in November of 2013 I had friend contacted and asked if I would purchase a computer for them as I am in the trade and get a better deal, they transferred the money to my Barclays account, I checked it was there and logged on to my supplier portal to purchase the PC. After selecting the model my friend wanted I entered my debit card details and was surprised when it was declined! I logged back onto the bank app and my account was empty, I phoned Barclays and asked what had happened and they said that there was a number of debit card transactions on my account taking all of the money, I complained and the money was returned to my account and I purchased the PC. A week later I received a letter from Barclays with a form to fill in on whether or not this was fraud, apparently the money was taken by a Payday loan company I have never dealt with for a loan I never had, I filled the form in and sent it back. A week later the money was again taken from my account. I contacted Barclays again and they said the Payday company had contacted them and said that their records were correct and therefore they were entitled to the money - so Barclays gave them it. I raised a complaint with Barclays and received a case number, I was told this would be handled and I would receive a reply within 28 days, 28 days later I received a letter saying it would be another 28 days and 28 days later another letter saying another 28 days. Eventually Barclays wrote to me and informed me that they had examined the complaint and ruled against me, I then contacted the FOS who took the case on, they contacted the payday loan company and Barclays and found that the loan was taken out but the address, DOB, full name and various other details were incorrect, the Payday loan company had passed these details to Barclays who checked them and found the details to be incorrect but STILL found in the Payday loan companies favor! At this point I had already changed banks to RBS (no better) and Barclays had put a default on my credit file as I was overdrawn by the £536 stolen from me. The FOS found in my favor yet Barclays asked for it to be escalated to an Ombudsman who found in my favor and ordered Barclays to put it right within 30 days, 30 days later Barclays returned the £536 to my account and that was that. This has left me very annoyed that they have gotten away so easily when I have had to fight for 13 months to get a result, is there anything else I can now do? Barclays are refusing to remove the credit file information and don't have to reimburse me for anything. They continued to say they were right all this time even when, by their own admission they knew the details were wrong! Can Anyone advise? Jayce

Put a complaint in against The National Grid just had an emailed response I assume it will be sent in writing too? It does not seem very impartial preferring to take the word of The National Grid no I sent nuemrous documents etc and I get the impression that it is being ignored over no proof off The National Grid. One of the things that bother me is we had a gaping hole quite wide at the rear of the property it was left for several weeks like that when someone came out about it and seemed to genuinely show sympathy and concern and took photographs now we are met with the Ombudsman complaint stating "We only have your word it as left like that several weeks" well National Grid took photos and they know the date they came out so know how log it was left like this. In my opinion this report by email seems to be siding with The National Grid and not listenig to anything:

Complaint regarding Barclays after i lost my job and had to make reduced payments. Barclays defaulted one of my credit card accounts after 7 months of arrears. They defaulted the other after 10 months. I complained that the second default date was completely inaccurate and asked for it to be changed to one similar to my other account. The adjudicator upheld my complaint but Barclays would not accept his decision and complained. The adjudicator then changed his mind saying he had not taken into account Barclays internal procedures which resulted in the delay. I showed that the delay in the default date is in breach of the ICO guidelines on defaults which state a maximum of 6 months. I also showed that the ICO guidelines specifically state that internal procedures should not be the determining factor when a default is registered. Ombudsman: "The ICO guidance does state that defaults should be registered within 3-6 months, but our service would not insist that this is followed in all cases." Regarding the delay between the first and second account default date. Ombudsman: "I'm persuaded the bank thought the applicants financial situation could improve." "It was required to treat customers positively and sympathetically" I find it disappointing that it was fair and reasonable for Barclays to delay a default to one of my credit cards but also find it fair and reasonable that they decided it was not necessary to do so on another. Ombudsman: Referring to the bank. "It says it has no record of the account the applicant refers to. It appears the applicant cant provide information about that account either." I provided my credit file which has the account details and adverse information which is reported and updated monthly by Barclays. Is the ombudsman awake? Ombudsman: "The bank says it generally issues formal demands to customers after an account has been in arrears for 7 months, and that it then given the customer a further 28 days notice before registering a default. It appears the bank did this in this case." This was almost word for word what the adjudicator said. Truly amazing since i had already explained to the adjudicator the maths; "I still do not understand how the default date 29th July is 28 days after the formal demand 1st June? I make this 59 days." What else can i say. A terrible and very poor service.

A new ombudsman scheme has launched on Jan 2nd that aims to settle unresolved disputes between shoppers and retailers. The Retail Ombudsman (TRO) is believed to be the first alternative dispute resolution scheme in the retail sector and claims it already has 3,000 retailers signed up as members, although, so far, they have only published a partial list. It's not a government run scheme, but owned by a private limited company whose sole director is Dean Dunham, a barrister with Debello Law and consumer columnist with the Sunday Mirror. http://www.theretailombudsman.org.uk/ Initially the TRO said that decisions were binding on both sides, and if a complainant was not satisfied with the ombudsman decision, further court action would not be possible. However, they now say that when a decision is made by TRO and it is not accepted by the consumer, they can pursue this through the courts. Yet the declaration consumers must sign on their website still reads: Not the best of starts!! Oh, and their Director of Communications is one Neville Thurlbeck who was jailed for his part in the News of the World phone-hacking scandal.

It will be years before the Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) mis-selling scandal is over, according to the chief financial ombudsman, Caroline Wayman. Complaints about the behaviour of banks and credit card companies who mis-sold PPI are still running at 4,000 a week, she said. However at the peak of the scandal in 2012 there were 12,000 complaints a week. Banks alone are now thought to have paid out around £22bn in compensation. In total, the Financial Ombudsman has dealt with 1.25m complaints - and that does not include complaints made directly to banks and credit card companies. Caroline Wayman said the total number of complaints was starting to stabilise Extra staff "Although numbers are slowly declining, it will be years before we can truly say this mis-selling scandal is over," said Ms Wayman. However she said that the total number of complaints sent to the Financial Ombudsman was "starting to stabilise". Nevertheless the Financial Ombudsman service is to recruit a further 200 staff as adjudicators and ombudsmen. It has already doubled in size to 4,000 staff, to handle the surge of PPI complaints. The scandal stretches back to the 1990s. Over that period millions of customers were mis-sold insurance policies to protect themselves against falling ill or losing their jobs. The policies would pay off any outstanding loans, such as credit card bills or mortgages. However many people did not need the policies in the first place, and many were unaware they were paying for them.

I had a financial based company take money out my account without my consent or permission and they only offered me 50% refund for this membership fee. I complained and continued for weeks complaining without any email responses and got advice and support from the Ombudsman and after some communication I had with rogue company the FO contacted them and although the company was unwilling to resolve my issue with me they got the full refund plus some compensation as it took 7 weeks and some stress to get a full refund. At the same time my bank had on 3 occasions given me incorrect information about my debit card and was complaining to them and given a tenner but then got FO back involved who wrote a letter to bank and they decided to give me further compensation for the confusing information they had provided me. I was delighted with them as they listened to me for ages and helped me to try to tackle the complaints I had and my aim was never for extra money I started out complaining out of principle and just wanted to give up at times as it was too stressful and time consuming, but the FO seemed to do what I just wasn't able to do myself and much beyond what I had initially seeked and wished for.

Hi i had Marstons banging on the door this morning at 8.30am saying they were removing my car. They put a clamp on it and said a removal van would be there in half an hour. They then left and came back 30 minutes later. Its for an old council tax bill of £217 for which they want to remove my vehicle which is worth around £2,500 retail or £1500 trade, is this not classed as excess!? He's been sat outside for two hours now and has told me he will charge me £60 per hour to wait for the tow truck. I haven't signed anything so from what i can gather, he cant charge me anything other than the legal bailiff fees? I cant afford to pay now, i have no money coming in unfortunately and am in receipt of housing and council tax benefit. My only other income right now is working tax and child credits. I have of course offered to make a payment arrangement which he of course rejected! I have phoned the council but they have refused to do anything and said i have to deal with the bailiff. On the removal letter it says they'll also charge me £15 per day for storage. This is insane for a £217 bill! Any help appreciated?

Hi again everyone, I wonder if someone could just clarify for me the PPi calculation. I have used all CAG site spraed sheets in every calculations to any bank. Now on this particular credit card the bank have been dragging their feet on payment to us. this is the first time I've had to go through the ombudsman and like in 98% of cases with Lloyds they have overturned the decision lloyds first made. My spread sheet i've noticed is laid out as compound interest of 15.9% on my spread sheet that i did 18 months + ago. Now I know that the interest rate for a claim is normally 8% over the term from when the account was firdt started. Can someone please just tell me which is the correct figure to use are lloyds trying it on again with me thinking that they may get me to accept the first re offer or do i go for the figure of 15.9% as per CAG compound interest and if so why and what do i say to Lloyds if it is the 15.9% figure I use. regards Nigel1804

Is it possible that a former officer of the old Log Book Loans organisation is now an adjudicator at the financial ombudsman services? I have mentioned him in my application to the FOS in relation to my stolen car. What should this mean for me or anyone else that is seeking justice from this company which has now gone into administration? Fortunately the FOS are accepting applications from before a certain date.

Households are being alerted to a new [problem] that involves fraudsters purporting to be from the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS). [problem]mers are reportedly calling households claiming to be from the FOS, which deals with complaints from consumers about the financial services industry, and telling the person on the phone that they need to pay £150 to “release” compensation for which they applied. The FOS said it would never "cold call" households and that the service was completely free, so it would never ask for money. It has said a customer had been in touch to warn of the [problem]. It advised anyone who had received a suspicious phone call to call it directly on 0300 123 9 123. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/11135365/Ombudsman-warns-of-new-150-compensation-fee-[problem].html

Hey guys, Just wanted to know if this was possible? Have a dispute with the retailer, and the Ombudsman is delaying and delaying with giving its response - I've got to the point where I'm happy just to go to court. Thank you

Hi, I moved in to the property in April 2013. In the property was very strange electricity meter with 5 tariffs, so I decide to use the same energy supplier like the previous occupier, it was npower. After 3 months the meter got broke so npower replace it by new 2 tariffs meter. Because of the previous meter npower couldn't produce me a bill, I started few complains, but without any result. I asked the Ombudsman for help. They spoke with npower and made a final decision that till end of July 2014, npower will send me a bill. Now it is September and I still did not receive my bill. When I call npower they keep telling me that they have a technical issues. Ombudsman is telling me that they can only monitor the case, but they do not have any power to force npower to produce me a bill. I am overpaying right now (by monthly direct debit), and I think, I can't change the provider, because this pending complain. Is there any other company or service which could help me with my case? Please help. Danny

I share this story for educational purpose, to let you look behind the curtain. I’ve been trading different markets since 2000, but it was my first complaint ever. I have irrefutable evidences to prove the prejudice, but there was no way to address that problem. The procedure was only a barbaric joke. Nevertheless, my sense of humour is much better. I reported them for fraud to the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and to the Action Fraud, based on Fraud Act 2006 chapter 35. It is proven fact that the ombudsman made an irrational decision and it was not a mistake. I am aware that it is a criminal offence. Post 15. It is recognized fact that the adjudicator and the ombudsman rejected my complaint using different arguments, but both arguments supported my claim. Using those arguments my complaint should’ve been upheld. The real nature of the FOS was unveiled due to their incompetence. Posts 3 and 4. However, the truly scandalous parts were presented by the team manager, the senior manager and the so called Independent Assessor. They covered the mess up shamefully. Posts 5-13. At the end, I will show you how the Financial Ombudsman Service manipulates its statistics. My £5,000 dismissed complaint is published on their website as upheld. Reference: DRN0281948. Post 14. Yes, I am going to write about the centralized, systemic corruption of the Financial Ombudsman Service UK, where there is no way to address the unbelievable bias and incompetence. Would you believe me if I said the adjudicator has admitted in writing that he didn’t understand anything when he made his two rejecting decisions? Yet there was no way to question his biased verdict. Post 3. Would you believe me if I said the ombudsman falsified data to dismiss my claim? Well, he had to, because his nonsense theory doesn’t exist. I mean literally, it doesn’t exist. Yet there was no way to address that fraud. Post 4. Would you believe me if I said, after the adjudicator rejected my complaint with an argument which supported my claim and wasn’t related to the case, replying to my service complaint the team manager clearly stated that the admittedly wrong decision should be left intact, and the adjudicator shouldn’t have discussed that issue with me? What fair play? Post 6. Would you believe me if I said the adjudicator supposedly deleted one of my emails with information he requested (probably contradicted the preconception) 20+ times, and the team manager, the senior manager, the Independent Assessor refused to recognize the issue? I was unable to address that problem. Post 8. Would you believe me if I said that I had to file a Freedom of Information Act request to see the evidence which was used to reject my complaint, which should’ve been disclosed in the ombudsman’s decision at the first place? Hint: I couldn’t obtain any evidence supporting the ombudsman’s decision. You are going to see why. Post 9. I know. You cannot believe it. Then just keep reading. You will see how serious the problem is that no one has control over an ombudsman. You will see that there are no real checks and balances in the system. They cover up the issues anyway, so I am sure it is done on purpose. How could you expect the financial firms playing fair when even the legal system is that rigged? They didn’t feel any shame when they got caught cheating. They didn’t show any regret. They don’t learn from mistakes. They are absolutely immoral. The goal could be genuine at the beginning, but now the Financial Ombudsman Service is only a subsidiary of the financial industry to protect itself against the public anger and the real accountability.

Hi, I signed up with Scottish Power and they took the wrong meter reading. They billed me for about £600 for the first month even though I hardly use any gas at all. Their customer service was rubbish which meant I eventually went to the ombudsman. The ombudsman agreed with Scottish Power to correct the opening reading and as it had taken a while to sort it was agreed that I would pay £40 a month until the real bill was cleared at which time I would get away from Scottish Power. Since February I have been paying the £40 a month without any issues until yesterday morning when I received a letter from a debt collector threatening to break into my house to turn off my gas. I am in bits about this. My husband is severely disabled and I am scared to go out and leave him alone in case someone breaks our front door in. Can Scottish Power just ignore the ombudsman? What have I done wrong? I cant afford to pay the £300ish that is left on my gas bill in one go and I don't know what to do.

Hi I have very recently received a phone call and follow up letter from a Debt Collection Agency regarding an old bill that i know of with Vodafone. I do not dispute the fact i owe Vodafone money however i do believe the amount the DC Agency is suggesting is high. I will be paying the money back when / if i can come to a reasonable agreement with them but before that i would like some advise on obtaining information from them telling me that the debt has been legally passed to them by Vodafone for collection - i simply do not want to give my bank card details to someone who at present is unknown to me. Is there a sample letter that i should be sending to request certain documentation before making a payment? I read somewhere that i am allowed to ask for this sort of information but is there any specific legislation i should call upon in the letter? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks Shane

Hi All I hope you can help. The situation is that I was due a quite substantial refund from co-op electrical for faulty goods that they couldn't replace. Co-op electrical state that they have refunded the money "to the card/account that paid for the goods" however the card issuer states that "my account" has not received any funds, and quite reasonably they cannot check whether the funds have been added erroneously to another account. I have tried to get co-op electrical to give me the account details (mainly number) of the account they have refunded to but they will only tell me "the card/account number it was paid with" as they claim the actual number is information only their bank holds. It is now over 2 months since the alleged refund and I have got no further. I have sent them a subject access request on the advice of my card issuer which will hopefully crowbar an actual account number out of them, but frankly the experience I have had so far is so shocking that I want to report them to someone, but I cant work out who. The office of fair trading over see the sale of goods act, but says they don't take individual complaints against companies.

Well no success for me, I had the card since 2002 and like alot of people had it added, never knew what it was and thought it was just one of those things that was part of having the card, yes i was young and naive! Well I challenged Marbles last year and got back their "its your fault you should have known better" line in quite a condecending manner. The best part was saying that I requested PPI on my application form but as it was so long ago the form has been destroyed?! As far as they were concerned this was the end of it but included leaflet for ombudsman and said that I could write to them. So I did. And they replied that as it was taken out before 2005 and is a credit card that's it, theres nothing they can do. SooooooIs that it? Is there anything I can do now?

Hi all.....approx 10 months ago I got myself a new 3 mobile contract with a blackberry 9810 torch. Initially all was well. The battery stopped lasting and they replaced it. Ok then. Now and on my fifth battery it will barely last one day. So I visit the store...they will send it away but cannot loan me a phone. Apparently theydont have any. They tell meto call customer service....he says the same. They will send it away. In the meantime i will be left withouta phone and paying a monthly bill which i cannot use. Ok then in the circumstances upgrade my phone....i will even pay. NO. You will have to buyanew phone. This is ****ing priceless. RIP OFF BRITAIN AGAIN.

Hi everyobody - this is my first post here. I've been battling E.ON over nearly £200 in penalty charges, and I'm not getting anywhere with them. Briefly, I wrote to them in October 2012 to tell them I thought my meter might be faulty. They didn't reply. I then wrote something like eight or nine letters between then and February of this year but they replied to NONE of them. Then, in mid-February, I was so worried they were going to fit a prepayment meter that I sent a letter by recorded delivery (none of my previous letters were recorded deliverey because I'm housebound due to illness, and my village doesn't have a post office). They didn't reply to that one, either. What they have been doing, though, is adding penalty charges: three charges of £55 for visiting my home (though I never heard a knock on my door for any of them - just came from next-door's flat to find a note saying they'd called and would be charging me £55 for the 'visit'. They've also been sticking on a few £10 late payment charges. This is depite the fact that in all my letters, I made it clear that I had every intention of paying E.ON what I owed, but I just wanted to be sure the meter was OK. So the position I'm in now is that I'm maintaining that E.ON should not have imposed these penalty charges, because I've been in dispute with them since October 2012, and the OFT says a company shouldn't impose such charges while a dispute is in place. But E.ON says we weren't in dispute, because they didn't get any of my letters (and of course, I can't prove they did). I can't dispute these charges by saying, "if you think they're valid, go to court to recover them", because they can just fit a prepayment meter - and because my meter's outside my flat, I can't stop them. All my requests via email to E.ON to have them remove these charges have been in vain, so finally I've asked them for a 'deadlock letter' to enable me to go to the Energy Ombudsman. They say they'll send one in 7-10 days. So I have two choices here: (1) I could go to the Ombudsman first. (2) I could pay all the charges to get E.ON off my back, then try to recover the charges by suing them in the County Court using the small claims track. What I'd like to do is try the Ombudsman first then the court, but I'm worried that if the Ombudsman sides with E.ON, it'll weaken my case when I go to court. The thing is, I'm not sure just how impartial the Ombudsman is. I've already approached them, and I have to say, they didn't exactly bend over backwards to help me. The first thing they said was that they couldn't take the case because my complaint had been going on for over 9 months. I asked them how on earth any member of the public could be expected to know this rule, but the bloke just repeated the mantra, 'that's the rule'. He then said I should ask for this 'deadlock letter', but added that E.ON weren't obliged to give me it! I pointed out that if a company couldn't be forced to let a customer go to the Ombudsman, it was in their best interests to refuse to do so. Again, all I got was 'that's the rule'. Throughout our telephone conversation, I got the feeling he was being as obstructive as possible. So I'm worried that the Ombudsman might not be as impartial as it's supposed to be, and that they'll accept E.ON's excuse of 'we didn't get any of his letters'. Then, if I go to the county court, I'm worried E.ON will say, "Well, the Energy Ombudsman found in our favour", and that will scupper my case. So, does anyone here think that going to the Ombudsman first would weaken my case if I have to go to court afterwards? I'll be very grateful for any advice people can give here.

Ombudsman seems to be in cahoots with BT etc so I'm taking BT to the small claims court. Any tips from someone in the know?

Hello All, I hope someone can give me some advice on this matter as not sure where to go from here? In a nutshell, 6 months ago HSBC closed my credit card account after I alerted them to fact I hadn't received my new card at the same time as got my debit card as usual (I only noticed a few months later as I only use my card in particular times of year). They were in process of sending it out to me again when the account was closed with no notes and no one signing off on it, according the the advisor who had been helping me and was no longer able to. She said it was not the usual protocol and suggested writing a formal letter of complaint, which I did. I was told the account was closed because I no longer "met the criteria". I asked for a copy of said criteria. I not only couldn't get that, I couldn't even get any advisor to speak to me in a branch, they all said once it was closed there was nothing they could do in branch and couldn't help me. They would send the receptionist out to tell me there was nothing they could do and not even come out personally to speak to me. I then went to the Ombudsman. After 6 months of waiting/bothering (probably about 10 calls in total to HSBC, Ombudsman, formal letters to both, and about 4 trips to both the Bristol and Cwmbran Wales branch) they admitted fault through the Ombudsman but with no letter or information about what happened other than they admitted fault and offered to compensate me 100 GBP, and seem to only be willing to reinstate the card account when I accept this payment which makes me feel a bit blackmailed really or coerced as I feel 6 months of my time, I am self employed as a club promoter and dj (hence I use my card not all the time but for flights, visas, hotels, etc) in this time I had to have other people cover costs for me (so technically I am not out of money per se) but it was a lot of hassle!! Some tours I didn't partake in because I couldn't front the international flight while invoicing my clients like I would usually do. I still do not know for sure if my credit rating is affected by this and how to triple check? (I am originally from the US so I don't know UK legal/credit system well - though I am a resident of UK). It's hard to calibrate how much this "cost" me, but I was definitely inconvenienced more than 100 GBP as I run my own business and depend on the cards, despite not using them that much..the times I use them are "club season" which is say Feb - May and Sept - Nov for me especially. So when I told HSBC in July that I hadn't noticed as I don't use the cards that much, I didn't mean never and that they weren't very necessary when I did use them. I just didn't do loads of personal shopping or holidays or use it every week is what I meant. It is for special, business, purposes. I lodged another complaint at the time of this one...which was simply they charged me twice for my monthly debit for the card. I made a stink to prove how they can make a mistake, as this was still at the time they were denying their error in the credit card closure. That took 45 mins and talking to three different advisors to have them admit what I said from start of conversation, which was they obviously charged me twice, as the amount is exactly double (they hilariously tried to convince me that the interest could go up 100% from one month to the other with no notice or formal letter etc). For that trouble they compensated me 50 GBP. So I don't see how 6 months reflects only double compensation of 45 minutes on an in branch phone. My question is, if I am not happy with this offer, where do I go from here as feel the Ombudsman, who is meant to be in my favour, is also pushing for me to accept this, and I am not looking for loads of money or anything, but I feel it grossly under reflects my stress and life upheaval in this time and frankly takes the ****. I want to be clear that during this 6 months, I paid all the monthly fees and interest still I believe being incurred. I have never defaulted on any loan (or had any) overdraft, card payments. HSBC told me themselves a few months prior to the incident that I had stellar credit with them. Can I take it further or should I just let it go?

Hi there, first time forumite so please be gentle. I have an extremely long running case with HSBC over our credit card bill and I now find myself in a very specific situation and I'm not sure where to go for help. As a very brief summary; I tried over the phone to pay a sum from the outstanding balance that was over the minimum payment I was told I could only make the minimum payment over the phone and for anything greater than that, I'd need to go into the branch I went to the branch and the only way they'd let me pay was with cash, not card When I complained, I was told that this was in the T&Cs that I signed, 12 years ago when I opened the account I asked for a copy, under the relevant Civil Procedure Rules and they wouldn't provide me with them I've complained to the Ombudsmen, they've ruled in HSBCs favour My argument is that if they are imposing practices that they say that I agreed to when I signed the agreement, they should be able to demonstrate that I have indeed agreed to it. Without this evidence, their practices are unfair and they should have let me make a payment, for any amount I liked, via any channel available. I have experience of working in the Financial Services Industry and I know that Credit Card companies will (and do) make it as difficult as possible to clear down balances (ask your card company to explain residual interest for example, it's great fun listening to them try). But given that the FOS has ruled against me, I'm not sure where to go with this now. I've been fighting the good fight since January 2012, I don't want to give up.

I will try and be succinct, promise! Please ignore issue of eligibility for repayment/compensation, as Lloyds have already accepted this. I initially contacted Lloyds in October '13 asking if I'd had PPI as I simply couldn't remember. That's my bad, I know, but I'm not good now with long term memory. They acknowledged receipt and said they'd look into it and I heard from them on the phone once when they called and asked lots of questions about what my credit card was for, etc. At the end of November with an offer of £630. They said that due to passage of time they no longer had detailed records, but that their offer was "equal to the average compensatory payment taking into account the period during which you held the credit card and were paying for your PPI cover". It did NOT say how long that period was, so I couldn't work out what the offer represented per month. The letter included examples of how refund calculations worked, but none of the examples were of any use to my circumstance because they all dealt with known figures of payment. Their letter had a phone number, which turned out to be a call centre in the Philippines. I called and said that if only they'd told me they didn't have any records, I could have given them some help with that, so could I please speak to the department that had made my offer. The call centre said they could not put me through as that department had no incoming phone lines (yeah, right) but that they could 'escalate' my claim. Escalation apparently involves them writing notes on my file that I'd called, which the department who calculated offers could read, and who'd then consider what I'd said. It didn't seem very sensible to filter all communications via a third party, especially one who's first language wasn't English, so I asked how else I might communicate directly with the relevant department, but was told this was the only route available. I asked when I had started paying PPI. They didn't know, because the only information they had access to was the letter that had been written to me, and that didn't have that information in it. Well obviously not, otherwise I wouldn't have needed to ask, would I? I asked how many months I had been paying PPI, and again they didn't know, but they would 'escalate' it for me. I asked if escalation would mean that whoever was reading the notes would call me so I could ask them my questions, but the call centre said they did not know whether anyone would call me back. Frustrated, I asked them what questions they COULD answer, but the irony went over their heads. They could do no more than confirm what had been written to me, and take note of whatever I said and put that on my record where someone else might read it at some other time. I said that I could not possibly be in a position to decide whether the offer was fair if I could not get certain information about it, so I really did need to speak to the department that they appeared to be a firewall for. I asked for an email address for the right department, and after much argument was given one. I sent a detailed letter explaining the questions I had, including the ones I'd asked above, and also asked how the 'average' had been calculated. There's another hole in my memory here – at some point before I wrote to them I got the information that I had paid PPI from May 2002 to March 2005, but I can't remember now them giving that to me. They had initially said they couldn't get that info, but somehow or other I have those dates now on a scrappad. By some miracle, I found a statement from March 2005, which showed a payment that month of £47 PPI against a balance of approx. £6,100. I said that I did not remember this period, but that I did know that I couldn't possibly have cleared such a large balance quickly and it would take many months to clear down such a large balance, so it was reasonable to believe that I'd be paying that off for a considerable period and on each payment making further PPI payments too. The statement showed the previous months balance as being in line with that month, so I was able to work out that months PPI payment too. I said that I would expect, but had no genuine knowledge one way or the other, that it would have taken me quite some time to build up an outstanding balance of just a few pounds under the credit limit which was shown at £6,250, so again it was reasonable to assume that I'd been making PPI payments on cumulative balances leading up to the month for the statement I had. With the two known figures for PPI, March which was shown and February's that I calculated from the carried over outstanding balance, I got an average of £40 per month paid. If I were to assume that this was a representative figure over the lifetime of the PPI contributions, that would equate to £1400 paid. That's without the interest at 8% as Lloyds said, purely because I don't know how to work that out cumulatively and until when. I know its a huge assumption to say that the payment I did know is representative, but at least its a figure from MY account rather than an average of other peoples which is how Lloyds want to work out my offer. Finally I asked that someone from that department actually call me on the phone, so that we could resolve any questions between us easily, and complained that Lloyds were effectively preventing me from speaking to them which I found to be inequitable given that they regularly insist on me providing methods of them communicating with me. I emailed that off to them, and promptly got it straight back – the server at Lloyds had bounced the email because the address didn't exist. Somewhat annoyed, I called the Philippines again and complained that the address they'd provided didn't work and insisted that I speak to someone in the claims management department in England, but they still refused to give me anything other than an 'escalation' note on my file. I sent the letter to the PO box address instead, and three weeks later got a letter from them. With baited breath I opened it, and discovered it was nothing but an acknowledgement that I'd written to them. I did phone the Philippines several more times over coming weeks, asking when something would happen. They replied that they didn't know, but that they'd 'escalate' my question, and someone may or may not phone me but that it would certainly be considered. Each time I called I had to go through the routine of confirming a number they could reach me on, despite them not ringing me on it. I went in to my branch and threw a paddy there that all I was asking was the courtesy of a return phone call, and after an unpleasant hour they came back and said they didn't know how to get someone to talk to me either but that there was no point in visiting the branch again. This Friday I had my regular frustrating call to the Philippines and got a different answer – I had been written back to, and the following day the letter duly arrived. It contained an offer, of £8. This time though, it said that a breakdown of the offer was made according to my cards. On one of the four cards I'd had with Lloyds, my card balance at 14 March 2011 was apparently zero. What relevance the 14 March date had wasn't mentioned. It did say that, if I'd not purchased PPI, my balance on that day on that card would be -£449.16. It did not say how it would be that amount, just that it would be that figure. An 8% interest calculation of £188.57 was added to 28 February 2014. The total of those figures wasn't shown, but it adds up to £637.73, leaving, according to them, £8.78 owing which they'd pay into my account. No mention was made of any of the issues I raised in my letter, or of the statement of the period that I'd provided. No mention was made of how they'd managed to find my actual payment details now, when they hadn't managed this when they made their original offer. No mention was made of the remaining three credit cards. In short, it is my firm belief that Lloyds are lying to me. Their statement about £449.16 being paid in premiums cannot be true, given that it equates to less than ten months premiums equivalent to the one month we do know, and my knowledge that such a sum would have taken a long time to both build up and be repaid. Dividing their offer (before interest) up over the 35 months they say I paid PPI comes to £12.77 per month and I believe I paid a lot more than this. I'm also very suspicious that Lloyds now appear to have found my records, but don't include them in their letter. I don't believe they HAVE found them. So, what to do now. I can ring the Philippines, where they'll happily 'escalate' my argument. That escalation doesn't mean in and of itself that someone will ever contact me, and I could happily wait from now until the end of time for a response which may not come. I could go into my branch again, but they happily admit they have no knowledge of how to reach the relevant people. I could write to them at the PO box address, but since they ignored entirely the content of my previous letter I'm not exactly hopeful of a positive outcome on a second try. I could complain to the Ombudsman, which has the satisfaction of knowing that there is a cost to Lloyds for the service, but I don't know exactly what I'm asking for. It is entirely possible that in a single conversation on the phone with Lloyds they could reassure me that their figures are correct, fair, and most importantly demonstrable, but they steadfastly refuse to do this. I won't go into here why they upheld my complaint but it is fair to say that they acknowledge misselling it to me, so why is it that I can't be afforded the simple courtesy of a phone call. I'll even pay for it, if they'd give me a number to reach. If, as a result of that call, we agree that Lloyds have got it right, the matter is closed, and if we agree that they've got it wrong, we can work out to what number and pay it to me. Since I can't ask the Ombudsman to force Lloyds to ring me, I don't really think that's what I'm looking for. I think I've been shabbily treated by an organisation that has admitted they took money from me that they shouldn't have done, and what I'd really like to do is sue them in the small claims court. I'd like to sue for £1400 as the figure I believe I have paid, the interest to date on that, an amount of hours at the allowable rate to compile the case, and exemplary damages for the avoidable inconvenience and stress Lloyds have put me to in not working together to resolve the issue without recourse to external parties. What I'm looking for here is constructive criticism on the above. We can leave aside the argument of eligibility since that's previously resolved, but am I being stupid/ungrateful/stubborn in not just taking the offer, or is it fair that I should have some faith in its integrity? My sincere and genuine thanks to anyone having read this far!

We recently had a holiday that was awful, and on our return complained to the Tour Operator (following up our complaint to the resort reps). The tour operator gave us the complete brush off, so we made a Section 75 request to the credit card company. 2 months later they have responded and turned down the claim. The bank claims that for s75 to apply there must be an unbroken link between debtor, creditor and supplier. In this case they claim the supplier was the hotel. Their basis for refusal is that the main complaint was the filthy, dangerous state of the hotel, and because we didn't pay the hotel ourselves (it was a package holiday) there is no 'link' between debtor, creditor and supplier as the hotel was the supplier at fault. Now, anyone with even a basic grasp of contract law knows that if you subcontract part of a job, you still remain responsible for the work, and that the 'link' the bank claims is broken is in fact completely intact, but it stops at the tour operator who received our money and was responsible for providing everything concerned with the holiday. Even though the tour operator subcontracted the provision of accommodation to the hotel, they remain liable for fulfilling that contractual requirement. Now, the question is, is it worthwhile pointing this out to the misguided or simply ignorant/dishonest bank employee (in which case can anyone suggest some suitable wording or legal argument?) or, as 8 weeks have now passed since the complaint I understand it can be investigated by Financial Services Ombudsman. Would a better tactic (than arguing with the bank about the interpretation of the Act) be to complain to the Financial Services Ombudsman about the Bank's incorrect and rather creative interpretation of s75? Can you just imagine if the bank was correct? You had your car repaired at a garage and the parts fitted were faulty.... according to the bank not their problem because you don't have any contract with the manufacturer of the parts.... or you ordered something mail order and it didn't arrive, again, not covered by s75 because you didn't have any agreement with the courier company and didn't pay them....

I want to make a formal complaint about the bag of rubbish I bought from CSL Sofas. Which do you think is the best organisation to complain to?