are there any templates for the above please?

i've now waited 30 days for the goods, that have not been despatched, to arrive. 4 page letter plus re-print of google checkout status page (which states that the goods were shipped) containing rips of emails, etc sent to my visa card issuer. apparently, i must now wait a further 60 days for google checkout make their representations. then visa will need time to consider the "facts". ... if you're interested in the outcome of this really easy way to make your bank balance look great, please call back later - MUCH LATER! p.s. by the time i get my money back, does anyone want to bet that google checkout will have been approved by ebay?

the reply from Lowell mentions a "thorough investigation" and includes "a complaints procedure", makes them sound almost human.

thanks P1. really great help. now all i need is to work-out why the dss told me that it was when the youngest reached 15 ...

wrong! why would you think this? no, don't answer that. obviously you get that from the comics that you read. try thinking about what you said. if i said something nasty about jews, you are saying that only non-jews would be offended. or if i called someone "the 'N' word", only non-coloureds would take offence? what rubbish!

for the record, i currently have 4 (with further ongoing tests) totally unrelated medical problems, any one of which would qualify me for incapacity benefit. please don't include me in your generalisation.

today i posted the above letter to Lowell re the (B/card) debt that they have now admitted that they (and B/card) didn't have a CCA for. watch this space ...

loan parent, claiming income support. when does IS stop? when the child you're claiming for reaches their 15th or 16th birthday? also, is it worth claiming incapacity benefit, instead of IS? my doctor will certainly sign me off and it certainly looks like this is going to be a long term thing?

i bought a satnav and paid using google checkout. google checkout said the goods had been despatched but they never arrived. when i checked with the supplier, they said they had not shipped the goods as i hadn't paid. i could see that the money had left my visa account. google checkout have cancelled their association with this particular supplier, so they can never pay them! now i'm in the situation that google checkout say they can't do refunds on behalf of retailers (which is rubbish as they haven't sent any money to the supplier). and visa won't even start their claims procedure for 30 days. then i can start to send them any documentation. then they must contact all parties. then they must wait for replies. then they need time to consider the evidence before deciding if they should refund to me. all this time google checkout will have had my money. best estimate is at least three months. how many other buyers are in this same situation? that's a lot of money, all being held for over 3 months! not a bad little earner! i really need the satnav but i can't afford to buy another until i get this refund from google checkout. any thoughts anyone? p.s. i now know that the google checkout forums are littered with sellers posting that google checkout aren't passing on money.

i couldn't find a complaint letter here but i found some of the following attempt on the National Debtline site. is there one on the CAG site that i've missed? does it need anything else adding? should i ask for a specific amount to cover my expenses? Cowboy Debt Company, 1n Hock Street, NeverNeverLand FU2 1XS ref: EZ Credit 1234567890 I would like to make a complaint against your company. The details are set out below. You pressured me to pay this debt when you knew that you did not hold the necessary documentation, namely a valid CCA, contrary to the rules under which you are supposed to operate. By doing this you caused me undue distress as well putting me to unnecessary expenses including, but not limited to, telephone calls, postage, recorded delivery charges, stationery and photocopying. We understand that you must send a written acknowledgement of our complaint within 5 business days of its receipt. If you are unable to resolve our complaint within 4 weeks you must send a holding response, explaining the reasons why and indicating when you will make further contact. If you fail to resolve our complaint within 8 weeks, or if matters are not settled to our satisfaction, we will have no alternative but to escalate our complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service. This could result in you being ordered to pay compensation if our complaint is upheld. We look forward to your reply. Yours blahblah

about 18 months ago BT simply stopped sending me VAT receipts. when i contacted them by telephone they said they would send the missing VAT receipts but they never did. when i wrote to them i never got one reply. eventually i complained to Otelo. provisional conclusion: that BT would send all the missing invoices (which they did) and continue to send them every month (after 3 months, 3 missing receipts). Otelo are blindly accepting BT's stance that "there may be reasons beyond their control for non receipt of postage" and that "the indicator to send VAT invoices is set correctly". they seem unable to see a problem with only the VAT part of my bill going missing each month. i suggested thay any agreement ought to include BT sending me at least one bill that includes a VAT receipt. even though BT have already broken their assurance that they will send VAT receipts every month, Otelo have now issued their final decision. Otelo don't consider that BT having already broken their agreement to send VAT invoices "warrant any change" to their provisional conclusion. they even say that "It [bT] will only be required to supply VAT receipts with invoices if you accept my Final Decision". 3 questions: 1) doesn't any VAT registered company have to supply a VAT receipt by Law (whenever one is requested)? 2) what right do Otelo have to say that "It [bT] will only be required to supply VAT receipts with invoices if you accept my Final Decision"? 3) what "other avenues" of complaint do i have against BT?

question: 1) can you still use chip & signature in atm's? surely you'd still need a pin for those transactions. won't that be a problem when you say that you can't remember your anniversay and other numbers? 2) isn't saying you can't remember your anniversay a risky business? if they ever discover your married and yet still living ...

before c&p i had two of the old mag stripe and signature cards. however, my signature was printed onto the cards (and therefore tamper proof). they also contained my photo. yes, it was only b&w but it was a lot better than it not being there. and if they had spent just a very small amount of money making the photo's better they would have been great. they were great cards, i had them for many yrs and i felt really safe with them.

just reading (browsing) another thread. should i now make a Formal Complaint to Lowells, TS, OFT and my MP?

just thought of a number 3) 3) what if i now write a CCA request letter to the original owner of the debt? while it's still fresh in their minds that they don't have one ... ... and before they decide to be, errrr, "creative"!

1) if they sell the debt when they already know that they don't have a CCA, don't they commit some sort of offence? 2) if they again sell the debt, am i best to totally ignore them; let them take me to court; then stick two fingers up and produce "the letter"? p.s. is it best to have these letters framed?

received a letter from our good friends at Lowell today, "after liasing with our client ... this document [the CCA] is no longer available. ... we have closed our files ... returned to client. ... confirm that no further contact will be made by us" score one for the good guys. thanks for everyone's help, both directly and indirectly, encouragement and positive thinking that made this possible.

sorry, rather belated thanks to everyone for some great ideas, thoughts & help.

i've now received my book of 12 first class stamps - for two missing signatures. if i'm reading barracad's post correctly it would seem that the moral of this story is that you should write a seperate letter to complain about each missing signature so that you get a book of stamps per complaint. p.s. do you really think that the RM would even notice the financial side of sending a book of stamps to the very few people who can be bothered to complain? if they did notice the costs i think they'd be far more likely to just close a few more post offices.

with respect, out of the three items i've posted recently i've only got 1 signature. without a signature that seems like only half of what i thought i had paid the extra for. so a mass complaint to an ombudsman then? name and shame them on watchdog?

thanks tom, i think that's what i'll be doing from now on. however, as far as the RM is concerned: how does a mass complaint to the RM Ombudsman sound? does paying for a signed delivery constitute a contract? if so, when the RM don't get that signature, are they breaking that contact and would contacting the TS be appropriate? sorry, but i feel we've all been ripped off and we ought to be able to make them do what's being paid for.

i can see that it must be tempting for RM to do that. however, i've now seen in other threads that some companies have used the lack of a specific signature as proof that the letter was not delivered. someone even said that had stopped using recorded. to get to my point, if we are only getting half a service then shouldn't we get a discount when we write any company that the RM can't be bothered to complete the contract for?

the third letter in this series (red debt/lowell 12+2) now has an epod - although the name of the person who signed for it looks very much like mine but with something quite unintelligible at the end. i wonder if my complaint has caused the RM to actually do what their customers are paying for? (at least with Red Lowell)

joncris: po box. i'll do that in the future. thanks. cheers rory. i have saved the RM delivered status screen as a jpeg. just a thought, after reading your quote, it would seem to me that having a proof of posting would legally be just as "good" as recorded delivery as the posting office stamps that the letter was posted to a specific address. what do you think? ... it would save the additional recorded delivery fee. thanks again both of you.

i posted a recorded delivery letter to our friends at Lowell. the royal mail trace facility quickly showed that it had been delivered the following day. it also mentioned that the epod (electronic proof of delivery) might not be available for 5 days. after 5 days its status changed from the "wait 5 days" message to "Sorry, an electronic proof of delivery is not available for this item." so i rang the number shown on the web site and was told to wait 8 days. after the 8 days i spent 3 further days trying to get through to the same number without luck. by this time, exactly the same thing had happened to a second letter, posted just a week after the first, so i wrote to the royal mail. since then i've had a third letter (the first of my 12+2 letters) go from "wait 5 days" to "not available". although i've had an acknowledgement from RM, i still don't have any epods. has anyone else had problems getting epods for letters to financial "institutions"? does the Royal Mail Recorded Delivery system have an intrinsic problem? is there an alternative to recorded delivery that actually works? has the royal mail got some sort of deal not to produce epods various financial "institutions"? must we have proof of delivery for the series of CCA letters?