when I was a membership the staff at X4L accidentally locked me in the gym. I was putting my pants on in the changing room and the lights went out. As soon I put my jacket on to leave the room I realized there was no one there and the steel shutters were down. This resulted me having to leave through the fire exit which caused the alarm to go off at 10 o'clock at night. The staff apologized to me and I carried on training there for two months. Come september I leave the gym to relocate to my university city. I cancelled the membership through my bank because I have read stories about them continuing to take money after cancelling through their online form. A few months and 5 harlands emails later I have received an intimidating phone call from an X4L head office person demanding me pay £125 to cancel my membership. The thing is when I signed up I picked the membership option that allows me to cancel anytime I want as you pay £10/month extra for no minimum 1 year time frame. Now they are lucky I didn't take legal action when they locked me in the gym (what if I was blind like my friend????) now I am being harassed on a bi-weekly basis over phone and text messages to pay 'administration fees'. I have had it! What are my rights and would my case stand a chance in court if I were to press legal action?

Hi my okd friends I need an EXTREMELY URGENT advice from you good people. Wished to refurbish the old house after 30 years which meant change of everything including wiring and water system etc. I employed a firm of archirects who with a QS sent tenders out and as the result we instructed a firm of contractors to do the job. After a while architects left the scene so we employed a building controller in their replace to interact with builders. There was to be a contract drawn by QS for "minor work project". Unfortunately a copy of it was sent to me last week! As I had signed a Letter of Intent, I assumed that all terms and condictions in darft of contrcat which I has seen would suffice. The builders went throught demolition phase, and should start on construction. The payment is as the follows: The builder gives a list of work and expenditure to QS. He without checking to see whether is adequate or the work is carried out, accepts the payment due and forwards builders' invoice. The building controller we appointed acts in place of architect but her responsibilty has been limited to signing the stage Cetrificate - meaning that the work was done accordingl to existing plans and drawings!. Despite all those safe guards at a lot of expense we now find ourselves in a very bad posiotion. Builder has not followed an iota of terms and conditions in contract, yet keeps naming it as a tool to ex-communicate us and carry on mis-leading the QS and the Controller. The very first part of construction has run into big trouble that he wants through his "uknown to us" sub-contractor charge us for electrical works BUT...he quoted a figure of nearly £50,000.00!(should be max £10k with most expensive products in market)) for a job including rewiring of 5 bedroom very average and meduim size house. They do not specify the products listed nor correct number of products to be used. The list I provided keeps being thrown away. Thus has been going on for past 2.5 months. Meanwhile I amconcerned that they have started to attempt with same approach with other tasks within project. Because of us trying to get a proper & accurate quote to give them the go ahead, they have shut down the site for past 8 days, because of health & safety regs we are not allowed to go in. We finally persuaded all those involved to have a meeting at the site in 2 days time. Obviously we can not work together. We have paid 2 invoices so far which partly may be a loss to us - no hope of getting some back. BUT WHAT AM I TO DO WHEN AT THE TABLE, WE REACH THE END. CAN THEY KICK ME OUT AND KEEP HOLDING THE HOUSE UNTIL WHEN? IS THERE SOMEONE, AN EXPERT I CAN TAKE WITH ME TO PROTECT ME, ASSESS WHAT THEY HAVE DONE ON THAT DAY? I AM SO WORRIED THAT THIS MAY TAKE A LONG COURT BATTLE. I JUST WANT TO PAY FOR WHAT THEY HAVE DONE FAIRLY. OR RETRIEVE PART OF MONEY I HAVE UNJUSTLY PAID. THE MAIN QUESTION IS: WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN AS THEY ARE THUGS. AND HOW CAN I GET THE HOUSE BACK TOMORROW? I do hope there is someone out there who can urgently advise me. Really can not afford to go to lawyers - lost a lot on architects and builders and so forth already, and I am currently left with a shell of the house living in a mice infested flat somewhere else. Please help. Sophie

Hi guys. The other night I had the misfortune to have bailiffs from Marston's attend my property. I was asleep on the sofa my partner went outside to see what the noise was as we live on a partly industrial site and we have locked gates to the shared access. My partner came in frantic and woke me up to tell me that men who identified themselves as Law Enforcement Officers were here to see me.. I went out to greet them and instructed my partner to lock the door behind me. Stupidly neither of us had the good sense to video any of this because if we did then the following events may not have happened. I asked them what their business was they said they were there to exercise a warrant for unpaid fines. I replied that this was fine and I offered myself for arrest as they had led us to believe that they were Court Bailiffs and not Private Bailiffs. Whilst I was talking to them, one of them said they had the power to force entry yet never showed me any warrant.. .whilst I was being distracted by one Bailiff the other opened my rear gate and the next thing I hear is my partner screaming that the other Bailiff is forcing the French Doors open. Anyone that knows French doors will know that unless you have very thick bolts top and bottom that they are fairly easy for a 14 stone thug to push open regardless of how good your Chubb lock is on the handle assembly. Unfortunately I just have 2 little bolt locks at the bottom of the doors and they are only attached by half inch screws. I immediately rang 999 and asked for Police to report a case of breaking and entering.. .but once I told the operator that they were Bailiffs she said there was nothing they could do??? is that the case? All you need to burgle a house is a uniform and a bundle of lies. Now that they are both in the house they start just going through our things saying that they would be taking everything unless they received full payment of £700. To try and settle with them I offered them either of 2 cars, a 1 ounce gold chain or my Rolex watch left to me by my Grandfather.. .and they refused each of them and instead began to dismantle my computer and the 7 year old plasma TV I use as a monitor for it. My partner and I at this stage were terrified as the Police had turned their back on us, the Bailiffs didn't really seem to want to take goods.. .more like create a sense of fear, disruption and panic in our house. I told them I would happily surrender what I owned. ..gold chain, Rolex watch and 2 cars but as it was my partner's rented (furnished) house and not a joint tenancy nearly everything else belonged to either my landlord or my partner and I offered receipts to prove. They then said that they would be taking everything anyway and we could use the receipts that I had just offered to show them to claim what they had taken by applying to the Court. Then we get to the what they really want. .I said I had just given up my job through illness before Christmas and we simply didn't have that kind of money but I could get £300. They said "You must know someone who will lend it to you" and my partner then rang her Mum who paid it on her Credit Card. Now what this fine related to was a car I sold over a year ago to a car dismantler who was supposed to have applied for a new logbook informing the DVLA he was the new keeper but clearly he didn't. Now because the vehicle was neither SORN nor taxed apparently the DVLA can now 'do' you for no insurance. Now here is my guilt...I foolishly ignored their letters thinking that eventually the DVLA would be updated eventually. I then exacerbated things by ignoring the Court letters too. In my defence I suffer from PTSD and other mental health issues not to mention physical ongoing Pancreatic problems so I know it's bad but I do bury my head in the sand and hope everything will all go away. Not the actions of a perfectly mentally sound individual. Now what I have done so far to try and remedy the situation is send the DVLA a copy of the bill of sale for the car.. .and naturally they say it's not their problem now. ..so my next step is to deal with the Court. I also reported it this morning to the Police as a crime and let me tell you that is no easy task as the operator this time said she would pass it along to their crime team who would get back to me within a few days....no crime number or reference of any kind. I fully intend to help my partner's mother instigate a chargeback on her Credit Card although it seems to be ill advised on this site. ..as this payment was obtained solely under duress. Any advice or imput would be gratefully received. Thanks so much in advance

A member of my family is in an NHS hospital. He has had a stroke that means he struggles to recognise places. He has been assessed as having capacity, and wants to go home, so he is being discharged to living alone, carers coming in a couple of times a day, but basically, free to go where he wishes. However, until all the carers etc can be sorted he is being kept on a locked ward, and the staff will not let him leave the ward. Surely this is false imprisonment, if he has capacity they can't imprison him? They have also said things like "you have to have a key safe fitted before we allow you home", and told him that he can't discharge himself. Not that I want him to discharge himself, but surely, if he has the capacity to make the decision to be discharged into the community he has capacity to go down to the hospital shop to buy a packet of smarties? What can I do? Surely they can't do this?

I am considering getting an I PAD 2 from Ebay as they are quite cheap now. I will only use people who have a high rate of satisfaction score I have seen one that is locked to EE. I have curently an excellent internet dongle package from 3 which i am more than happy with. So my question will be: 1. Will EE give me the code to unlock the internet connections so i can run it off my 3 sim card. 2. How can i check if it has not already been blocked or associated with an I cloud account??

Hi everybody, this is incredibly urgent and i'm getting no help from AQUA, I got a Credit Card from them a month ago, and i transferred £800 over not realizing you're not really suppose to, and after some research some peoples accounts have been locked because of this. Now I have no money at all to feed myself or even get to work!! and they're saying my card is being held in a queue to be reviewed at "Head Office" and they're acting as if this isn't a problem for me. It was transfered from a bank account in my name, it's so stupid. Has anyone got a number for there "Head office"?? I'm so desperate for some help please!

Hello, I'll try and be brief here. Years ago i returned home from work to find i had been broken into, I reported this to the council and they came around and put a steel door on the flat effectively making me homeless, I kept going on at them to do the repairs but they just kept putting me off, this block of flats was due for demolition a few months later. A couple of weeks ago I filled out a housing form for Sandwell council and have been refused housing because they say I owe them £1090 for all of the time that the steel door was on the flat but all of this time I had no access whatsoever The council also emptied the flat of all of by belongings (all of which was new) and they denied that they did this but when I finally gained access I found everything was gone and the steel door was still in place and intact My question is......Can they just deny me access and charge me rent? As i said this has been a while ago but I do still have paperwork from that time and they still want their money

Recently, I found myself locked out of my apartment after dropping my keys out of my pocket without realizing. I knocked the door and thankfully was let in by one of my housemates. No trouble.. The problem came the next morning when I tried to phone the letting agency to request a new set or keys or to get new keys cut. What they told me was pretty frustrating and frankly I was a bit shocked. Basically, since it was a weekend, the guy (who I believe is the manager of the agency) told me there was absolutely nothing he could do and to call the agency back on Monday morning. I got quite vocal, asking him what if I was stuck out at night with no way of getting in and something happened.. he was having none of it and seemed quite unconcerned. I've checked the tenancy agreement which states that there is one charge for getting new keys cut on a weekday and a higher charge for getting them cut on a weekend. Has the agency really broken the tenancy agreement by disregarding this commitment and refusing to provide a new set? It all ended well since I found my keys again - I'd only dropped them just outside the front door in the garden area so I decided not to pursue it further. I am just curious as to why the agency would show so little care for the tenancy agreement.

This is an odd one, and apologies if the forum isn't correct for it - this seemed the most appropriate. Several weeks ago, I purchased an 'unlocked' iPhone from the Carphone Warehouse. Immediately upon receipt, I sent this phone to an online company which colours the housing of the phone. A couple of weeks later the phone was returned, looking great. The only issue is, the company responsible for changing the colour also managed to lock my phone to a UK mobile network. Unlocked phones from the CW lock automatically to the first SIM card placed inside the phone and what appears to have happened is that the company involved placed a SIM inside the phone which inadvertently locked it to that network. This has led to a very difficult situation. My phone is now locked to that network, and Apple have confirmed that it happened while in the care of the company. Apple cannot unlock the phone except at the request of the network. The network won't request it because I am not a customer of theirs. CW wash their hands of it due to the lock happening after purchase/receipt, and the company who locked it say they never guaranteed against doing so and they were never informed that they may lock the phone. I'd like to pursue a case against the company who locked my phone. I paid them to change the colour and they did this to my satisfaction, but in sending back a phone which is locked, they have effectively delivered me a defective unit, substantially different to the one I sent them. My phone is now useless to me and I have had to turn to a third party to pay for an unlock service which is still ongoing. Worse still, all this was discovered overseas, where I was relying on my phone to be operable. I have spent a small fortune purchasing a secondary phone and top-ups while abroad, all directly due to the fact my phone was locked by this company. I have contacted them to try and reason with them and have requested a refund for services provided, but they refuse and merely offer an unlock service for my phone at 'cost price' (a further £50). They are accepting no responsibility and suggest I should have told them that inserting a SIM would lock the phone. The phone was brand new, meaning they would have had no option but to insert a SIM to activate it. At no point did they consult with me or inform me that they would have to insert a SIM card, and insertion of SIMs is not part of the service I paid for. I'm unsure where I stand as a consumer. They have delivered on services ordered, but have rendered the unit dysfunctional in the process. Can anyone advise where I stand?

All customers of Lloyds Banking Group, including Halifax and Bank of Scotland, will be unable to access online accounts overnight ahead of TSB bank website launch. All customers of Lloyds Banking Group, including Halifax and Bank of Scotland, will be unable to access their online accounts overnight ahead of the TSB website launch on the eve of its split from Lloyds. The new TSB bank will appear on the high street from September 9 when Lloyds offloads 631 branches and five million customers to meet European competition rules. Customers will be able to log in to the new TSB website, tsb.co.uk, from 8.30am on September 8. The website is currently live but does not offer online banking functionality. Ahead of the full launch, all online banking across Lloyds Banking Group will temporarily close, affecting around 30 million customers. More: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/10272139/Lloyds-Banking-Group-customers-to-be-locked-out-of-online-accounts.html

Hi Earlier this evening at 5:55 pm I returned to a private Pay & Display car park to retrieve my vehicle only to find the whole car park secured, locked up with no one in sight. The usual closing time is 7pm however there was signs stating that on Sundays, the car park closes at 6pm, as such every effort was made by my self to make it back on time. Another notable sign warns of possible lock ins, word for word it reads: I was unable to find an office number or even a company name to try and contact them I went into a shop facing and asked the lady if she knew the owners. Unfortunately she didn't, but she did say she'd back me up that I was there at 5 to 6. At that point I pretty much admitted defeat and began the long train journey home. Tomorrow morning I have to get there early to retrieve my vehicle and try not be too late for work. They're going to expect me to pay for the parking plus a £10 overnight charge, I have no intention of paying either of them. My questions are, where do I stand in this stance? Particularly if they refuse to open the barrier, am I legally obliged to pay anything and are they legally allowed to prevent me from exiting? I'd also like to make a complaint, would it be worthwhile contacting the council or is there a particular organisation I could contact? Feeling really distraught so any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! Tommy

A while back I signed up what I thought was a good deal with Virgin for a HTC Sensation for £17.99 per month. I didn't realise that when I signed up, if I cancelled at any time that I would be committed to pay the whole term of the contract which they have just informed me is £464. I'm now in real financial difficulties due to unemployment and I explained my situation to them over the phone, but they said that there's nothing they can do because they said I had already had a loyalty discount on the existing contract. They will not allow me to cancel without paying the £464 in full. Does anyone know of any way I can get of this situation?