My Dell PC began locking up. It got progressively worse until I was getting what many IT people describe as "the blue screen of death" on a regular basis.

I was advised to save all of my documents and prepare for the dreaded crash.

I took a day off work and spent most of the morning saving documents, photos etc etc.  I then called the Dell helpline and, after holding on for about 25 minutes got through (via their dreadful automated call handling system), to a very helpful technician.

He talked me through the whole procedure and I stayed on the phone for about an hour and a half as I reformatted the hard drive and attempted to reload the software. Some drivers would not reload so the Dell technician said he would send me new software through the post. It took me the whole day but finally I had a working computer.

Hahaha!

After a well deserved glass of wine I logged on to the internet to look for some information and three minutes in to the session got - the blue screen of death.

To cut a long story short I spent the equivalent of 2 entire working days on the phone, 4 working days trying to repair the PC, days and days waiting in and a fortune on calls to Ireland.

I was ignored and disrespected by staff who had no idea about customer service. I have missed a night out with friends and ended up with a massive headache.

All that was despite the fact that I eventually went to BBC London who gave almost daily on-air updates on the bad service.

What is the service like without the publicity?

Granted the new PC, scanner, flowers and chocolates I eventually got out of them  were minor triumphs but they were only obtained because I know how to use the system and because I got the BBC on board.

My advice is - if you don't live next door to them think twice before buying from Dell.

After having my phone stolen from Liberties Bar in Camden on a Wednesday evening I called Orange to have the calls blocked. 

They were absolutely great. Cancelled my phone, offered to transfer all incoming calls to my number onto my partners phone (which they did immediately) and when I called them back at around midnight they arranged for a replacement SIM card and phone to be delivered.

The phone turned up at 8:00 am on Friday morning. 

All the staff were friendly, efficient and helpful. Sometimes you do get good service.

After 13 silent phones calls, all from 'out of area', I managed to pick the phone up in time to find out who was disturbing my peace. On the other end of the phone was some poor sap in a call centre, presumably in India, trying to get us to make more use of a Planet Hollywood credit card that we've never used. After getting through to his supervisor I stated that if they called me again on my ex directory number I would consider it harassment and would call the police. I then called MBNA. The man there seemed more concerned with whether I could prove that all the calls were on their behalf (Hey, we're not the only ones to do this) but I think I got the message through to him in the end.

I, like lots of other people, are sick and tired of constant silent calls. Believe it or not my main reason for being isn't to be available to big corporations who ship jobs overseas so that they can minimise their costs and consider my peace and my time to be theirs for the taking.

We won't be using any MBNA products or services again.

For the same reason we also don't have anything to do with the AA.

If we all stopped using these people perhaps they'd stop treating us this way.

For those of you in the UK there is a site that allows you to register to be taken off phone and junk mail lists. It's run by the industry so is full of weasel words about how great being called at home and being sent junk mail is but at least you can opt out (though only for one year).

Give it a try

www.tpsonline.org.uk