First Taste of Consulting

So a fellow comes into the office today and asks for me by name and then thrust a slab of limestone into my hands. "Can you tell me how old it is?" he asked. Looking at the specimen, I saw that it was a highly altered, largely recrystalized colonial rugose coral. "Well, its older than triassic" I reply. "Oh really?" he said "we were pretty sure it was triassic. Are you sure?"
"Yeah, pretty sure" my confidence in the mans abilities rapidly waning "the whole group went extint at the end of the permian. You don't even really see many corals from the Triassic."
The man then explained that he worked for a geological consulting firm and that it was really important to know how old it was. Honestly, my best bet would be devonian. That was when everything was in full swing with rugose corals. Granted, it could be any time during the paleozoic, but really it would be very difficult to tell more precisely. If the guy is a consultant, why the hell is he taking really badly preserved corals to someone who doesn't even have a masters or specialization in biostratigraphy? Anyone in geology should know that corals are really bad index fossils. They're widely spread, but have little morphological variation over time. Oh, sure, I took paleo, I can instantly recognize the smallest, most poorly preserved pieces of every organism that has ever lived! I'll have a look at some of my text books but really, how irresponsible is this guy if he pawns his work off on university staff. I should tell him that I've figured it out, charge him to hear the information and then tell him that its Devonian anyway. No skin off my back if the well he tells someone to drill turns out dryer than the Palm Springs.