Hi all, I am employed by a company full time in the UK. My contract states the following : I am based from home, and work 7.5 hours a day on a customer's site (+1 hr lunch) and have to travel up to two hours a day to get to the customer's site and back (one hour each way). They used to pay us in fifteen minute intervals for travel time in excess of that. They have changed it so we can only claim 30 minutes at a time, and we are not allowed to round up, so we would have to travel over an hour and a half before we could claim any travel overtime (30 minutes). This means we now have to give up to 3 hours travel a day without claiming any extra pay. We have also been told that this travel time cannot be included in the working time directive, which I have not opted out of, because it is travel time and not 'work' time. We are also being told that if resources are not available, we are expected to travel more than the hour in our contract. Sometimes we are booked on jobs that are several hours travel away, without being asked if we want to work those hours. If the job is over a certain distance then we can ask for a hotel, but this cannot be booked for the first day's work. My question is, is all of this legal ? Can I take any action, as I feel we are being treated unfairly. Unfortunately, we have no union representation. Thanks.

I would take a close look at the broadband contract you have signed with BT. If it states that they will provide broadband and they don't, then they are in breach of contract and you can sue. Bear in mind that the broadband they supply could be a very low speed due to your location. I suspect there will be a getout clause hidden in there somewhere. Also, have you considered mobile broadband (IE using a USB stick) form 3G / Vodaphone / O2 etc ? You will need to check what speeds you are likely to get in your area. You can also get satellite broadband, but this is more expensive.

I don't know about the other mobile suppliers, but 3's T&C's seem pretty generous - you can return it up to 14 days provided you haven't used it for more than 3 consecutive days. You may have to pay for any services you have used though, and won't get a refund on top-up vouchers / remaining credit. See here : http://www.three.co.uk/ThreePortal/Satellite?blobcol=urldata&blobheader=application%2Fpdf&blobkey=id&blobnocache=false&blobtable=MungoBlobs&blobwhere=1223554681728&ssbinary=true

Does anyone know if there is someone other than BT who I can contact regarding City WiFi problems ? I have E-mailed Newcastle council and they said they couldn't help. This surprised me as BT's access points are half-way up the council's road lighting poles, and they presumably use the council's electrical supply. Anyway, the problem is several (at least 3) BTOpenzone access points are misconfigured. I can connect to them no problem (excellent signal), but cannot get Internet access. I am getting an IP address, DNS etc, but the BTOpenzone login web page isn't coming up. I work in IT support so have tried all the usual things like firewall, ping, nslookup, traceroute etc. I have three systems (XP, Linux, PocketPC) which work everywhere else (including other BTopenzone locations), but not in this part of the city (Sandyford road near Newcastle civic centre). BT say they cannot see me connecting to their network - despite me getting a verified BT IP address !!! I need to access the Internet from this location as I work in the area and don't have alternative access. I have tried speaking to BT about this for two months but just keep going around in circles. Any ideas ???

It may be worth considering Tiscali. They are now doing an 8mb broadband service WITH landline for £15 a month. It has a once of £30 set up fee, 12 month contract, and fair usage of up to 100GB per month. They have a very poor customer service history, but this may change now they have been bought by the Carphone Warehouse. Also, I very much doubt you could trial a USB mobile broadband and then return it, as the credit on the SIM will have been partly used, and therefore not in a re-sellable condition.