Nothing was signed. T&C's were not mentioned on the call. I received an invoice for the first two times I paid for the service, but none after I verbally said I did not want to proceed with the service. I received a phone call a year later (after refusing verbally to carry on with the service) saying that there was an outstanding invoice to be paid. I denied this and then they play a recording of me saying yes. This recording was probably from the first or second time I agreed, but I know it was not from the 3rd time when I refused to carry on with the service.

Yes i did have a look at their T&C's and noticed this the other day. I think I can argue that it is an unfair contract and am investigating how I can go about this. In the mean time I have asked for the proof from the Debt Collectors, which will give me some breathing space before we go into the next round. Thanx Seamark

In that case I may as well save £10 and just let the debt collector gather the recorded evidence from the main company. I presume they will have to prove when the recording was made through date stamps or some other means. Think I will just wait for them to send me the proof, and if it is just a recording with out any date then I will dispute it. If it does have a date stamp then I know I am in the clear. Thanks again for all your advice. Seamark

Thanks for that. I will do that. Another question. I have asked the debt collector company to send me proof, but it seems the only proof that the main company have is this recording. Are they allowed to pass recordings on to third parties. I always though that they could not. Thanx Seamark

When I first opened my Pub I had many different businesses contacting me with offers to promote my pub in their magazines, website or Pub Guides of some description or another. one that I did sign up to was "The Official Pubs Guide" After two years I told them I was not interested anymore. I never had any sort of direct debit with them and t was done on a yearly basis. They phoned me and I either agreed and paid them, or as the last time, I did not agree and did not pay them. A year later they phoned and said I had an outstanding bill with them for last years entry on their WebSite. I told them that I had not agreed to go in that year and had specifically told them I did not want to. All this was over the phone. The other thing is that on the two previous occasions I paid there and then over the phone. The fact that I didn’t for last years entry means I did not agree. They came back and said that they had a recording on me agreeing to it, and duly played it to me. I said that the recording could have been from one of the two years I did agree to go into their publication. Since then I have received a demand from debt collectors Daniel Silverman. i have sent back the standard letter asking them to send me proof that I owe it, but what I really want to know is did the Official Pubs Guide illegally record my conversation, and if they did , what recourse do I have? Can recorded conversations be date stamped? If so then I am in the clear as I know I never agreed the last year. I really want to go aggressive on this as I feel that a recording of my conversation was done without my permission, or I was not made aware of the fact that they were recording me. Please note it was always them that phoned me. Thanx Seamark

Thanks for that. Well the fact that the Garage said they only had a few miles left in them, I suppose means they were still roadworthy and were over the 1.6mm or on the cusp and I can’t see that it is worth the trouble of chasing the £75 that the brake discs cost, so will leave it. With regards to the Extended Parts Warranty. I am a member of Which? I also sign up for their legal advice line (great value for money if anyone is interested) and they advised me that these type of warranties come under Insurance and you have a statutory right to cancel within a 14 day cooling off period. It is even possible to get a full refund after that also, but it is usually a proportion of the full sum. They actually helped me write the letter to the company and the dealer. In the booklet under the T’s & C’s it states that “This agreement is not able to be cancelled and no refunds can be issued”. The solicitor at Which said that this is BS and it is in breach of your Statutory Rights. If they start arguing I will post another thread for the benefit of the community and keep you all updated. Many thanks

Hi I was wondering if I had any recourse to reclaim some costs from a 2nd hand car dealer. I bought a Mercedes C180 with a 57 reg last week 13th January. When I bought the car I noticed that it was flashing a message that it was 266 days overdue for a service. When I pointed this out to the dealer he said that the reason for this was that it had been sitting since it’s last service and this was just an automatic countdown from the cars computer, whereby in reality it did not really need a service. Stupidly I believed him. Had I checked the service history I would have seen that the last service was in fact 10,000 miles previously at 52,230 miles and the car was now at 61.700 miles. Anyway I bought the car as it had everything I wanted on it and although a bit more than I wanted to pay, I was desperate to get a car as my old car had literally given up the ghost. I booked it in for a service with a reliable Garage that specialise in Mercs that I have been using for nearly 20 years. The car was due a B service which costs about £225 anyway and I would have been happy to pay for this. On inspection the Garage owner told me that there were a few things that were needed to make it road worthy. 1. It needed two new rear tyres as that on had a few miles left in them 2. It needed one rear brake pad 3. It desperately needed two new Rear Brake Discs as the old ones were badly corroded. Total Cost for these including VAT was £306 over and above the normal Service charge. There were a few other things that needed replacing over and above what is normally included in a B service such as Oil and Air Filters, but I am prepared to swallow that and in all fairness the Garage said that they could probably last until the next MOT due in November, but I said that I would prefer to get it all sorted in one go. So in all the service cost me £766. I would have thought that the 3 items above were essential and have been checked prior to selling the car to make the car roadworthy In the SoGA it reads Roadworthiness 5.17 You should ensure that you have procedures in place to check that vehicles you supply, offer to supply or expose for sale are safe and roadworthy. It is not sufficient to rely on MOT or service histories. This will usually mean arranging for a suitably qualified or competent person to carry out pre-sale mechanical inspections of vehicles and any problems that make them unroadworthy must be rectified. On another note, the dealer also sold me an extended Car Parts Warranty which I have since found out is next to useless. I asked the dealer to cancel that and to refund the money two days after taking it out. He told me that it was not refundable, which I know is an outright lie as I asked to cancel within the 14 day cooling off period and have since requested this to both him and the insurance company in writing. He has emailed back stating that it is not refundable, I am waiting to hear from the Insurance company (WMS) but am confident I will get that money back, but it was his outright lie that got my back up, and him thinking I did not know my statuary rights. If he lied about that what else did he lie about. Because my back was up about that I thought I might investigate the possibility of getting some money out of him for the tyres and brakes. Any thoughts whether I have a leg to stand on or not?

Hi First time I have posted to this forum, although it has been a great forum to help me through my BR. Fantastic advice and up to date information, so thank you all for a really helpful resource. Now here is my current problem which has lead me to finally post. I was discharged from BR in November 2009. I have just got round t getting my credit reports from the 3 agencies and they were much as I expected so I started to compose and send my letters to the various companies (together with my discharge notice) to get my credit reports updated. I noticed one Default which I did not recognize which was from Capquest and this also had only appeared on my credit report in December 2009, one month after my Discharge. After investigation I found that this Debt was from Cahoot (Abbey National) and the Status for the Cahoot debt was DA (Debt assignment). The one from Capquest matches all the details, amount, date of Account Opened so it is definitely the Cahoot Debt which was included in my BR and looks to have been sold on to Capquest. I have written the standard letter to Cahoot to update my Credit Reports and I have also sent a CCA recorded delivery to Capquest. I have only done both of these today. The concern I have is that now I have gone through BR and been discharged I am going to appear in Default again straight after and I also need to know if Capquest have a legal right to put a default against my credit report for a Debt that was originally included in my BR? What other actions would you suggest I do to clear this from my Credit report. Surely this cannot be legal. By the way, I have receive no letters or contact from Capquest at all. Thanx