I must say now I am most grateful to you Blitz - you have taken a lot of trouble to answer this query and I hope some time I can repay the favour - Thank you again.....

Thank you

No one got any advice???? Ah well never mind then I thought it was worth asking - Thanks for at least reading it....

Hi I would be very gratefull for any help or advice anyone here can give me. I apologise if this has already been covered (as I suspect it may) but I have not managed to find anything which fits my situation. My wife is disabled and, as I have a heart condition also, we find working in a the garden a slow process as we can only do so much. Recently we had a workman we know install some raised beds for my wife to grow vegetables etc. However we needed a method to turn the soil over to loosen it before planting. We found what appeared to be the ideal outfit from a business seller on Ebay a compnay called Ishop-247 a small electric powered rotavator/scarifier, my wife bid on this (it was an auction) and as there were no other bids, of course won the item which cost £34.95, or £41.98 including carriage. The item arrived promptly, but on first use it worked for about 2 minutes and then refused to work, as soon as the spinning tines touched the (loose) earth they stopped - the seller immediately offered a refund, but refused flatly to repay carriage costs in either direction, explaining that "if you bought from a shop, they would not pay for your petrol and parking to take it back" Laughable isn't it? Having pointed out the sale of goods act to him and the distance selling regulations (which he claims don't apply to him as it was an auction - even though he is a business) he still refused to pay the carriage. We got Ebay involved, but they were not really interested and only managed to get the concession that the seller would pay the outward carriage. We have now sent the unit back (at a cost of £12.99) and would like some suggestions as to how we can force the point to get our money back? Sorry to have been so long in the tale, but I felt you would understand better if you know the full story. Many Thanks Steve

Yes of course it's worth complaining, but before she does try simply calling and asking for her rates back pretty please, explain that a DD was set up so the late payment was not with malice aforethought, simply an oversight - worst they can say is no (and I rather suspect that they won't even say that) - if so then feel free to complain - In general complaints departments have more leeway that the original contact line

I feel I should take issue with the title of this particular thread - As I understand it the HBOS staff have not been "Sacked" but are to lose their jobs through redundancy - which are entirely different scenarios. Judging by your comment in post 2 of this thread BF it suggests that you take pleasure from what is happening to these people, who are, after all, only the ordinary workers, and who, for many may end up in dire financial straights themselves, as are many on these forums. Not all bank employees are the spawn of satan you know

er....... sorry to butt in here, but there is no such thing as a "joint" credit card. There is only one account holder, though there may very well be a secondary card holder. The first named person is the account holder and the ONLY person responsible in law for the account, the second named person is simply a card holder of the 1st persons' account. So..... If you are the first person and you took the cards out, in the eyes of the law you would be responsible, if not then say thank you and goodnight. If you can (like in the Littlewoods case), prove you did not open the account and it was done by your (ex?) wife, then this is fraud and you can report the matter to the police and the bank if you so wish, and again you should not be liable for the balance. Of course if your wife is still your wife, and/or you are still on friendly terms then you may chose not to go down this route - your choice. So, for instance, in my case. I am a card holder and my wife has a card on that account - her details are on their computers and she can call in and complete security and discuss the account details if she so wishes, but if I were to fall under the proverbial bus the balance on my card would have to be settled by my estate, and if there are no funds then the card company would write off the balance - though I rather suspect they would make an attempt to get my wife to make "moral" payments (no chance). Remember - there is no such thing as a Joint credit card Edited to add: I have since posting this done a quick Google on joint credit cards and there is a lot of this and that about joint cards from some fairly heavyweight web sites, but I am sure that the information as I received it (from a chap who works in the credit card department of a major UK bank) is Kosher - he is not the sort of guy to give out duff information, and he told me all of the above However, I am open to being corrected OK Second Edit: It seems I may be wrong and there are some Joint cards out there, but the vast majority are as my mate said, only having an authorised second user (at the time he told me I think he then worked for HBOS! so this may be an interesting point if they do not offer joint accounts?)