Ye gods, I’ve been calling for it for years and finally the new boss of electricals giant DSG (Curry’s and PC World) is doing customer service a favour and sending all 20,000 staff back to retail school. He’s opened academies in stores to drum the basics of ‘greet the customer and explain the product’ into employees as part of an attempt to turn around the firm. Complaints about the surly and ill-informed sales assistants are legion so there’s even a ploy to incentivise the knuckle-draggers with the promise of a £25,000 bonus at the end of the year for the top performers. Improved service will be much needed at DSG – who posted their first ever loss this year (-£192m!) but that aside the US competitor Best Buy is about to come to our shores. Best Buy are renowned for informed, sharp customer service. They are working hand in hand with Carphone Warehouse, and the pair aim to start eating at DSG’s market share.

Nintendo has come bottom in a Greenpeace ranking of the world’s most eco-friendly electronics firms, with a score of less than 1. Microsoft came second from last. Nintendo said it’s scored low because it had not provided data for the survey. But Greenpeace don’t buy that, saying the campaign group had regularly contacted the games firm since 2007 but had not had any response. In the end it had been forced to use information from Nintendo’s website, she said. Earlier this year, Nintendo was criticised by Greenpeace for its “non-existent” environmental policy. The quarterly survey was first started in August 2006 and is now in its eighth edition. It ranks the top market leaders of the mobile phone, computer, TV and games console markets according to their policies and practices on toxic chemicals and recycling. The organisation said that the guide has already led to a reduction in the amount of toxic chemicals being used in the electronics industry. Sony and Sony Ericsson were the only companies to score more than five out of 10.

Rail union bosses have accused transport giant Stagecoach of putting profits before the service and safety of its passengers. As Stagecoach end of year figures boasted nearly £175m in profits, boss Brian Souter said fuel costs, increased road congestion and environment concerns drove the big increase in bus and train passengers. But the group is on a cost cutting exercise, for example cutting ticket office hours at South West Trains stations. The RMT’s leader Bob Crow said: “That puts up to 140 jobs at threat, undermines safety and service and is unacceptable. People want to see more staff on stations, not fewer.” But hey! It’s a business… Stagecoach did warn there was a “significant risk” to its expansion plans as maintenance on the west coast line - currently being undertaken by Network Rail - would not be finished by December. Quelle surprise

Two British brothers have been recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for their services to the computer games industry. David and Richard Darling have been made Commanders of the Order of the British Empire for their pioneering work in the computer games sector. They started their firm, Codemasters (in between vast bouts of self-abuse) in their bedroom in 1986. They are behind such titles as Colin McRae Rally, Sensible Soccer and Lord of the Rings Online. The two brothers left the firm in last year, selling their final shares and trousering £100m into their virtual pockets. Development has been seen as key to the firm’s success with £40m invested back into the R&D side of the business in 2006 alone. Hey - there’s room at the top!

No surprise in the latest Which? car survey: if you want reliability, go east. Honda is still making the UK’s most reliable cars - only slightly ahead of rival Toyota. Meanwhile Renault, Land Rover and Chrysler seem to be the brands to avoid. Around 90,000 Which? members took part in the survey creating the country’s largest car reliability survey. Overall, the Honda Jazz is the most reliable car on Britain’s roads, with a score of 96%. This is a stunning result, given the number of Which? members that drive one - more than 1,000. The Skoda Fabia and the new Volvo C30 also each recorded a score of 96% but with much smaller sample sizes. Korea can strand proud: cars manufactured by Hyundai and Kia performed better, or as well as, those made by the German luxury brands Mercedes, BMW and Audi. Britain’s best-selling car, the Ford Focus, scored a respectable 90%, while the rival Vauxhall Astra fared less well with a score of 83%. While the Honda Jazz might hold the top spot, they can’t rest on their laurels: the Swindon-made Honda Civic fell well short of the brand’s usual reliability standards, sitting in joint-bottom place - on 82% in the medium car section, along with the Citroën C4.