Thank you for replying. She has contacted O2 yesterday through the online chat thing (not my idea!) and they have basically told her that to cancel her contract she would need to pay £1000 due to the 'contract terms' - however they then refused to send her a copy of the contract by either post or email so she could actually see what these terms were. She was advised that if she goes into her nearest O2 store with ID they 'should' be able to provide her with a copy. She also asked for a copy of the bill/breakdown of the charges for this £900 they currently claim she owes. They are apparently unable to provide this. When she asked how she was supposed to know that she actually owed them £900 when she has no idea what it's supposed to be for, she was basically told, 'because we told you you owe it'. The woman was also quite rude and confrontational - insisting that they wouldn't speak to anyone else on her behalf regarding it (including someone from CAB), even though she told them she's disabled and would give permission for it. Great customer service so far from this company. I think we will try and get the SAR off on Monday and hopefully manage to get copies from that. Quick query - what kind of ID should she be including with this (I know she has no driver's licence as she's not classed as fit to drive and I don't think has a passport either) and will photocopies be okay? I can see her being reluctant to send anything original off to them. I've asked her to bring me everything she has from them over this weekend but God knows what she actually has. She's really not great with things like this at the best of times and had no clue who the DCA was when I asked her. I've got her to request a copy of the online chat conversation to be sent to her and told her not to speak to anyone on the phone about it anymore. Thanks all x

Hi all, I'm trying to help a friend with some major problems she's having with O2 and any help or advice would be very much appreciated. I don't have all the information yet as still trying to get it out of both her and O2 so shall update as needed. she had a phone contract with O2. The contract was too expensive for her and she switched to a PAYG sim. The contract still had time left to run so she kept paying the monthly basic amount to them. Now something has happened a few months back and I think she was late with a payment. She's now got a bill for over £900 for one month. She seems to have no idea what this is for - I'm assuming a heck of a lot of charges - and she is struggling to get any kind of itemised bill or break-down from O2. I've advised her to try and cancel the contract so she can then take it as a debt and arrange a payment plan, but they're refusing to do this and saying it would cost her over £1,000. At the moment they are asking for around £165 a month to pay this off and refusing to budge on the amount. She's disabled and on ESA so there's no way she can afford this kind of payment. I'm still looking into the details but to start with: I'm trying to get a copy of her contract to find out what it says about both charges and cancellation - O2 are refusing to provide this in spite of her asking several times now. (Def bringing up the red flag for me!) Would she be best sending them a SAR to get all both this and copies of her bills. I read on here that the new O2 contracts actually fall under the Consumer Credit Act - would this mean she could also claim back these charges under that Act? Once she does finally manage to get the contract cancelled, am I right in thinking that because she is on benefits they are obliged to accept whatever payment she can afford? She's a bit clueless on these kind of things and they have debt collectors calling and harrassing her all the time so she's very upset and scared about it. Is there any way to get them to stop doing this because of her disability? Surely there is some kind of protection against them bullying a vulnerable person? Thanks for any help, it's really appreciated x

The meter reading are mostly correct I think. The last one says estimated but it doesn't look much out. (Though confusingly a lot of the readings have C next to them for 'customer provided' - I've never provided them a reading, they come check the meter or they estimate!). There are two readings but neither says E10 next to it, also doesn't seem to say E10 anywhere in the tariff. When I was on the phone to the new energy provider they seemed baffled that I could be with co-op on an E10 as they said they don't provide an E10 option. Think will put a complaint in. Perhaps I might be better waiting until I'm officially moved though - don't want anything holding it up.

Hi all, Could really do with some advice on this - apologies if it's a bit long! Several years ago I was with Scottish Power, I have electric only on an Economy 10 meter and they were going to put my monthly charge up to £70 a month. This seemed high so I started shopping around and was offered £50 a month from Co-op energy. It seemed good, I signed up. The switch-over took about 6 months to go through, during this time Scottish Power lodged an objection saying the Co-op couldn't deal with Economy 10 meters - I spoke to Co-op about this, they assured me they could and it eventually all went ahead. Straight away there were issues - because the switch over took so long then for a while I was unsure which energy provider I was actually with, then Co-op had a problem with my direct debit and that was cancelled and I was moved onto quarterly (without asking me). I kept waiting for bills, chasing them up etc. In the end it was nearly a year before I got my first bill from then. At this point I realised that rather than the £50 a month they'd quoted me, they had been charging me almost £90 a month! When I queried this several times I just got fobbed off - it was just a quotation, they couldn't be held to it etc. When I asked for a break-down of the bill, again I got fobbed off. So I was now stuck with a bill almost double what I had been expecting and unable to pay it. I told them I was extremely unhappy with both their service and their prices - their reply was that tough, I couldn't move until the debt was paid off. Anyway, long story short, the debt is now paid off and I am moving away from them (thank God!). I want to know if there's anything I can do about this though. I'm fairly convinced that they have no idea how to deal with an Economy 10 and haven't been charging me right for the entire time I've been with them - they should never have agreed to take it if they couldn't manage surely? My bill from them says that I have used 2550 units a year - and my 'estimated' cost should be about £450 - yet I'm getting charged well over double that. On my last quarterly bill my electric usage and service charges are all itemised at the bottom as £123 yet my bill total at the top is £260? I have asked them several times to explain this to me but get no answer. In addition, they have been extremely harrassing to me about the debt - towards the end I was getting numerous letters every week, even though payments were being made every month towards the arrears and I had advised them numerous times by email that I was paying it off as fast as I was able. I haven't checked my credit file yet but am pretty sure this will have negatively affected it. I'm just extremely frustrated with them but not sure how to proceed. I feel like they have misinformed me from the very start. Should I take to the ombudsman? Is there a way to work out if they actually have been mischarging me, and if so, can I claim that back? Thanks for any help - it's really appreciated.

Hi, Really need some advice, sorry if it's a little long. My partner has recently finished his second year of a 4 year degree course. He has done I think 2 years before but had to leave the course due to mental health issues (his previous uni offered little to no help or support with these). After a few rather bad years he ended up starting all over again, going back to college and then being offered a place on a very well respected course doing a subject he loves. We moved 200 miles, left family etc. I've moved job, but I feel it's worth it as he has improved no end. Anyway we were originally told that since we're on a very low income he would get full grants/maintenance loans and his fees paid - we received the official statements from Student Finance to this effect. Towards the end of his second year he started getting reminder emails from his uni saying the fees hadn't been paid for the first year and only half of them for the second year. He went into the finance office with the statements from Student Finance and they agreed that it clearly stated they were paying the fees so it must be a mistake and they would chase them up. Anyway we finally hear back at the end of his second year that Student Finance are refusing to pay for the first 2 years since he has already done 2 years previously. This was literally the first we had heard of it and they couldn't explain why they had said on the statements that they were going to pay. My partner wouldn't have started the course and we wouldn't have moved if we'd known we'd have to pay the fees as there's no way we can afford them! After many phone calls and complaining my partner spoke to a manager there who agreed with him that since it was their mistake in saying they would pay and they had already paid half the fees for the second year then they would pay that year and we would have to pay the first year. This wasn't ideal but we were hopeful that the uni would accept installments since the year had been completed so we agreed to this. They paid the rest of the second year fees and the uni confirmed this. I've been chasing them today about his grant which they told me had been put on hold pending income information and they now tell me that not only are they not going to pay it now but they have 'reassessed' the fees and are going to take them back from the uni. I explained to them what had happened and how a manager had authorised it under the circumstances but they were not interested and simply stated the uni would probably be in touch soon chasing the money! I really don't know what to do now. I can't believe that after agreeing this they would suddenly go back on it. My partner would never have started this course if we had known this in the beginning but he is doing really well on it and I don't want him to have to drop out and still have us stuck with a massive bill for the fees. Any advice gratefully received!!

Urgh, still no judgement, over 2 weeks after it went to the judge and am getting a wee bit impatient - how long do these things normally take?

I didn't think the bank case should have been referred to, was a little strange. Anyway I've had a General Form of Judgement come through which is basically the list the judge gave on the day of the additional information he wanted. There are 3 items the bank needs to send in and 1 item I do - these all should have been into the court and to the other party by last Friday. I sent mine but haven't received the items from them. On the other hand it also clearly states on the form (the judge emphasised this on the day) that no further evidence was to be submitted - yet HBOS have now submitted their actual defence, around a month after it should have been in and nearly 2 weeks after the hearing. Just when I think they can't annoy me anymore lol. It doesn't actually say on the Form though what happens if parties don't do what's ordered - I'm assuming it would say if I could get them struck out for non-compliance? Wondering if it's worth calling the court up again, though they should be aware of it already?

Well what a day that was! Travelling down from Scotland so set off before 8am to make sure I wasn't late, went to the court at 1.45pm for case at 2pm to be met by an 'agent' solicitor that SCM had hired from the area and who told me she had been told to press for an adjournment. Was a bit gutted at this point as was fairly sure she would get it - but the judge was great! Really laid into them, saying they had sent this request just 3 days before when they had had the directions for months - if they had been waiting judgement for this case they should have asked for adjournment earlier or asked for permission to submit documents late as they had put in no defence (apart from a 2 page basic one in response to my N1 form) was saying that if he allowed it then was giving them permission to ignore the court timescales as well as waste court time and mine since I had travelled down. Also said that since the other case was also county court and not high court then he wasn't bound by any decision that might be made on it. Anyway he asked me if I wanted to adjourn any part of the case but said would just go ahead. Actually felt a little sorry for the agent, they had obviously been so sure they would get the adjournment that they had her virtually nothing to go on for an actual defence. So, case got heard at least. Went into a lot more depth on some points then I had thought he would, thought I'd done my homework but could have done with a bit more on some points! He also asked me what I thought on the Bank Charges case - which I don't know in great detail as I was using a different legal argument. When I said that he then asked me to look at s6 of Utccr to see what I thought of it in relation to my case, which was very unprepared for. Ended up saying that I didn't think it related to my case and if he disagreed with my argument on them being penalties then I was relying merely on s5 for my second argument. Also the interest seems to be the major issue at the moment, I was going for deprivation of monies and unjust enrichment. Not sure how it went to be honest, he has asked for new calculations of the interest rates to show various scenarios - ie interest was stopped in 2009 when I went on a dmp so he wants an option to just show interest to that rate in the event he rules against the unjust enrichment side of it. Said he was going to look over for 10 mins and then advised the agent solicitor she might want to get hold of her clients and ask them if they wanted to settle any part of it (ie the charges part) as he wasn't saying it would go against them but it was his experience that the banks did not like having judgements set down against them and they might want to offer. Anyway she was on her phone the minute we went out and on it and on it, usher called us back in and she was making them wait. Eventually comes back to say she couldn't get hold of anyone there to authorise a settlement. Judge said he will wait for new calculations, some statements from them and will look at the judgement for the other case when it comes through - although he may not necessarily agree with it and it is not binding on this case. So have to wait about 3 weeks. Just to finish it off the agent says she's been instructed to ask for her costs in attending and prep - judge says to her, 'well you only came asking for adjournment, how much prep could you have done' (had to try and keep a straight face there), anyway he wrote down her request and said to her he was putting next to it 'highly unlikely', he then turned to me and asked what my travel costs for the day were and wrote those down as well saying I should get those if I win. So, it's done at least - just got to wait and see now so fingers crossed.

Hi all, My court date for my credit card charges reclaim is this week and looks like they are taking it all the way. Am a little nervous as I haven't been to court before so just wondering if anyone could give me an idea of the kind of things they will be asking etc. Can post up Statement of Evidence if that helps. Have had nothing back from the solicitors since their defence to my original POC. Thanks

Hi Jazzer, Good luck with it, be prepared for them to dig their heels in on the interest. They offered me the charges back fairly quickly but am still fighting over getting the contractual interest back.

No they are defending, have sent them my court bundle last week and have checked it has been received on the track and trace - but says TSB on the signature reference which is why it's worrying me that they might try to claim Lloyds have received it instead and they haven't got it.

I have all that, have my court date through But I always send everything recorded delivery and I am having it signed for and then a letter coming from Lloyds returning it saying it's nothing to do with them. I send it to the address on SCM correspondence but when I have looked them up they're in the same building as Lloyds. Basically I'm looking for something to cover me if they start trying it on by saying they haven't received court documents because they've been received by Lloyds 'instead' when they're basically the same place.

Hi all, Any help on this much appreciated - I am currently taking Halifax to court to reclaim credit card charges and it is being dealt with by SCM Solicitors (I have posted this in the HBOS board as well but thought Lloyds customers might have experience with them). Whenever I try and send them items through the post I am getting them returned by Lloyds Tsb saying they don't know anything about it. Now I have read in several places that Lloyds actually own SCM and I can see that the address is in the same building so am pretty sure this is yet another delaying tactic. But can anyone please point to me at something official saying that Lloyds took them over so I have something to go back to them with (or something to show in court if they complain they haven't received items). Many thanks

Hi all, Any help on this much appreciated - I am currently taking Halifax to court to reclaim credit card charges and it is being dealt with by SCM Solicitors. Whenever I try and send them items through the post I am getting them returned by Lloyds Tsb saying they don't know anything about it. Now I have read in several places that Lloyds actually own SCM and I can see that the address is in the same buildling so am pretty sure this is yet another delaying tactic. But can anyone please point to me at something official saying that Lloyds took them over so I have something to go back to them with (or something to show in court if they complain they haven't received items). Many thanks

Hi, I would appreciate some advice on this. Due to various problems that I won't go into now my house was repossessed (voluntarily surrended) last year, I wasn't living in it at the time but had still been paying the council tax at the reduced rate for unoccupied property. I wrote to the council recorded delivery on the 30th September 2010 to advise them the property had been repossessed and I had filled in a form on their webiste for exemption of council tax due to this. I gave them my full contact details as well as those of the mortgage company and asked them to let me know if they needed any more information. I didn't hear from them so assumed all was fine. Then at the end of Feb this year I received a bill for this year's council tax, within a week of being informed by the mortage company that they had now sold the property (at a substantial loss). I rang the council up and advised that I had already informed them the property had been repossessed and it had now been sold on so I had no further liability. They said they needed proof from me of the date it had been repossessed. I didn't have an exact document saying so advised them I would contact the mortgage company for it and send it onto them. Less then a week later I received a court summons from them, the letter was dated the 3rd May but I only receieved it on the 10th and the court date is the 19th. The claim is for this year's council tax, which I can already prove I have no liability for as I have a letter dated Feb stating the property has been sold - however the court summons says I have to attend if I want to defend the claim. I currently live 200 miles away so it would cost me a lot to travel plus I don't think I would be able to get the time off work at this short notice. Surely I should have a right to put in a defence by post? I am very annoyed with them for doing this when they knew what the situation was and would really resent them being awarded court costs just because I'm unable to attend. Any help much appreciated.