a lack of service..

am writing this from Aachen Hbf (main train station) now. Have tried to get some service from the local service personnel at the train station, but was informed that the computers are experiencing a glitch.

I'm tolerant with computer glitches. In fact, i believe in gremlins. But what i find it difficult to understand is the fact that there are no fail-safe systems for the customer-service people - such that a failure would result in a lowering of service levels.

while it is all good and well to say "such fatal errors don't happen that often", "we could live with the risk" and "it costs so much more to have a good system in place" (i.e. get good engineers instead of the crappy ones), the costs in terms of loss of reputation and potential income is actually so much higher.

i would love to see a computer company provide a compensation service system - when a system provided fails to live up to a certain service level (under normal situations), the company will willingly compensate the customer for loss of income. This calls for alot of confidence, guts and good engineering!