And just to make things even worse, we’ve now had confirmation there will be no Family Pack of Windows 7 until “at least” 2010. So, if the worst comes to the worst, that means it could be 2011. Or later.

I’ll tackle the Anytime Upgrade prices first – just to explain, these are the “in-place” upgrades you can choose, so if you buy a Windows 7 Home Premium laptop but decide you want Windows 7 Professional you just need to buy a new key and your OS is converted on the spot.

Here are the three key potential upgrades:

Windows 7 Home Premium –> Professional: £120 inc VAT

Windows 7 Home Premium –> Ultimate: £125 inc VAT

Windows 7 Professional –> Ultimate: £85 inc VAT

Take a moment to digest that (especially if you’re a business user that wants to upgrade your Windows 7 Professional laptop to Ultimate so you can take advantage of advanced features like BitLocker 2 Go). And now take a look at the US prices:

Windows 7 Home Premium –> Professional: $90 (around £54)

Windows 7 Home Premium –> Ultimate: $140 (around £84)

Windows 7 Professional –> Ultimate: $130 (around £78)

That almost defies comment. Yes, dollar-price exchange rates fluctuate; yes, Americans have to pay a sales tax in most states, which isn’t accounted for in those prices. But, really, we have to pay that much more than our US friends? Anyone fancy a mass trip to New York?

And then, just to rub our noses in it that bit more, we have the fact that UK users can’t buy the Family Pack of Windows 7 due to the ridiculous mess that is the Windows E edition (in short: there’s no Internet Explorer built in to the EC editions of Windows 7, and Microsoft says that makes it technically impossible – right now – to upgrade direct from Vista).

The Family Pack allows Americans and Canadians to upgrade up to three Vista computers to Windows 7 in one fell swoop, all for $149. So, um, that’s £89 then? And remind me, how much does the upgrade version of Windows 7 Home Premium cost for us UK buyers? Oh yes, £80 inc VAT. So for three PCs, that’s a rather princely £240 inc VAT.

Rip-off UK pricing doesn’t even begin to cover it.

Naturally, Microsoft was keen to make its spokespeople available for comment. What? Oh, you say that when we tried to call – after receiving this bad-news email at 5.15pm this evening - all we got was voicemail? Surely not.

Ah, but what’s this that Barry Collins has just forwarded me if not Microsoft’s answer to our anticipated question “The prices seem high, how do you justify these?”

A. First, we know most customers buy a PC preinstalled with the right edition for them – that is the easiest and by far the most popular way to get a new operating system.  That said, Windows 7 WAU pricing is comparable to – and in some cases significantly lower than – Windows Vista WAU pricing.  And while Windows 7 pricing is comparable to previous versions, new features add value through richer scenarios and more possibilities, offering a simplified computing experience with more options to enjoy and use media on their terms, work anywhere and get more done.

Right, well that’s okay then.

Look, I love Windows 7. And I will, at the earliest opportunity, convert all PCs I can touch to the OS. But until Microsoft learns to treat the UK, and the rest of Europe, with the respect it deserves, it will continue to get negative press.

Now before everyone rushes off to bag this bargain, I should point out that you can also buy Home Premium for £166.37! Obviously excluding VAT again, Microsoft has to make a living you know.

A quick trawl online reveals the going rate for the full version of Vista Home Premium is around £130 inc VAT – and you can buy it for less than £90 inc VAT if you’re willing to opt for the more restricted OEM version, which is tied to the motherboard you first install it on (so if you build a new PC, you’ll have to buy a new copy of Windows).

So, taking away VAT, Microsoft is charging a premium of over £50 if you buy direct from its store. It would be amazing to discover just how many sales it’s made for these two excellent picks, but sadly I don’t think I’m going to get much joy out of Microsoft on that one. My guess? A princely zero.

For now, we just want to hear about your bad experiences, but please don’t name them for legal reasons – we’ll get in touch with you privately if we decide to follow up your lead.

In particular, we want to know:

- Were you charged for unnecessary repairs?

- Or were you horribly overcharged?

- Did your local repair shop misdiagnose a simple fault?

- Were files missing or deleted from your PC?

You can post a reply below, making sure not to name or identify the shop, and we’ll contact you via the email address you supply.

Alternatively, email me directly: editor at pcpro.co.uk.

Your details won’t be revealed and will be treated in strict confidence.

But we’ve decided that it can’t get a PC Pro Recommended award for one simple reason: in the US, it costs $699. In the UK, it costs £619. With VAT, it actually costs £727 – more than the dollar price.

We’re well aware of the arguments given for prices being higher in the UK (and indeed the rest of Europe and Australia) than the US, and these might justify a 20% even 30% price hike. But almost 100%?

I asked Adobe about this directly, and its response was: “”We establish our prices in Euro, Yen, and USD on a regional basis using a consistent methodology. There are two primary influences on our pricing: our costs of doing business, and customer research that assesses the value of the product in the local market. Both of these influences vary significantly from one region to another.”"

And I can see the argument. As it happens I don’t blame Adobe. It’s a publicly listed company that by definition is always out to maximise its profit.

No, I blame us – the UK press that recommends the product and the people that go out and buy it.

After all, the key phrase is “the value of the product in the local market”. That will be based to a large extent on how many copies its research suggests it will sell if it releases Acrobat Pro, or any other product, at £619. And clearly, research shows that the British consumer will buy.

It’s only by people keeping their credit cards in their wallets (and, to a far lesser extent, publications like PC Pro highlighting the discrepancy) that Adobe will reduce its prices.

So, as Sir Alan Sugar would say, regretfully we won’t be giving Acrobat 9 the Recommended award it deserves in each and every other way.