‘I was overcharged for council tax for 14 years but only refunded for one’
Has a company treated you unfairly? Our consumer champion, Sally Hamilton, is here to help
18 May 2021 • 7:00am
A reader from Bristol had not claimed the single person’s council tax discount, which meant paying about £5,000 extra in taxes since 2007
Has a company treated you unfairly? Our consumer champion, Sally Hamilton, is here to help. For how to contact her click here.
Dear Sally,
I have lived alone at my current address since 2007 but unwittingly have been paying the full amount of council tax and not receiving the single person’s discount of 25pc.
NatWest charged me £600 to hold two sheets of paper
Has a company treated you unfairly? Our consumer champion, Sally Hamilton, is here to help
17 May 2021 • 6:00am
Has a company treated you unfairly? Our consumer champion, Sally Hamilton, is here to help. For how to contact her click here.
Dear Sally,
I have a private account with NatWest, with whom I have banked for decades. Recently, I was going through my statements and discovered that I had been charged £50 a year – two payments of £25 each – since 2009 for something called “safe custody hold”. Before 2009, there were no charges.
I rang the bank to ask what these charges were for, and was told they were for two A4 envelopes that had been held at the bank since 1995. I have subsequently visited the Wilmslow branch to reclaim the envelopes to find they contained two out-of-date wills made in 1986.
‘My £900 Dolce & Gabbana top is four sizes too small’
Has a company treated you unfairly? Our consumer champion, Sally Hamilton, is here to help
11 May 2021 • 7:18am
Our reader was struggling to get Dolce & Gabbana to replace a damaged and unwearable item
Credit: ANTOINE HUOT
Has a company treated you unfairly? Our consumer champion, Sally Hamilton, is here to help. For how to contact her click here.
Dear Sally,
I recently ordered online a size 48 top from Italian clothing designer Dolce & Gabbana at a cost of £895.
When it arrived I immediately noticed one of the seams had come apart. I returned it to the company and after much deliberation it refused my request for an exchange or refund and sent the top back to me.
10 May 2021 • 7:07am
Wish you were here: tourists sunbathe at Sunny Beach resort on the Black Sea
Credit: NIKOLAY DOYCHINOV/AFP/GettyImages
Has a company treated you unfairly? Our consumer champion, Sally Hamilton, is here to help. For how to contact her click here.
Dear Sally,
I am writing on behalf of my son and 10 of his friends to ask whether you can help them obtain a refund for their cancelled trip with Teletext Holidays.
They had booked a package holiday to Sunny Beach, Bulgaria, due to take place on July 13-20 last year at a total cost of £4,184. Because of coronavirus, the holiday was cancelled. The lead passenger, who made and paid for the entire booking with his debit card, has been in touch with Teletext Holidays a number of times (by phone and by unanswered email) and, when he was able to speak to someone, was promised a refund. But nothing materialised.
‘I’m being made redundant and Scottish Power still won’t give me my £254 credit’
Has a company treated you unfairly? Our consumer champion, Sally Hamilton, is here to help
Credit: Alamy
Has a company treated you unfairly? Our consumer champion, Sally Hamilton, is here to help. For how to contact her click here.
Dear Sally,
I held an account with Extra Energy for the supply of gas and electricity for a property I owned. Extra Energy went into administration on November 19 2018, which happened to be the day I sold my property. I was told that responsibility for the account had been handed to Scottish Power and Extra Energy’s receivers, PwC.