I checked the date on the tax disk when we went to look at the car to make sure that it was in date. Do you check the registration number on the disk matches the car when you go and buy one?? Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but when a dealer tells you that the car comes with a months tax on it, and the date on the tax disk reflects this, then it would be reasonable to say that there isn't any reason to doubt them about it. The advert on autotrader was down as a trader advert and he is also currently selling another car on gumtree, so Trading Standards WILL be getting a call from me on Monday. I have someone with 10 years plus experience in dealing with used cars who is running checks on the vehicle for me, so please can you stop making out that I am stupid and actually give a constructive answer that may help, or if that is not possible, then just don't comment.

It's not that someone at the PO is up the creek, it's the system wouldn't let them backdate it as the tax ran out in April and the car was never sorned. This is besides the point, the point is this dealer sold us a car telling us it had tax until the end of June, and it turned out to be total bull and the tax disk was out of another vehicle altogether, so for 3 weeks we have been unaware that we have been driving the car with no road tax, and I am asking if there is anything we can do about the dealer, what I am not asking for is for someone to make me feel like a complete idiot when we have tried to make a bad situation legal again.

The post office tried to put it through as being valid from the 1st June but because the REAL tax disk ran out on 30th April, the system wouldn't let them do it.

Because we didn't find out the disk was fake until this morning when we went to tax the car and as it is past the 15th of the month, they won't backdate a tax disk, I thought that was common knowledge.

Thankfully we have the car parked on our private driveway so it's not on a public highway, which is a blessing. I have been advised to speak to trading standards on Monday morning so that is on the hitlist of things to do. I have a friend of mine doing a full HPi check for me on Monday morning as he owns a car dealership (forgot about that fact when we were looking for a car).

Any advice here would be much appreciated. We bought a 2nd hand car on June 1st, which had a tax disk in the window, due to expire on June 30th, which was fine as we could re-tax it at the end of the month. We have been to tax the car today and it turned out that the car isn't taxed, so we wondered what was going on. On closer inspection of the tax disk, it turns out that the tax disk that was in it, was for a different car altogether!!!! The tax on the car we bought actually expired on April 30th!!!!!!!! Of course, the car tax we have just paid for doesn't come into force until July 1st so we now have an untaxed car which my husband needs to drive to get to work!! Have we got any comeback on the person we bought the car from, as he told us that there was a month's car tax on the vehicle. Thank you.

The reason I ask, is that with having internet banking with these theiving beggars, I can access bank statements over the past 6 years and have already worked out my bank charges for the same length of time. Do I go straight in for sending them the charges schedule now? Was going to do this last year but things went really rather wrong on a personal level and they have only just started improving. AJ

Orange are crafty buggers!!! The day before I am going to post the letter, and I get a phone call, at 6.45pm this evening, on my birthday of all days, informing me, yet again, that they will not be honouring the minutes, despite the fact that they are on the previous bill, in black and white, as being available for the period in question. Yet again, despite me telling her not to bother, they are going to recalculate it and also look through my previous call and text history, not sure why, something to do with working out whether i did it intentionally and am trying to duck out of it. Am still firing the letter off and posting it tomorrow, as this has gone on long enough now.

OK, so I have spoken to ofcom, and they have told me not to even bother given orange any more time to sort this out. I am to fire off a formal complaint to them in writing, recorded delivery, and inform them that I have spoken to OFCOM and if it is not sorted to a satisfactory level, then I will be going to CISAS. I will let you know how I get on. AJ

A quick bit of back ground first. April 2008 - changed tarriff online, 600 minutes and unlimited text £30pm Bill received only stated 100 minutes for following month. Rang up and complained and was issued 1000 free extra talk minutes every month for 6 months. June 16th 2008 - Rang ORANGE as I received a £370 phone bill, as they had only taken 100 minutes off, and not the extra 1000. Bill was sent for recalculation and I was told that 1000 minutes would be continued until December 18th 2008. This has been confirmed numerous times on the phone by them. June 22nd 2008 - rang up and upgraded handset 6 months early, incurring upgrade fee of £150, fine, hubby was paying half as a birthday gift, no problem. Also changed my price plan. July 6th 2008 - a voicemail was left on my phone saying that because the minutes were a good will gesture, then they were not going to be honouring them and I am therefore liable for the £370. I rang them and pointed out that I have got the 1000 minutes on paper as being available for the period up to June 10th, which is the end of my billing cycle. I was advised that the bill would be sent off for recalculation AGAIN and that I would hear back within the week. July 12th 2008 - not wanting to wait for my phone bill to arrive, I decided to check it on the website, only to find that they are trying to have me for £298, ok so £150 of that is my upgrade fee, fair do's. Trawled my phone bill only to find that they have only applied 700 of the 1000 minutes. Rang them on July 13th telling them I had seen this and that I had sat and worked the whole sodding bill out in SECONDS, let alone minutes, and that the 2 bills combined should only be about £300, not the £668 they are trying to nail me for. Got told that it would be sorted out within 2 days. Spoke to them about an hour ago, only to find that the billing system computers are down and they can't do anything. I did find out though, when finding out about the free external memeroy card I should of had, that there have been 5 differents actions started on my account. This woman, bless her, was so different to what I have had to deal with. As I have had my handset longer than 7 days she is putting £30 onto my account seeing as I can't get the memory card, this is to cover the cost of the memory card, but when I asked to be put through to billing, she came back and said the system was down, could she help in anyway, so I explained the situation to her. She was disgusted by how I have been treated and said that she would be increasing the £30 to £50. Very nice woman, couldn't of done more to help me. Now, this is where the problem comes in. When I first notified orange of the complete and utter balls-up that had been made on the first bill, dated June 10th, the lad on the phone agreed that is was wrong and advised me to cancel the DD, which I did. Infact, when I got to the bank, it had already been cancelled from their end. I was told that both payments would come out together on the 28th of this month. Fine. When I saw the balls up on the bill dated July 10th, I contacted them and was advised again that the direct debit would not be reinstated until they had sorted it out. So now, by the time this is corrected properly, I am going to have £300, plus whatever the bill due to be peinted on August 10th has got on it, to pay all in one go. Slight problem, I earn £540pm after tax and before my phone bill comes out, I have £420 coming out, which is why hubby said he would pay half the upgrade fee. This made it that the bills and the upgrade fee were affordable, if they had been correct the first time and had been paid as they should have been. So now, by the time this is sorted out, I am going to have a phone bill to pay, which I can by no means afford, all because they screwed up. What can I do now. I feel I have done all I can. They have had numerous chances to rectify this to a satisfactory level and have failed. I feel incredibly let down by them. My next step is to speak to OFCOM and then go to CISAS. I do not want to have to take it to this level. Any ideas what I can do now to try and prevent having to take it that far. All I want them to do is get it right, and hell, maybe even write off the upgrade fee by way of apology. HELP!!!! AJ X

The £400 a month was for bills and food.

Quick run down of the situation. My dad lived with someone for 17.5 years, and has recently been, shall we say, right royally screwed over by her. She kicked him out with not much other than his vehicle, his tools and his clothes. Meanwhile she sits pretty in the house that he half built. He contributed £400 a month into the joint account, which he can prove via bank statements. He built an extension onto the house, and also did various other home improvements over the 17 years, leaving her now with a house that is more than likely worth more now than it was then. She own that house (sole ownership) but also 2 other properties which she rents out. While she is living the effective high life, dad is having to stay with his sister as he quite simply, cannot afford to rent anywhere. Does he have any rights whatsoever to at least a %age of the house value seeing as he was contributing to the finances and also the work he did on the house over the years. He has been speaking to a solicitor who is quite literally useless at the minute, not giving any answers and that is when he can be bothered to get in touch. Is it worth him carrying on, or can she get away with leaving him with nothing????? Thanks guys, if anyone knows the answer to this, then it will be you. AJ

It would appear I miscalculated. My charges are actually £1752, as there is just over £200 due out on 3/3 in bank charges. I have included these into the SOC. I take it this means therefore, that I cannot file until at least 3/3??? AJ

Thanks for that Saint. I have saved those links into my favourite to read and sort out when I return from work and have got the 3 monsters into bed. AJ

Hi everyone, I am new to this site and have, rather belatedly, checked through my statements from the middle of 2002 to now, and found that Lloyds have flinched me for £1552. Am I too late to start the ball rolling in claiming this back? I hope not, as I have had to open a new account for my child benefit to go into as all the bank charges were leaving me with no money at the end of it. Well, I say open a new account, it is an account I have had with another bank for 7 years or so, and had forgotten about, as there was only a few pence in it and I had lost all the paperwork when I moved house. The other question is, will it act in my favour if I tell them I will write off the overdraft interest thingumies, as seeing as it is £1552 in just charges, then this will do for me, I am not fussed about interest, and judging by some of the posts I have read with people trying to get ANYTHING out of lloyds, then I am going to be hard pushed to get this back as it is. If anyone can give me any pointers in how to go about doing this, then I will be most grateful. Thanks AJ