EasyJet offered me and my friend 250 Euro each to swap flights as our flight from Geneva to London was overbooked. Our original flight was 1115, our replacement flight was 1310 but did not actually leave until 1600. When we tried to collect our compensation, guess what? They refused to pay up and told us we were only entitled to £100 each, this seems to be a common policy of theirs. Any ideas how we can get them to keep their promise? Thanks JIM

Can anyone tell me what the law is on planning application time limits are? Do the council have to place a notice on the building that is the subject of the planning application and if so do they have to allow a certain amount of time between posting the notice and actually making a planning decision? Thanks in advance.

About 4 months ago my Samsung S2 phone was stolen. This resulted in me having a £280 debt since the person who had taken my phone made various calls to Iraq and managed to spend this much money in a 14 hour period before my phone was blacklisted. This was extremely annoying since I am a student and don't possess a lot of money. However, I understand that I was liable to pay so have accepted it and moved on. However, two months on from then, T-mobile still haven't replaced my SIM card, despite me asking them too. Therefore I have paid for two months on my contract even though my phone hasn't been in use because T-mobile have been are so inefficient and still have not replaced my SIM card (also on top of this I have a been using a pay-as-you-go phone on O2 since I need a phone to use, which equals more money spent). As a result, yesterday I rang up again and after being on hold for 20 minutes, I spoke to an operator and asked strongly for some kind of compensation for the months I have paid for when my phone hasn't been in use due to their inefficiencies. In response to this the operator hung up on me! I am now so annoyed and fed up of T-mobile, so is this a breach of contract? because I am fed up of them and if possible want to cancel my contract, and at the very minimum receive some kind of compensation. Every time I ask to speak to a manager they refuse or hang up on me. Absolutely terrible customer service!

If you have been suckered into paying an 'in advance' admin fee by Wentworth (or any loan shark company) you can get your money back. I had problems with them, and scoured the net - turns out, they've ripped lots of people off ! In short, I applied for a consolidation loan, received a text and letter to say my £10k loan had been approved and the lender would be in touch shortly - based on this info I paid an admin fee (lets be clear, before I just willy nilly handed over the money - they confirmed to me the lenders name, total amount repayable, loan payments, time, penalty fees etc) I was happy with this, so pauid the £65 ish pounds ... the money never appears. Instead I got bombarded by junk mail from high interest places, one of them being Ralph Marlon(?) offering £7000 at over 600%! not what I asked for.... I complained within a matter of days, and asked for my money back and made a complaint. they ignored me. I sent another letter. They then sent me a very odd letter that said I needed to provide ID and other docs to get a refund. odd. by this point I had had enough. I went to FOS. I gave them all info I had, emails, texts & letters. It took me from march 2012 - August 2012 to get my original refund.... but as I had some bank regulation knowlege, I pushed my complaint with FOS, stating that they took my money under false pretences - etc etc - 9 months later, I got my money back and £100 compensation. well worth it. A time consuming exercise - but I wanted to post so you would know you WILL GET YOUR MONEY BACK.

Hey was wondering if anyone could help. my girlfriend works as a health care assistant in a Hospital. Yesterday she went to unplug a machine from the socket which seemed fine but when she pulled out the plug she got quite a shock and the socket came partly off the wall. She felt a lot of pain shoot all up her arm and jumped backwards. Her fingers and arm started to go red and was told by a nurse to go to A&E to get seen to .She had an ECG and then was told to fill out a datix form. Thankfully everything was okay apart from her whole arm tingling the whole night. Today there's no tingling but her arm still feels a bit numb. She was told to go back in a few days to get checked out again. When she got home last night she told her friend what had happened. This friend was a health care assistant on the same ward as my girlfriend but left a few months ago to pursue another career. Her friend told her that she had complained to a staff nurse about the very same socket months and months ago. The staff nurse just said to her "there's a screw driver in the draw in the office". this socket has been faulty for months and months and has resulted in my girlfriend getting an electric shock due to the Hospitals negligence and failure to ensure the safety of its staff. My girlfriend has taken a picture of her arm which clearly shows redness and also the socket hanging off the wall from where she pulled the plug out. i'm wondering if she has a case for claiming compensation ?. To be honest i'm just glad she's okay but i'm VERY annoyed that it could of been avoided had the Nurse acted accordingly once being told of the faulty socket. Amazingly straight after it happened they had an electrician come and sort it.

hi was wondering if anyone can help me..i had my daughter in 2009 and was very long hard labour after a while i had to have forceps delivery where they caught her just at the corner of her eye and made a cut...i was told by my health visitor it would probably fade with age. shes now 3 and a half and its a very noticable scar lot of people ask me if its a birthmark..its brown colour about 1 cm and i think she has a slight lazy eye bit its not been checked and im not sure if thats with the forceps or not....does anyone know if i have a case to claim compensation? thanks

My flight from Luton to Rome in April this year was delayed over 6 hours..... Monarch went through the usual oh your claim has been placed on hold till the EU ruling... I contacted them early October pointing out they knew what the judgment was ina s much as their appeal had been denied and the original judgment stood, and would they like to settle now... They responded we will wait on the judgment on the 23/10/2012.... They are putting as many obstructions in claimants way as possible, insisting on each individual passenger filling in a claim form, and asking for all sorts of information , boarding passes , and original paperwork and passport copies.. Over and above that I also had the letter they gave us at the airport apologizing for the "technical problem"... in the EU ruling it states 14 days for payment...they have told me that ain't happening.. actually couldn't believe the blasé attitude of the claims handler...it was more or less, couldnt care less, its not even been assessed yet!!! So county court paperwork will be completed and sent of in the next 48 hours.:-x

Hi all, Back in 2010 I was supposed to be returning from Madrid to Heathrow. Despite checking for delays before traveling to the airport (there were none) the flight departed 5 hours late. I booked with BA in the UK but the flight actually turned out to be operated by Iberia under a code share (I think BA subsequently acquired them regardless). Myself and dozens of other passengers complained at the time, the Iberia staff couldn't cope as the queues at the information desk were in excess of an hour - and even when you did get to the front they had no information. Their answer was to just shut up shop and walk off. We mentioned the EU regulations we were directed to fill in a standard complaint/claim for compensation at the desk. I did this and some weeks later I received a response. The delay was dismissed with the usual nondescript extraordinary circumstances prattle. Upon reflection other flights (including the Iberia scheduled to depart after my flight left on time) so I fail to see how there could have been air traffic or weather issues. Unfortunately I gave up at this point considering that taking to Iberia to court in Spain would be far too much hassle. I no longer have their official response to my complaint as it was some time ago. With the recent changes/clarification in legislation I'm inspired to pick this up once more and I've no qualms about issuing proceedings. First question, I booked with BA but the flight was operated by Iberia. Am I correct to assume that I should be pursuing BA rather than Iberia - it would certainly be easier to deal with a UK company. As a starting point should I write to BA customer services and simply reiterate my claim for compensation? If this is a good place to start should I start sighting legislation etc or simply state that I want my 250 euros, leaving the legal references for subsequent letters? Thanks James

Hello, I took out a PO Box in August 2012 which was directing mail as it should to our real address. Payment of ~£276 was also taken by Direct Debit in this month, but Royal Mail failed to allocate the payment to our account. In September 2012, Royal Mail cancelled the PO Box for supposedly non-payment, just before we launched a magazine marketing campaign costing us £2,500.00. We were expecting approximately 200 to 300 responders, based on a similar marketing campaign launched earlier in the year. When we got zero postal responses, we assumed that the magazine had dumped our brochures. With hindsight, we now know that customers with a return address would have their cheques returned. Customers without a returns address may have their letters opened by Royal Mail, and then either sent back to recipient or destroyed. My concern is for the waste of the original £2,500 investment, but also the negative light for the customers that liked our advert and sent in a cheque. I know if I sent off a cheque and didn't hear back, or received an 'undeliverable' notification then I personally would lose faith in that company. This is very hard to put a figure on. Royal Mail have accepted that payment was made, confirmed that the account will become active in 3 working days (7 weeks after the marketing campaign was launched) but have currently gone silent on the matter of compensation. Does anyone have any experience on claiming compensation for loss-of-earnings, or dealing with Royal Mail in particular? Any thoughts on the matter would be appreciated because this is new territory for me. Thanks, Alex

I have been awarded £410.62 compensation as against £1285.20 of PPI paid. Totall award £1695.82. How do you calculate compensation and what other Extra can I claim on top of this- Thanks

Hi Not sure it I`m in the right place but here goes. I was involved in a bad road accident in 2004 but managed to return to work in the Civil Service until 2009 when I was given ill health retirement. I have been waiting all this time for my Solicitor to finalise my claim with the Motor Insurance Bureau as I was hit by a stolen lorry. They have made me a fair offer which I have accepted but now my Solicitor has said that there may be a risk of Capita, who administer my pension, to make a claim for refund of my early ill health retirement pension but he cannot give me a prescedence at the moment . I am desperate both emotionally and financially to settle this and being on the brink it seems that there will be a further delay. Has anyone heard or had experience of this? Many thanks

Hi all, Just been informed that O2 are not offering any compensation or refunding the cost of 1 days service after Fridays service loss. Do they not have to refund the cost of the days loss of service as I am essentially going to be paying for something I didnt receive? Dont think I have a case to exit my contract FOC but its the principle of the matter. They should at least refund the cost of 1 days service, I know its about £1, less in some cases. I am so mad at this company. I do regret renewing my contract with them. Only 22 months to go!!!

http://news.airwise.com/story/view/1349397400.html

Hi I try to present the case in a nutshell as it has been running for a while now: I booked a shipment at the beginning of July through a courier booking agent. Carrier was UPS. I declared its value correctly - approx £1120 at the time of shipping (due to exchange rate) and purchased additional insurance cover of up to £1500 when I booked the shipment. I followed the shipping agents packing advice guidelines 100% (bubblewrap around the item, fixing the item in a large corrugated cardboard box and filling the remainder with poly chips and other suitable packing material). The item arrived damaged abroad and the recipient declined payment. Since then the nightmare has started - first the booking agent forwarded the claim to UPS which were supposed to carry out an "on site inspection" of the damaged item at the recipient's premises. This has never been carried out, instead they relied on the recipients photographic evidence and verbal description of the damage. Then, some weeks later, after much chasing, UPS suddenly declined - suggesting inadequate packaging. One customer service representative even went as far as claiming the air-cushioning packaging used isn't fit for purpose. I rejected these claims by forwarding a technical failure test from one of the manufacturers, without any success. In the meantime some searching on the internet also revealed that UPS seems to be somewhat notorious regarding rejecting any claims. Anyway - then the shipping agent promised to raise it through their own Goods in Transit Insurance which turned out later to be a bit of a lip-service, as their GIT usually bases their decisions on UPS' decisions because they seem to attempt to reclaim the money from UPS then. As the shipping agent rejects any further action in that matter, despite already having pointed out negligence (based on the Sale of Goods & Services Act), I can only take it further through the small claims procedure - I would very much appreciate advice on: What to highlight in the "Letter before action"? How much detail to include in the letter before action? Which documents to ask for from the shipping agent? Whether negligence on their part - as in previous examples on CAG voids the T&C of the initial insurance purchased and makes the shipping agent liable for the damage in any case? Which timescale should I give the shipping agent to respond - obviously the whole process has already taken 3 months since the incident - can I simply set 7 days to respond or would that be seen as unreasonable? The booking agent also claimed that according to their GIT the item has to remain at the recipients premises till they have reached a conclusion - their published T&C did not state that in the first place and now that they rejected compensation it should not matter if I reclaim the damaged item, or not? Many thanks!!!

Hi All. I read some time ago here that when a dca bad credit references you whilst an account is in dispute, thay are committing an offence. Furthermore that there has been a test case that the debtor is entitled to £1000 compensation, without having to prove anything other than the referencing entry. Could some kind knowledgeable soul here point me to the thread and the case reference. I need to file my counterclaim against Lowell by 18-09-12. Any help appreciated. Thanks

Hiya all, It's been a while since I posted here so be nice lol! I've had a lot of issues with my previous estate agent and was wondering if anyone can give me any advice. Basically, the responsibility probably lies somewhere between the letting agent and the landlord, but I'd say the letting agent is highly responsible as it was mostly them failing to make any action. The property was let to us (my boyfriend and I) on an AST for 12 months (£425/ month rent, £525 deposit, £150 agent fee). We moved in and noticed a severe condensation mould problem had been painted over. Despite the agent having known about this for a year before we moved in (reported by the previous tenants), they failed to inform us of it on viewing the property or signing the contracts. It was only was we moved in that it came apparent. It had never been treated, just painted over (probably by the previous tenants). Another issue was the fact it was rented and seen as furnished, however, once we moved in, again it became apparent that a lot of the furnishings were not fit for use and the inventory even states this. We were given permission to remove the items, but no compensation of rent or time and had to replace them at our own expense (although we did take them with us when we moved). On the misrepresentation note, I wanted to get my agency fee back and the first year's rent. The mould became very severe and dominated the bedroom, bathroom and much of the kitchen. The only unaffected room was the lounge (well, mildly affected). We were eventually forced to sleep there. It took a year before the agent finally dealt with the problem, telling us often just to clean the mould off ourselves (which wasn't our responsibility and it was too extensive). Finally, after getting Environmental Health in and telling the agent we would charge them for the repairs if they didn't start them in a week (this was on advice I had sought out) they fixed the problem. It was found to be a faulty extractor fan in the bathroom and other faults (poor maintenance- not tenant lifestyle) which caused the mould. During this time, I developed a chronic skin condition called Dermatographic Urticaria and my boyfriend had a bout of excema (he is usually fine). My condition prevails today and I'm basically allergic to touch (that is the disorder), so you can imagine it's very uncomfortable and doesn't look great too. The mould was present for a year but once fixed, we believed our problems were over. We were also in a contract for this period, that is why I want the money back (it was our financial loss at signing a contract which had been misrepresented to us). Also, I want £12.50 / month back for the remainder of the tenancy (we stayed on another 3 years almost where the maintenance was poor but not bad enough to have us move out). This rebate would be for the misrepresentation of the property as furnished and not part-furnished. I also want my time in removing these items reimbursed at min wage for approx. 1 hour per item (8 in total). Our contract had gone on a monthly roll-over at this time, so we did not renew it as such it just continued under the original terms. During the last few months of our tenancy, there was a broken locking mechanism on the front door (the only entry/ exit to the property) and this lasted for 3 months and was only fixed when we moved out. I was advised by the council that they had a maximum of 1 hour to fix the door since it was a fire hazard. We withheld rent during the last month based on the outstanding repair and also because I'd had enough. The agent issued a notice to quit and we were happy to get the hell out of there. As soon as we moved out, they completed all repairs and put the rent up. I wonder if this shows their neglect was an effort to move us out and bump the rent up which would constitute harassment for eviction. I was wondering if anyone knows how much you can claim in compensation for personal injury (mental and physical health- I have mental health problems also which this exasperated). This is in addition to rent rebate etc. Also, how much can you claim for personal inconvenience or stress? I will also be asking for them to compensate my time pursuing the matter which was extensive. I know a lot of people may think why didn't we move out, but originally we were contractually bound to the property and also could not afford to move for a very long time. The problems were less severe without the mould but still present. We stayed on believing the main problem had been resolved but after 3 years I just had enough of their general attitude and lack of maintenance (even if it was just minor things it was lots of them). There was even a period of 1 week where we had no bathroom floor (there was only that bathroom/ toilet in the property as well) because the sub-floor had rotten through. I had asked them a million times to put a new lino down because the current one was very slippery and water stained. I eventually removed it myself to find the problem had been the sub-floor was rotten through and actually had turned to soil. This was when my skin problem really flared up. I am not sure if it was the same time we had mould to be honest, but I know the humidity levels had been very high. Ok, so lots to take in there sorry, hope I've got it all but any questions please ask Thanks for helping!

Hi, I'm new to this and forums, so forgive me if I've put this in the wrong place. My ET1 was accepted. The employers submitted an ET3. Due to 'an administrative error' (Employment Tribunal's phrase), there has been a very long delay between my being physically attacked by my employers and the submitting of forms by them and the employers. I have literally just received the hearing and due process dates and today I have received a letter from my now ex-employers' solicitors, asking for an unbelieveable amount of information, that I would have to get together by this coming Monday. It would take me more than three days under perfect circumstances, but I am on new medication, from the GP, and have been referred to crisis intervention and a psychiatrist, as well as other health care professionals, as in their words, I am very ill, due to the stress of the attack, incidents leading up to the attack, subsequent court case and continuing intimidation and threats. I am too ill to get this replying information in this time frame. How do I word an email to the Employment Tribunal people, to ask for an extension, to get myself together enough, to answer all these questions? I am also suffering side effects from the medications and clinical depression. Also, I have been asked by the tribunal people to describe my disability (also present at the time of employment) under some kind of regulation rules. Do you know how I do this please? I take about ten medications to maintain my hormone levels, including Metformin as I am pre-diabetic and I am diagnosed with Bipolar Affective Disorder, which is triggered by things like stress, including someone trying to kill me. At some point, I will post a full explanation as to what happened, but I need to first remove the stress of being expected to answer a whole heap of intricately detailed questions by Monday. Thank you for taking time to read this; I hope it makes sense (it's hard to concentrate at the moment) and if anyone answers, I thank you, in advance, for your help. If possible, I think I have to ask for the extension today. C

Hi, I am private tenant living in rented flat. I had my short term lease starting Dec 2011. Since december there was no heat and hot water in the aprtment. I sent many reminder to landlord but he did seem bit intrested in fixing anything. After 2 months, in march 4th, I sent him communication regarding moving out due to these issue and his failure to address the same. He came in couple of days without any information in my absense. My family (Wife and children) were at home. Now, he emailed me that it was my fault that I didn't turned on few switches . Meanwhile, I had already given advance deposit to new place where I was plannig to shift. I went ahead with my move. He has claimed my full deposit as rent due to lease break and now filed a case for damages repair against me. What are my options here? Can I sue him for unavailability of essential utilities. Also, he topup deposit from advance rent cheque against written agreement. Written agrement stated for 1 month deposit but he topped up for 2 stating that flat was untidy.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-19432497

Hi All, Hope you can guide me in the right direction with this. Six years ago I stupidly answered to a phishing letter ( hindsight is wonderful ) This has caused me problems with debt collectors, as I happen to have the same name as the person they cannot trace. You know the scenario, can't find the right person, this prat will do. In December 2007, I received a letter from Lowells, stating that they had contacted me erroneously and that I was not their debtor. They went on to say that all my details had been removed from their database. I had problems in 2010 when I tried to open a bank account, and was refused. This was due to Incorrect information which appeared on my credit reports, and had been placed there by Lowells in 2009, almost two years after the above mentioned letter. I managed to sort this problem, and was told by the CRA's that Lowells stated that it was due to a mistrace. Now for the next one, Crapquest. Harassed by them in 2007 for about eight months. When they eventually investigated the matter, I received a letter stating that when they purchased the debt, they didn't realize that they had been given incorrect information, and had contacted the incorrect person, and that my details had been removed from their system. Now here we are in 2012 and I have started to receive phone calls from Crapquest on an almost daily basis, asking me to contact them. As I have now had more than enough of all this ( I had a heart attack and cardiac arrest last year ) I was wondering what the best course of action is. I am sick of having my name and reputation trashed by these goons, and I am sad to say I have let them get away with it in the past. Cheers

I'd like some advice on what people think would be a reasonable compensation amount to request from our Travel Agent, who failed to notify our party of 10 of flight changes, causing us to miss our flights from US to UK. Briefly: The flights were booked in January, the flights were for August. 3 months ago these flights were taken off the airline's schedule. We weren't advised that our flight times were now non-existent. 24 hours before our flight date, our travel agent rebooked the flights to an earlier time, but again failed to inform us. Upshot: we arrive at the airport having unwittingly missed out flights, struggle (due to the party size) but eventually manage to get rescheduled flights, causing us a 7hr delay at the airport, and a whole heap of stress and trauma. I intend in my letter to ask for reimbursementt of food costs during the delay, but feel there should be a good-will compensation for the unnecessary stress their incompetence caused. Our flight costs were around £7500, and we'd previously spend £3000 with the same company last year. What would be a reasonable amount of compensation to request/expect?

Hi, I'm a newbie on here, so any help would be appreciated. Its a bit complicated so bear with me. We have been dealt a blow by our landlord in terminating our contract. We handed in our notice 4 days after the contractual period notice deadline ( last day of the month), offering to pay for the additional days we would be here. We understand that legally we have to pay the rent up until the end of the month. We had assumed mutual surrender as he did not inform of us this when we first served notice, and listed the property with two letting agents as the being available from the 1st September, suggesting that he accepted us leaving the property and him having time to make the appropriate repairs and retouches that needed to be done on his part. We placed a holding deposit on another property and gave him and letting agents free access to the property to show potential tenants around whilst we were away on a weeks holiday. We can only assume he has done a survey of the property in our absence. He pulled out lavender bushes and fiddled with the guttering, so he used that time to do some jobs ( without our consent) He waited 16 days to draw our attention to the clause stipulating his right. We understand that it is not mandatory for Landlords to highlight contractual clauses, but it was misleading, underhand and has put a total blow on our finances, having to cancel the removal services and do the removing ourselves, because we simply cannot afford it. We are a family of 5 with 3 young children. It's really disappointing as it has been a home that we have been very happy in despite the tardiness of the Landlord in the properties maintenance. (Part 2). Obviously we have to pay the rent up until the end of the month otherwise we will incure all the nasty charges he has put into the new contract ( £5 per day for late payment, £15 charges for letters sent etc). We would also lose our deposit if we failed to pay the rent and he can still come after us for damages to the property if the cost exceed the money held in the deposit scheme. This is the position he has us in legally. We of course want to protect anymore money being lost through the deposit holding scheme. Problems with the Property. Whilst we have been living in the property, we have been living in damp drafty conditions. We made him aware of this, but he chose to do nothing about it. We have lived with rising damp (salts and mould spores appear on the wall, with wallpaper / plaster peeling and rotting away) and falling damp ( failure to clear the guttering from the slate residue). We have 3 small children, one of which ended up in hospital suffering from Pneumonia in 2010, and more recently, this weekend my husband also came down with Pneumonia, hospitalised for the night and is physically unfit to help with the moving of the house ( which we have to do ourselves, see above). Would we be in our rights to claim for compensation for ill health caused by unfit living conditions? There is a gap between the floorboards and the skirting board in the bay area that caused a considerable draft to the single glazed property in the colder months, with astronomical heating expenses. Again we made him aware of this, but he said we had take the property as seen and that the weight from our storage units had caused the joists to bow. Is this relevant to his obligations in maintaining a livable temperature ( It was literally freezing in the house with the heating on). We have proof of our bills - can we claim expenses on lack of proper draft exclusion? On Mice: Who's responsibility is it to sort out problems with mice? The tenant or the Landlord? Because when we asked, he said it was our responsibility and that we needed to ring the council. We have written him a letter offering and asking for an explanation to the circumstances surrounding the date of our notice. He has not responded. Does he have to respond within a certain time? He still has not made it clear whether that he does not surrender the property, his correspondence simply draws our attention to the clause, but does not request that we remain liable for the property until August 31st. He is still advertising the property as available 1st Sept after telling us we are liable for the property? This is confusing. We have used our discretion as tenants, allowing major jobs on the property that would improve his rental chances in the future, but never did any of the jobs that would have looked after us. Feel like fools. Any help would be appreciated, as we are due to move very soon, and have limited windows to come to some negotiations. Many Thanks

We are having new gas pipes put in are road and we were informed today that because are meter is old and a 3 quarter pipe we will have to have the new meter put outside are property. The problem we have is that the gasmen have to be able to connect the pipe to the new meter which means pulling up are laminate flooring in are hallway and maybe the floorboards. The laminate once pulled up will not be able to be refitted which will leave us with no flooring, just floorboards. I have dogs so i do not want them walking on floorboards as they could get splinters in their pads. I am also on benefits due to long term sickness so can not afford to buy new flooring. We have not asked for new pipes so this is not being done by choice. My husband has offered to remove the laminate to help the gasmen out and because we have dogs and if the gasmen had to remove it we would have no secure place to keep the dogs while they are doing it as all the doors down stairs will need to be open, i can not put the dogs upstairs as i will not be able to get them back down stairs to go in to the garden as we will have no flooring in the hallway if they also pull up the floorboards. What i wanted to know please is as the laminate can not be replaced in the hallway are we entitled to compensation to cover the cost of having to buy new flooring? Thanks

Hi, I recently ordered some online contact lenses from a company based in Swansea. I ordered 2 boxes but they only had 1 box in stock so they sent me them out and the others would be with me in a few days. I tried the lenses and it was pouring sand in my eyes. I contacted the company and they asked me to return them in the post and gave me their returns address. They refunded me half of my money for the box I hadn't recieved and the other half of the refund would be with me when they recieved the returned lenses. I popped down to the Post Office in Whitehaven and asked for 1st class recorded signed for. The girl on the till printed out the label and charged me about £1.85 (or there abouts). I had a tracking number and tracked it a few days after the postage. The Post Office website told me it was still at Whitehaven and it stayed with this statement for around 3 weeks. I then decided it must be lost so I filled in the compensation forms from the Royal Mail website and sent them off. A few days later I got a letter saying that they were sorry and that they would look into it and get back soon. A few days a go I got a letter from them saying that they would not be paying me any compensation as the address I gave them at the time of posting did not exist! The compensation isn't megabucks (£17 odd and the postage on top) but how can they just refuse me compensation after they checked the address at the time of posting and took my payment? Any help would greatly be appreciated Kind Regards, Sploits

Credit reference agencies have warned that late payment of bills can make it more difficult and more expensive for consumers to borrow money in the future and that people will have to be able to prove any payment problems were caused by the banking glitch. James Jones, head of consumer affairs at Experian, said: “It is perhaps yet to sink into the public, the potential ramifications in terms of adverse data about repayments. “If any payments are delayed, you really need to have a conversation with those creditors.". “Many organisations now share data. It’s not just traditional lenders but mobile phone companies, utilities, broadband providers, mortgages, hire purchase agreements.” Mr Jones added that lenders should allow seven to 10 days before recording a late payment. Meanwhile, Neil Munroe, executive director of Equifax, said the agency was anticipating “more disputes” about missed and late payments. Experian can be contacted on 0844 481 8000 or at experian.co.uk Equifax can be contacted on 0844 335 0550 or at equifax.co.uk Callcredit can be contacted on 0845 366 0071 or at callcredit.co.uk Make a list and keep receipts The Financial Ombudsman Service (fos) has warned that the knock-on effects from the computer meltdown could take some time to rectify. FOS spokesman David Cresswell said there would be a “ripple effect from the original problems”. He urged consumers to keep a detailed record of all their transactions, including receipts, late payment penalties and overdraft fees. “What you need to do is make a clear list of how you have been affected, so you can go back to your bank and say: ‘This is the complete picture, how can you help?” he said. How to complain to the Financial Ombudsman The FOS advises that complaints should be made first of all to the bank or company concerned. They have eight weeks to look at the problem. The FOS can contact the business on the customer’s behalf. It added that it may be able to provide compensation to some consumers if the bank is unable to resolve all disputes on its own. The Ombudsman can be contacted on 0800 023 4567 0800 023 4567 or at financial-ombudsman.org.uk. Beware of e-mail [problem]s Many of the Natwest, RBS and Ulster Bank customers affected have reportedly been targeted by fraudsters following the banking calamity. According to the Government’s Action Fraud centre, phishing e-mails are in circulation, claiming to be “security upgrades” and asking people for their account details. People are being urged not to click on any links or attachments in suspicious-looking e-mails. The RBS Group said it would never contact anyone in this way to ask confidential details. Bank contact details Customers experiencing problems can contact RBS and NatWest on: 0161 931 9959 0800 656 9639 0845 777 7766 If you’re calling from overseas the numbers are: NatWest +44 (0) 8705 88444 RBS +44 (0) 13154 98888 Ulster Bank customers can cal: l Republic of Ireland 1800 205100 Northern Ireland 0800 231232 0800 231232. Rememeber you demand that your credit file is cleansed of ALL entries. If you found a late payment on your credit report, take it up with the lender and if they refused to remove it, you could of course add a statement to your report (called a notice of correction) to make sure anyone using the data in the future is fully aware of the circumstances.