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Found 13 results

  1. Please help! I have no idea where else to turn. On 29th February 2016 I bought a Toyota Verso Excel D4D from Motorline Toyota. Since taking ownership of the car on the 10th March 2016 I have had a problem with a recurrent smell inside the car. Initially I believed this to be as a result of me following other vehicles that were emitting an acrid smell. It happened regularly enough that it became a talking point in the car with my two older children who were then aged three and four. The smell often occurred on the school run which is approximately 4 miles from home. Initially I noticed the smell occurred approximately once a month then on the 5th August 2016 whilst filling up my car with diesel at a petrol station, smoke appeared inside the car via the vent in the centre console. At the time my two sons and my baby daughter aged four months were inside the vehicle. Having paid for my diesel and returned to my car my eldest children asked me why smoke was coming inside the car. I immediately telephoned Motorline and told them about the problem and received a curt response which was that I had AA cover and I should call them. I was informed that they would decide if the car needed to be returned to them. I contacted the AA who came and inspected the car and diagnosed that the oil filler cap could not be tightened sufficiently enough without it popping off. He advised me to contact Motorline and inform them. This I did and I was again surprised by their initial response. I was informed that they were unable to supply me with a new oil filler cap as they were having a problem with their suppliers. I replied that that was unacceptable as I could not be in a situation whereby my three children were in a car with smoke entering the inside. I was then advised that if I were to bring the car into the garage they would attempt to locate an oil filler cap that would fit from another car. This I did, a forty mile round trip. However they did manage to source an oil cap that fitted. I decided that the smell that I had noticed in the car must have been the result of the faulty oil cap and felt assured that now that the problem had been identified and rectified it would no longer be a problem. However it did reoccur and I called the AA again on the 2nd September. They reported that they could find no reason for the smell and reassured me that everything appeared to be fine. The smell continued to occur approximately every three weeks and after yet another occurrence I called the AA out again on the 23rd December. Once again no obvious fault was identified and I was advised to contact Motorline Ashford. In November I had received notification from Toyota that there was a safety recall on my car relating to the Throttle Body. I decided that I would contact Motorline in the New Year to arrange for the recall repairs to be carried out and to discuss the issues regarding the smell. In the meantime, on an occasion when the smell occurred, I drove straight to a local garage to ask their opinion. They advised me that in there opinion the smell was not right and they advised me to contact Motorline . I took the car to Motorline for the initial inspection on the 18th January 2017. I was advised that they would look into the car but they mentioned it may be due to the DPF. I had now noticed that the smell was occurring approximately every two weeks. When I returned to collect my car I was advised that they had been unable to replicate the smell and so there was nothing that they could do. I explained that that was not acceptable and became emotional. I asked for advice as to what they thought I should do as when I stopped the car the smell would go. As far as I could see the only way I could get them to smell the smell would be to drive the 30 minutes from home to Ashford with at least two of my three children, if not all of them, being subjected to the awful fumes which I was concerned were harmful. I asked what they would advise I do in the event of the smell occurring again given that I did not feel it was appropriate to subject my children to the fumes in order to drive the car to Ashford. I asked if there was a garage local to me that they would not be happy for me to go to for them to give an initial assessment. She just repeated that the problem would have to be replicated whilst with them. Following this event I decided to call Toyota Customer Relations. I rang them and relayed the problems I was having. I was informed that a case manager would be in contact with me within a few days. I never did receive a call from a case manager. I did however receive a call from the After Sales Manager. He agreed that they would use the car in a manner similar to myself in the hope that the smell would be generated. I agreed with this plan. My car was collected on the 3rd February by Mark. The After Sales Manager rang me later that day and asked me if I knew how many miles I had done since I last noticed the smell as he was able to tell when the car had last gone through a cycle and how many miles I had driven since. He believed the smell was to do with the regeneration system. Given when the smell had last occurred and how many miles I had done since I concurred with this. My car was returned to me on the 6th February. He told me that the smell was due to the regeneration system but assured me that the fumes were not coming into the car. I asked how I was smelling them if they were not entering the car. He said that the system was close to where I sit in the car and that was why I may be able to smell it. He explained that the regeneration system was designed to flood the engine with additional fuel and burn it off at a high temperature before dumping the fumes out of the car via the exhaust. He also explained that if the car had not completed a cycle it would emit a smell once stopped. He said that a regeneration cycle should occur on longer journeys and he felt that the problem may be because I was doing shorter journeys as I had been on maternity leave and doing more local journeys. He felt that this may also be the reason why I was smelling it more often. I explained that that did not make sense as I had recently driven a 30 minute drive and that the smell had occurred when I parked up at my destination. It was explained to me that as well as a longer journey other things had to be happening in the engine such as it getting to a particular temperature etc. to ensure a successful regeneration. I asked that if I needed to do longer journeys for the regeneration system to work properly then I should have been informed of this when I bought the car as, knowing I was due to start Maternity Leave, I knew that I would not be doing long journeys. I suggested that the car may therefore have been mis-sold to me. He advised me that the regenerations system had now been reset to the factory settings (I believe he said that this was every 2000 litres of fuel). I asked what advice Toyota gave to their customers about the regeneration system and was informed me that none was available. He also told me that he had found out what he had by looking on google and reading chat forums. He asked me why I had chosen a diesel and I explained that it was what I was used to driving and that it was what I was advised to purchase when I was buying the car. He suggested that he could speak to Matt Brown about me changing my car and suggested either a petrol Verso or a Prius Plus. I said I would consider this. We met with the manager on the 11th March. He agreed to see what he could do. He listened to my concerns and appeared to understand my distress. I explained that I knew that I would lose the £3204 I had paid in repayments but that I did not expect to be out of pocket as I believed the car was faulty. He agreed that finance would be 'sorted'. Matt agreed to look for a suitable car. I was happy to consider an older Prius Plus as well as a petrol Verso. I received a telephone call from the dealership on the 20th March. I was given details of a Prius Plus. I was getting ready to leave the house and took quick details about the car including the repayment details. A day or so later I rang and spoke to Toyota and asked if I could have a more detailed breakdown of the finance for the car. I explained that whilst I accepted that I would lose the £3200 that I had spent paying for the car over the past year, I was not prepared to lose the £2200 part exchange value of my previous car as I was returning the car because I believed it to be faulty NOT because I had changed my mind. I was told that there was no way that I would get the £2200 back. I said that I believed that I had a case to take to Toyota Finance to say that I was in dispute over the car as I believed that the car was faulty. I believe the car to be faulty and that it was mis-sold to me. I want to return my car and have the finance cleared and I wish to be reimbursed the £2200 I put down as a deposit (part exchange value of my Toyota Yaris) I have written to Toyota Finance and have not yet had a response but I do not hold out much hope as I did write to the CEO and have had a response saying that 'the issues I have are a consequence of driving styles and usage.' they go on to say regarding my claim that the car was mis-sold that 'we have not been privy to those sales discussions and are unable to pass comment'. The car was bought on finance. The initial cost was £17495 and I had £2200 deducted from that for the part exchange of my old car. The car continues to smell inside the cabin on a regular basis and happened last week with all my three children in the car. It is a revolting, acrid smell that makes me feel sick. I am greatly concerned for my children's health being exposed to this smell. Thank you to anyone that takes the time to read this.
  2. On the 1st of September i enquired about downgrading my unlimited high speed broadband to a bt basic package with a 10gb limit. They charge for every 5gb you go over. This was due to take affect on the 16th of September. 16-19th September the internet refused to work and i had to wait for it to stabilize. On the 16th of September they sent an email saying i went over the limit and it was over 300gb! For some reason, they decided that they would charge me from the 1st of September while i was still using unlimited broadband. At no point did anybody mention to me they would be monitoring the usage while i was still using unlimited, i phoned them up and they said i will have to pay the usage charges, at the moment i absolutely refuse to pay as it would end up costing over £350 Where do i stand??
  3. Beware BT and misleading statements! This... We'll charge you £5.60 for an extra 5GB.... actually means this... UP TO 5GB, not a total of 5GB! They will then give you some gobbledegook about offering you a "better" package deal on your Broadband just to get you to "upgrade". This is a RIP-OFF!
  4. I've seen some posts on stolen phones abroad and massive bills. Please help someone... My scenario: I had my phone stolen in Spain and some criminal gang used it to make 369 phone calls (sometimes simultaneously) to Serbian premium numbers before I was able to report it stolen. This has left me with a 6.2k bill which I received on 16 Oct (the calls were made on 27/28 Sep). Not surprisingly this freaked my out as when I reported it stolen the rep told me that there was no suspicious activity on the account. I immediately called Vodafone and the rep I spoke to advised that this was obviously fraudulent activity and that he would have the charges reversed. I received multiple assurances that I wouldn't be charged and that he would send me a confirmation email (he wanted to send a text, but I wanted it in writing). Phew, I thought! No email for a few days and so I called back on 20 Oct to find out what was going on and boy oh boy had their attitude changed. Not only had they refused to acknowledge the contents of my prior call but also refused to acknowledge that any type of fraud had taken place at all. The "you are liable for all calls up until reported stolen" line was being regurgitated at will. The calls over the last few days were basically me pleading with them to explain how they did not notice such high call volumes and take no action whatsoever. I had made 12 voice calls in the whole of September, but 369 calls over a 30 hour window didn't raise any flags?!? I was told repeatedly it takes more than 24 hours for the systems to update. Then the breakthrough that exposes this myth of "not knowing" they seem to perpetuate. I kept referring to the incident as a fraud and one of the many reps I had spoken to replied (prob out of frustration), "it's not fraud, your account was checked on the night of 27 Sep at 23:40 (12 hours after the calls began) due to suspicious activity and it was decided that no fraud was taking place". This was re-confirmed by a supervisor 3 hours ago. In other words, they have the technology to identify suspicious activity, they just don't feel like acting on it. When I pushed the supervisor on the duty Vodafone has to assist or act in the customer's interest when this type of activity is occurring I got a response that pretty much sums up their whole attitude, "Sir, show me where in our T&C's it states that we should act in the manner you are describing". Now the threats of debt collectors and credit scores have started. The only thing they said they would do for me is offer a payment plan over 6 months (as this was an exceptional case). I find myself moving between anger and anxiety constantly now... How do I fix this??? I'm so close to having a deposit to buy a flat after years of saving. This whole episode looks like ruining that dream...
  5. [ATTACH=CONFIG]49574[/ATTACH]Sorry if this is a bit of a jumble, I have tried to rush and write it. Our phones are on tonight’s bar list, unless we pay the bill, so I have until tonight to make a decision on this... We have a business contract with o2, and have had since 2010. At the moment we have 22 lines. In April/ May last year we received two huge bills, of over £3000 each, our normal bills are around £700. Looking into these we could found that the large charges were for “data” and had been incurred by only one number on our business contract. £3048.10 on the first bill and £2353.19 on the second. (These amounts are excluding VAT) The £3048 + vat was collected by direct debit before we realised, and to date we have not paid the May bill. We have managed to have the bill in query this whole time and it wasn’t until recently that they started to peruse us for it. We had been paying all our other bills since then on time and in full. Anyway, the line that incurred the charges was a voice only Sim card and as far as we were aware, shouldn’t have even been able to access the internet. We only provide our staff with basic phones that cannot even access the internet, just be able to make calls and texts. We had an initial investigation by o2 carried out and it turned out that our employee had apparently put the sim into an accessible phone, a Samsung, and managed to access the internet, and incur these charges. Following this we had an offer of credit for half the charges by a Customer Relations Executive. But, we refused the offer and asked for the complaint to be escalated. Apparently there is no further escalation. Through desperation our latest attempt was to contact Neil Harvey, Head of Business Services. It took them nearly two weeks to get back to us, but we had an email from lady on his behalf, who’s job title is Executive Relations. She has informed us that unfortunate the charges stand. Now our phones are on tomorrow’s bar list, unless we pay the bill. We would like to know the following: • Why are the charges so high, despite that fact that we pay just £5 on our current contract for an internet add on. • Why was we not informed of the high rising charges, despit it being so out of line with our current bills. • Why was the sim even able to incur these charges when we have it stated as a “voice only” line in the contract, and the rest stated as “voice and data”. What do you think our chances of going to court will be like? i have attached a copy of our contract, minus the first page with details.
  6. Hello all. I am on Primus broadband (20 gb per month) and for July and August have suddenly been landed with an excess broadband usage charge of£23.33 for July and £33.33 for August, which is payable at the end of the month. That much has not been used by the family - we use mainly for email/skype/whatsapp and will stream around 2.5/3hrs standard video per week. No p2p software, illegal downloads, no dodgy software installed - we have an eight year old son who does not have a computer in his room and his usage whenever he goes online is monitered. I have called primus and they insist that it must have been our fault and usage as they cannot tell what has been used or not - however, I am annoyed as I know that our usage has not changed. Primus are a pain to get through to - I had a problem where I kept losing my internet connection for about a week for no apparent reason and they could not come up with a solution and had to wait on the phone for at least 20 minutes each time. Any advice on this would be gratefully received! Regards, Rob
  7. OK, so we all get water bills but here is my question.... On my bills I notice that the wastewater volume is the same as the usage volume, ie Thames Water are saying that they process the same volume of wastewater as the water I take form them !! This can't be correct, how can I flush or put down the sink the same amount of water that I take ? Sure when you have a cup of tea you pee but is it the same and what about when boiling water for cooking and the steam that comes off ?, what about when I use my jet wash to clean the car and the water goes into the drive ?, When you hand wash clothes some of the water stays in them (and probably goes into the lawn from the washing line). Come on how can a water company say that the charge for wastewater is the same volume ? Anyone had experience of this or is there a ruling in regard to it, certainly in my view the water going out of the house should be less that the water coming in. rgds
  8. Hi You may have noticed, I have another thread running at the moment, although in relation to an Orange UK matter, it is totally unrelated to this matter. (other thread relates to Mobile Contract Ts&Cs - this relates to Orange USB Dongle Broadband/Data Usage - costs!). So to begin, I have an Orange USB Dongle, on Contract - costing approx. £5 per month, for 500MB Data. I have had this for approx. 2 years, most of the time - forgotton about, sitting in a drawer for emergencies. Recent dispute/negotiations with Virgin Media, who provide me with Telephone/TV/Broadband - had meant my services being temporarily suspended. So during this period, I relied on using my Orange USB Dongle, being very careful to refrain from any form of streaming/downloading etc. Any heavy work required, likely to incur heavy charges - I would plan in advance and attend the library and use their internet /facilities. My VM Services were suspended for approx. 2 months (max). My Orange Bill dated 24 June - had not incurred any additional costs for data used (430MB) My Orange Bill dated 24 July however, came as a great shock - £62.70/ rating my usage for the month, as being 2319 MB. I was mortified. Unlike the Mobile Phone usage, which includes an itemization - Data Usage doesn't? Is there any way of establishing, just how I may have used this much data? I don't understand why it should be so high on the second month - used similarly?? Any help/advice - much appreciated! Thank you all
  9. Hi Guys, Really looking for some advice here please: Let me start from the top: I stay in a 2 bed flat, all electric. we are very energy wary so everything not needed is off. We also do NOT ever use the storage heaters as the heat from below warms the flat just fine! Last year I was on the £53 per month tarrif by direct debit and all was fine. This year I have been increased to a £74 pound tarriff. This seemed very high for nothing running. So now to today - I'm now paying £125 per month as i'm now over £400 quid in DEBT to them for using, yes you've got it, very little electricity! I've asked for house visits, bill checks - all come back with no help as I'm paying the correct Tarriff. I bought a 3rd part meter reader (EFERGY) programmed with the Scottish Power rates and my bill for today is currently runing at £1.18 usage. I'm on a 2 rate meter (ELSTER 100AC) that gives me a C reading, Rate 1 Readng and Rate 2 Reading. Scottish power say Rate 1 is night, which on the meter is the day rate and Rate 2 is day which infact is reading 1 night rate on the meter. My head is all over the place trying to understand why the billing is so high in a flat which is empty during the day as myself and my partner both work. Im getting nowhere with Scottish Power and the billing is now going up and up and up. Starting to get a little worried, can anyone please point me in the right direction. Thanks and much appreciated!
  10. So I've just got my final bill from british gas. My DD was set at £55 for electric and gas (suspiciously low right??) but with two people working full time in a tiny two bed I gave them the benefit of the doubt. I phoned up every month and provided meter readings and was told "ok that is very similar to our estimated so we don't need to update it" Then wham, Final bill for £1092.14!!!! Ive asked for a full breakdown of charges, payments and meter readings because when you close an account you cant access that information on your online account anymore. I can see the statements however, 18 Apr 2013 Energy Charges * 425.22 -1092.14 08 Apr 2013 Direct Debit payment received 55.00 -666.92 23 Mar 2013 Energy Charges * 551.81 -721.92 07 Mar 2013 Direct Debit payment received 55.00 -170.11 18 Feb 2013 Energy Charges * 250.36 -225.11 07 Feb 2013 Direct Debit payment received 55.00 25.25 22 Jan 2013 Miscellaneous adjustment 100.00 -29.75 18 Jan 2013 Energy Charges * 215.98 -129.75 07 Jan 2013 Direct Debit payment received 55.00 86.23 25 Dec 2012 Energy Charges * 23.77 31.23 So apparently ive used nearly £500 a month for the last two months!! I know its been cold but I rarely have the heating on and the house is only inhabited from 5pm at night! Could I really have used £500pm?? And why when I was phoning each month was I told that my estimated readings were fine and that my DD was fine! I used to work for a certain big utility supplier and If I had a customer that was using £500 PM I would advise them to increase their DD! I would have happily bumped it up at the time, but now I dont really have that option. Ive been made redundant and heavily pregnant so no hope of quick re-employment. Im back living with the parents and no idea how Im going to clear this balance!
  11. Hi my friend regularly sends over 6k sms from his mobile phone. Today he has received a letter from the head of consumer marketing that they will close his account due to excessive usage which goes against the terms and condition? he has not received any prior warnings regarding this matter and regularly sends sms within that region. He has no issues with any payment, he is baffled that the letter has turned up out of the blues. Can the operator do that without any warning? what rights to this customer have in a situation like this? kind regards
  12. Hi I recently switched supplier from Eon to another company. I received a call from Eon retention dept to ask why - ive moved to a capped deal and also because their monthly DD has now gone up to £270 (combined) and I cant pay that! Their rep was very helpful. She said my usage is enoromous and made the assumption that I lived with loads of people. She said that last year I used nearly twice the average household amount of gas. I asked her what I had used during the summer and she said 18000, which is half the average annual household useage. This set the alarm bells off for me. I havent used my central heating all during the summer. Even now the kids are moaning for me to put it on and because of the increase in my DD (was previously paying £170, now gone up to £270) I wont put it on. im a single parent, 3 kids, work full time so house is empty all day.In the winter, the heating is only on 6hrs maximum per day. I only have gas boiler, everything else is elec. After many many problems with my not very old but very unreliable boiler (18mths old) I replaced it last September with a Worcester Bosch 30CDi combi (which I understood to be most economical version...) When I have looked on the Eon energy tracker, it shows that my usage is increased by over 700%!!!!! on last year. I had an engineer call round to check that I dont have a leak. Thankfully I dont! The company that installed the boiler have been back and checked that same thing. They also then fired the boiler and then went to check how much - and said as expected, it was using a minimal amount...... Ive been taking meter readings for a week, but to be honest, Im not really sure what to do with them. Can anyone advise me where to do from here.
  13. Hi, hopefully a quick and easy question... As part of my work I am required to email documents to my office on a daily basis using my own internet connection. As such I am allowed to claim a fixed sum of £7 from the comapny as reimbusement. This pays part of my monthly internet bill. However, the company have now declared this to HMRC and it is being treated as a benefit in kind. Is this right? Surely if the company is paying only a percentage, they are only paying for their access to my connection? Thanks!
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