I would agree with that but they should not make a profit from thing such as a credit reference check. Same as a bank should not charge ridiculous charges for being in overdraft or missing a direct debit. As it was put forward to me that this charge is purely to cover the credit check then I pay £1200 to cover admin charges and then I pay deposit and one months rent. How can one justify £1200 as an admin fee when other agencies can do for free!

Hi guys, I wonder if anyone could help me. I am moving into a new flat fairly soon and today paid the amount for the credit reference check. I was told the charge would be £120 and never even thought about much more of it. I then asked what the £120 was for and was told it is a non-refundable amount for just a credit check. Now I feel that is a bit extreme for a credit check and the letting agency are purely trying to profit on a service which costs them very little in reality to have done for them. Further to this the payment was taken by the landlord without use of chip and pin (I believe the details of my card were put directly throughout heir site) including my cvc code. Is there anyway I can contest the amount of £120. I don't mind paying but I feel taken advantage of for something I can not be guaranteed! I live in Scotland if that makes a difference for legislation. Thanks C-130

Hi there guys, I have a Halifax one card with a credit limit of £3800 (which was meant to be increased). I was recently out of the country in the states on holiday and had missed my payment on the credit card (my first missed payment since having the card). I had come back to threatening letters etc informing me of the missed payment. As a responsible person I immediately phoned them and explained the situation. I reached an agreement and apologised with the bank saying that I had told them I would miss the payment previously as I would be out of the country. SO they apologised for sending the letters. About a week later I received a latter telling me HBOS will no longer be increasing my credit limit due to the missed payment and that they had taken the full account balance from my savings account with them. I was fuming and phoned them immediately. In the previous conversation we agreed I would pay around £500 on the 12th (pay day). And that no further action would occur. The bank don't want to know. With this happening my credit rating has been affected, they have screwed up my savings accounts interest as I will get nothing as they withdrew money. I would cancel the card but I think overall its a good card and links well with my current account with them. Beyond this the fact that I am in the states etc often it is very useful having a mastercard as well as a visa debit. Does anyone have any advice on what I can do about HBOS having just taken the money although we had an agreed payment arranged?

Firstly I sympathise highly with your elderly friend. My grandmother is in the same boat as her with regards to being immobile and living at home with only books, TV and radio for company. So it is something which should definitely be sorted quickly. My advice would be take receipts etc to store. Explain as nicely and bluntly as possible the situation and why it is not a good situation to be in for all parties. I would then say that you wish to speak to a manager as you have already had the run around. Now the store manager has no ability to get ti sorted instantly they have ability to make phone calls to get it sorted. These are basic things the stores know should have been done though if I am honest. To proceed from there send a basic letter to currys customer service team highlighting the issue and how laughable it is that a company as large as dixons are letting this happen especially over the sake of £300. Ensure the letter informs them of the problem, original purchase dates and that you require a response within 14 days of reciept (send recorded delivery). I am about to PM you as well with a few more things which may help.

I'd like to say as someone who works in electrical sales and customer service you are jumping the gun here. I wouldn't spend the money without authorisation. Persons do this regularly with currys then try to claim it through courts and our argument is simple and undertsandable: They did not inform us or give us an appropriate opportunity to perform a repair or replacement or meet our obligations under the SOGA. As hard as it is to believe the SOGA is a two way street for us all. It offers consumers and retailers protection. By not giving us the opportunity or whoever the opportunity to look at and repair the machine you deprive us of our rights under the sales of goods act. Now if th miele guys leaves a report which says this fault existed on date of purchase ie inherent you win if not well your pretty screwed.

Hi I am a dixons colleague so can help you hear. The procedure on the TV will be a 7800 which basically means repair or replacement. If you have nay megastores local to you visit them they have dedicated customer service teams and managers who will be preared to help you with this. Now currys will send someone to collect the TV all they require is a serial number (generally on the side or back of TV) and a note of the fault.. dx100uk I feel it unfair of you to say usual currys crap should train there staff better. The company do in fact the company allocate an hour paid time each week to training which includes a large part on consumer rights under the sales of goods act. The problem comes in when the colleague fails to do the training (it will be a disciplinary issue in future to not do training. And/or affect the store bonus schemes). All megastores colleagues and managers know the SOGA very well. The smaller stores don't. Over the phone customer service can be difficult and what I recommend is letting stores do it for you or a store manager. If I were dealing with it as I do with anything like this I escalate it to the manager of the contact centre (about as high as you can go. Customers wont get this high in the chain of command) and get things sorted. With regards to us asking you to contact LG it is generally us trying to get the repair sped up as it is the same places we send the TVs to.,If we book it they take a while to collect etc. If you book it they tend to be quite quick.

Hey there, If your mother has original mac disks for the OS she can change passwords through that. Now to tackle your problem. As an employee of DSGi I am disheartened greatly to hear of this fiasco. This sounds to me like an airport colleague not caring to do his job and not informing your mother appropriately of the purchase ie misrepresented sale. This of course is easy to deal with fi you are in the UK which your mother is not. My immediate advice is to return it to BAA it is an unanswered 60 day returns policy. Dixons have no say with this policy. It operates to prevent this having happened as some of the SOGA etc doesn't apply on airport purchases (especially if a foreign national). So it allows a returns procedure. BAA will process a bacs payment and then charge dixons for it. Or hand it over to be sold again.

Internally we aim for a turn around of products from arrival to repair centre within 28 days. That said we don't tell persons dates etc as a policy to avoid disappointment. With respect to getting the ultima number I can not guarantee you will receive this by phone the second you phone. Generally it takes 48 hours to create and be approved. Basically they work by seeing which TV you have and then matching it spec for spec to the lowest priced TV or same spec we have or fi we have the same set still a voucher to that amount. As I have said I would phone the company and ask the staff int he contact centre to pass you to a team leader or the escalation team. Or go to your nearest largest store if possible (preferably a megastore). Here they have a team who can help you and like me should know the internal procedures enough to be able to use them for the customer. What you could also do is ask for a copy of the notes ins tore and service history. What can often happen (it has happened to me) a not e can say one thing but they actually meant another but persons are too embarrassed to get this solved. Seeing this you may see soemthing along the lines if: Day 1: TV collected Day5:TV in repair centre fault diagnosed part ordered Day 6: Part expected in x number of days Day 6: Customer phoned nad told we will have part on x day What happens there is the call centre want you off their back by saying to you the part will definitely be in on day x where as the notes say expected. Key difference through one word. Generally most parts are in stock though. To get any kind of money though wait till day 29 and see what they say? Also ask when it actually reached repair centres. That date is crucial as currys state (and have won in court) by saying the 28 day rule only begins form when we have it in repair centre.

I feel thats misleading to say that the sales of goods act sates within it a reasonable period of time not 28 days. No court has said 28 days is definitive. That said it is the policy of Dixons to try within 28 days for repair. On another note did you hand into store or have the laptop collected from home? If from store there can be a delay of up to 14 days in getting the laptop collected and to the repair centre. This should have been conveyed to you by the customer service team. Is this repair under the sales of goods act or under a coverplan? With regards to escalations ot get this resolved quickly what to do is phone up see whats happened if tis not changed ask to speak to their team leader. Or go to store we have a special number which gets things dealt with. I personally have had situations like this dealt with within 20 minutes for customers by using the internal store numbers and getting an escalation team member or team leader. If the customer service team in store are worth there salt they will know this. If not I would highly recommend going to a megastore if you have one local. They have specially trained customer service managers and colleagues who focus on you and nothing else. In smaller stores customer service teands to be done by sales colleagues who just cant be bothered or don't have the time.

I can definetely say as a currys employee the manager is in the wrong. What will happen is basically the store will be charged for the set when you go in for the new one but you wont so he'll be out however much and the company will wait till the financial audit to give him it back. Something the manager will avoid at all costs. So he will lie through his teeth. Simple way of dealing with it is go to customer services and ask for an ultima number or a reference number from guys over the phone. What that does is any call logs will be under that number so the store can see the authorisation or with an ultima number you will have a voucher with x amount on it. The company rule for straight swap no hassle or repair if faulty is 21 days which is what he is quoting. Under knowhow though we are respecting SOGA and anyone with half a brain in the company will see on the intranet a massive moving slogan which states: Colleagues know your consumers rights. Which basically say if it within 6 months its assumed faulty phone service desk who will handle for you. After 6 months ask customer to stay at home for a collection and repair. It also highlights the idea of a reasonable period of time for a repair etc. So the staff do know they are just playing dumb.

Hey I work for Dixons, The good news for you is on the WEH if on the third repair if the problem is the same they should issue vocuhers for a new set. I would say go into store if they are having difficulty. Try and go to a megastore if you have one local to you the customer service team within megastores is vastly superior to superstore or high street.

Did you order online? If so under the Distance Selling Regulations you have 7 days to return the goods. Go to nearest Currys/PC World or contact customer service on 08445611234 (I think). They will arrange an uplift. If they refuse the SOGA and Trade Description Act come into force ie goods must be as described. Has the website been updated? If not print off a copy ASAP as proof.

Contact Anina Castle head of PR on 01727 202379. It is a PR issue and she is head of it. Ask her what the know how way is ie what we can do is xxx ie provide the 20%. For the sake of what it is. BTW you never got that number from me. They are publicly available. Just too much for me if they know I am given publicly available numbers.

Sorry I was sleep typing. It becomes difficult to articulate after 9 hours of these problems with customers face to face. -) To clarify. Currys offer a new fault and fix service which can be used as an engineers report. In this service we can establish a) the fault b)the likely cause of the fault and c) based on the service history how to prevent the fault in the future or to write the laptop off. In this service you can choose to use it for the £50 for us to see if it is accidental damage or a inherent fault. I will say at this point the engineer it goes to will not now anything about it being a SOGA issue nor will the customer service team ins tore if you don;t mention it. Just go in and say I bought this laptop. Its not working now so I want to establish the problem. i understand you can diagnose the problem for £50 and give me a test report for it. Get that report. Then take it to currys h/o as it is our word then which we can't dispute. So it is not us saying if it is faulty. It is recognising the fault and the likely cause of the fault. With time scales currys now aim to repair all laptops within 10-25 days. A maximum of 21 usually. Remember though that is 21 repair days not shipping days. So if it takes 7 days to arrive and return add them to the 21 days. Giving you the 28 day figure.

Hi smurray139. I am a colleague in Dixons. i wil save the sorry spiel that you have received. I would like to say we have changed recently with 99% of check ups etc being done in house. Now with where you stand with the SOGA after 6 months you must allow prove the goods were inherently faulty with an engineers report and then allow use to dispute this if we choose. As you know we have a policy in place with reminds all staff of consumers rights. So what we offer is fault and fix £50 (far cheaper than most place will charge for the same service) to establish whats wrong with the machine. Following that you can tell us what to do and we do it basically. So you know now we are TIMED to a max of 10 days usually to check and return laptops. You can of course have someone else produce the report but we can dispute it then. And have done in the past.