Hi All, Looking for some advice really as to whether anyone thinks I have a case and if so is their any legal points I can use. I will start from the begining. In June 2008 I booked a holiday throught Freedom Direct who in turn booked it through the on holiday group who used a supplier in Greece to book my appartment for a weeks break. The flight time meant we turned up at the appartments at 4am and no one there was there to greet us. My fiancee was 7 months pregnant and after waiting for over 2 hours we checked into a hotel down the road. I went back the following day and complainted and they said they knew nothing about us coming but found us a room and by about 4pm the following day I had sorted out the problem myself. On returning to the UK I at first spoke to Freedom Direct who I had originally booked the holiday through who kept refering the case to the On holiday group for an answer. They at first offered me £85 to cover expences, I refused. The then offered my £105, again I refused and just before I took it to Moneyclaim online they offered me a total of £125. All of these offers were made by the on holiday group via Freedom Direct. Once the claim was filed against the On holiday group they defended the claim saying my original contract was with Freedom Direct not themselves and therfore they were not liable. However I felt that although the contract was initally with Freedom direct they were responsible as they were the ones that actually booked the holiday with the greek agent and they therefore had a duty to make sure someone at the resort knew what time we were going to be there. Since the claim was refered to the local small claims court Freedom direct have gone bust and I would like to know if someone out there believes my original contract was with them and if so do they now think I have a better case because now they are not around the next link in the chain has to become responsible. I know initally Freedom Direct was the person I made the contract with but in turn Freedom Direct made the contract with the on Holiday group on my behalf and surely in all of this everyone has to show a duty of care to the customer even though they may not directly deal with them? Quite frankly I want to just agree to take what they offered as its dragging on so long but I understand they now have the right to withdraw their offer. Advice please :-|

The 14 day cooling off period applies when a policy has been misold. (For example you get your policy through and realise the excess is different from what you are told). In this instance it has not been misold and therfore if the old company had been on cover for even a minute they could charge. As they have not they legally cannot charge. Many companies adhere to the 14 day rule even if they haven't misold as they cant be bothered to worry about £30.00, Which unfortunatly give the impression to the general public that they MUST give a full refund within 14 days, which is not correct.

Your insurance company will try and pay out as little as possible in order which is why when you refused the inital amount they upped it. For those people that dont challenge this they have made a bigger margin. I suggest you get cuttings of similar vehicles in terms of value and spec to confirm the amount you are requesting. Check that the vehicle is not on a "market value policy" and also root out any reciepts of any work undertaken that has enhanced or improved the vehicle. You are not normally entitled to any hire vehicle for theft or fire. A limited amount of companies will provide it for 14 days but after that they leave you to your own devices. (Could this be so that you accept their first offer?!?!!?) Cynical I know.

I would guess that what may of happened is they had your card details and took a further payment to cover the cost! This was done before by a company I used to work for. Not professional and can get them into a lot of trouble. Glad you got it sorted.

You need to check your certificate. The DOC (Driving other cars) benefit will be written on there. It doesn't matter if you are fully comprehensive or Third Party fire and theft, both covers can allow this. Certain occupations will exclude this (motor trade) and certain insurers (HSBC) now issue new policies without it. In essence you need to check your certificate of insurance, or contact your insurer or broker.

Do you pay on direct debit? Some brokers and insurers continue cover if they fail to hear from you. I appreciate you sent a letter, did you also call them before the renewal date and get them to leave a note on the file saying that you verbally called and asked them not to renew? If the cover with the new company started (and I mean without even a minutes gap) before or at the same time as the cover with the old company expired then the old company cannot charge any fee as their has been no cover in force. The likelyhood is that they wont chase you for £22.50 anyway. Good luck ROBOKOP

Still no joy with this. Thought I could go to the Ombudsman in regards to this as regulated by the FSA but apparently the fee's area is not covered. This is getting me down now as I dont know which way to turn. I asked them for a full breakdown of charges and this is what they wrote back... Property Debt Collection have copied me across their fees, please find the breakdown below: To check a Land registry office copy takes 10 minutes To input account details to our database takes 40 minutes To generate and issue the actual letter takes 10 minutes To process payment and clear the file takes 30 minutes Therefore the total time it takes to work on any file sent through to us is 1.5 hours. At an hourly rate of £113.33 this brings our fee to £170.00 plus VAT of £29.75 = 199.75. This is what has been charged to your account as the property was sent to PDC and actioned before payment was received. They took the phone call for the individual stating that a Mr Callum did not reside at the address. I suggest you discuss this with them for further information 01992 449403. Because the hourly rate breaks down to £133.33 it appears that all they have done to justify the charges is break down the hourly rate to the time it took them to do some work. No-one gets paid £133.33 an hour for data imputting! Also as you will see from the above response they are saying that the debt company sent a letter to my address and that someone from that address called them to say i didn't live there. I have never recieved their letter or ever spoken to this debt company to confirm I didn't live there. Can I just pay it and claim through Moneyclaim online? If so who do I put down as the person I have the dispute with? Is it the management company or the debt company that they have settled the charges with? Help appreciated. Cheers

Hi All, I own a flat and we have to pay a yearly maintence charge for the upkeep of the property (extenal painting, upkeep of gardens, building insurence etc..) I wrote a cheque out and sent it to them but heard nothing, nearly 3 weeks later they sent me a final demand and it arrived AFTER their deadline. I sent another cheque straight off but because it turned up three days late (they still banked it) they have put a debt charge of £212 on my account! They are not pursuing me for it but ultimatly I will never be able to sell the flat without paying it as the new tenant would require all accounts to be clear. They initally have refused to take it off. I have asked them what number clause in the agreement it mentions they are allowed to charge me a debt fee, I have also asked them for a breakdown. They have not given me the courtesy of a response. I just want to get this sorted. I would be happy to pay a nominal fee of say £40 to get it sorted, but not £212!! I think thats unreasonable for being three days late bearing in mind the first cheque was sent off in good faith! I dont know where to go, Who to complain to?? Company is Amber Management PO Box 279 Ware Hertfordshire SG12 9WH. I've just seen they are regulated by the FSA, Do I write to them ? PLEASE HELP. Thank you.

Hi All, I wonder whether anyone can tell me if I'm getting angry unnessacerily. The maintence charges for my flat come up in July and I recieved a letter telling me they were going to be £1045.82 this year. I sent a cheque off to them and never heard anything. I noticed after about a month that it had still not been cashed and on the 18th August I got a "first and final reminder" saying if it wasn't paid by 15th August I would incuur debt fees. I sent another cheque off as I presumed the first had not reached its destination but this time requested a reciept. This time it was cashed and a reciept was sent back with a debt collection charge of £212.25 added. (meaning that in effect I was £212.25 in debt). I contacted them explained that I hadn't recieved their reminder and asked them to delete this and issue a new reciept showing zero but they have refused! I originally spoke to them two weeks ago and she said she would get back to me. I am assuming because the news was bad they decided to write me a letter and let me know instead of calling me back. As I haven't recieved this either I called yesterday and they said they are still going to charge me £212.25 for a payment being 3 days late even though I didn't know about it! They said that because they have followed procedure they will not drop it. They say their not going to back down as I've only contacted them because I recieved the letter from the debt company. This is not even true! I have had no letter fro ma debt company either!! I just contacted them to get them to correct me account. I am getting more annoyed with this by the second!! Surely they must be regluated by someone?!

Hi All, Some advice really. Approximatly six months ago I noticed that the APR rate was 20.9% on my credit card. On contacting HSBC I was told that they could reduce this to 15.9% and would do so with immediate effect. Last month I noticed that it was still at 20.9% and called to complain. They agreed to reduce it but would not accept that I was entitled to the difference they were charging on my funds for six months. I have had a balance of approx £3000 on this card for the last six months and have been paying £100 of the card each month. How do I work out the difference that they have overcharged me over the last six months? (ie they have been charging me 20.9% interest on the balance instread of 15.9%. They have credited my card with £25.00 even though I have told them this is unacceptable. Can I bill them for my time and/or an accountant to work this out....Suprise Suprise they cant find details of the recorded call.... All help gratefully recieved ROBOKOP.

Yes! After all that I walked in the store and gave them all the stuff back, They didn't even check the phone! LOL!

Cheers 5Layer, As Buzby suggests one is not dependent on the other so ultimatly I still need to cancel the contract, all it means is I may have to pay for the phone and I can still flog one of them on ebay. Better that paying over £300 for a contact I cant use! Cheers All.

Thanks for that Buzby, One thing I did think of last night (I can take it back uintil tomorrow) was that i could order an upgrade on my old contract. (I haven't cancelled that one yet) I like the phone so I could upgrade and get that phone and just give that one to T-Mobile and keep the scatched one. To be fair the scatch is not bad but is noticable.

Hi All, 10 days ago I toook out 2 contracts with T-Mobile. 1 was on a mobile broadband service at £15 a month, the other on a new phone again at £15 a month. Basically the signal is terrible on both the phone and the broadband takes ages to load on the screen and after 10 days I am fed up of having to hold my phone up to the window and keep pressing redial and I want to go back to my old service provider (o2) who I have been with for the last 3 years. (possibly to look at broadband also). I have got all the boxes etc and planned to box it all up and take it back into the T mobile shop tomorrow and ask for the contract to be cancelled quoting the 14 day cooling off period. However after 10 days (I know!) I have noticed a there is a slight cosmetic scratch now on the phone and I dont know now what to do? The phone signal in the area is pretty useless which in turn makes the contract pointless, What are they likely to do? Cheers

Hi All, I am claiming bank charges back for my sister and whilst mine went through pretty smmothly this time last year (HSBC said they intended to file a defence and then paid out a few days later in full) Barclays have decided to defend the claim and it has been transfered to court and off the moneyclaim site. Moneyclaim have told my sister it has been transfered however no details have come through. I have been doing this on behalf of her and based over 100 miles away so I cant attend court and wouldn't really know what to do anyway. Is it possible just to let it take its course or does someone have to be there? Does anyone have any helpful links on the step by step stage? Thanks