Shifty Printer

Another anal retentive user.

Me, I would have taken the user's manual, and thrown it at that (l)user, and told him to RTFM about printable area.

(sarcasm tone="vindictive")

If that fails to work, then I would drag the (l)user out to a nearby fire hydrant. Then take the caps off one of the hose connections, and jam that (l)user's butt over the open connection. Then open the valve up all the way. Maybe then, that (l)user will realize that he (or she) is full of ****, and listen when someone offers advise.

(/sarcasm)

Sorry, but I did not mean to go F L U F, but I have had to deal with such an ID10T. In our case, I just had to point to the fire hose in the warehouse, with a "**** eating grin" on my face. (L)user got that message.

In your place I would have the user send the job about which he was complaining to the printer while I am there to see it.
Mark my words, this is what you wouldl see:
Scenario a - most likely to happen:
1 - The print job will successfully complete;
2 - You will be accused of fixing it behind the scenes just to make the user look stupid - you know, the usual "you did something, what did you do?" question;
Scenario b - also possible:
1 - You will duplicate the problem, but the solution is as you described long ago;
2 - User will get an instructional session on how to adjust printer margins and still complain that you did not fix it but left user to do your job;
Scenario c - the "never doubt users' creativity" one:
1 - It was, after all, a copy job - but since the user is doing it on a "printer" ou are still wrong and the problem is with "printing".

Since you've already tried to do it the right way (educate the obstinate user), have them save the document to a network location that you can access, or email it to you. Then *you* make the margin adjustments and print it to the new printer. If it's saved on the network, save the corrected document.

Then show the correctly-printed document to he user (preferably with his supervisor present), tell him "it prints fine for me, what are you doing to make it print incorrectly?" and let him try to figure it out.

After all, you did *try* to do the right thing. And since no good deed goes unpunished, you need to counter-act that good deed with an evil one, for which the Universe will reward you.

I suppose if you could get the user to show you the doc. on their PC, and have them print a preview you could show them why it is printing wrong, then adjust the doc., repeat preview and show them what you were trying to get across to them earlier?!

But honestly, some people will not believe you no matter what you tell them because they're just so certain you're a fool who doesn't know your job and they're trying to beat the point into you that it's the printer and not them.

These type people you should just tell them, "if you're not going to listen to my expert advice, then don't bother wasting my time again".

CAPTCHA: NUGNAV: Ted Nugent trying to give you directions.

"A Bad Day On Vacation Trumps A Good Day At Work."

That person sounds like what i think of as "Voodoo Users". They learned how to do it one way, umpteen years ago and are extremely resistant to changing their old method to keep up with changes in the environment.

Since Win is the most common office environment I'm surprised that the printer driver is not identifying the problem before the print job goes. In my experience I get message to the effect that one or more margins exceeds printable area, do you want to fix it before printing. So, is it possible that you have not installed the specific driver for the new printer, or the user is not using it? Many printers will support generic drivers that may not meet all of the specifications, such as printable margins, of the new printer.

Secondly, as others have noted, this type of (l)user is also often a whiner, complaining to anyone and everyone that you aren't supporting them adequately. So, on the theory that the best defense is a strong offense, I would document the whole problem, your response and hand it to your manager as soon as possible. This way, when his manager (or some other manager) comes to him with the complaint he is already aware of the situation and knows all about it. He can answer the complaint immediately and fully, no equivocation or delays. That way he is not surprised and not put on the spot, so he won't be P.O'd with you, and the person will be "pleasantly surprised" at his awareness.

If it is just the one ill-formatted document for one user then reformatting is the logical solution.

If it is a company approved locked down form, or hundreds of forms, with thousands of users, then maybe getting a printer with a larger print area is an easier path.

Or perhaps the document(s) should still be reformatted anyway so that they can be printed on any printer now and forever.

Perhaps elevating the issue to management explaining the choices: Buy new printer or reformat document(s)?

I'm not a windows guy but isn't there an equivalent to a ppd file in cups that you can use to make adjustments to margins? It would seem to me that making the printer work just like the old one would be a better solution.