Laptop laments

I was disheartened to discover that laptops have become one of the UK's most complained-about items.

Advice line Consumer Direct revealed that, for the fourth year running, it fielded more calls on second-hand motors than anything else. TVs had the dubious honour of taking second place.

Mobile phones accounted for the next two spots, with service agreements and hardware both proving frequent consumer bugbears.

Laptop gripes rose by 42 per cent to sneak into the top five. My arch-nemesis at Plaistow Pete's PC Palace certainly saw a massive increase in customer quibbles. And I strongly maintain that any nonsense about a smear campaign is just sour grapes.