Who needs Math?

Our duplex copier went down today, surprise. Of course it did. This is the time of year when the patrons need to make a plethora of copies for their research and the copiers take the biggest beating. As a way to provide better customer service I offered to make duplexed copies on an as needed basis.

A patron hands me an enormous stack of articles to copy double sided of course. I take them and proceed. There are 117 double sided pages in this stack. I bring the completed copies back and proceed to ring up the $23.40 in copies. The patron pays and leaves. Only to return and complain that we charged too much for the copies. You see this patron felt that I was charging double, the cost should be $11.70 not $23.40. As I explain that the stack contained 117 double sided pages, each side of the sheet counts as a copy, that adds up to 234 total copied sheets. The patron continues to disagree, insisting that I miscounted and accused me of purposefully over charging for the copies. As we argue over the simple math involved: each copy is ten cents......you have 234 pages....at ten cents a sheet....so on and so forth, it became apparent to me how this patron, being a PhD student will one day save the world with this research yet for some unknown reason cannot grasp simple mathematic principles.

After a 10 minute discussion the patron still felt wronged.

Run away I want to run away from this insanity.