Field Service Technician | Omaha, NE | Feb 5, 2019
The Most Dysfunctional Fortune 500 Ever?
If you had to ask me what the most common phrases I heard at Ricoh they would be the following:
"I've never seen/worked on that machine before"
"I've never done anything like this before"
"This is my first time doing this"
"I have no idea. Try asking X"
As a field technician your job is to go from location to location and help repair and fix whatever issues a customer is having with their machine. Could be something as simple as a removing a piece of paper causing a jam to replacing a Smart Op Panel and reinstalling the OS. On the surface this sounds simple and basic but somehow Ricoh manages to take this and turn it into an over-convoluted mess. When it comes to things in an IT or mechanical setting you expect there to be a basic training to go off of so that way you can better learn about what is going on. Not at Ricoh.
Ricoh tells you that you get a 90 day training period but in reality it's more like an exposure period. You are exposed to all the different types of machines you may work on. You are exposed on how to order parts. You are exposed to how to look up manuals. You are exposed to certain parts of an MFP. Some things will be a daily occurrence while some you may see once but then immediately do it on your first day by yourself nearly 72 days later. You even get a trip down to St. Louis where you are exposed on how a basic printer model works. You hardly even get hands on training as 85% of it is just getting talked at.
As one might expect, this le
ProsStandard 8-5 job, material can be interesting, benefits are decent
ConsAwful training that leaves you ill prepared, management is a mess, low pay and advancement is a joke
Why You Should Never Do Business with Ricoh USA, Ricoh Americas Corporation
Ricoh is a hard nose rip off company, which bill their customers by meter usage, as opposed to billing you a set price per month for supplies and services.
What Ricoh does is offer a trial period for the use of their office machines, to potential new customers. When a customer decides they do not want to move forward with Ricoh and not sign a service contract for the new machine(s), Ricoh picks up the machine(s), takes the machine, with usage already on it, now, from the trial customer, cleans the machine(s) up at their warehouse, and then resale it as a brand new, never used machine. Remember, the machine(s) now have usage on them from the previous cust-
omer.
When an unsuspecting customer purchases the machine(s), and signs a new contract with Ricoh for Service, they are later billed an exorbitant amount for copies they never made on the so-called new machines. Ricoh trains their installers (techs) to enter a very low start reading for billing, even though the machine(s) may have 500 to even 2000 copies! Any customer, who has only one, or two machines would see this scam right away and would call in to dispute the charges. However, a larger customer, with maybe 10, or more machines, would never catch the over charges and will be billed unknowingly, being ripped off by Ricoh.
Ricoh has thousands of large customers, whom they bill these exorbitant amounts of money for copies the customer never even made.
Another way they rip off their customers is that they will
Avoid this Company if You Don't Enjoy Being Tasked With More Work Than Three People Should Shoulder for the Wage Paid
Ricoh purchased IKON Office solutions seven years ago or so, and since then, its "transformation" of the company has been a real downgrade to the morale of employees, and it has rubbed clients like sandpaper. This company is OBSESSED with revenue, and it'll bump anyone out of the way who isn't "embracing" their brand of aggression toward "growth".
At the end of my time there, my role had been all but entirely reinterpreted and tenured people were being essentially told "if you're not willing to do this, you know what you need to do." Many of us in the facilities management side -- the side that works directly with clients -- the side that generates revenue -- had completely reinforced, and indeed rebuilt the customer relationships to steel their commitment to Ricoh, but beginning about two years ago or so, none of that mattered anymore. No one cared about the hours, days and years spent manifesting excellence, staying late, pushing ourselves to the limit, "Revenue today, or GTFO" was the attitude. We were forced from customer relationship/retention roles into sales roles, analyst roles, trainer roles and other various ways of exhausting ourselves, cloaked under the guise of "going above and beyond", and we were were totally defecated on for all of our hard labor. Chief among the problems with that course of action is that the company has sales reps, analysts and trainers -- people who are paid to do this work -- where are they? Trainers are in a reactionary role, bu
ProsExperience gained working one-on-one with clients
My typical work day consists of handling invoice administration requests from billers by logging them into share point and formatting the files on the provided templates for the requested accounts. I perform this by exporting raw excel files through selected databases which produce a compatible output to the templates chosen to present spreadsheet billing to customers.
My key responsibility is account coordination and invoice presentation and I am accountable for accurate and timely delivery of invoices to customers on a spreadsheet format. In order to accomplish this, I engage daily with the internal team in the company to assure desired customer service and successful business outcomes.
In the last five years, I have learned the importance of sound management as it relates to client services. At Ricoh, service contracts are the lifeblood of the business. Proper guidance and choosing projects which improve process increase customer satisfaction and enhance revenue. I learned how to manage accounts and retain existing customers by providing superior service and accommodating them through contractual or account issues and leading the process to final resolution which resulted in their satisfaction. I am advanced in Microsoft excel as I have repeatedly presented account summaries, reconciliation, and invoices for a very large customer base on a spreadsheet format. I have learned that leadership requires skills such as loyalty to the cause and continued learning. I have
Prossize of te oganization and availability of different divisions
Conslack of skill among lower level managers
2.0
Senior Information Technology Specialist | Cerritos, CA | Feb 6, 2016
Great place to work before the IKON takeover.
This was a really good company to work for before the Ricoh/IKON merger. Then Ricoh just handed the whole company over to the IKON management team. And the Ricoh Americas Corporation started to change. We went from focusing on customer satisfaction and monthly maintenance to waiting for the machine to breakdown before any service is rendered. IKON, as a company, was circling the drain-pipe, so-to-speak. They had whittled there service crews down to just senior techs. With the merger, the IKON management team started running Ricoh into the ground with the same business practices they all were using to kill IKON. They wasted a lot of money on UPS & FedEx with needlessly transferring parts around to various technicians through out the country, each month. With the merger, the Service Techs suddenly had to provide 3 qualified sales leads from "New" customers in their territories. Causing the Filed Techs to have to canvass businesses in order to find 3 new sale leads every month. With the merger, legacy Ricoh management was either demoted back to service techs or in some cases terminated. Many good legacy Ricoh service managers were replaced with incompetent IKON managers.
The Legacy IKON management team believes that all field service technicians should drive at least 1 hour to commute to their territories. For example I commuted 38 miles to my territory every morning for a year. All the while being promised a territory closer to home. Eventually, I was given a territory just
I worked for Ricoh for almost 9 years. I had great Management. They care about their employees and care that they excel in their workplace. When I first started with the Company they were called IKON and then the company merged with another and became RICOH Corp. They stayed true to their employees and customers throughout the transfer. I had many options to advanced several times. I started out as a "Runner" for one of their Law Firm sites then I moved up, and for a while I was in a "Floater" position which is where I was cross trained to learn everyones job and was able to fill in when and where needed. I gained lots of experience working at RICOH. I had many jobs working at TVA, managing job requests, at UTC, in the Graphic Department and in their Mail Department, as a Runner for Miller and Martin Law Firm filling requests and office work, and ended my career with them as an "Accounts Manager," handling billing for their departments UTC site. Before I left, a typical day started with me opening our Graphic Design Office. Getting the Register ready for the day, Calling Customers to let them know their orders where ready, returning any messages I had for my accounting position, paying any bills we had for venders with the company credit card, pulling together department info for billing procedures for the month, tending the front Graphics Desk, and helping out the Graphic Design office in back with any orders when I wasn't busy, and ending the day with closing the register a
ProsSurprise treats from Vendors and Bosses, Awards showing what you mean to your employers for the hard work you have achieved, occasional free lunches for job well done for the staff, and great Coworker Environment.
ConsPay could have been more, and there was always a struggle to get vacation time in before someone else, no two people were allowed to be off at the same time.
2.0
Field Representative | Bellevue, WA | Jul 16, 2020
A company with good intentions, but poor execution.
Was hired on as a FSR (field service representative). The job itself was very easy, you are basically a substitute or abled body to cover various positions and tasks for services within you market or region. RICOH is a managed services company meaning they contract with other businesses to do the tedious work for them. In most cases they were mainly mail, reception, hospitality and print services. RICOH will deploy a team to service the company for the set amount of time the contract exists, until terminated. While employed I had witnessed incredibly high turnover. Most places I covered for had many complaints and internal dismay among the employees, but management will never take action in fear that they lose the contract early. Managers care more for the contracts than the employees. There is no room for growth as there is no structure to job level or position. You can become a supervisor for a contracted service or a manager, but pay will not change, just your responsibilities. This company has very poor communication among management as well. The company had a solid foundation of preaching positive work attitude and had a fairly strong campaign in leading the managed services field, but updates rarely impact the contracts. The company has good intentions on services provided, but often time the managers have a hard time fulfilling those intentions by poorly executing them to the teams. The FSR role paid decent, but not enough for the living expenses in the area. Along wit
Excellent Company To Work For, However Far From Perfect.
Ricoh Americas Corporation, like several of it's competitors (Canon USA, Konica Minolta Business Solutions) is a Japanese Manufacturer of Office Equipment, headquartered in Japan with Global Marketplace subsidiaries.
I was initially hired through one of their Dealer Channel subsidiaries (Lanier Worldwide Inc.) which went through the painful merger with a US-based Direct-Channel subsidiary (Ricoh Business Systems). This created the new Ricoh Business Solutions.
In short, Ricoh is an excellent company to work for overall, but it is what you make of it.
I was fortunate enough to have developed close professional/industry relationships and also quickly moved up in the organization through several promotions.
However, once again...it is what YOU make of it.
Like many companies, especially Japanese-owned companies with an American presence...politics is rampant.
At the Headquarter level, many solid and tenured Executive employees suffer from being denied advancement opportunities due to the preferential treatment or bias in favor of Japanese employees. More so, Japanese employees who have been hand-picked and relocated to the US from Japan for specific positions.
That may not always be the case or even right in the grand scheme of things, but it does happen.
At the Sales Channel level, politics is everywhere. However this is to be expected. Accusations of the 'Old Boy Network' are understandable but also exaggerated.
No matter where or who you work for, Management will alw
Prosoverall career stability, compensation is *slightly* above average, fantastic product portfolio and wonderful caliber of people to work with.
Consexecutive-level politics, local office politics and many fiscal cutbacks
The hours for this position are typical office hours. 8-5 with an hour for lunch. I worked for a manager who was based in another state so I was remotely managed. This man had little to no true understanding of the actual position and it's processes. He relied on his lead person to do all of the technical work and frequently she was the one making excuses and apologies for this manager's ridiculous behavior and condescending comments. The training was all done by webinar and the trainer I had was an impatient, rude, condescending woman who would belittle you by making everyone in every different state who happened to also be in training, sit and wait if she called on you to answer a question. If you weren't clear on the answer you had to spend valuable time looking it up with dead silence on the line as you did so. Very belittling and rude. The office atmosphere wasn't bad if you didn't mind people in adjoining cubicles firing up their personal foot heaters in the middle of summer and sweating you out of your box or impatient sales reps hovering over your cubicle to pressure you to get their order processed even if it wasn't the next in line to pull and work on. The expectations were constantly changing and the processes used to work and book orders were ever changing so there was always something new in the mix to go wrong. The Order Support team I worked on was constantly at the scrutiny of this particular manager who would call you out via conference call and put you on th
Note,
I don't believe they have much of a Customer Master or even Data governance team any longer. Ricoh-USA has downsized considerably.
A vast majority of the orgs USA business still revolves around large format printers and mid-large sized company printer/copier sales, repairs and maintenance.
If that's your thing in 2019 than. O.K.
To anyone that asks me honestly, it's a dying business.
ONE VERY IMPORTANT THING
DO not compare "Ricoh-USA" with its Japanese owners "Ricoh". They are doing some interesting this at "Ricoh" overseas, That has zero to do with "Ricoh-USA"
If you work in a large office there is a good chance one or all of their copiers are under contract with Ricoh. They do not need to be Ricoh branded machines to be under contract with Ricoh.
Now onto the work environment. I worked in a pretty standard Ricoh layout. I have been to a few and they are all the same. Its what you would describe as "cube farms"
The work was monotonous, manual data governance. I can't complain too much as I knew what I was getting into and it set the stage for a good career outside of Ricoh. I was incredibly lucky to be employed there at a young age and able to move to another org.
If you are there for a run of the mill, hourly job, don't expect to move up but like low stress than you will be fine. Most people strive for something more which this org did not provide at the time.
From talking to former team members that are still working there, it is much of
ProsReliable paycheck and health insurance.
ConsDownsizing at the time to match market demand for copiers and believe they still are, Consistent pressure to make sure you are not in the next round of layoffs, Very little to no opportunity for advancement.
My job as a call dispatcher is varied. I have a set amount of different tasks that I have to carry out daily. My main responsibility is to ensure the engineers in my designated area have work through out the day and that the calls are attended in order of priority.
First, I have to check all engineers are at their first call by 9am and that they have another call to pick up. I then check all the outstanding “return to fit parts” these are any calls the engineer has attended already but require parts to fix and the “outstanding calls” these are any calls that are yet to be attended within my designated area. I check if the parts are in stock and update the customer accordingly. If the parts are unavailable I try to source them elsewhere, this may be from another engineer or from a different warehouse.
I will then take inbound customer and engineer calls. Customer calls can include logging a service call or querying an outstanding call and ordering consumables i.e. toner and maintenance kits. Occasionally when a customer has not received their toner within the 2-3 working day delivery window I have to investigate and speak with UPS to rearrange delivery, the customer is then contacted and updated with the relevant information.
Engineer calls are varied they can be to close a call down or order parts. As a dispatcher I also assist other regions, if an engineer does not have work I will go into their area and dispatch a call with the highest priority.
Throughout the day whils
Where do I begin at?
If you're looking for this company as a career, better keep on looking for another one as this company is not a career job it ranks up there as fast food, call center, retail work.
You would think a global company would treat their EMPLOYEES better right? Think again. Ever since I've been with this company for 5+ years, we've only seen 1, you heard me right, 1 pay increase in the past 4 years and it was only for .25 cents. They pay their employees basically nothing for the type of work we do. When other companies like us, their employees are making $15-16 an hour for the type of work we do.
Everything about this company is "Policy", they don't recognize you in your hard work you do, but when something bad comes up, trust me, you'll be hearing it from upper management, HR, but little did they know it was us workers who made it all happen, always forgetting about the "good", but will be ontop of you in a heartbeat when something bad happens and HR, upper management will be on your case.
I have never seen before in my life, such shady, unorganized, unprofessional uppermanagement, HR personnel people. For example, if you have any questions regarding help with payroll, leave, HR issues, good luck of getting a response back maybe 2-3 week later when you try to contact them 3 times about it.
Management would be a lot better, if they had the "right people in the right positions", the current people they have in place have basically no clue of whats going on.
Good for casual work - but not enough work offered
This is a good company to work for as Casual Staff. You don't have to work that hard (although you do have to work), nobody is breathing down your neck, most staff are young and friendly and from all over Europe, which is cool. You get to meet loads of people. You get free food and drinks as well. And they provide the uniform.
You just need to to able to work on your feet with very little chance if any to sit down. If you work matches, you don't get a break although it's slow after kick off until half time so that's your break. If you work longer shifts such as a trade show, you get a 20 or 30 minute break. This place can sometimes seem very disorganised and total chaos - you often dont know where to go when you get there nor do you ever know your finish time in advance. You can be asked to do loads of different tasks. Including mopping floors. Whatever they need doing.
Some of the Team Leaders cherry pick staff they want at their kiosk, meaning you can be assigned a kiosk and then have it changed last minute - this is probably why. So you never know for sure where you'll be working so you need to be flexible. And some Team Leaders are great, others aren't so nice, or they aren't capable, and you wonder how they got the job.
Training is not great, particularly with alcohol service, so it's rather down to you to learn it - to ask others. Don't be surprised if you turn up for a hospitality shift and find yourself serving drinks to tables of 12, with no previous experie
ProsFree parking, free food and drink, good atmosphere
ConsNot regular work, gaps in offers of work, unknown shift end times
A typical day at Ricoh would some days mean that I would have back to back appointments with clients and others days I would spend most my time in the office. I thought it was a wonderful balance because I got to meet new people but also have time to connect with my co-workers.
I constantly had to learn new technology in order to keep up. I was allowed to manage myself, administration and my time due to the type of work I did. I became more aware of how to listen to a client and create a balance between what was best for the client and the company. Multi-skilling was part of most my work experience but I am one of those people that thrived on it. I learned how to be proactive instead of reactive.
I admired and respected my Up-Line Manager. She had an outstanding way of getting her management style across. I never felt belittled or under appreciated. Then with my Department Manager, I believe had I stayed under his command, I would have excelled within Ricoh beyond what I could imagine. My mentor was the previous Branch Manager at Ricoh Cape Town. She is very well known in the office automation industry and taught me how work and life could affect choices you make and your career. She showed me how to rise above any situation and make the best of it. She made me believe that I could accomplish anything. She is a visionary and an unparalleled leader.
It is said that you spend more time with the people you work with than with your family so it's important to make c
Questions And Answers about Ricoh
Why did you leave your job at Ricoh?
Asked Mar 27, 2017
Took an early retirement during the first wave in 2019. Enjoyed working in the Winston Salem and High Point offices...
Answered May 5, 2021
Corporate restructure. Many jobs sent overseas.
Answered Sep 29, 2020
What advice would you give the CEO of Ricoh about how to improve it?
Asked Mar 23, 2018
Up your pay to employees that been there for years and stop paying us like we just got out of high school. we have Bill's and a family.
Answered Jun 1, 2021
Pay your qualified workers what their worth. Some of us come to the job with skills. Stop giving managorial jobs to those who can't handle the position.
Answered Dec 17, 2020
What is the best part of working at Ricoh?
Asked Oct 25, 2019
NO weekends.
Answered Dec 17, 2020
The only part was meeting about 2 or 3 actually good co-workers... other than that the work atmosphere is mainly toxic and management isn't that great. If your looking for a company or career here don't waste your time. If you're looking for a learning experience go but definitely go for another job position somewhere else to avoid the drama. (Some locations are better than others, I leave that for you to experience but this is just my advice for someone just starting out...I learned the hard way..)
Answered Nov 18, 2020
What is the most stressful part about working at Ricoh?
Asked May 17, 2018
The lack of support and unqualified managers that only out to pad their own statistics and not service and retain customers.
Answered Jun 15, 2020
Trying to please impossible clients
Answered Feb 11, 2020
What is a typical day like for you at Ricoh?
Asked Jun 21, 2020
Not a good day having to deal with egos, jealous people, and office politics.
Answered Jan 9, 2021
Typical day...clock in an prepare for mail runs with sorting mail with another coworker. Waiting for packages to be delivered and then sorted. Nothing really grand, just an everyday repeat. You may get a chance to be in the print center if someone is out (but that is rare especially if you applied for that position..).
