Today I had two user service experiences. First I tried to get hold of a Apple Remote. I have to give a colloquium next week and for a long time I wanted to buy a remote for such presentations. They are much less expensive than I imagined, but trying to find one is not easy. The two Apple iStores in Cape Town are out of stock, as is a third Apple-ish shop. And the general computer stores don’t have any either. I tried to order one online, but after entering all of my details, the site just ignored my order! Don’t know how that works out for their business. I tried to phone them, but nobody was home. I’ll try again tomorrow, but I’m skeptical. It is difficult to trust a store like this.

I’m used to poor user service. Finland is not exactly the hub of commerce activity in Europe, and Cape Town is still further behind. So I’m not really used to great support. My small Canon camera’s CCD needs to be replaced and, according to the web, Canon will do this for free. In the USA. And the UK. I guess everywhere, but it is not easy to know how to go about this. I emailed the “South African” support address (it’s in the UK) and they sent me several addresses to take me camera to.  One in London, one in Dublin, one in Scotland, and another spot, I guess in Wales. Tried to phone Canon South Africa, but they do corporate…”stuff”. However, they did refer me to another phone number, which, it turned out, was answered by people who can actually help me! So tomorrow I’m off to Cape Town centre to hand my camera to these people (real Canon people, not just some third party) who will fix it and have it back to me in about 2 to 3 weeks. Which, as far as my experience goes, is excellent time.

Oh well, perhaps it can’t be much different in rural USA. I guess that the best spot for excellent user support is somewhere in Germany or perhaps close to London or some big city in the US.

All of this explains why I present, now, another archive photo. I think this was taken in the mid 80′s in Douglas, or perhaps somewhere in Switzerland or Italy in the late 90′s:

Tomorrow I have to run a number of errands, but I hope that one will bag me a little device which will enable me to take some new photos.