This is one of the photos I took - can anyone see what I mean about it being upside down and no pattern match? http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff188/ruralgirl_2007/topstair-nomatch.jpg

Thanks. I actually took some photos as soon as I spotted the faults because I wanted to email them to my son for his opinion. I am so disappointed with it - my husband saved up the £355 from his DLA - we don't have much money but we wanted a 'proper' job on the stairs and trusted a shop who are a member of the Carpet Foundation. Sorry for the emotion in my posts but I was so angry. First the rubbish job and then the subsequent rubbish by the 2 employees. Both thought it was a 1st class job until the faults were pointed out. Then the measure-up guy blamed me and the fitter blamed the measure-up guy. I'll leave it until I get a reply from the owner/manager. Until then, I still have my messy carpet with photo evidence.

Thank you so much, I'll reply to your post/advice first. It's a local company, Viv Date Carpets (Pontardawe) Ltd. of Pontardawe (near Swansea). They claim to have their own 'in house' fitters and all prices quoted in the shop includes fitting. They are members of the Carpet Foundation. They are all on first name terms, Mark (the guy who measured up and gave me the verbal quote) arranged the fitting date and said I should pay their fitter. The invoice is in the name of the shop and the fitter (Nigel) signed it as a receipt for the £355 we paid him/them. I have now written a letter to the owner - addressed it to "The Proprietor" as my neighbour was at school with Viv Date and she thinks he now lives in Spain. I know, you can laugh but that's how it is here. I have given facts only, no emotion or 'he said/she said' stuff so will see what happens.

Hope you don't mind me asking but I need a bit more advice now. The carpet fitter did call on the Monday before Christmas as arranged. He looked and said he thought he'd done a good job. When I pointed out that the pattern was upside down on the 2 top pieces he couldn't see it. He groped the pile (as his mate did on the previous Friday) and said it was okay. I pointed out the upside down bits again and he thought they were right and it was the bottom 2 pieces that were wrong. He looked at the bit we had left, said it would do 6 stairs and he'd replace the bottom half with that. Err, so it would all be upside down? I then pointed out that even if he did that, the pattern at the joins would not match. When in a hole, stop digging? Oh no, not this guy. Couldn't make the next bit up. He said that it was because it was not British carpet, British carpet comes in yards and he could match that but this was in metres and that was the problem. Then he said it wasn't suitable carpet for stairs, it was made for a big room. When I pointed out that his measuring-up colleague should have told me that he said would return with his colleague after the Christmas break and would phone to arrange an appointment. I'm still waiting! I'm pretty certain the owner of the company knows nothing about this (these 2 muppets are employees). Should I now write to the owner with my complaint informally or step up to a bit more official?

Thanks, I had no intention of jumping the gun and I will give the fitter a chance to fix it but I KNOW already that it won't be possible. The carpet has been fitted in 4 pieces (two of them upside down) but with such a big pattern match, 400 mm, even if he flips the upside down pieces the pattern will not match at the bulkhead or with the piece fitted the right way up. Then there's the bottom 3 stairs which are the right way up but the pattern is about 300 mm out. There's some carpet left but not enough to line the pattern up in 5 places. I'm not trying to be pedantic here by complaining about a couple of mm - the pattern is a foot out if you want it in old money. I will follow the correct complaint procedure, what I was asking is to whom?

Hi, wonder if anyone can tell me how I should go with this? We bought a carpet for the stairs and a small landing from a local retailer who is a member of the Carpet Foundation. They came out to measure up and we agreed a price fitted. It is fairly good quality patterned carpet (I had the sample) and he did ask if I thought it was an overall pattern. It is, so I agreed. He told me that stairs are always fitted in a few pieces but I wouldn't be able to tell it was separate pieces. They fitted it Tuesday and were surprised there was a large piece left but whatever, said it might come in. We paid the fitter in cash and obtained a receipt. Later on Tuesday when I was cleaning up the bits and fluff, I noticed they hadn't matched up the pattern on the 3rd stair up so looked a bit more closely and on 6 stairs near the top, the carpet is upside down and again, no pattern match. I presume that's why the fitter had a load of carpet left. Called the shop and the guy who came to measure came this morning. I was close to losing it I can tell you. First he groped at the pile on the landing and on the top half of the stairs and said the pile was in the right direction. It was only after I pointed out repeatedly that the pile might be but the pattern isn't that he agreed something wasn't right. I then said the pattern had not been matched anywhere and he said I'd agreed it was an allover random pattern. No, I did not, I said it was allover (meaning that there wasn't anything too prominent that needed centering) but even I know that the pattern should have been matched. He took the details from the back of the sample for the order and it stated clearly that there was a 400 mm pattern repeat. These are professionals, how can he now say it's random and blame me? The fitter is calling back on Monday "to put things right" - yeah okay! What's he going to do? Turn the upside down bits the right way (which won't match up to the pattern on the rest) and put a new bit at the bottom from the big lump we have left? The guy today treated me as if I was stupid - big mistake!! Seriously, if you bought patterned wallpaper with a 400 mm pattern match and someone stuck it on as it came off the roll and got a piece or two upside down while they were at it, would you be happy? That's what they have done to my carpet and had the cheek to say it's my fault. Sorry for the rant but I think this will end up going further than a "put things right" on Monday. Any help on who to go to next is appreciated.

This situation concerns me because I wonder if the OP has played down the actual help she gives her husband on a daily basis. You know, the things we do without thinking. Hector205, you said he could cook a simple meal of fried fish and two veg. in a small lightweight pan (an absolutely ludicrous suggestion) but what about turning the cooker on and remembering to turn it off? Could he buy the fish and the two veg and then prepare it? Would he bother to eat at all if you weren't there? Would he even get up, get dressed, washed and shaved if you weren't there to prompt him? If he's unwell, can you go off on your own (hairdressers, etc) or do you need to be there to keep an eye on him? I could go on forever but it's the stuff you actually do that the DLA people need to know about and if you don't tell them, they don't know. Please think what you do for your husband on a bad day (jot it down to help you remember) and tell them how it really is.

Congratulations. I had a letter today to say they had paid my claim too. Balance now cleared and a cheque on it's way. You sent Miss Ellie a Christmas card?

Thank you so much. I had the series of calling cards, phone calls and threat-o-grams from NCO and paid them £30 a month for over 2 years. I posted about my woes with them in the DCA section and it went from there. They lied to me (telling me I was in arrears when I wasn't) and the little muppet I finally got to talk to on the phone pushed me for an extra fiver a month. Enough was enough and I found CAG. The rest is history. NCO were just collecting for Capital One (they hadn't bought the debt) so I suppose they got a commission on my payments but because of one greedy little sod who thought an extra fiver would boost his pay packet, NCO got nothing else and Capital One have had to pay me more than I paid them. That is what I call a result. I hope the CC companies will soon realise that employing bullying DCAs will in the end cost them. Should I send Miss Ellie a Christmas card?

Could someone please change my thread title to WON!!! 2 letters today, one from the court saying Crap One have filed a defence (pretty much what they've said in their letter) and another from Crap One refusing CCI and the reasons for it. I never asked for default removal as I don't want any more credit, ever. As a goodwill gesture they have offered ALL charges, ALL purchase interest and 8% SI This has cleared my balance and they are sending me a cheque for the rest. I'll inform the court once I receive the cheque, I seriously don't think it will bounce. Who'd have thought that one telephone monkey at NCO pushing me for an extra fiver would have resulted in this. If he'd have kept his trap shut, I'd have carried on paying and would never have found CAG. I want to thank everyone who has helped me with this and as soon as Crap One's cheque is received and clears a donation to this fantastic site will be on it's way. Wishing everyone a merry Christmas.

The first part (with your signature) is an application form. Are those T & C from 2003 when you opened the account or are they the current ones? Their letter says they are the current ones, surely they have to be the ones from 2003 to make it a valid CCA.

I completely sympathise with you, you have to be in that situation to know what it's like. We had wooden window frames but they were well maintained (painted inside and out). My tumble drier was vented through an outside wall so we couldn't blame that, plus it had been there long before the cavity wall insulation. Within a day of having the cavity walls done the windows were running in water, not just after cooking or using the shower, all the time. Okay, it was November and it was cold outside but there was no getting rid of it, we mopped it up and there it was again a couple of hours later as bad as ever. Black mould started to grow on the frames so we tried a mould inhibitor - also works as an effective paint remover so that made things worse. The dehumidifier sorted the problem but we could only afford to buy one so we had it on the landing and left all the internal doors wide open. All in all, heating the house with all the doors open and the cost of running the appliance proved more expensive than the amount the damn stuff should have saved. I wouldn't wish cavity wall insulation on my worse enemy and if I'd have known then what I know now I would have been looking to do something about it. I don't think it can be taken out once it's in but I'd be looking for extractor fans (at least) from Warmfront.

We had the loft insulation/draught proofing and cavity wall insulation done at our last house. Pretty much the same, my husband got IB and DLA so we qualified to have the work done free of charge. We never noticed much difference with the draught proofing and loft insulation, we still had to put sellotape around the back door to stop the wind coming through. What we did find though is that the condensation was awful, not just on the windows, we had pools of water on the bathroom floor after steam collected on the toilet cistern and dripped off. The wooden window frames were covered in mildew and had started to go rotten. We bought a dehumidifier (it was about £90) and had that on 24/7. All in all, I think the cost of the dehumidifier and the electricity to run it outweighed the benefits of the cavity wall insulation. Have since moved to another old house (over 100 years old) and apart from having double glazing here, not much difference apart from having solid walls (no cavity to insulate) but we are warm, dry and condensation free. I think the Warmfront people should include, as part of the deal, extractor fans in the kitchen and bathroom of any house they recommend should have cavity wall insulation.

Brief update. Couldn't make this up if I tried. Got 2 letters from the court today. The first I opened was to tell me the N1 had been served and that Capital One had until 20th December to respond. Opened the 2nd letter, the court had sent the N1 claim to ME! To be fair, it had been sent in a large window envelope and if I shook the contents to the top, it showed Capital One's address but gravity being what it is, my address was showing in the window. I rang the court (several times as the department was at lunch/out, whatever) and finally got to speak with someone. I was told that I had received a photocopy of the N1 and it was for my records. After explaining that it was the original N1 and it included the pack to acknowledge service, defend the claim, etc. they eventually said that it should have gone to the defendant and asked me to send it back to them. Oh my, this has been backwards and forwards since 8th November. I asked if I could re-address it and send it to Capital One myself and they said that would be okay if I was happy with that. I have posted it this afternoon to Capital One, 1st class post and got a receipt. Hopefully, it will be with them tomorrow but I suppose I need to give them an extra day - 21st December. That's a Saturday. Do I have to allow for the weekend and that they will have until Christmas Eve to acknowledge service?

Completely agree that two is better than one but didn't want to get into the technicalities of hardware v software firewalls. I suspect there are a lot of members here who are relying on the Windoze firewall which is a bit like having a fence around a field and then leaving the gate open. Security is paramount especially if you have online bank accounts - I'd love to see a folder on this forum dedicated to online security.