I am currently seeking to recover charges from GMAC,amongst others, and have become aware that the tactics they are using with me are identical to those used against others. Basically they only filed a defence on the 29th day and are seeking to have judgement set aside,also the counterclaim is similar to others ie threatening to claim their costs etc. If all of us who have been treated this way were to put these facts in a statement of some sort that could be presented to the courts, then I am sure that GMACs solicitors, in my case Eversheds, could be shown to be abusing the legal process, for which i beleive they will then have to put up or shut up. What do you thinK?? perhaps it would work for other institutions too

MCOL page shows judgement issued on 28/12, however today I have receive d from Eversheds GMACS sols a copy of the clients defence which they say was filed at court on 29/12. On the last page where the statement of truth is signed it is just dated December 2006 no day, and it states served and filed this ... day of December, again no date The defence is basically that the contract i signed agreed these charges and thay are a true pre estimate blah blah.As regards the Common Law, Unfair Contract Terms Act and Unfair terms in Consumer Contracts Regs it states that I have given insufficiant particulars. Also states they wish to claim costs not exceeding £5000 but no breakdown given. Where do I go from here, and as the form is not properly dated is it legal??

Have today applied for Judgement against GMAC as they have failed to file any defence

Well almost! After much trouble with TalkTalk I decidedto go back to BT. Today was the day my line should have been taken on by BT, but alas no, despite their verbal contract this would happen today they have renaged on this. pparantly a form one of their operatives is supposed to fill in has gone missing. I am told that this has happened to several other customers but BT dont know what has happened. I have been told I have to wait another 2 weeks before i can be migrated. I was going to take up BT Broadband but there is only 5 days left for the offer on their website so i will miss that. Where do I stand now with BT in breach of their contract, albeit verbal with me

Ive just got them to give me a cheque for £200 and pay all my bills ubtil BT take back the line on 11/12 I can give you loads of e mail adresses and some direct numbers if you want them. I used to e mail about 8 people in TT every day with an update of the problems i was having if you request a read reciept you know they have been read, and eventually you will win

I have had nothing but problems with Talk Talk since signing with them in May 06. I am now in the process of switching back to BT. Talk Talk are paying my bills up to transfer date and have given me £200 for inconvenience. Threaten them with suing for breach of contract and if you want some contact e mails and phone nos PM me. I used to e mail several people in their company evry day until it was sorted or until they gave mesatifactory compensation.

Just heard back from MCOL that GMAc intend to defend the claim. I will be very interested to see their calculations on how they reach these charges. On the BM front i sent back theform they sent me accepting their offer, I marked the letter without prejudice, and I also asked them to provide me with a full breakdown of solicitors charges of £527 for aborted reposession proceedings. After all if I am to pay the bill it is only fair that I see their invoice. After that I will go for the ERC

GOOD NEWS!!!!! yesterday I have been in touch with BT and they are taking back the line on 11 Dec. Billy Jones Head of Complaints rang me yeaterday and stated that TT woulod not request any money for the poor service they have provided, send me a cheque for £200 compensation and would oversee the transfer to BT.

Just charges going after them for ERC now

I have been in dipute with this farcical company for over 3 months re poor braodband speed and not been able to get call display on my phone. I e mail every day to the following e mail addresses Brooms@cpwplc.com dunstoc@cpwplc.com customerservices@TalkTalk.co.uk cstalktalk@cpw.co.uk dunstonec@cpw.co.uk MossN02@cpwplc.com HalliwP@cpwplc.com RicharB@cpwplc.com thatchd02@cpwplc.com If you use these addresses request a read receipt They are either on the board or high level complaints. Here is a list of the e mails I have sent still have restriction on phone. However it is a breach of my privacy and human rights that callers to me can here the restiction message too. Spoke to someone in credit control 15 minutes ago who said it was a fault on the line. She put me through to faults, but all I got was a recoreded message giving me 2 numbers to ring GUES WHAT I CANT RING ANY NUMBERS FROM MY LANDLINE what monkeys are you employing. I have now sent a complete dossier of all the problems I have had to all the national newspapers local newspapers the BBC and ITV. Update someone from faults has just answered after being on hold for ages and guess what they had to put me through to LLu faults........ now holding for them DONT HOLD YOUR BREATH ----- Original Message ----- From: Martin To: TalkMD ; RicharB@cpwplc.com ; Paul Halliwell ; Natalie Moss 02 ; dunstonec@cpw.co.uk ; CustomerServices@talktalk.co.uk ; customerservices@TalkTalk.co.uk ; Charles Dunstone ; brooms tal;ktalk Sent: Sunday, November 26, 2006 10:24 AM Subject: No phone Still restriction on phone despite being promised it would be 1 to 24 hrs but more like a couple of hours by Kathy in Credit Control. Also today the internet connection is constantly dropping out so we are back to square 1. I have had to use my mobile phone to make calls therefore the small claims summons I will be issuing will include all those calls and a claim for the amount of time I have wasted in waiting in phone queues and e mailing you. In my job I earn £30 per hour so you will be billed at that rate. Please put my line back to its original state prior to llu with immediate effect and arrange for BT to take over the line and the broadband connection. I do not expect however to have any downtime on the phone or broadband during this transition Today has been the final straw. I have had an outgoing call restriction placed on my phone. probably due to me having not paid the last bill, which I informed you I was not doing until all the matters are resolved. It has taken me most of the morning to resolve this. I have been passed from one department to another, placed on hold for over 40 minutes, been cut off twice. How on earth you can all hold your heads up high and say you are running a good service. All my problems will soon be published on the web for others to read so they can avoid your company. I will also publish all e email and telephone numbers I have amassed. Broadband speed still lower than 2mb see file attachment which is a screen-print of the latest speed test results ----- Original Message ----- From: Martin To: brooms tal;ktalk ; Charles Dunstone ; customerservices@TalkTalk.co.uk ; CustomerServices@talktalk.co.uk ; dunstonec@cpw.co.uk ; Natalie Moss 02 ; Paul Halliwell ; RicharB@cpwplc.com ; TalkMD Sent: Saturday, November 18, 2006 9:52 PM Subject: good news Download speed much improved now thanks to help from one of your engineers. Still not 8mb though or anything near it but its an improvement. So you only have the other two issues to sort out now One day Id love to send an e mail with the above subject but alas i dont think it will ever be in regard to talktalk!! Still no joy download speeds averaging 500kbps You are also not addressing all the questions I have sent in my e mail. Spent nearly 2 hours on the phone today to an Indian Tch support ( I have more technical knowledge than him!!) He said someone would call me back in 5 days, what use is that. Let me remind you of thi s again Our philosophy We aim to exceed our customers’ expectations by providing an innovative approach to service. To stay at the front of this dynamic and rapidly moving industry, we constantly develop new ideas and services for our customers. These do not always come from the top and we rely on people throughout the business to maintain our high standards. By incorporating new ideas in retailing and new technologies, we have created a stimulating and rewarding environment for all of our employees. Our philosophy is best summed up in our Five Fundamental Rules. If we don't look after the customer, someone else will. Nothing is gained by winning an argument but losing a customer. Always deliver what we promise. If in doubt, under promise and over deliver. Always treat customers as we ourselves would like to be treated. The reputation of the whole company is in the hands of each individual. So far you have failed on all five ----- Original Message ----- From: Martin To: enquiries@otelo.org.uk ; brooms tal;ktalk ; Charles Dunstone ; customerservices@TalkTalk.co.uk ; CustomerServices@talktalk.co.uk ; dunstonec@cpw.co.uk ; Natalie Moss 02 ; Paul Halliwell ; RicharB@cpwplc.com ; TalkMD Sent: Thursday, November 16, 2006 9:27 PM Subject: personal Continuing the saga Bandwith test at 2110 16/11 0nly 200kbps Promised 600 Nectar points still not showing on my Nectar account Still no update from you on the caller display issue Please treat this letter as a Letter before action which means you have 14 days to solve the problems, and you will no longer be in breach of contract. Failing that i will be issuing a small claims summons for damages etc and loss of service. this sent to you yesterday Despite numerous phone call etc etc I am still getting problems with your service. Today someone from your co. rang to say that alterations had been made to the broadband service. Yes they have but in the wrong direction!!!!!! I am now only getting a maximum of 0.5Mbps Also I STILL have not received the promised Nectar points on my account. What is the update regarding caller display?? I am getting a little fed up with having to answer the phone you sent as it is a plug in type and not DECT like my current phone is. I am being quite patient over this matter bit the time has come I feel for me to take further action against you for breach of contract. This was the reply Dear Mr Johnson, Thank you for your email. I can confirm that your account has now been upgraded to TalkTalk's LLU service as your local exchange has been unbundled. Therefore we have upgraded your line to the new service. During this process you may have experienced a small disruption with the service. To ensure a speedy resolution to any issues you may be having, please contact our LLU Team on 0870 0873527 whom will be more than happy to assist you further. I am sorry for any inconvenience caused due to this delay. If you have any general queries, please call customer services on 0870 444 1820. Regards Bhanu Rasala TalkTalk Correspondence Department TRACKING NUMBER: A00000433244-00001450139 What sort of Micky Mouse outfit are you running ----- Original Message ----- From: Charles Dunstone To: Martin Cc: David Thatcher 02 ; RichardB@cpwplc.com ; Barry Richardson ; Natalie Moss 02 ; Paul Halliwell Sent: Wednesday, November 01, 2006 7:36 AM Subject: Re: Personal Dear Mr Johnson I am sorry that I wrote using telecoms jargon. CLI display is displaying the callers number on your phone. As I mentioned we do have some incompatibility problems with certain handsets which we are working to try and resolve. In the meantime I am happy to send you a unit which we know works on our system which will display the caller’s number. If this would be helpful, could you send me the address you would like me to post it to? Regards Charles Dunstone On 31/10/06 18:44, "Martin" wrote: This is the first e mail I have received from you ( I know you are not Charles Dunstone) regarding CLi, whatever that is,. You also have my address so no excuses there. I have been in touch with trading standards and they advise me to take you to small claims court. You dont even address all the issues in my e mails. You are clearly advertising something you cannot deliver. Please transfer my whole account back to BT forthwith and you can pick up the costs for this. ----- Original Message ----- From: Charles Dunstone To: Martin Sent: Monday, October 30, 2006 8:15 AM Subject: Re: WITHOUT PREJUDICE Dear Mr johnson In one of my earlier emails I explained why your CLI does not work. The engineers who manufacture our exchange equipment are try to resolve this at present but as they are already following the published spec, they think it will be sometime until they learn why some equipment is incompatible. You did not respond with the CLI receiver you are using at present. Could you send me the most convenient address for me to send you a CLI reader we know works? Regards Charles Dunstone On 25/10/06 10:34, "Martin" wrote: Yet again another day passes with plenty of excuses from your company. I have today spoken to a David Matthews in HLC who stated that it was a problem with Opal telecom( part of your company) as to why i do not have caller display. I spoke to them today and they deny all knowledge of dealing with talktalk. It appears that all your companies are blaming each other but no one is accepting responsibility. We are now 2 weeks down the line without making any progress. Secondly despite your company telling me my Nectar account has been credited with points these are not appearing on my Nectar account I can be contacted today on 07970468944 and expect to be! ----- Original Message ----- From: Martin To: RichardB@cpwplc.com ; RicharB@cpwplc.com ; Paul Halliwell ; enquiries@otelo.org.uk ; dunstonec@cpw.co.uk ; customerservices@TalkTalk.co.uk ; CustomerServices@talktalk.co.uk ; Charles Dunstone Sent: Monday, October 23, 2006 11:37 PM Subject: WITHOUT PREJUDICE Despite someone from your HLC calling me today I still have no caller display and the broadband connection went down again tonight. In light of this I have sought legal advice. You are in breach of contract, therefore will you transfer my line back to BT and I will take you to small claims court to recover any costs I have incurred and for loss of service and the time it has taken me to contact you each time. By my reckoningthat will amount to hundreds of pounds. I have stopped my direct debit to you until eithet A) the matter is settled to my satisfaction or b) I have full uninterupted broadband and caller display within the next 24 hours Still no caller display on my phone and am fed up with waiting over an hour for your fault dept. You told Watchdog that you were finally getting on top of the problems. I think not. The customer service for your company is the worst ever. If this complaint is not rectified within the next two days I shall be cancelling the contract with you and as stated before you will be responsible for any costs I incur in changing ISPs. Yet again you are in breach of contract. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Charles Dunstone" To: "Martin" Sent: Wednesday, October 18, 2006 5:47 AM Subject: Re: Complaint Dear Mr Johnson Thank you for your email, I will get someone to investigate the error with your broadband. This may sound a weird question, but do you have anything in your house on a timer that come on during peak hours? We have found in some cases that interference from other electrical items in a house can cause problems. We had someone last week whose Jacuzzi, which was on a timer was creating interference dropping their broadband line. Sky boxes can also be guilty, if there is a problem with their telephone connection. Our new LLU system delivers CLI to the BT spec. However, we have found their are some devices that are outside of spec but still work on BT’s network. We are working with our hardwire supplier to find out why BT’s system has more latitude than ours. What CLI unit do you have? Regards Charles Dunstone On 17/10/06 16:29, "Martin" wrote: Tel No 0208302 1342 I have lost count of the number of times I have attempted to contact your company to resolve the following faults. I appear to kept on hold for anything up to an hour, get disconnected, get fobbed off or talk to total incompetents within your company. My complaints are that my broadband connection is fine at off peak periods but at peak times I sometimes lose the connection for several hours. This is NOT a fault at my end of the line and speaking to one of your "customer service " ( falls over laughing so much) reps this would appear to be a fault at the exchange and he ,Johnny Brannigan, blamed it on the BT engineers not doing there work properly. He said he could put this on the list to be dealt with but that would be in 7 or 8 days time. Some service!! The second fault is that we had caller display on our phone which since since going onto LLU has disappeared. I e mailed your dept here is the reply Dear Mr Johnson. Thank you for your email. After accessing your account I can confirm that withhold number and caller display features are now active on your account. If you have any general queries, please call customer services on 0870 444 1820. For technical queries, please contact broadband technical support on 0871 226 7146 or email broadbandsupport@talktalk.co.uk. Calls to this number are charged at 10 pence per minute (call charges may vary from mobile phones and other telecom operators). Both of these numbers can become busy during peak periods and TalkTalk apologises for any inconvenience caused by the delays. Gary Kewley Correspondence Department TRACKING NUMBER: A00000369894-00001230050 Guess what still no caller display, despite informing faults of this on Saturday. How on earth can your company be proud of this service, you only have to search the internet( when you have a connection) to see that there are so many people complaining about the service. If these faults cannot be rectified I will cancel the service and TalkTalk will be responsible for any charges I may incurr in changing to a competent ISP. You are in breach of the contract I have with you. A copy of this is being sent to Sir Brian Pitman your non executive director at Morgan Stanley

Got a letter on Saturday from BM offering full refund............. nearly fainted so have accepted. GMAC MCOL submitted and served!!

oops my mistake thats what happens when you cut & paste without checking. The original claim is correct!!

Claim 6QZ86717 for unfair charges 3251.14 and 120.00 costs total 3131.14

UPDATE Gmac replies stating the usual that the charges are in line with etcetc so LBA sent. received BM bundle today and have sent initial letter requesting £1137.76 in charges November 10, 2006 Re: ACCOUNT NUMBER: xxxxxxxxxxxx Request for repayment of charge Dear Sir/Madam , Our request We are writing to ask you to refund the charges which you have levied from our account in respect of late payment fees, and other unlawful fees to the sum of £1137.76, this figure does not include the contractual rate of interest applied by yourselves in respect of the said charges (Please find enclosed schedule of charges detailing dates, amounts and interest). We now understand that such fees are unlawful at Common Law, Statute and recent consumer Regulations. In the case of Castaneda and Others v. Clydebank Engineering and Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. (1904) 12 SLT 498 the House of Lords held that a contractual party can only recover damages for actual or liquidated losses incurred from a breach of contract as oppose to a charge which represents a penalty. This law was confirmed and upheld in Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Co Ltd v New Garage and Motor Co Ltd [1915] AC 79. A charge will be held to be a penalty if the sum stipulated for is extravagant and unconscionable in amount in comparison to the greatest loss that could conceivably be proved to have followed from the breach. A penalty clause is void in its entirety and unenforceable. In addition your charges appear to represent an unfair term of contract which is contrary to the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 (SI. 1999/2083). Our account falls within the ambit of Regulation 5 of the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 as we are consumers. Your charges constitute an unfair penalty under Schedule 2 of the said Regulations which provide an indicative and non-exhaustive list of terms which may be regarded as unfair. Under paragraph 1(e) of schedule 2 this specifically includes terms which have the object of requiring any consumer who fails his obligation to pay a disproportionately high sum in compensation. We would vigorously contend that this is the position regarding the fees which you deemed fit to apply to our account. We believe that the charges you have levied of £1137.76 for late payment return of debit fees and other legal fees far exceed any true cost to yourself as a result of our breach and any genuine pre-estimate you could conceivably reach. If you disagree, then will you please demonstrate this by letting me have a full breakdown of the costs to which you have been put to as a result of our breaches, in order to reassure us that your charges really do reflect your costs. Your responsibilities We would draw your attention to the terms of the contract which you agreed to at the time that we took out the loan. It is an implied term of that contract that you would conduct yourselves lawfully and in a manner which complies with UK law. We are frankly shocked that you have operated our account in this way as we had always reposed confidence in your integrity and expertise. We consider that your repeated representations that your charges are fair and reasonable are deceptive and that they have deceived us into agreeing to pay them. Your concealment of the true nature of your charges has prevented us from asserting our rights until now. Our targets to resolve this matter We really hope that this matter can be resolved amicably and without the need for redress to the courts. If this were to happen there would be the interest at 8% pa to be added which amounts to £249.61. Also the figures do not include the contractual rate of interest applied by yourselves in respect of the said charges Thus we are asking that you refund the charges which have unlawfully been levied on our account. Failure to refund all the money unlawfully taken from us will result in us taking further action. We will give you 14 days to reply accepting, unconditionally, our request in principle and letting us know a date by which we will receive payment. If you do not respond, or you do not respond positively, within this time period, we shall send you a letter before action giving you a further 14 days in which to reflect. We believe that these targets are more than sufficient for a large company such as yours with dedicated staff and departments. Furthermore, I shall submit a Consumer Credit Act 1974 complaint to the OFT upon the basis that you have failed to comply with the OFT's direction of 5 April 2006 and are therefore not a 'fit and proper person' to hold a consumer credit licence under the 1974 Act. You also have a duty to your shareholders to act in a financially prudent manner. Therefore I would consider it financial mismanagement should you let this matter go as far as the small claim courts, then you settling without defence. However If you disagree, then will you please demonstrate this by letting me have a full breakdown of the costs to which you have been put to as a result of our breaches, in order to reassure us that your charges really do reflect your costs. Yours faithfully, Martin & Jane Johnson

Cant we put an end to this thread. The car was on the road untaxed so was removed. Perfectly legally so whay are we discussing it

Having succesfully reclaimed £15000 in charges from the Halifax earlier this year, I am goint to pursue GMAC & BM for return of their charges and ERC. I have today written to GMAC requesting £2100 in unlawful fees. Still awaiting statements from BM. Once i have a satifactory conclusion to the fees I will seperately claim for the ERC. Watch this space!!

Anyone who does not pay tax and keeps their vehicle on a public road deserves to have their car taken. If your insuramce company knew they would probably invalidate the insurance

I have read alot of threads on this site that refer to Early redemption penalties. What are the legalities of these and will i be able to claim back these penalties from my last 3 Mortgage sharks?

Hallelujah The Halifax have just settled my final claim for £5800. Thats over £15000 they have paid back!!! The system works

If the banks thought they were acting legally they would defend all claims at court as they would have a duty to their shareholders. They cannot defend therefore keep on claiming and spread the word !! I like many others have won against these [edit] and liars [MODERATED: Please do not post libelous comments on this forum]

Very well done to you. Ive got my money back from them too all £15000 I wish i could say they are nice people.....but they arnt!! enjoy!

well today the Halifax rang me to say they were going to settle the remaining amount in full. Well it took them longer tham the 7 days i gave them to reply 10 in fact and i have already issued proceedings, so it will cost them an extra £250. Those poor shareholdersHopefully their dividends wont be too much affected........not that I'll lose any sleep over it. I must urge everyone to persevere with their claims. If the banks did have a defence they would not settle these claims so readily. Thier excuse that it would cost them too much is a very lame excuse considering how much they would potentially have to pay out.

I did not not mean to upset anyone.it was a pun. And I have 2 kids with mental illness so would not make light of it in that way!

I am surprised that Banks employ Schizophrenics!!

Having paid up I e mailed the Halifax to see if they would pay the remaining amount without me having to issue proceedings and thus saving the Halifax money ( Im sure their shareholders would be pleased with that) however they have not responded so today I have issued proceedings to claim the remaining amont owing £5602 which includes the issue fee and interest. They do not appear to care about spending eXtra money!!!!