I had such a negative experience with them that at the time I certainly felt physically ill at the mention of their name. I was never sure if it was deliberate avoidance of a claim or complete incompetence, but the end result was the same.

Now I just tell everyone I meet to avoid them like the plague!!!!

I had a very similar experience with Apple about 6 months back, but am hanging on as a devotee by the skin of my teeth - mainly because experience suggests that others are not much better.

To cut a long story short, my Powerbook was deemed to be terminally faulty by one of the 'geniuses' at the Regent St Store - but that counted for nothing with the call centre folks (including the Irish ones). It took me about 4 months and a vast amount of time and effort to get a replacement.

The reason I stick with them, can be summed up by an all time classic quote that I had from a Sony call centre after I my Vaio went back for its 3rd new hard disk in 6 months. I called to see what had happened to my associated complaint only to be told....'oh, we don't feel obliged to respond to customer complaints'. Enough said - in my coming lifetime of spending a fortune on gadgets and computers, none will be from Sony.