We have been using a well known courier company for nearly 3 years in June they lost a parcel, in September they lost two more In total they owe me over £140 I now no longer use them for my parcel delivery I have spoken to their head office (they are a franchise) and have now got to the point when legal action is the only course left Do I need to go down any special route, or can I simply send them a LBA - eg -do I have to write to them requesting payment of what they owe 1st, then follow up with a LBA. Also they have charged me a 'minimum invoice surcharge' (because I stopped using them) I have never seen this surcharge written in any paperwork they have supplied me, it's not in the original agreement that I signed - are they allowed to do this

Hi 3 weeks ago my father passed away leaving an estate of about £600,000 (most of this is in joint names with my mum house, savings etc) My father always had Lloyds bank looking after all his money who invested it on his behalf. My father made Lloyds bank executors of the estate - named in his will. Last week, a few days before the funeral one of Lloyds managers came out to see my mother and I and told us that the fee was going to be 3.5% which was approximatly £4000. The lady collected a load of certificates from us to get ready to start administering the estate, probate etc. Since that meeting I have found out lots of things about banks and the extortinate prices they charge, and I know that I could have got it cheaper. however at the time I thought that as the bank was named executors they were the ones who had to do it, and didn't have to stand down. Lloyds bank should find dealing with all the estate really easy as they managed all my fathers shares, savings etc, and knew what his portfolio consisted of. 1 week on, Im beginning to question their right to act. Does anyone know if I can stop them acting as executors once they have started, I don't remember my mum or I signing anything, but at the time it was all so fuzzy due to the death of my father, that I can't be sure. Can anyone advise on this situation, do I have to keep with them now they have started ? The whole point of making the bank executors was so my mum wouldn't be stressed, but she is getting that way when she sees how much they are charging. Any advice greatly received

hope someone can help answer the following questions My father recently passed away, and he had a will and left it all to my mum, and he made Lloyds bank executors of the estate. they are also dealing with all the administration probate etc. 95% of the money was held in joint accounts, the house is also in joint names. therefore the only money that was in my fathers name was a few peps and a few stocks and shares amounting to approx £80,000 Lloyds are charging 3.5% so will cost about £4000 and they reckon it will take about 6 - 12 months to finish. My question - the money from joint accounts, the house, savings etc that are 50% in my mums name, is this now hers or is this part of dads estate and need to be sorted out, or is it just HIS money that he held privatly that goes to probabte. Sorry I'm abit confused, can some one explain ? Thanks Peter

what about all other out of pocket expenses - we had to do a 2 x 100 mile round trips as well - we have found another puppy - which is less than the original

THANKS for that - i guess once a cheque has been cleared it can't be stopped at all ?

Hi Can someone give us some advice... We recently decided to get a puppy, found a breader who had 4 pups 2 girls / 2 boys, we wanted to buy one of the boys - we was told that it wouldn't be a problem Breader said they would keep one of the pups, probably a girl, so we could have a pick of the rest. many visits, photos etc later - our daughter aged 6 really excited we were supposed to be picking up the pup at 10 weeks old on 26th March. We then hear that the pups won't be coming to us until middle of April as the breeder couldn't decide which to one to keep. Spoke to them and explained the situation that we had been told that we could pick the pup up at end of march, and that the breeder should make the decision within that time which to keep. they then decide they are keeping both boys, so we wouldn't be getting one, as they knew thats what we wanted. one very sad little girl. We gave them a deposit of £250 which was cashed on 10th Feb they let us down after telling us we could have a boy, and then withdrawing them. still waiting for them to return the cheque to us (I have an email stating that they would) what is our course of action, been waiting now for 2 weeks for them to return our money Can a cheque be stopped after its cleared Is my only recourse if its not returned to goto police and then money claim ? any help gratefully received!

thank you - it does - i have also found out that working tax credit isn't taxable either !

Sorry if this is a really stupid question... we run a Ltd company - and have managed to make a profit this year. We have been claiming child / working tax credits and want to understand how to work out the income..... A couple of questions .... tax Year ending 2010 I earn't £4500 - no dividends from company tax year ending 2011 (may) I received £4560 lump sum child/ working tax credit for previous year (2010) as we hadn't claimed anything, as didn't know our income. tax year ending 2011 £4836 working tax / child credits paid to us. Earnings will be £4500 + dividend when I declare income I know I need to add in this tax years credits of £4836 - but do I have to declare the £4560 that I recived in May for the previous year... I hope the above makes sense.... Pierre

Hi yesterday I signed up for an internet company to sell my products. I gave my debit card details for payment, and signed the agreement. I think that I have made the wrong decision, I understand that I have a 7 day cooling off period. As I have signed the agreement does this still stand, my products arent even entered into their system yet thanks

Hi I know that this forum is mainly directed for consumers, but I wonder if anyone can help give us some advice We have a product made from a local company who basically have mucked us about telling us lies and giving us excuses. Basically we were told that for our product to be made would be a lead time of 1 month, so we put an order in with them late January, since then we have had excuse after excuse as why we havn't got our product (we have got approx 30% of it. We eventually had enough on Tuesday and said enough is enough, if we dont have our goods by friday, then we will cancel the order. although it was a verbal contract about the lead time, i do have a letter explaining why the goods have been delayed past the due date. which as far as Im concerned means they have admitted liability. My questions are 1) If I pull out now - (im happy to pay for what has been delivered) will I be liable to pay for what we originally ordered, that is now on 3 months - with still no sign of the order being fulfilled ? 2) We have got lots of half sets (eg if we order 100 outfits that consist of hat gloves and socks that would need to be sold together as they all match with our specific colour) and this company has only made the gloves would I then be able to refuse the odments (ie the gloves) as the company didnt make the whole set, only 1 piece of it. We will be speaking to the company tomorrow morning, so any advice would be helpful Thanks for your time Pi

thankyou feebee - you have it correct. I guess im going to have to see a lawyer about it - but as fat as i understand it - it is theft. Ive offered to pick the item up, from anywhere to their convienence, even asked if the person who it should have received it can collect it. but they are refusing some people !!!!

thanks (the above bit about the name was a typo) I understand the bit about unsolicited - but as it wasnt addressed to them, nor had their address on the label, how can they say that. It was a simple error, and just can't beleive these people !!

Hi Advice please we sent a package out to a customer - who say they never received it - even though the tracking shows delivered. However the name on the electonic signature isnt the persons living there, so all that i can imagine is that its been sent to the wrong address. Ive done a bit of detective work, and found a person living in the next road with the same name (its quite unusual) I phoned them up and spoke to them asking if they had a package delivered, and they admitted that they had. Unfortunatly they are refusing to give it to the correct person or return it to me. I have explained that it was a couriers mistake, and that the label clearly showed that the package was not for them, never had their name or address on it. What can I do, as I see it its theft - do i involve the police or courts to claim the money back, as Im out of pocket by £210 as this is what the gift cost, and have to send the 1st recipient the goods again Help !!

tHANKS FOR THE REPLIES the problem is that the zip teeth come apart below the zipper so you pull the zipper to the very top to get warm, and then the zip comes apart all the way down with the zipper still at the top really annoying as the sleeping bag wont stay up !!

but coleman said themselves that there soft goods have a 2 year warrenty - i have this in writing, the sleeping bags are about 14 months old, and have been used 12 times, when the zip broke, why should i have to prove that they had an inherent fault - a product should be fit for its purpose, a sleeping bag that has lasted a dozen sleeps clearly isnt

Please can someone give us some advice. We bought a couple of Coleman sleeping bags last year for when we went camping (they were about £30 each - so good ones) Anyway after using them about a dozen times, one of the zips came apart and wouldn't stay closed, we went back to the shop that we bought them from, but as we had had them for just over a year and couldn't find the receipt , the shop wouldn't do anything so we contacted Coleman customer service. What a waste of time - The service rep stated that Coleman soft goods all had a 2 year warrenty - but we had to prove that we had bought them. We explained that we didnt have the receipt, but didnt see why we needed one, as the sleeping bags had the 'Coleman' logo on them so couldn't have come from any other company. We quoted the sale of goods act, ie not of merchantable quality - not fit for its purpose (a 3 season sleeping bag that wouldn't close) etc The lady we spoke to was very rude and refused to do anything, so we ended up sending her our credit card bill, to prove that we had bought goods from the camping shop. We waited 6 weeks for a decent reply - but never received one. Sent yet more emails, where this service rep promised to do something (after I threatened trading standards) that was a week ago, and still nothing. I phoned trading standards today with my complaint - who agreed with me that a sleeping bag should last more that 12 sleeps and gave me a reference, but I cant see them actually doing anything. What can I do. We have done everything possible to get a credit note, even get it repaired, but Coleman just isnt interested. Dire customer service. Can anyone give any advice on how I should get this sorted out Thanks

Hi - I need advice as im unsure what to do. I have a client who owes us £1800, after writing a letter before action that was ignored we consulted a firm of debt collectors, they sent the client a letter of default, which has also been ignored. We waited 3 weeks before contacting the dca to find out what was happening, and apart from sending the default they had done nothing. as we were not happy with this we had a meeting and decided to ring the dca back to terminate there services after we phoned them, the dca immediatly contacted the client and left a message on their answer machine. We them phoned the dca and told them that we did not wish to use their services any more. later that day we had a phone call from the dca saying that the client had been in touch with them by phone and had sent them a letter earlier in the week (not yet received by the dca) and would be paying the total amount next month. where does this leave us... we had terminated the dca services, so surely the dca should have told the client that they were no longer dealing with them and that no money should be sent to them. the client has already sent us a rubber cheque for £1300 - so i dont really beleive that the client will actually send the dca anything - and is just another delay tactic Im wondering if this is just a sneaky tactic by the dca to receive commission, because if they collect - they get 13% - as we have cancelled we 'might' have to pay £40. we did cancel the dca services on the phone, but the collector wanted us to wait until next month when the client may pay has anyone got any advice. I don't want to use this dca anymore, what are my options thanks Pierre

it was over the phone, there is nothing in writing anywhere - that i requested them to do what they did

hmm valid point there .... and not something i thought about at the time !! still it does say that i will use debt collection or resort to legal procedures in my terms of trade

not sure if this is the correct place - but it is to do with debt - .... We have a client who owes us over £1200 for stock - who has ignored all payment requests and has ignored the letter before action - therefore we deceided we would get a collection company involved We phoned a few getting different quotes for their services, and one of the companies said that we should send them all the information we had and they would look for it and give us advice, so we emailed it off to them - we never heard back from them. therefore we carried on phoning debt collectors. The next day we found one that we liked the sound of, so out of courtesy we emailed the other company thanking them for their advice - and we wouldn't be using their services. We then get an email from them saying that they had already 'actioned' it and had sent our client a letter stating who they were and were wanting the debt paid. they also told us there was a £50 cancellation fee and enclosed their T&C and they were going to charge me 15% to recover the debt When I phoned them back I told them that at no point had I told them to go ahead, they said that because i had sent them the details of the debtor, that they took that as confirmation that we wanted to use them - which we didnt. Advice please 1) at no point did i ever agree to use their services 2) at no point did i ever sign anything 3) they didnt email me to tell me they were going to proceed 4) they didnt send me their T&C until 26 hours later 5) their terms and conditions wearn't available on their website What rights have I got here -how can i proceed, they are saying that i told them to go ahead. I definatly never and dispute it -0 and didnt want to use them do i have to pay their 15% commision on collection of the debt - even when i didn't authorise them to collect it in the 1st place. Do i have to pay £50 cancellation fee - when there was no contract made (on our side) in the 1st place - and no T&C telling us a cancellation fee would be payable anyway thank you

thanks - its always useful to quote

Thanks the good news is that the goods were returned to me today - as they were uncollected by the seller from the sorting office. so paypal has given me my money back, and I have 3/4 s of the goods still. how long is this time the goods were originally delivered to me on 26th Feb, and the seller was told straight away they they had sent the wrong goods (by the way I was already in dispute with the seller as I had already waited 14 days for them to be delivered, and i wanted my money back - which the seller refused to do) so already 27 days have passed. does any one have a link to the information thanks

yes we have the tracking for one part of the order. it was the only way we could get our money back guaranteed, was to send some of the order tracked, so paypal would refund us. as the payment was from our paypal balence not from a credit card (unfortunatly) there is always a small chance that the small claims court wouldn't get my money back. so i went for the certain way first. hopefully the goods will be returned, as they have our address in big letters, then i guess its up to the seller to collect them

ok.... so basically you are saying that its my responsibility to ensure the goods are returned, even though the seller won't pay for my out of pocket expenses. (which is why they were sent back at the least cost) just as another question, (its only been a week so they may still turn up) what if the goods come back to me. My out of pocket expensses are already over £10 - due to sending the goods back. as i have now got my money back, and if the goods were returned to me im sure that the seller would now pick up the goods, as shes not holding me to ransom any more (where shes got my money) am i legally entitled to keep any of the goods, to cover my out of pocket expenses.

no i never -