Had an email from www.sellmymobile.com, this is the site that identified cash4phones as offering the best price. and I had previously reported cash4phones to them. Read as follows....... I spoke to cash4phones and they assured me that they were dealing with your enquiry. Can you please confirm that you have received correspondence from them? Thank you Kind Regards Claire Stevens Customer Services I replied that they have failed to respond to any of my emails, phone calls, or indeed the court summons itself. On the subject of the court summons. The company I am sueing is Cash4phones, this is not a company in itself but appears to be owned by C4P (Holdings) Ltd of the same address. Should I have sued this holding company? Why would they operate in such a way, is it some legal way of hiding from their responsibilities perhaps? Thanks

Not really relevant. This would only be an issue if the buyer was claiming that he did not receive the goods. As he has left positive feedback, and he is complaining about the wheel bearings, then quite clearly he has received the goods. Paypal will not intervene further and is likely the reason they removed the hold.

Minor update. I have noticed on my account that the offer of £17.86 has now been marked as "accepted" even though I haven't. Payment is marked as "pending". I suspect they will make a payment of £17.86 into my account. In anticipation of this I have sent them an email that reads as follows: "Despite the fact that I have informed you that your offer of £17.86 is not acceptable for my phone, you have marked on your website that I have accepted it. This is not the case. If you transfer £17.86 into my account knowing full well that I am not selling my phone for that amount, then it will be accepted as a gift not related to this transaction. By transferring this money into my account you are agreeing that this is a gift." Probably cannot do this but thought I would try to make them think twice before trying to close the case. Court website shows that the documents were issued 01-03-2013 and will be considered served 5 days after this date, no word yet from cash4phones however.

OK thanks, I consider my question answered.

Even though they are threatening to do something that is illegal?

But are they allowed to display signage threatening clamping even if they don't actually clamp?

Just a quick question........ I am aware that clamping on private land has now been outlawed, but what are the rules on signage? My local Homebase store has a large sign up in the car park stating that illegally parked vehicles will be clamped and a release fee will be charged. As clamping is now illegal I assume this is just a scare tactic and they will not clamp anyone, but is it legal? Thanks

On their website are 2 pages. One is called "how it works" the other is FAQs. Either would be a good place to mention the £8.95 return charge, but no, they want to hide it away in their T&Cs. Legal I am sure, but morally it stinks!

Thanks, will post any updates here. To be honest, I expect them to collapse and pay up, but that's not good enough. They will be free to carry on. I want to stop them but am powerless to do so. Such is life!

Threatening to sue is not an option, I have already started the process. I will do as you say re the links, that's a good idea. I don't agree with you that everyone who sends them a phone has sh!tforbrains. They were duped, as was I.

Unfortunately I have no pictures. But surely a court will see as suspicious the fact that it was only excessive wear and tear, then when I complained and they went for a second look hey presto the screen has been damaged and glued! Also, it appears, reading their T&Cs, when I send my phone to them, I am making them an offer, even though they came up with the price, I have seen it suggested that this may be an unfair contractual term?

I am taking these people to court. Recently I had an old Blackberry mobile to sell. A search online brought up Cash4phones as offering the best price of £51.00, so off it went to them. Few days later I received an email saying they had received but due to excessive wear and tear the offer was reduced to £17.00. This I knew was untrue as the phone was in pristine condition. When I tried to reject this offer they demanded £8.95 to return it. On their website there are sections entitled "how it works" and "FAQ's". No where in these sections is the £8.95 return fee mentioned. No where on their initial email offering the £51.00 was this fee mentioned. Yes, it is in their T&Cs and yes I did check a box saying I agreed, but I still find this underhand. I telephoned the company to tell them I was not happy and they said they will take another look and will call me back between 6.00pm and 7.00pm that evening. They did not call. Phoned them next day and they then claimed they had found further damage, the screen cover had been broken and glued. They emailed me pictures and I was horrified by what I saw. There was a huge scratch on the screen and the Perspex cover over the screen had been crudely glued. Further calls were made, I told them I was rejecting their offer, I also emailed rejecting their offer. They tell me that the only way I can reject it is to do so via the page on their website. This would also mean accepting the £8.95 return fee. They say if I do not reject it in this way within 5 days they will deem it as that I have accepted the £17.00 which will be paid to my account and that will be an end to the matter. I am very angry. Last night I completed the MCOL online form, I am taking this to court. If I have to drive down to North London to attend the hearing it will involve costs and a day off work. I don't care, this is not about the money anymore. If you Google "cash4phones" you will come across many similar stories to mine. They are doing this everywhere. They need to be stopped. So, what do you all think? Do I have a leg to stand on?

Oh, and no, this area is not designated flood risk.

A drainage dyke is there to prevent floods not to cause them, are they stupid or what?

They asked the specific question as to wether there was any water within a certain distance of the property, I told them it was a drainage dyke and its history. Because they asked the specific question, if I said no, that was not true and these days insurance companies will grab any opportunity to void a claim. Is there such a thing as being too honest then? My real question is, are they within their rights to penalise me like this? Could I complain to someone?

I have told them exactly what it is, and its history. I have even offered to have it written into the policy that claims for flooding from this dyke can can be excluded, but no joy.

Just as a little aside, I received a leaflet from Post Office Insurance that said " We guarantee to beat your renewal quote". I phoned them for a quote and after about 15 mins of questions an details, they came back with the answer that none of their underwriters are willing to quote. Not much of a guarantee is it?

At the bottom of my garden, maybe 30 metres from my house, is a small drainage dyke. The water is about 4 - 6 inches deep but sits in the bottom of a cutting about 4 feet deep. It has been there since my house was built in 1953. In all that time it has NEVER flooded. I have lived in my house for 12 years and have never had any problem getting insurance, until the last couple of years. Now, many companies will not even quote, those that will are very expensive, my insurance has gone up around 200% over a couple of years. I have never, ever made a claim for anything. This seems grossly unfair, is there anything I can do? Many thanks in advance.

Might do, just waiting see how hard he is going to chase me.

He has cost me money by delaying for 2 years so surely I can deduct some for my losses? Also, what VAT rate should I be charged, todays rate or the rate applicable in Jan 2009?

Yes, unable to find any evidence that I paid it. I suspect they forgot to send me an invoice for that month, or it was lost in the post.

No as I have ceased trading and am a PAYE employee.

I was sole trader.

Hi all, Wonder if you good people can advise me on the following........ For five years I ran my own small transport business and rented parking space at a local hauliers yard. In March 2009 I ceased trading as I wasnt making enough money. I did not go bust, every body was paid and I folded without any loose ends, or so I thought. Last week the accountant of the haulier where I used to park contacted me to say he had just discovered a month, Jan 2009 to be exact, where I had not paid my rent. Every other payment was ok. This come as a surprise to me because I usually paid the invoices as soon as I got them, but checking back I cannot find a record where I paid that particular month. The problem is that my accounts have been finalized and all VAT and taxes due have been paid. If this guy demands payment I cannot now claim back the VAT or offset the invoice against tax liability. I suspect I am stuffed and will have to pay but the 2 year delay is annoying and has caused me expense. Any advice please?

Long story but here goes. A couple of years back I responded to an ad from a group of Solicitors claiming that they could look at the fine print of finance agreements and, if they did not comply, could then get them written off. I had a car loan from Black Horse Finance and sent it off to them, they replied it did not conform and, for a fixed fee of £1000 they would take the case and get it written off. It seemed to me at the time to be a no brainer, I paid the £1000, set them to work and cancelled my DD to Blackhorse. The inevitable happened; Blackhorse denied there was a fault in the agreement, sent threatening letters etc. I will say that these letters were never ignored, it was explained to Blackhorse that I had suspended payment until such time as I could get to the bottom of the problem. the Solicitors were not doing a good job, claiming that I was not necessarily going to win and no firm promises had been made blah blah etc... I contacted Blackhorse and said, this is silly, I will resume payments, I will pay up all the arrears and put myself in the position I should have been in if I had not taken the action. In return I wanted all the adverse information on my credit file removed. They verbally agreed to this, I asked for it in writing and the agreed to this also. Meanwhile, I contacted the Solicitors, said they were not doing a good job and I wanted a full refund, they agreed and the refund was issued. Blackhorse rang me and wanted the catch-up payment I agreed to, fine, but I was still waiting for the agreement in writing that they would remove all the adverse info from my credit file, this is where they back pedalled and claimed that the person who agreed that had no authority, they would not do as promised, mind you, they still wanted the catch-up payment but I told the no way, they had reneged on their end of the deal so they could go whistle! I did however resume the monthly payments. Some months later I decided I would like a new motorbike, cost was £5000 I decided I would try to use this opportunity to sort out the problem with Blackhorse Finance by making the following offer: - I would pay up my existing loan in full, around £2700, I would then put down a 50% deposit of £2500 and would ask Blackhorse to finance to balance. In other words there was zero additional exposure for Blackhorse, they would actually gain by a couple of hundred quid. However, they turned me down so I just went out and paid cash for the bike. Now it got serious. I ran my own small business, a road haulage company. I used to buy diesel fuel on a 14 day credit account and the spend was around £1200 per week. Periodically the fuel company would run a credit check, this time round they decided, as a result of the adverse information now on my credit file, they no longer wanted my business. The finance company whom I brought my trucks and trailers from also declined to do business with me. Result – my once successful business collapsed and I now work as a lorry driver for an agency. My business account was with Lloyds TSB, same group that Blackhorse finance belongs to. I tried everything to resolve this, asking the bank to speak to the finance company etc, but they would not. As far as I am concerned I legitimately suspended payment on the original finance agreement to sort out a problem, was it unfair of Blackhorse to (vindictively?) treat me as a non payer, the same as someone who just decided they would try to get away with paying? My offer to settle in full (which still stands by the way) was fair and reasonable in my opinion but Blackhorse now claim they cannot remove the adverse information by law, is this right? Also, I don’t think they had the right to post the adverse information in the first place? One last thing, I had a couple of thousand in a savings account with Lloyds TSB. They phoned me last week and said they had a great new savings account and would I be interested in opening one and moving my money to it, yes OK I agreed. They then said they would have to run a credit check on me first, which they did and Guess what, I passed! How come when I apply to Lloyds TSB for credit I am refused because of the adverse info they themselves placed there, but when they want my money, hey presto, I pass the credit check! Well the damage is now done, my business has gone and no outcome will bring it back , but have I got anywhere to go with this? Carl