I am contractually employed for 25 hours per week. For the past 3 years I have been an acting manager. This means that I regularly find that i am being asked to 'Act Up', work as a manager instead of doing my contracted role. On the weeks that I am managing, I have an increased wage both due to level of responsibility, and also number of hours. I've recently been informed that on the weeks that i have been managing, i have been overpaid, and I now owe nearly £5000 which they are taking from my wages. Had I known that I was being overpaid, I would have contacted them, however I do not see how I was expected to know. Moving from part time to full time, and also working at a higher level, I would have expected a significant increase in my weekly wage. I could not have known how much this difference would be as they never informed me what the new rate would be. I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts on what, if any, rights i have to argue my case. A friend has suggested the Estoppel law but i'm struggling to understand how this would apply. Any help/advice would be appreciated.

Hi, Looking for some advice on a gym membership that i didn't sign up for. CRS are claiming i owe them £250 for various fees and missed payments for a 12 month gym contract with Xercise 4 Less that i never signed up for. First letter i got from them was on 16 July, i responded to this by email stating that i never signed up for any membership and have never even been into the gym. They then called me on the 1st August asking me to send a copy of some ID to them, I sent them a copy of my driving license, only after i did this did i wonder why they wanted it. They then got back to me again on the 6th August stating that as all the details on the contract were correct that the contract must be valid and that i have 10 days to pay. I asked them to send me a copy of a signed contract, knowing there isnt one, a nd they have now sent what looks like a webform with my details which i received today. I have not paid a penny to anyone regarding this contract and have never set foot anywhere near this gym, the only contact i have ever had is regarding missed payments. They had set up a direct debit which i promptly cancelled before any payment was taken as I had no idea who Harlands were. Hope someone can give some advice as im not sure what to do next? Thanks

Hi all, On the BBC this AM: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22687648

Hi all! I hope somebody can give me advice to this nightmare that Orange have put me... My 24 month contract was supposed to end in October 2012 and i have given them the 30 day notice they required. When i rang to say that i didn't want to renew after october, they offered me a PAYG sim card instead which i accepted and promised to send it asap as my old sim would now be invalid. I received the cancellation letter in november and they told me that they will be debiting my last payment on november. However, the payg sim didn't arrived as promised so i rang them again and they said it must have been lost in post so they're sending another one which will take 21 days to arrive! (by this time, i was without a phone now from mid october until december). In january, i decided i couldn't wait any longer and went to get another phone with another provider. Everything was fine until on 19/2/13, somebody rang me from orange saying that i have an outstanding balance with them worth £84.34!!! I asked how this bill came about and they told me that because i didn't register the payg sim, they were still charging me my monthly bill! I told them that the sim card never arrived up to this day and said that i have spoken to a few reps about cancelling my account and NOT ONE OF THEM MENTIONED THAT I WILL STILL BE CHARGED MONTHLY UNTIL I ACTIVATE THE PAYG SIM CARD! I think they have intentionally withheld this info from me! I am really angry with the way they are treating me because i felt cheated. If only their reps have informed me about this "policy", i never would have agreed to accept the sim. They then "cancelled" my account last tuesday after i rang them to complain. I've sent a letter to the email address that the rep has given me and lo and behold, it was an invalid email address! I managed to send a letter to them through facebook which they have replied to but have completely ignored all the points i've made on the complaint letter and was still insisting that i pay the bill although clearly, it was their fault why i have that bill in the first place. I plan to file a case with CISAS if i don't get any joy from them. Sorry for the long thread but it's just frustrating and i'm also thinking about my credit file which i think, by now is ruined! Are there other people who've experienced this with orange? Is there anything more i have to do to escalate this complaint? Any advice will be highly appreciated! Thanks!

Hi this morning I received a letter from Blackhorse thanking me for my request for a settlement figure, it then goes on setting out how much I owe and how much I pay every month etc. At the end of the letter it says "A copy of this letter has been sent to :fao:Kevin Dudley, cathedral motor company ltd." I never asked for a settlement figure, I have also never heard of Kevin Dudley or Cathedral motors!! I am absolutely horrified that some stranger has now got my account details and my address!! What can I do? Should I ring Blackhorse or write to them? Im really worried about this. Thanks.

I was under the impression that we had a referendum which rejected the Alternative Voting system? Why was it used to elect the police commissioners or have I missed something? The good thing is that Prescott never got elected as a police commissioner, but IMHO the AV system is not very democratic. What is your take on this?

Hello All! I really wish if I wouldn't need to keep coming back here because of rogue landlords!!! So the brief story is, I am due to move out from my current place and found this nice, clean, new room in a house only 2 streets away, so hiring a man&van won't break the bank but the room is quite pricey for the area - was in hope to get quality for my money. Everything was nice, clean and fresh smelling when I viewed the room and property last weekend. I was shown around by the tenant who has the cat but she didn't say a thing of course and as I didn't see obvious signs (nor smells) of a pet, I didn't ask if there were any pets as in my experience people always tell about this sort of thing upfront. I signed contract this Wed 19th of Sept 2012 and paid 1 month's rent upfront and 1 month's rent worth of deposit and got keys handed to me. Says in my contract that besides of other rules, I am not allowed to keep pets so it gave me the impression the same rule applies to everyone else in the same property. I went round there tonight just to check how my stuff gonna fit in the new room as I am due to move in tomorrow or the latest on the day after. Only now I found out about a cat being kept in the house! The cat belongs to a mum and daughter (daughter is about 18-20) who rent another room upstairs. Just now when I was there, the cat was in my new room, having a nap on the double bed but the 2-seater sofa in the room was also covered in cat fur, and there was this reeking stink of ('scuse the language), cat p*ss as it's a male cat and as we all know, they 'mark' their territory around - in this case in my new room!!! Do I just have to put up with this now??? I am not allergic to cats but the landlord didn't know that before I paid for the room so I might as well could be. I am also outraged by how stinky my new room is now! I'm afraid this smell will remain and airing the room or using air freshener not gonna be much help as the smell gone into all the furniture. I feel depressed and ripped off..... The other problem is that my job is to work for a family looking after their kids where one of the parents is actually allergic to cats. Now I'm also worried, that just by living under the same roof with a cat, it will leave enough traces on my clothes, hands, handbags, etc to be enough to trigger the allergic reaction, which would very likely upset the parents when they realize it's me. Can anyone advise what is the best thing to do now and if I have any legal rights to resolve this? I feel like I should be getting a discount on the rent at the least! I will be moving out from there ASAP as the smell is churning my stomach, feeling sick already having to move in there! Thanks for any help!