Sounds like the experience we had with the EMEA support branch of a well-known US computer manufacturer shortly after our boss signed us up for a "fully managed" hardware support service for our machines.
PSU blew in one workstation about a week after this arrangement came into play, we called, a package with the replacement PSU was couriered to us, and the tech followed to install it the day after. We were keen to experience the delights of this fully-managed service, so we were STRICTLY hands-off.
The package was festooned with obvious US-origin courier labels and in what was obviously the factory packaging. All three of us systems admins were gathered around the bench waiting for the MANUFACTURER tech to work his magic - poor dude.
So he opened the packaging, removed the nice, shiny, factory-new PSU, flipped it over without even glancing at the voltage selector switch, installed it, plugged in the box, powered on and BANG!
So yeah we got a new motherboard, new RAM and new CPU out of that little number. And a good laugh once the tech departed. We managed to restrain ourselves to a polite "whoops" when it blew up almost in his face.
I do not understand any tech anywhere in the world (maybe not the US itself, since they seemed to assume they were the default) not double-checking a PSU voltage selector in the late-90s - a very basic routine check.
I won't bother relating the story of the "hot-swappable" server SCSI hard drive on the student registration system that most certainly was not. Thank christ it wasn't just before (or DURING) enrolment time.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
