Justice Secretary announces victim compensation scheme review, scraps unfair rule READ MORE HERE: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/justice-secretary-announces-victim-compensation-scheme-review-scraps-unfair-rule

Hi all, we were Future Energy customers, before they folded last year. Shortly before the collapse, they fitted our home with smart meters. Now I was never happy with the gas meter and how it didn't fit in the existing box, resulting in the lid being left unlocked and open (see photos). Now we have been moved over to a new supplier (Green Star Energy), I am wondering whether they are liable for rectifying the problem? If not, who is? Thanks,

Hello. I am another one to add to the list of finding my car not being on the hpi basic check. Got the car in February and today got visited by two people and a car transporter from Burlington Group acting on behalf of Car Cash Point. The bill of sale was never produced from the Burlington operative when i asked for it, instead proceeded to get the police involved. I should have stood my ground but instead agreed to pay off the remaining debt to keep the car. Wouldn't be able to work without it. All i can do now is find the registered keeper and put my claim to get the money back. My problem is with Car Cash Point & The Burlington Group who refused to give me the name of the registered keeper of the vehicle who got the loan against the car. My initial foray into the Data Protection Act only gives me request for information on myself. Where do i go for a request for information on a person from the files of a private company ie, (Car Cash Point). It has been found that the past keeper of the vehicle had another registration logbook from the DVLA to sell the vehicle onto a dealership the same day they took out the loan. I am in the process of back tracking to the two dealerships the car belonged to before me in order to get the original keepers details. However i feel they will also abide by the data protection act. How do i legally get this persons details. Thank you. Caissons Disease. (Ex diver)

Hi guys, I need some urgent advice, i just received three letters from Marston company asking me to pay three parking fines or they going to send a bailiff to take over all my belongings by 31st Jan 18. My driving details have been stolen in early march 2017 i been informed by DVLA in June, that someone used my details to get the new licence but after providing some security details they issued me new licence. When i asked if they found out who is the culprit then they told me that matter is with west Yorkshire police and i dont have to do anything. After that in september 2017 people from vw company came to my house to recover the car but after clarifying every thing, they advised me that i should report to the police as you are the victim of identity fraud because someone got the vw car on finance and used my details and did not pay the installment. I reported the police straight away and police gave me the fraud incident number, the criminals also used my details and got the loan around £60k as well but all companies who been [problem]med removed my name from their list after finding out that i am the victim of identity fraud. Now Marston company want around £550 parking fines and not accepting the police incident number or dvla letter. The Marston company wants police report, when i asked police about the report they said they do not issue the reports to individuals but they made a new report specifically for Marston group asked me to give the reference number to Marston then they can contact police and police will provide the police report to them. Now the problem is that Marston not accepting this they insist that i have to proivde the police report as they do not contact to third party. I do not know what to do i am victim of identity fraud Marston just want their money they are making threats that i should resolve the matter by 31st or they will come to my house to take all belongings. I never received any letter from Marston before as the culprit used different address where i never lived, now i received notices of enforcement to my address and i have no idea where shall i go from here

New to site, but im desperate for help.* I sold a brand new iphone 7 on 02/12/16. Buyer paid through paypal straight away, no problem. I withdrew funds to my bank account,* and got item ready for dispatch. Received follow on email from buyer stating that they forgot to update their details, and could i send to their alternative address? I said ok, as it wasnt initially suspicious as they had already paid, and it is something ive requested myself in the past, when i bought tyres for my car, but asked for them to be delivered to my local for fitting. sent phone to address requested 1st class next day track & traced, and signed for. All good, or so i thought! On 17/12/16 i received email from paypal to inform me that buyer had initiated a "chargeback" and my paypal account had been debited £759 and sent back to buyers card company for "unauthorised use" i was furious! I provided paypal with all the information they requested, proof of postage tracking number, even a copy of signature from buyer. They told me they would investigate on my behalf, and inform me of their decision, I told them I have been with ebay/paypal since 06 and in over 300 transactions in have NEVER HAD A SINGLE NEGATIVE FEEDBACK! I have received a email from paypal today 30/12/16 saying that I've lost my money, and that's the end, case closed! I'm absolutely staggered by this, and would appreciate some advice, from any kind people of what I can do about this? I cannot afford to lose this money, as I have a low income, but of course paypal font care. Thanks

I have been harassed by a neighbor because I wont be his friend. I am from a domestic violence background came out of a refuge and I am an attractive woman in my 20s with mental health issues of anxiety and depression (also recently diagnosed with PTSD due to current events) The HA placed me between two older men, this wouldnt usually be a problem but they both became obsessed with me. I had to tell both of them to please stop knocking on my door, I am private. This is when the false noise complaints from downstairs firstly came however I wasnt the victim because he was elderly means he automatically will be believed despite having noise recorders with no evidence and me going out my way to put thick underlay and carpet which nothing in my tenancy states I must do so still I was apparently harassing him with noise. when I told upstairs to leave me alone and not knock on my door he would purposely make noise. He use to pretend to be someone from outside by ringing my doorbell because I never answered when he knocked on my flat door. I found this really weird and after he knocked on my door for about 20mins I told him to leave me alone, he was only knocking to ask me personal questions. After I complained about upstairs noise this is when his counter claims came to avoid prosecution. Said I threw things on his door and slammed doors. Agin he has noise recorders and nothing. I however had noise recorders and it stated he made loud bangs like I said however the HA did nothing and suggested rugs. The neighbor upstairs was also caught liasing with the one below me to make up complaints about me, which was admitted by the one downstairs to the manager (now the manager hates me she is denying he ever admitted this to her) the manager was fine with me until she spoke to the man above then suddenly she turned against me, I have no idea what I did to her but she started to ignore my complaints and be really rude to me on the phone. She also denied he not allowed laminated flooring and cannot provide me with the apparent previous tenancy which states he can have laminated flooring. the HA have been blocking me from going to the Housing ombudsmen by longing out my complaints and not allowing me to escalate or give me replies. This neighbor however went on to key my car, write die on my flat door, push me (when I was pregnant), kick my door whilst threatening me, put dog poop on my car handle and make several false complaints about me. I got the police involved who were useless to the point I made a complaint about them this they did not like then their harrassment against me came. I asked for the neighbour to be issued with A Harrasment order and the police reluctantly did so. However around a week later i was also issued with one based on his false complaints. I have challenged this, how is this proper procedure? The police gone on to make false claims I making reports to crimestoppers about the neighbour and told the HA this. the police also have come to my address several times banging on my door and invited me for an interview on neighbor false allegations. The police tried to bring charges against me for court. However when it got to court even the CPS said it is clear I am the victim due to the amount of calls and dates ect and they told the court they did not want to pursue the case against me as it is very one sided and seems like a witch hunt. Even the prosecution saw what was going on. of course the police did not like this because I still have a complaint against several officers with strong evidence of harassment and breaches of the law and data protection. However now after some weeks the police have again come to my address this morning to "deliver" me a letter from the housing associaiton, since when are police used as personal post men for housing associaitons? I know the HA manager was .... I never got convicted or it even went to court, she hates me and wants me out and I know the police are also .... I do not know what this letter is but I am guessing an ASBO because they can issue these based on the police word and HA word alone. If it is this how do I challenge this? The HA manager I have a complaint against her with several organisations due to her breach of data protection and harrasment against me so she is also trying it with me. The HA or the police wont even let me present my strong evidence or prove my innocence that this neighbor is a liar, they dont even care they just want to shut me up for complaining about things they have choosen to do which are against the law and human rights rather then just deal with the case against the neighbor. I know they are trying to break me but I cannot lie it is working, I am broken. I feel like maybe I should of just given into this mans advances because then I wouldnt even be going through this and despite sending them proof of my medical evidence they refuse to move me, they want me out. It is bullying and I do not know where to turn because they are blocking everything. (there is another thread on here from 2011 which someone else complained about this HA and their bullying tactics so I know I am not alone) I know I need to stay strong but it is hard, they are now trying to issue with me an ASBO which means even on medical grounds I cannot move because before i couldnt move because i had "court proceeding" against me, now I dont they need to make something else so i cannot move and the complaints about me keep coming or I break and leave and be homeless. I hold a lot of paper evidence, witnesses and recordings. I have several complaints with the professional standards with police. I have a complaint with the housing ombudsome who obviosuly cannot help until The HA complaints has finished I have a complaint with the ICO due to data protection breaches By them issuing me with an ASBO I can go to prison and since the man makes false complaints it is likely i will so another way to get me out and ruin my life.

Hello, I hope I can get some help here about the worst case I ever had with a Bank. One month ago, exactly few days when I got married, my debit card details were compromised and more than £6000 were stolen from my debit card and paid into some online gambling site in Gibraltar. I found out about these transactions the day after the were made and immediately called my Bank - TSB. I had two accounts with them - a personal and a business one for my limited company. I spent hours on the phone with their customer service, then the fraud team and even they have some "complex" investigation team. After explaining them about the fraudulent transactions, they accused me that either me or someone that lives with me ( my wife ) has made those payments, becuase in their system nothing looks suspicious and event the fact that these payments were made over night every 30 minutes £1000 were taken of my account...really??? and they did not send me any message to confirm that I am making those payments..not a call..nothing. After a long conversation I was told that they will start an investigation and will come back to me and in the mean time I should contact that gambling company. this is what I did and I called the gambling site and the company behind Cassava Enterprises Ltd. I had to write to their security team, which answered me every day and at the end helped much more than my TSB bank, because Cassava's Security team found out, that there was an account registered on my name and also my debit card along with debit card on some other people's name on the same gambling account. they told me there is definitely a fraud activity and all transactions made from my Debit Card will be voided. I had to wait and hope I will have money back and be able to pay for my wedding. On the next day TSB calls me and tells me their Investigation team does not find again anything suspicious and even while those payments were made, address verification passes and 3ds security was not invoked from the merchant, so nothing can me done. Not only that, but they told me that I am the one who needs to keep my debit card details save and they are not responsible for not alerting me, for not detecting any fraud activity, because these payments happen over night to some site in Gibraltar...just ridiculous .. But I told them that I already spoke to the Gambling company, which found something suspicious and will void the transactions. ..They "Investigation team" even did not believed me and told me that if that is actually true, I should get my money back , they decided to block my accounts. After exactly 3 days even that my accounts were blocked I was able to access my internet banking and I noticed that all money were refunded and at least I was more relaxed. But of course TSB made the situation more painful for me, becuase I spent hours again with their fraud and investigations team on the phone and as I was abroad for my wedding, my only choice was to get my money with ID into a branch. After asking them isn't that action by the Gambling site clear enough that there was fraud activity and they returned my money, the TSB representative on the phone did not know what to answer me . In a week I went back home and I found check for my business account in TSB, which was already closed and after I went into a branch I got my money in cash from my personal account and they closed it too. After all what happened I was thinking that this is a bad story with a happy end. But of course not. I opened a personal account with Barclays online when I was still abroad and I got my cards and internet banking and etc. when I got home . I deposited my money there, after I got them back from TSB in cash. I had to open a business account and I went to Santader, where my other nightmare began - I was declined, because of I was told " They see some flag in CIFAS database about me" and I have to find out what and this is the reason they cant open me an account. I need my business account as soon as possible, because I am awaiting payments I went to another bank, where the same happened. My credit score is not perfect but is not very poor, so I was told to check my credit file and to look for CIFAS data, because its not about bad credit score. I went into TSB branch ( my accounts are already closed and I cant get any help over the phone anymore) and the lady on the till tried to call "someone" and told me to check Experian . I registered for Experian, Equifax, Callcredit and Checkmyfile and I find no CIFAS records on the file. After researching CIFAS website ( I never heard of CIFAS before) I found out that I can send a Subject Access Request Form so they can send me all the information about me within minimum a week or max 40 days. I don't know now what record has been held on my name in CIFAS I sent their form today. I opened a case with the Financial Ombudsman and I am awaiting their answer too . I do not know what else to do and how can I find our more information about this Flag in Cifas and as I generated a credit file in all possible Credit agencies and no information about CIFAS is there, I am out of ideas. Also from Satander told me to ask the gambling company if they sent maybe something to CIFAS, so I wrote their security team and I am waiting for an answer. Did anyone of you had any similar situation and do you know how can I resolve it? I was a Victim of Fraud and not only that but now I am experiencing all these problems and I am more than frustrated. My only fast option now is to add my wife as a director and to remove my name from the company, so I can open at least the business bank account and to make VAT and salary payments on time, until I resolve the issue with my name Thanks, Ivan

Hi all. Really could do with some good advice please. I will try and sum up concisely... A friend and I went through the process of booking an apartment in Brighton with Airbnb. We are both new to Airbnb. We found an apartment and communicated with the 'owner' through the Airbnb site system. When it came to booking we received an Airbnb branded html email. With payment details. I forwarded the email to my friend who made payment... before i could stop him as I realised it was bank transfer details which seemed wrong to me. Long story short... as soon as payment was made the Airbnb user disappeared from the Airbnb site. Removed his apartment and profile. We felt so stupid. The email was so convincing. Fully branded and all links correctly heading back to the airbnb site. I immediately contacted Airbnb and my friend contacted his bank to see if he could halt the payment. This was two weeks ago and all I have had from Airbnb is apologies over the phone and referral to the appropriate team who deal with situations like this... but ONLY communicate via email. These emails have offered nothing more than an apology for my experience and then a referral to their terms and conditions, pointing out they state not to make offsite payments. Then a paragraph informing me this will be their last communication with the matter. When someone signs up to put their property on Airbnb... there must be checks? They must have to give property details, addresses, ID, contact numbers? Airbnb have provided me with none of this! They have washed their hands of the whole affair. As for my friend... his bank are still 'seeing' what they can do' and have stated it maybe too late. Even though my friend contacted them within 12 hours. I do realise we may have been naive. But Airbnb must take some responsibility? New users of their site could easily fall into this trap and the user has been allowed to advertise falls without proper investigation. Does anyone know what rights I have or who i should complain to regarding Airbnb or my friend's bank? Airbnb did say i should inform local authorities. But who? The police cannot do anything! Help please!

Hi Today I became the victim of a mobile phone fraud. A reputable courier delivered a package to me. When I opened it, there was a new Apple iPhone and a sim card in there that I didn't order. It had been sent from E 2 Save mobile (a subsidiary company of the Carphone Warehouse) so I decided to call them to inform them of their error. The operative said his name was Mohammad and asked me for the 'customer lead' number, which I gave him from the invoice that was in the package. He then started to quiz me on personal details saying that he couldn't arrange a return unless I told him things like 'who I bank with'. Of course, I refused and he said that he was trying to help me. My answer was that he was wrong, I was trying to help him! in the end he said that he would be able to get it picked up by DPD, the company that delivered the phone in the first place. This is a company I use often and know how they work. Ok I said. Then I got a text message saying that DPD would pick the phone up between 9:00 and 17:00 tomorrow. DPD always give you a time within an hour slot. After this I got very suspicious and called my bank to let them know what had happened. They checked everything on my accounts and there was nothing untoward. Then I checked my credit file to find four searched on the date of the invoice that turned up in the package, all from communication providers. The invoice says that 1p was paid at the point of sale with a visa card. My credit cards are all with Master Card, but my debit cards are Visa.

Hi Everyone, I'm going to tell you my experience to date so that others may learn from it. It's not quite over yet but I think it will be by next week. Feel free to ask me any questions. I live in SW Scotland and in Feb 2014 I approached a local family run company to quote for double glazed replacement windows. The sales director sent me the quote from his email address. I responded with a query and then accepted the quote by email. His email address was then automatically added to my Outlook email address book. The work was carried out in May 2014. The fitters did a really good job and I love the windows so there's no problem there. The problem started on 2nd June 2014. I received an invoice from the company asking me for immediate payment but that invoice didn't give me one jot of information on how to pay them. In fact it was very poor, it had no company reg number and no T & Cs either. I sent a quick email to the sales director (using the address already stored in Outlook) asking for payment details. I got a response which mentioned 'New bank account' signed by the director from the sales director's email address. I logged onto my bank account (Cahoot) and setup the payment online. This all happened early afternoon. Then around 4:30pm I received a second email from the sales director's email address but signed by the girl in the office. It gave me different bank details. I presumed that the company were in the process of changing bank accounts and that maybe the directors hadn't communicated it yet to the staff. It was too late in the day to check with them when I picked up the email. At about 7:30 that night Cahoot performed a security call. In it they asked me if the payment was going to the windows company to which I said yes. The next day I received an email from the sales director asking me where the money was because they hadn't received it. I was given the run around until the 11th June when I had become very suspicious and stopped communicating with him. In the meantime the bank were trying to trace where the money had gone. They sent me the necessary proof on the 20th June. I then got in touch with the company and sent the document to them on a different email address. I told them they could now put pressure on Barclays bank because they had definitely received the money. They instantly replied asking why Barclays when they were with Bank of Scotland. I sent them all the previous emails and the girl in the office phoned me and said they had never sent the emails to me. She asked me what I intended to do and I said I was going to phone the police, which I did. The police investigation is ongoing and there are now 8 other victims none of them to do with the windows company. Not once did this company try to talk to me or investigate the circumstances. Their first response was when I was on the phone to the office girl and the sales director was asking in the background if I was insured. The next thing they did was get a solicitor involved and sent me a demand to pay up. I went to my own solicitor and showed her the email. She told me I have paid. The company did a few things that made me very suspicious about them. They never chased me for the payment when I had told them they should received my payment by 3rd June at the latest and they deleted all their emails which were police evidence. I had my computer checked to ensure I hadn't been hacked which I hadn't. I then had the email headers looked at by a computer expert and they have shown that the so called fraudulent email was sent to me via the window company's server. It looks as if someone within the company logged onto a google email account (which is largely anonymous) and somehow intercepted my email but not quickly enough to stop another person in the company from also seeing my email. My next step was to complain to my bank. There had been no warnings on their screens to tell me that I wasn't protected by the Faster Payments System or that they don't check the account name. The bank's response was to tell me they didn't want the criminals to know this! I said if that was the case they could have told me during the security call. They dismissed my complaint. I went to the Financial Ombudsman. The adjudicator also dismissed my complaint twice but I appealed and it finally reached the Financial Ombudsman. The bank had very conveniently lost the recording of the security call but somehow the FO managed to get them to find it. It was because of that security call that she upheld my complaint. She says that the bank led me to believe that they checked the account name. She also said that the bank had authorised the payment and not me. She ruled that the bank should re-imburse me for all my legal costs, the debt owed to the window company and any other costs so that I am not out of pocket. This decision was made in May 2015 from my initial complaint in Aug 2014. My solicitor was amazed at what I had achieved. I would say that the Faster Payments System is not secure enough. The customer has no way of checking that the bank details provided by a company actually belong to that company. Criminals are now putting people into companies to spot loopholes in their security/admin procedures in order to send out fraudulent bank details to unsuspecting victims like me. You could ring a company to ask them for their bank details and the person you were speaking to could give you their personal information and you would be none the wiser. There is nowhere to verify that an account belongs to a company. Once you have paid the money it is impossible to get it back unless the bank made the error. I believe that in other countries they use a third check like the company reg number or an NI number. When the bank finally got in touch with me in August this year I asked them who makes the decisions on the court case if they are now paying. They said that I do no matter what the cost! They also said that they didn't want me to settle out of court and they wanted the hearing to go ahead. I have put in endless hourss of work on this and accumulated some very good evidence to defend my case. A legal debate is scheduled for 22nd October but my solicitor wants to use Counsel for the debate. They are saying they have struggled to find anything in law to help them and have had to go right back to Victorian law. They say the contract was formed via email and the company should have ensured that their email system was secure because I had relied on it. At the mention of Counsel the bank have started squirming. They rang me on the 22nd and said they were refusing to indemnify me after that date. I went back to the Financial Ombudsman with this information and she told me that wasn't quite what had been discussed. So everything is currently up in the air with the case. It looks very much like I will have to settle out of court because I cannot afford to fund this on my own. If the criminals are part of the company they will receive the money twice. I had hoped that the bank would help me see this case through to its conclusion so that I could have possibly had an outcome good enough to help others that follow in my footsteps. I may never know who was responsible for sending me that email because the police are just following the money. I now have a lovely set of windows with no guarantee.

Hi all, I am writing as I too have received a letter from TFL where they threaten to prosecute me. The incident happened in the train in March. I use a type of ticket that you buy in advance and fill in with the date of the journey when you travel. I was going back home after work, tired, sleepy, and I filled in the date on my ticket and accidentally entered a future date as I am so dumb I was convinced it was a different date. I was so convinced that I didnt even bother to double check in the calendar. When I arrived at the destination station, I was asked to show my ticket and the inspector checked it and told me, hey this is not today's date. He wanted me to pay the fine and I asked, is there any way to avoid this, as it's clearly been an honest mistake? and he said, yh I can take your details and the company will write to you to ask for your version. I thought, that is really fair!! I will give my version and then they will decide whether I have to pay or not!! Surprise surprise........"the company asking for my version" is a letter of intention to prosecute. I have already replied to them explaining what happened but I assume it is going to be useless. I have some questions, and I was hoping somebody here could help. I have read I could be prosecuted in 2 different ways (I copy and paste from another thread): - The most serious is section 5 of the Regulation of Railways Act 1889, criminal, requires intent to avoid fare, fine up to level 3 (£1000), or for second or subsequent offence can at discretion of court lead to imprisonment up to 3 months. - Railway byelaws (both sections 17 and 18), criminal, strict liability (no intent needed), fine up to level 3 (£1000) except byelaw 17 My questions are: - Will I know before going to court what law they are prosecuting me under? Can they change their mind at a later point? - If its the railways act, do they have to prove to avoid fare? I might have a fighting chance at demonstrating I had no intent of doing so. - If its the railway bylaws, then they dont need to prove intent. However is there any circumstance under which their evidence would not be admissible? The inspector was a 17 yr old bully and I believe he made some errors, e.g. wrote comments on my witness statement on a section that was meant for my comments, pressured me into signing, did not explain why he was taking my details and told me it was just 'to give my version' - Can I subpaena documents/CCTV for my defence? I am a fighter and will certainly not go down without a fight. At this point I dont care about the money. I only care about being turned into a criminal. I am most certainly not a criminal. I volunteer for two charities where I work with children and I need an enhanced DBS, so criminal record would mean no more volunteering. I am really shocked. In my country these issues are not covered by criminal law, they are covered by administration law and you would NEVER get a criminal record for such a matter. I don't know who had this idea but it sounds really out of proportion. Thanks for any help that you might give.

:???::???::???: Sent my fine and paper licence in pre addressed envelope, but according to DVLA was never received. Consequence was that I ended up with a court date, went and pleaded guilty. 35 in a 30!! Duty solicitor dealt with it in court and I was there about ten mins. Fine arrives in the post and includes a "Victim" charge, are they really allowed to get away with this?? Can somebody please explain "who the victim is?" as it was a flipping fixed speed camera. What sort of government con is this????

I received a parking ticket in August 2014, from ANPR ltd. My work's car park was operated by ANPR. I lost my permit the day before when my car was cleaned. I didn't notice it was missing and got a parking ticket when someone came round to check. I had been working for the company for 4 months prior to the ticket, parking in the same spot with the same car, as my company had been allocated a certain amount of car parking spaces. I was entitled to the spot. I swiftly got a visitors pass and used it until i left the company mid september. The car is in my mums name, so all correspondence was to her. As advised by a colleague, all letters were ignored (3 letters: 14 day reduced fee, 30 day full fee, and some debt collector one) until the most recent, which worried my mother as it described a court summons. It was a letter explaining that a lawyer is taking me to court. It also showed a breakdown of the the court appeal: £100 damages + £40 DVLA fee + £35 admin fee + £35 court charges = £210 (there shouldn't be any damages because the space is reserved for me anyway!) today I foolishly contacted ANPR and stated the reasons why I wouldn't be paying the fine, as i was an employee of the company, however I admitted that the parking ticket had been lost when my car was cleaned. Should i have done this?! Have i compromised my position? Any help would be appreciated! I will not pay this extortionate amount. Shall i carry on ignoring them? Do i state in an email why i wont be paying them and leave it at that? Do i appeal to POPLA? Will it go to small claims court?

Hi, I too have fallen victim to not only fraud, but Vodafone's utter incompetence in dealing with the issue. Here is a summary: - In October 2014 I went abroad on holidays for 2 weeks. - While I was abroad, someone used my identity to change the home address and contact number on my account. - 2 lines were added to my account, upgraded my monthly tariff from £10.50 to £166 (for 3 lines) and ordered an iPad and 2 iPhones – which Vodafone claim were received and signed by me. - Vodafone suspected fraud on my account and cut my line off while I was away, however later concluded that no fraud had been found on my account. - To cut a long story short: after about 20 calls to the Vodafone helpline, 2 trips to Vodafone stores and countless hours spent trying to solve the problem, my tariff still has not been reverted, and Vodafone claim I owe money. - I have filed a crime report with the Police, and am pursuing matters with consumer groups and in the media. I have never dealt with such a badly organised and dreadful company. Each time I call, I spend an hour bringing someone else up to speed, only to find out (a) that they can't do anything, (b) put me on to a different department or © promise me it's going to be fixed in 48 hours and of course nothing happens. I have been with Vodafone 15 years, and have tried to cancel my contract, but I am not allowed to because of the outstanding balance on my account and the additional £900 I am being asked cancel a contract I never agreed to. Very frustrating!

A relative of mine has fallen for this trick - i.e. a website giving the impression that a free trial of a face cream is available, only need to pay £3.95 postage. Hidden in Ts&Cs is that the full price of £97 will be taken from the card if trial not cancelled in 14 days. He received a phone call from the bank asking him if he knew of the £97 payment, he said no (which he didn't) and the bank cancelled the card and implied that the transaction wouldn't go through. Unfortunately, despite this, the money was debited anyway leaving him overdrawn on an account that has no o/d facility so he has now incurred bank charges of £6 per day. The bank said they would send a form to dispute the payment but have since called him back to say that there will be no form as in their view, he accepted the ts&cs and it is his fault and they attach no blame to the company (Stemacell). I read up on here and he has already sent back the items, unopened and not tampered with, within the 30 day limit. They have now e-mailed to say they will not refund as the items were not returned in original condition. This is a lie as they certainly were and we took photos to show this. I am planning joining a call to his bank again now that it is even more clear that this is a [problem] to request a charge back. If anyone has any further pointers, please let me know. What I would really like to know is, if the bank will not budge, can I issue a court claim against the company (a legal entity in the Czech Republic)?? I found this but how practical is it? https://e-justice.europa.eu/content_small_claims-42-en.do

I am writing is in the hope that someone who has had a similar experience may be able to help us. We run a small family owned retail store in the UK. In February we received a call from a man who wanted to buy a high quantity of produce from us. Taking orders over the phone was a normal occurrence for us as our handheld streamline device allows us to do so if the customer giving the relevant security details ie: number in the address and postcode, D.O.B etc. We had no reason to suspect this was a fraudulent transaction as the card details went through successfully and the 'customer' picked up his order later that day. We heard nothing more about this case until the beginning of June when we received a letter from First Trust bank stating that there had been a query with the transaction back in February and that First Trust would be removing the money from our account. There was nothing in the letter stating that the transaction that had taken place in February had been fraudulent. It wasn't until we rang First Trust that an advisor told us the card that had been used was stolen and that we were responsible, since then we have been to the police, our local bank branch and we have contacted the customer help line several times and after being transferred numerous times we have gotten nowhere as we are being told it is nothing to do with the bank and that we are somehow responsible. If anyone can advise us from a similar experience they have had with the banks we would be extremely grateful. We do not believe it is right that the banks can take that money from our account (nearly £1000) plus charge us a fee of £75 to do so, we also do not believe we can be liable if all security was passed by us over the phone and the details came back as verified to allow us to carry out a transaction over the phone via the banks streamline device. If anyone knows of any agencies that we can seek advise from on this matter it may also be very helpful Thank you for taking the time to read this Jonny

a Malaysian who ordered a penis enlarger online was stunned when he was sent a magnifying glass. At least it came with a useful instruction: 'Do not use in sunlight'. The victim-who paid £100 for his £5 magnifier-later reported the internet [problem] to Malaysia's customer complaints bureau. Its chairman, Seri Michael Chong, said: 'As you can imagine, he is feeling rather disgruntled.'

Hello, I`m wondering if anyone can help me? I lost my job in January and with bills to pay have been desperately applying for a new one. I saw an ad on Gumtree for a personal assistant job, which I applied for and got. It turns out I think this is a [problem] as I was sent a cheque to run some errands for someone away on business, after I deposited the cheque into my bank account I was then asked to send £200 cash via moneygram as part of an errand to someone in South Africa. This is when I realized it was a [problem], I have not sent any money via moneygram, but am worried about the cheque I deposited as I think it will bounce. I payed the cheque in to my account on Thursday and was told it will clear next Wednesday, apart from going back to my bank and asking them to stop processing the cheque/ stop the cheque clearing is there anything else I can do? Can the bank stop the cheque before it clears?

Hi All, Im hoping any of you lovely people can offer up some advice on an identity fraud matter possibly? I placed a wanted ad on Gumtree for some collectables and a person replied through the site informing me they had some for sale. They asked for my mobile number to txt me regarding price, postage ect ( person was not local and too far to collect, they said they were in Bristol, im in Yorkshire). An exchange of txts began about price and postage and i said i would pay for the items via paypal. The person said they did not have a paypal account and ask for a bank transfer instead ( in hindsight i should have terminated all contact at this point, as thinking about it afterwards anybody could have easily set up a paypal account in 5 minutes if they wanted a sale). I agreed as they seemed so nice and genuine in their txts ( confidence trick worked!) and to be honest i was so chuffed at the thought of securing the items i didnt for one minute think it was a [problem]. They gave me their bank details ( later googled sort code and it was an E account), and i transfered the money, they txt to say they had received it and asked for my name and address for postage, which i gave. After this i heard nothing, no reply to txts and phone dead when tried ringing.I realised id been an idiot and stupidly fallen victim to a [problem]. Anyway, it wasnt a great deal of money, so im not that bothered about losing it, iv learnt a lesson, But i am worried my identity may be used in some way to commit fraud. This is what they have on me: My name my address I paid by bank transfer and when i rang the bank they said it couldn't be reversed, but they assured me that the payee couldn't see any of my account details, sort code, account number ect. Further to my worry, I tonight check my Facebook, and look under the privacy settings and discover im logged in under 3 devices. One is my own mobile phone, another my laptop.....the third is a mobile device in Bristol....the place the person said they lived. Iv changed all the passwords on accounts like Amazon, catalogue companies online ect. Im worried that they may have discovered my date of birth, which was on my profile on Facebook. My facebook was set to private so only friends could see info, but as the settings said logged in on this dubious device from Bristol, im almost certain they have my date of birth. Also other info like what uni im a student at, what company i work for. Can they do anything fraudulently like open accounts, take out loans, ect with my name, address and date of birth? Or would they require more? This was 4 days ago, and my bank account is fine at the moment, but im beginning to worry about it now. Thank anyone who can advise.

Hi all, hope you can advise me on how to deal with these bottom-feeders. The story so far: In December 2008 I was made redundant. Being in my 60s and in very poor health there is little realistic prospect of working again. I have since suffered a stroke and and am waiting for heart surgery. At the time I was indebted to two credit card companies, MBNA and Lloyds TSB, and kept up repayments for 18 months untill my redundancy money was exhausted. I informed both companies of my situation: interest was frozen and nominal £1 payments were agreed by both companies. Last year MBNA sold my account to Moorcroft who accepted the situation and agreed payments of £4. All ok so far. At the end of last year Lloyds sold my £3040 account to Cabot, letters from both parties informed me of the situation, I changed my DD from Lloyds to Cabot and all was ok 'till June when Cabot started to pester me for full repayment. Today I recieved a letter informing me that they were passing my account to FIRE (I know, it's the bloke on the next desk). Where do I go from here? I will be gratefull for any advice. Thanks.

Hi Guys, I have been looking at this forum for a while for advice, and have to say it has been great, much better than MSE forum which is full of pretentious ***ts who tell you to shoot yourself for making a mistake. However this forum has much much better users who have been helpful hence why i have decided to join. Anyway, i am another victim of Toothfairy Finance and have been dealing with these numb nuts for a few weeks, taking in advice from different members of this forum i have been responding only to toothfairy in writing via email. I want to post my progress as it happens as well as take in advice from you guys as what to do next. As it stands i took out a loan for £400 on the 7th of April, my income stopped and i was unable to repay the loan in full. As i am a student i cant receive benefits, however i start a new job at the end of this month. As expected the calls and text started, i did say to them that i will only correspond in writing, below is the list of correspondence in order: Mr **** Ref Loan: ***** ********* - 07.04.13 - Sum outstanding GBP 626 We have made a number of attempts to contact you by email and SMS to discuss the outstanding balance on the short-term loan you took out on 07.04.13 and you have failed to repay the loan in accordance with the contract. We have also warned you in advance of additional charges you have incurred. As we make clear to all our customers our product is intended to be a short term financial solution. If the loan is extended this product can become expensive. As the matter has not been resolved and your loan is still outstanding, we have been left with no alternative and are writing to advise you that this debt will be passed on to our Debt Collection Agency on 19.05.13. As per the terms of the contract betwee n ToothFairy Finance Ltd and yourself (see http://www.toothfairyfinance.com/terms.html) instructing a Debt Collection Agency will add a further GBP 200 to the balance you owe. Debt recovery agents will contact you using the contact details you have provided until you pay off your debt to us. This may include a visit to your home by a Door Recovery Agent who will discuss your debt with you. If after a reasonable period of time, you have not repaid your debt, this may lead to our taking legal action against you in the County Courts (or Sheriff Courts if you are in Scotland). We will seek to recover the full amount including interest, recovery costs and legal costs where appropriate. Should we successfully obtain a judgment against you, you should be aware that a County Court Judgement against your name will remain for 6 years on the National Credit Records (NCR). This is accessed by employers, insurers and banks and may result in:- a) difficu lties in obtaining future credit; b) difficulties in obtaining a mortgage; c) being questioned at a County Court as to your financial circumstances; d) difficulty in securing future employment due to an adverse credit history and credit score If we are successful in obtaining a County Court Judgment or Scottish Decree this will be followed by an application for a Warrant of Execution (or Scottish equivalent). If this is received, Bailiffs will then visit your property and may take possession of your goods to be sold to repay your debt. The initial cost of issuing a claim in the County Court or Sheriff’s Court can vary but we will seek to recover those costs against you should we be successful. We will also seek to recover all further legal costs where legally possible. This matter may ultimately cost you more than you currently owe if you do not contact us to arrange repayment now. Please immediately pay 626 by either: 1) Paying online by visiting http://www.toothfairyfinance.com and clicking Pay Now; or 2) Make a bank transfer for GBP 626 to: Barclays Bank Account number 93462382 Sort code 20-50-94 Ref: Use your mobile number (************) as a reference so we can match it correctly ALSO please EMAIL us confirming that this has been done to stop the debt being passed to the Debt Collection Team and further charges being incurred. If you ignore this and a Debt Recovery Agency is instructed you are putting yourself at risk of legal proceedings and further action. We look forward to hearing from you confirming a speedy resolution of this matter. If you have already repaid and this is not reflected in the above statement please contact us so we can investigate this further and correct your file. Yours Sincerely Legal Department Toothfairy Finance t: 0800 8620218  Please consider the environment before you print this email. The above email will look familiar to those in my position, i just ignored this then decided to call them to sort it out, from our phone they somehow believed i agreed to a repayment plan when i told them i have no income, which i thought was hilarious. At this point they told me i owed £1344 however after the repayment plan i "agreed to" i owed £800. Here is their email dated May 20th Dear ****** This is an AUTOMATED EMAIL. I am writing to confirm your agreement with one of our agents OR debt collection agencies regarding your ToothFairy Pay Day Loan*** in which you agreed to make the following payments: 31.05.13 - £800.00 Total payment of £800.00 to be paid by 31.05.13 to close this loan This agreement has now been noted on your permanent file. PLEASE NOTE: You can make payment in one of the following ways: - ONLINE: by visiting our website: http://www.northerndebtrecovery.com - BANK: you can make a transfer to our account or pay cash over the counter at your local bank using the following information: Barclays Banks A/c number: 13492192 Sort code: 20-95-61 Ref: 17357858 (please use 17357858 as the reference to ensure your payment is l ogged to your account. Not using a reference will delay us in being able to match your payment to your file and may delay us in crediting your account leading to you incurring additional charges and fees). If YOU fail to HONOUR this agreement, and do not pay as agreed, the following action may be taken: 1. FULL fees and charges will be added to your account, and any discount applied will be lost; 2. Full interest will be added retrospectively; and. 3. We reserve the right to instruct our solicitors to issue legal proceedings in the County Court (or Sheriff Court if you are in Scotland). If we are successful in obtaining a County Court Judgment (CCJ) or Scottish Decree we may make an application to the court for a Warrant of Execution or its Scottish equivalent. This will enable Bailiffs to come to your property and seize your property. This should be taken seriously. It is ESSENTIAL you honour the agreement you made You rs sincerely, DEBT MANAGER - Greg Campbell (257) NORTHERN DEBT RECOVERY 0843 381 0843 NOTICE: The contents of this e-mail are intended for the named addressee only. It contains information which may be confidential and which may also be privileged. Unless you are the named addressee (or authorised to receive for the addressee) you may not copy or use it, or disclose it to anyone else. If you received it in error please notify sender immediately and then destroy it. Northern Debt Recovery Limited (NDR) is a company registered in England and Wales whose registered address is Northern Debt Recovery Limited, 15 Lyndhurst Terrace, London, NW3 5QA, United Kingdom. Company registration number 6956396. Northern Debt Recovery Limited (NDR) is licensed by the Office of Fair Trading under Consumer Credit Licence number 631166 It must be noted that i called Toothfairy Finance, i was still on the phone to Toothfairy to a Greg, when i got this email from NDR....funny that. I decided i was going to attempt to pull £800 out my a** in two weeks to get these crooks off my back, however i did not with the lottery so on May 30th i replied: Hi, Following my loan default i am in the position where i am unable to repay the £800 you are requesting, even though i stated to you i am out of work and do not have a single penny of income at the moment. Can you please provide me with my options? Please note i will only accept correspondence in writing or email. ****** ***** On the same day i got the same day i got a similar email as before from toothfairy not NDR: Please remember that you agreed / are required to make payments to settle your ToothFairy Finance Ltd - ToothFairy Pay Day Loan*** to avoid further charges and debt recovery action. You are committed to paying GBP 800 by 31.05.2013. If you fail to honour this agreement and you ignore us your payment plan will fail and we reserve the right to take action to recover the full amount. We may also instruct Door Recovery Agents to visit your property to discuss your debt with you and the reasons for non-payment. If payment continues to be non-forthcoming, then the file will be passed to our Solicitors for review. This may lead to a County Court claim (or Sheriff Court claim if you are in Scotland) against you. If we successfully obtain a County Court Jud gment (or Scottish Decree) we may then make further applications to the court for a Warrant of Execution or an Attachment of Earnings Order (or their Scottish equivalent). my response again was similar as they sent me a repeat email Hi, Following up from my email last night that i sent, which was as follows: Hi, Following my loan default i am in the position where i am unable to repay the £800 you are requesting, even though i stated to you i am out of work and do not have a single penny of income at the moment. Can you please provide me with my options? Please note i will only accept correspondence in writing or email. ************** Your opening line to the email you sent to me states that i "agreed" to the repayment of £800, I never agreed to that, what i said to your advisor was that i will try and get the money put together but i highly doubt it because of my situation. Demanding £800 off a person who has £1.37 in their bank with no income i would consider to be a ludicrous payment plan, so can you please email me with a suitable repayment plan that would better suit my situation. I will not speak over the phone as i want all our correspondence in writing. *********** However i was unable to respond to this email so had to submit the email to their contact us form on their website, i suppose this is where it gets lost for future evidence! So my advice would be to keep a copy. Anyway following that submission this was my their response: Dear ******, Thank you for your message passed to us from Toothfairy Finance. In order for us to be able to assist you please fax us as much of the below listed evidence as possible. Income and Expenditure form; Letter of termination/redundancy; Letter confirming receipt of Job Seekers Allowance; A copy of your P45 / P46; and A signed sickness certificate from your doctor indicating long term illness. We will take these documents into consideration when arranging your repayment plan, once your plan has been arranged we would like to assist you further by freezing all correspondence and charges on your account. Faxes can be received on 0203 137 0794 and will be processed. Yours sincerely, COLLECTIONS (129) NORTHERN DEBT RECOVERY 0843 381 0843 NOTICE: The contents of this e-mail are intended for the named addressee only. It contains information which may be confidential and which may also be privileged. Unless you are the named addressee (or authorised to receive for the addressee) you may not copy or use it, or disclose it to anyone else. If you received it in error please notify sender immediately and then destroy it. Northern Debt Recovery Limited (NDR) is a company registered in England and Wales whose registered address is Northern Debt Recovery Limited, 15 Lyndhurst Terrace, London, NW3 5QA, United Kingdom. Company registration number 6956396. Northern Debt Recovery Limited (NDR) is licensed by the Office of Fair Trading under Consumer Credit Licence number 631166. After this email i thought i was getting somewhere, couldnt believe my eyes they were offering to freeze interest and charges, too good to be true though. I worte back explaining i was a student so couldnt provide any of the documentation they asked for. Their response was: Dear ******* Thank you for your message. An income and expenditure form your can download from Google. If you are unable to pay in a one off payment, but you are willing to pay £150 per month starting from this month, we are prepared to FREEZE all interest and charges on your account. Please confirm the dates that you will be making payment on and whether you wish for us to set this up to take payment automatically from your debit card you previously provided us with. If you are unable to pay the above amount on a monthly basis, please confirm what amount you are able to make and we will consider your offer. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to call us on 0843 381 0843 Please note continued non-payment or refusal to come to an amicable agreement will result in your file being passed to Marshall Hoares Bailiffs who may come to your property to discuss your outstanding debt with you. Yours sincerely, COLLECTIONS (129) NORTHERN DEBT RECOVERY 0843 381 0843 NOTICE: The contents of this e-mail are intended for the named addressee only. It contains information which may be confidential and which may also be privileged. Unless you are the named addressee (or authorised to receive for the addressee) you may not copy or use it, or disclose it to anyone else. If you received it in error please notify sender immediately and then destroy it. Northern Debt Recovery Limited (NDR) is a company registered in England and Wales whose registered address is Northern Debt Recovery Limited, 15 Lyndhurst Terrace, London, NW3 5QA, United Kingdom. Company registration number 6956396. Northern Debt Recovery Limited (NDR) is licensed by the Office of Fair Trading under Consumer Credit Licence number 631166. At this point i was getting bored with the rubbish email correspondence so decided to spice things up by setting out my own terms, not sure if it was a good idea but i really couldnt care less to deal with crooks you have to be a bit of a crook. Hi, My expenditure is £811 pm with an income of £0pm....Also quite frankly i need you guys to justify the substantial fees you have added to my loan, considering that you are the same company as toothfairy you cant justify charging 100's of pounds to pass the debt from yourselves to yourselves, thats just a joke. 1) I am willing to make monthly payments as i start a new job soon, however it will not be or even close to £150 a month as i wont be able to afford that and live. 2) I will not be paying the £1000's you claim i owe, i will not pay your ridiculous fees and charges that are deemed unreasonable. 3) If you cant accept the above terms, i suggest you skip all the rubbish and take me to court. ******* ***** Well did not get a response to that however today got this email from Marshall Hoares Bailiffs BY LETTER AND EMAIL Online payment ID: 17357858 Outstanding amount: 832 Commence Proceedings Client: ToothFairy Finance Ltd - ToothFairy Pay Day Loan*** Client Ref: 17357858 Date: 11/06/2013 We write to inform you that we have not heard from you and that we have been instructed to commence active recovery procedures against you for the collection of the above arrears which remain outstanding. Full payment of the outstanding amount is hereby demanded within 7 days of this notice to prevent further recovery procedures commencing. Further recovery procedures which we will undertake are: -further letters and telephone calls to contact you at your home and place of work if you do not respond to us; -our agen t will make visits to your premises for the purpose of discussing your debt; and -we will gather all evidence and prepare your file for presentation to our Solicitors so that they can issue proceedings against you in your local County or Sheriff Court. Should you be unable to pay in full within 7 days, an instalment plan may be accepted depending on your financial circumstances. If you wish to pay by instalments you should contact one of our customer service operators as soon as possible on 08433811111. Yours faithfully Door Collections Marshall Hoares Bailiffs Telephone: 0843 381 1111 The content of this email should not be considered as an acceptance of any offer unless we previously review and expressly approve in writing your terms and conditions relating to the subject matter of this email. The information in this email is private and confidential. If you are not the intended recipient( s) or have otherwise received this email in error, please delete the email and inform the sender as soon as possible. This email may not be disclosed, used or copied by anyone other than the intended recipient(s). Any opinions, statements or comments contained in this email are not necessarily those of Marshall Hoares Bailiffs Limited. If you wish clarification of any matter, please request confirmation in writing. Marshall Hoares Bailiffs Limited is a company registered in England and Wales whose registered address is Marshall Hoares Bailiffs Limited, 15 Lyndhurst Terrace, London, NW3 5QA, United Kingdom. Company registration number 06871092. Marshall Hoares Bailiffs Limited is licensed by the Office of Fair Trading under Consumer Credit Licence number 631168. We take precautions to minimise the risk of this email containing a software virus but you should use virus checking software. which i responded: Hi, Dont for one second think that 'Bailiffs' in your name will scare me your nothing more than a debt collectors and have no authority to carry out bailiff activities. Anyone showing up at my door thinking they can without a licence will get a familiar treatment. Also Toothfairy Finance is not a 'Client' of yours but in fact your sister company, you are owned and ran by the same staff, i am not stupid. For this reason i do not believe you can justify charging the additional fees you have for passing the file to each other. As for your threats, they mean squat im afraid, - you can send all the phone calls, texts and letters to my home, ignoring is a talent of mine. As for sending it to my work, well good luck with that, if you were a responsible letter and got the reuqired documentation before giving out loans you would have seen that i have been a student for the past year without a working income, so again good luck with that. - Your agent can make visits to my premises, but again the door will be slammed in his/her face, they will have to go have a cup of tea with my old neighbour next door. - And as you can see i have asked you already to just take me to court, i would really really really love to see how you guys present yourselves in court and answer for your unjustifiable fees as well as your behaviour as a lender, it would make my day so please feel free to take me to court, because unless you agree to my terms which i have now emailed 3 times, you will not get a single penny from me, PROMISE YOU THAT!!. Have a good day ****** ***** If you have got this far in this post thank you for reading through, could you guys please give me advice as to what i should do next? I do agree i owe them money but as you can see i aint paying no £832 because the fees are a joke. Again thank you for reading this far and i look forward to your comments!

Hello Everybody, Here is my story and I hope and beg anyone to give me suggestion: I m working abroad on contract jobs and renting out my flat. In Aug 2012, I received an email from Managing Agent of my flat saying that the residents on the same building block fall victim to a gang of ID thieves and asked permission to install the letter box at the flat individual door (the letterboxes used to be at communal area). About six months later I was back to my UK flat and greeted by the threatening letters from Santander Cards Ltd, asking for £6600. So I contacted them and reported that I was a victim. I checked my Equifax credit report and found that Santander had already flagged that I was a victim under CIFAS victim alert section. I thought it ended and went back abroad to work. In May 2013, I received a claim form from the Court. So I put in my defence online (since I am not in UK). I also provide the court the following evidence: 1. My passport visa entry stamps to show that I was not in the UK at the time the ID thief applied for Santander (Debenhams store card). 2. The letter from the Managing Agent of my flat regarding other residents were victims at the same time of the year 3. My credit report showing that I always have an excellent history and that Santander had flagged under CIFAS that I was a victim (why are they still chasing me then) I thought after providing these evidence, Howard Cohen (Santander's solicitor) will back off. But today I received a N180 form from the court asking me whether I want a court hearing or mediation. I am going to be in Thailand and I cannot do either of that. I am a victim and I feel really helpless. What should I do next???

Well where to start I see that there is a community of people on here that have had a similar situation, so I will explain mine. Some background: Back in May 2009 I took out a 24 month notebook contract with vodafone, which was a separate account to the phone contract I had. Although I assumed these accounts were linked it turns out now that they were not. I diligently set up direct debits for both accounts and made payments month on month. In june 2011 I cancelled my notebook account, as I did not want it anymore. I called vodafone and told them about my desire to cancel. The agent told me this was fine as the 24 months had been completed and also told me to cancel my direct debit (which is on record). Anyway I thought nothing more of it, until 3 months ago when I signed up to Experian for the first time just to see how things were. I was shocked to see that I had a bad credit rating as I had a default account for my notebook. Stating that I had missed payments and owed £58. I immediately called vodafone to get this sorted. After many conversations, I finally spoke to a manager, she told me that it was correct and that there was no record of the account being cancelled, so they tried to get 3 payments and sent me letters to an address I no longer lived at (another part of the story) After 3 months of non payment they turned it to a default. We continued the conversation, and I asked the manager to check both accounts, she did and then apologised saying that a note on my phone account existed saying that I had phoned to cancel the account and was advised to cancel my direct debit, but the account had not been linked, which i was informed at the time and also in future calls that this should have happened. Due to the fact the accounts were not linked, not only did the cancellation not show on the correct account but my details were not updated, so the letters went to my old address. Even though they allowed me to cancel the account through my phone one nothing clicked about the two account belonging to me apparently. I requested an email to state what had happened, to which I got the following response: Dear Customer, Just a quick email to confirm that the issue has now been resolved and the charge on the account has now been waivered. A case has also been raised to our Quality Assurance team for this to be resolved in regards to your credit rating and should be updated with yourself within 14 days. Kim Vodafone Essentially Vodafone acknowledge the mistake and told me it was not my fault and therefore I should not have been charged as i followed the procedures, added to the mix up with my accounts. Anyway (sorry I know this is a long story) after 14 days the account had been changed to satisfied, but still a default. I obviously complained, and was told that the Quality Assurance team (who can only be contacted by email) had stated the default stands. I obviously continued to dispute this. Today is the final straw, I contacted the collections team and spoke to a manager, who told me there was nothing they could do, and even though it was clear I had done what I was supposed to do, it was also my responsibility to change my details on both accounts, even though I believed I had done this, I mean they managed to cancel my notebook through my phone account, so when I phone to change my details I assumed this has happened. I was told 9/10 times that the agent would tell you this??? how am I suppose to know if not informed. So essentially it is now my fault for not updating my information, and as such nothing will be done to remove the default that I believe and have been told should not have existed in the first place. I hope that I have explained this well enough, but I am not sure. I am happy to provide more details. It seems to be very complicated. Please help Jodie

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/bedroom-tax-victim-commits-suicide-1883600 A very sad story indeed. Who wants to bet cameron will blame the woman instead of the tax itself.

Don't know whether I am posting on the right place or not. I have had two creeper burglaries, two cars stolen whilst I was in the house in bed. When I put in a claim, they have refused compensation because I can't show that I was in reasonable fear of physical harm. How can I proof that? I have had a breakdown, and am on benefits. I feel like the world is entitiled to just walk in and take whatever they want, and I am afraid of being on my own, and coming downstairs if I hear a noise or want to get a drink etc. How else can I prove it?