This is a longish post but bear with me as it involves consumer safety and the fact that a few Chinese companies are trying to sell goods in the UK whilst supplying fake plugs and fuses. I recently bought this item: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01NCMF1XJ/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 On looking at the 'kettle lead' that came with it, the Earth pin is partially insulated when it should be solid with no insulation. On checking the fuse, it is also fake. These fake fuses have no sand within to absorb the shock when the fuse blows. For example. http://tinyurl.com/j7oycpv What follows is my email exchange with the seller. ME: Their first response: Not quite the answer I was expecting so I replied with: I did contact Amazon expecting them to take action. All they did was to take the product away from their 'Fulfilled By Amazon' tag so as to distance themselves from sending out shoddy products. Anyway, it has been over a week since my last email to the seller so I was surprised to find this in my inbox today and these are their word in full. I just couldn't believe that any company could say the bit in red. Yes, sure, I will give it to someone else so that they have the problem of fake plugs and fuses instead of me. The saying, "You couldn't make this up." is so apt in this situation. As it happens, I have a spare kettle lead so it doesn't matter to me one iota.

A thought occcured to me after reading CAG thread, where there appears to be a 'penalty notice' for just about everything. Could CAG come up with their own 'penalty notice' template, where it could be sent to companies or government agencies, where people have suffered hassle, bad service or just stupidity. It would be slightly tongue in cheek, where a company is named and shamed for their bad customer service or the stupid way they have acted. There could be a different tempate for different consumer issues. We could have a league table of penalty notices issued against companies e.g NPower, BT, etc etc. Your thoughts ?

Hi all, Sorry if i have posted this in the wrong place. Things have been looking good over the last few months, i would check my credit score which was never great but was slowly improving and I have just checked and I have a CCJ on my credit score from united utilities! It says we owed them £700! we rented a house for a few months, i feel like the debt has been totalled by the next tenants that moved in and we have been left the bill. As I new nothing about this is there anything i can do to stop this and defend myself? thanks all for your help.

We bought our home approx. 11 years ago through the old Homebuy scheme through a housing association called Beth Johnson. we got given a 25 % loan which is repayable at any time in the future, and whether the house increases or decreases in value they have a 25% return upon sale . We still own the property but its legaly called a charge or something . We put a biggish deposit down ourseleves . The house is worth approx. £170k now and the mortgage is around £60k we are divorcing and I need to contact Beth Johnson to ask them legally if I can ever transfer this to another property and at least inform them that divorce is in progress and I may be the sole owner if the Halifax agree . Beth Johnson seem to no longer exist ! Every time I google it Sanctuary Housing comes up - so ive emailed them to ask who on earth has a charge over my property now .No reply . Im a little shocked that I never received any documentation to say Beth Johnson had transferred ownership or whatever happened to them,, and that I have absolutely no idea who now has a charge over my house ? Any advise would be very helpful ?

Well another thread.Looking around saw a few articles on this idea and thought i would pop the idea on the forum. On this fine,sunny,crispy Monday morning in Spring to start the week off. Seems to be gathering momentum worldwide.Or the idea of. A bit rushed,maybe not that clear but a start that is all,i will find more articles as time goes on. But have a look around and have your say on what you think. Some say if companies were to invest massively in new machinery,many of our jobs could vanish. Saying the price of employing cheap labour is far cheaper than the modernising of companies,factories and the rest. But this will surely happen as time marches on. Robots are poised to eliminate millions of jobs over the coming decades. We have to address the coming epidemic of "technological unemployment" if we're to avoid crippling levels of poverty and societal collapse. Here's how a guaranteed basic income will help — and why it's absolutely inevitable. Whether working or not you would receive a basic income. Now how much the benefit system costs in this country i do not know,but obviously most of this would vanish i would think. How Universal Basic Income Will Save Us From the Robot Uprising. http://io9.gizmodo.com/how-universal-basic-income-will-save-us-from-the-robot-1653303459 So as i look around this idea seems to be interesting many countries. Paying all UK citizens £155 a week may be an idea whose time has come Introducing a basic income guarantee would be costly, but it could be the answer to a lot of different problems http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/12037623/Paying-all-UK-citizens-155-a-week-may-be-an-idea-whose-time-has-come.html Canada plans to experiment with giving people unconditional free money http://uk.businessinsider.com/ontario-announces-basic-income-plan-2016-3 Finland Finland is considering a radical plan to give everybody free money http://www.techinsider.io/finlands-plan-to-give-everyone-free-money-2015-11 Switzerland Will Hold The World's First Universal Basic Income Referendum What if everyone got a guaranteed $2,500 check every month? How would society change? http://www.fastcoexist.com/3056339/switzerland-will-hold-the-worlds-first-universal-basic-income-referendum Have your say,i am sure many will, i hope.Anyone there,of course there is. Come on in and have your say.

Hi all I received a Court claim form from Northhants business center courts on the 5th November (dated 3rd). The claim is for £300.43 from a company called Creation Finance and is being handled by Lowell via Brian Carter solicitors. I have absolutely no idea what the debt is for and have never even heard of Creation Finance. I have always kept up to date with any payments from past credit cards loans, phones etc. I have also had a good credit rating, having phones, sofa, car etc in the past and never an issue with repayment so I'm completely in the dark about why they have been chasing me for this. I have had a string of letters from Lowell which, along with letters from debt collection agencies for previous owners/occupants, i have ignored. I probably should have contacted them but i thought that may lead to some sort of admission on my part. I have filed acknowledgement and my defense which states i have no knowledge of the debt (8th November) and received a response from the court saying the claimant has 28 days to respond. thanks to this forum i sent a CPR 31.14 request for the info relating to the claim and received this wordy response............. We confirm the claim form was issued by the county court business centre and that courts protocol was followed when issuing the claimants particulars of claim. Practice direction 7c point 1.4 (3A) eliminates the requirement to attach the documents to the PoC when they are issued by this court. We confirm that this matter will most probably be be allocated to the small claims track as this is a simple contractual matter and part 31 of the civil procedure rules will therefore not apply In any event the notices of default and assignment left the control of the claimant when they were dispatched to you. I never received any documents, just letters asking to repay a debt to Creation Finance It is the original creditors policy to issue agreements at the start of the contract and statements throughout the duration of the agreemen t and, in this regard, we ask you to refer to your own records.As I have no idea what the debt is, how can i refer to records? We confirm our client is not agreeable to an extension for filling your defense What does this mean?.......................... Would someone advise what i should do next, it seems to me they are basically saying i should have the info already. I''m guessing they have as much idea about the claim details as i do but are saying they are not obligated to give it to me anyhow. Many thanks in advance for any help Cheers Jim

Just putting this out there for now. On occasion, we get calls for help from people who have been given a ticket in an area where they are unlikely to visit again, such as holiday makers. We have members from all around the country who could visit these sites to photograph the signs. If any of you wish to volunteer, can you add the area you live in ( i.e. London, Suffolk, Essex) below then I could then make a new thread with all the info on one post. All we would need is Photo's of the main information sign(s) and the repeaters around the card park along with a rough estimate of how many signs there are. You could do this whilst shopping at the particular shopping centre or private car park. I am concentrating on private parking at the moment but there is also an option to include local authority penalties at a later date. Please have a think and if you can get involved, thank you Silverfox1961

I have requested that CapOne write off my debt due to age related issues and ever decreasing finances as I'm retired on basic pension and pension credit (which gave me an increase of less than 2% this year and DLA which increased by 95p per week). I've been paying this religiously since 2010, only decreasing the debt by relatively small amounts, but which is still a drain on my finances. They keep banging on about me providing evidence of my "ill health" (age related conditions) and how it affects me and whether I can go back to work. I have been trying to get it through to them that this is not just about my health but about the fact that my income is not increasing anything remotely like the outgoings that I cannot avoid paying, how I have to save to pay other people to do things for me as I get older (eg decorating) and that I am no longer working and will not be going back to work. They continued to ignore this and have only now had an explanation that they would "never" consider a write-off (even with a token payment) on the grounds of hardship and that they would look at setting up a repayment plan of £1 per month because "it's their money". Whilst I can obviously agree to that, I was hoping to be able to just get all this closed so I can let go of it all and move on for what remains of my life and not leave it to my son who has an ASD to have to deal with when I pop me clogs. (There is no money to pay a solicitor to act as executor). I also believe that if we did go the £1 per month route, they'd pass the debt to a DCA (which they did do before for a short time) and I'd then be suffering all the harassment all over again from such an organisation which I really cannot cope with any more as I am just not well enough any more. If I get a doctor's letter, that obviously will be another cost and yet again I had to point out to the rep (because of what she said) that the doctor's letter would not be about whether I was fit to return to work. banging head against the wall here! I pointed out that £12 per year, spread over 10 years which may well be the max that I last is not going to be as much as the offer I made to write it off, but that doesn't seem to have made any difference. They simply will not write a debt off unless I can show how my "illness" impacts my life and income. If I do get the doctor's letter, does anyone know what are my chances of getting the debt written off or do I face a higher risk that they'll just snigger behind their hands and tell me they still won't agree to it and that they are entitled to request continued payments?

Hi guys, Im hoping someone will be able to help me , 2 issues really, first one is he has no idea what its for and secondly its in the wrong name These are the details One of my friends has received a notice of issue of warrant of control with a total of £172.25 to pay with a further £230 balance outstanding , The notice was issued in in the county court business centre and the creditor is lowells Does that mean its a business debt they are chasing or a personal debt ? he has never had a business and doesnt have any personal debt that hes aware of The is genuinely the first he has heard of any debt, and he doesnt know of any ccj"s , However as well as those issues which he will now have to get to the bottom of, they have used his middle name instead of his first name on the warrant of control , which is very odd, cause surely if there was an old debt he has forgotton about , surely it would be in his original birth name as thats still his official name, He is known to his friends under his middle name as he prefers that name , but on all his official documents ie his passport.licence , bank account etc hes known as his birth name Hes really worried the bailiffs will call and take his belongings before he can get to the bottom of this He doesnt have funds to pay for a set aside, Does he have to fill in form N245 and apply for feee exemption or does he just call lowells and question what its all about and why the name is wrong etc Any help much appreciated

Hi, I was self employed but my business now makes very little with just a few hundred a month coming in. 9 months ago my wife and I sold our house (which had a joint mortgage) and bought a cheaper house in her name. We used the profit to pay off some debts but I'm still left with about £30k debt on credit cards and an unsecured loan. (which I haven't paid for about 7 months) After my wife has paid the mortgage she's left with about £600 a month for the other bills eg community charge, utilities etc so there's not much, if anything , left to pay my debts off. I'm 60 but hoping to develop a new business which may bring some money in. Also, my mother died last week and I'll receive a small inheritance of around £2000. Other than that I have no assets or car. I've included a more detailed breakdown below but any advice would be very welcome. 1 Is it really worth asking for the original credit card agreements? I've read elsewhere that they don't need to be original to recover the debts. Also, do I have to send letters to both Westcot and Barclaycard? 2. We no longer have any joint accounts. Will my wife be held responsible for my debt problems and do I have to declare her income if it goes to a ccj? 3 They've added late payment charges for the last 7 months or so. Can these be reclaimed and if so, how do I go about it? Lastly, I can't access the library though I registered a few years ago. Personal Barclaycard started in 2001 £1877 Barclaycard started in 1994 £12005 Barclaycard started in 1994 £9940 Opus started in 1996 £1067 Nationwide started in 2014 £1890 Aqua card started in 2014 £Zero Barclays overdraft £1300 Total £28k Business Barclaycard £4500 Unsure when it began as its not listed in Noddle Unsecured Business Loan Barclays £1200

Hi all, I hope you can help with situation that I find myself in within the last 48 hours and of course I can try and support with what I have learnt in recent days if it helps. Sorry for the long mail! I had a call from HCEO on Tuesday identifying himself and asking if I knew a particular person. He caught me on the back foot and I did not know the name. He proceeded by saying next steps would be taken, I had no idea what he was talking about, the name and what next steps meant even though I asked several times. I immediately googled the name and it is someone I recognize, a consultant who operated on me 7 years ago. I contacted her and spoke to the consultants secretary who outlined that since my operation fees have not been paid by Bupa. They had tried to get ahold of me a while after their invoices were rejected by Bupa but I had moved home and I have a different contact number. They proceeded with action and the company they instructed (Control Accounts) did the same, try and contact me by post and calls but obviously got the same response as the consultant. They then passed my debt through to the County Court who once again did the same and as of last July issued a CCJ against me. The case was then taken to the High Cour tand this brings me up to this week and the HCEO. I have contacted the consultants and explained and said I would call Bupa and understand what has happened. The consultants are actually sorry it has got this far but my issue is to contain and manage the HCEO right now. Bupa are not taking any responsibility and referred me to my old company TBH I can take it up with them after I contain the current process I face. I had a authorization number from Bupa, my procedure took place a month after I was made redundant from my old job at no stage was I notified my cover would stop as well as the consultants not being notified by Bupa. My policy was supposed to run from April - April but the company cut it in Dec. this has become a separate issue. I spoke with the HCEO and I have given them my new contact details inc address which they now have anyway. They said they would resend the letter of execution within the next couple of days and of course start the process from there. I am faced with a bill that was c£900 + to a bill which is now c£1800. Having read advice, spoke with National debt line and CAB hey have advised I seek a N244 or N245 as I do not have the cash to pay this. I have also spoken with the court that has the writ and they explained that the N244 form is what I need???? The CCJ is another matter and is with Salford court. I am a little confused having spoken to many people within the last 48 hours. I guess what I want to do is stop the Writ and therefore stop the HCEO action arriving at my door. Be given the chance to explain that the process has got so far down the line with me only being looped in now. Pay the money but outlay over instalments whilst I argue the case with Bupa and my old company. And finally take the CCJ off as this is something that I was unaware of until this week on this really concerns me as I will be taking steps to start a family and eventually have savings for a house!This will ruin it all! It is stressful and anybody that has been in a similar situation will know and hopefully be able to advice and help me manage and contain this matter. PS I am trying to work with the Consultants and I do understand their perspective so hence I shall pay for the operation but it is a lot of money to outlay in 1 hit. Thank you all

I was signed off JSA for taking my third period of sickness in a twelve month period at the start of December. I was advised to make a rapid reclaim which I did, had my appointment on December 12th. I rang on December 22nd to see if anything had happened with processing my reclaim only to be told by someone on the phone that my original claim had only been shut down in one way and she needed to close the other part. I agreed to this. I managed to get through Christmas and New Year on no money at all, was told no financial help for my fuel costs as I pay by direct debit and therefore will not be cut off if I do not pay. It made no difference that I owe my energy company £880 for previous bills and they have threatened me with pre-payment meters if I do not start to make regular payments. Also was told I did not qualify for any emergency payments or even food bank voucher. Today I recieved several letters, one from the council saying my Housing Benefit had been suspended, it seems this hadn't been done when they originally closed my claim and must have been done when the other part of my original claim was closed. I rang the council to be told I could not declare nil income as they had no idea what was going and they didn't know what dates I needed to declare from due to what I was told by the DWP regarding one of the letters I recieved from them. I also recieved 3 letters from the DWP, one was my P45. One was saying that they had stopped the deductions from my JSA to pay the council my council tax. The third is the one that confused me the most. It stated that they could pay me JSA from August 15th 2009 but on December 17th 2014 they would no longer be paying me JSA as I was either working more than 16 hours a week or I had asked them to stop my JSA. I had done neither thing. I rang the number on the letter and they could not understand what was going on, my original claim is closed and they have no record of a rapid reclaim. I was told I would have to make yet another rapid reclaim but no backdating would occur. I was also made aware that it could be March before any money is received as from January 1st any new claims will be under Universal Credit and not JSA. I was due to sign on tomorrow, an appointment made for me at my rapid reclaim, no idea if I should go just in case the people on the phone have made a mistake. Feel totally at a loss as to what to do. Can anyone give me any advice? Both the council and the DWP didn't seem to care and they expect me to know what to do and how to sort things out when I have no idea. Thanks in advance

I read this on the site linked at the bottom. "I thought I would put this on from today’s paper, for information, as I have not heard about it neither, and even after reading it I still don’t know how we will be able to renew our road tax. Paper tax discs will vanish from cars in less than six weeks-but half of drivers are unaware. The discs will be abolished from October 1st and replaced by electronic records. Police cameras will check number plates to catch owners who have not paid. However, a survey found that 50% of drivers are still in the dark about when the changes kick in. Nearly a third of them said they will not even try to find out what the new rules are, according to the poll by price comparison website money.co.uk. And 6% of motorists believe that the changes are not coming into force until next year. Almost a third of those polled said they will wait for instructions from the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency. But the comparison website claims that the DVLA has not yet started adding warnings to tax renewal reminders. The move away from paper discs, after 93 years, is designed to offer motorists more flexible payment options (you believe that you will believe anything, why don’t they give us the truth it’s to do with saving money and not for you only for them) and make it harder for people to drive untaxed. Estimates show that the changes could save the taxpayer £10 million a year. Car owners will still need to have paid vehicle tax to drive on the roads. But under the new system, the tax will no longer be automatically transferred with the car when it is sold. Sellers are expected to tell the DVLA straight away of the change of ownership or face £1.000 fines. (see money money money) Shane Teskey, from vehicle history check website hpicheck.com, said: ‘Those who fail to inform the DVLA, could be fined and they will still be liable for any speeding or parking fines and vehicle tax for a car they don’t even own anymore.’ Around 53% of drivers said they would use the new option of paying by direct debit, according to the survey. Those choosing to spread the cost by paying twice a year or monthly will incur a 5% additional charge. However this is half of the 10% surcharge currently applied to six-month tax discs, used by 23% of drivers. Motorists can also pay annually with no extra cost under the new system. Hannah Maundrell, editor in chief of money.co.uk, said: ‘Changes to the vehicle tax system are no bad thing and we fully welcome the introduction of direct debit payments, particularly for consumers who may be struggling to keep up with the soaring cost of driving. ‘It will also help to eliminate the problem of people who genuinely forget to renew their tax and end up being stung with a hefty fine. (load of rubbish) ‘However, I suspect the new system may experience some teething troubles (they hope more money) so drivers really need to make sure they’re on top of their game.’ The death of the tax disc has been well documented, (really!) and the change was officially announced in last year’s Autumn Statement. Automatic number plate recognition cameras will spot motorists who have not paid the tax. (but I thought these cameras could spot out of date discs any way). More than 1.7 billion tax discs have been issued since 1921. Last year, the DVLA issued 42.2 million of them. Link

ok kids have got a 12ft pool, its about 6,000 ltrs it takes a LONG time to heat (outside tap is on hotwater system) ive had a madcap idea that im going to try and build over the week and im looking for views/advice/derisment the current idea is - i have an old unused bbq that i ussually burn old paperwork in. i have several old lengths of hose, and can get hold of some copper piping the current idea is length of hose over side of pool, going to a drill pump (attached to smallish 6v or 3.7v motor), another length of hose going into about 1.5m of copper tubing, this copper tubing will be coiled inside of the closed lid of the old bbq, this then feeds out converting to another length of hose connected to the water inlet valve on the pool the idea is that the water will be drawn out of 1 tube, fed through the piping inside the hot bbq, then fed back in through the standered inlet so as to heat that bit faster namely seen as the pool heater advertised as ok for this pool is 4kw and would eat electric and i have several old bags of charcoal/coal hanging around to use up the current idea for joining hosepipe to copper pipe is - 12mm copper pipe, 12mm internal diamiter of hosepipe, smear copper pipe in rubber solution and insert into hosepipe and pray a seal is made any improvements on this idea would be welcome idea 2 is the same as idea one but with a copper pipe going around the outside of the pool with several holes drilled in to let hot water into several areas idea 3 is a small airfan on the base of the bbq to feed air in and get closed bbq alot hotter again help guidance or simply pure fear would help

might be worth contacting some of the usual outlets that im sure read these we seem to be having more and more complaints about how complaints, or late payments are handled would it be worth getting a small sample group of people around the country who would be willing to - take out an agreement while wearing recording equipment &/or cameras - report a failure of said equipment (these can be arranged) - record all issues with repair again with correct equipment - possibly deliberatly default on payments - record all harrasing calls and visits on camera might be possible for a bbc3/pana/firecracker production as a one off a bit like the payday loan company one

My husband is getting regular calls to his mobile from 0845 576 0491. They're leaving blank messages. We've called it back and the message is 'you were called by the contact centre. We may or may not call you back'. Any ideas who it might be? Googling has come to naught. Thanks in advance!

Overview House Bought: September 2010 Price: £116,500 Deposit: 15% Mortgage: 2 Year Santander Variable 4.74% 35 years. Further Details: For the last 12 months I have over paid £250 a month which has taken the term down to 15 years and 3 months. The mortgage is in my name and I have no other debt. So my mortgage is now due for renewal and being brutally honest I don't really know where to start. Santander have put me on to a standard variable rate which is 4.24%, they have told me that this would be a rolling contract. I had a mortgage advisor when I originally took the mortgage out but I'm not going to be using him again as he shafted me with some fees. Should I try another? Ideally I'd like a similar deal to what I have with Santander, fairly low repayments with the option of over paying. Would people agree that is the best option? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Edd

il try to keep this simple, iv got loads of creditors, but iv no idea what to do, or how to prioritise them. heres a list, could people please give advice on what i should give priority to, and which i can get discounts on? defaults: quickquid £425 natwest £434 natwest £1224 orange £20 lowell £273 lowell £161 t-mobile £356 halifax £231 late payments; quickbridge £550 microcredit £799 active securities £421 speed e loans £562 not on my credit file, but overdue; ferratum £122 txtloan £218 cash genie £352 wage day advance £300+ thanks in advance