I have just sold a mobile phone on ebay. I described the phone exactly and honestley as possible. The phone sold and the guy paid instantly. Three days later I received a message thanking me for sending it so promptly but saying it wasnt as described. Corners were broken and there were big scratches on the screen. The phone I sent was mint but naievley I posted a libary picture of phone. I messaged back offering a full refund if imei number matched. He replied asking for imei number for his inbox??? Too cut a long story short a case has been opened and he has just sent the phone back. The number is obviously different but the only proof I have is my service upgrade agreement, which has phone/imei number. Help needed as dont want to end up out of pocket with this guys crap phone Thanks

Help! I've been scammed! I saw this products online. It was advertised as the secret fat burners and muscle builders used by Hollywood A-listers like Gerard Butler and co. It promised a free trial, and all I had to pay was just £2.99 for each of the above, for postage. I duly punched my credit card details in, requesting the so called free sample. Lo! and behold! Credit card statement came in after a few weeks, and these guys had charged me £79.97 and £94.97 in addition to the £5.98 earlier charged for postage, totalling £180.92. Though I've instructed Barclaycard not to honour any more attempts to charge me, I would really want a refund as I've not opened the "so called" free trial sent to me. I called the company responsible, and spoke to someone called "Rick" with an Indian accent. As soon as I requested a refund, he said their system was having a problem, and that he would call me back. I have not heard from him for two days now, and I can't get them on phone.

I have just received a phone call from a guy calling himself Harry, he has a pronounced "Asian" accent. Harry claims to be a specialist advisor at Microsoft and has information that my computer is at risk. Had these before but this time my wife answered and Harry used her first name and asked for me by my first name. Number with held of course.

Just got a £70 fine for 'overstaying' in Aldi's Boscombe store. As a paying customer I would expect to at least be informed that this time restriction was in place. Signage is appalling. I would have gone elsewhere to do my shopping if I had known about the ?70 tax on shopping at Aldi. Apparently there is a machine inside you're meant to put your registration number into - only they try not to let you know as it is more profitable for them to get their hired thugs to send court threats and fines. I now have to deal with Parking Eye - a well documented bunch of cowboy bullies with a notorious reputation for ripping off the general public. I guess it's not just the shoddy products that help Aldi keep its prices low. It's now using underhand and sneaky tactics to help its bullyboy business partner threaten its customers with court - for a share of the booty presumably. Not only that but #ParkingEye issued the ticket on June 20 and it didn't arrive until July 6. Even Royal Mail aren't that bad. Something devious is going on to make it impossible to pay the 'reduced' amount of £40. Not that I am going to pay a penny for this cheating [problem]. Don't expect me back in Aldi anytime soon.

a Malaysian who ordered a penis enlarger online was stunned when he was sent a magnifying glass. At least it came with a useful instruction: 'Do not use in sunlight'. The victim-who paid £100 for his £5 magnifier-later reported the internet [problem] to Malaysia's customer complaints bureau. Its chairman, Seri Michael Chong, said: 'As you can imagine, he is feeling rather disgruntled.'

Hi, I'm sure I am going to be advised to "accept it and move on" but I checked my latest online bill yesterday and it was just under £100 instead of the normal £43 for 2 Galaxy S handsets on 600 minutes each. Anyway, I checked the bill and found one call had cost £44.66 plus VAT (£53.59). It was for a call lasting 2 hours 33 minutes to an 0843 number. I avoid calling 0843, 0844 or 0871 numbers from landlines let alone mobiles, but do get calls from them and I must have accidentally done something that activated a call to this number - but 153 minutes? So I dialed the number from my office phone to receive recorded advise on how to reclaim bank charges which gave me several options to choose on how to proceed. I stayed on the line for 2 minutes without pressing anything but complete silence. Surely a call would time out after a few minutes silence? If not why stop after 153 minutes - the call finished at 6pm and no calls were made or received until 9am the following morning? Do you think they would they consider cancelling or reducing the charge for this call? I know should block calls to premium numbers as I have done with International ones (stored that I text) and I do accept that I pushed the button, my handset confirms this, but I wanted to check how providers, in this case Vodafone normally deal with charges like this. I don't want to be fobbed off, if someone has had a positive experience in a similar situation. Thanks for any ideas.

My sister is selling her car. The license plate is visible in the images, and she has someone calling up asking for the VIN number and some number from the MOT certificate apparently to do some "checks". Surely you only need the REG for a HPI check? What would they need the numbers for? Or could this be a possible clone attempt? Edit: Should say "clone".

Hi everyone, I thought I would post this in case it happens to anyone else on CAG. Yesterday evening my daughter was going on about the "bearded lady" who was going to be on Eurovision so I googled Eurovision and went on to the Daily Mirror site. I was looking at the running order, saw a picture of the "bearded lady", clicked on it, and immediately a "Cheshire Constabulary" website appeared with a box telling me I had accessed child pornography and that my computer was locked, my files encrypted, I had committed a criminal offence and been reported. I couldn't believe it. Over the website was a grey box with two options. I can't remember what the top one said, but the bottom one said, "Leave this page," so I clicked on that and it wouldn't leave the page at all. I wasn't going to hit anything else so I just closed the computer down directly, waited few minutes, started it up again and it was fine, but I was still worried sick. I was half expecting the police to turn up at he door. Actually it made no sense because my computer is protected against any nasty stuff including viruses but I was still absolutely shocked and logic had flown out the window. Anyway I decided I would contact Cheshire Constabulary and as soon as I googled that I could see there were loads of postings about a virus or [problem] and from what I have read I think if I had clicked on the other option (whatever that was) I would have been asked for money to pay a "fine" in order to get the computer unlocked. Obviously I would have realized at that point that it was a [problem] and not paid them, and thankfully there are instructions for removing the virus yourself available on the internet. I thought I would just post this in case anyone else gets it coming up on their computer so you won't be as shocked as I was! DD

Hey I got in contact with a software developer, he agreed to write some software for me, I paid him in instalments total of £277. The software was never delivered to myself he took the money and ran. I paid him via bank transfer. I am planning a small claims court but it turns out he is 16 and from the UK. I would like to know who is responsible for the the money owed, Would it be him or his parents (I have located his address and parents names) that I sent the initial small claims forms to ?

Hello, I`m wondering if anyone can help me? I lost my job in January and with bills to pay have been desperately applying for a new one. I saw an ad on Gumtree for a personal assistant job, which I applied for and got. It turns out I think this is a [problem] as I was sent a cheque to run some errands for someone away on business, after I deposited the cheque into my bank account I was then asked to send £200 cash via moneygram as part of an errand to someone in South Africa. This is when I realized it was a [problem], I have not sent any money via moneygram, but am worried about the cheque I deposited as I think it will bounce. I payed the cheque in to my account on Thursday and was told it will clear next Wednesday, apart from going back to my bank and asking them to stop processing the cheque/ stop the cheque clearing is there anything else I can do? Can the bank stop the cheque before it clears?

I am another victim of Phoenix Business agents who are very good at [problem]ming innocent people like myself who just wanted to sell my business. I did not approach them instead they somehow got details of my business on sale and approached me. They made it sound ever so promising and very good at selling that they talked their way into selling my business. They said they would market the business and would be able to sell my business within 6 months and with a high price. They initially said that there is no fee until the business is sold and when the agent had come he had started talking about a fee of £1250.00 as he called it a deposit and he did promise me that it is 100% refundable if they are not able to sell my business. I then paid him as he talked me into this as he was very talented in this trade. This was the worst decision i had made as they are the worst unprofessional company i have dealt with. The agent that had come said my business would be on the internet within days with photographs so that potential buyers can view the business but to my surprise this was not the case even after a whole month of waiting and chasing them. Each time i called them about my business being on the website or photographs they made up a story and said it would be up in a few days when they finally got it up without photographs that was then at two months time by then i realised that they are not going to sell my business. When i had not received any phone calls from any potential buyers i had realised their unfaithful motives i decided to terminate my contract and then the agent had started to come out with a story of their fees which i was not told or made aware of. The agent that i spoke with said if i wanted to terminate before 6 month period i would have to pay £3000.00 and if i went over 6 months i would have to pay £6000.00. The agent that initially visited me had never mentioned this i asked time and time again if there was any hidden fees or charges he made it clear that there was not not any fees until they actually sold my business. Now they are harassing me with several letters asking me a fee of £7550.00 which they are not entitled to and i have not signed any agreement of. Please can i ask for some help and advice and where to go and what to do as they are pestering me.

Hi all, I have no idea what to do, Mini credit are saying that I have taken out a loan with them when I have never even heard of them. There isn't a date when I was meant to have taken out this loan, but I'm being harassed by their company and they've sold this debt to OPOS limited saying that I now owe £815.96. They also said that my card was used, I have a new debit card now so it must have been my old debit card which was used but I don't know the dates. I haven't used my Barclays account or my card in months and months. I use a different bank account. I emailed them and told them that it must be a mistake and they want proof that my card was used fraudulently but I knew nothing about this until a few weeks ago. Luckily I have a new debit card from Barclays and I haven't given out the new details to anyone or any website. I have applied for loans in the past but I was rejected, so I'm wondering has a dodgy site sold on my details? It's funny because they like to send me harassing emails but they ignore all of the emails that I sent back, it's like talking to a brick wall! Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated thank you.

wrong topic maybe someone could advise where best to put this topic or move it for me?? thanks Ill start from the beginging. I Purchased a car(carcraft) oround late march 2005 through black horse finance. Car was 6k turned out i was paying around 18k back. Bought the car and it was the worst thing i ever did. Fault upon fault up on fault. Took it back numerous times just to be fobbed off. In the end after paying £304pcm for around a year i took the car back to carcraft left it with them wioth logbook keys everything and canceled my standing order. Time went on which at the time i was 18 so decided to ignore. (stupidly as im paying for it now im wanting a mortgage) Got a letter saying thanks for your payment was around the £1000 mark 100%wasnt me or anyone else who paid. So a fake entry. Blackhorse sold the debt of around £18500 to apex who found my ny address demanding money ect. Ive not had any sort of contact with apex in over 5years! Went to the citizens advice about my situation wanting to get my experian credit report cleared so i could move on but it seems that apex have been putting fake payments to themselfs from me in order to keep my account alive and not go over the 5years before my debt clears?? citizens advice told me to hold on as they thought it would be wiped but apears not as i had experian chase it for me. Has anyone any ideas of what i can do? Ive not guot much paperwork to go by as ive moved twice since and over 5 years have passed. I dont want to get intouch wqith apex as then i would have started comunication with them and be back to square one. I would have had no broblem paying for it if the car was in good working order but it wasnt. I think i also paid for ppi with the origional finance but as i were self employed it was pointless. (thats another thread proberly) haha Any info and advice would be hugely appreciated. thanks

Hi all, I've had the usual experience of being told my payment of £152 is pending and then not receiving anything. Contacted them by email but got no response. Started filling in the MCOL form today (22/12/13), went to the C4P website to get the full postal address...and the website has gone. I've read a few posts saying they have changed company names. New to all this. Can I bring an action against a company that has ceased trading? Can I bring an action against a new company name and address (even though my contract was with C4P)? Or have I missed the boat completely? Appreciate I should have done my research, but this still feels a lot like theft to me. Any strategy advice would be greatly appreciated. Jonathan

Hi Warning to all not to use Money Warehouse, don't even visit their site, let alone put any of your personal details in. Seems they are just out to make as much money as they can from the most vulnerable people. They take, from your bank account, some random charge for doing nothing at all, then refuse to give it back without making you jump through all sorts of hoops, and even then it's likely you won't get your money back. Surprised our Government are letting these people get away with it, but getting away with it they are. We need to make as many people as possible aware of Money Warehouse and all the other names they are trading under. I'm hoping mass complaints to the FOS and the FCA and the Trading Standards may help a few less people getting duped into giving these parasites money...Let's get this message out there...

Hi I'm after some advice please. usual Story never received a payment from cash4phones. Did a money claim online and have since enforced a judgement. No response or payment but to issue a warrant is another £100! I have since found out I should have made the claim against C4P trading Ltd. Is there any point in me pursuing this any future and does anyone know if I can change the name to C4p Ltd or is it too late?

Hi, I am new to this forum and just joined because of the lift and glow [problem]. I am In the middle of a dispute and trying to get my money back. Any help would be much appreciated, Dianne

I recently did a valuation on my car - "for a laugh" with we buy any car. 2 weeks later I get an email from them saying... "Oooh there is more demand for your car, click here to see a new valuation" Turns out the valuation is mysteriously £995 more than the first! Really!!? Somehow my confidence in that company has diminished somewhat on the grounds of ethical business.

i bought a phone for £198 from simply electronics thinking it looked genuine when i placed my order all looked fine, email acknowledgements the lot was sent, then tonight i looked into my order history and it comes up you have no orders in your history, also checked the pending orders and nothing in there also After doing some research i find endless negative reviews about these bunch of hong kong rip off merchants, I have no idea how the hell this company is still going Post and Post saying people are having there money taken and nothing being delivered to them i want my money back, what is the best way who can i complain to and will my bank refund me in full if i can prove its a [problem]. I basically sold my phone for this

Ex Newsreader; Peter Sisson's has made the headlines regarding a ticket issued by Smart Parking when shopping at Homebase. The link to the story is here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2477165/How-Peter-Sissons-received-Homebase-apology-90-parking-ticket.html

Please bare with me on this one. I am a father of three, two of those children live with me my eldest lives with my former partner 200 miles away (she decided to move not me) My former partner made me trudge through a contact order application and fought tooth and nail stopping me seeing my son which cost me £5k to fight in court, to rightly be awarded contact, needless to say she does not commute our son all travelling is done by me alone. I currently work and have been in contact with the CSA in regards to an assessment. on a net weekly income of £400 here are the calculations. £400 remove 20% for my two children whom live with me = £320 15% of which should be paid to my child living without me. This alone is a bemusement to me, why do my children have different needs? Surely the cost of keeping children is an equal? Why does one child cost 15% of my salary and the other two only 10% each? Now the next piece of mind bogglement is i applied for a variation to the calculation on the basis of my travel expenditure. This expense is an average of £160 which the CSA calculated at £140 minus an inbuilt travel expenditure allowance which is understandable. I was told this was £15 per journey, its not its £15 per journey direction. so a deduction of £60 All in all £160 shrinks to £70 / 4 = £18 per week. But the [problem] does not end there at all. So you go onto the online calculation and it works out at about £48pw So you would imagine that after the joke of a expense calculation your weekly payments would be reduced to £30 to help you absorb the travelling costs. NO It is taken from your net weekly income so £400 net weekly income £18 removed for fuel allowance £382 20% removed for children living with you £76 Total £305 15% of which should be paid to PWC so £46 per week So a true expenditure of £160 per month equates to £2 per week £8 per month. Any suggestions on me attacking this pure lunacy?

:evil:Has anyone taken phone companies (Virgin, Orange, BT etc) to court after getting a bill where they could not recognise phone calls made on their account and won the case. I know of at least 3 people to include myself that had bogus calls recorded on their bills (I had 2 premium calls on my account I definitely did not make). Most people suspect crooked phone engineers but how would you prove this and get a refund (it is time this [problem] is exposed)...

Hi everyone! I had recently a bit unusual ebay case on the ebay as a seller. I'll try to describe it below, but sorry for my English , I am not a native speaker. In the end of June I sold on the ebay a piece of relatively expensive equipment on the ebay (selling price was $4000). Next week after the end of the auction I intended to go to the vacation and wrote to the about this to the buyer as well as offer to pay later (in 3 weeks, after I come back) or cancel the deal if he not able to arrange payment before my leaving to the vacation (3-4 days, so I could post item immediately). He agree with dispatching after 3 weeks and paid after 5 days. As soon as I come back to Italy sent the parcel to the buyer by "priority international parcel" and sent him tracking with scanned cpy of postal receive. To tell the trough the tracking number work by a bit strange way: it was not indicated on the web site of Italian post and on the usps.com starting from 2-nd or 3-rd day after dispatching it was indicated as "Origin Post is Preparing Shipment". I made a couple of phone calls to the help line of the Italian post and they confirmed that parcel is dispatched, and now processing on the custom. They where also able to tell the dispatching date and address of the dispatching office. So I forward all this information to the buyer. on the 1-st of August (a bit more than one month afte the end of the listing and after one week after dispatching) buyer opened the case on the ebay. I again provide him tracking number and wrote about possibility to call to the post. two weeks after (3 weeks after dispatching of the parcel) he escalated dispute to the claim and I got a huge minus on my PayPal account. Once again I informed ebay customer support and buyer about possibility to confirm shipping by calling to the post but seems this offer was ignored. Finally 26-th of August (1 month and 2 day after posting) parcel appear on the usps.com and tracking told that: >Processed Through Sort Facility August 27, 2013, 7:41 am ISC NEW YORK NY (USPS) I forward this information to both, ebay resolution center and buyer, then start to wait. on September 2-nd I got letter from the ebay that "Your account was debited to repay eBay" I got zero balance and ebay took $580 from there (there was no money on the PayPal). ebay was not able to get any money from "reimbursement payment method" because credit card I entered there expired in April and they never ask me for the new one on September 3-rd tracking on usps.com finally told that that: >Priority Mail International Parcels Delivered September 3, 2013, 11:18 am I immediately forward this news to ebay and buyer, asked him immediately contact me in the case of any problems with the equipment (damaged, lost etc) and also ask buyer to close ebay case if he didn't received payment from the ebay or pay me again if he got it. I didn't get any answer until now. on September 4-th I appeal ebay case on the ebay and indicated that Item is finally delivered, dispatching date can be obtained from the scanned copy of postal receive or from by the phone call to help line of the post. They promise to respond in 48h but answered after 5 days following: So, they ignored possibility to check posting date again and they claiming that I sent parcel from Europe same day when it's appear in the NY. So, finally I am somehow upset with this situation but I didn't rally suffered financially from it. Ebay was able to take $580 from my account but I was owed to the ebay $290 as a seller fees, so total loss is less than $300. My account is blocked but in any case I didn't plan to sell anymore on the ebay for obvious reasons. As far as I understood ebay sending me two types of letters: to pay $290 seller fees (this would be very reasonable requirement in normal situation but after ebay steal from me $580 I am doubt if I should do this or not) to pay $3400 "reimbursement payment method" (what I consider as obvious [problem] from buyer or ebay because I have proofs of posing and delivery of the item as well as no complaints about damage or loss of the imem). What would you thing will be the most rational thing to do in this situation? Just leave everything as is? To pay seller fees and try to bring ebay to the court after (in order to get my $580)? To send some complain to the local police office? I would not spend plenty time for the actual loss of $300 but if there are some chances to escalate this situation to any direction it might has sense to pay more attention to it.

Motorists are being warned about a new insurance [problem] where criminals flash their lights to let other drivers out of a junction, then crash into them on purpose. Anti-fraud experts are calling it "flash-for-cash". The gangs tend to target new, smarter vehicles or vulnerable road users, including older people and women with children in the car. The [problem] is costing insurers hundreds of millions of pounds every year. It is a new tactic for an already well established crime, called "crash for cash", where criminals slam on the brakes for no reason so that the victim drives into the back of their car. More...

I am not sure if I am in the right place. I have just been sent this by the local neighbourhood watch alert system An email circulating purporting to be from Action Fraud, threatens legal action because of failure to provide Western Union details to PayPal [22 August 2013] Threatening [problem] email from “Action Fraud Team”: Threatening [problem] email from “Action Fraud Team” Threatening [problem] email from “Action Fraud Team”: Threatening [problem] email from “Action Fraud Team”The personally addressed email mentions a recent transaction with "Mercy Peters" and threatens legal action because of refusal to provide Western Union details to PayPal. The [problematic] claim that "Mercy Peters" has contacted Action Fraud to make a report about the violated PayPal agreement and request a scanned receipt and Western Union details within 24 hours in order to stop your name and address being sent onto law enforcement agencies. The fraudsters are sending the emails from this address: [email protected]. Action Fraud would never contact you and make threats in this way. If you want to verify communications claiming to be from Action Fraud you can call 0300 123 2040 or email [email protected]. Follow the tips provided by Paypal to stay safe from PayPal scams: Log in safely: To log in to your PayPal account or access the PayPal website, open a new web browser (e.g., Internet Explorer or Firefox or Chrome) and type in the following: https://www.paypal.com/ Look out for attachments: PayPal emails will never ask you to download an attachment or a software program. An attachment found in a PayPal [problem] email will often contain a virus that can harm your computer or compromise your PayPal account Never give out personal information: If Paypal require information from you, they will notify you in an email and request that you enter the information only after you have safely and securely logged in to your PayPal account. If you receive one of these [problem] emails report it to Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040 or by using the online fraud reporting tool. Please use the buttons below or click here to reply and here to rate this message Click here to reply to this message Please rate this email by clicking here Click here to view a printer friendly version of this message Click here to view the various options for forwarding and sharing this email Click here to login to your account Click here to unsubscribe or edit your message settings Click here to tweet this message to your followers Click here to forward this email Click here to share this message on Facebook Let the system builders know about any faults you spot by clicking here