Exec couldn’t identify a photocopier, which made for a fax-inating tech support call
A former facilities manager recalls an executive becoming frustrated after an urgent fax apparently failed to send, only for the problem to prove to be user error. The incident matters chiefly as a light-hearted example of how similar-looking office technology can cause confusion, particularly before email displaced faxing.
The company secretary had placed her document in a machine, entered a fax number on its keypad and pressed Enter, expecting it to transmit. When asked to demonstrate, she was found to be using a photocopier rather than the fax machine; the article notes that multifunction printers may have made the mistake more understandable. It also explains that fax machines combined scanning, printing and slow modem technology, and were largely superseded by email in the late 1990s.
- Executive tried to fax a document using a photocopier.
- A facilities manager identified the simple user error.
- The story highlights confusion caused by similar office machines.
New here? Start with this
Fax machines sent paper documents over telephone lines. They scanned a page, converted it into signals and printed a copy at the receiving end, so sending a fax could take longer than sharing a document by email.
Photocopiers, by contrast, make paper copies locally. Some office machines combine copying, printing and faxing, while older equipment often had separate machines that could look similar.
Faxing was common in offices before email became widely used in the late 1990s. The distinction between machines helps explain how an everyday mix-up could interrupt an urgent task.