Explains what things???

In the mean time Germany is fearing a deep recession triggered by their healthy motor industry collapsing in the event of import tax imposed to the UK post Brexit.

Had many runnings with estate agents before I decided to be my own estate agent. All cases brought to ombudsman resulted in "yes, they've done wrong and they've lied, this should be a learning point" no compensation or even refund awarded. Same cases and 2 more brought to county court were immediately closed when paperwork hit their desk. That's why i think you should avoid the ombudsman. And by the way, the ombudsman survives from fees paid by estate agents, so effectively the ombudsman is their employees.

It would be beneficial to scrutinise the correspondence between the estate agent and your friends to make sure nobody started digging a hole without your knowledge

I always reply to such threats as follow: Dear Sir or Madam, As you are convinced that my case will be dismissed and I will be liable for your costs, I am confused as to why you are asking me to withdraw the case. Wouldn't this be financially damaging to yourself and your firm?

There list of exclusions is so vast to even mention packaging. In other words, you can't even send new cardboard boxes with them. It's done deliberately to avoid paying when things go wrong.

Ignore him and block his number.

The request to speak only to your solicitor is nonsense. Fortunately in UK you don't need a solicitor to write letters or indeed start a civil claim. That shows how unprepared they are. As said, they've screwed so many people before and they're very confident. Go through the process and once they get court papers they'll start behaving. In my experience the ombudsman is useless and in fact they're biased towards the estate agents.

Nice one

Most likely they will avoid court and pay given the amount as you said. Friday to Monday was a very hot bank holiday weekend, so it is surprising they responded so quickly.

Money come and goes. Whenever someone dies there are vultures around trying all sort of things to extract some money from the next of kin. It happened to us when our dad gave up the ghost. Upsetting at the time, but then it's cursed money and it will bring only trouble to the fraudsters. Move on.

Have you looked at the possibility of a section 75 or chargeback claim? It might be easier and faster than a county court claim. As a word of caution though, if you have used the phone, even for a few hours, it MIGHT show signs of use and they would be entitled to deduct some money from the refund. You took pictures of the phone before sending it back, but can you prove these pictures were not taken when you first received the phone? I ask because these questions will be asked in any claim you submit, so be prepared to answer with good evidence.

Have you read any of the posts above?

BazzaS, when I went to uni, not many student existed as they didn't have many drama and social courses, hence it was easier to find a bed. With regards to starting a county court claim, I assume (wrongly perhaps) that anyone who's read a couple of threads on cag must know that a lba is an integral part of the claim, so of course that's where it would all start.

In my experience this could only be sorted by making a county court claim. All estate agents do exactly this, take the deposit without giving any paperwork, at best they give an hand written receipt. Then they can claim that t&c were handed personally when property was viewed. So unless one is secretly filming, there will be no evidence either way. Estate agents and LL know that the chances of being sued is very small, so they carry on regardless. That's why on the rare occasions when they receive court papers, they tempt to pay back the money. One question to the op: I didn't understand why you wanted to pull out. To hand money to the estate agent you must have been pretty sure you wanted the property, what happened? In adult world changing your mind more often than changing clothes is very expensive, so unless that potential degree gives you a millionaire job, I suggest you and your friends start keeping to your words without changing your mind too often. I also would like to suggest that you think about the landlord. They're not all rich billionaires who can afford losing money. In fact most of them would be in the red if their property didn't produce rent for a month or two. That's why they're not happy that you changed your mind. Please don't be upset for my suggestions, you might find them useful in future. I was a university student myself once upon a time and I know what it means.

An unsealed phone surely is less valuable than a factory sealed one. That's what they're saying I suppose, and to make it better they also added that the handset and accessories show signs of use. Only you and them know what happened to the phone, so it's your decision to insist on the refund or lose some money. Frankly I always thought that the law should specify a longer and better list of products that can't be returned opened and phones should be in that list. In all honesty if I bought a new phone and I received an open box with fingerprints on the screen I would be sending the lot back, wouldn't you? Don't forget you also have the option of chargeback/section 75.

A simple spelling mistake gives no exact results on companies house. Also, many companies trade under a trading name which is different from the registered name, although I think they should state this on their paperwork and website. For example, I could trade as "Builder's bum" and be registered as "Bob the builder limited". In my paperwork I would put "Builder's bum is a trading name of Bob the builder limited"

On side note: I have notice that many people without the skills to argue their point, accuse others of being rude, racist, sexist, homophobic etc. I.E. Excuse me, i don't have a receipt for this refund, but i have my bank statement, can i get a refund? -No, no receipt no refund - But your policy and the law says "proof of purchase" not "receipt " - You're rude/racist/homophobic, you must leave now or i call security. I see this happening day in day out. Even kids do it, they're very quick at gaining a crowd's attention by shouting "racist/homophobic" so they can feel they've won the argument. Sad.

The advice is: make a complaint and get a refund. Then make another complaint about the inspectors attitude if you want, but changing the world is something that it's not going to happen, surely not for an excess fare. Inspectors are given discretion and unfortunately some of them take this as a sign of power over other people. It's impossible to sack all people who have a little position of power and employ more, hence the complaint system. That's life and as .much as everyone of us want to improve it, it's an impossible task, so don't waste your time and brain on it. Just accept that there are things you can't change. Get your refund, get your apology, then move on. That's my advice.

In the real world a penalty fare and a ticket sale (fare) are used at inspector discretion to avoid reporting fare evaders. Of course, non fare evaders, people who make genuine mistakes, get the same. That's not defined mark, even though theoretically all fare evaders should be reported as such.

You're right, the system would allow the refund to be processed from a different terminal. However, ticket office staff don't get involved with revenue "disputes" that's why the op was sent back to see the inspector at the barrier. Sometimes inspector sell a peak ticket to fare evaders instead of issuing a penalty fare as a less harsh punishment; the ticket office couldn't know if this was the case. There are many other scenarios.

Ok, so as you have been overcharged you now need to be pragmatic and first of all request a refund by making a complaint. In this first complaint do not go on about what argument you had and what conduct the inspectors were following. Concentrate on highlighting the fact that you must get a refund because they overcharged you. People looking at complaints receive thousands everyday and anything longer than a few lines is usually misunderstood. After you receive your refund, then you complain about the conduct of the inspectors, as a completely separate matter. I note that you were offered a refund, an argument broke out and you were escorted out of the station. This will not play in your favour as all inspectors would have taken note of this in their notebook and possibly complete an incident report form with their version of events. Frustrating but that's how it is, that's why I said to be pragmatic.

What you have done is correct: ticket facilities not available, buy a permit to travel and pay on board or destination. Now the problem is peak or off peak. From what you said they charged you a peak because they didn't ask what time you would be returning. So I assume they sold you z return ticket, correct? If this is the case, for a return to be off peak, both journeys must be off peak. So if you had travelled in peak time outbound, no matter what time you were returning, you would need to pay peak price. Of course if you had travelled off peak they should have asked. Accordingly to the answer to the above, a complaint should solve this. My advice, keep it short and remember that the important matter is peak or off peak price. Anything else confuses the situation to your disadvantage.

Curtain twitcher. Don't worry about it.

You have already notified the insurance, so settling privately won't change anything. Your insurance shouldn't sustain any cost as explained by unclebulgaria. As he said, just make sure they recover the costs from other party insurance and you keep your ncb. Unfortunately it is not possible to avoid a price hike for the next few years, I have been there and it's extremely frustrating, but nothing anyone can do about it.