Want a VAT receipt for a Microsoft Download: wait 45 days

I bought an online download of a Windows 8 update, and paid with a credit card. Very promptly, Microsoft emailed a receipt, specifying the amount of VAT. But no VAT number.

I went to the "online account" they had set up for me - and the receipt offered was similarly lacking. Eventually I tried Microsoft Store Customer Support. After 10 minutes on hold, the agent told me that I would be sent a VAT receipt 45 days after purchase. I'll have to wait and see whether that is true.

Could Microsoft perhaps save themselves and customers some hassle by making a note of this on the receipt that they send immediately after purchase, I suggested. "That's not the way things work".

What a miserable company to do business with: doing stupid things, and declining to listen to customers who want to help them be less stupid.

Limited space (or ambition?) at the Financial Ombudsman Service

Complain to the Financial Ombudsman Service and they ask you to send them supporting papers. So you copy the papers, and then head off to the Post Office to send your fatter-than-normal envelope.

A few days later, back comes an acknowledgement of your case, and your supporting paperwork. How kind.

But today I have discovered that whilst they may have read that paperwork, they don't actually keep a copy of it. If you want to escalate the case later, you have to send them the paperwork again. Find the paperwork again. Write a letter. Visit Post Office. Pay more oversized-letter postage.

Why don't they keep copies of your supporting paperwork? No storage space.

Why don't they scan them and keep electronic copies? "That isn't our policy".

Sounds like they fall at the first point in their Customer Charter "The provision of a professional and efficient service to the Bureau's customers".

Simple incompetence, a lack of ambition to do better, or a sneaky way to try and make sure that more complainants give up before the end of the process?