Intrum Justitia.. or is it Justa Load of Scum Bags ?

I am being plagued by the above credit collection company who are used by e-bay. Their web site says that they are the biggest Credit Management company in Europe but they are classy enough to send correspondence to you on scrappy photocopied bits of cheap paper and no signature either !! Very upmarket !!

You see I was remiss in paying an e-bay bill for just under £10.00, I hold up my hands to this, it just slipped my mind until I received a letter from "Justa Load of Scumbags" which said I owed just over £20.00 along with the usual threats such as we have been instructed by our clients etc. and you may get a CCJ etc. etc.

I paid the full amount to e-bay that same night , got a printed receipt of thanks but lo and behold another letter arrived from "Justa Load of Scumbags".

I telephoned them and told this young man that I had paid the account. He told me I can't do that. I said, but I have and I owe nothing to e-bay now. He told me again, you can't do that because you're too late. Too late?I exploded then, what is too late? It is paid and I owe nothing. I was told he would come back to me. He didn't needless to say.

I received another letter from "Justa Load of Scumbags" saying I owed them just under £10.00 and I mustn't deal with e-bay anymore and if they (e-bay) ask me for any more money I have to contact them (Justa Load of Scumbags) so that they can warn e-bay off.

I phoned them again and spoke to a young lady, which if she had a trace of a bit of a brain would have been dangerous, and told her I owed nothing, I have a receipt and not to send me anymore letters. She insisted I owed JLoS the money which I again told her I didn't as I have a receipt. In the end I had to say rather forcefully that I will contact my solicitor if they continue to try to extort money from me which I do not owe and with threats. Her reply was breathtaking.. "see you would go to the expense of paying a solicitor which will cost you more than the money we are asking you for ". I will not elaborate on my reply as it is not past the 9 p.m. watershed !!

OMG, how can I get the message through to these dumb people.. "I do not owe you any money and I don't intend in paying for what I do not owe" and yes, in order to give JLoS a metaphoric smack in the gob I would be prepared to pay more money and see them in court.

In the end I put the phone down it was hopeless talking to an automaton who was probably reading from a script and earning minimum wage.

I am not alone in this... have a look at this link. To any prospective clients who wish to use "Justa Load of Scumbags" I would say, think again, there must be others out there with more acumen and civility you can use. To e-bay I say, if you wish to squander your customer goodwill, carry on using them by all means.

As for me, a lesson well learned and goodbye e-bay, you will not be missed.

Indian Summer

I was out this morning at a local livery yard and the sun was streaming through the stable barn. Horses out in the fields were wearing their rugs and they were sweating cobs (no pun intended)!! They were also up to their knees (metaphorically speaking) in lush green grass.

So here we are, almost in November and the weather continues to be beautiful. It's been a fabulous summer and I definitely think we should be rejoicing in it rather than moaning about how bad it is for us. I don't know about you but when I feel that lovely sunshine on my face I think to myself, "yeh, it is good to be alive".

The Great Unwashed

We have just been to town and decided to browse through the racks in my local independent music shop.

There were crowds of 15 - 20 year olds which were using the shop mainly as a meeting place probably because they think they look cool hovering around the "Metal" section. Anyway, it wasn't long before I was overcome by this awful smell of B.O. It was overpowering and we beat a hasty retreat from said shop to get some fresh air. When discussing this my partner likened it to his working experience in Saudi Arabia where similar smells abound amongst the local populace, particularly when the weather got colder and for some reason they didn't think they had to wash so often. He likened it to putting two peeled onions in a plastic bag and shaking them around, open up the bag and whaaah !! it hits you.

Is it me or do our young people really not like washing often. It certainly is flipping anti social I have to say. If you cannot afford a decent eau de cologne, Lynx is cheap enough !! Corrrr.

HM Revenue and Customs National Insurance Contributions Office

I have just received a letter from HM Revenue and Customs telling me that I have a shortfall in my NI contributions of £371.80 for the year 6th April 2004 to 5th April 2005.

I was actually gobsmacked because this could not possibly be true as I have been in full time employment all during that period and it is illegal and basically impossible for my employer not to pay my NI contributions.

When I enquired further with my employer I was told.. Oh, ignore it. They have just changed computers in Bristol and loads of people have received similar letters and it is incorrect.

Ignore it ? Why should I ignore it? It was a letter stating I owed money which I don't and I have to understand this because it's only another failure in the implementation of a Government Social Security computer system !! How many more I.T. systems have to fail which have cost us, me and you, hundreds of £millions recently.

What a waste of tax payers money and on top of this it has cost loads of money to post all these farcical letters, yours and mine hard earned cash.

It makes my blood boil !!!!! In the immortal words of Catherine Tate " What a f- - -ing liberty !!!

Madonna and the adoption

This will be a long running story no doubt, but honestly what is unusual about it?? Rich woman wants to adopt a child from a third world country and give him a better future.

It happens in the pony showing world too. Once your family grow up and are no longer eligible for pony classes suddenly one day a replacement jockey arrives from overseas to start at the bottom end of the ladder (lead rein / first ridden) and as that one progresses up to 128 cm / 138cm, low and behold another arrives to start at the bottom again. Call me a cynic if you will........but production line jockeys comes to mind. It has been the source of much debate and gossip over the years I have to say.

Still, good luck Madge, if it is a means to an end why should you be treated any different.

Davina Whiteman

I guess the equestrian world must be in a state of shock over the ousting of Davina Whiteman as Chairman of Ponies (UK). I don't know Davina Whiteman personally but one thing I know for sure is Davina made Ponies (UK) what it is today through her drive, determination, boundless energy and vision.

Davina formed Ponies (UK) with her mother Joan Lee-Smith (known to the small jockeys as Aunty Joan) soon after J.L-S was ousted from The British Show Pony Society in what we showing folk long remember as a "night of the long knives". It was despicable even then.

So Davina made a mistake in introducing the clap-o-meter at the Summer P (UK) Championships.. so what !! For gods sake think of all the innovations that she introduced which succeeded.

Stuart Hollings in Horse and Hound this week commented under the heading "Saddest Moment" that Davina Whiteman was a woman of vision, she understands the needs of showing and although the clap-o-meter was a flop there have been many great innovations. Stuart, well said and spot on !!

Davina, on behalf of all the ordinary amateur showing folk I would like to wish you every success for the future and to thank you for your outstanding contribution to pony showing.

This is indeed a "saddest moment" for UK showing.

Telephone calls home from Iraq and Afghanistan

I was chatting to the son of one of my working colleagues who just happens to be in the Airforce and has done his stint in Iraq.

It turns out that our soldiers on the firing line of someone else's war get less time on the phone to their families than prisoners in jail at home.

He was of course outraged, given that our men of the armed forces were risking their lives out in the hell hole we call Iraq. He is outraged ?...so am I. This nanny state of ours cannot get their priorities right no matter how hard they try. It's quite disgusting, it really is.

Speed Scameras and the buckets of money to be made !

Thank you Mail On Sunday for telling us what we already knew, that speed cameras were raking in buckets of money on the back of the outright lie that they are all about safety.

Not only this, but they have exposed through an undercover reporter that the main supplier Tele -Traffic is headed by and staffed by ex-coppers who have obviously found a lucrative retirement home with the prospect of making mega bucks to fund their pensions. Oh my ! what a surprise.

I hope that the general public of this great Nation, who have been well and truly duped by the police and this Government and who also may well have been the subject of suspect fines (please read the link), take to their feet and show this disingenuous mob who govern us what we really think about their lies and deceit.

If one of the many driving organisations out there who are fighting so hard on our behalf want to arrange something please publish the details and I will be one who will be happy to join you.

I hate liar scumbags, and this goes for everyone involved in this scam. Something needs to be done once and for all, so can we at least start by having an independent enquiry into these outrageous but not unexpected revelations, or would that be too much to expect ?

British Troops Should Pull Out Of Iraq Soon

So says Chief of the general staff of the British Army, General Richard Dannatt. Controversial maybe, but he could be right. Of course, the consequences of such a withdrawal may be catastrophic for the ordinary Iraqi people who have suffered for thirty odd years under a Saddam dictatorship and who now look forward to some sort of democratic freedom.

It is obscene to any of us in the free and civilised world that so called freedom fighters / Insurgents (read terrorists) are prepared to kill their own people wholesale in the name of Islam and be very proud of their achievements. Life seems to be cheap to these apologists for followers of a seemingly peaceful religion.

So, to pull out and stop our own troops getting killed or risk the wholesale slaughter of the innocents ? General Dannatt has certainly touched a raw nerve and if nothing else has opened up a festering wound on the subject.

As an aside and irritation, when listening to the General speaking, I just wish he would stop talking about HIS troops/men, HIS army etc. In fact mate, it's our army not yours ! Every single one of us tax payers army and don't forget that we only pay you to manage it for us o.k. Stop being so covetous of it, you are only a public servant after all. End of subject !!!

Further Leave To Remain

Recently we have had the OFT telling Banks that they should reduce their punitive charges for going overdrawn, which in general lie around the £30.00 mark.

Now this makes me laugh really as, sure these banks are all taking us to the cleaners and should be stopped immediately. However, if the Government are so worried about us, the British public, being screwed left right and centre.. then why don't they look in their own back yard.

My partner is going for his "Leave To Remain" visa soon, and we will go to the appropriate office armed with our civil partnership certificate , wage slips etc etc. for our half hour interview. Oh, and also with £500 in our pocket to pay for it. Yes, £500 because we want it settled on the same day rather than trusting the post and having to wait around for the normal process to take approximately 3 to 14 weeks and have no personal representation. Oh, and that costs £300 anyway.

Talk about calling the chimney sweep black !!! This is extortion of the highest order and there is simply no excuse for this blatant money grabbing for time spent and administration by this Government Department. £30...£500, £30...£500, £30...£500...... keep saying it and see if you can get your head round the discrepancy, cause I can't.

Barclays Bank Security Alert Scam

I am getting really pissed off with a deluge of mails which are obviously trying to get personal information from me in order to wipe out my bank account, or so it seems.

Fortunately, these mails are being diverted to my bulk files and secondly I do not bank with Barclays so I delete them without opening them. I wonder though, how many people who bank with Barclays actually fall for this scam ?

These despicable people need a red hot poker shoved up their anus just before their testicles are removed with a blunt knife.

Don't let these arseholes deprive you of your hard earned cash so delete immediately without opening.