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MoonBuggy

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  1. I'm hoping this is the right place to look for airline-related advice. I've been having some rather unpleasant treatment from Lufthansa's customer service centre, and it'd be a huge help if anyone could advise what my rights are here. The short version: Lufthansa have been stringing me along with a stream of false information, culminating in my being sent on a wild goose chase to Manchester airport to pick up a bag that wasn't actually there. I am (understandably, I think) less than pleased about this, and I'd very much like to know what I can do about it. The long version: I got caught in the Christmas chaos, along with many others - irritating, but understandable - not something I was going to kick up too much fuss about. After a two day delay, I managed to get an ALB-IAD-MUC-MAN ticket rebooked with United/Lufthansa; landed on the morning of the 24th, and was informed that my bag hadn't made it. Again, annoying, but not entirely surprising and not something that I was going to make an undue issue of. Filled in a form, headed off on the train to see my family. A few days, and a few calls to Lufthansa customer services later, they told me on the 28th that it had been found and assured me it would be couriered the same day. Spent a day stuck in the house waiting for couriers who never came. Courier company claimed to have not received the bag from the airline. 29th, the airline blamed it on the backlog and claimed that it was coming that same day. It didn't. If they'd just told me that they didn't know when it was coming, that would've been far preferable to the false assurances. Even at that point, though, I would've let the issue drop once I got my bag back. Anyway, on the afternoon of the 30th, still having no sign, I asked Lufthansa to get in touch with the couriers and see if they could track down the luggage. Half an hour later I they had explained that there had been a mistake, and that the bag was still at the airport - the representative told me that there were still issues with the backlog, and that they weren't sure when it would be collected; even after collection she said that it could take up to 48 hours to be processed and delivered. The alternative offered was to go and collect it myself, so I told her that I would be heading out that evening; she claimed that she contacted staff at Manchester, told them to hold it for me, and assured me that it would be there for me as soon as I got there. A few hours to the airport, and when I get there they have no record of her message. They have no bag. They tell me it was passed to the couriers on the 28th. This conversation goes round in circles for some time, before I leave empty handed. As far as I'm concerned, that's the last straw. Back home from the fruitless six-hour round trip, I write a rather strongly worded complaint to Lufthansa customer services, sent by email and recorded post, to prevent them from claiming they never received it. No reply yet. In the mean time, I'd be interested to know what recourse you guys think I might have for being treated like this. As I said, it's not so much about the lost bag (annoying as that is in itself) which still hasn't turned up, it's the absolute outright untruths that they seem to be spouting which really get to me.
  2. That's interesting - I don't suppose you happen to have any examples? I googled it a bit but couldn't seem to find anything relevant. Citing a few situations in which the ombudsman has been ignored or overruled would certainly help to give me a better position against Lloyds TSB's claims they made in the letter they sent me.
  3. I've looked at the financial ombudsman's website, and it does appear that the letter from Lloyds TSB could be accurate - they seem to have decided that section 75 doesn't apply if PayPal is involved. Frankly I find that unbelievable - not only am I left with no recourse, I can't even lodge a complaint because the very people I'm meant to complain to are the ones who say I have no rights! On principal, apart from anything else, it is just completely unacceptable. The only thing I have not yet had a chance to check is the regulations that the FSA place on PayPal in situations like this - since the ombudsman has decided the banks are not liable, I guess there is still some hope that the liability has simply been transferred to PayPal. Not yet. Not only that, they are now claiming that they'll only cover me for £100 since the seller was registered from the US but with a UK address. The fact that this was at no point mentioned, and that the eBay auction did clearly state £150 coverage, means that I will at least have some grounds to complain about that, but it's just another hassle. Quite correct, now that I look at it more closely - that'll teach me to believe what I'm told! I'll certainly take it to the police, but I still must assume that the chances of them actually recovering my money are slim, are they not? I know it's only £120 (assuming PayPal fulfil their obligations) but it's still enough to irritate me, not to mention the principal of the thing.
  4. I'll certainly request the details from PayPal again - when I tried to do so before they informed me that they couldn't provide them to me directly, only to the police. I have not yet reported it to the police, as I was hoping that it would just be sorted through the banks and PayPal, and because I had previously been informed that it was a civil, not criminal, matter. If that is not the case, however, I'll certainly do so. In terms of taking further action against the bank (it's Lloyds TSB, not Barclays, by the way) or PayPal, I don't know what grounds I could do so on. That was really the crux of my original question - obviously I'll push it first to them, and secondly through the courts, but I don't know what grounds I can do so on when they claim that the CCA doesn't apply - I know from experience that big companies often do everything they can to avoid fulfiling their legal obligations, and that they often give in when presented with the facts and shown that the customer is willing to take it as far as necessary, but I can't seem to find any reference points as to what the facts actually are here, other than the (presumably biased) interpretation they gave me. I really do appreciate your taking the time to help me here, I'm so glad that there's at least somewhere to discuss matters like this. Thanks.
  5. That's what I thought, but it seems like they've decided to start trying anything they can to avoid it, and unfortunately I don't know where to start in terms of getting my money back.
  6. I'm not fully covered by PayPal simply because they only provide £150 buyer protection on a lot of transactions - I know it's better than nothing, but it still would leave me out of pocket for something that I had absolutely no control over. The letter sent claims that section 75 of the CCA doesn't apply. I've scanned and OCRed the letter, full text is below. I disagree with some of their points (particularly the comparison to sending a cheque - that analogy completely negates the role that PayPal play in the transaction) and I get the general impression that I'm not being given all of the information I need, but I unfortunately don't know how to go about dismantling their argument.
  7. I did actually post this in another thread, but I figured it was probably lost in the flow of conversation, so I hope it's OK to put it here: I've been trying to sort out a £270 purchase I made on PayPal (the item never arrived, the seller is a [EDIT]) - since I know that PayPal doesn't cover me to the full amount, I requested a chargeback from the credit card company. After about a month of hassle, they have finally sent me a letter stating that PayPal's duty was simply to process the payment and that as they have done so correctly, there are no grounds for a chargeback. I honestly don't know what to do now - I was under the strong impression that the credit card companies had to cover you against cases exactly like this, and I'm more than happy to push the issue as far as I need to, but realistically I don't know where to start. Any ideas, anyone?
  8. It's been a little while since I last posted here, but I've been trying to deal with the bank, who have been extremely unhelpful. They've finally sent me a letter explaining that because PayPal fulfilled their duty in forwarding the money, I have no recourse and cannot issue a chargeback. I am completely at a loss as to what to do now - PayPal's dispute process is still running, but I'll still be out by a significant amount of money when that finally finishes, and I can't believe that both the bank and PayPal are able to simply say "Sorry, not our problem" when somone has stolen money from me.
  9. After speaking to a very helpful forum member privately, I've called the bank and requested a chargeback, so I shouldn't be out of pocket, at least. There seemed no point in spending a month waiting for a PayPal claim when it would only have refunded half my money anyway. It looks like I wouldn't have enough information to report him, even if I wanted to. I just find that very annoying - even more so, now that you say they probably wouldn't pursue it, Bookworm. When I think of all the stupid things they spend police time on, it's just unbelievable that someone who is stealing money from multiple people gets off with nothing.
  10. I've been using eBay quite regularly and it would appear that I have now run in to my first [problem] seller. There were none of the obvious signs of a dishonest seller, however I made a purchase for £270 just under two weeks ago and have had no reply to my repeated emails to the seller. I have also had a few emails from another buyer who purchased from the same seller and is in the same boat. I've filed a dispute with PayPal, but I'm wary about escalating to a full PayPal claim because I know that the buyer protection policy does not cover the full amount. I assume that it would be better to just issue a chargeback with the bank to ensure that I get the total refund, but I'm open to any other suggestions about this. The other thing that I would like to know is where to take it from here - I have a name and phone number which I assume to be genuine, but then again I have no proof of that. Although I am reasonably confident I can reclaim the money, it still feels as though there should be some way that I can report the fraud to the police or the courts. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
  11. I'd be rather surprised if this isn't classed as eBay abusing their virtual monopoly on the online auction market in order to force users to 'purchase' (through fees, in this case) another of their products.
  12. Thanks for the replies. That's actually a very good point that I hadn't thought of, buzby - I've emailed eBay asking if they could provide me with some further information about the legal status of bids placed (although I don't hold out too much hope, thanks to previous encounters with their customer service dept.). At the very least I would hope that if it's not actually true, they'll stop plastering it all over their help pages. I do appreciate the fact that they refund final value fees, but the free relisting only relates to the insertion fee - meaning expensive extras (featured, at £9.95, for example) are just sunk costs. For the moment I've just stopped paying for any extras, but lack of visibility is a problem and I don't like being forced into a corner by people who are breaking the terms of service and possibly contract law as well, hence my desire to do something about it.
  13. I've been having increasing problems with non-paying bidders on my eBay auctions recently, and I'm wondering what the best course of action to take is. I know that I can reclaim the final value fees, but I'm still out anything up to £10 on the listing fees - a figure I simply can't afford to risk when almost 30% of my sales are going unpaid. I keep hearing that eBay bids are legally binding, but I have yet to find any information on exactly what rights and responsibilities the buyer and seller have, and what regulations it is bound by. I know it's probably not worth taking legal action on anything other than the most expensive of items, but nonetheless I'd like to know what options are open to me. Thanks all.
  14. I sent the computer and it arrived not working, I refunded the buyer's money and had it returned to me. I know that anything will take bumps in transit, but I believe some of the BGA chips have come loose, implying a jolt of significant force. Like I said in my first post, if you drop a cardboard box on its flat side it can withstand an awful lot of shock without deforming. Because of the cost of replacement hardware for Apple machines, replacement would cost about the same as the total value of the machine. Parcelforce have not said anything about the packaging being inadequate - all they said is that there is not any evidence that the computer was damaged while in their care.
  15. It seems to have taken some kind of jolt that's damaged the motherboard, leaving it unusable.
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