Tech Tuesday: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!

But if it is, call the real tech people. We’ve had our Epson 9600 printer for almost 10 years. Every so often it acts up. In the early years, the print head and the dampers would clog particulate matter from the fiber-reactive dye. We’d call our wonderful printer repair guy, Dave from the Bay Area. He would come up the hill and fix it. I’d stand over his shoulder and watch what he did. I’d ask him if this was something I could do. He’d say no. Next time, he’d say, “Look at this; this is where the problem is.” I’d write down what he’d tell me. Finally, we got to the point where he’d say, “Here’s how to do this,” and he’d show me how to do some repair. I really learned a lot from Dave. We’d still have to call him, but less often. Unfortunately, Dave passed away, and the Pixeladies were very sad.

In the meantime, if we had a problem with our little printer, we’d take it to Fadi at Pacific Office Equipment in Sacramento. One time he mentioned that he could work on the 9600. Hurray! So the next time we had problems with the printer, we called Fadi. But we had to come clean and tell him we had a few non-standard parts. I’m not sure he was really happy about this, but he worked with us. Fadi showed us how to do a few more maintenance tasks, and we didn’t have to call Fadi that often either.

Out of the blue, last month, Fadi called us. “I never call clients,” he said, “but I’ve got your fabulous Pixeladies pen in my hand, and just thought I’d give you a call.” Of course, Kris came unglued—what was he trying to do? Jinx us? I patted the printer and told it not to worry. Everything was fine.

Fast forward to Saturday. Kris is in Italy; I’m trying to have a little creative time of my own. I’ve test printed some things my mom wanted me to print for her. All was well. I made a repeating pattern based on computer PC boards. I went to test the color and the lights started flashing, strange noises came from the motor, and the error 10005 appeared on the display. NOOOOO! That’s not something I can fix. Did Fadi’s call work? Was he really able to jinx our printer wirelessly? No, he assured me, it was not his doing. He’d come to the studio Monday and see what he could do.

By noon Monday, all was well in the Pixeladies studio again. We really do love you, Fadi. Just don’t call us anymore!

PS, you should always treat your tech people really well. I usually bake cookies before they arrive on a service call. This time I gave Fadi a piece of homemade blackberry pie. If you are in the Sacramento area and need printer help, call Pacific Office Equipment: (916) 334-7875. Tell ’em the Pixeladies sent you.