Sometimes we're faced with tough choices and I've had one to deal with this week already.

I write reviews for Remote Goat mainly so that I can get to see a lot of theatre for very little cost, but sometimes I wonder what that cost might actually be.

I'm not talking about my sanity here, but what I'm talking about is that I have to review what I experience and I can't help but wonder if posting a negative review, or even one with negative comments in an overall positive experience might prejudice future producers, directors and actor colleagues against working with me?

I know it shouldn't do so and that they should respect that I'm doing a job and would expect reviewers, even those who are friends, to review any production that I am in, and any performance that I give on stage or immortalise on film, an accurate and fair review. But there's a little tiny nagging voice of doubt at the back of my head that makes me hover long and hard in thought before hitting the "Submit Review" button when I've got copy waiting to go.

Where I have no hesitation at all in writing about poor performance are those times when a restaurant or private members club like Shoreditch House for example, or a retail outlet like Orange fall woefully short on service.

Picture the scene at Shoreditch House at Monday lunchtime. A smattering of people on the sun loungers pool side, the single swimmer in the pool calmly swimming lengths, perhaps ten members in the restaurant/bar indoors and a large number of staff who dutifully ignore members. I was there with a friend who is a long standing member and even they commented that the service on a Monday is "usually" a little slow but that waiting for almost an hour for drinks to arrive was taking the pee somewhat. There was even a staff member seemingly more interested in watering the plants, by hand with what appeared to be a jug of ice, than he was in taking beverage and food orders. I am fully aware that I now sound like a spoilt little thesp but I wouldn't have expected to wait for an hour to order drinks. This is in a venue that prides itself on service and style. Really? Still, I have to say I'd happily return and laze by the pool even if you have to wait hours for service just because the view of the City from that rooftop is magical.

And now to Orange. Let's set the scene... about 9 months ago I bought a Blackberry Curve 8520 on payg because, as an actor and writer it is important for me to have access to email and the web wherever I happen to be and also as an actor it's important to know what my monthly outgoings are. So far so simple...

After a period of weeks the phone started to slow up, lock up at times, do weird things like not recognise any of the music tracks that I'd synch'd to it via Blackberry Desktop. Eventually, after about 8 months of slowly deteriorating service on the phone I took it back to my local Orange shop. Which just so happens to be the one that I bought it from too. I explained that the phone was locking up, dropping wi-fi, generally misbehaving to the point where it would need rebooting a couple of times a day.

I was delighted to receive stunningly seemless customer service in store as the assistant agreed that what was wrong with my Blackberry was not acceptable. She also mentioned that it was one of a number of "known" issues with the Curve 8520. I arranged delivery of replacement handset for the next day and thought "well done Orange! Brilliant service!".

The replacement handset arrives and all is good. For a week. One week. 7 little days.. Until the handset locks. Again. And again. At the end of the week the replacement handset was regularly dropping calls, not playing tunes stored on it, and a number of times an hour I would see something like (and I paraphrase here) Application rim_messaging not working or Application rim_phone not working... and, as had previously happened, if I received a phone call whilst I was texting or emailing someone then the phone would lock up, it wouldn't show me who was calling, just would freeze. After perhaps as long as five minutes it would suddenly spring to life and reveal that it had opened every single app on the phone. Although not being a technically minded person I knew that this was not right. So I returned with the handset to my local Orange shop once again but this time seeking a refund or credit note and the ability to upgrade my handset by paying more money.

I can't tell you how shocked I was when the assistant in the shop said that I can't do that and that I was "stupid" to think that I could. I asked her to call customer services and after much protestation about me being "difficult" she did. Only to then argue with customer services about whether or not they would let me spend money in their shop. After about 40 minutes or so I gave up and tried emailing customer services. No reply. I searched online forums and found the email to the Executive Office and thought they'd reply. Nothing. So then I resorted to Twitter. I found the name to of the guy who does PR for Orange and sent him an open tweet. He responded by asking someone else to get in touch. They have. I have an email address which I've forwarded everything to and now I'm waiting for their reply. They've said they'll sort it all today but I've very little faith now in anything that Orange, or its staff, say.

I'll reserve judgement before heading off to 3 though. And I'll keep you all updated but I will return to more acting type themes once this "issue" has been resolved.