The BBC are broadcasting a Whistleblower documentary on bailiffs on Tuesday 26th September. They have had an undercover reporter working for a firm of bailiffs for a few months. It could be, potentially, quite interesting.

No Sharon, I didn't take the money. They treated my letter as a formal complaint and initiated their complaints procedure. The offer was conditional on my acceptance of it in full and final settlement of the matter. I wasn't prepared to be hamstrung by that. Thanks for the offer of quoting you, I might well take you up on that should I feel it necessary in the future.

Sharon, They offered you £110 but only offered me £90?? I am aggrieved!!! I wrote to them asking them to provide me with a full breakdown of their costs (again) I am still waiting for their response to that.

How long have you owned the laptop for, is it less than 6 months?

Nice way of making the site pay with revenue from those who offer the numbers:)

If a car has a valid road fund licence then the council have no powers to remove it as an abandoned vehicle. The road tax must be out of date before they can treat it as such.

So, why list details of how to appeal on the ticket if they have no intention of even allowing an appeals process in the first instance should someone decide to appeal??? What a crazy set up!!

My calls to T-mobile customer service are free and do not eat up the free minutes allowance. I think you are on a loser with regards to trying to claim back the cost of your call. It is up to you to keep track of your account usage so you know when you are about to use up your allowance. I would be very surprised if you got anywhere with such a claim.

The other option is to go to SAYNOTO0870.COM - Non-Geographical Alternative Telephone Numbers and input the 0845/0870 number there, and in most cases an alternative landline number will be provided.

Lawyers try and use loopholes to get their clients off so what's the problem with the authorities taking action to ensure the loopholes are not there in the first place?

As long as the vehicle has been serviced in accordance with the manufacturers schedule, it doesn't have to be serviced by one of the manufacturers dealers. Any garage can service it. The point that the warranty doesn't cover the vehicle because you had it serviced elsewhere is nonsense.

I don't think they can rely on the fact that there was signage on one side of the road and it also applied to the other side of the road. If the bay is a seperate bay then it should have its own signage which explains what the conditions are to allow you to park there. Sounds like this is a case of the ticket going to the appeals process.

Why not ask them to provide you with a full breakdown of their admin costs?

If the bay was seperate to the bays across the road where there were some signs then the bay you were parked in should have some signage to say what the bay is. Are there any signs at all by the bay where you parked and gort the PCN? Have you taken any photos of the bay just in case the council come down at the dead of night and erect a sign?

Looks clear enough to me then. If they have failed to provide you with the service you signed for then they are in breach of contract. You should be able to write to them and inform them that as they have failed to provide you with the services you signed up to receive within a reasonable timescale, then you consider them to be in breach of contract and you will be cancelling the agreement.

Basically, am I correct in thinking that you don't yet have a broadband service provided by Talk Talk and that you have been waiting since March? If this is the case then Talk Talk have surely breached their contract and it should be a simple matter of writing to them and advising them of this. Have you actually paid for any services with Talk Talk yet?

I wrote to them today and asked them to answer my original questions i.e to give me a full breakdown of their costs. I'm taking this one all the way. There is nothing to lose after all:)

The personal registration number doesn't even have to be transferred to another member of the family. All that has to be done is to arrange with DVLA to have a normal registration number allocated to the vehicle and place the personal plate on retention with DVLA. The number plate is nothing to do with the car and they won't be able to touch it.

I agree with your view on DVLA. I was knocked off my motorcycle 2 years ago by the driver of a white van. Fortunately I was not hurt, a touch of bruising but nothing broken. The driver gave me his details, but they turned out to be false. I contacted DVLA and they eventually informed me that the details of the registered keeper that they had were in dispute ( believed false) and that they had carried out a "full investigation" and had been unable to find the current keeper. In light of that, they declined to provide me with the details they had as they would be breaching the DPA by knowingly giving me details they knew to be false. I wasn't content with that so I asked them to give me details of their full investigation. They stalled for a couple of months before admitting that they had done nothing! What had happened with the van was this:- 1. New owner buys the van and sends off V5 with new keeper details on it. 2. DVLA send out new V5 to address given to them. 3. DVLA receive the V5 back with a letter stating that the persons living at address supplied by new keeper had nothing to do with the van. 4. DVLA accepted this on face value, didn't ask for verification from person claiming they had nothing to do with the van. I believe the owner just sent the log book back and told DVLA that it was nothing to do with him. On the stength of that, they do bugger all, apart from logging their records with a query regarding who owns it. They don't send anyone to the address, don't inform the police and don't ask for documentation to verify the claims. So, in essence, despite their failure to comply with the DPA in checking that the info they were given was correct, they still refused to help me, apart from telling me that the van had been taxed twice at post offices in Hertfordshire. I then discovered the van had changed hands again. I asked DVLA to provide me with details of the new keeper but they refused. I asked them if they would contact the new keeper and ask them if they could supply information about who they got the van from. They refused again, citing "excessive processing of data". They are a shambles and a disgrace. All they are interested in is milking law abiding citizens for as much cash as they can. When it comes to chasing those abusing the vehicle and driving licence systems they do nothing, claiming they don't have the resources. They need a good kick up the rear end! Sorry about going on a bit there, but I do feel better for getting it off my chest:D

Seems very much a case of left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing. I would suggest you ring their head office and ask to be put through to the high level complaints team. Their number is 020 7087 2000. Ignore the long recorded message about hanging up and ringing customer services. Wait until the end to be connected to the switchboard and then ask to be put through to the high level complaints team.

I know this is not going to be much comfort for you but the bays are marked for the use of blue badge holders at any time. You shouldn't have parked there. Its no good criticising the warden in such derogatory terms for doing their job simply because you deliberately parked in an area where you shouldn't have. I would put this one down to experience and pay up.

Bruce, If they have written an incorrect registration number on the ticket then it is invalid and they will have no choice but to cancel it. Just in case Islington Council get funny about it, I would go back to where you parked it and see what signage is there and take photos, just as a back up plan.

You should state categorically that you are not prepared to accept a 50/50 settlement. You should also ask them about the company complaints procedure and inform them that if they are not prepared to deal with your claim properly that you will invoke it, taking it all the way to insurance ombudsman if necesary. Direct Line tried a similar thing on with my OH in 2004. She got hit up the rear by a car that had also been hit up the rear by another vehicle (whose occupants did a runner). She got the details off the driver who hit her car. Nice easy claim so we thought, but Direct Line had other ideas. They tried to tell her that they would not claim off the other driver as it was not his fault he had been hit and shunted into my OH. So they expected her to lose her no claims and excess. We wrote to DL and told them it was not accetable and we were not prepared to accept this. Eventually they agreed to reinstate her no claims and also refund her excess, but it took a bit of a battle.

When my OH and I moved house in March this year we ordered a new fridge from John Lewis using their online order service. We were given a convenient delivery date and they turned up on time with the goods as promised. You can't ask for more than that. B & Q, take note!

Their website makes no mention whatsoever of their interest rates. Not surprising really when you think that Hedgehog will be paying back almost £4000 over 2 years for a £1000 loan. I searched on Moneysupermarket.com and the highest rate they came up with for a loan of £1000 over 2 years was an APR of 177%:o but even at this rate, the total paid back would be £2445. I would think it worthwhile contacting the OFT and trading standards regarding Logbook Loans.