The Copier’s Over Here Next to the Irony
Fun, work August 12th, 2010
This morning at work I took an elevator to a lab I’m responsible for maintaining. Two service workers from a copier rental place got on-board with me.
They asked if I worked in the building.
“Yep. What’cha need?”
“We’re here to pick up a copier in Room 61.”
“Oh, that’s great. I’m headed down to Room 51 myself. I’ll take you to the room.”
We arrived at the pickup location and I unlocked the door for them. Inside was a giant copier on wheels, the kind that can do every task imaginable in addition to copying.
The guys checked the serial number to make sure it was the right copier and it was.
They thanked me for letting them in the room and asked if I wouldn’t mind signing the pickup form.
“Sure. No problem.”
I signed and dated the form and then because the guy wanted to send one to the department who requested the pickup and keep one for himself, he asked me this:
“Do you have a copier I can use?”
Hand to God.
Stumble it!
August 12th, 2010 at 11:33 am
Look at that, the blogging gods brought WalMart people to you! Awesome. You must be living right.
August 12th, 2010 at 11:49 am
So what did you answer?
I assume it was in working order, and it was just the end of the rental period?
Babs – beetle´s last blog post ..Going for a paddle
August 12th, 2010 at 11:54 am
I thought you were going to say they picked up the wrong copier. See above Rm. 61 – then Rm 51.
I also thought maybe you’d say were just masquerading as copier rental guys and stole it.
Did you bwahahahaha right in their faces?
Barb @WillThink4Wine´s last blog post ..Iz live or iz Whitey Time
August 12th, 2010 at 1:21 pm
I suppose they could have phrased it as “Are there any copiers available that I can use?”
Grace´s last blog post ..Personal heros
August 12th, 2010 at 2:22 pm
that is too funny!! what was your response? isn’t it nice when you get someone like that to help regain your writing mojo?
hugs,
puglette
:o)
puglette´s last blog post ..Happy Birthday Charlie!
August 12th, 2010 at 2:41 pm
I’m with Barb – I totally thought they were going to be scammers who stole your copier.
Surfie´s last blog post ..A Chocolate Named Eternity
August 12th, 2010 at 2:53 pm
I hope you said no, and then made a big show of going over to the copier to examine all of its many functions. Including copying.
JD at I Do Things´s last blog post ..Some Lady Removes a Skin Tag so you and I don’t have to
August 12th, 2010 at 3:15 pm
Wow– the mouth just defaults right to its original setting sometimes, doesn’t it? 🙂
Jenn of Many Cabbages´s last blog post ..Kooky Clems Oddity Attic
August 12th, 2010 at 4:54 pm
I love the punchline. I rank the copy machine here right up there with the one in Office Space. The more complicated they are, the more often they need service. It almost seems cheaper to have someone on hand at all times with a baseball bat to threaten it into behaving.
August 12th, 2010 at 7:22 pm
Who says office life is ever dull? Or lacking irony?
LJ´s last blog post ..Fun At Work
August 12th, 2010 at 7:55 pm
Copiers are complicated. My Mommeh remembers carbon paper. And mimeograph machines. She is old.
Daisy the Curly Cat´s last blog post ..Harley Goes Swimmin
August 12th, 2010 at 8:16 pm
I would have told them to allow me to make a copy for them, walked to the machine, made the ccopy and then laughed like crazy.Thanks for the bedtime laugh.
Tarheel Rambler´s last blog post ..Yearning to Breathe Free
August 12th, 2010 at 8:20 pm
How long did you just stare blankly at him?
Nicky´s last blog post ..Miles and Kilometers
August 12th, 2010 at 9:03 pm
You could have waited until they had it loaded on the truck and then pointed at it and said, in there. Sorry, it is late and I am getting sarcastic. I am with Daisy’s mommeh, I remember carbon paper and mimeograph machines.
August 12th, 2010 at 11:20 pm
Last bight I was walking one of the dogs, and someone walking by me at Rodale park asked me if I liked dogs.
It killed me to hold it in. I wanted to say, “No, but they like me, and my wife trained them to walk me.”
But I didn’t. My humor seems to go over people’s heads.
Chris Casey´s last blog post ..Let the Penguin Dance
August 13th, 2010 at 3:54 am
Shakes head
What do you even SAY to that…it’s just one of those moments where you blink wordlessly at them for a time and then slowly walk away, shaking your head.
Laura´s last blog post ..All The Things I Thought Id Figured Out
August 13th, 2010 at 5:06 am
Sue Seese — Oh, let’s not give credit to Walmart. That makes me sad.
Babs beetle — I answered with a blank stare. Then he immediately said “Oh, I have another copy of it you can sign. That’ll do.” Yes, it was the end of a six-week rental period.
Barb at WillThink4Wine — Oh, now that would have been good. But then somehow it would have turned out to be my fault and it would have given me more work to do than I already had. You know, whenever I see workmen in our building trying to get in a room, I make them identify themselves and say why they are there. “Show me your papers!” We’ve had thefts of equipment before, quit a bit, so I’m always on high alert when someone says they’re here to pick something up. Nothing gets by me. The fact that they had paperwork on it and knew exactly where to go made them legit. I did not laugh in their faces. I laughed on the way back to my office and then blogged about it. Hee.
Grace — Yes, they could have, but then it wouldn’t have been blog-worthy. I thank them for it.
puglette — My response was no response at all. He had a second copy that he asked me to sign, so that served as his copy in the end. Yes! I silently thanked them as I walked back to my office. I opened up my blog editor and got crackin’!
Surfie — Scammers never get past me (see my response to Barb above). Workmen are often surprised and a little annoyed when I quiz them so hard about why they’re there.
JD at I Do Things — LMAO. If only. I wanted to point at it, but I was sort of like “Surely they know there’s a copier standing right in front of them. I mean, it’s all they do is work with copiers. They said the word copier a few times. Right there! A copier!”
Jenn of Many Cabbages — Har. It does. And people need to worry about running into me when it happens. Bloggers miss nothing.
Medical Assistant — No kidding. Whenever Ricoh brings in a new multifunction printer the size of a car, they have a big ‘ol training session on how to use all the features. Man, remember when all you had to do was pull up the cover, deposit your paper on the plate and press Start?
LJ — And thank God for that. Work is hell enough. We all need something to shake it up!
Daisy the Curly Cat — I used to work in a 125 year old building at this same workplace. Every day on the way to the ladies room, I’d pass a room that still had a “Mimeograph Room” sign hanging on it. Always made me laugh. A whole room for copying. I’m old too.
Tarheel Rambler — I should have. I guess I didn’t want to embarrass them, even a little bit. I figure they must only look at copiers as pieces of equipment to be delivered and picked up, not to actually use.
Nicky — Only a couple seconds before the guy said he had another copy of the form and I could just sign that too.
Anne — That would have been awesome. Yes, I remember mimeograph too. Remember the purple ink and the smell?
Chris Casey — Good grief. “No, I hate dogs, actually and this one isn’t even mine.”
Laura — You say nothing, turn around, return to office, and immediately blog about it.
August 13th, 2010 at 7:20 am
I can’t laugh too much at this, because it totally sounds like the kind of boneheaded thing I do all the time. My husband asked me one time where my brain goes when it takes those little vacations.
absepa´s last blog post ..Please pardon this interruption
August 13th, 2010 at 7:26 am
I would have walked them in very a circuitous route throughout the building to bring them back to room 61 so they could use the copier there before taking it away.
CatLadyLarew´s last blog post ..The Secret Garden- A Magpie Tale
August 13th, 2010 at 7:31 am
Hence, the reason why they are COPIER SERVICE PEOPLE.
moooooog35´s last blog post ..My Job Moonlighting as Dish Dolly R Us- Inc
August 13th, 2010 at 10:34 am
Ha! I see your mojo returned. I knew it would. Now if I had one, where would it be?
Your office is definitely funnier than mine was.
August 13th, 2010 at 12:05 pm
The publicist is like Daisy’s Mommeh.
People are fun.What would we do without them?
Pricilla´s last blog post ..AbbyDay- I Show You the Best Places to Eat on the Farm
August 13th, 2010 at 10:16 pm
You should have sent him to the copier down the hall.
Lauren´s last blog post ..The Tribe has Spoken – Tribal Blogs – The Better Way to Blog!
August 14th, 2010 at 12:40 am
I work in a clothing store. I once had a customer pick something off the rack and ask if the could buy it.
Of course I also had a date ask me if I would have his baby. It was the first date and dare I say the last. Of course I myself am a member of the “Ask a least one dumb question a day” club.
August 14th, 2010 at 3:57 am
‘Ask one dumb question a day’ remains me of days of my office work and one secretary we had.. funny days they were 🙂
August 14th, 2010 at 6:17 am
Hahaha! that’s funny!
I must say that I’m not good friends with copiers…they seem to die in my presence.
Duni´s last blog post ..Day trip
August 14th, 2010 at 8:10 am
Sue’s comment just stopped me in my tracks and made me double over with laughter. I can’t add anymore to this than what she said.
Jen´s last blog post ..Dr Laura and the N Word
August 14th, 2010 at 8:45 am
First let me say that I appreciate the humor and Irony of the story. Having been a Copier tech myself I find it necessary to come to the defence of these guys. Models of this nature are highly sophisticated marvels of modern technology. The fact that they work at all in the real world is amazing. In reality most copier have a rather lengthy check-out/warm-up cycle. How much time have you spent waiting the the copier to give your the “Ready” light?
From stone cold the start-up can take upwards of 10 minutes and the larger then machine the longer it takes. In these cases it’a much quicker to walk half-way across the building to make “a” copy on a smaller convenience machine then wait for the 800 lbs gorilla to wake up.
August 14th, 2010 at 7:08 pm
I love it….like when your plumber asks if you have a bathroom…or something similar….
August 15th, 2010 at 5:04 am
absepa — Go easy on yourself. I wouldn’t call it boneheaded, just ironic. It gave me a chuckle. Besides, I beat everyone in the boneheaded department. It’s no contest.
CatLadyLarew — LMAO.
mooooog35 — Actually, I’m glad someone is. That and printer service people, as I can’t fix a jam to save my life.
Linda — It only returned because those guys walked onto the elevator with me. I’d still be without it if that hadn’t happened. Well, actually, I did write a guest post last week. If anyone’s reading these comments, wanna know where it was?
Pricilla — Everyone’s like Daisy’s Mommeh. People are an interesting species, no?
Lauren — I didn’t even have my own office to take them too, as we don’t have a copier there. Closest available one would have been three floors up. Or the one right in front of us.
Phunnieone — What? They never shopped before? And I’m guessing there was no second date?
Jack — And thank God because if we had just work at work, we’d all hang ourselves.
Duni — You need a copier surrogate.
Jen — Agreed.
M2 — I get what you’re saying. Did you get my email?
TC — Although I know plenty of people who wouldn’t want their plumber using their bathroom. It must be hard for service people to find bathrooms if all they do is go in and out of other people’s places. At least truck drivers have truck stops.
August 15th, 2010 at 8:23 am
well, men are a little slow. Your charm and beauty must have dazed and confused him.
Sheila Sultani´s last blog post ..Naked In The News
August 15th, 2010 at 11:59 am
Well? I don’t understand? Did you have a copier?
(j/k. Btw, I found my way here from BC)
Doug Stephens´s last blog post ..Clint Eastwood is old
August 15th, 2010 at 3:17 pm
[…] Midlife Parenting: Back to school shopping Things to do when you’re above 40 When the wind had teeth Top 10 Things on My Blog Theme Wishlist White-cheeked tern The Copier’s Over Here Next to the Irony […]
August 16th, 2010 at 12:48 am
Sometimes there is more irony in the office than anywhere else! Maybe that’s what inspired the television series. Something to help with the writer’s block, I hope.
August 16th, 2010 at 10:46 am
=) Wow! What a day! We’ll I need this dose in order for me not to be sleepy at work..=) Hoping to see more post in the future…=)
August 16th, 2010 at 4:44 pm
In some far off land, I think this is related. I asked my husband to pick up some ice cream this weekend for my daughter’s b/d. The only instruction — “Don’t buy peanut butter.” He came home with chocolate and PEANUT BUTTER. “Didn’t you hear what I said?” “Yes, but I thought it didn’t really have peanut butter in it.”
Penny´s last blog post ..Tooth fairy substitute
August 16th, 2010 at 7:24 pm
Ahahahahahahah! That is sofa king funny!
meleah rebeccah´s last blog post ..My Nephew Bowls The Epic Movie Edition
August 16th, 2010 at 9:37 pm
Kathy, sorry to go off topic, but I am curious. Small Town Mommy went to Blogher and got a Bacon Lollipop.
Did you go, and did you get one? Inquiring mind wants to know.
Chris Casey´s last blog post ..Let the Penguin Dance
August 16th, 2010 at 10:16 pm
Seriously? And that is exactly what I’d be saying to the knucklehead. I love work–you find such idiots….and blog fodder. 🙂
Lin´s last blog post ..So- thats why they smile at me
August 17th, 2010 at 8:21 am
Yes, there’s a reason why those guys don’t work at NASA.
Marvin´s last blog post ..Say Hi To Your Mom- Blah Blah Blah
August 17th, 2010 at 4:35 pm
You can’t fix stupid.
Nicole´s last blog post ..Just Another Sunshiny Day
August 31st, 2010 at 11:44 am
That’s just one of those situations where you just stare at them blankly and let them realize what they said.