My Loooooooooong Resume And A Fun Life As A Copier Repairman

After I got out of the Army I went to work at the local flour mill. That lasted a whole two weeks. Being outside in a tee shirt with a six foot fan blowing on you to keep you cooled off while it was snowing outside was not what I was calling fun. Being single living at home no rent to pay I called it quits. I soon found a much easier job frying do nuts in the local bakery. It didn’t pay as much money but the benefits was great. You could eat as much as you wanted.The owner figured if he let you eat until you got full in about three months you wouldn’t want any more sweet’s. He didn’t know me very well. It took me six months to start dis-liking do nuts. After about ten years of job hoping around I finally decided to take my fathers advice and go to Electronics Technical School on the GI Bill. After I finished Technical School with a 95% grade average I was hired by a company in Mineral Wells , Texas. They paid all of my moving expenses to go to work for them as a Plant Electrical Maintenance. I worked their until after my first died and I was taking care of two son’s by myself and they wanted me to work the graveyard shift. I just couldn’t do it. After all of the trouble’s in my life and moving to the St Louis , Missouri metro area I started to repair copying machines for a living. That worked out real well with my kids because copier repair is strictly a 9 – 5 Monday thru Friday job. I repaired copiers for over twenty years and some of most memorable moments ; well I can’t say here. I had one customer that kept on having paper jams. I went out and looked at his copier , it was summer time , his ten year old son was watching me when I pulled out his toy Army man. The worst thing was ; the boy’s father didn’t have a service contract, so he had to pay for the service call ( which $50.00 at the time). I don’t know what happened to the boy after I left. Another time I went to a construction trailer underneath a bridge in downtown St Louis. The copier was covered in about ¼ inch of dust. The first thing I did was to start cleaning the dust off of it. The man in office said “ I could’ve done that” I thought to myself “ why didn’t you do it”. I went to a dentist office one time where the copier was in the dentist’s office. I was working on the copier and the dentist came in and ask me if I could wait in the waiting room for awhile when he talked to a patient. I said sure. I didn’t mind. He was being charged for the service call and I was on the clock . DUH some people just don’t get it at $50.00 an hour. I was out there a good twenty minutes. I guess the best ones though was real estate offices. Here you are working on the copier with all tore apart scattered from on end to the other and some dumb real estate agent comes up to you and ask “ can I make a copy” I just think “ go ahead” But the one’s I always hated was an insurance office especially a small insurance office. Do you hear that noise? What noise? That humming? What Humming? Their.Didn’t you hear it?Shh Listen.Did you hear it?Finnally if you put you ear right up against the copier you hear a very faint hum. Do you hear it. Yes I hear it . It’s the cooling fan Mam. Can you do anything about it? Yeah turn it off. I think they had too much time on their hands. Most of the customers I dealt with in twenty plus years learned to trust my judgement. When I said their copier was worn out and it was going to cost more to repair it than a new one would cost they usually bought a new one. That’s why at one time I had my own company for five years and I did pretty well at it. It’s just I didn’t have enough money to float myself for three months at a time. Because in the copier business you repair the copier and have to wait a month to get paid from the business customer but in the mean time you are having to buy more supplies for your other customers to keep them going and I always had several thousand dollars outstanding and I just didn’t have it to play with. Other wise I would still be doing it.

Marie the Roller Skater
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Comments 5

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Susan Darbro (website) on Wednesday, 05 October 2011 23:31

I loved reading about the various humorous situations you came across; thanks for the good story, Charles.

I loved reading about the various humorous situations you came across; thanks for the good story, Charles.
Golden V. Adams Jr. (website) on Thursday, 06 October 2011 01:02

Charles, it's interesting that you were in the donut business about the same time I was baking bread and cookies. You quit eating all the donuts after a time, but I never did quit the cookies and bread! I enjoyed your looooong resume' and appreciate your stories.

Charles, it's interesting that you were in the donut business about the same time I was baking bread and cookies. You quit eating all the donuts after a time, but I never did quit the cookies and bread! I enjoyed your looooong resume' and appreciate your stories.
Tom Cormier (website) on Friday, 07 October 2011 13:33

Charles, this is really great. I wish everyone would take time to read it. I can follow your hilarious thought process at every step. I need to get out there to meet you. Really fun. Thanks

Tom

Charles, this is really great. I wish everyone would take time to read it. I can follow your hilarious thought process at every step. I need to get out there to meet you. Really fun. Thanks Tom
Millard Don Carriker (website) on Tuesday, 18 October 2011 21:19

Charles, you didn't mention working on copiers in teachers' workrooms in schools. I think some of the schools in which I was the administrator could have put a copier tech on the payroll full-time. Between paying for service calls and buying copier paper (because teachers invariably print more copies than they need and/or print "stuff" they think the "might" need, they eat up a big chunk of the school budget. I was always well acquainted with the copier man. (Yes, ladies, it was always a man.)

Charles, you didn't mention working on copiers in teachers' workrooms in schools. I think some of the schools in which I was the administrator could have put a copier tech on the payroll full-time. Between paying for service calls and buying copier paper (because teachers invariably print more copies than they need and/or print "stuff" they think the "might" need, they eat up a big chunk of the school budget. I was always well acquainted with the copier man. (Yes, ladies, it was always a man.)
Charles William Spratt (website) on Tuesday, 18 October 2011 23:16

Accutally the schools that i went to was better that most service calls. At least they try to fix them their self. They left that to some one that knew what they was doing.I went to a truckinh place one time and had to put the copier back together before I could repair it. It took me 1 1/2 hours to put it back together and yes it was a chargeable account. I only ever seen one female copier repair person . She worked for IBM Yes IBM had a copier one time . It was a small one of course it was made by Minolta. Sold good though.

Accutally the schools that i went to was better that most service calls. At least they try to fix them their self. They left that to some one that knew what they was doing.I went to a truckinh place one time and had to put the copier back together before I could repair it. It took me 1 1/2 hours to put it back together and yes it was a chargeable account. I only ever seen one female copier repair person . She worked for IBM Yes IBM had a copier one time . It was a small one of course it was made by Minolta. Sold good though.