In January, we told you about the 10 most complained about things in Britain. Topping the list, somewhat unsurprisingly, was second hand car dealers.

The fair trading watchdog has now delivered a damning verdict on the industry yet noticed that, after a nine-month study of the market, existing laws were sufficient to clean up the sector.

Shit.

The industry said car buyers should ensure they use a reputable garage that is a member of a trade association, which implies that, if you don’t, you deserve everything you get. That didn’t stop 650,000 people complaining about the vehicles obtained from dealers (complaints made to Consumer Direct if you’re wondering).

Apparently, under the Sale of Goods Act, a secondhand dealer should resolve a problem with either a refund, repair or replacement if the vehicle was defective when sold. This advice comes on the back of 67% of people complaining about used-motors saying that within a month of purchase, something went wrong.

Okay, so we know what secondhand dealers are supposed to do, but the report says that nearly 30% of buyers complained that they didn’t have their problem rectified and instead, forked out an average of £425 to get it fixed.

On top of faulty goods, other complaints included gripes about secondhand car dealers pretending to be private sellers, unlawful use of contractual disclaimers which say vehicles are  “sold as seen” and offer “no refunds” and, of course, that old chestnut of whacking the price of a car up after ‘clocking’ it. It’s thought that one in eight cars have a “mileage discrepancy”, according to the HPI checking service.

That said, the OFT report concluded that existing laws are sufficient for dealing with rogue traders.

AA president Edmund King said the report gave more weight to the fact that buyers should “use their heads not their hearts” when purchasing a vehicle.

[BBC]

The Killers, yesterday, eyes filled with murderous intent

As we pointed out yesterday, we live in troubling times. Would-be terrorists lurk on every street corner, their minds addled with thoughts of creating death and destruction. We are truly living through the War On Terror and every one of us is a soldier, armed not with rifles and bayonets but with vigilance and common sense.

Two of these soldiers work for South West Trains as security staff and when they saw a passenger writing down a list of bands and their songs that included The Killers, they did exactly the correct and proper thing and threw him off the train.

The passenger, 25-year-old Tom Shaw was writing out a list of song titles that his band, The Magic Mushrooms, planned to play at one of their upcoming rock ‘n’pop concerts. The set list included Take Me Out by Franz Ferdinand, Cigarettes and Alcohol by Oasis and Love Me Like You by The Magic Numbers.

It was then that the keen-eyed train security staff intervened, asking potential Jihadist Shaw to disembark at the next station whereupon they ordered him to explain his list song-by-song. Shaw alleges that the security staff told him that he had been questioned because there had been a number of arrests in the area including a man who had murdered his wife. Proof, if proof is needed, that we can’t be too careful in the War On Terror.

A South West Trains spokesnoddy says that Shaw was asked to leave the train as it was busy and the officers needed to speak to him about their concerns. We say they did the right thing. It is but a short leap from listing pop groups to strapping half a ton of explosives to your person and throwing yourself at Wembley Stadium.

Tom Shaw can only be thankful that he wasn’t watching a DVD of the cult 1960s classic movie ‘Blow-Up’ – the officers might well have shot him on sight, and they’d have been fully justified.

Let’s keep ‘em peeled out there…

To be honest with you, our money was on Ryanair coming up with the first promotion to capitalise on the British Airways strikes, but easyJet have beaten them to it:

“easyJet have announced that following the news that British Airways cabin crew are set to take industrial action, the airline will offer British Airways Executive Gold card holders free speedy boarding plus (priority check-in and boarding) on the days that BA crew strike.

“Paul Simmons, easyJet’s UK general manager, said: “We believe that our award winning service and amazingly low-fares will attract even more BA passengers to fly with easyJet. This is a golden opportunity for BA’s Executive Club card holders to try our Speedy Boarding product – after which, they will never look back.”

If you say so. It’s now likely that Sky Marshall O’Leary has the Ryanair marketing team locked in a cellar, thrashing them at regular intervals until they come up with an outrageously childish promotion to strike back with. In fact, we imagine a situation at Ryanair HQ not too dissimilar to this:

An admiral, yesterday

Which! (we prefer the exclamation mark to the question mark – makes them sound more dynamic, like Wham!) have made a pretty serious allegation against Admiral Insurance.

They have claimed that Admiral, who include Bell, Diamond and elephant.co.uk as part of their group of insurers, are charging more to drivers who were born outside of the UK.

Which! claim that this is in breach of the Race Relations Act but the claim has been rejected by Admiral, who when we rang them, were playing a tape of ‘Ebony And Ivory’ while we were on hold. No, not really.

As part of their investigation, Which! obtained quotes from four Admiral brands and 15 other major providers for two scenarios where the only difference was whether or not the applicant was born in the UK. It said the Admiral insurers were the only ones in its research to ask “have you lived in the UK since birth?” and then charge a higher premium for those who answered “no” where all other factors remained the same. Wowsers!

Admiral had declined to comment last night but it is believed that they have stated in the past that some of their best friends are black and even gay in a couple of cases.

Again, no, not really.

Barely a week ago, I drove past a small retail park and notice the blue and yellow branding for BLOCKBUSTER VIDEO. After a decade of mainstream DVD usage, I had to wonder what would happen to a company that couldn’t be arsed to pay for new signage. Now I know.

Blockbuster has been trying to flog its UK and European operations for some time, and it’s now looking likely it’ll have to put up its Canadian stores as collateral for the business, because the company has failed to secure bank credit to bankroll new stock. Without the additional funding, there’s an question as to whether Blockbuster can keep supplying new releases, which is kind of the whole point of it existing.

The supply issues are one of a number of factors that may see Blockbuster seeking bankruptcy protection, and that raising cash to purchase stock using its own stores as collateral may be the only way forward. In February, the company’s auditors warned that Blockbuster may not be able to continue as a going concern if its cash situation didn’t improve. To be fair, I don’t see the world mourning the loss.

When the Office of Fair Trading geared up to present a report on banks and their approach to customers who exceed their overdraft limits, no one expected a daring, robust piece of literature, damning the banks and threatening to take the strongest possible action.

Just as well, because that wasn’t what they got. Instead, the OFT fluffed on about nothing in particular, apart for some stuff about the banks giving customers the option not to be able to exceed their overdraft limit at all, and therefore incur no charges.

Sounds interesting, until you realise that the banks were mournfully warning that anyone who DID exceed the limit that couldn’t be exceeded could find that it impacts on their credit rating. Oh, so that’s not really an improvement at all.

HSBC have already announced a new account that operates along these lines – the HSBC Bank Account Pay Monthly “features a strict overdraft limit that cannot be exceeded unless the bank has formally agreed a higher limit beforehand.” Yours for a monthly fee of only £15.

The OFT parped on about the fact that the banks had been doing their bit in bringing down the level of charges from obscene to just deeply unpleasant, with charges for a bounced cheque or other payment dropping from £34 to an average of £17.

Marc Gander of the Consumer Action Group said the OFT had “nothing to cheer about or to congratulate itself about,” adding, “Despite its powers and its influence, the OFT has achieved very little.”

“It has been defeated on the test case charges issue because it allowed itself to be corralled into dealing with a very narrow point of law and despite a very clear signal from the Supreme Court that there were another more realistic routes to make a challenge on behalf of bank customers, it has declined to do so.”

But if you still think that the OFT are just a toothless, meandering bunch of old duffers, wait until you read this. They’ll be keeping a careful eye on the banks over the next two years and if customers are still getting a raw deal by THEN, they’ll definitely consider doing something about it.

Keep on believing!

People who drive are mental. They are. Driving a car is more expensive that making a decision to only eat black printer ink cartridges coated in saffron for the rest of your life.

And now, the motorist in you should brace itself for record high petrol prices this year. According to research by the AA, the cost of unleaded fuel will leap to £1.20 a litre or more.

The Very Nice Men say that those who are skint will be hit hard by the predicted price jump and, subsequently, asked the chancellor, Alistair Darling, to hold fire on the introduction of a 3p hike in petrol duty, due on 1st April.

On average, you’re paying just over £1.15 for a litre of petrol at the moment (feel free to say if you’re paying more in the comments). The AA reckon that’s more likely to be  £1.20 by next month, which number fans, is over £5.40 a gallon. Before long, drivers may as well power their cars on rocking-horse shit.

According to the Guardian, figures show that the average petrol bill for a two-car family has already gone up by £52 per month to £245 in the past year.

The AA’s president, Edmund King, said: “The UK is barely out of recession, yet petrol threatens to rise to record prices seen during the boom of 2008, shortly before the collapse into recession. If families, drivers on fixed incomes and those on low pay were unable to cope with prices then, they are even less likely now.”

Lindsay Hoyle, a Labour MP on the Commons business select committee who is also a man with a girl’s name, called the increase a “complete disgrace”. Speaking to the Telegraph, he said: “Yes, crude oil has gone up this year, but nothing like the rise in petrol prices. Motorists are being legally mugged at the forecourt by petrol companies.”

Vent now.

easyJet is the most popular airline in the UK, ladies and gentlemen. That’s according to this just in – from easyJet. The press release also refers to easyJet as the ‘UK’s national airline’, no doubt an example of calculated posturing amongst the strike turmoil for flag-bearing British Airways.

According to the figures provided by the Civil Aviation Authority, in 2009 easyJet carried 28,147,268 passengers – ’significantly more than any other airline’ according to the press release. Except it isn’t really, at least not according to the same set of figures which show Ryanair in second place with 28,095,201 UK passengers. That’s a difference of 52,067 passengers, or less than 0.2 per cent – hardly a difference that can be described as significant.

The press release puts British Airways is third with 26,274,056 passengers carried in 2009, although that figure is adjusted to strip out journeys made by transfer passengers. After that, there’s fresh air between BA and fourth place BMI (6.8 million) and fifth place FlyBe (6.75 million).

Interestingly, easyJet deliberately avoids describing themselves as ‘the UK’s favourite airline’; the press release uses the terms ‘the UK’s national airline’ and ‘the UK’s most popular airline‘. Of course Ryanair refers to itself as ‘Britain’s favourite airline’, thus opening of another can of ambiguous worms; favourite isn’t the same as popular, while Britain isn’t the same as the UK.

It’s all ammunition for the upcoming airline dogfight that’s intensifying between easyJet and Ryanair; after challenging the airline’s Stelios Haji-Ioannou to an idiotic ‘Sumo Smackdown’ in Trafalgar Square, Sky Marshall O’Leary is now blowing air out his hole about easyJet’s refusal to publish punctuality figures for its services. O’Leary might have a point, but what kind of businessman puts his name to a press release like this?

“Stelios has so far failed to take up Ryanair’s challenge of a race around Trafalgar Square, or a wheelbarrow race, or even a sumo wrestling bout where Stelios’ obvious talents would give him a significant advantage…”

“Stelios obviously can’t run, but he can’t hide either.”

HE’S FAT, WE GET IT, MICHAEL. Bravo to you, sir, for taking the piss out of people for being overweight – a courageous move, for sure. Sadly, it’s difficult to care much when you yourself come across as an appallingly offensive jumped-up shit of a man.

If you were sickened by the fact that you missed out on seeing Sky’s recent one-off trial of 3D Premier League football, you won’t have to wait too long for another go at it.

LG are crowing over the fact that they’ve just flogged 15,000 3D TV sets to Sky for the broadcaster to sprinkle into pubs across the land… and it’s going to happen sooner rather than later.

The broadcaster we all hate to love tried out the 3D experience in January for the Manchester United v Arsenal league match, which turned out to be a huge success, prompting the speedy return of 3D.

Sky are said to be planning a rapid rollout of the 3D footy this spring, and as there’s only about ten weekends of Premier League matches remaining, we reckon we’re looking at days rather than weeks before we’re all down the juicer turning the place into a scene akin to a pissed-up Roy Orbison convention.

Tough times for Britain’s eyes and livers, but we’ll cope…

[Engadget]

A hard-working bank manager, yesterday

The fall-out from the meandering bank charges legal saga continues as the Office of Fair Trading are said to be due to reveal the planned future of bank charges later today.

A voluntary code agreed by the OFT and the banks is believed to be in the pipeline and MoneySavingExpert’s Martin Lewis is predicting that charges in excess of £10 will be binned, presumably because the banks have privately conceded that they are unfair.

But there’ll be no refunds for customers who have incurred higher charges in the past – the voluntary charge levels will almost certainly be higher than most campaigners would have hoped for and most of the banks will eventually find other ways to maintain their profits.

At the weekend, The Observer highlighted the plight of a 20-year-old Alliance & Leicester customer, Lewis Mathers, who was charged the grand total of £80 after mistakenly going 15p over his authorised overdraft limit. That’s an interest rate of 53,333% and an APR of almost 2,000,000%.

When BT decided to change the hours of free evening calls for their customers, it wasn’t the most popular of ideas. From April, free evening calls will begin at 7pm, not 6pm, a change BT attempted to justify by simply reiterating the facts: “We’ve looked into it and 6pm to 7pm is a busy time for calling, but it’s the time when people make short, organisational calls. It’s between 8pm and 9pm when they sit down to have a chat.” Of course that made no sense whatsoever, since BT were admitting they were going to charge you for those ’short, organisational calls’ that used to be free, and make even more money at a ‘busy time for calling’.

Clearly there’s plenty of profit to be made during that golden hour, because Talk Talk is also changing their terms of service to redefine the meaning of ‘evening’, and shift their free calls back from 6pm – 6am to 7pm – 7am. But rather than rest on their laurels, Talk Talk are also raising the cost of daytime/peak rate calls (and calls that exceed 60 minutes at any time) from 4.6p per minute to 5.8p per minute – an increase of 26 per cent. Their call connection charge is also increasing to 9.9p per call, an increase of eight per cent. The increases come into effect on 1 June and are detailed on their website.

If you’re hip-deep in your Talk Talk contract, then according to the terms and conditions (PDF file), the increases mean you may be able to cancel your contract without penalty:

9.16 …should we increase the Charges we shall provide you with thirty (30) days notice of such increase and the increase will take effect from the end of that period. In this instance you may, in accordance with and subject to the provisions of clause 15.1, be entitled to terminate our Services made available under these Conditions.

15.1  …to the extent that such changes are to your material detriment or relate to an increase in the charges, we will give you at least thirty (30) days notice of such changes by writing to you and/or publishing them on our Website.

Another change spotted by avid Bitterwallet reader John is that the Talk Talk Essentials package no longer offers free anytime local calls – now if you want these, you have to pay for a £4 ‘boost’ add-on. Digging through the support forums, it appears this change came into force last month and is only applicable to new customers; existing customers on Talk Talk Essentials shouldn’t be affected. That said, check your allowances if renew your Essentials package in the future – it’s likely free anytime local calls won’t be included, though you may be left to assume they are.

For all their crowing, the budget airlines have had an easier time of the recession than others. But despite the likes of easyJet and Ryanair increasing passenger numbers in the past twelve months, UK airports have suffered the biggest decline in passenger numbers since records began in the 1940s, dropping over seven percent in 2009.

According to the Civil Aviation Authority, London City handled 14 per cent fewer passengers, and both Stansted and Luton saw a drop of over 10 per cent. Heathrow’s passengers numbers decreased by 1.5 per cent, Gatwick by just over five per cent, while Manchester’s passenger numbers nosedived by nearly 12 per cent compared to numbers in 2008. The only silver lining is that the bulk of the loss was in the first half of last year.

Airlines battle for UK passengers, yesterday (artist's impression)

Meanwhile, British Airways is this afternoon expected to roll details for operations during the upcoming strikes by cabin crew. The airline is expecting to operate roughly 70 per cent of all scheduled flights, with most cancellations likely to be domestic and short haul, as BA attempts to protect its precious long haul custom. It’s expected that at least 23 aircraft will operate with replacement crews made up of other BA staff. Rumours that Gordon Brown will be passing through the cabin with a selection of snacks and beverages are entirely fictitious, although the Prime Minister seems keen to dirty his hands in the business of the loss-making airline.

How could any of us ever have a gripe with our water suppliers? They bring us fresh water to our taps for a tiny outlay, their customer service relationships are on par with that between a mother and her child and they maintain their network of pipes to such a level that there is never any waste or needless spillage.

But there are rumblings of discontent. Water watchdog Ofwat are looking into complaints that some suppliers are dropping the pressure without informing customers, action that could be leading to needless cases of boiler-knack.

While Ofwat have conceded that many suppliers inform customers when pressure is due to drop, there is no obligation on them to do say, and complaints to Ofwat about pressure levels have risen dramatically.

The water suppliers made a collective profit of over £1.1 billion between them last year, yet they are regularly heard to complain about the 150-year-old pipe network that carries their delicious, refreshing product.

Did you know that you can claim a £25 refund from your supplier if the water pressure doesn’t come up to scratch?

Test your water pressure by seeing if you can fill a gallon bucket in 30 seconds from a ground floor tap. If the pressure falls below that level for more than an hour on two occasions in a month, you’re entitled to a £25 refund.

How’s your water then, dear Bitterwallet reader? Does it flow freely or do you find yourself regularly punching the crap out of your pipes? And how long must we wait before the raisin taps (pictured) that were promised to us will arrive? They WERE promised to us weren’t they?

Postman Pat, the cheating twat

We all know that Bitterwallet readers think the Royal Mail suck a big dog’s one but it has been revealed that from an official point of view, they’re even worse than we’ve all been led to believe.

Postcomm, who oversee the Royal Mail, have discovered that quality tests on the service had been rigged, with posties learning in advance when and where they were going to be tested.

An anonymous tip-off to Postcomm stated that the names and addresses that would be receiving test mail was circulated, meaning that extra care could be taken over those specific items of mail, leading to increased quality rating.

The abuse is said to have being occurring for several years and involved countless staff across the country from delivery workers to senior managers.

Postcomm are investigating and could take action against Royal Mail later in the year.

The good news for Apple fans is that the iPad is now available to pre-order from Apple’s US site – for delivery or collection:

The bed news is that Apple have blocked any attempt for UK customers to place an order; the ‘pre-order now’ link rediverts from the US site to their UK portal, and displays only a ‘page not found’ error message. We’ll probably have to wait another three weeks or so before we can hand over our credit card details, since the iPad is available in the UK from ‘late April’.