I spoke to one of Hastings advisers and he informed me that my policy had been cancelled 2 months shy of its renewal , he also mentioned that when the payment was due to be taken the direct debit was rejected which I agreed with him that my pay was not credited to my account until the day after due to an administrative error. Although apparently it is normal Hastings practice to put the payment through a second time which was stated in the letter which I have in my possession from Hastings the adviser assured me that the payment was again rejected. I have contacted my bank and they informed me that no payment was attempted from Hastings either by direct debit or debit card. When I subsequently contacted another Hastings representative after I had discovered that the policy had been cancelled I was informed that it would not be possible to re-instate the policy even though I offered to pay the remaining two months balance and even more frustrating is that the representative offered to waive the £55.00 cancellation fee if I took out a new Policy with the Sales Department. Not only has Hastings acted completely without concern for their customer knowing the additional strains put on us serving military personnel at this time during the Olympics but now without the no claims bonus to which I am entitled my insurance is costing an extraordinary amount.

hi, a friend was paying £140.00 per month as her bank Lloyds advised her to take a 'life assurance policy' she has now cancelled the policy because she had assumed that she would be covered for illness (which she is not) she does not speak english and her son who only speaks a little english was with her and translated as much as possible (his english skill is not good) is it possible that this policy was missold as the customer was not sure what she was actually paying for? are there any rules / regulations that state a customer should know what they are buying / paying for? or can they simply sell to someone who has at the most a knowledge of maybe 10 english words?

I recently got burned by a high volume seller on eBay to the tune of 255 quid who's using a loop hole with eBay returns policy. I ordered a Set Top Box from a UK company on eBay and paid via a CC on Paypal. The STB appeared reconditioned, was sold as new, and had a couple of major faults. Spoke to the company asking for a full refund. The company asked me to return the STB using their pre-paid postage. Which I did (I know I should have sent the STB using my own tracking. Live and learn . A couple of weeks later and no communication from the company I opened an eBay dispute. eBay forced the company to respond. The company said that they would issue a full refund once I return the STB and that I should dispatch it using my own postage tracking. 30 days later and eBay sided with the company stating that I didn't have permission to return the STB and had no proof that the company had received it. Once eBay rejects a dispute, eBay and Paypal will no longer listen to appeals. I spoke to the Royal Mail who claimed to have no way of tracking individual items using pre-paid first class business mail, only the total amount. Given that I have no proof that the STB was dispatched there's no way I can raise this with my CC company or start a small claims court case. My question is this. Having gone through this sellers neutral and negative feedback on eBay it's clear the above scenario has happened to a good few other buyers. No doubt getting my money back is not an option? But I would like to highlight this companies actions to Trading Standards or another body? There's evidence in their feedback month on month that the following is taking place, is any of this grounds for prosecution under distance selling regulations or other UK consumer law? * selling reconditioned goods as new. * asking sellers to return items using their pre-paid postage then claiming the goods did not arrive. * refusing to refund consumers that paid for return postage themselves. * providing a phone number and email address that is ignored. I posted on eBay's forum highlighting the loophole. They deleted it on the grounds that it encouraged others to break their TOS. eBay's disputes team: 'Seller is not breaking TOS.' eBay's community team: 'The loophole clearly breaks TOS'. As a last throw of the dice I sent a long email to eBay asking them to apologise for the way we were treated and asking them to look into the loophole. They claim to respond within 48 hours. That was 2 weeks ago. As I say this is effecting 20-30 people a month on eBay and they're the ones that are able to leave feedback, eBay's feedback period expires after 45 days. The seller draws out the dispute process so there may well be many more that are effected. I wasn't able to leave feedback. Thanks for your help

Hi Guys I purchased a lenovo y580 last night for 999.99, im aware the model comes with either an awful low res screen or a great 1080p screen. When i was in pcworld/currys i asked the advisor which one it was and he assured me it was a great 1080p screen but when i got the laptop home i thought it looked washed out only to find out its the low res model!! Now on the currys site it says you cant refund if you have opened the seals? Would i be able to take it back to my local store and get a refund due to the fact i was misadvised? Thanks

Hi all I'm hoping somebody might be able help out here. Does anybody have copy of the Terms and Conditions, Policy documents, exclusions, etc. for a Lloyds TSB Fixed Rate Personal Loan with Insurance? I'm particularly interested in the period 1995 to 2000. Lloyds confirmed he existence of loans, etc. in a SAR but due to the passage of time, etc. couldn't provided loan documents and so on. I've got a strong case against them but something has just come to my attention regarding unemployment and retirement. Any help would be appreciated. Si

This may sound off topic a bit, but I was suspended with pay last weekend for 'breach of staff discount policy' What happened was I was called in by the Duty Manager and told that I was to be suspended with pay pending an investigation about my staff discount. It was relating to the purchase of an laptop and return of a laptop. They had given me the dates at which it had occurred but I didn't remember it at the time. So I just commented as I didn't remember. I came home and thought about what was said, and the dates that the purchase and return were made and then it clicked in my mind. What I think had happened, was that my uncle came into my store to purchase a laptop on the date mentioned, and i had offered my staff discount for the purchase as you would, he is family of course. I was there when the purchase was made, but he had obviously paid for it at the discounted price. Nonetheless, my uncle is happy with the laptop. However, I went to purchase the exact same laptop for my dad's birthday (on the day of his birthday) as it was a good offer from another store but I didn't have my staff discount with me at the time, so i paid the full amount by cash. Low and behold, my dad didn't want the laptop in the end lol. So I ended up returning it back onto my card in the store i work at a few days later at the full price that I paid. Why I put the return back onto my card was because I knew the till wouldn't have the £300-400 at the beginning of the day, so my manager's told me that its ok to return it back onto the customer's card if thats easier for them. I did this well within the 28 day refund policy period and that was the end of it and I threw away the receipt. What I think they are looking into is that the fact that I had returned the the exact same laptop a few weeks later back onto my card, at the full price, thinking that i have 'abused' the staff discount which is not even the case! But as I do not have my receipt, what can i do to defend my case? I was told i was to have a hearing next week. So I don't know how I will be able to prove that I didn't just 'allow my uncle to purchase a laptop at a discount, then I return it at the full price on my card' - cos that's how they see it right?! My uncle still has his receipt, so what can i do? I don't have the one i used to purchase my one any more! Please help. I don't want to get sacked or dismissed or disciplined, I haven't done anything wrong or harmed anyone and its stressing me out that something will happen to me.

I recently received a letter from Quinn-direct car insurance stating: ' Due to recent investigations we have reason to believe that the above policy is invalid. In these circumstances QUINN-direct does not accept that the insurance has existed with us.' I remember having this insurance policy a year ago for 2-3 months. I did not made any false information when I took out that policy. Does it mean it Voided? Do i have to inform my current insurer about this? Should I contact Quinn-direct to resolve this situation?

I have an ongoing ET claim for unfair dismissal, failure to make reasonable adjustments and disability discrimination. I have, however, run into some difficulties trying the claim on my house insurance’s legal cover. I have been refused cover on the grounds that my claim is out of time. Timeline: May 2010 – Injury July 2011 – Home Insurance Policy started including legal cover Dec 2011 – Dismissal March 2012 – ET1 accepted July 2012 – Legal cover claim (within time of policy) The letter I received says “ As the incidents giving rise to your claim occurred prior to the date when the policy first came into force, the claim would not be covered under your policy”. I understand what they are saying, but surely, if my dismissal and ET falls within the policy period, that is the basis of my claim. Can anyone help me formulate a response for them to reconsider their decision? Legal cover/solicitor wise, I do remember reading here a little while ago about if your case is not assessed as more than 51% probability, you can take it to adjudication by a barrister. Forget what it’s called exactly. Is there an equivalent process ? Thanks in advance

Was alerted to this by a member recently. He was notified around March 2011 by letter that because of what they termed a "Systems error"the wrong policy guide was sent out...which assumingly contained the terms and conditions. They later apologised and sent out the correct ones. I am trying to establish how long after he took out the Policy and began using it,that the mistake was corrected. My thinking is that if the mistake was corrected after the period / scope that he had to cancel,then it would fall within the remit of CPUTR2008. It is significant that this was also around the period of the OFT investigation,so it looks likely that it was in consideration of that,although of course CPP made no mention of the investigation,or that they had been found to have mis sold some of these policies. Will update when there is more info on this case.

I understand Swinton are the insurance broker so can I contact the insurer direct and so not have to pay a cancellation charge. I have one month left on my policy and they want to charge me £50 to cancel. I said i wouldn't bother but they said if it comes to their attention that the vechile is being insured some where else then they would cancel the ploicy and still charge me. I thought i was doing them a favour letting them know so they didn't send any renewal quotes next month

Hi I am hoping someone on here can advise me. We paid AXA commercial insurance for a couple of years for our 1 van business. Also allowed on the policy were our two family cars. In November 2011 - our employee had an accident in our van. The van was very badly damaged and took so long for this to be sorted out with the insurers that our business had to cease trading - which was a very difficult and stressful time for us. Because we had to cease trading AXA cancelled our insurance policy completely even though we were happy to continue paying the premiums for the rest of the year, as both of our family cars needed cover. Axa refused to transfer the policy to a more suitable one instead. At very short notice (2 days) we had to run around finding quotes and obtaining insurance for our family cars. I called AXA and was assured that there was nothing to pay on the policy as it was cancelled. Our AXA sales rep also advised us in an email to cancel our direct debit so ensure no more payments would be taken and that the matter was now being dealt with by the office. We heard nothing until yesterday when my husband received a phone call from a collections company chasing for over 2k that AXA wanted to cover the premiums for the rest of the year because a claim was made on the policy. I have looked through my policy documents and the small print and no where does it state that if the insurer cancel the policy then the full payment will need to be made. It does however say this is the case if we cancel the policy - which we did not. What I find frustrating is that we checked at the time that nothing was owed. No one has contacted us in the meantime. We were happy to continue paying our premiums until the end of the year if they had just provided cover for our 2 private vehicles. Can anyone offer any advise on if they are entitled to the rest of the policy payments considering they cancelled the policy? Thanks in advance. TW

Can anyone clear up a small but very annoying problem for me please. I had my printer replaced under the whatever happens policy and could not find my software disk when returning the broken printer so the software from the new printer was removed from the box to be returned with the broken printer. (i have no idea why they want software for a broken printer that is clearly no use to anybody else) I took the printer home, dowloaded software as instructed by currys, used it to print some airline tickets then put the printer back in the box as it is very seldom used. Three weeks later went to use the printer and it would not work on it's wireless setting i uninstalled and re installed the software twice as instructed by the store (via the Kodak website) and as it wouldnt work so i then returned it to the store. I was told if the printer was at fault it would be replaced but if it was a software issue i would be charged up to £10 for the engineer to check it out. Software problem it was and i was charged the full £10. The problem is that i was not supplied software for this particuler printer so i dont have a base to start at. Its all very well downloading software from websites but it has cost me £10 to get no further forward. I have emailed customer services and had a bog standard sorry we cant help you reply. I dont think this is very good customer service it does not make you want to go back and shop there again

Hi. On behalf of my partner: About 10 years ago I took out a contract with a phone company, I think it was Carphone Warehouse. Along with the monthly policy charge was an extra charge called "Policy Admin Service", which was £7.99 per month. I think it was some sort of insurance policy for the phone. As the years went by, I renewed my policy direct with Vodafone but without understanding or realising what was afoot, Carphone Warehouse just kept deducting £7.99 from my bank account. I recently wised up and stopped the payments - is there anything at all I can do to recover any of this money? I can't recall exactly what I agreed to and don't have the paperwork from so long ago. Any suggestions? Anyone come across this before? There are quite a few people who've been caught out by this, according to Google, so you can imagine how much money has been grabbed by them from the general public! Even if this is legal, is there anything I can do?

I sent my proof of NCD in twice. Please help somebody

Hi all I have a taxi which last week was written off by my insurance companies assessor. Another driver on my "policy" crashed the car with no other cars involved. Basically his fault. I took all the documents into the insurance office today to proceed with the claim. I was then told that if I did not buy another car and have it insured with them that the remainder of the premium would be deducted from the settlement figure. This came as a bit of a shock, but I have read posts on here and on other sites basically saying they can do this so that isn't my main point. What annoys me and I would like some advice on is that when I took out insurance with this company I was never given details of the policy, only a certificate of motor insurance. So if they start quoting parts of the policy do I have a leg to stand on by telling them they should have provided me with the details of the policy when I took it out? Also they would not allow me to buy back the car, saying that the insurance company does not allow this. this annoyed me as well because I was given a quote to repair the car privately and it was not excessive. The way I have been adding things up, they stand to make a tidy profit from this and I will recieve around £400 if I accept their offer and they deduct the full premium. I would appreciate any advice on this Thanks in advance

Hi All, I bought an engagement ring for my fiancee from H Samuel. 0.5 carats, with a large stone and 3 smaller ones either side. Not bad, £900 represents a major investment for me, a decision I want to get right, so I was attracted by their 30 day coll off period. So I gave my fiancee her ring, and all was gravy, until I noticed it didn't really sparkle. Even in the sunshine. I've now had the ring properly checked out by an independent jeweller and they say the stone is off colour and has a massive flaw! nice. So when I took it back to H Samuel to claim a refund under the 30 day policy I was told I couldn't get i refunded due to it being worn and there being small marks, not scratches, but small marks on the underside of the ring. You can barely see them, even with an eyeglass. Ok, so I lost my cool a bit, but my main argument was how can you offer a 30 day policy with the caveat that it can't be worn? And anyhoo, I'm returning it due to a massive flaw in the diamond whereas they are complaining about tiny marks in the metal, which could probably be polished out anyway. It left off with the rude assistant telling me to come back at a later date when there is a manager present. Now, I'm thinking to get it polished by another jeweller so I can give it back in pristine condition. But then I worry they will say that I've then damaged the ring. Or should I just go back and stay calm and point out to them that they are a jewellers and can probably arrange to have it polished themselves, that a ring is meant to be worn, that's what rings are for, that I'm completely unhappy with this ring etc etc. Your advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading.

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bigbrotherwatch.org.uk%2Fhome%2F2012%2F02%2Ften-people-havent-read-googles.html%23more-4205&h=XAQFdBvbyAQE4yiOeDS1x_Yb5f_Yiw_iTtLUXtdsf0B-LUQ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2105435/Three-simple-steps-delete-Google-browsing-history--late.html It would be wise to read the above ASAP, these changes take place on March 1st Lex

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bigbrotherwatch.org.uk%2Fhome%2F2012%2F02%2Ften-people-havent-read-googles.html%23more-4205&h=XAQFdBvbyAQE4yiOeDS1x_Yb5f_Yiw_iTtLUXtdsf0B-LUQ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2105435/Three-simple-steps-delete-Google-browsing-history--late.html It would be wise to read the above ASAP, these changes take place on March 1st Lex

Hey all, I recently (26/11/11) purchased a Samsung UE40D6100 LED 3D 40" TV from a Currys store in Stratford. I payed a little over £800 althogther and was happy with the service and the product. I was also talked into purchasing the Whatever Happens Premium Cover. Unfortunatly a month after the purchase, i noticed a dead pixel in a prominent position on the screen. It was taken away under the whatever happens 7 day policy to be fixed as was recommended by the helpline. Also no replacement television was given as stated in the literature. After 7 days with no television, it was return in the same condition (with a few added noticable scratches around the frame). Cellotaped to the back of the TV was a note stating that they couldnt find the error and a number to ring "0844 561 1234". After calling the number and speaking to someone who basically said they couldnt help me other than pass me from callfloor to callfloor, i was nowhere nearer to a resolution. I was also clearly guaranteed by the sales rep in Currys (Saidul) that the TV offered 2D to 3D conversion & Picture In Picture for a HMDI source. After discovering that the TV has none of these functions i felt like taking it back under the returns policy and getting the 42" LG Cinema 3D TV i was talked out of buying by Saidul, but ultimately i didnt take it back in time. I would really appreciate some advice on what route of action to take to get the problem sorted. I will visit the store i bought it from and try & discuss the matter with them when im next off work, alternatively someone recommended writing a letter to the CEO/Head Office. I also have all the recipts & policy documents if needed. Thank You Alex

Hi guys recently I had to sell my car (vauxhall frontera 4x4) due to personal circumstances. my car was insured through Sureterm Direct and ther policy was with Chaucer. apparently it was a 4x4 car policy only (which I wasnt completely clear about that). I've changed to a smaller car which isnt 4x4 and I have contacted Sureterm and they've said that I won;t be able to change car details on my current policy as Chaucer Insurance will not insure my car because it's not a 4x4. I only had 48 days till my renewal date and I was told I have to cancel policy and I will be charged for the remaining of contract. today I had a letter requesting a payment of 83 pounds in the next 7 days (53 pounds reamining on the policy and 30 Sureterm cancellation fee). can somebody tell where do I stand with this ? can I challenge it ? as it's clearly not my fault that they can't insure my car.