Listorical Revisionism

(I am working tech support for a large company. We are strongly discouraged from giving any caller a flat “no,” no matter how strange the request. We’ve just recently rolled out a new mailing list, which already gets hundreds of messages daily.)

Caller: “Hi, I was hoping you could help me. I sent out an email this morning with information about the new mailing list, but I made a typo in the name of the mailing list.)

Me: “Ah, I’m sorry to hear that. If you’d like, I can help you recall the email you sent and correct the typo.”

Caller: “No, I don’t want to do that. Just change the name of the list to be the same as in my email.”

Me: “Er… are you the owner of this list?”

Caller: “No, I was just sending the information out to all my execs. But now they have the wrong name for the list! You have to change the list to match my email!”

Me: “I’m afraid that only the owner of the list can change the name. Besides, a lot of people are already using this list, so if I change the name they won’t be able to use it any more. Perhaps you can send out another email with a correction?”

Caller: “I don’t care about that! If I send out a correction now, it’ll make me look bad. Just change the name of the list to match what’s in my email!”

Me: “…So, let me get this straight: instead of admitting or correcting your typo, you want me to change the universe to make it match your mistake?”

Caller: “Yes!”