Send Me a Copy

This is something that happened to me back in the early 90's...

GTG> Grumpy Tech Support. How may I help you today?
User> I'm having trouble installing the disk you sent me.
GTG> No problem. I can help you through it.

After about an hour of helping the nice lady insert the diskette, change to the A: drive and type "INSTALL" and listening to her read off the percentage numbers as they changed...

User> Thanks for your help. I guess I just needed someone to hold my hand through the process.
GTG> No trouble at all. Is there anything else?
User> Well, I am having trouble installing this other program we got from the store last week.
GTG> I'm not supposed to help with any other software, but we should be able to go through similar steps.
User> Oh thank you so much...

Two hours later, and this other software will not install. I was able to troubleshoot the problem to the actual diskette the installation kit was on. Here is where I made the big mistake:

GTG> Yeah, there is definitely something up with that diskette. I might be able to correct the problem. If you don't mind, would you send me a copy of that diskette and then call their tech support people and tell them you got a bad disk?
User> Absolutely! I'll get this copied and into the mail right away. Thank you so much for your help.
GTG> No problem at all.

Three days later I received an envelope. Not a big envelope that would hold a diskette, but a standard letter-sized envelope. Inside was a white piece of paper folded in half and then over in half a second time. I unfolded the paper and realized that the nice lady had put the diskette on the copier and "sent me a copy" exactly as I had asked.
I called her back and told her that I could not recover anything from the copy of the diskette.
"That's ok, " she said. "I called their tech support and they are sending me another diskette."

I kept the copy on my wall for years to remind me to watch what I say to users.