time warp

last week I wanted to transmit an excuse note to a judge. the matter was urgent because the trial was set an hour later. I called and asked if they could tell the judge that our employee was not gonna come because he had a funeral to go to. the impolite jerk clerk on the other side of the phone line told me that they were no messenger service and that I should fax them the excuse note. I wanted to ask him if he was the messenger boy that would deliver my fax to the judge and were the difference was. I bit my tongue, thinking that I don't want him angry because it was one hour before the trial and everything sort of short notice and an angry judge is not favorable for our cause...anyway, so he give me a number to fax it to and hangs up.

I do as told and try to fax through the stupid note. and fail a couple of times. So I call again and ask him for an e-mail address instead. He tells me that they don't use e-mail and I'm like "how do you mean you don't use e-mail?" the clerk feels offended by my obvious astonishment of his technical ignorance and tells me to fax the thing and to hurry because the trial is in half an hour already. (thanks for noticing) So I go on and ask him for another fax number because this one is obviously so busy that my note can't get through. and he has the nerve to tell me that there is no other and that it was my problem if I didn't know of the funeral earlier...
to make a long story short. it took ages, but i finally faxed the note...we're talking about an Austrian court house here...

fast forward to the age of technology. I haven't done it yet for this paper but I have in the past and I know how this works. I call Statistics Austria and say I need material about this and that and the person on the phone line (who is always polite and friendly) asks a bit further so s/he can help me a bit better. The person writes down my phone number, just in case. and about 15 minutes later I have an e-mail with the exact data that I need including a call back number in case I need something more or different or whatever...and all for no money at all.
I could also download it from the website but I usually can't find anything there and knowing about their service I'm too lazy to do the search myself. They are obviously faster than I am...

how is it possible that two state institutions are technically apart by what seems centuries?