A few days ago, we launched our Worst UK Company of 2009 award, urging you to get your nominations in for the brands that have had you tearing your hair out over the past 12 months. So here’s a reminder that we’re still looking for your suggestions.

There’s countless reasons why you might nominate a company – rotten customer service, cack-headed pricing, shoddy packaging or delivery… maybe you just don’t like their logo.

Whoever it is who has got your goat, let us know (preferably telling us why as well) and we’ll cull the nominations down to a more manageable list shortly. Then, the voting will commence.

By the end of the year, we’ll have found a worthy successor to 2008’s winner, Setanta, who ‘tragically’ went tits-up a few months later.

Hooray! Kylie Minogue’s iconic ‘bucking bronco’ ad for saucy pants-peddlers Agent Provocateur has scooped up another meaningless award

It’s topped the list of the ‘ten best celebrity viral ads of all time’ as compiled by previously unheard of online content distributor GoViral. The 2001 ad has supposedly been seen an incredible 350 million times on YouTube.

Other less sexy ads in the list star Ronaldinho, President Obama, Scarlett Johansson and Sarah Silverman. If you ask us, the whole ‘award’ sounds like a cheap, cynical attempt to get publicity for GoViral on the back of THAT Kylie ad, using it to grab the attention of heterosexual men and right-thinking lesbians everywhere.

Still, eh fellas and lesbians…?

Right, time for you lot to tell us lot just who you think the Worst UK Company of 2009 has been.

If you remember, last year’s vote was won at a canter by Setanta (ooh, that rhymed!) – wonder whatever became of them…?

Over the coming weeks, we’ll carefully sift through your suggestions and come up with a definitive shortlist. Then, we’ll play the companies off against each other in a head-to-head public vote.

Around about Christmas time, we should have a new holder of the golden turd (pictured right) that we presented to Setanta at the end of 2008 – wonder what became of that…

Come on then, let’s have your suggestions – any company operating in the UK is fair game, and if you could tart up your nominations with the reason why they’ve gotten your goat so much this year, that would be even better.

We’ll start the ball rolling. Halifax Bank Of Scotland, for charging customers a daily fee just for having an overdraft. Wankers.

Stuart Rowe. Probably not the one that works for Play though.

When Play.com appeared in our Worst Company of 2008 vote, many of you were apoplectic with stunned disbelief. Accordingly, the Jersey-based entertainment retailer scored just 13% in a head-to-head with Tiscali.

When we highlighted some examples of shoddy packaging by Play, many of you leapt to their defence, shifting the blame to the Royal Mail, freak atmospheric conditions or Satan himself. Clearly there’s a lot of love out there for Play.

All of which has been confirmed today when the company topped a survey carried out by the fun-loving dudes at the National Customer Satisfaction Index. National Customer Satisfaction Index is their name, the indexing of national customer satisfaction is their game. And once the numbers have been crunched, Play come out on top.

Play.com managing director Stuart Rowe reacted by bitterly lashing out at millions of naysayers, roaring: “We are absolutely delighted to have achieved first place in the National Customer Satisfaction Index ahead of all other UK retailers. This is a truly superb achievement for Play.com, especially as customer service is at the heart of everything that we do. The fact that customers appreciate the focus we give to it is a real reflection that we have been successful in our efforts.”

Then, getting well and truly warmed up, Rowe added that he and his staff would be celebrating the award by feasting on the raw hearts of a thousand virgins.  To be honest, he might not have said that last bit – we’d wandered off by then because someone said they’d seen a dog walking on its hind legs in the car park.

Bags of joy

Members of Which? have voted Waitrose as Britain’s favourite store in the consumer gurus’ high street shops survey, the supermarket retaining the crown it snaffled in the same poll last year.

Although Waitrose’s prices are higher than those of its rivals, the survey showed that excellent customer service is the key to a rewarding shopping experience. Personally, any supermarket where grown-ups let their kids push the frigging trolley around gets a thumbs-down from us and we’ve probably seen less of this in Waitrose than anywhere else.

Waitrose’s sister company John Lewis bagged second spot in the poll and both stores scored highly on environment, helpful staff and quality of products from the 14,000 Which? members that took part in the survey.

We’re almost embarrassed to report this because it’s starting to look as though we’ve got a vendetta against DSGi (we don’t) but Currys, Currys Digital and PC World all found themselves in the bottom ten.

Sports chains JJB and JD Sports were the bottom two stores in the poll, which is fitting as we’ve got absolutely no idea what the difference is between the pair of them.

Thanks to Daniel Austin.