Why oh why did I decide to take the mobile service with Utility Warehouse? My Samsung4 broke after 2 months and a five month saga began of unsent couriers, charging me for the courier, sending my phone back still broken and to cap it all, chairing me £402 for a loan phone that they said hadn't been returned even though it had been picked up by a courier. I called UW that said yes, they had received phone and to tear up the letter. Hey presto, £402 appears on my bill. After calling and writing, I receive a call to say after so many issues, I would receive a substantial goodwill gesture. Email arrives, yes, you guessed it, the goodwill gesture was the £402 I didn't owe them anyway. I email them that's just hilarious and farcical. Bill arrived and what's on it, £402. Sitting there proudly. No goodwill gesture, no, just an attempt to steal from me. I have contacted my bank and told them to stop any payments to UW and also block any attempt from them to take money from my debit card (as they will!). Without the £402, UW owes me a substantial amount of money that we are going around in circles about. Their customer service is hopeless and don't believe for one minute that your distributor can help, they can't. I'm going to apply for the PAC code, gt a phone elsewhere and tell UW to sue me for the money. I'm trying to run a business and they have wasted far too much of my time. If anyone has any other suggestions, I would love to hear them!

Ah it has come to the time that i along with 3 other colleagues have had to take our company to an employment tribunal. Let me give you some background details first. I work For a company that provides security for holiday camps, march through november. i started last march finished november then restarted in march, and have jsut finished again now. I will resume my position next march. On avg i work 45 hrs a week. I didnt have to apply for my job i got it because of who i am. I have never received the following which is why im taking them to tribunal: No particulars of employment (despite a written request) Infrequent payslips - year 1 i received none at all, yea 2 ive received 4/5 altogether Not received a p60 - nor a p45 (when questioned the director stated he did not know our employment status, however we must be seasonal as we receive a p45) No holiday pay for year 1 or year 2 ( when questioned the director said it was 'rolled up' which i know to be unlawful as its not described on the few payslips we have - and as no particular of employment its not on there, and certainly wasnt verbally agreed) We work in a loud environment, and i have developed tinitus, they have not provided any hearing protection It clearly states on their website they provide training, and uniform including safety equipment - yet none has been provided and ive had to purchase everything myself No sick pay, not even SSP - nor info on how to claim and ive had to take off several days throughout my employment without pay. Often i work late in the night especially when writing reports of the nights incidents- we get no health check info at all. I was promoted this year, ive had to interview, hire and fire people with zero training. Instead to ensure i comply with the law i have had to study employment law without pay. NO Training at all with this job, despite it saying on their website its provided!! please note i have also had to educate and train my manager who is also a claimant. We have enver filled out a Working time directive opt out form - i worked for 7 weeks solid without a day off as there was no-one to cover shifts. I got my promotion appx apr 16th, was told my pay increase would happen in 4-6weeks. it took more like 11 weeks, and only because i persistently text messaged the director. It was back dated to august 1st. I must point out at this stage that we asked the director and area manager for extra men none were provided; we asked for meetings they never happened. We have only seen Now, I filled out the ET1 and the case has been accepted, and im waiting on their response. I have spoken to ACAS and they have said i should write an Schedule of loss. I know theres alot of claims here so how do i go about it. I think on average i work appx 40-45hrs/week. How does my case stand up - i cant find anything similar through online searchs? Also how do i begin to write up a schedule of loss for these claims? what kind of money should i be requesting? any help would be greatly appreciated. NB/EDIT = I am also thinking about legal representation who would be the best to speak to regarding this problem - ACAS says i can still appoint a rep - there are 3 other people attached to my claim - would my rep, cover them too?

Hi I am currently a student studying in Manchester for university, however prior to this I was due to study in Plymouth and had signed a housing contract with a letting agency for accommodation. However upon arrival I found the household to be below standard of a property that had been 'refurbished' with other issues such as leaving doors open in the house due to the threat of damp and mold. So in this situation i contacted the agency to inform them that i would be returning to Manchester and that I would return the next week to hand back the keys (whilst also still under contract to pay the rent until the room was relet) and that it was confirmed that any possessions i left in my room would remain untouched upon my arrival to pick them up at the next weekend. However a week later I arrived back at the house to find my room had been entered and left unlocked with possessions such as my tripod and camera equipment having vanished since my last duration in the room. I was told by one of the flatmates that the landlord had gained access to my room which to me triggers a breach of contract as I wasn't given 24 hours notice as detailed in the contract and as a consequence of this I have now lost valuable items for my photography course at university. I'm wondering which course of decision to make.

Last year I and 7 friends rented a house together. We were all students during the term of the tenancy. We had no problems at all until about a week ago, when the landlord got back in touch regarding our deposits. He proposed some very large (frankly ridiculous) deductions. So I began to investigate our rights. (I can go into more detail about these charges if need be, but I thought I should ask about Tenant Deposit Protection Schemes first). I replied to this, asking him which TDP scheme he had used. The landlord informed me he had not used a TDP and was not legally required to do so, as the tenancy value was above £25,000. However, on the directgov website it says, "If your tenants are students, you must protect their deposits using a TDP scheme if: they have an assured shorthold tenancy you received their full deposits on or after April 6 2007" I had a copy of the contract sent to me, and it says our contract is an Assured Shorthold Tenancy (AST). It also says, "You have to pay a deposit . . . and the deposit will be protected in a Governement Deposit Protection Scheme." Does this mean that the landlord was legally obliged to use a TDS because we were all students, even though the tenancy value was above £25,000? If not, he is still clearly in breach of the contract, but I don't know what the implications of this are. Could we take him to court over this to try and get our deposits back? Any help with this would be HUGELY appreciated. Thanks.