Funny stories
An effortless guide to removing copier jams
I worked for a copier repair company in St. Louis and I was sent on a call to diagnose and repair a Ricoh copier that had a document feeder jam. I arrived at the scene of the crime, walked in the front door and introduced myself. I asked the lady in charge what the problem was and she told me that she was trying to copy a check and the copier was jammed. “Are you trying to copy the check?” I asked. “No, I’m trying to copy information onto the back of this check”. She replied.
I thought to myself are you seriously trying to do this? Do you not know what the document feeder is for?
I tried very hard not to laugh since she had no clue what she was doing. I opened the left top door on the document feeder and I didn’t see anything. I then lifted the lid on the document feeder and found the check stuck in the exit rollers. Did you know that a copier has rollers and that there are a lot of moving parts in a copier?
I removed what was left of the check from the rollers and gave it back to the lady.
“Here, let me show you how to copy information onto the back of the check” I said.
I took what was left of the check and opened the manual feed door on the right side of the copier.
“All you need to do is take the check and insert it face down in the manual feed tray” I told her.
She looked at me like I had 3 eyes. It was kind of like a deer staring at your headlights when you are driving down a dark, country road.
I took the paper check out of the tray and showed her again. “This is all you have to do” I said again
“Oh, Ok” she replied
“Finally” I thought to myself
So I gave her the paperwork, she signed it and I was on my way.
Did you know that every copier has at least 10-50 rollers in several places and each roller has its own job to do. When you put a document in the document feeder and press the copy button if the original document doesn’t get from point A to point B in a set amount of time the copier will show a jam message on the front display.
The document feeder is used only for copying original documents, not for putting checks in to be copied onto. If you want to copy information onto the back of something whether it’s a document or a paper check always use the manual feed tray. Typically, the manual feed tray is located on the right side of the copier or printer.
Also if you have a copier that’s jammed look on the display and the copier will tell you which door to open to remove the jam. Remember to pull the paper out slowly and never yank the paper since the paper will tear if you use any sort of brute force to pull it out.
Has anyone ever seen this happen before?
Recent Comments
1
The things I have seen should never be discussed. I worked in print shops, and we always used to talk about the fact that we were putting the copier tech's kids through college (mostly at the hands of our marketing department, not any of us in the tech area).