Agreed. Actually, slightly contradicting my last post it really is about time ebay cleaned up their act. Although I mentioned that they might not be around for long, I saw a seller selling nothing but copied software (e.g. Windows XP Professional) for £10 a time. It was obvious it was copied, he even admitted it when he got a neg with replies like "What did you expect for a tenner - the real deal?" yet he had a 5-FIGURE feedback score and must have made a fortune, though he was eventually kicked off ebay. I think ebay have tightened up but it's far from good enough.

Sorry for any confusion, I did state that they were "unpaid parking tickets, illegally worded so void", but I accept that it was unclear. I agree with every word about them getting away with it and it's all wrong. I just don't have the time at the moment to deal with it from a legal perspective and I certainly don't have the money (more in the PM I'm about to send you) so I'm very interested in what you are doing. Thanks for your support.

The only problem with leaving neg feedback is that they might do the same to you, and if you are a regular seller and they just sell occasionally it will hurt you more than it hurts them, especially if they put something like "Buyer negged me after paypal found in my favour" - it makes you look like the villain! If they regularly sell rubbish it still won't affect them too much as they probably won't be around for long anyway. Be careful about using neg feedback as a "weapon", it's unliokely to get you anywhere and you won't be any better off financially for it.

Yes it's definately an automated letter, but that's hardly the point. Apaprt from that a little more personal care would be in order at the very least considering what they add in charges, not that they will be getting it in this case.

Everybody is completely missing the point of the thread. We need to backtrack a bit to the original post. I perhaps should have explained in more detail, but there is extensive information in the "Your parking ticket may be illegal" thread. I'm not remotely interested or bothered by the bailiffs threats or letters; 1. They can't get in the house, and it 's not my house anyway; 2. They can't take the car, it's on HP and, 3. They can't call on Christmas day (and won't anyway) However the over-riding point in all of this is that Blackpool's parking tickets ARE ILLEGAL so none of this is worth the paper it is written on. They have been told in no uncertain terms by a prominent MP to stop chasing debts for these illegal parking tickets, have been defeated on several occasions at NPAS hearings because of the illegally-worded parking tickets, and have told other people that they will not pursue the debt "because it is not in the public interest". From a personal point of view, I don't have a problem with them. In fact I couldn't care less! The point I am trying to get across in this thread is that this surely must be illegal intimidation, and I'm wondering where we go from here with this to bring THEM to justice and to help other people, not me but those that must be scared out of their wits when they get letters like this!

Good point!

Here you go:

Sounds like a good idea, although if, as it now seems, they do have a copy of the application for substituted service order it might be largely irrelevant as we will now be relying on the fact that we didn't receive the docs originally rather than the fact that they didn't file the above application in the first instance.

No, the court hasn't come up with an explanation but I will be pointing the fact out that the papers I was given the first time around were, well, those that you saw! Re. The solicitors you mentioned earlier, I haven't contacted them yet, the fact that everyone I have spoken to seemed to think we had no chance and the fees being quoted for what might be a lost cause put me off to a point, although I do feel we will need some expert help at some point.

Who was the letter from? Phoenix Commercial Collectiobns are still pursuing me to the tune of over £2000 for unpaid Blackpool PCN's; I want to be able to actually quote a given case where other people have been "let off" if possible, next time i contact them.

Thanks SL, bb. Went back to the court office today, still no papers so I insisted that I wasn't leaving until they were found given the gravity, for us, of the situation. I went away with a promise to either find them by tomorrow lunchtime or a letter from the court office stating that there was no paperwork. However I got a phone call an hour later telling me that they had found the papers - not so good as it seems that in fact there is amoungst them an application form for substituted service. They phoned me 10 minutes before closing so I can't get them until tomorrow morning but I'm going ahead with the appeal anyway. I had drafted somthing similar to the above but including the misdescription of our house (terraced not semi) and the mystery 55-year old, in addition to the fact that we have never received any documentation and a subsequent request to the council for all paperwork relating to our council tax account has, to date, prioduced nothing. I will also point out that we would have been in a position to pay the debt in full prior to the date of the hearing had we known about it at the time - the only flaw in this is that the originalhearing was apparently in June, adjourned because we were not there, and back in June we would NOT have been in a position to pay it. One other point worthy of note is that Incasso have never at any point tried to contact us with regard to reaching a settlement as far as I am aware, they have been contacted by the council with a view to recovering the debt and seemingly have gone straight ahead with the bankrupcy application. I'm not sure how good a case we have but I have to at least try.

Yes, don't worry about that I know exactly how to handle them. My concern is for the thousands of people out there that don't. This is an absolute scandal.

To be honest I think part of the problem in this country - and it's getting worse - is OVER-regulation of just about everything. The trouble is the rules do exist to protect the consumers but the big boys - banks, councils, companies, you name it - ALL break the rules and exploit the regulations or simply disregard them knowing that most people haven't got the financial clout or the legal nous to be able to fight back. Take bank charges for example. Time and again the banks have paid up rather than face lsoing in court and have to pay EVERYBODY back, yet still they continue to charge people. Councils continue to issue illegal parking tickets and pursue the debts despite the fact that they know NPAS have decalred their parking tickets illegal. Bailiffs and DCAs continue to act illegally. And isn't the mental stress and harrassment it all causes supposed to be illegal? But they all get away with it because we can't afford to take them on even though the laws and regulations are there to enable us to do so.

I'm going back 20 years, but I used to work for the aforementioned bus company as a driver. If our takings were down, it came out of our wages. If they were over the company kept it giving the reason that if we started with a set float and took that out at the end then any "overs" were not our money. The union argued for years that it wasn't theirs either and it should at least be put against the "shorts", i.e. if you were £5 short overall at the end of the week but were £4 over on some shifts, then you only have to pay back £1, but to no avail. Ticket machines were regularly faulty, I once showed a total of £180 takings for the shift on a quiet night-time route which typically took about £40-£50 at most. I had £47 takings. No possible way could I have made mistakes adding up to £133 on a quiet night using a ticket machine with pre-programmed buttons (higest fare then was about 80p) but I had to pay it back.

Sounds about right.

Can't afford to wait too long though, the 28 days in which I have to file my appeal is up on Wednesday, and I don't have a lot of time otherwise to deal with this at the moment, that's why I wanted the papers on Friday to give me the weekend to go over them. I (or my partner anyways) have definately been stitched up. looking good for an appeal if they can't even produce any paperwork at all. I just don't want to get stitched up again when it goes back to court for the appeal hearing when they magically produce the the relevant paperwork that so far I have not seen and doesn't appear at this stage to exist. Wish I could find a decent solicitor that can deal with this.

Just to pick up on one of the points, I am at loggerheads with Equifax over a similar situation (Barclaycard sold on a debt and now it shows as 2 defaults, one from Barclaycard and one from the company they sold it onto). My two main arguments are (1) the account is in dispute and therefore Barclaycard should not have registered it as a default, and (2) - and I think this is relevant to the OP's case - Equifax say they can't amend it or add a 'Notice of Correction' unless the company concerned say so/agree. Now my point is this - Equifax are supposed to be impartial, yet by allowing the default to remain they are NOT impartial, they are saying that the Barclaycard entry is correct and my version of events is wrong, thus they are effectively "taking sides".

Got a letter from the bailiffs (unpaid parking tickets, illegally worded so void) : "Dear Sir/Madam We recently attended your premises but failed to receive a reply and were unable to return later in the day as expected. Unless you now settle this account IN FULL our:- SENIOR BAILIFF MANAGER AND APPOINTED REMOVAL CONTRACTOR will re-attend on or after 25 December 2006. They have been instructed to remove your vehicle or sufficient household goods etc....blah blah blah." The point of the thread is this: OK we all are probably aware by now that they cannot attend on a Bank Hoilday, but how many people are there out there whose Christmas is now going to be ruined because they are either scared to death that the bailiffs will be calling on Christmas Day, or end up using their "Christmas money" to pay the 'fine' and extortionate costs involved (and please let's not get into the debate about if they had the money they should have paid). Surely this is illegal? It's certainly disgraceful. I feel desperately sorry for those people out there who this will affect. Incidentally, if they did attend recently they didn't push a letter anything through the door.

But you didn't fail to stop! You had a brief conversation with her! Is she allowed to bang on the side of your car? Not sure about that one either!

Is it actually possible to park legally without having to pay for it in Blackpool any more? 'legally' of course assuming that the tickets are correctly worded and the lines correctly painted and signed. I was parked outside the Halifax on Lytham Rd near Waterloo Road the other day, you know the one, long lay by with bus stops and ample space for 7 or 8 cars but yellow lines painted all the way along. Sure enough the local warden came out of the woodwork and asked me to move the car or get a ticket. I asked him if he knew the law relating to parking on yellow lines, and pointed out that considering his job he should do! I then pointed out the foot-wide gap in the line which rendered the d/y line irrelevant and thus informed him that I was not illegally parked. He said it was up to me, move it or get a ticket. I told him that I would easily win the appeal and asked him how he would fancy going to court for intimidation/harrassment having now been made aware of the law and still threatening to illegally "book" me! He wandered off...

What particularly annoys me with contracts is that companies often insert a clause which goes something like, "We reserve the right to amend these terms and conditions....blah blah blah." Surely if a contract can be altered at will by the company it isn't worth the paper it is written on?

Hope you don't mind be suggesting this peeps, but you are far more likely to attract interest to your thread if you use the title as a short description of the problem. For example there are three threads simply entitled "T-Mobile" - you need to be more specific!

Those webcams can be pretty unreliable!

Sorry, been manic busy lately but here's the latest: I went to the court office on Friday only for a puzzled clerk to come back to me to tell me that there are NO papers in the file!!! I said I would call back on Monday afternoon either for a copy of the papers or an official letter stating that there are none! wtf is going on???

I wonder how long it will be before it becomes "compulsory"? The usual trick is to impose conditions, e.g. in the future you might have the option to withdraw you consent but they might in the future say, "fine, but we can't give you a driving licence if you do", that's the way things seem to be going.