This is really good news Puzz - well done and a big relief too. I've found that certainly our local JC and the main centre in another town (benefits claim lines etc) seem to have made huge strides in improving their customer service AND in the way they understand what it's like for people. They're also not daft - if there's someone they really know is pulling a fast one or swinging the lead, they'll come down hard on them and quite rightly so. They know that so many people are realy struggling and trying to get back into work - and they know what the job situation is like in their areas. Of course they have to try and get the jobless figures down, but if there ain't no jobs for those looking for work, there ain't no jobs - simples. I think another issue is that over the past couple of years, they are seeing a huge change to the demographics of those who are unemployed and not being able to find work. Every time I go to sign on now, I'm seeing more and more middle management types, older people who are clearly out of their league in being unemployed, many older women who have clearly had good jobs (possibly in admin) all of whom are finding themselves on the shelf. It is a very difficult time all round and it doesn't help when things go pear-shaped . But I do feel that if a person approaches it correctly, problems can be resolved. Now - if only the same could be said for the WTC bunch - we'd all be moving along a load more smoothly and less stressfully.

Hopefully some knowledgeable folks will be along soon. Both HMRC and WTC seem to be operating on a minimum 4 week delay to every bit of correspondence and no amount of trying to move things forward gets any kind of result. Are you in receipt of any kind of benefits to help out? eg, do you qualify for/ or receive help with rent or such like? If you're having problems with your utilities, call them to discuss help with payments. Your water company, for example, may have a one-off grant scheme for help with immediate debts so you can get some relief and back on course with managing your life. Does your 19 year old attend college? Any chance he can get some kind of temp or weekend work to help out with household expenses? Hang in there - it is rough when having to deal with the situation as it seems to spiral down and down, but at least you people are here for help and support.

As your sig says ................. (absolutely) priceless!!

This exact issue was raised on Money Box last week by an irate online customer and it's supposed to be coming to a close, although I don't remember them realising the issue about having to then agree to pay for a catalogue in order to buy a simple item online. One of the presenters pointed out that Next are selling a financial service by doing this and misleading people into exactly how an online retail purchase can even have a serious adverse affect on their credit rating. If you search for Radio 4's recent Money Box topics it may give some helpful advice on what to do. Personally, I would never sign up for a company that pulled tricks like this no matter how much I wanted any item as there's always another choice out there with a bit of searching.

Also - now they have to repay the deposit, can you add the interest on for the length of time they've withheld it?

Lovely story - better than Book at Bedtime!! Just one thing - surely by now, with all the evidence, it's the landlord who should be declared a vexacious litigant and barred from bringing any further claims to the Courts for being such a feckless liar?

The two simply fail consistently to tie up. Unfortunately, if Paypal have suspended your friend's account pending investigation, then eBay can not allow him to continue trading because their rules stipulate that all sellers must be able to accept payment by Paypal if the buyer so choses to pay this way. The result, as you're finding, is that a business seller can suddenly find themselves erroneously wiped off the face of eBay with a very tough time trying to get themselves reintated - never mind compensated. One point that may come as a bit of a shock: ratings of 4.5 are low - and would constitute under-performance (by eBay's glorified standards for other - not themselves of course!!!). Your friend needs to really look up all the information on selling because it's not that easy on eBay. If you have an active eBay account, you may try posting for him on the Seller Central forum to ask for help. If his account is NARU'd by eBay, he must not register another one to post on the forums or else that will wipe his busines out for good.

Reachingrob - not sure if you'll come back to this - your issue is not with eBay for a number of reasons. Firstly, when dealing with a registered business user on eBay, you need to know your Consumer Rights under the Distance Selling Regs as well as following eBay's complaints procecedures. Never send anything on to someone else on behalf of the seller. If it's faulty or not as described, your contract is with the seller for them to sort out. Also, they should not be passing on other customer's information to you. You are out of time to raise this with eBay as a complaint. If the item was over £100 and you paid with a credit card and you are still within time, ask first to see if you can get a refund from the cc company. Some debit card providers may also help, but you'll need to ask. Failing that, your only recourse is to go the small claims route and you need to write to the seller stating you want the full refund including the postage to the other buyer within the next (say) 14 days or else you'll seek to recover it that way. Hopefully the 'instructions' to send the item to another buyer were given by email and you have proof of postage (costs). If not, you may have great difficulty recovering those costs.

This is a long standing problem with eBay and Paypal. The two are supposed to work in conjunction in such situations, but fail to do so. Unless they've changed the system I believe the seller has to enter any tracking details into the Paypal dispute as well. A complaint should also go to Paypal as they are supposed to be able (and willing) to deal with the banks over dishonest claims by buyers that their cards have been used without their permission. The issue of why eBay has suspended your friend does need further clarification because they should not do this on just one complaint. Unfortunately, eBay have very (some may say hypocritically) and almost ridiculously high standards of performance which they impose on sellers. They should, however have notified him if their account was underperforming before taking such drastic action. Sometimes (well, far too often really) eBay's CS information is as appallingly bad in it's errors and misunderstandings as it's possible to get. So, what may seem like a perfectly reasonable and accurate Q&A session, results in a total train wreck with the eBayer on the smashed end. One other point - I believe the buyer should have had the right to return the item under the Distance Selling Regulations if it was a BIN. If your friend's T&Cs are not up to legal standards, this could potentially have a bearing on eBay's actions.

Failing to provide specific information requested about errors on an account they are handling (not owning). I also want to try and get the account (not mine BTW) back to the OC.

Julie - on a practical note, have you asked for assistance from CAB or another organisation who could help you? If you're registered disabled, or even if you just try to live with your condition, you could try talking to MIND or some similar local organisation to ask if they can support you in dealing with this matter.

Hopefully a quickie....... If a DCA has not complied with repeated requests does the complaint go to the FSA or the OFT?

At a guess I'd say that as your advisor was not there for your final appointment, either the system was not set up for the delay of the two week's or the person booking the next date made more than one error, which included double booking you in. Have you asked about your right to make a formal complaint and what that would involve? Not sure what you mean by a "Sun 9.50 holiday" - did you let them know you would, or did, take a holiday? As for not being satisfied with the performance of the advisor during your 13 weeks, that is again something you need to find out about as to whether you can raise this, if that is what you want to do.

Do you have any answers to questions yet? Get back to the GP and, if they were involved, Social Services. Also, maybe contact your local Patient Liaison Service to see if your mother in law/ your wife have any recourse to complaint and what can be put right. Maybe also contact the police to find out exactly why it was considered necessary to handcuff your father in law because that could have caused more than distress for the family, but could have knocked him back considerably. Remember it's not just now that the problem has occurred but that over time, this incident may well come back to haunt him and cause a worsening of his condition.

If no-one else comments on the pension issue, I think you need to contact them yourself to find out, but also ask your accountant if any pension changes will make a difference to your benefit entitlements.

Hi Norfolkmouse - I'm sorry that I have no idea how to help at all if you've already tried the CAB and Age Concern. Is it worth going back to Age Concern to ask for help? This thread may be better in one of the other sub-forums (eg the Debt one) as it's not just the rent and council tax which will be a problem for you. Just a few practicalities - have you got the best possible gas and electricity tarrifs? Some will provide lower rates for pensioners who are struggling. Also, some utilities (including water companies) offer a one-off payment to help out with debt - it's a charity type thing. May be worth talking to your utility companies to see if anyone does operate such a scheme to help with the immediate problems. It's easy to type this here, but please hang in there and try not to become too demoralised. There's a lot of help to be found on this and on other forums such as Money Saving Expert.

Just a small development which people may want to be aware of: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/06/07/facebook_facial_recognition_on_by_default/

So, are you saying that they knew about the course, but failed to mention it before producing new contracts for everyone to sign? Is it, as honeybee mentions, one of the qualifications that are required in law, or required if the legal firm is to cover their backsides? What happens if you refuse to go on the course - has that been mentioned? In the great scheme of things, you have a bit of choice but probably not as much as you would like. Is there any chance you could raise this as a point of principle with the MSC and point out in a tacful way that they've not played fair and that you'd like to request they pay, say two thirds and you pay a third - spread over xx months? And again - will the course enhance your employability as time goes on? If so, and it's not going to cause too much financial inconvenience, I'd say try and cut a deal on the payments and do the course. Just one thing may be worth checking out - are they going to spring any other courses on you because if so, then that is something that's not on because once you've accepted to part-pay for one course (even though it's not in the contract), it could be argued that you were willing to pay for any others.

Nowon, you might find the other forum which is dedicated to this specific issue more helpful. It is apparently not unheard of for the 'enforcement officers' to supply 'evidence' to a 'sympathetic' magistrate in order for a search warrant to be obtained. A challenge was issued some time back to attempt to force the Courts to show what evidence had been used for such a situation, but it failed - ie the 'evidence' presented to the magistrate for a search warrant can never be verified by the victim and so no proceedings can be taken against anyone who may have fabricated evidence to gain an unlawful search warrant. So, the 'enforcement officers' have to have clear evidence that equipment is being used at the premises for the purpose of receiving live broadcasts. Without that evidence they do risk having the book thrown at them. The issue then turns around what evidence they allege to have. If there has been no search warrant (which I understand - but am open to correction - has to take place with the police present and does not permit them to roam freely all over the home), then they have to rely on a bunch of other stuff. This could include 'confessional' documentation and again, it has been shown that these 'enforcement officers' are not above forging the information on such documents. As they have your name from previous information, it gives the potential dishonest employee a starting point. However, all this is conjecture and the members of the other forum would be able to give you some more help on what your rights are and how it may be best to deal with this. It could, for example, simply be just another of their very unethical, scare-tactic letters. All I will add is that personally speaking, for years I defended the principal of the TV License and did not want to see the BBC being phased out and becoming another commercially run company. I am now not at all supportive in the main because of their behaviour towards those of us who are genuine, law-abiding people who do not need a licence. I love listening to the radio and would miss that if it ever went. But as long as there is the the need for a TV licence as governed by law, I do not condone those who refuse to pay it but still use their TV, not in the least because it gives those eejits the excuse to persecute the rest of us. So, if you have a TV at that address, please do the decent thing and get the licence. If you don't have a TV, then get more advice from as many knowledgeable folk as possible as to what your rights are.

oh oopsie - I'm not going to be too popular if anyone goes looking for da sunglasses. I kind of, rather thought that it might have been possible to just give it a new code - summat like :shhh: BTW - whilst the dear WM is having a sort out ................... we seem to have got two nodding 'sads' at the top level (and another one in the full list) Perhaps one could be replaced on the top level with the positive nodder: and two shocks (shocks??) I'll go and put t'kettle on and get out the choccie hob nobs. *It's the Administrator in me - one does like things very neat and tidied and in their right place - one does*

Oh dear - but he'll thank you in the long-term. Can you sweeten it by offering a compensation for apres exam? Maybe find an event he'd love to go to instead?

Lorraine - just to make sure you don't have any other 'surprises', have you also checked the situation regarding your Council Tax too? If that was also being paid along with HB, they will have been notified that you were not entitled to CT benefit. Best to check with them as well because they will be the least accommodating if you are deemed to owe them money but you haven't paid because you didn't realise you had to.

At a guess, I'd say that it is. How long have you been working for the MSC and does your contract mention anything about paying for such things as training in the course of your employment? If the client is saying that all employees/ contractors have to go on the course, then clearly the MSC has to comply or lose their contract. I think it may all come down to what your contract stipulates. Other things to consider: How much is this course going to cost and can you source it cheaper than 50% elsewhere? If not ,will the MSC let you pay in instalments over, say, 3 or 6 months? Will it enhance your employability if you want to move to another job later on?

Hope it's going well for you, Puzz. Keeping fingers crossed. In future, can you apply for jobs by email as that is a good way to show you've applied. If you're sending a cv by post, get a free proof of postage slip from the PO. With all applications, it's a good idea to follow up by phone after a few days or so to see if there is any news and try to chat to who may be making the decisions. Get the name of who you talk to and if possible, as Sillygirl says, try and provide a phone statement.

Testing testing............ 8) 8-) Oh - hang on a mo - the shades have gorn completely???