The letter says:

My first thought was "I've been had", my second was, why did Tesco store my bank details for the year? My third thought was, look at the premium - £456.75. This is over two and a half times more expensive than the cheapest quote I had received for a comparable policy, from Swinton.

My fourth thought was, I'll never use these cowboys again, how can they get away with it - and try to pass it off as though they're doing me a favour and being done in the name of high standards?

What'll it be next? Will I find some of the staff in my living room opening a bottle of wine. "We decided to help ourselves, every little helps!"

All three had their own dissatisfied tale to tell about Tesco Customer Service.....

1. At the supermarket the groceries were being scanned as if it were the new speed event in the 2012 Olympics. As I struggled, near defeat, with separating plastic bags and trying to pack, the cashier was finished and was now busy texting on her mobile phone, completely oblivious to me.

2. At the partly flooded convenience shop I bought a chicken ceaser wrap. The cashier seemed to clear a bonus of £2 from the transaction. I handed him £4, and watched as he registered £2 cash received on the till. What happened to the other £2?

3. At the petrol station - I wrote about this earlier - a queue even though there are free pumps. What are the staff doing? From the corner of my eye I observe a manager emerge from the nearby supermarket. He takes a closer look, albeit at long distance, at the queue and scuttles back inside the supermarket. What do the staff do? Nothing!

I think the petrol stations are designed to work without supervision. When I finally make it inside to pay the two chuckling cashiers decide to swap tills while us customers wait.

Going to Tesco gets you in such a bad mood! Grrrrrrr......

They have all being banging on about this outrageous practice, and asking questions like,why are the savings accruing from the weak sterling/euro exchange rate not being passed on by the likes of Tesco.

There has been so much written it has caused Brian Cowen, Taoiseach, to call members of the National Consumer Association "f*#kers", indeed this must be a serious issue.

As the newspapers ask the stores to explain, what are they doing?, exactly the same thing. I buy a newspaper almost everyday, and on Sunday this extends to 2 or 3. All these newspapers carry dual pricing in Euro and Stg£, and here are the prices being charged and what the should be charged if you use £.79 exchange rate.

Newspaper	€ price	£ Stg Price	€.79p exchange
The Irish Times	1.80	1.00	1.26
Sunday Independent	2.40	1.40	1.78
Sunday Business Post	2.40	1.70	2.15
Sunday Tribune	2.50	1.65	2.09

I buy 5 Irish Times and 1 each of the Sunday Newspapers it would cost you €16.30 for the week, this would be £9.75 and this translated at .79p it should cost me an Euro equivalent of €12.32. The difference is €3.98 , which means that the above Irish Newspapers are, on average are 32.30% more expensive in Ireland than in the UK eventhough they are produced here.

So if the newspapers want to be the consumer advocate should'nt they get their own house in order first? and start explaining why they are'nt practising what they preach.

It was always a place where I disliked buying books primarily due to the "langers" that worked behind the counter. Many if not all were college graduates who had the ambition and drive to work in a shop,albeit a book shop. They always looked unkept and could'nt resist having a peek at what you were reading and then snootingly packing then into a bag before handing them back to you.

On Tuesday I was in Dublin and decided to call in to the Waterstones shop on Dawson Street, as I had never paid a visit. On entering at approximately 11am I was overcome with a strong smell, I said "whats that". It was so powerful it stopped me in my tracks, I looked around and realised that it was the smell of vegetable soup, thats right vegetable soup, wafting in the air from the restaurant on the second floor.

Christ it was terrible, the pong filled the air so preventing you from having a good browse. Additionally would'nt you think that due to the "higher intellect" of its staff they could have cooked a nicer smelling soup, for example tomato and basil.

Why cant we live in a world where book shops sells books, coffee shops sells coffee, and cafes sells soup.

Needless to say I did'nt stay very long and I certainly w'ont be back

          I work as shop manager in a small, independant retail outlet. One of the things I hate most about working in this place is customers spending next to nothing and then having the cheek to ask for discount!

          As a small, independant retail outlet you are striving to keep the business going all the time. There is always a bigger shop offering cheaper prices then you right around the corner. You pride yourself on being able to offer the best competative prices and a more personal service then the cooperate drones nearby, but the average joe-public seems not only to be totally unimpressed with your service but he tries to push you into giving him discount for nothing.

          For example- a customer puts two £1 items and one £2 item onto the counter. "That's only £4 please" you say to him, and so it is. It's not £868.93 or £60, it's a petty 400p. The customer hands me £3 in change. "Hang on!" I say, "that's only £3, the total is £4 please". The customer pulls a smug grin; "How much for cash?" he says. There is a pause for a couple of seconds whilst I give him a chance to consider that he just asked me to discount three items adding to a grand total of £4.00. "It's still £4.00" I point out in a dead serious tone. "Are you sure?" he says. "Yes" I say. "Sure?" he tries once more. "Yes I am" I say. The smug git turns to his wife next to him and says "Didn't go to the same school as us did he". "No I didn't" I say with a smile, whilst thinking "no mate, in the school I went to they taught us how to add up to 4"...

         This happens more and more frequently all the time. I can see why in our outward spiraling economy you might be tempted to ask for a discount- we would all like to get things for a little less. We are actually happy to offer discount, as long as the customer is after enough of the same item from our shop to get a discount from our suppliers. We are not happy to offer discount to annoying cheapskates who are trying to get the price of fish reduced for nothing whatsoever. Do you barter with your local supermarket over the price of a tin of beans? No? Why not? They not only have a much larger profit margin then our small independants but they probably make several billion pounds more then we do every year. If they don't offer discount why would we?

          My point? Don't ask for discount unless you definately think you might deserve it. Less then 10 items of less then £3.00 each- not worth discount. We have customers spend £200 and expect no discount at all, what makes you so bloody different?

Take for example a cup of coffee, there are a number of places that you can buy a cup of coffee where I live, additionally there are as many prices but generally they range from €1.50 to €1.95 a cup.

The only exception is the coffee shop selling "Fair Trade" coffee at €2.95 a cup.

Why is the coffee from the Fair Trade coffee shop so much more expensive?. I understand and appreciate that the growers are, or at least are meant to get, a better price for their coffee. You can be assured that they are not getting the 50% premium that you and I are being charged.

Are you meant to feel better about yourself when you buy free trade coffee?, I certainly d'ont , I feel ripped off.

Next time you are in the supermarket look for the "Fair Trade" section, most of the multiples have them, and carry out a simple comparision purely on price. Then ask yourself are you willing to pay that much extra? I know I'm not.

One final thing what have penguins got to do with "Fair Trade" ?

So there you have it, the credit crunch is as a result of the Banks lending money to people that could'nt afford to repay,lying about the value of these "assets" and hoodwinking some into thinking that they could afford bigger mortgages by giving them "discounted introductionary offers".

Unlike other businesses that are usually allowed to go bust when they make a bollocks of their business, banks are given assistance,( Northern Rock and Bear Sterns), to fix the problem and preserve their vast profits by Governments and Central Banks, only yesterday the Bank of England announced its making £50bn available to UK Banks to assist in increasing liquidity as banks now are'nt lending to each other, because they c'ant trust each other.

Who will end up paying for all this, you and me in the form of higher interest rates, lower returns on stock markets, lower house valuation the list goes on

Really really annoying shit

Their eco-marketing literature says we’ll see them work with "customers .... to combat climate change". As part of the plan they’re introducing a 5p charge for plastic bags from the 6th of May, to help reduce the amount sent to landfill. Until then, every shopper will get a free bag for life with their food purchases.

I got one yesterday. It was handed to me, neatly folded, after I finished packing my purchases into the environmentally damaging plastic.

Pardon me for stating the "bleedin" obvious – but shouldn’t the free bag be handed out first – are you really serious about Plan A, or is this just more marketing to mug the consumer?

Aer Lingus "copped on " to this problem after 2 hours and after some 100 people had "availed" of this offer, and paid with their credit cards, which would appear to satisfy the law of contract, but no! Aer Lingus cancelled all of these peoples bookings by sending them an email and "inviting them to re-book".

I heard Enda Corneille, Director, no less, of Corporate Affairs speak on Morning Ireland and saying something to the effect that people should have realised it was a honest mistake, I almost threw the radio out the window.

I heard recently of someone making their way back from a trip and the return date was incorrect on the piece of paper.The return date was entered incorrectly by the person, a honest mistake, but that person had to pay €400 to get home, and Aer Lingus's attitude was " its your fault you pay for it".

So when Aer Lingus makes a mistake, its our fault for not realising that the price could'nt be correct, when we make a mistake again its our fault. One would begin to wonder if you can trust anything that would appear on the website by way of prices.

If Aer Lingus are allowed to get away with this what is stopping them from changing the price of flights after you have paid for them?, I know that sounds silly but were are the customers rights here?. More importantly due to the advent of internet shopping, is the law of contract no longer valid? from this situation it would appear so.

I cant believe that they did'nt simply say "right we f*#ked up let the people go for the fiver", they could have actually used it for good marketing, I know thats an oxymoron,but no,they came out with a defense that frankly in the same class as "the dog ate my homework".

At Cafe Rouge, about five minutes from Brighton's seafront, early on Saturday evening, people were being turned away because there were no tables.

They were lucky.

This would have been anything but a treat.

The service at Cafe Rouge was so bad I think it is the first restaurant I ever walked out of without leaving a tip.

We waited an hour for the Salade de al mer, a main course which, unbelievably, was smaller than the side salad. Is it a main course, or have we been mugged and served a starter portion?

There is no one to ask. We can’t even order another drink as there is no service. Not once did anyone visit the table to see how things were.

Having waited twenty minutes for a coffee I complained about the children’s meal. There was no banana. The waiter didn’t seem to understand.

I cancelled the coffee. Just bring me the bill, I hissed.

People were still being turned away. Not because the place was so busy, but because the service was so abysmal.

Outside I look back, take out my camera and photograph the facade. I make a mental note: never return, dissuade anyone from going.

Take their clothing. Last weekend I visited M&S at Hedge End. Out of a large selection of suits there were actually only two choices. One,a grey city pin, had the right jacket size but not the right trouser size. For the other, the complete opposite. They had the right trouser size but not the jacket. Are there any sales assistants?

I wait for one. I give up and wander away to another section. I come back. I wait. I give up again. I overhear an old dear confide to her friend "they used to do fantastic stuff in M&S but they seem to have stopped doing it for some reason". I couldn't make up this comment. I come back. I wait. Finally, after about fifteen minutes, a sales assistant appears only to say "We don't keep stock Sir. Just whats on the rails. We can order it in for you?."

Order it in? Great! Shall I just wait here for three days, by the changing room? I leave. Next day I visit M&S in Portsmouth. Unbelievably, in the grey pin suit, they have the right trousers but not the right jacket size. It's Sunday trading, so I have no chance of making it back to Hedge End before closing to get a full set.

During the week, as I still need a suit, I interrupt my commute home and get out at Oxford Circus. I walk to Marble Arch, home to the largest M&S store in the UK. Inside, I have to give right of way to a sales assistant before going up the escalator to Mens. Rails and Rails of suits to walk passed. Their biggest store in the UK, a huge choice of suits, but still the same issue. You can't get a complete set.

Tough trading conditions. Don't give me that cow crap, when the buying conditions are impossible!

You know I read recently that well over 50% of the people who shop at Tesco find it irritating. I'm sure the rest find it really annoying. Half the aisles are littered with packaging and there just seems to be no pride in keeping the place clean.

No pride. What's this? Pizza Express pizzas dated the 13th. That's three days ago, and they are still on sale at full price. Now that's just taking the piss!

I called my wife and asked if she could call to PC World today and pick up something for me, "no bother" she said. I said if you have any trouble call me.

She called me from the shop and said that they were'nt on the shelfs, I suggested ask an assistant, what was I thinking?, here is something like the conversation that took place,

Wife; Sorry I'm looking for the 8Gb Removable memory drive that was advertised todays newspaper.

Asst; Are they on the shelf?

Wife; No thats why I'm asking for help, they were advertised this morning on the newspaper.

Asst; Ok I'll check, I'll come back to you.....

Fifteen minutes later he arrives,

Asst; They c'ant find them in the warehouse either, and you're sure they were on todays newspaper?

Wife ; yes why else would I be here asking so specifically.

Asst; We must have them so, maybe if we go to the and enter the code you'll be able to pay for it and then they'll have find it then as we can't sell stuff we d'ont have stock of.

My wife was totally confused but went along with the idea, she was there for 30mins anyway, at that someone came along waving the product they found them in the warehouse, apparently they were in an "unopened box".

Anyway my wife paid for the stick and left it only took 40 mins to complete the transaction.

Well done PC World and you are wondering why profits are down, look around its not that difficult to see why, if you advertise it should increase "footfall" its what you do who dictates the rest, that advice is free.

Although my most embarrassing moment was definitely being stranded at a checkout in Tesco with the card stopped and no cash, this Christmas the bank did it inconveniently again. Twice.

The first time, Nintendo Wii's were back in online stock but because the card wouldn't process they were out of stock before I had time to finish. I didn't get one.

Next day I decided to buy something else, ordering before 2pm to make next day delivery. Again the card was stopped. By the time I had run through a series of ridiculous security questions by the bank (such as "Give me the name of a music store you buy music?" - let's face it, you have a 50:50 chance of getting that one right, HMV or whatever Virgin is now called!) I missed the cut-off so the delivery is now scheduled for two to three days after Christmas. No doubt by then it will have been discounted 50% in the sales.

Is there a better way?. Could the bank actually call, don't they have your contact numbers? But of course some of them do. Recently a friend was left stranded in a panic in Tunisia in the middle of the night when her card was stopped. She had no cash. The bank however had kindly left a message on her home telephone in the UK saying the card was stopped as it was being used in Tunisia.

Being used in Tunisia? Ehh, maybe she's in Tunisia, maybe we should call her mobile? No such luck.

There must be a better way. At least as a start a customer service number should be printed on the card. You might then have some chance, rather than having to take a very ignoble exit from Tesco if you happen to be left stranded with no cash and a refused card.

When it was obvious we weren't going to leave, the waitress approached. From her expression she'd clearly drawn the short straw. She had to endure the inconvenience of the customers. 

The attitude in the kitchen can't have been any better. I had to take a photograph of Mr A's lasagne. It was so palpably burnt - incredible that this could be delivered out of a kitchen in Piccadilly Circus and be unashamedly charged at £8.95.