A Bug In The Machine....
Ooookay, here we go.
There I am, driving down I-5 away from Portland after performing the usual x-ray service kinda stuff, my pager begins to beep with the tone that says urgent service required. I examine the pager with one eye as I continue flying low through traffic. First odd thing I notice is the name of the facility "Cheyenne Radiology?", hmmm, well many things in Oregon are named after places elsewhere so why not this one. Using my super top secret company cell communication device I call the number given for said customer. The person at the other end does not work for nor is any where near the customer in question, although he does work for the company that made the machine that has failed. Not only that, he has in fact heard of the problem and is sure that the site really is in Cheyenne Wyoming but he isn't likely to make the trip out since he is in New Hampshire and could not arrive before end of the business day per the customers request.
Assuring myself that the phone number given to me in the page is a mistake I call the home office support line to ask for the correct number and to also inquire as to why I am getting this page in the first place. I get a new service rep who was as helpful as she could be. Unfortunately she has been with the company only a few days and has yet to master the chaos of our call center. I do get the other number listed for the site as well as the explanation that since the primary engineer did not respond I was picked. Her best guess was that I was chosen by the Throw the dart at the map{TM} method. I thank her and move on to call the second number I was given, does this number reach the customer site? Why no. That would be to easy. I do, oddly enough, recognize the voice at the other end of the phone. He is a gentleman I trained with at our corporate training center in Florida. I asked if I had reached him while traveling and he said no. He then gave me a rather uncalled for description of the perfect Florida weather as proof. Now I was truly confused and when I started to mention my plight he interrupted me to tell me that he had in fact heard of the problem and was sure the customer is in Wyoming.
Now I'm getting a bit concerned. No one seems to now how to reach the customer and the problem is evidently a good enough one to warrant general knowledge along the east coast. At this point enough time has elapsed and I have made it home to my office. Getting online I examine the service report and find yet another number for the customer. Feeling that the odds were still not great I called anyway. Imagine my surprise when the person answering the phone did in fact live in Cheyenne Wyoming. He did not work at/for the customer in question but was sure it was just down the road a bit. Performing an internet search for the company I get the correct number for the customer in question. I speak with the nice lady who is very happy to hear a response to her call and is only slightly dismayed at the fact that I am many states away and not going to be on her doorstep before close of business. We discuss her machines problem and discover that our company will have to send an engineer to solve it. We exchange the correct contact information and I assure her I will contact an engineer somewhat closer to her location.
Her Machine:
A device used to digitize mammography film and then examine the image for possible signs of breast cancer.
Her Problem:
A large moth flew into the digitizer causing false positives on the digital images and leaving moth guts all over the original films.
I am now left with the feeling that at least the bug in their machine is likely to be far easier to remove than the bug in ours.
There I am, driving down I-5 away from Portland after performing the usual x-ray service kinda stuff, my pager begins to beep with the tone that says urgent service required. I examine the pager with one eye as I continue flying low through traffic. First odd thing I notice is the name of the facility "Cheyenne Radiology?", hmmm, well many things in Oregon are named after places elsewhere so why not this one. Using my super top secret company cell communication device I call the number given for said customer. The person at the other end does not work for nor is any where near the customer in question, although he does work for the company that made the machine that has failed. Not only that, he has in fact heard of the problem and is sure that the site really is in Cheyenne Wyoming but he isn't likely to make the trip out since he is in New Hampshire and could not arrive before end of the business day per the customers request.
Assuring myself that the phone number given to me in the page is a mistake I call the home office support line to ask for the correct number and to also inquire as to why I am getting this page in the first place. I get a new service rep who was as helpful as she could be. Unfortunately she has been with the company only a few days and has yet to master the chaos of our call center. I do get the other number listed for the site as well as the explanation that since the primary engineer did not respond I was picked. Her best guess was that I was chosen by the Throw the dart at the map{TM} method. I thank her and move on to call the second number I was given, does this number reach the customer site? Why no. That would be to easy. I do, oddly enough, recognize the voice at the other end of the phone. He is a gentleman I trained with at our corporate training center in Florida. I asked if I had reached him while traveling and he said no. He then gave me a rather uncalled for description of the perfect Florida weather as proof. Now I was truly confused and when I started to mention my plight he interrupted me to tell me that he had in fact heard of the problem and was sure the customer is in Wyoming.
Now I'm getting a bit concerned. No one seems to now how to reach the customer and the problem is evidently a good enough one to warrant general knowledge along the east coast. At this point enough time has elapsed and I have made it home to my office. Getting online I examine the service report and find yet another number for the customer. Feeling that the odds were still not great I called anyway. Imagine my surprise when the person answering the phone did in fact live in Cheyenne Wyoming. He did not work at/for the customer in question but was sure it was just down the road a bit. Performing an internet search for the company I get the correct number for the customer in question. I speak with the nice lady who is very happy to hear a response to her call and is only slightly dismayed at the fact that I am many states away and not going to be on her doorstep before close of business. We discuss her machines problem and discover that our company will have to send an engineer to solve it. We exchange the correct contact information and I assure her I will contact an engineer somewhat closer to her location.
Her Machine:
A device used to digitize mammography film and then examine the image for possible signs of breast cancer.
Her Problem:
A large moth flew into the digitizer causing false positives on the digital images and leaving moth guts all over the original films.
I am now left with the feeling that at least the bug in their machine is likely to be far easier to remove than the bug in ours.