Norton

The other day my PC had 'a moment' and the Norton security software crashed and wouldn't re-start. I did a quick internet search and ended up on the Norton support site. Rather than try and fix it myself, I opted for the remote help service - which is free. In no time at all an agent in India had taken control of my PC, diagnosed the problem, fixed it and in the process, upgraded me to the next version of software.

All in a very short space of time and for free.

Throughout the process he kept me informed of what he was doing, what would happen next and how long we had left to go. I was very impressed, and the experience has left me feeling a sense of loyalty towards Norton because I know that if I have any problems in future, they will be sorted promptly and effectively. What a delight!

PC World customer service stinks

I just wanted to buy a Flip Ultra video camera. All someone had to do was open the locked cupboard and hand me one. I didn't need a demo. I didn't need to look at it. I didn't need to spend hours discussing it. In fact the time it took the sales 'assistant' to tell me I'd have to wait at least half an hour before he could serve me was less than the time it would have taken him to hand me the camera. None of the other people standing around chatting could help me either. Extraordinary!

So, out of ten, PC World, Sevenoaks Way, Orpington, Kent gets zero points and I'll be buying the camera elsewhere.

Come on Virgin - you can do better than that!

Last year we had a lovely family holiday in Florida. We flew with Virgin Atlantic. We mixed time in the parks, with time relaxing by the pool. Took in a couple of baseball games and did a bit of shopping. Then we arrived at Orlando International airport for our flight home and came face to face with a 12 hour delay. Okay, these things happen and although it was uncomfortable and tempers started to fray we were reasonably well looked after both at the airport and on the flight home.

The time duly passed and as we boarded the flight, we were each handed a letter explaining the delay, apologising and offering us 10,000 Flying Club points as compensation. Great.

Shortly after arriving home, I duly sent off all four letters for the points to be credited to my account. I got a reply a week or so later telling me that my account would only be credited with the points in my name. My wife and two children would have to open their own accounts - even though I had been credited with the points for the original booking. Those of you with Virgin Flying Club accounts will know that 10,000 points are pretty worthless, so at a stroke the compensation for a very long and uncomfortable delay was taken away. The grand gesture was just that, an empty gesture.

I sent a letter to Virgin. No reply.

Another letter. No reply.

So today I emailed them. And got an email failure due to ‘insufficient disk space’ on their email servers. So much for customer service.

I shall certainly think twice before booking another flight with Virgin!!