Hi Andy, Thanks for that. The intended hirer is booking us on behalf of an organisation and they, in turn, are hiring a venue and it's the organisation that are asking for it. I've since found out via the power of social media that we don't need to be registered or trading and that there are a couple of specialist companies out there who do offer cover. Average quote is coming in around the £60 mark so it's not too bad at all. Thanks again. C.

I represent (and sing in) a small-ish choir of about 16 people and we've had a number of bookings over the last year and have been lucky enough to have not needed PIL as the venues had their own. We've now been asked by another potential hirer if we have our own cover as they themselves are hiring a venue. They're paying us cash AND Beer so we really don't want to pass it up. I have a couple of questions please, if someone is able to help. 1. Do we need to be trading or registered as a company to have PIL? 2. If not, can we still obtain cover and can anyone recommend a provider, please? Thank you

I work for a County Council and am a paid up member of Unison. I recently had cause to speak to a parent about an issue and they identified themselves as working for Unison during ‘discussions’ about a serious complaint they had. They made several threats to us, using their standing, to have us investigated for apparently wasting money and for discrimination. This is without first establishing the facts that prove they are in fact wrong on every count. We are all facing severe funding cuts and as such are expecting a large number of redundancies and I take exception with the fact that this person has effectively abused their position and threatened people like me in order to bring about change. I’m not naïve enough to deny that this goes on every day in one form or another but I have taken exception to this especially as I pay for people like them to look after our interests and to not make even vaguely veiled threats. Do I have grounds for making a complaint to Unison and will it jeopardise anything with my employment? Any help or advice would be gratefully received.

There is, of course, that little nugget to bring a smile to my face on a cold Friday afternoon. (That and the fact that I finish work in just over 2 hours time...)

Hi Martin3030, Thanks for the info. I guess we just have to sit tight then. It's bloomin frustrating that yet again we are held ransom by banks that have forgotten what they were set up for in the first instance, and that without customers they don't have a business. Black Horse have done everything possible to ensure that I didn't pursue the case but my belligerence has at least got me this far. Best set a reminder for another 6 months time then...

Hi BankFodder, the basic details are the usual, i.e. not offered any other products, was pressure-sold it as it would 'enhance' my chances of being successful etc etc. However, a major factor was that I was only in part-time employment at the time, but was due to enter a full-time job within a month. I explained this and they took my word for it and sold me the loan and PPI. The acknowledgement from Black Horse does not dispute this, rather they cite having reviewed the case and categorically stating that I was informed of my options of going elsewhere and not having to take the cover, however there is no transcript of any conversation that has been made available to me. Is this grounds for 'pushing it through'?

Thanks for the reply. I had considered that but, whilst the money would be useful for paying off debts, we're getting by by being frugal and not buying unnecessary things. Do you happen to know if the FOS would require proof of hardship or do they just take your word for it?

Hi All, After a long and protracted fight with Black Horse about some mis-sold PPI I had to take the case to the Ombudsman. They acknowledged it with a letter and reference no. This was back in December 2011. The letter stated that I should receive an update within 3 months but, knowing how many cases they are dealing with, I've left them, what I thought was, a decent amount of time. I have just phoned them today to see how it is progressing only for them to turn round and say it'll be at least another 6 months and offer no word of an apology apart from the pre-recorded spiel whilst you're on hold. Is this what other CAG-ers are experiencing and should I just shut up and put up or is this excessive? The money sure would be useful right now!

We currently have a long-running dispute with Southern Electric and have just received a report from the Ombudsman. One point I would like clarifying is that they are saying that in the eyes of the law when anyone takes tenancy of a new dwelling they are 'deemed to have entered into a deemed contract'. Therefore the suppliers effectively have 'carte blanche' to supply you with goods that you have no idea of the cost and suitability of and then still demand payment when you haven't had sight of or accepted their terms and conditions. Would appreciate if someone could confirm if this is correct or not? Thanks.

Hi Kavsta, Well, I'm sad to say that it is still ongoing albeit with a minor step forwards. We're currently up to about 25 emails sent/received and 5 months elapsed. After several weeks of non-descript offers of solutions SE agreed to install a check-meter and the readings from that apparently suggested a 3.85% over-read on the original. So whilst it explained some of the overcharge it essentially put us right back at sqaure one. I personally don't believe a word they're saying. During the period of email tennis I read up on the appliances in the flat and after discounting things such as the boiler and white goods I settled on the storage heaters. Having read the very ambiguous manual that was supplied by our agents/landlords we deduced that because we had the input up at about halfway and the output at 5 (max 6) this could be the only possibility. An email to Creda (storage heater manufacturers) eventually illicited a reply suggesting that this was fine and shouldn't be the cause.... It was also let slip by SE that a number of our neighbours had also reported excessive bills. Typically, an email to the landlords/agents was met with a complete blank and non-admission of any knowledge of a problem, even though we know that SE have contacted them about this. In amongst the myriad of emails and telephone calls exchanged with SE they have made several glaring errors with out of date information, very bad customer service errors and we have found a number of policy and procedure anomalies, let alone the fact that the complaint is now over 5 months old. Suffice to say they brushed it all off. Therefore we instigated a complaint via the Ombudsman and they are currently investigating our claims. SE have made an offer to reduce the overall bill by 5% (1.15% in real terms taking off the meter over-read), and as such I nearly choked on my cornflakes at the sheer audacity and offensive nature of the offer. So as it stands now I have replied back leaving them in no uncertain doubt as to my disgust and have asked them to look at the offer again bearing in mind the ongoing Ombudsman investigation and the amount of stress this has caused. This was at the back end of last week and the complaints department, who are normally very quick to reply, haven't as yet. Truth be told we have had enough of it, have fought as hard as we can, done our homework but are still proverbially banging our heads against a brick wall. When we eventually come to some mutual agreement I will post the outcome on here.

Hi, We are currently contesting an excessively high bill (£485) for just over 3 months usage in a 2 bedroomed 2nd floor flat. We have some serious issues about the way in which our whole complaint has been dealt with i.e. very unprofessional, conflicting advice and non-existent important policies that deal with new customers etc. They are being unbelieveably obtuse in their dealings with us and are brushing important issues under the carpet. We have never signed any contract with them so need to know where we stand legally. Also is it worth sending a Private & Confidential letter to the Chief Exec regarding the issues with their complaints dept? Any help gratefully received.

Hi madcap, We had a similar issue with nPower last year that took 10 months to sort. Simply because we weren't made aware of the complaints procedure until we were tearing our hair out with the people on the phone. The main problem is that no-one would actually sit down and read through our complaint. Eventually they did and it was sorted in a couple of days and we got compensation (even though we repeatedly said we weren't bothered by it, we just wanted the issue to be sorted). nPower were in the wrong all along, strangely enough. Eventually we found out that they have an Executive Complaints dept and we communicated by email ([email protected] - bit of a contradicition in terms, but never mind). As mentioned by Pelham9 as soon as you raise a complaint your account should be put on hold and you will receive no further communication chasing you for payment until the complaint is resolved. Threaten them with the energy ombudsman too. that usually helps. But make sure you make a record of every conversation, who you speak to and keep copies of letters and emails. Whatever happens, be tenacious and firm but polite. You'll get there, trust me.

Thank you, we are aware of the readings and again SE say they are confident that they are doing everything correctly. It still doesn't answer the issue of the amount of units either night or day rate that we are pulling.

Thanks guys. One of the underlying problems is that we weren't informed what tariff we were on until we challenged our landlords and SE. Turns out we're on Economy 10 which isn't the best one to be on. We've done all of the tests and they were inconclusive. SE say that the meter is fine but haven't physically tested it. The property is rented, but our landlords aren't the most proactive. Our energy certificate states that our flat is a 'C'. The storage heaters are apparently some of the best available. All we want is someone at SE to have some common sense and realise that it is indeed ludicrous. We're apparently pulling an average of 35 units a night! I think we may have to escalate it to a higher level within the company as we have no confidence in the young lady we're dealing with.

Hi, myself and my wife live in a 2 year-old 2 bedroom 2nd floor flat. We have storage heaters (Creda) and a decent boiler (Gledhill PulsaCoil). Our bill shot up from £109 last quarter to £485 this quarter. The only difference was the heating on low and a couple of extra lights (low energy, by the way). Southern Electric are saying it's got to be something that we're doing. We've told them 'til we're blue in the face that it has to be an issue with the meter but they won't accept it and dodge round the issue every time. We have serious doubts that the 'Manager' that is dealing with us is nothing of the sort. The emails we have off her use horrendous English, lower-case letters and the grammar is awful and phone calls to us leve us even more confused. We had a similar issue at our previous house with nPower that took 10 months to sort. We definitely don't have the energy to be dealing with this all over again. Has anyone else had a similar experience and if so how was it rectified?

Thanks. Just contacted my provider and they gave me the number of a compnay called Mblox (08712 230000, www.mblox.com), who are apparently sending the texts on behalf of Philips. I spoke to a lady in customer services who confirmed the details. I said I wanted an immediate stop on all texts from this company as they were threatening and abusive. She readily agreed and informed me it would be done straight away. So, let's see if they're good for their word.

Thanks everyone for your advice. Was a bit wound up after getting in from work yesterday as this topped off a bad day that included some correspondence from our unbelieveably incompetent landlords.

I am receiving regular threatening text messages from Philips, and am getting sick and tired of being harrassed. I've just called them to ask them to stop contacting me but the line just goes dead when it gets to my turn. The latest text is threatening 'a recovery agent'. What can I do as I feel completely powerless and pi**ed off!

Just purely out of interest, I've just had a text message from Philips....looks like they're getting very desperate. They didn't even have the noggin to put my name on it. It just say's and then 'you must ring us URGENTLY'. Unfortunately I can't reply to it otherwise I'd threaten them with harassment!

Thanks for all of your advice so far. I'll scan it at work tomorrow and post it asap, with all of the personal bits scrubbed of course.

The letter came throught the post and is dated the 7th November. Unfortunately I don't have a scanner yet as me and my wife just moved into a new apartment and we haven't got round to buying one yet. Anyway, the basic gist is that it is a Notice of Instruction and that even though I 'have been sent previous correspondence', I 'have failed to satisfy arrears.....to County Parking Enforcement Agency'. If my folks had moved address how would CPEA be able to track me down and is nearly 3 years excessive legally?

Hi all, I'm a CAG virgin and hopefully someone can help. I popped home to my folks house this evening to find that they had had a letter delivered to their address for my attention. It's from a bailiff and debt recovery agency working on behalf of County Parking Enforcement Agency. The alleged parking infringement is dated 15th January 2007 and this is the first I have heard about it. I've had absolutely no correspondence whatsoever from CPEA and my car has not been registered at my folks house for well over 18 months. At the time of the alleged infringement I was working for a university on the south coast and am aware that CPEA were the enforcers there. Therefore my vehicle would have been parked on private property at the time of the infringement. I have made contact with the bailiff - Philips Collection Services Ltd and have told them that I have never received any correspondence whatsoever and that I will be pursuing a formal appeal with CPEA, so hopefully that'll keep them off my back for the meantime. I am loathe to contact CPEA as I feel that 3 years is a little excessive to start pursuing me and wanted to find out how I stand legally on this. The amount they are pursuing me for is £147. Does anyone have any advice as to what I do from here? Thanks.