Hi all, new to the forum and looking for advice. I bought a bmw 318d off eBay in February this year, within 2 weeks it broke down on me never to start again. I understand there is no comeback with the seller as it was a private sale but this where it gets complicated. I had been saving up to get a reconditioned engine as I'd been told by my own mechanic that the timing change had snapped. Looking through e-bay listing I'd settled on a company called automotive_shop. I approached them via telephone explaining my situation and the fact I was concerned that the listing stated they needed a serviceable engine in exchange of the recon. I told him it was a timing chain failure and he said that it was serviceable so I thought I'd go ahead with it. What followed the conversation was a quote emailed to myself stating the following: FURTHER TO YOUR TELEPHONE CONVERSATION, WE CAN OFFER YOU A ENGINE RECONDITIONING SERVICE WITH 12 MONTHS 12000 MILE WARRANTY, QUOTE BASED ON A SERVICEABLE UNIT INCLUDING RECOVERY AND LABOUR This was at a cost of £1795 and a small part at the bottom of the invoice that states: in the event of non payment received any costs incurred in recovering the amount payable by you the customer statutory interest shall occur. Please note; vehicle will not be released until full payment is discharged, any delays shall incur storage fees with legal costs. To kick off the process they asked for a deposit of £900 and recovery of the vehicle was arranged. Over the days it has been in I've been asking for regular updates and today I received one saying: Engine seriously damaged many parts not serviceable, and a number of pictures of the inside of the engine. I called the number on the invoice and asked where I now stood in relation to this. I was informed they'd never seen one as bad as this and he was getting me a price together for repair. A second invoice followed about an hour later to my shock which stated: DEAR MR THOMSON, FURTHER TO OUR TELEPHONE CONVERSATION AFTER I EXPLAINED TO YOU WHATS CAUSED THE DAMAGE AND THE NONE SERVICEABLE PARTS... LIST OF PARTS AND PRICES BELOW SIR Product ENGINE BLOCK 650.00 1.00 650.00 Product CRANKSHAFT 350.00 1.00 350.00 Product CONRODS 95.00 4.00 380.00 Product PISTONS 112.50 4.00 450.00 Product TURBO 475.00 1.00 475.00 Product HYDROLIC LIFTERS AND TAPPETS 14.95 16.00 239.20 Product INJECTORS 168.00 4.00 672.00 All this equating to £4,700 minus the £900 I'd already paid leaving a balance of £3,800. I was shocked to say the least, for that money I can buy a new car. So, as I haven't got that kind of cash, I explained that was way above my budget and where did I stand having the car delivered back to me without the engine and what exactly did the £900 deposit cost. Soon after I receive another invoice: Service ADMINISTRATION COSTS 295.00 1.00 295.00 Service RECOVERY 2.50 90.00 225.00 Service REMOVE ENGINE AND DISMANTLE FOR FULL REBUILD SERVICE, AFTER WE FULLY STRIPPED THE ENGINE WE DISCOVERED THE ENGINE WAS BEYOND SERVICEABLE REPAIR. THE CUSTOMER ASKED US TO CANCEL THE JOB AND PALLET ALL PARTS TO SEND BACK WITH THE VEHICLE 65.00 16.00 1,040.00 Service DELIVERY BACK 2.50 90.00 225.00 All this equaling £1785 (£10 less than original quote) and a balance still to pay of £885! I can't believe they're trying to charge me the price of the original quote to send a car back to me with an engine in pieces. I fully expected to lose my deposit but not to still owe them money! So I replied this afternoon saying can they explain what the admin costs are? They're charging £450 when their eBay listing says free recovery nationwide and £1040 for them to take the engine out, dismantle and tell me it's unrepairable? The figures just don't add up to me, they've done less work than it would have taken to recondition it and are trying to charge the same money. They haven't responded yet but I would like to know where I stand moving forward please? I'm reluctant to pay the full price for an engine coming back to me in pieces. I understand it was a non serviceable engine and I have to pay for some labour costs but the full amount is ridiculous. Thanks in advance.

Just looking for any advice. I've had enough of TalkTalk with ever increasing prices and better offers made to new customers rather than loyalty being important (yes I know they are all the same) For an as yet unknown reason I can't port my home number across to a new provider. So this means I either get a new number and all the hassle that entails or have to stick with TalkTalk. In typing this I realise they don't need to show loyalty to long term customers. Holding the number is enough to stop most people switching. In this digital day and age I can't see any reason for it not being a requirement to allow the number to be ported over. Rant over anyone had this before and did you solve it? Thanks

APologies for a long post but I have actually tried to keep this brief! In March last year, we had a leak reported in our roof, despite instructing the agency to repair, it took a complaint to the director and several months until it was fixed (in July). At the end of October, we had a leak reported in exactly the same place, the agency called back the contractor who said the work was fine and he could see no problem. We were left to ask agent to find another contractor - it took a while for them to come out and do the repair - at one point I even phone the agency who told me the work had been done and the tenant had told them how happy they were - this was simply not true, when they did it didn't work and we were left weeks waiting for them to come back, they never did, despite repeat assurance from the agency that he was coming. (we refused to pay for this work). Despite chasing the agency regularly and even sending photos of the damage that was getting worse there was no urgency on their part - they even sent us an email to say they had emailed 3 contractors ... no urgency despite the weather being terrible and the damage getting worse. Eventually at the turn of the year we had to step in despite being 300 miles away and get the repair done ourselves. The problem was the ageing of the brick work so that when consistent rain, the chimney could only absorb so much and then began leaking through. There was no sign of any other leak either internally or externally - yet due to the time taken by the agency to fix the original repair ie not until summer, we could not prove beyond reasonable doubt that the original repair was not uo to standard. So we are left with costs, damage, an unhappy tenant at being messed around by the agency. On a separate note, when it became legal requirement to have carbon monoxide alarms, they emailed to say they would be fitted when they came into stock - by January they had still not dealt with this and again we had to take action ourselves to rectify this. Our agent had left us in breach of the law and also potentially put our tenant at risk. We gave notice of repudiatory breach of contract as we were now having to manage the property our selves, they had failed in their duty of care in numerous ways and neither us nor the tenant simply trust them to manage the property anymore. They however of course have disputed this and stated that they expect the management fee to be paid until the end of the tenancy - ie we would have to evict our tenant. I'm concerned as to the best way to go forward - the property ombudsman is incredibly slow and in past experience tend to side with the agents. I am considering the county court route but am then concerned that if they dispute this I will then have to incur serious legal costs to get this through with the potential cost of losing. I don't want to just stop paying them the fee and then risk a CCJ against my name either. Does anyone have any experience of this kind of matter or can advise on the best options?

Hi, Not really sure if in the right section, but I am sure someone will move it if not: So, I have an old bike frame and sent it away to a company to be resprayed in the original colours and also for them to recreate some grahics/stickers and put these on. In as short a time line as possible, i will note the main points. Bear in mind the communication was almost all one way, with hardly any replies coming back to me, but they had been highly recommended for their work and I have seen a lot of it and it was what I wanted. I and they had no problems with recreating the colours I wanted, but the stumbling block seemed to be the graphics. I eventually identified the correct style, and in both email and telephone conversation I advised on the size and positioning of them on the frame. The situation was then left via my emai communication in August 2013 that I would wait for a "mock up" of the graphics on the frame to approve them before spraying, application and lacquering over the top. Come November I called to ask why there was such a delay in me receiving a mock up for approval and after a strained conversation, it was left with me verbally confirming that I would wait for the mock up to be sent to me as the other person had been unsure of the colouring of the lettering (all they had to do was ring or ask in the 3 months it took before I called them again). Fast forward to February 2014,and I get a call letting me know that the job was "all done". This took me by complete surprise because I was still waiting for some kind of email that I could "approve" before moving forward. To boil the last part down, I said I was unhappy that he had gone ahead and completed the job basically to his own design and he said it was my fault for not providing the correct proofs for the stickers (I was relying on him to do this for me as he was meant to be recreating them!!!) He basically told me to pay (for a job done incorrectly) or he will keep my bike frame to "showcase" his companies work. He was impervious to me telling him that he had got it wrong and would do nothing about it unless I paid extra over and above the actual cost thus far (I have not paid anything so far). I was going to pay but then I asked for some more pictures of the finished work because I only had the one and a few other parts had been done as well and I wanted to confirm the quality. I then received an email last night (7th March) telling me the frame was going to be stripped back to bare metal and sent back to me as A. Someone else could do the job and B. He didn't want my money. When I replied this morning and said that was OK with me and to let me know when he has ready to send the parts back and to let me know the postage cost, he replied by telling me that if I thought I was getting my frame back then "I was wrong" and he thought "I would have liked that option" and it was now "your move" Has anyone got any advice as to whom I should contact because it isn't going to get sorted amicably clearly

Hi all I got into financial difficulty a while ago after being a customer of orange now EE for several years. Up until that point I had been a loyal customer of Orange for over half a decade. When I was unable to continue making payments due to losing my job, they eventually sent me a bill for the remaining amount of the contract which was a figure far beyond what I could certainly afford. After attempts to work this out they sent this debt to a DCA and the bill was reduced to an amount of around 10% which at a struggle I could afford to pay. But my main problem is I have unique number which I purchased when things were better for me, it cost me close to a £1000 from a third party. I have the invoice and it’s not even an EE number it’s from another mobile provider. EE’s uncompromising response is the debt is no longer with them and not their problem and more importantly we are not giving you the number back (or PUK code). I rang it last week it’s still not been allocated to anyone. I’m not against paying the debt nor am I against paying the debt and staying with EE if they will have me but this is my number and they are basically holding it to ransom. My belief is it not there’s to hold. If the sale of goods comes into play I made a legitimate purchase to third party not EE. Does anyone know what my options are? Is it legal for them to refuse to supply me with a PUK code for a number I bought and paid for and by rights is mine regardless of any debt. When started my contract they supplied me with an orange number and I changed it to my purchased number. Please help; on top of my other financial problems I cannot readily accept writing off a further £1000 purchase. Do I have options to pursue this in a small claims court? Any information would be useful Thanks