Hi. I'm totally sick to death of this, and wanted to know where I stand. I'm sure a few of you will have been in the same situation at one time or another. I recently bought an Xbox controller from Argos. It was the Elite, which costs £120, a lot of money for a controller. Less than 4 months later it's broken. I contacted Argos and all they'll do is give me Microsoft's number. Microsoft want me to post it to them at my expense, this is unacceptable for a number of reasons. Firstly, I paid for a working product, I don't want to shell out any more. Secondly, I don't want to be without a controller for several days or even weeks. Lastly, it should not my responsibility to do any chasing around, I just want to return it to the store and get a replacement. Where do I stand with this? This isn't the first time a store has fobbed me off with this and I'm sick of it. Posting my broken electronics to some obscure industrial estate in Europe is just unacceptable, are these stores breaking the law? I'm tempted to just issue a court claim right away, but I know I have to give them a chance to fix it. So I've sent a strongly worded email notifying them that I want it fixed, and that I will pursue it through MCOL if necessary. Hopefully it won't come to that. I don't always go nuclear, but like I said this has happened so many times. These large chain stores sell you a product then just wash their hands of it. "Broken is it sir? Past 30 days, not our problem, you'll need to call this number..." etc. I'm sick of it! Thoughts and advice?

Hi, I am seeking advice on here about a faulty laptop that Littlewoods do not want to know about. I sent an email to Nick Mcbrien. "Hello, I am contacting you today as I have failed to resolve an issue with a laptop I purchased on 05/06/2016. The laptop I purchased was opened by me three weeks ago and was setup according to the manufacture instructions and I am not happy with it as it kept crashing and running very slow and now keeps rebooting and will no longer start up, keeps on loading and then rebooting. I have looked and tried solutions online but nothing has solved the problem. I contacted Littlewoods customer services and explained the problem and that I wished to return the product for a refund and I am very unhappy with my purchase, the customer service advisor told me that I would get a call back in a few days to arrange a return and they asked me to call them back on 02030140095 if I didn't get a call back. I waited 5 days and decided to call the number provided and realized that the number the advisor gave me was Lenovo customer services, I hung up as I was annoyed that the advisor had tried to fob me off to the manufacturer, even though they said that Littlewoods would arrange a return for a refund. I then called up Littlewoods explaining what had happened the new advisor kept saying to me that they would send an engineer out to look at it, even though I explained I wanted a refund and was promised one, then the advisor gave me the same phone number again telling me to call Lenovo as they would deal with any issues. I called the 02030140095 number and spoke to a call center advisor, who said my point of sale contract is with Littlewoods as it is less than 12 months old and they said I would need to contact Littlewoods with any queries. I have decided to contact someone higher up than the scripted customer service advisors that were no help whatsoever and gave me the run around. I have never been this extremely frustrated in returning something that is not fit for purpose for a refund. All I would like to do is for somebody to arrange for the laptop to be returned for a refund. The laptop has been used twice and comes with everything complete like when I received it but is faulty." I was contacted shortly after the email by Shop Direct Group Executives Complaints Team and they said they would look into my case but it has been 2 weeks now and I sent them an email in the meantime saying that this is a joke now and I have a laptop sitting at home that does not work at all and nobody has replied. Is there anything I can do to take this further? Many thanks.

Hi all, need some advice please. We purchased Ultimate Amira Healthopaedic mattress via Bed Factory (1-4 Spence Lane, Leeds, LS12 1EF). We purchased the mattress on 25.4.16 for the nursery and started using it on 8.7.16 when our daughter was born. The mattress is not of satisfactory quality due to the wearing and sagging that's occurred within weeks. I'm of light build and a mattress should last years before that type of wear occurs. The retailer advised they're not in a position to refund or exchange and referred us to the manufacturer. Basically asked us to take pictures (which barely show the issue but it DOESN'T FEEL LIKE NEW at all) to be sent to the manufacturer to'make a decision'. I decided to contact the manufacturer and the retailer's head office directly as I wasn't happy with the store manager's advice. The manufacturer advised the responsibility lies with the retailer. The retailer's head office asked for pics to be forwarded to them. The mattress was comfortable to begin with, the past 2 weeks I noticed once you get up it doesn't regain its shape. I did my best with the pics- they barely show the dents and I'm worried I'm just being fobbed off. My last email (no reply to it yet) is below: Good morning, Images attached. Would you offer a comment on why Steve advised these were to be sent to manufacturer 'to make a decision' and it had nothing to do with the store? First attachment- please also take a closer look at the left border/side- it's not straight and already dented as well. This isn't what a new high quality mattress should look and feel like. Please treat this as a formal complaint- a similar replacement product would be an ideal resolution. We used the store before and bought the mattress for our master bedroom from you-still very pleased with it and happy with the service provided at the time. This is the reason why we decided to use you again-unfortunately, at the moment this situation appears a blatant attempt to fob off a returned customer. Please include at attachment or a link to your complaints handling procedure. So any advice on where I stand with this one and who I take it up with if I get no joy with the retailer would be much appreciated. Thanks guys!

I opened a Club Lloyds account prior to Xmas, primarily for the benefits it advertised. Under doctor’s orders, I am currently abroad to reduce my stress levels. I have a large sum of money in my account, and have been trying to use the time to move this to other accounts I have that it will earn interest on. Each time I try to make a transaction, either using online banking or via debit card, to other accounts in my name which are already set up with my online banking, Lloyds block them and make me call their Fraud Team. I am making the calls from abroad, I think the shortest call to date has been around 30 minutes, each time I am made to answer questions from my credit file and a trace is left on my file each time they make me do this. Yesterday, at circa 3pm, I tried for the second time to move a large sum to an account I hold with RCI bank, the payment, for the second time was blocked. The call time I made to the Fraud team was in excess of 1 hour. The end result of the call was that my account is totally blocked and Lloyds are forcing me to return to the UK to present myself and ID to a Lloyds branch before I can access my money. This is my normal day-to-day banking account which I can no longer access, check that payments are being made into it, or make ad hoc bill payments or move money. The guy I spoke to in the fraud team, his attitude towards me inflamed the situation, he refused to let me speak to a manager, pass the call to a manager, or get a manager to call me back. He lied to me and told me he would put me through to customer services to make a complaint, he didn’t he put me back into the long queue to wait again for the Fraud team. Directly after this, I called the Complaints team. again a long wait to speak to someone., before starting on a 2-hour call with them. After they liaised with Fraud I was told that there was no block on my online banking (with me accessing my account while they were still on the line to ensure this was the case) that all I had to do was call Fraud again to go through more credit file checks to get the payment authorised. The complaint I had changed from initially being about the block on my account and enforced return to the UK, to about the conduct and attitude with ....., the Fraud team member. I was offered compensation of £160 to cover the cost of in excess of 3 hours of international mobile calls. I did not accept this to close the complaint, I elevated the complaint to a higher level (.......), where we went over everything, double-checked everything, and it was left in his hands to investigate further while I was left to go through the rigmarole regarding my transfer with the Fraud team again. This whole scenario which started at 3pm, concluded with the termination of this call after 6pm. 9 am this morning I went online to check my bank account before getting up the courage to tackle another call with the Fraud dept…..my online access was blocked. The start of many phone calls was to the complaints department to speak to either of the two people from the day before, this was not possible and I was put into the ‘care’ of a lady called ..... informed me that my account was blocked and that I would have to return to the UK, etc, before it would be unblocked. To cut a long story short, she confirmed with me the address of 3 branches in Edinburgh that I could do so, with me informing her that I wanted to make face-to-face contact with the manager of the branch to address my issues, and that I would be pursing costs for flights, transfers, accom, time off work etc. She refused my request to speak with someone senior and she terminated the call with me. started to look at flights to find the first available one is not until next Saturday, a week away. started to try to get contact details for the branch so I could phone to ensure a manager would be there, to make sure they could do everything that had to be done (from their side and from mine), and to make an appointment. You would think this would be easy, but being Lloyds, no it is not… .there is only an 0845 no provided, extortionate to call from abroad, and I was forced to call the call center. On doing so I was informed that there are in fact no Lloyds branches in Scotland, that the branch we were looking at was a Bank of Scotland one, with no telephone number for customers, as are all branches apparently, that I cannot talk to anyone in branch directly and that if I wished to make contact I had to do it via an agent in the call center, who then tried to call it for me with no joy. This call terminated after 1pm today, another 4 hours of my life wasted.

Hello, I wonder if anyone can help me. I bought 2 items from an ebay seller listed as a business seller. Firstly there was a problem with postage, 2nd item was supposed to be £1.00 postage and was charged full. Wrote a friendly email, no reply, left a friendly phone message and asked if I should go through paypal or if they could sort it. It was sorted the next day. OK, the items are not suitable, I collected from the post office last saturday, seller has a 14 day return policy and insists on a form being filled out via access to an ebay account. No ebay account. Have written 3 polite emails requesting the return, left 2 polite phone messages indicitating said emails are awaiting response. Meanwhile checked the new rules for distance selling, Consumer Contract Regulations. This says that the form requested is to make cancelling easier but does not affect the return of goods. As I used ebay as a guest I can't access the form the seller insists on and have made a request by email 3 times now and twice by phone. So as I understand it I have fulfilled my obligation to alert the seller within the 14 days (day 1 actually) that I want to return the items for a refund. No word from the seller. Any idea how I might proceed with this now to ensure the seller gives me a refund. I am trying to keep things cordial but I am anxious to get the items back and have the money returned to my account. Help much appreciated.

Good day all, Am after a few pointers please as unsure of which way to go to ensure I do everything correctly. I had a work accident in November 2015, HGV Driver, a slip plate hadnt been fitted the right way round, on exiting I slipped crashing onto the road. I broke my leg, foot and ankle with damage also to the ligament. I have so far had 3 surgeries under general to have metal plates, pins and screws fitted. The healing process has been a terrible ordeal and I have been unable to weight bare until only recently. At present the consultant cannot see anymore surgery is required but I have however got a limp with pain. It is my intention to try and return to work within the next month as have been off since accident. However, the company has not shown any empathy or compassion. I was advised that the companies insurance would cover my basic wages at time of accident, however there call / contact never materialised. When receiving my first monthly pay, it indeed only contained SSP. Communication from the company dissapeared, emails where read but never answered, text messages the same and phone calls resulted in "manager / supervisor" not here but we get them to call back which didn't happen. Therefore, I seeked advice from Citizens advice whom advised me to make a claim against them for the accident. I contacted a solicitor directly whom has took on the case which is still ongoing. Therefore, I'm at a bit of a loss as to what to do now with regard to returning? Should I email them and advise about my intented return? I will have to potentially have a phased return due to the period I have been off and to build up the strength again with my leg. I have been there since November 2014. Thank you

If you buy an item online and pay with Paypal they have a promotion where if you change your mind they will pay the return shipping costs. It runs to the 31st August and can be used 4 times up to a value of £15 each time. You need to opt in and it appears to be valid for all Paypal users. https://www.paypal.com/uk/webapps/mpp/refunded-returns Terms and conditions: https://www.paypal.com/uk/webapps/mpp/refunded-returns/general-conditions

I just ran into something that I want to "brave my self" if something goes wrong. The problem is I am trying to return a phone (quite expensive) I bought online (UK base retailer). The company does not allow to book return over the phone, only on their website. However, I cannot book a return form their website. I email them about the situation, they reply to me that they are looking into it and the problem could take up to 5 working day to fix. That make me confuse is that under Consumer Contracts Regulations (CCR) i have 14 day to told them, which i already did and they accept the return, and another 14 day to send it back.However, I am too busy to book an online return untill today, then this problem happen. But if I wait for 5 working day, it will be over the 14 day dead line to return under CCR The question I have is am I protect under CCR if I wait for them to sort it out or I should return the item back before the 14 day deadline.

Hello everybody, I recently purchased a guitar effects pedal from a store over the internet via PayPal. I sent it back the next day during the cool-off period. The shipping in the online ad states free delivery. They have refunded me the cost of the item minus £6.99 for postage. I did a quick web search and came up with: The Office of Fair Trading; “The OFT’s view is that the normal postage and packing charges for the delivery, but not the return, of distance sales purchases must always be refunded in addition to the cost of the goods when orders are cancelled during the cooling-off period.” From Out-law.com: “Online shopping customers who send back goods straight away must not be charged for their delivery, Europe's top court has said. Consumers can be required to pay the cost of returning the goods but should be refunded every other cost, it said. 15 Apr 2010” “The UK's Distance Selling Regulations govern this right and consumer regulator the Office of Fair Trading has previously ruled that refunds must include the cost of postage or delivery of goods.” I contacted the store with this information and they sent me the following reply: "Thank you for your email and I do appreciate your point of view If you change your mind, you can return your purchase in its original condition within 14 days to us for a full refund minus any costs incurred for the initial dispatching using our express courier and any costs incurred by -------- for the returning of the order. Please note that shipping discounts are removed if your full return or partial return takes your order below the free delivery threshold (this only applies for items that have been sent). Orders which have received discounted shipping (for example, free next day shipping) will have to cover the initial express courier dispatching, normally £6.99. The fact that you received free shipping is because we applied a shipping discount to your order and paid this shipping as a goodwill gesture. We do not ship item via any standard (normal) delivery options and ship everything using express next day service therefore we are entitled to recoup any delivery costs from the refund. I am afraid that the £6.99 deduction is correct and does not breach any consumer rights. So, are they correct to deduct the postage or not? I would be very grateful for any answers to help me resolve this. Thanking you all in advance, Nigel

Dear unclebulgaria67, I've read several responses from you in this thread regarding debts in Dubai and wonder if you could offer some advice. My wife spent 18 (awful) months in Dubai where she secured a good job working for a company which was a subsidiary of the government. After 2 months she was unceremoniously sacked for no reason by her Emirate female boss. The job was very well paid and during that short time she had been offered and taken advantage of credit cards from her bank. It took a while for her to find another job but was then earning less than half of her original salary. Over a period of about 12 months she relied on the credit cards to cover rent, school fees and other living expenses. Her father was later taken seriously ill and she had to leave Dubai at short notice to look after him. She left debts behind of around £44k. This was about 6 months ago when she returned to the UK. She has recently started her own business and now has an income. As you can imagine the bank has been chasing her via email for a while and she recently responded offering to start repaying the debt. She offered to pay a small monthly amount to start and then increase the payment as her business becomes more successful. The guy she is corresponding via email with has been quite aggressive and all but laughed at her offer. She then offered to increase the amount but despite her offering to pay an initial £4k and then minimum monthly payments of £500, he is threatening to pass the case to interpol to track her down in the UK and take legal proceedings. Please can you offer any advice on what she should do about this as it's causing a lot of stress for her which she could do without following her awful experiences over the past 12 months. Thank you in advance.

I'm currently advising a friend on council tax issues. She is 62, works 12 hours a week as a cleaner and earns £450 a month. Sutton Council have decided she owes them for three years back council tax, despite the fact that they have NOT correctly assessed her benefit liability for those years, assuming incorrectly that her monthly earnings were weekly earnings. They have two liability orders for past years and she was visited by a bailiff who entered the sheltered accommodation where we both live (she has a small flat downstairs from me). The bailiff levied on a tv (3 year old 32 inch Toshiba which I lent her when her old tv died) and a dvd player, the resale price of these would no even begin to cover his fees. She is paying them £30 a month on top of the £26 she was paying the council. The council have now decided she is to pay them £48 a month for the remainder of last years (up to 31st March this year) bill and for the coming bill - so in total out of her £450 salary she is paying the council £85. We went to see them today and the lady told us that they cannot get the debt back from the bailiff - she gave us the name of the person to write to so a letter will be done by the end of this week. The council also refuse to accept that an attachment of earnings on her current salary is an 'acceptable expense' along with employees liability insurance so are working on her GROSS salary of £450 rather than the NET salary of about £400. I've advised my friend (who is now in contact with Stepchange) to go for a DRO and take all the council tax bills, including the one due in a coup;e of days time into it. The attachment of earnings is for an alleged DWP overpayment from 2001/2002....which again needs a bit more specialist help than I can give her. Any advise as to what to put in the council tax letter re legislation allowing them to get the debts back from the council and reassess them would be helpfu.

I bought my car in Feb 2015. It was an ex-demo model and I bought direct from the manufacturer as they have their own showrooms. It came with a 1yr warranty. Its had several issues and already spent 6 weeks back with them as they diagnosed and fixed and ECU fault. In early Jan I got a letter to say the car had been recalled for a safety issue (throttle sticking on) and it was arranged that they would collect the car on Feb 19 for the work. The work is quick, no more than a few hours work. The work was finally complete this weekend. After much persistence and telling them I needed the car back by this weekend I am now being told they won't return it before 5th April. This is because they don't have their own driver available to bring it back, and won't pay for it to be transported. I am almost 500 miles each way from the car's location I am in Scotland, car dealer is near Gatwick), so collecting it myself isn't an option (financially or time-wise). The sales of goods act says when repairing goods a retailer must do this 'within a reasonable time but without causing significant inconvenience'. I would say the lengthy delay is causing me a significant inconvenience. I have no courtesy/replacement car. What are my options - if I pay someone to collect the car am I likely to be able to reclaim this money?

morning, I am about to leave Dubai- I will not be able to clear my debt but will continue to pay. I have been told they will try and cash my security cheque, which will bounce, and then make a police report. You have said on one of your posts that transit through Dubai International will not be a problem. There would only be a problem if you clear Dubai customs and enter the UAE- is there any way I can verify this fact? My new job will mean a lot of flights and Dubai is a natural hub. Many thanks

Hi, I purchased a period return ticket from Oxford to Manchester last week. I didn't have a problem on the way up, but I had an issue with using the return ticket on my back. I don't remember which stop it was after but, somewhere between Manchester and Birmingham New Street, the guard came through and stamped the return half of my ticket. When I reached Birmingham New Street, a new guard replaced the previous one. When he came through to check the tickets, he told me that I had already used my ticket and I could only use it once. I explained to him that the ticket had been stamped by the other guard, who he had replaced, on the same train, but he didn't believe me. He told me that I would have to purchase another ticket. As he was threatening to get the police involved and being intimidating, I begrudgingly paid up. Is it possible to get my money back for this ticket? I shouldn't have had to purchase it. Unfortunately the second guard confiscated both halves of my ticket, so I have no proof that I already had a ticket.

On the 27th November 2015, I ordered a pair of glasses from Glasses Direct (online) - which were shipped out on the 29th Nov, and I received them on the 2nd December. On the 24th December, I pushed my glasses up my nose, and they felt "wobbly". I took them off to look at them, and they came apart in my hands. (broken at the connection from the bridge to the lens rim). Now, the issue is, that with them being closed over the Christmas period, I'm over my 30 days right to reject (which I wouldn't have been had the business been closed). I did email them on the 24th requesting a full refund, but am awaiting a call to them when they re-open. Do I have my rights protected if the company isn't contactable in the period where I'd need to return them>?

My friend and I were traveling to Crete Rethymon on the 21st of June 2015 with Jet2 from Glasgow airport. We were meant to return with them on the 28th of June 2015 to Glasgow airport. We bought 4 miniature bottles of vodka at duty free. When we were on our flight, my friend opened one of the miniature, one of the cabin crew said that we were not allowed to consume it on the flight. We apologised and handed the miniatures to the cabin crew to be locked away until we departed our flight. We were then asked if we would like drinks from the trolly, we ordered food and some alcoholic beverages. Another air stewardess came over to us with a bad attitude and handed us a rather threatening letter. She asked for our passport details. We then asked why we were asked for our details as we did not want to be put on some sort of data base. The air stewardess began to raise her voice, threatening us, that if we did not hand over our details she was going to get the pilot and that the police would be waiting for as when we land. We did not refuse to give our details, we simply asked what they were going to be used for. My friend asked her to lower her voice as it was drawing attention to us. We gave our details to another air stewardess who apologised for her colleagues behaviour, she also told us that we would be able to fly with Jet2 on our return flight and not to worry. (I have a voice recording of this conversation). Half way through our holiday on the 24th of June 2015, we received a phone call informing us that we were being refused to flu home with Jet2 due to a report which had been filed by cabin crew that we continued to drink our own alcohol and displayed aggressive behaviour. These allegations are untrue and frankly quite frightening that Jet2 staff can make up such lies leaving their customers stranded in a foreign country. I have sent numerous emails to Jet2 asking for the situation to be fully investigated and I have sent the voice recording as evidence that no aggressive behaviour was displayed by my friend and I. Jet2 just said that it has been fully investigated which we know that it has not. We feel that our voice has not been heard. We had to cut our holiday short by returning home on 27th June 2015 with EasyJet flying from Heraklion airport to Edinburgh which caused us further expense. We paid approx £400 for alternative flight, thats not including the expensive phone bill of £50 for phoning Jet2, bus and taxi expenses to travel to the airport, or having to cut our holiday short which also ruined our holiday. Lastly we both experienced much stress in regards to how we would get home. This has put me off flying again, as it appears that customers do not have any rights, and how easy it is for staff to make up lies leaving passengers in foreign countries. (I have a copy of all email correspondence, voice recording aboard the flight with a member of cabin crew, we also have a photo of the threatening letter which we received on board. Help would be much appreciated as we are looking for compensation, an apology, and for cabin crew to be dealt with appropriately in order for this to not happen to anyone else.

I took out a contract via "Mobiles" who are part of carphone warehouse (assumed therefore high street brand and would be just fine). Before taking out the contract I checked out my coverage on O2 at Home and Work. It showed good reception in both areas, great! The mobile got dispatched and a confirmed delivery date emailed to me, so I rang O2 before the order even arrived, and gave them my PAC Code, getting the number transfer setup on the same day as delivery. Perfect. The new handset arrived and my service has been so bad. Today I was in London Victoria with full 4G signal, but the network was so congested Whatsapp would not even connect. At my home address, I only get 1 bar of 4G, often No Service and if I walk around my house on a call it drops out guaranteed. Also at my place of work there is no reception. I use this phone as a work phone and it's important to work there. I had pre checked the signal! I contacted "Mobiles" and as I have used the PAC code, they say I have accepted the handset. They have told me they cannot provide a returns as the PAC has been used and to speak with O2 direct. Even if O2 accepted the return I would lose the £165 downpayment on the handset. What are my rights here? Do I have any or am I stuck with no good service at home and work? I had EE previously which worked fine at all of these locations. I've told Mobiles I will happily take out a contract with EE via them, I don't necessarily want to take my business elsewhere - just want a phone that works and that is not on O2 clearly.

Hi, I bought a gym set online and it arrived a week ago. I built it, then realising it was too tall for the room. I can take it apart and repack but can I return it? Thanks for any help! These are the return conditions stipulated: Right to return we offer a fourteen-day "cooling off" period, which gives you the opportunity to check your product and see if it fits your needs. If for any reason you are not satisfied with the product, you must contact us by E-mail within seven days after the original delivery date. During the "cooling off" period we offer a full refund of the product, original shipping cost (if charged) and FREE pick-up service (if the purchase amount is above 45 GBP). You must return the items unused, in their original undamaged packaging and in a saleable condition. If you miss the "reflection" period we also offer a 30-day money back guarantee, this means you are still able to return the product 30 days after you received it. You will get a full refund on the product, FREE pick-up service (if the purchase amount is above 45 GBP), but no refund on the original shipping cost. After 30 days the order, and thereby the contract, is considered concluded. We advise you to always check whether the products have arrived undamaged and complete. If this is not the case, please report so to our customer services desk as soon as possible. Please note that you must inform us via a durable medium. This means E-mail only. In accordance with applicable law, we ask you to take reasonable care of the product, even if you do not intent on using it. Products should, if possible, always be returned in their original packaging. We may ask you why you want to return your received item(s), though you are never obliged to justify your cancellation. The only reason we are interested in knowing why you want to cancel your order is for improvement of our goods and services where possible. Return Address: TecTake GmbH Tauberweg 41 97999 Igersheim, Germany

I moved to Canada over 3 years ago with approx £15k in credit card debt. A few months after arriving in Canada, my house sold in the UK and I paid the credit cards off in full but kept the accounts open. I continued to use the credit cards for purchases, and continued to make regular payments. I had no intention of running from debt and I gave all of the companies my new Canadian address. About 18 months into my new life in Canada I fell into financial difficulty. I had a high risk pregnancy and had to go for appointments several times each week at a hospital that was an hours drive from where I lived, and I couldn't keep my job. My husbands wage didn't even cover our outgoings (I don't want to sound like a sob story, but I want to make clear that we weren't getting in to debt by living the high life. Our outgoings were only necessities, we didn't have cable tv or anything like that). Our car broke down and had to be scrapped, we had to have a new heating system because ours failed during winter (minus temperatures in Canada!). a lot went wrong and I relied on my credit cards (all in my name, not my husbands) to live. I racked up approx £20k over 4 cards and reached a point where I could no longer make minimum payments, so I stopped. I had several letters from Barclaycard and the debt was passed to debt collectors. I also had late payment notices from Halifax. We then moved house and I didn't give my new address to the cc companies. Over a year has now passed and I haven't heard anything, I guess they can't find me, or stopped trying when their letters started getting returned by the post office. My problem now is that things have only got worse and we have realised we cannot financially sustain life in Canada. Wages are low and cost of living is high, we have tried so hard to make it work but have got to admit defeat and return to England. Obviously I'm scared about returning to England and having debt collectors show up at my door. My question is, what is my best move to make now? We will sell our house in Canada and after taking into account the money we will need to move back to England, I will have about £6k left to offer as a settlement to the cc companies, but is this likely to be accepted as the amount I owe is so much higher, not to mention interest accrued, and how would I even go about it if all debts are now in the hands of debt collectors? Alternatively I could return to uk and hide out until the 6 years has passed but only 18 months has passed since my last contact, so that's a long time to hide out for and I'm sure they'd find me in that time. Or would calling a debt charity for help be of any use? What suggestions might they offer? Any advice would be appreciated.

Hi there, I'm in a similar situation. Are you definitely sure regarding your last point? If so, this is very informative. Thanks and kind regards.

Hi, From April 2014 to April 2015 I earnt around about £2000-£2500 through Youtube and I'm wondering what I must do on the tax front for that entire year? How would I actually go about declaring it? The network is US ran and I never received any forms to fill out to send to HMRC so I sort of left it until now, been made aware that it comes under self employment and I must declare the earnings, yet I have absolutely no idea how to do so. I think the network tax your earnings if you are based in the US and are in touch with the relevant parties, however as I'm in the UK it seems to be up to me to sort it out. Between April 2014 and April 2015 I also had two other jobs on the correct tax code, yet the second one kept emergency taxing me indespite being on the correct tax code for some odd reason. The reason I mentioned this is because the Tax Office actually know about these two jobs with the National Insurance and P45's attached as they were legitimate companies and not cash in hand work. The Youtube earnings were also sent in Dollars through Paypal and then currency exchanged when it entered my bank account and the exchange rates fluctuate all the time so I can't be precise with the numbers when calculating. Anybody know what I need to do?

Hi there. I sold my car last week through a classified ad on eBay. Buyer came to have a look, I took her on a test drive, she went home, then messaged me later to say she wanted it and came and bought it. Several hours later her and her boyfriend returned the car saying that the rear seat belts were not long enough to wrap around their maxi cosi car seats. They told me they had turned down several other cars for the same reason, I asked them why they didn't check, they said they forgot. I refused the refund, but did offer to buy them some adapters to which they refused. They became very aggressive, blocked our driveway with their car, and threatened us with physical violence and implied they would come back and do damage to me and our property. I phoned the police, they left just before they arrived but I told the police the story and got a crime reference number. Yesterday I got a very vague email saying I had failed to disclose information regarding the vehicles history and that eBay's fraud team would be in touch (they haven't been). I replied that I had been completely honest and that it was for the seat belt they wanted to return the car, and outlined all the above that had happened. They replied again saying I failed to inform them of the cars history and didn't tell the truth. They said once they got home they tried to insure it and found out about this history, so came back to me expecting me to come clean. They never mentioned anything about the cars history it was all tears about the seat belts and how their kids seats cost £500 a piece so they couldn't change them. I reply asking what history? Today they said it has been a Cat D write off. They quote sale of goods act 1979 and innocent misrepresentation clause in the misdescriptions act. They still want to return the car for a refund. Where do I stand? How can I find out if it really was a Cat D and what the damage was? Surely if they care about this sort of thing they should have done a HPI check before they bought it? I have not told them any lies. It seems to me they are trying to think of new problems so that they can get out of buying the car. If there is a problem I guess I feel bad for them, but not after the way they have behaved. The car is sound, low mileage and as far as I'm concerned in perfect working order, minus an exhaust rattle I mentioned in the description. They have been very aggressive and threatening in person, so much so that we have just installed CCTV as every time we come home we expect to have the windows smashed. On paper of course they seem to be writing very tactfully. Thanks for reading this far, I wanted to be thorough. Please advise me where I stand. Many thanks

Hi hope someone can help Mallard have issued us with a return of goods court order, I spoke to them and as we have an arrangement on the account they have said they will be asking the judge for a suspended return of goods how do I know they'll stick to this and not just get to court and ask for the car back. We fell behind with payments made an arrangement with them to pay £500 per month which is £100 extra towards arrears in May, we paid in May ,June and made 400 in July followed by a 100 a week later. No one said anything while we were making this payment that the court forms had been issued. The POC said the agreement was terminated on 8/5/15 - I'm sure we haven't had a termination notice from them. I've AOS'd their claim and intend to defend just so we get to ensure if anything they get a suspended order rather than Take the car. I'm hoping somewhere there is a discrepancy like over this termination notice or in the POC. It states we din' t make payments in April, May and June of £399 we have bank statements showing we paid £500 instead. We've paid over a third but that's confusing too as in the POS our arrears seem to be about £200 because they've included our deposit in payments made under the agreement, total agreement is £15k - we only owe them £14k because we paid a dep to the seller. The arrears are £1000 Can anyone help, I can scan docs in just searching for any paperwork. My oh always spoke to them on phone and we've never had anything about arrangements etc in writing from them. I've asked them to send e confirmation that've have a agreement in place Tia

Dear CAG, I am a UK citizen who is resident in Dubai, UAE. I lost my job a couple of weeks ago and am not having success in finding employment. I have a personal loan for AED 180,000 (around 30k Sterling) and in 10 days, the next payment will default. I am acutely aware of the penalties of this. My security cheque will be bounced criminalising me and making me eligible for a prison term. I have booked a flight back to the Scotland and I am looking for some advice. I have been crawling the web for the last week non-stop to find any case of a UAE bank successfully recovering a debt from a UK citizen when they have returned home. I have recently started emailing UK debt collection agencies under the guise of representing a (non-disclosed) UAE bank to probe their powers in collection but have yet to receive a response that tells me they have any legal jurisdiction. They tell me that they have 'legal rights to pursue' but that just sounds like they are allowed to chase the money, not actually legally recover it through a court. Can anyone confirm this? I know this question has been posted before, but I would like to provide more detail. I am an Emirates NDB customer and they are one of the largest banks out here. Has anybody been in my situation with this bank before? I am fully aware that once I return to the UK, my debt will most likely be sold to a collection agency. Does the UAE bank have any other option to recover the monies? Once the debt is sold, what is the best course of action to get the debt collectors off my case? I will be moving back to my elderly mother and I don't want them turning up making threats. Any advice on this would be hugely appreciated. A worried Scottish gent. JR

Hello All Heres my story, A few months back I sold 4 x Seagate 4tb Hard Disk drives on Ebay at (£110 each). The buyer had these in his possession for just under four weeks then decided to open a returns case as one drive was defective. I didn't discover this at fist for the first few days as I work offshore, soon as I did I agreed to the return as the items were still in warranty. The buyer ignored this and then claimed all disks were faulty the same day as Ebay made a decision on the returns case. I contacted Ebay via webchat (i still have the records) and was advised not to issue a refund until I had the goods back and that they would sent a prepaid sticker. A few days later buyer then registered the prepaid tracking number and instantly Ebay refunded them without any checks. I contacted them again via webchat and asked why they had done this and that its highly suspicious and that I'm concerned I may not get my original items back, They stated if that was the case them contact then immediately with evidence and they will review the refund. Few days later my guess was right, the buyer has returned an ancient Western Digital drive of 320gb capacity. I took pictures straight away of this and sent them to Ebay including pics I took of the drives before dispatch listing serial numbers and being individually wrapped prior to pick up by a courier. Ebay then responds by saying that my claim will not be upheld as the have no way of telling what was returned and they will not review the case despite all the evidence I gave, followed their own procedure and guidelines, done everything I was instructed to done. I have contacted their useless call center who have lied consistently to me advising someone will look into this and when I called today they more or less accused me of engineering the entire ordeal. I also pointed out on their site it states "The buyer must return the item in the same condition in which it was received." only to be told there is no such requirement. So now the buyer has my items and the money and I'm left with a useless old brick. Ebay wont even discuss it anymore. I'm not letting this go, whats the next course of action here.