It depends on the (new) employer. Where I work staff are transferring on their current contracts with TUPE protection, but some of our union branch officials have visited staff at another location, where the company that's going to be taking on some of our staff employ staff transferred from another local authority. One of the company's "tricks" to get staff on the terms and conditions they want after the transfer is to offer incentives for them to sign one of their contracts, for example, a substantial pay rise if they sign one of the company's contracts. At the time of the transfer the old employer provided access to advice for those who weren't union members, which of course was to transfer on their current contract with TUPE protection. If, at a later date though, after the transfer they sign a new contract with the new employer though, they lose the protection of TUPE.

It doesn't appear to be damaged (though I haven't actually taken the bubble wrap off). Thanks for the tip. I suspect it is a trader. The listing said there were more than 10 available, and although they don't have much feedback, for a couple it's the same item that the rating's been left for. Also, for the item I bought, the item description clearly states "sale is for ONE unit although we have many in stock", which isn't the kind of thing a private seller would put! I guess I can try contacting the seller and see if they'll accept a return (mentioning that I suspect they're a business) and give them the opportunity to play nice before I leave a negative rating or contact eBay. With a feedback score of only 15 I guess a negative feedback would rather impact on their feedback reputation! I guess I really should have checked the listing out more thoroughly before buying! I've been using eBay for 7 years, so it's not as though I don't know what to look out for! I've just been lucky in the past though that I've had no problems with sellers.

I know the Distance Selling Regulations apply to Buy It Now items on eBay, but is that just for business sellers, or are all BIN sales covered. I recently bought a large poster frame from an eBay seller using Buy It Now, but it only arrived yesterday, a week after the event I needed it for. I bought it just over 2 weeks ago, but from the postmark it seems it was only posted this last Monday, over a week after I bought it. (The packaging was also apalling - just a single layer of thin bubble-wrap, and part of it isn't even covered by the bubble-wrap. The seller stated that items would be posted within 2 days, and stated "no returns", but from what I've read on the eBay help pages, they can't actually say that under the DSR. I'm not quite sure where I stand on this one.

How have you been contacting your council (i.e. have you been communicating directly with a council officer?)? To be honest, taking legal action against the council would in my view be self defeating. Councils spend thousands of pounds every year defending legal cases, which is ultimately funded by the taxpayer anyway. Unless you've for example suffered an injury which is clearly the council's liability, for something like a faulty street light, you'd have very little chance of success, and such a claim would cost the council both in pure financial terms and in staff time, further not making the most effective use of taxpayer's money, though I appreciate it's a very frustrating problem. I actually work for my local council, and for months last year we had a faulty light outside our office at work which flickered intermittently most days and drove everyone mad (as we work in a basement, and the lights in the corridor are the only source of light), so I know how frustrating these kind of things can be. Every time the electrician came down to look at it though, the damned thing worked perfectly, and it took us months to actually get an electrician there when it was actually flickering! If you've not already done so, I'd suggest contacting your local councillor (though you may have a bit of difficulty getting them to pay attention until after 6th May ;-)) and raising the matter with them. You should be able to find out who your local councillor is either on your council's website, or on the Write To Them website (WriteToThem - Email or fax your Councillor, MP, MEP, MSP or Welsh, NI, London Assembly Member for free). Complaints via councillors tend to get more of a response than complaints via the normal complaints channels or simply emailing the council. Complaints that come in via councillors have to be responded to within very strict timescales, and because of all the extra paperwork involved and nagging from councillors if you don't respond to them quickly/get the problem resolved, complaints that come via councillors tend to get prioritised. If the street lighting service is being sub-contracted to a private contractor, it adds an extra layer of beaucracy into resolving any problems (one of the many problems with privatising council services). If the contractor still hasn't resolved the problem I'd suggest asking the council what their service level agreement with the company is (might be an idea copying it to the company as well if you can get contact details for them). In the company's contract with the council there will be set details of the service they should provide and how quickly they should respond to problems etc. If they're not doing what they've agreed they'll do, the council should be insisting that they take action as they're contracted to do, which is another reason contacting your councillor might be useful, as if the councillor thinks the company isn't doing what the council's paying it to do, they'll be more liable to make a fuss about it. As councillors are publicly accountable and are relying on you to vote for them to get the re-elected again, they've got more of an interest in making sure things get done. Might be worth a shot.

They also have a wide range of publications and guidance on your rights at work, many of which are free (I'm a union rep and I've just sent for a load of their free publications). TUPE is a very complicated area, but as far as I'm aware, under the TUPE regulations the terms and conditions you're being transferred to can't be any worse than the terms and conditions you're transferring from, so if you existing contract says you get a staff discount of X%, your new employer has to honour that commitment. That's if you're simply transferring on your existing contract though. If you sign a new contract with the new employer, it's as though you're a new employee with a new employer though, and any terms and conditions in the new contract are the terms and conditions you're agreeing to with the new employer. If the new employer's asking you to sign a new contract, or you're considering signing a new contract with the new employer, you need to get advice from a specialist in employment rights. Where work some staff are in a similar position. My public sector employer's currently privatising some services, and we're negotiating TUPE arrangements for staff who are going to be affected. TUPE covers them if they're tranferring on their existing contracts, and the new employer has to stick to the terms and conditions in their existing contracts, but if they sign a new contract with the new employer they're at the mercy of the new employer (who's trying to 'bribe' some employees with incentives to sign one of their contracts, but what they don't realise unless they've sought advice for example, is that whereas their current contract specifies they can asked to work at any of the employer's locations within the local area, new contracts with the new employer have a similar clause, but as they're a national company, if they sign a new contract they could be asked to work anywhere in the country. If you're considering signing/or being asked to sign a new contract with the new employer, seek advice before you do anything.

Can I do that, even though it says in their policies page on Amazon that they don't offer a returns collection service? That was my initial reaction yesterday when my neighbour brought it round. I was simply going to email them and tell them it was outside the front door where they could collect it from, but then I thought I ought to check that I was doing the "right" thing.

Thanks, I've contacted Trading Standards by email (I'm hard of hearing and don't 'do' phones unless absolutely essential ). I've never had a problem with Amazon, and their returns policy I've always found to be great - Amazon themselves allow you to totally cancel an order up to the point where the order status changes to 'processing', which I've done in the past, and whenever I've needed to return or exchange things with Amazon themselves, their customer service has always been great. Some of their Marketplace sellers are a different matter though, and I've had problems with some of them in the past. I know I can file a complaint with Amazon about the seller (which I will be doing), but I just wanted to check where I stand with returning the item to make sure I've got my facts right. Thanks for the advice.

On the 28th March I placed an order with an Amazon.co.uk Marketplace seller to replace an item I'd bought a couple of months ago and then mislaid. Of course as happens with these things, no sooner had I ordered a replacement, but I found the original! *sigh* Checking the seller's returns policy, it stated that to cancel an order before it had been dispatched, you should email them as soon as reasonably possible. Less than 24 hours after placing the order with the Amazon Marketplace seller, on the Monday, the 30th, I emailed them to request cancellation of the order. The response I got was, My response of course was to ask whether the item had been dispatched, as I hadn't received a dispatch notification. Their reply (6.30pm on the 30th): To this, obviously my response was to ask "Are you saying it's been dispatched?" because I hadn't received a dispatch notification, and pointing out to them again that I'd already been in contact requesting cancellation of the order. Response (11.30am on 31st March): On Thursday last week a courier tried to deliver the item, but I could tell from the sticker on the package which company it was from, and refused to accept delivery of it, explaining to the courier that I'd been trying to cancel the order since before it was dispatched. She said, no problem, and off she went. Later that day I got a phone call from the courier's supervisor asking me to confirm that I'd refused to accept delivery of it, which I confirmed. End of story, I thought. Then this morning (8.20am) I got an email from the company to say that the item was: There was a button to press to change the delivery date (not much use two hours before the email said it was due to be delivered!). I was going out this morning anyway for an appointment so I thought they'd simply be unable to deliver the item, and even if the courier left a card, if I didn't arrange redelivery, they'd hopefully get the message... ...not quite that simple, because when I returned this afternoon I found the courier had left a card saying.... (their bolding) ....and they'd gone and left it with a neighbour, who, not knowing the history of my dealings with this company of course took it in. (how many times when I actually want a courier company to leave something with a neighbour do they insist they can't? Typical!) Of course my nice friendly neighbour brought the package round when she realised I was home, and I've ended up by default with the damned thing sitting here! My annoyance is two-fold - one that the company has been less than helpful to say the least, and the second that to now return the damned thing to them means me going to the post office, which isn't an easy option as I'm disabled, so on top of postage to send the damned thing back it'll cost me £4 in taxi fares to get there and back. My initial response was going to be to stick it outside the front door and email them and tell them where they'd find it if they wish to fetch it back, but on reading up on the Distance Selling Regulations I noticed that it does say that if you've received goods you have to take "reasonable care" of them prior to returning to the seller. I'm not sure what my next move should be or quite how to respond to the company (except re-iterate the story yet again, as they just don't seem to be able to understand simple words). Anyone got any advice on what I should do next?