In his column of October 14, I.M. Beck was, I suspect, too quick about feeling he would go on receiving good service from play.com. Like him, I got wise to clicking on the euro icon, but though my orders have been accepted, I have yet to be informed that a single book I have ordered has actually been sent. My account, for instance, accessed on October 17, simply states "Order placed" for a book I ordered on October 9, a book that, according to the website is in stock and is normally sent within 24 hours.

The same thing happened to me in September, so much so that after a fortnight I just cancelled my order for two different books.

Unfortunately, the play.com site does not state to whom complaints in general should be addressed, and while it is possible to complain about a book that was sent but has not arrived, there appears to be little one can do about books never sent in the first place. Is this play.com's way of stating that, for unknown reasons, they want no more custom from Malta?