Hi I'm looking for some advice. I have received a solicitor's letter saying that I am in arrears on my mortgage and if no agreement can be reached then the house may be repossessed. I am querying the arrears as it includes a multitude of charges etc., When I first became unemployed I requested that the arrears be added to the end of the mortgage...capitalisation...but Platform refused..because this was something that they didn't do. I also asked if I could buy myself out of the high interest rate to a lower interest rate...and they refused. My original mortgage was for £93,000 interest only. I opted for interest only because I was stuck in a really high interest rate and planned on going onto capital and interest after the initial 3 year fixed term. Remember that I asked if I could capitalise these arrears and was refused. I just discovered today that my current mortgage payment is including the arrears amount ie the £93,000 plus arrears plus charges! My mortgage payment is £288.50 per month. I pay £290. As I am already paying a higher mortgage to pay interest on the arrears and the charges...I have said that they have effectively capitalised the mortgage by adding the arrears to my mortgage balance and increasing my mortgage payment to cover the interest on this. I have asked for complete breakdown of all charges, arrears, mortgage payments and, they added insurance to my payments too at an extra £22 per month despite giving me no option to look at different quotes. The insurance is with their own insurance company and despite paying £22 every month, plus interest on my mortgage, the insurance doesnt cover me if anything happens to my home. If Platform capitalised the arrears I would be paying no more than I am paying already....effectively paying the interest on the arrears. I have had mortgage arrears before with other mortgage lenders and they did not add the mortgage arrears onto the mortgage. They were completely separate and were paid off when the mortgage was paid off. The way I see it Platform are not treating me fairly...they are receiving the interest payments for the arrears but have refused to capitalise. Is this common practice? Any help would be great! I need some advice on how to deal with this. Gemspan xxx Can somebody give me some help please? Is there anybody around that can advise? Thank you Gemspan

Hi - i'd be very interested in hearing the views of some of the forum regarding an issue i've been looking into for around 2 years. It involves a piece of land that used to be free to park in, but a few years ago was changed to a Met Parking enforced zone, free, but for 2 hours. The legality of how it was originally voted for is sketchy, but a supposed consultation with 5 local shops suggested it was a good idea - no residents were consulted, and with parking terrible on the main roads, this has meant sometimes there is no option but to park and leave the car there, resulting in tickets. Over the last 2 years i have tried to find out the name of the contact at Barnet Council who organised the consultation, and who runs the contract with Met Parking. Nobody has been able to give that to me, not even with a FOI request, and in fact there was originally a debate over who the land belonged to. The Council insisted it was Barnet Homes, whilst Barnet Homes said it wasnt them. It took myself to show the land registry documentation and the council's asset register to prove it was the councils. Met Parking refuse to offer any help as to who their contact is, and I have now escalated it because i have over £1000 of parking tickets piling up. I can only assume that the contract was instigated by an individual within the council, possibly on receipt of backhanders possibly not (no liable there), who may have now left, and nobody has a clue what the story is. My premise is that the original consultation was totally inadequate, and it should have been made a residents car park, but at the moment I am waiting for the Head of the Council to revert with help if he can, other than that I'm at a loss. I'm happy to talk through the information I have with somebody, as i said, it's an interesting one, and I'm sure one of you would love to get your teeth into Thanks, Jude

Targets: What targets?

Could someone please help me with the following situation? Aviva/ Quotemehappy / Solus Park Royal are lamentable and treating me, their client, like thugs. Back on the 29th November 2014 someone stole the two front seats from my Fiat 595 Abarth and caused some collateral damage to the car. Almost three months later, QuoteMeHappy/Aviva has still not settled the claim. A couple of days after the theft I was given a smelly "courtesy" car. Of course no terms and conditions were presented. No indication of how long I could keep the car etc. The claim ran it's course. QuoteMeHappy/Aviva initially under-valued the car and offered me a cash in lieu settlement. When I contested this and provided evidence that their valuation was wildly inaccurate they decided that they wanted their internal repair service Solus to repair the car rather than offer a cash in lieu which was my preference. Bearing in mind all the negative feedback I had read and heard about Solus I did not want them to go anywhere near my car. A few observations: - Nowhere on QMH/Aviva's website did it indicate, that a QMH customer would have to deal with a third party company (Solus) once a claim had been lodged. I'm sorry but I pay my premium to QMH/Aviva so I expect to deal with them not some amazingly rude third party. - I've been repeately harrassed by Solus. On the first occasion on the 15th of January they told me that they needed the "courtesy" car back within two days on the Saturday 17th – this without any reference to when the claim would be resolved or when I would get my own car back. - Solus made several subsequent calls with the same request. On Jan 28 they called to say that the “total loss had been settled.” Their meessage was left as a voicemail that has been recorded and saved. Clearly a lie. - Solus called again on February 3rd to say that “…everything has been sorted out, you have been paid out and the courtesy car needs to come back to site.” Again the message was left as a voicemail that has been recorded and saved. Another lie? - At some other point around 3 weeks ago they indicated that they would move my car to my preferred repairer but this has still not happened. - At the beginning of February I left the "courtesy" car ready for collection, in the hope that QMH / Aviva would settle the claim, pay me out, deliver my car to my preferred repairer so that It could be repaired whilst I was away on business for two weeks. - This morning the rude people from Solus called again asking for the return of their car and telling me that they would declare the car as stolen to the police. Once again I suggested they get my insurer to contact me about this, then as usual the conversation deteriorated and out of frustration, as on past occasions, I hung up on them. I've just walked out to my office's parking lot and guess what? The courtesy car has disappeared. I strongly suspect that Solus came by, without advising me and took their car back together with my all possessions that were in it. Of course the car was neither valeted nor fueled so I imagine that they will seek payment for that...Fortunately there is CCTV in the parking so we should rapidly have a sense of what went on. Wow! How unscrupulous do you get? - and I'm a client. Can you imagine how they treat third parties? I'm not quite sure how to take this forward. Any suggestions would be welcome. I'm thinking social media, AutoExpress, Financial Conduct Authority, MoneyBox on Radio 4... The only ray of sunshine in this case is someone I met who is assisting me with the claim. She is essentially the Mr. Wolf (from Pulp Fiction) for people having to battle their own or other insurance companies. She is such a star. Further she has no financial vested interests in helping me with my claim. She is just starting out with this new business and would just like me to tell all my friends about her. Where QMH / Aviva make me lose faith in humanity, this lady restores it. In case Aviva read this spare me your standard social media response with link to your website. This requires a more intelligent, substantial, immediate and personal response. You know where to find me, you know my policy number and you know the only reasonable outcome I seek. Does anyone withing QMH / Aviva think of the lifetime value of a customer? Lastly, on Aviva’s correspondence, they present the logo of the Institute of Customer service. This would suggest that they are presenting themselves as members of the ICS. Enquiries made with the ICS reveal that neither Quotemehappy nor Aviva are members. This strikes me as false advertising. Based on my experience so far I can’t think of anyone less qualified to be a member of the ICS. P.

Hello , Some background to my problem. I have been a Sky customer for a good few years on the old " anytime " package, with daytime calls as a add on [ £5 PM]. Last week we decided that due to us both using our mobiles & not using the daytime add on we would cancel it. Called Sky & explained we did`t use it so could we cancel it, they also offered us a lower price on our BB. All well & good until we get a letter informing us that we are now on the " weekend " package, this does not include evening calls or international calls as our previous package did. We called Sky & explained that at no time were we informed that this would be the case, no one informed us that we would lose our evening calls & internationals too. Having called Sky & explained the situation they said they would listen in to the phone call regarding our call. They have contacted us & informed us that the original call contained "no wrong doing " . When i checked this new package it is as basic as it can get, we can`t even use the phone of an evening now without incurring charges, lost our international calls but we can for a for a price have all this back . We feel conned that no one informed us of this , we simply wanted to cancel the day time facility not the " anytime " package but the inclusion of the BB reduction offer has changed our package & removed another customer off this now redundant package [ the real aim here i feel] . Absolutely disgusted at this underhand trick. I have today phoned them & informed them of our displeasure & they say we can write in & complain, although that in it`s self is an assault course designed to frustrate & hopefully we will just give up. Not happy in the least. Is there any advise on this as we feel very conned. Paddy.

In October I made a complaint to MBNA over my PPI on my credit card. I then got two letters over the space of a few weeks. One acknowledging the complaint and another apologising for the delay in resolving it. Then I got this letter You may recall that we recently contacted you asking for you to confirm details. I regret to inform you that we have not received sufficient information to identify you. We are therefore, unable to proceed with the investigation into the issues you have raised. However, if you could verify the information, we will look to address any concerns raised. In Addition, to ensure your complaint is dealt with promptly, please quote the reference at the top of this letter. This letter acts as our final response in relation to this matter and you now have the right to refer the complaint to the Financial Ombudsman, within 6 months of the date of this letter. I received no such communication asking for identification, it is a deliberate lie. If anyone can give me advice I would be very grateful. Do I have to go to the FSO now? or can I call their bluff.

Recently went out for quotes for a number of windows to be replaced with UPVC double glazed. Safestyle were fastest in response and initially we were impressed with the salesman who visited. He did the - here's my quote but I may get a better price after talking to my boss etc etc. In the end we were quoted a price much lower than we had expected, nearly half the nearest competitor, so we agreed to proceed. We were then hit with the classic [problem] - I am since told by another company that it's well known in the trade but considered underhand by most, just as we were about to get the survey underway and pay our deposit, a phone call is made only to reveal that there had been a mistake and that the price should be 30% more than we had been quoted and agreed. Of course by then we had declined the competitors which of course was their intention. So we were presented with the choice - agree to the higher price or we can't proceed. Now this raises issues of good practice or even contract law, we had been offered and accepted the quote which was then raised by 30%. Obviously we said a few choice words and told safestyle to go away (although I didn't use those exact words). As predicted, we received phone calls insisting that they had made a mistake and that they could offer us a good price, but how could anyone possibly proceed with a company that behaves like this. We don't know what the fitting service and quality would have been like but based on the sales tactics we would have been mad to go ahead with a company that uses underhand sales tactics. Do not use this company. They are not trustworthy. If you do risk dealing with them, be warned that they will 'low ball' a price and then hike it when you are hooked. It's hooking and reeling in.