When Clarence the Computer came along we started our customer database, which continues to this day. We have the names and addresses, as well as the size, date and details of last purchase, on record. This was before the Data Protection Act and when it became law a busybody, not a customer I hasten to say, decided to report us. We would have been in trouble if we had not kept the forms the customers had filled in, giving their consent. Heaven knows what sinister use Mr. Busybody thought we could use the information for. Perhaps he thought the MIS in MISfit was really MI 5. Who knows? There are a lot of strange people out there.

Initially we used it to circularise customers who took a particular size where we found we were overstocked. We have since found other uses, but it remains an important tool which enables us to keep in touch with our customers in a focused sort of way. Major supermarkets have developed similar systems, evinced by my son getting discount vouchers for beer while ours are for cleaning materials. What Misfit does today Tesco does tomorrow; they just do it bigger and better than we do.

Databases can be dangerous things. They are very easily misread, and if you ignore the GIGO (Garbage In, Garbage Out) maxim you can get a slanted idea what is going in around you that denies the evidence of your own eyes. Badly edited mailing lists can waste time and money as well as annoying the customers, as our morning post, half of which goes straight in the bin, attests. An expensive travel firm we will never use has got hold of Mrs. Misfit's name, presumably they bought someone else's mailing list, which has resulted in our mail box being clogged by thick brochures, in which we are not in the slightest interested. The more the brochures come the more we tell ourselves their holidays must be too dear because the clients have pay for the brochures, so the whole operation is counterproductive. We have tried everything to stop them coming but they are implacable. Once on the mailing list even death, I suspect, will not get you off

We have a daughter in the computer business, who tells us they must reckon the cost of taking our name off their list is greater than the cost of annoying us. Daft, but most likely true. She tells me she could easily adjust their programme so that people who did not respond got taken off the list, but many firms think nagging their customers and everyone else is clever.

And now e-mail allows these people to bother you every day, at very low cost, even though being in the shoe business we have no interest in revising bodily parts most of our staff do not have, so we have had to buy a spam blocker. Thanks guys.

Do not expect a computer to suffer from common sense and don't let it run your business, which sounds obvious, but we are increasingly beset by firms who appear to have no humans on their workforce. Computers need watching all the time, otherwise they do daft things and make their owners look ridiculous, like the outfit who set their solicitor on me because my account was overdue in spite of my repeated protestations. For some reason the lawman balked at suing me when I was in credit.

What is more worrying, though, are companies who have got so far into cyberspace that they live there and nowhere else, one of which I encountered recently. There used to a rule that the name and address, registration number and names of the directors had to appear on all correspondence, so if things went wrong you knew which window to throw a brick through.

I thought it was just fly-by-nights and dodgy builders who kept their addresses secret until I needed to contact a company (not a supplier) about their service which was causing me grief. My problem was not covered by the FAQ's on their website and the call centre was useless, so in desperation I thought I would write a furious letter until I realised there was no address in the bill - after all - why should there be when they won't accept cheques? Nor was there any sign they operated from an actual building anywhere on the copious literature they spewed out. But I was too clever for them . Companies House came up with an address, so I sent them the letter and if they don't answer I'm getting my placard ready so I can march up and down outside their Head Office until they sort out my problem.

Unless of course it turns out that the Registered Office address Companies House gave me is their accountant's office, or even worse, a dodgy accommodation address - could they exist in an old shoe box at the back of a newsagents? Sorry - my imagination is running away with me.

But what about a new brand I heard about. Their publicity was full of the brilliant idea their young founder had had and the way he had developed it against all odds. It was only when I studied the leaflet which had come through the post and his website to find out where he came from that silence reigned. I am sure he will go far, if we can establish where he started from.

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