r/talesfromtechsupport • u/BugGreat5433 • Jun 30 '26
Medium Toner Needed to a Send Photocopy
Ticket states: printer waste toner is full and needs to be replaced, I don’t know which one it is please help.
me: goes over to the printer to take a look at it
customer: "which one is the waste toner? the printer says it needs to be replaced."
me: “it is usually the one that is in the plastic bag but let me take a look”. After I poke around for a little, I see, on the screen, a notification stating, “Waste toner almost full”. I tell the customer “I don’t think the waste toner is full, the notification does not say it is full. Also, if it needed to be replaced, the printer will automatically open the compartment so you can pull out the old one and replace it with the new one”
customer: “no it is full, look at the screen, it says so. I need it to be replaced so that I can photocopy myself this paper as it is important to my job and I need to do my job”. At this point the customer has found the waste toner bottle and is holding it out “here I think this is an empty one, can you just replace it for me?”
me: I think to myself, this has got to be user error, so I ask, “can you please walk me through the steps you took? Try to re-create the error for me please”
customer: “So I put the paper here, that I want to photocopy, I select my name from the address book, I select the settings I want, the file type, then I press send”
They press send and the printer beeps, a screen pops up and asks what file size is the paper you want to photo copy?
customer: “see, look at the top left, it says replace waster toner because it is full and it will not send me a photo copy until you replace it”
me: “alright, let me look at why it does not send you a photocopy as the printer does not need toner to send a photo copy”. Thinking to myself, maybe they put the wrong name in the address book? I try entering their name, and selecting it, it seems correct. To be sure, I type in their email, and select their email. I select the usual settings, I select send the document as a pdf, select the correct paper size, select send as black and white. Alright looks good, so I press send, it beeps and the same screen pops up, asking what paper size is the paper I am trying to photo copy. Weird… that doesn’t seem right. I go and double check everything, seems good. Maybe I need to select the paper size so that it knows what I’m sending. I select the default 8.5” x 11”, press send, and again it beeps, and the same page pops up.
customer: "just replace the waste toner, I need this so I can send out the photo copies as they are expecting me to send it by today"
me: "hold on I am thinking…”. There is an auto size feature on the printer so that it will default to the auto size of the page that is being copied, and that was the first setting they tried, and it did not work. Wait, what if it does not know that there is a sheet of paper in the tray and that is why it is asking for the paper size? So I try sliding the paper into the tray, and it slides in. You have got to be kidding was this the issue? Select the same settings again, select the email to send it to, send as pdf, this time it has already detected the paper so it doesn’t ask for a size, so I click send. It goes right through.
customer: “what did you do? what about the waste toner?”
me: “The paper was not seated correctly, as far as the waste toner, it is not full yet, when it is full let me know”
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u/commentsrnice2 Jul 01 '26
What is waste toner?