Court bans mobility equipment boss for 6 years - Churchills Homecare READ MORE HERE: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/court-bans-mobility-equipment-boss-for-6-years

Prison officer safety equipment rolled out - PAVA incapacitant spray READ MORE HERE: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/prison-officer-safety-equipment-rolled-out

Hi all. Please could anybody give advice. I am having financial problems and decided to cancel my BT phone, internet and tv and switch to Talk Talk to save £25 a month. My BT account contract is up start of October so I set up my new account to start in September. BT want paying for the part month which is fair but also want to charge me £65 for Broadband equipment and £24 for TV equipment which seems unfair. Is this right? I'm doing my best to reduce my spending and that feels like a kick in the teeth. Thanks in advance

VM are trying to charge me £40 for an unreturned router. I moved house and they sent me the packaging to return it two weeks after I moved out. The router is probably still in my old place. They are insisting that I go back, find it and send it to them or I will be charged the £40. I'm reading stories on this forum of people being chased by debt collectors and credit scores being affected. I'm scared of this. Should I just pay the £40?

Hi I recently came in to possession of a photography light, through my works. It was broken so they let me have it. I assumed the repairers my company uses was overly priced without really knowing or trying them first. The problem occurred when I called upon another photographic retailer who also offers repairs. Again assuming it would be cheaper than where I work. Broken photography equipment is something I am familiar with and although my store does not actually fix anything we send it off to our sister company that completes our repairs and is quite well regarded in the industry. Part of our process involves us informing customers there is a charge for the estimate prior to the actual repair. This camera shop I took my light to, neglected to tell me there would be any estimate costs. Optimistically expecting a saving I was shocked to discover the repair was not only pricey but in addition almost 4 times as expensive to have my light inspected to get an estimate. As nothing was mentioned about the estimate cost initially and I have no paper contract. What would you say my consumer rights are?

My broadband contract with BT was recently about to end. I called them and asked when my broadband contract would end and i was told 2nd Nov. I arranged for Plusnet to take over my broadband. I made the changeover day on the 3rd Nov and so that is one extra day. Now i have my final bill from BT, i cancelled my DD so the bill has not been paid. It lists a charge for £65 and it says it is a charge because i left BT within the 12 months, so they charge £65 for the equipment because i did not fulfil my contract. I thought i did the right thing by making my change 1 day after my contract end date. How can BT do this when its obvious i have been using their service for one year and one day. I called there customer helpline, i spoke to some Indian man who i struggled to understand, he did not accept my argument and told me i got charged for the equipment because i did not fulfil my one year contract with BT, he refused to refund me. Im really confused by this, i thought i was doing the right thing. When i initially arranged my broadband with Plusnet i called BT to let them know i was moving, they told me they already had been notified by Plusnet and i did not need to call them. Plusnet do everything and that includes the cancelling of your BT account. You dont get an option to close it yourself. If i had been given an option to do it myself i would have found out about the stupid charges and i would have made other arrangements so that i could avoid the charges. Guys what can i do here?

I am enquiring on behalf of a friend who recently changed employer - he is still doing the same job but through a sub contractor. When he finished, under the instruction of a supervisor, he left electronic items he had been provided with by the employer in the company office. He has since been informed that these items have gone missing and so he owes them over £1000 and his last weeks wages were withheld to go towards this amount. Are the company allowed to do that and is there anything he can do to appeal this? Thank you for any advice.

Please help !!! I hired NIFTYLIFT ACCESS PLATFORM for a couple of hours on the 25th of May and on the 1st of June I have a email that returned machine is broken and they asking me to pay over 1,000 as a cost repair. Its a nonsense!! Equipment has been collected from site by the driver from hss and was on the same condition as taken. The Driver/ collection person didn't say anything that is something wrong and didn't give me as well any paper work to signed stating faults or damages, I didn't get anything, now they want me to pay . Please let me have a template letter as I dont know how to respond - I am shocked !!!! Please help:mad2:

I run a small limited company, and in the past we've referred our clients onto another (much larger, huge international) company who supply products and services that accompany our own. Way back in 2011 we requested some loan/demo equipment from them to exhibit at a trade show. The other day I got a letter from them saying that the loan was for a period of 1 month, and they are going to charge me a daily penalty rate for the period since (over 5 years!), unless I can prove that it was returned. The letter states (potentially misleadingly) that the value of the equipment is £1000, but it doesn't mention their 'penalty' charge rates . I don't even know exactly what their standard hire charge for the equipment is, but at a guess even that could work out at £4000 over 5 years. Looking back at my records, I did sign their loan agreement, and it does mention the duration was one month (although I don't recall this being stipulated during our telephone conversations prior). It also mentions that late return may incur penalty charges at their daily rate. I also wrote to them a couple of days later to cancel, before any equipment was delivered to us. Now, I've looked around and I can't find the equipment here, so I don't know if we ever received it, or if we did and then returned it. And if we did return it, I'm not going to be able to prove it - whatever delivery service we used (probably Royal Mail) isn't going to be able to supply proof of delivery for such a long time ago. Does it seem acceptable/reasonable that they haven't mentioned anything about this for 5 years (after supposedly lending the equipment for just one month)? No requests for it's return, or advising that we are incurring 'penalty' charges. Even now, they still aren't saying how much they think we owe. It just seems like a fishing trip to get me to offer to return it now, which would presumably give them a case to charge us £1000's. Where could they go with this next? If they go the legal route (small claims?), would they have a realistic prospect, given that they've sat on it in silence for 5 years? Presumably statute of limitations would stop them after 6 years?

Hi everyone I'm having problems with vodafone at the moment trying to Bill me £190.86 for getting a replacement of a brand new iPhone 6 plus that didn't work straight out of the box! I ordered the phone online on the pre order date on the 12th September and I got an email on the 19th September to say it was going to be delivered that day. I was on holiday in America when the package arrived but my parents were there to accept the delivery and just put it in my bedroom for when I got home on the 29th September onlyl or me to find it didn't work! I contacted vodafone customer service imidietly who informed me that they would get a new one sent out to me next day but never mentioned anything about charges or a 7 day returns policy so I presumed eventing would be fine and I would just be charged the £220 for the phone upfront and my usual Monthly bill, but Instead I got a bill through for £547! Cut a long story short Ive made 3 calls to Vodafone about this and everytime someone just says you didn't return it within 7 days so you have to pay the repair bill!? Surely that would be covered under apples warranty! The advisors I've spoken to just say I need to wait for a text within 48 hours confirming if the extra charge will be dropped and it doesn't happen! Reading vodafones returns policy online it says "How do I return a faulty product? We’ll help you sort out any faulty product as long as: You bought it from us It has a genuine fault If the fault’s covered by a manufacturer's warranty, fixing it will be free." Never mentions anything about 7 days and neither does any other section in there returns policy! They all say 14 days! Many Thanks in advance!

A friend of mine has a business and is in partnership with with his wife, he has decided to sell his share of the equipment to his wife in order that if the worst comes to the worst the equipment would not be seized as payment for a debt which he has in his own name and not the partnership's, how does the law stand on this. The partnership is forming a limited company but he will still owe the debt in his own name up to the point of the incorporation. Cheers

Hi guys, Bit of background: I'm just shy of two years with my employer, I always prioritise my work and in the beginning, when the workload was really high, I would often stay back for hours and come in at the weekend to help out without being asked and without being paid. I have a strong work ethic. The issue: My manager, whom I've raised a grievance against for various reasons, reported me to HR for carrying out non-work related activity whilst at work which is true. Why did I do it if I have a strong work ethic? Various people on the team including myself have brought to our manager's attention that there are many hours every day with no work to do. He hasn't escalated this to anyone and he has allowed everyone on the team to browse the internet, complete coursework and sit on Facebook etc. for many months. I refuse to sit and do nothing for hours every day so I choose to educate myself by completing coursework. What's happened? I had an investigation which I know is going to progress to a disciplinary based on the questions and the fact that I once (or twice) printed something off using work's printers. This probably cost the company 10p and considering the additional hours of work I've put in I would say that they could let that slide but they won't of course. Every time I gave a reasonable explanation for my actions, the investigator explained it away and asked me leading questions to force me to look bad such as 'do you think it is reasonable of an employer who is paying you to expect you to talk with your team as part of a team bonding exercise rather than use company equipment (PC) to complete coursework'. This question is ridiculous and I tried to point this out in the most diplomatic way possible; if my employer is happy to pay me to sit and gossip for hours, or sit and stare into space for hours then why would it matter if I sit and do coursework? I feel as though I am being punished for choosing to educate myself rather than sit and chat...which we're actually not allowed to do because our manager tells us off for it regularly (i.e. after a couple of minutes, never mind hours!) The advice I need is this: If an employee tells their line manager and one of the owners of the company that they do not have any work to do for lengthy periods of time every day (proving they want to work!), can the employer punish me for browsing the web etc. especially when everyone else on the team does it and the manager has known for months? This company has standard policies about web usage but our manager has set the precedent by allowing it for so long. The example they gave of 'sit and chat' is ridiculous because that would be worse and here's why: The investigator had been given (false) information that on a particular shift I had not dealt with a user effectively as a result of doing my coursework. This was inaccurate, I had actually put more effort into trying to get it resolved than any of my colleagues would have, it just happens that I missed what the issue was. There was only one other colleague working that day and we'd had a falling out. Clearly he has lied about me. Yet, this same colleague kept leaving his desk to go and chat with people and actually packed up all of his things 40 minutes before the end of his shift and went to have a gossip with some staff. I completed more than twice the amount of work that he did on that shift. By being away from his desk, he wasn't available to take calls and wasn't available to deal with any issues yet I was because I was staring at my screen writing up an essay. So, who was the more productive employee that day? What employer would really prefer an employee to sit and chat, over educating themselves? I'm shortly speaking to Citizens Advice as I cannot believe that there is any legal justification for refusing to give someone work to do for so many hours but then complain when they read...or type an essay. Especially when the alternative that they suggest is actually worse. I'd also like to point out that when my manager was told about others doing similar things, he did nothing about it. Doesn't my employer have a responsibility to treat me equally and fairly? If anyone has any comments or suggestions, I'd appreciate them.

Hello Peeples Several months ago, I ordered something from a business at the other end of the UK from me. The funky little gadget never worked since it arrived, but I was told to leave it plugged in charging... So I did do this, and *kapow* the power supply cooked while I was out, melted into a grotty blob of goo (no damage to my property luckily). I notified them, (this is going back 12 weeks) which only told me that they were sending a replacement unit.. . Nothing was mentioned about me sending this unit back. Well I threw it in the skip the building has for electrical goods. 4 weeks ago, they call me up asking why I hadn't sent it back. I was never told to, never asked about it, they were clearly told I was going to sling it as it's hazardous waste. They've made promise upon promise to have it picked up my UPS, which never seems to happen that's another 4 times I've had to sit in ALL day waiting for nothing. What do I do with equipment like this? I've seen stories on various websites about this company, and that the moment ANYBODY sends it back via registered mail etc... it mysteriously vanishes and they wind up with a ca. £350 bill for the item. What's the time limit on selling goods to 'defray expenses'? At the end of the day, it's taking up space in my business unit and there's nothing I can do with it. I've written to them twice, which prompted phone calls from the continent, yet again promising me a pickup... I can't afford to sit in 'between 8 and 5' hoping UPS will rid me of this thing. Any ideas? Cheers, A

My friend separated from her boyfriend about 3 months ago. About 4 months before he went, he brought two items of exercise equipment on H.P. My friend will be moving to a smaller place in about 5 weeks. Her ex partner sold one of the items but the other remains in her property. She as had no contact with him for about 6 weeks. Should she ring the H.P company involved and ask for them to take it back, (she is unsure if he is making payments). If they do not want it what can she do because it is quite a large item and there will be no room at her new place. She is also receiving mail for him from debt collection companies. I have told her to send the letters back with not known at this address wrote on them. Is this the correct thing to do.

Good Morning I was placed in WRAG and according to the Government disabled people are now being forced into workfare either voluntary or mandatory I'm planning to record these meetings. Was thinking of using my mobile but decided it would be a better sound quality to use a dicta phone, but can't decide which one as there are quite a few to chose from. Have any Caggers used one and which one would you recommend? Thanks