The UK customer had ordered the smallest machine of a new range of mainframes. Deliveries ran very late - and the lower range models were regularly pruned. So the customer kept getting upgraded to a bigger machine for the same price. Eventually the available range was only the highest spec one. A UK built one was not available - so a clone was ordered from the USA.
Engineers successfully commissioned the new mainframe on the customer's UK site. As it was the USA version - a 250/110v conversion transformer was temporarily jury rigged. The engineers left for the day - and the customer's electricians wired the transformer into their system.
Next day he engineers switched the mainframe on - and immediately discovered that the transformer was now wired the wrong way round.
The customer did eventually get a mainframe - presumably at the price of the small one they had originally ordered.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
