Thanks BF - just a note - I've been at the receiving end of physical threats during my time on this planet because I asserted myself. Although it was some time ago - that kind of experience sticks with you and makes you nervous of standing up for yourself - not everything is black and white. Anyhow - thanks again for your help - and you too - have a good festive period.

I just realised why the date on the ticket says the next day - it was an overnight stay of course! It's been a long day.

Congratulations and well done for standing up for yourself! You did the right thing and I'm sure your dad would be proud of you. I think the comment that your defendant was "bored of this" is quite telling - he was stringing you along to see if you would give up, and you wouldn't. Well done. If you are still keen to get it fixed properly - try asking at a "good" independent jewellers locally. If they can't do it themselves they may be able to recommend somebody who can. And if it's rare or valuable, try searching for a website of a trade guild or something. There's one below. (Hope you didn't find the other guy ther

Hi both - in answer to your questions Manxman - the watch has great sentimental value - and I am the daughter, I don't know why he thought I was the mother...it's been a string of incompetences on his part. And I did argue the cost. I was willing to pay for the parts he *said* he'd used, but I demanded £134 in the end, which was the total cost, minus parts used and minus the watch strap which I'd specifically asked him not to replace, plus court fees. AMAZINGLY - I received an email from him and because 'he was getting bored of all this' - I received a cheque for that amount, which has just cleared into my account, and

County court claim submitted today

deemed service is 5 days + 28 = 33 days but that was saturday so shouls have filed friday before 4pm. but anyhow as bf says give it till tomorrow or weds then

Ok, but I need to sanitise it a bit, give me a day or two.

done it for you. whilst you are both on the same thread... WERE these HFC accounts?

Thanks for this. Okay – this changes things a little – because I now understand that you haven't contacted Trading Standards. You have contacted Citizens Advice – which is what I rather suspect it – although I hoped that it might have been Trading Standards directly. Although as I have suggested, that would be highly unusual. I'm afraid that Citizens Advice are well-intentioned – but this might be the most that you can say about them. In terms of assertive action, I'm afraid that companies which decide to phoenix themselves can run rings around them. You're quite right about going to local dealerships. We have lots of cases her

This may be quite a long post. We are going to ask you for some help, – and give some advice as to how to deal with your particular problem. Firstly the help: it seems that you've managed to attract the attention of Trading Standards. That is really quite unusual. We deal with thousands of cases on this forum, many of them with retailers and service providers which repeatedly act unfairly and rip off their customers. We try very often to contact trading standards and we never manage to get them to pay any attention. It will be very helpful to other people who visit this forum to know how you managed to contact Trading Standards –