A rant for my first post in ages... Recently took out a 12 month SIM only deal with T-Mobile UK for Emma's phone, having had to ditch giffgaff when data stopped working - they had no idea why with no hope of fixing. But that's another rant altogether.

So, I found a great looking deal for unlimited voice, texts and data for £16/month with £50 cashback at Quidco, so I went for that.

Firstly the Quidco tracking didn't work, so that's my £11.83 up to £16. Again, don't get me started on Quidco - nothing over £5 ever works.

Next, I get a bill in from T-Mobile for £26 - the £16 was a special offer, £26 being its correct (if massively overpriced) monthly total. So I call them up, they agree that I got the £16 deal, and change it. Or so they claim. £26 is still taken from my bank.

So today, rather than spend all day waiting on the phone, I used their email support form. Much to amusement (not), after submitting that I got this auto-reply. Really.

From: dontreply@t-mobile.co.uk To : colin@ Subject: Re: Account enquiry - Billing & Payment

Please accept our apologies, we are in the process of improving our e-mail service, and cannot deal with your e-mail enquiry at this time.

For the moment, can we ask you to use one of our alternative Customer Service channels, where our advisors will be happy to answer any question or resolve any enquiry you may have.

I'm stunned. How bad can customer service get? I've also got stuck into them on twitter, I bet that gets a response. Public slagging always seems to have more of an effect, I wonder why that is.