I apologise, this may take a while. Okay, back in February 2011 I made my first mistake and took out a contract for a TV with BayV. It wasn't a large amount, a few hundred pounds on a reconditioned 19inch plus their 'optional' service cover which I wasn't aware was optional at the time. Skip forward around 6 months and my washing machine broke down, so I took out a second agreement with them (it was most definitely a second agreement, rather than refinancing) for a washing machine/tumble dryer package (once again, with their service cover). And about 3 months after that I took out a final agreement for a fridge freezer. At the time that these agreements were taken out, I could afford the weekly payments without an issue. In March I set BayV up on a weekly direct debit so that I didn't have to use the coin meter. At the end of June (extremely suddenly) my financial situation plummeted. My house mate left and my benefit claim was effected because of it, then my daughter was rushed into a hospital outside of town so I had to use what little money I did have on train fares. I cancelled the direct debit, and contacted bayv to inform them that I had done so and was going to start using the coin meter again, I explained my financial situation and requested that somebody contact me to arrange an appointment to come out and discuss refinancing of the agreements to reduce a lower weekly payment that I could afford. This is where the problems start. I was told somebody would contact me within 24 hours. Nobody contacted me, so on Wednesday the 11th July 2012, I contacted their customer service number once again and asked why nobody had contacted me to make an appointment as requested. I was quite upset by this point as I had been hoping to have an appointment that week to deal with the situation so as to not run up hundreds of pounds worth of arrears (as has happened). I was informed that somebody would be coming out that day to see me. I asked what time and was told that buy as you view do not give set times so I would just have to wait in. I told them that due to having a prior appointment (at the hospital) this would not be possible and requested that they contacted the field representative and told him to not waste a journey but instead to contact me via telephone and arrange an appointment as I had already requested. I was told that she would do this and he would phone me by the end of the working day. Just as I was about to leave the house (a few hours after this call had taken place), said buy as you view representative arrived at my door. I apologised to him that he had come out of his way, but repeated that because of my timetable I have to work on an appointment basis and requested that he made an appointment for another time. I was met with attitude and staunch refusal to do this and so I requested that he leave. I then contacted buy as you view customer services again, complained not only about the attitude that I had received from the member of staff but that my previous requests had clearly fallen on deaf ears and once again explained that I need for people to make appointments, not only for my benefit; but so as to not waste their time. Later that day I received a telephone call from the field representative. He apologised for his earlier outburst and made an appointment. This appointment was for the afternoon of Wednesday 18th July 2012 so by the time the appointment took place, I was already in 2-3 weeks’ worth of arrears. On the 18th July, the field representative arrived for the appointment. I explained the situation I was in and asked what could be done. I have since found out that the information I was given at this point was incorrect. He informed me that my agreements could all be rolled in to one, and a refinance could take place, which would lower my weekly payments to around £18.00, however I would have to clear my arrears and pay 6 weeks’ worth of payments (at the current rate) before any of this refinancing could take place. I informed him that due to not having that sort of money available, I would be unable to do this, and £18.00 per week was still too much due to the dire financial situation I was now in. He emptied the meter (there was £18.00 in there if I remember correctly) and left. I then contacted buy as you view (again, this time via email), and a manager contacted me around a week and a half later by telephone, this was after I had received a reply to my email telling me that somebody would be in touch within 48 hours (I can get telephone records if the exact date needs confirming and also have copies of both the emails sent and received). During this phone call I was informed that my accounts could be rolled together and refinanced. I would not be required to pay off my arrears as they would go onto the end of the new agreement, and that with a signed letter by myself I could remove the optional insurance cover which would reduce my weekly payments further. If I wrote this letter, a representative would call around the next time there was one in my area to collect it, as soon as that had been done an appointment would be made for somebody to call in and write the refinancing forms. I promptly wrote the letter and placed it to one side to give to the representative when he arrived. By this point, because my arrears were so large, the coin meter had been reducing my viewing time to less than one hour per pound (I discovered this was due to the arrears after yet another telephone call to buy as you view). Having a small child in the house I needed a TV but could not afford to keep that one running at that cost, so I placed the buy as you view TV with attached coin meter upstairs and have not used it since (I have to say here, the meter is still attached to the TV and has not been tampered with in any way. I just haven't used the damn thing at all). My plan was to start using it again once the agreements had been sorted out and my viewing time was back to 4 hours per pound. I then heard nothing further from buy as you view and I could no longer afford to contact them via telephone (since this started I've spent around £75 just on phone calls to them to try and sort it out). And I made the (probably stupid) decision to stop chasing them and let them do the leg work for once. I received one letter from them to say my account was in arrears and needed paying, and about 10 phone calls a week which, when I answered, replayed an answering machine message asking me to contact them, which I couldn't do (0845 number from a mobile phone. I genuinely can't afford it) On the 30st August I finally had contact from another buy as you view employee. This time in the form of a ‘debt manager’ of the company. He knocked on my front door and was asked to make an appointment to come back at a later time if he insisted on discussing the account, or to put down in writing what he was going to do (I was expecting to hear that buy as you view were taking me to court to gain access to my property to repossess by this point). He then tried to inform me that because I hadn’t paid one third of all of my agreements he could repossess at any time and didn’t need to go to court. Due to not being completely stupid I realised that this gentleman was either a} badly trained and had no idea of the law or b} was attempting some kind of bully boy tactic which I had thought, up until now, were only used by debt collection companies of the lowest sort. I found his entire attitude and demeanour to be extremely threatening and actually informed him at one point that I was legally within my rights to phone the police and have him removed for trespassing as I had requested he leave and make an appointment which he had not done. I also informed him that, as much as he would like me to believe that he could force entry to my home to repossess the goods, if he did so he would be breaking the law and I would have him personally arrested for doing so. It was at this point (I had also mentioned trading standards and my local MP) that his attitude changed and he decided he wanted to help me. He said that he was sure something could be sorted and made an appointment to come back the following day at 12.30. He never showed (surprise surprise). We're now on the third of September and I still haven't heard anything more from them. I've just sent an email of complaint (almost a carbon copy of what I just posted here) and will be sending a hard copy of it through the post recorded delivery. However, after reading some of the scare stories laid about regarding bayv, I'm now a little apprehensive about what may happen next. I'm no longer sure if refinancing is the best option as I'm due to get a chunk of money within the next month and I was going to use that to settle my first account (the TV) with them, plus I hadn't been made aware of the interest on top of interest. When this money is sorted I will also from then on be able to afford the weekly payments at the rate they're at now and should be able to pay off the arrears, but after the joy's of dealing with their representatives I don't actually think I want to be a customer of theirs any more. I'm in half a mind to actually just make them get court order for me to hand the goods back and do that, as by the time it comes through I'll have the money to buy second hand goods to replace them, but if I let them just take everything now I'm going to stuck up a certain creek without a paddle in regards to keeping food and doing laundry until that money comes through. But in reality, I can decide all that later, the thing I am most annoyed about was the guy knocking on my door trying to use bully boy tactics and threatening behaviour to get me to either pay up the arrears (if I had the money did he not think I would have paid already!) or to hand the goods over then and there. Other than the complaint that I have already sent in, is there anything else that can be done about this? Can I issue a notice to stop them from attending my property while I try to sort the rest of it out? He genuinely frightened me and the only reason I didn't call the police then and there was because my phone was not to hand.

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Just a word of warning for anyone who may be about to buy foreign currency with their debit card. Last year, I bought Euros at the Post Office using my cahoot debit card. The following day, I had a transaction decline and was suprised as I thought I had plenty of cash in the account. On checking the account, I worked out as well as seeing the Post Office transaction on my statement, there was an equal amount pending. I contacted cahoot who at first said it the Post Office's fault. The Post Office said it wasn't. I was then sent from pillar to post before it actually dawned on me that if I had only entered my PIN once, I have effectively only given permission once, so what was cahoot doing taking it twice and telling me that I had to wait until it dropped off. When I approached them with this fact, they went away and came back saying sometimes on currency transactions, the amount is duplicated to cover for currency fluctuations and this is what happened. They extended my overdraft to cover for the amount and I thought nothing of it. Until this week, when after buying currency last week again using my cahoot debit card, exactly the same thing happened. Except that it completely cleaned out our account when the systems updated on Saturday evening leaving us with no money over the weekend. To say I was spitting feathers is an understatement and a strongly worded email to them elicited an apology, a further extension of our overdraft and a further payment of £150 to say sorry. They gave exactly the same reasons as they did last year which would give me the impression last year wasn't a one off and that this is the norm. They have told me to double check my account the next time I do any transactions like this and if the same happens again, they will make the funds available so I am not out of pocket. I will be getting back to them to make sure that they don't charge me interest on the additional overdraft that I didn't ask for and will still write to the FOS as this seems bang out of order but thought I would flag this up to other CAGgers so that you don't find yourselves in the same situation as I did this week. I don't know if buying with a credit card gives you the same problems but buying currency with a credit card is effectively the same as taking cash out on it so you will probably be hammered with cash withdrawal charges as well as currency conversions. I suppose that this another way that the banks a making profits! Be warned!! Bel

My brother brought a television on a buy now, pay later deal and has nearly finished paying for his television. However, the credit for this television has come from Barclays bank and with the recent cases on loan rate fixing etc, he would like to know if he has been affected and if so, is there anything he can do. Many thanks