harold, howard, same difference, we've never formally met he just really likes my money. I have to stare at that face every morning on my jaunt to the post office for my paper (and more recently to post complaints here, there and everywhere).

Lol I used to get called Titch when I was little. Yes I'm getting angry at the bank, if things keep up at this pace I'll be burning effigies of harold and the chorus in my front garden (I live across the street from the local BOS). Must ask is there a guide on how to file with the court for failure to disclose information, they have 7 days and counting.

Dusary this is horrendous, bank of scotland are complete pratts! good luck with getting back the rest of your cash, if they keep dripping the money in at the rate they're going you should be completely reimbured by the 33rd of Julaugust 3089. I wonder what the FOS will say to all their messing about??

I called the disability rights people and they told me to write a letter so this is what i'm sending tomorrow. Dear Sir/Madam, I am writing in regard to an incident which occurred in your nightclub on Tuesday 17th July into early Wednesday 18th July. Myself and a group of colleagues arrived at your nightclub to celebrate the leaving of a member of staff, upon arrival I mentioned to a cashier that I had a medical condition and asked if the company require a copy of my medic alert card, she told me they didn’t and she would inform the stewards that there was a disabled person in the building. Later in the night I slipped on the stairs and damaged my shoulder when I grabbed for the handrail, I was given an ice pack by the manageress on duty and again I mentioned my disability. At 3am when the lights in the club came up I suffered a vasovagal episode which I informed the establishment could happen. Instead of being offered first aid my party were forced out of the building, my carer was told by the manageress to “get the *** out” and members of staff tried to force me to my feet. A member of staff took my medic alert card and started shouting abuse at me because I have a nut allergy (which is in no way connected to my disability). My carer explained that there were serious medical implications to moving me when I was still recovering from syncope; he tried to brief the manageress on duty on my medical condition (Neurocardiogenic Vasovagal Syncope) but she merely persisted in her attempts to have him removed from the club. I was accused of being a drug addict and a drunk despite being reasonably sober and engaging in meaningful conversation with a member of staff who I used to work with only minutes prior to my episode. I was humiliated in front of other patrons who were finishing their drinks using the 15 minute buffer time specified by the Licensing (Scotland) Act 1974 revised 2003. I was then removed while still vulnerable and disorientated to a room with 2 male members of stewarding staff while one steward tried to check me over and administer first aid the other shouted and accused me of withholding information from the night club, he even rubbished my claim that I had spoken to the manageress earlier in the night despite having filed an accident report form. My complaints 1. That despite disclosing my disability I was humiliated and made a target of when I required medical assistance. 2. I was pulled to my feet without being asked if I had procured any injuries while falling. 3. I was bombarded with shouting members of staff and suffered emotional and verbal abuse while disorientated. 4. I was not offered first aid from a female member of staff nor was I offered the protection from a female steward as there were none. 5. The management kept trying to remove my carer contrary to guidelines on dealing with vulnerable adults. 6. The management, instead of taking advice from my carer who is trained in dealing with my medical condition, hurled verbal and emotional abuse at him. 7. I was accused of with holding information that the Disability Discrimination Act states may be with held by myself under any circumstances at my own discretion when in fact I had already spoken to 2 different members of staff. 8. My colleagues, despite spending a lot of money in the club that night, were forced out of the nightclub without any reassurance that I would be ok and when under the Licensing (Scotland) Act 1974 they could have stayed a further 15 minutes and finished up drinking. 9. When one member of staff asked if I required an ambulance the manageress with held a 999 call from me because the club would be fined for calling out paramedics, fortunately my carer was able to prevent the episode from getting worse. 10. A staff member tried to force water and ice cubes down my throat when I was semi-conscious. This caused me to choke briefly but they insisted I keep drinking. 11. I was moved when unconscious which causes complications to my condition and is against guidelines issued by medics. It is also contrary to first aid training given by both the Red Cross and the St Andrew’s services. I would like the club to investigate the incident and update me on whatever measures they have put in place to prevent people with similar disabilities to me having such a horrendous experience when out drinking with friends. I would also like to see copies of first aid certificates or other evidence to prove that the stewards and the manageress involved in treating me on the night were first aid trained by an approved company. I would also like to see evidence of either the door stewards’ registration with Edinburgh City Council or their completion of a Security Industry Authority approved course as is the law in Edinburgh. I would like a reply in writing to my home address within 28 days of receipt of this letter or I shall make a formal complaint to the licensing division of Edinburgh City Council. Yours faithfully Jen

I had my flatmate tidy up my English and resequence the letter a bit for me, I'm posting it recorded delivery tomorrow so they should get it Saturday, hopefully I'll have a job on saturday night, i know the law is on the side of whistle blowers but the idea of getting fired is scary with a capital S. Hopefully they'll just hate me for doing it but they must have saw it coming.

DWP wont help unless a complaint has been made in writing, how does this one look? Dear Sir/Madam, I am writing in regards to my employment at your company. I was first employed by **** on Wednesday 14th June 2006, it came to my attention upon reciept of my first payslip on the 21st July 2006 that I was not being paid for all of the hours I worked. Usually I would stop being paid at 4am on Wednesdays and Saturdays and at 3.30am on Friday despite me still working until as late as 5am on those days. I asked fellow employees who told me this is standard practice at the unit and took it up with the (then) trainee assistant manager *** as the club manager was on a leave of absence. She said that this was happening because the work could theoretically be done in this amount of time. I accepted this at the time and continued to work as I had before. In January this year we launched **** and this brought more work to be done at the end of the night as a result of the ***** but we were not paid for this extra duty. At this point I realised in conversation with my boyfriend that it was unlawful to withhold pay in the way that work was doing. I again spoke to a manager regarding this and also brought up that we had no breaks on duty despite working 6 hours in some shifts. I was told that should we be paid for every hour we worked the workers would simply take longer to clean up in order to get more money out of the company. I went away and researched employment law and found that the company policy directly contradicts employment law which states that any non-payment is classed as an illegal deduction from pay as I did not give you written permission to not pay me, my hours are not contracted so this non-payment is not in form of a contract, and it is not a legal deduction (i.e it is not tax, national insurance or from the student loans company). I have also noticed that my last few payslips are marked with the wrong date, usually 1 week after I am actually paid. There is also legislation which entitles night workers to free health assessments to ensure their health is not being affected to their detriment by working nights, to my knowledge none of the employees at the unit has ever had a health assessment carried out by the company. With regards to hours and taking breaks workers in the unit are entitled to a 20 minute break away from the work station if they are working six or more hours, some of the employees are paid for six hours (and we work more as a result of the company policy above) but these employees do not receive such a break, it is the duty of the employer to offer these breaks though employees can decline to work them. It should also be noted that the shift worked at New Year was completely unlawful under the working time directives where night workers should work no more than 8 hours continuous (we worked for 10 with only a ten minute break). I am writing this letter in order for the above issues to be addressed. I would like to hear back from you in writing to my home address within 28 days with an outline to how you are going to go about resolving these matters; failure to respond in a satisfactory manner will result in me seeking a court order for the company to improve workers conditions. I would like to politely point out at this stage that the law protects those who “whistle blow” on companies like yours and any dismissal I feel is connected to me sending this letter will also be taken to an employment tribunal on the grounds of unfair dismissal. Yours faithfully Jen

right non compliance to SAR being sent today, that should get things going, I have no patience for the bank, they didn't give me 40 days notice and i've never known them to dither when they're taking £39 for going 1p in the red

Problem is I got a contract over a PAYG because I wanted to build a good credit file for the future as I'm only 21 and a student, all of my bills are paid from the one account where all my income goes before automatically transferring into my student account. I'm disappointed that this isn't happening for me even though I've been an exemplary customer . I think I'll call the company and ask why it's not listed, they even have my student account on there with Worst status: up to date with payments and I only have a token overdraft to stop me getting hit with more charges on that account.

I've been with orange since last october when i moved from O2, i hold a contract that I thought was 12 months but they insist it's 18 months (online contract). Recently I found out about a black mark on my account as a result of a dispute with O2 (whole other thread there) and requested a copy of my credit file from all 3 of the big credit agency people. I got them and I can see everything from my overdraft at the bank to the dispute with O2 but my contract with orange doesn't appear on any of them. I'm worried at this because I thought I'd be picking up good points by paying £50 - £60 bill every month on time as I have been so far but now it doesn't but my boyfriend wonders if there's no mention of it on a credit report does it mean I don't actually have a contract?

I was at a nightclub tonight and managed to get obtain an injury to my shoulder while on the stairs, basically I slipped on a spillage and almost took a tumble but managed to grab a hand rail but in doing so hurt my shoulder. At the time the manageress seemed nice enough and I took the time she used examining my shoulder to explain about my medical condition and my tendancy to collapse. Later in the evening (about 2.58 am) I felt ill and found myself unconcious on the floor, by the time help arrived the lights were up (0300) and the club was clearing. My friends all tried to explain that I needed time to recover and I should be kept still but the manageress insisted I sit up and forced me into an upright position, she then tried to force my flatmate away saying that he had to leave (this was at roughly 0305) and I would be left alone with a team of (male) stewards while she spoke to him. I was disorientated as a result of the episode and couldn't answer in depth medical questions she was asking for myself but she wouldn't allow my flatmate to answer for me nor would she read the outline of my illness on my medic alert card. She accused me of taking drugs to the stewards (thankfully I used to work with one of them and he knew this wasn't the case), she also shouted at me, telling me to just stand up which is impossible to do in that state and told my flatmate to f**k off out her club. I was taken into a room and a different door steward yelled at me for not disclosing information before I collapsed but I did - to the manageress. I want to write a letter of complaint citing the disability discrimination act and the licensing (scotland) act that stipulates 15 minutes drinking up time i.e i could have had 15 minutes to recover but I looked around and as the club is owned by a private company there is no head office to write to, who else can I make my complaint to? If the manageress is also the owner then my letter would be a complete waste of time.

*bump* I was hoping someone on here could help as it seems matters have gotten worse today, we recieved no payment at all for turning up at training out of normal hours and did not even recieve our usual staff drink that we get as incentive for taking time out of our week to attend these staff training events.

I work in a nightclub part time because the hours sort of work around my study hours, I've been there for about 1 year and I've never recieved an accurate wage from the company. Every week we check our hours and those are the hours for which we are paid but usually we don't actually finish until an hour after the hours set out on the rota. This has been brought to the attention of the management team several times but they just shrug it off and say that's how long they think the job ought to take (cleaning down several bars, the washroom, bar, cloakroom and washroom floors, emptying bottle bins, cleaning bottle bins etc. all in one hour from closing time) but the staff all agree this is impossible. Several people have complained verbally but nothing gets done, we are all too scared to put it in writing to head office as we fear for our job, the management are known to "squeeze out" employees who stir up too much trouble. The majority of staff are students or in debt and really need the work, in my case my health problems prevent me from finding work elsewhere. There is also the issue of proving that we are not being paid fairly, the rotas disappear after we've all seen our hours, the time cards on the computer system can't be printed on the accounts of people who have complained in the past and pay slips often have the wrong date on them (mine says 20th July on it when i was paid last week). Is there anything I can do to make things a bit fairer at work? It would have to be an outside agency for the reasons above as I know that other members of staff wont speak out unless they can be guaranteed complete anonymity.

I filled out the form for the information commisioner and it's going to be posted tomorrow morning when i'm out, but i was wondering how long does this usually take to work i.e can I expect the halipratts to cough up my statements any time this month?

thank you, I've written out the letter below, is there anything I should add to this? Dear Sir/Madam, I am writing regarding a dispute which I had with your company between October and December 2006. I no longer have the account number but my telephone number was 07*********. I cancelled my contract early in October last year as I had ongoing difficulties and your customer service team did not respond in a satisfactory manner. I was told that the contract would have to be bought out for the sum of the last two months line rental (£50). When a bill arrived in November I called the customer advice number from my home telephone and was advised to ignore this bill plus any reminders as I could only pay the balance in December. I followed these instructions and recieved my final bill in December, I filled in the return slip and sent this back to your office with a cheque. The next day I recieved a letter from yourselves threatening me with debt collectors. The matter was finally settled in a conversation with an O2 supervisor and I was told there would be no repurcussions for myself as I had been told in error to ignore your correspondance by your own employees. I have now recently found out from the bank that there is a "black mark" against my name as a results of this dispute last year and I am unable to obtain credit as a result of this. I would like you to assist me in this matter by firstly explaining why I got this "black mark" in the first place when I was advised by an employee of O2 that this wouldn't happen and also informing me of the correct procedure to follow to have this "black mark" removed. Yours sincerely Jenschnifer

My problem is the appointment in edinburgh was December 2006, i went to see my GP after it and she told me I should see a therapist! Needless to say that didn't happen, i went along with it but a locum GP at the practice said I wasn't depressed (well duh) and it all just sort of ended there. The only person who's even hinted at taking it further is my cardiologist but he can only refer me to hospitals in Glasgow as that's where he's based. I could ask for a second opinion but they'll just send me back to see someone else at the infectious diseases unit even though i'm blatantly not contagious.

Thanks everyone, I've got my information commisioners form all filled out and am just printing a copy of my SAR to attach to it. If this doesn't work i'll go down the court order route.

Is it possible to have a medical record changed? I've suffered for years with a condition called neurocardiogenic syncope, it took them the best part of 3 years to work out what was wrong and we saw on the records during that time that they thought it was in my head (until i almost died during a test) this was despite me fainting while getting bloods done. I decided when i was diagnosed and started getting treated that it was a non issue but last year i started to suffer with chronic fatigue, joint pain, skin rashes and (more recently) migrane. I was referred to a doctor at a edinburgh hospital who told me he thought i had CFS but didn't want to label me (wtf?). He told me he'd write a letter to me and my GP about this alas I never recieved such a letter. I forgot about being cc'd into the letter until I was in hospital seeing my cardiologist and read some of the letter out of boredom, in it the doctor from the edinburgh hospital basically wrote that i was attention seeking and actually lied (he wrote that i danced for 4 hours per day when I quit dancing before the onset of the symptoms). As a result of this no one has ever offered me help with the symptoms which i still suffer, my cardio refered me to dermatology because my skin was a mess but no one wants to help with the joint pain. Can i make them remove the false statements?

Just out of curiosity, what's the probability of the bank closing my account for me doing this? I'm a bit wary as I have a student account and I'm well and truly in my overdraft but i've not actually had a charge since last November so they can't exactly say I've been abusing it lately?

I've decided while I'm here I'm going the whole hog. I found out recently that I have a black mark against my name because of a dispute I had with O2 last December. Basically last October I contacted O2 to cancel my contract and agreed that I would buy the last 2 months out but instead of accepting payment there and then they told me to ignore all my bills until I got a "final bill" in December. I got a bill for £25 in November, called the office and they told me to ignore it, so then I got a bill reminder, called the office, told to ignore it. Finally in December the bill for £50 arrived through the door followed the next day (when the cheque was in the post) by a final demand stating that they wanted payment or they'd be sending debt collecters round (for £50!!!). Apparently somewhere in that process I was blacklisted for not paying my bills but I was told not to! Can I do anything to get said black mark removed? I've never missed a payment before and it's annoying knowing the circumstances, I want my clean sheet back.

Thank you Tilly, i read over that template and the idea of threatening the bank with court action before I've even added up how much they owe me is scary, I realised when I went down this route that it could all go to court but I'm worried about being so aggressive early on, has anyone else went down this route? What was the response of the bank?

I have 3 accounts with HBOS and sent a S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) more than 40 days ago asking for everything they have on the accounts, i posted it to head office in Edinburgh with my £10 cheque and got a letter a week later saying that they had a queue but my stuff would be sent within the 40 days required by the law but it hasn't come. The lady on telebanking said that the cheque hasn't been processed so it may take even longer for my stuff to be sent but there's money in the account to make sure it doesn't bounce. Who can I complain to about this? The only phone number i have is telebanking and they're useless. The branch say it's a head office issue. I should mention that I'm claiming through the scottish system

the student association say that i can file an official complaint but i'm not allowed to involve anyone who's not from the university if i go down that route and it all seems quite complicated just to get an apology, cos that's all i can get, no changes or anything to the procedures that got me here in the first place

Take the advice of everyone on here, i've filled in 2 DLA forms and got what i wanted at first attempt. My heart condition is so rare they had to call my cardiologist up and ask him how it would affect me, it slowed down the claim but i got middle rate care and low rate mobility for 1 year then for 3. My mum had someone from citizens advice fill out the first one with me then she filled in the second bit as my carer. When it asks when you last saw the doctor you just write in the most recent date, even if it was just for a prescription. You write about your worst days and you always back up what you write for example one question is about cooking, i had to answer yes, i can cook but i need constant supervision as i may injure myself should i collapse unexpectedly near the hot cooker or when handling boiling water, had i just answered yes they would have told me where to go.

i'm not sure if this belongs on this forum as it is nowt to do with money (i came here originally to sort out my bank's "we'll slap £40 onto everything" policy. So i'm having problems with my university, I have a disability, well medical condition that makes me pass out lots, i mean like all the time, and the school i'm in is fine with it, they change some stuff for me like not having to handle certain chemicals and the like but otherwise i'm treated as a normal student. The exam board, which is nothing to do with the school itself takes all applications for exam allowances through either student support services (SSS) or by filling in an MC1 form outlining problems that could affect the exam or the learning around the exam. SSS know about my medical condition and i'm listed under the university as having multiple disabilities, so far i'm allowed extra reading time in the exam and they print a larger paper for me (because i'm dyslexic) but the exam invigilators have no idea that i'm quite likely to collapse on them. In first year I collapsed during an exam, the invigilator ignored me until my friend (a first aider) decided to make sure i was breathing ok, when someone from the exam board was called i was told that i couldn't leave the exam as i had not been in the room for a full hour and my paper would be void if i left the room. She then said that as it is a long term health problem i can't fill in an MC1 form for what happened. I assumed what she said was true and got on with things, and i passed the exam. This year a girl on the same course as me sitting the same modules failed to turn up for an exam. She filled in an MC1 form and got a doctor to state that she was too ill to sit the exam after collapsing the night before. The exam board came back and said that it was a good enough reason to miss though they haven't decided what they will do with her. I took this up with someone from the student advice service and she said that it didn't seem right, she reviewed the MC1 procedures with me and said that there was no rule about not submitting for a long term health condition and she knows that the universities rules on long term health problems "don't quite fit" with the disability discrimination act and they are under review right now but what am i supposed to do? I pass out before all of my exams, usually in the morning before, i've sat an exam with a head injury and, as mentioned above collapsed in an exam with no allowances made. I'm under the care of the cardiology department in another city and my own doctor only knows the basics of my problem, not enough to give a detailed letter for every exam I sit (MC1 forms need supporting evidence from a doctor or other professional) and even if he did it costs to get a non-urgent letter from the doctor. There's no other professional who i know that can fill in this form and I don't understand how my allowances for dyslexia just happen but not for my heart problem. does anyone have any advice on what to do from here? Thanks, Jennifer