD: "That will do it. Print something for me just to make sure."
Me: *prints something* "Yeah, that's it. That....I feel dumb. Thank you so much for your time!"
HD: "No problem! Here's your ticket number."

After I got off the phone, I told Other MOD:
"I'm going to find the person who messed with that switch. And then I'm going to beat them. With the printer!"

[DGoddessChardonnay]

Been there, done that before with the printer in the back that prints out the DSD tickets.

Only difference was that I wasn't on the phone with our Helpless Desk, but was double and triple checking everything before I called.

At least if you find the idiot and beat them with it, then there will actually be a valid reason to call the Helpless Desk to have a tech dispatched out.

[Chromatix]

Naw, with an old beast like that you'd be calling the ambulance. The printer would probably still work afterwards!

[Aethian]

Is the feeder switch the big red lever thing that used to be on the printers with the removeable holed sides?

[dalesys]

Is the feeder switch the big red lever thing that used to be on the printers with the removeable holed sides?

Is it BRL time?

[/Diskworld]

[bhskittykatt]

Is the feeder switch the big red lever thing that used to be on the printers with the removeable holed sides?

It may be big and a lever thing but it's not red, and that's my defense and I'm sticking to it!

[Aethian]

It may be big and a lever thing but it's not red, and that's my defense and I'm sticking to it!

The one that was on the monster, must never be touched by little hands, printer was red....

And of course little hands just had to be curious...

[wolfie]

Perhaps future occurrences of this problem could be avoided by applying an appropriate label to the switch. Just in case someone doesn't understand the difference between "Tractor Feed On" and "Tractor Feed Off", they should understand the difference between "Keep Your Job" and "Get Fired".

[Mriswith]

Not a printer issue, but similar in nature. A customer in my hotel demanded a full refund because his laptop could not find our wireless network, and he "had to have internet access to do work"(I translate this to "had to have internet to do my farmville"). After about 10 minutes of over-the-phone troubleshooting for him, I tell him to bring me his laptop. First thing I did was turn his wireless card on. Suddenly everything works. Imagine that...

Still didn't get an apology or a thank you.

[Rapscallion]

Perhaps future occurrences of this problem could be avoided by applying an appropriate label to the switch. Just in case someone doesn't understand the difference between "Tractor Feed On" and "Tractor Feed Off", they should understand the difference between "Keep Your Job" and "Get Fired".

A refigeration engineer that came out to service something we'd got broken through wear and tear reminisced about how often he had to go out to one customer one time. Apparently the employees kept too close an eye on the temperature in the unit and kept adjusting the thermostat, resulting in it building up too much ice to defrost. They even labelled the switch as 'do not alter'. The owner kept having to call him out when there were genuine emergency jobs for him to go to.

He suggested to the owner that tampering with the thermostat should be made a sackable offence. Didn't get called back until there was a genuine problem after that.

Rapscallion

[Difdi]

At least if you find the idiot and beat them with it, then there will actually be a valid reason to call the Helpless Desk to have a tech dispatched out.

"Hello, Help Desk? I have an idiot-shaped dent in my printer, I think I may need a repairman."

[Difdi]

They even labelled the switch as 'do not alter'. The owner kept having to call him out when there were genuine emergency jobs for him to go to.

I bet the label didn't help.

One former workplace was an assisted living house; One of the residents had some fairly interesting medical problems that kicked in if the heat was turned up too high. Nothing life threatening per se, but definitely severe enough to qualify as physical abuse. Low temperatures weren't a problem, just high ones. The problem was, quite a few of the staff were immigrants from equatorial countries. Particularly in the winter, they'd complain bitterly about the cold, demanding more heat. Sometimes they'd try to surreptitiously adjust the heat upwards, turning it down again before they went off-shift. It was pretty obvious from the resident's symptoms when it had happened, and it was therefore really easy to catch the idiots doing it.

The funny thing was, thermostats in the US typically adjust to the right to raise temperatures and to the left to lower them. But in those equatorial countries, apparently their thermostats turn the other way for heat. That's right, the individuals who were most likely to complain about the cold, kept turning the heater off.