I'm in a bit of a pickle and am hoping someone can help me work out how to get around this: I bought my partner an Apple laptop via eBay three years ago. All seemed above board, but I collected in person and the seller insisted I pay cash as they didn't want to risk a Paypal chargeback - fair enough, I thought. At the time, they assured me they would send me a copy of the original Apple sale receipt and I asked several times. The seller then stopped responding to my messages. Not an issue, I thought, since I had the laptop and didn't think the proof of purchase would be an issue. To prevent the laptop being used if stolen, we put a firmware password on the laptop - this is a low-level password that effectively locks the Mac altogether if the hard disk is changed, which makes it very difficult for thieves to use the laptop if they steal it and try to wipe the hard drive. Six months later in 2015, we realised that we had forgotten the password. We took the laptop to Apple and, after e-mailing every bit of correspondence I had had from the eBay sale and with the seller of the laptop, a nice chap at Apple Ireland authorised my local Apple repair shop to reset the firmware password. Thinking we were out of the woods, my partner put a new password on the machine, wrote it down safely in a book, and that was that. Fast forward to two weeks ago, and we have realised that we have once again forgotten the password, and, having moved house, have lost the book. However, this time, Apple have refused to reset the password, because we don't have the original sale receipt for the laptop. Apple have said that, since we don't have the original proof of purchase, we will have to pay around £500 to have a new main board (the logic board) replaced. My instinct in this matter is that, having proven once beyond reasonable doubt that we are the legitimate owners of the laptop, a reasonable person would believe that we are still the rightful owners of the laptop, and Apple should remove the password. If somebody could help, we would be most grateful (in fact, if you can help us get Apple to authorise this password removal, I will send you £50 and a crate of beer/cider/wine/fizzy pop of your choice) Thanks ever so much! Alex

Hi folks, Back in January (actually 6 months ago today) I bought a SIM free Motorola Moto G phone from Phones4U to replace a faulty Samsung Galaxy S3 which I was told was no longer covered by warranty due to a small crack in the case (that's another story altogether :-/). Anyway, the phone worked great for a couple of months, for the cost (£150) it was a great purchase and did everything that I wanted. However, about 2 months ago it started to develop an annoying issue. Basically the battery was draining really quickly. If I disconnected it from a my laptop (the phone was only supplied with a USB cable, no charger) or USB charger it would sometimes drop from a battery level of 95% to 1% and then shutdown. Other times I would take the phone out of my pocket, it would be working fine and then suddenly when I started using it the phone would go off. It also gets stuck in reboot loops when plugged in where it would try and start up and then get so far and reboot again and do this about 5 or 6 times before starting. I did some research and it seems that the bug is related to the version of Android which is on the phone (Kitkat 4.4.2). Looking into it further Motorola did release a Kitkat 4.4.3 update which fixed these issues, but then was found to have a security issue so it was withdrawn, the next version (Kitkat 4.4.4) hasn't yet been made available. I took the phone into the Phones4U store today and spoke to one of their technical support staff over the phone. The sales advisor in the store went through a factory reset which hasn't fixed the issue. They advised a repair would be 2 to 4 weeks (which seems a little bit crazy to me). The only other option they suggested was that I could buy a new phone or take out a contract to get a replacement phone (something I'm not prepared to do). The phone is pretty much useless unless it's plugged into a charger (not an issue if I'm at home or at work) but when I'm out away from a power source the phone will run for about 5 minutes and then just go off. If it wasn't for these issues I'd be happy with the phone, it's a great little device apart from those issues, does everything I want it to, I'm just getting to the end of my tether having put up with this issue for so long, all I want is to get the phone replaced, either with the same model or a comparable model of the same sort of value (if they gave me a credit note it would at least mean I could get a different phone from them). So I wondered what the next option would be? Ta, Rob

Hi, myself along with a number of other owners have experienced an issue with a firmware update for a Panasonic BTT290 BluRay Theatre System rendering the unit unusable to watch certain BluRay discs. There is a separate thread about this on a dedicated Audio Visual forum: http://www.avforums.com/threads/panasonic-sc-btt290-owners-thread.1726525/page-3 To cut a long story short, I along with others have had no issues with our players prior to this firmware update, however, since the update a number of BluRay discs that had previous played perfectly now refuse to play. In my particular case I noticed this behaviour less than a week after the expiry of my 12 month warranty, although the update was released by the manufacturer more than a month prior to the expiry. It just so happens that I do not regularly watch BluRay discs and so never caught the fault until it was too late. The unit does play regular DVDs perfectly fine and does also play some BluRay discs perfectly also. I contacted Panasonic Customer Services who initially told me to do a system reset, which never solved anything, they then told me that I would need to contact my local Service Centre, which I did. The Service Centre have replied stating that I would need to pay a £48 non refundable inspection fee and that it is probably a drive issue and that the firmware update cannot be rolled back to a previous version. Now I dispute this claim of a faulty drive because surely no discs would then play, not an odd selection. Secondly, it is not just me that is experiencing this issue and it all coincides with the recent update, that, strangely enough is listed on the manufacturers website as an update for BluRay Disc Playability. I would like to know where I stand legally with this as in my mind Panasonic have released an update that has caused my product to be not fit for purpose. I have been trying to demand from them that they reinstate my previous working firmware version that was installed when I purchased the machine and which is what I actually paid for, they declined to do this. I wish to blast them with a coherent email outlining actions that they must take before any actions that I along with other interested parties may take. Any help would be appreciated. DHB