ADSL modem manufacturers, Alcatel, has apologised for refusing to talk to users about its products.

Earlier today a reader told El Reg that Alcatel wouldn't speak to him about their ADSL products.

Our reader said he'd tried that but failed to get the info he wanted.

So then Alcatel pointed him to their Web site.

And then they hung up.

El Reg was horrified to hear this and called up Alcatel's offices in the UK posing as a punter. We were fobbed off too - although thankfully, they didn't hang up on us.

A spokeswoman for Alcatel apologised but said it really was down to individual ISPs to provide support for these things.

However, she said a new pan-European call centre is set to open in a couple of months to handle enquiries from the public. Which is nice. ®