EDIT: There was a colossal, White Lightning-fuelled cock up which saw Barclays incorrectly put through from round two instead of Royal Mail. So we’ll have to start again. We’re extending the voting time until noon tomorrow. Apologies for any upset, confusion and loss of sleep you may suffer from because of this technical error. (Thanks to keen-eyed avid reader Digital E)

It’s now semi-final time in Bitterwallet’s Britain’s Worst Company of 2009 voteathon. From the original 32, we’re now down to the eight shittiest companies according to you, our avid readership.

We’re altering the format slightly for the semis and over the next two days you’ll have the choice of four companies per day for y’all to direct your rage towards. The top two from each showdown will make it into next week’s pre-Christmas final.

Today’s quartet of consumer crapulence are eBay, BT, Phones4U and Barclays Royal Mail. Ugh – just typing out their names makes us want to vomit chunks into a pail.

You’ve got until midnight tonight noon tomorrow to cast your vote and you can check out the pretty-bloody-close-actually outcome of yesterday’s final second round tussle between T-Mobile and Orange here. Ooh, it was a tight one.

There’s also a rundown of all of the results so far here. Check back tomorrow for the second semi-final. Tense doesn’t even begin to describe it all…

Here’s how dedicated we are – a few hours ago, your Bitterwallet team were carousing their fat faces off, having gatecrashed the HotUKDeals Christmas party in a vibrant London nitespot.

Now, at an obscenely early hour, we’re up and at it, bringing you the latest showdown in our Worst Company In Britain 2009 voting bonanza. Today sees a clash between Phones4U and npower, two companies who seem to think it’s acceptable to fuck about with the conventions of the English language in their names. God, we want to vote for both of them already.

You can vote yourselves right up until midnight and catch up with the result of yesterday’s British Gas v BT tussle here. There’s a full rundown of the story so far here. Oh, and don’t expect too much from us for the remainder of the day – we’re all feeling somewhat hot around the skull.

Sony Ericsson’s new Satio smartphone has been withdrawn from sale by both Carphone Warehouse and Phones4U following ongoing software complaints by users of the handset.

Scores of Satio users have been griping about ringtone issues and frozen screens since the phone was launched in the UK at the beginning of October and Sony Ericsson now seem to be responding to the problems, announcing that they are: “giving this matter its utmost priority and working toward solving it.”

It has been reported that the phone is crashing when users try to switch between applications and there are also reports of ringtones disappearing. The glitch will prove to be a massive blow to Sony, who are struggling in the smartphone race against the likes of HTC and Apple.

Orange and Vodafone customers with Satio handsets have been largely unaffected by the glitch – this is believed to be due to the fact that they have installed their own ‘skins’ over the phone’s OS, whereas other Satio owners have handsets with Sony’s own skin in place.

Sony have said that a solution to the will appear on their website as soon as it is ready.

Commiserations to BT, lying battered and bloodied in the consumer hate gutter after almost 1,800 of you voted for them in yesterday’s Worst Company In Britain 2009 head-to-head with the plucky minnows from United Utilities.

Special technology that we’ve just made up showed that 70% of BT voters clicked on the vote button with extra aggression, suggesting that you REALLY hate them. Well done.

Today sees a numerically-monikered phonedown showdown between the clowns at 3 (or Three, or Trois if you’re French) and the bell ends that are Phones4U. There are ample reasons to vote for either company – in May, 3 tried to sneakily scrap their ‘3 Like Home’ service but we caught them, helping scores of their customers to walk away from their contracts.

Meanwhile, we’re still trembling at the thought of Phones4U’s current ad blitz, which features a pissing Santa. Mmm… what a delightful festive scene.

So, you’ve got until midnight to cast your votes to decide who goes through to the second round. Why not entertain us with your tales of woe involving either or both companies. GO!

Those wacky guys at phones4u, eh? A couple of days ago they redressed their website with some half-arsed Viz style doodlings of Father Christmas and dead turkeys, in keeping with the Yuletide spirit:

What could possibly be their thinking behind it? Didn’t they realise how amateurish it made the site look? Well apparently, they did. That was their plan! Don’t you see? We know this because a Bitterwallet reader complained about the images featured on the phones4u website and promptly received a reply. Except the reply wasn’t intended for them:

Hi

Well I got about another 70 e-mails to go through so Im guessing a few qill [sic] be about the web page. Seems like a success as people are e-mailing in and I bet they aretaking [sic] about it.

Please can you copy me in the reply

Regards

Abbas

It was followed by a furious attempt to recall the message as the member of staff realised their mistake, and sometime later a further email that was intended for its recipient:

In keeping with the rest of our ‘Great Deals 4 Popular People’ advertising campaign we have decided to use some tongue-in-cheek and light-hearted imagery on our website and in our stores to support our seasonal promotions this year. This imagery will continue to change throughout the campaign to keep it fresh and interesting.

The aim of the campaign is to engage with our target audience of 16-24 year-olds and reinforce our unique tone of voice through fun, anti-kitsch advertising that challenges the stereotypical portrayal of the holidays you see on the high street.

The imagery used on our website, our current advertising, and point of sale material is meant to be humorous and entertaining and not meant to be taken seriously. We are by no means insulting religion, hence the use of snowmen, reindeer, turkeys etc

We apologise if it has caused any offense.

Kind regards,

Chloe Farrow
Phones 4u Press Office

Of course it’s all very well getting people talking about your brand, and if phones4u wants customers to know theirs is cheap and grubby, and their phones are only good for lager-swilling twats who tattoo their own names on their necks, then their marketing team have excelled themselves. Cheers!

Christmas time! Mistletoe and wine! Children singing Christian rhyme! Plus trussed up turkeys and an arseholed, trouserless Santa pissing all over the floor after too many cans of lager. It’s this heartwarming vision of Christmas that phones4u want to greet their customers with when you visit their website:

Father Christmas has even found time for a tab, and are those fishnets he’s wearing? It says quality, service and choice, right there. Well done, phones4u.

[The Register] thanks to Bitterwallet reader Mark

Not long after feuding entertainment giants Sky and Virgin Media managed to reach a deal, the market and consumers are already reaping the benefits. Phones4U will begin offering Sky and Virgin Media packages within the next two weeks in 60 stores across the west Midlands, south Wales, north-west, and Merseyside, and plans to expand the effort to 300 stores by the end of 2009. Both Sky and Virgin will have in-store media bays, and their logos will be prominently displayed both within the store and on the storefronts. Since the beginning of 2008 the retailer has been performed trial runs of combined digital TV, high-speed broadband and home phone packages in Liverpool and Birmingham.

[Mobile Today]