Shouty Day

I had to shout at lots of people today.

First, intuit. They told me that for continued support and internet access I should upgrade from Quicken 2000 to Quicken 2004 Money Manager, but I could download it and it would only be £12-odd. Seemed fair.

30Mb later, the new copy thoughtfully offers to uninstall the old copy. I let it. It then offers to open and convert the old data, but gives up because my data uses features not supported in this version. Would I like to upgrade?

Next day, after a maze of "press 1" messages and a second phone number, I'm told to re-install the old version and save it without "investor features". I bet Microsoft Money would have opened the file.

Second, NTL. Or "ntl home" as they are now tagged. Lower case, of course.

The new, easier to understand phone bill arrives. Coincidentally, it's £10 bigger than usual but I cannot find out why because it is no longer itemised for calls less than 50p. I have to pay them another pound a month to find out what I am paying them for.

The useless telephone droid doesn't even have a scripted response, but suggests I "complain to Oftel". I point out that it is now Ofcom, and begin the process.

Finally, Cineworld. Four of the calls over 50p which were itemised were to an 0872 number. Obviously and erroneously I suspected the children, but it was me trying to book cinema tickets and getting kicked off after 8 minutes - tantalisingly close to the front of the queue.

I thought that the limit for 08xx numbers was national rate (ie 1p/minute at that time of day) but I was wrong. 0871 and 0872 can be up to 10p/minute. Does it tell you this on the Cineworld website? Is there online booking? Grr.