Various stupidities

Sometimes I wonder how some of the big International companies actually "made it" in China. I have observed the followings.

The Big "C" US networking company. Changed venue without actually notifying instructors. Go figure! To a complete different city but still the same province! And changed back to the city that was affected by the earthquake and the one where all the aid first flew into for distribution. It was suppose to be avoided. Today, major aftershock, felt by the city; we'll be there in two weeks. We would have issued the air tix already for the "original" destination. Good thing for double-checking. One of the instructors had issued the air tix and arranged a special vehicle going thru HK border to Shenzhen so that she could flew from there the "supposed" location early for pre-teaching meeting.

The Big Blue. Organizing a teaching class in Shanghai; but had to fly a HR person in from up north, the capital, to oversee the entire "operation"; well she knew nothing, arrived the night before the course, didn't even know where the class was; WE had to go find out and told her! The venue was a freaking dive! It used to be an ice factory converted into a "technology" park. Right.... Staffed with commie work attitude management. Good thing, the "technology" support staff was good. Then all the students were from the capital city, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Taiwan. And the hotel they stayed at was a 5-star hotel (Shangri-la) in a total different district across the HuangPo river (where that ugly space age tower was). So the students had to cut across traffic in taxis about 45 minutes to an hour to the course venue that was musty, poor lighting and infected with long leg spiders with spider webs. O yeah, the kicker was no lunch provided. Must have spent too much on transportation cost and hotel cost. Then when I provided an online menu to order food, they didn't even know how to "surf" a webpage to locate the proper section of the menu IN THEIR OWN FREAKING LANGUAGE!

Then there's the Apple guy. My MAC service is coming due on Aug 3; the auto renewal does not work due to the upgraded "Me" service taunted by Apple. Well, it is not work, still! And the Billing support department replied saying it is only temporarily; I can go checking the service status with a provided URL link; it does not point to the correct place though; then he suggested failing that, I can go to a Apple retail store to buy a Me subscription and put in the activation code. Well, I am in a bloody country that does not have a Apple store conveniently available. And what kind of Internet service that needs to FREAKING buy a hard case box in a store to enable a web-based service? With NO online shopping cart that can just renew automatically after payment? Unbelievable!