As you all know, I set up an online store the other month for prints and canvases.

Well, although I've got PayPal and it lets people use normal credit cards even if they're not a member I wasn't really totally happy and decided to have a look around.

I found a company called Nochex who basically do the same thing but slightly better looking... so I applied for a "quote".

Unfortunately this was the day before I went to Subs' place so when the guy did ring me back with details I was firstly trying to pack and then on a train.

As he'd told me I would need to sign and return some stuff I was fairly blase about it. Listened to what he had to say and it all seemed ok from that and I accepted in principle but figured I'd wait until the email with the official paperwork when I got to the lassie's before worrying...

Seems I should have worried beforehand.

He'd gone ahead and set stuff up already, including taking a credit card payment for £50...

Now I could actually sit down and read the terms and conditions (the first chance I had, they're all done on an individual basis) I spotted a number of major things that he'd either not mentioned or was a tad disingenuous about and, in short, the whole service was useless for me.

So, as I hadn't signed anything I emailed him back and said I wasn't going to take up the service and could he refund the £50 that he never told me he was taking straight away.

The responses were typical sales office 'that'll hurt my commission' replies... "well I can offer you...", "What if I made it...", "I could give you cheaper..."

Even when I just pointed out nothing he could say would change my mind he was trying to tell me he couldn't process the refund until he'd got "feedback" on why I didn't want the service.

At this point I got slightly blunt and just told him I had decided it wasn't for me and I would expect a refund shortly...

10 days later I'm still waiting...

I've just rung the guy and left a message on his answerphone pointing out this is an unacceptable time to wait for a refund and I'm expecting it tomorrow or I'll get in touch with my card company and put it through as a bad payment.

What's the betting I hear nothing from them tomorrow?

I'll tell you something, even if I got together a business successful enough to be able to cope with their demands I wouldn't go back to them in a million years, I think for now I'll stick with PayPal (slightly amateur as it is) and then when I start getting money in I'll do WorldPay or one of the other services done by the banks.