The box doesnt use the phone line to access the customer services section on the interactive services. There could be a problem with the box, the modem lead or the phone. There are some checks you can do to make the box dial up, that way you will know if everything is working ok or not. It is standard terms though that when you have multi room it is connected to a phone line, so it can dial in once a month, this is to prevent people giving the box to someone else.

I dont see why this should send alarm bells ringing at all. It is not him the bank doesnt have confidence in, its the market he is operating in. With the sums of money involved, it would be a secured loan, and no financial institution in the world is going to lend more money than the property is worth.... anymore. So thats why he cant get the money from the banks, as they risk loosing their money, and after what has happened recently they are all rather nervous about things like that. I would sit on it for a bit, wait for the market to pick up and then finish the project off.

If you have a shed in your back garden, which locked by means of a yale lock, and further secured with 2 12,000lb maglocks, alarmed and has no windows. So wihtout the keys and a swipe there is no easy way to get in, other than causing deliberate and considerable damge. This shed is also covered by 24hr CCTV. Can a bailiff force entry into this building or would it be the same as your home and must be peaceful entry? I work form home and I am about to move my office into a new shed in the garden, and althoguh I am not expecting any visits from anyone, it just got me thinking if they could do it or not?

First off all, whats problems are you experiencing with your Sky? From what you have mentioned about the phone causing interference that sounds like a load of old clap trap to me, I have a Wi-Fi router and a DECT phone sat right on top of my Sky HD box and never have a problem with it. Freesat is the same as Freeview but transmitted over satellite rather than through an aerial. It is a one off purchase for the box, if you already have an existing Sky dish then you can connect it to this and it should work absolutely fine. You are under no contract and there are no monthly fee's, but there are NO extra channels available at the moment, only the basic free to air ones. If you connect it to your existing dish and then in the future, doesnt matter if its 1 minute or 100 years later, you have a problem with the signals, you are responsible for sorting out the problem, unless the reciever has gone faulty and it is still under warranty. If you purchase a complete system and installation then the works should be warrantied for the first 12 months. Basically, if you are having problems with Sky, and they have changed the box several times and you are experiencing exactly the same fault everytime, then you are either really unlucky getting a box with an identicaly fault each time, or there is something else wrong somewhere. if the problem is with the dish/LNB/Cable run, then you WILL probably experience a similar problem with Freesat. Post what problems you are experiencing and I will see if I can help you figure out what is wrong with your system.

Just to clarify a little here. The switchover is nothing to do with HD. It is the analogue channels (1-5) been turned off. After that point you will only be able to recieve digital channels through your aerial, and will need some method of decoding those signals, these are 1. Freeview set top box 2. Digital TV, freeview built into TV (which you already have) So after the switchover you will be unaffected. To get HD, you need some method of decoding HD channels, presently only Sky or Virgin really offer any form of HD service, although it will be available through Freeview in the very near future. The box's can be expensive but Sky are giving them away most of the time, and Virgin are probably doing the same as well. A lot of the content that is broadcast on HD channels is not actually HD, but standard definition "up scaled" there is a slight improvement but nothing amazing, but if you watch something that has been filmed in HD then you really can notice the difference, and it is quite a differnce, I have watched on a variety of different TV's the smallest been 26" and so long as its a decent make TV (for once the brand does make a differnece) then you really can tell the difference, and its well worth doing. Hope that clears things up a little for you.

Surfer, if you think that a driver/apprentice could go out doing service calls and actually manage to fix anything properly, then.......... Once the fault has been found the fix is normally simple, but finding the fault is the interesting part, where the skills come into play. As for qualifications, city and guilds, CAI qualifications. They do slightly more than just Sky work, this is a very small part of it, VSAT, ANPR systems and large IRS roll outs are the main bulk of their work load.

Is there a template to follow for the subject access request? I dont suppose this will make any difference to anything, but throughout all the conversations I had with them, I kept my cool and spoke rationally and nicely with not swearing etc, with the exception of a few minutes where, with the chap at the other end of the phone laughing his socks off at me as he thought he was been clever whilst I was trying to explain something to him, and basically calling me a bare faced liar, I may have lost my temper and said a few things that should not have been said. This isnt likely to make any difference to anything is it?

Paid it all on monday morning, so at least they are off my back. Now its time to try and get back at least some of the charges that they have claimed. It went up by another £30 or so, as they put charges on there for a HPI and DVLA check as well. So now they are not going to come and try to steal the car anymore, what's the best way to go about it?

From now having a couple of experience's with baliff's and from reading other people's experience's on here, it is obvious that whilst effective to some degree the present method of debt collecting is not the best it could be, and rely's a lot on very old law and rights. From a debtors point of view there needs to be some more protection in place to help people, but there must also be something in place for the creditors, as if there is no way for them to retreve their money if the worst should happen, then they wont lend money and that will effect everyone. So what's the answer? what system would work?

Not wanting to defend the person in question particularly, but that sounds more like poor business management than actual planned theft, although covered by the theft law, hence why he was prosecuted that for.

Just a little update on this one. I emailed the council with the complaint, and recieved a reply stating they would get back to me with xx amount of time. This never happened. Equita kept sending me threatening letters, but each one got ignored and no one turned up here again. I then got a reply from the council stating they weren't interested in taking it back in house and that i would have to deal with the bailiff's. A day later I got a phone call form a woman at the bailiff company, who to be fair couldnt have been more helpful if she had tried, she was brilliant. Explained the whole situation to her, the attitude of the bailiff that had been out to see me etc, and their call centre staff's attitude and the illegal levy on the vehicle etc. She agreed that they were out of line and that the bailiff would be dealt with, she also agreed it was an illegal levy and removed all charges other than the £42.50 they are legally entitled to, so all has now been resolved and everyone is happy, well apart from the bailiff involved I hope.

I will be paying it monday morning to stop them for now, then challening them as to what they are allowed/are not allowed etc. From speaking to them today they have come out with interesting comments though. The vehicle they believe the have rightfully levied on is a lease vehicle. It is on long term lease to my company, a Ltd company of which I am a director. The debt is mine personally and nothing to do with the company and not in the company name. But they seem to think that because I am a director of the company they can take the vehicle, even though it isnt mine, or even the companies, it is long term lease. This I explained to them and even offered to send them a copy of the letter I have from the lease company stating that they own the vehicle, they just laughed down the phone at me. They also seem to think that because I am a director of the company, they can go into the company premises and seize the companies property to pay my debt. Now if I was a sole trader then quite possibly, but as it is a Ltd company, then surely they cannot do this as the company is its own legal entity. How do I go about getting an detailed explanation of what the financial management fee and admin charge cover?

There are many different types of engineer, just becuase my engineers dont do component level repair, does not mean they are not engineers. A structual engineer probably cant do component level repairs, but they are still engineers. I would say of the ones we swap, most have genuinely gone faulty, rather than from people messing with them and causing them to fault, as the majority of the customer we deal with are of the older generation and not capable for messing with the equipment. I would agree the box does go faulty many more times that the LNB but LNB's do fail. The most common cause is the poor quality connectors that most Sky installers use falling off or the dish moving. If we go to a job wiht the useless screw on F connectors we replace them with at least crimp connectors if not compression ones, which are much better and dont work loose or fall off.

Can anyone offer me an opinion on this, before I pay it Monday morning?

I would argue that LNB rarely fail, we change quite a few during service calls.