Not me, but my boss. Once upon a time, more than 25 years ago, I was working at a solar observatory. I was doing evening and morning work measuring Earthshine with a simple refractor (a disused solar full disk system) piggybacked on the main telescope. The CCD camera was a state-of-the-art $125K camera on loan from Palomar Observatory. During initial setup and trials, my boss at the time (the Director) was unhappy that it might take some time to get the system aligned the first night, so he decided to align it during the day, opening the system to full sunlight with no IR or UV blockers. He couldn't get an image, and left in a huff. We removed the camera, and found that the CCD was (as we suspected) shattered into tiny fragments. We were, not surprisingly, unable to get another camera loaned to us from Palomar, and used a good, but decidedly inferior, CCD camera that was on the solar telescope, forcing us to swap it from one instrument to the other and back each night for the next 2 years.

Sorry, that should read "hoofed" animals. The allergy in question is *very* severe asthma; the first time I was exposed to a horse, I very nearly died. I have been hospitalized on more than one occasion for my allergies, and have learned to take every possible precaution against exposure to animal dander. I used to carry an Epi-pen until they got so incredibly expensive thanks to Big Pharma greed, and they don't work particularly well for my allergy anyway. (Usually, I have to be hooked to a nebulizer of albuterol and an oxygen tank.) On most public transit, if a service dog boards, I simply move to the other end on the bus/train/etc., or deboard and wait for the next one. Not so much on an airplane.

I have a deadly allergy to horses (and, indeed, most hooded mammals). It's bad enough that they allow cats and dogs, which I am also allergic to, though less severely, and can take medication to make their presence barely tolerable. This, however, will make flying impossible, since I can never be sure that there is not and has not been a horse on the airplane (the allergens can persist for hours if not days; when my children go to the zoo, they have to immediately shower and wash everything they wore upon returning, and no, I can't accompany them).

...but their telephone support was second-to-none.

I, too, have found that none is better than most computer-related companies' technical support. It's heartening to hear from someone who shares my view.