Clerk praised for saving marriages with 'broken printer' excuse
Excuses made by Wuhan marriage registry clerk credited with thwarting 500 divorces
Blaming a faulty printer is a convenient excuse for failing to get work done - but this explanation has helped a woman in China’s Hubei province save hundreds of marriages.
Her marriage-saving strategy was to cite excuses such as “the office printer is out of order” and “the network is down” as soon as couples came in requesting divorce. She would often apologise to them for the technical problems and tell them to come back another day.
She said most couples would go home, take time to re-think their decision and end up not divorcing.
Xiong, 39, who has helped process marriages for more than 30,000 couples during her career, said “love fatigue” was the most common driver of divorce and the best cure was to spend some time apart to think.