OK to change your mind
I placed an order online for a designer wedding dress which was a fraction of the cost in store. But I decided to cancel a week later when my mum took ill and we postponed the wedding. Now I can’t get my money back. What can I do? Unless the dress is bespoke, you are entitled to change your mind. The time period lasts from when you place the order until 14 days from the day you receive your goods. Set out your cancellation in writing quoting the Consumer Contracts Regulations.
Outraged Tom has been told to pay £5000 for a new engine for the Ford B-Max Ecoboost.
He called me in after reaching stalemate, despite more than 1000 other owners reporting similar faults on Facebook.
Tom, 77, said: “I am appalled. I expected better of Ford, to be honest.
“When they told me the car needed a new engine, my stomach dropped to my feet. My wife is in bits.
“We are pensioners, we thought the car would last for years. We can’t afford £ 5000 and why should we?”
Tom and w i f e Eleanor, 71, traded in their old car and bought the £ 13,400 B- Max from Ford Direct in 2014. He said: “It was a demonstrator, brand new, but technically a used car as it had covered 2600 miles.”
The couple, of Inverness, had the vehicle serviced and later MOTd at a Ford dealer.
He said: “It never missed a beat. Apart from tyres, all it ever needed was a bulb.”
But the motor began misfiring and losing power on July 13.
Tom, a retired photographer, said: “I couldn’t believe it. I managed to limp home and phone my recovery company.
“The mechanic said oil or coolant, or both, was leaking into one cylinder of the engine and inhibiting the spark ignition.”
Tom, who has three children and eight grandchildren, later asked a Ford dealer to diagnose the fault at a cost of £108.
But within an hour, they told him the engine would have to be replaced at a cost of £5001.30. Tom said: “The dealer told me a broken piston skirt within the engine had resulted in loss of compression. I asked if this was related to the car overheating as I knew other owners were reporting similar issues.
“He said probably but they couldn’t say for sure without stripping the engine further and that would incur extra cost.
“The reason they were able to pinpoint the problem was