Ask HN: Why do large tech companies still fail to encode my name correctly?

6 points

10 years ago

Recently, I updated my Twitter profile and included, in quotes, my name with the é replaced by the Unicorn replacement character [1]:

André “Andr�” Wendt

It was meant as a joke. I remember Apple being the first large company to address me as "AndrÙ" when I ordered a product in 2005.

That profile change isn't even two weeks old. Today, Twitter sent me an e-mail [2], addressing me in the subject line as:

"AndrÃ© â€œAndrï¿½â€ Wendt, thank you."

I guess the joke's on me now.

Why is it that in 2016, large tech companies with an international audience and whose only product is a digital service, still fail to encode names correctly?

[1] http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/0fffd/index.htm [2] https://twitter.com/awendt/status/711887885595758592

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