Comms: T-Mobile - Stupid is as Stupid does.

There's a man at T-Mobile whose name we will not publish. He was extremely helpful and did his best to resolve all the problems. For sure, he was hampered by the fact that - incredibly, T Mobile had no HTC Desire phones in stock but, when they arrived, he delivered one as promised.

But for some reason, the promised unlock code, to be provided gratis, never arrived. Attempts to contact that person have been frustrated by T-Mobile's customer service department where a succession of people write saying "Thank you for writing to me, Nigel" despite the fact that the mail contains, in capitals, the name of the person who has been dealing with it - and to route it to him and no-one else.

Each of the replies is stupid because it does not deal with the issue: it is a standard form letter that tells me to do things that the person I have been dealing with knows I cannot do from overseas where I am most of the time.

And each one demands payment for the service that T-Mobile had previously offered to provide free and which had been accepted.

I asked my elderly father - two replacement knees, a replacement hip and a replacement shoulder to go to the T-Mobile shop in Ashford in Kent where the staff had been helpful previously. He had to park and walk for several hundred metres. It's not an easy task for an 85 year old. But he did it anyway, taking the phone with him. The helpful people were no longer there: two different staff were present. He asked them to try to contact the person I had been dealing with until he disappeared, giving his name: they refused on the basis that there might be "ten people called that."

He asked them to help him install Android 2.2. They told him to turn on the phone and follow the instructions. They were lucky he didn't hit the desk with his walking stick: he might had done if he had not feared he would fall over. He is, after all, fully aware of the long-term hassle there has been in trying to get this phone sorted out.

So, now the phone has not been unlocked and it's still running the old version of Android. And it's on a plane out of the UK.

T-Mobile agreed to charge GBP100 for the new phone: but they have charged GBP106.36 - and also added VAT at 17.5% on top of that. The total charge is therefore some GBP25 greater than they agreed.

T-Mobile agreed to provide unlocking free of charge: they have failed to provide that and have now started to demand payment for that service.

This is not merely disgraceful service, it's dishonest.

T-Mobile is said to be shedding some 16,000 jobs in the UK as a result of its merger with Orange.

It looks as if it's got rid of anyone who could actually help customers.

And, one assumes, anyone who realises that phoning the phone attached to the account in question won't get to this complainer - it will just annoy an octogenarian who has better things to do with his life than mess about with phones. After all, that's what T-Mobile has done in the past despite having the correct numbers to call.