I don't think you need a question mark there if you're suggesting that, in fact, I am unreasonable. Don't get it. I'm unreasonable because I'm complaining about having to pay £200 for a bus pass that was given us for nothing and we haven't used?

My local council has sent a 'Pre court reminder' to us to pay £200, because we failed to send them back my child's free bus pass after she moved schools. I'll try to cut a long story short. My daughter got a free photo bus pass when she went to our local catholic grammar school. A month or so into her second academic year we decided to move her to another school in a different area a few miles away. We accepted that we would have to pay her bus fare for her journey to the new school. She started her new school and we were paying £5 a week bus fare. Two or three months later we got a bill from the council for £200 to cover the cost of the unused 'free' bus pass for the academic year. My wife called the council and told them we had no idea where it was and they told her to write to inform them to that effect. They said that they had written to advise us in November that we had to return the bus pass. As far as we're concerned we didn't get any such letter. Another couple of months passed and we get another bill for £200. At this point, we turned the house upside down and my daughter found the pass in a box under her bed. We sent the pass back by recorded delivery and thought that was the end of it. Today we have had a demand for £200, to be paid in 14 days, or they'll take us to court. My wife called the council and protested that we'd sent it back. They said said it was too late and we had to pay. They said that we had to pay for the pass to cover the period from the time she moved schools until the present and that, if we had paid by march 16th the matter would have been dropped. Again, we told them that we had never been told, whilst in the process of moving her, that we would have to hand the pass back. They told us that it says 'in the small print' on the back of the bus pass that we should hand it back in the event that she moved schools. We are being asked to pay for an unused free bus pass for a journey to a school that she doesn't attend, whilst we've been paying her bus fare to another school! How can I challenge this? They appear to be immune to reason. Am I imagining this, or is it crazily unreasonable? Would you read the small print on the back of a child's free bus pass? If anyone can advise us how to deal with this situation I would be very grateful. Kind regards

To make matters worse, Amazon have now increased the price of the phone! Arrghhh!!!!

actually it's not Browett anymore.

yep

If the software cannot reliably inform customers of the availability of products in store, then it is not fit for purpose and shouldn't be in use. End of story. In my case, however, I was assured by a salesperson that the item would be in stock for me next day. It wasn't, so I haven't got my phone but they do have my money.

It wasn't just the website that was 'making a mistake' though. The salesman assured me that the phone would be available for collection - is that kind of mistake also acceptable? Not in my eyes it isn't. I'm sorry, but hiding behind a mealy-mouthed catch-all clause in the t+c doesn't wash with me. Currys told me they had the stock twice. Once on their websites (mistakes do happen blah de blah) and then once again over the phone by a genuine human being, who told me the phone wasn't in the shop today but would be the next day. If I was able to tell my customers "sorry, mistakes do happen" every time I let them down, I would soon be out of business. In the meantime, my money is in their bank and I am unable to buy the phone I want. I have had to buy an over-the counter cheap phone from tescos (£20) and have lost £70 because an agency couldn't contact me to offer me work. They left a message on my answerphone in the end, but I got the message too late - the work had gone to someone else. My phone was engaged because I was speaking to currys customer service at the time. That was one of three or four conversations I had with them yesterday at God-knows what cost. I waited for a call from them all afternoon to tell me when the phone would be in stock. That call didn't come and I had to call them back again. Guess what, currys will have none of these phones in stock for at least four weeks. I've cancelled the order and am now waiting for my refund before I can buy another phone. Not good enough. I'm furious and will be writing to John Browett this afternoon, although I guess he will hide behind the terms and conditions, or offer me a sincere apology.

Ha. Hindsight is a wonderful thing! My problem is that I believed currys when they assured me they had them in stock on thursday, only to tell me there were none in any of their stores at all. They basically lied to me to get a sale and I'm furious. I have had to buy a phone from tescos that I can ill-afford and I have already lost a day's work as a result of their p*** poor customer service. They have my money in their bank. Furious doesn't even come close to describing how I feel about the way they have dealt with me. I was talking to a guy this morning who said that he had had the same thing happen to him with another company, i.e. the website told him his product was available so he paid for it, only to be told that delivery was 13 weeks away. In the meantime, he had thrown away his bed because he thought he was going to replace it the next day! The moral of the story is NEVER believe websites when they claim that stock is available and get a cast-iron guarantee before paying for anything in this way.

They didn't say it was impossible, they said it could take two weeks. They said it would be quicker to wait for the refund.

My bank said there's no such thing as an immediate charge bank and that it could take up to two weeks! They have given me an authorisation code for the transaction which they said might speed up the refund a little. I'm absolutely powerless to do anything about this - they have my money and I have no phone until they refund me and I go somewhere else. Disgraceful.

I spoke to my bank but they didn't mention this. What do I have to do? I'm googling it now, but if anyone has done this and can advise, Id appreciate it. cheers

I'm guessing he did, but he shouldn't have said that I had to pay over the phone, when that is not the stated procedure. My old one is destroyed unfortunately. I've had to buy a tescos cheap phone to see me through, so Currys have cost me £20 already.

Arghh! But when I called them to reserve they said I had to pay for it over the phone! They didn't follow their own procedures because they say that you don't have to pay until you pick up the item in the terms and conditions. The cynic in me says that their website was conveniently innaccurate and that they are getting the money in the bank by telling people that the stock is available when it isn't. I asked the salesman on the phone and he confirmed availability. Still furious.

I know there is a forum specifically for currys, but I thought this one warranted a wider audience. I needed a phone quickly to replace one that was destroyed over Christmas. I rely on my phone for work and not having a phone will seriously affect my ability to make money. I found the phone I wanted yesterday on Amazon for £395 and at Currys for £399. I checked the availability at my local currys store and it said that they had plenty at all my local stores. Rather than waiting a day or two from Amazon, I decided to order online from Currys and pick it up from my local store. This is where the issues started. Currys website wouldn't allow me to create an account and gave me a number to call instead. I called the number and paid for the new smartphone over the phone. Within an hour or so I had received an email telling me that the phone might not be at my local store and telling me that they would call me to explain. They didn't call me. This morning I called them and was told that they didn't have any anywhere and they were unable to tell me when they would have them in stock! I asked them to refund the money immediately so that I could buy one from Amazon. They said it would take 3-5 working days to refund the money. I went a bit mad and they told me a manager would call back. The manager called back and told me that they had some in Preston and it was only an hour's drive from where I live. I calmly told them that I was an active member of the consumer action group and that I had the CEO of Curry's email address in front of me. I suggested that they have the phone sent by courier to my house, or my local store, today. I was very polite. She said that she would see what she could do. She phoned back ten minutes later and said there were no phones anywhere in the country! Now I have no phone and not enough money to buy a phone that I need desperately for monday. Can anyone suggest a course of action? Surely, stating availability in order to get a sale is bordering on criminal activity!? very angry.

Someone (not me) received one of their tickets for parking in a poorly marked disabled bay of a car park, which has always been free until recently. I looked in on this site and decided to ignore the ticket. I didn't get any further correspondence from the ticket company, but I have just had a letter from 'Roxburghe' debt collectors demanding an expanded fee. What do I do? I am not technically in dispute with the ticket company yet because I have ignored the ticket. What can the debt collectors do?

Hi. Our old cooker was 'condemned' a couple of weeks back so we started looking at dual fuel cookers. We found one in Curry's and I had an electrician check the Curry's website specs for the cooker to see whether we needed a 30amp power supply. We didn't want to have one fitted if we could avoid it due to the cost - I have recently been made redundant. The specs showed that the power consumption totalled just over 2Kw, which means that normal mains sockets would be fine. We duly ordered the cooker and it came this morning. The engineers took one look at the sockets and told us that we needed a 30 amp power supply to use the cooker and showed me the specs in the cooker manual. The actual power consumption is more than double that quoted on the website! Our options were: to have the engineers take the new cooker away and look for an all gas cooker; or let them install the cooker so that we can only use the hob until we have had the 30 amp supply put in. They told us they would come back and wire up the cooker when we had had the work done free of charge. We decided to take the cooker because we have three children and my wife is a childminder and we couldn't do without a cooker any longer, even without the oven. This is probably going to cost us an extra two to three hundred pounds to sort out. I just wondered whether we might have any chance of getting help from Currys, seeing as their website was wrong? Does this count as false advertising? Do I have a leg to stand on? Thanks in advanceof any advice you can give!

Someone (not the registered keeper) recently got a private parking ticket whilst parked in a well-known DVD rental store. They had parked in a very old disabled space (hardly any markings remain from the time when it was a public car-park) for only a few minutes. What the driver didn't know was that a well-known private parking ticket company now have an arrangement with the rental chain. The DVD chain isn't happy with people using their car park to pop elsewhere, as they have been doing as long as I can remember. The signs, which are clearly visible to everyone except the person who was driving, state that a £60 penalty will be levied for those who park and are not customers of the dvd rental chain. However, the reason given on the ticket was that the vehicle had been parked in a disabled space - no mention is made on the sign of parking on disabled spaces - only that the penalty will be due if you are not a customer. In your opinion, should the ticket be ignored on the grounds that the keeper wasn't the driver? If push came to shove, could it be argued that the sign only states that the penalty will be due if you are not a customer of the dvd chain? Kind regards and apologies if this one has been up before.