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How Do I Find Out If a Company Has Gone into Administration?

Business, Finance & Insurance, , ,

So I recently had this problem where a company I was dealing with (and who had taken my money) stopped providing me with the service and seemed to disappear. They were not answering any of their phones and no-one could get hold of them. Chances are that they had gone belly up but how do I find out if they had gone bust?

My first search led me to check the UK Companies House register. They were indeed listed on here as a limited company (you can check here) but they were still registered as an active company. My next search advised me to phone Trading Standards so I googled for a phone number for the local branch of where the company was based. It came up with a general number for Citizens advice but apparently Trading Standards farm out their calls to them. They said that I would have to phone Companies House. So I called them and they said they had not been notified of the company going into administration and that they would only be notified or take action if the company failed to file any returns or else had lodged with the Insolvency service.

So next stop was to phone the Insolvency Service. I asked them again, what would happen if a company has gone bust but hasn’t notified anyone? They didn’t really have an answer. All anyone kept saying was that they would take action once the company notified them. Somehow I don’t think the first thing on the director’s list was to call the Insolvency Service… Anyway, they mentioned the Official Receiver as being the person who would investigate, so I googled them. They are pretty much part of the Insolvency service but what I did find there was a form to report people who are acting incorrectly. This answered my question really about companies who do not notify anyone that they have stopped trading. Other people can report them and hopefully the Official Receiver will investigate. You just need to fill out a form with all the details. You will need to get the Company Registration number from the Companies House website as well as the address, phone etc.

So if you think that a company has gone bust and you can’t find out any information about whether or not they have gone into administration then you can report them yourself. The place to report them is here and you can do it online or by post.

And don’t forget that if you paid by credit card then you may be entitled to get your money back from your credit card provider under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act.

Using O2 Abroad

Travel, ,

If you are a UK customer of O2 and you are travelling abroad you may want to take note of what might happen if you do not turn off your voicemail while you are gone.

I speak to you from experience of having incurred quite a few charges for calls that I did not even take (and who did not even leave me voicemails) whilst I was on a recent business trip. I had a local phone so I did not plan on using my O2 phone whilst away. However, each time somebody phoned me and I did not answer I incurred two charges – one of £1.25 listed as my own phone number as the destination and one for £1.50 going to this number: 7802091901.

So, each of these calls that I did not answer cost me £2.75. Ouch.

The thing that comes out of this is that if you go abroad you should turn your voicemail off if you are with O2 (I am not sure what other networks charge). I have been advised that if you do this then you will not incur charges for incoming unanswered calls.

The way to turn off voicemail for O2 is to dial 1760. When you want to turn voicemail back on dial 1750.

Hopefully this will stop other people incurring other unwanted costs on their mobile bill 🙂

Rolling Stones Tickets on Sale

Recreation, ,

So after the massive success of what some people thought might be their last tour – the 50th anniversary concerts that took place in London and New York at the end of 2012 – the Rolling Stones have announced that they will be playing Hyde Park on 6th July 2013.

Tickets for this Rolling Stones concert go on sale on Friday 5th April at 9am. You can get hold of your tickets through Absolute Radio.

Judging from the sales of the 50th anniversary concert, this show is likely to be a sell out and tickets may in fact go within hours of being released so if you want some, get on to the website as soon as possible on Friday morning.

How To Take a Tablet

Food & Drink, Health, ,
Some pills can be hard to take...
Some pills can be hard to take…

It is surprising how many people struggle to take a tablet – swallowing them whole just seems impossible and a gag reflex kicks in whenever they try – does this ring true with you?

Doing what seems normal to most people and swallowing a tablet with a glass of water is not possible in many cases. And most of us will have to take some kind of tablets at some point in our lives so learning a knack to taking a tablet is pretty much essential.

Well there is a relatively easy way, which was told to me by my mother (who also suffered from the same problem so maybe it is a hereditary thing?). Anyway, the best way to swallow a tablet is to chew up some food (I usually have a large bite of a biscuit) – something that has a good amount of texture to it is best – when you have chewed it to a minimal level that will enable you to swallow it, put the tablet in your mouth and swallow it with the chewed up biscuit.

Depending on the size of the pill you may need a bit more of a mouthful but I have found this a great way to swallow pills. I also use mouthfuls of cereal and add the tablet to that and this works well too (especially with granola or muesli).

Anyway, give it a try and hopefully it will work for you too.