Plenty of irritants to make a computer user cranky

It has been awhile since I have let loose my bad mood in print, so here are the things that are making me cranky.

• Shutterfly, once my favorite photo site, ticked me off big-time over the holidays. I ordered a half-dozen photobooks and received a shipping date well in advance of Christmas. The product, however, kept getting delayed and delayed. My requests for information went unanswered. There was a note on my order history page saying the company was working through "high order volume" and I would just have to wait.

When the books did arrive I found the photos were too small and the books kinda flimsy for the price. The layout options of the books were pretty limited, and they can't be resized.

• Signals, the mail order and Internet company, ticked me off last year, and I have not been back since. Same issue — a failure to live up to a shipping promise. (Christmas gifts shipped on Dec. 27 aren't all that welcome.)

I believe in the Southwest Airlines theory of customer service. Promise little and deliver on your promise. Basically, Southwest sets expectations low and generally fulfills those expectations.

• Dell is on the list this year for adding so much junk to their new PCs that it takes a trained technician to remove most of it. Their "starter" edition of Quickbooks is the most annoying, even popping up reminders to try the program long after you've deleted it. I know Dell sells 80 percent of its PCs to businesses, but there's no reason to have such an invasive product and selling tactic. Most large businesses don't use Quickbooks, most small businesses already have it, and most consumers don't want it. Editing the Windows Registry should not be needed to remove it. (Dell also gets an honorable mention for charging $25 for a USB cable to connect their "free" printers to their computers.)

• Balance Digital Technology, a low-end computer line, gets a raspberry for using a non-standard power supply in their desktop PC, then running out of spares.

I have had one on my shop bench for a week, and it looks like I will have to custom-make one, as the company had a single-source for them and that company quit making them. It's never a good plan to have a unique form factor.

• More than one person has e-mailed me claiming they cannot find the Epson RX700 printer, which I recommended, in their local store, so therefore it must not exist. I politely suggest Google.