I really need some help with this one if possible. On 27th December 2012 I applied for a contract ipad whereby I had to pay a deposit of £99 once the contract had gone through after a initial credit check, I put my debit details in assuming they would only use this for the credit check nothing more I waited and the next morning my credit was declined and I was informed via a generic email that no money would be removed from my account. Looking at my statements £99 was removed so that weekend I emailed Vodafone CS asking when this would be returned I have no less than 20 emails from CS advising the same unhelpful, generic rubbish. They keep advising me on how I can appeal the decision (which is not something I intend to do) and stating a average waiting time of 8-14 working days before the money is returned but giving no satisfactory answer as to why they hold my money for so long and why they do not advise this during the application process or on the declined email. I have been extremely patient and have been struggling to make ends meet because I have been waiting for so long for this money to be returned to me and it has been extremely upsetting, today Vodafone stated for me to wait another 3-5 working days to see if this money will magically appear but I find this unacceptable as I have been more than patient and would like my money back which they are not entitled too. Can anyone help me with this? Kind Regards

Hey there He thought back over it (cos this is from 4 years ago) and remembered paying installments for something to do with him being caught with no insurance or MOT but then suddenly he heard nothing and stupidly assumed everything was okay, and now well here we are. *shrugs.

Hello Again! Just an update me & my Boyfriend went to the Magistrates Court yesterday to see if we could get some sort of payment plan enforced, they said they would be more than happy to do except they no longer have the warrant and because of a change of law sometime ago they have no powers to get the warrant back from Marstons either and advised us to call them directly. I personally did this and MY GOD I have never had such hassle!!! I explained the situation to the first advisor who offered me a opportunity to pay £800 that day and then have 12 weeks to pay the rest of the £2,500 outstanding debt, I calmly explained what the Magistrates told us and how what with paying rent, getting to/from work and bills we don't have £800 to give her! She then became a bit of a dead end and I requested to possibly speak to a Supervisor as I was only trying to find a amicable solution to which her response was "this call is going in circles, I am terminating the call" and hung up on me!! Outraged I rung back and spoke to someone different who said sorry and seemed a bit more empathic until half way through the call I heard fumbling and the same woman from before came on in a very harsh tone telling me this was the only option, all the money today or £800 now at this point I had to say to her "there is nothing of value in the home, we are trying to be flexible and sort this out and we are happy for baliffs to turn up to assess the situation but see no reason as to why it should get this far when in reality this is only going to add more costs onto a debt we already can't afford" this caused some breakthrough where she said we have until the 25th April to pay £800 then 12 weeks from now to pay the rest. I didn't want to knock this offer as it took a good 30 mins to get this much progress but we are still stressing over where we are going to find this money from, I rung CAB as directed on the paper from Marstons and according to their automated service options there is no longer a option to discuss court fines with a CAB person!!! > so in conclusion we are struggling to find the £800 and once we do pay that by the deadline we are going to try our hardest to pay the rest but are hoping if we are struggling maybe marstons will see we are good to our word on paying and want to pay the debt and will maybe be more flexible in negiogiating a better payment plan.. time will tell..

Hello There, I am writing this on behalf of my Boyfriend to gain some quick advice with his predicament, recently he has been in court to resolve a outstanding traffic offence that he never knew existed because the service notice was delivered to one of his old addresses, while he was in court he gave them his new up to date address and thought all was fine. That was until today he has received a letter from Marston Group demanding a unpaid court fine of £2,500 in the next 7 days, again this is a court cost from at least 3 years ago that he never knew he owed because he moved house a few times and now it has come crawling out of the woodwork because of his recently court appearance. He is freaking out because they are threatening baliff action and as he has nothing of value and most of the stuff in the joint shared flat with his mate belongs to his mate he is deeply concerned. I have researched a lot on the internet which gives advice about ringing Marston and trying to arrange a monthly payment (he does work full time so he can do installments but he does not have £2,500 lying about the house) but as I have seen from countless other threads these people aren't very reasonable and neither are the baliffs so we are now thinking "now what do we do?" as it is the weekend we can't phone anybody until Monday but even then we don't know if its worth trying with the debt collectors or maybe just going straight to the Magistrates courts insisting he is unable to pay this and asking for a means tested hearing in regards to the payment and hoping there is someway he can pay maybe £150 a month back? Any help or advice will be very much appreciated Regards, Kara