I am writing as a very frustrated customer of Tabone Computer Centre in St Venera. I have bought two laptops from there, despite warnings of bad after-sales service, because I believed that the laptops were very good.

Since I am a student, I paid half the price in cash and left a post-dated cheque as security that I would later be paying the rest by Smart Card. Having accepted this, the saleslady told me to date the cheque exactly a month later.

A week or so later I discovered that the money had actually been taken out of my bank account. Not knowing how this could have happened, I went straight to the bank to request proof of this transaction. The photocopy of the cheque showed that the number 11 (for November) had been adjusted to a "10" (for October). Their response to this was that "the accountant must have thought it was a mistake and adjusted the date"!

Nonetheless, I decided not to make a fuss. About three weeks after the purchase, I had problems with both screens and took them in for repairs. One of them was repaired, but a week later a worse fault emerged. For the other laptop I was told that the wrong part was ordered by mistake and I had to wait longer. Now, two months later, neither laptop has been repaired.

I took one of the laptops last Monday week, was promised it would be repaired by Tuesday, was then told it would be ready by Wednesday morning (I went in the afternoon) - I'm still waiting without a laptop so close to exams. "Coincidentally" they told us that they had ordered a wrong part... again... apparently, renowned companies no longer write down the contents of the boxes!

I have phoned several times to check if the parts have arrived and, although they promised to call back, I have heard nothing.