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Your ideas

Ideas archive for January 2017

861

Share your idea

1

Mark Williams says:

5 January 2017

Why do car insurers penalise you for a non fault accident.

My premium has gone up £160 due to claiming against a third party who hit my car in a car park when I wasn’t even in my car. This is daylight robbery.
Apparently I’m more likely likely to make a claim. I wasn’t even there!
What a crazy world we live in.

Melanie Train says:

14 February 2017

Hi Mark,

Thanks for your idea.

We actually covered this on Which? Conversation last summer, following an investigation into non-fault claims.

You can find it here: https://conversation.which.co.uk/money/car-insurance-premiums-non-fault-claims-damages-repairs-esure/

Thanks

0

TrevorSwistchew says:

6 January 2017

Housing and Fair Wages also Living Pensions

Housing and low wages with low Pensions create a country divided and unprogressive
It is time that Housing was sorted and low pay ended
DWP Pensions among the lowest in Europe
I think if politicians had to live on the pension they would learn how
others struggle with their costs
Write to YOUR Politician asking he or she to live on a pension for a few weeks
Don’t wait for any reply many of them do not give a damn.

-4

KARACAMERON says:

6 January 2017

Scotland on its own

I think that we should be our own country. England bleeds us dry and we would be so much better without them.

Lauren Deitz says:

10 January 2017

Hi Karacameron,

Thanks for sharing your idea. Unfortunately this isn’t really something that we would cover as a consumer issue on Which? Conversation. Thanks, Lauren

2

Richard King says:

10 January 2017

Is the Gov.UK Verification scheme working satisfactorily?

I have had on-line applications for identity verification rejected by Experian and Citizen Safe supposedly on the grounds of insufficient information about me being held by them. As someone who has paid taxes for 55 years and lived at the same address for nearly 34 years I find it astonishing that this should be the case. Apparently my “credit history” is non-existent!

Is it time for the Government to strip these organisations of their contracts to verify identities until such time as they can acquire sufficient information from whatever sources to verify identities as a matter of course?

3

Richard Horton says:

11 January 2017

Openreach is ignoring a large section of the superfast broadband customer base

We live in rural Cambridgeshire. Our village exchange has been upgraded to fibre broadband but is only accessible to those who are connected to a cabinet. Everyone else (so called “Exchange Only” or EO) cannot access superfast. This amounts to more than half the postcodes. Openreach say that its not commercially viable for them to connect everyone and they consider the exchange “complete”. Surely as a service provider they have an obligation to provide common services to all of their customers? How have other communities addressed this issue?

1

15 January 2017

The danger posed by the Internet of Things

2016 saw DDos attacks by botnets on DNS company Dyn and IANA the IP address organisation, Should we rethink this idea

2

Jennifer Thomas says:

15 January 2017

Taking infants on long haul flights

Son and d-in -l on Virgin Atlantic on flight from Hong Kong to Heathrow and return. Can’t prebook bulkhead cots and so don’t know until the gate. Then if you get one the infant is not necessarily put in front of your seat but in front of another passenger! 13 hour flight, passenger wouldn’t swop seats. Eventually a swop was found after an hour. Virgin’s explanations about disabled passengers etc did not stand up to the reality as couple who agreed to swop had bulkhead seats in front of cot fixings & were not disabled. I have a string of emails to and from executive office with no acceptable answers.

0

alfa says:

16 January 2017

Which? Poetry 2017 Permanent Convo

As there are a number of budding poets here, can we have a permanent annual poetry convo with subjects of the day discussed in a separate linked convo. Subjects can be themed on current issues, national/international days, or anything else that might be relevant.

There is a space under the topic boxes just waiting to be used.

Some very good poems will stay buried and forgotten in the depths of Which? so it would be nice to have them all in one place for further enjoyment and contribution.

0

CLIVESNELLING says:

23 January 2017

EQUITY RELEASE

How can a LIFETIME MORTGAGE be considered a fair contract when I drew £60,000 and the present amount owing is £134,000 already with a home value of £200,000. On this basis it won’t take long to lose my home for such a low withdrawal! Anyone else experienced same problem and resolved it?

1

Dangerfield says:

24 January 2017

Region 1 DVDs

Should sellers of Region 1 DVDs (i.e. from the USA) be allowed to market them in the UK when they will not work on the players we all have?

1

Susan Pooley says:

25 January 2017

Is HSBC’s new Safeguard ‘protection’ scheme in breach of the Data Protection Act?

If you hold an HSBC account, you cannot refuse to give them a wide range of information about yourself and keep your account with them. This includes information that has no relevance to the services they are providing you with. For example, if you open a children’s savings account, you have to tell HSBC of any changes in your employment status and income, even though these are not relevant to the services they are providing for the savings account. Is in breach of the Data Protection Act 1998, which states that: ‘Personal data shall be adequate, relevant and not excessive in relation to the purpose or purposes for which they are processed’? In other words, an organisation or professional body cannot hold any information about you that is not directly relevant to the services they are providing you with.
Will we be bound by time-consuming demands to know all about our lives just so we can get a ‘secure’ service from our banks? How will this affect thousands of people who either don’t live near high street banks (which are disappearing), change their circumstances a lot (e.g. on 0 hours contracts), or who don’t get a bank card with their account (HSBC phone system won’t allow you through without a card number)?

1

LordElpus58 says:

28 January 2017

Meat product labelling and Religious Slaughter

I am a christian animal lover and completely opposed to animal cruelty. I am aware of the exemption for religious slaughter. However it now appears that major supermarkets are selling meat that has been religiously slaughtered but are refusing to label it. What can we do?

1

BP-London says:

29 January 2017

BA Flight Cancellations – Website Blocks Online Refunds!

I have in the last 12 months had two separate flights cancelled by BA (code share with Iberia Express) from LGW to Gran Canaria. The only alternatives offered were a flight 3 days earlier or one 2 days later… It is unfortunately not a destination with multiple daily flights or even daily flights…

With one flight cancellation I found a route via Madrid back to London on the same day, but this was not offered by BA. Their call centre finally accepted this change, but only after a supervisor had to be consulted and I was advised that they had graciously made an “exception”; I don’t find that this is an exception whatsoever – it should be a basic service in the circumstances – in hindsight it was cheaper at the time to accept a refund and re-book the flight myself without their hassle!

The biggest problem with the BA website is that whilst is allows you to re-book cancelled flights, it blocks you from simply requesting a refund with the message “”Sorry, unfortunately our systems are not responding” – I have had this issue on each occasion (months apart!)..

It is so easy to book a flight online and then to re-book cancelled flights online – why do BA continue not to allow it’s customers to request refunds online (without the above), instead of having to contact a call centre to process….?

0

BP-London says:

29 January 2017

FlyBe Flight Cancellation 7 Weeks Prior To Departure

There are lot’s of conversations regarding flights cancelled or delayed on the day, but I cannot see any regarding flights cancelled weeks before departure and any expenses incurred/lost as a result? I booked flights with FlyBe to Knock from Manchester on 13/08/16, departing 02/02/17. The times were altered on 26/09/16, then the flights completely cancelled on 13/12/16, with the only alternative to fly 2 days either side… I had already booked hotels (non-refundable) and train tickets to the airport (non-refundable) – I stood to make a loss of around €1,200 – despite the flight fares being refunded (though I still wait for one from Flybe weeks after promises it was processed….) I enquired about compensation in regards to the train fare to the airport but was advised by FlyBe that they would not pay any compensation…. Fortunately, it appears that the train company Trans Pennine Express are generously refunding the train fare, even though it has no obligation in the circumstances…

The airline said in an email “We at Flybe are not unique in this practice and schedule changes are an integral part of dynamic industry we work in. Any alterations are implemented only when necessary due to commercial or operational reasons and we do attempt to issue them as early as possible to facilitate reservations.”

1) Should there be any liability on the airlines in these circumstances or should it fall on insurance (if covered)?
2) Should train companies form better working relationships with airlines, when flights are cancelled in the above circumstances regardless of ticket conditions?

1

Bonzo1956 says:

29 January 2017

The dispute between Sky and Discovery/Eurosport

Whilst watching the Eurosports channel on my Sky system today I received a message saying that Sky may lose Eurosports and Discovery channels from 1st February. Now I know that the Contract terms say that 3rd Party channels may change and I know Sky are saying that the money they currently spend on Eurosports will be used to improve the Sky sports services, but actually Eurosports and Discovery channels are some that I watch most frequently. I have fairly recently upgraded to Sky Q silver, so I think I am locked in for more than another year. Anyone else feel miffed that they are going to loose more sport unless they buy into yet another services provider?

Melanie Train says:

8 February 2017

Hi Bonzo1956

Thank you for your idea.

This subject was actually discussed in this convo:

https://conversation.which.co.uk/home-energy/sky-dispute-with-discovery/