There is a current email alert doing the rounds about PDS which goes along these lines :- I have been informed of a current ‘[problem]’ whereby individuals are having cards posted through their door from PDS (Parcel Delivery Service) saying they were unable to deliver a parcel and that you need to contact them on 0906 661 191. Apparently making this call will cost approx £400. Should you receive a card like this, then please call the Royal Mail Fraud Squad on 0207 239 6655. I have contacted Royal Mail fraud squad and, although this problem was real, it has been closed since 2005 !!! If you recieve ANY notication like this it's still worth asking the RMFS on 0207 239 6655 Lex

I had an account with Quidco and when the balance went above £500 the ceased it for themselves. They are claiming that one of the offers I went for was only available once per customer. This is true now, as they have updated their terms, but it was not the case when I made my orders. They are now quoting article 8 in their terms and conditions which allows them to take money whenever the like. My account was showing that Quidco themselves had received the money on the 1st of November. This is how my account looked last week: Now nothing. Has anybody else had a similar experience?

Hi there forum I was hoping for your advice/comments on the following: myself and a co-tenant entered into an assured shorthold tenancy with a person that represented that they were the landlord of a property; we paid rent in cash (which was collected from our flat each month as the landlord's agent had other properties to collect rent from also) and we were given a receipt; the term of the tenancy was six months (started in April 2010) and so the fixed term expired in October but there is a clause which says that it will then continue on until either party gives a months notice to the other to terminate; we came back to our flat last Thursday to find a notice from a debt collection/repossion company celotaped to the door saying that we had been occupying the flat without the consent of its client, the purported registered owner; we did a land registry check and this does seem to be the case; we have tried to contact our landlord but all numbers go to voicemail and the agent cannot get in touch with the landlord either; the notice asked that we vacate immediately however after speaking to the debt/recovery company, we managed to agree that we would vacate in the first week in January 2011 (we had paid rent up until the middle of January); we have also been asked to make sure that all utility bills are paid up (our rent was all inclusive and all bills were in the landlord's name) - we replied by stating that we have paid rent which included a proportion for such bills and so if anyoen is to be pursued by the registered owner of the flat then it should be our landlord and not us; we installed a BT line into the property and now will have to pay circa £300.00 to buy out the 12 month contract (as we will have to leave before the 12 months have expired); it appears as though the landlord may well be a rogue and so we have been payign rent to someone who did not allegedly have the authority to rent out the property, although we acted in good faith at all times. ANY COMMENTS AS TO WHAT OUR RIGHTS ARE!?!?!? Thank you in advance and my apologies for the distress call! Yours faithfully Innocent_Tenant

I have been inspired to post here by the brilliant and successful advice I have read given by "legalpickle" to someone who had a very similar problem to me, in the thread "Un-fair admin charges through Rich Dad (RDE) ***SUCCESS***". The quickest way to learn about how these people operate is to google "rich dad [problem]". Briefly - I backed out of a contract with them on the first day of the cooling off period. They then should have returned the several thousand pounds that I had paid them by credit card, perhaps deducting an admin fee. Although they concede that they owe me the money and that I have done everything they ask, they simply do not return the money. They claim it is due to their inefficiency rather than dishonesty. Every successful case of money returned that I have (now) read about involves threatening them with court. At one stage, in order to get your money back, they insist that you sign a form saying "I agree with the terms described above and acknowledge that Whitney UK has handled this matter to my complete satisfaction. Furthermore, I shall keep the existence and terms of this refund settlement agreement strictly confidential. Neither party shall divulge said terms to any third party in any matter." I don't know whether they can do that, but where I differ from the similar case mentioned above is that unfortunately I DID sign this, putting the loss of the 5% admin fee down to experience. How do I go about taking these people to court? Do I claim for * all my money back; * all but 5% (losing more than £700); * all my money plus some interest (it's been more than 6 months)? All advice welcome ... especially from legalpickle.

Budget Insurance almost doubled my insurance premium after an automatic yearly renewal on 01/10/10, I realised this after looking at my bank statement. I immediately called them on 12/11/10 to complain and to let them know I intended to cancel my insurance if they did not improve my premium. They apologised and informed me they could not improve it and thanked me for the +3 years I have spent with them. I then informed them I was going to arrange my insurance with another company and I would call them back later that day to cancel. After the call I contacted another insurance company and re-arranged my insurance, I paid the total of the premium upfront as this worked out £400 cheaper than Budget for the same insurance. Once all was finalised I then called back Budget to cancel my previous insurance. When I spoke to Budget again they informed me that if I cancelled I would have to pay them a £352 early cancellation fee! I was shocked to discover this and informed them I had spoke to one of their colleagues beforehand and they did not mention any cancellation fees. They then told me they are not obliged to inform me of the fees as they are in my terms and conditions and I should know about them. Please can you give me some help and advice in how to deal with this matter. I do not mind paying a reasonable administration fee but the amount they are charging is way too excessive, unreasonable and in my opinion verging very closely to a criminal offence. (please note I have a clean driving license, 10 years no claims and have not have an accident. I have contacted Watchdog today and I intend to contact the Financial Ombudsman if necessary)

I left Vodafone about 3 months ago, and guess what came through the post? A £633 bill for early termination of services despite me cancelling both my phone lines before any dues had to be paid. I upgraded my primary line and didn't like the phone and sent it back, but thought that I would like the HTC Desire and signed up for a second line due to the fluctuating stocks. Hence, I ended up with a second line. But, being an iPhone fan, the HTC never really compared with the iPhone 4 and I decided to return it within the 7 days policy. So that wasn't the issue, got sent the bag, sent it back special delivery, and rung to confirm they actually had the handset and all was cancelled. Off with my PAC code to another network for a cheaper iPhone. When I rung yesterday, they said that there was no record of my phone going back into the warehouse and the person I spoke to didn't record it on my phone notes (###### incompetent customer service fools), and now I have to wait the weekend whilst this £633 looms over my head. Like seriously, VODAFONE?! Also, I asked for my NUC for my iPhone 3gs given that all dues had been paid and it was unlocked. So why does Vodafone suddenly turn round and say 'oh but you still owe us'. I think it's Vodafone's [problem] of trying to claw more money out of me, but beware Vodafone, you've messed with the wrong person. Smear campaigns and possibly a law suit will be coming your way... Now because we're going back 3 months here, I have chucked away the receipt after speaking to the customer service agent who CONFIRMED THEY HAD MY HANDSET AND THAT ALL IS CANCELLED. I've had 2 contracts with Vodafone (12 months and 18 months) and always paid by direct debit, and never had an issue with them till today. I've sent back faulty handsets and now they are turning back and saying oh we never received it. I'm definitely not paying this stupid £633 because I have no phone of Vodafone's and I've returned it ages ago. Why now, Vodafone? The letter also stated that I have been sent a final bill- no such thing. Liars. Seriously, Vodafone, I'll never ever sign another contract with you ever again. And I think you should stop hiring customer service agents who don't do what they are supposed to do! PS: they deleted this from their eforum. talk about rights of expressing discontent.

Hi all It's been a while since I had a consumer issue, but I'm back and I'm stressed! I was lured by the cheap tariffs and agreed over the phone to take out a contract with them. (Phone & Broadband) They asked for a new line fee of £69.99 which I paid using my visa debit card. (This was 14th Sept 2010) Over the next few days I spoke to friends and asked if they had any experience of TT and was horrified at the stories they told me. 4 days after I initially made the verbal agreement, I called them back and cancelled the contract. (This was 18th Sept 2010) TT asked why and I told them that they had a bad reputation for broadband issues (I'm a mature student and broadband is vital to me) They took it well and asked me to call back in 7 days as the £69.99 was held in limbo and it needed to be credited to TT before they could refund it to me. I gave them a little extra time and called back 14 days later (This was 2nd Oct 2010). TT said they couldn't refund that day as the system upgrades being done prevented refunds being made. They asked me to call back on the following monday. I called back on the monday and was told to ring back in 7 days! (This was 4th Oct 2010) I called back again (15th Oct 2010) and was informed that a refund would go into my bank account within 5 days. I kept an eye on my bank account, no payment arrived. I called back today (27th Oct 2010) and spent the best part of 2 hours either on hold or redialling following cut off from an India call centre. I also spoke to Cape Town who were more polite but equally clueless. The british call centres are equally clueless and resorted to just sending me through to depts that couldn't deal with refunds. I had been passed around 7 different depts and 3 different continents. I finally spoke to someone who admitted they had no idea how to put me through to the dept that does refunds, he actually read out the depts he could transfer me to and none of them were relevant. He then suggested that I ring Ofcom! He gave me the number and was very helpful and sympathetic. I spoke to Ofcom who took all the above info, they say I have to write to TT and give them 8 weeks to respond. They also mentioned Otelo (ombudsmen) and the next steps to take if the complaint letter isn't satisfied reasonably. My questions to Caggers are; 1) Can I expect reimbursement for the phone charge to the various 0870 numbers TT gave me to ring? I'm not talking minutes on the phone to them, I'm talking hours! They keep people on hold as long as possible! 2) Can I charge them a reasonable interest for withholding my money with no explanation?

Morning all, I recently purchased an Apple Macbook Pro from a seller on eBay for a buy it now price of £1,020. It seemed a good price at the time, and obviously others thought this too as the seller sold 6 of these laptops in a matter of 5-6 hours (yesterday, 25th Oct). I paid via £120.00 out of my Paypal account and the rest was paid via bank transfer through paypal. Last night, after having my routine check on eBay, I noticed that the item wasn't in my "won/purchased" category on the side. After further checking, I noticed that the seller had completely unregistered their account and also removed all traces from the item, somehow. I'm not sure how he did this, but I bought the laptop at approx 2.10pm yesterday afternoon and I got the second last one, with the last one being sold at about 3.00pm. It seems the buyer has done a runner. I can't get any of his details from eBay as his account is unregistered and I can't even view the item I won as he has deleted it from eBay, somehow... I've opened a dispute with paypal right away but i'm not sure how much i'll be covered for. This guy seems a real [problem] artist, and has probably already withdrawn all the money from his paypal account (a hefty amount, considering he sold 6 of these laptops, adding up to around £6,100) in a day! I'm wondering what other course of action I could take? I'm planning on ringing paypal today and seeing what else they can do. They state in the dispute they want to seller to reply by 4th November, but I obviously can't see this happening, and feel at risk waiting for that date to come with no further action taking place. Thanks for all your help in advance, hopefully someone can give me a solution. Brent

Hi All, I signed a tenancy for my new flat at the start of August. Being worried about [problematic] i googled the 'landlords' name and found his facebook and myspace pages, i signed the contracts in his office on oxford street, i even got ownership details from land registry. I had asked him for proof of ownership but when i saw that the owners on the tenancy matched the land registry info i relaxed my guard and thought everything was above board!!! How wrong could i be!!! I get a knock on the door today, answer it and a guy in a suit asks me who am I and am I squatting the place. I showed him the tenancy and basically the geezer who rented the place to me had started a tenancy with the owners in march or april, he has added £200 to the rent & unlawfully subletted the property to me!!! Whats more he didnt pay the real landlord for the last month and had given notice asking the real landlord not to come round till a few days after my rent was due to be transfered into his account. Luckilly i have now stopped all payments to his account!! The owners first said they would think about having me as a tenant, he even said they may pay me my deposit back if i move out. I went to the police who were not interested in the slightest, wouldnt even take my statement, said it was a civil matter between the owners and previous teanant to be taken to small claims court!! Then the owners call me and say theyve thought about the situation and want me out by the weekend!!!!!!!! I think they are hoping i dont know anything about housing law and are trying to get me out fast so i dont have any time to find out. Unfortunately for them i squatted for 12 years & know a thing or 2 about my rights!! SO am i correct in saying that I am now a sub tenant and to evict me the owners have to give notice and follow normal eviction procedures to evict the previous tenant. I have a tenancy agrement between me and the legal last tenant, dodgy [EDIT] that he is! Also have receipts for rent paid and most has been by bank transfer!! I cant believe the nerve of the guy to do this in his real name from his place of work!! & the police, dont give a stuff!! I know im an idiot, i should have demanded to see proof of ownership but i honestly thought i was being so careful!! Any help or advice is much appreciated Thank you all!!! pat