You probably need to stop worrying about this. Call your card issuer/bank and inform them that you want a block on any payments made from your card to that company. Get a reference number. Confirm this in writing. Read our customer services guide. Monitor your account for any money which is taken. Write a letter to the car hire people and inform them simply that you have no knowledge of the item which apparently was left in the vehicle and that you are not prepared to pay any invoice and that if they feel that there is money to be recovered then they should issue court proceedings immediately and you will deal with it before a judge. Tell them that you have instructed your bank/card issuer not to make any payments to them and that any attempt to take money from your account will be met with immediate complaint to the bank and a request for a chargeback. (Point this out to the bank as well) Send this letter – without all the narrative stuff that you have included above in your first post. Be brief and to the point. Keep us updated. If it goes any further then of course we will help you. I don't envisage much problem. You may even find the whole thing quite interesting. The only difficulty for you is that it may have destroyed your relationship with Zipcar if you use them very often – but you will have to deal with that as it comes. I would suggest a couple of weeks that you send them an SAR. If they have this down on your data file then if you want you can make a claim against them for inaccurate data processing and that might be worth the money to you as well. Especially if you can show that this has caused distress and inconvenience in that they have blocked your access to the Zipcar service on this basis.

Yes I agree that a new date would be better – but you had better keep an eye open. It is perfectly possible that they will market up and not arrange the new date. Keep phoning and emailing until you get an acknowledgement. In terms of what to say the mediation, there are a number of excellent mediation summaries on the sub forum. Look around for cases where the title has been altered to say that it has been resolved or settled or something and see if there is a mediation summary at the end of the thread. There is no law which is particularly discussed in a mediation process. Of course they will say that you have no contact with them. You have to reply that you are relying on the third parties act and that if they don't like it then there is no point to continuing the mediation and they may as well that the judge decide. You can point out but there is already one judgement which confirms that the third parties act applies. Tell them that you will have the transcript in time for the trial. Of course they will try to knock you down on the money. You should refuse. At this point it will probably be worth pointing out that there are a number of other lost items and in respective one of them you have already begun a case and maybe they should consider settling everything instead of wasting everybody's time because it is all the same principle. The important thing is not to give in. Not a penny. Beware that you may come under pressure from the mediator. In that case the mediator is acting inappropriately and you can even tell the mediator that you don't appreciate the pressure they are putting. They are simply there as I go between. End of story. Be tough. Be assertive. Don't forget this is your path finder for a number of other similar cases which you will be bringing. This is practise for you. If you give way now then you may not have the resolve to continue with the others

I'm not sure that attacking the bank here was the correct thing to do. I would have concentrating my efforts on the insurance company and also on the repairer. You will certainly have to get an independent report. You may have to pay for this but on the basis of what you say, you will succeed and you will recover the expense of that plus the other expenses which you have been promised. You say that the insurer has ignored the ombudsman. Do you have evidence of this? Have you complained to the ombudsman that you are being ignored? If this pans out then it is rather extraordinary but we can help you attack the insurer as well as the repairer. Who is the repairer? Who is the insurer?

What date has been set for the mediation? The County Court people are very nice – but they are incredibly inefficient and although you have asked for a new date, don't be surprised if you have to chase this up. In fact if I were you I would be telephoning regularly to make sure that they have got the message and that they are allocating a new date. Is there really no way that you can do the date which they have proposed? It might cause an additional disproportionate delay. Also, you are asking about the argument which can be made in respect of their claim that you don't have a contract with them. Do we understand by this that you haven't done the reading?

Yes, let us know in advance so that we can work out a message to go with the items which you have found along with the transcript. I should tell you that there are some problems with the transcript the moment. We made an application on our own name and the judge refused it – I'm not sure that she was entitled to – but now it has been reapplied for by the claimant. I am pretty confident that we will have it by October

Let's wait until then and we can send the second bundle along with the judgement.

Have you submitted the original bundle?

I've made some modifications. It is broadly what you have written that I have tweaked it. Have a look. See if you agree. See if there's anything you want to change – remove – add – and post the draft here

I am certain that what you are saying about the train this is true – but that is not the problem. You need evidence but also you have undervalued them at £100 instead of £349. You seem to be suggesting that it's a mistake but I suspect that it wasn't. I think it is more likely that you thought you would save a little bit on the insurance and have undervalued them. Big Fail! First of all the insurance is unnecessary and unenforceable. It would be better if you had declared the value correctly and not bother to buy any insurance. However, as you asked EVRi to accept a risk of £100 – it is extremely unlikely that you could ever ask them for more than that. Secondly, if you do take them to court – and particularly if your evidence is flimsy then you can be certain that EVRi will try to say that you are trying it on and if you try to claim for the real value – £349 – EVRi will point out that you undervalued and that you are trying it on then as well. There is nothing good here. You should start being straight dealing about these things. Secondly, you should start getting evidence and that means that you should take pics of the parcel before it is sent and as soon as this kind of thing happens you should ask for a picture of the item which apparently has been delivered including the wrapping. I suspect that it went to eBay because you declined to accept the word of the purchaser and declined to reimburse them. I'm afraid that this is another big mistake because you ceded control to eBay and they tend to do what they want. If you can get sufficient evidence then we can certainly help you succeed in the claim against EVRi – but it is most likely that you will only succeed to the tune of £100. Unless the evidence is really strong, I wouldn't even want to mention the full value and the fact you undervalued it because that will only damage your credibility. Once you have been devious about one thing – the court may well draw conclusions that you have been devious about everything. We can help you get your £100 back if you follow our instructions but you better start being straight about everything and you had better get good evidence. Sorry that it all sounds bad. Sorry that it sounds a bit critical – but there are some lessons to be learned here I think

… A bit like saying "I didn't bother to look before I crossed the road because I didn't think that I would get hit by a car" And you still haven't explained what possible advantage you might have by undervaluing them. I am curious to know

You will need to get the evidence. This is important. Also, you undervalued them at £100 and it is very likely that this is all you will be able to claim. Why on earth did you undervalue them?

Have the trainers been returned to you? Did you take photographs of the parcel before you sent it? Are there photographs of the parcel when it arrived? Have you been supplied with the wrapping that the parcel arrived in? You say that the trainers are worth £349 but you take out an insurance for only £100. Does that mean that you declared the value at £100?

1

You are asking for a refund on the basis that you have bought an item which is not being delivered on a particular day as promised. You are therefore cancelling the order but they are not responding. You should also complain that they have taken the money from your credit card account before they have even dispatched the order and this is contrary to the credit card regulations as well

I haven't looked through the document which you posted on the 16th – but I have just scanned to the helpful two page document which you posted on Saturday. The reasoning seems absolutely excellent. However it seems to me that you are proposing to approach DPD about this before the trial. I think this would be a serious mistake. I think that it would be a better approach to compile this into an "additional bundle" and to produce it at the hearing. If you can meet the DPD representative outside the court five minutes before you according, then give that person a copy of the extra document which you are intending to provide to the judge. When you going to the court you can tell the judge that you have only recently discovered this document and it costs a grave light over DPD's position that there was no contract with them because the evidence is that Packlink is simply a conduit to providing a direct contract between you and DPD and in that case, although you still stand by your position that you enjoy rights of third parties against them if the judge considers that there is no direct contract with DPD, on the basis that there is a direct contract then you have the right to sue them and furthermore you are entitled to be treated as a consumer with all of the protections contained in the Consumer Rights Act. In other words I would prepare but keep my powder dry

Sorry I really don't understand. What same process – and who is it that "it says if…" Et cetera?

In your message to them, tell them that if they don't let you have the refund you will be contacting your card issuer and asking for them to deal with it under section 75 Consumer Credit Act. Let us know what happens

We are starting from zero. Therefore send a letter of complaint detailing the basis of your complaint and what you're looking for. It doesn't matter whether it was a response or not. The important thing is that you are able to demonstrate to the court that you have put them on notice and you have made an attempt to resolve the problem before issuing proceedings. I suggest that generally you follow the advice we give Post the draft complaint here before you send it off

This is an online purchase. You have 14 days from the date of satisfactory delivery of the item to return it and to demand a refund whatever the reason. Because the item has even been delivered, you are entitled to cancel the order straightaway and demand a refund. Contact them by email immediately. Tell them that you have tried to contact them but to no avail but that you are now cancelling the order and you expect a refund. No doubt you will find it difficult to get the refund from them. Contact your bank if you don't hear from the supplier within 24 hours and begin the chargeback. Your bank won't be very pleased but stand your ground and get your money back

So I have to ask you, is it worth it? How long will it take to clear the entire debt at the current rate of repayment? If he has no estate then if he dies impecunious than the bank will have to write off the debt. Oh dear! Is there any particular reason why you feel that you should settle the debt?

How long ago was the divorce. Does he have any assets

I have put a call out to my site team colleague @dx100uk who will have a better idea than me about your original question regarding he likelihood of the bank agreeing to a partial payment. My questions were really around the idea of being able to recover some or all of the money from the ex-wife.

How come she has had access to the account? Do you know where she is and if she has any assets? @dx100uk

It sounds as if you have been extremely lucky. Overloading is an underestimated serious matter which can cause vehicles to run out of control and cause injury to innocent people.

You haven't addressed my question as to your payment method – but I'm assuming that it was using a debit card. Have you tried asking your bank for a chargeback? This will be the easiest thing to do. The next thing would be to issue a letter of claim and then begin a court claim. Try the chargeback first. Your bank won't like it but as you have evidence that it was delivered, then under the distance selling rules contained in the Consumer Contracts Regulations you are entitled return the items within 14 days for a full refund. There is not a matter of music magpie policy. This is a matter of law The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 WWW.LEGISLATION.GOV.UK These Regulations implement most provisions of Directive 2011/83/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 October 2011 on consumer rights, amending Council Directive 93/13/EEC and Directive 1999/44/EC of... Then you should insist with your bank that they refund you under the chargeback rules. If they cause any difficulty then tell them that you are beginning a complaint which you want to send to the ombudsman. Come back here and let us know what happens and we can decide whether you should go to the next step or not