Hey all, little background on myself; basically I am a maintenance guy for parking garages, and used to only deal occasionally with elevators (place service calls) until recently where they seemed to have been dumped in my lap.(schedule/track inspections, etc.) We are in the process of replacing all of our elevators (22 of them) with OTIS Gen 2's. One out of the 10 or so that we have replaced is having reoccurring issues which the service provider keeps billing us for even though it is still under warranty. Reasons being "car overloaded/people jumping" "Governor Overspeed Switch tripped". All instances have been with people trapped during off hours so we are getting dinged with overtime charges as well. Just curious on whether they are using these "cause's" as a way to charge for something that should be a warrantied fix. Thanks in advance/ sorry for the lengthy post

My suggestion is to have your service provider on site get in the car with another person jump up and down and see what happens. If you get a governor switch trip with a moderate jump problem should be on them. If you really jump hard and it set it may be as they claim. Also new equipment should record what speed the incident occurred at. What does the records show on the screen? Have them take a picture with their phone. Do they happen in the same place in the hoist way? Same direction of travel? ect ect Good luck!

Do you have camera's in the cabs of the elevators? If you don't I would highly recommend them, it keeps everyone honest especially when it comes to vandalism.

To answer your question; yes, people jumping in the car can cause the governor switch to set and trap people. This would be something every elevator company would bill for, as this is not a failure of the elevator.

I have a large student housing building where after bar time the students found it funny to all jump at the same time and shut the cars down due to the governor or load weigher faults. This was until the building started passing on our OT bills to the students which they identified on camera. After the kids were billed and the building put signs in the elevator with warnings, the issues stopped.

Thank you for the quick replies. The garage is located inside a small business district where its 99% business people. One instance was at 9:30 am and it was 1 person stuck (mid 40's man/highly doubt he was jumping around on a Monday morning). Unfortunately we do not have cameras and I do not know enough to decipher the records and have to rely on them telling me the truth. The incidents happen pretty much throughout hoist way and going up and down.

I too had this issue at student housing after the bar shuts .... The future generation eh ? So here's the thing , overloading of a car or people jumping up and down ..absolutely is misuse and should be chargeable but the question is why if you have re elevators does it only happen on one ? Or is it say twenty different buildings covering 22 elevators ? It is relatively easy for your service provider to do an overspeed governor test to see what speed it trips at and seeing as you have bought 22 elevators from them they should have no problem doing this with you as a witness..no need to get in the hoistway etc. If it trips within the correct range then there must be an external reason ( it is suspicious it only happens at night) . If it trips at lower than range speed them you are within your rights to ask them to rectify the fault ( new governor or recalibrate existing one ) . There is nothing wrong with asking questions of your service company especially as it sounds like you spent a lot of money with them .

we actually have/had issues with every single new one that has been installed at some point. All the same Gen2's but 3 different installers. All elevators are spread out at different locations (2 at this one). Even the service orders that were not labeled as "misuse" are still being charged to us.

Without sounding like I'm making excuses for them new installs do sometimes go through a few teething problems but I can say with some honesty if installed correctly and set/up looked after the right way that the Gen 2 is a great product. Presuming Otis are your service provider you should have a customer account manager. You should check with him what's covered . New instals come with a NIS ( new in service ) contract I believe and a warranty which is different . Not sure how the warranty works in your location but may not cover labor or if so only in business hours possibly. If you have two elevators in the location bit it's only the one that is giving you repeated issues that they are claiming misuse ( providing the elevators serve same floors etc ) then it sounds suspicious . People who are dumb enough to think ots funny to jump up and down in an elevator , or squeeze as many people as possible into it would surely do it with either elevator ? If you have attendents in your parking garage ask them to be with the mechanic when he releases the passengers so he can see if they are overloading it or seem the type to be fooling around . I'm not saying the mechanics not telling the truth mind , I used to look after a lot of public parking garages and we used to get a LOT of misuse calls .

We have had great success in installing fake camera domes (even flashing led's) and signs that camera's now operate in the area, and any misuse will be billed to the passengers. Self interest always wins, when they have to pay out cash.

I am seeing the Car Mounted Governors setting the safety with less than one person jumping. Does anyone have this experience if passengers aren't jumping and the CMG is tripping? Any fixes for this?

I had a call once on a geared traction with a HW governor, trap call, governor overspeed switch tripped but not set. Father and roughly 10 year old son in car. Cars ran for 20 years and never had an issue and it's ran 2 years since and never had one issue. But the father/son said they most definitely didn't jump in the cab...

I agree on the cameras, they will pay for themselves many times over it sounds like. I have seen all different manner of cameras installed, even just had a customer put a battery powered Ring camera in his elevators. I reckon he's got good enough wifi and doesn't mind changing the batteries every few days.