Wanted: Your best/worst customer services stories

I get a lot of email from readers of this blog (and yes, I do read all of it, even if I never manage to get around to replying) and sometimes I get in a cracking question that's idea for a group discussion. Here's one from Lynne:

In your experience which tech company offers the best and/or worst customer service experience?

There are plenty of surveys out there that concentrate on this subject but I don't feel that just picking out a company from a sea of names is really all that helpful since I think that the reason why that company's customer service was judged good or bad is an important factor.

I have to be honest and say that I have very little contact with customer services. Partly that's down to the fact that when things go wrong I try to kick them back into working order, and when the kicking fails to produce the desired results I usually approach the company via the side door.

Here are some questions to get the conversation rolling:

• Over the past 12 months what company offered you the best/worst customer services experience?
• What made the experience good/bad?
• Did this experience influence your future purchasing?
• Did you tell others at the time about your experiences?

Shoot!