Efficiency?

I think I must have told this story before in other forms. Even though I seem to get "accustomed" to how life works here and how people think, another series of events always shows me that this is not quite the case. The other day I embarked on the adventure of buying a train ticket for a friend. (Now this would truly be an adventure if language were a problem, but in this case it was not.)
Firstly I spent about half an hour researching different train times on the computer at the central train station. Upon deciding that the train from Beijing would be the most interesting as it would have many tourists for my friend to travel with, I proceeded to a window to arrange the purchase. (Way to much faith). "No, that ticket can only be bought from the service centre."
At the service centre, "no, the ticket can only be purchased 44 days before the train departs, come back on Monday." Two hours spent on this adventure so far.
Monday- I picked up my bootstraps and attempted to buy the ticket a second time. This time I headed straight for the service centre (I knew better this time). "Sorry, you can not buy that ticket because the train originates in China, the tickets only become available on the day of departure." Arrrgh, back to square one. After another bout of researching train times, I decided upon the certainly less spectacular train from Abakan, then Novosibirsk to Moscow. This train would leave a day later than the one from Beijing, therefore at the window, "You can only buy the ticket 44 days before departure, come back tomorrow." Another two hours.
Crazily, I returned today. After waiting in line for 45 minutes, I warned the lady that I wanted to use my credit card. (Which is clearly shown as possible in the window.) She looked carefully at my card and was quite dismayed because it was not from a Russian bank. The lady disappeared for 10 minutes to seek permission, "sorry you can not use this card it doesn't work." "But I use it all the time, it's a mastercard, it doesn't matter whether it is a Russian bank, mastercard is an international company." "No, sorry, you can not use this card." (Take down your stupid sign that says I can then.) Just then another employee stepped in and beckoned me to follow her to the administrator's window, "you can use your card here in 30 minutes time, or you can go across to the bank and get some money." "Thirty minutes? Why only in thirty minutes?" "I'm sorry, I don't know myself, come back in thirty minutes." (Nooooooo!)
I spilled out my frustrations to Melody on the phone, who suggested I go back to the service centre even though I would have to pay a small fee for the privilege. I marched straight over to the service centre. "Can I use my credit card here?" "Of course you can, absolutely." Within 5 minutes I had the ticket paid for by credit card. How could these people know what they were doing when the others didn't? The inefficiency of services here astounds me sometimes. Never underestimate the power of a little extra grease for the wheels to get the job done. Time to go to bed.