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Liamhastings

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  1. It's now taken a sick, almost sinister turn. The manager in charge of the agents has told my partner, that unless we give a full appology, retract all complaints, and write and sign that we intend no legal action, then they will not allow the money to be return and will try to dispute the FULL amount. £1250! When we were the ones to complain in the first place! The money is with the DPS. They have just said that the way the agents are acting is not correct and we should take them to court. The thing is, we need the money back sooner rather than later - It's over £1000... If we do send a mail saying these things, can we still take them to court at a later date? For the toilet issues, and the fact that they wouldn't return the money? I have emails of all their demands and replies. We haven't complained to anyone apart from them so far. The landlord has mailed me and said he's asked them to return the deposit - In fact he claims they told him they were not going to hold on it...
  2. They are now telling us that they will hold our deposit untill we retract all our complants against them and agree that we will not take them to court... Can they do this?
  3. In the landlords defence, he was in Australia - that why he got this letting agent - to run things. One of his emails to them that he added us in to was him complaining that they were supposed to be sorting things out for him. But the point is, he might have been a little slow or stupid to use them - they however were rude, nasty and negligent. I want to hold the letting agents to account for how they acted - mainly with the toilet. How would I take them to court?
  4. Just an extra note - I can't stress how rude, and nasty these people were. They never returned calls, or kept appointments. But they were just lazy and annoying until the end of the year and we refused to pay some money to them and started to really complain - then they turned... well not even like a business... it was more like talking to 15-20 year threatening children. At the end of the year the landlord was going to allow us to leave them and deal with him directly because of their poor service. In the end, we had to move back north, so left the whole flat. But, we have many, many letters of complaints, from us and the landlord to them. I even have them addmiting that they would hold the whole deposit to until we paid what they wanted, in a ransom sort of way.
  5. I want to find out what I can do next. I've just finished a tenancy with a terrible letting agents. Durring the year with them, we had no toilet for 3 months, poor repairs and a number of other issues. We complained but nothing was ever done. When leaving the flat, we refused to pay their check-out fee, because of their poor service and because they had not completed an inventory at the start. They then refused to release the rest of our deposit (over £1000) until we paid what they wanted. I would like to take them to court, to hold them accountable for their actions. I'm not even that concerned with money - I'm mainly angry that we had no working toilet for months, and that they never did anything about it. And also that they would have tried to hold our whole deposit as ransom. We have stack of letters that we wrote to them complaining, and even emails from the landlord complaining about them. They have been rude, nasty, and simply discusting to deal with. What can I do? I want to take them to court... or to have some action taken against them. They shouldn't be able to get away with how they have acted. Many thanks
  6. Thanks for the reply! Yeah, I didn't think there was too much to be done, but just to clarify, he's wasn't going for the store manager position, or even the Assistant manage, - they're far, above him still; this new store is a huge 'Flagship' one - No, it was another position below that - or any position really! He just wants to try his hand at something new, work closer to home, be part of a new store... I can understand them advising him to stay for a bit longer to learn more, but I dislike them stopping him progressing just for their own ends. I can tell he's quite disappointed. The thing is, if he didn't work there, and had just applied for a position at this new store, he'd be hired in a snap. Is there anyway he can insist on being considered? I'm aware however, of the need to be careful in not causing too much trouble, but also one does need to sometimes speak out and make your voice heard...
  7. Hello! My partner works for a High Street clothing chain as a store manager. He recently got told about a new store being build and decided to apply for a position there. He's been with the company for about a year and a half, and a store manager for about a year now. He's done an amazing job at his store, which used to suffer massive stock loss, but which he's now turned around. He want a new challenge, higher pay, and to start climbing the ranks more, so he can get a better position closer to home. Anyhow, he just got a call from the regional controller, telling him that his application for a new position was rejected and they want him to stay in the store he's in for longer - 6-8 months, maybe more. And with that, the matter seems closed. Can they do this? Stop him from applying/progressing? It seems to me that they just want to keep him there because he's doing a good job, but they're not taking his career into account. What are the laws on this?
  8. I’m hoping someone here has some information and can help me make some decisions too. Basically I moved into a new property last September with my partner. It’s rented from a nice couple who moved abroad and managed by ‘Paul Simon Estate Agents’. Since the start things have been pretty bad with our agent. First – and mainly - the toilet flush broke, and there were a few other small issues. These dragged on for months, right up past Christmas till January. Getting things fixed was a slow business. Most of the time, the agents didn’t return calls or keep appointments. The plumbers/builders that the agents used seemed particularly poor. They too missed appointments, didn’t finish work, etc. In the few weeks before Christmas, I started to become very angry over all this, and sent a few letters/emails about the situation, informing them that unless action was taken I was going have the work completed myself. We were also in contact with the flat owners, informing them what was happening. They interceded on our behalf and sent some quite angry emails (and copied us in) to the agents telling them that they were paying a lot of money to deal with all this and they shouldn’t be having to keep an eye on them etc. Finally after Xmas the toilet was fixed. I then sent a long complaint to them regarding the length of time it took to sort and how everything was dealt with – remember we didn’t have a proper toilet for almost 5 months; we had to pour buckets of water down the bowl all that time. The agents replied to this with a letter, filled with mistruths and strange lies. Stating that we had refused them access to the property, we had missed appointments and that the plumbers had been ‘sent away’ by my mother on one occasion! The whole thing was just a joke. I sent a massive reply refuting practically everything they had said – most of it I was able to prove wrong and so the agents said they would look into it and get back to us. They haven’t. In the meantime, we also had a water leak in our kitchen from the flat upstairs over the New Year. That was dealt with fairly quickly, but it’s again took a long time to completely fix the damage (Paining the walls and ceiling etc.) – only just finished in May! We had other issues with our electrics, and then again with the toilet – this time the pipes and plumbing. We’d reported this back in December and think it had something to do with not having a flush on the toilet for so - long causing waste to build up - but nothing was ever done about it until the last few weeks. This all a bit disjointed and hard to explain – there are about half a dozen other things I could complain about - but the general gist is that the agents: -Don’t reply to contact – Letters, emails or phone calls -Fail to have things fixed in a timely manner -Are slow and quite often rude The worst part about this was our toilet. We had no flash for the first 3-4 months and then a continually blocking/overflowing toilet for the next 3 months. That alone I feel is almost criminal. What I want is to take some kind of action against these agents. Now I know they’re not part of any registered schemes (Big shock) so that route is closed. Is there anything else I can do? The second issue is this. I do NOT want to have to deal with them for a second year. We’re paying £1250 P/M, and they take about 15% of this, whist doing very little. I seem to spend more time on the phone, writing letters and chasing things up than them. Assuming my landlords/owners agree, is it possible to change to another letting agents? Or even pay direct to my landlords and cut out the agents? I’ve read all sorts of things about you not being about to ‘leave’ the agents and go direct with the owner which sounds very strange to me, after all, the landlords own the flat! Although I’m not really aware what kind of contract the landlords have with the agents. So, any ideas, information and help?
  9. I've written to consumerdirect, and am awaiting there reply, but I've had the following exchange from the 'trader': Dear Liam, *Your application said 'yes' to email contact. *Your application said 'yes' to Tuesdays at 5pm. *You only needed to have the courtesy to cancel. You were given a choice of media for that: text, phone, email. *In the event you remained discourteous enough to fail to respond to any follow up or email after the event, until 1st Debt approached you. I have reviewed again, and I am more than happy to let 1st Debt proceed on our behald. Yours faithfully, Donald Manager LACAP I am replying thus: 'Dear Yoko 1) You will notice that my application also said 'Yes' to phone contact too. You also took my home address, which you failed to utilize - Except to pass my details to a debt collection agency. 2) It is not correct that I have I said 'Yes' to Tuesdays at 5pm. I said 'Yes' to BEGIN available BETWEEN Tuesdays at 5pm and 9pm along with Monday/Wednesday/Thursday/Friday. I have UNDER NO CIRCIMSTANCES ever agreed to an appointment specifically on Tuesday at this time WITHOUT PRIOR CONSULTATION AND CONFIRMATION. 3)It is not the case of having courtesy to cancel. It is due to now being aware of an arranged appointment. Your own records state that on 22/06/10: 'Patient stated that he didn't know who the text message reminder was from and hadn't checked his e-mails until today. Said he would contact us to rearrange. Phil' I was not aware an appointment had been assigned by your company. You arranged an appointment for the 22nd June and informed me on the 16th. Taking into account the 48 cancelation policy, and the 19th and 20th as non-working days (weekend), this gives me TWO days to receive and reply. I do not consider this acceptable practice. 4)I asked for more information from you, on your services and when I could arrange an appointment. I am under NO OBLIGATION to take an appointment after a simple enquiry. You state that I: "Remained discourteous enough to fail to respond to any follow up or email after the event, until 1st Debt approached you." Less than 15 days after this 'appointment' you sent a simple PayPal request demanding payment, without even attempting to speak with me regarding the situation. In any case, I responded to PayPal directly. Additionally, 'First Debt' sent an aforementioned apology letter stating: ‘We would like to express our sincere apologies to you with regards to the letter you received from First Debt Recovery Ltd dated 3rd August 2010. Our client Mr D Kirkpatrick trading as LACAP Ltd did not instruct us to send this letter, it was posted out to you in error. Please ignore this letter, we deeply regret any inconvenience this may have caused you.’ That was more than enough cause in my mind to consider the matter closed. However, LACAP and First Debt have now given several other conflicting accounts as to why this letter was sent. Therefore I reject your reply. I do not believe you have any basis to expect remuneration as no service was provided or no contract agreed.' However, I'm not sure how to end the reply. What is the next step? Take them to court? Ignore them until they do something? Any help please. This is becoming a right pain! Regards!
  10. I've emailed the main company 'LACAP', explaining my situation to them. they replied thus: 'Dear Liam, 1. A customer registered as yourself sent us a couple therapy application form on-line on 16 June 2010. 2. LACAP created an appointment for the initial consultation upon your request on 16 June. A email This booking carried an email notification it was a chargeable occasion if unattended, or cancelled without 48 hours notice. 3. A separate email about the initial consultation was sent to your email address, which also stated that it was chargeable occasion if unattended, or cancelled without 48 hours notice. 4. The email address used was that which you are now mailing from. 5. Lacap texted on your cellphone xxxxxxxxxxx to let you know of the appointment on 16 June. The text message was " Liam, Thank you for your application. Please check your e-mails for details of your appointment at LACAP on Tuesday 22nd June at 5pm. Thank you - LACAP" 6. Before the appointment, a further reminder email was sent out on 19 June. 7. On 21 June a text reminder was sent to your cellphone xxxxxxxxxxxxx. The text message began with "LACAP REMINDER" 8. You did not attended the appointment, so our administrator called and spoke to you on 22 June. You stated that you did not know who the text message reminder was from and hadn't checked his e-mails until the appointment day. You said that you would contact us to rearrange the appointment 9. On 06 July a Paypal invoice was sent by email as we did not hear from you. 10. In August a reminder for the invoice was sent by email. 11. As we did not send you the final warning, we asked First Debt Recovery not to pursue the matter any further until we issue the final warning. 12. A papyal invoice reminder was sent by email on 25 September 13. The final notice for payment demand from LACAP was sent by email on 25 September We have contacted you about the appointment by email three times and by text twice in advance, and once after the appointment. You were notified very clearly that the appointment would be chargeable if unattended, or cancelled without 48 hours notice. You have been asked to pay for the appointment 4 times, yet remained completely unresponsive. It is our opinion that this matter is correctly invoiced, and we have authorised our debt collector service to proceed. Yours faithfully, Yoko Kirkpatrick LACAP' I replied with: Dear Yoko I'm afraid I do not agree with your assessment of this situation. Firstly, no-where on your application form does it state that you will automatically assign a appointment without prior consultation. It states that: ' We want to make sure that your first meeting is with the therapist who is available at times that you are usually able to make. Please let us know in the box below times that you could commit to on a regular basis.' Note the 'Times you could commit'. However, not only did you fail to ensure I had the knowledge of this (And sending a text or email and assuming I have received the details is not a correct approach - The correct approach is a letter or telephone call) you also failed to assign an appointment INSIDE the times I stated convenient for my partner and I. If you can please supply a copy of the times of my original submission, this can be confirmed. In the meantime, I utterly refute your claims of any monies owed, and completely prepared for court proceedings to enforce action against 'LACAP' and ' First Debt Recovery' regarding the actions of both your companies Regards Liam ' Anymore ideas guys?
  11. Quick one here. My car got a ticket from Parking Eye, working for Morrisons, from one of their car parks. They say I was there for over 2 hours, and it was caught on camera. However, it was my mother driving the car - she's on my insurance and uses it from time to time. I used the basic set of letter templates, and have informed them that I was not the driver at this time, but they've sent me a letter, saying that my appeal was unsuccessful because of '2008 Judge Ackroyd Oldham court, Combined Parking Solutions verse Stephen Thomas, in the case where Mr Thomas claimed not to be the driver, it was ruled that he was, and was ordered to pay the charge and costs.' Is this true? What are my next steps? I have no intention of giving them my mother’s details, so I would just end up paying it. Or should I just state her name and refuse the address? Many thanks!
  12. Sorry, in my blind anger, I seem to have posted it twice. Please ignore this bit and in the meantime, enjoy some music. La la la, da da da, do do do do, bo, la la la! Seriously, please help!
  13. Ok, this is a bit of a long and unusual one - I think. It started when I filled out an application for some couples therapy with a group called london-counselling-psychotherapy online. The application form is a normal, usually request for more information. It asks what days would be good for you, but no-where does it say that you agree to do, well anything! I didn’t receive anything back. However one day I received a text from ‘LACAP’ telling me I had an appointment booked for a certain day. To be honest I thought it was from a gym company (As I had been receiving messages from LA Fitness at the time) and didn’t pay too much attention. A few days later, when I looked at it again properly, I phoned the number to find out what it was – and I was told it was the therapy group, and they had booked me an appointment. Not even on, or in a time I had said I was usually free either. But even if they had been – They never confirmed it with me or my partner; as it turns out we were both working that day. I informed the gentleman that I did not wish the appointment for then and I had never requested an ’actual’ appointment, just more information – Maybe a phone call or so about fees and times. We parted and that was the end, or so I thought. A few weeks later I started receiving Email requests for payment from ‘Paypal’ for £60. I emailed the address back, explaining that I had no debt with this company. A number of weeks later, I received a number of emails from ‘First Debt Recovery’, requesting payment. I also received a letter too. Then suddenly, I received a email from them saying this: Dear Mr N, We would like to express our sincere apologies to you with regards to the letter you received from First Debt Recovery Ltd dated 3rd August 2010. Our client Mr D Kirkpatrick trading as LACAP Ltd did not instruct us to send this letter, it was posted out to you in error. Please ignore this letter, we deeply regret any inconvenience this may have caused you. If you require any further clarification on the matter do not hesitate to contact us on 0845 307 6292 (option 2). Thank you. Kindest Regards, Kerry First Debt Recovery Ok, I guessed, they realized their mistake and it’s now over. No it seems. About a month or two later I had another PayPal request and then, a letter from ‘First Debt Recovery’ – again. This now said I owed £116 to them. So I phone the company and was put through to a rather unsavoury type. I explained the situation, and said that I pretty shocked this has gotten so far, when as far as I can see, I’ve only had slight passing contact with this ‘LACAP’. He told me that I need to contact them myself and sort it out. I told him that it’s not my place to do this. For one I don’t have any contact details and two, I do not see why I should be taking my time to sort this out as I never agreed to anything! The man became abusive. He told me that he didn’t care, that I can shut up talking to him like that, and he was trying to help, but now he’s printing another letter and it’s going to cost me £166 and it’s on the way to me. He said I’m going to be taken to court and get in even worse trouble if I don’t pay this now. I was really taken aback by his tone and the way he changed, I said, That I’ve every shocked by him, to which he replied that he hopes this has made my day and that he was hanging up. I phoned back to speak to the Kerry in hopes that she might be a bit more helpful, but it seems FDR aren’t that large, because I’m pretty sure she was sitting next to him. She also explained that the reason the apology was sent out was that ‘At that time, they had not been asked to pursue this debt. But now we have been.’ (?) I continued to try and explain, but that fellow from before got back on, so I ended the conversation. Now in my mind, I can’t in any universe, believe I could be liable for anything here. But I know how... strange and complex the law can be. Any advice? What steps I should take? I’d like to sort this out quickly. On a side note, I did just move, I still have access to the old flat, for letters etc. Should I give them my new address? Ta!
  14. It's not my intention to be rude, just learning from experience. I spent the better part of a day aurging the most insignificant point with Green and Mean - one which didn't even matter to the case I had made. I do not want a repeat of that. I'm pretty sure I was polite in asking anyway. Anyhow, I'm still not sure of this ticket. I'll contest it, and see what happens.
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