[comrade1]

I've never had a problem at the DMV in CA when I lived there. It was one of my better experiences with the government. The USPS is great too. Even my experience with the IRS has been great - they saved me many thousands of dollars by pointing out that I put some income under the wrong category.

My current frustration is cablecom.ch here where I live in Switzerland. They have two completely different billing systems for their cable tv and for their internet. I didn't realize it but you have to pay for cable tv even if you don't have a television in order to get internet (125 mbit down, 10mbit up). Because I thought that they were billing me incorrectly I fought with them until it almost went to collections before someone explained the situation.

I'm about to move to Zurich where I'll have gigabit internet through swisscom (telecom), so screw cablecom and their screwy billing system.

[comrade1]

One quick follow-up... Despite good experiences with the IRS I have to say that the u.s. tax code is majorly fucked up. We spend $3K - $7K/year to have our taxes done by a competent accounting company and they usually end up around 20+ pages in length, and because taxes are lower in Switzerland than in the u.s. we end up paying u.s. taxes despite not living there for 6 years.

US citizenship is like a virus - it infects people that aren't even american if you, for example, marry an american or have a child in the u.s. you have to start reporting your bank account information to the u.s.

I really wish someone would look out for us expats in congress, but of course there's no incentive to do so. We're just normal people, not fabulously wealthy. We live in the most expensive country in the world and still end up sending money to the u.s.