Hi, I'm hoping someone might be able to help me... In August 2015 I purchased a Samsung Galaxy S6 on eBay from what seemed to be a trustworthy "phone company" with very good reviews. I received the phone exactly as described, brand new and sealed and factory unlocked. I have been on a Sim-only contract with Vodafone for a long time and I immediately began using the Sim in the new phone with no problems at all for the next 6 months or so. However, in February 2016 the phone suddenly lost all network coverage and after a few confusing phone calls with Vodafone (which also involved me sending the phone to Samsung to be tested) I finally discovered it had been blacklisted due to having been reported as stolen. Vodafone recommended that I try to get a refund from the seller on eBay or approach PayPal to open a dispute. I soon discovered that the seller had disappeared from eBay (hardly surprising if he knew what he was doing...!) and after explaining the problem to eBay they told me that PayPal should be able to help. However, I have been back and forth with PayPal over the issue and they are point blank refusing to help me due to the fact that the transaction was back in August and it was outside of their specified time cap on opening a case. I understand that this is their policy but I feel that in a situation like this there should be some sort of loophole as how was I to know that I was buying a stolen phone, especially as it was working fine until it was blacklisted!! I have spoken to CACs and trading standards regarding the matter but they simply insisted I keep on at PayPal and that without the seller's home address there's not much that can be done?! I am out of pocket of £380 and the phone is completely useless to me, and at the same time the seller of this phone (and I would guess countless other phones) is getting away with making money from stolen goods. Thank you for any suggestions!

Hi, First time post for me but after doing a bit of searching this place looks to be very useful so hopefully I can get some advice on my predicament... Firstly, I'm not looking to blame Barclays as the problem is entirely my own doing BUT isn't helped but what I see is a failure of several Barclay's systems to provide useful information which would have helped my not make my mistake so my request is twofold. ... I had two Barclayloans, one for oustanding amount A and one with an outstanding amount of B. The difference between the two outstanding amounts was £4K. One monthly payment was £230 and the other £380. I took out a third loan to cover some credit card debt, pay of the lesser of the two loans and buy a car. All good so far. After paying off the cards and buying the car I then went into my local Barclay's branch to pay off the lesser of the two loans, here's where it all goes wrong. Looking back at my 'workings out' to decide how much to borrow, what to pay etc I managed to get the outstanding loan values and their monthly values mixed up. Thus I thought the smaller of the loans (the one I intended to pay off) attracted the higher monthly payment. Here's the first 'issue' ... to the best of my knowledge nowhere on Barclay's site does it tell you what the monthly payment for a loan is. Even the Direct Debit statement entries for the loans have no information with regards to which loan they relate. And yes I know I should have referred to the original paperwork (no idea where that it is) for the loan and it doesn't in anyway exonerate my stupidity but I do think it would be useful if Barclays could show the loan monthly payment along with the outstanding amount on the main detail page. So, in the local Barclays branch I instructed the very nice lady to pay off the smaller of the loans and to confirm it was the one with the £383 monthly payment. She again couldn't confirm this as (and I have the print out from the 'payoff quote' from the internal system) their internal systems also don't appear to show a monthly payment either, certainly not the print out I've got. The smaller loan was paid off however but I also instructed her to cancel the £383 / month direct debit.....The reason for this was when paying off loans in the past I've been told to cancel the direct debit 'just in case'. This is where it gets serious. Turns out that by her paying off the smaller loan, the £230 / month direct debit was automatically cancelled BUT by me instructing her to cancel the £383 one too, that was for a live loan (which didn't become apparent for a few weeks later)!!! Again, there didn't appear to be anything stopping her from cancelling a direct debit for a live loan which seems a bit odd. She wasn't prompted with any warnings or anything, didn't question what I wanted to do ...nothing. Nothing more was heard until I received a 'default loan payment' letter from Barclays a couple of weeks ago which alarmed me. I spoke to their team that night and was adamant that there had been a mistake and that £383 was for an old loan which I'd paid off.....clearly not! Big penny dropped.... Person on the end of the phone told me that £383 was for an ongoing loan so I paid it and set up a standing order for the £383 to cover the rest of the loan period. All the credit reference agencies have now been told of my default and I'm blacklisted. Various conversations with people in Barclays have told me that it's a one way thing and they can't remove the blacklisting, even though its down to my own stupidity in cancelling the wrong direct debit and not the fact I ran out of money! Not a huge issue as I won't be applying for credit for a bit BUT and this is the important question.... is there anyway I can let the credit agencies (and which ones should I contact?) to let them know of my mistake and to prove that it's a stupid error on my part and not a financial issue, or is a default a default, there are no 'types' of default? As proof it was an error on my part I have the letter from Barclays confirming the £383 payment had been stopped Secondly is there any 'proper' email address for Barclays that I can send this tale to to highlight shortcomings in their systems? Appreciate this is a fruitless exercise but even if the loan account had the monthly payment shown online I wouldn't be here. Let alone their internal systems not showing it and the ability to cancel a direct debit for a Barclayloan with no warnings. Really appreciate any help (apart from checking my facts and figures in future, definitely learned that one!) anyone can offer on this. Thanks

My partner bought a handset privately and it worked fine for a month. Then it wouldn't make or receive calls. It turns out it's been blacklisted on UK networks. We've run a report and also reported it to the police. It turns out that it's not stolen, nor is it the subject of an insurance claim. I'm assuming then that the previous owner is in default with their contract and hence it's been blocked by whichever network they're in default with. My question is is there any way to get the block lifted? Anyone had experience of this before?

So this is my first post (Had I know this place existed before, I would have had way less headaches during the years dealing with cheating companies, less than helpful customer services and being fooled by basically every singer company I have ever signed a contract with, at least when thinking on technology and telecoms) Nevertheless, better late than ever, and in this case I seek advice of a different kind. So I bought a second hand handset from gumtree, a Galaxy S 3 with a crack in the screen and locked to O2, but otherwise in good condition and fully working. Complete with charger, but out of the box. So I thought I would get t unlocked today (on Sundays my local shop is usually closed). My friend was unable to have the phone unlocked and said it could be blocked or blacklisted. Tried to contact the guy who sold it to me without luck, the person refuses to take any responsibility for it. So suspecting that he might have just found the phone in the streets (or worse) I did a bit of research and found out a few things. First, the phone seems not to be locked to O2, but originally a Vodafone handset (which was convenient since we are Vodafone clients) The IMEIDETECTIVE.com test resulted negative, but then I run the paid CHECKMEND test which came out as "your phone has been BLOCKED by a gsm, but HAS NOT BEEN REPORTED LOST OR STOLEN . So I thought that maybe this guy did not pay his bills and got his handset blocked, although somewhere else I read that Vodafone does not blacklist your phone unless it has been reported lost of stolen (which according to CHECKMEND, this isn't the case) I have tried several times to contact Vodafone but so far and after talking to a few people, nobody seem to agree to which department should I be transferred to deal with this situation. Thanks for taking the time to read this. If anyone has any information or can help, I can provide the phone's IMEI as well as the CHECKMEND report. Kind Regards

Back in May 2009 I bought a used car using a 2 year Hire Purchase finance deal provided by Blackhorse. Unfortunately the car (a Volvo) broke down almost immediately and declared 'not reparable' by a Volvo dealership garage. Spent one year trying to come to some understanding with Blackhorse but got nowhere so the matter was referred to the Courts (in the mean time I kept paying Blackhorse until May 2010). My Claim included the rejection of the car and a demand for sustained costs and losses. The Claim was awarded in full by default against the dealer that sold me the car. My Claim has been since satisfied and, in November 2010, the car registration documents were returned (and accepted) to Blackhorse's Solicitors, (the car itself has been under their custody since August 2009 when they requested the car back to obtain a 2nd inspection by an independent garage. A garage report was never produced nor the car was ever returned preventing me from fixing thecar myself). I was fully satisfied by the outcome of the Court case and I was willing to close all proceedings. Recently I have realized that Blackhorse has blacklisted myself and my wife with all the credit reference agencies. This is causing my family a great deal of distress and financial difficulties. Again I have tried to talk to Blackhorse but got nowhere. Clearly this situation is not tolerable any longer. What can I do next?