Don't bother applying for this card if you have a good credit rating. They have "confidential" criteria which basically means that if you pay your debts on time and have no loans they will turn you down for a card. It appears they want people who are going to make them lots of money in interest by getting into debt, which I guess is the business they are in. The card "partnership" is however giving the John Lewis brand nothing but a bad name.

It was the VOA.....

I don't understand the latest council tax banding appeal system. When I tried to appeal against my banding, the rules seemed to be that unless you have moved to a new house in the last six months or unless your house has recently been assessed you cannot appeal. I was turned down despite the fact that I have a really good case. My neighbours houses are both extended like mine. One neighbour has a loft extension, conservatory and a bungalow in her back garden (which she has passed off as an outhouse to avoid planning but that is another story...). The other neighbour has exactly the same extension as we do (just a rear extension which goes around the side of the house). Yet both these houses are in a lower band than mine. It's really annoying and I didn't think I could do anything about it seeing as I was turned down about three years ago. Has the law changed since then?

If you feel strongly about it and want to take it further, you should write to the responsible PCT giving full details. They should have someone there who will take it up with the surgery concerned as it is something that should not have happened.

I guess that's why I said that the best way forward would be for a dedicated body to be set up to deal with all these issues. After all it affects all information stored on government databases and not just NHS.

I don't know who it is shared with but there are strict procedures under Caldicott regulations etc as to who is allowed to see it and how much they are allowed to see. The sort of data sent through the system is anonymised under data protection. Paper records exist and have always existed. This is a way of consolidating all the different paper records rather than have info that the GP or consultant hasn't received. It's a good thing for the patient, the doctors and the taxpayer because it cuts down on admin, postage and faxes/phone calls to find out what's already on screen. Obviously you need to have a system which allows a certain amount of info to be available to professionals to allow them to do their jobs properly so that they don't end up treating the wrong patient etc. Obviously the data needs to be in a secure format.

The point of it is to make things better for patients. You go into a surgery and you can have a referral made automatically without the pallaver of referral letters by snail mail. The consultant at the other end can then see your med records on screen so doesn't need all your notes sent. Technically a good idea for more efficient treatment. However, obviously there need to be stringent security procedures in place. The information is already there anyway - just in paper format. This should theoretically put it into a more secure format than lying around on surgery shelves. So basically I don't think the ideas behind it are sinister or big brother-ish. The NHS is probably the only organisation of its size that still uses a cumbersome paper system and they are trying to change that. A paper system means that your gp spends a lot of time trying to find out what's happened to your referral letter rather than discussing your prognosis. I guess they are reluctant for patients to opt out because it will mean they have to be processed outside the system. I was really impressed when I went to see a consultant recently and he had all my blood test results in front of him on screen. Personally I think it's a great idea. Maybe the government needs a dedicated department devoted to ensuring security and accuracy of centrally held information. Together with a procedure for correcting errors or ommissions where the public can feel confident that problems will be fixed and where work is ongoing to protect data from corruption or hacking.

What a relief! I opened this thread with trepidation as I am planning to move to O2 because I keep reading good reviews for their broadband package.

I find it hard to believe you are a manager Wayne. After all you should be working not posting to internet forums. This is a very useful and informative thread. In respect of the thread and the five year warranty. Firstly the warranty is not as "free" as it seems, you pay a higher price for tv's at John Lewis than competitors (proof of this is that I know of people on the AV forum who have managed to get a refund under the "never knowingly undersold" policy). It is a generally held view that John Lewis gives a two year guarantee for products other retailers give a one year guarantee for. That's why many people go to John Lewis rather than buy for the same price elsewhere. Looking at info now it seems that it's three years for large electrical goods, 5 years tellies, 2 years for other things (see below). No wonder people can become confused. An extract on the John lewis guarantee policy from PriceRunner UK - Compare Prices and Find Best Deals Online : "We always honour the manufacturer's guarantee period where offered; these are usually one year unless otherwise stated. In addition to the first year manufacturer’s guarantee on large electrical domestic appliances, computers, non-portable hi-fi equipment, DVD and VHS players/recorders and camcorders, we provide a free second year service guarantee. If you have purchased a television, your service guarantee is automatically 5 years in total, or 3 years for a John Lewis large electrical domestic appliance. See website for full details." I've noticed that more people are having problems with John Lewis in the last couple of years. Has something changed in their policies? Seems to be since they put in the "cattle run" type checkouts. I tried to find out about a tv last year and found they had a ticketing system. I mean excuse me but I'd rather go elsewhere than have to sit there like a lemon with a numbered piece of paper in my hand waiting for some smarmy guy in a suit to tell me something that would be obvious were the items more clearly labelled in the first place.... On the subject of Waitrose. I shop there all the time and keep finding out of date produce in the store I go to. I've complained about this more than once to them and it usually stops for a while and then comes back. I once found fish four days past the sell by date on display. The reason I complain is because I don't want some poor soul (no pun intended) to get home and find their salmon is off. They can be very accommodating and then again sometimes they are not. When I actually phoned the branch concerned they were very helpful, but when I contacted their website a couple of years ago because I'd found a chocolate had been tampered with they were very snotty in their response. If they are anything like Wayne it doesn't surprise me (if indeed he is an employee it's a very poor advertisement for them to have his post on here!). Just on the subject of apple IPODs I've also had probs with their software upgrades. It seems they have one every couple of months these days. I had to upgrade in order to download from Itunes and now I can't download anyway because there is a problem with my user ID. Ipod help were very unhelpful and did not resolve my problem. They did not seem to be knowledgeable enough to sort the problem out and I've simply given up downloading from Itunes (which doesn't seem to sell all the songs I want anyway). I agree with MadgeXXX, there may indeed be trouble storing up for Apple in future. A pity seeing as they are such a creative company. Diseconomies of scale perhaps and too rapid expansion.