confucious, he say, better to remain quiet an appear stupid, than to open mouth and remove all doubt

To my mind, they are saying to him "Tell us you dispute this in writing and we will try to prove you owe it", so they are acknowleging that they hold the burdon of proof, but their procedures need to be followed ie :- a dipute statement in writing

jonni, that is correct and a much more eloquent way of putting the point i was trying to make. this was not the fault of the bank, this was the fault of the originator, so therefore under the DD guarantee, it can be claimed back. at no point have i laid blame at the banks door, and if i have then I apologise. the guarantee does not only apply to errors made by the bank, it protects the customer from errors made anywhere along the chain

the DD was taken in error, so therefore can be claimed back. I had this when I changed my car over once, had a new DD set up, and they took from the old one as well. went down the branch, said they shouldnt have taken from that one, they refunded it there and then.

sorry buzby, my comment about dd was for the thread starter, I have replied on chrisgilly's thread in relation to his issue. sorry for any confusion

DD guarantee should get your funds back immediatley, and cancel any charges, chrisgilly, I have replied to you on your thread

upgrade does not class as a new account, you were signing up for another period of time on the same contract, if they are cancelling your contract, then I would ASSUME it is your current period, and not the new one. Best thing is to ring them and check

while the cash back offer in itself is not a [problem], the levels of cashback offered by some unscrupulous dealers are oftentimes higher than the level of commission that the dealer receives from the network for making the connection. If you imagine a dolphin 35 tarriff, the dealer will get somewhere in the region of £200/£250 for making that connection, and maybe another £50 for the handset. Out of that commission, needs to come the cost of the handset, which is in the region of £100 (some above, some below) so, out of £250 commission, there is £100 taken for the handset, leaving £150 If the dealer is then offering a £200 cashback deal, you can see that they are actually loosing £50 on the deal. Why do they do this??? The reason is, with obscure T&C's, and customers in general actually forgetting to claim their cashback, the past claim rate has been in the region of 24-40% of customers CLAIMING, which means 76% never return, leaving a healthy profit margin. now, customers are becoming more financially aware, and are ensuring that they return for their cashback, and so the reclaim rate has risen to 80-90% meaning that the dealers cannot meet their obligations and as such resort to these methods to TRY and stop getting hit for thousands upon thousands of pounds. unfortunatley (or fortunatly depending on how you look at it) it doesnt work and the company goes under, leaving everyone out of pocket, and in many cases saddled with line rental costs that are far too high for them to afford. as the previous poster said, if it too good to be true then dont trust it, go for a more realistic cashback offer, OK, it is only in the £50 region, but you are more likely to get that than the hundreds upon hundreds that some people are expecting. networks and distributors are clamping down on these operators, and where a complaint is registered with the network, it is passed to the dealer to be explained, or consequences will occur, to the point of, if lots of complaints are received, a "Do Not Deal" will be issued against the dealer. a DND is effectivley the dealer being blacklisted with that network and not being allowed to make any connections at all. Hope this hepls clear some things up

you could raise a query with them and ask them to re-evaluate your bills vs your usage. that seems INCREDIBLY high, are you running a water bottling plant or something lol

to my mind, they COULD at an audit stage, realise their error, and then issue you a new bill. if you are looking at getting out of the contract anyway, then send them a cancellation notice and wait for your final bill. If your final bill comes up clear, then I dont THINK (im not a lawyer or anything) they would have much ground to chase you, as they stated it is your final bill. I would await more experienced advice though

wow, a DCA actually READING a letter *faints*

Fuzzy, too few people these days, really have a sense of duty. too few actually want to set aside some time to sit down and help their fellow human beings. You want a reason to stay, to continue helping? read vincent's post, the one right below yours, THAT my friend is why you should stay. YOU have helped turn someone round in one of the darkest times of their lives, someone was willing to NOT wake up in the morning because it seemed like the easier option, the only way out. but instead, they are here, they are posting, they are helping other people who are going through the same things as they did, and why? Because of YOU It may be tempting to scoff, and say "I didnt do anything" but you did, and deep down you know you did. if you think on it now, you will get a feeling in your stomach, a warm feeling, you know what that is??? that is pride, that is the realisation that YOU have saved a life, and stopped untold others from having their lives detroyed. you know how I know that, I have experienced it myself. several times. OK, Moderation may at times be extreme, but the mods have to tread a fine line between what is acceptable, and what can get the site owners possibly hauled into court. there are more important things my friend, and deep down, you know that. Go and retrieve your "teddy from the corner", sit down, have a cup of tea and take a deep breath. then, focus on what you have achieved on this forum. focus on the fact that there are people that you do not and will never know out there who owe you the biggest debt of gratitude that can ever be owed, the continuation of their normal life is oftentimes down to YOU FB, dont throw that away in a fit of picque over over-moderation. you are bigger than that. I will admit that I dont know you, and if me referring to you as Friend when we have never met / talked outside this thread offends you then i apologise, but what is above, you need to know. there can be no more reason than that to stay and carry on helping the best you can. Less and less people are willing to put aside prejudice, put aside fears, step up and say "What can I do" you are one of those people.

General info, should anyone find it useful Ofcom have set out changes for the Mobile Number Portability (MNP) process for all UK mobile operators. From 1 August 2008, all mobile network providers can no longer refuse to provide customers with a Porting Authorisation Code (PAC) if the customer is still within their minimum contract term - being able to keep their mobile number is considered a customer’s legal right.

It is possible that they are tracing someone with a similar name to you. I have had communications from CSA and DCA's about someone with my name from up north. Write back, and state that you are not aware of any debt, and this should be referred back to the OC

small claims court maybe, obtaining money by deception perhaps

helpmout, even if you cancel your direct debit, you will still be liable for the charges. If you make no effort to pay, then the charges will mount up and then things will start to get bad. Think objectivley about this, why not get a second hand phone, ask for a replacement sim card so that you CAN use the network and if necessary, ask for a tariff reduction. there are people on this forum being hassled by DCA's etc, oftentimes through no fault of there own, and you want to walk into it voluntarily?????

s&b, i fully agree, it is INCREDIBLY short sighted, however, the amount of training () and product knowledge someone would need to be fluent across ALL the products a financial institution provides would be far beyond anyones ability, and impossible to manage. this is why they are split into "business units" maybe one day they will learn, and hopefully, your branch will be able to help you. if not, teach em a lesson by hitting where it hurts - their vaults

you have entered into a fixed term contract for access to the mobile phone network. you have purchased / recieved title in goods for use in accessing the mobile phone network. once title in those goods have passed to you, the network has no further liability in regards to the equipment. for whatever reason, your means of accessing the mobile phone network is no longer available, however, you still have the right to access that network. The network will supply you with a replacement sim, but new equipment must be purchased by you, either through an insurance policy, or other means. As you missed out on the insurance deadline, the INSURANCE company do not have to pay out, which leaves you in the situation you are in now. you could try a local branch of CEX, they normally have a good range of 2nd hand phones available. Sorry it isn't what you want to hear, but it is my understanding of the situation

NurseCaz, you have taken the first and hardest step - asking for help. it does get hard, and it looks like it has been really hard for you and your husband, which is not good, when you are studying to be a nurse. quite possibly, if your hubby speaks to the CSA again and calmy explains the situation, they can revisit the payments, after all, they cannot take what you dont have. possibly preparing an income / expenditure sheet and sending that to your creditors will help in that they can see what you can / cannot afford, as I am sure kermit will agree, where there is a genuine CANT pay, then things change. I have gone through similar, in that my head was in the sand hoping everything would go away, but unfortunatley, that doesnt work, and just makes things worse. the important thing is, to keep your head up and speak to people, they will be more willing to help than if you just keep quiet Good luck

At the end of the day, in any profession, there are good guys and bad guys. you get good coppers, and crooked coppers you get good GP's and you get the Harold Shipmans and so on and so forth. Kermit, I have seen a few of your posts, and you do SEEM to be one of the "Good Guys". I say "Seem" because, at the end of the day, I don't know you personally, and you could be putting on a front. the same as any other person on here. everyone can be who they want when they are on the end of a keyboard. Unfortunatley, some people have had bad experiences with others in your profession, and will, instinctively assume you are the same. only time, and your posts will tell. I would say dont take things said on an internet forum to heart, because as happened earlier in the thread, someone misread what you typed, characters on a screen to not reflect intonation, body language or any other subtlety that would pass on and validate the intended meaning of what you write. that is why so many couples have arguments over text messages that have been misinterpreted. now, i think everyone could do with sitting back from the screen, making a cup of tea, taking a deep breath and starting again nice and calm

In a way, where the credit card is concerned, you simply arent enough of a customer to keep hold of. because when you do use the card, you pay the balance off straight away they dont make any interest from you, so they would rather clear your account off their books and concentrate on the ones that they can make money from. try going into your branch and saying that you are going to leave and switch accounts to another provider because you are dissatisfied with the service, they may be able to get a better reason for the withdrawal, and also get them to re-consider.

i think you would certainly have cause to raise a complaint with the bank. Obviously this person had had a bad day and took it out on you

best thing to do, is as all others, ignore ignore ignore.

well i think i got a newbie who didnt know how to use the phone system. my phone rang, i answered and heard a couple of words of a conversation to his colleague before it disconnected. oh well, it let me have fun!!

can you post the full headers of the email you received, sometimes they "spoof" headers to make it look like it came from somewhere else Hoose