Living in multiple countries always has, and always will be a huge hassle when it comes to DRM-ed wares / online shopping (there's usually a tangible benefit from saying that you live somewhere that you're not currently, because of regional pricing etc so providers tend to lock it down). They also have a legal obligation to verify your location to ensure that you're paying the right taxes etc.
If you're in a complex situation where you live in a second country, there's almost always a problem with buying stuff online if you need to bill in one country / ship to the other - and workarounds like needing to create two accounts are pretty common IMO (though usually it's just a case of needing to use a CC from the right country or having the billing address be your address in country A, but having the country field set to country B).
So no, apple's not too unique in this situation, but I've never experienced being unable to access stuff that I bought in one country (though I stay away from buying digital copies of movies etc for this reason), and I've definitely never heard of another company charging for this type of legitimate support, so they're likely unique there.
> and I've definitely never heard of another company charging for this type of legitimate support
Go to support.microsoft.com. File a request for any consumer tech support problem. Boom, before you've even spoken to anyone, you've gotta fork over $59. It actually charges your credit card online before you get to speak to someone.
Apple at least always answers your calls and provides advice before attempting an upsell to AppleCare. With Microsoft, you're going to be shelling out a minimum of $59 just to get them to open a chat window. That's assuming you're using a consumer Windows product. Use an enterprise variant or server OS? That'll be a minimum of $295 to talk to a human.
I'm talking about licensing support, not tech support; and more specifically licensing support of a service rather than a product.
Microsoft don't charge you to talk to a person when you have issues activating windows (and I've never had one of their products break when I changed region). I've never had to deal with any of their services breaking for me (only products) so I'm not sure whether they try to sell you a support subscription when you use eg http://support.xbox.com/en-GB/contact-us?isChatCallAvailable... , but I'd expect it to be free if it fell into the category of "stuff I purchased that you failed to deliver to me".
If you're in a complex situation where you live in a second country, there's almost always a problem with buying stuff online if you need to bill in one country / ship to the other - and workarounds like needing to create two accounts are pretty common IMO (though usually it's just a case of needing to use a CC from the right country or having the billing address be your address in country A, but having the country field set to country B).
So no, apple's not too unique in this situation, but I've never experienced being unable to access stuff that I bought in one country (though I stay away from buying digital copies of movies etc for this reason), and I've definitely never heard of another company charging for this type of legitimate support, so they're likely unique there.