Unable to join the global yodel

One reader's attempt to yodel globally encounters frustrating hardware problems and callous support

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Dear Gripe Line,

The moment I saw the trailer [below] for Microsoft's Xbox Alpine Legend game I knew we had to have it. Our family has roots to the Alps going back a dozen generations (I am third cousin on my mother's side to Maria Von Trapp of "Sound of Music" fame), and I was gratified to see that a console maker had finally gotten around to honoring our family traditions.

I ordered the whole kit -- game title, Tri-horn, hat and Lederhosen -- express shipped overnight. Since then, though, we've had nothing but problems. First, the wireless dongle for the Alpine Tri-Horn simply didn't work, so I had to use a standard USB connection. The cable was actually shorter than the Tri-horn, so I kept knocking over the lamp everytime I moved. That was frustrating. But it only got worse from there.

The German-to-English translation is spotty at best. The virtual Oompah Band plug-in comes with only five songs (and "Unter Dem Doppleadler" wasn't one of them); to add more I have to buy them -- at 240 credits each! -- from the Xbox Live store.

And when I called Xbox tech support (several times) to complain, they laughed at me and hung up. I've never been so rudely treated by customer service.

Can you help? All I want to do is yodel with my homies.

Thanks in advance,

Von Trippy

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