Big Pete

Hi all
Well it must be official the UK citizen is in a state of "Do as we say when we say it " rule by the Government both local and National..

Not sure if any remember my tale of missing a Council Tax payment ??

Well some may do but for those that dont this is the story !!

My Uk Council Tax (rates) is £ 1,800 for the year . commencing on 1st April 2007 and runs until 31st march 2008 .

This i pay by monthly payments about the 18th of each month ,

Paid April ammount in April .
Paid May ammount in May
June ammount was late as was away in Mallorca twice so all bills ran a tad late ( Mrs BP fault by the way lol )
So June paid end of June instead of middle ..
Paid July ammount earlier to make up for Late June ..
August will be done tommorrow to make it look even sillier ..

a few weeks ago , Arrives in my post a letter from My Council saying " As i missed a payment ,i have 2 options
option 1 ; PAY ENTIRE YEAR UPFRONT NOW
option 2 ; RETURN ENCLOSED DD PAYMENT SLIP TO ENABLE US TO TAKE MONEY FROM YOUR BANK AS ITS DUE .
* Failure to do either will result in legal action *

Anyways told Mrs BP just make sure we dont slip again and carry on as we have for the last 10 years ..
I mean lets be honest option 1 : Pay upfront ? I may not even live here in 3 months !!
option 2 ; Yea sure i give them a open cheque book !! What planet they think i landed from ?

Well have just opened todays post and guess what ? yep i have a court summons for Friday 3rd 2007 ie; in 2 weeks seeking £ 1,100 in ammount plus £ 30 in costs !!

Says money due for the period 1st April 2007 to 31st March 2008
It goes on to say If i am found Guilty of the offence i will be liable to a further £ 70 legal costs , Alternately settle now for full ammount to stop the legal proceedings .

Technically i am right up to date so i assume its now a legal thing if you dont sign a blank cheque to the government ie a DD , then you get taken to court .

Now i find this a absolute disgrace ! And just once more shows the way this Country has gone , why wasnt a simple reminder sent ? since when can they dictate and Force anyone to give them free access to my Bank account ? since when have they been allowed to have money upfront by 8 months ?


So i am going to go and attend this court , i shall challenge this money grabbing Council and counter sue for all my costs and add all the personal worry etc to the Judge and demonstrate what a absolute waste of tax payers money this action is ..

I am also writing to a few papers about it and gonna try and get some coverage on the day , heck its gonna be fun ..

I see this as a typical example of things to come i shall maybe even take £1,100 in £ 1 coins incase i lose ,and sling them at them !!

And people say why do you want to leave England

Gets more pathetic every day ......

Elvira

<sigh>

Do you want to know the story of my fight with British Gas?

I thought not...

Administrative cock-ups happen everywhere. Private companies and public services, UK and the rest of the world.

Live with it, or write to the CEO or Head of the origanisation, complain to the ombudsman............. - your choice.

At least, in the UK, we do have Ombudsmen and Sales of Goods Act and mandatory warranty periods etc......... - which are thin on the ground elsewhere, notably here in the Great US of A...

Big Pete

Get out of our thread

Who asked you ?? get back to the USA where you belong ...

Elvira

.

Mitzyboy

Petes a nice bloke really

Elvira

I'll take your word for it...

.

Big Pete

Thanks Mitzy

We dont want them yanks in here honestly they all think England is like Emmerdale with the cute Pub next to the lake with the sun shining and everyone is happy and the children play ball games ,then sit down having a picnic every day and life is Rosey , and will just fill the threads with there non sensible yank crap so keep them out for christ sake ..

You notice her post ? qoute !!

"which are thin on the ground elsewhere, notably here in the Great US of A"

everything has to be compared to them ?????

spain

things have never been the same at British Gas since I left customer services and the complaints department and took redundancy !!!!!

Elvira

I'm sure you're right! Can we tempt you out of retirement?

BTW, my fight with BG happened this year, so it's not like I am living in some fairyland far removed from the realities of life in Britain!

Once I wrote to Big Sam though, things moved very quickly, and the whole issue was resolved within a few days.

I think most companies etc now have staff attached to the Top Guy's office who step in if someone takes the trouble to go straight to the top.

spain

that was me well me and the complaints team, we were only answerable to the top poncho - we were ALWAYS busy as you can imagine, I left Croydon back in 1996 so dont think they would have me back now

Big Pete

What relevance has British Gas which is a Company providing Gas got to do with Government Taxation matters ?

Open up a British gas thread in USA section maybe ??

rugbymatt

Now I know you have balls, Ell.....Elvira has been known to reduce grown men to quivering wrecks!

Big Pete

Well she can do it in her own USA threads not here ..

rugbymatt

We love our Borg Queen.....

Big Pete

You may do Matt for whatever reason but i wouldnt put money on the "We" bit ..