Straight talking: Credits of the crunch

Acronis' press officer apologised and promised "improvements to our customer support services". After a couple of months I played consumer again, asking why my True Image remains idle when told to make a backup. After more than two weeks I am still waiting for help.

Seagate recently sent a 1.5 TB hard disk with onboard encryption to secure stored data, but my PC would not recognise the disk. The factory-sealed package contained a disk that had never been formatted.

More than a month later I am still waiting for Seagate to explain how the factory's Quality Control had approved an unformatted disk.

With money tight, the price of printer ink will become an even bigger issue. Even Epson admits that the Piezo head system used on all its printers will clog unless the printer is regularly used. Give me Lexmark every time. They can sit idle for weeks, and still deliver a perfect page.

The Ecobutton is a nice money-saving idea from a small company for just £15. A big green button sits by a PC and puts it to sleep with one press.

The blister packaging promises 'instructions inside' to 'plug in, click and start saving'. But anyone who just plugs into a USB port and clicks will only see a window briefly pop up on the PC screen and disappear.

Inside the pack the 'instruction' is a card giving a website address. To make the Ecobutton do its job the user must go to the website, register, wait for an email and then download instructions and software for the PC.

The software then asks for details of the PC's power consumption. I asked for comment on this absurd obstacle course.

The suppliers "believed the sample sent was missing instructions in error". Another one arrived but it was just the same. I told them but heard nothing – until a marketing person asked if I was writing anything.

Yes. I'm writing that in the current climate you can no longer expect to get away with treating paying customers this way.