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Parcel delivery insurance is prohibited under section 57 – Consumer Rights Act – Read about It Here and in The Times.

Heckler

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Everything posted by Heckler

  1. Heckler
    Latest update... PIP has been awarded until Jan 2021, and I got both the standard rate and the mobility rate, which means an extra £77 a week to help me out. This will make all the difference.
  2. Heckler
    On the one hand you say.. you say they can't do it.. . and then say I shouldn't let other people know what they are doing is illegal.. . and then claim that you 'suspect' they simply didn't know... after I'd told them that it wasn't allowed as of the 13th Jan. . after it's been all over the news, TV/print/online.. you are so knowledgeable about them that you can make such an assumption whilst flip flopping back and forth like you did... and to top it all... try to make out it's ALL MY FAULT for not having cash on me. [sarcasm] Well forgive me for not knowing better, forgive me for not living up to your super standards... I suppose I should have travelled all the way to my nearest ATM at the supermarket, just so I could travel all the way back to my corner shop to get a few things that would have been cheaper to buy at the supermarket. [/sarcasm] If you must reply... please try to be consistent next time.
  3. Heckler
    I ran half a dozen speed checks over an hour period and got between 2.3Mb and 68Kb. The cable is fibre to the cabinet and then coaxial to the house... however the VM cabinet is about 20-30ft away from my house. When I was on Sky fibre I was getting 38MB of the 40Mb and that speed didn't change when using a VPN.. in fact I had to use software to throttle my download speeds to avoid swamping my connection completely... Such as using the download limiter within Steam and so forth. I got rid of sky because of their constant prices increases and refusal to give existing customer access to better deals. I've currently saving £15 a month with VM... but it's no enough for such a crappy service.
  4. Heckler
    For the last 2 months I have been taking random screen shots of speed test results... I've done this at different times of the day and night using both the regular speedtest.net website, but aslo the Netflix run fast.com one too... Because I stream a lot of stuff from Netflix and I'd heard that VM prioritise traffic to certain sites like speedtest.net. I even tested it with and without a VPN enabled, as well as bypassing Virgin media's DNS servers and using neutral ones. It's not scientific, but I can state that my results over the last 57 days/tests show an average of just 10.3Mb connection... I'm on a 100Mb connection. The best speed recorded was 21Mb whilst the worst was just 68Kb... Yes, that's right.. 68k... just a fraction faster than the old style 56k modems of the 90's. The difference between speedtest.net and fast.com is also noticeable at around 20% slower for the netflix servers. My streaming has become very hit and miss... basically if i want to watch something... don't plan on watching anything between 5pm and midnight. VM so far.. no comment and their so called support forums are a joke... and trying to get through to them on the phone is also a bit of a joke. Tempted to put in an official complaint. as I'm paying for a service that I'm simply not getting at all... I'm also tempted to cancel my DD.. but then they'll just retaliate like they normally do.
  5. Heckler
    On the 13th of Jan 2018, changes came into effect to stop companies adding on fees for people using a card to pay with. I was under the impression that this was now illegal. The other day I went into a Premier Stores franchise and bought a few items, came to less than £7... But when I went to pay, the price had jumped to £7.17... I queried my it had gone up and was told there was a 50p charge for using a card. I pointed out that this was now illegal, but they were adamant they were allowed to do it. I told them under no circumstances was I accepting it and that they'd lost my business... and left. I then left feedback/reviews online to warn others. But what 'exactly' is and isn't allowed now? I read that one of those takeaway delivery apps that used to charge extra for card payments as now simply extended the charge to 'ALL' types of payments, and that's supposedly legal as they're branding it a delivery charge rather than a 'card fee'. If the shop is acting illegally, where do I report it?
  6. Heckler
    Some of you are aware of the colossal screw up the DWP made when moving people from IB to ESA over the last 5yrs. Some 75000 were wrongly placed in the incorrect ESA group which has led to them being underpaid for years. I got some advice from a local community service, got the ESA3 forms from the DWP and asked to be moved from Cont Based to Income Related ESA... and pointed out that this would need to be backdated 4yrs due to their mistake. 3 weeks later I call to chase it up, spoke to a very helpful lady, who looked into it, awarded me IRESA immediately, and passed it to the team dealing with the backdating issues. I pointed out that due to the screw up I couldn't even get my prescriptions because I was on the wrong sort of ESA and had 2 days of meds left and no money to pay for them, and my HC2 had been delayed due to NHS jobsworths. That was the 21st of Dec... I was then able to get my meds the same day, and I was expecting a long wait for the backdating issue to be looked at. But on the 15th Jan.. I had a letter stating that they'd agreed to back date me from Dec 2014 for the sum total of £2133. It also said that it couldn't be back dated to the actual change due to section 27 of the social security act 1998. So I'm very happy to be getting an extra £13.50 a week and the under payment has already been paid into my bank. My personal opinion is that this wasn't an actual mistake... but that they deliberately tried to save money and according to info I've read on other rights websites... were made aware of years ago and did nothing... but now that they can further save money by not paying people the full amounts they would be owed... now they admit they messed up. But it's freed me from debt, given me a cushion in the bank for emergencies for a little while at least... and the extra money will come in handy and stop me from deciding if I eat or turn the heating on this winter. So my advice to anyone in the same position... Get onto the DWP, ask for the ESA3 form and fill it in, ask for it to be reviewed and backdated... Don't wait for them to get in touch with you.
  7. Heckler
    I had my assessment finally after all this hassle... waiting to hear the outcome. .. Wasn't impressed with the way it was dealt with.. The deliberately vague questions that are designed to make out you can do tasks... I get repeating that I couldn't do things repeatedly, safely and properly and so forth, was unable to prepare 3 proper meals a day from scratch and cannot shower because of the way my bathroom is laid out. .. so showering involves a 50m round trip to my nearest friend/family.. . other wise it's a strip wash at the sink with a sponge on a stick. Still expecting it to be denied... because that's what they do. .. automatically deny everyone and hope you don't appeal.
  8. Heckler
    Update from the DWP, Capita have kinda reset the process and I'm now waiting for them to arrange an assessment... Providing I get enough notice I can arrange to have some one present.. it's Capita messing me around and not turning up that caused this whole problem. So now I wait... again.
  9. Heckler
    Update on this for anyone interested. I spoke with a local welfare help service again (not just the receptionist who didn't even know about it), who informed me to get an ESA3 form fill it out and make a claim for backdating the ESA to when I was transferred from IB. I did that a few weeks ago and today spoke with some one who informed me that as of the 21st Dec I was being transferred on IR ESA and will be getting an extra £13.50 a week. However, they don't deal with the backdating side of things so that will be dealt with by another team/dept and I will have to wait for a response on that. But it's a step in the right direction and means I can breathe a little easier money wise... at least until I find out how this will affect my LHA and CT benefits... They normally give with one hand and snatch it away with another. But they never argued anything regarding medical records/forms/proof from doctors and so forth... transferred me over to it from the day after my last payment.
  10. Heckler
    I can't drink any more sadly... partly because of medication and partly because of stomach surgery I had almost 2yrs ago to remove 2/3 of my stomach... which means I simply can't drink an entire pint any more, not even over the course of an hour or so... and I certainly can't have a drink with a meal, because I can only eat small portions slowly and adding a drink fills me up so quickly that I can eat more than a few morsels... One or the other. Besides... I'm a cider drinker, not an Ale man. Anyway... it appears that my calls and digging around have turned up some more info. At some point in the last 10yrs the land appears to have been sold/transferred to the local authority but the covenant remains in place. We think that this path they making is going to be a wood chipping type of path from what we've gathered... But will know more in the new year as we can't get responses to anything before then due to the holidays. Aside from the tree felling and the cutting of a hole in the hedgerow, all that's been done so far is a giant wood chipper was out there the other day converting the wood into chippings. The lights from the large car park that was built are also now being turned off at night.. seems several people complained about the intrusion from them and the original planning permission stated that there would be no light intrusion from the building work. Not sure what time they get turned of but seeing as the rural museum that it's for is closed from around 5-6pm... it's a waste of money to have them on after early evening.
  11. Heckler
    Let me clarify things... They made the initial appointment for 20th Oct to carry out the assessment.. . they failed to turn up. No apology or cancellation... simply never turned up. I'd arranged for some one to be present for that appointment. I then get a letter for another appointment that arrived just a few days before the appt was due, and was unable to get anyone to be present at that one. .. Hence the requirement for recording. This was explained to them but there wasn't enough time to get any forms sorted out to get permission to record it. The woman that arrived wasn't told of this and she called her supervisor and even though she could have a copy of the recording. I don't know the exact details of that call... but it appears that their communication regarding it wasn't very good. She said that unless I stopped the recording she wouldn't carry out the assessment and that she had other appts to get to and couldn't wait around for a copy to be made. The fact it's a question of plugging the device into a usb port, transferring the file and burning it to a CD... which takes a few mins... or could be transferred directly to her computer (takes a few seconds)... wasn't acceptable to her, and I got the impression that any excuse to stop the assessment was jumped upon... Maybe it's just the paranoid and cynical side in me... but gotta do anything to save the gov some money and meet those refusal targets. :/ I spoke to the DWP yesterday and the file HASN'T been passed back to them at all, They are going to chase Capita to try and arrange a new assessment in the new year. The DWP have heard nothing from Capita at all regarding my claim and it's been 2 months, they said they expect to hear within days or a couple of weeks if they were passing it back to DWP.
  12. Heckler
    How can they refer it back to the DWP when they haven't carried out the assessment at all?
  13. Heckler
    The problem isn't that I was recording it, it's that they left and haven't arranged for a new assessment to be carried out 2 months later... they've not written to me at all since... and trying to speak to some one with my issues is problematic. I tend to get annoyed very easily when people refuse to give answers to simple questions. calling them becomes almost impossible when you've navigated the ridiculous IVA and are already angry before you've even got through tom some one.
  14. Heckler
    They closed the CAB down in my area years ago, I found a local community welfare rights service but they're over stretched... and it's a week before xmas, so are nothing I can do there before the new year now. Just need to know what to do about making capita arrange the damn assessment... it's been almost 2 months since they failed to turn up with no warning, then rebooked it for a week later without telling me (I got the booking letter the day after they failed to turn up) and when they did turn up they left after less than 10 mins because I was recording it, even though I told them they could have a copy of it... She just kept making excuses and saying she had to leave. She wouldn't even answer simply questions about what the assessment entails, what her qualifications were and so forth. The whole system seems rigged to make it as near to impossible to proceed with a claim at all... No wonder I've been putting of making one for 3yrs.
  15. Heckler
    Seems that getting help on here has become very hit and miss these days. Any one know where else I can get help?
  16. Heckler
    I found a few 'hearsay' rumours that the original land owner had sold the strip of land to the local authority... But this wouldn't remove the covenant. The only reference I can find to this strip of land is an inspire reference number, that when entered via the gov land reg site is prompting for payment to see the details.
  17. Heckler
    First place I tried... but I can't seem to find a way to search for a piece of land... it's only asking for address & postcode of a property... and this isn't either.
  18. Heckler
    Hi last week we noticed that a strip of woodland near to my folks home was being destroyed by contracters. They have felled more than a few trees and cut a hole in hedgerows. We've discovered that the local council are allegedly going to redirect a public footpath through this area. We know that there was a covenant placed on that land... long before i was born and that it cannot be built on at all. The current footpath skirts around this wooded area, but if they redirect it... will cut right through it and leave a public foot path invading the privacy of every ones home who backs onto that wooded area. It's a nice road, no one is overlooked and every one says how peaceful and tranquil it is... but now they've destroyed it and seem to be continuing to do so as workmen were back out there today. There are huge gaps in the trees where they've been cut down, healthy trees... you can now see right through to the buildings beyond and the lights from a car park they built on the other side of this wooded area now intrude into peoples bedrooms. We need to find this covenant so we can check the legality of what they are trying to do, and stop it if we legally can. After doing some searching on my own, I cannot find out where to begin... From what little knowledge I have it's something to do with being owned by John Radcliffe hospital in Oxford and a covenant was created to stop if being built on... But I have nothing more to go on at this time. How do I find it? The council have been of no help, I called and mentioned this to the planning dept and they blanked me completely.
  19. Heckler
    Hi all I'm in a bit of a dispute with Virgin media at the moment... I pay for landline & broadband with them since April. I was supposed to be getting 100mbps, and I am only about 20-30ft away from their cabinet. They even laid new cable to my house, fitted new connection boxes and phone socket. To begin with speeds were ok. But for the last couple of months they've been dreadful. They haven't fixed anything, I'm paying for a 100mbps service that is on average giving me just 14mbps... For the last week I've been taking screenshots of those speeds and saving them on my computer, tests have been run each day at various times from afternoon to evening... But even at 2am this morning it was still just as bad. I stream a lot via netflix and amzon video. My tests via speedtest and netflix's one speed checker (fast.com) have shown that on average my speed is 8-9 times slower than advertised. My tests indicate that my speeds are not even fast enough to stream 4k conten... which is the main reason I signed up for it in the first place. I'm getting a degraded service. I feel like I'm being ripped off, but am locked into a contract until April 2018. What can I do to get out of it early, is the fact that they're providing such a poor service enough to claim breach of contract?
  20. Heckler
    I applied ro PIP about 2-3 months ago... An assessment was scheduled at my home on the 20th Oct but they never turned up. The following day I got a letter saying my assessment was on the 27th Oct... No apology, no warning of cancellation or anything like that. On Friday 27th Oct the assessor turned up, already had a bit of an attitude when I answered the door slowly. Told her that the dining room chair set out was for me, as the other chairs in the room are too ow to get in and out of comfortably at the moment... hence the reason I no longer use the lounge at all really. The whole house is a mess because I can't clean it properly and I have zero help. I set up my recording device and she threw a wobbly... even after I told that it was fine and that she could have a copy of the recording as per their 'demands'. It just had to be transferred to my computer and burnt to disc, or could be immediately transferred to her laptop from the digital recorder I have. She then started making excuses, 'oh I have to call my manager' and so forth... after a few minutes she started making more demands that I had already answered (she could take a copy with her either as a digital file or on a CD)...Continued to make excuses and then decided that she couldn't wait for the CD to be made as she had other important appointments... made her last excuses and left. Never asked me a single question, couldn't answer any of mine.. such as why they wanted the assessment in my home when my last one was with them... Claimed it was because I requested it, which wasn't true and I have a full copy of my pip claim form to prove it. She was there for less than 10 mins, and since then I have heard nothing... 5 weeks later and nothing to reschedule the assessment. Due to my physical and mental health issues... I struggle to even make phone calls at times, and trying to deal with the obnoxious jobsworths at capita actually causes my stress and anxiety levels to rocket. I'd much rather write a complaint about it all... but no idea where to go. My local welfare rights service said to wait a couple more weeks to see if they contact me... but they're stretched thin already and the last time she said they'd contact me in 2 weeks it actually took almost 5 weeks... So realistically I'm not expecting to hear from welfare rights in my town until the new year. What happens to my claim... is there a time limit in which assessments have to be carried out.. will they close my claim because they refused to carry out the assessment unless I stopped recording it? My stress an anxiety levels are through the roof, I'm also struggling to deal with this whole ESA issue that apparently had me put on the wrong benefit for over 4yrs.. and I've just filled out an ESA form to have me moved from the Cont based ESA support group into the IRESA group and backdate that for something like 215 weeks. I've got a funeral to attend on Monday and then help out my elderly mum all next week... that's going to raise my stress and anxiety even higher and I'm worried how I'm going to cope... I feel on the edge of a breakdown right now and the thought of having to deal with people is making me physically sick.
  21. Heckler
    Has anyone heard any more about this? I called my local welfare help centre, and the woman answering the phones hadn't even heard anything about it... Told me to just wait for the DWP to contact me. If they've not done so after more than 4yrs... I can't imagine that they'd voluntarily be offering me 4yrs of back payments. I have no idea how to even find out if I should have been moved on to irESA instead of dumped onto cESA after being moved from IB... because that amount hasn't changed in over 4yrs, cost of living keeps going up, rent keeps going up, they keep increasing my council tax payments each year because they can get away with raising the % of contributions for those on benefits. I desperately need help and advice... but my local welfare rights service have no clue... Where do I go? I tried that rightsnet site discussion boad, but you can't sign up unless you are part of some organisation... So can't ask for help there... So I'm kinda relying on getting some good advice here. If I should have been on irESA from 2013, that's more than 4yrs of back payments owed which amounts to several thousand pounds... Money that could finally get me out of the debt I've built up over that period because I never have enough money to live on... and the mental stress it's having on me is significant, especially at a time when my physical health has been in decline and I can't even get crapita to do the assessment for PIP.
  22. Heckler
    OK, I've had a quick read through of that thread... What I can gather is this... I was transferred from IB on to cont ESA and never informed that there were additional options... I was lead to believe that my cESA was frozen until such a time as ESA caught up with IB amounts and that the extra payment was nothing more than a top up... I'm starting to think that 'I AM' one of those who may have been underpaid for more than 4yrs. DWP say they only became 'aware' of this in Dec 2016... whilst the thread has been going for almost 4yrs and I've read posts that quote letters sent to ministers & DWP.... Seems like this is more of a deliberate attempt to deny people in the name of austerity, and another way to keep the sick and disabled on the bottom rung and unable to support themselves at all.
  23. Heckler
    As some one who has been through this process myself, and has been on the exact same amount for over 4years now... I'm wondering if I'm one of those who have been underpaid... I got converted from IB to ESA and was told that I wouldn't be getting any annual increases in ESA at all and couldn't tell me for how long... more than 4yrs later and I'm in more poverty than I was then. Crossing my fingers that I'm due some kind of repayment of any arrears, as that may get me out of debt entirely.
  24. Heckler
    Hi all A friend recently had a letter from the NHS PECS dept stating that they couldn't confirm the person was in receipt of benefits at the time of getting a prescription. The person in question has been on ESA since being switched to it in 2014. NHS PECS are demanding proof of benefits or they want the cost of the prescription + a £100 fine... My friend is panicking as they simply do not have that kind of money. PECS want copies of every page of the benefit award letter... but after over 4yrs... they simply don't have this laying around any more. I helped them go into their online banking, and we brought up a statement for the dates the NHS PECS wanted, adjusted it to show only payments going in and took a screen grab, I then edited the image to blank out personal information. It won't let me upload the screen grab, but I cannot do it as a PDF because it's not scanned in, it's a screen grab... I want to send this in on their behalf along with a strongly worded letter about the way they're currently harassing and threatening them. To place the entire burden of proof upon someone like this, trying to force them to prove innocence is wrong... This is just making their health issues worse and they become more and more withdrawn as a result. Advice would be appreciated on dealing with these people.
  25. Heckler
    Looks like some one created a new account today simply to post in this thread.. . Now... who would possibly do something like that I wonder.

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