No, this was not Rhett Butler in “Gone with the Wind” but an employee from Sony Corporation Mexico City branch which, in although not the same words (but with the same daring) told me over the phone that I could not do anything with my somewhat faulty and recently acquired Playstation 3 here in Mexico. That’s right fellas. For all of us Mexican consumers tired of being mugged by department stores here in Mexico which charge us a surplus of 50% over the value of consoles in the U.S., apparently there is no way to solve our problems in our own country. This is how it went down. A relative of mine made a trip recently to the US and decided to spend his allowed amount free of tax (after crossing our border) on a Playstation 3 for your one and only. I had been nagging him about this like for three months and finally he went there and bought it from me in one of his trips. You cannot possibly fathom the level of excitement I had as I knew my new console for video-games was arriving. I have always been a fan of the Playstation (even though I had to buy my PS2 twice since I was one of the “unlucky” ones that bought a faulty first-generation console which was only useuful as a paper holder). I have in may occasions defended Playstation for their obvious mistakes, trying to understand that they are a company that envisions costumers as their primary and key interest. Well, today they proved me wrong. After unpacking my PS3 and nervously inserting my Assassin’s Creed game in the console (and the unavoidable wait for the system and the game’s update), I started playing and noticed that as minutes passed by (yes, minutes, not hours, not even half-hours) the images started to freeze, the sound began to fade and reappear and scenes took quite a lot to download. Frowning, I decided that maybe my PS3 was very cramped and heat was getting to it, so I went immediately to my large and wondrous, yet fully practical “troubleshooting manual” (I do not even know why they bother to write those things, its not like we are caveman and do not know that if there is no sound coming off, its may because the plug is not correctly inserted). Anyway, in the almighty “troubleshooting manual”, lo and behold, there was nothing that was actually helpful. I turned the power off, reset the game, clean the disk (even knowing that it was a brand new disc, I know, my bad) and even pray (because south of the border we tend to pray a lot when things go awry - I had an aunt that used to pray for her cloth machine washer to start). I was so furious with the situation I was even tempted to crash the PS3 into my own TV screen (don’t worry, still isn’t an HD). And then , like with the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch, my mind boomed with an idea: warranties for multi-corporations are international! Sony has a branch in here! I am saved! But obviously, as I keep saying, hope is an evil. Pandora knew this and it is because of this that she didn’t felt any better after knowing hope was still in the box.  I desperately reached for the phone and called the “support center”, in which they were kind enough to answer three questions (and only three) of mine. The boy first asked: Can I make my warranty valid here in Mexico even though I got my system in the U.S.? And the wizard, I mean, Sony, answered “No”. The little boy then thought really hard about the next one and asked: “Well, can I take my PS3 to your support center to see what is wrong with it so you can repair it? And the wizard, oh, my bad again, Sony, said: “No”. The little boy then raised his chin as high as he could, got really close to the speaker, and asked: “Well, what can I do then?” And there was it - the answer of the week. The wizard replied (OK, this time I did really make it on purpose): ”I don’t know” and a silence of 15 seconds endured until I said: “Well, I will try to call the support center at the U.S. then, goodbye”. I will do so tomorrow. Today I stand tired, angry, and once again spending my money (which does not grow upon trees, believe me) on a faulty console. And then Sony’s Board of Directors and CEO’s wonder about why is Nintendo kicking their derrieres? It is quite simple actually: they produce things that actually work for what they are supposed to do - entertain. I guess the ”troubleshooting manual” is kind of nice though, for someone who hasn’t just built a console that is draining their profits. Stay tuned for more on this. And oh, for those who wonder why I wrote this down in English, there are two different answers: One, because I can, and two, because I am in the understanding that sometimes there are divisions within technology related companies that actually surf the web in search of feedback on their products. If so, wizard, please feel free to browse at your leisure. It is not as if you are in a hurry to scale the sales of your product and make a niche in the Mexican market, right?