Here’s a seasonal story for you. Chris and Marion Clark, who run Marion’s Shop and Filling Station on Rousay in the Orkneys, wondered why every Switch transaction via Streamline in the run-up to Christmas involved a call to Streamline’s authorisation centre.

“As a consequence,” says Chris, “our customers have been delayed from leaving our store by at least five minutes while the transaction is brought to completion.” He wondered whether Streamline was side-lining small retailers during the festive season and lumping them with additional costs for the authorisation calls for the benefit of larger stores.

I spoke to Streamline who said this was most unusual and they agreed to look into it. I rang Chris with the news only to be told that it had just been sorted. BT had told him that a rat had chewed through one of the phone lines, buggering up the system somewhat.

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