Time for "Maintenance"

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Elevator Problem Discussion : One Thread

Is there anyone out there that knows or can understand why it is that "management" (I hesitate to use this term) can load up a mechanic with 100+ units??? It is physically impossible to do any type of maintenance other than chase calls. The time frame allowed barely allows getting a ticket signed. The customers inevitable "where ya been??" gets increasingly difficult to answer....A truthful response will most definitly cost you your job. It just seems to be dishonest, unethical, and flat out WRONG. I am not the only person in this situation. We have many other mechanics here in the Georgia area that have even more units than I do. Recently at a company sponsored "training session" one individual commented on not having seen several of his customers for months at a time. He commented on doing "Driveby Maintenance". These are Full Maintenance contracts. Is there a formula of the amount of units a competant mechanic can RESONABLY expect to maintain??? I feel like I have (personally) been stealing from my customers when I get a ticket signed. Its not a very good feeling. I try to give them the best service I possibly can but I am curtailed by my company.By the way my units are scattered over a 120 mile area and for some reason the office seems to FORGET about travel.By the way, I am new at this elevator business with only 20+ years in the trade.Does any one else out there have similar problems?? Ok, e-nuff bitchin....I feel better now... Any comments???

-- obviously anonymous (nocando@hotmail.com), January 21, 1998

Answers

The reason is because companys need a certain number to support a serviceman . So what they do is load us up with underbid jobs. It is a shame that thats what its coming to. They don't even know how many jobs we have just the bottom line. But if a customer pays a higher price and does'nt take the lowest bid they just pay for someone elses callbacks. Had a customer that called my office 10 times to talk to my boss he wouldn't call him back so I told him to leave a mess. that it was about changing a pumpunit (billable work) called him back in 10 min. Whats up with that they think that if they stick there head in a hole in the ground the problems will go away.

-- Unionman (Unionman @aol.com), January 24, 1998.

Maybe the answer to this question runs a little deeper than what we may think?

-- Vernon P. Keller (vpkeller@earthlink.net), February 08, 1998.

Maint.

Nobody mentioned covering the other guys....pulled off their route to do repair or mod. Not only "where 'ya been?" also "who the *#$@ are you?" Customers it seems aren't as change adaptive as we. By the way....your' maint. books are behind..try to catch 'em up.

Yeah...right

-- D.R. Sojourner (DRSOJO@aol.com), February 12, 1998.


I laugh at the union guys I have breakfast with 3 days out of the week. They cry how they have no time to do maintenance and yet they have time to have breakfast with me for an hour on company time. And they brag about how they always go home early and get paid for it. You guys have it easy and everyone knows it, so I have no idea why all the mechanics complain. They need to get a real job to see how most of the world runs it employees. And the excuse I always hear about how I'm paid for what I know, not what I do is a bunch of bull.

-- not me joe (hardtofind@aol.com), March 22, 1998.

TIME FOR MAINTENANCE

Dudes..i have worked non-union...and now union...trust me...union is better in every way imaginable......and we dont work any less than non union ....only smarter........get over it..

-- GLENN D (BONER 3988 @aol.com), March 23, 2002.


I dont know who you eat breakfast with but the company I work for has me loaded with over 115 units spread out over the entire Atlanta area ( I won't mention any names but we used to be Westinghouse ). I have some customers that I have not seen in MONTHS. Yet I am required to HELP OUT every time someone goes on vacation, or has a call or is "tied up" ( remarkable how this happens every friday afternoon ). More often than not I eat my lunch while driving on my way to another call ( no such thing as maintenance we are a callback service ). Of course in this industry as in any other there are screw offs. I assure you this is not the case everywhere. Most of the gripes I have noticed are legitimate concerns posted by competant caring mecchanics who KNOW that there is NO WAY to possibly do the workload that has been imposed on them.One man can only do so much in a given day.Every other year we end up with a new maintenance supt. that will "change the world". The problem is that the customer who pays for his service rarely gets it......

-- Mr. Concerned (Mr. Anonymous@westinghouse.com), March 29, 1998.

Hey i run my but off 7 days a week 24 hours a day like my other brothers here and take great pride in our work i got a real job im an elevator man and if it wasnt for us youd be hikin the stairs...we work hard and some of us dont get no help unless its in pieces or you need hands,,, i dont know who you eat with and i dont care but the rest of us are busy so go try and slam someone else cause im proud of my work and my union brothers !

-- PROUD (PROUD UNIONMAN@.AOL.COM), May 07, 1998.

Hi guys, it's the same in the old country. Since we went PLC the share holder comes first. We don't work for the company anymore, we work for the investor which means, reduced times and more units. The effect is more units, more money and less pride......... The guys in my company are from the old school, and want to do the right thing, with 50-70 units the service was very good and the calls down to approx 2.5 unit. The customers were happy and kept paying the bills. But this took a long time to get there. So who care's if the odd time between calls and service you grab a bacon butty with work mates and talk about the odd job, for gods sake this is how 70% of faults are cured. But now the customer is pissed off by talking to a customer service which deals wiht the country and is not local. SHIT i can't go on anymore the list is endless. I am not saying our company is perpect, but it was getting there. Now I'am working for some fat twat smoking a cigar thinking .................. I can't be fucked to keep typing. I suppose even though it's against the grain I have to think I'am geting paid the same WHO GIVES A FUCK ?? (Well on the quiet I do but does anyone care??????????????)

-- englishbeds.com (itsallthesame@freeserve.co.uk), March 09, 2001.

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