ein g4 in einem tatra.

rueckwaerts nimmer.
mein lieblingsthema glasfaser und kupfer.
via [instant nirvana].

techsupport stories.

bruell:
I'm an American living in Switzerland. I prefer English software, and the easiest way to get it is to buy directly from the United States.

So, we've recently purchased software from [a company] in the States. It had a few problems, so I called the international support line, and please note the word 'international'.

After 45 minutes of listening to bad music at peak international phone rates, someone came on the line. It's a known problem, he said, and he'd send an update right out -- he'd just need my address.

He asked for my street. He asked for my city. He asked for my state. Oops, I'm in Switzerland, and the 'state' field doesn't apply. The tech is very apologetic, but his software won't let him leave the field blank. Ok, I said, I'm from Texas, so just put Texas in there. Amazingly, the software accepts my four digit zip code. But he never asked me for my country, so I double checked. No, there was no place for him to enter a country. So he wrote my address down and said he'd sort it out later.

Weeks later, the update still hadn't arrived. I called back, waiting "only" twenty minutes this time. They checked, found my order, and told me it had been sent to Canada and been returned as undeliverable. I corrected the mistake, and the update arrived a few days later in spite of the fact that it was addressed to "Swaziland."

I have no idea if this company ever updated their software so the international help line could support international addresses.