I was supposed to attend a conference called EuroDigimeet in Paris yesterday. I booked some Eurostar tickets several weeks ago. Sunday night I looked at them and they were the wrong way round - i.e. they assumed I started in Paris!
I checked the Eurostar booking website. The direction of travel is hardwired - i.e. if you book from London you can't get the direction confused. I complained to Eurostar, and they didn't deny they had screwed up, but refused to supply me the tickets I had ordered on the basis that I should have noticed they had screwed up earlier!
They wanted several hundred £s more to travel, so I graciously declined. My appologies to the people I missed.
One of the reasons why I didn't try harder, was that there were only two other companies there that I even vaguely thought it might be profitable to meet.
Most of the rest of the attendees were working for various euro organisations intended to foster business.
One of the bewildering things about this area of government funded enterprise facilitation is that a whole industry has sprung up to consume the money so freely handed out.
They exist to serve themselves, of course, and not small businesses, and some of them can be shockingly brutal about pointing this out - while others hide it better.
One should be very wary of business advice from governments, especially socialist governments, so perhaps companies are right to stay away - perhaps I should too in future.