a. they are both useless

b. their "customer service" is appalling

c. they will try and rip you off

d. all of the above

The answer of course is d. I am currently banging my head against a brick wall with both of these companies as I attempt to sort out a lost parcel with Royal Mail which they refuse to compensate me for and charges from Virgin Mobile for 1 second "calls" where their network has failed, and phantom internet access.

I've got to the point where I question the value of continuing either complaint as it is taking up my time which might be better used in something more productive. But on the other hand there is a principle involved and neither of these companies should be allowed to get away with ripping off their customers.

They are sticking to their positions, ignoring my questions and generally being obstructive and unhelpful. My only option looks likely to be taking matters further with relevant ombudsmen. But what powers do they have? Are they any more likely to see common sense? Does common sense even apply in the modern world? I'm beginning to think not.

I've referred the Royal Mail complaint to their review panel, a supposedly independent ring-fenced unit "outside" of the customer service department (I have my doubts). They will take a little time to look into it so I don't have to do anything on that front for the time being.

Virgin Mobile, on the other hand, will need another letter asap, when I have time to write it. I will sleep on it before deciding whether to proceed with another complaint. I have a feeling I have to write again as the standard of their first response was lamentable and, as usual, ignored the pertinent points made in my initial letter, presumably because they have no defence to the claims.

What has happened to customer service in the UK? Is there any company out there who treats its customers with respect and as human beings? If so they are becoming a rarity. Looks like both Royal Mail and Virgin Mobile can be added to Vodafone and Cheltenham and Gloucester in the list of utterly useless companies that must be avoided at all costs. None of them will be getting any business from me in the future and I will continue to make sure they get as much bad publicity as possible.

Ripping customers off may result in short term gains but in the long run is unlikely to prove a profitable business model.

It isn't that long since I was singing the praises of Virgin Mobile. At the end of last year they dealt well with a replacement phone under warranty and I've not had any problems with my tariff or contract.

So I not only decided to renew my own contract, getting a nice E63 for upgrading, but I got a second phone on contract for my wife for Christmas. Big mistake.

Unfortunately, unlike my contract, Virgin Mobile now don't rollover unused minutes and texts from month to month. They also insist on charging a minimum of 1 minute for all phone calls, no matter how short. More of that later.

I, of course, was unaware of either of these facts expecting my new contract to be identical to the existing one, as it was on the same tariff. They don't exactly make you aware of these terms in big letters either, preferring to hide them away in the usual lengthy Ts and Cs.

At the end of January our son was ill, a bug picked up from playgroup. My wife was in touch to see how the other kids were and had to use the mobile as many of the other mums don't have landlines (an increasing trend these days). This resulted in her going 19 minutes over her 100 minute allowance.

Well the bill has arrived now and the total extra cost is £19. In other words the equivalent of £1 per minute. The reason for this amount is that although my wife has only actually used 19 extra minutes in calls, the minimum 1 minute call extends this substantially. By the way she was 23 minutes UNDER her allowance the month before so with rolled over minutes no extra charges would have occurred.

This prompted me to look at the bill in greater detail which led me to find that Virgin Mobile are indeed ripping their customers off. There are several "calls" on the itemised bill of 3, 2 and even 1 second. All of these are charged at 35p, the minimum 1 minute charge. If you extrapalate this based on a 1 second "call" it equates to £21 per minute!

The reason the word "call" is in inverted commas above is that these are not telephone calls. Exactly what sort of a conversation can you have in 1 second? These are dodgy connections, dropped before any call can take place. So Virgin Mobile are charging £21 per minute to provide their customers with no service! Brilliant!

There are also 5 seperate "Internet" charges, even though my wife has never accessed the internet from this phone. The reason for this is simply that Virgin Mobile choose to place a direct link to the internet in the most awkward place possible so that as many people as possible connect by accident. This is deliberate to maximise their revenue by stealth.

I appreciate that Virgin Mobile are a business and I don't object to them making a profit. My wife has exceeded her minutes and I don't object to paying a little extra as a result. What I do object to is being ripped off.

There is no justification for charging for 1 second "calls", nor phantom internet usage and, if they don't sort it out they will not only lose me as a phone customer but I will be moving my Virgin Media account too as my contract has recently expired.

I suggest you think long and hard before taking out a contract with Virgin Mobile because what looks like a good deal on the face of it could turn out to be a costly mistake, as it has proven for me.

Just received another pathetic letter from the Royal Mail in relation to my lost post item. They are still refusing to compensate me for the lost item without giving any sensible reason for their refusal.

They are also refusing to answer any of my questions, probably because it would expose their position as ludicrous, trying to get out of a compensation payment which they should rightly be paying.

The Royal Mail are arrogant and contemptuous of their customers. This is borne from their many years as a monopoly supplier. If your customers can't go elsewhere and have no choice but to use your service why treat them with respect? After all they have to keep using your services.

I can't wait until their monopoly position is broken and they have to compete in the real world. They are in for a real shock and I can't see how they will survive given their shocking customer service.

I've expressed my disgust with them via a new service from You Gov - Tell You Gov. By the looks of it I'm not the only dissatisfied customer. The Royal Mail are no longer held in much esteem due to their lack of integrity, amply demonstrated by their handling of my claim.

But I'm not leaving it here. I will be writing back and escalating the matter as far as I can. Why should I suffer financially due to the incompetence of the Royal Mail? They lost the item, which was sent by a method entitling me to compensation, and now refuse to compensate me.

Beware the Royal Mail, do not trust the Royal Mail as you too could face trying to get what is rightfully yours from an organisation that is morally bankrupt and determined to refuse compensation under any circumstances, no matter how legitimate.

Royal Mail - if you really don't want to pay out compensation here's an easier way - STOP LOSING PEOPLES MAIL!

After my recent woes sending a parcel with Collect Plus I have gone back to using the Royal Mail. I've never had a problem with them before and the mail always seemed to arrive. Until now that is.

Before Christmas I posted out a brand new Samsung U600 mobile phone. I sent it by recorded delivery as I thought that this would improve the chances of it being received and also I could track the delivery progress. I was wrong.

Like many people I assumed that as a tracking number was issued the parcel was tracked. At the point of sale in the Post Office I was informed of the maximum compensation of £39 and assumed therefore that if it was lost I would be compensated. Wrong on both counts.

Recorded delivery signed for mail is sent with the standard 1st and 2nd class mail. It is not tracked on its journey, but a signature is recorded if it does arrive!

When they do lose mail the Royal Mail will try everything to weazle out of paying compensation, even though they acknowledge they have lost the item. In my case I have intially been given 6 x 1st class stamps, even though it says on the Royal Mail website that the minimum compensation for a lost item is 12 such stamps!

They have made no offer of compensation to replace the lost item, seemingly because I do not have a standard purchase receipt. This is because the phone was a warranty replacement. I have sent them a copy of the delivery note which would suffice as proof of purchase for normal commercial transactions.

It states quite clearly on their website - "if your mail gets lost, we’ll give you a minimum compensation of 12 First Class stamps. However, if there was something of value in your mail, we'll refund the actual loss, up to a maximum value of 100 First Class stamps or up to the market value, whichever is the smaller amount."

Clearly a brand new mobile phone has a value, regardless of how much was paid for it intially, and I now have to pay for it to be replaced. This will cost in excess of the £39 compensation limit. The fact that Royal Mail acknowledge they have lost it but refuse to make good their error speaks volumes for the company and its attitude towards its customers.

I would strongly advise against using the Royal Mail recorded delivery signed for service. I cannot recommend their special delivery service either, as it would appear their attitude to compensation means that attempts to claim for lost items may prove futile. I can only recommend using other couriers for your parcels given the poor service received from the Royal Mail in this instance.

My latest competition win arrived today and has been added to my list of 2009 competition wins. It's an Anthony Worral Thompson Breadmaker from the Gadgetspeak website advent calendar comp.

According to the invoice enclosed with it it's worth around £100. A nice win. It's going to get some use to. My wife made some pate (following Jamie Olivers recipe from last week) and it is going to taste even better on some fresh home made bread.

We just need some time now to look at the instructions and work out what to do. Time is in very short supply at the moment as our toddler seems to get more of a handful with each passing day. At the same time I'm moving all of our family bank accounts from Lloyds TSB and it's taking a lot of time and effort to get it all sorted.

Unfortunately Lloyds TSB have let me down badly. I was with them for around 15 years but this apparently counts for nothing with them. Nor does the fact that during this time I paid all of my bills with them for loans, credit cards and mortgages on time by direct debit.

I'm still trying to sort out problems with my mortgage with them after several weeks in which they appear to have forgotten I exist. It will end up with a formal complaint being made and, ultimately, I will be moving the mortgage elsewhere too.

They are not only losing my accounts but those of my son and wife too. Don't suppose they care much, although they should do judging by the empty branch this morning when I went in. Only one other customer in, I've never seen it that quiet before. Clearly others are being treated in a similarly appalling manner and leaving in their droves!

Once you lose a customer in that way you will never get them back. I certainly won't be using Lloyds or any of their subsidiary companies again.

Good service on the other hand should be rewarded. I recently wrote about a good experience with Virgin Mobile. As a result I've upgraded my phone with them and taken out a new contract for my wife in addition. It has all gone through smoothly and she's happy with the new phone, and I'm happy with the tariff. I would recommend them to anyone.

This is probably going to be my last post before the 25th so have a Happy Christmas everyone and a prosperous New Year.

I've been selling some stuff on ebay recently, a lot of which needs collection, but one item needed to be posted.

It's a real pain to traipse to the Post Office and go through the rigmarole of weighing your item and then finding out it's going to cost more than you thought (more than you've collected on Ebay!)

Plus you have to go during standard office hours - not very convenient when you have a day job. Some things can't wait until Saturday.

So a new service from Collect Plus, recommended to me by my Dad, could be the answer.

They are using local convenience stores as their collection and pick up points. My nearest one is literally a hundred yards from my house. It's open seven days a week and I've just been down there on a Sunday afternoon to drop off a parcel. Very convenient.

Delivery is only £3.99 for a fairly large parcel up to 10kgs. This would cover quite a few ebay sales.

However, it does rely upon the recipient also being within easy reach of a delivery point. The network of stores is growing all the time.

Rather than getting home from work to find a "you have been out" card, and then having to somehow collect it from your local depot at the very restricted hours they open (plus coping with the queues!), an email tells you it has been delivered to your local store and you can pop down, often up to 10.30 at night, and pick it up.

I'm certainly going to be using them whenever possible for ebay sales in the future and would recommend you visit their website to see if their service might be handier for you.

UPDATE 4/12/2009 - After four days my parcel hasn't moved an inch! It is still waiting at the original drop-off point to be collected. From there it has to go to a central depot and on to its destination. So it looks like it could be weeks, at the current rate of travel, before it is delivered.

Oh dear. I have often said if something looks too good to be true it probably is and here is another example. I may be able to retrieve the parcel as it hasn't been picked up yet and send it by Royal Mail. Next time I'll wait too see how good the service is before posting on here. Doh.

UPDATE 10/12/2009 - I've had to pick up the parcel from the original drop-off point and send it by Royal Mail instead. To be fair to Collect Plus they haven't tried to make any excuses  for their disappointing service and have provided a prompt refund in full. I think the idea of their service is good, but perhaps they have been overwhelmed by the response. They might be worth another try in the future when their network is up to speed.

Well done Virgin Mobile. My replacement Samsung U600 mobile phone has arrived exactly as promised.

However, in the meantime I had borrowed a beaten up Nokia 3510i from a friend of a friend.

Whereas my Samsung could barely get a signal at my workplace, the old Nokia gets a couple of bars, meaning I can make and receive calls!

OK, so it's not got a camera or any features, but the idea of a phone is for talking and texting and the Nokia does this just fine.

Plus I'm due my upgrade with Virgin in November so only a handful of weeks to wait for my next new phone. I'm definitely choosing Nokia this time!

So I'm not putting my new Samsung phone into service, I'm saving it for next month's competition prize.

It will come with a Virgin Mobile sim card and all of the other bits I can find (charger etc.). So come back after 15th October for a chance to win it.

In the meantime look at the competitions page for this months DVD competition.

Good luck to all.

As I'm the first one to start shouting when I receive bad customer service, and I've had a rant at Virgin before, it seems only fair that I report when I have some good service from them.

It didn't start well. I called them on Saturday to report my mobile had stopped working. I got straight through and we established that the phone was still under warranty. Then the phone line went dead.

I called straight back and got put in a queue. 15 minutes later I was still on hold and decided enough was enough. I put the phone down and got onto their website.

I managed to register my account with them and from there send an email to tell them the problem. They promised a reply within 48 hours but I wasn't holding my breath.

I've just received the promised contact, a phone call, and the nice man on the phone has arranged for a courier to come out and swap my phone for another one. Marvellous, well done Virgin Mobile.

Of course it could still go horribly wrong with courier problems etc. but for the moment I'm very happy that this problem has been sorted out without any fuss.

My contract is due for renewal in the next couple of months and if this all goes smoothly I will probably renew with Virgin Mobile. Listen up businesses - GOOD CUSTOMER SERVICE WORKS!

On the subject of customer service, complaints and Virgin, if anyone hasn't yet read the Virgin complaint letter which is thought to be one of the funniest ever, you must have a look at it. It made me cry with laughter.

There are rumours it is a crafty PR stunt however that doesn't stop it being hilarious.

The lack of service from Camelot about their lottery website did get me thinking about the other companies I've received terrible service from (Lloyds TSB and Vodafone being the two worst recently).

I've just got off the phone to Virgin Money and I had to laugh about it. I've moved to a prepaid credit card and so decided it's time to cancel my card with Virgin.

So I ring the number on their website. Straight through to an automated system, but no ordinary automated system, instead of pressing buttons it uses voice recognition technology.

It asks me about my problem. I tell it that I want to cancel my credt card. It doesn't understand. I make up an answer it might understand in order to get put through to a real person. It doesn't understand. I try again, this time using cancellation instead of cancel. It understands!

Now it wants to know what I wish to cancel. My credit card or payment protection (which I don't have). Easy enough.

Now it wants to know my card number. Gets it right first time. Then my date of birth, this bit took two goes. After all of this it tells me it will connect me with someone who can help. Hooray!

Then I get another automated voice - "we cannot connect you now as no-one is here. Our normal office hours are....Saturday until 1pm"!

Another four minutes of my life wasted. Why didn't they just say the office was closed to start with?

Only consolation is that the call was freephone so Virgin were paying for it. If I was in any doubt about cancelling my card this has definitely made my mind up. Cheerio Virgin, you won't be getting my custom again.

When will companies realise that automated systems and foreign call centres don't provide the level of service that customers want. Just put me through to someone I can talk to.