Thanks for the input guys. A collision damage waiver is included on the rental receipt but it states "Excess 1000" next to it. It states about the £1000 excess in a couple of other places so I'm pretty sure that is the excess. That said, a lot of info in the T&Cs refers to boxes on the form that don't exist, so I don't know where I stand with that. As far as I can see there are 2 issues. 1) The arguable cost of the repairs and 2) Whether I'm responsible for the loss of use of both van and car. 1) Personaly I think it's a bit suspicious that the repair bill adds up to so close to £1000 which just happens to be the excess amount. The quote from the garage they sent through is just a hand written note on a letter head and doesn't show Vat at all. So I'm legally entitled to insist they get another quote, is that correct? What's stopping them taking it to a garage they know is very expensive? 2) Am I responsible for loss of use on the car even though I wasn't hiring it and it isn't mentioned in the agreement? It says in the T&Cs that they reserve the right to charge the full rental price until the repairs have been completed. Is this legal? Is eveything in the terms legally binding? Also as they have my card details they probably have / are going to charge the £1000 now regardless of what I do. Do I let them do this? Ptestmably once they've taken the money it's going to be quite hard to get back any I'm entitled to? What steps should I take in what order? Sorry for all the questions and the rambling post, I'm just finding it hard to figure out what I should do.

Hi, Looking for some advice please? We moved house recently and hired a van to help with the move. Unfortunately when the hire company came to collect the van I managed to scrape the van into the side of the car (Micra) they had came in. The damage to both van and car was fairly minimal - light scratches on van and scratches and small dent on car. The excess on the insurance policy is £1000 and they are saying that I must pay all of this. They've said that as well as the repair costs I'm also responsible for the loss of earnings for both car and van while they are being fixed which they've said will be 5 days. Apparently the cost for this + repair is more than £1000 which is why I have to pay the full excess. At my request they faxed through an estimate from the garage they want to use which shows the cost for the car at £475 and the cost of van at £450. They also sent another sheet showing the loss of rental at £350. I completley admit fault for this but think that the costs are out of kilter for the damage that was done. Can anyone tell me what my rights are here? Am I entitled to get a quote for fixing the damage myself? Can I insist they get 3 quotes? How do I know they're actually going to fix the damage? If they don't get it fixed do I still have to pay for the down time? Can anyone help me with a bit of advice? Thanks.

Thanks for the reply. Wasn't offered a fixed penalty. I have 6 points on my license: 3 that are more than 6 years old and 3 that are 4 years old I think. So I don't think any of these actually "count".

Hi, Late last year got zapped for doing 58 in a 30 limit. It was on one of those roads where the limit goes from 60 to 30 with nothing in between, didn't slow down in time for the sign and got "got" perhaps 5-10 metres after the limit change. Don't mean to make excuses but just want to explain that I wasn't tearing through the middle of a village at 58. Anyway, my case is being held middle of June so I was looking for a bit of advice on how I should handle it. I plan to plead guilty, but mainly I just wanted to ask if it makes any difference if I attend or just plead guilty by post with a mitigating circumstances letter. Would attending mean that I'm dealt with more favorably? I feel I am better at communicating in written form than verbally and feel that I could better explain why I shouldn't lose my license (Job etc) in a letter than I could by physically attending court. Does anyone have any advice on this?

Did you get this resolved? We have a similar situation with Eon... We've now been in the property for 7 months(!) and have still not had a bill for the right meter, to the right address. Just the other day we got a welcome pack addressed to us which wait for it... was accompanied by a cheque made out to the old tenants for an over payment they made. How one company can be so **** I do not know. I've heard that there are standard compensations that must be made if utility companies don't sort out problems in a certain time frame. Does anyone know what these are or where I can find some info about them? Cheers, PTC

Thanks IdaInFife. That's cleared up item 1 at least. I'm still a bit unclear on 2 and 3 though: "The consumer may, at your discretion, be charged the direct cost of returning the goods, but you must tell them about this in the written information you give them." It doesn't say if the written information needs to be given to the consumer prior to the consumer canceling the contract. What's to stop the seller from saying "Right OK, you've canceled the contract and want me to pay for collection, so I'm just going to send you some written information now stating that the return must be at your cost"? It also doesn't explicitly say that the seller has to refund the outgoing postage if not specified. Is there somewhere official that clarifies this?

An estimate is not at all legally binding. It's an estimate. Tell him if he comes anywhere near your wall you'll call the police. And if he does, then call them.

???

Hi, I hope someone can clarify a few points for me about the DSR? These are the things I'm not too sure about: 1) If an ecommerce site has no terms and conditions of sale am I right in thinking that the 7 days statutory cancellation period is extended? I remember reading that it's extended to 30 days starting the day after the purchaser receives the terms and conditions. Is that right? 2) Am I right in thinking that if there is no mention of postage costs in a site's T&Cs in relation to returns, then the seller has to refund for the initial postage cost (If one was paid) and also pay for the return postage? - I know a site can stipulate in their terms that outward postage is non-refundable and return postage is at the customers cost (and they're justified to do this), but what happens if they don't specify anything? 3) Also, am I right in thinking that the customer can ask the seller to collect their goods? And that if the seller specifies prior to purchase that return postage is at the customers cost then they can charge for the cost of collection. BUT if they don't specify this before hand then they must collect at their own cost? Is all that correct? Thanks for your help. PTC

At least if you win the civil case your father will in affect have paid for his own funeral as he wanted.

No takers?

Hi, I recently purchased a pair of (Expensive) boots from a small shop in London. Like a lot of boots and shoes, the bottom of the sole (The bit that comes into contact with the floor) has stitching running around the edge. I'm not sure if this is just decorative or if it actually attaches the sole to the boot. Anyway, this stitching has broken away in a couple of places and has also torn through the rubber in between the stitches in a couple of places - So instead of there being 2 stitches in that particular place there is now just one big one. These boots have only been worn twice although I did purchase them in August/September. Firstly, is this normal for stitching on the soles of shoes to break away like this after only a few wears? Secondly, am I being overly picky here? The stitching is on the sole so can't be seen, but I know it's there and they certainly weren't cheap to buy. Thirdly, do I have a case for a refund / replacement if that's what I want? I have spoken to the shop who were pretty unhelpful and said "well it wasn't like that when we sold them to you" but did say to bring them in and they'll "have a look". Anyway, do I have a case for refund here or am I being too picky? Thanks for your help.

I don't know if it necessarily could be classed as a cancellation of contract under DSR the first time around. I think that unfortunately, agreed swap might be more accurate as the money wasn't refunded and then re-taken. I also didn't cancel the contract in writing the first time around as I didn't think there was any need to. Does this mean I'm not entitled to a refund?

Thanks raydetinu. That would stand to reason wouldn't it? Can anyone else confirm this? Is there any official source I can point them to if they refuse? I'm a bit concerned because their site states they only allow 3 working days for returns. I know this doesn't stand up as 7 days is statutory but it leads me to believe they'll try and refuse if there's anyway they can wriggle out of it.

Hi, Just looking for some guidance about the distance selling regulations... I bought a jacket over the internet and had to return it as it was too small and I asked them to replace it with a larger size of the same product. Unfortunately the larger size doesn't fit either (Body OK but arms too long). As I understand it I get 7 days from the delivery date in which to make a return, which I did with the first jacket. Do I then get another 7 days from the delivery of the second or am I now not able to return it as it's been longer than 7 days since the first jacket was delivered? (Hope that makes some sense) Some quick guidance on this would be appreciated as 7 days runs out on Monday so I'd need to catch tomorrows post. Thanks. PTC

OK thanks. I'll leave it then.

Hi, I was just about to purchase a couple of items of clothing from the Hardy Amies web site when I found out they had gone into receivership. Then I discovered they had been bought out by a Chinese investment company. The company in question is buying the brand, the Saville Row store and some other aspects of the company but not the other shops so these will be closing. None of the articles I've read mention the web site. What I wanted to know was whether it's safe to purchase from the site considering they may not be able to fulfil the order or won't be able to refund if I need to return some goods? Is there any reason for me to be concerned? Am I protected by consumer law in this regard? Thanks.

Thanks guys. But where do we stand legally on clamping him? I would assume you need some kind of license to do this which is why maybe using a company to do it would be better? Aren't there a number of steps that need to be taken first or is it OK to just go and clamp someone as soon as they park on your land? There must be some legal guidelines, or what's stopping us charging him £5,000 to get it released for instance? We have considered parking in their drive when they're out so when they return they can't use the garage or the drive but it's mainly my partners car and she's worried about them damaging it. tomo28: Unfortunately the van is now taxed.

Hi, Not sure if this is the right place for this as it's not strictly a consumer issue but I couldn't see anywhere else for it. Background: Myself and my partner live in a flat which is part of a block of 4. There are 5 parking spaces allocated to these flats - One each and a visitor. Unfortunately these spaces aren't numbered although each flat does have a designated space in the deeds AFAIK. Because they're not numbered each flat just uses which ever space is more convenient. We have one car between us. Opposite the entrance to our block are two semi detached houses. These houses each have a garage (for 1 car) and a drive way (for 1 car). The driveways also have an additional 3rd space between them presumably for a visitors space. There is also possibly another space to park in front of the car that's in each driveway. Our problem: Our "neighbor" in the house opposite insists on parking his battered old work van in one of the allocated spaces for the flats. The first time we noticed this, the van was left there for 3 months with no tax. We weren't exactly sure who it belonged to at first and we were on holiday for part of this time so we didn't report it to the police quick enough. Just as we got ourselves together with the other guys in our block and were about to report it, it was moved. Problem solved, or so we thought. Then a few days later it's back and since then it's back every day and is now taxed. Now when the van is not there it's switched with a Vectra which is also connected to the neighbor in question. So either way the space is always taken preventing anyone else from parking there and ensuring he always has a space. Day = Vectra. Night = Van. We were coming home from work one day and saw the "neighbor" in question loading the van. We politely mentioned that the spaces were allocated to the flats. We asked if he would be reasonable and park it somewhere else considering he has a drive way and a garage and we only have one parking space. As he has 3 vehicles at anyone time (4x4, Mercedes + Van/Vectra) I offered a solution to his problem by suggesting he either parked it at the end of his drive or went and spoke to the people in the terraced houses which are also part of the same development as they have a big double drive way each, which some of them don't use. His response? He said it would be more convenient for him if he could park in our space so he could unload his van more easily and suggested we speak to the guys in the terraced houses to see if WE could park there. I really had to hold onto my temper at that point but did manage to. After some more discussion he said he would sort it and we assumed this meant he wouldn't be parking there again. Next night we come home at about 11:00PM and surprise surprise he's parked there again leaving us nowhere to park. As all the lights were on we took the decision to knock at his door and ask him to move it as we didn't have anywhere to park. After some debate he decided that he didn't have the keys so couldn't move it. We asked if he expected us to knock on someone else's door to ask them to park in their driveway at 11:00 at night. He said "Well you knocked on my door at 11:00 at night" and "the spaces aren't numbered" etc etc. After this it became quite heated, with him starting to become quite aggressive and ending with him slamming the door in our faces. The next day we spoke to the management company who have confirmed that the spaces are allocated to the flats as we had been told previously - We had to confirm this as we rent and don't have access to the deeds. The management company have promised to send out a letter to everyone on the development outlining the parking restrictions. Failing this they said they will paint numbers on the spaces. This is all well and good, but after dealing with this guy I can't imagine he's going to take any notice of either of these steps and is going to carry on parking there anyway. My question is what can we do to stop him. My initial thought was to call the police and report him for trespassing or something similar but I've recently read that the police don't generally get involved with this kind of dispute. I also read that we could call a car removal company and they would tow the vehicle. Is there any truth in that? What do we need to do legally to make this happen? Is there anything else we could do or another approach we should take? Sorry for the rambling post but I felt the need to vent a bit of anger while asking for a bit of help. Any comments or advice would be very welcome. Thanks, PatsyTheCat

Hi, Purchased a sofa from DFS on Saturday. (I've read some bad things about them but it was the sofa we wanted so we bought it anyway). We put it on their "buy now pay later" scheme and the cost was £2000ish. I checked the site this morning to show someone at work what we'd bought and it's been reduced by £200! Is there anything I can do about this? Do I have the right to cancel the agreement and take out a new one? Or am I stuck paying the old price? Thanks

For everybody's information, I phoned Orange and they were fine with canceling the new contract and returning the phones. Cheers.

Yes it does thank you.

Hi, We've recently renewed our business mobile phone contracts and chose 2 new handsets (There are 2 of us) which we received last Wednesday. We've used both the phones but the new contract/tariffs etc don't take effect for about 2 weeks. We haven't signed any new documents for the renewal and all arrangements were made over the phone. Since then we have changed our mind and wish to cancel the contract if possible and return the phones. On the paperwork we got from Orange its says that if we're not happy with the phones for any reason then they can be returned withing 7 working days, but it doesn't say anything about whether we can cancel the renewal of the contract... But I'm sure I remember reading somewhere that if the renewal was taken out by phone then you have a cooling off period? Can anyone confirm where we stand on this and whether the contract can be canceled? Thanks for your help.

Hi Oggy1, It appears I'm in a similar position to you. I was awarded judgement by default but then the court pointed out that because I'd given them the PO Box address it may not be enforceable. Has this happened to you? I'm also trying to fight off them setting aside the case. Have you got any updates on your case? PatsyTheCat x

Hi there, I'm experiencing some difficulty with my claim for CITI. Nobody so far has responded in the CITI forum - just wondering if somebody could please take a look and give me some much needed guidance. Thanks PTC http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/citicards/126915-i-think-but-what-3.html