I was made redundant in March and applied to Lloyds to claim under a PPI both for a loan and the mortgage. I have signed on for JSA but because I have a pension being paid I do not qualify for any payment. Signing on is a requirement of the PPIs. I have retrained as an Air Conditioning engineer and have told the Job centre that I intend to move to Cyprus to look for work. The Job Centre should now write to the International Pensions Centre with my case and they should issue me with a letter to hand to the Cypriot Job Centre authorising payment of JSA at UK rates, (got this from the government website). On telling Lloyds that this was my intentions they immediately said I could not claim because I will not be in the UK. Their own paperwork stipilates that I need to be registered with a Job centre in the UK, Channel Islands or EU state. As Southern Cyprus is in the EU and I intended to sign on there I would have thought that the conditions are met but there is a clause that states that you cannot be outside the UK for more than 30 days. So, no JSA, no PPI payments. Bit of a waste of time. Would I have a claim to missell?

The other thing to think about guys, is how many other ISPs have done this? With their record do you think 121/Phorm have stopped at BT?

Well, I last posted on 10 Feb when Toshiba arranged to pick the recorder under an 'out of warranty repair'. True to their word they picked it up and I have just received it back, 10 March, full working condition and an apology from them for the inconveinience. Praise why its due. Well DoneToshiba. It is a shame others cannot be so customer orientated.

Well, this story looks like having a happy ending! I contacted Currys and, fair play, they offered to repair it, at my cost. I mentioned the SOGA and the durability heading and was sent off to their warranty dept who said that I needed to get an engineer's report and then they would act on it, refunding the cost of the engineer, if it was a hardware fault. In the meanwhile I had e-mailed Toshiba, they said pretty much the same thing but invited me to ring them if I wanted to discuss the query. I spoke to their helpdesk who agreed that the HDD should have lasted longer and gave me their warranty dept number to discuss an out of warranty repair. When I rang that number they only asked for my post code and number. Checked their screen and said they will collect the unit and repair it, (no prompting from me)!! She said that normally, if they had stock in they would replace it but there was none in. They are picking it up on Friday! Full marks Toshiba. I will let you know the final outcome. Many thanks for the advice, hope I can return the favour some day. WDIGN

I would agree with a few here. Most PC manufactors, including small shops, will not guarantee software installed. The software you have found may be the ones he used to sort the original problem out, (why he argue about removing them though I would not know). I have run Nortons for years on all my PCs without problems, in fact, it has stopped infections a couple of time! AVG is a very good FREE piece of software but it comes down to choise. ALL AV programs are usless if they are not updated regularly, (I check every 2 days), and Nortons, or any other AV program, cannot be trusted to updated automatically. It is the nature of the beast, software can, and does, go wrong. I presume that your worm problem has been fixed but in the future have a go at reformatting your hard drive, (as long as you have the WIN XP disc and the other program discs). It is not as hard and frightening as it sounds, there are many forums, (Micromart being one), that can give your a step by step guide and plenty of encouragement. You will also be surprised at the performance boost you get.

Good point. I suppose he will come back with the "we don't cover for fair wear and tear" line but I think I will let him run out of the standard replies to customers thing before not accepting them!

Thanks for your quick replies, (you guys must be dedicated to stay up so late)!!!!! I build my own PCs so formating is not unusual for me but in this case if I could format it I would but you then need the OS to install back on, (I would not think it was an ordinary version of Windows). I realise my contract is with Currys, and I will be phoning them first to see what their answers are, (getting time off work to go in etc). I see from some of the threads that an Engineers report seems to be a good idea so, depending on their answer I may mention that to them. I will let you know. Cheers

I purchased a Toshiba DVD/HDD recorder from Dixons for £280 on 04/04/06, at the time it was top of the range. It has worked fine up to now but is now displaying a message on the screen, "There is an error on the HDD and cannot be used. This unit can only be used for disc playback. Contact service center". I do not have a problem with that advice but I have not gone into the SOGA deeply, only having read threads here and in magazines. I am not too bad at ignoring sales assistants 'technical' advice but am I being optimistic in saying that 22 months of light usage on this type of equipment is not acceptable? PC HDDs are normally accepted to last 5 years before any fault may occur, (most OEMs give a 5 year warranty on their HDD). I believe these HDD are no different. I have no problem in asking for a repair under the Durability heading but, before I go in like a bull in a china shop, I would like to know you guys thoughts. Cheers