hi, i was wondering if anyone knew, or could point to a web resource (i can't find anything on the consumer direct site), about expiry dates and the law. essentially, i had some vouchers for a hot air balloon flight but we had to cancel (within their 72 hr period) b/c my partner got rushed to hospital with appendicitis. i had an email from the company confirming that it was fine to postpone the flights. i've been very busy since (and plus, they do not operate over the winter) and so i'm only now getting around to rebooking. at first they told me no, b/c my tickets had been cancelled, b/c i had taken too long to rebook. but, in the email confirming my postponement, there is NO expiry date listed, nor any kind of stipulation stating that i must contact for a rebook before a certain date. then they agreed to reopen the tickets provided we sent in a copy of a medical note proving he was in hospital, and i did, despite the fact i consider this an invasion of our privacy. anyway, now they state that i must book before may 4th or the tickets will be recancelled. this is no good for either of us as we have exams and essays to do (it's my final year) and when i sent into the medical note, i said i wanted to go after may 16th, but clearly they decided to ignore that. so - i was wondering if this is legal? can a ticket have an expiry date if that is not communicated to the customer?

thanks. and LOLOLOLOLOL at your avatar!

anyone? is a company legally required to give you a copy of their complaints procedure?

was i being blind? :o thanks. do you know the answer to my question though? are they legally obliged to convey to me their complaints procedure?

I am having NO END of problems with my new Dell laptop. I won't go into the myriad problems and ATROCIOUS "customer service" I have received, except to say: NEVER BUY A DELL!!! Anyway, I want to make an official complaint and I cannot see a way of doing this on their website. I have asked several "customer support" agents for an email / snail-mail address to make an official complaint, but I never get a response. Can you tell me, are Dell required by law to give me this information? I seem to remember something about it being a legal requirement for a company to convey their complaints procedure to a consumer. Am I wrong? Thanks!

ahhh, i see. i didn't send an SAR as i don't have £10 spare. well, hopefully they will respond anyway...

they have 40 days to reply to a request for written confirmation of account closure? is this law? can you give me more info? i hate abbey and like getting stroppy with them.

i tried that lula, to no avail! i sent off a letter the other week, but haven't heard anything back yet.

i'm not sure if i'm posting this in the right forum, so apologies if i am not, and please move it to where it should be! i have/had a couple of accounts with abbey - a current account and an e-saver. i don't use these anymore b/c i became incredibly tired of abbey's atrocious customer service, so i moved everything over to natwest who have been brilliant. i wrote to abbey in october asking for both accounts to be closed with immediate effect; both accounts had zero balance. (i made sure of the latter after reading numerous accounts in the paper about how people had problems getting their balances from abbey upon account closure!) despite writing to them in plenty of time, i received statements of account in october and november, although not december. i have received nothing in writing from them concerning the closure of accounts. anyway, after reading some of the posts on this site, where dcas are trying to collect on accounts years after closure when people thought they had zero balances, it occurred to me that i probably want to ensure i get some proof from abbey that my accounts are closed and at zero balance. so i was wondering if there is some recommended verbage i can hit them with? as in, are they required to confirm the closure or anything? any help would be gratefully appreciated.

i love that site!

no, thanks. i was just trying to point out that i think pennine can collect on a HSL debt as they seem to be the same company. that and how utterly incompetent they are!

i think that pennine are the same company as honours students loans, so i wold think they do have the authority to collect. they are ruthless. i have to repay my old student loan now, even though i am currently an undergrad. you would have thought they'd let me finish before forcing a repayment schedule. i have one letter from them in front of me which in on pennine's header but has honours student loans contact email. also, despite making repaying via standing order on a monthly basis to the banking information given to me by pennine, i get harrassed by honours student loans every 2 or 3 months telling me that i am not using the right reference number. (i am, and if they are separate companies, how would they even know..?)

thanks a lot tiglet.

thanks for that aktiv, i appreciate all the information i can get. at this point my only concern is not to be harrassed whilst i am in my last of uni and therefore stressed and on an exceedingly low income! once i start working the situation will be reconsidered.

hehehe. let's hope they do the same for me. i'll update if anything else happens.

okay, thanks. i think i'll also send RDCS a letter informing them that i am doing so.

okay, i'm all for harrassing those that harrass. heh! how do i find out who their local TS are? or rather, can you confirm that i've found the right one? essentially i went to the TS website and put in RDCS postcode (LS11 1AT) and came up with: West Yorkshire Trading Standards Service Trading Standards Complex PO Box 5 Nepshaw Lane South Morley Leeds LS27 OQP would that be right? also, any tips on what to say exactly? anything i should specifically appeal to? thanks again tiglet!

Hi, So I sent off the Statued Barred letter which they received on 23rd Nov. Today I received the following letter, dated 26th Nov, of which I quote: We are disappointed that the monies you have previously had the benefit of are still outstanding and you have not taken responsibility to clear the outstanding debt. Your account is now to be passed to our specialist recoveries unit which will ultimately decide the best form of action that is to be taken to recover the outstanding amount. To avoid this going any further you must call us and arrange repayment... blah blah blah. What would you suggest doing? Ignoring it? Reminding them of that clause which states that, "continuing to press for payment could be amount to harrassment"? Any advice would be appreciated! Many thanks.

okay, many thanks. hopefully someone will know. i may just continue repaying the £5 a month unil i graduate and then start with he statute barred letters on the old loans.

well, i'm also the current recipient of a student loan from the student loans company, based in glasgow. i have been since 2005. actually, i've just logged onto my "student finance direct" account and i can see the old loans that honours harassed me about are there. i am worried that if i contest old debts that they'll cut off my current loans.

god, they are such liars. they told me such a different story when i called. can you believe that after i filled in my income and expense to show i am a broke student, they even told me to move b/c they felt my rent was too high!!! i'm like - have you ever lived in london???!?!?!! of course he hadn't... anyway, another concern is that this might affect my current student loan. what do you think? i am afraid to do anything about this in case it stops my last two installments. and i got a credit report in feb of this year and nothing was on it, for this or the other CC debt. i've also just ordered another one...

both of these loans are the old style loans. until april this year, i have NEVER made a repayment on these loans. i was a student until i left the UK in '98 and, as i said in the other thread, i came back here (in 2005) and started at uni once more. so, from 1998 until a letter they dated 30/12/2005 (but which i actually received much later, at some point in 2006), there was zero correspondence between us. the first time i contacted them (by phone) was probably about this time last year in reference to a letter i received threatening to take me to court. as i said, i now, as from april 2007, pay £5 per month. to make sure i understand clearly, you are saying that in terms of the statute barred thingy, i can't be legally made to repay this debt? are they not underwritten by the government? will this affect my credit? many thanks!

ha! you know, i wish i had found this site a year ago... so, only the 1997 loan is statute barred? the 1998 portion is repayable? thanks so much for the advice.

tiglet to the rescue! but i've actually started repaying it at £5. does this change things?

i have a question. i had a couple of loans from the SLC (97/98) which became honours student loans when i was out of the country (1998-2005). i am back in the country now and at uni again and honours found me a year or so ago. then pennine started threatening me and told me that i had to repay b/c it was a mortgage style loan and therefore the statute barred thing didn't apply. is that not true?