Q. I travelled to South Africa for the World Cup, but my baggagenever arrived in Johannesburg. I had to travel around South Africafor three-and-a-half weeks without any clothes, sleeping bag andother essentials. I never received any advice or offer ofassistance. Every time I called, I was just told the bag had notbeen located. The value of items in it was in excess of 2,000. I hadto purchase a pay-as-you-go phone in South Africa for 15 and afurther 15 in airtime vouchers to keep chasing the whereabouts of mybag. I also spent 300 on my credit card for replacement clothing andtoiletries. I logged a lost-baggage claim with KLM, as I had bookedthrough its website. KLM says that as part of my journey was withits alliance partner Kenya Airways, the claim should be made throughKenya Airways and it is not KLM's liability. I booked through KLM,paid KLM and it was KLM who checked my bag in, so I consider mycontract to be with KLM. KLM insists responsibility lies with KenyaAirways. My insurance policy states that any lost baggage must besettled by the airline. PS, Wigan.
A. When you initially contacted us, the World Cup had just takenplace. KLM insisted the matter had to be settled by Kenya Airways."An agreement between all airlines states that the last carriertakes responsibility for the tracing of any missing baggage andsettles the claim with the passenger," KLM said. However,communications with Kenya Airways have been sporadic and the airlinehas been slow to respond. Kenya Airways has now partially settledyour claim - paying 1,070. This is more than the 800 compensationlimit often specified by airlines under the Montreal Convention. Youare now seeking the recovery of the balance of the value of yourluggage from your travel insurer. Kenya Airways has not responded toour repeated requests for an explanation of the delays in settlingyour claim.
Q. Several financial services companies write to me as if I livein Scotland. I live in Northumberland, England, but have a postcodefor Berwickshire, in Scotland. One day, the Scottish Government willchange its tax regime and I'll be stuck trying to explain where Ilive. Does the Scottish Government use the same erroneous softwareas the financial services companies? DS, Northumberland.
A. A spokesman for the Scottish Government insists its systemswill not make the same mistakes. "Only Scottish taxpayers whose mainhome is in Scotland are required to pay local taxation in Scotland,"he said. He added: "I cannot comment on systems used by financialservice firms, but systems used to facilitate collection of localtaxation will be reliable."
Q. In 2007, I upgraded a Tiscali dial-up Anytime package to theTiscali broadband service. I am currently transferring to BT. In theprocess of doing this, I realised I had been paying for both dial-up and broadband for three and a half years. The overcharge adds upto more than 700. NM, Liverpool.
A. You assumed that when you upgraded your service, the oldpayment instruction would automatically be rescinded. This did nothappen. TalkTalk - which has taken over the Tiscali service -apologises for the problems you have had and has provided you with afull refund.
Q. We switched to TalkTalk's telephone and broadband service on22 September. We could not connect to the broadband service for aweek, as TalkTalk did not send us the router until 29 September,after I had chased it up. I emailed and wrote to TalkTalk to saythat given its mishandling of our connection, I did not expect topay the connection fee. All I have received is a phone messagereferring to my correspondence, saying it would not refund theconnection fee and for me to ring customer services. This responseis totally inadequate and there is no point in me ringing themagain. DM, West Sussex.
A. TalkTalk apologises for your difficulties and has refunded theconnection fee and applied a 20 goodwill credit to your account.
Q. Towards the end of October, AOL barred my internet service,without telling me, because direct debits in September and Octoberhad not been paid. My bank, RBS, tells me that although AOL set up adirect debit, no attempt had been made by AOL to take any paymentsfrom my account. I am getting nowhere contacting the AOL helplineand I have had no response to a letter of complaint sent by recordeddelivery. NH, Chesterfield.
A. You tell us that AOL has contacted you to explain that thedirect debit instruction was not in place on the date that thepayment was due to be made. This is why the payment was notprocessed. AOL told us it apologises to you and that it regards thematter as now resolved.
Questions of Cash cannot give individual advice. But if you havea financial dilemma, we'll do our best to help. Please email us at:questionsofcash@ independent.co.uk.
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