Well, will wonders never cease? I received an e-mail from those rip-off artists called Savastore this morning, albeit a standard one that was probably sent to everyone, but at least it was progress of a sort:

"Dear Savastore customer,
In February 2007, Savastore was acquired by Globally Ltd. After a full review of both business and technical processes, the site has been reopened under the new name, Saverstore.com.

The following information relates to customers who have purchased goods from Savastore prior to the acquisition.
Not-Received or Returned Goods
Customers who either paid for goods from or returned goods to Savastore, who haven’t received either their goods or a refund, have the following two options:

1. To contact the Administrator by post to arrange for either a refund, or the return of the item and then to invoke any existing warranty with the manufacturer directly (see information relating to Branded Goods’ warranties below). Please address all claims to: Smith & Williamson Ltd, 25 Moorgate, London EC2R 6AY.

2. If the goods were purchased using a credit card, you can pursue a claim with your credit card provider under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act. To do this, please contact your credit card company directly.

Warranties
Branded Goods:
For branded goods, please contact the manufacturer directly. A list of manufacturers’ support sites and/or contact information can be found here.

(Section about Savastore Branded Desktops, Laptops and Components omitted for irrelevance).

In the event that you have an enquiry not covered by the above, please log the enquiry using our online enquiry form.
Yours faithfully,
Saverstore.com Customer Services

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Amreen Kauser

t. (0)871 855 2317
f. (0)871 855 6317

e. amreen.kauser@saverstore.com

1 Finway, Luton, Bedfordshire, LU1 1WE, UK
Saverstore.com is part of Globally Ltd
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Globally Ltd is a limited company registered in England and Wales.
Registered number: 06083590. Registered office: 1 Finway, Luton, Bedfordshire, LU1 1WE, UK
Please note that Globally Ltd may monitor email traffic data and also the content of email for the purposes of security and staff training.
This message (and any associated files) is intended only for the use of "my e-mail address" and may contain information that is confidential, subject to copyright or constitutes a trade secret. If you are not "my e-mail address" you are hereby notified that any dissemination, copying or distribution of this message, or files associated with this message, is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please notify us immediately by replying to the message and deleting it from your computer. Any views or opinions presented are solely those of the author amreen.kauser@saverstore.com and do not necessarily represent those of the company.
"

Oh, and it did have my order number at the top. Notice how any issues explicitly to do with refunds are directed to be sent in by post, whereas simple faults or replacements can be handled perfectly happily online. Notice how they changed the name from Savastore to Saverstore - what does this tell you about the most likely make-up of the management of this 'acquired' company?

I don't know if my complaint to BBC Watchdog had anything to do with this, but it's welcome nevertheless. I'll get a letter off tomorrow and see what happens. Interesting how they've waited long enough so that a lot of people may well have lost their order information - one would think a company keen to keep existing customers would have put other matters on hold - it's more financially valuable, person for person, to keep existing, loyal customers with known spending habits than to hope for new customers, who may be put off by poor company press and past customer reviews.

I'll keep you posted. I really want my money back - for all I might seem all 'high in the clouds' when it comes to this sort of thing, the loss of £200+ does hurt. A lot. Especially when it wasn't even my fault.