http://www.oft.gov.uk/news-and-updates/press/2012/110-12

I have received verypoor service from both the branch manager and assistant manager at the Woolwichbranch. The branch manager hasnot responded to my letters which I wrote to him in January and February thisyear - is this normal for Natwest? I visited the branchon the 27th February 2012 for the third time and spent over 1 hourtrying to get the assistant manager, Natalie beckford, the pension adviser anda customer service member of staff to request the pension documentation. Thepension was sold by natwest. They were either not trained to work in a bank orplaying dumb. In either case this was not helpful for me as i took time offwork. I then asked to speakto the branch manager, chris Holman, he was not interested in trying to help.He told the customer advisor that he was the only staff on the tills, so I checkedmyself and there were others with him. I am really disappointed that the branchmanager lied about being the only person on the tills and that he wasnot able to talk tomes, especially after requesting to speak with him on a fewoccasions. He was not even able to give us an appointment to speak with him.There were 3 female members of staff on the tills. He was just standing there. If a manager isnot going to do his job then there is no need to have one at this branch. Chris holman made no attemptsto contact me after I left. I have complained toNatwest and requested an apology letter from both chris Holman and Natalie beckford– chris wrote a letter full of excuses. I replied to chris requesting a simpleletter of apology and him expecting his mistakes – no response has beenreceived. Natalie beckford hasmade no attempt to apologise. The complaints teamhave also closed the case even though I have not received apologies. What can I do?

I contracted with Vodafone in August 2011 for mobile phone services for a period of 12 months. In late March 2012 I wrote to Vodafone cancelling my contract as I would be required to move overseas in June. I requested a final invoice so that I could settle the account, fully understanding that I would be paying off the remaining months on the contract. I got no reply from Vodafone despite efforts to clarify the situation, and duly traveled in June for a period of six weeks. On my return, despite not having made any phone calls I received a bill from Vodafone including a whole host of roaming charges for internet usage. I am disputing these charges as I cancelled my contract because I wanted to avoid incurring such charges, but Vodafone simply ignored my instructions. On my return I have tried to resolve the matter by talking to persons in store, emailing various departments, sending complaints, phoning them and writing more letters. Over the past three months I have not been able to get a response from a single individual! Instead Vodafone simply passed my account to the collections department, who I wrote to inform that the amount was in dispute, and they then just passed it on to a solicitor to litigate. I am very disappointed in Vodafone, there seems to be a strategy employed which is to frustrate any communication with them, whilst moving aggressively to recover funds regardless of the outcome of any dispute. Any advice is appreciated

My friend is looking to get a temporary credit card as she is moving house and needs £500 for a deposit on her new place. She has a poor credit rating and the ones she has tried (who claim to offer cards even to people with poor ratings) have all declined her application. Her credit rating is poor because she didn't pay a £74 mobile phone bill which was in dispute and, as far as I know, is STILL in dispute. Other than that she has no other bad credit. Can anyone advise on any companies who would be likely to accept her application? Once she has paid the £500 off she will not be using the card again, she just needs it for this one off emergency situation. Many thanks x

We hired a barn as a wedding venue for our daughters wedding. The barn was advertised as a wedding venue and had a wedding licence. The barn is used solely for functions with a kitchen, bar, hard carpeted floor etc. The charge for hire for 4 days was £2900. On the surface the venue looked ideal and fitted in with the theme my daughter had decided on for the wedding. We took over hire on the Thursday before a Saturday wedding - the first things we had to do was set to work on cleaning the toilets that were in a disgusting state, cobwebs adorned the walls of the barn and all had to be brushed down and then the floor cleaned. The area outside the main doors was covered in cigarette ends and the kitchen surfaces cleaned and disinfected. We laid out the tables and set places for the 70 guests and all was set by the Friday night. On checking the barn on the Saturday morning rat droppings were discovered on the tables and it was decided that all the cutlery should be washed again. also a box of chocolates that had been left in the kitchen had been eaten by rats. During the evening the electricity supply to the barn was continually going off plunging our guests into darkness - the owners representative blamed our bands equipment but it was proved later to be a fault in the barns heating system. Throughout the whole of the hire period the owners representative was unhelpful, arrogant, rude and showed absolutely no interest in providing any service whatsoever. We have complained to the owner that we did not consider the barn was fit for purpose and he has apologised and offered us £300 in compensation. We don't consider this is sufficient - does anyone agree?

I’m from a Derbyshire CAB and we’re campaigning for better customer service from our energy suppliers. Mistakes happen, we understand that, but we find that that our clients – and us – spend an unacceptable amount of time having to sort them out. Long call waiting times, missing correspondence, being passed from pillar to post and repeating the same information ad infinitum without ever seeming to make any progress – these are all things with which most visitors to this forum will be familiar. Energy companies don’t seem to realise that our clients’ time is valuable (and that the resources of charities such as ourselves are limited). And we’re not just talking about the inconvenience. Sometimes this shoddy treatment leads to real financial hardship, as in the case of a recent client who decided to pay a disputed bill for the sake of a quiet life, rather than have to put up with the stress of taking it further. Or the countless numbers of people who are put off switching to a cheaper supplier because of the incompetent way this has been handled in the past. We think that energy companies will better appreciate the effects of their poor service if we use a language they will understand – money. We want to encourage people to invoice their energy company for the time they have wasted in trying to resolve their issues. Will the energy companies pay up? Not likely. Not unless you’re very lucky, but that’s not the point. What we want is better and more efficient service. We don’t think it’s beyond the power of these multi-billion pound enterprises to provide us with this, and if it takes a campaign like this to get their attention we think it’s worth doing. If your energy supplier is giving you the run-around and you want to give them something to think about, stop by our 'Service Denied' Facebook page for instructions on how to use our invoice. http://www.facebook.com/Daecab

I recently had my car repaired at Evans Halshaw Nissan Leeds, prior to this repair I have had isssues with them all of which have beeen resolved by the service manager and tech guy from garage, however when the repair was done (new accelerator peddle and parts fitted, via warranty) I did not receive any paperwork for what was done and parts fitted etc, as I wanted this to go with the vehicle history, I didn`t even receive recepits for credit card payments for diagnosis that the warrenty did not cover. Having had the previous issues with them, I did not want any more hasstle with the same people I dealt with before, so can you advise me how I can take this further, there doesn`t seem to be any contact for complaints on the website. Regards Mick.

What I would ultimately like to know is if I can get some recompense for these issues. Issue initially reported on the 27th May regarding poor picture quality on only the following channels. ITV1+1 and ITV1HD Channels ITV2/3 and 4 are fineIt also occurs on Channel4+1 and Channel4 HD but not E4 or E4+1 Since reporting it on their site I was contacted by a rep and not sure what they done but been fine since. In the last two days it has reaered its ugly head its absolutely horrendous, trying to watch the French Open Fnal on ITV 1 and again poor been likes this for a few days now.. This is obviously not an issue with my TV nor my box as this is only occuring on ITV1/ITV1+1 and ITV HD.and also seems to be a common issue with others on the virgin forum for other subscibers around the country, there doesnt seem to be a geographical link. I trade a lot on sports and at present I cannot trade if I cannot watch the sport without such distortion. Further to this Spain v Italy is on later and my home team of Ireland v Crotia, both games that I will trade on and more so want to see my country play and I am obviously not going to be able to do this, nor does it look like I will be able to watch half the games of the Euros now. Not only is it effecting a side income of mine but more importantly is destroying my enjoyment of a sport I love and am incapable of watching. He is some pictures for you hope you enjoy them like I am enjoying the tennis! 27th May pictures: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/801/img00004201205272005.jpg/ http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/36/img00005201205272005.jpg/ And todays tennis pictures http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/850/img00014201206101415.jpg/ http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/221/img00022201206101417.jpg/ http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/401/img00021201206101417.jpg/ http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/710/img00012201206101404.jpg/ Any help appreciated

Trying not to be cynical but despite the call centre in India finding 'no fault with our line' and the problem must be with our internal wiring, we see an increase in our D/L speed from a consistent 0.6 to 0.7 mb/sec to 1.3 mb/sec. Called quite a few times before (over a period of about 5 years) and followed their advice by unplugging this and unplugging that. but this time, didnt unplug a damn thing but experienced the usual doubling of speed anyway. Sherewsbury, where I live is known for very poor speeds and no alternatives (i.e cable) and the reason I called them this time wast that the BT homehub would not stay connected for a period of more than 20 second or so. Its been like this for the last 3 days, but suddenly comes stable within minutes of calling the BT helpline, and has remained stable with not one crash in the last 8 hours. Anyone else experience a miraculous improvement with BT connection when they talk to the Indian call centre? (despite them saying that there is no problem). I dont mind them finding a problem or creating a solution but what does boil my p*ss a little is when they blatently tell me its nothing to do with them and is our internal wiring, when clearly it is not the case.

There is an article on BBC News 24 about Scottish youngsters not being employable and centers around an Arnold Clark apprentice training workshop. One of the instructor can be clearly seen 'smashing' a steel wheel to remove it from the hub with a steel hammer. What a disgusting thing to teach someone to smash a customers car with a steel hammer and not a mallet. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-18158510 The video above doesn't show that particular part of the clip, but it is still running on the live news channel. I'm not sure if News 24 can be watched again on the likes of iplayer.

Hi All; I recently joined an on-line company, in order to buy my son a present. This was REDSAVE - a company based in Dorset, UK ( part of Nettexmedia limited) I purchased an item, and they took the money from my account within 2 days. 9 days later I chased them up, asking about the product, and was told it wasn't available any more - so I could buy something different or get a refund. I opted for a refund. They agreed to send me a cheque. Since then, at roughly 2 week interviews, I have contacted them asking where the cheque is. It's now nearly eleven weeks since the monies were taken from my account, but I still have not received a refund. Each time I ask, customer services just tell me the cheque is being sorted out by accounts. In my last email I warned them I would air my dissatisfaction about their appalling customer service via forums, and would log a case against them with Consumer Direct - if they didn't sort out the refund within a further week. To date, I still haven't received the cheque - so I've just actioned both of the above. I've communicated with several different REDSAVE "customer service" agents, and not one of them has apologised for the delay - I get the feeling because they have taken my monies, they really don't care. I'm very disappointed companies can act this way - I would appreciate any advice. Many thanks !