MY absence from this page last Friday was not — despite scurrilous rumours — because I had been on a ‘spree’ and could not see my fingers far less the keys on my computer.

Two weeks ago, I mentioned our new laptop computer.

The General Manager purchased it on the 6th of this month. That was a Wednesday. This column is written at home and I emailed it to the office in time for that Friday’s paper.

The computer started to act up on the Friday evening.

It was returned to the store the following day and an assistant accepted it was faulty. We received a replacement of the same model.

The replacement fired up — yes, I know this is not the terminology used by computer buffs — but we could not get it to do much else.

Believing the problem was down to the GM and yours truly doing things wrong, we were less than pleased when our Gillian was back home on the Tuesday and quickly concluded the replacement computer was at fault.

The GM returned to the store last Wednesday. Another assistant acknowledged computer number two was wonky and we could get a refund or choose another product. The GM liked a display model of a different make but the store would not have customer stock until the next day.

It transpired we were not able to get computer number three until around noon last Friday, which is why this column did not appear that day.

We generally shop within Inverclyde but on this occasion made an out-of-town purchase.

Last Friday, we politely requested some financial recompense for our travel costs and wasted time.

A supervisor said she could only knock £10 off — an offer we rejected. She advised a formal complaint could be emailed to the outlet’s headquarters.

Leaving for home, the GM had a face like thunder when she said: “How are we going to email anyone if computer number three does not work?” It is fine so far but will surely explode when it sees the content of the email of complaint the GM intends to send.