Hi, Im new here, but needed to find somewhere I can get some advice. I will just put it out there, I have been put on sick leave by my doctor due to depression, which I have never suffered with before. I am a cleaner for a medical centre, 2 months ago as I walked into work, the manger told me to follow her, she walked me into the kitchen, pointed to crumbs on the floor and told me to clean it up then walked out leaving me stood there like a lemon, I had just started work and would of cleaned it when I got to that room, 3 weeks ago, I walked past her again as she was talking to another member of the practice, she cut her conversation short, and shouted to me, that needs cleaning in there, pointing into the staff kitchen, ,the member of staff that was with her at the time, came and apologised to me saying she was embarrassed at the way I was spoken to. Her and I both!! A lot of little things have happened I thought I would arrange a meeting with my supervisor to tell her what had been happening, she told me matter of factly that bullying happens it happens everywhere, I couldnt believe my ears,she also said that I was a scrubber, I told her no i'm a cleaner, she replied saying your a scrubber, we all are in this job, I told her she shouldnt be a supervisor saying these things to me, Since then I have gone on sick leave due to depression, I wrote to my boss explaining what had happened so she could document it, I explained in the letter to her I was unable to go to her work place which is a considerable way from where I live she replied saying, rather than read your email, come to my workplace, she hadnt even bothered reading it it took me a whole day to write down everything that had happened and she just couldnt be bothered. The next I heard off her was her emailing asking to do a home welfare check, I had been on sick leave for just 6 days, I felt like crap and was tearfull all the time, I asked her what a home visit entailed, and also that the email I had written her wasnt a formal grievance it was so she knew what had been going on, I havent heard off her since, even though I handed my notice in last week, I think when she saw I wasnt raising any grievance she thought bugger it, I dont need to keep in touch with her now..it has all left me feeling worthless, I did a good job if I didnt the medical centre wouldnt of been able to open, im just wondering if i should put in a grievance, she is the top boss, she built the business so who do i go to, who can help me if it is her business?

CAN ANYONE WHO READS THIS PLEASE GIVE ME SOME THAT IS CORRECT AND FACTUAL BECAUSE I HAVE TO HAND IN MY DEFENCE FORM AND EVIDENCE TO THE COUNTY COURT TOMORROW. This is something I think everyone should read as it may help you defend a sec 21 and eviction. I will give as much information a possible without it becoming to long to read or confusing. I will refer to the Landlady as She or Her. In August 2017 I moved into a self contained unit in a house that had been converted to 6 flats each with electric meter, bathroom, simple kitchen unit but still classed as a self contained studio. She did not take a deposit to avoid depositing it. Even the kitchen and bathroom had been converted into flats. as it had been done a few months before the other 5 tenants and i had moved in there was a lot to been done yet the landlady still demanded the £800 monthly rent. In addition the electric had been sub metered and we/I were have not been given a top up key or card we had to give Her £10 every Sunday and she would use a disposable prepaid card then tore it up so we could not read what was on it. She was charging us 20p kwh day or night. She put the heating radiators on when it got cold in December and put it on a timer to suit her as she was paying for it. I noticed that the extension at the back had walls that were not straight and all partition walls had no insulation. Heating the place got very expensive costing Me £40 a week. That suited her very well that she gave every tenant an electric blanket for Xmas . All the other tenants praised and thanked her saying she was the best landlord ever. OK I WILL EXPLAIN VERY BRIEFLY By now it was clear that getting them to report her to the council would be futile so I did it myself in January. They told her and she gave me a section 21 as tenancy was 6 months. I read it would be invalid if name was spelt wrong and she put a O instead of A. I had broken my leg badly mid January at work so was off for the next 6 months and being self employed the council now paid my rent. BTW....4 other tenants all on ESA and taking illegal substance paid for by tax payer. I thought council would take action but nope. I lived in a hostile place but they slowly came around to listening to me when I showed them how she was robbing us. It was only 30 June 2018 that a enforcement notice came from the council stating no planning permission and illegal use as flats that has to be rectified within 4 months of the notice. I thought finally they took action even though very late. 11 July an eviction notice is put under my door saying I had to be out on 19 July. Seems she had had a tenant get all important mail so I did not even get the defence form. i text her and asked where all that information was and she just replied i have until 19th. On 18th in went to court with a few photos of the place and n244 to stop eviction and give me a hearing and got one for 20th. On the 19th she came to the house and thought I was out I could hear her shouting to a tenant in room 6 above me as I am 4, asking why he didn't tell her I went to court etc. I ignored them and did my research for hours trying to find something to help as I knew the wrong spelling would not be enough when she tell court a lie that I got all letters from court. I was up all night and went to court for 10am and she was sitting there looking all confident. what I did was to tell the judge that the sec 21 was invalid because the EPC she gave me was not valid as law state every self contained unit must have its own EPC. she must pay me £200 and face a fine of 5000. I went on to say the GAS cert she gave me was also invalid because it has a Beko gas stove test results in the kitchen....OPPS, there is no kitchen in the house or gas stove, I went on to say the law says if she sub meters electricity she can't charge more then what she is paying the supplier and if she did she is to pay me back double plus the bank of England interest rate (needs better explaining I m writing fast as its getting late) she charge 20p and at times was paying 10p. The Judge had to look up everything I said for 30 mins then came back and told her I made my case the sec 21 is cancelled. She did say anyone can say they didn't get the defence form and he explained that when I got the eviction notice I contacted her and took action in taking evidence to court, And that did not make a difference because my EPC evidence is water tight. She kept insisting about the defence form so the judge said he will give me the form and other docs and I should file my defence form in 14 days which is tomorrow. to make things worse she offered me £500 to move out as she needs the property empty to do the work and I turned it down. She turned my electric off this past Monday saying she was changing the meters. Yet I told her I was doing my evidence for court and she kept it off all day. My question is can counter claim and ask for the £920 paid in electric, £200 for epc, my time and expenses gathering evidence and the stress I been through in the past 2 weeks or do I have to file separately in small claim court? I also want the court to award me an amount that will get her to know she is not above the rule or law because she has 12 other tenants living in the same type unit as I and just yesterday she tried to rent flat 1 that got vacated when she gave a sec 21 because he spoke up to her Thank you for your time.

The sign The PCN To my untrained eye I see 2 errors on PCN ,and the relationship of the PCN to the sign. On the PCN the reduced charge amount is obliterated by the miss alignment of the printing , so the driver would not know the correct amount to pay . The sign shows a penalty amount of £90 reduced to £50 for early payment , whereas the PCN shows a penalty amount of £100 reduced to £? Good enough cause for the PCN to be cancelled ? What I have not shown is that as well as above, the phone numbers for enquiry or payment on the sign are totally different to those on the rear of the PCN . The sign is on the outside of the loading bay at The Mall Wood Green , and the alleged parking offence is on a small area just outside of the bay ,obstruction being the “offence “ although nothing or foot way was being obstructed , no observation tine was given , and the alleged offence occurred whilst the driver was getting a permit from his place of work and taking it to the security office

Ofgem's proposals to shake up the energy market put "too much onus" on the customer and "do not go far enough", says one energy company boss. The energy regulator said four million pre-pay customers would be protected by an interim price cap from next April. It added it would work with suppliers to help "disengaged" customers to search for cheaper deals. But First Utility's managing director, Ed Kamm, told the BBC the plans were in danger of helping the wrong people. "Ofgem itself admits that consumers who are already engaged in the market will see the first benefits," he said. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-36961798

Ok to summarise: Received a DVLA fine for not being Insured, and not on the database. Checked my documents (they had me worried!) I am still insured! Yay. Conacted Insurer who assured me I am insured and they would check db to update it. Sent DVLA my appeal which included photocopy of valid insurance, cover letter and info etc. Received a DVLA Letter saying (this is not verbatim): "We checked with the insurer and there is no evidence of insurance, pay us" With angry haste, contacted my insurance company who said "let me investigate" They then got back to me saying that there had been an error on the computer and that my insurance had been cancelled by accident at christmas time (I had paid in full for a year) then gave me a new policy number that covered the year, apologised alot and said that I was insured in that time even though the computer dropped me by accident. Sent a copy of my new insurance cert with policy number and a note explaining the situation to the DVLA appeals address. Received a DVLA letter saying: "Your case has been reconsidered in light of this additional evidence. However you REMAIN LIABLE for the £100 fixed penalty...... The agency will take court action against you." I am still insured... I have an insurance policy covering 12 months. I have photocopies of all the letters. I have audio recordings of all phonecalls with insurers. (old habits die hard) What am I missing ? sine

Hi I’m new to this forum so ‘hello’ & I’d be very grateful for any thoughts that people have. In summary I’m in dispute with a local Estate Agency. I allege that, in July 2014, employees of the agency caused £300 of damage to the bodywork of my car. Initially the agency did not respond to my complaints & requests for compensation. Eventually they contacted me by ‘phone to deny liability and refuse to put their position in writing. I referred the matter to The Property Ombudsman Service (TPOS) who was able to conclude that the agency had failed to respond properly to my complaints, but they were unable to conclude that the agency had caused the damage to my car based on the documentation I provided. At that stage the agency made me an offer (via TPOS) of £150 to settle all aspects of my complaints. To date I’ve not taken-up the offer because it doesn’t cover my losses. So I’m currently deciding what to do next. A few weeks ago I sent a carefully worded ‘Letter Before Action’. The Estate Agency replied (i.e. their first written response to me) to once again deny all liability for the damage caused to my car. They failed to refer to any of the specific points in my letter and simply defended themselves by way of a statement to say their staff are fully security-checked professionals who would never behave in ‘that way’. They also stated that the offer of £150 was purely in relation to their mishandling of my complaint. They also stated that my claim seemed opportunistic. They also stated that they’d be referring the matter to their solicitors. I was intending to make a claim against them which would hopefully proceed through the small claims process. I’ve discussed this course of action with TPOS and with legal advice/advisors via my Trades Union both of whom were broadly supportive based on the evidence I could provide. I’ve already drafted the claim form and was going to submit it last week but then I got cold feet and decided to check whether I’d done enough and got enough evidence to make my case as strong as possible in court. I’ve now used the permitted amount of legal advice I’m entitled to via my Trades Union so am now a bit stuck for further advice. Hence I’m making this post. So, my questions can be condensed thus... 1) Are there any other avenues that I should pursue before proceeding to make a formal claim/court action? I’ve tried to follow pre-action protocol by attempting to settle the matter directly with the defendants and attempted mediation via TPOS. The defendants have had plenty of time to respond fully. I’ve considered arbitration which it seems would be too expensive given the amount I’m claiming for (i.e. £300). The ADR specialists I’ve spoken to have suggested further mediation (at £100 +VAT for 2hrs) but the matter has already been mediated by TPOS without successful resolution and as far as I know I may be offered free mediation by the courts later in the small claims process (which I would happily participate in). I suspect we’re at an impasse that can only be broken by a judgement by someone with authority. 2) Is my case strong enough to present convincingly at a court hearing? I have photographs of the damage to my car. I have a reliable witness (who’s given a witness statement) who saw my car being manhandled roughly by 2 of the Estate Agency workers. The snag is that no one actually saw the damage being done – they’re simply able to say that they witnessed the car being treated in a way that could have definitely caused the damage. Also the Estate Agency have not admitted in writing that they touched my car (although they have done so verbally) – my fear is that in a court hearing they could simply deny ever having touched the car and then it’s the word of my witness against theirs. A bit more info. to put all this in context... I live in a house that’s been divided into flats. One of the flats is let to the aforementioned Estate Agent and they use it to house social tenants temporarily. Back in July 2014 the tenant in this flat was a hoarder who failed to pay his rent and was evicted by the Estate Agent. During the eviction all of the tenant’s hoarded possessions were placed on the driveway of the house alongside my car (which was untaxed, uninsured and SORN at the time). The Estate Agency hired a skip to clear–up the hoarded rubbish. I returned from work one evening to find that my locked car had been dragged from its position on the driveway and left on the side of the road. The skip had been left in its place. There had been no communication with me about this beforehand (although 2 days later one of the agency staff told me that they’d moved my car – I pointed-out the damage which he denied doing – accusing me of lying that it wasn’t there beforehand – I do have some blurry photos taken beforehand which show no signs of damage). So my car had been left untaxed & uninsured on the public road with £300 worth of new dents in the bodywork. I was fuming! I’ve received a fair amount of legal advice about the matter and essentially it seems that all my evidence is circumstantial and any ruling would be on the basis of probabilities. My witness is one of several neighbours in the street who saw my car being manually bounced, pushed & dragged across the road by 2 men working for the Estate Agent’s property management team (at one stage they asked him whether they could borrow a jack from him). I’ve been advised that the photos and the witness statement should be convincing enough for a magistrate. .. but recently I’ve been afraid that the Estate Agent is going to deny that their workers ever touched the car and I’ve actually got no written proof that they did. They’ve tried to blame it on the skip company but there’s no evidence to support this and surely if the skip company were working under the direction of the agency and the agency workers were present when the skip was put into position then the agency are still liable as it was their ‘project’? thanks for reading if you’ve got this far – any informed thoughts or constructive comments would be warmly welcomed! JulianS

Hi Guys, A claim with an employment tribunal has been going through, and on Friday 15th 2016, and agreement was arranged as an out of court settlement to pay a fixed sum of £9,000 by Friday 22nd 2016. I have now been informed that the company is unable to make the payment as it does not have the available funds in the bank. the company is still active, does anybody know what I should be doing to get the funds paid? The agreement was set through ACAS. Thanks Guys

Hello All, I discovered this site at the weekend and spent hours reading the post, its fantastic to see such friendly and helpful people giving each other support and I hope I can get some of that support here I have been going around circles with Vodafone, I have tweeted, called, been into the shop, sent letters, completed the online chat and all I seem to get ist he Vodafone run around, it seems there is no where you can turn for help and support. Even the feedback to the CEO's office that I found on the website returns nothing, the 48 hours that they promise to help has gone! I see that someone called Lee from Vodafone helps on these forums and I have seen the sticky thread about alerting him to a post but I have noticed that the link for the contact form takes you straight to the Vodafone homepage - can anyone help with that or alert Lee to my issue please. Anyone.... I am currently going back and forth with a few letters which I have copied and pasted below which explains the issues. The letters are not a full representation of all the calls and chats I have had with them as there is no amount of time in the world that I could detail every issue but I believe most of this is recorded on my account. LETTER TO VODAFONE JULY 2015 Since the start of my contract I have had numerous issues with coverage on my phone, particularly in relation to 2G, 3G and 4G. I have complained about this previously and have written to you before but I never had a reply, in honesty I didn’t follow this up as I felt I had nowhere to turn after 3 letters were not answered and the call centres didn’t help, so I relied on my Wi-Fi signal but now I have no Wi-Fi I am looking to use my phones more but am still having the same issues. When I took out the 2 contracts I was put on a 4G plan and was told 4G would bei n the area soon but I have never once had a 4G signal unless I was travelling to an area like London. My phones struggle to hold a 3G signal for longer than a few minutes, typically if I can find a 3G signal I will have a weak phone signal but after a few minutes the phone signal shows more bars but the 3G drops to either GPRS or nothing at all. My phone also cannot receive calls, I can be sat at home showing good signal and I get a missed call text message but the phone doesn’t ring. I am sure you will see I have made numerous attempts to get Vodafone to assist me on this however whenever I call or use the online help I get pushed from department to department and I get given information which is later retracted and I am given useless tests or tweaks to my phone which make no difference and are not followed up when I report a tweak has made no difference. I have lost count the number of times I have been told an update is being done on my nearest mast in 24 hours which will solve my issues – only to be told the next time that I call that there is no record of any work. I have adjusted the settings as requested and I have changed the sim card as requested – although I was only able to do this in one of my handsets as I was only sent 1 sim despite being told 2 would be sent. I have also been told a manager will call me back to discuss my complaint in 72 hours on a fee occasions but that never happens and I have also been promised compensation which I have never received. I have also been sent into the shop for help, only to be sent away from them as they told me there’s nothing they can do. The shop staff asked me to use the landline help phone but I was kicked out of the shop after being on the phone for about 30 minutes as they were closing. I have also been “hung up” on 3 times by your staff. I am hopeful the notes on my account show the full details of what has been discussed as I don’t have the time to list everything discussed and I certainly think you wont have the time to read all of that If I did put it. I understand that signal can be tricky at times but the fact I am getting this issue at most locations tells me there is something seriously wrong and I feel these needs to be dealt with urgently, if not I feel we need to come to amutual agreement to allow me to end my contract with you. I would therefore appreciate it if you could answer the following questions for me Why am I being charged a 4G plan and why was I allowed to join a 4G plan almost 18 months ago when there Is still no 4G in my area? Why am I not able to receive a 3G signal? Why are your staff giving me conflicting information? Why has this issue gone unresolved for so long? Why have I not been compensated for this? Why has my previous complaints not been followed up? Why do you feel you can charge me for a service you are not providing? I look forward to hearing from you within 5 days at outlined in your complaints procedure REPLY FROM VODAFONE (let me remind you I wrote this letter and they wrote a reply in the post) Dear Mr White Thank youfor writing to Vodafone I apologise for the inconvenience caused to you I understand your facing network issues at your place and we apologise for this inconvenience. I checked our terms of conditions for cancellation of your contract due to failure of services as mentioned in your email clause 11 of the pay monthly airtime conditions does give you the right to end this agreement by writing to us ift here is a complete failure of the network for seven days in a row due to something we have done. I have checked the network at your location and found that the 4G network is available at postcode only. We always try to give you the services when and where you want them however due to the nature of mobile communication technology it's impossible to provide a fault free service. This technical fault which happened due to the failure of a local mast in your location is not something we have done intentionally to interrupt your services.Further more the fault has already been acknowledged and our engineers are already working on this issue to resolve it as soon as possible and ensure that the 2G services I was stored as soon as possible. We also understand that you did face inconvenience in terms of availability of our network services. Considering the same I would like to offer you to credit 50% of line rental for one month including VAT. If you wish to accept this offer please reply to this email with your confirmation and we will apply this credit on your account. I trust the above information helps please write back if you have further query Regards Jigish Vyas Vodafone customer services MY REPLY TO VODAFONES REPLY (I have also sent this to the CEOS office) Thank you for your reply of 18th July, a copy of which is enclosed I am somewhat disappointed with the reply received, and I am afraid some parts do not make sense, therefore I would like some further clarification. Paragraph 3 states “I have checked the network at your location and found the4 G network is available at postcode only” can you clarify what this means?,especially as I have outlined on numerous complaint calls that this issues is happening in more than one location. I have given at least 5 different postcodes where this is happening. Paragraph 4, In relation to the technical fault on the local mast I have been given continuous conflicting information on this, I have been advised 3 times previously that this fault will be sorted within hours or the following day. On other occasions I am told there is no fault at all, and we are referring to more than 1 mast here as this issue is happening in more than 1 location. Can you clarify and advise when this issue will be sorted. Paragraph 5, your letter continually refers to our communication being via email which It is not and that I need to reply to this email to accept your compensation offer. I am prepared to accept the 50% line rental for both handsets on my account and I would appreciate you confirming the compensation will be applied to both accounts. I am only accepting this compensation as a good will gesture for some of the faults I have experienced so far – I am not accepting this as a closure of this matter and the issue still persists. I feel that the issues I am having warrants cancelling both of the contracts and I would like this actioned, however if you are not prepared to do this I would like you to consider offering me a cheaper line rental of about £25 amonth for both handsets/numbers so I can use this money to pay another network to provide me the services you should be providing me. I have also asked a number of questions in my first letter and you have failed to answer any of these, I have enclosed a copy of these and I would appreciate a response or a reason why you are not answering these queries? Finally as I feel you are not taking appropriate action in dealing with this matter I have forwarded details of our complaint to the Ombudsman and I would appreciate a “deadlock letter” if you are not willing to either cancel my contract or reduce the line rental as outlined above. I look forward to hearing from you within 5 days at outlined in your complaints procedure in relation to the above Yours sincerely

Hello, I am moving out of a flat on the 14th November and am I currently on a 6 month fixed term tenancy. I phoned the LL on the 16th october just to let them know we would not be renewing the contract this time they did ask to do this in writing but this was not done as we received a letter from the LL accepting we would not be renewing. Two days ago they put a note in the letter box Following a telephone conversation regarding ending your contract with us, please be aware we have received no written notice. Therefore you will be liable for rental payments covering your 30 days notice period even if you vacate. This is an email conversation after receiving the message. Hi, I have received a note from you yesterday trying to say we have not given you 30 days notice to vacate apartment. I think you are getting a little confused as I am on a fixed term tenancy and not a periodic tenancy. NO notice need to be given to end a fixed term tenancy (as this is what fixed term means). I did phone you to let you know I was leaving as a gesture of good will. I have also got a letter from yourself accepting that I will be leaving. As I told you on the phone I will be leaving on or before the 14th on November. If you need more info on this maybe I can point you to what the OFT has to say about notice periods on Fixed term Tenancy Agreements please see bellow. Susan https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/284440/oft356.pdf Notice not required for fixed term agreements 3.78 A tenant is not required to give notice to bring the tenancy to an end at the end of the fixed term. That is because a fixed term agreement comes to an end at the end of the fixed term, and no periodic tenancy will arise if the tenant then leaves. We appreciate that landlords will want to ensure that their properties are not left empty between tenancies, but object to terms that impose a contractual obligation on the tenant to give notice in order for the tenancy to be terminated at the end of the fixed term. This could allow the landlord to impose a substantial financial penalty on tenants who do not realise that notice is not required, by requiring them to pay rent for a period after the end of the fixed term. Terms such as this are not necessary to protect landlords from the possibility that their property will be left empty, as the law allows landlords to recover possession at the end of the fixed term by serving at least two months' notice, and they could do so where their current tenant fails to indicate when asked whether they intend to stay on. The landlord and tenant could of course still agree to a renewal of the tenancy even after such notice was served. Their reply. Can I draw your attention to the points in your signed agreement: 8.1. In order to terminate this tenancy at the expiry of the fixed term, the tenant(s) named in clause 1.5 must give at least one months' written notice to the landlord prior to the contractual date of this tenancy agreement. If the rental is extended beyond its fixed term and becomes a periodic tenancy, the tenant(s) will be required to provide one months' written notice prior to the contractual date in order to bring the periodic tenancy to an end. I do agree you called and spoke to me that your intentions were to vacate, however I informed you that we must receive this notice in writing, which you have failed to provide. I can take this email as your notice to leave but you will be liable to make rental payments up to 5th December. (30days from this notice). My Reply. Hi Thank you for your email. Again I will tell you that I will be leaving the apartment on or before the 14th of November as good will gesture. The contract term you have given is unfair and unenforceable. If you pursue this matter any further then I will have no alternative to report this to the Office of Fair Trading. Any attempt to take any money will be defended using the UK court system. I advise you to seek legal advise before you reply to this email. Susan. Their Reply. Today at 11:43 AM Once again as per the contractual agreement you have signed with us you must provide WRITTEN notice to vacate. We have sent you a number of letters and emails which we can provide as evidence to show you have failed to provide the written notice. Should you fail to make the notice period rental payment we will retain from your bond. The amount for your records will be - £440.00 (£600 rent / 30days in month = £20per day. £20 x 22days (14/11/14-5/12/14) = £440). I have also enclosed your contract which is signed, and all the letters and emails sent to you regarding written notice. For all we knew you could have changed your circumstances and wished to stay in the apartment. Should you disagree you will have to dispute the matter with the company where your bond is held (My Deposits) this will have to be done following a check out appointment. Can anyone advise on how I should now proceed with this.

Hi all, Some help/advise please? In may I was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis and kept my employer informed all the way - was assured that "everything would be done to support me" - long story short, I'm now out of work. I claimed ESA as I'm not fit for work right now but was turned down because of I didn't have enough NIC's. So I literally have no money (not eligible for income based as my other half works and "we'll have too much money" - HA! That's a laugh). Is there anything I can do for myself to get some money from the Government? Is there any exceptions that people know of? HELP!

THESE ARE ACTUAL COMPLAINTS RECEIVED BY “THOMAS COOK VACATIONS FROM DISSATISFIED CUSTOMERS”: [Take the above with a pinch of salt as this came in an email] 1. “I think it should be explained in the brochure that the local convenience store does not sell proper biscuits like custard creams or ginger nuts.” 2. “It’s lazy of the local shopkeepers in Puerto Vallarta to close in the afternoons. I often needed to buy things during ‘siesta’ time — this should be banned.” 3. “On my holiday to Goa in India , I was disgusted to find that almost every restaurant served curry. I don’t like spicy food.” I’ll book it but only if I can screen my fellow travelers first. (image via Thomas Cook) 4. “We booked an excursion to a water park but no-one told us we had to bring our own swimsuits and towels. We assumed it would be included in the price.” 5. “The beach was too sandy. We had to clean everything when we returned to our room.” 6. “We found the sand was not like the sand in the brochure. Your brochure shows the sand as white but it was more yellow.” 7. “They should not allow topless sunbathing on the beach. It was very distracting for my husband who just wanted to relax.” 8. “No-one told us there would be fish in the water. The children were scared.” 9. “Although the brochure said that there was a fully equipped kitchen, there was no egg-slicer in the drawers.” 10. “We went on holiday to Spain and had a problem with the taxi drivers as they were all Spanish.” 11. “The roads were uneven and bumpy, so we could not read the local guide book during the bus ride to the resort. Because of this, we were unaware of many things that would have made our holiday more fun.” 12. “It took us nine hours to fly home from Jamaica to England. It took the Americans only three hours to get home. This seems unfair.” 13. “I compared the size of our one-bedroom suite to our friends’ three-bedroom and ours was significantly smaller.” 14. “The brochure stated: ‘No hairdressers at the resort’. We’re trainee hairdressers and we think they knew and made us wait longer for service.” 15. “There were too many Spanish people there. The receptionist spoke Spanish, the food was Spanish. No one told us that there would be so many foreigners.” 16. “We had to line up outside to catch the boat and there was no air-conditioning.” 17. “It is your duty as a tour operator to advise us of noisy or unruly guests before we travel.” 18. “I was bitten by a mosquito. The brochure did not mention mosquitoes.” 19. “My fiance and I requested twin-beds when we booked, but instead we were placed in a room with a king bed. We now hold you responsible and want to be re-reimbursed for the fact that I became pregnant. This would not have happened if you had put us in the room that we booked.”

Hello, I am after some advice for an issue I have with Virgin Mobile. August last year I cancelled my contract at the end of term. I called the one month before the contract renewal date to tell them I did not want my contract to renew. I was told that everything would be cut off at the end of August and I wouldn’t receive any further charges against this contract. In the December of 2012, I was going back through my bank statements and I noticed that the monthly charges for the mobile had continued. I contactedVirgin to get this resolved. I received a quick reply and apology and I wastold that the money wrongly debited form my account would be paid back to me. I never saw this money go into my account I sent another complaint tovirgin telling them that the money owed to me was not paid back. Weeks later Ireceived a phone call. The chap apologised, blaming computer issues blah blahblah... I was told that the money would be put into my account within a week. Ichecked my bank and I have discovered they have only paid back £15 which is aquarter of the amount they owe me. Please can someone tell me what my next step should be? Are they in any wayin breach of the contract? Will I need to complain to CISAS? What type ofresponse shall I expect to get from Virgin for their failure to give me backwhat they owe? Will they offer a gesture of good will? On another note, before I noticed that there was this problem with myoriginal contract, I started a new contract with virgin to take advantage of adeal that I had seen. Any help or pointers will be greatly appreciated.

Article in today's Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/jul/22/disabled-benefits-claimants-test-atos

Hi, I will try to keep my emotions out of this as much as possible, and try to break it down as easy as possible. [Please note that I do apologise for the length of this thread, I wasn't expecting it to turn out this long.] On the 26th of December 2012 I found what I thought to be a lovely 2004 Jeep for sale on Autotrader by a trader. It was advertised as having 34,000 miles and whilst speaking over the phone was stated that it was recently serviced by them and only had 2 owners from new, the second owner trading it back to them just a couple of weeks ago. I was at no point given any indication that anything was wrong with the vehicle and was told that it was an excellent Jeep. The Jeep was located in Belfast Northern Ireland, 450 miles away from London. The initial idea was to fly down there and collect the vehicle and drive back. As I was paying the deposit over the phone the trader suggested of a transport company he uses regularly and that they can have the vehicle shipped to me for only £250, on top of which would he would include 12 months M.O.T in the price. I was thrilled that I will be saving some money, a lot of time and that it would be coming with a years M.O.T so I agreed to this. It was agreed that I would take delivery of the vehicle within 7 days but took roughly 2 weeks to arrive. On the 5th of January I sold my own personal car that I listed for sale the day after I paid for the Jeep, under the assumption I would have received the Jeep by then. It was delivered much later then agreed but as I stated above I was not too concerned of the delay. On the 10th of January I took delivery of the Jeep 5 miles outside of London at a service station. The first thing I noticed was the two flat front tyres and some relatively noticeable body damage (front wing was pushed in above the headlight and some shoddy bumper repairs, but once again, I was not that concerned.) As I was taking the keys from the delivery driver, he stated that the handbrake was snapped. I was extremely surprised, but once again, I was not THAT concerned about it right there. I drove it into the petrol station carefully not to damage the tyres/rim and filled up the tyre pressure to the manufacturers recommendation. After trying to figure out how to open the filler cap to get some fuel in, I set out on my way home, around 25 miles into London. This is where it all gets 'very' interesting. OK, in order or problems: 1) Front Tyres, Cosmetic Damage & Handbrake. Already covered above. Oh, and it only came with one key & fob. How useful. 2) When joining the motorway the Jeep pulled to the left harshly, I assumed at the time this was an alignment issue and was once again, not overly concerned at this point. I held the wheel at a slight angle to keep it straight. 3) The power steering became non-existent and got very heavy when steering left or right with a terrible whining sound from the pump to go along with it (the tyres were inflated to correct level.) 4) The rear of the vehicle (chassis or axle) wobbled left and right scarily after going over speed humps or after turning a corner and straightening up. At first I thought the wheels where loose so got out to check the nuts and bolts etc, but all was fine. 5) When turning left or right slowly, or when trying to park - I could hear/feel a very harsh grinding sound and a throbbing effect from the differentials or the transfer case. This became evident when I tried to pull over into Asda on the way back to check the tyre pressure. At this point I was really beginning to worry. 6) As I got back into the car after checking the tyres, there was a terrible continuous "clunking" sound coming from the left side of the dashboard with the car turned off. It sounded like metal was stretching to its limits and smashing into something. It is a very odd sound and very difficult to explain. It would begin around 2 minutes after the engine turned off. I wasn't sure what to think of this and was beginning to get seriously worried. 7) Another thing to note was the idle of the Jeep would "hunt" between 500-600rpms with no means of stopping. This would happen when in Park / Neutral. 8) After all of this I managed to get home at 11pm, when I did I got into the passenger side to see where the clunking sound was coming from and as I did, I realized the left side footwell was soaked in water! I felt around to see if I can spot where it was coming from but there was no trace. Now I was beginning to get REALLY annoyed. 9) I decided to pop the bonnet to check the power steering fluid only to find out the bonnet struts where knackered and wouldn't hold up the bonnet. I had to use a plank of wood to do the job. I checked the PS fluid and everything seemed normal. There are other small issues here and there, but for the sake of getting to the point we'll skip these. The following day I returned to the vehicle with a camera to record the faults as much as I could and to check the damp etc. I put the key into the ignition to take a picture of the mileage as it was advertised as 34,000 miles but I received it with 35,000 miles. This was for the record and I was not bothered with it. I jumped out of the car to check the tyre pressure and as I turned to get back into the vehicle the doors where locked! With the only bloody key in the ignition! After 6 hours and a AA call later (£120 pounds!) I got the door open and retrieved the key. Apparently the auto lock feature locked the doors after the driver door was closed for a X amount of seconds. Pfft! Anyways, I recorded all the faults as much as I could, with the exception of the vehicle pulling to the left and the vehicle wobbling. I recorded the grinding sounds from the diffs, the clunking sound, the damp footwell, the flat tyres, the busted handbrake and the busted bonnet struts, etc. By now I believe it was the weekend and the trader was closed so the following Monday I gave him a ring to explain that there are some several serious safety concerns with the Jeep and wanted his opinion on what to do next. He explicitly stated that the vehicle had passed an M.O.T just moments before it was driven onto the transport truck and that in Northern Ireland all vehicles are mechanically checked unlike here in the England and these problems would have become obvious. After a few days of going back and forth he offered to have the vehicle collected from London at his own expense, this was in writing (email) and verbally. At this point he was very understanding and kind towards me and I was really sympathetic towards him. After 10 days and 2 failed collections later, it was finally collected to be taken back to Belfast and be inspected by his engineer and also bring it back to the M.O.T centre as the M.O.T centre manager was just as concerned as I was. During this time I did a bit of Googling only to find out that every single thing wrong with the car was a common problem with these Jeeps. The wobble from the car is also nicknamed "Death Wobble." After 3 weeks had passed (February) I got inpatient of waiting and called up to find out the outcome of the inspection (11th feb) only to be told that he had just received the vehicle the previous Thursday (7th feb) and that he had booked it in with an engineer the following Wednesday (13th feb) and that he would get back to me on Wednesday. Well, an entire week had passed (20th feb) and I had no response from him so I emailed him and asked him to keep me updated as I was getting extremely desperate for a vehicle as I have been without one for well over a month. He emailed me back the same day letting me know that the engineer had finished his inspection and he is awaiting his report. This annoyed me somewhat as I couldn't see what was taking so long. After waiting another 3 days I sent him email (23rd Feb) to point out to him how long ago the engineer had completed the inspection and what seemed to have been the hold up, as I still hadn't heard anything back from him. I pointed out to him that I would be going abroad in March and would be driving across Europe to Italy and at this rate I may end up having to purchase another vehicle. I also expressed my need for a vehicle and that it was causing me serious inconvenience and hardship for being left without one for almost 2 months. Once again, I was really sympathetic and was not being rude or demanding or setting any deadlines etc. I asked for a simple breakdown of how long it would take for the engineer to finish his inspection, when the repairs would be carried out and when the vehicle be shipped back to me. 5 days after this email (28th Feb) I received a reply from him stating that he did not want to contact me until the repairs where carried out. He attached his reply into word document along with the engineers report, and to my extreme horror in his letter he stated that nothing was wrong with the vehicle aside from the two front tyres being punctured and that the rear right tyre had sustained damage to the inner wall and all faulty tyres were replaced "out of good will" as he was not obliged to have done so. He also said that the handbrake was not of his doing but he fixed this too. On top of this (and this is where it got really distressing for me) he said in order for him to release the vehicle to me I should pay him £250 for the cost of having the vehicle shipped to him, £170 for an engineers report and another £250 to have the vehicle shipped back to me, a total of £670! He went onto say that 'we' both knew these costs where avoidable. I will ignore the allegation regarding lying about the faults. He also pointed out that I purchased the vehicle without prior inspection / viewing, and that the vehicle has now turned over 9 years and problems are to be expected from a 9 year old vehicle. Appalled at this, I immediately emailed him back (28th Feb) with a detailed explanation to each and every problem, what causes these problems and how it was impossible for none of the faults to have been found or detected by the engineer, and that a simple test drive would reveal all. I ended the email with the following statement: This email was sent to him on the 28th of February, it is now the 11th of March and I have still not received a reply from him and as the title suggests... ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! I phoned trading standards but they where not useful at all. I am at the verge of crying and worried sick I have been ripped off and left without a vehicle. The worse part of all of this is, I will be moving aboard on the 7th of April (yes, moving, not going on holiday) and I am completely lost in what to do. I don't believe I am left with any time. I need to set a deadline, but have no idea how to word it. I want it to be done right so I can get this over with once and for all and put this disturbing nightmare behind me. I have been extremely patient all throughout but this has seriously gone over the top. I am willing to pay a fee via PayPal to anyone who can help me word a deadline letter to email him for the last time. I am really distressed by all of this, and am seriously lost. You guys wouldn't want to know the hardship all of this has caused me and my sanity. The stress of never seeing the money again, being ripped off, blanked, insulted, taken for a fool and being blanked some more. The added stress of also knowing I will be moving on the 7th of April is earth shattering and I have no where left to turn. I have tried trading standards but they did not help. Please, all the help I can get in the next few weeks is greatly appreciated. I am beginning to get restless and fairly stressful nights over this. Thanks for everyone who managed to read through all of this. I really do, to the bottom of my heart, appreciate it!

I am 22 and i started my job last July and was generally quite productive getting 4, 5 or maybe more cases done per day. My supervisor who had started a month before me and wasn't the supervisor from the beginning took a dislike to me. He would try to find mistakes and then tell me i was making too many (when i had my cases checked by other members of staff i never had as many mistakes). I was off ill for 3 weeks from september into october 2012 having been in hospital and having surgery so when i started back after that i took a bit of time to get back into the swing of things but again i would generally reach my target of four cases and maybe sometimes be slightly under at 3. My supervisor pulled me aside in october to tell me that he wasnt happy with my attitude saying i was too sarcastic even though he and the rest of the team were exactly the same so i felt singled out he also said i wasnt working as hard as he would like even though i was reaching my targets. I then took ill again in january and was in hospital again and off for two and a half weeks (with a doctors note.) when i returned to work this month i had a doctors note saying my painkillers will affect my concentration so i may not work as fast as before. Less than a week after i came back i came home to a letter telling me to come to a meeting to dicuss "issues affecting my overall performance" and that a possible outcome of the meeting would be termination of my employment. The meeting was last Thursday (21/02/13). I was told at the meeting that i wasnt working fast enough, i was making way too many mistakes for having been there 8 months etc. I was then told that i had been spoken to on two occasions about this (october which i remember, and january which i dont remember so i dont believe i was spoken to in january) On no occasion was i made aware that i was being given any official warnings or any written warnings, i was not given the opportunity to retrain and i was not given any trial periods or action plans. i was therefore not given the chance to try and better my performance. I believe however that they were using performance as an excuse to get rid of me due to my supervisors dislike of me and my 2 long absences due to ill health but they thought they would get away with getting rid of me on the bassis of performance. What i would like to know is do you think bringing up these reastons at my appear will be enough to clear my name? I do not want the job back as it was a joke and my supervisor made me dread every day but i just want to not have "dismissed" on my record as that makes finding a new job much more difficult. I know i can't use unfair dismissal as i wasn't there 2 years but i just want my name cleared. Sorry for the big long story and thanks in advance for your help

Hi everyone, Me and my partner are members of DW fitness. We have been members for over 6 months now on student memberships. We have not been there to work out since July! We have been to swim a few times though. My partner got a job that gives him crazy hours so we hardly get to go. We have 2 kids so can't go whenever he isn't working. The gym is also an hour away so we don't get to go much anymore. Because it is quite far, we can't easily go and cancel in person. If I was to write a letter to them stating my membership number, and all the details I can think to give them would this be enough? Would I be fine to cancel my direct debit after I send the letter? I know I have to give a months notice so I won't cancel the direct debit until the November payment has been taken out. I would prefer to cancel by email as I will have more proof it's been sent if they try and deny it but I can't find anywhere to do this.

i understand the nations problem with weight and how to lose it, but what about those that need help gaining it? weight is a sensitive issue in that it makes one become self conscious just by a mention of the word. i believe alot more needs to be done on raising awareness for people suffering on both ends of the scale. i, for one have realized and accepted i will never look like the bloke on tv, nor who i want to (which is surprisingly like the bloke on tv), but where do i go from here? tips on how to gain weight are most welcome.

Hi, I am currently in repayment plans with a few different payday loan lenders and i am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel as i have already paid 4 off. However payday express that i am in a repayment plan with has decided to register a default on my credit file and thanks to them my score is a big fat 0!! (I'm probably the only person to have such a low score!) I have never made a late payment to them or anything but because i'm in a repayment plan they have said that they have the right to register a default as the loan has not been paid back within 90 days. The funny thing about it all is, is the amount they have defaulted me on is for £20 which i find to be an absolute joke! This will obviously ruin my chances of ever getting credit in the next 6 years! Is there anything at all i can do? I also am in arrangements with safeloans (paid off yesterday) and lending stream and they have also registered late payments against me. Please help

Hi I'm new to this forum ,iv read lots of posts on here similar to mine and the advice and support on here is brilliant so i thought id post and hopefully some one can help me. My husband left me feb 2011 so i started claiming tax credits,based on i worked 19 hours a week and have 3 children. He moved into his parents and just paid board to his mum(cash) He continued to pay mortgage,insurance,sky and council tax here instead of maintenance. So i paid every thing else which comes with running a house 3 kids and a dog(poorly dog with heavy vets bills) I asked and asked him to change his address and the only things he changed were hmrc for his tax and his doctors,every thing else remained the same(foolishly i know) But our marriage had become a friendship so it was fairly amicable and i guess i just got fed up asking and i got on with running the house,working and dealing with the kids. Now i have had the dreaded letter naming my ex as living here and asking why i did not make a joint claim 2011-2012. I have spoken to the review lady and pleaded my case,gas and electric bills are in my name but they are key and card and so even though i buy these each month it is usually cash and so i can't prove i pay them,other bills such as tv license i can prove as that is direct debit.Basically because i would draw out a set amount each month and then pay every thing for the month with the money i can not prove i have paid these things.Im talking about gas,electric,petrol,food,bus fares, lunch monies,kids needs,maintenance of the house etc.... so even if i provide bank statements it would only show a set amount being drawn out each month and i guess in there eyes that money could be going any where even though it always paid bills, food etcshe wasn't having any of it and so said she was going to stop my money.She was saying i was financially dependant on my ex (which i disagree,if he had paid maintenance i would have paid the mortgage with it so does it matter who pays it?)Some how i managed to talk to her manager and basically his version of it was my ex was not seen to be financially linked to the alternate address i had given them for him. And as he only paid board with cash i see their point.This financial link rule is in the claiants manual which is only available to them and not us,this is what the manager told me....hardly seems fair! So i have to prove he hasn't been here even though financially to them i know what it looks like. My argument is they have to provide clear guidance in the forms and leaflets that they publish for us to read and follow,so why are they allowed to have this rule and lots of other rules they can see but we can not and so we have no idea if we are following them or not?As far as i was aware i was within the criteria for a single claim,if i had been made aware that having my ex still financial linked to the property would have such dramatic affects on my claim then i would have dealt with it accordingly and so now wouldn't be in the situation where I'm having to appeal and prove i have been single. My ex has given me his tax letters through out the year and half he has been at his mums address, i have a gp survey that was sent to him at his mums address and these are only the physical proof i have. My ex became very depressed and was under the doctor for this and I'm so desperate should i ask him to get a copy of any medical notes that may state about our split causing his depression? this is where i get really desperate....my ex had a vasectomy years ago, when we split i requested i be sterilised on the grounds i was now no longer with my husband and still did not want more children, i was sterilised may 2011 and I'm sure in my notes it should give my reasons for wanting the op so should i request a copy of my notes? will tax credits accept any of these? I totally get where tc are coming form and i actually think they have found a good way of sifting out the people that knowing make a fraudulent claim,what i disagree with is those like me that was totally un aware that having my ex linked or not linked to either address would cause me to be put in to such a gut wrenching position. A surprising silver lining to my dark cloud is my ex has told me he did not want to deal with the split and so buried his head and this is his reason for not changing his address, because of this ordeal he has been forced to deal with this mess and he has opened up to me and now after a year and a half he wants to see if we can salvage our marriage back.So as you can imagine i am all over the place right now. And i guess this would need to be in a different thread on a different forum. But what i need to ask is if i decide to try and work my marriage will us getting back together affect my appeal? I have a meeting with CAB and i am also in the process of getting my MP on board, because this is money i have been entitled to and the only reason i did not know my situation could be seen as wrong is because tax credits do no freely offer all of the rules, i have followed the rules and criteria i can see but if you can't see it in black and white and you have not been told that it is there then how are you expected to follow it? hope iv not confused any one reading this its quite hard getting all the facts in without writting an essay!

hello all!! i got into a payment plan with these guys and paid nearly £600 for a £300 loan a year back. i think they have had more than they deserve and now i want them to stop harassing me. is there a sample letter i can send telling them i have paid them the loan principle plus a months interest and wont be paying them any more? maybe citing the fsa regulations? your help would be appreciated. thanks

Speaker John Bercow spending taxpayers money like confetti http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2176420/Speaker-Bercow-spends-1-320-new-shower-screen-taxpayer-funded-Commons-flat.html This beggars belief, people get imprisoned for not being able to pay the fine for not having a TV licence and he gets his paid for! What, so he can't afford one then? Or is a TV a necessary tool of the job? I don't think so. Why should these people in high places who don't actually do anything resembling a proper job but get paid huge salaries with untold perks be special cases? They rub it in our faces day in, day out, it's one rule for them, another for the rest of the country. We need a bloody revolution in this country, they won't listen so make the feel, the hard way. Never mind welfare reform, the country would save much more money by culling the expenses and stupid salaries of these greedy sloths.