Hi, Just after some clarification that I am perfectly entitled to follow my current path over this issue. I sold an IPad on eBay for £95 back in February, the buyer then told me it was damaged when it arrived. It was in perfect condition when I sent it, so I could only suggest that was damaged in transit. I asked the buyer to return it to me, so I could claim against Royal Mail for the damage & I would issue a refund, all pretty straightforward so far. The buyer contacted me saying the Ipad was packed & ready to be returned & would I issue a refund, seeing as PayPal had prevented me from taking the funds anyway, I issued the refund & asked the buyer to return the item straight away. A week passed & nothing arrived, when I contacted the buyer again he said he didn't have the IPad, he had 'given it away to a charity shop', as ebay sent him an email saying he could keep it! Naturally, I was incredulous at his behaviour, I issued a Letter Before Action & logged a claim against him on MCOL for £125. He has refused to admit responsibility, has refused to settle & will not give me the name of the 'charity shop' he 'donated' my IPad to. I am now taking this matter to court, but he is now claiming I will be liable for his transport costs as he lives in Spain! I am quite prepared to see this through to the bitter end, but I just wanted some assurance that I don't end up on the wrong side of a hefty bill. Thanks in advance for any help & advice. Chris

Hi S, Yes, there are so I may as well kill 2 birds with 1 stone so to speak!

Hi, Reading this thread with interest as I'm having my own issues with Capital One, not least in the amount of phone calls I'm having to block! Without going into too much detail I was struggling to pay the bill, returned the card and attempted to negotiate a payment plan, which, I assume, is still pending. I wrote asking for a true copy of my CCA, yet all they sent me was a copy of their current T&C, naturally unsigned, ('we have removed signatures, blah, blah, blah), which was never signed as the credit limit stated was not what was originally agreed. I assume that my next step is to write back and ask for a true copy of the original agreement, which was what I asked for in the first place, would this be correct? Many thanks for any help you can give.

Hi Wendy, Thanks for that, I'll do exactly what you say and hopefully it'll be sorted. As this is the first time my payments have been late I haven't incurred charges before, but I will endevour to do so, as I did with my bank. Thanks

NP, Thanks for that, it's nice to know I'm not the only one who has problems with these people! Take care and a have a great Christmas yourself.

Back in August I wrote to O2 requesting that they disconnect my line at the end of the contract. At the end of the contract I changed my provider and thought no more of it until I received a further bill. I wrote again to say that I had terminated the contract and to send me a bill for any monies outstanding, yet still there was no response. i then received a second bill and a third then finally a letter stating that they had disconnected my line! On several occasions I had contacted O2, each time getting no response. I now have a collection agency chasing the debt plus £80 'legal costs' and the threat of a Court Order. There is no way I'm going to pay this debt, I terminated the contract at the end of the term and that should have been the end of it. I full intend to defend this claim in court, but if anyone has any similar experiences or advice it would be most welcome.

Hi, Due to a cashflow problem I've managed to miss 2 payments on my account, but I contacted Capital One once I knew when I could make payments and how much. I took great care to make sure that the person I was talking to noted down everything I said so I wouldn't receive numerous phone calls, but they then started coming with increased frequency. They started calling me 6, 7 sometimes 8 times each day, anything from 9am-9pm, 7 days a week, this has been going on for 3 weeks now. Up until now I have either ignored the call or put the phone down, but the final straw came when they called me at work. I have written a letter of complaint to the 'Collections Director', not that I expect it to do any good, and actually accepted a call last night. Without getting angry I asked for the name of the operator and who her boss was. I explained that 3 weeks ago I contacted them to say when I would make a payment, (which will be tomorrow), and that I would not speak to them anymore. I also said that if the calls continued that I would seek legal advice and take action against them for harassment if they continued. Then lo and behold, yet another call this morning! My question is what should be my next step? It's getting to the stage where I dread the phone ringing, it interferes with not only my personal life, but my work as well, since I work from home 2 days a week. Any advice would be most welcome, thanks.

Update: After a letter from Frederickson International last week I responded by saying that I would not be paying the bill as I had cancelled the contract and had paid the bill up to the 30 day notice period. This morning I received a Letter Before Action, threatening me with a bill of more than £100 if I did not pay the £30 they claim is due. I have checked the terms and conditions of the contract and nowhere does it say that billing will continue if I fail to use the PUK code. That being the case I consider my cancellation to be valid and that a request for the code does not change that. I intend to defend this claim, but equally I don't want to have to travel to a court room to fight my corner over a £30 bill, when it would cost me 5 times that amount in a days lost work. If I defend the claim successfully what am I allowed to claim back by way of expenses and loss of earnings?

Hi Jules, Thanks for the info, it seems that there are a hell of a lot of people experiencing the same problem. What I will do is contact the court and ask if they can transfer the claim to my local county court at Coventry, as I am the 'litigation friend' in this case. In another case I had representing someone from Basildon the case was transferred to Coventry, althouth the claim was settled in full 10 days before the hearing was due.

Hi, I am currently pursuing a claim on behalf of my brother, and after seeing the case transferred to 3 different courts for directions, I received the following: 'Upon the courts own initiative TAKE NOTICE that the Allocation and Case Management Conference will take place on 17th July 2007 at 15:00pm at Southend County Court, Tylers House, Tylers Avenue, Southend on Sea, Essex SS1 2AW to be heard before District Judge Dudley When you should attend. PLEASE NOTE: This case may be released to another Judge possibly at a different court.' I have submitted several claims on behalf of other people before, all cases have been allocated to the small claims track without having to attend a hearing. So why is this different? The other problem I have is that my brother cannot attend on that date and as I live in Warwickshire it is going to be difficult for me to attend on his behalf. How should I deal with this situation? Thanks Chris

A request was sent on the 17th January requesting information under the Data Protection Act, which included a £10 cheque to cover admin, this cheque was never cashed. After 40 days of no response a second letter was sent on 27th February and still no documents were sent. Finally, on 12th March, I sent a Letter Before Action, underSection 7 Data Protection Act 1998 and this morning a letter was recieved asking for a £5 payment to cover admin! The question is should I send another cheque for £5 and give a further 7 days, or should I start action on the basis that a cheque has already been sent, even if it wasn't cashed? If I just ignore it and send another cheque, what is to stop them from not cashing it and refusing to the supply the information on the grounds that payment hasn't been made? I just feel that they have been given more than enough time to sort out this matter, it is now more than 2 months since the original request. This is nothing more than a delaying tactic and I don't see why they should be allowed to get away with it.

Thanks again for the advice, will keep you posted.

They're not disputing either, they are claiming that just because I chose not to use the PAC that I was liable for subsequent bills, despite the fact I had terminated the contract!

After countless email exchanges and phone calls to CPW they are still claiming that I owe them 3 months billing which was produced subsequent to my cancellation, I then received a notice from a collection agency with the threat of legal action if I did not pay up. I called the agency and took great care in explaining the situation only to be told, and I quote: "I'm not interested in your dispute with our client", at which point I lost my temper and not very politely ended the call. They then called me back twice, both calls ended in the same manner as the initial call. I have written to them to explain that I will not be paying the bills and if they insist on going to court I will be counter claiming for the time spent in correspondence and time lost at work due to having to attend the hearing.

Well done Gemma! Just been reading through this thread as I've just posted off the AQ on behalf of my mum who is claiming back £2350 from Lloyds. I expect it to go the whole way, as they did with you, which is a shoddy trick in my book, given that my mum is 70 years old and no way would she ever undertake this on her own. You showed a great deal of fortitude and bottle and fully deserve your reward and I intend to do the same!