They’re Not On The Same Page

(I’m working in the local IT department of an international law firm.)

Me: “IT support. How may I help you?”

Lawyer: “I can’t print.”

(I see the lawyer’s name and room number on my display.)

Me: “Hello, Mr. [Lawyer]. What do you mean, you can’t print? I don’t have reports of printer malfunctions, yet. Could you please describe your problem further? Do you get an error message?”

Lawyer: “I can’t print! There is no error message; the d*** thing doesn’t react at all!”

Me: “On which printer are you trying to print?”

Lawyer: “Which printer? F****** all of them! I even installed a printer on a different floor!”

(I connect remotely to his PC and see that he has a Word document open and every printer in the selection box gives the status ‘ready’. Additionally I check every printer on his floor via our Web Interface for error messages. No error comes up.)

Lawyer: “I need the last page printed out ASAP. Every time I’m in a hurry these d*** PCs aren’t working. Why can’t you and your colleagues get these f****** things to work like they should?”

Me: “Uhm… you need the last page printed? That would be page three of that document?”

Lawyer: “No, godd*** it! Are you blind? Here, in the line ‘print page xx’ I typed in page four! I need page four! I have a meeting with a client in five minutes and I need this page for my notes! F***!”

Me: “Is this the correct document? Because I see that this document only has three pages.”

(I change the four into a three and click on ‘print,’ and sure enough the printer in his office starts printing.)

Me: “The printer seems to be working fine. Is this the page you need?”

Lawyer: “Uhm… this is the page… Yes… Well… I can handle it from here. Bye.” *click*