[seaneeboy]

You absolutely must complain - you sound like you've been treated appaulingly and unless you make that complaint they won't even know they're doing anything wrong.

Make the complaint, cause a fuss. It's the only way we can keep things getting better.

With any luck one of the NICE ntl-types on here can help you escalate it.

All this trouble over a knackered STB, eh? I'll bet they tried to charge you £50 for the pleasure as well!