Fruity toymaker Apple's iTunes service is about as customer friendly as a rogue elephant with bull clips on its testicles. Forrester just released its annual Customer Experience Index, a ranking of some 133 companies across 14 industries.

Apple and its rivals were rated by regular users as to whether the service met the customer’s needs; how easy it was to work with a firm, and how enjoyable a customer’s interactions were with the company.

Barnes & Noble topped the list while online retailers Amazon.com and eBay did well most analysts were surprised at Apple’s iTunes poor performance. Jobs' Mob could only manage 46th place which is a little strange given the fact that it is supposed to be a cornerstone of Apple's much talked about but rarely seen “innovation”. The iTunes system did jolly well in disrupting the music industry, but users say it is as useful as a chocolate teapot.

Forrester points out that it did not interview the die hard Mac fanboys who probably think it is a god of online stores. Instead they spoke to ordinary people, the casual users who very few analysts normally talk too.