I have seen the color of eternity.....

[Katie G]

......and it's toner BLACK!  All over the copy room floor (not to mention ME)!  

I get a phone call that "we're out of copier toner".  I figure this means the machine is out and I go to get the spare cartridge and install it.    I look in the storage cabinet under the copier and the box is not there.  Well, this is odd.  I could've sworn we had a spare under there.

Then I see it. There's the cartridge, sitting on the work table, unboxed, unwrapped.  I guess "someone" tried to "help" by trying to install it and had trouble.  Ok, fine. I'll put it in myself.  At least they tried, right?

Well, I pick the cartridge up to install it and suddenly there's a FLOOD of that unmistakeable inky black powder cascading down my legs and shoes and all over the floor.  "The Phantom Helper" had REMOVED THE PROTECTIVE COVER AND LEFT IT THERE on the table.   Good grief!  What an unbeliveable mess!  

After 20 trips back and forth to the ladies' room to get wet paper towels, I manage to get the worst of it off the floor.  I, on the other hand, still look like Dick Van Dyke from the chimneysweep scene in "Mary Poppins" since I was kneeling on the floor over the stuff for 20 minutes trying to get it up.  

My God, wouldn't you think after removing the cover you'd go FIND someone to help you instead of just LEAVING IT THERE?

I think it's a poem by Shel Silverstein that goes at one point:

Some kinds of help
is the kind of help
that helping's all about
and some kinds of help
is the kind of help
we all could do without!

[chris68]

Can so relate to your problem!  I would worry about getting those stains off your clothes and if they don't come out bill the company for dry cleaning or worse come to worse replacing the clothes!  

When we were working out of state we got this nasty piece of equipment they called a copier and I had much the same situation as you did, however, because the copier was such junk to begin with and they had beaten it to death, by the time I got there the toner was just about out!  So, being the nice guy and taking the time to change the toner, when emptying it out it exploded within the machine and causing much the same mess you described!  Soooo, the company after picking up the machine tried to bill us for the mistake on their part for giving us such a piece of junk to begin with and saying it was all our fault for causing all these problems with their beloved money making copier that was probably 15 years old and ready to fall apart on a dime!  Now when he came out to repair it at one point, they were told to slam the top down on it so it would make a decent copy, NO WAY!  So I think they were trying to blame us for that too.  Long story short they went around about the barn on who was going to pay for all the repairs on this machine and what the condition of it was when they picked it up versus when they dropped it off and tried to charge us for extra repairs and maintenance that we didn't need to and it was a fight believe me.  

Anyway, long story short, I can so relate to those nasty issues of "helpers" trying to do the right thing and causing more problems than they are worth.  

I hope your day goes better from here on out.

Chris68
Peer Moderator

[Katie G]

*chuckle*  This is why I wear $14.99 pants from Sears or Kmart to work.  It's funny, anytime I look at my closet and think about needing to "spruce up" my working wardrobe, something like this goes down and I say "hell with it."  Imagine how mad I'd be if I had been wearing a pair of wool trousers and a silk blouse instead of a polyester-blend pants and an acrylic sweater!

(I don't care if it DOES make me look 40 lbs thinner and 10 years younger, if it's dry-clean, forget it!)

[chris68]

Amen to the dry cleaning issue! If it aint washable forget it!  However, while travelling it was required that we dress appropriately which means nicer pants suits and skirts, etc.  Mine were still all washable and I didn't do too badly getting it on my clothes, however, the floor and the copier were a mess!

Chris68
Peer Moderator