Here is a good one about the XBOX store for Switzerland and Liechtenstein.
-For those who have traveled a bit, Switzerland and Liechtenstein have a customs and monetary union.
Liechtenstein being tiny they don't print their own money and they don't issue credit cards.
-The Swiss have three national languages. German, French and Italian.
a) As 70% of all Swiss people speak German, you decide to pick French as the Swiss national language. Which would leave only tiny Liechtenstein as the German speaking part of the Swiss/Liechtenstein market. I am unsure which dumb person came up with that idea...
-> MS loses 70% of the Swiss market as they offer the products in an interface that is in the wrong language... French instead of allowing the Swiss / Liechtenstein customer to select a language at will in the interface (customer must be able to change this any time in the app/browser only!).
b) The French speaking, get the right interface, but German language movies... frigging brilliant!
c) The Italian speaking get the wrong language twice... French interface for German movies! Bravo!
d) Because MS was so smart as to create a Liechtenstein app store, now the customers from Liechtenstein which always used Swiss app store accounts, can't buy because they are not in the correct country... (Liechtenstein and Switzerland is one territory, there is no border, Swiss border guards, guard Liechtenstein borders.) and because they are now required to use a Liechtenstein account and credit card, even so anyone in Liechtenstein has to use a Swiss issued credit card, because no Liechtenstein bank issues credit cards. Local banks, issue SWISS credit cards from Corner Bank or Credit Suisse... Hey... Just write off, those 30'000 potential customers...
e) I can assure you that you will not be able to use the SMS security feature for either Switzerland or Liechtenstein. Their system is unable to call Intl. +41 or Intl. +423... Nor has MS understood, that these two country codes can be mixed as Swisscom is in charge of Swiss and Liechtenstein Telecommunications. Swiss can have a mobile with a Liechtenstein number and the other way around... YES... reality!
f) MS needs to understand that Switzerland has a lot of English speaking customers, so it needs to make sure to also offer products in English for Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Many expats work in that market because of the big salaries and low taxes.
If MS believes... that it will go anywhere with the incompetent team in charge of getting this right, they are dead wrong.
Those PEOPLE NEED TO BE FIRED FOR GROSS incompetence!
MS needs to get its act together. I find Steve Ballmer way too soft on this kind of nonsense. This costs thousands of dollars in lost sales every day. Lost hardware sales for W8, WP8, lost sales with existing customers because they can't use the XBOX store.
The devil is always in the detail... and Apple does gets it right! They simply put Switzerland and Liechtenstein into one market (same VAT, same Swiss Franc) and accept both +41 and +423 numbers. They don't care if you are in the Swiss store with a Liechtenstein address and they give you the three languages correctly.
*P.S. Steve Ballmer needs a "Mad Dog" that can pressure the teams to do their jobs! Someone with guts and no politically correct speeches.
-For those who have traveled a bit, Switzerland and Liechtenstein have a customs and monetary union.
Liechtenstein being tiny they don't print their own money and they don't issue credit cards.
-The Swiss have three national languages. German, French and Italian.
a) As 70% of all Swiss people speak German, you decide to pick French as the Swiss national language. Which would leave only tiny Liechtenstein as the German speaking part of the Swiss/Liechtenstein market. I am unsure which dumb person came up with that idea...
-> MS loses 70% of the Swiss market as they offer the products in an interface that is in the wrong language... French instead of allowing the Swiss / Liechtenstein customer to select a language at will in the interface (customer must be able to change this any time in the app/browser only!).
b) The French speaking, get the right interface, but German language movies... frigging brilliant!
c) The Italian speaking get the wrong language twice... French interface for German movies! Bravo!
d) Because MS was so smart as to create a Liechtenstein app store, now the customers from Liechtenstein which always used Swiss app store accounts, can't buy because they are not in the correct country... (Liechtenstein and Switzerland is one territory, there is no border, Swiss border guards, guard Liechtenstein borders.) and because they are now required to use a Liechtenstein account and credit card, even so anyone in Liechtenstein has to use a Swiss issued credit card, because no Liechtenstein bank issues credit cards. Local banks, issue SWISS credit cards from Corner Bank or Credit Suisse... Hey... Just write off, those 30'000 potential customers...
e) I can assure you that you will not be able to use the SMS security feature for either Switzerland or Liechtenstein. Their system is unable to call Intl. +41 or Intl. +423... Nor has MS understood, that these two country codes can be mixed as Swisscom is in charge of Swiss and Liechtenstein Telecommunications. Swiss can have a mobile with a Liechtenstein number and the other way around... YES... reality!
f) MS needs to understand that Switzerland has a lot of English speaking customers, so it needs to make sure to also offer products in English for Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Many expats work in that market because of the big salaries and low taxes.
If MS believes... that it will go anywhere with the incompetent team in charge of getting this right, they are dead wrong.
Those PEOPLE NEED TO BE FIRED FOR GROSS incompetence!
MS needs to get its act together. I find Steve Ballmer way too soft on this kind of nonsense. This costs thousands of dollars in lost sales every day. Lost hardware sales for W8, WP8, lost sales with existing customers because they can't use the XBOX store.
The devil is always in the detail... and Apple does gets it right! They simply put Switzerland and Liechtenstein into one market (same VAT, same Swiss Franc) and accept both +41 and +423 numbers. They don't care if you are in the Swiss store with a Liechtenstein address and they give you the three languages correctly.
*P.S. Steve Ballmer needs a "Mad Dog" that can pressure the teams to do their jobs! Someone with guts and no politically correct speeches.
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