"The problem, to get to the truth, is that we as consumers demand that products are priced as competitively as possible, squeezing the margins all the time which is fine when you are buying. The problem comes when you have a problem, it is difficult to reconcile buying at the cheapest prices yet expecting first class service when things go wrong."

Quite. We recently dumped British Gas because of incessant and frustrating customer service incompetency which had nada to do with 'accents'. We moved to a company who (or so we learned via word of mouth) have a better reputation for customer service. Problem solved.