My customer, the truck

[Meadhands]

I only just came up with that nickname now, but I believe it is a very fitting name for this one, because she looks like a Mack truck with a tight shirt on. Like a tank in a tank top. She is My Customer, The Truck. MCTT for short.

I don't know if I have talked about this one before... black girl? Five foot nothing? About fourteen tons of American pride? Any of that sound familiar? If not, I really should have said something sooner.

At this point, she is probably close to being tossed out of the lab. As of now, I am the only person left in the lab that she has not gotten into an argument with. I can fake helpfulness like you wouldn't believe. Like... like a shark.

What? I didn't get alot of sleep last night. Sue me.

Anywho, today she said she needed to do some heavy duty printing, so she would like an empty room. We get this alot, so we say ok and set her up in a side room so her prints don't disrupt the main room's print queue. Now, we don't charge for paper, but we do ask that people print within reason.

The printer was completely full when she went in.
Our printers can hold 1000 sheets of paper.
When we checked her printer when she was done, I counted less then 20 sheets remaining.

That, pardon my lingual departure into the land of the harsh, is fucking ridiculous.

We, being me and a coworker, informed our boss, who still has yet to take action against this odious and, while we are at it, overly, offensively odorous person. She has informed us not to let her use a lab again.

Another good note is MCTT said she would be back Thursday, a day I have off. My least favorite employee, and, incidentally, MCTT's least favorite employee, is working that day. I am sure I will hear tales of the shitstorm she is likely to brew when he rejects her request. Next Monday will be most entertaining for me.

[marasbaras]

Perhaps your lab should start charging for paper.

[Apathy]

Perhaps your lab should start charging for paper.

Nah. At my first college, they didn't charge. At the second, they did. And man, I was pretty outraged. Just tack on a fee to tuition if you need more revenue to cover it.
And it's not the money, four cents a page doesn't matter; for me, it was the hassle of doing it (getting money on the card, using it, mundane things like that) that pissed me off. I guess I was just used to not having the hassle.

But, in the end, all the new kids coming in will learn to do it that way, and all will be well with the world.

(No, I never bitched anyone out, or obviously moped around or sighed or anything SC-like.)

[MTNLaurelPoacher]

What was she printing that needed 980 pages? That is 2 reams of copy paper, weighing around 12 lbs, and if purchased at an office store would cost nearly $10.00. Depending on the copy War and Peace is roughly 1000 pages, so WTF?.

I had to pay 3 cents per page at my college, it was fine with me and cut down on the amount of unnecessary printing. Quick calculation 980 pages @ $0.03 per page = $29.40.

My mother's community college switched to a similar system when they found people printing text books, ims, porn and guitar tabs on the colleges dime.

That is one sucky (and badly dressed) customer.

[IT Grunt]

Our lab had signs requesting that people keep printing to a minimum in order for it to remain free. They were very clearly posted, but most people ignored them. We were told to enforce the minimal printing policy, but many times I got called 'obnoxious' for trying to be subtle about it without actually coming out and accusing them of killing trees. In retrospect, maybe I should have.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

My college charged by the page for printing in computer labs. Which can get pretty pricey after a while, especially if you're taking courses that require you to write a lot of papers and do a lot of printing, and you work on a college newspaper and have to make hard copies of all your stories.

And money did get kinda tight at times, so I had to save the money for printing my assignments and compensate by finding the cheapest eats I could.

Finally, I got my own printer, which cut out that expense. But it turned my room into a Kinko's annex.

I too would been happier with an extra charge added on to my tuition per semester.

[edible_hat]

My university has a print quota system. At the start of the semester you get a certain amount of printing credit based on how many subjects you're enrolled in. It's a reasonable amount and enough to print out most course notes etc. If a subject requires more printing than the normal amount, the co-ordinator will negotiate with campus services to add more. If you run out, you can buy more. Internet access works the same way.

(So what happens 8 weeks into a 13 week semester? You find lots of printouts of "Your page could not be printed because your print quota balance is $0.00")

[AdminAssistant]

Where I am now, we get 150 sheets per week. It's beautiful. My old school was 500 per semester, and I ran out a few times.

On a somewhat related note, the copier in my office has nearly gone through a carton of paper today. That's 10 reams, at 500 sheets per ream = 5,000 pieces of paper. One day.

[smileyeagle1021]

the hotel I work at on the weekends can easily go through a ream a day, normally a ream only lasts 2 maybe 3 at most (we have a lot of paperwork). I still can't fathom going through 2 reams though in one sitting... or one carton in a day....

[AdminAssistant]

or one carton in a day....

Well, first week of summer classes - so lots of syllabi, handouts, test materials, class prep, conference materials, blahdy freaking blah. Basically, a lot of unprepared professors just now coming back from vacation saying "OMG MUST MAKE COPIES NOOOWWWW!!!!!"

*sigh*

[Meadhands]

I am not entirely sure, but from what I understand, she printed handouts for her entire class. Handouts of WHAT, I am not entirely sure. Perhaps copies of the Great Goddamned Gatsby. Whatever the case, she left with what looked like the offspring a small rainforest under her arm.