Hi everyone Hopefully I am in the right place but couldn't find a section to suit this .... I am really annoyed. My Hive heating set up is broken. After 3 or 4 calls to Hive including 2 resets of the system etc etc (an hour on the phone each time), they have conluded over the phone that my hardware is broken. Now for a start, no engineer has seen it to confirm something is broken - I don't think it is, I think it is on the blink due to an update they did of the system over Christmas. There is no signal between all three components at the same time. Initially the Hub was offline and would not go online and the thermostat lost signal with the receiver. I called Hive and after about 50 mins on the phone and much fiddling, she concluded that my Hub was broken and quoted me £40 for a new one. Fair nuff I thought but was reluctant to buy anew one so I didn't. 2 days later it all went wrong again and the thermostat/room controller would not connect to the receiver so no heating or hot water at all. On the phone to Hive they guided me through another reset of the system and she concluded that the Thermostat/controller was not working - odd eh? Oh and no I can't buy a new thermostat as they are factory paired so the whole kit for £250 plus installation (hard wiring) = £400. Great, not. After yet more fiddling (by now I know how to do almost as much as the call centre staff) and hey presto the thermostat now talks to the receiver but not the Hub. This means that I have only the temperature and ON/OFF functions but no schedule or timer. It is now costing me a fortune as it is all on either 24/7 or nothing. My question/issue is this: How long are they meant to last? I would say that 4.5 years for a cost of £250 is not long enough considering this came with my new boiler installation (from British Gas) and thats guaranteed for 10 yrs minimum. Should I or anyone be expecting to buy new controller for the heating every 5 years at £400? I see their guarantee is for 1 year only. They obviously don't really know why my system has failed and are grasping at straws, should they be telling consumers to shell out again for a new system when the fault is not actually properly diagnosed? How could I prove it has been caused by their update recently where many people I see online have complained about their system going down and losing signal afterwards. Of course Hive deny it's anything to do with them. I think all this needs exploring. If they are selling this product, people need to know that it will all be useless in 5 years and that maybe the system is designed to fail after a period of time. You cannot repair or replace parts of it, you can only get a whole new set up. Also I want to say that for the elderly, young children, ill people, I would definately not trust this system to deliver consistent heating/ hot water reliably, I have woken up with no heating or hot water in the freezing cold because it has dropped signal in the night, even before these recent problems. What are my rights here? These systems are starting to fail (the early ones) and for £400 initial cost, I never expected that after the 1 year warranty was up, I'd be on my own with non-working junk and a cold or boiling hot house 24/7 expecting to shell out again. I feel like I've been had. Help!

the biggest CME storm in 45yrs is going off you should easily be able to photograph the northern lights anywhere in the UK if you look north ish around the plough star formation its going off all night as far down as cornwall. remember long exposure +30secs focus set to infinite and auto focus set off the further north you are the more chance of it to the naked eye too.

Virgin Media Internet access is down for the whole area I live in, spoke to them a few hours on the phone, they said they are 'aware of the problem' and it should be fixed soon, this was over 5 hours ago! I'm at my sisters using her internet to post this on here, what can be done for Virgin Media to get off their backsides and fix it?

There has been discussion on whether some jailed for life should be kept inside for the whole of their lifes. Should this be the case, no matter how much it costs or should the government look at other options ? If someone is kept in a maximum security prison for 50 years, that would cost approximately £2.5 million. This is the equivalent of the tax paid by 500 full time workers on average salaries. How would these people feel that their hard earned tax is going on paying for murderers meals, accommodation, plus their funeral costs at the end of their life ? While I do not support the death penalty, when you work out the costs of justice and that the family of the murdered may be paying their taxes to feed/house these people, it does make you ask the question.

Hi all, Appreciate any advice you can give with this potentially tricky situation...sorry for the long post! My girlfriend had been thinking about spending quite a lot of cash (£300) to hire a venue / activity for a private session for a party in 6 weeks or so's time. She is not particularly well off and had saved the money in advance, as she'd been planning it for a while. She has gone down to book it, and has then been told that basically it's actually £350, and been somewhat pressured into paying anyway. She is not a very "sharp consumer" as it were so she felt obliged to pay up. Subsequently she's had a few days to think about it, and is regretting spending the extra £50 which she can't really afford and upset about being over charged. The website still shows the £300 price. They fed her some stuff about the difference being "the tax", but clearly it's the wrong percentage for VAT and anyway the website is aimed at consumers and makes no mention of the prices being vat exclusive. Obviously she wasn't forced as such to pay the money, but she in general doesn't like to confront people and is more likely just to let people get on with things that are slightly taking advantage of her if she feels like it will cause a fight. She is too "nice" for her own good sometimes! She now is quite upset about the whole thing and basically wants to cancel and do something else instead. The website says "XXXX is unable to offer any refunds for missed or cancelled bookings, regardless of how much notice is given of the cancellation" which is unhelpful to say the least. She has asked for my help as she doesn't really know where to go from here. I am to say the least firmer with this stuff and would not have let it get this far if I had known about it as it was happening. I run quite a substantial business and am quite used to fighting with people over deals etc. But I am much more familiar with these kind of issues in a larger business context than I am small retail / B2C type of stuff. I am wondering if we are able to try and get them to cancel on the basis of the overcharge, either by going to them and talking about sale of goods act etc or going with the threat of getting a chargeback on the card from the bank, due to the same reason. I feel like it was only booked a few days ago, the company has had to make no effort or arrangements as of yet and spent no money (the activity runs regardless - people will book per person if someone doesn't hire it like she did), they have taken advantage of her and upset her, and the appropriate thing to do in these circumstances would be to make a goodwill refund for her. But the tone of their Ts + Cs doesn't sound like this will be willingly given, so I wanted to know where the overcharge stands us legally in case we have to get heavier. So - really appreciate any advice and thanks for reading the long message! James

My wife had an account with simply be and ordered a few items and paid without problem, then she got an invoice for an item that never got delivered and after speaking to them she learned that the delivery driver had 'thrown it over the fence', she told them several times by phone and email that the item never arrived but they insisted she pay for it, so she had ordered it but it never arrived. Now were getting Lowell and Fredrickson threatening all sorts and every letter has a different balance between £200 and £2000 which is amazing as the simply be account had a £300 credit limit. Shes ignored them but I sent a CCA request which came back after almost 2 months as 'reconstituted' and had no signatures on it. Bryan Carter have just written again (we have more than 30 letters now) threatening court next week, should we continue to ignore?

hello everyone oh i dont even know where to start here! i seem to have debt letters coming out of my ears! here who and what they are... i have rent arrears of £700 with the council who are threatening to seek possesion i owe £230 to lloyds from a very old account (i got back £1400 banck charges an this is all thats left) and its now with westcott i owe £800 to a catalogue (now with moorcroft) i owe £300 to monument for an old closed credit card (yes i ahve tried an failed to get my ppi back from them twice) and fredricksons and brian carter are chasing me for £2100 from a catalogue, (which when i had to stop paying as i was off work due to illness the balance to this catalouge was £900) i have wrote to them asking for the amount owed to be revised as i feel its unfairthe amount of charges and fees that have been applied, the replied saying the will contact their client and be in touch. argh im not refusing to pay but dont know where to start, im not on the highest wage and due to my medical probs and sickness i could possibly be going in front of a panel to try and keep my job but dont look good, so cant commit fully incase i do lose my job!! any advice before i pull all my hair out!! thank you in advance xxx

Hi, I am hoping someone can help. I got home today to find a letter from High Court bailiffs, stating that they had called to seize goods and would be calling the following day to seize them, whether I was home or not. The problem is that it is for a CCJ I did not know I had until three-four weeks ago, as the CCJ was given to me at an address that I had lived at, but did not live at at the time they did court proceedings (I hadn't lived there around six months when it was granted). I only found out when I got my credit file that it had been given just over a year ago. I phone the high court office, and the lady said I needed to fill out an income and expenditure form which she would send in the post, and that I should ring the bailiff to tell him I had spoken to the office. I am on income support and disability benefits (DLA, SDA) as both I and my partner are registered as blind. I phoned the bailiff on his mobile, and he said the fact the CCJ was put on me at the wrong address is 'by the by', and that he would put the claim on hold for ten days. The amount is nearly , and was from university where I was receiving a scholarship but had to leave due to ill health. They had already paid me 3 months in advance, and I left after a month (not a month into the PhD, I was in my third year, but a month into that particular payment), on their request, as I got very ill and couldn't study any more. I couldn't afford to pay the money back, as whilst they were paying in advance, I was having to pay back debts in arrears, so the money had all gone. A big chunk of the debt is in court costs and interest etc. The university were paid in big chunks by the people that held the scholarship, and them paid me every three months (they got the lump sum at the beginning of the academic year). I just don't know what to do, if I had known I had a CCJ I would have been paying it, but \i am scared that they will not accept my payment offer, which is going to have to be small, and they will come and take my stuff. The weird thing is, I got a letter in the post this morning from a debt collector, telling me I owed 3100ish to this place, and if I didn't pay within seven days they would apply to get a court judgement against me. I'm scared and don't know what to do. Please help.