I would like to have some learned opinion please. I am 80 now and physically disabled since 1987, My brain is working well, I am not mentally afflicted as well, but my neurological condition affects my speech sometimes. I cannot stand up long enough to wash up now, I have GBS/CIDP. I need splints for walking, sleeping, neck brace, and hand/wrist splints. I have lasted this long by the grace of God. I put an ad on Bark for a cleaner. A firm of cleaners responded and on Tuesday she came and saw the house and quoted me for a deep clean, two afternoons, Wednesday and Thursday at a quote of £390. That is for three people each afternoon, about three hours each it seems. It is not the rate. I am not paying it anyway, because the lot which came on Wednesday did not clean. I arranged with the boss to have all the furniture dusted and polished (there is a lot and it has not been polished for a great many years), the glass in the display cupboards cleaned, the kitchen to be cleaned and the study, and the upstairs, where I no longer live to be done on Thursday. They did not clean. They emptied all the cupboards and drawers and just put them in different places. The things I need regularly were put on the top shelf out of reach. The draining rack and tray I could not even see. No cleaning was done. The cobwebs are still hanging down from the top of cupboards. The curtains were tied up to give the impression of cleaning the windows, which still had smears, and the tiled window sill was still mucky with grease. The tiles above the hob are still covered in grease. The cooker hood was not cleaned by the lot who came in 2016 and is thick with yellow fat. They did not even clean the fridge doors, let alone the insides, or the oven doors, or the light switches. The windows are filthy. The lounge was even worse. I had a lovely lounge. It is full of dolls in cabinets, doll houses on bookcases, bears and dolls on chairs and shelves, and some dubious characters spending nights (and days) out on the tiles of the big doll house in the corner. It is all such a mess, and believe me, when you have lived on your own for 11 years, having cheerful things and smiling faces around is so necessary, and if I am in my second childhood: good. On Wednesday, I just went to check the wheelie bins, because I find that when I have someone in to clean, they put things in black plastic and the bin men won't empty them if they do not have the right stuff in each. It is the same this time. There was a black plastic sack and it was as much as I could do to start sorting it. What I found inside was not rubbish. I won't bore you with that now. There are still some very valuable things missing. I took photos before, but I did not print them all off. The only display cupboard which had printed photos of the antique dolls inside was untouched. I should have spread the photos round. I took some of the after state of play. 73 I uploaded, and I started to print them, because when I complained and said I did not want them back on Thursday, she said she would come and see, and she did. I showed her everything, I pointed out that only part of the floor was vacuumed and nothing dusted or polished. She saw the cobwebs hanging down. All those workers had done was to look in all the drawers and cupboards to see what was in them. I know, I know what you are thinking, and you are right, I should have sat in the room as they worked, and I was wrong to trust that they would do what the contract said: a deep clean. She did not like my complaint. I told her I was not going to pay because they did no cleaning and I cannot find anything. NOW COMES THE HELP ME BIT. The boss and her male employee, were doing the walk round. They are from Brazil. She can speak a little English and seemed to understand. He was not so good. The girls she sent on Wednesday did not have a word of English between them: nada. When we were going round, I asked her if her employees were UK citizens or immigrants with visas and work permits, and were they registered with the police to go into the homes of vulnerable people if they could not speak English. She wore a mask, but there was no mistaking her reaction. If those people had come into the country before the pandemic they would have at least some English. I think they have come very recently. How did they get here? If they are EU they would have to have applied by now for visas to stay. If like the boss they are from Brazil, how did they arrive in UK, seeing as there are strict rules? She left the house in the middle of the walkthrough without another word. If I had asked them if they were vaccinated, or had tested negative for coronavirus, or the now virulent Brazil strain, would they have had to show me the papers? Would they have had to show me their work permits and visas, seeing as I am the client and not employing them directly? Now I worry about catching the new strain. I have had my first vaccine, but do not think I should have a second for various reasons, and they wore masks, but they handled all my possessions, most of my antique dolls, taking everything out of cupboards and they did not have gloves all the time. Everything has been moved, even the sofas and armchairs. My hoover was taken from it's usual place and put in the cloakroom, and there is already one in there too heavy for me. They handled everything. I had a big white laundry basket - the usual plastic ones, about 2/3rd the size of a wheelie bin. It was full of brand new fabrics of Laurel Burch - five different ranges in complete sets which I use for patchwork. I have photos on facebook going back years. With the fabrics was an unfinished quilt - fabulous if I say so myself, you can see similar on my page photos. I also had a quilt I had finished and signed from her ''feline'' range. It is so heavy I cannot attempt to move it, and living alone, why should I want to? it is tall, holds the fabrics. I have not been well enough to sit at the machine, so have been photographing them and listing them on ebay, or would have done, but my camera became uninstalled last year and only installed itself again after Christmas, so I have some photos still. The big tall basket with £500 at least worth of fabrics and the work I cannot put a price on, are all gone. We looked everywhere, my carer and I. You could not miss it, and I cannot understand why they would want to move it anyway, because that room gets hoovered. It is a sort of utility/dressing room. It is not the only thing. I found a perfectly good, almost new pair of expensive shoes in the bin, along with other things, including a tiny antique doll house doll. The boss insists they took nothing out of the house, I told her putting things in the bins was taking them outside. The basket in the lounge in which I kept reading books - a few new Simon's Cat books to raise a smile when down, was emptied, and were NOT in the bin. Instead of a clean, they did a 'clear', but not entirely, because they put things in different places. Now I not only need a cleaner, but someone to help me find everything. The boss refuses to accept responsibility. If she brings them back, it is as good as admitting the employees took them. I can prove they were there, because my carer knows, and the gardener who helps inside sometimes, though that isn't his real job, actually put them in that place in 2016 after the new floor was put in. I know you all understand. What can I do? Elderly people are very vulnerable. People who steal say the person never had the things in the first place (That happened to me when the removal people who carried the furniture out when the floor was replaced, took all my jewellery out of the boxes to make me think it was still there. No one believes the elderly any more, not even vicar's widows. One more thing though is that when she came to see me on Tuesday, she showed me video on her phone of a disabled client and that should be confidential, so no doubt she is rubbishing me to justify herself. very single one of them was put away, stuffed into bookcases with the books, stuffed on top of seriously antique dolls in the glass cabinets, dusty on top, and needing polishing. I have completed the Crimestoppers online form and waiting a reply. I completed the Police form, asking if I was entitled to ask about work permits and visas. I asked if I was entitled to ask these people for negative test for virus or vaccination. I am still waiting for answers from the police. I have been told that the virus stays on items for 3-5 days. They were only supposed to clean and polish. They did not. They were told not to remove anything. Now I still need a cleaner and the house is turned over.

On 18th April I had a new washing machine delivered. As soon as the men left, I tried it out. The washing boiled and I scalded my fingers when I tired to remove it. Immediately I contacted Currys by email. I expected them to send the men straight back, but they did not, and a seven month long battle began. Indesit sent an engineer on 6/9 who told me the machine was working perfectly and the fault was mine. When I heard that, I suggested then that perhaps the machine had been connected to the hot water. Without even checking he said it was not. He told me that he had a good mind to make me pay for the visit as there was nothing wrong. He walked out while I was talking to him. When he left I put it on again, first cottons, then wool at 20 degrees. I sat at the computer while it was washing, and the boiler fired up. The boiler feeds the radiators and the wet room and the washing machine, and since only the washing machine was on, it was clearly connected. I posted on Indesit Face Book page. They told me that their engineer had made his report, which they believed, and that if I posted again I would be banned. After another battle they eventually sent a senior engineer today 27/10 who finally admitted that the machine had indeed been plumbed into the washing machine. I have to thank the CAB for monitoring the situation. It has been so stressful it hardly seems possible that someone can complain, and clothes ruined and they would not return, and I believe the visit today was because I started to list the costs involved, like their paying the difference in gas used from last year. Todays visit was by a senior Indesit engineer . Last Friday, however was not so good. The person they sent had no English, no identification, no job sheet and no tool kit. He could not understand what I said. He got his 'boss' on the phone and gave it to me. I spoke to the 'boss' and asked him if he would explain the job to the young man because he could not understand English. The 'boss' said he did not know the job either and expected me to explain . I was so nervous I threatened to call the police, because I really thought they were making a fool of me . At the he ended the call and the young man left. That is unpardonable.

I have purchased many items from USA and have always paid the customs duty. I am not in business. I sew as a hobby and collect dolls. I am in my 70's,a widow: a mother, grandmother and great grandmother, and I feel very vulnerable right now.Each time Parcelforce sends a sealed letter, asking for customs duty I pay it. I do not object to paying the customs duty. I would not buy from outside the EU were that the case.However, the latest demand from Parcelforce is too high and does not appear to relate to any item I have ordered online. They do not say on their sealed letter, which is the type you have to tear around the edges to secure the information, the value of the item, or any details of it. I do not recognise the tracking number in connection with one of two items I am expecting.They have demanded a payment of £49.88, including their fee to collect it of £13.50. I have not refused to pay this either. I wrote to both Parcelforce and Customs telling them that I cannot see that this is 20% of any item I have bought.The problem I have is that the highest value of the items expected is £126. I have asked them for a breakdown of their invoice. It is not a card through the door, it is in the form of an invoice. That was on Friday. Today I receive a reply that had no connection to the question I put to Parcelforce.I ask to know how they arrived at the figure of £36.38 - net and not including their fee - and from their reply they expect me to pay before they tell me. If I were to pay and contest it later, is any part of the fee refundable?It seems to me that they might have calculated the STERLING duty based on US DOLLARS value, and I think, surely, that I should have information before I pay it. I was under the impression that the customs duty is about 20%, and if that was the case, the highest value of the outstanding order I made of £126 is surely about £26 duty if that. The other item I am expecting is much less than that.

It is too late for me to claim the PPI on an Anglian arranged loan for double glazed windows in February of 2002. When we took it out my late husband was 80yrs old and I was 61. The loan was for 10 years! For 10 yrs I have paid £194 min a month on a less than £10,000, one thousand was the PPI. There were a few times when the interest increased. When he became ill in 2008 I contacted GE MONEY and asked about whether we could claim because of his illness, by telephone, and they informed me that the insurance was only for 5 years and not for the whole term of the loan.By the time the loan was to be finished we would have paid almost three times the amount borrowed. We have never defaulted on any loan we ever took out, or paid late, from anyone at all, and this loan was with the blessing of our then solicitor, as were other loans taken out.I have yet to be informed that the loan finishes this month.

Would someone who buys/sells on Ebay please log in to their discussion groups - seller central and selling for chairty and look at the posting I have made there recently.I am very concerned because I decided to give a percentage to charity when I started selling in April to downsize. I did not realise that I had to pay a minimum fee of £1 for each item listed for charity and listed dozens of items for 99p. I then found myself in a negative situation of having to pay Ebay/Missionfish from my own funds to make up the shortfall. All my items were at least 10% and some more. The seller - in this case foolish OAP - has to sell AN ITEM for at least £10 to cover that and of course there are Ebay listing fees in addition to that.When I realised my mistake I was told that it all went to the charity anyway, but they still say on each listing ''10% is paid to the ....charity, when really it is listed for 99p, would never fetch a higher price so the seller gets nothing.When I tried to cancel the listing to avoid this debt I was not allowed. The only editing allowed is to increase the cost to more than the £1 donation.I complained and got nowhere. I have found out that MISSIONFISH is a secondary co of Ebay and is itself a REGISTERED CHARITY. They will not give me a straight answer as to how much of the £157 they have taken from me - and the next lot - is given to my charity. I get told Missionfish take only 10% for admin, but as a registered charity they can take what they like as they are a charity as well. I appear to have finished up giving them almost 50% of my listings between them and have had to stop giving anything to the charity via EbayI thought I would gift aid to my charity as I pay £83 a month from my pension/State pension in tax as a lone widow. If I read my account properly I believe MISSIONFISH are taking gift aid for themselves as well.I do not know whether this is legal or not, but I do know that I have had to pay them the min deposit from the other items I have sold and it looks as though I have made far more money than I have and sooner or later I am going to have to account for that.

Well, well, well. I can understand how peed off you are having to pay the fee. I don't like it either. I think you would be very surprised to read comments from HMC&E I was sent. My original complaint on this site was not so much that I resented the fee, as the seemingly impossible way to access my parcel. Perhaps I did not make it clear. I explained the the Manager of the sorting office (and God alone knows how he got to be in charge), that I was not expecting a package that required postage to be paid on it, and could he tell me what it was, where it came from, and from whom. He refused. I had a card which told me that there was postage to pay of £12.28, of which £1 was the post office fee to collect it. I told him that I cannot think of anyone who had sent me a parcel without paying the postage, and at that time, in March I had not made large purchases on EBAY in the USA without paying the shipping thorugh Paypal. THEY HAD TICKED THE WRONG BOX AND REFUSED TO TELL ME ON THE PHONE WHAT THE AMOUNT WAS FOR. I think the card they put through the letterbox is as good as an invoice, and I am not used to paying invoices unless I know what it is for, AND THEY REFUSED TO TELL ME. Not only that, but he was ABUSIVE ON THE TELEPHONE. No-one should go through that, and have the phone hung up on!! Now that man must have had the package in his hand as he spoke. He said he was not releasing any information until I paid the sum requested. He could easily have told me that it was duty, but he refused. He shouted at me in a most furious manner, disrespectful and foul mouthed. I did not like it. I explained that I could not pay the amount, not because I had no money, but physically I could not go out, and I told him that under the spirit of the Disability Discrimination Act he was obliged to enable me, as a registered disabled person, to pay the fee. The law says that companies should go out of their way to enable disabled people to access a sevice or building. If I wasa to go to the post office here, I would have to sit outside in my chair and wait for someone to spot me and come to my aid. I am told that Royal Mail is exempt from the DDA, yet here they are saying they are not subsidised and have to make a profit. Which is it? They cannot have both, or can they? He refused to allow me to pay the postman, or to give my card over the telephone. I explained that I was having difficulty accessing their site to pay online. He was rude and beligerent. I have noticed since March that they have changed the method of paying online. At the time I could not access it I was getting 'page not found'. He just got angrier. I do not consider myself an idiot. He told me to pay a carer to go and pay the money, then they would deliver it, but they were not prepared to say when. There is another problem I have and I have a note on my door asking if people would use their mobile phone to contact me when at the door. It works for most, but not Couriers or postmen. Apparently they are not allowed to ring me at the door. They would rather miss me and return another day!!! Following his unbelievable rudeness(and bear in mind I was paying for the shipping) I complained to the customer service. There then followed a long dialogue with those who are supposed to put the clients at their ease. I wonder how these people get on if their flights are cancelled or they are not given information about their holidays. Would they, for example, tolerate an airline refusing to tell them when a flight is due to arrive or depart, or other significant information? Nor would they, I suspect take kindly to the orange airline closing the departure gate if they are just a minute late!!! In one of these emails, I was told that I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN IT WAS DUTY PAYABLE AND NOT LACK OF POSTAGE BY THE AMOUNT REQUESTED. Well I told them that I had not ordered anything costing anywhere near the value of £18. I was right. The seller had included the shipping costs. As a result of my trying to get something done or at least better treatment of disabled people, I was further inconvennienced by the fact that one of these cusomer relations chappies told me that they had sent the parcel back to the sender in US, even though I had already paid for it by having a friend take the cheque to the post office,and only a few days had passed. I saw red again then, because I had ordered another yard of fabric for my patchwork quilt from somewhere else, having already received the parcel I had tried to pay for. I emailed them and said they were returnning a parcel I had not even been notified of, out of sheer spite because I had complained. I went online and looked up the tracking number of the package, and emailed the customer service people with that number, and said I will make trouble if I do not get my parcel, which was not even close to being duty payable. (when you are following a pattern it is better to have the correct fabric). Within a couple of hours the same day my parcel, in a plastic bag, was deposited without notice at the top of my wheelchair ramp!! They had no right to return a parcel addressed properly to me without advising me it was there, even if duty had been payable, which it was not in this case, or underpaid. It was addressed correctly as well. They are supposed to allow three weeks to pass before they send anything back to sender, and I am sure that if the person had not given me a tracking number I would never have received that parcel at all, and just out of spite because I complained. I hope it was not someone on this site, I really do, but if it was then we must be vigilant. I am sorry to go on like this, but my misery was not really about having to pay the fee, but the rudeness and disrespect paid to me on the telephone. I thought it was an offence to treat anyone like that, yet alone a disabled person. I was intimidated and humiliated. I would never get myself into that situation again. All I am is a disabled pensioner, not in business, but using my time making patchwork and other crafts. My husband died last year and keeping busy is my way of trying to accustom myself to it.

Very interesting. I was annoyed because they put the wrong card through my door saying the sender did not pay postage and when I rang I was told that I could not have that info until I paid the postal charge and their fee, which they said was £1. As a newly widowed pensioner and disabled I was very upset by this attitude. I could not access the site to pay online and could not get out to the post office. I was told that I could not pay at the door. It was a bad experience, believe me, because when I gave my situation I was told to pay a carer to do it all for me. When I asked if I could know when the package would be delivered (and remember I was not told who sent it, and I had made minor purchases of patchwork fabric on Ebay US and had paid all the shipping costs) I did not know what to expect, and they actually told me that someone would have to wait in for me because I cannot get to the door quickly enough for them to wait. My own postman is very nice and was not from the office where the parcel was held. It was a very bad exoerience and one I do not wish to repeat, and I think they have improved the pay on line method. In my case it turned out to be a customs charge. I had not purchased enough to incurr a duty charge, but when it came I noted that the person who had put the value on the parcel had in fact included the shipping costs in addition to the item value. I try not to go above the £18 limit. I am making a project which includes fabrics that original in US and are not available here. The shipping costs from US are actually in many cases much less than the cost of duty plus the £8 Royal Mail charge, so it is much better just to buy up to the £18 equivalent. The package comes through the letterbox as normal and there is no hastle, unless, of course the seller makes the same mistake. So now I make sure the value does not incurr duty, unless I splash out a bit, then I expect it and am prepared. Us Postal service packet is about $11 on average, much less sometimes, so that is what I do. It is useless to fight a company like the Royal Mail because they are just out to get money from wherever! In the end it just causes misery, and that is what they trade on. I see little difference between these business practices and some criminal actions. There are too many more worrying things now. I suppose whn the post office pensions get the chop too, and staff have a pay freeze until after the Olympics, life may get better. Let's face it, what can be worse than a global economy gone to the dogs because young untrained bankers out for a fast buck forgot that you cannot have more money circulating, even on the WWW without gold reserves to back up a country's currency. I suppose when that happens and we do not get adverts for our gold, and the Olympics are over, and once again high earners start earning more life may be better fror some of us, until the lending rate hits the roof again and our mortgage interest rises, then who is going to buy anything anyway? If we do not spend, Customs get no duty, post office gets no fee, balance of finance a bit better - hopefully.

Dear bazar Thank you so much for your kind thoughts. In this case, they could not prove that there was a debt, because there was no debt. I returned a TV to GUS under the Sale of Goods and Services Act because it was faulty, the engineer they sent said it was. Now retailers do not like this Act if they can. The TV was collected by them. They did not credit me with the money I had paid. I consulted Trading Standards, Which? Legal and CAB. They advised me about the Sale of Goods and Services Act and I sent GUS a copy of the letter dictated to me on the telephone. I gave them a date by which they must repair or replace the item, after which I was entitled to a new TV. They did neither. I ordered a replacement TV which they sent. I deducted the cost of the returned item. It was made easy for me to do this, because I ordered a replacement TV - a different make from GUS. After about a year of arguing I sent GUS a final settlement cheque after deducting the cost of the returned item. They accepted it and paid it into their account. When they made their claim against me I was very upset. I was at a loss as to what to do. I Googled BC and found a whole lot of stuff, and that led to my joining this site. I have received the most supportive advice from it. The problem is not so much buying things from catalogues, especially if you are disabled. They do not charge for delivery and offer a large choice which would be impossible to source on the High Street before computers. They also have interest-free payments, and you can return anything you do not like without question. However, they do not like the Act! When you have paid for an item which turns out to be faulty, it is difficult to get refunds. The fact that I ordered another make TV from them (they had come down in price) enabled me to deduct the cost of the returned item. Had they not sent out the replacement, I would have had to take them to court under the SG&S Act, as advised by Tading Standards etc., so it was somewhat easier for me. The problem is that it is easier for some people to buy beyond their means to pay. I have never been in debt beyond my means to pay, but when something like this happens it can appear to be that way, so now one has to be very careful when making purchases, because if you do not keep the correspondence, you will have to make claims yourself against a retailer who thinks they are beyond the Goods and Services Act. I think that BC could believe that an LCD TV 32" cost £1999.99 in 2004. Now, of course they are much cheaper. They wanted over £300 for a year's extended guarantee (which I refused to pay and which might have made them cross) in 2004/5. I would not buy any of their extended guarantees, despite the repeated requests, because I once had an extended guarantee on a washer. When it broke down the repair man quoted £200 (about 1990). When he heard it was insured, he said he had to go and check the prices in his van, and when he returned he said it would be £450 and that was more than the insures would pay.Eventually we received £200 from the insurers twards another washer!! We had paid far more than that in premiums. I have learned that extended guarantees are not worth the paper they are printed on since the Act was passed. I would never have been able to go out and buy large items I cannot use public transport and have no car, so would have to take a taxi. Now I can buy online. For years, everything we had had to be delivered, including food. My late husband was 19 years older than me, and he had never driven, so to us it was a convenience. So long as you can make the payments and do not go beyond what you can pay, mail order can be helpful. People tend to think that only those who cannot pay outright use mail order. That is not always the case. It has always been more convenient for disabled people and those without transport to shop this way. Interest free payments are more a bi-product. Buying online is common nowadays and more acceptable, and so mail order does not have a bad name. If retailers accepted the Sale of Goods Act, firms like Paypal, for instance, would not need to refund customers buying faulty goods, so that Act was and is, neccessary, which is a shame really because although Trading Standards et al can help, they cannot go to court for you and retailers know this. We are very lucky to have the small claims courts. I have discovered another thing: I have received catalogues through the post (the one I am thinking of now is clothes) which do not bear the name of Littlewoods, GUS or JD Williams and if you look at the fine print and note the address, are connected to the mail order business run from Manchester. When I saw that, my first thought was that if I did buy something from this, they may actually apply my card and pay off what they decided I owed. If they had done so, would this have been legal? I don't know why this went on year on year. It would appear that someone who bought the debt assumed that there were a number of items included in the sum, rather than just one. I made no other purchases after settling the account, and could prove this, so that their saying the sum included several items in the years up to 2007 was simply not true. If you got rid of them,there will be many others to take their place, and I suppose it is better the one you know. I was 63 when the item was purchased. I am now 69. That is a chunk of my life they played about with. The Judge dismissed the claim AND the counterclaim. He told me that if He dismissed it it STAYED dismissed. That was good enough for me. He said I could keep the cheque I mentioned in May.

Dear loviing people My computer goes down when I am under pressure, and later that night there was a powercut here. I am still very tired, but I have to say that without this site, I would never have managed to keep going, and without whitecharger, whom I had never met or had contact with except on this site, I know I would have broken down. This brave young man came to help at his own expense, taking the day off to do so, and I hope that with this experience he will go on contributing to this site and helping others. Each night I prayed for help, and whether you believe or not, there is no doubt that my prayers were answered. This time has been particularly sad for me because in March, in the middle of all this, I had the first anniversary of my late husband's passing. The Judge ordered the hearing date for June, as a 'stay' from February would have taken me to the date of his death last year and I could not have borne that. The comments you have all made since are like music to me and better than comedians on the box, and you are all the composers of it! What can I say? Not a lot really at the moment. I will certainly put some more money where my mouth is, and a little bit more than the two and a half percent of 'winnings' which is the modest suggestion because I think this site needs to be kept going, and if my success enables you all to do that, then that is really the success, not just me. I do not think the details of the settlement need to be included in the publication of events of the last six months to be able to help someone else in need. There are enough words between the lines to do that. I think that the only way forward to helping people is to educate them into realising that there are those like BC who have no interest in them, just in getting their money. This ruthless company buys up what the believe is a debt - and let's face it, there is not honour amongst debt collectors either - and will stop at nothing - including evidence that the debt does not exist - to get the last penny. What struck me as well was the cowardice they displayed in instructing someone to act on their behalf only the day before, and that young someone lived miles away from Weybridge to boot.They did not even attend themselves,and to my mind that must offend a Judge who gave up the afternoon for us. I hope the internal grapevine will make BC's methods better known. We have to realise that the small claims courts were set up to help ordinary people.Before,it cost more to sue than the money. Barristers and solicitors had to be hired to even attempt to get money back. What helps the maninthestreet also helps others.Also, if BC is discredited, there are others waiting to take his place. One important thing to remember is that saving paperwork for more than five years is becoming neccessary. It is not enough just to put things on computers. You have to have evidence. Now you can see that my paperwork saved was more than theirs. Also, people should be aware that they can defend a case, and when they do so it is taken out of the Bulk Claims Court. It may not help if you cannot show that you have paid the debt, but at least it gives you a fighting chance. A court order gives Bailiffs the right to break into your home and take whatever they need to pay the debt.The things are auctioned off and rarely make enough money,and dealers stand around like vultures getting goods cheap which they then sell off at a profit. There has only been one programme about this - Beat the Bailiff. Before I watched that this year I had no idea how it worked, and the people on that show never realised what would happen. I thank you all, and whitecharger, from the bottom of my heart. Elizabeth

Many thanks. I will be here after a sleep.

Dear DonkeyB, What I don't understand is what happens to this latest from them? I have until 9 June. They have increased the amount, despite the Court extension of time. Can they do that? I am not refusing to pay because I cannot, but because I returned the faulty item. They have never asked me for paperwork copies or details of the accounts. All the paperwork in connection with this is listed on the Allocation Questionaire. The instructions from the court are not to enclose them with the form, so I did not, and this woman has never asked for them, as she says in the Witness, nor have I ever denied having ordered the item. Can she make me send copies of my bank accounts and credit card statements? Those things are private. I have never requested a breakdown of items. Why would I? The sum was for one item,£1,999.99 and if I have to pay it I should have a new TV. There is only one purchase involved, and as I told her, I settled the account to nil in 2006 after deducting the item which they did not take off the account. I have never denied that I have statements, as I said above. I cannot understand why they should say these things. Anyone would think I had not listed them, back to Nov/Dec when they sent the claim and it was moved to my local court. Are they acting lawfully? Should they not have raised this before now? If I had kept the cheque and cancelled my counterclaim, could they have started the whole thing over again bringing up my recognition of the contested debt? If it is possible, then they are making fools of the law. I have no knowledge of this woman apart from that posted earlier in the year.

What does that mean please? I feel so stupid.

I need help please. I wrote to Mary Kelly of BC explaining that I had made a finala payment in 2006 which was accepted, and that I will no acknowledge that there is a debt. Her reply is very untrue. None of it is correct, and I cannot understand it. I believe it is a deliberate attempt to cause more harrassment. It is by email attachment in the form of a pdf. I would like to forward it to someone, if it is possible for you to allow me access to an email address.

Dear DonkeyB I would very much like you to draft a letter for me along those lines. Yes, I am stressed, but at the same time I have come this far. I told them when I received the summons that there was no debt, yet they have persisted. I remember reading somewhere, long ago, that if you contest a bill, write to the firm, enclosing a cheque for final settlement of sn sccount and they accept the cheque and pay it in, that is final. Is this still correct? I am not sure whether I should say here, but I was told on good authority last December, that BC sayiing they will withdraw does not mean they will not bring an action again! The writer of that email was well qualified to know. That was why I joined your site, and very glad I was to do so. I have always kept records of things for much longer than the recommended five years. This has stood me in good stead over the years.

Thank you babybear. It makes sense. At present there is no mention of that in my credit score, but since they threatened to earlier this year I have to make sure that is so. They must know there is no debt, otherwise why wait five years? I will keep you posted. The whole thing has made me very tired indeed.