Colour me unimpressed, although, sadly, not surprised. I've not heard a word from Lee, although I did get an email 'from the directors office', telling me the manufacturer has a backlog of codes to send (!) and that they'll put £20 on our phones, then refund it to a credit or debit card, so we can buy two new phones to use. I'm afraid I'll be sending my formal complaint, then taking them to court for the codes, and so we can be compensated for our time and all their faffing about

At this point, I'll try anything! (Dancing naked round a big fire at midnight not included ) I'll email him with a link here now - and I sincerely hope he can help, because I just want to be able to actually use my phone for my business, and I can't at the moment. Thanks for the heads up

Just over a year ago, hubby and I bought new handsets via Vodafone. We're now into free unlocking, anytime before the 12mth period was up, it would have cost us. We didn't particularly need good reception at home (which is just as well!), so we left it for the year. End of November, hubby rings to request unlock codes for both of our phones. He was told 72 hours. Rang back every week for two or three weeks, still no codes, back log in the system blah blah blah. Rang week four, told that the data was input incorrectly, it would be redone etc etc. Week five (last week), still no codes, waiting for them to arrive via manufacturer (Hauwei), at which point I lost patience and emailed their Director Of Operations, Stephan Langkamp. I was polite but to the point and said that I required the codes by yesterday - Monday 7th Jan. I got a phone call from one of his minions on Saturday, 5th Jan, assuring me she'd sort it out. Another call yesterday telling me they still haven't had the codes from the manufacturer and that she'd put £15 on each phone so we wouldn't have to top up. So I got the contact details for the manufacturer and rang their UK tech hotline. Got them to run the IMEI codes through their system. They're telling me that when the phones were sent to the Vodafone distribution centre after manufacture, the codes were with the phones. They also told me that their contract with Vodafone prevents them from giving us the codes directly. So we're sitting here, six weeks down the line, no unlock codes and phones that we can't use because the reception is so dire, and we've got Vodafone telling us one thing and Hauwei telling us another. I've just composed the following letter to go to Vodafone, and wondered if someone would be kind enough to check it out for me and make sure I haven't missed anything. Thank you Dear Mr Langkamp Further to my email, dated 3rd Jan 2013, I am writing to make an official complaint with regard to the fact that we still do not have the unlock codes for our phones. It has now been six weeks since my husband first rang to request them. We have been misinformed and generally given the run around by your customer services. A misnomer if ever I heard one. FYI - I yesterday contacted the manufacturers of the handsets, Hauwei, and had them check our IMEI numbers. The unlock codes were sent out with the phones from the manufacturer, over a year ago when they were sent to your distribution centre, and I'm informed by Hauwei that their contract with you means that they are not allowed to give us unlock codes for our phones. I cannot tell you where the codes are, but I can tell you where they are not - they are not with the manufacturer, and I do wish your staff would stop giving us incorrect information to that effect. I am giving you, from the date at the top of this letter, five working days to provide us with the unlock codes for our phones. I am also informing you that should we be required to make further phone calls or write again to you, then you will be charged a fee for each. Phone call - £10 Letter - £10 Should the codes not be forthcoming within that time, we will seek legal advice and pursue the matter through the courts. Yours Sincerely

Hi Has anyone got a few minutes to help please? Danoni is a friend of mine, and I recommended he post here about this as employment law is not an area I'm familiar with. Thank you

So sorry you've had this on top of everything else. BT really are a bunch of braindead morons; our experience bears this out also. I can recommend you email the CEO. From what we've heard, he works 17hrs a day, 7 days a week. I got a response (a personal one, at that) within two hours, and I mailed him on a Sunday. [email protected] I hope that helps, and you can sort it to your satisfaction.

I can recommend zonealarm too. The most useful feature, from my point of view (technophobe) is the fact that I choose what connects with the net. If I don't recognise it, it doesn't get access. It's also simple enough to unblock stuff too if you've blocked, for example, your anti virus updater (yeah, I did). I've found it to be a very useful tool in keeping my pc safe from nasties. Since this is a techy thread, I'll throw in a question of my own. If anyone has a few mins spare to answer it, I'd be very grateful. When I do a defrag, it tells me that it hasn't been able to defragment some files, but they don't show up in the report. I've detected viruses that were missed by the scanner like that before (too big to fit in recycle bin, I had to 'manually' delete. It was hiding in a pic file on my desktop), so how can I find the files that couldn't be defragmented, so I can check them out?

Again with the eeeuuuwwww!

Lol, not a sea food fan then? No worse than eating cockles, or mussels or similar, I guess. Just a local equivalent. Must admit, sea food isn't really my thing, but it was the bugs that got me going. If the choice was bugs or starve to death, I'd have to think it over. And my own foot would be a consideration!

That is, or at least one of the varieties conch sea shell pictures seashell

Hehe. I wonder how many people who don't like the BNP's policies have actually read the BNP's policies? How can you comment on something you haven't read for yourself? Mind you, that's the attitude that got me to read the Lisbon constitution!

As I said, I'm not a supporter - I won't support any political party; the system they work to is inherently corrupt and does nothing to serve those who elect them, only those who are elected. There have been charges against members in the past; there's been nothing very recently that I'm aware of. And there's the hell of a lot of media hysteria over alleged policies. I've been and looked at their website, not liking to trust hysterical journalists for information, and haven't been able to find anything too dreadful. I've certainly not seen anything about forced repatriation. I do think though that unless the three ring circus in Westminster pulls it's finger out and actually starts listening to people, you're going to see the BNP, as well as UKIP, going from strength to strength. Those who worry about immigration will vote BNP and those who worry about the EU will vote UKIP, and they're both issues that the main three parties avoid like the plague, which is very, very silly of them.

Euuuw. Bugs in tins. Euuwww.

Hmm. I didn't vote BNP. But I will confess that I've been chuckling at the totally hysterical over reaction of certain groups to the BNP getting a couple of MEP's. If you want to depose Nick Griffin and show people how dreadful the BNP are, then throwing eggs and saying silly things like 'Our free speech is good, BNP free speech is bad' really is not the way to go about it. Congratulations folks, you just became that which you claim to fight against. If you want to do somthing other than the BNP's press officers job, expose them. Get evidence, prove how dreadful they are. But at present, all these people are doing is making the BNP look classy in comparison. Especially since there's been no retaliation from them. Btw, I've noticed the 'repatriation' thing mentioned a couple of times. Did you know that our goverment (labour) operates two forms of repatriation? One is where we force folks to go (deport them), usually criminals or illegal immigrants. The other is where we pay them to go. Resettlement grants, been in force for a fair few years, IIRC. I'm not, as I said, a BNP supporter. But I do think that a lot of people have turned to them because the main three parties are simply not listening when it comes to worries about mass immigration and the financial crisis. The mass immigration issue is a debate that is urgently needed, and without the attendant cries of 'racist' that are normally heard. It IS a problem, and it's causing our already mistreated infrastructure big problems in certain areas.

So far as I know, the most important thing is that you're not refusing to pay them back, so even if it does go to court, the fact that you've made a payment, have provided a repayment plan etc will go very very much in your favour. They would be very silly indeed if they refused your offer and most courts would see it that way. You're not avoiding your debt; you're being responsible about paying it back at a rate that won't see you starve or neglect your other obligations. I'm also pretty sure that no one is going to attach your wages; so far as I know, that's a last resort step for people who either continuously break payment plans or refuse to pay. If they are still phoning you, you need to make it clear that you will not take their calls and all communication must be in writing. Get the payment plan off to them asap. You also need them to give you a total amount that you'll be repaying. I think it might be a good idea for you to go and speak to either CAB or a debt management company. I, unfortunately, don't know any to recommend in Scotland. However, I'm sure Ida does - can you suggest any?

I'll go check out spotify I go between youtube, gotradio and my mp3's. We used to run our pub playlists off a dumb terminal on the bar, so we have loads of mp3's. I've got You're Lovely To Me by Lucky Jim and Bob Dylan's Buckets Of Rain stuck in my head just now; I like singing and I like learning new songs too, so they're getting played a lot, along with Battlefield Bands Kings Shilling and Erin Gra Ma Croi by Cherish The Ladies. I listen to a lot of different genres, depending on my mood at the time.