I work in IT at a school. The school has a computer room with a lot of computers set up. There’s also a desk with four computers that are part of a project funded by the municipality to promote computers. These computers are accessible for free for citizens who want to do some research. They are managed by an admin who has got nothing to do with the school. These computers are connected to a printer in the computer room so visitors can print whatever they need.
As I’m doing some maintenance, a woman walks in, sits in front of a computer, and starts searching the Internet. After some time, I hear the printer starting to print. After some more time, the lady calls me over.
Lady: *Pointing at the printer* “I need the printer reloaded.”
She just printed over 200 pages. I reload the printer, and the printing continues. Another 200 pages. Rinse and repeat: reload the printer, and another 200 pages are printed.
Finally, after another 100 or so pages, she’s done. She packs her 700 papers and with an, “Until tomorrow!”, she leaves the room. For reference, on a normal day, the entire staff and pupils don’t print more than 300 pages.
I mention this to the principal.
Principal: “We made a deal with the municipality; the school offers them access to our Internet connection and the printer, and in return, the municipality will pay for the Internet connection.”
It’s quite clear that with a customer like that lady, the school is going to lose a lot of money on the deal. But the principal decides to uphold the deal for the time being.
The next day, the lady returns, but she also brings a friend along, and they both start to print like crazy. By the end of their session, they’ve managed to print over 2,000 pages between them.
And with an, “Until tomorrow,” the ladies say their goodbyes.
Of course, the principal isn’t happy with the way things are going. She asks me what I can do.
Me: “We could rename the printer so it can’t be found by the four computers and adjust the login script for all the school computers, and the bulk printing will be done.”
The next day, the lady returns. Today, she has three friends with her.
It doesn’t take too long before they call me over to complain about the printer not printing.
Me: “Due to the excessive amount of printed pages in the last three days, printing is no longer available.”
Of course, that isn’t to her liking.
Lady: “Turn on the printer or I’ll have you fired!”
Me: “No. Go ahead and have me fired.”
She immediately grabbed her phone, called her husband, and pushed the phone in my face, motioning that I should talk to her husband.
It turned out that her husband was someone high up in the municipality, and he seemed like a very reasonable guy. I explained the situation and why the school wouldn’t be paying for his wife’s printing habits. When he heard the number of pages his wife had been printing, he agreed that that was an abuse of the privilege. He asked for his wife on the phone.
In a matter of minutes, the wife and her friends left the room. I don’t know what was said, but I think that the wife will be having an interesting conversation later.
