[jacquesm]

The tone is probably in large part because the OP does not take any responsibility for his own part in this and instead is pointing his finger at a third party that may have been partially at fault. But that is by no means sure.

This is typical with what I think is a real problem in society, the 'externalization of blame'.

Inability to see your own responsibility is a serious issue, and it is really pervasive. If I were in the OPs position I would be headbutting a piece of concrete for 20 minutes to make sure I never ever make a mistake like that again, and I would thank rackspace for finally finding the fault that I could have noticed in 5 minutes two years ago.

That's why you have post-delivery checklists, burn in tools and inventory management, staples of everybody that has # on machines that do customer work.

I'll try to keep my 'tone' better under control, apologies for that.

At least it wasn't in Dutch ;)