A UK company secretary once got very angry at her facilities manager after an urgent fax failed to send. She then found out the device she had been using was actually a photocopier with a number pad. According to a story in The Register's On Call column on Friday 28 August 2026, the mix-up happened years ago. The reader, named only as "Orson," said it took place when he worked as a facilities manager at a large UK food company. At the time, the workplace still relied on paper-based urgency. This guide covers how an exec couldn't tell a photocopier from a fax, which made for a memorable tech support call.
How Did a Photocopier Get Mistaken for a Fax Machine?
Orson told The Register that the company secretary called him to her office one morning. She was upset because an urgent fax from the night before had not been sent. When he asked her to walk him through what she did, she put a document on the in-tray. She then used the keypad to dial a number and hit Enter on what she thought was a fax machine. Orson told her that she was actually trying to send a fax from a photocopier, as reported by The Register.
The mix-up made sense for the time. Multifunction printers (MFPs) had combined scanning, printing, copying, and faxing into one device. Many models shared similar control panels, often with a 0-9 number pad for dialling phone numbers. The Register's Simon Sharwood pointed out that early fax machines packed a low-resolution scanner, a thermal-style printer, and a slow modem into one box. He also noted that makers kept fax functions in MFPs long after email replaced fax in most Western offices during the late 1990s.
Why Does This Tech Support Story Still Matter?
The story is part of a long-running On Call series at The Register. In the series, IT pros share real war stories. The tales often show how user error, company culture, and unclear hardware design can clash. Similar stories have appeared in On Call before, including one where a lawyer did not understand the difference between italicised and underlined text. These show how interfaces and workflows that tech staff take for granted can confuse senior decision-makers.
For modern IT teams, the lesson is simple. Clear device labels, separate workflows, and good access controls can stop well-meaning execs from dialling a phone line on a device with no modem. According to Orson's account, a clearly marked function or a separate physical fax unit would have avoided the fight, the lost document, and the morning spent calming a frustrated director.
What This Means for Today's IT and Facilities Teams
The story reminds us that "multifunction" is not the same as "easy to use," especially when users have grown up with different generations of office gear. Multifunction printers from brands like HP, Brother, Canon, and Epson still ship with fax-capable models in 2026. IT teams setting them up need to decide whether to turn on, turn off, or hide the fax function. The right choice depends on whether a real PSTN or VoIP fax line is connected. Turning off the fax dial pad in the admin console, applying a clear device profile, and adding a printed label such as "Photocopier — For faxing, use the device in Room 204" are simple fixes that cost nothing.
For readers who support non-technical execs, the wider point is that standardising hardware can save more time than any software rollout. Where a workplace still has both a standalone photocopier and a multifunction device, separating the devices physically or assigning them to distinct staff groups cuts the chance of a panicked 9 a.m. call about a fax that was never going to send.
What's Next for Office Hardware and On Call Stories
Fax use keeps falling in most Western businesses. Still, industries like healthcare, legal services, and government in countries such as Japan and Germany still send many documents by fax. Analysts at IDC and Quocirca have tracked this slow phase-out in their yearly print and MFP market reports. They predict that cloud fax services like eFax and HelloFax will keep absorbing the remaining demand even as standalone fax machines vanish from offices.
Meanwhile, The Register still invites readers to send in their own On Call stories. The publication also noted that it no longer runs a fax machine to receive them. For anyone with a similar tale of an exec who could not tell a photocopier from a fax, the On Call inbox is still open.
Frequently Asked Questions
A UK company secretary tried to send an urgent fax but was actually using a photocopier with a number pad, according to a story in The Register's On Call column on 28 August 2026.
Simon Sharwood, APAC Editor at The Register, wrote the column. The story came from a reader who identified himself only as "Orson."
Standalone fax machines have mostly been replaced by multifunction printers and cloud fax services, though some industries and countries, including Japan, still use fax for certain documents.
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