Certain things one usually doesn't believe in....

I once read in the Reader's Digest humour section that there was an unwritten law about faulty technology goods: It will work perfectly once you ring tech support or call a technician over. I never believed it because (1) it was in the humour section; (2) I am sufficiently technically proficient that all machines fear me, muahahahahaha!

(No. 2, if you didn't catch it, was a joke)

But I witnessed this law working on me today. I just received a pair of (according to listeners all over the world) spanking good headphones. Out of the box they came and into the computer's jack the plug went. I started my faithful Winamp and put my favourite tunes on.

No sound out of the left earpiece.

I thought it was a problem with my computer, so I plugged my speakers in instead. No problem. I also plugged the headphones into my Zen Micro. Same thing: no sound out of the left earpiece.

Thus, with these tests done, I was sufficiently disappointed to call up the online shop's sales line and inform them that I was sending the faulty headphones back for an exchange. The person at the other end was very friendly and left me with a feeling I was in good hands (like the sales/PR department of any competent company).

No sooner than I had hung up did sound start streaming out of the headphones' left earpiece.

The thoughts that ran through my head at that point were as follows (expletives warning):

'Bloody hell.'
'Damn.'
'How embarassing. Now I'll have to call them again.'

*sigh*

The world of gadgets will pay for this. No electronic device embarasses me like that and gets away with it. Full stop.