Transmitter purchase On the 20/05/15 I purchased a Quad transmitter from HobbyKing for £167.18. This price included carriage by FedEx to my door. On the seller web site was a page for selecting a carrier. The default choice by the seller was FedEx and was highlighted by a button selection. All of the carriers offered carriage at about the same price (DHL etc). The carriage price offered by FedEx was the most competitive at $33.32 and I continued with the payment process. At no point was I advised of any other affiliated costs or charges. I paid the full amount as directed via PayPal. I was informed that as soon as the parcel was despatched I would receive a consignment number. The carriage cost in GBP was about £22 which I thought quite acceptable. I was well aware at the time that an item at this price would attract import duty of about £30. A few days later I received the parcel from Fedex. All seemed fine until some days later I received a request for £45.75. I thought this was a bit high for import duty. I sent Fedex an email as I was unable to contact them by phone and enquired as to the amount. I received a reply which informed me that the bill was in fact two separate amounts. One for the duty (£33.75) and one for an amount labelled Admin. I done some research on the Web and discovered that the ‘Admin’ charge was for processing the duty requirements, or there abouts. This was news to me as I had no prior knowledge of any such cost. I contacted Fedex by email and advised them that I had no intension of paying the admin charge as I had not been informed at anytime of this fee. But I would pay the duty charge as shown. I sent Fedex a cheque for £33.75 with a covering letter explaining my position again. A month or so passed and then I received a reminder from Fedex about the outstanding admin amount. I sent Fedex an email covering my position again. A few months went by with no further correspondence. I received a Payment demand from a DCA for the amount of £12 along with various frightening statements that would happen if this amount was not paid. This has escalated to more letters and phones calls demanding the money along with the sum being demanded increasing with each contact. I am at a loss as to how a company can demand money when I have never been asked to agree to the service offered. I have signed no contract with Fedex and have not asked them to do any service for me. Where does the figure of £12 come from this could be any amount at all £1200 even. I have read some posts on this site and noticed that this admin fee has increased by over 150% in one year originally being about £5. This ‘admin’ fee was not featured at the sellers web site at time of purchase. This however has now been amended. It now advices that there may be an admin fee on some items. But no amount is specified. Any thoughts or advice greatly appreciated. PS I have donated the £12 to this site.

Hi, Sandy here, not sure who to ask but is it possible I could put something in the helpful organisation bit please? It says you need to ask admin. I would like to put something about The Lullaby Trust is allowed? This is The Cot Death charity I fund raise for in memory of my granddaughter . A lot of people still do not know about SIDS, it takes more babies then anything else and is known as the silent killer If not allowed , no problem Sandy AKA snowdragon x

In July of this year me and my partner felt we would like to switch to a new gym which was much better suited to our needs, from our then current gym Xercise4less. We know that when you cancel a membership there tends to be a contract to honour or a notice to fulfill, so we decided that we would not make the switch until payments had been sorted with Xercise4less. Money is tight and we are frugal, so we would not have two memberships running at the same time. We went in to our local branch in St Helens and spoke to a young man on reception, who's etiquette left a lot to be decided, distracted by mates and such. To be fair to him they seemed short staffed. However, he categorically told us that as we had only signed a 12 month contract and had been there for 18 months, so we were free to cancel our membership and there was no notice or fee or anything. He took down our names and looked on the system and told us that as the cancellation would take a few minutes, he would go through it on the computer and we were free to go home. We were a little surprised it was that easy, but he categorically told us the above facts so we had been given the green light to sign up with the new gym. We cancelled our direct debits the next day to be on the safe side, because we had heard stories about Xercise4less (Harlands) continuing to take payments. So we have been at our new gym ever since, when out of the blue this morning, we both received texts telling us "You cancelled your direct debit, so your account has gone in to default". I enquired on the phone number given on the msg, and the agent told me that I was supposed to give them a months notice, so that Harlands could take a final payment of £9.99. As the DD was cancelled, I have incurred a £20 admin fee since. So I owe them £29.99. I explained that their Xercise4less colleague had wrongly informed us of the terms, and had we known, we would have absolutely not joined the new gym till a month later. He agreed and put a notice on my account that I was wrongly informed and told me there was nothing he could do, but I needed to speak to the general manager of the St Helens branch to see if they could reason with me. I rang up the branch and the man on the phone told me they had no general manager until October. I have to say the phone call was quite blunt and the staff in that gym are generally not the most professional people. Not sure what to do next then. I have to admit I hate these situations, I am not a confrontational type, I am very shy and I went in to the gym today for answers, but when I saw there was no staff on reception I bottled it. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Hi all! Looking for a bit of advice. I recently imported a computer game from a company in Hong Kong which was delivered to me via FedEx last week. Just today I've received a letter from them, a "Duty & Tax Invoice". The value of the item I imported was £23.89, so it seems there's £5.64 of tax owing. A bit annoying, but fair enough I suppose. However, FedEx are also charging a £12 "Clearance Administration Charge", bringing the total they want me to pay them to £17.64. Now, the £5.64 of tax I don't mind paying, that's owed and that's fair enough. But a £12 'Admin' charge seems ridiculously excessive to me. I never agreed to paying that at all. Am I within my rights to write to FedEx saying that I'll pay the tax owed but I do not feel I should be paying their excessive admin charges? With that charge they almost want me to pay for my entire order all over again.

Dear forum members, Countrywide have issued a court claim over a service charge arrears, legal fees and admin costs. I’m a leaseholder (over 14 years) in one of three block development and the property is managed by residents company who have hired Countrywide to manage the property. They manage properties so badly that and estate agent has recommended my friend not to buy in the development. I have refused to pay the service charge as the management company in in breach of lease and Countywide is in breach of its management obligations, in particular: 1. According to the lease Windows should be painted once every 3 years however they have not been painted for over 11 years, resulting in wood being rotten and irreparable. 2. The development had no freeholder since 1990 when the original freeholder went into administration (final dissolution 2010) and according to law, if the freeholders name is not on the service charge demand the bill is not payable, but in past they have charged several times for admin and legal fees in excess of 10K. When they tried to collect it from me last year, I told their solicitors, that there is no freeholder and they stopped sending me demands. I have an email from a director to countrywide saying that the freehold is sorted and now they can collect the service charge from me. 3. They are constantly ignoring my reports of problems. - The gutter of the roof is blocked and the escaping rainwater damaged the porch which is in verge of collapse due to rotting. ] - The rear big communal light is not working for a year (despite three repair bills for the same light when it was working) 4. Excessive and unjustified expenses such as: - During last year on light bulb replacements in communal areas alone Countrywide has spent £1,100 (there are not more than 45 communal lights) Buildings insurance has risen to £9,800 while quotes have been obtained for as low as £2,800 - In 2011 £4,500 has been paid to chartered surveyors for holding a tender to paint the windows (quote obtained was £70,000 for 40 apartments ) . Unnecessary expenses such as repeating Asbestos inspection, Out of Hours premiums, secretarial fees etc… - Overly expensive general repair bills. 5. Excessive management fees (I have obtained quotes from 3 different companies with the lowest quote of £40 They have taken the service charge from me in past by the following means County court 8 years ago (admitted and paid hence not disputed now) Four times added to the mortgage County court recent tried to defend but court was in another city and I could not attend nor transfer it to my city. My question is, can I claim back the following charges going back 5 (if not 5 then how many) years and what are my chances in leasehold tribunal. All administrative charges imposed by Countywide on me All legal charges including past court fees All charges from mortgage company for adding arrears to the mortgage 50% of service charge + 8% interest Any additional advice would be much appreciated.

Sorry realise this is not the place but I couldn't see this anywhere - can anybody advise me how to contact site admin?

Please can an admin contact me by PM, urgently? Sorry for the brief message, but I'm trying to play safe.

I think this is relevant because this part of the forum is to do with benefits advice. I think the admin team responsible for monitoring these threads should be impartial, and not allowed to act like a blue collar gang, closing threads and then allowing admin staff to continue to post, after the creator has been banished from his own thread. They seem to want to put their opinions across and stifle and repress all opposition to it. This is the behavior of school children, and not a consumer actions group it is often the case that no attempt is made to answer the thread authors questions. instead they gang up to demean the post and post snotty school boy remarks. please look at my other thread in the homeless section

Hi. Have just been given a weekend paid for caravan at a Parkdean site by a friend who can no longer go. I called Parkdean to advise that my friend is no longer going, but she has given it to me. I was informed that there was a £20 admin fee for changing the name. Whilst i'm grateful that my friend has given me a free weekend away, i can't help but think that they're taking the mick charging £20 for changing the details. I sent a message via Twitter, and have had their twitter team call me and reconfirm that there will be a £20 charge which will not be waived. I've asked what it was for, they said it was to cover the manpower it takes to swap details and reprint the documents. I asked what documents, i thought it was all done electronically, which she said yes it is, no printing is involved, but still confirmed the £20 stands. I would have accepted a £5 fee as would probably take maximum 15 mins to swap details, and that is based at the ridiculously paid rate of £20/hour for data entry. Can anyone tell me if i should just accept it, or if i have any grounds to stand up to this charge?

I seen this user name(sticky) before on the anonymous.uk. site!

Hi, I have gone through various threads on this site regarding this ridiculous "admin fee" which harlands charge, however I'm still unsure what to do. I joined the gym a month ago now and my first payment was due on the 20th, however I had misplaced my card on the 18th (I later found my card.) After misplacing my card I did not add any funds into my account because I was worried someone would use my card if found. I added funds into my account on the 24th after I finally found my card again (it fell out of my jeans pocket in my cupboard!) I thought the DD payment for gym would be taken a few days late with no hassle. As last year I made 2 late payments with my student accommodation rent and all was fine. Although a few days ago I was shocked to find a letter from harlands stating that they will be charging me a £25 admin fee for missing my payment. I was completely unaware about this admin fee until I read the letter and don't understand why they charge so much for a late payment. I am unsure what to do as I want to continue going to the gym and I am happy paying the original £22 DD I have set up, but I refuse to pay this £25 "admin fee" which harlands have charged me. Thanks in advance for your help.

Hi all. I am in the process of putting together my paperwork to reclaim charges levied to my mortgage account over the last 7yrs. I will be reclaiming admin charges which were levied for missed payments, which is fairly straightforward. I am also going to claim fees for counsellor visits. the lender would send someone from a third party company to the house without making an appointment in the hope we would let him in so he could discuss our finances in detail and of course make an assessment of the property to see what it's worth. Invariably we missed these unsolicited visits, so a letter was posted through the door stating a visit had been made and we had been charged £50 or so for the privilege! There were also claims this company had visited when they hadn't, and no letter was posted through. Either way, even though the mortgage contract t&c's makes provision for such visits, I believe this is an unfair contract term and forces customers to accept these 'counsellor visits' which is unreasonable. It's certainly not reasonable to turn up without an appointment, and state you are charging £50 for posting a letter through a letterbox saying 'Sorry I missed you today'. So, as far as the company and the bank is concerned, they will charge you the fee whether they have provided a 'service' (I use that term loosely!) or not! What a nice little earner! I would be interested in views on reclaiming the counsellor visits. The next fee I plan to reclaim is what my bank calls the 'litigation charge-instruction'. On the face of it, that may seem self-explanatory, but having had a long discussion a while back I discovered when speaking to a very helpful man at the bank that this fee was charged for transferring the a/c from the normal mortgage pmts dept to their collection dept. No Solicitors involved here just the movement of the a/c from one dept to another will incur a £100 fee! I was gobsmacked! So, as far as I'm concerned those fees are unfair for the reason explained but would like views on this. The last issue maybe a bit more complex, and I would like some advice. Back in 2006, we had problems paying the mortgage, and the lender took us to Court. A suspended possession order was granted but we had to pay all the arrears literally a month after the Court hearing, which we did. We were not offered any sort of help by the lender, their solution was 'pay up', that was it. I feel they acted really unfairly towards us, and their lousy treatment of us has been an ongoing feature of the relationship. My question is, would we be able to reclaim the £500 plus fee the bank levied on the mortgage a/c for taking us to Court? And would subsequent legal fees i.e. for solicitor's letters be claimable given the unlawful fees had put us behind with the mortgage? I should add that I am planning to reclaim all the fees plus seek interest in restitution from them, and it is definitely the case that had they not applied all the fees to the mortgage a/c we wouldn't have had such problems. Any thoughts/advice is appreciated. Figgydoody.

Hi, Another question for anyone who can help! I asked my landlord (they are a property company) if I could change energy suppliers over the phone last year, they advised me I could as long as I provide them with the new reference number which I did. I've just moved out and on the check out form I see they have said if I've changed without written confirmation from them that it will be £100 admin fee. I'm guessing they would take from my deposit? I'm not happy about this, they told me I could but I have nothing to prove this, anyway it's my money paying for the supply surely I have the right to change to whoever I want as long as I provide them with the information which I did. In any case, how can they justify £100 admin fee, what is the cost to them that I have changed? Can I fight this in anyway? Seems completely unfair to me Many thanks Jess

Hi, I was wondering if anybody knows what the legal amount of admin fees can be taken for a VAT refund - and the law or directive that deals with it? I was recently visiting the UK and shopped in 2 stores. One takes a 5 GBP admin fee, and the other a 40% admin fee (in this case 25.63 GBP). I have previously used other stores and the maximum I have been charged was 10 GBP. I think 40% is a complete rip-off. (Before anybody suggests I don't use this store again, they are one of the only retailers, and the only accessible one near to where I stay with the products I want.) Thanks!

Hi Guys, I'm trying to access the templates page, but I keep getting this message... '' Buncrana, you do not have permission to access this page. This could be due to one of several reasons: Your user account may not have sufficient privileges to access this page. Are you trying to edit someone else's post, access administrative features or some other privileged system? If you are trying to post, the administrator may have disabled your account, or it may be awaiting activation. You may not have sufficient posts to permit you to carry out your intended action'' What do I need to do to access the templates page

Hi Guys Need some advice and luckily this has nothing to do with Voda... I'm slowly arranging a transfer of services to "H3G" however ive hit a snag, previous with Vodafone I was charged 1 x Admin Fee for paying via Non Direct Debit. I currently have envisioned to pay for 3 services, 1 x Mobile Broadband for me and 2 x Sim Only Contracts (1 x My Brother) Ive since found out I will be charged 3 x DD Fees because the way of there billing system working. To me that's over obsessive because I've explained to the company that Im extremely unhappy by this discovery. However the phone monkeys both in writing and also on the Phone are useless and dont get it. Im happy to accept 1 x Admin Fee per month ONLY!, Not 3 of them. Im slowly starting to realise this was a mistake. They have mentioned to me that if i pay by Debit Card / Credit Card Mandate that it doesnt have an admin fee, However this is the same Damn thing as if i was to pay via Debit Card without a mandate. What can I do?

Hi all, I joined Gym4all on Feb 14th on an their orange membership, this means there's 'no contract, monthly payment, £25 joining fee' & £12.99 is taken out of my bank every month via Direct debit. On the 4th of April I received a letter from Harlands which I didn't open until now, because I've been busy from exams, and have been away from my home where the letter was sent. This is what it said: Harlands administer the collection of all payments due under your membership agreement with Gym4all. Your bank have advised us that your April installment has been returned unpaid "refer to payer" as there were insufficient funds in the account to pay the amount due. we will therefore debit your account on the 15th of april 14 for the total amount of £37.99 made up as follows: installment: £12.99 admin fees: £25:00 total due : £37.99 once submission has been made the debting of your account cannot be stopped. What should I do? I want to quit the gym because i have no time for it at the moment and i don't want to pay the admin charge. How do i go about cancelling the gym membership and not having to pay the admin charge. I have no qualms about paying the installment fee. any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hi Lee Need your help... Your staff members are being incredibly unhelpful and i cant get an answer. The £3.50 charge for non-DD i believe is unfair and the OFT set it out that the charge can only be upto the ACTUAL cost. I have quoted this to your staff since the inception of it this year. Its started to be invoiced to my number ending 154 and i dont think its fair... Especially how much i pay. So Lee... Why are your staff being unhelpful? I want something put in place to PREVENT the charge being applied as its unjustified. Your staff seem to think that im willing to set up a DD for such a large amount of money. Ive tried to find the link to email you, but i cant see it as the contact us section has changed from when it was around.

Hello all, hope you can help. I have been working in my position for nhs for approximately 7 years. I was recently notified that I had not been assimulated into agenda for change and if I up date my job description it would be sorted out. Which is has so far, however I am not happy with the banding they have given me. it is lower then I was expecting. Expecially as my role has changed considerable since I started. I am now managing an assistant which was not part of my original job description. IF I accept the banding that would make us both on the same banding and pay point.Although I am in the seniour role and have more responsibility. Any suggestions on what I can do? I can appeal but how can I do this effectively. If anyone has any advice let me know asap as I have been sitting on this for a couple of months now and time is running out. Thank you

Not all benefit payments, but some (JCP says 32,000 claimants affected) have failed to receive payments due today. These people are urged to contact the DWP urgently to arrange payments. Sorry I didn't see this story earlier.

Just a quick question, After a 12-month minimum term gym contract expired last month, I received a letter today from Harlands saying that my November instalment has been returned unpaid 'refer to payer' as there were insufficient funds to pay the amount due. I'm now being charged the month's fee plus a £15 admin fee. I will be in touch with the gym to ensure my contract is terminated (I'm aware it was my fault for forgetting to get in touch and terminate it, as the T&Cs do mention that they will continue taking the direct debit amount every month after until I cancel) but my question is, am I liable to pay this admin fee? Not trying to get out of anything, but I don't want to pay a fee if it's not justified. Is each extra month an extension to my contract? I'd have thought if I'm out of my contracted period and they can't take funds they'd just terminate my service.. . but then, what do I know? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Hello, I am hoping that someone will be able to offer some advice. The basic scenario is this: I own a two bedroom leasehold flat. In May I received a ‘Letter Before Action’ from the Freeholder. This document stated that the ground rent was in arrears, this was payable within 14 days and a ‘Letter before action’ fee of £120 was added to my account “as per the enclosed summary”. Now, prior to this letter, I had received no invoices for Ground Rent from this company that complies with legislation. I immediately contacted the Freeholder. The Freeholder in question had purchased the Freehold approximately 14 months previously. Prior to this, all Ground Rent was paid to the original builder of the new build property. I offered to pay the ground rent arrears immediately, however refused to pay a £120 Letter before action / admin fee as I deemed unreasonable. I explained that I had received no invoices and the only previous correspondence had been over a year previously when they introduced themselves as the new freeholder. I pointed out that the “enclosed summary” was incorrect, as one of two periods shown had been paid to the predecessor. The matter has been going back and forth for the past 6 weeks. In this time, I have established and pointed out the following facts: 1.) The correspondence address that the freeholder holds for me is inaccurate. It contains Flat Number, Block of Flats Name, Road Name, Postcode. However, it neglects to include the Number of the road if that makes sense. For example, correspondence has been addressed Mr Joe, Flat 1, ABC House, ABC Road, AB1 2CD, instead of Mr Joe, Flat 1, ABC House, 46 ABC Road, AB1 2CD. I attempted to explain that the address that they have allegedly sent post to was not exact as that on my lease and this could explain as to why invoices had not been received. There are also a number of other blocks on this road that also incorporate the name ‘house’ in their title. 2.) Other residents have failed to receive recent documentation allegedly sent by the freeholder. In communication with the freeholder, they have stated that they have sent ‘similarly addressed’ letters. I point out that I have no ‘similar’ address, only an actual address. I point out that I received their incorrectly addressed letter by chance, as I cannot rely on the postman to get it right as its not correctly addressed. I have raised numerous points with the freeholder yet they have failed to return emails. I have asked simple questions such as asking for the Freeholder to confirm the clause in the lease that allows them to charge admin fees yet having asked this question 6 times, I have received no answer. I have threatened with taking the matter to LVT to allow for determination as to reasonableness, however I get no response. £120 for a letter sent from an office with no Solicitor involvement is absurd. I have asked for details of the complaints dept, Director etc, but they have failed to provide these. The email chain has continued this week. At one point, the individual with who I have been dealing, accidently sent an email to myself that should have been sent to a colleague within their organisation, asking “Are you going to reply to Average Joe, or are you ignoring him?” I have repeatedly refused to pay the £120. This week they have offered to reduce the fee to £60 if I paid within 7 days. Again, I refused, then it was changed to £60 by Fri 28th. I am so frustrated, by the aggressive tactics that this freeholder is using. In your experience, where do I stand and what should I do? Thanks

Thank you for reading this thread! We was just hoping to get some advise, maybe some thoughts on the following. We lived in rental property for 5 years. The property is managed by the agency on behalf of a landlord. We moved out 3 weeks ago. Had all the check outs done, property was left in a very good condition, inventory was completed, with no complaints from the land lord was happy with everything. This morning we received a letter form the letting agent that they are going to deduct 962£ from our deposit (full deposit amount is 1200£) in admin fees! It does state in our contract, that we have to pay "the contribution" towards “check out” fees, which is 80 £ + VAT, rip off,but we was aware of it and prepared to pay. So in this credit note they sent us, agency included 80£ + VAT, two late payments fees 30+30(which we are fine with), and what really shocked us is the renewal fees for the 5 years of tenancy, apparently we had to pay them at the end of each year contract! We have been receiving renewal contracts every year, it was a standard letter, saying that tenancy agreement due to expire, sign the contract and send it back, not once they attached the invoice or reminder to pay 50£ renewal fees, not once in 5 year time! So they claim we owe them 80£ + VAT 60£ + VAT 50£ X 5 =250 + VAT 332£ + VAT is for admin charge for non payment received for27 month!!!!! Plus on top of that is a 83£ fee for handling the issue! It does not say anything in our contract that we had to pay 50£ renewal fees. When I contacted the agency, they said the sum of 50 was mentioned in guide notes for tenants, which we signed before paying the deposit, they sent me a copy with the small print actually saying that. Predominantly,we were relying on the contract plus not once they reminded us to pay 50 quid, it just all added up(!), obviously agency done bad admin and trying to dip their hands into our deposit! We are a good tenants and was late with the rent twice( only few days my mistake), never gave any hassle! And would have paid 50£ every year no probs. We have no idea if we stand a chance!

my daughter was issued a penalty fine on 15th june 2013, she had no money on her, was crying & the station where she boarded had no staff. i appealed the following day sent recorded delivery. & stupidly did not pay the fine. received letter today 8th july, Letter sent on 5th july stating that i had won appeal so now only owed £2.21 so rang straight away today to be informed i owed £22.21 ? it was explained that it was admin fee because i had not payed in 21 days, so now i have won appeal & instead of paying £20 have ended up paying £22.21 ? funny how appeal was won 1 day before the 21days! my daughter is 13yrs old

hi wanted to take out a car insurance with hastings direct filed in online form were it said no claims bonus i put in the years from my other cars policy which i still drive and was told i basically had no claims bonus for new car as it relates to old car so then they came up with a huge increase in premium £1100 which i told the advisor i would have to cancel because of this now they have taken £108.00 in admin fees out of my account have since got a insurance quote for £400 for same car they are a load of [edited] and they shouldnt be allowed to get away with it