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About this siteThis is Money is proud to be approved by the Plain English Campaign
EVERY week, Tony Hetherington replies to readers' letters, adding comments, advice and the results of his enquiries.
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If you think you are a victim of financial mismanagement, or want advice before investing, write to Tony Hetherington, Financial Mail, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TS.
Sorry, but he cannot give personal replies. Please send only copies of documents - if these are relevant to your enquiry. We regret that they cannot be returned.
Mrs S. M. writes: Last December I submitted bids for two items of jewellery on the Auction World satellite TV channel. I was phoned and told that both bids were successful, and I gave my credit card details.
Since then, all I have received is a letter saying the company was experiencing logistical difficulties. I have yet to receive either of the items I paid for.
A Financial Mail reader in Wiltshire paid £87 in February for a set of luggage. It never arrived, nor did a promised refund. And a reader in Shropshire paid £220 in March for a gold necklace that has yet to materialise. Unless the picture changes, Auction World should be warned that letters from both readers are in the pipeline for publication here soon.
Since Auction World's TV service went on the air late last year, it has told customers that if their phone bids are successful, they can expect delivery of most items within a week, or 15 days at most.
But consumer watchdogs have received hundreds of complaints about non-delivery. At Christmas, 6,000 items were still in Auction World's hands instead of lying neatly wrapped under Christmas trees.
Jewellery has been a popular item, but other auction lots have been unusual or even bizarre.
I suppose Gladiator fans might like to own Russell Crowe's sword, which was displayed by one of Auction World's presenters, Tomb Raider model Nell McAndrew.
But who would want a kidney stone, passed by Robert De Niro and offered by Auction World for £3,000?
I might have asked the channel's managing director George Spitaliotis, but he doesn't accept calls, return calls, or reply to letters. In fact, just contacting Auction World is a trial in itself.
Calls are diverted to a centre in Bristol, where staff - seemingly aged about 16 - try to convince callers that the company's headquarters at Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire, doesn't have a phone.
David Faires of Hertfordshire Trading Standards told me: 'We have been telling people to make time of the essence, allowing a further 14 days for delivery, and then rolling things forward perhaps to the small claims court.'
This is sound advice if you have already paid for goods, though making a refund claim to your credit card company might be more effective. For new viewers of Auction World TV though, the solution is simpler. Switch off and save yourself both time and money.
A raw deal in any language
Mrs J. K. writes: As I do not speak English, this letter is being translated from Punjabi by my brother. I had about £11,000 on deposit with the West Bromwich building society, saved for my daughter's wedding.
One day, an Asian woman at the society said I could earn 10% a year, guaranteed. She introduced me to another man and translated for me, and I agreed to transfer £7,000.
Later, my brother told me that my money was in shares that had gone down. We went to the society, but the man I had talked to denied saying that I would get 10% and the woman who translated was not there.
Perhaps this was not properly explained, or it lost something in the translation. Whatever the root cause of the problem, it seems that no one asked you for the information they should have had, prior to selling you an investment that carried risks.
After I contacted the society, a new meeting was arranged, attended by a senior manager who could translate. The outcome is that the society is unscrambling your Isa and adding enough to restore the original £7,000. It will also pay you £566 - the interest your £7,000 would have earned on deposit.
A West Bromwich spokesman said: 'Any complaint from a member is of great concern to us. I am pleased that Mrs K. feels that the matter has now been resolved.'
Card ban is a wake-up call to timeshare firms
Mrs B. W. writes: I own a timeshare property in Spain and have paid maintenance charges by credit card for years. However, payment of this year's charges, £456, has been refused by my card company, Associates. I phoned Associates in Manchester, only to be told that it was its policy to refuse payments to timeshare companies. THIS is a first - a credit card company that has deliberately decided to reject all payments to timeshare companies.
Associates told me: 'We have not paid timeshare maintenance charges for four years. This is something we were originally guided on by the Foreign Office.'
It seems your earlier payments slipped through because the company in Spain was not using the identification code that would have revealed it for what it was.
According to Associates: 'This was a decision we took because there were lots of problems with people being sold timeshare while on holiday and not understanding what they were getting into.'
Since I have been saying for years that the card companies should be far more careful in choosing the retailers they allow to accept credit cards, it is hard for me to criticise Associates, even though it has gone the whole hog and rejected every single timeshare business and not just the bad guys.
This may seem extreme, but card companies spend huge amounts of time investigating complaints from people who were tricked into buying timeshare, and they lose huge amounts of money compensating them.
Clearly, this will inconvenience you personally. You will have to use other means to pay your timeshare charges.
But the people who should really worry are the legitimate timeshare companies. For years, they have sat back and counted their profits while soft-pedalling on the crooks. Associate's ground-breaking policy is a timely wake-up call.
Don't be bullied into paying £95 'final demand'
A. P. H. writes: I am sending you a copy of a 'Final Notice', asking me to pay £95 to the Data Protection Act Registration Agency. I believe this is a scam. There is no date or signature on the notice, and no phone number either.
There is a real risk in the case of small local firms such as ours that someone might over-react to a Final Notice printed in red and pay up.
Other scam operators use names such as the Data Protection Act Registration Service, the Data Collection Enforcement Agency, Data Protection Agency Services Limited, and the DPA Registration Agency.
Information Commissioner Elizabeth France said: 'I advise data controllers to ignore any approach made by these businesses, which appear to be charging up to £95 plus VAT for notification.' There is absolutely no connection between the Information Commissioner and the people running these unnecessary middle-men operations, and investigations are already in hand to try to block their activities.
Red letter final demands or not, no one should be bullied or tricked into paying.
