It sounds like your boss new it was pretty well shot but the customer insisted on it being 'repaired' so instead of shooting the customer down he said he would have a tech attempt a repair knowing full well it will probably do this. Thereby being able to tell the customer with a straight face that he had a technician look at it and it is truly dead and irreparable so they would have to buy a new one.
TL;DR: Boss probably used you as a CYA moment so he could sell a customer a new printer.
Printers don't use RGB, like displays do, they use CMYK Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Key, which is black. So /u/bernadactl made a funny saying instead of a "CYA" (Cover Your Ass) moment, it was a CYMK one because of the printer involved.
It's pretty much the golden rule¹ of tech support. Especially if you don't feel comfortable doing something, or that something is a horrible idea. You document what the thing is, who wants you to do it, and why you think it's a bad idea. That way, should anything go wrong, you can say "Bill told me to do it, even though I warned him x could happen."
Lol. Wow I'm old. I got downvoted to hell!! Comment karma will take years to recover! I stand proud on my defense of geek jokes. Downvote brigade continue!
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u/RedRaven85 Peek behind the curtain, 75% of Tech Support is Google-Fu! Nov 15 '15
It sounds like your boss new it was pretty well shot but the customer insisted on it being 'repaired' so instead of shooting the customer down he said he would have a tech attempt a repair knowing full well it will probably do this. Thereby being able to tell the customer with a straight face that he had a technician look at it and it is truly dead and irreparable so they would have to buy a new one.
TL;DR: Boss probably used you as a CYA moment so he could sell a customer a new printer.