Hi, I'm new and, until yesterday, when I read your Announcement about BCOBs, I didn't even know I was legally entitled to fair treatment by a bank! In 2005 my sons and I took out a loan with HSBC to fit out and start a restaurant. As planned I took out a 60% mortgage on my house(interest only) to complete the startup. On the plan we were due to have paid everything back in three to five years. We negotiated an additional loan in 2006 as we were starting to run up costs. In 2007 I needed to go to the bank again. I had rewritten the business plan with actuals and you could see that if we had additional money we would be turning the corner at the end of 2007. The manager I'd always dealt with agreed in principle, then disappeared off the face of the earth. Too many weeks later after numerous enquiries HSBC said he had gone on 'sickness leave' and there was no record of our discussion or the promise so we had to start again. I was turned down. Not only that, they sent someone from a team called special measures or similar to 'help' me. His 'help' included a threat that if I didn't go to an administration firm he would close the account: also that because he was a specialist all my charges would now be increased. I went along to the firm he recommended who said they couldn't help me, the only route was bankruptcy. For various reasons this was not an option so I managed to mortgage the rest of my house. For their own reasons HSBC wanted my business closed. I was an old customer and immediately prior to this business loan, had successfully borrowed, used and paid back a £480,000 short term loan. I was also in parallel running another small business with an overdraft and business loan and had been with First Direct since it started. So it was nothing to do with my history, which had been impeccable. The manager who 'went sick' had been working alongside me and helpfully advising, but once he disappeared the bully boy tactics started. I did not go bankrupt but will have to work until 70, at which time I lose the roof as I sell up to pay the mortgage off. While the above sorry tale was happening, I was obviously subject to the usual practices of bouncing payments, charging for that, then going overdrawn, then charging, then bouncing etc etc. They also threatened to plunder my other accounts which I rapidly changed. Is there anything I can do - or is it all too late?

This is my first post. So, greetings to all. This “thing” is a first for me but now its happened imfairly convinced that it’s a practice used all too much in the recruitmentindustry. Ill try to be brief. I recently started a new job. Im employed thru a recruitmentagency, to workfor their client in a warehouse role for £6.59p/h. The jobs’ fine. Nice people,my line manager is really friendly and helpful and all is good. During my registration/interview,with the agency ,I was told among other things that plenty of overtime wasavailable there. ( I should of asked for more detail in hindsight. Instead I justsaid great). And why not. Overtime is how those of us at the low end of the paybracket top up our meagre wages. So one day I asked my line manager at theclient company about doing some overtime to which he said “yes, as much as you want. Standard overtime is paid at time and a halfand Sundays are double time” Decent enough. So I did some evenings and a full weekend. On payday I expected my wages to be decent but no !! I was only paid the standard rate of £6.59.When I approached the agency I was told that although the client pays overtime at£xxxx we don’t. We pay you overtime at the standard rate !!!!!! I spoke my manager at the client who was completely unawareof this. So all that extra work I did, that extra money went straight in thepockets of the agency. Its disgusting. Theyare basically profiteering and exploiting low paid workerswho are desperately trying to get by and try to do this by working extra hours. Im sureits all perfectly legal but shouldn’t be. If the client is paying extra forovertime then the agency should pass that on to its workers.

Its been on the news that the government are bringing in a new law stating that if you refuse treatment for your condition your sickness benefit will be withdrawn. I have a brokin disk in my back and the only treatment is surgade a 40% success rate. I attended out patient surgery consultant who said my operation had a 40% success rate!!!. The other 60% is paralysis,Thromboses,death. Not a good outlook. So I have refused the operation. Where will it go from here I wonder.

Hey all , Its understandable a company you owe money to can get frustrated , but there are ways and means of getting said money and i want to know if the person that's spoken to me has behaved in a disgusting way. My partner is my carear and we went with a buy as you view for a washing machine and a dryer , im writing this on her behalf to see if there's anything illegal about the gentlemen's actions from buy as you view. We started falling behind with payments a few weeks ago , around 90 pounds or so most of which is charges for making a late payment in retrospect we only owe 40 pounds minus the charges. Now we have had no issues with the direct debts before now as we dont see it leave the account. But lately we had a few issues which stopped them being paid for a few weeks. With this being the only issue we have ever had with the company we thought they would allow us some time to get the money together to clear the arrears, they said it was fine. The day we set to phone them up and make a partial payment them there was a knock on the door. It was a gentlemen from buy as you view demanding the full amount , my partner explained that would be impossible to do as the weekly budget has already been set aside and we cannot adjust it to the amount he wants as we already came to a agreement with the company over the phone. He started rambling on about how he was going to enter the property and remove the products from the house there and then. Now at present my foot is broken and as i suffer from a number of mental health issues , i didn't think showing my face and getting myself into trouble would be the best idea. So i decided to call consumer direct and they where about as helpful as a chocolate teapot stuck up stairs and having my partner face this clearly ignorant man , i had no choice buy to allow her to use my card and i could clearly tell this man was intimidating her , he even went to the trouble of causing his manger then his manger starts to guilt trip my partner *I quote* We thought you could afford the products why are you letting us down by not paying*. When i shouted down to my partner he cant enter the propertie its illegal , he shouted up , IT ISN'T. Now this happened around a week ago , and we now have a regular payment going back to them to clear the small debt. But i want something done to this pig who made my partner feel like this. Its still bothering me now and i very much doubt its going to go away until this bloke is dealt with. Thanks for reading.

My daughter, who is 22, feels she is being treated unfairly at work. It is making her feel very unhappy and unsettled. She has been working there around 6 months. It is a small business employing between 3 to 11 people, depending on the season. She was offered a full time position, with some Duty Manager responsibilities. Other work colleagues are doing these duties who arn't contracted for those duties. My daughter is doing menial jobs instead, which she doesn't mind. This makes her feel very alone and pushed out. Also she has problems with sciatica and asked to be put on lighter duties. To which she was told she had to meet the requirements of the business. There are 2 other work colleagues who are allowed to have lighter duties, when they are feeling unwell/bad back problems etc. My daughter said she only wants to be supported the same way has she has supported other workers. She has had a meeting with the owners today, and I am waiting to hear from her. Is there anything that can be done? She has no Line manager, the owners run the business. In todays economic climate she feels unable to leave her job. Thank you.

Where i work one member of staff who does the same job as me is getting 1/2 to 3/4 hour a day off as a "freebie". This 1/2 - 3/4 hour "freebie" is made up of a combination of them being late for work (at least 3 times a week) and one of the drivers dropping them off at the train station before this person's shift officially finishes. Over a year this amounts to nearly 17 - 21 days holiday extra a year for free. To make this worse i have been told that i cannot put a claim for TOIL (time off in lieu) unless the amount per occasion is over 15 minutes. I currently get 1/2 a day's TOIL per month with all the small amounts of overtime i do. They want to use a "give and take" approach. I've no idea what this means. So, i am now losing 6 days holiday a year while the other person get 17 - 21 days extra. I asked in a meeting why lateness was not addressed. I was told tthis persons holiday was docked every time they were late or left early. On that basis this person would only get a week off a year. This is not the case. Even if the time was taken (which it never is) what about the disciplinary action for being late in itself? This person has been late 3/5 or 4/5 days for the last year. Surely that must trigger an effect? I have a meeting about this tomorrow and a question i am going to ask: If i am constantly late will i be disciplined? If the answer is no i'm going to go in constantly late (to prove a point) if the answer is yes i would have to ask why this person has not been sacked ater doing this for nearly 8 years. The manager is just so innefective. Should i just whack a grievance in straight away? If so, how would you word it? Thanks to all for any help you may be able to give.