Hi. I am interested in getting qualified in offering consumer advice or something related in the future... What courses are out there? I'm having trouble finding one. A

Hi. I'm new to this forum and need some advice. I've been working for an agency for 14 weeks, in the same role in the same company. Last week we were informed of how holiday pay is calculated - they use your weekly average hours over 17 weeks to calculate how many hours per day to pay you for. e.g. in 14 weeks I have had 2 days unpaid and 2 days holiday, so instead of my weekly hours being 35 (I do 7 hours 5 days per week) my weekly average hours over 14 weeks is 33. Therefore if I book a weeks holiday I get paid for 33 hours, not 35, so about £20 less than normal. This just doesn't seem right to me. I accrue holiday as I work, and if I'm off sick I don't get paid and accrue zero holiday, so I cannot see what relevance this has to my holiday pay. It's penalising you twice for taking time off as you don't get paid then your holiday pay suffers. I'm put off taking holiday as I cannot afford to get paid less than if I had just worked it. Quick google and this seems quite common practice for agency staff. How is this fair?? It also appears this is something they have started in September. Would they not have needed to re-issue contracts so this is in there??

Hi folks, first time posting, so thanks for looking, and any help or advice offered. To start, I purchased a vehicle on the 28.09.12 from Manchester. I live in Birmingham, I know, a treck! But what drew me up there was the advertised offer in the Auto Trader of a 'full 12 months parts and labour nationwide warranty'. I spoke to the car salesman asking the obvious beforehand; if the car broke down in Brum, do I have to return it to Manchester to get fixed? He highlighted the 'nationwide' part of the warranty, and said any garage nationwide was covered. So off I trotted up to Manchester, and purchased the car (Renault Laguna DCI, 53 plate). By 08.10.12, the gearbox was neigh on enusable, and I contacted the warranty people, who said the car did not have a valid warranty in my name. I figured it may have been due to the logbook changeover, but they said that a new warranty should have been purchased upon sale of the car, which never happened. They also said that the car did have a warranty attached, but that it was in a different name, and that their warranties are not transferrable either. Since the 8th, the car has also developed a major turbo fault, and now the drivers side wheel makes a terrible knocking noise when I turn the wheel. The dealer has tried every trick in the book to avoid me, even saying that he had purchased a new warranty, but when I rang the warranty people up, guess what? No new warranty in my name had been purchased. I have gone down the usual TS route, and sent the dealer a letter outlining my case as per TS advice, and given him until the 26.10.12 to refund me fully, to which so far, I have heard no reply. My questions are these- I want a refund, but as the car is unsafe to be driven back to Manchester, what are my rights with demanding he take responsibilty for the car, and return it to his garage, since as it broke down so soon? Do I have to return it to him to get my refund at my expense even though it stated 'nationwide' warranty on the now void warranty? And second, since as I have still heard no reply, and my family have a holiday booked for 26.10.12, which as it stands we cannot attend because of this, do we have any legal rights to demand that he pay for the cost of the holiday? Further, can he demand that I return the car to him to be fixed? Would not the failed warranty offer of nationwide cover be enough for me to refuse this offer for obvious reasons? Or can I, if he refuses to pay a refund, take the car to the local garage and get him to pay? The big problem is that the work needed is major, and is expected to run up above the £1,000 mark, which is money I simply do not have if I am expected to pay beforehand. Again, thanks for looking, and thanks for any and all help offered.

Online shopping: Your rights Goods must be delivered within 30 days, unless agreed otherwise You can cancel an order within seven working days in most cases (longer for financial products) and get a full refund The refund should include any delivery charges, although you may have to pay for returns You don't have to return the goods in their original packaging You are responsible for the safe return of items The retailer would have to pay for return postage if the items are going back because they are faulty or not as ordered

Hi guys, my very first post here so feel free to wade in with any comments or suggestions.. I purchased a persommin new build in june and paid for the turf to be laid in the back garden. I was told it was very recent so stay off it for a month. Two months later the grass looked good but the ground underneath was so wet and spongy that simply walking on it leaves deep dents. I asked the landscapers to look and they said "yep, you need a land drain, it's boggy". So I took this up with the persimmon site manager who got really irrate and said the landscapers had no right talking to me etc etc. He blamed the 'rain' and said to just wait. A few weeks later and no improvement I wrote to the regional head office and within a week the site manager was back to look. Still quite curt and short he said I'd bought a standard residential build and couldn't expect the world - I actually bought a 3 bed detached and it cost me everything I've ever saved. I have a 1 year old baby and not once have I been able to allow her on the garden which was one of the reasons for choosing this plot! eventually the landscapers were back to put in a french drain. They rotavated the existing turf into the soil, dug a trench (french drain?) and then relaid turf afterwards. It's been 6 weeks since and the turf looks great. BUT, the ground is still spongy underfoot. Not as bad as before but still to the point of leaving dents. I really have no idea what to do or who to approach next. It's so stressful and incredibly difficult trying to deal with them now I've actually handed over my money! Any advice or comments would be great.

Some travel agents will not be ready for a new scheme that clarifies holidaymakers' rights if a tour operator collapses, organisers say. Travellers booking flights and holidays will be given new certificates from Monday. The Atol certificate scheme will make it clear which elements of a holiday are protected, and make refunds easier. The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) says the protection still stands even if certificates are not ready. But the consumer organisation Which? is advising consumers not to book holidays with agents or websites that cannot provide certificates. More ...

Hi I have a problem in returning an item which is faulty. I only purchased it on Saturday afternoon and have used it for a max of 10 minutes intermittently. The issue is not about getting a refund which Tesco has said (during 5 phone calls so far) I can have. (I paid by cash) The issue is that I am trying to find a way to return it that does not cost a load of money. Tesco will only pay for the item refund, but it is going to cost me a huge sum to return this because I am disabled and have to pay for a taxi there and back. I have tried to resolve this to the best I can, but Tesco are being very unhelpful. I have been put on hold during 4 of those phone calls for several minutes at a time and I have finally been left on a dead line and eventually hung up. What are my rights about the cost of having to travel to return this? I am disabled and cannot carry it as it stands. I budget for a taxi now and then to get to a large store. I do not have anyone to ferry me over 20 miles round journey, the small local store doesn't want to know and I'm stuck with an item that doesn't work.

Thanks for all the help and the info on your website. I am in court in Liverpool tomorrow hopefully the bailiff who attended my address and used her bullying and lies of what she can and cant do will loose her licence. The Law really needs to change and people made more aware of their rights. Wish me luck peeps

can someone point me in the right direction - am i self employed or a contractor - and as such, what rights do i have ? I pay 20% tax at source ( CIS) I have regular working hours every day ( can't work whenever i want) I don't get paid holidays I don't get sick pay From what i can gather, im a contactor, as someone who is self employed gets to pick his or hers own working hours. As a contractor, am i not entitled to some kind of holiday pay ??? Any thoughts ?

Hi Could anyone please advice me. I owe £1000 to MBNA and been paying only the interest for some time. I am in receipt of WRAG due to depression I receive counselling, for this but things are not good at the moment. I wrote to MBNA some time ago to explain this, and they sent me this huge form to take to all of the people I see, GP counsellor and get them to fill it in. I did not have the money this would have cost me £20 a time for GP etc, plus I was embarrassed so I did not do it. They have a copy of my budget plan - but still they will not accept reduced payments. Could someone please tell me what I can do and what my rights are if any I am not in arrears with them - but cannot keep up the payments so soon will be. Thanks

may end up being a long moaning style thread but i feel i need to fully express the issue to get the right help/advice. my contracted started up fine, 24 months was happy with the price at the time as it was accompanied with a iphone 4s new at the time, for the past 3/4 months ive been experiencing really poor/no signal at all at times, to the point where the only way im getting phone signal for calls and access to web pages is via my own personal wifi at home. in store upon taking out the contract the service area checker came back fine and there was no signal limitations in my area, its only been in the past 3/4 months that ive been experiencing no access to safari web pages & very poor service when receiving & making calls, the person on the other end of the line says its goes crackly from signal & has even cut out completely several times. my issue is, i have phoned vodafone numerous times now over the past few months to only explain my problem every time & then be passed onto technical support and be told to do the same things; reboot phone, turn it on & off, have even changed the web key from vodafone to a different one with no luck. was told on a different occasion that it may be a technical fault within my phone, went to apple got a new handset & still! had the same problem, more phone calls later and still no explanation.. was then advised that it may be my sim card thats faulty, have been sent one tested it for a week & still no change! i understand that a contract is supposed to be between two people, i am sticking to my half of the contract by paying the bill each month even though i am disgusted at the incompetence of the provider, i cannot justify paying £42 a month for the remaining year of my contract if i am not being provided with the service i signed up to, or do not want to have the same signal problem for the remainder of the time! i understand there is termination fees etc and i am by no means paying to cancel a service that i would otherwise be perfectly happy with if not for the service not being provided as agreed! just wondering where i stand with this problem and if i can pursue it further, as i dont want to just not pay it monthly and my credit rating being in tatters, surely there is something that can be done or a way around this, sorry for the long post just a very dissatisfied customer and the end of my patience with vodafone & their customer service.

I received a letter today to say that Incapacity now ESA had evidence to state I had a period of work between 2007 and 2010. Goes on to say they have included details from the employer and if I accept that I did this work could I answer the questions on the attached sheet. such as please provide the dates you worked, days of week worked, normal working pattern ? If they have enough evidence already why are they asking for more? At this stage I have requested an FOI but am unsure as to what other rights I have?

Hello, looking for a little advice here.... we are currently on a 1 year fixed tenancy agreement and 2 months prior to the end of the contract the landlord confirmed via his estate agents (who deals with it on his behalf) that he wishes to sell the property and not re-new. Annoying for us but he gave us the right notice etc and so as per our agreement have allowed viewings over the past month (this has not been hassle free as he listed the property with 2 estate agents and we have been inundated with calls / viewings etc to which we have been more than reasonable). The issue is now that he has sold the property and now it seems they want builder to come round and survey's done etc.... we still have a month left on the lease and frankly we want to be left in peace. Today I got a call from the estate agent saying he was with a builder and couldn't get into the property - I advised that no one had even asked us to allow this visit and he said something about leaving a voicemail (this was the 'usual story' when people turned up for viewing unannounced)...luckily we clued onto this and can lock the door from the inside and leave through the back (they don't have a key for this door) so no one can gain entry when we are not there. We have therefore said no more access until we move out which the estate agents are not happy about. We even offered the landlord to break contract to allow us to leave early but he refused. Where do we stand on our rights here? our contract only permits us to allow viewing to potential buyers and we feel we have been more than reasonable with this and do not want to be bombarded for the next month. Any advice would be gratefully received.

i signed up with Lovefilm. I was informed the account would not open unless i call in to activate. to my surprise they did this without my authorisation.they have been taking money out of my account without my authorisaton. They refunded this and i cancelled the account and still proceeded to take money from my account . i even got debt collector letters from them even though i owed them nothing . i spoke to the the manager supervisor from head office and finally the account is closed (i hope). he would not even award me any compensation for this trouble that lasted almost a year. is this not breech of my rights? can i not report this? what can i do about this? they really took advantage and its not fair they cant keep doing this to customers and just appologise at the end of it and everything is ok.

I have posted before that I have a mortgage shortfall with HSBC for over £40k. With my other (consumer) debts, I have the CCA, CPUTR, BOCBS, OFT guidelines etc to establish my rights. I am aware that MCOBS exist but are there Acts that I can look in to regarding my mortgage shortfall? How would I do the equivalent of a CCA request for the agreement and statement of account for example? I have started with a SAR and specifically requested detail about the history of the sale (valuations and offers etc). Also - I had forthwith judgement for the monies at my repossession hearing - does that prevent me from claiming back any charges?

I have been with my employer for 3 years. I was promoted by my line manager 9 months ago to a new postion, and in a time of restructure within the company. Last week I returned to work from Holiday to be suspended due to an allergation of falsification of documents a work. I was so angry but kept my calm throughout and went to the meetings and hearing. At the hearing I was cleared of the allergation, but however they feel thatI have struggled in the role as I have had lack of training, saying I should have asked for more. They had decided therefore to demote me and reduce pay accordingly to provide me time to retrain and then possibly reapply in the future. There has been no mention of performance in my hearing letter just the allagation of mis-conduct that was cleared. In every reveiw I have had at work I have had postive feedback and never been told my performance in lacking, far from it. I admit there is a lack of knowledge in certain areas but I have been asking for help , but not given any. I was told I should have been beating down doors when I raised that point at the meeting! I have been working 70 to 80 hours a week due to lack of staff and being in a business for the 4 weeks before my holiday and I was offered no support in this time. It was during this time that the mistake was made. I have a new line manager who I have 'history' with and I feel she has instigated all this as she wants me out. I love my job, but I feel I ,ay have to leave, but I do want to clear my name first. Can they demote me for performance without warning, reviews etc etc? I would add that every single performance measure we have is positive and I am not lacking begind. I was simply told it was training and behaviours that have caused the demotion, but when asked could not define any. I was not prepared to defend my performace at the hearing as I was lead to beleive it was for misconduct, he simply said he could see I was struggling and this was his reason. I wish I had stopped the meeting, but I was in shock. I am about to put in an appeal, but this line manager is the appeal officer. I want to get my arguements right and to know on what grounds I can appeal. Thanks in advance M

Hi, I passed my test in 1966 when I was issued with a paper licence. I have been living overseas where I obtained a Cat B + E licence. Can I still exercise my grandfather rights to drive a 7.5t vehicle or will I need to train for a C1 cat licence? Regards, Monnas:|

I own a flat with a family member and we have a joint mortgage. For the last six years I have been out of the country and she has been paying the mortgage herself. It is a two bedroom flat and she has been renting out my room. I did the same when she was out of the country. I moved back in November 2011, and in May 2012 she moved out. I found out 4 days before she left that she was moving and was renting out her room. I was annoyed but asked that I be able to choose who to live with from her short list and she said fine. Then the day she was moving out she told me she had found someone and they were moving in the next day and there was nothing I could do about it. The only thing she said was that they wouldn't be having people over all the time as she knows I don't like that. The new tenant signed a contract with my family member and is paying her the rent monthly, and gave her a deposit. It has been nearly two months and things are not going well with the tenant. He has his girlfriend over 2 to 5 times a week and when I complained says that he's entitled to live their as he pleases. There are many other problems and I am wondering where I stand if I want him out. He signed a 2 month contract with my family member which is up on 12 July, and then there were going to extend it or stop depending on how things turned out. As you can tell I am not currently in contact with my family member, but could I give the tenant notice even though I didn't sign the contract, and am I perfectly within my rights to find someone my self to rent the room to? I can't think it is fair that as the owner in residence I am expected to live with someone I didn't agree to. Any advice would be much appreciated. Sorry for the essay.

Hi there. I got into trouble with about 5 payday loan companys. All but payday express put me on repayment plans straight away and now I only have themselves and 1monthloan to pay back. It's well documented on these forums that express are really unhelpful and really hard to work with. They have refused my repayment offers and I've ended up rolling over the balance about 4 times now (pretty sure I have payed off my original loan amount plus some by now) I just wanted to ask you guys if I have lost my rights for repayment plans as I lied on my loan application. I am on disability allowance and applied for these payday loans as I was struggling around xmas and they spiraled out of control. I put on my payday express application that I was full time employed. They did not bother to check these facts (none of them ever do?). I did tell them the truth when it came to me not having enough for their horrible 'extend fee's' and since then they have treaten me like sh*t. Hanging up on me, harrasing with phonecalls until i either pay the full amount or roll it over. They have even dipped into my account without telling me (card cancelled and new one requested) Am I in the wrong for lying? Im sure i'm not the only one who has done this as they bombard us with adverts everywhere and I was desperate. Thanks.

hi guys, great site for info this! use it a lot. im hoping you guys can help me out with a problem. dont know toooo much about all this, been looking on some sites and have delt with debt collectors in the past, but not tryed the same tactics on bailifts. im in arrears of an old council tax bill at a very old address, i had a payment schemem set in place with the councils bailiff but due to lack of work and a hand injury recently have missed payments. i recieved a letter this morning regarding my outstanding council tax bill which has now been passed onto a company called Ross and Roberts ltd. i missed my last few payments due to lack of work as a self employed builder, they are now demanding the payment in full plus charges! this can not happen as i dont have it, i contacted the council (who the debt was with before)and told them i was not whilling to deal with a 3rd party regarding my financess. they told me it was now out of their hands and to contact the said bailiff, i will not be contacting them how ever as i want to pay my debt with the council direct, i still have the payment details in place to pay them via on-line or automatic phone payments. im just worried about the said bailiff company that may keep knocking and adding further charges to my already over streching debt plus maybe seizing my work van!!!???.... the council informed me if i wasnt willing to communicate with this other company, that my debt will eventually be handed back to them anyways, as they have no rights to send me to court for it etc.... and I AM WILLING to pay the debt, just not via a 3rd party with silly add-on charges. whats the best thing for me to do now? just wait till it gets handed back to the council and ignore the 3rd party bailiff? can i call the police and tell them im being harrased by these people if they continue to call at my door? thanks for your time. shaun

Hey all Dont know if this is in the wrong place although I couldnt find a suitable thread title. In a nutshell, we done work for a customer (a limited company) and they owe us £140k. Now, its not that they are not paying but rather they cant pay until they sell on the asset that we helped complete. We have a good personal relationship with them and they said do what you need to do as they understand our position. We are being chased by our suppliers now and have one question. We done this work based on a gentlemans agreement. There was no paperwork or contracts or anything like that. Just an agreed set price and thats it. Is there any way that we can start any kind of proceedings against them in order to get our money. ie like seizing the asset that was created? Or will the lack of paperwork work against us?

Say if I bought a ticket from BMI last year for travel later on this year. They have now been bought out by BA. Now when I bought the ticket I was told that I could make changes to it for £20 per change. Now we are being told that no changes are allowed. You either fly it or you can cancel it for a fee. But when I bought it I was told it flexible. Does BA have a right to make changes to contracts that were all ready done? BMI accepted my money and told me their ticket change guidelines. Now BA is saying we will not honor those. Shouldn't BA book me on one of their flights? Do I as a consumer have any say in this?

Good afternoon, Appreciate advice please. I purchased a wooden 4 stable block from National stables over the phone in Dec 2010. They were erected by the company in March 2011. In August 2011 one of the stable fronts broke and collapsed out the front. We reported this to them, and after several chasers they sent out repair men when they were 'next in the area'. This took 3 months in total. They repaired free of charge. At the end of April 2012 the same fault occured on one of the other stables. I have reported by 3 emails and 4 phone calls, and 6 weeks have now passed. They have now acknowledged the problem and said they will repair when a lorry is next in the area but they can't put a timescale on this. I am without the stable again. Can i demand they send someone to repair it? Is 'when a lorry is in the area' reasonable? Appreciate any advice. Mike

All Not sure if this is the correct forum to post. Here is the situation 1. I got debt with Halifax which I am have been paying off at reduced monthly payments ( Halifax agreed to this 6 months ago and reduced interest rates while I make these reduced payments) 2. Last week, I received a letter from DCA ( Westcott) that Westcott is acting behalf of Halifax to collect this debt and demanding full payment to be made within next 7 days ( ususal red letter). It started with usual Text Message then red letter. So far I have ignored all this ( thanks to this forum) What would be the right thing to do here? 1 Should I just continue paying Halifax directly and ignore Westcott? OR 2 Should I contact Westcott to set up reduced payments ? I know that Westcott is just cash cow trying to make some money here. I would like to just keep paying Halifax and reduce the debt rather than going through Westcott. What legal rights do Westcott have? Is there any letter that I can send to Westcott to stop contacting me about this debt. Thanks

My ex boyfriend has today sent me a letter claiming that I "owe" him money for all of the bits and bobs that he has had to pay out for the car that he had use of for the past 18 months. Background: I purchased a vehicle in 2010 (in my own name), on HP, all payments made on time and through my own bank. Last year myself and my partner separated, I agreed (not legally, or in writing) that he could carry on using the car, providing he paid the finance installments (from his own bank, which he did), kept it taxed, insured, serviced etc. The log book (v5) was always kept in my name, so the car (although legally still owned by the finance company) belonged to me...I had merely let him have the use of it. So it remained this way until last week...when low and behold I found out that for the last 4 months of our relationship he'd been cheating on me. Not wanting him to keep driving around in MY car, I took the car back, and have confirmed with the finance company and DVLA that the liability is still mine and has nothing to do with my ex partner. The finance will be settled next week, and I shall sell the car (as it does have a small amount of equity left) Question: This letter I received from him today, stating that I must re-imburse him the cost of the new tyres (£551.00) the work for the MOT (£82) and the months of finance payments (approx £3500)...does he have a leg to stand on in asking me to pay all of this, when in fact I had let him have full use of the car for this period, and at no time did he moan about paying all these things, as he was the one using the car (I didn't even live in the same area, and had no access to the car). If he pursues this to small claims court, would I have to pay him anything, as the car belonged to me, but I'd (temporarily) let him run and use it...and therefore my understanding is that he must bear the cost of keeping the car roadworthy. Just after some advice from others who may have been in this situation, or know the legal ins and outs of a case like this! Thanks in advance Hannah x