We purchased a 2005 Jeep Grand Cherokee 3.0L auto with 60K on clock last Wednesday from a dealer. We drove it 60 miles home with no issue and everything worked okay. On checking it out, we noticed that the locking wheel nuts which are standard on the vehicle had been replaced with normal wheel nuts. IMHO the vehicle as no longer standard and had been modified. We contacted the dealer and they said they would get back to us, but never did so we contacted them again. It was agreed that we would purchased the locking wheel nuts and they would reimburse us. On Thursday we went out in and at one point we started to over take a slower moving vehicle and accelerated expecting the car to kick down and take off like a rocket, but nothing happened despite depressing the pedal to the floor. I have had many autos and have another auto so I am familair with how they work. We had to brake and pull back in behind the vehicle we were going to overtake. I assumed that perhaps as the vehicle was new to us, I may have done something like using the cruise control and setting the speed of a maximum. On stopping, switching off and setting off again, kick down worked perfectly. Unfortunately the following day we had a similar incident. Gearbox functions okay and will change if you are going up a hill, but obviously at the wrong time. Today went out in the vehicle and no kick down whatsoever no matter what I tried. I phoned the dealer at about 10am and informed them of the problem and they told me the workshop would phone me back. Eventually I had to phone at about 2pm to chase them and about 10 minutes later the workshop phoned. I told them of the problem and they said they would need to discuss it with the director of the second hand car dealership. Dealership and service centre are one and the same organisation. Still waiting for them to contact us back, but I guess it is still a bit early to phone back. Otherwise vehicle appears to be okay. Dealer seems to be reluctant to do anything and we are the ones always initiating phone calls. As the vehicle is on HP, what sort of pressure can I put on the finance company which is Close Motor Finance to get the problem sorted if the dealer continues to drag their heels? Thanks.

This is complex: I have a house that was vacant for a few years, and then rented out for a few more. A family member handled the letting, as I was over 500 miles away for work purposes. During the vacant and letting periods, it seems that an electricity meter reading was *never* taken. When I resumed control of the house this summer, I submitted a meter reading -- I was told that this was the first reading in 6 years, and the bill of £13,000 would be payable by me. I rechecked the meter the following week, and found that the meter was running backwards! The electricity company came out, confirmed the fault and changed the meter for a new one. They say that adjusting for the meter fault, they estimate that I am liable for a bill of approx £9,000 Here are my issues with this: - Why should I have to pay any bill for the period when a family member had let out the house to tenants? Should the bill not be sent to the tenants (or the other family member who was acting as a landlord?) - I did propose that they allocate the bills more fairly, and they told me that if they did so, then the bill would have to be split evenly over the occupied and vacant periods. Can this be right? It should be obvious to anyone that a vacant house consumes less power than an occupied one. - How can they (or I) know *when* the meter started running backwards, and whether it was running at the same rate for the entire time? Is a meter even capable of giving a consistent/reliable reading when running backwards?

Hello all, I have been a long time 'lurker', but have now decided to ask for some advice. My wife has a VW Polo 1.2e 2007 , 60ps, BBM engine. The car has done 54K miles. Was bought from a franchised dealer with 18K miles. All servicing was done by VW main dealer. To its credit the car runs smoothly. On cold mornings it may need the ignition to be turned twice to get it going. The only thing I have noticed it tends to suffer rev hang occasionally changing gears; I accused my wife of not releasing the throttle and had to apologise when I realised that its a feature of DWB. The main problem is after its last MOT, which was passed, it underwent a brake fluid change(performed by VW) and 2 days later it threw the EML. No rough idle or throttle lag. VW looked at it, noted it was running rich, reset the EML, low and behold 6 hours after that it threw the light again. VW have performed a full Diagnostic test now. They have assured me that included a full compression test. The identified an intermittent misfire due to a cam position sensor fault. Timing chain and tensioners are functioning as normal. For the privelige of replacing the cam position sender, new valve and software update we did not get any change from £250. But I figured if it solved the problem it was worth it. 50 klicks down the road the EML is on again. VW are due to look at it again. What I'd like to know is if they identify a "different" problem will I be able to offset what we have already pain against the cost? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

newby, can someone advise please, purchased a bosch advantix dishwasher from dixons on april 1st worked fine then in august door catch wont secure door you can feel and hear that it is not locked comes open slightley and stops mc organized visit from engineer mc repaired on aug 13 new door catch fitted, then same fault again, repaired on aug 25 new door catch fitted, now september 18 and its gone again what should i do from here:|

Hi Everyone My partner had an accident whilst at work 14 months ago and now she as been told she is all but retired, this will mean she will lose out on 11 years earnings amounting to around £550,000 gross. without any increments or promotions added. This would be in addition to her other injuries. She as also lost 20 years of memory and the family problems that's created.for her. She suffers constant pain in her head and neck. We approached our Household Insurers who agreed for our local solicitor to act on our behalf and the other sides insurers have accepted liability. She attended an assesment by a consultant some 6 weeks ago, but our solicitor has not received the report and seems reluctant to chase the consultant for it, so we are no closer to actually establishing a claim. Is there anything we can do to get this claim completed sooner rather than later and try to get our lives back to some form of normality, living on benifits is very hard and our arrears with the mortgage and utility companies are growing. I have trying to sell my specialist equipment and tools used in my trade to help pay the household bills, can this be reclaimed from the othersides insurers? I feel if we went to specialist accident solicitors now, we would be landed with a big bill from our current solicitor, isthis correct? Any help and advise would be much appreciated. Thank you

Hi there I'm new to this, would really appreciate advice. I was in a minor accident yesterday, never been in one before. I rang my insurance company and reported it, they said due to circumstances it was likely the other party would accept liability and tried to refer me to a non fault accident specialist to arrange to pick up my car and supply me with an equivalent hire car. I wasn't sure what to do so said no at that point. An hour later I had a call from the other insurance company saying their party admitted liability and they then got really pushy asking me details about the accident and also trying to get me to book my car in with their repairers. I felt I was being bullied into something so asked them to phone the next day. I rang my insurers and told them I had had contact from the other party's insurers. They said they did not know the other party had admitted liability and said it was just up to me to choose what I did next. I'm really not sure if I should get this sorted through my own insurance and that means going through this non fault accident specialist (who I've heard terrible things about) or through the at fault party's insurer. I'm worried the at fault party insurer will just do a really bad job. I'm also worried if I go with my insurer I'll get stung for extra fees related to car hire and the process will get dragged out which seems to have happened to lots of people who have had to deal through this particular non fault accident specialist. Please help. I'm an intelligent person but seem to get brain freeze when confronted with car related issues! Thanks

Around a month ago I was sitting in my parked Audi tt quattro...I was then hit by a driver who came across 2 lanes of traffic and ploughed into the front of me Fast forward to today..Ive just been given what i can only describe as a very poor offer by Hastings. I told them i wasnt happy with their offer...their response was to cancel my courtesy car and issue a cheque for the amount i rejected. After phoning them i was told to send in 3 examples of similar spec car for the car to be revalued...i sent in 5 examples from each of the top car selling sites (ebay autotrader gumtree etc)...all examples were the cheapest in the whole of the uk for each site and all more than double the the offer i was given. I was then contacted by somebody from Hastings informing me that the car i own was a cat D in 2005 so the poor offer has now been reduced further. so through no fault of my own ive been left in real financial difficulty.Ive also been left semi stranded due to the courtesy car being withdrawn. I have been recording all my call from Hastings Direct and i have hours of constant lies now saved away. This was all done without my car being properly inspected. The so called engineer who wrote my car off didnt have access to the car and only did a look from the outside.didnt open the bonnet or doors,didnt check the mileage( so classed it as average mileage even though its way under average) but yet still came to the amazing repair bill of nearly 5000 pounds...even though 2 local mechanics have laughed this valuation off. i shall be contacting my lawyer to pursue this matter further as im far from happy. Any advice in the meantime would be appreciated

Hi i'm new to the forum so not exactly sure how it all works but I hope someone can help me with this one..... Basically I have been issued a default on my credit file by Vodafone through no fault of my own, after speaking to them they don't seem to be offering any help either. Basically I have just arrived back in the country after a 2.5 month trip abroad. prior to leaving I rang up Vodafone and requested to freeze/ suspend the account for 3 months I requested that Vodafone add 3 extra months onto the tail end of the 24 mnth contract in order to fulfill my 24 month contractual agreement. I was given a ref for the call and also confirmed on the call 3 times that; I understood the agreement meant i would not pay anything for 3 months. That I would not have use of the phone. Upon my return I would simply call Vodafone and reinstate DD to resume contract as normal. I did not have to make any payments prior to leaving. The following day my contract was suspended and my calls were blocked as expected. However, after my return to the UK I rang up Vodafone to again set up the DD and resume the contract. At which point I was told; I Had to make a substantial payment due to an accrued amount of outstanding payments My contract has been cancelled Worst of all my a DEFAULT has been registered on my credit file. ie... credit has been irreparably damaged (I have spent 4 painstaking years bending over backwards to keep it in check, running my own business and a family, the negative repercussions are countless.) After hearing this i gave the reference from the original call made to Voda, explained the situation and asked to be put through to someone with greater authority to resolve the issue.... I was put through to... COLLECTIONS!!! to make the payment I asked what could be done as was told that as all departments are separate from each other there was nothing any individual in any one department could do to resolve the matter.. however the Vodafone collections agent did apologize for the error of her colleague adding it must be frustrating to deal with such consequences due to misinformation and showed adequate empathy.....while simultaneously telling me to like it or lump it. Having rang up to reinstate a direct debit and discuss options on how to go about replacing a damaged phone,, to say I was majorly p!$$%) is an understatement. Having just returned from a lengthy stay abroad I really hope there is something that can be done. I'm not even sure whether to pay off the arrears until it is all resolved. any advice would be greatly appreciated. I have 3 young children and am trying to run a family home and business.. For me my credit rating is of paramount importance to me, as it is to anyone I suppose. What i need to know is how can i get my DEFAULT TOTALLY REMOVED by Vodafone, i know they can put a note on the credit file saying debt satisfied but this doesn't cut it with lenders...I know!! I understand that there are some people from Vodafone who actively read these forums, any suggestions. I essentially would like to resume a normal contractual relationship with Vodafone, but can not do so until this is all resolved.

Hi guys, i hope someone can help me, i was involved in an RTA and need some advice on how to proceed with my claim. I was travelling down the motorway in the middle lane, i had just passes a truck in the nearside lane when the traffic stated to slow in all 3 lanes. I maintained a safe distance between me and the car in front and slowed accordingly, as i did this the truck i had just passed came up the inside of me as he slowed down also, we travelled a few hundred yards with his cab level to my car, the then pulled across into the side of me, hitting my front nearside door, span me around across middle, nearside and hard shoulder ending in me hitting the Armco on the hard shoulder. He was a Polish trucker driving a Polish truck, so was sat on the left. No witnesses stopped, even though there must have been at least 20! The truck driver said nothing to me, not one word. Police arrived, took his details and gave them to me, breathalysed me (negative) and basically said that's all, call your insurance. So insurer called, claim made against him, im now being told they are not accepting liability. With no witnesses, no CCTV (i have contacted Highways agency) where do i stand? I have never made a claim in my life, i have a totally clean licence and now all of a sudden it looks like i will loose my NCB and have my premiums hiked, not to mention a hefty excess to pay. Please can someone offer some advice, i really don't know what to do.

I'd be grateful for a suggestion as the best route to pursue to solve a problem with my Mac laptop. It was supplied by my Home Contents insurer's designated supplier under a new for old policy, a company called Bevalued, as a replacement for a previously damaged laptop. It is a particular 2007 model that Apple have acknowledged was fitted with faulty logic boards/graphics cards, and they've been offering for a number of years a free fix/replacement for this part on machines less than four years old. I wasn't aware of this until the machine died because of this faulty logic board (now confirmed by Apple as being the problem), and my machine is now older than four years. So, it's beyond the scope of the recall programme as offered, and for this reason, Apple refuse liability and the obligation to repair it free. They pointed me instead in the direction of the retailer because they claimed - I assume under the Sale of Goods act (?) - that I might be able to exercise my rights in relation to faulty goods for up to six years after purchase. Having contacted the insurance company and been passed to Bevalued in turn, Bevalued refute that the SoGA applies to a situation in which they have supplied but not sold the machine to me. (Though technically, they presumably supplied - and perhaps even sold? - it to my insurance company?). My question is then: at which company would my efforts best be directed under these circumstances to get some resolution? Many thanks Rob

bit of a strange one this, had a non fault accident in 2009, claimed on insurance, recovered all costs claim closed. re insured with a new insurer the following year , no problems. insured with the rac this year, notified them about the non fault claim and took out insurance. a week later and i received a letter stating they have got more info on the 2009 claim and they are increasing the premium as the accident was my fault! luckily i still had a letter from my insurer in 2009 stating they recovered all costs so i have written to the rac and included a copy of the letter and am still awaiting a reply. i am a little concerned as to where the rac got their wrong information from, and also if they don't alter stance on the accident being my fault what can i do?

I took out a £200 loan and after four weeks I would need to pay £272. I decided to roll over for another two weeks at £36 which brought my balance down to £236. I rang them up two days before the due date because I was considering rolling it over again and here is an overview of the convo: Me: I would like to pay another £36 and pay £236 in two weeks - like I did two weeks ago. Them: No your final balance will be £272 plus the £36 you want to pay now. A mistake has obviously been made so you now need to pay the proper amount (£272) Me: Well it ain't my fault someone in your office made a mistake. I have it in writing from you what I owe (£236) and you are now penalizing me. It's not as if I rang up knowingly that a mistake might have been made - you have only informed me. I will not be paying the extra due to your mistake. Them: You have to pay as agreed in the terms and conditions otherwise you are stealing from us! Me: Are you accusing me of fraud - it ain't my fault and it wouldn't stand up in court!! What if I hadn't of rang up today? Them: Well you probably would have got away with it. Look, I will let you pay the £236 to close the loan but you will no longer be able to use our service again. Me: But it ain't my fault and that's a bad business model whereby again you are penalizing a valued customer because of a mistake someone in the company made. And you're now admitting that there's a potential flaw in the system/company to a customer because if I did that in my work place I'd get fired. Also these calls are recorded aren't they so your boss can hear you slandering the company. This shut them up and they terminated the phone call. I had taken their name and called back later and asked to speak to someone in charge to make a complaint about them. I spoke to a very helpful person who was apologetic about what happened and said they would listen back to the calls. I said about being accused of wanting to steal, how the employee had spoke about the company and their general aggressiveness. The supervisor agreed that I shouldn't have to pay more and it was at their own fault so agreed to keep my balance at originally agreed amount. I got the sense that they believed what I was saying about this person and their customer service manner. Also why don't they have a contactable email address because my mobile bill has shot up thanks to all this hassle that lasted about half an hour. I know what some will say... never ring a PDL company!

Hello, Just after a small bit of advice before I need to contact Panasonic if this is the case. I recently emailed the retailer / online store that I purchased a 3DTV (42VT30) from in January of this year for £1,024. I've contacted them by email of a fault I believe has just delevoped but they are telling me to contact Panasonic and get a Panasonic Service Centre to look after me and take a look at the fault it seems, but I believe that this could cost me even though the Television is still under warranty. Here is the following coversation with this Company with regards to the fault I've found, in my first contact I made a mistake on the date of purchase but later told them the correct date, anyway here it is. And their response to me was To which I replied to them with And their most recent reply, which has caused me to create this thread asking for advice was

Hi, I was hit my another driver on the 29th of may whilst driving into my local town. I was in the right hand lane of a dual-carriage flyover (a 2 lane part of the A46 which crosses a bridge in between 2 roundabouts). I was minding my own business when a lady drove straight into the side of me - she had decided she wanted to come into the right hand lane, and rather than signal and look, she just moved across and hit me as I was side by side with her. She admitted liability - both to me in person, and also to her insurance company whilst on the phone to them in my presence (I was literally within 2 feet of her). So, since she drove into me, and admitted fault, I believed this was a done deal. Since then, my OWN insurance company have said that I will most likely be told to pay my excess as the blame will be split 50/50. I argued this on the phone with them, and I wanted to know how was I in any way to blame. They told me that because this woman left her lane and drove into mine when we were side by side, this is automatically a disputed claim and the insurance company would decide who to blame, and that it would most likely be both of us. Obviously, I am absolutely furious about this. I don't understand how my insurance co (RAC/ u.w AVIVA) can speak with her insurance co and decide that it is 50/50 when this lady has driven over into my lane and smashed up my car. I have sent evidence of the damage to both vehicles which backs up what happened (its obvious to anyone who sees the photos of my damage and the area on her car which did the damage). I also had a passenger who I don't reallly know too well, they have spoken with him and he also confirms what happened. Even the lady who hit me confirmed my version of events. I don't know why I should pay out £500 excess that I cannot claim back, and also lose my 7 years no claims when I was innocent in this accident and was driven into by another person. The insurance companies seem to have already made up their minds on this one, the 3rd party has contacted me and confirmed her insurance co are also saying it is 50/50, but it truly wasn't. PLEASE HELP! I don't know how to fight this. So I need help! Thanks. Scott.

Hi all, This is my first post on here, but I’d really like to use this as another step in a life-changing day. My story is no different to many others on here, I’m sure, but I’d like to go a stage further and admit that the problems I find myself in are self-inflicted and stem from a gambling addiction that I have let creep back in to my life after many years of abstinence. So, I’ll understand if you choose not to offer help and advice, but equally, I’d ask that you don’t respond with insults, as I can assure you I have enough self-recrimination to cover everybody. In a nutshell, I’ve fallen horribly into the pay day loan spiral, to the tune of about 5 grand, after constantly rolling over 7 different loans for many months. After realising that I couldn’t even cover the interest payments this month, I began scouring these forums for help and advice and came across the conversations about Continuous Payment Authority and the possibility of getting the bank to stop these payments, whilst I considered how to go about creating repayment plans and getting out of this hole. So, I set off to my local bank this morning and sat down with a lovely girl who had never even heard of CPA and suggested that it was unlikely they could do anything for me. I was considering going down the ‘legal’ route and creating a fuss, but instead I was invited into the manageress’s office and we sat down and began talking. After looking through some of my online transactions, it quickly became clear that the cause of my problems was my gambling habit, but rather than chastising me, we talked for 30 minutes openly and frankly and I have to say the advice she gave me was above and beyond the call of duty. Our final word was to make an appointment for August 1st when we will review my account, under the proviso that there are NO gambling transactions on there. And so, to the problem in hand. Pay day tomorrow and the vultures will be after their money. The trouble is, there won’t be any, as my wages will be going elsewhere. So, presumably I will default on all of them and the horror of the phone calls, texts and e-mails will begin. I’ve made my bed, so now I’ll have to lie in it, but the advice I am really looking for is: 1) Once I have defaulted, should I use PayPlan to try and sort out the mess? 2) Should I contact everyone myself? 3) The wages going elsewhere is just a temporary fix. I CANNOT get another bank account, but obviously if I have any money in my account it will be swallowed instantly. Does anybody know of any alternatives? Think Bank? I have a genuine desire to sort my life out and get back on track and will be returning to the GA group I went to for years again next week. I also genuinely want to repay what I owe, but will be massively grateful for any help I could get from you guys. Thanks for reading

I need advice on car incident, its a bit of a grey area as to who is at fault. I was stationery in a car park and opening the car door to get out when a car nipped in to park beside me right at that moment.The other driver pulled in very quickly, when i had started to open the door it was safe to do so. It ended up with my car door denting the very corner of the other car's door right at the hinge, my car door was also dented at the edge. Lucky in a way, if I had of opened my door a second earlier my car door would have been off. The other owner now expects me to pay in full for their car to be fixed, and whilst it's not into the thousands I'm not sure if I'm at fault whilst the other owner accepts no responsibility. There is damage to both cars, so is it fair I should be out costs of fixing both? Surely the driver has to have due care pulling into a car space too? It's all very unfortunate, but I'd rather not get the insurance involved if I can help it. I have offered to pay half the costs of her car as I will have to pay for mine which I think is more than fair but they want me to pay it in full. Any advice on this would be appreciated.

Hi all I would welcome some advice on this please. In September, I upgraded my phone with T Mobile and entered into another 18 month contract. Had a nightmare with the first handset that 2 T Mobile stores were not interested in despite quoting the usual sale of goods act etc. and me taking the handset back on the 10th day after having received it. Eventually, Customer Services on 150 relented and replaced it as a swap out the next day. I got round to reading the manual last weekend to see what exciting things I was missing out on and I decided to download some new screensavers to make the phone a bit more "funky." I then discovered that despite changing all the settings that the screensaver would never activate. The phone display switches over to power save mode, i.e. goes blank instead of displaying the screensaver. I undertook some research into the issue on both T-Mobile's user forums and Nokia's own support discussion forums and it turns out that this is a known software bug in the N79 handset. It also appears that the manufacturer knows about it but has failed to fix it in subsequent firmware releases. It is also unlikely that Nokia will now release any further firmware for the handset as technically, or rather in the technical world, it is now quite an "outdated model." I have emailed T Mobile Customer Relations about this and they have contacted me to say that if the manufacturer is not going to fix it there is nothing that can be done. I however am not happy with this. Surely the goods are not functioning "as described," i.e. the manual states that you can change the screensaver and although you can, the end result is that it doesn't work. I know that a non-functioning screensaver is not a life or death situation i.e. the phone makes calls, sends texts, browses the web but am I the only consumer that is getting a bit sick and tired of companies that earn millions of pounds from their customers getting away with everything? At the end of the day, my contract is subsidising the cost of the handset in a large capacity. If I had purchased this phone directly, it would have cost me a few hundred pounds at least. The crux of it is that I used Nokia phones for years previously and every handset I have had has always had "some problem" of one thing or another. Back around 2003, I had Orange replace 15 handsets, one after the other and each one exhibited the same problem as the last. It was a nightmare. I thought that 6 or so years later, with the advancement in technology that Nokia may have improved it's standards and the first phone I pick up in this 7 year period manufactured by them exhibits yet another fault. I have contacted Nokia, although I am under the impression that it is not down to them to sort the problem out and they have suggested that I send the phone "for repair," which judging by other users on their support forums, does not resolve the problem anyway and just leaves you without a phone for 2 weeks. I was wondering if I could glean some opinions please ? Am I right that the phone is not "functioning as described" and therefore breaches the sale goods act ? Thanks very much J