Just into the New Year I obtained a second car for the wife. It was a 2004 mitsubishi carisma DID. Although it had 141K on the clock it was in immaculate condition and had a FSH. It was cheaper for me to change my single-car policy to duel-car than she take out insurance separately, so that's what I did. A week ago Thursday someone decided to steal it. I rang the police, who asked if there was any cctv. I told them where they could find it, and left it at that. I rang back a couple of days later to find out if there was any progress, only to be told that they weren't actually going to go around to these cctv owners without my first asking the owners to scroll through and see if they could spot the baddie's registration or face. Fair enough, but why not tell me this as the time of the initial call rather than 48 hours later? Since then I've discovered from one of the cctv owners that it was taken away on a white ford low-loader, the other owners are shop/pub people who said they would give information if the police go around but not deal with me directly. In short, I can't see me getting back the car. So to the insurance. How does this work? I've informed them of the theft but said I wanted to see how things played out in terms of getting back the car before I put in a claim. But I'm not sure it is even worth claiming for. I valued the car at £700, but the insurance people might not think it is worth it. Do they have to pay out what you valued the car at? Also, I'm liable for the first £400, so even if they did pay out on my valuation, I would only be getting back £300 - okay if that's all you can get back, but how much would I lose in no claims? Additionally, since I'm paying monthly, if they do pay out will I be obliged to finish paying off all the payments? If so, it definitely wouldn't be worth claiming if i can instead simply revert to paying only for one car instead (currently i'm paying £84 a month for two cars, it was £38 a month for just the one), but then again, would I be allowed to change payments if i don't claim, and could I also stop the payments on the breakdown coverage? Thanks in advance.

Please advise Parcel2Go have lost a laptop I was returning to Argos for a full refund, They have lead me a merry dance with lots of excuses and won't compensate. What now please?

Banks have admitted that thieves are able to use contactless cards even if they’ve been cancelled – sometimes months after being reported stolen. RBS, Lloyds, HSBC, Barclays and Nationwide admitted that a ‘weakness in the system’ can allow fraudsters to use cards after they have been reported lost. The ‘tap and pay’ cards allow purchases up to £30 without requiring a PIN number. The problem stems from the fact that some shops complete purchases ‘offline’, without checking with the card issuer if a card is valid. Instead of checking ‘live’, some shops store transactions and check batches at the end of the day, meaning that stolen cards can sometimes be used. The FCA says that if customers fall victim to this kind of fraud, they are entitled to get their money back. https://uk.yahoo.com/finance/news/thieves-can-still-use-contactless-cards-theyve-cancelled-banks-admit-103749226.html

Hi, I sent a parcel via MyHermes containing an Electric Guitar, MyHermes knew this was a guitar as I informed them of the contents and value before posting, I dropped it off at the parcelshop and the last I ever heard of the parcel was it was scanned into my local depot, I involved the police who said they couldn't do anything due to lack of evidence, but have suggested it's highly likely to have been stolen, but due to the item been on the excluded items list, they said I won't be able to get any compensation for a £500 item, I've filed a court case and went through mediation with MyHermes who offered me a sum below £150, I politely declined the offer and said I'd rather carry on with the court proceedings, they also said to the mediation person that they're confident I don't have a leg to stand on in court and are happy to defend, I want to know if this is the case? will I lose in court? surely they have to have broken some form of contract? they just keep blaming me for sending the item I don't know whether to contact MyHermes and see if they'll let me accept the offer if this is the case that it's highly likely I'll lose the court case, Thanks

At the beginning of this year i was shocked to see 2 companies that i didn't recognise taking money out of my TSB bank account via my debit card. Add's up to approx £15k i was oversea's at the time i called and informed that these were not my charges [ one charge after the other]. They would tell me the correct person was not there or that i had to speak with someone in fraud department but could not have the number. They had to call me. I waited and got no calls. I was shocked that despite informing the bank of these fraudulent charges that new charges from same company kept being debited. When i finally got a chance to talk with fraud dept i was told they would not put these charges back and that i had to call the companies directly. The companies have been no help to assist me. What kind of step should i take next?

Can someone please help - I paid for my jacket to kept within a venues (UK) cloak room, when I went to collect my jacket, it was gone. The venue have admitted full liability. My question is, what am I entitled too in terms of compensation, I have requested a replacement jacket. The jacket is considered a collectors item and has therefore risen in value, the venue are only offering a refund of what I paid for the jacket - this amount will not be sufficient to replace it. My understanding is i "should be put back in the same position I was in prior to the theft". I have always maintained to the venue I want my own jacket back or a replacement. Can anyone advise what I am entitled too - is it what I paid for the jacket OR is it the replacement value ?

I took new contract with O2 and new iPhoneX and chose home delivery option. The driver left my delivery with my housemate and he has signed for it. I came home and couldn't find it anywhere. Asked my flatmate and he said he left it in corridor inside the house but it has gone. Contacted O2 but they say they did everything correct and not that's my problem and I have to be fully paying for it. Is there any legal regulation that he is responsible for my parcel he has signed for? Or is it O2 for not giving it to me as they claimed I will have to sign for the delivery? I was sure it has to be me only who can sign. Any ideas please

HI, im new to this service so please bare with me. back in 2016 my partner signed upto brighthouse for a washer dryer combo, we paid £50 inital payment at the sign up and two payment of £30 a fornight there after. after a month had gone by and we still hadnt received the item in question we stopped paying. Shortly after this we had split and was going through courts for custody battle, so didn't have the time to chase this up In 2018 we got back together and decided to chase up the debt that brighthouse owes us, on febuary 22nd 2018 we spoke to a customer service agent who claimed to not be able to find my partner on their system. she then requested my details (in hindsight I wish id have never gave them) which I gave and was told they couldn't find me either which is no surprise. We waited until September of 2018 for a response, in which the woman who called and asked my partner for her personal information and ask for her permission to speak to me (which she gave) I was then told that the account was in my name not my partners (which should not be the case) the call lasted all of 2 mins from start to finish. after this call I rang in to discuss why the account was in my name and was told the exact opposite and that it was now in my partners name! I accused them of stealing my personal information and using it illegally and since then the account hasn't switched names again and it has stayed in my name they now claim not to have any information of my partners on their system ( despite having call recordings to prove this is a lie ) I have made multiple data access requests for all the call logs, a copy of the original agreement taken out in 2016 any and all information held in mine and my partners name all been ignored despite going about it legally and sending documents through e-mail (so I have a copy of all correspondence) and recorded delivery. The only aspect of which they addressed was the call recording and instead of giving me the full amount I requested I was given 3 from different points of my enquiry nothing more. I guess what im wanting to know is if there is anyone out there who has the same or similar experience with brighthouse if so have you any advice you could offer? oh I forgot to mention, according to brighthouse records I made 2 payments not 3 and the amounts don't come close to what I actually paid. they are stating I paid £23.10 and £10.78 which is BS as I never pay anything in pence I always pay up to the pound. Myself and my partner have both asked for her account information, and have been met with excuse after excuse and the claim that she doesn't have one despite being told otherwise on multiple occasions.

Hi, Just looking for a bit of advice on a situation that's happening to me at the moment. Back in March 2017 noticed my car wasn't where I'd parked it. This is in London, so first checked https://trace.london/ to see whether the council had taken it and the car wasn't listed. Called up Trace London just to be sure and they told me to call the police and report it stolen as no London council had the car. Called the police, they confirmed the same thing, spoke to the insurance company (Diamond) and started the process of the claim. I got £250 about a week later in lieu of a courtesy car from the insurance company. Police called me a couple of weeks later to say they couldn't find the car anywhere and told the insurance company to write it off. Sent logbook and car keys over to the insurance company and they paid out £1,550.00 (after my excess) on May 4th. Fast-forward to now and have had a call from the insurance company saying the police have found the car, that the council had taken it all along and that it's in the pound. I asked on the phone since the car had effectively been transferred to Diamond whether they were offering me the option of getting the car back, or if they were forcing me to collect the car and pay back all the money. They said since it wasn't an "insurable event" it was void and they would force me to collect the car and repay all the money. Now aside from the fact that there's a bill of several thousand pounds for it being in the pound this long (as I'm pretty sure this will amount to procedural impropriety? the police have given me a reference number which I'm hoping means I could pick the car up without having to pay anything), can the insurance company force me to do this? In the event that car's "found" after being stolen everything else I see online says it's now the insurer's car not mine. Can they force me (by force I mean take me to court to get the money back), or is it just the claims handler being pushy? He did put me on hold to check just wondered whether anyone had been in anything similar and whether there was anything to this "chargeable event" thing. How are cars that are stolen, parked illegal, and then towed to the pound treated for example? Any thoughts or advice welcome thank you!

Today I have received a PCN from Coventry Council for driving in a bus lane. I do not live in Coventry and have not been there for years and years. The picture shows it was definitely my number plate so I assume it has been cloned?? I will report this to the police when I get home from work. I am obviously going to dispute this but surely the council and receive disputes all day long saying it wasn't me I have not been to Coventry for over 6 years, so surely they are not just going to say 'yep ok no problem we will scrap it'. Unfortunately it happened at 6.15pm so it was dark and you cannot see the colour of the car or any marks/features the car has or what make the car is. Does anyone have any experience with this type of thing? What are the council likely to say?

Hi all, Long story, which I will try to keep short for you! I purchased a Humax Freeview recorder for £199 in Jan 2016 on my debit card. Over time it developed lots of faults, such as random crashes, missed programs, freezing and even not turning on. After researching the product online, I decided to take it for a refund - Lots of similar stories from other users. This was within a year of purchasing it. The girl on the till wouldn't refund to my debit card as the card I used to purchase it had been reported lost/stolen. I was made to take a refund onto a gift card, which I reluctantly accepted, thinking I'd buy another freeview box from them anyway. After reviewing the options, I decided on a £400 TV instead. Bought the TV and the picture quality was awful, with vertical banding (dark black lines) particularly on one side of the screen and generally poor quality image quality when compared to the 10 year old TV it was replacing! I took this TV back and swapped for another of the same - this one also produced a poor quality image, I got in touch with Argos via their live chat feature on their website today. The girl I was chatting to called the store that I got the TV from (FastTrack) originally and she came back saying they would refund £200 cash and £200 to my new debit card as long as I could provide the long card number and expiry date. I printed the chat transcript, called my bank to get these details and took the card number, the transcript and all my receipts into the store for my refund. They denied ever saying this to the girl at the customer service centre and said that they cannot refund to my card without the card, which I explained was impossible as it was reported lost/stolen! They wouldn't do it with a printed bank statement showing the original transaction either. They also said the store has final say on the matter and gave me an 0345 number for head office, which I called tonight only to be told I have to email head office as they were "only customer service, so we don't have the authority to override the store's decision". No phone number for head office apparently?! Has this happened to anyone here and where do I stand? I don't want to keep buying "blind" at Argos and would prefer to take my money elsewhere - somewhere I can actually see the TV in action before purchasing. Thanks very much in advance for any advice you're able to give before I write to Argos Head Office tomorrow Looking at their returns and refunds policy suggests the following can be used as a proof of purchase. All of which I can produce. WHAT COUNTS AS PROOF OF PURCHASE? Any of these: Till/kiosk receipt confirmation email e-receipt your order number If you can’t find one of the above, don’t worry. We should be able to sort everything out if you have: your card/bank statement the email address used to buy your item Hmm. Surely, as I can provide all the above (bar the stolen/lost payment card) proves I am the person who purchased the Freeview box to start with, so why are they not prepared to refund me?

Hi, before Christmas I sent a laptop through Parcel2Go. I did not buy insurance because I usually think it's a waste of time dealing with claims if something goes wrong - and it has never gone wrong. Until now. They lost the parcel which I had to open a claim for, after which they found the parcel to my relief. Hermes who was the carrier, then tried to attempt delivery to the recipient and found that they were out (I have been in communication with the person I sold the laptop to the whole time). Hermes left a note ( I have a picture of this note) saying it was unsafe to leave the parcel anywhere - IE. the front garden . On the second delivery attempt, Hermes decided to leave it in the front garden ( I had to penetrate through Parcel2Go's chat system to gleam this information, as they did not leave a note this time!) of the recipient which happens to be in a dodgy London area on a main street (my recipient tells me, and sends me a photo too). The parcel goes missing, and I've had to refund my buyer for £240. I have already sent a 'Signed For' letter before action via Royal Mail to Parcel2Go and am counting down the 14 days. I would just like a bit of advice on what sort of grounds I have to go against them - I know that they have broken the contract by not delivering the parcel. And if it goes as far as court - some idea of what I need to go into court - ie an argument etc..

Hello, I’m desperately seeking help regard a claim with my travel insurance. Here is my situation: - Policy: Economy Light (attached) - Insure and Go is the insurance company - Incident while abroad: Money and travel documents stolen from inside our hotel room in Lyon, France, on the 1st night of the trip (22nd December 2017). Unfortunately they were not in the hotel safe. - Travel plans: The trip was originally organized in 2 parts: o 1 week in France: starting in Lyon (where the theft happened) and going to the south of France (Nice, Marseille and Perpignan) o 1 week in Morocco: Departure from Perpignan to Marrakesh and flying from Marrakesh back to London Luton. - Consequences of the incident: Cancellation of hotels in south of France (as we had to go to Paris instead in order to sort new passports) and complete cancellation of the Morocco trip as we couldn’t get passports in time. Extra accommodation and tickets to get home to the UK from Paris (1 week earlier as we missed the holidays in Morocco). - Claims I made: o Section I3: Passport and Travel documents: Seeking for payment to replace the documents (£100 each) o Section I2 - Personal money: Seeking for payment of the U$450 stolen o Section J - Cancelling and cutting short your holiday: Seeking for compensation of having cut my trip short because of the passports being stolen - Response from the Insurance: o Section I3: Passport and Travel documents: They agreed to pay but under this section it’s saying it includes all the extra expenses incurred in order to replace the passports (£100 doesn’t even cover the costs of the new passports, let alone all the extra expenses!!) o Section I2 - Personal money: They are saying there is an exclusion for this: (4. Cash or passports that you do not carry with you on your person (unless they are held in a locked safety deposit box).)"- so I guess I won’t be able to get this money back. o Section J - Cancelling and cutting short your holiday: They are saying that passports being stolen is not in policy as a reason to cut the trip short (which for me is more than absurd as without a passport you cannot travel!). But I don’t see it in the exclusions. They are saying that only these reasons are covered: "Travel and accommodation expenses that you have paid or have agreed to pay under a contract and which you cannot get back, including any local prepaid excursions, tours or activities, if it is necessary and you cannot avoid cancelling or cutting short your trip; and reasonable extra travel costs if it is necessary and you cannot avoid cutting short your trip." I really feel that passports being stolen affect the trip and in my case made me miss flights and my trip and accommodation in Morocco. - Costs incurred: Amongst hotels we missed, extra accommodation in Paris, flights missed and extra ticket to get back to the UK we spent over 2,000 euros! Is there anything I can do to get any compensation under Section J (or any other section that apply better to my situation)??? I’m considering to raise this with the Travel Ombudsman, but not sure how to approach. Please help.. this has ruined my Christmas and my 2 weeks holidays and I’m trying to get a sensible response from the Insurance, but so far I only got “rejections” of my claims. I would greatly appreciate any help or suggestions you can give me! Travel Insurance Policy.pdf

Hello, i suspect this is fairly straightforward but google is unhelpful My daughter took a damaged Iphone 7 to the local repair shop that have done loads of good repairs for us and friends. They've said they've been burgled and her phone amongst other is stolen, their initial response to her is to try and track it down online I assume i right that they have to replace it with a like for like? If they are reluctant what is the best way to go? Legal or otherwise? I'd like to quote the relevant law or legal recourse to show them I mean business. And how long is reasonable to wait for them to replace the phone? She genuinely does reply on it. Thanks Micky

An investigation was underway on Friday night after the personal data of up to 44 million British consumers was feared stolen by hackers in a massive cyber attack. The information commissioner said it was investigating how the hack on Equifax, a US credit rating firm, affected UK customers, many of whom will be unaware their data is held by the company. Equifax and its UK subsidiary companies state on their websites that they represent British clients including BT, Capital One and British Gas. There are fears that customers of these companies could now be affected. BT said that "many companies in the UK" used Equifax services and said that it was "monitoring the situation closely". The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has urged Equifax to alert affected UK customers as soon as possible, and said it will work with the relevant overseas authorities on behalf of British citizens. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2017/09/08/equifax-hack-britons-data-watchdog-investigates-ukimpact-major/

Hi , bit of a general enquiry - not sure where it fits really. Our tree company has been broken into and the chainsaws stolen for the THIRD time ! ( In 6 months ) On the second instance - I brought in my own saw to help out as replacements are not easily found on Day1 of a theft . All the tools were locked in a steel bin and lo and behold after coming back from holiday I discovered we had been burgled again ! - My saw had also gone from the locked bin. Now asking the manager would he be replacing my saw , he said no - as he said they are not covered for personal kit . Have I been too kind or is he mugging me off ? Cheers, in anticipation Q

Disappointing experience dealing with Brighthouse (Shocking news i know). Ive had an account with them for years. Did the TV/Laptop etc. on it which are all paid off now. Took a mobile phone with them in April, desperate for money in May and sold the phone. I was completely unaware that this was going to result in such drama - nobody had told me i couldnt do this in store but obviously my fault for not reading the fine print. Had a text from the chap i sold it to on Gumtree saying he had tried to sell it on Music Magpie last week and they "red-flagged" it as having finance on it so were holding it and would only send it back to its rightful owner (not me OR him) Contacted Brighthouse, they did their standard "This is selling stolen goods and we are reporting you to the police" etc.etc. Contacted Music Magpie - No response. Phoned BH head office, then the store, then head office. I was pushed from one to the other with no resolution in sight. Unbelievably the irate man who I had sold the phone to seemed to have had more luck and set something up for MM to return the phone to BH. Ive seen an email from MM to him today saying they are sending it back to BH by courier. Called head office, they said talk to the store for an update, called the store and was told they would not be speaking to me any further about my account and to speak to head office. I have asked both if the phone being returned to Brighthouse meant my account could be closed and neither would give me an answer on this (bounced from one to another of course). Ive paid about 6 months out of 18 months of this off but happy to call it quits if thats possible. Has anyone had any experience of this and what the likely outcome is going to be? Surely they cannot keep the phone and continute to charge me andthey state on the website that you MAY be able to return goods with no further payments to make. Either way though, Brighthouse are no longer answering any of my questions - literally outright refusing and the store/HO playing me off one another, no response from MM either. Any help or advice would be appreciated. Cheers guys!

http://www.mirror.co.uk/money/shop-lets-you-save-hundreds-9195194 This looks interesting.

Thousands of people with lost or stolen contactless cards have been warned they could be used by fraudsters up to eight months after they are cancelled. The problem generally lies in contactless card payments being processed in one of two ways - 'online' or 'offline'. When payments are processed online, the card and payment machine immediately communicate with the customer's bank. If a lost or stolen card has been cancelled, this will be flagged immediately and a payment not allowed. Offline payments are stored in batches by retailers and processed online to the bank at a later point, sometimes a few days later with smaller stores. This can allow a thief buying goods on a stolen card to go undetected. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3779910/Thousands-contactless-cards-lost-stolen-warned-fraudsters-use-EIGHT-MONTHS-cancelled.html#ixzz4KtdyLapj If your contactless card is lost or stolen make suer you check your statement for fraudulent transactions.

Writing this on behalf of my missus. She runs a newborn/wedding photography service and has a facebook page to advertise it. https://www.facebook.com/AG-Photography-201381183294753/ She only recently noticed that, the profile pictures she uses on this page, appeared on several pages (used 'image search' in Chrome). This is understandable as she also has a Pinterest page and most of the results are pinterest pins etc. But the problem is that there is a few pages that offer various services like E-cards, phone covers and even a resort in Portugal, that use her photo on their pages. She can prove that she's the owner of the said photo, as she's still got original camera files and SD card. Links to websites that use here image for advertising: Portugal resort: http://www.montedaquintaresort.com/en/resort/kidsclub/ France (?): http://www.coque-design.com/lg-optimus-g-pro-/1426-coque-personnalisee-lg-optimus-g-pro.html USA: http://www.yourecards.net/ecards/baby-black-and-white-cute-inspiring-picture-on-favimcom/cardid62590/card.html?catid=126 I told her that I don't think there's much we can do here, as these websites are registered abroad, but you know women - so I came here to ask for some advice. To me it's clearly a breach of copyright - especially when websites advertise their services and earn money using her photo. Waiting for some helpful advice Thanks

Posting on behalf of a friend, who is employed by a cleaning company. The facts: - She's been working for the company for 5+ years as a cleaner for a certain client for GBP 6.50/hr for 2 hrs/day (10hrs/week) and her husband was also employed there for the same wage for 3 hrs/day (15 hrs/week). - There is no written contract and she and her husband have never received anything from the employer except salary payments into their accounts. - Ever since she's been working there she was told by her supervisor that as long as the offices are cleaned properly it doesn't matter how many hours she works. As a result, she's been going for 3-4 hours/day to do both hers and her husband's work and was always paid for 5 hours/day. No complaints regarding her work have been made. - Her husband was sacked in Feb 2016 because he never showed up at work (even though the verbal arrangement has always been that she does the work of 2 people - apparently this was the norm at the company). This was after a management change, which also caused her old supervisor to be sacked. - Now she's received a letter from her employer (see below), which basically states that she's inflated the hours she was supposed to work and she owes the client of the employer 736 hours for 2015 (only) or GBP 4,784 and they are going to deduct it from her salary (which they've already started to do). It would become due if she decides to leave. They also include her husband's hours into this amount (not sure how they calculated 736 hours). I'm pretty sure most of the assertions in the letter are questionable, to say the least. She should have received a written contract and they can't just withhold money from her salary. They mention a meeting between her and the client last August, which she does not recall. They claim that the security guard has been tallying her hours in addition to her punching in/out and that's how they claim they've calculated 736 hours, which is not really believable. It's also clear that the company is trying to get rid of her (as they've already sacked her husband and most of her old colleagues), so she's going to look for another job. However, she wouldn't want to get a debt collections agency on her back and she would like the withheld money returned. So my question is what she should do at this point. LETTER - date 21 March 2016 [suspiciously close to the official minimum wage hike, too...] Dear **** Our customer has highlighted deficiencies in the hours that have been worked during 2015. 1. It would appear that on the majority of working days, only one person attended site when there should have been two, namely you and your husband. 2. Our customer has analysed the signing in times that you entered in the log book on their floor against the hours recorded by the security guard downstairs when you arrived and left the building each day. It would appear that you have been entering earlier arrival times and later departure times on the customer book their floor, compared with these recorded by the security guard. Consequently our customer has requested a refund of 736 hours' work that has not been carried out during 2015. You were aware that two people should be on site for 2.5 hours a day. From the evidence put to us, your husband very rarely attended site and you knew that. Further, you have been inflating the hours you have been working on site. You had a meeting directly with our customer in August where the deficiencies in the cleaning provision were pointed out and following this, two staff did start working again but this lasted just thirteen days. You and your husband have stolen 736 hours during 2015 from our customer. Based on an hourly rate of GBP 6.50, that is GBP 4,784. Accordingly this amount is to be repaid. We will arrange to commence recovery of this over payment from you at the rate of GBP 30.00 per week until the over payment is cleared. Should you leave our employment, the full amount will become due and we will expect payment immediately. Should you wish to discuss this matter further, kindly contact me immediately. Yours sincerely, *** Operations Director

Hi all, thanks in advance for reading and any advice. I'll try to be as concise as possible. I have an iPhone provided by my work. It states on the iPhone Policy that if you lose the phone or it is stolen, you will have the price of the iPhone taken off the next payslip. The only exception is if you can provide a police certificate that it was stolen, but there is a sub-exception here that states you still have to pay if the theft was facilitated to clear negligence on your part, e.g. leaving it unsupervised in a public place. In November 2015 there was a fire drill at work. I immediately left the building. When the drill ended and I returned to my office, my work phone had been stolen off my desk. When I informed Asset Management of the theft, the person at the desk seemed understanding and stated verbally that this should be OK and I shouldn't be charged as when there is a fire drill, you must leave immediately and not stop to pick up personal belongings. I was provided with a new work phone a few days later and there were no other comments made by them. Come end of November, I have £300 taken off my payslip for the cost of a new iPhone 5. Before even considering whether they can do this, the price is not right. They currently retail on Amazon at £251, and I strongly suspect my employer gets them at a far lower price seeing as they order hundreds for their employees. So they are making a profit on this. By email, I questioned the deduction (and the price). In their email reply, they didn't dispute my story but said I was negligent as I should have taken the phone with me. I pointed to the fire regulations, which state, word for word: "...evacuate the building immediately and do not stop for any personal belongings. Delaying the evacuation to gather personal belongings risks the lives of you and your colleagues and may constitute gross misconduct." Their reply to this was that it was "obvious" that small items like your phone don't count in this rule, as your phone will be sitting on your desk (where we have a dedicated power cable for our phones) and so you will lose no time in picking it up. And they said making a police report for theft is pointless as it was now "too long ago" and in any case I was negligent (see 1st para.). I also raised the fact that there is CCTV - not in my office, but in the hall adjoining it. I.e. my office door is in clear view of the camera, so can see everyone who enters or leaves the office. This is the only door to the office. Even if the phone isn't recovered, I told them they can at least find out who stole it, on a matter of principle/ethics. They replied "data protection" and were extremely obstructive. What's the point of CCTV in this location if not to stop things being stolen from the premises or find the people who do steal? I issued a written reply by recorded delivery, challenging the deduction by quoting the fire regulations and stating that no exceptions are listed. I received no reply. I waited for my December payslip and there was no £300 refund. Where do I stand here? I was simply following the fire regulations. I am not in a trade union. Would CAB be a good start? Could I also claim interest on the money they are withholding from me? I have been careful not to mention legal threats as I know most people who say this never act on it. I am now at the stage where I would be happy to leave/lose my job to fight this. Threatening with going to the press would be futile as they are a very large company that has had a few controversies in the past and couldn't care less about negative coverage. Even if I can't get a refund on the facts, can I challenge the amount that they deducted as it is considerably more than the retail value of the phone? Thanks in advance, sorry for the long post!

Hello all, My husband recently started a new job in his 'friends'' company - he was to be doing sales. They verbally agreed a salary of £50K with commission/share holding as the company grew - he did think about it for a few weeks before leaving his job and starting this one. Now, the first three weeks he worked there he worked 105 hours , but his pay was £1685 - not as we were expecting, he didn't receive a pay slip . We complained - turns out that that month the 'cut off' for wages was 20/11 - he started on the 5/11 We had hoped that we would be paid on the 25/11, then told it was the 30th/11 - but this still wasn't enough money. We were given a random amount of money -£1408. This helped with Christmas. During this time dh discussed again the agreed salary and was told that he would now be on an hourly wage of £16 per hour - well when your average week is 67 hours that shouldn't be too bad should it? Anyway, come the 20/12/15 he submits his time sheets again - 256 hours at £16 per hour, minus an hour for lunch (?!) £4132 - In his payslip they have taken back in full the £1408. taxed him at £1000, added 10 hours and his Christmas half pay holiday that he hadn't even taken - this still doesn't add up and quite a lot is missing- take home £1705. Turns out that he wasn't taxed for the first two payments and the first moth they only paid him £12 per hour - the difference between the 12 and 16 is £703 . I don't think they should have taken the entire 1408 back, just the tax and NI on the amount . We have received a payment of an additional £400 supposedly for the difference between the £12 and £16. So, he queried again, turns out they work on a 28 day basis - where it takes up to two weeks to pay the worker, this means the cut off dates change every four weeks BUT they only make 12 payments a year (??) We are confused, they have messed up his pay, paid him for varying days at varying amounts, are making 12 not 13 payments a year, are paying holidays at half pay - not average full pay AND you don't get anything extra for working bank holidays including Christmas - which is just a nice thing to do. I have spent days doing spread sheets, tax calculations, adding up etc etc it sort of works but then it doesn't. How can you pay someone £380 for a holiday they haven't taken in the previous month? We will be down that money in January.# I don't know whether to speak to an accountant, a solicitor or the fraud office tbh Ut's driving me mad!! If any of you cn make sense of this please do. I can post spread sheets if you want as they don't show anything personal only numbers and random musings. The only contract was verbal and my husbands notes taken during the initial discussions - working this many hours makes it hard to apply for other jobs. Thanks for anything you can tease out of this tangled web of financial dodginess.

I qualified for my army pension in 1987 due to being unable to work through illness. They refused to pay me. I have not worked a day since and am even classed as disabled. They owe me over £87,000. I didn't fight for it due to mental problems. Can I make them pay up now? Thank you in advance.

Hi there, I have a huge issue with this insurance, my motorcycle was stolen from the college car park and Hastings direct claim that my insurance does not cover going to college. I had this motorcycle for a few months, and when speaking to their representative Im sure they as you for the purpose of using your vehicle. I mainly used it to get to and from work, as I cannot afford another car (mrs has one). When I asked for explaination they said they will back to me, but never did. I must also say that I have never received my policy booklet, nothing, so I didnt have chance to verify it. At work my friends are saying that going to college isnt like work, its your pleasure, same like you going to watch football every week. I didnt even use this motorcycle to go to college on regular basis, because of a huge traffic in the morning. My other friend advised me to speak to my MP, a local newspaper, watch dogs, etc. and all them saying its disgusting what Hastings Direct did to me. If possible would anyone give me any tips what to do and do I have any chance fighting for my rights? I feel completely disappointed with my insurance, really thinking I was naive to believe in honesty of this insurer who I did not change for past 3/4 years!