As suggested, now we have Smart ABC's attention (not an easy thing to do when you are a struggling franchisee), we should have a meeting. After all, one of Smart's broken promises in our contracts was to have an anual network meeting with all franchisees invited. I really can't say I'm suprised they never had one, the last thing Smart wants is all those people they deceived coming together under one roof. Then they wouldn't be able to tell you that you are the only one failing, and everyone else is doing brilliantly. Smart should invite all current Franchisee's along as well as the ex-franchisee's. To kick-off, I'd like to see the following items on the Agenda:

1 - Smart MD's son-in-law and ex-Technical Director and now Franchisee (albeit with a much bigger area than other franchisee's are allocated)to demonstrate to us all a repair in under one hour, the repair being carried out under normal circumstances - i.e. drive to customer and perform repair out of a van on their driveway. The repair should be similar to either of the two pictured on the standard ABC leaflet which has the bold red stamp stating "Back to perfection in less than an hour" on top of them. We'll only start timing from when he arrives at the customer's premises.

2 - Smart to present to us just 10 franchisees (they have 90) who have been trading for over a year and have achieved the advertised typical earnings of £90,000.

3 - Smart to explain their continuing adverts such as "All our Franchisees earn between £1000 and £2000 during their first week and are reporting consistent continual growth - FACT!". How can this possibly be "Fact" when over 30 have had to cease trading and many more are struggling?

4 - Smart to explain why they indicated they were BFA members when they were not. Also please explain why you are still not full or even affiliate BFA members. Also please explain the VBRA debacle where you had franchisee's handing out unauthorised leaflets.

The list goes on, but that will do to start. feel free to add other agenda items you would like to be considered below.

Tlg loans and carter and carter financial and now BENTLEY AND COOPER all by NIZ Finacial (UK) Limited are the same company who have taken millions of pounds from inocent customers

one of the owner is a mr irfan nasrullah

he drives two luxury cars

BLACK RANGE ROVER SPORT: Reg: HX05 ***
BLACK MERCEDES S500: REG:  KR57KNJ

NEW BMW GREEN 7 Series: REG: WD02LDA

he lives at:

100 St vincents appartments
hadfield close
m14 5ly

Office Address is:

CARTER & CARTER FINANCIAL LIMITED
UNIT B1 MANSION HOUSE
173-191 WELLINGTON ROAD SOUTH
STOCKPORT
GREATER MANCHESTER
SK1 3UA

BentleyCooper.CO.UK

P.O.BOX 730, STOCKPORT , SK1 9BQ.

Telephone: 0844 811 2113

Email: admin@bentleycooper.co.uk

I WOULD ALSO LIKE TO KNOW HOW THIS COMPANY MANAGED TO GET A

CCL (CONSUMER CREDIT LICENCE)

he is likely to get away with it as he is from pakistan and most likely put his riches in his brothers name

mr noman nasrullah and mr zeeshan nasrullah

i suggest we report these people to the police before they leave the country with our hard worked money.

Please read the update at the bottom...

**STAY AWAY FROM QS SUPPLIES. I ORDERED IN FEB AND I'M STILL WAITING**

On 14 Feb 2009 I ordered a full bathroom suite, radiator and taps. I dealt with MO who seemed very pleasant and assured me that it would arrive on time 2 weeks later.

As both my partner and myself work full time and only receive standard issue holiday entitlement I needed the delivery to arrive on time. Mo called at 8:45am telling me to go to work as the bath had been damaged in transit and there would be no delivery that day. Fair enough. As they had no exact replacement for the bath, Mo agreed to send me the next one up which made up for the pointless day off work, although this cost me a days wages for the builders as they couldn't start work but billed me anyway.

They arranged for the next week and Mo even called to make sure it was 2 holes I wanted drilled in the bath. My partner drove home (from central London) at lunchtime to accept the delivery (which the delivery man very kindly helped carry into the house) to find that the taps and the bath waste were missing. The contractors started work that day. I called Mo and he said that they could have the correct taps and bath waste delivered the next day and left in a concealed location at our property.

The next day came and no taps..or bath waste. I called Mo, again, to find out why. He said that it was "against company policy to leave packages unattended" so we set yet another date to be delivered, this time to my work as they would be light enough for me to carry home. I specified the precise location of my office which all the delivery driver had to do to find was ask the receptionist for the 5th floor and my name.

It didn't arrive. They delivered it to our despatch area of the building which means that it would be near impossible to find amongst the the hundreds of other deliveries. After asking for a few favours we found it but lo and behold the bath waste was missing. Can these people do anything right? (I was to find out that the answer is No) Back on the phone to Mo who got the bath waste sent out a couple of days later.

What was a simple delivery turned out to be a bit of a mess....

1. Ordered and paid for everything in full on the 14 Feb
2. Delivery scheduled on the 27 Feb
3. Order began to arrive 2 March
4. Order completed 5 March
5. Total calls to and from QS Supplies = 15

It was a waste of my time, not to mention my phone bill.

When the time came to fit the bath my builder told me that it was the wrong taps that had been delivered. I required wall mounted taps because that bath had a roll top and couldn't accommodate any type of taps. Remember Mo kindly called to confirm that I wanted 2 holes in the bath? So, I got a bath with no holes and the wrong taps...back on the phone. Mo told me that the builders can just drill holes in the bath. No Mo, not in a roll top bath you won't. Which is what my builder said so the only thing was to send the bath back. I looked on their site to locate a suitable replacement within budget but there were none.

Apparently to collect the bath itself from us was going to cost me the price of the bath so I wouldn't receive any refund. So I kept the bath, changed the design of the bathroom (thanks to the ingenious builder) and decided to order new taps and send back the other taps that wouldn't fit. I called Mo and asked him if they could refund the taps because I needed a set sent out on next day delivery.

Called Mo at 1030am - taps we need are too expensive and he wasn't going to budge on a deal for anything. Ok fine, I'll just have a refund. Ok but they charge for a refund...25% penalty charge and 10gbp collection charge but he would call the supplier and see if they could get a better price.
This is ending up costing me a fortune in lost builders wages! Mo never called back so I had to pay another days wages to the builder. I decided to just buy taps from another company who could supply them the next day and I would deal with the refund at a later date.
The taps from the other company arrived and I called Mo to see what was happening with the refund. He was completely oblivious to what was happening even though it was only the day before we spoke, he didn't even remember me? How very odd.
After looking back his notes he said "Well Miss *** I've got good news and bad news which would you like first?" (WTF? was I in some sort of Some Mothers Do Have 'Em show?) the bad news turned out to be that there was going to be a charge and the good news was that they lowered the penalty charge from 25% to 12% and a 10gbp carriage charge. I just agreed because the taps were 138gbp.

Ok then, collection of the taps on Thursday so I took the day off. No one came (are you surprised?) I chased them and Mo gave me the suppliers number (which is a no-no in any business) so I called Sagittarius and spoke to Claire who told me that the driver turned up at my work when I specifically told them I had taken a day off and to collect the taps from my house. To top that off the driver, apparently, gave the poor receptionist the height of abuse. By the by I asked Claire how much they charge for collection...."10% and 6gbp carriage" "Oh really" I said, "Seems like Mo was trying to rip me off" (I know that this is just business, but at least remember when you've lied and not to give out your supplier's number) Claire kindly gave me free collection and waivered the charge.

Again I took and day off...in vain. They never turned up and I was in the flat all day with the builder. I called them and they were adamant that they did come, no one answered the door so they left a calling card. NO CALLING CARD! I argued back and forth with Mo about this (yes you read correctly, he argued) then ended up calling me a liar...A LIAR! then he said "Miss *** I'm sick and tired of dealing with you." so I asked to speak to a manager, he said that would be fine as he wasn't interested in dealing with me (*remember to look for customer service best practice reports)

The manager, Zam would be back at 6 and they were closing at 7. I called at 6, Zam was with a customer "Ok ill call back later" and can you also give him my number and have him call me at any time.

My partner called on Saturday and James said that there is no way anyone would have given me Zam's name. "Thats strange" he said "because I didn't pull that name out of my ass, Mo gave me the name and said I could talk to him" James told my partner that there is no way I could talk to this Zam, no way. Period.

Then I found that they didn't deliver the radiator valves. They weren't in the box with the radiator which Mo said they would be. So they are now going to collect the taps and deliver the valves, which apparently incurs a "Swap charge" of 19.65gbp. Bargain.

I specified that we needed angled valves, I made this point 3 times because I was sure he would fluff it up. On the morning of the delivery Mo called and left a voicemail saying "You never specified which kind of valves you wanted so we just delivered angled ones" This was very lucky, it was 50/50 which way they could mess it up but they messed it up the correct way (if that is possible?)
The taps were collected and the new valves were fitted making for a happy builder.

A refund for the taps will be in your account within 5 days. That was on the 24 March 2009 I am still waiting for my money. I am in the process of making an official complaint through:

The Office of Fair Trading
Citizens Advice Bureaux
Watchdog


**UPDATE

I called QS Supplies on the 24 April and the guy (wasn't James or Mo) said that he has send our refund across to the accounts department who will refund us the 136gbp straight away. Come on, of course I know it's a load of rubbish. So I queried him about it and there was nothing more I could do from this end of the phone and he assured me that the accounts department was going to deal with it. He also assured me that i would have the money in my account within the week (how unusual of QS to make a promise) I remain pessimistic.

As one could have predicted, it is now 1 May 2009 and I have just got off the phone with QS and firstly he says that they have to wait until Sagittarius collects the taps from QS, inspects them for damage and refunds QS before I will see a penny. Now, I work in retail and know that this is not the way business works. I was dealing with QS, they are MY supplier. Sagittarius is not my supplier, I did not buy anything from them. How on God's good earth did they manage to get a business going. I'm sure the owner Saz Member or Zam Member is not oblivious to the way his company is run. I have asked to speak to him numerous times but he seems to always be busy and he has never, once, returned any on my calls.

They've had my taps for more than 5 weeks now, surely to God they would have been picked up by Sagittarius by now? QS should have inspected them for damage when they were delivered to them. They would have signed for them...accepting that the goods were in good order so the inspecting has already been done but where is my money???

I can see that they are hoping I will forget about the money...I have emailed this to Consumer Direct, Watchdog, Which?, The Office of Fair Trading and the Trading Standards Institute. Also I will be placing posts and reviews on every forum that mentions QS Supplies or bathroom supply companies.

Total money paid: 156.51gbp
Total promised refund: 136.86gbp

Total Money Received From QS Supplies: 0

Again people, heed my warning, do not buy from these people. If this is the way they try to run a business do YOU want to do business with them??? They may be competitive on price but they WILL let you down once they have your money.


UPDATE: July 13th 2009

Well I'm back again after months of to-ing and fro-ing with the QS Supplies people. I spoke to HUZ on Friday who, eventually after arguing about it, agreed to the final installment of our refund. We were supposed to get £136.86 and ended up with a £110 refund on the 14th May. I know £26.86 is a very small amount for the hassle but after all the messing around, stress and aggravation QS has given us I wasn't prepared to write it off.
Huz promised that the payment of £26.86 would be going through to our bank this week and he asked me to take off the negative reviews which, apparently, have been creating quite a stir and rightly so. Just because they have, finally, paid back what they should have months ago it doesn't change the treatment my partner and I received. Then he told me the story that Mo and James had been telling everyone, that it was nothing to do with them and that it was their supplier (Sagittarius) who didn't want to deal with us.
It's strange that because how would their supplier give a toss if we were returning 1 set of taps, it's only one set of taps?!? I'm pretty sure they failed to mention that it was the fact that their fork-lift driver damaged our original bath so they offered us a choice of 3-4 others as a replacement so we chose one and asked if all the fittings we had ordered originally would fit the new bath. They (Mo) told us they would and they didn't then the whole saga began purely because they never admitted their mistake.
I know this is a family run business and I'm sure the owner must be pretty annoyed about a review like this but they need to know how their staff are treating HIS customers and tarnishing HIS reputation. I know if I was the owner, family or not, I would have no hesitation getting in new staff.

Mo, if this has given you and James grief it's your own fault for being a lying, cocky chancer. You thought that I would just forget about the whole thing and let you get away with my refund. No chance! And NO ONE speaks to my partner the way you did and gets away with it. I can assure you that I will not be removing these posts because the public need to know the kind of service you give and the way they can expect to be treated.

I have now noticed on the chrome towel rail (QS 804) 700 x 1000 curved radiator and there is surface rust and the chrome is peeling off! This is shocking quality. I use a chroming company for other work and got the guy to come in and have a look at it. He comfirmed that it is very poor quality chrome. The process is that the bare metal is covered in a very thin layer of metal then another couple of layers of nickel then another few layers of chrome. I have a motorbike with chrome on it that sits outside in rain and shine and has no problems but this towel rail has been in for a few months and switched on, maybe twice and it's not only covered in rust but the chrome is flaking off. I called the company who manufacture it who just told me to take it up with QS Supplies. I know QS Supplies didn't make the rail but there are a few other people on this site complaining about hte same thing. I want a replacement towel rail of better quality at no cost (not even restocking/shipping/delivery/admin) and they can cover the fitting costs.

I would advise people in the same situation as me to write something similar as this (an account of the situation) and post it on a number of sites:

http://www.leicesterguide.co.uk/qs-supplies-pri-1262.html?reviews_id=133&oscsid=e3fd770ab76095f78e79d38ee0adfc2b

Twitter, blogger etc.

Don't bother with their forum as I posted there but the staff at QS Supplies are the moderators who edited the post I made to this one...

[http://forums.qssupplies.co.uk/showthread.php?t=25] (link: http://forums.qssupplies.co.uk/showthread.php?t=25)

I have contacted the company who supplied their forum software and they are looking into the conditions of usage. 

Qs Supplies Qs supplies Qs Supplies Qs supplies Qs Supplies Qs supplies Qs Supplies Qs supplies Qs Supplies Qs supplies Qs Supplies Qs supplies Qs Supplies Qs supplies Qs Supplies Qs supplies Qs Supplies Qs supplies Qs Supplies Qs supplies Qs Supplies Qs supplies Qs Supplies Qs supplies Qs Supplies Qs supplies Qs Supplies Qs supplies Qs Supplies Qs supplies Qs Supplies Qs supplies Qs Supplies Qs supplies Qs Supplies Qs supplies

Dear Sirs,

I have started an extention at back of my garden the 15th September 2008.

I have used a skip company for waste removals, I hired 6 skips in 3 months period. This company never issued a receipt, even if I have asked for it.

We finished the extension in the middle of November 2008, since then I have called numerous time to let them know that the skip was ready for collection, they always answered that they were coming in about 2 hours, but never did.

The skip still in my drive, as a conseguence I have to park my car in the road. Since the date I called first time to colect the skip I had a scratch on the car and a damage at the windscreen.

I have a picture of the skip dated the 16th of December 08, that day was a month already that the skip had not been collected.

Furthermore we have 2 little kids and it is dangerous and inconvenient for them when they go out to cross the road to reach the car.

So decided to contact you, we are ready to take legal action against them.

Kind Regards

Giuseppe Ricciardi  

07875461857

I wrang up pathways hgv training and paid the full £1800 to do my class 2 adr, pass protection and also they told me they would get me a job, this was what i was told by tom roberts who works there. i passed my theory then i got a date for the 25-30 of october to do my driving test which was in shrewsbury with AVT where i live, now on the 23/10/09 just two days before my test i got a phone call not off pathways but off Jim West the training instructor of avt in shrewsbury saying he is really sorry but i cant do any training etc because pathways have not paid him for anything, jim told me they owed him over £8000, so on monday i contacted pathway and they would not admit anything to me so instead of doin the training in shrewsbury pathways sent me to wigan where they were goin to compensate me with fuel costs of £80 but they didnt pay up. i did my training with wigan hgv and missed a days training because of all the mess, i failed on the friday so i used my pass protection which i got with the package i paid for and my retest is on the 25th of november, now would you believe it wigan hgv wrang me on friday sayin sorry we cant put you through the test because pathways yes again!! owe them over £10,000 and not paid them,so the only thing i could do was pay a further £240 of my own money to do the test, now pathways just keep putting the phone down on me or they trying to fob me off. i went down to the head office today to have it out with them and they have gone and apparently are goin into liquidation but are still ripping off people and selling packages from there website. PLEASE READ THIS PEOPLE AND DONT GET RIPPED OFF LIKE WHATS HAPPENED TO ME, THEY HAVE RUINED EVERYTHING FOR ME AND ALSO NOW I HAVE NO MONEY TO SUPPORT MY FAMILY. they have taken everything i have worked for away from me.

I received a telephone call on my mobile from Mobiles for Free Limited, I thought the guy was from 02, he had my contract details etc, he advised they could upgrade me as my contract was near an end and offered me a good deal, he mentioned something about 3 but stated I could keep my own number etc.  He then said I would receive a confirmation call, 5 minutes later the confirmation call that i requested be at 6/30pm as i was driving and on my way home, the confirmation call came at 6/10pm, it was literally a one minute call and I did not get chance to speak apart from saying yes i had taken the intial call.

When the phone arrived it had a netword 3 sim, my 02 did not work, i then panicked because the call obviously was not from 02 and i had (stupidly) handed over my bank details. 

I telephoned 02 to make sure, they stated they had not phoned me.  I telephoned 3 but they said i had to take it up with mobiles for Free Limited and could not cancel with them.

I rang Mobiles For Free and was advised to leave a contact number.

I was then telephoned the same day, the guy was obnoxious, rude and I actually felt threatened, he stated they would not cancel the contract until I had paid £15.00 this was not mentioned on the telephone, he stated it was in the terms and conditions, when i explained that i recieved the terms and conditions in the box along with the phone and that i believed the call had been misrepresented he told me that the call had been recorded the disconnection manager would listen to it and call me back within 48 hours but that i WOULD be paying them the £15.00. 

My renault scenic car door was caved in by a'hit and run' driver. Rather than pay £300 excess got hold of 1st parts4U who said they had a door in same colour. Paid on debit card. Door came -incorrect colour and bad condition-and 1st parts4U refused to pay for door to be returned. stuck with a rather large item that was taking up half of the shed i paid to have it sent up-anything to get my money back. Delivery company then phoned and said 1st parts4U refused to accept the door as it was 'unwanted' still no refund. Legally I am entitled to my original costs plus the courier fee to return door but am reluctant to pay small claims fee if the company can still get away with not paying (friends with businesses have had problems with small claims court) This company I have now learned is known to Trading standards but are still advertising in Autotrader

Our wedding car that was booked and paid for in advance did not arrive on the day of our wedding to take the wedding party to our wedding nor did it arrive to transport us from the reception to our hotel.

We were never informed that they would not be arriving. I (the bride) ended up being driven to my wedding in my neighbours corsa, the bridemaids - in a neighbours people carrier, my brother had to drive the groom and the best man, and the make up artist took my mother ! We had to borrow money for a taxi to take us from the reception to our hotel in the evening..

All in all an extremely distressing, stressful and embarrassing situation. and the wedding video and photographs we're ruined.

After 5 weeks of phone calls and emails, we finally received a refund (after being promised it on numerous occasion and it never arriving)... but still no written explanation or apology and despite another 4 emails to the company, no sign of any compensation or even a response to my emails !

Not only did our wedding car not turn up, but the customers service we have received since has been disgusting.

See below for a extract from one of the earlier emails I sent to them.....

"I am writing in reference to the above booking for a Black Lincoln town car that we booked to take us and pick us up from our wedding - 16th May 2009.   As you are aware the limo did not arrive for either of the day time pick ups or for the evening pick up, as agreed on our booking confirmation. We were not informed on the day that the car would not arrive. As I'm sure you can imagine this caused us a huge amount of stress and embarrassment on a day which should have been very happy - something that we will never be able to forget.   We are yet to be offered any satisfactory explanation ( we have since been told that the limo broke down, but on speaking to the limo company itself they inform us that we weren't even on their job list for that day)   As of today we are still waiting for a refund of the full amount which was paid in advance, we have been promised this on numerous occasions since our initial contact with you on this matter on 18th May 12:40 pm. During this initial phone call our bank details were taken and we were advised that the money would be credited to my bank account within 3 -5 working day.  We were also advised at that point to write a letter of complaint, which we did, and posted it on the 18th May.   On arriving back from our honeymoon of the 1st June, the refund had still not been credited to my bank account and no response to the complaint letter had been received.   On the 2nd June we contacted you again regarding this matter and once again asked for an explanation regarding the limo not turning up, our refund, and a response to our complaint letter. Again we were told that the refund would be processed that day, we were also told that our complaint letter had not yet been received.   Now, on the 10th June - No refund has been received, no explanation has been received, and no response to our complaint letter has been received. We have made numerous phone calls to yourselves on this matter and are always promised that it will all be sorted by the end of the day and to expect a phone call back. We have never received a call back.   I now write to seek the following;

• a refund of the full amount paid and confirmation of the date we should be expecting this by
• an explanation regarding our limo not turning up for any of the 3 trips scheduled.
• a response to our complaint letter
• suitable compensation for the appalling service received, and stress and embarrassment caused.

After speaking to Gareth this morning, I understand that you are expecting this email and will be responding today. I look forward to having some initial response by 5 pm today."

Yeah so im stupid!!! Im 21 just moved out of my parents house and im struggling so bad i dont have a very good job and most months i cant afford food. So desperate for a bit of extra money i joined delightful stars. they seemed so real i joined and the comapny were constantly calling me wanting pictures and a profile. I did it stupidly they wanted £265 to advertise me on there website i was very unsure but they assured me that they would only take my money once i had a booking. So i get a phone call josh 25 from the united states wants to take me to a wine bar and clubbing for £550 a hired car from the agency would pick me up and take me home free of charge WOW i thought £550 to go clubbing its a dream come true Food shopping here i come i thought!!! so i paid my fee of £265. The morning of the booking which was tonight i wake up to see i have a missed call. All excited i thought to myself that must be the driver ringing me wanting my adress for tonight to pick me up. I had a answer phone message. JOSH had cancelled because someone in his family had died early hours of the morning he had to go back to the USA. But they would find me another booking. It hit me straight away i have been ripped off. i panicked rang the agency the woman i deal with was not in. so i kicked right of at receptionist i she tried filling me with bull. I have been ripped off and i know it i wont get called with another booking EVER. I even got my best friend to ring up and pretend he wanted to book a girl. HE HAS TO ARRANGE TO PICK HER UP thought the agency had hired cars to take you to your booking ?????????  Im the only girl in that area that he asked for guess what i have not had a phone call offering me the job and guess what he didnt get a call back to say they had found him someone. Im so so so so so so so upset im only 21 living on my own and now have 60p to last me 4 weeks im not mtrying to make people feel sorry for me but im desperste for help. Is there anyway i can get my money back. has anyone ever had a real booking with this company ??? or has anyone had this done to them and somehow got refunded. PLEASE help my email is [pinkplaygirl001@hotmail.co.uk] (link: mailto:pinkplaygirl001@hotmail.co.uk) :c

We wanted to purchase a hot tub but wanted a site survey done first to ensure we could get it into our garden. On the wbsite [www.trade-price-hot-tubs.co.uk] (link: http://www.trade-price-hot-tubs.co.uk) it says that serveys are free. When you call them on 0845-094468 they ask for a fully refundable deposit of £500 that will be repaid if you decied not to proceed. Well they took our deposit and came to do the servey. The guy who turned up in his Audi TT then proceeded to drive straight accross my front lawn and parked his car by my front window some 30 feet from the drive way (that can park 6 cars on it!) we looked at the products but decieded not to proceed for many reasons the main one being the credability of the sales person. We have called and left messages for them to call us back and we have emailed them withou success. we are now passing the matter onto the police.

On 27th November I was a passenger in my car which is owned by me. A white van bashed into the front right hand side of the car, 2 men from the van got out, beat the driver of my car up and proceeded to smash my car up causing considerable damage i.e. all windows smashed, wing mirrors smashed, convertible top ripped up.. Everyone disappeared.

Police were called, luckily all 3 (including driver of my car) were apprehended, made statements to the police and were bailed. On 4th of this month they went to court and all 3 pleaded guilty and sentencing will be on 3 March 2009.

It seems as though my car has become an irrelevancy in this. I.e. no one can advice and it seems sentencing will only cover fighting and dangerous driving.

Swiftcover, my  insurance company will not cover anything as I wasn't the driver even though insurance was fully comprehensive and the car was stationary at the time. The company that owns the van has emailed saying "The matter has nothing to do with my Company and therefore nothing to with our insurance"

My car is a Mercedes CLK 320 and worth around £7.5K (today's approximate value) it is still impounded until I request for release (I have delayed this as storage costs will start to incur @15 / day.

I have a claim for £6800 as compensation.. But no one is offering advice (i.e. police or Criminal justice unit)

Please Help

If you are considering a franchise with The AA Driving School - You need to read this !!

I took out a driving tuition franchise with Automobile association Developments Ltd (AA) in 2002. All new recruits go through a compulsory induction programme. At the induction, prior to contract signing, Instructors are given false (verbal and written) assurances.

The AA stated, at their induction programme, that it is their responsibility to the Instructor.. "To provide an administrative support enabling you to concentrate your efforts on an excellent standard of service to your customers." - The administration often made costly mistakes and offered NO practical support. They simply couldnt as it was apparent that they were not given adequate training and didnt even have an ADI on their team to offer advice to novice Instructors or pupils when it was required.

At the induction programme, the AA also stated that it was their responsibility "To provide pupil introductions to you (the instructor) according to your individual needs". - Insite is the web based diary for AA Instructors on which Instructors state their pupil requirements. If an Instructor required one pupil, it should have been obvious that Instructor was in less need than the Instructor who required ten pupils - yet the "adminstration" would satisfy the requirement of the single pupil because it made it seem the adminstration were reaching their targets.

I started my AA franchise in London. I was doing ok because I was experienced and had a reasonable number of referrals. Every Christmas however business would predictably slow right down, but that didnt stop the AA from continuing to inform inform raw recruits that the driving instruction industry is "non-seasonal".

In 2005, after being assured by the AA that I would have no shortage of work in Lincolnshire, I decided to take out a mortgage on a house in that area. It soon became apparent that I had made a big mistake.... the AA failed to supply the pupils I needed to survive. I borrowed money on several occassions just to keep my head above water and pay the franchise fee. There were no concessions made even though the AA were fully aware that my tuition fees were my only scorce of income - and that they had failed to supply the pupils required to make my franchise viable.

Instead of increasing marketing activity to promote business, the AA (admitedly, not unlike most driving schools in the industry), continued to take on more Instructors even though they knew they could not support them. When questioned by myself, the AA administration showed great teamwork - they were all under the illusion that taking on new Instructors without the means to support them was a good strategic marketing move, considering the majority of buisness came from the logo on the tuition vehicle. This is hardly surprising, considering the distinct absence of alternative marketing programmes, particularly outside of the capital. 

The more I complained about lack of pupil supply - the more I was told to do my own marketing. In 2007, I realised that the AA had absolutely no intention of honoring the promises they had made to me (and other unfortunate ADI's), regarding the essential supply of pupils. I left...  I was now facing massive depts, the mortage on my house was in serious arrears and I was taken to court for repossession. My mortgage company, Northern Rock were great - but had no choice other than to repossess the property.

I managed to secure a tenacy with a housing association for myself and my daughter in Jan 2009 and we were planning a fresh start a few days ago when bailiff's called at our new home. The AA had taken me to court over the franchise payments which they had made it impossible for me to pay two years earlier.

I will fight this injustice... But I must fight alone as it appears that I am not entitled to legal aid in this instance, even though I am unemployed. I have no doubt that the AA will have no similar problem employing legal council, particularly when their much-hyped reputation is at stake. If they took their self-acclaimed responsibilities to their Instructors as seriously- perhaps they could invest more in their marketing outside of London to increase their pupil base -and this factual account of their shortcomings would never have been written.

I am sure that there are other ex-AA Instructors out there who have had similar experiences, and who would like to put an end to the shinnagans of the AA and others like them.

I intend to take the AA to court for fraudulent misrepresentation and damages. I believe it would be a landmark case. I would like to generate a list of ex-AA Instructors who have been misled by the AA and who would like their voice to be heard... if that is includes you - please let me know.

Hi all.

I'm currently in yet another dispute with Nationwide Autocentre. I'm happy in resolving it myself as I have done it so many times before. However, these problems have been going for over 5 years with several different cars and now I have simply had enough of them so I'm going to do everything I possibly can to advise people to stop using them.

Basically, I would like anyone who has also had a problem with Nationwide Autocentre to post their issue on this thread. I intend to use this as a source of information for the likes of Trading Standards, Health & Safety Executive, Watchdog and the Nationwide Partnering Manager at The AA.

I want this lousey company sorted out once and for all because I believe they are ripping people off and many of these people have no idea what's happening to them.

Anyway. Here's an email I sent recently to one of their Regional General Managers. It's a shocker:

************************************************** *****

Dear Jon,

Thank you for telephoning me earlier and apologies for being agitated on the phone, as I know you do not have all the facts yet about what has been happening, so I will happily update you. Firstly, please do not be put off by the length of this email. Once you have read it, I'm sure you'll agree, that given the detail of what has happened, it is very concise and very important that you are made aware.

I have been waiting for Andy Webb to contact me all week and have been telephoning the head office and have spoken with Donna and one or more of her colleagues on separate occasions, trying to find out why I have not been contacted.

Late last week Andy and myself agreed that an employee would inspect our vehicle to complete an assessment of what has happened. We also agreed that Andy would contact me early in the week so we could discuss a way forward once he had received his report from the employee who inspected the car.

The employee who inspected the car was also called Andy and advised me that the car should not be driven. He advised me that he was certain that the car had been "driven with some considerable force directly into a pavement at a slight angle". This has caused extensive damage to both front wheel rims which he explained would require replacement along with two new tyres.

Andy went on to explain that he was deeply concerned about the quality of the major service, MOT and 4 wheel tracking that had been carried out at the Maidstone branch. His verbal report to me was very detailed, but in brief he explained that the wheel balancing had not been carried out correctly, the coolant system had not been drained and refilled, the oil had an insufficient level in the engine, a rear wiper that had been charged at an additional cost had not been fitted to the car. You will find full and further details in Andy's report.

When I collected the car from the Maidstone branch after the major service, MOT and 4 wheel tracking I was shocked at what I discovered. My partner and I were handed an invoice for the works without an MOT certificate, emissions certificate or the service schedule. It took one lengthy discussion with Richard, branch manager, and two additional phone calls with him in order to obtain all of these documents over the subsequent 7 days.

My shock turned to disbelief when my partner, who owns the car in question, asked that I test drive the car as it felt completely different and even felt unsafe. It was clear that
something was significantly wrong with the car and an initial inspection of the car revealed
that several items had not been attended to as part of the said works.

I contacted Richard at the Maidstone branch and we agreed that the car be returned
immediately so that the original works could be carried out. These works were never done and it was only when Andy visited us to inspect the car that he took it to the Strood branch to carry out the works himself.

Once the car was returned from Strood, it was clear that although most of the remedial works
had been carried out, there was still something very wrong with the car that had been there
since it had been at the Maidstone branch. This is what prompted further discussions with
Andy Webb about what had happened with the two front wheels.

The question at the point is why did Andy Webb not only not contact me this week, but did not return any of my calls, even just to say that he was not going to pursue this any further.
This is when he knew full well that we had yet to agree a refund on the works that had not
been carried out, ie. coolant system. Andy provisionally said that he would offer a 50%
discount on our next service. You can probably imagine what my reaction was at this point.

This is where things become deeply troubled; over a year ago I was in discussion with Alan
Stenning who had to step in to resolve an issue I had with the Sturry branch who single
handidly managed to ruin my previous car by incorrectly rewiring it when they replaced the
clutch. The car would not start most of the time for circa 9 months. At first the car went
in to the Strood garage because although I then used to live in Margate, because the car
broke down in Margate, it went to the Sturry branch but subsequently went to Strood because I then worked in Chatham.

The Strood branch were given the opportunity to rectify the damage done to the wiring but
failed to fix it and refused to take any action. After that I had an electrical specialist
discover that the earthing cable had not been fitted correctly to the gear box and clutch
system. A mistake which the specialist described as "amatuer". He was so concerned that he even gave me further contact details and notes so that Nationwide could discuss the issue
with him.

I asked for Nationwide to cover the cost of the new battery that was fitted, time spent on
identifying the fault and the work by the specialist in isolating the problem and fixing it.
Nationwide refused several times over until I escalated the matter to Alan Stenning, who
having had opportunity to examine the facts, was clear in his mind that Nationwide had
delivered an appaling service.

I explained to Alan at the time that I believed he didn't know the half of it when I then
went on to explain how one time when I collected the same car from the Sturry branch after a service my girlfriend and I nearly lost control of the car and crashed because the underside
engine guard had not been replaced correctly by the garage. It fell onto the road and the
car swerved onto the verge.

At that point I was reimbursed by Alan and he gave me assurances that this sort of thing
would not happen again and that I should contact him directly next time I wanted to book my
car in at Nationwide, so that he could oversee the process personally.

Naturally I had many reservations about doing such a thing, until my partner Katie Nichols
asked that she wanted her car to have a major service, MOT and tracking, so I promised her
that Alan Stenning would take care of it. I tried telephoning him but his number was no
longer in operation. I believed at that time that he had left the company.

I have been made to look like a complete fool because of the assurance I passed on to my
partner from Alan. Over the past five years I have used Nationwide extensively and you will
see that I have spent a considerable amount of money for your service and every time I have
been delivered an appaling, rude, arrogant, inadequate service. Every branch I have used has
had problems which have required the intervention of senior management in order to resolve.
5 years later after more failed promises I find myself in an even worse position with
Nationwide than when I was told things would be improved at Branch level.

Given the extreme seriousness of these events I have been left with no choice but to report
Nationwide to the police for theft of money - the refund which has not been provided to my
partner Katie Nichols - and the criminal damage to the car which must have happened when I
returned the car to the Maidstone branch. I know that in whole this is a civil matter which
the police will not themselves investigate, but I will be discussing it with my solicitor in
order to ensure that legal action is taken.

In addition to this I will provide a full and comprehensive report to trading standards, the national and local press, internet motoring forums and do I everything I can to ensure that consumers do not use Nationwide at all.

I now ask for you to check my account of events with both Alan Stenning, Andy who has
inspected the car, the Sturry, Strood and Maidstone branch and Andy Webb, and then invite you to call me and offer a pragmatic solution to this entire mess which has left my partner with a car she can no longer drive. I will later request a written apology to Kate from the chief executive of Nationwide.

There is clearly a lot that you can do to try in someway to rectify this and there is much
that I hope I can explain in further detail about this to you that will help Nationwide in
preventing this sort of thing happening again. Thank you for your time. I look forward to
hearing from you.

My details are as follows:
Mob: XXXXX XXXXXX (available at any time)
Address: XXXXX XXXXXX XXXXXXX XXXXX XXXXXX
Kate's car: XXXX XXX
My previous car: XXXX XXX

Kindest regards
Tom Billingham

************************************************** *****

Hi guys i have had the exact same problem with them by telling me the world was my oyster and basically anything else that would help me part with my hard earned cash, i only found out today about this miserable bunch of fcuks from my driving school who warned me not to pay any other money to pathway as they are owed £15,000. i will not be letting this drop and am going to the cits advice tomorrow at 5pm to find out exactly what rights we have in claiming this money back and if not all of it as like us all it was sold to us under false pretenses. the last i heard from pathway was around three days ago asking if i wanted to take out an extra pass protection as i had failed the first one it would only cost £299 luckly i said no and that was that heard nothing else... I JUST DONT KNOW HOWTHESE PEOPLE CAN SLEEP EASY AT NIGHT KNOWING WHAT THEY HAVE DONE TOGETHER WE WILL MAKE THEM PAY!!! my email address is simon1908@live.co.uk please email me your email address so i can send you the info i get tomorrow.  

So i'm another victim.

In the space of two days I signed up, had a date organised with James a professional dancer. The black humour in me still finds it a little amusing that I fell for this. He's american, on tour here, and just wants to go out for drinks and dinner. He'll pay £600 for the pleasure. Ooooh it's just too good to be true. Well it really is. I'm still waiting on a call to confirm these details but having read the reams of posts on various sites, i'm pretty sure that call ain't coming.

Anyway my story continues that after a few reassurances from a lovely lady, 'Maxine', i agree to pay up the £458.85 dreaming of the christmas presents i'll be able to lavish on my family and the far off places i'll be able to travel. Ridiculous. I don't want sympathy. And i don't necessarily want my money back because i probably deserve this for being so totally naive. It would be helpful because i now can't pay next month's rent. Regardless, i do want this to stop.

The registered postcode is very close by so i'm tempted to see if i can talk with them face to face. Or hire a hit squad. Either way.

If anyone could advise whether there is a body in place which deals with such claims i'd really appreciate it. I'm aware that it probably isn't a police matter because i willingly parted with the cash. More fool me.

xx

I bought a balloon flight from Cameron Balloon Flights in March 2009 as a 77th birthday present for my mother.  She tried on three occasions over the next four months to book a flight, only to be told each time that 'it was too early'.  she finally secured a booking in late June, but her flight was cancelled three times due to the weather - but the last time there was only a light mist, followed by a beautiful day.  finally she was given a flight date of 25.09.09.  she and my father made two trial runs in the car to the launch site in Enfield to make sure she knew where to go to.  then the night before, ringing the recorded message line to check the flight was going ahead, a garbled message told her that the launch would take place 'from the Leisure Centre in Chipping Ongar'.  Although the company's conditions state that the flight might take off within a 30 mile radius, no mention was ever made of alternative launch sites, on booking or on their website.  I would never have booked a flight from a site so far away from their home (an hour's drive instead of 30 minutes).  my mother was unable to get to this new launch site due to other commitments later in the day (a funeral at 12.00pm).  the recorded message left no contact number and she was unable to reach the office.  the followng morning the woman in the office was rude and dismissive, saying that if Mum had been held up in traffic she would have been entitled to a rebooking, but 'it wasn't was it, you just didn;t show up'.  this experience left my mother in tears.  the woman was just as unhelpful when i phoned to complain.  I am left doubting if this company is a genuine one, as there have been so many excuses for not flying. 

 became a victim of unjust car clamp on Friday 29.08.08 and I need your help in sorting our this.

We visited MacDonald, Southall Broadway, middlesex for lunch on 29 August 2008 at 1:00 pm with my wife and mother. We parked our car in the courtyard of the MacDonald which is for the customer of MacDonald. As ladies were interested in fast food, they ordered lunch from MacDonald and stayed inside the food hall to eat the lunch and I due to medical condition opted for Indian lunch from a restaurant across the road. But when we returned to car at 1:35 we were surprised, frustrated and furious to see that our car was clamped. We explained the situation to guy who clamped the car, that as we are the customer of MacDonald and ladies were inside the MacDonald whole time with their lunch.  Due to medical conditions I cannot eat fast food (fatty liver and Diabetic) so I have to go out for alternative lunch. But the guy unjustly and illogically argued that I should have been inside the restaurant during whole time too as I was the driver. I understand that how it could be that I should have waited for ladies to finish the lunch at MacDonald wasting my time while I could buy something from the restaurant just across the road. As a whole we were the customer for MacDonald. At the end we were forced to pay £175.40 from our credit card to remove the clamp and our family lunch out was ruined by this day light robbery.

Interestingly when we were given the electronic receipt for credit card payment it was timed 12:17 on 29.08.08 while our car was clamped at 13:10 on the same day as per penalty notice given to me. This also invalids the whole clamping process itself. How on earth a payment can be charged for clamp removal even the car was not clamped yet?

I decided to get the best possible deal I could for my car insurance by scouring the net, rather than sticking with the reliable but not so cheap insurance broker I had been using and found that MORE TH>N were offering a competitive quote, so quite happily set it up and got the confirmation email welcoming me as a customer..all good!  I'd had to set it up monthly direct debit rather than the whole payment which is probably just as well because, around 10 days later, having still not received any policy documents, I decided to ring up customer services and see what the hold-up was...

'We have no record of your policy, we have all your details but as far as we're concerned you're not a customer.  Ok, and so now what?  We have no record of your policy...silence. (After a few seconds) But I can run through some quotes for you..oh and you haven't been charged at all so at least that's ok.'

What she should have said is, your car hasn't been clamped or towed away, so that's ok.  I'd been driving without insurance for around 8 days thanks to a total shambles of a company, or more accurately their pointless website.  I don't think it should matter I waited until close to my renewal, I'm sure I'm not the only one and you should be able to start a policy there and then without wondering if it actually exists.  They didn't even seem inclined to apologise for a situation where I'm being CLEARLY told I'm a customer with a policy in place when I'm not.  As I said, if I'd given them a credit card I bet they would have happily taken it, even from a non-customer!  And that would have doubtless been another struggle.  All this tells me is that for something as important as insurance never trust a computer, always talk to someone and get it official over the phone.  But to be honest, even speaking to a person who represents MORE TH>N would make me less than confident anything was actually being set up properly.

This evening at 6pm, when they were meant to shut at 5.30, a very helpful guy from my original insurer got me set up, gave me a policy number and yes it was a little more to pay.  But at least I know I'm insured.  MORE TH>N can just go and kiss my excess for the unnecessary stress they caused me so close to Xmas!!  Anybody else with similar tales?  I'd be really curious to hear them..     

The above company had an advertisement made on the radio asking for private hire drivers to join their organisation and they will be given work to pick up and drop off clients, as my husband is a part time taxi driver he expressed interest as the additional work would help his income - we contacted the better fares manager who took my husbands details along with a 'membership fee' of £199.00 and my husband was promised work to start in the next few days - the money cleared my bank account on 23.06.2009. We are now on the 04th August and my husband has not been given a SINGLE job - i have made numerous calls to retrieve my money and had no success (we were promised that if he was not satisified with the amount of work he was getting he could apply for an immediate refund)

i feel that the company are trading under false pretences and i am sure there are other people out there who have faced a similar situation with them -please help me retreive our hard earned cash back !!

I contacted Daniel Evans from Rapid Data and was quoted between £97 and £150 to recover approx 120Gb of data from a hard drive with a mechanical fault. Thinking this was a good price I sent the HD off and phoned four days later for an update.
I was told that the engineers were unable to find any data on the HD and that they suspected the PCB on the back. To try another recovery they would have to replace the PCB at a cost of £195, due to the part being ordered from America.
I called Daniel four times over the following week and eventually was told that they had received the new PCB, installed it and tried to recover the information. I was told they were only able to get 2% of the data back before the second PCB broke down, and that the data recovered was all corrupt.

At this point I told Daniel that I was not prepared to pay any more money for further repair attempts, and asked him to return my hard drive. He told me it would be returned in that evening's post, but four days later I had to call again. The UPS tracking number he gave me was incorrect, and I had to call him 3 times to remind him to contact UPS and find my HD.

Eventually I told Daniel that I was considering legal action as I felt he had lost my hard drive. he called me that evening to say he had found it and re-sent it. It arrived the following day, and there is no evidence of any work having been done to the hard drive.

I  have since scanned the internet (which I wish I had done first) and found that many people have had the same problem.

Assurance Property Management Group, Acworth GA (APMG ) is a property management group that manages the property that we are currently renting. We have been renting from APMG since April of 2009. During this time we have had several major service issues that have not been responded to in a timely manner. Each service issue has to be approved by the owner of the property that we are renting from which is acceptable but we should not have to wait for either APMG (which I believe is managed and owned by a single individual, Karen Sherard) to return from a weekend out of town  event/vacation or the owner (who we have never been in contact with) returns from being out of the country. 
 
We have had two major maintenance requests and the house is currently under a home warranty with AHS thus no wait should be warranted because most times there's usually a minimal service fee for repairs, with normal wear and tear, etc. Our first service issues was the AC unit was down.  After reporting this issue on a late Thursdays evening or Friday via email and phone, I had to follow-up the next evening because we received no response and was told the APMG was out of town and would not return until Monday mind you this was the beginning of the summer, we were only in the house a little or a month and and have a 2 year old toddler thus had to suffer with the heat and be inconvenienced by letting up windows, etc for 3-5 days, because she did not call AHS. We had to wait Thur the wk-end in our PAID, hot rental with our 2 year-old for her return and the owners approval of ~$60. We still had to wait for AHS next avail date of Tuesday or Wednesday before they were able to come out. This tells you that she only cares about either the money and/or her clients not about her tenants! Without the tenants she would have no business.
 
Now here we are again and with plumbing issues, the pipe underneath the kitchen sink is broken to the point where it has detached from the main pipe thus we can't run water, cook, wash dishes, or sanitize our kitchen because we have to eat and drink thus dirty dishes. I reported this current issue on Wednesday night (its now Sunday) again I had to call on Thursday evening to follow up and was told that owner is out of the country until Monday thus need approval. We informed APMG at that time that this matter needed prompt attention before Monday and asked if AHS could be called, not without owners approval is what we were told. This is unacceptable because if you are managing a property you should have full control over issues like this one and/or authority to approve any service request up to a certain dollar amount in your clients absence, especially if your client is out of the country and you cannot contact them for major issues.  I contacted APMG again on Friday afternoon to follow-up because she said she would relay our message to the owner and no response other than an email accepting my original request at 1:00 AM Saturday morning and she mentioned that our request was forwarded for approval. This is not right, we should not have to wait 5 days (48 hours should be sufficient) for our kitchen sink to be fixed and its not functional; we pay $1100 a month for rent and its current; it seems that whatever time frame she gives us is how long we will have to wait. Now its Sunday no word, I guess she will call on Monday (like she said) before anything gets done then how much longer after wards. We have to be inconvenienced with AHS time frame or one of their many contractors (one contractor is the owners and the other is APMG) to see who will charge the least before getting the job done. This is a bunch of bull. They want their rent on time and after the 3rd its a late fee thus this should be the case, with tenants, money should be deducted from the rent after the 3rd day of a major service request not rendered. I can understand if it was a minor maintenance request but to us either one was not. Twenty-four to forty-eight hours is enough time and usually the time frame given for apartment renters and other home renters, regardless of who owns it.
 
There has been other issues but these two issues I believe needed to be addressed because tenants should not be treated this way. We have had to dine-out to avoid using our kitchen thus its not acceptable; were spending unnecessary money to save them money by waiting for them to do their jobs in maintaining this property appropriately and being inconvenienced while waiting for them to return from their vacations or to take care of service issues whenever they feel like it. She evn asked us to see if we could repair the A/C and the pipe, What are we paying $1100 a month for, remember its the owners property not ours!
 
I am sure that APMGs other tenants may be experiencing the same issues because they don't have reliable maintenance personnel either, they contract their service requests out to the lowest bid and the work performed is less than satisfactory. They inconvenience you with multiple contractors that interrupt your day to get the lowest bid before doing the job.
 
We would like for APMG to meet their contractual, management and service commitment or give us our deposit back so that we can move to a property that will. What were we thinking when we signed a 18-month ease, OMG!

This Person Scam ppl bye taking £40 from models or wana be actress promissing large quantity such as web pictures, ( no WEB SITE REGISTERED) acting in movies as lead ( ALWAYS TAKE PPL AS EXTRA)

treating ppl like dogs ,

Not paying partners like us who work behind not knowing what he does.

spending all the money he generate on his own drink. then pointing finger at ppl

be aware his name  is PRITAM CHOPRA or REAL NAME is PRITAN MALLAM

Other Scam from Pritam Chopra

he is doing this in india as well stealling ppl money

at senzsianalpr@live.com

web address

www.pritamchopra.com

www.senzsianalpr.com

such a sad peron who can even offer any jobs but steal money form ppl.

http://www.hoonur.com/pritam-chopra/uk-actor-model-tv-presenter/pdf91af89b1a90e54d3bdd1f9a1e5641f/

http://in.linkedin.com/in/pritamchopra

http://www.myspace.com/pritamchopra

http://hi5.com/friend/photos/displayPhotoUser.do?ownerId=507665527&artistType=&photoFuid=0112988618030002YZ8W988618

http://hi5.com/friend/p507665527--Pritam_Chopra--html

http://twitter.com/senZasianalPR

http://www.123people.co.uk/s/pritam+chopra

http://www.bollywoodhunts.com/missSenZasianalWorld2010.aspx

Contact number: 91–9833576018 email [senZasianal.pr@googlemail.com] (link: mailto:senZasianal.pr@googlemail.com)

Mr Simon Brahmne +919004023486 or +919833576018
Managing Director 
senZasianal PR 
UK EU USA CA UAE & IND

all this are fake once pagent done he will run away with the money he should be behind jail for fraud

http://www.indyarocks.com/profile/Pritam-Chopra-4252076

I received my voucher as a birthday gift, despite the voucher being very badly printed and hard to read, i managed to make out a telephone nymber to ring and book the date for my drive. The customer rep told me she would book me into the nearest (from Birmingham) drive centre (warwickshire) and that i would get confirmation in the post. No confirmation came up to the weekend I was to take the drive. As i had no confirmation, i rang the number on the voucher to get the adrress, only to discover that they do no operate a telephone customer service line at the weekends - despite carrying out business at the week end, so i went to there website to try and find the address of the drive centre in Warwickshire - only to discover that they do not provide the address on there site. I finally found out the address after many phone call's and internet searches for warwickshire the nearest drive centre to me.  Once we arrived there we were told that no driversdreams had been booked for that weekend. The next  day was Monday so I telephoned drivers dreams office to tell them I was not able to take up my drive due to circumstances mentioned above, first the customer rep  insisted that i had had confirmation via email, despite me telling her that i did not as i did not provide an email address. She also tried to tell me that Lesceter was the nearest centre to me, which confirmed that this was a mistake by there staff when booking. She then told me that confirmation was sent through the post, which I again told her that it did not. She told me some one called Simon from ther company would get into with me, I asked for his email contact and subsequently sent emails to him for whIch I have had no reply. From what i've discovered this company seems to behave badly towards it's customers, operates bad customer service and is unwilling to except responsibillity for mistakes they make. Considering how much money is spent on one of there gift It also seems to enjoy ruining peoples birthdays and conning them out of large sums of money. Maybe they think that because it is a 'gift' being given that they can treat the 'drive-booker' badly and fleece them as the money did not come from thee pockets. It also does not make sence that a company such as this does not operate a weekend customer service telephone contact - i did discover however that they operate a weekend telephone service to PURCHASE voucher - which suggest's they are only intersted in getting your money and NOT providing a good serive.

Since the 04/10/08 when I was involved in a car accident in Central Manchester, which was not my fault and was proven to be the other driver, I have had the misfortune to have my insurance claim handled by Tesco Motor Insurance.

The level of incompetance to start with and then the deception afterwards has been quite staggering. To support my claim and to shame Tesco, I have attached a detailed document of written evidence which totally supports my claim. As it stands they have cost me money, and now are delaying paying a cheque for £800 which is rightfully mine and has been since early December 2008. They have lied to me twice regarding when this will be issued and have tried to manipulate circumstances, by claiming that it is my fault, when it is clearly not.

Finally Karen Henderson from their Chief Executives Office in Edinburgh is avoiding me, and as a result of all this delay I have issued them with an invoice for my time totalling £730 for loss of time and earnings, which if I do not hear back from them I will seek this through the county court.

I must warn everyone that if you have a car over 6 years old, and have insurance with Tescos they will try to have the car written off, due to beyond ecconomical repair, and will pay you buttons, but also will try to rip you off with the settlement cheque, especially if you deal with their Liverpool office.

Every Little helps, you have to be joking, you give a lot and they rip you off!!!

KWIKFIT incident Mr Nick Izzard

On or around 25th January 2009 my Son David took his car to the local Kwikfit centre in Camberley (Centre Number 643) on the London Rd. He initially took the car in for a full service and inspection prior to an MOT test.

Prior to the service being carried out, the inspection highlighted several items that might lead to an MOT test failure, there were as follows:

1. Renew RHF drive shaft assembly
2. Renew LHF drive shaft rubber boot.
3. Renew rear brake shoes.
4. Renew RHR wheel cylinder.

I personally went to the centre to discuss the repairs with the fitter (Mr Billy Parrant) on 27th January, and after agreeing to the repairs, was assured that it might take 1-2 days to repair the car.

We were notified by the centre on 29th January that the car was now ready for collection, but the engine had suddenly taken on a very bad "knocking" that they were unable to rectify. When I arrived at the centre, the vehicle was started and immediately showed signs of running very rough, as if the engine was not firing on all of its cylinders.

I suggested that it might be a simple misfire problem and that they should check out the ignition circuit. I was told by the centre manager (Mr Matthew Williams) that the fitter thought something might have dropped into the cylinder head via the spark plug hole, but after removing the engine oil sump, nothing was found inside it.*

I left the centre asking the manager to speak to his area manager and find out what the Kwikfit procedures were for such an incident. I was contacted later and told that there were no procedures, and that I would have to remove my car and get it inspected by a qualified vehicle repair centre to establish what was wrong with the car in order to apportion blame, as the centre manager thought his fitter had done nothing wrong.

I was also told that in order for me to remove my car I would have to pay the bill in full (£776.82).

I found a local garage on the internet called Motest UK Ltd located in Camberley also who was willing to recover the car and carry out a full inspection to try to ascertain what the problem was.

I paid the outstanding bill to Kwikfit on the 30th January and had Motest recover the car on the 30th also.

I was contacted on the 31st January by the manager of Motest and invited to inspect the engine which had by then been stripped down. When I arrived at the Motest centre in Camberley later on that day, the manager (James) pointed out an amount of extreme damage caused to the Number one cylinder area. The cylinder head had severe damage to it, as did the cylinder face itself along with the piston linings. He then pointed out to me, three small pieces of metal which he said he found in the head space.

After closer inspection the Motest manager identified these three pieces of metal as the end of a small engineers rounded file.

I contacted Kwikfit and told them of the findings, and was assured by the Kwikfit centre manager that he would liaise between the Motest centre and his area manager to find out what should be done next.

The rest of this statement is a diary of events:

05.02.09

Contacted Kwikfit to see what progress had been made. I was told that they had requested a written report from Motest but it had yet to arrive. I drove to Motest collected the report by hand and delivered it to Kwikfit.

Decided to report the incident to Kwikfit Customer Services via their national webpage.

11.02.09 (all dates after this are approximate)

Was contacted by Kwikfit centre to ask for Motest telephone number. Supplied by myself.

Was contacted by a Mr Simon Carol, Operations Manager of Kwikfit who told me he was now investigating the incident and I should contact him direct should I have any questions etc

Got Mr Carols answering service and left a message for him to contact me. Nothing heard.

12.02.09

Was contacted by Kwikfit centre to as for Motest address. Supplied the address to the fitter on the telephone, asked him if he wanted the telephone number again, but he informed me there was no need as he used to work there!!!!

Got Mr Carols answering service and left a message for him to contact me. Nothing heard.

13.02.09

Got Mr Carols answering service and left a message for him to contact me. Nothing heard.

14.02.09

Got Mr Carols answering service and left a message for him to contact me. Nothing heard.

16.02.09

Got Mr Carols answering service and left a message for him to contact me. Nothing heard.

PM - Got Mr Carols answering service and left a message for him to contact me. Mr Carol apologised for not contacting me sooner but he had been in a meeting!!!!

Mr Carol informed me that he was now going to get an independent mechanic to inspect the damage and see if blame could be apportioned.

16.02.09

Got a call from a Mr Nigel Bowler of Kwikfit who was going to be looking after the case whilst Mr Simon Carol was away on holiday. Mr Bowler informed me that he would keep me informed of progress throughout the week.

Got Mr Bowlers answering service and left a message for him to contact me. Nothing heard.

17.02.09

AM - Got Mr Bowlers answering service and left a message for him to contact me. Nothing heard.

PM - Got Mr Bowlers answering service and left a message for him to contact me. Nothing heard.

PM.- Got Mr Bowlers answering service and left a message for him to contact me. Nothing heard.

18.02.09

AM - Got Mr Bowlers answering service and left a message for him to contact me. Nothing heard.

PM - Got Mr Bowlers answering service and left a message for him to contact me. Nothing heard.

PM.- Got Mr Bowlers answering service and left a message for him to contact me. Nothing heard.

19.02.09

AM - Got Mr Bowlers answering service and left a message for him to contact me. Nothing heard.

PM - Got Mr Bowlers answering service and left a message for him to contact me. Nothing heard.

PM.- Got Mr Bowlers answering service and left a message for him to contact me. Nothing heard.

20.02.09

AM - Got Mr Bowlers answering service and left a message for him to contact me. Nothing heard.

AM - Got Mr Carols answering service and left a message for him to contact me. Nothing heard.

PM - Got Mr Bowlers answering service and left a message for him to contact me. Nothing heard.

PM.- Got Mr Bowlers answering service and left a message for him to contact me. Nothing heard.

PM - Got Mr Carols answering service and left a message for him to contact me. Nothing heard.

Contacted Kwikfit customer complaints only to be told to contact either Mr Carol or Mr Bowler.

23.02.09

AM - Got Mr Bowlers answering service and left a message for him to contact me. Nothing heard.

AM - Got Mr Carols answering service and left a message for him to contact me. Nothing heard.

PM - Got Mr Bowlers answering service and left a message for him to contact me. Nothing heard.

PM.- Got Mr Carols answering service and left a message for him to contact me. Nothing heard.

24.02.09

AM - Got Mr Bowlers answering service and left a message for him to contact me. Nothing heard.

AM - Got Mr Carols answering service and left a message for him to contact me. Nothing heard.

PM - Got Mr Bowlers answering service and left a message for him to contact me. Nothing heard.

PM.- Got Mr Carols answering service and left a message for him to contact me. Nothing heard.

Mr Carol contacted me to inform me that he should have his independent inspection report of the car and statements from Camberley Kwikfit centre fitters by Friday 27th and will then make a statement regarding culpability.

27.02.09

Mr Carol left a voicemail on my phone but after redialing I got Mr Carols answering service and left a message for him to contact me. Nothing heard.

02.03.09

Mr Simon Carol contacted me to inform me that despite the car driving into one of his centres and having to be recovered out**, he felt Kwikfit were not responsible for the damage sustained.

Mr Simon Carol also refused to send me a copy of the report.

*I am a qualified vehicle mechanic of 25+ years and can state with some authority that anything falling into the cylinder head space via the spark plug recess cannot find its way into the engine oil sump unless it goes through the cylinder head.

**In my opinion a car with pieces of metal the size and hardness found would not allow the car to travel anymore than a few metres without causing irreversible damage to the engine and stalling.

I visited Car giant and purchased a 2004 Vauxhall Astra 1.6 sport from them on 4th February 2009. I was given the key to the car and the front to the radio and shown to my new purchase.

On driving home, I found that the spotlights on the front of the car did not work and neither did the foglights. I then put the front on the stereo and took out the manual for it, only to find that it had been locked and it would cost me a 'substantial amount' to have this unlocked again.

Just over three weeks later, the car began to make a high pitched whirring noise from the engine and when I braked to slow down the engine kept cutting out, this was driving home from work. So, I called the AA warranty number that I had been sold with the car (at a cost of 469.00) to be told the nearest recommended repair garage was over 25 minutes away, on calling them I was told that they could not look at my car until the following week, I was also told that I would have to pay for inspection costs!

I took the decision to find a reputable dealer near where I lived an took it to them instead. I was told by the technician who came to take a quick look at the car that I should turn the engine off immediately and not drive the car as the sound was due to the engine not getting any air, which could cause it to EXPLODE! I would like to point out that not only had I been driving this car to work, but I had also been taking my two children to school in it up until this point.

After a simple inspection on the car, the garage called me to inform me that the cam cover and cam belt both needed replacing, there was no oil in the engine, the windscreen wipers needed replacing and also that the car needed a service. In total these costs would come to between 800-1000 pounds. On reviewing the service record book that was given to me on payment of the car, and at the time was told that it did not need another service until christmas 2009 or 60,000 miles whichever came first, I saw that actually the car had last been serviced in December 2007.

So, I took out the information given to me at the time I purchased my car and called the aftersales team, I asked the person that picked up the phone their name and they said it was 'Mo", I then said could I have his surname as I would like it as a point of reference to which he said I didnt need it and as he had already said his name was Mo. Again I explained that I would like to take the full name of the person I was dealing with and again, in a very rude manner I was told that I didnt need his surname and his name was Mohammed and he was the only person with that name there. I explained all of the issues that I had with the car and 'Mo" said that they would pay for 1 hour of diagnostics and wanted the garage to fax over the diagnostics report, which could be reviewed - but if it was too much money it may be that they would carry out the repairs themselves. I rang my garage back and they immediately faxed the requested information over to cargiant, I rang back and asked for 'Mohammed" and was told that he was with a customer, I asked the gentleman to check if the fax had been received and he confirmed that it had, I asked if I would get a call back regarding this today, and was told I would and that as it was roughly 6pm and they closed at 7pm Mohammed would definately get back to me. At 6.45pm, I had not heard from anyone at Cargiant, so I called back, again asking to speak to Mohammed, who came onto the phone and said he had the report and it would not get looked at until the next day, I asked for some sort of time scale for this call and was told between 9am and 12 noon.

The next day, I called at 9am and asked to speak to a manager, but none were available so I explained the situation to a new advisor called Pedro. He apologised for what had happened (had not received an apology from the previous advisor) and said he would speak to a manager as soon as possible and the garage and call me back. About 10 minutes later Pedro called me back and said that the garage had been left a message and once he had spoken to them, he would get back to me with what would happen next, I again asked him if he could arrange for a manager to call me to discuss the situation. My garage called me at around 11am to inform me that they were waiting for cargiant to authorise the repair of my car, however this had yet to be received.

I received no further calls from Pedro or from any manager at cargiant that morning, again I tried to call the customer aftersales team but all I could do was leave messages on the answerphone system. I then decided that I would call the collections department to try to at least to speak to someone and get a message passed over to Pedro or a manager. A gentleman called Alan spoke to me and said that he would call me back and also get a manager to give me a call, he then began to tell me that because some cars had been sitting around, unfortunately things like this happen?!

It is now 3pm, I still have had no response from Cargiant and am still waiting for my car, you may wonder why I have not waited longer, but I dont believe that I should even have to be dealing with this situation if Cargiant had sold me a 'guaranteed quality product with piece of mind!" as described in their booklet at the time of sale.

I Purchases a 2004 Audi A4 2.0 FSI Sport from Car Giant. Vehicle had low miles of 48k, service history and belonged to another Audi Dealer prior to Car Giant.

Arrived at Car Giant to collect car as agreed following its 2 multi point 114 point pre delivery inspection. Vehicle had no fuel in it and zero miles on the didgital display. Good Start eh!

I Mananged to get out of the Car Giant complex and fortunately to a petrol station. Arrived home only to find a major bulge in the car tyre. Various knocking noises coming from car including the clutch.

Heres just a small list of the faults with the car. THERES MANY MORE

Called Car Giant who after some haggling agreed to pay half the cost of a new tyre. Agreed to fix clutch.

Car broke down twice during september, and had to be recovered into local garage for repairs. All ignition coils had been faulty.

Other knocking noises appear to be coming from lower suspension arms. Passengers side door dropped and was not easy to close. Electrical problems became apparent. No power and very slow to pull away. Loud Grinding noise coming from engine when pulling away. Gears difficult to select. Air Conditioning absolutely stinks, blows hot air when programmed to cold and vice versa. Engine makes loads of noise.

Car needed to brake pads and discs all round. Also requires new water pump and cambelt ( as these are driven by the cambelt )

My Local Audi Dealer says the car is ' a bad one '

Car Giant were difficult to get hold of at the best of times. Quite awkward and unhelpful would only pay some of the costs towards repairs, namely just the parts costs. Tried every trick in the book to have the car back to them so there own mechanics could repair it. I live in Dorset so London is some 2 hours away.

This car should have gone through two 114 point inspections. Umm with no fuel in it !!!! Car Giant cannot supply a signed copy of the working ticket or checklist for the two inspections !! 

With all the problems  i asked Car Giant if they would replace the car. Answer ' no Sir, were Car Giant we dont replace any car ' . Offered them the opportunity to replace the car and £1000 towards the 'deal '. Still NO !! iGNORED LETTERS REQUESTING THE CAR BE REPLACED.

Involved the Finance Company who asked if they would change the vehicle but received the same answer NO ! Trading Standards answer ' NO '

So traced its history through previous owners and garages where it was serviced. It had a new clutch fitted at approx 39K, and another clutch, release bearing and flywheel at approx 49k just after we purchased it. It seems very strange that a alledgedly ' superior / prestige ' car goes through two clutches in less than 10 k !

I am awaiting the results of the Vehicle Examiners report, ready for the legal Court Action.

So now taking Car Giant and the Finance Company to Court.

WHY ARE THESE PEOPLE SO UNREASONABLE ?

PLEASE, PLEASE DO NOT PURCHASE A CAR FROM CAR GIANT. NOT ONLY DO THEY TRY AND SELL YOU EVERYTHING TO DO WITH INSURANCE, BUT THEY ARE NOTHING BUT DIFFICULT TO GET HOLD OF ON THE PHONE, NEVER RETURN ANY CALLS.

ITS MUCH SAFER TO BUY FROM A DEALER WHO OFFERS BETTER SERVICE, AND SAFER CARS WHICH DONT GIVE YOU ANY STRESS AFTER PURCHASE. THATS WHY THEY ARE CHEPER. 

We Ordered a Spa from them on or around 12/05/2008 and have an acknowledgment to confirm this to which we then had a survey carried out in our home on 20/05/2008. Where we paid Spa Serve upfront the sum of £4390 by cheque.  We were given an installation date of the 01/07/2008 so I took the day off work to be present whilst the installation took place.  I was then contacted later that day at around 12.30pm by Diane in their office to say that the wrong colour had been ordered by them and that we had two options available, these were either to have another one ordered which would take approx 6 weeks, or to have the one in stock which was the wrong colour but we could have it re-varnished on the outer shell.  After already Waiting 8 weeks we decided to have the one in stock.  This spa came to us on 08/07/2008.  I took another day off work in order to be present.  The installation guys grazed the top of the spa getting it into the garden, knocked a tile off the garage roof which broke and cracked one of the jet stream buttons.  I was then told not to worry as a repair guy from Spa Serve would be out to us in around two weeks to resolve this and fix these.  Spa Serve installation guys then proceeded to sand down 2 panels of the spa for re-varnishing which looked a total mess!  I asked them to stop as this really wasn't satisfactory.  We then ordered the panels back in the original colour. At this time we had a filter missing the stereo wouldn't work and the TV was missing we also didn't have the winter cover for our Spa. As well as the spa looking a total mess!  We were then given a date for their maintenance guy to come and resolve the issues we faced on the 24/07/2008.  Again I took time off work in order to be here for the works to be carried out however nobody came that day and we were not informed.   We therefore phoned Spa Serve and spoke to Diane who apologised and said she would call back with another date.  Unfortunately we didn't receive any contact from them and our best endeavours to contact Spa Serve resulted in no reply from them, the phone kept going into a fax line or their automated message stated that they were closed even though they weren't. 

After still not hearing anything back from Spa Serve, we took it upon ourselves to drive to Staffordshire at our own expense and see Diane in person in order to resolve our matters.  We visited on the 12/08/2008 and spoke to Diane at first who then seemed to disappear never to be seen again, and then Rebecca and Jo Spa Serves sales managers who drafted a list of the defects we had, even though Diane already had this list!?  We were promised by Spa Serve staff that this would be put right ASAP and that everything was in stock other than the panels for the Spa and the TV.  We were advised that our TV for the Spa would be upgraded to a bigger and newer model, and that they would contact us as soon as they were in stock to arrange for Installation and correction of our defects.  We then received a phone call from their office stating that everything was in stock which was  the Bar, Stools, Panels, Steps,  T.V, Stereo and filter. We were told that the guy would be here on the 16/08/2008 and would fit all of the above and make good the scratches on the Spa leaving us with a completed Spa.  The gentleman arrived on that day in the morning however he only had the panels for the Spa, the stools, the steps and the new stereo.  Still no TV and matching Bar, still scratches on the Spa and a Jet stream button that is cracked and sprays out water.  He apologised and stated that we should have been informed.  We immediately phoned and spoke to a lady in Spa Serve offices again as this was getting totally ridiculous.  We were told that the TV's were being held in customs however there was no excuse for the other items not being rectified.  She explained that it would be best if all of the remaining defects were carried out in one last visit and that she would get back to us ASAP with a date.  We have tried on numerous occasions to contact Spa Serve and when we finally get to speak to someone, they  feel it's acceptable to constantly lie with the promise of them getting back to us, YOU NEVER DO!!!!!  On the 24/10/2008 I received a text from number 07797803731 this is what it read:  Just a quick update to advise I am still looking into your missing items and will update you shortly, many thanks, Spa-serve.  We found this to be extremely unprofessional and cowardly and a month on from the text we received we are still awaiting news???!  The product that we have received does not match the description that we purchased and this is completely unsatisfactory. We are now a year down the line and nothing has changed.

  We then eventually contacted Spa Serve to repair the scratches to our Spa that THEY had put on it, they stated a man from a company called Magicman would be out to repair this on 20/05/2009... Guess what... he came and couldnt fix a thing!! I have made around 30 phonecalls to this company!!! I am a young woman who suffers from Arthritis and thought this Hot tub would really soothe my aches and pains... we have had this tub a year and only used it for 3 months, we have had it shut down and are awaiting Spa serves response.  We have had nothing but stress caused from this company!!  HELP!!!! We seem to have no joy at resolving these issues and wonder if we ever will??!

i first booked my experience though activity super store online on the 4th july for the drifting day experience that they were selling for a whole day for £169 ---thinking it was a great birthday gift for hubby. needless to say it was the worst idea and a night mare to follow....

once i clded them i was given a mobile number to speak to a Niall Gunn--- after the 4th attempt to get thouh a guy answered sounding like i had just woken him up at 1.45pm-it took me a week to finally get naill to answer my calls as he ignored all my calls and voice mail and txts asking for contact he then stated he would get back to me which he never did after 4 days i had to call again only to be told i had to pay an extra £131 for a whole day as i only paid  for half the day -

 after superstore then informed me a number of times with emails and calls as well as the voucher statin clearly whole day.Niall refused to answer any of my calls or emails once again i had to keep callin finally niall advised me that this was my problem and i had to sort it. THIS IS NOT ON!!!

finally after a week later superstore informed me that it was there error and only half day is advertised andstated by email and on the phone that they will compensated me for this i decided to continued with my booking for the 19th august - my husbands bithday. t

19th augustat  11.42 i called advised naill that my car had broken down and since we lived in horsham which is 2 hours and 30 mins away we would be late his exact words were "its ok come when you can,but keep me posted" fine so happy that his birthday wouldnt be ruined so i kept txting him to tell him how far we were no response from him so natually i thought this was okay finally i txted again to say we were 30 mins away and again no response  once we were by the gates after a 3 hour trip due to traffic  we called him for directions - spoke to naill who was extremly rude , i explained that it wasnt our fault that car broke down or traffic he then started swearing at me and told me it was a f**king inconvenice  i asked him to stop swearing at me and he needs to go for customer service training he continued to swear at me !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i asked him for a manager only to be told he was the manager (nice) and told me that it was no point of comming - he confirmed that he had recieced my txts yet he didnt bother to tell me we were far to late to do the drifting. i under stand we were late but dont stated "come when you can " if clearly that wasnt the case, dont ignore txts from customers with update as to how far away they are if you cant be bothered to tell them they are to late.

so today after a number of once again inored emails from activity superstore and niall gunn at jdm allstars drifting at santa pod - i finally got though(me once again calling them)to super store and spoke to ashling munday who previously advised me i wld recieve my compensation vouchers for £169  over a week ago and what a surprise nothing has been recieved - she then tells me that they wont be compensatin me for miss sold product or alot of hassel and ruined birthday  and i will only recieve my £169 in to my card after tryin to convince me it will take 21 days to come though yeah right.

i have everything in writing and yet they think its ok to miss sell experiences and cause there customers once they have the money alot of hassel!!!!!

surely there is something that can be done.

Like many others, I booked a driving lesson for my daughter's 17th birthday. The Instructor did not turn up.  I contacted the school, they admitted that they had made a mistake and the girl who had made it had already been sacked.  I spoke to a few people including Bev and Alistair the Directors.  They were very apologetic, admitted it was their fault, but couldn't arrange a substitute lesson. At this time, I really didn't care that the girl had been sacked and I didn't want compensation, I wanted to put my daughter's birthday right.  They couldn't / didn't put it right.

I have learned, dont go for a cheap school, especially this one.  Make sure they take some payment up front, double check the booking.  This school is clearly over extended.  They really marred my daughter's birthday.  I cant replace that.  My daughter now has her first driving lesson booked with a different company for the 9th April, 8 days after her birthday.  They are responsible.  Last night they said they would go away and come back with their best offer of dates for her lesson they didn't.  AVOID KAN KAN DRIVING SCHOOL, THEY CANNOT SUSTAIN THEIR BUSINESS AND WILL LET YOU DOWN. I am so disappointed in them and their apologies change nothing - if they really were a professional company they would have done 'something' or should I say 'anything' to make some amends to my daughter.

on the 23rd of march 09, i bought a honda civic for 750 pounds from a very personable young man at capital motors ,st saviors road leicester. the same young man and his father delivered the car the next day. the day after that ,wednesday the 25th, i put petrol in the almost empty tank and set out for my daughters house fifteen miles or so away. after about five miles the car began to cut out when i slowed doown and seemed to surge and lose power alternately. i had to keep reatarting it and eventually pulled over into the abbey lane band q and rang mr bahadur( the salesmman) to ask if the car took unleaded as that was what i had put in and was worried that i should have put diesel. Mr Bahadur confirmed that the car did take unleaded. i explained what was happening with the car and mr bahadur told me to bring it in and he would get a mechanic to look at it. i did not know my way from band q to st.saviors road and so decided to carry on to my daughters as difficult as it might be and w then work out te route from there. however as i drove along the A6 at 60 miles per hour, the problem seemed to clear and i put it down to the petrol tank having been empty and dragging dregs through the system. i had no more problems with the car until i again filled with petrol on sunday the 29th of march. straight after i put petrol in ,the car surged and lost power and i waited for it to clear itself promising myself that i would not let it run to empty before filling it next time. the problem did not clear on my next run to shepshed on the tuesday and after thre short journeys to the local shops a quarter of a mile away it had gotten worse and the car kept cutting out every time i slowed down to turn or stop. i rang mr bahadur on saturday the 4th of april and he said he wpould come and pick up the car as i said i found it impossible to drive. he came to collect it on tuesday the 7th but it would not start at all. he returned later in the day and towed the car back to his capital motors forecourt. on wednesdsay 8th of march,he rang me to say that it was my fault the car had broken down as i had put diesel in it and that it was going to cost me a lot to repair. i replied crossly that i had not and that i certainly had not put diesel into it twice by mistake ,so how did he account for it happening both times and running through twenty pounds worth of petrol the first time on supposedly wrong ptrol. he angrily said that his mechanic was with the car and it had half a tank of diesel in it. i again maintained that i had not put diesel in and he asked me if i had got the two petrol reciepts ,i told him i had the second one as i paid by card .i did not have the first because i paid cash and the garage i always use does not give reciepts unlessd requested to. he said show me the reciept the. i said i would go straight to my house and try to find it. i did find it and went to the garage and verified that i had indeed put in twenty pounds worth of unleaded. i am going to confront mr bahadur tomorrow morning. i know that during the eleven days that i used the car, i filled up twice ,both with unleaded petrol. therefore i can only assume that he is trying to make me pay the cost of what is really wrong with the car. the receipt for the petrol clearly shows it to be unleaded and that petrol is still in the tank ,or was when mr bahadur towed it away. i did not see or hear him take it.it was late in the evening. therefore i KNOW IT WAS not diesel. so WHAT IS YOUR GAME, mr bahadur.?

After going through a total saga with Tesco's, over the last 6 months, I HAVE A WORD OF WARNING TO FELLOW DRIVERS OUT THERE! if you value your sanity please stay away from this organisation. As a result of their 'PERSISTANT HARRASSMENT OF ME', which has taken me to the point of near 'Suicide' and has resulted in me having to seek counselling for severe depression and loss of work. Even though I had gone right to the top, to Sir Terry Leahy it got me nowhere, and they still maintain they did nothing wrong. Their Chief Executives Office in Edinburgh is staffed by people who tell lies, and the same can be said for their Liverpool office. Also I have found out that the organisation which is masquarading as Tesco' Motor Insurance is actually called 'UK ASSISTANCE!!!'

To make matters worse they offered £100 IN COMPENSATION, and then said smugly you can always go to the Financial Ombudsman Service, knowing full well that's a waste of time.

If there is anyone from BBC Watchdog, reading this can you please investigate this company on your programme!!!!

On The 14/04/2009, Bought a car from CamperUK based in lincoln, the sales person was so nice to me and i was taken in by their service and actually bought the car for 750!!! they promised 6 months tax and a fresh MOT on it. told them i wanted to pick up the car on the 16th and they said no problem..called me back the next day told me that could not pick up the car because of the MOT and works needs to be done. Said ok..and waited..(needed the car badly because mother-in-law from malaysia is visiting for two weeks from the 16th april till the 30th april). On the 23rd Camper uk said car was ready with MOT and travelled there to pick it up. (it takes me 1 hour to get there as i live in nottingham).No petrol in the car so decided to fill it up, drove less than 3 miles to the nearest petrol station and filled up 40 pounds worth of petrol,  imagine the horror when i saw a pool of petrol under the car (there was a lot of petrol). Already pissed, drove back to talk to the sales person but not available. Left the car, he called back said will check the car. He checked the car and told me i need to pay 75pounds extra to get the car fixed (other half to be bourne by them)! mind you thats 10% of the value of the car and i do not make much money monthly as my wife does not work and a is a student. i've collected this money over the period of 3 months!! Told them that i'm not gonna pay as it was supposed to be done under the MOT, they said that it was "sold as seen"- this is an unfair trading standard(to those who dont know) and had the nerves to say that the petrol leak is not covered under the MOT!..what rubbish, for a car to pass an MOT there must be no leakage of fuel and must be safe to be driven! having a petrol leak on a car defies having an MOT in the first place! CamperUK refused to fix the damage, and when i told them i reported to trading standards, they got mad and told me will give refund but not the full amount!... again why would anybody be doing business with them???(poor me!!!). another pointer for the others, it could amount to a criminal offense if the car sold to you is unsafe.

until now not replying to my mail, will take this matter further, would be grateful if you could spread the word to be careful when dealing with traders selling on "sold as seen basis" and of course camperUK. In the end all i wanted is a car that can be safely driven but camperUk has failed even to provide that. i dont mind the wear and tear, but petrol fuel line leak??? come on!!!!! even a 10 year old kid knows that's dangerous!!!

zul

I went on Google to book my sons Theory driving test for Tues 12th May 2009. I clicked on the site called Teorytest.net booking service which appeared at the top of the page.

The test confirmation came by email the day after booked for Wed 13th May. I tried to reschedule on line on DSA site but it insisted I pay again so I contacted the Test centre.

I find out from the test centre that Theorytest.net are not the official site and lots of people are conned by them. I was charged £48 when the test only cost £31 through the DSA site.

I was told they pay Google to put them at the top of the page so many people make the same mistake in thinking it is the official booking site.

So not only couldn't they provide a good service by giving me the wrong date but I was overcharged by £17.

I was able to reschedule with the Theory Centre for the date and time I originally asked for. 

I have attached my letter I have sended to Sun 4 U Ltd.

Sun 4 U Ltd

Bridgefoot House

 2^nd Floor

2a Star Street

Ware

SG12 7 AA

Mrs B Tsoodol

8 Anglia Close

London

N17 0LB

Tell; 07903460472

Whom I may concern;

Re: Booking Reference 241682

14 April 2009

I have booked holiday with you back in January 2009 for 2^nd April to 9^th April for 7 days.

It has been nightmare; we wish we never did go for this holiday, when we arrived the airport someone from Resorthoppa  picked us up but don't know which hotel we going to and drop us of hotel called Royal Beach in the reception make us wait for 2 hours and they fully booked no rooms and we have to go some where else so we get taxi to go Casino Royal hotel the reception have problem to pay the taxi driver reception been arguing with the driver we been middle of very embarrassing situation so we paid the taxi eventually we did get the money back from the miserable reception.

The reception was so rude treat us like dog make us wait for 4 hours to give us room.

We did not have one full night sleep, it was so noisy, banging doors so many younger people drunk screaming all night long it was very bad.

Room service: for that entire 7 days bed sheet been changed ones when I made complain about it and the bathroom has not cleaned at all I have to do myself.

Food was very bad every day same pasta and chips even the milk was powder milk

I was very ill after I hade glass of milk in my second day so have hardly touched the food again I have been eating out rest of my holiday that cost me lots of money.

We have been handed over slip to book our shuttle bus for our return to airport.

On Wednesday morning we checked on the list our name was not there so I phoned  Resorthoppa on +32902104951 and spoke to Malcon he said he'll phone back and tell our time for picked up so we have give the reception phone number waited in our room all day on Wednesday so he did not return our call till 4:30pm We phoned again 10 minutes of music played on the phone there is no one to answer my call so we have to call next morning and we called again the next morning we have holding phone about 15 minutes and spoke to lady called Lauren she said we will picked up at 6:50pm.

At  7:15pm no one turn up we started worry so I have phoned up again Resorthoppa emergency number +32902107603 after 20 minutes of music I have manage to speak to someone she said the Sun 4 U has been cancelled our transport we have to go our self . We have been spending about 20 euro to just make phone calls.

We took taxi to airport that cost as £50 because we don't have enough euros to pay the taxi fair so paid in pounds we do have the receipt for it.

I am very disappointed the whole thing so badly organised.

I have been wasting my time trusting Sun 4 U Ltd.

Sun 4 U Ltd sales persons promised me on the phone holiday of heaven but it was holiday from Hell

I wasn't expecting much but it was far so poor.

I would like to refund all my money back, the all trouble we been threw in this holiday we want our money back.

We been throw so mush hassle and stress we did not ask for it and pay for it.

Sun 4 U Ltd promised good holiday so they have not done job properly so I want my

money back.

I hope you understand my bad experience in this holiday and hopefully hear from you soon.

Thank you,

company formally trading as arena maintenance ltd took me on as a plumber via jobcentre website roughly 15/08/08.

first jobs carried out on 18/08/08, when jobs completed i had to hand over any cheques or cash over in a carpark 1hours drive from my house every friday,they were adament this happened which i thought was strange, was told i would get my money the following week so carried on doing jobs,2 weeks later still no payment so was told banks had changed so carried on working as i needed money especially as i had only just started my plumbing business, eventually recieved a cheque from first direct services ?? for £340.57 so got it banked and carried on working for them...

last job being on the 09/09/08  that following friday they were pressuring me to take the money and cheques to them same place at 3pm on a friday afternoon,they gave me new invoice pads saying ARENA MAINTENANCE SRVICES LTD AND TOLD ME TO USE THESE ONES NOT ARENA MAINTENANCE LTD.

it was that following week i was wondering where the work was as they used to phone me daily and that the cheque had bounced.

over 50 calls and being fobbed off after trying to get my money i gave up,even research into the companies from a good friend who is a barrister confirmed on companies house that they took me on as arena maintenance even tho it had been liquidated for 4 months prior, they were still using these invoice pads with company reg 06219373 on them and taking customers money even tho it was liwuidated,apart from my cheque bouncing being fraud surely using the old liquidated invoices was fraud itself. throughout end of  08 and beginning of 09 they traded under new name of arena maintenance services limited which surprisingly enough has been liquidated again,now trading as national maintenance ltd.

This company has committed 2 accounts of fraud but have also ripped off and kept the money from customers i was dealing with, this can be backed up as i still have all the paperwork for jobs completed and 1 very unhappy customer who paid arena via credit card over the phone for a new window,she never heard back,i want these fraudsters stopped before they rip anyone else off,so would be happy to see them on watchdog.thank you

jason crane

Placed order for replacement battery for Bosch drill, still have not had the item delivered. Initial correspondence with the company was OK however, have recieved no response since the 17th August. Details below.

No assistance or communications recieved following mail sent to Nochex, so dont use either of these companies if you want to recieve your goods or want a refund.

I had paid in advance for driving lessons + one driving mock test + hired car for actual DVLA driving test. The instructor decided by himself that he wants to give me more lessons and booked them without consulting me. I didn't and he claimed that form the money I paid for the above. Now I am being forced by the BSM customer service to book more driving lessons and pay for another mock test and for another hired car for the DVLA test.

Here is a copy of the email I sent to this joke of a company which trades under the name, Rock Solid Kitchens. I have given £2,600 to a delivery driver who made a hasty exit once the cash was in his pocket and left me with boxes of complete rubbish - any hlep would be greatly appreciated.

"Dear Sirs

DEMAND FOR FULL REFUND !

A kitchen arrived on sunday after ordering one throu gh one of your sales reps who visited our home. Due to your appauling phone handling team who either promise to call back and don't or simply leave the phone ringing without an answer, I have been forced to demand a refund via email through your website. Please send my full refund and arrange immediate collection of this very dissapointing kitchen from my home: XXXX

I have a number of complaints regarding service, quality, mis-representation and advertsing using mis-leading statements. Firstly, upon delivery our granite tiles, larder units and larder doors did not arrive. They were promised the next day (Monday 1st) and it is now Thursday 4th and stll nothing despite 38 phone calls to your offices.

Secondly, the pelmit, the plinth, the doors and the units are all totally differnt colours. Thirdly, you steate very clearly yupon your website and through your sales people that teh kitchens are 'real wood' that is comp lete nonsense. The doors that arrives are indeed real wood but the base units, drawer units and side panels arec all very very poor quality laminated chipboard.

Everything that arrived was scratched and or dirty. We paid for a solid hard wood kitchen and did not receive one - this is disgusting.

Next, 3 lengths of granite turned up - all 3 are different thicknesses. Again this is appauling as no-one could possibly fit granite which is different thicknesses.

Your service level is probably the worst I have ever come across. You rarely pick up the phone regardless of the time of day the call is made. You never call back after promising that you will and the phone is engaged, more often than not. It is a joke. We proceed. The boxes state 'light oak' but the items actually inside the boxes vary from pale ash to cherry. How on earth can you honestly expect someone to have a multi-coloured kitchen in their home.

Overall, the quality of your product and level of service is simply te rrible. I am amazed that trading standards have not paid you a visit or closed you down. I look forward to someone coming to collect the items from us and for the full refund that will arrive very very soon. We have been mis-sold and you have mis-represented yourselves greatly and provided us with somthing that is not only incomplete but is damaged and incorrect."

On 24th September I rang the payment side Argos/Homebase to authorise a payment of £140.92 in full payment as required. When I came to check over the telephone how much I had left in the bank and was adised nothing and the bank and i suspected fraud when a large payment of £1,409.20 had been removed from the account on 29th September 2008. It was only after the cancellation of my debit card that it appeared an error had been made. When I contacted them they said yes they saw what the error was and they were sorry and would be making a full refund of the difference £1,268.28. This was the start of a battle to get the return of my money back. Many have been the calls and promises but never the name or address of anyone in authority. The runaround has been tremendous with no one able to assist and in fact those i have managed to speak to are either lying or incompetent. I will never deal with them again. All I want is the money they owe me for their mistake as it has caudede no end of problems with my bank account. Apart fom shaming them I ame considering legal action against the one name I have, Luke Alldritt, Customer Services Manager.

AS Dalby (Mrs)

We booked return tickets 6 weeks ago on the flybmi.co.uk site from Manchester to Bordeaux, 4th-8th Sep 08. We were going to drive from Edinburgh to Manchester to catch the flight but two weeks ago decided to fly. We booked the Manchester to Edinburgh flight with flybmi.co.uk as well. Two days ago BMI emailed us. The flight from Bordeaux would now be leaving 4hrs55mins later than originally booked. Our Manchester to Edinburgh connecting flight would now be leaving before we arrived in Manchester. I phoned to ask for a refund for both flights. BMI said the Bordeaux flight (our first flight) was booked with a different company and as such could not refund our Manchester to Edinburgh flight (the connecting flight). Turns out the flybmi website transferred us to BMI Baby to book the Bordeaux flight (the one that was now 5 hours late). Would you believe it they are separate airlines!!!!! ‘COMPLETELY DIFFERENT' they say. Because the flybmi website redirected the flight inquiry for Bordeaux to another company entirely (BMI Baby) without my partner being aware, she had booked with two different Airlines, a fatal error with connecting flights. There was no apology no concern, just unbelievable arrogance and unwillingness to consider that they might have some responsibility for the confusion by redirecting unsuspecting customers. They offered a credit note for the delayed flight, but no refund as the flight had to be delayed by 5:00 hours (our delay 4hours 55 only 5 minutes under). How convenient for them and bad luck for us. No refund or credit for our connecting BMI flight from Manchester to Edinburgh, now unusable - £140.00 clear profit for BMI. We also have the stress/cost of arranging new flights with Easyjet, from Bordeaux to Edinburgh. Ha ha, I wonder if Easyjet might transfer us to Ryanair or other completely different Airline if they can't help. Can just hear them now,

"We do have your flights listed on our website but we don't actually fly there. How about we zoom you over to our good friends website (you probably wont even notice) that has a similar name and is linked to our website, (and if you have a customer query or complaint it can even transfer calls between the ENTIRELY DIFFERENT customer services departments). You can now go ahead and book with an entirely different Airline, and if something goes wrong, hey, sure you won't mind but we take NO RESPONSIBILITY because you were daft enough to not realize that the two Airlines are ENTIRELY DIFFERENT and when we sent you to an entirely different Airlines website you failed to read the warning that said, YOU ARE NOW BOOKING A FLIGHT WITH AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT AIRLINE AND THE CONNECTING FLIGHT THAT YOU ARE ABOUT TO BOOK WILL BE LOST IF YOUR CONNECTING FLIGHT IS DELAYED OR CANCELLED. YOU WILL LOSE YOUR HARD EARNED CASH AND WE DON'T CARE.

BMI AND BMI Baby have treated us with contempt. I expect they think that we have no voice and that they can get away with it. Well, they possibly can, but as long as I am able, I will persue this until I get some satisfactory service. Sure we are not alone. Post a reply with your experience, am interested. I hope this helps you see how idiotic BMI and BMI Baby are and highlights the appalling customer neglect we have suffered, they have stupid systems in place to get your hard earned cash, then simply tell you to get lost.  Put some pressure on them to sort out their systems and customer care and offer us a full refund and an apology.

Regards

John

Hi,

I wish I had seen this website before going down the route of asking First National Associates to send a plumber. 

I had a washing machine delivered and after delivery had a couple of issues (which I am also taking up with the washing machine supplier - they also left a transit bolt in which i didn't notice until the first wash's spin cycle!!! - replacement installed yesterday!) - there was a leak in the pipe going to the cold supply to the washing machine and the drainage pipe end hose internal diameter was a bit bigger than my last machine so i had a small leak where I had attached it with a bulldog clip to the drainage connection under the kitchen sink.  However my internal flat stop cock was corroded open so I needed a plumber to replace that (by turning off the water in the street and replacing the old stop cock with new) - before the leak in the water supply to the washing machine could be repaired (the connection couldn't just be tightened and was on the mains so couldn't be removed without turning the water off).  Also while at my home I would ask the plumber to look at the washing machine drainage pipe connection leak.

I contacted First National Associates who sent a plumber (Adrian) very quickly and they said it would be £55 per half hour but no call out charge. Nice pleasant competent (appearing) plumber called Adrian arrived.

Adrian then spent 3hours30mins doing the three jobs (new stop cock, fixing leak, stopping drainage leak) and my total bill was £427.15!!!  In addition I found during the first run of the new replacement washing machine yesterday that the drainage pipe leaked worse than before including some weird connection he'd made half way between two different pipes.

Now really the job should have been like this:

Stop cock replacement (I had told them on the phone that i needed a new stop cock - so you'd expect a plumber to have the standard sizes in his van...) - max 30min job - turn water off in street, change stop cock, turn water back on.

Fix water leak in cold water pipe - I told him to remove excess piping and he did and then reconnected water inlet connector to a new point - 5 min job with no new parts

Drainage leak - after finding his new solution leaked massively I went to B&Q yesterday bought a new drainage connection (the type where you have a cutter to connect it to the pipe) and only using half of it (but with a bigger diameter spiggot) reconnected my drainage hose (complete hose without the stupid joint he made) and all is perfect now - 15min job with £12 part.

So my calculations based on their expensive £55 per 30 mins calculation the total bill should really have been £130 (1 hour total time, £8 stop cock, £12 drainage connector), so I have emailed to ask about the extra £300 charge.

On reflection I am so annoyed with myself for being so gulible to allow the plumber to take 3hours 30mins to do these tasks - but when he seems honest and competent what do you do - then at the end you get a bill for work already done you sort of pay......

There should be a law that means people like this have to look at the job then give a price before they start work.

Its rubbish really and they seem to be very dodgy if that's their standard approach. 

I am waiting for an email response from them and if not will call them - I will update this if I don't get a response.

But if I don't get a satisfactory response I would add to what others say on here - don't use First National Associates!!  Let the credit crunch do its work and put these cowboys out of business!

Ben

I bought my [] (link: http://www.blagger.com/db4/company_id/417/companyname/Carcraft.html#) centre direct, which I did. They booked me in but said if this was wear and tear it was down to me (has anyone ever worn out their window washers within 4 months I would love to know!!!! im not in a particularly muddy area!!!). After this phone call I went out to my car and got in to take my daughter out and it wouldnt start (can you believe this as I had just called them!!!!) It was telling me that the immobiliser was at fault so I called carcraft from the car and was asked a series of questions such as how long had I had the car and where I lived?????? then was put on hold. The lady came back and said she couldnt help as it was over the three months guarantee and to call the customer services centre, which I did. They told me to call NAC as it was now with them, but as i told them NAC do not cover electonic faults and it was saying electronic immobiliser fault. This went on for a while so I was then told sorry this is out of the three months nothing they can do. So i am still waiting for the quote for the repair (in anticipation as you can imagine). So I have bought a car for the grand total of £5500 (only worth about £3000 privatly) and it has lasted four months. Thanks carcraft i look forward to doing business with you again........NOT!!!!!

My drivers side wing was damaged and I couldnt find a local company that had the replacement wing I needed. So I went on ebay and was contacted by 1st parts 4 u saying they had the part and can send it within 48hrs for £20 delivery charge. I paid for the part on my mums debit card which I was told would be £65. 3 days later no part and a statement on my mums online banking advising I has been charged nearly £75. I called to find out where part was and was advised someone will call be back also asked about why I was debited more then I was told, was informed it was VAT. No phone call so called again next day was told mix up with postcode but part was on the way. This continued for another week and then after phoneing them again was told part was damaged in transit so they will send another by the following Wednesday. (did not turn up) called on the Thursday and was shouted at by woman saying if I dont get part by end of week they will give me full refund. ( No part turned up) Called on the monday and was told to call on the Wednesday as accounts not open until then. Called on the Wednesday and transferred to answer machine in accounts. Spoke to Mr Singn ( Director) who assured me will call me back by 6.30 that night (Thursday). Friday called again and kept being left on hold. Kept calling back only to have the phone put down on me serveral times and recieving abuse down the phone and informing me that they will not refund me my money. T

I have now investigated the company and found out they have been trading under several names and have ripped off alot of people. These people need to be stopped for good. More needs to be done. I know my money doesnt come no where near the amount they owe others but its still alot to me a single mother.  

We purchased a nissan micra YT07 PTX in September 2007, before we bought it we asked one of Gordon Lambs representatives if Renault had , had any of the input with building the car because we knew from reading various car books that they had had problems with oil leaks on engines, we were told a firm no, so went ahead and purchased a new Nissan Micra. after just three thousand miles we discovered an oil leak on the underside of the engine, Gordon Lamb booked us in a few days later for a repair. whilst the car was there we pointed out that the metal weld on the inside of the doors had missed in the bottom of the doors leaving a gap  that would eventually probably cause them to rust. we were told that they were all like that!. in the meantime we also telephoned Nissan themselves and asked if there had been any reported engine faults with the Nissan micra and were told no. we felt that a brand new car shouldnt have an oil leak after three thousand miles. we logged it with  them. Gordon Lamb repaired the leak and we collected the car . just one week later and the car developed the same leak again. this time we were told that "they had replaced the seals in the engine with what must have been faulty seals" bad eh! at this point my husband told them that he didnt want the car and asked them to do us a swap, he had used all his pension to pay for it and it was spending more time with them than with us. they agreed but  we didnt want another micra because whislt waiting to see their manager, my husband looked underneath five micras that were parked on their forecourt and FOUR out of the five had the same leak! only the brand new one hadnt. and so they said we could get another car as long as it was in their franchise, so we went to Gordon Lamb Toyota, and swapped the car for a Toyota Aygo,YS55 XUG although they would only let us have a 55 plate so we ended up with a two year old car, which although is reliable, isnt new, they also kept £600 that was left over from what we had paid on the micra. because, in their words "We had used it". before we collected  the Aygo my husband had asked them to do all the stone chips on the bodywork and they said yes they would. On getting the Aygo home, my husband checked the car, as he  aways does, and discovered that they had sent it out with TWO bald tyres, yet the car had supposedly been checked over for collection three days before. yes they did replace the tyres straight away but we had to drive on bald tyres and risked a heafty fine had we been pulled over by police, plus they had also sent us out in a potentially dangerous car as it was winter and there was ice. it also turned out that they havnt done the stone chips, just covered them in red polish!. We have written letters and phoned. Steven Lamb  the managing director isnt the slightest bit interested in the fact that  we lost £600 on a faulty car, or that every penny of my husbands pension went on it, my husbands in incredible pain from a back injury and all we asked for was a reliable car, theres no way we could ever buy another new one. My husband cannot work through his injury and because of this is also on antidepressants. what happened with the car hasnt helped. Steven Lamb is only interested in money, its a drop in the ocean to him its a small fortune to us. please can you help? we are grateful that there are websites like these and I am at the moment writing this at our local library because we cannot afford the internet at home. if you would like to ring us  we can give you proper dates and details 07894 062886 or 01246434564. thanking you Michael and Carol White

This Vacation to Turquey turned out to be an unbelievable ordeal ... first the offers on the website did not match the real prices/availability so we had to call to book our vacation for 1 week to Bodrum Turquey (Hotel Cactus Charm) . We managed to book this 4 star hotel on May 14th for a one week stay from May 17 to May 24th for over 100 Euros more per person than on the website. A few days later we received our receipt indicating that we were booked for a 5 star resort (Meder Resort hotel) in Antalya instead of the agreed destination. We called to make sure this was ok and that we would not have issues at the airport or hotel since that was not what we booked, but the agent confirmed it was all ok and we were staying in a better hotel etc.. for the same price we ended up paying (which was way too much and more than on the website already) so we thought ok, maybe this is good.

Once we arrived we found the lobby beautiful, location wasn't good though, we had to take a shuttle to the beach offered free every 30 mins per the Thomas Cook info sheet. The rooms were NOT air conditioned, only warm air circulated. The carpets were filthy as well ( we changed rooms 4 times and it was the same in each one). There is no room/drawers to put your clothes in except for a few hangers (we lived out of our suitcases). The fridge in each room was warm and could not be set colder (in every room). We complained and so did almost every other guest in the hotel. The staff didn't speak proper English or French or Flemish (seems most spoke Turkish, German or Russian) Anyways, for the A/C they claimed it was a technical problem and would be fixed the next day (it was incredibly funny though that the air conditioning in the halls and bars and kitchen and lobby and everywhere there was staff worked perfectly though) . After 3 more days of complaining the air was a bit colder but not air conditioned and only on for a few minutes a day and the next day it was back to warm air. We were getting extremely grumpy since we could not sleep in that heat. They have also set the vents to stop once the windows are open so no way to circulate fresh air. Upon reading more reviews of the Meder Resort hotel online, we found out this was a nice con going on for over a year ... they just don't have air conditioning and use the same excuses over and over. Even while drinking liters of water, it was so hot we were sweating just standing in our room ... and combination of no air conditioning and the lack of sleep made me faint a few times.

Now for the ALL IN bar, you get, coke, water, juice, coffee, gin and vodka, 1 kind of beer (Tuborg) some local anis drink .. that's it. pretty pathetic for a 5 star. If you order a drink with gin or vodka they water it down so much that even though they fill up half your glass with so called alcohol, you cannot even taste it. We were once again feeling completely ripped off.. My boyfriend had to start ordering Vodka straight up and No ice ( that they served from a different bottle!) and a coke separately just to get a decent amount of alcohol ! I ended up drinking coke only or a little beer. You cant even get a Turkish coffee for free (1 euro each) or Pina Colada without dishing out 6 Euros. 4 times out of 5 your glass will be dirty or chipped. My first glass had beautiful pink lipstick on it. The meals were decent although very similar and you had to be lucky to get the hot meals when they were still warm. We were sick a few times during the trip, but don't know if it was the food, or drinks or dirty glasses .. anyways, you had to pay 2 Euros for a fresh glass of orange juice in the morning. The non smoking area is pathetic in the dining room and lobby area. The staff is slow, and we only encountered 1 employee there that knew what he was doing.

The beach area is so-so, the water is nice but it is a port and over crowded. The beach chairs are pathetic, most were broken and without a mat and there were not enough little tables. The staff (1 guy) was hitting on girls and killing sea stars to sell to tourists instead of working, We found out the shuttle to the beach was every hour instead of 30 minutes and only until 6pm. So we had to walk or wait, we walked. The beach bar is not a bar, its a JOKE, its a stand with an umbrella serving some water and orange drink (which we got sick after drinking) and the cold sandwiches they claimed to offer were sandwiches left on the counter crawling with ants. The beach staff will offer to go get you beer or drinks at the nearby bar (at your cost - tips accepted) but will forbid you to throw bread at the birds and start lecturing the Coran to you ... we didn't go there anymore.

The safety deposit box in the room is charged at 2 Euros a day and they count every day not 24 hour periods. The shop in the hotel sells postcards 10 for 1 euro, but they will scam you on the stamps, they cost 80 cents Turkish lyra but they will charge you 80 euro cents claiming they are in euro or claiming they include mailing it for you- either way they are ripping you off ). The lunch pack (if you arrive late or leave early) is a piece of bread, cheese, slice of some meat, piece of cucumber and tomato. It must be requested early, if after 10PM, they charge you for it. The free phones to reach Thomas Cook reps does not work so you must go to the front desk. The reps will offer a call back that the hotel will offer to transfer to your room ( which they don't tell you is at your cost) - we waited at the lobby phone once we asked and found out about the charges!

We decided to get out of there and wanted to book 2 excursions with Thomas Cook/Necremans: a Jeep Safari day trip, which assured us we would be driving the entire day (twice) and a half day to Antalya city. However we had to postpone them to the end of the week since our rep had left already that day and the next day was her day off and we could not book them over the phone as we were previously told( we also had to wait til 11am the day she did come so that ruined another day). The Jeep Safari day trip started early and very well, nice off road driving in the mountains from about 10, 1030 am, however, we did have to switch with the other tourists to let them drive. We drove about an hour and a half with a few breaks for nice scenery and a stop for tea at a local family house where we were encouraged to buy local arts/jewelry. Then came lunch that was included. We were served and told after lunch that we had to pay for our own drinks, nice surprise..... anyways after lunch our guide drove (not in the deal- we were supposed to drive) to the small water hole where we were told we would swim but once there they said it was too cold so we just took pictures and were encouraged to buy drinks or shop there. We were excited about the drive back since we were told it would be the same way back but then , we were told it was over, and the guide drove us back on asphalt roads, we were back before 3!!! Full day of driving my a** !! What a rip off, we were all upset and I complained to the manager of the tour and he said that's the way it was , a 3 hour drive (shared) stops and lunch , swim if hot and that was it and that if Thomas Cook misinformed us it wasn't their problem - total rip off. Then for the Antalya excursion, we received a message from Thomas Cook saying we would be getting a full day instead of a half day, we were pleased. However the night before Antalya, at 9 pm, we get a new message from Diana Travel, saying our excursion was cancelled !! This was our last day of vacation before our flight, we were very upset and they (both Diana Travel and Thomas Cook) refused to give us the tour stating there were not enough participants so we could go another day (but we could not being our last day). The Thomas Cook agent refused to refund us by credit card on the phone, refused to drop off the money at our hotel. She told us to wait at the hotel the next day for a rep to come, but she didn't know who since the normal rep was back in Belgium, as if we would wait at the hotel our last day !!! She also told us to take a Taxi to Antalya !!!! We could not believe it, 50 km/100 km taxi ride back and forth?! Would they refund us? of course the answer was NO. She said we had to talk to the agent at the airport the day we left either at Antalya or Oostende to get our refund but there were No Thomas Cook agents at either airports. And to make it all worst there was a stop on the return flight ! We had to wait in a small room at Liege airport for an hour while they changed passengers ! No drinks were offered, we received no information from anyone as to how long we would wait there.. We were not informed of this stop at all, our flight coupon and all paperwork showed Antalya to Oostende !The service was unbelievable. And, we still have not received our refund for the cancelled excursion.

The agent at the Thomas Cook phone line in Turquey refused to open a complaint for us, stating we had to do it at the airport ... it was hell, they just would not help us ... we felt taken advantage of, ripped off, manipulated ... and this was not even the hotel we had booked !!! The entire vacation was disappointing and not what we had bought, we spent more time complaining to staff then having a vacation.. we overpaid for a horrible experience from start to finish, and we want our money back.

When i joined DRI it was called GVC, then Sunterra, Whilst it was in those names i had no complaints at all, in fact it was a good value holiday.

Now that DRI have taken over ,the management fees have gone up about 37%, judging by other comments and blogs on the internet, i am not the only one that cannot afford to pay this enormous increase.The worst part about this is that when i tried to surrender my membership  for no financial gain,(even though i paid £5500 for it in 2001 ), i was told that i cannot surrender unless i am bankrupt, in dire financial trouble with lenders, over 75 or dead ! This is outrageous ! One of the reasons i need to surrender is to stay out of financial trouble as my business has been badly hit by the downturn. As a business owner i cannot afford to go bankrupt, especially for the sake of a holiday !! It's not as though flights and food are included in the fees DRI charge, that all has to be paid for .

This company in my view are not acting correctly and dare i say it possibly not lawfully, and need investigating. A lot of their clients are retired and cannot possibly afford to pay these fees.DRI should hang their heads in shame for the stress this is causing to people, especially with the veilled threat of court action in 18 months time if you do not pay up..

I purchased an Amana Definition fridge/freezer at a cost of more than £3000 but did not realise that I was choosing to deal with a company that has absolutely no concern for product quality or after sales service. Despite purchasing what I believed to be a product at the higher end of the market, the quality has been more akin to that associated with the very bottom end. I have had a total of 6 service calls in just over 3 years, including two as a result of total losses of the freezer contents and consequential insurance claims.

Whilst in warranty the fridge/freezer was replaced but the problems continue, whether it is was a matter of produce in the fridge freezing or items in the freezer defrosting.

The most recent failure resulted in yet another total loss of the freezer contents, a repair cost of around £230, an insurance claim (again) and it didn't seem unreasonable to expect that Amana should contribute towards the cost of the repair.

However, the response I have gained from Amana is nothing but insulting. Firstly they claimed that they had records for only one or two of my previous service calls, despite all having been booked through their offices and even when I produced records to demonstrate the problems experienced, they have remained totally dismissive of my courteous requests. I have previously received poor service in the same way that I have purchased products that didn't reach my expectation but never been before have I been driven to seek out websites such as this one in order to expose incompetence and arrogance of this nature.

I've no idea what the impact of this complaint will be but if it warns just one potential customer away from buying such appalling service I will feel suitably rewarded.

Whirlpool/Maytag have undertaken all of the communications on this matter as the parent company.

we had a four year old alpha romeo stolen from us in 2005. it was found by police a few weeks later and stored at the police garage in liverpool the car had been involved in a robbery while it was stolen and my husband decided that he wanted to terminate his agreement with the finance company as it was a "marked car "which he was in his rights to do. we kept tesco insurance know every thing and it was arranged for finance company to pick car up from peoples garage where tesco had moved it to.unbeknown to us the finance company was told that they would have to pay storage costs of the vehicle and never recovered it. we didnt find out about this until nearly 2 years later when a debt company sent us a letter. contacted tesco who said they didnt know where the car was.cut  a long story short tesco had car for three years but didnt tell us, they have now dumped car at our house undriveable, unselllable and have had no pay out for car that is no good to anyone. tesco admitted liability at first ( have letters)offered us £5.700 the value of car at time it was stolen then withdrew blame and offer dont know where to turn for help as feel tesco have ripped us off. please help

The car was advertised on internet. Called them anbout the car . Car was reserved with the view if I like the car I'll purchase it.A deposit was of £500 was made by my credit card. I also prepared the Banker's draft as a method they suggested to pay the full amount if I like the car.

Went down to see the car , we drve 75 miles . The car had several scrach marks on it, the wiper was not woking and very heavy to drive. I decided not to buy the car.The sales person agreed with us that the full deposit will be refunded.

It has been now 3 weeks . They keep telling me that they have sent the cheque! I have not recived any. They should refund the money in my credit card account, and should not keep telling me that they have sent the cheque, which I have not recived!

ON THE 4TH OF MAY 2008 I WENT INTO MACRAE AND DICK CAR SHOWROOM HONDA SALES I SPOKE TO THE SALESMAN DAN GREEN AS I WISHED TO BUY A HONDA CRV THAT WAS OUTSIDE.

AT THE TIME I OWNED A VW PASSAT OUT RIGHT AND A VW POLO WHICH THEY NEW WAS ON HPI THE FRIST THING I SAID WAS THAT TO DO THE DEAL THE VW WOULD HAVE TO GO BACK TO CLEAR THE FINANCE.

IT WAS WORKED OUT THAT FROM MY VW CONTRACT THAT £2511.77 WAS 50% OF THE CAR PRICE SO THEY PAID AND THE CAR WAS TO GO BACK.

THE SALES MAN DAN GREEN SAID YES I WILL TAKE CARE OF THIS SO WE LEFT THE CAR WITH HIM TO DRIVE LESS THAN 100 METERS TO VW

BUT NO THEY SOLD THE CAR AND IT WAS TAKEN DOWN SOUTH .

WHICH IS STRANGE BECAUSE YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO SELL CARS WITH HPI  ON THEM.

WHEN WE WERE OUTSIDE LOOKING AT THE PASSAT THAT WAS THE DEPOSIT FOR THE NEW CAR NOT THE POLO I SAID TO DAN YOU DO NOT HAVE FAR TO PUT THAT BACK.

WILL HAVE TO PUT IT BACK THERE VW INVERNESS!!!!!!

i bought a freelander in 2008, with a years warranty, advised this was best warranty to go for, as with all freelanders, the head and gaskets can go. this warranty covered everything i needed it too, or so i thought. the car started to leak water, so went into a garage, the water pump had a leak and was fixed, after a while the car started to leak water again, went into the garage, the inlet manifold was fixed, after a few more months, the car started to leak water again, a different garage found that the head gasket had gone and the liners had dropped. it was advised it would be more cost effective to fit a new engine. warranty company said no, because its my fault for driving the car with a known fault and not repairing the car. tried to explain to them that it had been into the garage 3 times to be repaired, they wouldnt have that either, said i would send invoices to prove it, they still said no, they said its down to my supplier who sold me the car, proveeda in ipswich, he said no he isnt paying. we went to loyds of london, who it says on the warranty wise web site underwrites the warranty, they have no knowledge of warranty wise. i have in good faith paid for a warranty, that covers the parts that have failed and warranty wise are refusing to pay for the repair. I have since found a web site with a forum full of complaints about warranty wise and the fact they always refuse to pay.

hi everyone

axa are rip off i mean what is a large company like axa refusing to pay out on a geniune claim like this for they are seriously loosing the plot.

i made a claim for a vandalism incident that happend to my rental car and i was cover for the excess through THE AXA INSURANCE GROUP for this incident which occured at some time on the 10112008 reported to the rental company and police at the time this claim was worth £600 in which no accustation have been made nor have their been any dispute with the rental company about this claim yet axa refuse to pay for this £600 claim citing the car was used against the terms and conditions of the rental agreement (when actually the car was parked overnight and no one was actually driving the car so how could it have possibly been used against terms and conditions). its disgraceful i took this policy out with questor insurance services and was underwritten by axa insurance.

then another twist

then the rental company accused me of allowing the car to be used in a separate incident of being involved in a incident which the police have not charged me for nor am i familiar with nor has any third party made a claim against me for and the rental company took another £600 from my virgin credit card which was supposed to be blocked due to the fact that it was reported to the company as lost stolen so it should have never been able to be processed none th eless it was and enterprise took a additional £600 which i added to my claima nd was refused again accusation made was that it was used by a third party on thus axa terms were broken again i have no clue as to why they wont pay as the police dont seem to have charged me and there has never been any proof or evidance sent or given to me nor have the axa group or the police as well as enterprise put any evidance to me apart from a pre accident report which just shows the damaghe that was caused by the vandalism on the date i reported it.

any one got any advise, i really dont want to go through a civil court which i have been advised to do so if you haveany advise  let me no as £1200 is alot of money and i wil be recovering interest which was £40 per month so its adding up daily

on Thursday 5 March 2009, my partner and I were nearly killed on the fast lane of a busy motorway when the engine of our Vauxhall Meriva 1.4 (Diesel engine) cut out.  We have had the car towed to Evans Halshaw in Middlesbrough, who have liaised with Vauxhall to come to an agreement regarding repair of the vehicle which is two years old and the repair should easily fall under Vaulxhall warantee of three years.

Vauxhall have refused to repair the car under warantee saying that it was driver error (unless we have been blessed with ESP and are yet to be made aware I am not sure how it could be due to driver error)

Apparently we have caused the engine to malfunction simply by following the instruction self help manual. 

We have had the car serviced as per instructionin April 2008.  In November time an orange light appeared on the dash the instruction manual told us to drive 20 Km at a certain speed, this would cause particles to be removed from the oil filter - we did and the light went out never to return. 

We have been told that we are in breech of the warrantee as the car should have had a rework on the defragmentation valve - Vauxhall garages were noted about this in April 2008 after our service.  We did not receive a recall through DVLA or via vauxhall.

We have been told that the engine may need to be replaced at a cost of £4000 which we have to pay. (We have been advised by the garage to have a service and the rework which will cost £200 - but this may well not work!)

I have spoken to Vauxhall to address the problem and to at least warn other drivers of the potential problem that this can cause.  I do not think this will happen, but am very concerned that this may happen to another unsuspecting couple, who do not have an expert police driver at the wheel and will end up dead.  Luckily I did that day and thank my lucky stars that I did otherwise I am sure we would have been killed and possibly killed others on the road.

Please help!

Angela

In january 2006, as I entered a roundabout & continued around in the correct lane, with the indicator flashing, a lorry on my inside proceeded to cut across into my lane & slice the front off my car. I was in such a state of shock! I could not believe it! The lorry continued on its journey, until the driver saw me in his rear view mirror flashing my lights. At this point, he pulled over & proceeded to give me his very brief details & drove away as fast as he could, leaving me stranded far from home. My car, a total right off!

I contacted swift insurance & explained what had happened. They advised me, that as nobody stopped to help, I could not make a claim, as there were no witnesses. I took pictures of the extensive damage to my vehicle, as evidence & pictures of the truck, that had no damage at all. To my surprise, absurdly, the truck driver claimed through his insurer, that I had driven into the back of his truck! & that he 'was carrying out a defensive driving manouvere'. His insurers sent a letter to my home address, warning me that if I make a claim, then they will counter claim & I will be liable for the truck drivers loss of earnings!

How can this be? I am completely side swiped by a truck on a busy roundabout in broad day light & I cannot bring the truck driver to account, as I will be pursued for his loss of earnings? There was no damage to the truck. My car sustained massive damage to the left side, where the truck tore across it & virtually ripped off the front bumper! & I cannot do anything about it?

Are you kidding me swift insurance! Has anyone else been shafted by swift insurance? I was shafted twice. Once by the lorry driver & again by swift insurance, who offered me no help whatsoever! To this day I still cannot believe it.

My car was parked on the industrial estate, outside the factory I was working in, I saw a Co-op lorry coming round the corner and ran out as I knew he would not get round with out hitting my car ( they are not supposed to come around this part of the estate as it is to narrow for their lorry's). I saw his tail gate go into the back of my car, I shouted at him and ran towards my car, I had to jump in front of the lorry as he was about to drive away, at this point my father joined me and we got the registation of the vehicle, and the driver gave us his name, this is when the fun begins, The co-op have denied being at there and state that the vehicle was in another town at the time of the incident. I have seven witnesses who all saw the vehicle embedded in my car, or the lorry at the scene, The driver had given false details, the police would not get involved, until my Mother went through the complaints department, but it by then it had taken so long that they ran out of time before they could find the driver, we have had for force the insurance company to take it to court, it is now in the hands of the Solicitors, but they keep telling us the third party are asking for more evidence so we can not issue proceedings, it has be 20 months since the accident and I have got no where, I have the registration of the lorry that hit me on my mobile phone which I took at the accident, the Co-Op tried to say that I took the picture in Haverhill where they say the lorry was broken down, none of the paper work they have submitted makes sense, but I am still no closer to getting my claim sorted out, What is it they are trying to hide, this accident did happen, my car was written off, and I am out of pocket, it has cost us fortune in calls and letters not to mention the stress of it all, all I wanted was to be paid what they owe me, what is wrong with our Systems that a Company of this size can  lie about this accident and have so far got away with it.

I had a skip delivered from the above mentioned company. When I was ready for the skip to be collected I called Badgers. They said it would be collected that day. It was not collected. I have since phoned every day for 3 months for it to be collected and have been told every day that it will be collected either that day or the next day. I have told Badgers that it is on my drive and I have workmen coming the next day to do a new drive for me and they promise it would be collected. It still hasn't. I have had to pay for builders to come and not be able to work as the skip is still in the way. This has been going on for over 3 months and is preventing me from completing my driveway.

I used Western Union to transfer the amount of @1500 as loan to a friend in a matter of urgency. I filled in her details and the location where the transaction would take place as London UK and paid the necessary fee. The agent advised that, in order for the person to withsraw the amount, she must present a valid form of photo ID, namely passport or driver's licence.

My friend advised me that the money owed to her had now reached her account and would therefore not need a loan and kindly asked me to cancel the transaction and withdraw the amount using my passport.

I managed to do this the following day to hear to my dismay the amount had been withdrawn! I immediately wanted to know who by and where the transaction tok place to be only advised that I should call 0800 7314814 and find out for myself. As soon as I entered the tracking numberm the automated machine  responded that the money which had been deposited on february 24th 2009 at 14:57 was withdrawn on febryary 24th 2009 at 11:25am!

This can only mean two things:

1. The times do not stack up = Western Union are lying and stole the money

or

2. The only way for a past GMT time to reccur in the future is when one travels west, meaning that the money could have been paid out in a location further west than the UK = Western Union is in breech of their contractual obligation to carry out the contract according to the terms specified in the form: pay the amount to the person named on the contract and only them, in the location specified in the contract and after all necessary security checks had been passed.

I further tried to obtain more information about the transaction and, as advised by the Western Union telephone customer service, asked the agents to provide me with a receipt of the final transaction showing the paying-out agent's details and address as well as a scanned image of the ID that was used for the transaction. The agents refused me this service and referred me back to the automated machine operated telephone line, which obviously would not be able to provide me with this information.

Therefore I wish to file a complaint and a claim against the aforementioned company and if a settlemet is not reached take further legal action.

Many thanks

I bought a Silver Renault Clio on Thursday 9th April 2009, at the Portway Preston branch of Evans Halshaw.  On the Tuesday 28th April the car died on me.  The Clio is 4 years old! When slowing down at a major roundabout or when I went to park, my car switched itself off both times, and took a couple of minutes to start again.  When I was driving along on the motorway, the car was pulling, as though it did not want to stay in gear, especially after braking in traffic then accelerating again it was more obvious - very scary in rush hour traffic.  There was a mechanical burning smell when it switched itself off.  During this journey I came to a junction, and when I slowed down into 1st gear, the engine sounded as though it was still running at 60mph.  At traffic lights I went into neutral, and the car was racing, and when I put my foot on the clutch to go into 1st gear, it sounded like I was revving the engine by putting my foot on the accelerator - clearly I was not doing this!

On speaking to around 14 people at Evans Halshaw, 14 as nobody had a clue what to do; I was eventually told that I would need to bring it in.  As I didn't live near the branch I bought it from, they suggested taking it to my nearest branch.  However, when I rang them, they were closing down.  So, I had to take it back to Preston from Huddersfield.  I said I was not happy to drive it as it could cause more damage.  They agreed so said I should tow it.  I called my breakdown, but it was going to bump up my premium, so I rang Evans Halshaw to see if I could take it to a local garage to repair and for them to pay the said garage.  They said no as my 3 month mechanical breakdown warranty was with them.  This meant I was going to have to pay the tow charge with a separate company.

The trouble was, Evans Halshaw could not take my car in for another week, until Tuesday 5th May and they would not be able to provide me with a courtesy car until my car was in the garage.  I had to pay for a hire car, as my partners son has cerebral palsy, wears a splint and cannot walk long distances, plus it is cruel to make a little boy of 6 stand at bus stops or train stations in the rain when he is so poorly.

I asked Evans Halshaw if I would be reimbursed for the charges I was about to incur, and they said when I brought my car in I should bring the receipts with me and if they found a fault I would be reimbursed.  A week later on the 5th May, I had my car towed back to them - £135.00 it cost me, money I can ill afford to lose, especially after spending £47.98 on a hire car. Two weeks later, a lack of communication, correspondence and lies, I was told on Tuesday 19th May 2009, that after extensive tests and diagnostic checks that their Service team could find no fault, and even after they said that they would take it to a local Renault Dealer, surprise surprise they hadn't!  I had explained that the fault was sporadic (3 weeks earlier, initially to the guy in services who did not understand what this meant until it was explained to him,) and that it seemed to happen after a long journey, not just running around. Apparently they had taken it on test drives also, but still couldn't find anything.  I took it on a test drive with the services Team Leader and sods law, still nothing.  So I gave back the courtesy car, got my own car back and as they couldn't find a fault I was not reimbursed.

On Wednesday the 20th May, the day after I had got my car back, I took my car to work from Preston to Huddersfield.  That evening,  I decided to go back to my partners house, and sure as I am female, the car did exactly the same thing again.  Fuming and just about managing to get my car back to Preston, I called my breakdown company.  They came out in the pouring rain, and on inspection couldn't find anything wrong, but said that it may be to do with the wiring loom and really it should be seen by a Renault Dealer.  This is what Evans Halshaw had said they would do initially!

On Thursday 21st May 2009, I went back to Evans Halshaw, and explained that it had happened again.  They said that they would now take it to the Renault Dealer as they are Ford specialists!  I said that when the fault was found, I wanted to be reimbursed for the hire car, the tow fee, the vehicle inspection check of £43.43 which I paid, and was supposed to have been for a check carried out before I got the keys, loss of earnings as I had had to take so much time off work and some compensation for the phone calls I had made and basically the large amount of stress it had put me under.  I rang the local Renault Dealer that afternoon, but my car had not been taken in.

On Friday 22nd May I rang the local Renault Dealer again, and at that point my car had been brought to them, but they would not be able to look at it until Tuesday 26th May 2009, as it was a bank holiday weekend.  Fair enough!

On Tuesday 26th May 2009, I called Renault, who said that they had found the fault - the Temperature Coolant Sensor was faulty - and that they were going to take it for a test drive and that now it should be ok.  I went through the long list of the problems I had had with my car - not all of the information had been passed on to them by Evans Halshaw.

I eventually spoke to the Services Team Leader that day, who said that they would "look into" me being reimbursed for the charges I had incurred.  This statement was a far cry from the one I have received previously, words to the effect of "If we find a fault, pass on your receipts and you will be reimbursed!"  I was also told by the Services Team Leader, that this fault was not covered under my Mechanical Beakdown Warranty, but that he would authorise for the work to be done, as I had been caused a lot of stress.

On Friday 29th May 2009, my car was still at the Renault Dealers, but that Evans Halshaw had been notified and were supposed to be picking it up that afternoon.  

On Monday 1st June my car was still at the Renault Dealers.  On speaking to Evans Halshaw they were waiting to check all repairs had been done and that it was ready for collection, I informed them that I knew they had been informed on Friday. They then went on to say that they were trying to sort out the payment.  I asked for the Services Team Leader to call me back.

It is now Thursday 4th June 2009, I have had no further telephone calls, no information, no emails even though I have emailed, rung and left messages since Monday 1st June.

I am absolutely livid.  I have been treated like a second class citizen.  I have been treated appallingly, spoken down to and patronised by numerous men who think I am foolish.  I am not. If anyone would like to comment on this, then please feel free.  I am wanting reimbursement on all the above costs I have incurred plus compensation for all the stress and trauma it has brought to my life. 

DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES BUY A CAR FROM THIS DEALER!

30/01/2009 67 ighten road

BURNLEY

LANCS

BB12 0HP

Dear sir or madam,

i would like to relate to you a situation that happened to me in the hope that it does not happen to anyone else.

In March of 2006 i was diagnosed with a condition called plural plaques,a form of asbestosis i was given a sick note for five years because it affects the breathing and i found that i could no longer do the work i used to do.

I owed my local council some money for council tax,i went down to there office and explained to an officer that i was unemployed and could we come to some agreement as to how i could repay these arreas.

The officer told me to leave it with them and they would get back to me with a repayment schedule,the next i heard from them them was to appear in our local magistrates court for none payment.I appeared a few weeks later and spoke to an officer from the council and came to an agreement that they would take £3 per week out of my benifits.The council started taking the money out of my benifits on the16/10/2006.

In Febuary of 2007 i went outside my home to discover that someone had run into the back of my car and drove off without leaving their name and address or reporting it to the police.A neighbour who lives across the road luckily has a cctv camera on his home and it looks down the drive to where my car was parked accross the road.On checking through the tape we found that my car had been hit by a parks and gardens pickup owned by the council.The council denied that it was one of their vehicles even when i produced a copy of the tape and a witness statement.After numerous letters and phone calls, that ony got me passed around from department to department i informed the council that i would have no choice but to take them to the small claims court to reclaim the damage costs to my car.

I reported this incident to the police but was informed it was a civil matter and that i would have to employ a solicitor to take the driver to court.When i gave the police evidence of the incident i was told that the statue of limitions had run out ,even though i had reported it within 2 weeks of the accident.I thought that for any type of crime there was no time limit.I got the impression that if it was a crime that the local council had commited then the police turned a blind eye to it.

In August of 2007 i recieved a letter of the council stating that they wanted all my arrears paid within 21 days or they would take me to court and apply for a bankruptcy order,i went down to my local council office and explained to them that i was already paying off the arrears at £3 per week through my benifits and i could prove this with a statement from the D.W.P.,two weeks later on the 11/9/2007, i recieved a letter from the D.W.P.saying that the local council had requested that they stopped taking the money out of my benifits, so they could take me to court saying that i was not paying anything to them.I then went to my local post office and purchased a postal order for 1 months payment being £12,i took this to my local council office and asked them to take it off my arrears,two weeks later they returned my postal order saying they refused to take any money off me.

In the December of 2008 i was taken into hospital suffering the the condition that i am suffering from,whilst i was in hospital the hearing for my bancruptcy hearing was heard and i was declared bancrupt in my absence.A week later i had to attend a meeting with an offical reciever in Blackpool which is some 35 miles from where i live,it was then stated that the only asset that i had was my home where i live.

The offical reciever told me that they would put my case in the hands of a trustee who would handle all my affairs,the trustee they appointed was in Bristol which is some 350 miles from where i live even though they have offices a lot closer to my home.When the trustee got in touch with me i agreed to put my property up for sale to sort out my bancruptcy they then sent round their agents without informing me that they were coming and they valued my home at £95,000.I then complained to the trustee that this price was a great deal under market value,i then got my own estate agent to value my home and they valued it at £135,000.I then put my home up for sale with my own estate agent and informed the trustee that i had done this.

In March 2008 the trustee,s costs were £5,561,in November 2008 this had risen to £6,050 plus vat with a provision of £3,500 for work he might have to do?.I was then imformed that if my home was not sold by the 29/1/2009 that the trustee would take me to court for a repossession order and inform his agent to sell my property at the lower price of £95,000 the difference between the agents price and the market value would more than pay off any debts that i owe.

I was allways told to believe that if you tried to pay off your debts and had come to an agreement with someone, that you would pay as much as you can afford, that they could not take you to court and make this type of thing happen.

The local council are people whom we elect to office hoping that they will be upright and honest and not bend the laws to suit themselves,i for one have lost all faith in our local goverment and the laws that govern our country.

yours sincerely

Mr A F Drury

Cyprus - Capital Coast Resort    December 08/January 09

Mr and Mrs Allen Perrin

Arrival Tuesday 23^rd December 2008 approximately 5pm at Paphos airport.

Taxi to take us to the apartment was not there.  Waited in the main entrance and a taxi driver eventually turned up holding a card with our name.  He said one word "welcome".

The taxi was dirty outside and in.

At Capital Coast Resort, were given a welcome letter from the Lion Resorts representative which invited us to a breakfast meeting in the morning, together with the  key to Room 321, which the receptionist said had "a sea view".  The room was a two bedroom apartment/suite which we felt was much too big for our requirement.  We returned to reception and asked about moving to a smaller room.  Receptionist said she would have to speak to her operations manager and would get back to us.  We were to go and wait in the room. 

After nearly 2 hours waiting (during which time we noted there was no "welcome pack" in the room for us) Iris rang down to reception and asked what was happening about moving to another room.  She was told nothing had been done about it because "a pump had broken and everyone was down there".  The receptionist called back about 10-15 minutes later to say nothing could be done about moving rooms until the next day.

We decided to sleep in the room without unpacking and meet with the Lion Resort representative in the morning.  It was now almost 7.30pm. With still no "welcome pack" in the room, we decided to go down and see what we could buy in the mini-mart, which was supposed to be open until 8pm.  We found the mini-mart closed. As we had not eaten since the in-flight meal, we decided to go to the hotel dining room to eat.

We felt the standard of the food was poor.  The meal cost us 44 euros.

We returned to the room and found the "welcome pack" had arrived.

On closer inspection of the apartment, we found that in one bedroom, none of the lights worked, only some in the other bedroom worked and as the night went on, they went out until only one was left working.  The toilet seat in one of the bathrooms was off.  The water taps in the main en-suite bathroom was not fixed properly and swung round. The toilet flush-push in all both bathrooms were loose and not properly finished against the wall.  The apartment had not been properly cleaned.

One of the supposedly luxury facilities was web access via the television.  This did not work.  We found the furniture in the lounge area uncomfortable - very hard - and there were no scatter cushions to make it softer.  The noise of the lift going up and down- which was situated almost opposite the door to the apartment - could be heard continuously.  This most definitely was not luxury accommodation.

Wednesday 24^th December 9.30am

Met with Steve, the Lion Resort Representative at reception, who was a pleasant person. We suggested he come up to the apartment so we could explain how unhappy we were.  On entering the room he could not understand why we had been put in such a large apartment.  I suggested that we had been given one of the biggest rooms because we had complained strongly prior to our arrival about the short notice change of resort, and the management must have thought giving us one of the biggest rooms in the building would make us happy. 

Steve took us downstairs to the Lion Resort offices within the building and introduced us to his Manager (Ian), who we repeated our complaints to.  After some discussion, he arranged for us to view a smaller apartment, Room 207.  As the room had very recently been vacated, it was in the middle of being cleaned. This room was of a much more suitable size, with one en-suite bedroom, shower room, smaller lounge and kitchen area.  Again some of the bedroom lights did not work, there were no bedside lights for reading (only ceiling lights, those of which that worked were very dim) 

The flush-push in both bathrooms was not properly finished to the walls and in the shower room the toilet seat was not fixed.

As the room was more suitable to our needs, we accepted the move to Room 207.

Steve said he would get the faults sorted out and have a reading light for the bedside brought up from the office.  

As we had also discussed with Steve about car hire locally, he offered to take us into Paphos to a hire firm he knew and which would give us a good rate.

On our return with the hire car we collected our suitcases from Room 321 and moved to Room 207. 

The repairs had not been done.  We mentioned this to Steve's Manager (Ian), who said that maintenance had been told and it would be done that day.

6pm 24^th December - repairs still not done in room. No contact from Lion Resorts personnel at all.

25^th December (Christmas Day)

Air condition not working - blowing out hot air all the time, whichever setting it was on.

After one shower taken in the separate bathroom, there was water on the floor - leaked from the shower cabinet which was not properly sealed.

The wash basins did not hold the water when plugged.

The expel-air units in both bathrooms did not work.

Again, the television internet facility did not work.

There were no instructions how to use the kitchen equipment - hob (which had touch key operation and was confusing) oven, cooker hood, microwave, dishwasher and washing machine).  The lights above the cooker and the cooker hood did not work.

There were no oven gloves.

There was no welcome booklet with resort details.

The smoke detector suddenly started bleeping for no apparent reason, and stopped.

26^th December - Steve the Lion Resort rep. waved to me as I sat on the balcony of the apartment - I acknowledged his wave.  There was still no sign of repairs being done in the apartment.

2^nd January 2009 - at approximately 08.40am all the electricity went down and came back on around 09.05am.   When we rang reception they said that the electric in the whole resort had gone down.

Not long after this we had a telephone call from Steve the Lion Resort rep. inviting us to a meeting over lunch in the dining room the next day. This was the first contact from anyone from Lion Resorts since 24^th December 2008

Saturday 3^rd January2009 - repairs still not done. We met with Steve and had lunch we told him how unhappy we were and he had, since we last met read all the e-mails that had gone back and forth and could see why we were so disappointed.

He proceed to give us the sales pitch even knowing himself that it was a waste of time, (but that was his job).  He showed us how we could take up the remaining two weeks of the package we had already brought etc.  We also met one of is other managers (Peter) who only said to me after he had been told the situation, " well it is not a year round resort and the weather was good and at least we had had a break in Cyprus".  I will say that I was not very impressed with either of Steve's mangers that we meet.

Steve then told us that his manager would be prepared to give us the value of our flight and bring the total amount of £3000 and deducted it from the deal if we signed up to the package on offer. He said to go away and think about it and look at some of the places we could go to with our remaining 2 weeks he gave us his books to look through that evening and said to meet him for breakfast next morning.

Sunday 4^th January 2009 - We met Steve at breakfast and after breakfast went down stairs to the Lion Resorts offices, we informed him that we had no intention of signing up to the full package and this did not come as a surprise to him.  However once we had said that he could not get rid of us quick enough.  From then until we left on Tuesday 6^th January we did not have any further contact with anyone from Lion Resorts, apart from Steve telling me in passing that the taxi would pick us up from reception at 2:30pm.  It was the same dirty taxi and taxi driver we had when we arrived this time he did not say anything played his music loud all the way to the airport opened the boot and walked off to collect some other poor sole.

We were lead to believe that we were going to be staying in a 4/5 star luxury suite in a very high quality resort, what we actually got was an inferior quality, lifeless concrete box.  This has been the worst accommodation that we have stayed in for over 15 years.

The e-mails before we left indicate that we were not happy about being moved at such short notice, despite having been told before we booked our flights that we were going to be staying at the Cypria Maris Resort which is where we had originally booked.

If we had been shown the Capital Coast Resort at the time we would not have brought and paid for the package we have.  We brought the package we did because of the location and the suite we had been shown and the fact that we could have it at the time of year we wanted.

I feel that we should have been given the opportunity to have pulled out of the package we had purchased and had our money refunded, but no instead we were mislead by Lion Resorts to take the holiday at the Capital Coast resort that was far from the standard we had been lead to believe it would be, in a location that we did not really want to be in and ended up having what has turned out to be the worst holiday experience we have had in 15 years. Along with being nearly £3000 down on the whole unpleasant experience.

PLEASE PLEASE read all these reviews and DO not use Spa serve/Trade Price Hot tubs.It simply is not worth it.We were promised first class service after we visited the warehouse in Rugeley and met with Stuart.We recieved a visit from a surveyor(can't remember his name or car) who assurred us that the swim spa could sit at an angle on cobbles and would easily be able to be delivered and positioned.Stuart then phoned to say that he had a swim spa that had been delivered to the warehouse as an order but the person had to delay the order and did we want it.As my son had been assaulted at school and had suffered a fractured skull and so we could not go away anywhere on our summer holiday-we felt this would be a nice surprise.Stuart assurred us that he would amke it all run smoothly given the circumstances and promised us a pop up TV instaedt of the one on a post.

We did have some qualms as saw a couple of bad reviews on a spa review website-but these disappeared and Stuart assurred us that no problems would occur.We proceded with the order and the swimspa arrived in August on a huge lorry.Two lads arrived with it saying that they did not have the right equipment to move it with and then proceded to use plastic drain pipes which broke.We have this all on video and some pieces of the plastic pipes.The spa serve was wrenched up and terrible cracking sounds were heard.i did phone Spa Serve and was told to let them get on with their job of delivering it.The driver of the lorry said it was the first spa he had delivered and he ended up giving a hand in trying to move the huge swim spa.

We were informed by the head delivery man that the spa could not be used at an angle and that they would be back to commission it.We were not happy at all about the mode of delivery and the huge cracking sounds we heard and noticed cracks in the outer wood.Also when the swim spa was being lowered off the lorry I could see that there was little to no insulation.I contacted Spa Serve by telephone and letter to no avail and then contacted my local Trading Standards who advised me to contact my credit card company as we had made one payment using our Credit card.

We have also been contacted by Stafford trading Standards.

We have been caused so much distress by this company and I really feel that they should not be allowed to continue trading.They seem to have ripped off many people.Surely there must be some way of stopping companies like this.

We have eventually received a full refund through our credit card company after many months of correspondence but are now left with a huge white elephant swim spa in our courtyard which we have had surveyed by an independent Spa company and we have been told it should never be used.

Please everyone spread the word about this unworthy company and anyone reading this before purchasing a swimspa or spa from Spa Serve/Trade Price Hot Tubs then please think very carefully about doing so.Do not become another victim like so many of us have.

To everyone who's been ripped off by Studio 64, Farringdon.
I contacted Consumer Direct today (www.consumerdirect.gov.uk, 08454 04 05 06) to complain about Studio 64. They confirmed that the company isn't in legal terms operating a scam (believe it or not!) but the misrepresentation of services promised (e.g. free-flowing supply of drinks, styling & photography by top professionals) is sufficient cause for them to report this company to Trading Standards. They asked me to post a request to all of you to contact them with your complaints so they can build up a portfolio about this money-grubbing outfit. Please, please, PLEASE contact them!

I 'won' a promotional day at Studio 64 in Farringdon, London, for myself & a guest. I was promised a wonderful day of pampering with top stylists & photographers. I stupidly paid a deposit of £99.98 over the phone. We went to Studio 64 on Sunday (08/03). Our day wasn't wonderful. The toilet on the ground floor was less than clean & we were shown to a broken down sofa in the styling lounge. The promised free-flowing drinks consisted of cheap white wine & fruit juice. I had to queue for a refill! The service was impersonal - rather like being on a conveyer belt. The hair stylists made us look like clones of each other. The only really satisfactory part of the day was the make-up session. The make-up artist was polite, friendly & happy to give advice. Our so-called top photographer looked like a college student & the room we had our photo session in was chilly with an aroma of sweaty feet. We felt we were back on that conveyer belt again. It was very disappointing but the nightmare began when it came to the viewing. We were subjected to a hard sell. The saleswoman rushed us through the photos which were on a computer screen. I had to sit on the floor to look at them properly. She pressurized us to make choices & then hustled us to buy ever more expensive photo packages. The pictures were unflattering & mediocre but with her breathing down our necks we eventually bought 7 photos in a CD format. The price was £500 plus my deposit. I stupidly handed over a debit card & paid. The saleswoman then shoved a form under my nose which I signed without reading it properly because I felt she just wanted to get rid of us. It was only when we were alone with time to reflect that we admitted to each other we hadn't liked any of the pictures. When I got home I was stunned to see a statement on the form I'd signed saying that no cancellations, amendments or changes could be made to our order. I felt duped & phoned Studio 64 immediately to complain. This may not be a scam but it's definitely sharp practice.

The next day I sent my complaint to the email address given in an automated message on the company's customer services answer machine. I wasn't able to actually speak to someone until Wednesday evening (11/03). This lady was placatory but I didn't feel I'd made much progress. I hoped to hear something today (12/03) but all I got was an email stating that my initial complaint to refunds@studio64ltd.com had been returned because it was undeliverable! Needless to say, this hasn't improved my opinion of the company.

STUDIO 64 SELLS YOU A DREAM BUT DOESN'T DELIVER. ALL THEY WANT IS YOUR HARD EARNED MONEY. AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE!!

On 3/3/09 I went into the Complete Nutrition store and was approached by Shane Chase who claimed to be the owner of the establishment. He showed me a weight loss product that his other customers had lost 13 pounds in 2 weeks. He told me the program I was considering would last me 2 ½ months. I purchased the "Reveal" program that came with 3 packs of Ephedrine and an extra pack of Ephedrine for free. I started the program the next day in the morning and followed his instructions for the next 5 days. I did not lose any weight and I woke up feeling nauseous at night.

On 3/10/09 I went back to the store to return the products. At first Mr. Chase told me that they do not accept returns on opened products. I informed him that I had read his return policy and that it stated differently. He then insulted me and claimed that I had not taken then pills as directed and he would count them. He told me that not all the bottles in the system he sold me would not last 2 ½ months even though he told me they would before. He also asked me " Are you REALLY working out?" and then his female employee seemed to feel the need to step in between me and him and try to help me. She tried to discuss why I was having problems with the program and I told her about the nausea. Mr. Chase again stepped in and said that he would honor the return policy and give me an in store credit but that I would have to spend it right then. I didn't have time or know how to spend so much money at that time so I told him that I would be back.

On 3/11/09 I spent the day doing research on the products he had given me and found out that the Ephedrine he sold me for weight loss was actually for breathing problems and did not say anything on the package about weight loss. I researched the Code of Alabama and I think that Mr. Chase is in violation of Title 8 Section 8-19-5. My aunt and I went back to the store that evening to speak with Mr. Chase on his practices and to finish the return. Mr. Chase claimed that everyone knows that Ephedrine is for weight loss even though it's not labeled for it. Mr. Chase was pretty upset when my aunt asked him about why he felt the need to insult me the night prior. He claims he never insulted me, but he did say those things that I have claimed. Mr. Chase then had a change of heart and decided to give me a full refund. I thanked him, and his reply was that he can not believe that that I said that he insulted me and that he has never had a return. His store has only been open for 6 weeks. After the refund my aunt and I immediately left. I received a call a short time later from Mr. Chase. He said that he wanted to apologize for how everything went with me, but he thinks my aunt should come back and apologize to him because I did not take 7 days worth of pills, he counted them. I told him that I never said I took 7 days worth, I took 5. I told him I would be contacting the AG regarding his misrepresentation of the item he sold to me and to never call me again.

ordered new nokia n95 cover and 6 torque screw driver sent numerous e mails no reply phone calls no reply order number 190829 have seen this company has done this to many people

was travelling towards kilburn from holbrook stopped to let haywards van though as he went past caught rear of my new car said was sorry and having probs with them paying up im out of pocket at least 100 pounds due to no witness i contacted them by phone numerous times taped conversation of myself and lady in the office who said when i asked her what happened she told me i didnt tell her she said what happened that i had stopped to let driver though and caught the rear of my car im in a situation were they want me to go 50-- 50 with them and its not my fault Norwich union was sent copy of tape to listen to and still wont pay out for there client

MYSELF AND SON WOULD LIKE TO THANK MR J KIRKLAND OF BOWMER AND KIRKLAND FOR HIS HELP IN HELPING TO RESOLVE THIS MATTER FOR US WHICH WE WAS NEARLY OUT OF POCKET

We bought a Vauxhall Zafira from Yes Car Credit (which we believe are now trading as ACF Car Finance). (Owned by Provident Financial)

On the day we traded in a Nissan Almera and left a total of £550 cash also. The forms were filled in showing that we would be paying over 4 years, we drove away, job was a good 'un! Until...........

Approx 10 months later my partner lost his job after breaking his back, he was off at the time and as they were making redundancies, surprise surprise he was one of the first to be laid off as they knew he was awaiting surgery. At the time I went through our finances and contacted Direct Auto Fonance to say that he had lost his job, I could make lesser payments for the next few weeks and then continue to make the full payments once our benefits, etc were sorted out. But no, they wouldn't accept lesser payments and after 2 months of struggling to make the monthly payment to them I wrote a letter to 'give up' the car.

To cut a long story short they told us that the outstanding finance left on the car was £3336.36 and we confirmed that once the car was lifted and sold at auction that any remaining balance we would be liable for, etc. 9 weeks, yes, NINE weeks later the zafira was still sitting in our driveway, so I phoned them to say it still wasn't lifted, to which they told me to phone the auctioneers and when I did this they said that they had lifted that car and sold it! Oh, I must have rebought it then, cos it's still in my drive and I started to wonder had the neighbours taken pity and had a whip round to buy it back or something!? So eventually they decided they hadn't after all sold the car and came to get it. The car sold for £3600 at auction, more than the £3336.36 owed on it, case closed. Ya think!?!

No indeed it wasn't, from that day to this we have been badgered, bullied and threatened as we owe them they say £3336.36. When asked why it's for (quote) 'insurances', even though we have a sales docket from the day of the sale clearly showing on one side that there was approx £2900 worth of insurance on the agreement and between the car we traded and the cash left on the day all of this was paid, in fact there was £90 carried over which then came off the price fo the car directly! It's been 3 years now and they still cannot tell us in simple terms why when we owed them £3336.36 before the car was recovered sold for £3600 and we STILL owe them £3336.36? All they do is pass it from one debt collection agency to the next and not even they can explain why we owe the money!

What also happened during this whole saga was we bought their warranty. About 5 weeks into owning the Zafira it spluttered and coughed and got on but we managed to get it home. We contacted them and they told us to contact the warranty company, which we did to find out that the warranty we had been sold didn't cover (wasn't valid basically) Northern Ireland.....genius!! They eventually agreed that as we had paid for the warranty (the insurances and things amoutning to £2900) that we could take the car to a VAT registered garage instead. Turned out the car had put itself into 'safe home' mode, which was why it was spluttery and all but was driveable at least. The reason for this? Oh yeh, this gets better! The car had NO oil, nope, not a drop. Yeh, we also assumed that it was because their must be a leak, crack or something somewhere and the oil had drained out, although there was none where it sat parked, of course there wasn't because there wasn't any in it, the mechanic said that as the car was nearly 3 years old in his opinion it had never been topped up with oil or had it's oil filter changed, etc from the day it was new and was surprised it had got as far as it did! As soon as it had a new filter put in and topped up with oil it was fine again. Now this is very interesting as not 5 weeks before when we bought it we were assured that the car had been through a '136 point check', you would have thought that one of those points would have been to dip the oil? But no, apparently not and I also had to pay £50 for the priveledge as the warranty company then said that as the fault was due to it not being topped up with oil it was our fault! (which is some ways it was, what were we thinking, assuming it had oil in it!!).

There really isn't much we can do, we know we were mis-sold the warranty, insurances, etc as we were told that we couldn't have the car without purchasing them (which simply wasn't true!), so I would simply like this to be a cautionary tale to others to avoid them like the plague!

Charged £12.02 for fluffy scrambled egg on toast X 2 plus coffee & tea

Could not eat egg as micro packet cooked and was terrible - coffee was sweet and as I take no sugar could not drink - tea drinkable (just)

Fryday the 10/04/09 me and my cousin went to a nightclub in Redhill from Guildford.There were about 6 or 7 security guard outside when we arrived 10pm paid £3.50 each went inside we relise that the club was empty we ask if we can leave and come back later we ask the guard if we can go and come back later,they said alright but only if we come back in 25 minutes we went and come back in 25min wish was 1045 by than.

My cousin was standing outside in front of the club smoking when one of the guard come and said you cannot smoke there you should smoke down there in a agrassive manner.Well while aerler the same guard  had a funny attudute towards us but we ignored it.

I said to the guard:Why are you telling us in an aggrisive manner I thing you can tell us in a prober manner.The Guard said that how it is you rather do it my way or you leave.I said why is it because we are black or why.He said thats it we are not going in today,so we left althought we paid.

We dont drinks/drugs we where just there as any other customer infact we had better thought of Great Britain before.

We will be happy if we can get our monies back wish is to dat £7.00

I recently hired a van from the National/Europcar Nottingham branch. I hired it over the weekend, and when I returned it on the Sunday the car park was closed. As requested by them, I parked it on the street outside, and put the keys in a key-drop.
 
A week later they sent me an invoice for the rental. I was astonished to find that they had charged me for damages! They did not tell me what these damages were. I went to their office as soon as I could, and the man there told me that all their paperwork was sent immediately to head office, so he could not supply me with a copy. He could, however, tell me that the damage was a slash in the tyre. How could I possibly have driven the van on the motorway with a slashed tyre? The damage was obviously inflicted after I had dropped it off, and it was parked on the road outside their office.
 
I sent a number of emails, but have so far received no reply. The first one was sent a week ago. I also phoned customer services up on Thursday, but they could tell me nothing more than the man in the office, apart from the fact that it was one of the front tyres which was slashed. He could not send me a copy of the damage report because it had gone to their insurers. They have already charged me for the damage, so why are they involving their insurers? Could it be that they are claiming for this so-called damage, which I haven't even seen? Customer Services also claimed that they had 6 hours to check in the van after I had dropped it off. I can't find this in their terms and conditions, but even if it is true, I dropped the van off at 1pm on Sunday, when I agreed to. This still leaves 13 hours or so whilst the van was outside the car park, and according to them, in their care. Can I really be made liable for damage which was not inflicted by me?

My husband Richard Davies ordered a drill battery from this company on 29th December 2008. We are still awaiting delivery or refund, we have queried this on several occassions and keep being fobbed off. Now they don't answer our queries at all! There are many complaints about this company on the internet, but they are still being allowed to advertise! They need to be stopped!!

Ordered a replacement 7.2v battery on the 9th August 2008 for a portable drill, order N° 12706, they cashed my credit card immediately but have still not sent me the battery even after I have sent two letters to their address on the advice of the Standards Trading Office.

My claim started in October 2008. My home Insurance Norwich Union sent a workman to my home to remove plaster for two walls. This man advised me he did not usually do this type of work and I think he said he was ad that he was a roofer.

This workman used a power tool to drill off plaster with a kanga, no safety cloths, in dry conditions without safety machinery and with my children & I in the room. He did not recognise the presence of asbestos and hovered up (not using the required safety Hoover) most of the debris.

My insurance sent further workmen who are (confirmed by the company director) not licensed to work with asbestos. This workman placed a huge fan on the exposed asbestos fibres which propelled at force the fibres with enough force to cause chunks of debris to come off the wall, which was hovered up by my children or myself. They also used a dehumidifier alongside the fan to extract any moisture from the air thus ensuring an optimum environment for asbestos fibres to move about freely for over 328 hours over a period of two months.

 On Monday 6^th April, another workman came to my property to finish taking off plaster and commence replastering, but on first sight spotted the visible asbestos  artex coating, and said (in front of my children) "I'm not touching that, that's asbestos." He then proceeded to phone his office who ordered him off-site within minutes stating "someone from the office would be in contact in a couple of days." He did not do ANYTHING required by law CAR2006 or HSE  - em1,2,&3 guidance on dealing with asbestos  nor have they informed HSE of this dangerous occurrence , leaving me and my children frantic with worry. I managed to find an asbestos removal company to come around that same day to take samples, which has unfortunately come back confirming the presence of asbestos.

To this date Wednesday 15^th April 2009, I have not received one written word from Norwich union or Asprea concerning this matter. Despite the sympathetic declarations that they want to put my mind at ease and cause no further anxiety ( I look forward to the legal guarantee that my children & I will never suffer or die from any asbestos related condition!)  Even now, they want to spend as little as possible with regard to health screening and removal and replacement of soft furnishings (which research has shown can fibres). No testing can replicate the conditions inflicted upon us. This company has no morals. It's all about saving money. It is interesting that the decision to remove the need for a licence for certain asbestos works was as a result of a paper put before the Law Lords was financed by Home Insurers...

SUZUKI SWIFT ATTITUDE 1328CC I BOUGHT THE CAR NEW IN FEB 08 AND IT AS NEVER RUN RIGHT IT WILL NOT PULL IT WANTS TO CUT OUT WHEN SETTING OFF AND SOME TIME RUNS AT 400RPM WITH BLACK SMOKE FROM THE EXHAUST HAD IT BACK TO DEALERS 5OR7 TIMES THEY TOLD ME WHEN TAKING ON ROAD TEST THAT THE CAR WAS RUNING AS IT SOULD BUT THEY WOULD PUT IT ON THE FAULT CODE MACHINE TO MAKE SURE IT LISTED NO FAULT CODES THEN THEY SAID THAT I WAS NOT DRIVING THE CAR RIGHT AND THAT I WAS CONFUSING THE ECU THIS WAS AT STONE ARCER OF DONCASTER SOUTHYORKSHIRE I AM WELL PISSED OFF WITH THIS CAR NOW AND ATE IT BECAUSE OF THE LONG STANDING PROBLEM.

Dear Sirs,

at 2103 hrs I drove my car to the Macdonalds Drive thru at the above address & ordered a big Mac Meal lrge, with apple pie on the side .

Payed the monies, collected the foods, then drove home, to my dismay when opening the bag their was no apple pie. Had to drive all the way back again to find out what happened. I explained they said"sorry for the delay"! what delay? anyhow they gave me a luke warm apple pie, got home but couldn't eat my meal as by now it had gone cold,, please advise.  

Real address

Fields House
Old Fields Road
Pencoed
Bridgend
Wales UK
CF35 5LJ

DETAILS OF CLAIM
I sent a faulty hard drive to a data recovery company called Rapid-data.net seemingly based in 100 Pall Mall, St James, a very exclusive district of London, who advertised a "no recovery no fee" service. I filled in a form and stated clearly that I wanted "my documents" and "scanned documents" recovered from my drive. They examined my hard drive and sent me a report on the 24th April 2009 (attached) clearly stating that they had made an image of the drive, but needed to send the image to their forensic data recovery partners Fields Data Recovery stated an 80% chance of recovering my data, and that the job would take 2-4 days.

I paid the fee they requested on the 28th April 2009. Over two weeks later on the 14th of May 2009 I received my hard drive in a plain box with no explanation. I called their office in Pall Mall and they directed me to another office in Bridgend, Wales. I was told that they could not recover the data and nothing more. They did not elaborate as to why exactly the recovery did not succeed in spite of their over-optimistic claims. No report was sent to me.

I complained verbally and in writing, asking to speak to their "partners" Fields Data who claimed ignorance. I noticed that Fields Data were based in exactly the same office as Rapid Data - who in turn claimed to be based at 100 Pall Mall!

I became suspicious and sent my hard drive to a professional accredited data recovery expert for verification. They reported to me that the drive had been opened and that damage was caused by incompetent handling and that some magnets were missing! The report sent to me by Rapid Data was deliberately misleading in that it claimed my hard drive was virtually fixed, simply in order to extract payment from me. Their pricing structure was dishonest; the initial low price of £97 was simply used to draw me in.

I reported the company to Bridgend Trading Standards office, who investigated without any satisfactory conclusion due to Rapid Data's refusal to cooperate. Their only response was to send Trading Standards a photograph of a hard drive claiming it was mine.

By speaking to several data recovery companies I discovered that there were many complaints made against Rapid Data and their parent company Fields Data Recovery, about sharp practice and negligent damage to data and equipment. Searching on the internet I found dozens of complaints against the company. I contacted other victims and discovered that their experiences corresponded more or less to my own. Rapid Data refuse to communicate and even when they did they simply hid behind the mantra of "no refunds" or "read the small print".

Additional information
"Dr" Richard Lewis is the director of Fields AKA Rapid as well as:

DataPhoenix
UK Digital solutions Ltd
Smart B2B Ltd
Fields Group
Fields Data recovery Ltd
Rapid Data recovery Ltd
Compare IT Ltd
SCF Secretaries Ltd
Compare Data Recovery

and a number of other companies which have nothing to do with IT or data recovery, like http://www.sugar-daddy.net, a quasi pimping operation. If we are talking about integrity, what should we make of a man who bought his degree, has offices in Dubai, claims to be an authority in fields as disparate as divorce, employment tribunals, "romantic introductions" and of course his numerous data recovery companies, one of which states that their office is in the Pall Mall but you can NEVER find any of their technical staff there. I suspect that address is a front, staffed by a girl with recorded sounds of activity playing in the background when unsuspecting victims call to ask about their hard drives.

In April 2009 I saw an advert in my local newspaper (Jersey Evening Post) by New Look Escorts, who were looking for new escorts in the channel islands. I emailed them for more information and the next day I received a call from 'Anne'. She told me that they were looking for escorts for high-end clients and glamorised the job by telling me I would be taken to dinners/balls/events and would earn a large amount of money. I was only asked a few questions about myself, which I thought was odd, but Anne was so enthusiastic and convincing that I ended up agreeing to sign up to a three month contract, which cost me £279. I received many phone calls from Anne until I had deposited the fee, and then everything went quiet. Over the next few weeks I continuously tried to contact the agency and ended up speaking to 'Julia', who told me that a celebrity was interested in my profile. I then received a call from 'Kirsty' in the Public Eye department, who said that a half english/half spanish famous actor wanted to meet me for drinks in London. However, I was asked to pay £2,000 towards a confidentiality bond to ensure that I wouldn't talk to the press, but I was assured that the money would be refunded to me within 24 hours, when I signed a confidentiality agreement at a solicitors firm in Jersey. I said that I could not afford to pay this much money, and they eventually agreed to let me contribute £800. I was continuously called by both Julia and Kirsty until I deposited the money, and then yet again, everything went quiet. Everytime I called the agency, Julia, Kirsty and Anne were in meetings or they had gone home. The meeting at the solicitors office the following day never happened. A few days later I received a call from someone else at Public Eye to say that someone from the agency had leaked to the press and we had to wait a few weeks until the media attention had died down. Over the next few weeks, I called the agency many times to find out what was going on - each time I spoke to someone different (Anne, Julia, Selina, Sandy and many more), I was told conflicting stories, no one ever called me back, and they were rude to me on a number of occasions. It has now been almost three months and despite signing up to try and save money, I am now in more debt than I've ever been before. I am behind on bill and rent payments, I have incurred several large bank charges for not paying the £800 back, I have spent a small fortune on phone calls and my health in starting to suffer from the stress. I now want to claim back my membership fee (£279) the bond fee (£800), bank charges and phone call costs. Please help me to get my money back, my debts are spiralling out of control because of these con artists! I would urge anyone to stay well away from New Look Escorts, they are out to steal from innocent and naive people, they are nothing but fraudsters.

I have got a vauxhall vivaro van which had a problem starting,so I took it down to my friends garage were he put it on his diognostics computer,he found out that it was an immoboliser fault but told me it needed to go to the dealer for repair and re-coding as they are the only ones that can do it.The van was then transported to vauxhall pentagon 23/3/2009 the day before I went on holiday.
When I returned from my holiday on 8/4/2009 I phoned my friend expecting the van to be repaired and waiting for me to pick it up,but he said to me that when he phoned vauxhall pentagon,parkway, sheffield to find out if it was ready, they told him that they didn’t know anything about the van,so then my friend went down to vauxhall pentagon and found the van in the same place were it had been dropped off and the keys still in it, so the van had obviously not been checked.When he returned to his garage he then phoned the manager and asked when the van would be ready,the manager said that it had been diognosed at a cost of £77.00 but they needed a further £234.00 for further investigation,this again was obviously all lies as my friend had just returned and seen with his own eyes that my van had not beed touched what so ever.

On the 9/4/2004 I telephoned vauxhall pentagon to see what the problem was and I was told by the manager the same as he had told my friend, that they had spent 3 hours on the diognostics at £77.00 but needed a further £234.00 for further investigation,Now I questioned him that my friend told him that it was the immoboliser and that it just needed repairing and re-coding so why should I have to pay £300.00+ for diognostics that had already been done,and he just told me a load of rubbish again.
After this I asked my friend if he would fetch the van with his recovery truck in which he agreed,and when the driver got down to pick the van up vauxhall pentagon would not release the van unless I paid the £77.00 diognostics for 3 hours that I don’t believe they did.

This is why now I need your help as I think that they vauxhall pentagon have just ripped me off of £77.00 and the extra cost of £40.00 for the recovery truck when they have not even touched the van

I hope you can help me or name and shame these rip off merchants

Kind Regards
Ian

THIS IS THE WORST PLACE TO GO IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR A CHINESE, AMERICAN & JAPANESE SUSHI BUFFET. THE STAFF IS HORRIBLE, I FOUND HAIR IN MY FOOD, AND WHEN I TOLD THE WAITRESS SHE JUST SHRUGGED HER SHOULDERS AND SAID THERE WAS NOTHING SHE COULD DO.  ON ANOTHER DATE BEFORE THAT INCIDENT, I ARRIVED DURING THE LUNCH HOURS 11AM-3:45PM I ARRIVED AT 3PM SO I SHOULD HAVE PAID THE LUNCH PRICE. AFTER A CERTAIN TIME THEY SERVE FRIED SHRIMP WHICH COMES OUT AT DINNER. SO THERE WAS NOTHING OVER THE BUFFET TELLING ME I COULD NOT EAT THEM, BUT WHEN I GOT MY BILL THEY HAD WHITE OUT ON MY BILL AND CHANGED THE PRICE TO THE DINNER PRICE. AND MY LAST VISIT TO THE PLACE THE HOSTESS TOLD ME I HAD TO PAY BEFORE I ATE, AND I WAS WONDERING OK I'VE NEVER PAID FIRST AT A ALL YOU CAN EAT CHINESE BUFFET SHE SAID IT WAS THERE NEW RULES.  SO I GAVE MY CREDIT CARD AND WENT TO MY TABLE WITH MY GUEST AND AONTHER WAITRESS BROUGHT OUR DRINKS. BUT SOMETHING TOLD ME DONT TOUCH THE DRINKS JUST WAIT FOR SOMEONE ELSE TO COME IN AND SEE IF THEY HAVE TO PAY FIRST. SO LIKE I SUSPECTED IT WAS NOT TRUE TO PAY FIRST, THE NEXT PEOPLE CAME IN AND WAS ESCORTED TO THERE SEATS, BY THE SAME LADY WHO TOLD ME I HAD TO PAY FIRST. I WENT BACK IN RAGE AND DEMANDED MY FULL REFUND AND ONE WAITRESS TOLD ME I HAD TO PAY 3 DOLLARS CASH FIRST BEFORE THEY REFUND ME. I SAID FOR WHAT, AND SHE SAID FOR MAKING THE DRINKS, I  TOLD THAT LADY IF YOU DONT GIVE ME A FULL REFUND BACK TO MY CREDIT CARD I CALLING THE COPS, I DID NOT EVEN TOUCH THE SODAS OR YOUR FOOD. AFTER THOSE 2 HORRIBLE VISITS TO THIS PLACE I GUARANTEE I WONT MAKE  A THIRD.

I was under distress from losing every thing on my computer. Due to a electriction working on a short. I had my computer off but it still fryed my hard drive and power source. I was given Video Professor at the end of a telephone conversation and was told they had a disk that would recover from a hard drive. I was under the impression I had 30 days to look at the videos that they sent. I was charged 6.95 twice for these disks and thought I had 30 days and figured after I got all my invoices reintered I could deal with trying out the disks.I was never told it would be 189.95 but they took that much out of my account. I have called several times and get nowhere and now I am told it would be 21 days before they will refund me. In this ecomy and with having to allready but a new hard drive an dpower source I sure do not have the money for this.   They are no way to deal with them. I had the charges taken off my pyapal account the first time it went through but they sent it through again and this time it got paid and since it is a backup to my checking account it will take the money from there.  This is a rip off and I told them I needed the money now and they ar insistint it takes 21 days. Can any thing be done?

Sincerely

Evelyn Gray

05/05/2009

2009-05-06

i had adrive built by imprinted concrete in april 08 by august there was a big crack down the middle i asked mr shields to repair this, he came one day and filled the crack with cement.so i now had a drive with acement mark down the middle i mr shields on numerous occasions to come and paint it the same as the rest of my drive i have not seen or heard from him. i sent him a picture of the drive and how badley it was deterating and asked to see him till this day he has not botherer to see me. i have also kept all dates and phone calls to him and acopy of the letter i sent. 

Took car to Bob Baker Mazda 4/13/09 and told the manager that my car bucked, stalled and flooded. I also had windshield wiper blades replaced and the tires rotated. Work was supposedly completed at the cost of 519.54$ and car was returned to me several days later. Upon driving car home it began to display the same symptoms. I returned the car 4/28/09 and picked up car 2 days later. Manager told me that several people drove the car and could find nothing wrong with it. As I drove the car home again , it again began to act up. The idling speed would fluctuate from 1000 rpm's to 3000 rpms and it stalled in traffic. Car is now almost undrivable.

On 7/7/09 I paid via my First direct visa card & virgin MasterCard over the phone the sum of £2244.80 to the Engine warehouse ltd, who advertise on the internet as [http://www.reconditioned-engines.co.uk/] (link: http://www.reconditioned-engines.co.uk/). Please note the payments went to MPH engineering Wembley.

The money paid was after the car was recovered to their workshop and an engine report  was sent to me via email stating the work that need to be carried out. I called Paul at the workshop as instructed on the report to discuss. The money paid was for the minimum items required to fit engine and for all additional recommended items except for the replacement turbo.

I was told that most parts were carried in stock and that the work will complete in 2 to 5 days.

I  spent 2 weeks constantly chasing the company, who never returned my calls and I tried to stick with dealing with one person Martin white as the another staff (his sons) contradicted their stories and they were abusive & rude. On one particular Saturday one of the staff said "we know where you live" & threatened to burn my house down, this was after I complained. They said the delay in getting my car back was due to the car being underpowered.

I finally collected my car on 20^th July; my keys were now damaged with cello tape around them, as we left the place my friend who was driving behind me said I had no break lights. I took the car back & the mechanic came out to see me and said he disconnected it as it was staying on constantly due to a break switch fault. I could not believe they would let me drive without a road safe car and not even tell me. I bought a break light switch from Volkswagen & replaced it myself.

I drove the car to my work place at the recommended speed limit of 50 MPH due to a new recon engine. When I started it to go home it sounded like a tractor, I immediately called the engine warehouse and they said to bring it back in, I returned the car on the 25^th July.

Once again after constant chasing them for 6 weeks and being told various stories as to what was wrong with my car I decided to ring the Trading standards to seek advice.

Amongst the stories I was told during the six weeks was;

The car needed injector washers - this took over 1 week to be supplied & fitted.

The car was all up & running, but there was a radiator leak, which required a new radiator (there would be no charge as I was waiting so long).

In line with the trading standards advice I sent them a registered letters which there has been no response. I looked on the internet & found many complaints about the Heathrow engine warehouse centre run by a Martin White, stories about haw he has robbed people and their threatening & abusive behaviour. I Called Martin on 4^th September to say I will be collecting my car on the 5^th September and he said the car is not drivable as it had a oil leak from the sump which he has ordered and he sent the old one off to get a new one & there was no oil in the car. So I said to him I will collect it next week.

I finally went down to collect the car on the 19^th September. Although I called him on the previous day, he said that the car was up and running but there was a problem with the injector, which knocked out the crank shaft. I bought my spare key with me to look over the car. The car was dirty & looked like it had been parked in the same spot for a long time. I started it & there was black smoke coming out of the back &it sounded like a tractor still with warning lamps flashing on the dashboard &say a service is required in 1900 miles. In fact the car sounded like it did when I first let them have the car for repair. I noticed that the bonnet would not open and it has been damaged, also the engine under shield was missing.

I went in & there was a man complaining about the exact same problems & timescales, I recorded the conversation he asked to see the manager Martin White and was told he was dealing with other customers. When it was my turn I also asked to speak to the manager & was told he was not available. I demanded a full refund only to be told they had carried out their side of the contract & that it was an injector fault, which was chargeable. I said why are you telling me this now especially as you have had the car for 2 months? They could not answer, but became rude & said can I go, so I asked for my car keys, which they tried to give me the wrong key & I said that is not my car keys. They could not find the keys then Kevin the transport manager said I will get the recovery truck to drop your car back to you on Monday 21^st September. I doubt very much this will happen.

I swapped name & phone numbers with the guy who was complaining before me, he said he has already wrote to Barclays his credit card company, who will take this company to court.

When I get the car back I will still need to get the engine reconditioned so I have contacted a company closer to home that have already quoted me, and I plan to ask them for a detailed engine report, cross referencing all the parts that the engine warehouse was suppose to change.

I will provide this report to any necessary parties involved.

Update:

As expected I did not get my car back or called to say the keys have been found. I called all week to find out about my car keys & to be told that the manager is unavailable, every time. On Fiday I spoke to a kid with bad Acne called Oliver who was racially abusive to me with death threats, saying he knew where I lived & he would burn my house down. I was patient and did note react, as I will see how the law deals with these pathetic scum.

THIS IS NOW A POLICE MATTER.

I recovered my car back on 26/09/09 using the spare key to another garage for inspection and repair. The bonnet will not open as it is damaged and the engine undersheild is missing.

I was having my walls insulated when the worker drilled through the BT line. He rang up his office and informed me that they would pay for any damage and repairs. When I recieved the bill from BT I posted a copy of to them and a Mr Alan Adams rang me to inform me that they would sort out the bill in a couple of days.

3 weeks later, and with BT breathing down my neck with a view to disconnecting me, I have still not received any form of payment. I emailed their office as my phone line was restricted and I could not call out. In their answering email they told me the cheque would be with me at the end of the week, around the end of April ... nothing came!. I have managed to ring them and was told that the accounts department was signing the cheque and that it would be with me mid week, around the 6th May. Nothing came!. I have now just called them and have been told that the cheque has not been signed yet!, but it will be sent out today. Hardly surprising that I have little faith in that happening....I need help!!!!!

I believe this company may be of interest to yourselves.   It started in November 2008 when we started getting a black line through the screen of our 42inch Hyundai Plasma TV. Within a few weeks we had no power at all. We thumbed through the Yellow pages and got the number of this plasma specialist Tv repair shop called Bristol Tv Repairs.   Phoned them and within a matter of days the tv was collected. This was the end of November. We informed them the symptoms of the tv and it was diagnosed upon inspection that the black line was the beginning of the power board failure. We were told to phone back within a weeks time and they would give us a price of repair.   We rang them back and they had informed us they had fixed it and it was the powerboard and was going to cost us £345. We told them we could not pay for it at that time as we had no monies until the 19 December. Between when the tv was repaired and the 19th the company phoned us several times hassling for the monies so the tv could be returned. We informed them again we had no money to pay for the repair until the 19th, which they informed us was their last day of trading until after christmas. They agreed to deliver the tv on the 19th so we could have the tv over christmas.   The tv was delivered on the19th and we gave the delivery driver £345 cash after checking the television worked, which it seemed to work perfectly.   If we had been quoted this price at the beginning before they had gone ahead and repaired it, we would not have agreed to the repair and purchased a new tv. However, we did agree to pay for the repair due to our impatience to have a working tv over the christmas period.   Over the christmas period the black line returned throughout the centre of the screen and the sound was intermittant. In the new year, we contacted the repair shop and informed them of the status of the tv. They said not a problem they would collect it in a couple of days and put it right as it was still under guarantee.   It was January the 16th 2009 when the tv was collected.   I had also noticed in the advert in the Yellow pages new customers were suppose to receive a 10% discount, which was not stated on my receipt. I questioned this several times and the question was ignored by the company.   I phoned the company on 23 January and was informed the company was investigating the problem and was asked to give them more time.   I phoned the company on 2 February and was unable to get an answer or a response to messages left, this was the same story on the 3 February.   I phoned the company on the 4 February and was informed the shop was waiting on a "dry wall" as they believed this to be the problem. Again requested to give them more time.   I phoned again on 17 February and was informed the "dry wall" was not the problem. The shop then said they would phone me back within an hour of the call (which was 09:56). I phoned them back at 14:01 and got no answer so left a message requesting a call back to discuss the result of the tv.  Still got no reply.   Phoned Consumer Direct who informed me to write the company a letter and send it recorded delivery, which I did. The letter was posted 18 February. Confirmation of receipt of the letter was shown online on the 19 February.   I phoned again on the 2 March and the company had no recollection of my letter sent. I managed to get a name, Harry, and he said they suspected it to be another part which was the problem. He said he would call me back which he never did.   I phoned him again and was informed the tv required a "media board", which would cost £160. I informed him we could not afford to pay this and requested the tv to be returned until we could get some money together.   After numerous phonecalls and cancellations of delivery, the tv was finally returned on 3 April at 20:30, a month after saying I could not afford the part.   The picture quality was poor but the sound was fine. Wasn't sure how they managed to mess the picture quality when I had paid them £345 for a part to sort this, and couldn't understand how the sound was fine after that was the reason apparently we needed a "media board".   So another letter was sent along with the tv stating we would like them to rectify the picture problem as we had already paid for them to do this, and return it within 14 days. I also questioned my 10% discount again which was, again, ignored.   I informed Consumer Direct again just for the record.   My husband then endevoured to phone the company on 6 May, and got angry with Harry, who then refused to return our tv back to us because of my husbands attitude towards him!   I phoned Harry on 7 May and Harry then stated he would return the tv after my husband phoned and apologised to him. My husband endevoured to phone Harry at 09:45 and apologised. Harry then told my husband he would phone myself within half an hour to discuss a delivery time. This never happened.   We still have not received the tv.   Still to date, we have no tv and are still £345 out of pocket, not to mention the price of phonecalls and inconvenience.   I am very concerned as the delivery driver stated we are not the only customers to complain about the level of service and the timescale.   Also, in the yellow pages, the business is trading under different names. It is using 2 different addresses which one of the addresses given is a private residence with elderly couples living in them and they are very concerned to find that a company is using their address.    They are calling themselves BRISTOL TV REPAIR, PATCHWAY TV REPAIR, BRISTOL TV, TELETRONICS and TV-i REPAIR SPECIALISTS and boasts a Bristol number ( which has now been cut off), but they are all trading from the Birmingham address, and there is no shop in or around Bristol area, and BRISTOL TV is advertising from 32-34 Karens Drive, Backwell which is the private residence address.   The phone number in the yellow pages has recently been cut off, and the only way I was able to get a phone number for the company was looking on Google map and actually looking at the shop in the street. I have recently found their website, which also confirms the 10% new customer discount, which i have not received along with my tv.   I have contacted Consumer Direct again and they have informed me to send another letter asking the company to phone me back with a date for the return of my tv. I do not believe they will phone me back as they have not phoned me from the date of the first delivery, after they had received their fee.   Also, I believe they have had plenty of time to rectify and return the tv to myself, and the threats of taking them to court does not seem to bother them. The last straw is the man refusing to return the tv back to me.   I have sent him two letters to date, the second letter including a second copy of the first letter, a copy of the advert in the yellow pages, copy of receipt, and times and dates of phone calls.   I have pictures of the tv when it first was returned and pictures of the tv when it was returned the second time prooving it still had problems. I also have copies of the letters.   I also have a video of the tv when it was returned after being told the sound quality was poor, proving the sound quality was perfect.   I do truely believe this company are not bothered by my complaints, if any complaints at all, and feel like they are a law unto themselves.   Please help.

WE WOULD WARN ANYBODY AGAINST DEALING WITH MARK GROUP THEY HAVE DAMAGED THE BRICKS ON OUR HOUSE BEYONG REPAIR THE OUTSIDE OF OUR HOUSE IN NOW RUINED THEY ARE A BNCH OF COWBOYS RIPPING PEOPLE OFF WITH BAD WORKMANSHIP THE FITTER TOLD US ALL THE SCAMS THEY DO TO EARN EXTRA MONEY TOO IT WAS AN ABSOLUTE JOKE THIS IS OUR LOG OF DEALING WITH THEM 

APRIL 1^ST 2009

 14.52

RECEIVE TEXT SAYING INSTALLATION REMINDER

 14.55

CALL MARK GROUP – THEY SAY INSTALLATION WILL BE ABOUT 1.00PM MAYBE AN HOUR LATE.

 APRIL 2^ND 2009

 10.00 AM

GUYS ARRIVE TO START WORK ASK IF CONSERVATORY WILL BE DONE TOLD YES AGREE INSIDE OF CONSERVATORY WONT BE DONE.

 11.25 AM

ARRIVE HOME STILL DRILLING SAY WILL BE BACK BY 1PM AN LEAVE AGAIN

 1PM

ARRIVE HOME MEN HAVE LEFT HOUSE LOOKS AWFUL CALL MARK GROUP

TOLD SOME WILL CALL BACK FROM ASHFORD WITHIN THE HOUR

 14.45

RING MARK GROUP TOLD AGAIN SOMEONE WILL CALL BACK

 15.45

RING MARK GROUP AGAIN APOLOGISE ASHFORD UNDER STAFFED SOMEONE

WILL PHONE WITHIN NEXT 30 MINS WITHOUT FAIL

 16.57

CALL HENRY DISCUSS MATTERS WITH HIM

 18.15

HENRY CALLS ASKS IF ANYONE CONTACTED US OR BEEN ROUND - REPLY NO

 18.30

BEEN TO SEE OTHER HOUSES THAT HAVE HAD SAME WORK DONE - NONE LOOK LIKE OURS  - RING HENRY SUGGEST MEETING AT HOUSE TOMORROW MORNING

 APRIL 3^RD 2009

 9.45

CONTACT HENRY AS HAVEN’T HEARD FROM HIM

 10.41

HENRY CALLS SAYS A TEAM WILL BE HERE TO SORT IT OUT SOON & CALL HIM WHEN THEY ARRIVE HE WILL THEN COME AN MEET THEM

10.55

 ASHFORD OFFICE CALL TO SAY TEAM WILL BE HERE TO RECTIFY EVERYTHING IN HALF AN HOUR 

11.30

ONE MAN ARRIVES, (TRAINEE) NOT EQUIPPED TO COMPLETE JOB HENRYS PHONE TURNED OFF

 11.45 

 TRAINEE CALLS STEVE WHO SAYS TO BUSY TO DEAL WITH THE PROBLEM  HE IS IN RH POSTCODE 

12.09

 HENRY PHONE STILL OFF TRIED TO SPEAK WITH SUPERVISOR AT ASHFORD OFFICE BUT ALL TOO BUSY TO SPEAK WITH US.

 12.15

CALLED HEAD OFFICE KEPT ON HOLD FOR 9 MINS THEN CUT OFF

 12.25

CALLED HEAD OFFICE AGAIN TOLD TO HOLD -WAITED 8 MINS THEN PUT THROUGH TO JODIE AT ASHFORD OFFICE SAYS SOMEONE WILL CALL BACK.

 12.35

CALLED HENRY TOLD HE WILL BE HERE IN 10 MINUTES

 12.45 

 HENRY ARRIVES AND CONTACT STEVE TOLD STEVE  WILL BE HERE AT 2PM

 14.10

 STEVE ARRIVES SITS IN HIS CAR ON PHONE THEN EMERGES 10 MINUTES LATER THEN  NEW TEAM OF THREE MEN HEADED BY DARREN ARRIVE WHO LOOK AT WORK AND AGREE IT IS TERRIBLE STEVE DOES NOT SAY ANYTHING BUT TAKES PHOTOS HE THEN SPEND 20 MINUTES ON PHONE (CLEARLY PERSONAL CALL) DARREN AND STEVE TALK LOOK AT HOLES STEVE TELLS JAMES NOT TO TALK OR DISCUSS IT WITH ME!! THEN AGREE PROPERTY HAS NOT BE FILLED PROPERLY HOLES NEED REDOING WHOLE HOUSE NEEDS REBLOWING DARREN AGREES WORSE JOB HE HAS EVER SEEN STEVE THEN SAYS HE WILL SEND DARREN ROUND ON SATURDAY (3 SATURDAYS TIME) TOLD HENRY NOT REALLY HAPPY TO WAIT THAT LONG STEVE CONTINUES TO TAKE PHOTOS THEN ARGUES WITH HENRY OVER WETHER THEY CAN GET A TEAM HERE SOONER FINALLY AGREES TO CALL SOMEONE AND GOES OFF AGAIN NOT HAPPY OR CONFIDENT WITH STEVE AT ALL FINALLY RETURNS SAYS THEY WILL BE HERE NEXT WEDNESDAY WHEN I ASK ABOUT THE STATE OF BRICKS AND WHAT WILL HAPPEN SHRUGS AN SAYS NOT SURE WHEN I ASK ABOUT STATE OF GARDEN MAKES A JOKE ABOUT IT SPENDS MOST OF TIME LOOKING AT HIS WATCH DID NOT ANSWER ONE QUESTION I ASKED DIRECTLY COMES ACROSS AS TOTALLY IMCOMPETANT,  I ASKED ABOUT THE STATE WINDOWS AND LEDGES HAD BEEN LEFT IN HE SAID THE LADS WOULD DO IT ON WEDNESDAY IF I WAS NICE TO THEM LAUGHED  WHEN I REPLIED DIDN’T THINK IT WAS FUNNY AS HAD JUST PAID TO HAVE WINDOWS CLEANED HE  REPLIED  OOPS SHAME!! HE THEN SAID HE HAD TO GO AS HE HAD TO DASH HERE AND NOW WAS BEHIND!!  DRIVES OFF (OVER OUR GRASS) .

17.00

BRICK LAYER COMES SAYS BLUNT DRILL BEEN USED THAT’S WHY BRICKS ALL CHIPPED SAID CANT BELIEVE THE DAMAGE THEY HAD DONE  SAID REPLACING BRICKS WOULD COST A FORTUNE AND NEVER MATCH IN BRICKS ALSO NOT AVAILABLE ANYMORE SUGGEST CONTACTING MARK GROUP TO ASK WHAT THEY INTEND TO DO

 18.00

HENRY ARRIVES WITH WINE AND PLANT

 19.15 NEIGHBOURS COMPLAIN RE; WHITE STUFF ALL OVER THEIR GARDENS

 APRIL 4^TH

 EMPLOY TWO GUYS TO CLEAN GARDENS TAKES OVER 2 HOURS AND RETRIEVE 2 DUSTBIN BAGS FULL   - COST  £40

 APRIL 6^TH 2009

 SPOKE TO SOLICITORS  SUGGEST WAIT TO SEE IF MARKGROUP CONTACT US

MAKE APPT FOR THURSDAY

 CONTACT HENRY REGARDS STATE OF BRICKS THINK SOMEONE FROM HEADOFFICE SHOULD OF RUNG US HENRY SAYS SOMEBODY WILL CONTACT US TODAY

 1.00PM 

ANDY SLEIGHTHOLME CALLS EXPLAINS SOMEONE WILL BE IN TOUCH FROM OPERATIONS HE DEALS WITH SALES

 2.45PM

 AMY FROM ASHFORD BRANCH CALLS SAYS GREAT NEWS A TEAM WILL BE WITH YOU ON WEDNESDAY HEADED BY OUR BEST GUY DARREN

(THIS WE ALREADY KNEW)

 APRIL 7^TH

NO CONTACT FROM HEAD OFFICE

 APRIL 8^TH

 7.30AM

DARREN  & JAMES ARRIVE ARRIVES

 9.30

 HENRY ARRIVES   FOLLOWED BY  MARK GAFFNEY 

12.00  

STEVE TAYLOR CALLS SAYS COURTESY CALL TO MAKE SURE MEN ARE THERE!! 

 14.30 WORK FINISHED

 15.00 ASHFORD PHONE TO SAY THEY WILL BE SENDING A BLOKE TO INSPECT WORK!!!  (THIS HAS NEVER HAPPENED)

 MAY 8^TH

SINCE THIS DAY HAVE MADE OVER 30 PHONE CALLS TO MARK GROUP CHASING WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN  ABOUT DAMAGE TO BRICKS ETC  SPOKE TO GEORGE AT ASHFORD OFFICE WHO SENT ONE MAN ALONG WHO TOOK PHOTO’S  SAID CUSTOMER SERVICES WOULD BE IN TOUCH CHASED AGAIN 2 WEEKS LATER SPOKE TO GEORGE WHO COULDN’T REMEMBR SPEAKING TO ME FILLED HIM AGAIN SAID HE WOULD GET BACK TO ME THEN HEARD FROM ANOTHER MAN SAID PAINTER WOULD BE HERE ON 8^TH MAY TO SORT OUT EVERYTHING RANG GEORGE SAID WHAT ABOUT COMPENSATION ETC SAID DEALING WITH IT PAINTER TURNED UP TODAY STARTED PAINTING STOPPED AFTER RAIN MADE PAINT RUN ALL OVER BRICKS AN WINDOWS PAINTER NOW LEFT WAITING FOR GEORGE TO ARRVIE TO DISCUSS THINGS AT 6PM TONIGHT

 GEORGE ARRIVES AGREE’S STATE OF HOUSE IS AWFUL APOLOGISES ASSURES US EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE SORTED OUT ASKS WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR EXPLAIN JUST WANT THE COST OF OUR DAYS OFF, PHONE CALLS, DAMAGE TO BRICKS AND COST OF WATER BEING ON FOR AN HOUR AN A HALF REIMBURSED WE HAVE HAD 7 WEEKS OF STRESS DUE TO THE MARK GROUP AND WE ARE STILL THE ONES CHASING EVERYTHING

GEORGE PROMISES TO GET PAINTER TO COME AND QUOTE FOR HIM BY WENESDAY NEXT WEEK AND WILL SPEAK TO DEAN OVERTON REGARDING COMPENSATION WILL CALL US MONDAY TO KEEP US UPDATED

 MAY 11^TH

 NO PHONE CALL

 MAY 12^TH

 GEORGE CALLS SAYING HAVING TROUBLE GETTING QUOTE BUT LEAVE IT WITH HIM

 MAY 14^TH

CALL GEORGE SAYING HAVN’T HEARD FROM ANYBODY HE SAYS WILL CHASE AND SOMEBODY WILL GET BACK TO US  LATER THAT DAY (AS USUAL  NOBODY DOES)

  MAY 19^TH 

PHONE CALL FROM DECORATOR TOLD COMING TO GIVE QUOTE TOMORROW MORNING PLEASE WAIT IN BETWEEN TEN AN ELEVEN

 MAY 20^TH

 CALL GEORGE REGARDING COMPANSATION SAYS NOT PREPARED TO SORT IT UNTIL PAINTING DONE  AND ASKED WHY TOLD COMPANY POLICY

 RANG BILL RUMBLES PA

 MEN ARRIVE TO LOOK AT STATE OF BUILDING CANT BELIEVE THE DAMAGE SAY WILL GIVE MARK GROUP QUOTE TO PAINT FRONT OF BUILDING

 MAY 27^TH

 MAN ARRIVES PAINTS HOUSE FINALLY

JUNE 1^ST

 GEORGE CALLS  OFFERS £100 COMPENSATION EXPALIN ITS AN INSULT LOOM AT THE DAMMAGE TO BRICKS DAYS OFF WORK ALL PHONE CALLS AN WATER BEING ON FOR ALMOST 2 HOURS SAYS FOR US TO THINKS ABOUT IT

JUNE 5^TH

 RING MARK GROUP NOBODY CALLS BACK

 JUNE 8^TH

RING MARK GROUP  10.00AM

RING MARK GROUP 12.45PM

RING MARK GROUP  2.00PM

RING MARK GROUP 3.50PM

NO CALLS RETURNED

JUNE 9^TH

GREG STRONG FROM OPERATION CALLS BACK SAYS £100 IS FINAL OFFER TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT WONT LET ME GET A WORD IN ON PHONE VERY BULLYING

TO DATE THIS IS WHAT WE HAVE DEALT WITH

I hired Diamond Pools (located at 26 Hamilton Drive, Huntington CT  06484) to install 1500 square feet of pavers around my existing pool, and John Dubyoski (owner) came with a 4 page contract without references or copies of his licenses which I requested many times.  Ignorantly, I signed the contract which had a breakdown of 3 payments...not realizing 95% of the money was due before a single paver was to be laid.  I made the first payment of $11,400. By the time the next payment was due I had neighbors knocking on my door giving me their own nightmare stories regarding Diamond Pools. They had names of others who had huge problems with Diamond Pools.  More importantly his employees were telling me they were not getting paid and when they did it was in quarters!  We were even asked by his top guy for $300.00.  Feeling held hostage or getting a terrible job we gave him the money. 

At one point,  John did rewrite his contract; "contract adjustment"  was the title of the adjustment page that we in turn signed.  This adjustment changed the payment plan to 4 payments instead of 3.  Delaying at least some of the money until some of the pavers were laid.  We wanted to delay the last payment in total but John said he would not continue so we caved and gave him more money.   A week after he cashed the check for the 3rd payment and still had not returned to the job, he changed his mind and now wanted the 4th payment before continuing.   It became obvious that he never had any intention of actually performing the work as stipulated in the contract and was attempting to lengthen the project in order to force us to fire him.  At that point he would have 95% of the money without actually doing anything.

Continually and consistently John (Diamond Pool owner) incorrectly billed us for things he did not do at all or charged us more than once for the same supplies in different bills.   In fact a retaining wall that was installed is the wrong color and we found out from his own employee that he used blocks he had from a previous job, which he was fired from.  This tells us that he never had any intention of getting the materials of the correct color.

Workmanship is lousy at best.  When a patch of pavers were laid they were on a downhill SLOPE not pitch, as he claimed.  He claims to be a professional and therefore he should have noticed this right away and made us aware without continuing.  And if the pitch to my yard was wrong it should have been brought to my attention when the job was originally proposed to allow for discussion and planning.  Isn't part of doing the job properly to level it correctly and follow the code? 

 We were told the job would take 2 weeks; 2 months later I have my property filled with his equipment, a dump truck, a 25' enclosed tool trailer and a huge bobcat abandoned by the side of my in-ground pool.   The yard looks like a war zone! Even before things went sour, he did not show up for over a week when the weather was beautiful. 

 He looked to get fired by not returning for weeks after having over $20,000 of our money.  His contract states that he is not responsible for anything, so he took no effort to protect my driveway, lawn or sprinkler system which were all severely damaged.

One of the most frustrating things is that he knows that along the way things tend change during any project.  He then uses those "change orders"  to extort more money because he knows that either you pay the ridiculous amounts for materials and labor that he is requesting or he does not do it or does not continue, again holding you and/or the forward progress hostage.  When he tried to rob us twice with these methods, we decided it had to end.   

This company should not have a license to do anything.  He has no regard for his customers, property or safety.

My girlfriend and I started a garden in the front of my house and along the side.  There are a lot of rocks and weeds to clear out of each area so I decided to try and get a gadget to make the work a little easier.  I remembered seeing a commercial on TV for the Awesome Auger, and while I never buy anything from those Billy Mays spots, I decided I would give the Awesome Auger a try.  I went to their website and began the ordering process.  I added in a couple extra items just to see how much the total would be, and instead of being brought to a confirmation page of some sort to make sure all my selections were correct, I end up at a page telling me thank you for my purchase of three of these augers, three extra power drills, and expedited shipping service, and oh by the way there is a 49.95 shipping charge for each of the drills that we didn't mention anywhere on the previous pages.  The total came to $225.35!!!  This for items that were advertised at 14.95 each.  There is no way I would purchase any of this nonsense had I been made aware of the shipping charges, or had I been allowed to correct the number of items I wanted after seeing how much the total charge would have been.

I call the company to explain that I didn't want everything that I was charged and they told me that I could not initiate a return or credit until my order was in the system.  I was asked to call back later in the day which I did and at that time was asked to call the next day which I did.  Now at 1130am on that morning my order was not in their system, yet when I called back around 3pm later that day it was already processed and shipped out.  I find that extremely hard to believe.  Now they tell me that once my order is shipped there is no way to cancel it and I will not be reimbursed for my shipping charges, which came to roughly $170.  I call my credit card company to dispute the charge.  They tell me to ship the item back and they will be able to get my money back for me.  I go to the UPS store to ship the items back, guess how much it cost to ship?  $22!!!!!!!!!!!

Now it is showing that I am only being given $49.95 back from the company after they have received the items that i returned and I'm out $176.00.  The company has the package back unopened, items brand new that they can ship out to rip someone else off with.  I am awaiting an explanation as to why I was not able to recover the full amount when all I wanted in the first place was an idea of how much I would be spending. 

My husband went to post a letter 3 doors down from my house.  On his way back, he was hit by a car which had mounted the pavement and picked him up onto the bonnet of his car and proceeded to propel my husband onto our car, which was parked on our driveway.  My husband is lucky to be alive. He is suffering from a broken leg, numerous head injuries, chest injuries, a lost tooth and countless body lascerations.  My car has a damaged right wing, the boot lid is beyond repair and a smashed rear windscreen.  The driver has admitted full blame and given a signed statement to the police making admissions that he fell asleep at the wheel as he had just finished a night shift.

I spoke to Sainsburys, our car insurer, on the morning of the 3rd June telling about the ordeal.  Sainsburys informed me that as my husband was a pedestrian who caused the damage we might not be entitled to claim for damages.  I thought that my car only had a broken windscreen, so was told it would cost me £70 to replace as I didn't know the full extent of the damage until I recovered the car from police compound, to find the full extent of the damage.  Once I informed Sainsburys of this they said that they would have the car picked up and taken to a repair garage which they have, and that I would be given a courtesy of equal or better standard than my current vehichle.  Sometime later, I spoke to the company who are supplying the vehicle, only to be told by them that I cannot have a courtesy car, as they will be unable to recover the cost of this.  I have fully comprehensive insurance with Sainsburys, of which includes an allowance for a courtesy car.  I explained that I would need a bigger vehicle, as my husband will be temperarily disabled with his broken leg and a small car would be inaccessible and inpractical.  I do not understand this.  The man has admitted liability and has comprehensive insurance cover.  The whole ordeal was traumatic enough, without being told that I would be without a car, which I would so desperately need at the moment to help care for my husband in hospital.  As a result of this I am having to use London transport services, which I quite frankly find, unacceptable.

Finances are tight at the moment, with my husband being unable to work and I have found Sainsburys Insurance as completely unsympathetic and reluctant to help.  I was told by one representative that if I wanted a larger vehicle, I could, but I would have to hire one at my own expense.  I have legal cover included in my insurance premium and all damages could be recovered as the other driver has admitted liability for the incident.

Redford financial group called us saying that we were approved for a home loan of $75000, which at the time we had been looking for. James Adams our account representive told us we just needed to send$2590 to Frank Zeller in Ontario Cananda and the funds would be put into our account via direct deposit. The next morning Robert Rhodes contacted us saying we needed to send and additional $2590. We told him to send back our money. He said they would put it in our account on July 12, 2009. Now the website for the company is gone and the phone number had been changed. They have my drivers license, social security card and bank account information. Please do not send money to anyone no matter what they promise you. How did they find my family?

Ordered battery ,email confirmation,nothing since.Told arrive from abroad on next shippment.never arrived.Emails have not been answered

I have received several excuses for failure to deliver my drill battery ordered in June. I finally asked for my money back. The response is that my request has been passed to "accounts". That was six weeks ago. Deal with them at your peril and only if you can afford to loose your money. Dont expect any help from "Nochex" either.

Last year I bought an Accor Favorite Guest card (now A Club)because we were travelling not only in France but also Australia/New Zealand & Dubai. The idea was to not only get a bit of a discount on all the hotels but also to receive a welcome drink (gift) & more importantly points redemable into to vouchers to reduce hotel costs this year.

We duly presented the card at all the hotels we stayed at & this was swiped. However it was only in France that we got points & a welcome gift. I have since emailed/phoned/corresponded with the office in Paris but all I get back is "send us the original receipts & we shall put points on your account". I sent the receipts & they never turned up & as I foolishly sent the originals had no recourse & was told to contact all the hotels & get copy receipts. I sent my credit card statements with all the hotels/costs highlighted, even the booking references but still not acceptable.

So what is the point in paying out (in my case 120 euros) when I get little 'reward'? It's their system that failed to register the points but it is me that has to do all the chasing around to recover the points- which I am not prepared to do. They will not even entertain making a settlement based on what information they have received. For the 7 emails/3 letters/2 phone calls I've got 3 'standard' replies, the rest have been ignored! Why should a big corporation get away with such poor 'after sales service' with no complaints procedure?

I have ordered power steer rack for AUDI A2 with UK number plate from GEOPARTS thru 1CHOICE SPARES on 25 June and paid the same day.

I was promissed to receive the part next day or latest Monday(29)

I have received the part on 01 July

I have book app. with the garage , the mechanick take out the old power steer rack and find out that the part , wich was sent from GEOPART does not fit to my car . Those two parts were absolutely different !!!

He said the part belongs to EU( left side drive car) and put the oldone back

They charge me for that job £150 !

How can I return my money back? who will pay for the servise?

Ordered goods, (drill batteries) online. When I received them realised they were wrong and agreed with them via email that I could return them quoting their returns RMA number: 73024976958. Received email confirmation that they had received them back but never received a credit for the money spent on the goods, £127.22. Since returning I have sent several emails asking for the credit but with no response. I then attempted money claim online to recover funds and was informed the bailiff was unable to recover funds. Since then they have applied to court to have the name Silverburn removed from documents relating to the claim.

I wasn't going to say anything, but the more I thought about it, the more upset I get. I figured with all of the hype around this cash for clunkers pitch the government is offering, we would go down and see what we could do. I have driven GM products a long time and they have always been good to my family. My wife, two sons and I all have GM products and it has made us sick to see the company go down the way it has.

The dealership we visited is right off the highway and they have always seemed to have good trucks on thier lot. We pulled in there Friday night to see about a trade. Now I know it was after 8:00 when we got there but I figured somebody would want to make a sale; I was wrong! The closest I got to anyone being interested in us as customers was to have a card handed to me. They told me we could talk to some guy named Marty when he was around. That was it. we looked in the windows of some nice trucks, stood around for a while and left. We won't go back any time soon.

As we went on into town we ended up checking out both the Ford and Toyota dealerships-I have always liked the F-150. I hope GM makes it, it is going to need better customer service then we got, that is for sure. The way I see it, it cost us $4500 and the dealership a sale.

Hi all,

Unfortunatly I've found this site too late! I think i'm currently in the process of being ripped off! I did search the company to ensure it was registered and found it was. I thought this was enough to ensure i wasn't being scammed but it looks like i was wrong!

I have paid my £370 "advertising fee" earlier today, to the company 'Exclusive Companions' as their trading title and GD promotins LTD as their registered company name,on the promise im to be going on a job tonight. Dinner, drinks, clubbing starting from 8pm ( they just called saying she should call me before 7).

Well lets hope i've not been scammed, and that it's not just two women working from home with an office noise CD playing in the back ground! I will keep you all posted on what happens. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE dont let this be a scam as this will really put me in the dog house with money!

Does anybody know of a way of claiming the money back from such a company if I have been scammed?

A Solid Gold Sound DJ/Video Services is a nationwide Internet DJ/Video company ran by John Kruer with home offices in Kentucky.

I contacted this company back in June to contract their services. At that time I PREPAID IN FULL the total due for the services I was to receive on my wedding day. The first incident that took me back was when I had called to inquire about their services and got a disconnected signal for the # listed for the Kansas City # on the Website.

I then called the 1-800 # and told the representative about this which he replied "I will have to look into that". They later took this # off the website. I also found out later that this company contracts local DJ's and had no local office. I then called a few weeks later to inquire about the free gifts offered on the website. I told the phone representative that I had never received the "Free Gifts"(money saving reports & countdown to wedding date clock)that was advertised on the website, at that time the representative laughed at me and told me he would look into it. I never heard anything else on that. Once I had my song list complete around 75 songs from the companies list and around 30 that I added. I faxed and emailed the list to their office. I then waited until 6 days prior to my wedding to call their office to ask when my DJ would be contacting me. I was told 7-10 days prior to my event. When I told the representative it was 6 days out she said "OH, well let me give
you his # so you can get ahold of him". I thought ok I will contact him instead of him calling me? I then called and spoke to the DJ who then told me he never received any info on my event from A Solid Gold Sound and he would have to call in and then get back to me. He did return the call later in the evening stating he had spoke with their office and after discussing it he was going to "pull me out of the fire" by doing my event, at that time I asked why was I "in the fire" to begin with? I was told that he was already booked for the day of my event but was going to cancel it, to do mine. I thought this strange considering I had PREPAID IN FULL MONTHS AGO. The DJ then asked me to send him my song list. I told him I had already sent it to their office twice and thought he could get it from them. He then went on to tell me how "unreliable" their office is and would prefer if I sent it direct. I told him I would, and arranged for a follow up call the next day. I called the Solid Gold Sound office the next morning to discuss how unhappy I was with the service so far and just wanted to get this done. I was told by their office that the DJ was a good DJ but was rather "full of himself" and he DID have the song list I had sent. I then called the DJ and he told me "no" he had not yet received it, and asked again if I would send it to him direct. I sent him the list and everything seemed to finally be headed in the right direction. I spoke with the DJ again the next day(3 days before the wedding) and arranged to bring the 8 or so songs he could not get, and told him if he needed anything else to let me know. This brings us to the wedding day. The DJ showed up on time to the event and the first thing we went over was where he would set up. After we got that cleared up he then asked about power, the owner of the establishment showed him where the power was located(about 30ft from the set up location). He then asked the owner for an extension cord! Even the owner was laughing and said "well the professional DJ's usually have an extension cord". Well the DJ had some sort of excuse for that. But the owner was nice enough to loan him one and he began to set up. Prior to the ceremony I asked the DJ if he had the ceremony music ready? He looked at me and said well no. I had discussed this with their office weeks earlier about him doing the ceremony music. And was told that's fine he would do it. That's why I paid for him to be there a half hour prior to my ceremony. Well regardless the DJ finished setting up, played a little easy listening music prior to my ceremony then got to relax playing no music for about 30 to 45 min during the ceremony. Once the ceremony was over and we came back to reception area the DJ then began to play some music. After about 20 min or so my new wife asked why he had yet to play one of our songs from the music we had selected. When I approached him and asked about this he told me "Well someone last week spilled a drink on my laptop so I'm using this backup laptop" I asked what this had to do with my songs and he said nothing, he would get some on for me. After the Wedding Toast and Bouquet & Garter tosses, we danced to our song (that I had to bring, that is available on I tunes). This was about 45 minutes of what I actually paid for. But soon after my wife again approached me and said she had heard this same song 3 times and had yet to hear a song from our play list! This was over half way through our event. When I went to the DJ to ask him why he was playing the same song he had played 3 times now he also had an excuse. He told me that someone from the event he had done prior had walked off with one of his patch cords and he was having to mix everything by hand? I asked again to just play some of our songs. After about another 20 min or so we finally got into our song list. Considering our event had been going on for hours I thought this to be completely unprofessional. Our song list finally made it into the play list with only about an hour remaining of music. After that I was more focused on attending to my guests and my new Bride. The DJ packed up and left exactly at his scheduled time. The next day when my wife and I discussed the entire day she said the only thing that she would have changed was the DJ. When I spoke with many friends and family they all said the same thing "Your wedding was beautiful but that DJ was awful" I agree with them.

I paid this company IN FULL AND IN ADVANCE for a what I was expecting to be a good job. It was most certainly not a good job.

Since my event I have contacted their office to ask for a some sort of refund all I have got back are rude defensive emails. The [customer service] (link: http://www.my3cents.com/companyReview.cgi?compid=&subcat=6) was horrible from the beginning and the DJ was awful. The entire staff was unprofessional and rude.

I hope that anyone who is looking for a quality DJ stays clear of this company, after searching for complaints on this company(something I wish I would have done prior) I found many many complaints on them. The national BBB office gives this company an F rating which is the lowest possible.

i paid my deposit of £100 for a lgv trainng course, they then sent me my starter pack consisting of dvd, book, liecence paperwork and there booklet, i then paid the rest of my course about a month later, the day after my course a lorry driver friend phoned me to ask me if i knew about the CPC which had come into force from sept i replied no so they advised me to contact direct lgv to ask if they cover this within the price.

So i phoned and was told no they do not do CPC within their training and it would be extra, so i then phoned VOSA to ask if the company should be doing the course as im a new driver and they said yes because i could pass my LGV but still wouldnt be able to drive because i hadnt passed my CPC, so i phoned back and was then told if i had passed my test before 1997 i had 5 years grace to do it which again is wrong they also said that as its new they didnt know much about it although PSV drivers had to do theirs last year and LGV drivers knew it was coming in this year.

My partner then phoned and pretended he too wanted a course and asked if he passed his LGV could he go out and drive straight away and they said yes to this point still no mention of the CPC to him, my partner is always phoning and being palmed off all the time saying the person he needs to speak to is either busy or not in her office.

I have wrote a letter stating that i want a full refund as the company is incompetent and not providing a proper service, i have sent my starter pack back to them as requested but still no joy of a refund yet.

We ordered a set of golf clubs for my son's 21st birthday.A set of 'ping' irons, a putter and a driver.They arrived and were not the correct ones.Numerous emails sent to the company no reply.We have just had them checked at a golf club and they are fakes.DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY.

As a credit card was used we will try to claim a refund.

My contact Information :
Michael Salsbury
613-389- 3331
I bought a atv from Don Wood Polaris in OHIO
Don Wood Polaris
1 Townsend Place, Athens OH 45701
Local: 740-593-6641
Toll Free: 888-284-8219
Fax: 740-589-3651
Email: dwpolaris@donwood.com


ATV WAS DIAGNOSED AT TWO REPAIR SHOPS AND BOTH DETERMINED IT WAS the CAMSHAFT THAT NEEDED REPLACING AND THE CARBURETOR NEEDED REBUILT.
Ebay Item number: 200390388700 but it came with a worn out camshaft bad carburetor and burnt out headlights. ( $1123.80 in damage)
On the Ebay ad it said " Mechanically sound " I also asked Scott the service manager and Allen the sales person before I bought and asked if machine has any problems. They both said " no it runs fine and their shop checks everything out before they sell atvs "

I received atv and it did not work from the minute I received it off the shipping pallet. There is not 1 mile more on the odometer than as shown on the ebay listing from seller Don Wood because I could not use it.

There was 3 problems one it would not idle and would stall and two it had no speed over 18 mph and no take off power ( would not spin the tires on gravel even) I contacted seller and he said take it to a shop. The shop fix problem one and it was the carburetor. The next was a bad camshaft The last is burnt out headlights
The second problem ( undetermined yet ) the seller said " You bought as is but we can give you a extra $100 dollars to end this" . I said no as I do not know if it will cost more than $100 to fix. He stated "thats all we are going to pay and thats it."

My local repair shop here then traced the second problem. It was a camshaft that was very badly worn out . My local repair shop said " there was extensive long term wear on the camshaft and that there was now way any dealer would not have known it had problems as it was backfiring thought the carburetor and the the lifters were making a bad engine sound because the camshaft was worn out" . My repair center said it is obvious they new it was a bad atv and just unloaded it on you.
I told Don Wood I do not expect a 6 month warranty but do expect it to run fine as he stated on the ebay listing and his word.
When I first bought the atv I paid by Visa and sent them my ID ( drivers license and social insurance number ) and they registered it in my name. Then Don Wood phoned and said " we can not ship it to you being paid by Visa we have to have a certified check so you can not dispute the Visa charge because then they would be out the money " I thought this was odd but I just agreed and then I got them to let me pay by paypal and they credited my visa back and I paid by paypal .
Now I know why they did not want to let me pay by Visa because it would have been easy for me to dispute the charge and Don Wood knew the atv was damage so they wanted to make sure I could not go back on them.

I think its a shame a Dealer would scam people like this because they have a repair shop with train mechanics they obviously knew there was something wrong with this atv. I talked to another person who bought a atv from them on ebay and he caught them in a lie by checking his atv warranty repair history and Don Wood put some parts on it trying to fix the problem but they sold it broke to another ebay buyer.

I have all emails as most of the conversation was through email. What I am claiming is for is the amount it will cost so the atv will run $1123.80

I ordered a chi straightener from this company for a birthday present. when question the lengthy waiting period i was sent a website to contact for my tracking number...the website was the billing support website. now, afet contacting them, the website somehow dissapeared with noe help to me, except for the waste the website put on my time. they took the money out of my account and never have i recieved a product. THIS IS DRIVING ME CRAZY!

it looks like i have been taking for a ride like the rest of you i paid by debit card 1650 pounds for a hgv coruse got my licence past my medical had a phone call in november asking me to pay 299 for pass protection but i said i would not pay any more money till after xmas then i tryed to phone them and got no reply this is when i new somthing was wrong that was in december hello all out there i have now been told to get hold of the

insolvency on phone num 08456029848 i will try and get hold of them tomorrow we then see where we go from there i hope we all can go on and drive the lorrys

In order to reduce the number of victims of Rapid Data many featured on this site, we are launching R3Cover™ [] (link: http://www.abcdatarecovery.co.uk) Ltd Security House Windsor Street Seffield S4 7WB 0845 2002 845  Please mention CanYouTrustThem when contacting us regarding this post.

I booked with Ryanair to fly from Shannon to Bristol in December .The outward trip to Bristol went fine real friendly staff on the check in desk enjoyed my few days in England .Went back to Bristol for the return flight was tight for time due to roadworks but arrived 10 mins before the gate was due to close only to find that the check in closed early and had airport staff to back me up but to no avail was told by the serviceair rep who was supposed to represent  ryanair as service supervisor was told by this jerk that they dont go by the airport clocks and that to leave it so fine was my problem.It was not only me but 3 other passengers . I had to fly back because I had 2 hospital appointments in Galway university hospital the next day showad this jerk to no avail .Had to fly to Dublin get a car to shannon to pick up my vechile which I left at Shannon and drive home total cost extra  370 Euro of this Ryanair took £98 sterling for missed flight charge and even had to pay again for baggage they might be cheap to start but you end up paying through the nose .Hope to God they never get  thier hands on Aer Lingus Enjoy your trip up the Taxi Lane in Dublin Mr o Leary it  shows your true colours working as close as is possible to the mark but careful not to step over it .so I say keep on stinging your passengers untill more realise what is happening. 

I had booked online for hand luggage only from Liverpool to wroclaw(poland). I was due to attend a funeral and had had to pack an extra suitcase to take with me. When I arrived at the airport at 5am(Flight due at 6am), I was aware that i had little time. I went to the check in desk and explained that i had brought said suitcase and asked wheher or not i had time to check it in. "Yes, you have plenty of time", I was told. I was given a receipt and instructed to go to ryanair's desk to pay £28 for excess baggage. the queue for this desk was long and visible from the check in desk(ie to the man who'd told me i had "plenty"of time)and i stood there for approximately 20minutes growing more and more anxious. The ladies behing the desk were in no way capable of dealing with the amount of people like myself awating flights. by the time i got to the desk and paid for the excess baggage, it was 5.25 and i was panicking. I was given two sheets of paper and had my original print out from the online booking taken from me. I took these and ran as quick as i could to security. It was only when i arrived at security-some considerable distance away-that i was told these articles/receipts were not the boarding card i should have been given. I therefore had to run back downstairs, apolegetically barge past the still huge queue, where the monosyllabic desk clerk passed me the boarding card. Needless to say, by the time i ran upstairs to security(again-even after being kindly rushed through it by airport staff)I had missed my flight. I got to the gate at 5.55am and was told I'd been offloaded by the captain...along with three others. my suitcase had, however gone with the plane!

I did not complain at the time as there was really no-one to complain to at the time, plus i know how it is to work with angry, unreasonable customers and how little help they get and of course the plane had left;it seemed pointless going crazy about it. I requested an address/email/phone number to address my complaint to and was given a fax and address of head office in Ireland. i would just like to know How and why i was not given my boarding card..how they can offload me-due to their ineptitude, yet take my luggage(!)and then be so disinterested when i'm trying to get an alternate flight. There was no instruction from the staff at the desk and i was told i had plenty of time. Also when i realised the predicament of my situation i went to the desk again to enquire about next flights and the whereabouts of my luggage, the staff were so clueless(they told me it would"definitely"be in baggage reclaim and they didn't know where wroclaw is...?!)I had to bite my tongue. I have flown with ryanair on numerous occassions and have never had a bad experience before..but this one cost me valuable time and money at an awfully difficult time. the case contained clothes for both myself and my fiancee's sisters' funeral.

I eventually had to get a flight to krakow-300kms from my final destination through easyjet at a cost of £98, one way and then a grieving father to drive and pick me up at 8pm from that airport.

On the 6th of January 2009, after visisting a friends house in Ousby, Penrith, I was driving with my 3 year old neice and 12 year old brother in my car along a backroad towards melmerby. The weather was quite bad, it was snowing, so set of home, as i came round a downhill corner i spotted a car in the middle of the road at the bottom of the dip. the driver Made no effort to move over, i braked and realised i was on ice, tried to avoid hitting the car by swerving onto the grass verge, but caught his driver side wing and put my car through the wall. Completely shocked i checked that my brother and neice were ok, looked up to notice that the other car had moved and parked up on the grass verge in front of my car! I got out of my car and the other driver did also, he came rushing over and reassured me that it was "one of them things", the driver admitted that he had just done a turn in the road and shouldnt have been in the middle of the road but didnt want to carry on driving to melmerby (the direction i was intending to go). He then said that he didnt know whether to go through the insurance companies as he was in the middle of the road, he gave me a card with his number on to call when i got home. Some passers by came and helped get my car out of the wall and drove it to melmerby where i then met my mam and dad. My mam phoned the other driver where he told my mam that it wouldnt have happened if he hadnt been in the middle of the road and that i was not to blame, he said he was going to have a think about it all and would ring back. A few hours later he rang back with a completely different attitude and said he was making a claim against me as i was "an inexperienced driver" only being 17 years old. Supposing he was an experienced driver doing a turn in the road at the bottom of an icy hill! The following day i called my insurance company to reportthe accident and make a claim against the other driver, they said they would get back in touch and never, after calling Quinn direct three times, i eventually spoke to a woman who called herself my claims manager. She reassured me that she lives in Penrith and knew what the weather had been like, therefore neither party would be liable to claim and it would be a case of paying for eachothers damage. She wrote to me requesting my mot certificate and drivers licence, which i posted to her. After a month of no communication, i decided to text claim manager  and ask what was happening with the case. I got a reply saying " he is not getting his repairs done until the 10th march so we can't close the claim until the invoices are in". As i hadnt heard anything since posting her my  details i text back asking if i was getting my car repaired as i hadnt been notified, which she replied "unfortunatly we are unable to defend the claim. As you informed me that you braked and skidded on the ice we cannot argue that you were in control of your vehicle. We did try to argue that he was in the middle of the road but as you say you saw him and braked we will have to accept liability". I was absolutely disgusted with the lack of communication between me and my claims manager that i replied telling her this and that i was not happy with her company and lack of customer services, i also said that i wished to cancel my insurance due to the matter. She replied sayingthat she was sorry that i felt things were not explained ant that she had previously pointed it out, but she hadnt. My mother and i then started to look for other car insurance quotes and realised that you cannot get one without an estimate of the claim, so i texted marie agin to ask for it which she replied " no his insurance company are dealing with his repairs, i will let you know once we get the figures". I rang one insurance company to ask if i could insure without a claims cost and he said that by law my insurance company should give me an estimate and that i should have filled in claims forms and diagrams, which i hadnt. |I rang quinn again to complain re lack of service/communication and they said my claims assessor would come out and assess the damage to my car and take a statement, then visit the scene of the accident to assess the situation. this should have been done in the first place. 3 days later still waiting. phoned quinn again told they would ring me back in 5 mins, 2 hrs on still waiting. told not allowed to cancel with quinn as have an outstanding claim with them. STALEMATE!!!!!!!!!!!!

I first noticed that they taking unlawful amount from DD on Aug 06 so I called orange and found out they put me in wrong tariff then Numerous phone calls, faxes and emails send to them regarding issue nothing done

after few months on telephone conversation they agreed to put me in right tariff which I bought originally but they refuse to refund instead they said “will give you some more minutes free” I though Ok !!

this month again I notice in my bill and they put me in wrong tariff again when I call two weeks a go I spoken mr **and he said he can see in his screen that I had problem and he was surprise that they did this again but he said the person sort your problem before he will contact you in week time it has been 2 weeks nothing happen.

Orange has many departments to drive consumers catch 22 and also they never confirm in writing as I been told by their representative it is not their company policy!! They are in breach of DATA PROTECTION because they holding my billing data incorrectly ALSO UNLOWFULL BILLING AND SO ON
 

We ordered a new washing machine and paid for an evening delivery - so as not to take time off work. It came on the Tuesday night, as agreed, and was put under the worktop in our kitchen - by the delivery driver.

The next day I tried to take out the pransportation bolts before using the machine. They were bent down at an angle and I had a terrible time getting them out. Once out, I could see they were bent about 40 degrees - the machine had clearly been dropped and the weight of the drum and counter-balance (lump of concrete) had bounced and bent the bolts.

Went straight to Currys and demanded they replace the machine. Many was totally disinterested but passed me to a colleague who took the details. He made a phone call and then asked if I could be at home the next day. it meant taking a day off but was happy it was being resolved so quickly. I was told I'd get a text the next morning identifying a two-hour window when they'd arrive. Left the sop slightly mollified.

The next morning I got a text saying when the engineer would arrive. Went straight back to Currys and told them I wasn't interested in an engineer - even if he said the machine was OK now, who is to say it won't pack in in the near future? I insisted on a new machine.

The engineer did turn up and reckoned the machine had been dropped several feet at some stage and was astounded it had been delivered to a customer - he pointed out where the casing was distorted.

At this stage, I was playing hell at the shop saying I wanted it delivered today as I'd taken a day off as they'd led me to believe a new machine was being delivered, and didn't want to have to take another day off. They said that wasn't possible.

In the meantime, my wife was ringing head office, also demanding a machine that day (the depot is less than 4 miles away where the appliances come from). After several hours of aggravation, they conceded and arranged a courier to deliver and connect the machine.

So, the problem was resolved - but why should you have to face so much aggravation just to get delivered, in full working order, what you've paid for?

I emailed their customer service saying that the least they could do was refund the night-time delivery charge as that had been a waste of time and I'd ended up having to take a day off anyway.

They responded:

The issues you have raised have been addressed with the individuals concerned, to ensure other customers are not disappointed in the same manner, however, we will not be able to discuss it further.  

In other words, we hear what you say but feck off we're not talking to you anymore.

Customer service?

I don't think so. Please avoid the place.

Hi,

this is the complaint I just sent to HSBC.

I used to be a very happy HSBC customer and recommend your services to everyone one when the talks come to Banking. Unfortunately because of a conspiracy against me I suppose, my card was canceled about 40 days ago, without me being aware you guys have sent me another VISA card that I again did not request. I noticed that my card was not working in a quite embarrassing manner with my shopping being declined. I went to my local branch in Chiswick and I was told what I just explained and that my card was sent to my actual branch in Holborn. Then I requested that my card was sent to the Chiswick branch. I had to wait another 5 working days, went to my branch in Chiswick with my DRIVING LICENSE AND MY PASSPORT and the lady that was unbelievable rude towards me because I didn't know my former address that had moved out about two years ago and had no idea that my address shown on my internet banking account is not my actual address and that I needed to fill up a form to change my address. She said that she must confirm that I am Mr Marcos Pavanelli Lira with an address proof and that JUST my DRIVING LICENSE and my PASSPORT were not enough. After half an hour ridiculously fighting with that lady for something absolutely non-sense I got my new card and went to do my shopping and again my card was declined. I called your debit/credit card customer service before I went there to make sure it would work, spoke to someone very friendly and helpful did everything that I should have done and my card was declined. On the next day I went again to my branch and I was told that my pin numbers have changed. I requested my new pin numbers and they should come in five working days. Well there are 10 working days now and nothing. I called your customer service and they said that the pin numbers letter was sent to me and that I should go to my local post office to ask them if I got any letter undelivered there. The funny thing is that all my statements from you guys and all parcels/letters come without any trouble and when something is not delivered due to nobody home to sign, a note is left what did not happened. I just would like to ask, is that anything else that could go wrong? I really understand that I mean nothing to you and I am just a student account with no income to justify special treatment, but this is just ridiculous.

I wish you guys a nice day and tomorrow morning I will close my bank account. Oh yeah, today completes 50 days without being able to withdraw money and buy anything with my card.       

I purchased an apple ipod nearly 2 years ago and paid for extended warranty to Comet's where i bought the ipod.  On 28.1.09 it broke down and on 29.1.09 i took it back to the store, where, I thought they would replace the item.  They said that it would have to be repaired.  I received a customer repair document which said my product would be ready to collect on 18.2.09 and if not ready they would contact me.  In spite of many phone calls i am informed that the repair was not completed.  Today, 2/03/2009 Comet informed me that they had been advised by the repairer the ipod needed a new hard drive and didn't know how long before it would be returned - how long does it take to find out the problem!.  Comet do not seem to be interested in giving good service or they would tell the repairers that they will loose customers if they continue to give bad service.  I still have not received my ipod and nor any date for its return.

i bought a vaxuhall astra 1.6 sxi from m53 ford paying 4000 thousand and trading my near new perfect 1.2 corsa which i got 2000 thousand for .my astra iv only had it for a two months nearly and iv had problems all over the car i recieved it on the 19th of feb which even on the day of the 19th it was not ready cos they had sat on it for a week .i had to go to work in one of the staffs car from ford and wait at work for them to drop it off ,when i got my car it was really dirty it had not been serviced at all it would not start properly my drivers door was lose my back window would not open properly and a lose stearing which had been brought up on mot i took it back and they needed it for a day they sorted my door and window but my stearing was not done cos they dont do majore work on that make of car and told me it was up to me to go else were and pay for it to be fixted .one week after i was driving down the motor and the car just stopped and no electrics were working i stopped and restarted the car and just mannged to get home i found it was a bolb had dropped out cos a braket had come away and tripped out the electrics on the car ,i went backthe next day to ford and told them what happend and told them i would not drive the car cos of saftey i was told it was not posible for them to look at the car at that time an to book in for the next week and was told if the car broke down my insurer would tow me in which would cost  so i booked and told them again about the stearing so after that i went straight over to vaxuhall and i was helped straight away they unplugged the part and orded a new one which it cost me 18 pound then he checked for any other problems ,i went back the next week and they had my car for a day and told me they were driving it up and down the motorway checking out the stearing which they still could not dal with cos in there words there was nothing wrong with it mot says different .I then had problems with my lock key for my wheels they would not come off so i went to vaxuhall and had to order a new key at a cost of 27 pound which m53 was not gonna pay and then got vaxuhall to remove cos m53 ford had air gunned them on which is not ment to be done . i have now booked my car in to vaxuhall to have a major look through cos of all the problems and there are more iv been told so not happy

i purchased a kitchen from mfi in feb 07 although i had heard of poor customer service & delivery service from web sites. on visiting store i found the instore service very helpful & the gent who designed my kitchen made me feel at ease & even went to the extent of giving me a coffee & biscuits which i was taken aback by...anyway after a few visits i eventually purchased the hudson kitchen & was persuaded by the salesman to upgrade my worktops to the maia range ( which is a superior range to laminate but not quite granite) & i have to say im truelly grateful for his advise as they are fantastic they look great & are very pratical & most of all im not over drawn at the bank...lol 4 weeks later my kitchen was delivered & yes maybe the drivers were a bit quick when it came to the paperwork....it did seem like i had to sign in a lot of places n i didnt quite understand what i was signing for even thought the delivery drivers tried to asure me every thing was ok.the next few days me & my partner checked everything off as our mate was fitting it in on the monday ....i was absolutely stunned to find nothing damaged or missing ...so my mate came on monday n began fittin it all in the only thing which wasnt as i i expected was the lighting in the glass cupboards which i thought came as standard as it shows it in the picture but aparently thats not the case but even so it still looks good.
i went back to the store afterwards to thank the salesman as i know iff anything went wrong id be there to complain but it went really well so i thought it would be nice to let him know how happy i was with the service & yet again this salesman stunned me by asking if he could came & view it to take pictures for his future customers to see .....i was stunned that this salesman still had time for me after takin my money as normally theyre too quick to wash their hands of you...................SO I SAY IF URE MISTREATED IN A STORE DONT GIVE UP GO TO THEIR NEXT BRANCH COZ EVEN THOUGH ITS A COMPANY THEY OBVIOUSLY DNT WORK THE SAME..
 

While I was in India earlier this year I decided to send a sitar back from Varanasi in the north as I had my full quota of plane baggage & an extra 150 quid was a little over the top to take it with me on my Emirates flight back home. Cost of about £60
So back from Varanasi P.O. it went the saturday before the thursday I returned. It arrived to be impounded at Customs (surprise!!!) on the friday after I got back. Good quick post that.
After having sent them bought proof/postage receipts from bought from shop in India, kindly got by fellow Brit, Katinka, who was still in India (how I would've got this had she NOT been there....) I got a letter from Parcelforce saying I was to be charged again for them paying for it to be released. OK!!
When said sitar arrived I had the young driver watch as I unpacked the item only to find it damaged. I then went on Parecelforce's web site to claim & had a reply saying 'apologies' etc & could I send all receipts from India & pics of damage which I subsequently did. I then got an e-mail saying I had to get a claim form from the country I sent it.
Why this wasn't said in the first place is beyond me

Several times was I told this even after I asked how/where on earth I was to get said claim form, even after a CAB threat.
Being totally ignored from then on, I went to Citizens' Advice who rang &, EVENTUALLY, after much pursuing of 'relevant people' was given an address.
Nowhere on this site is a downloadable compensation claim form.

 
This is an account of my dis-satisfaction with Dell and it's GB employees.

On March 13th I purchased via the internet connection a Dell notebook for £299.
On March 23rd I went away to the USA for a 2 weeks holiday.
Whilst I was away my husband received on 31st march 2009 a card 
from a courier company called 'Businesspost', stating that they had tried to deliver the notebook but could not as no-one was at home. Please read my e-mail that I sent upon my return from the USA ..........

Explanation-

According to your receipt it was dispatched to me on 24th March.
To date April 4th I have not received the item. On 31st March a leaflet was posted via letter box from 'Businesspost' plc stating that they had tried to deliver my parcel but they did not state whether they would try again or that it must be collected from their Beaumont Leys address in Leicester. My husband contacted their depot regarding my parcel and the gentleman stated that they had spoken to me! Rather difficult since I have been in the USA from 24th March - 3rd April! So I do not know to whom they spoke to but it was not Frances Helen Jenner. My husband asked if they could deliver the parcel after 12MD on Friday April 3rd as someone would be at home. My daughter was at my address from 11:00 until my return at 16:00 hours no delivery!

I am quite angry that you have paid a Company to deliver valuable items to customers and that they tell lies and do not keep to verbal 
agreements. I listened to my home phone voice mail messages and there was  one left by the driver of Business post at 09:00 31/3/09 asking me to contact his mobile number when at home as he was in Hinckley and did not want a wasted journey to Wolvey village! What is he paid for as the neighbours who are reliable would have signed for the package? what kind of company is this and I am most certainly annoyed as to date I have paid for a notebook from your Company which at present I do not possess.

 Whether I am on holiday is not the issue - we have a contract! I return to work [hence I have left you my contact number] may I suggest and request that my parcel is now delivered to the address below and that you use a reliable company such as TNT or DHL and have my  laptop/notebook delivered to me at.........where I will be able to sign for the product personally and these drivers of the 2 companies know who I am.

I am not angry with your Company but I am with the couriers that you are dealing with, but unfortunately you have got to sort these issues out to  ensure that your company is credible.
Could you please contact me at my works contact number?

 A very angry customer......

However on Tuesday april 7th I decided to contact Dell myself to try and see if the computer could be delivered to my work address as there is no-one at home to receive the product within the couriers business hours. I follow the voice response system and an agent answers. I try and explain my issue but she is so cutting with her replies and it feels like an interrogation that she does not give me chance to answer. I therefore ask to speak to someone Senior, 'Why' 
was her response. I explained that I was totally di-satisfied and that I 
wished to make a complaint. Her reply 'you will have to ring back later 
as there is nobody here to help you', so I asked for a name  of a senior person so she rattled off that quickly the following ..... sierra; india; etc ......that I had to ask her to repeat the name as she had spoken so quickly it was a wonder she never tripped over her own tongue?] - but how rude as this clearly shows lack of respect not only to the customer, but for the Company she is working for as well. When I asked for her name - again she was most obstructive in her responseand not at all helpful

I contacted the company again later in the day  and spoke to a different person, as I explained my issue she asked me why I was calling again as her colleague had already spoken to me.her tone of voice was very sharp and shrill initially and eventually her tone and pitch of voice became more apropriate for a 'one to one' discussion. My computer now is being delivered to my work address.

However I am not at all happy because of the following issues: 

• Why did the courier tell lies and not deliver a valuable item as 
  pre-arranged on the 3rd April verbally with my husband?
• The attitude of the initial customer service operator was totally 
  out of order - in fact she was down right rude and obstructive. she made no effort to help me or to listen.
  I have every right to ask to speak to someone who is senior to help resolve my complaint, She had no right to question my request as she is there to assist and guide me - in fact she needs to go on a 'customer care course'.
  
•  I am justified in my complaint as - the Company, have taken money from my account and to date I do not have the computer. Therefore the contract between ourselves has not been met by Dell. point.

Today is 13th April and I have not received a telephone call from the 'logistics team' as advised by the second person that I spoke to on the Customer care line?

I am not happy with this situation as Dell Company has not kept their part of the  verbally arranged bargain, I have paid my money in good faith and I wish to seek recompense not only for the delay in me receiving the laptop but for the treatment I have received from their so called 'customer care agents' in within the UK.

 Can some one help me or guide me as to what to do next as I feel that this is totally out of order and i am fed up with the time that i am spending on sending e-mails which are not getting to the appropriate people and having my telephone calls blocked by a 'keeper' of the Company who is no help and does not provide 'customer service'.

Kind Regards

Helen Jenner

Diabolical Company!

Don't have driving lessons with them!

This all started months ago.

I paid up front for a block of 10 lessons, i had two no problem and then the instructor cancelled a lesson saying his girlfriend suprised him with dinner-my lesson was at 5! he said he'd contact me to rebook-he didnt.

it took 4 texts a day for a week and the threat of taking it further for him to send me a text asking when he could book me in. I had a 3rd lesson with him and he said he'd ring me the next day to book me in for another to make up for the one i'd missed. He didnt. i sent texts everyday, tried ringing him but he didnt reply. He then sent me a text saying he had a stomach bug and wasnt teaching until he was better.

Two weeks later i ring drive2us.com, the woman on the phone was really concerned and a man rang me back.

He said it was unacceptable etc and he would sort it out for me-baring in mind now i am owed about £70 odd pounds for the four hours outstanding. he said he would ring me last monday-he didnt. i then sent him a text, he then replied and said he was having trouble getting in contact with the instructor in question, but he had done-that day in fact(!) and he had asked the instructor to contact me and rebook the lessons in. he didnt. he then said he was having a meeting with the instructor to find out what was going on as he had had conflicting information(!) the meeting was booked for last thursday. i havent heard anything back.

what do i do now?

i've had lessons cancelled, phone calls rebooking lessons and i have been generally messed about. the instructor informed me that he didnt finish until 10 at night and if I really wanted him to ring me at that time he would-why couldnt he text? i'd get it the next day and reply!!!

i've been patient, understanding, i havent ever messed the instructor about and all i seem to be doing is waiting for the phone to ring because its me that keeps having to chase these people-i'm the victim here!!!

any help and advice would be very much appreciated but at the end of the day i just want my money back.

 

i have a 2007 fiat punto and it has a three year warranty. the gear box had blown and fiat will not fix under the warranty as they say the computer in the car states that the car has been over driven 255 times. i have been driving for 17 years have no points on my lience and belive i am a good driver. fiat will not budge on this matter

I paid a joining fee of £100, which I was told would keep me registered for 6 months.  I was reluctant to make the pyment in the first place but I was assured by a lady called Katie that they are a safe, legit company who have been going for nearly 10 years.

I was told a booking had been made for that night for dinner and drinks in london, and that I would receive a payment of £100.  I received no phone call and every time I tried to call the Agency I was told there was no one available.

I had already explained to Katie that the £100 I had diposited into their bank account was all the money I had, and I cant believe that these people would prey on people who are already broke.  I wonder how they sleep at night? I feel so foolish and would advise anyone considering to use this company to steer very clear.  I think its absolutely disgusting.

To start with I ordered a 64gb Kingston Data Traveler Flash drive from a seller on EBay the sellers Ebay name was "mr.sixty7_onlineshop". I received the item from Hong Kong without any problem, and it seemed to do what it was supposed to, that is until I tried to re-format it. This is where my problems started, firstly it wouldn't format, so after checking online to my dismay I found that I had purchased not a 64gb but what was probably only 2gb with a hacked controller chip. Basically a FAKE. This is where I have got to praise Ebay for there prompt service as I was given a full refund, plus the seller is no longer selling on Ebay, at least under that name. If anyone is thinking of buying Flash drives from Ebay or other outlets, please beware and before you purchase go to the makers websites and look for "how to tell a Fake" and if its not listed ask. For your information Kingston flash drives have the name embossed in the case and not painted on. There are still a lot of sellers selling so called "Data Traveler" flash-drives that are red in colour they are FAKE and so are a lot of others that are on sale from Hong Kong or China. I was lucky, you might not be. I hope this warning has informed and helped.

I am a retiring teacher.  I had a UK sourced, UK spec, Hyundai coupe 07/2007 plate, metallic black, auto 3dr SIII SE, 1 owner (me) full service history (hyundai franchise) UK lights.

Hi,

I received a Parking Charge Noticeon 15th Nov. 2009 from a Parking Control Services. Me and my wife went to Mcdonalds(Southall) to have some meal. We drive specially to Southall because we get Halal food there. My wife went into the queue and she enquired from a lady called Sobanya if any Halal food was still available.To which she said no. I then went to get some halal food for myself but my wife stayed in Mcdonalds and ordered some fries, the receipt of which is attached. Meanwhile I got to get some kebab from a nearby shop and found out that it'll take some time so left it as we were in a hurry to get back home. I returned to the car and after about a minute my wife came out of Mcdonalds after finishing her food and we tried to drive away from the car park. To our great astonishment, when we were leaving we were given the PCN. We tried explaining to the parking attendant but he refused to listen to us.

We were pointed to a notice on the wall that explains that the driver of the car park must not leave the Mcdonalds premises. This notice was on the wall and there is a minimum amount of light provided there. The notice wasn't readable from a distance as it was already dark. The notice that was on the McDonalds banner was in bold and near some bright light that said ‘ this car park is for McDonalds customer only' that we were as that was the intention and we also bought food from McDonalds.

I find it extremely unfair that a car park is provided for McDonalds customers and if/when the occupants of the car go and do a purchase from Mcdonalds Southall they are penalised for parking in the space. It is understandable if a Car park is occupied for a considerable amount of time but our car was parked there for less than 10 minutes. I do not expect this behaviour from a reputed company like McDonalds. This is a brand that we trust and the reason why we visit you time and again. I have worked in far flung places for my assignments and it is a relief to spot the yellow M sign as it is the food you can trust. Are we loose the trust in Mcdonalds as they invite tp park in the car park and then penalise people who visitt their store

Ok, the other day my mum and dad went to look at a new car and we found we we rally really loved so we put down £100 pounds deposit and then they said we can't have the car so every day from when they said you can't have a car we have been phoning them up to see where our money is so my mum and dad is really really angry. And when- ever my mum phones they hung up on her. And once my Uncle brought a car from them and i think it spent the most of the time in a garage then on a road!!!!!! And they are a joke cos on the radio it says ' get a car with us and have a safe drive' now my Uncle's car kept on breaking down and they said we can't do anything about that when they could!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So i have figured something out never ever go to carcraft for a car go to mja they have good cars.

On Saturday 28th February I was driving my son to Birmingham airport the engine was making a screeching noise. My son said it sounded like the fan belt. Whenever I slowed down to come to a stop, the engine cut out. It started again and I dropped my son off at the airport saying I will stop off at Carcraft on my way back to Telford. I bought the car from Carcraft on 3rd November 2008. A man at Carcraft said they had no mechanics at work at the moment and to bring the car back on Monday. I asked if it would be safe and he said it would be fine as long as I didn't drive at night using my headlights as this would drain the battery. On Sunday 2nd March I drove the car for about 8 miles when It cut out at an island and would not start again. Someone stopped and helped me puish the car off the road to safety. I rang for recovery. The car had to be towed back to my home. It was a faulty alternator that caused the problem. Monday morning I rang Carcraft to be told to ring their insurance NAC as Carcraft on covered me for 3 months and I had had the car for 4 months. I did this only to be told the insurance did not cover the alternator,  I hd to get the car repaired as I needed it for work. It cost me £206-26p. The advice I got from the man at Carcraft could have caused a fatality. Luckily I did not do another long journey. It seems that once you have driven the car out off the forecourt Carcraft don't want to know you. 

I was shopping for a car due to my current one being on its way out. I had been around a few dealerships and found what I though was a good deal.
An £8k Hyundai Coupe, 42k miles, 3 years old, full service history, just fully serviced. Everything seemed ok and looked in good shape.
When I received the car I realised that the service history or handbook was not with the car. I told the representative that sold me the car about it, he said that he would chase it up. For two months I was in the dealership asking for the books, at one point the representative reached into an SIII (different model to my car) and handed me the handbook for that. Only two weeks before a service (six months after buying) the service manager informed me that a replacement book would need to be ordered. This arrived days before the service. Only after the service had been completed I found out that the 20k mile service has no entry in the Hyundai system and the engineers stamps were missing from the first four services.

On top of that, a lot of problems have come up with the car and the dealership are refusing to fix them.
The first problem is the brakes. When braking hard (as in an emergency situation) the ABS doesn't stop the wheels from locking up. When I informed them of this problem, the engineer who looked at it said that there was not error on the cars computer so nothing can be done. From how iv felt the car reacting its going to take a full on crash before an error code shows up.
Another is the clutch is excessively worn. I guess this could be classed as 'wear and tear' but at 42k miles a sports car should not be in this state. Iv looked at a lot of forums and reviews from other Coupe owners who have clutches lasting over 100k miles, including boy racers, delivery drivers, company cars, etc.
Something is also up with the power delivery. When accelerating from low revs in a high gear, after the initial point that the engine doesn't have enough power to accelerate fast, there is a power drop (around 2k rpm) the it picks back up and goes nicely.

I have brought these problems up with service receptionists, service manager, general manager, sales manager and who ever answers the phone. Every time I was told that its either wear and tear or due to no error being on the computer nothing will be done. After repeatably complaining I was told that they have no record of me saying about these problems so again refusing to do anything.

I bought the car thinking you pay for quality. I have been proved wrong! Along with these problems, every time I have gone into the dealership to talk to a manager or even a representative Iv been made to wait 30 minutes up to 2 hours. I gave up waiting after two hours but received a call another hour later to say that they are ready to see me. Who can afford to take a three hour lunch to be told that nothing can be done?

I have asked the dealership where I stand with them. They have put forward three options. One, hand in the car along with a payment of £1.7k so I walk away with no car and no debt. Two, trade in the car and add my remaining finance to my next car. Three, continue to pay the finance until the account can be closed.

I have been in contact with the finance company who have been helpful but only as much as they can. All they have been able to do is apply pressure to the dealership to sort out my problems.

I would like to think that I'm not going to be out of pocket thousands of pounds due to me falsely putting faith in their system that it followed the 'paying for quality' ethos.

This company was calling me up to ten time a day.

I found out with this web site.

[http://whocallsme.com/Phone-Number.aspx/08456345805] (link: http://whocallsme.com/Phone-Number.aspx/08456345805)

STOP CALLING ME!

On the 9th March I booked a two week car rental through Car-Hire-UK using their website [http://www.complaintsboard.com/bycompany/wwwcar-hire-ukcom-a33829.html] (link: http://www.complaintsboard.com/bycompany/wwwcar-hire-ukcom-a33829.html)

This garage claim to be a Porsche specialist but they are rip off merchants and should not be allowed to be in business.  Our car, a Porsche Cayenne, had a horrible knocking under the car and we took it to Jon Mitchell's to get it fixed.

They had the car for weeks and at the end charged us in excesss of £5000 - for fixing the knocking plus a lot of other work we had never authorised!!  On leaving the garage, we realsied that they had not fixed the knocking whatsoever as it was exactly the same as when we took it to them...and we found out that Jon and his staff had been using our car for their own personal enjoyment!! They justified this by saying that the car was safer at their home on the drive than it was at the car garage. How unacceptable is that.

We feel totally robbed by this garage - they charged us a phenomenal amount of money for doing absolutely nothing! And they had the audacity to drive the car in their own personal time.

Do not trust this garage with your car - they will take you for every penny!!

Our car was took into repair to have the left side resprayed and dents taken out.  They had our car for 6 weeks and gave us a courtesy car to use.

They dropped our car off and took a look round the courtesy car for damage and there was a scuff on the right side panneling which we signed for, and never got a copy.

We then recieved a bill for right wing mirror damage and a dent on the right side drivers door.  We refused to pay this as we had only signed for the scuff and they have now taken us to court.