Helpdesk: Something fishy about refusal to sell M&S pie

At the checkout, I was told I was not allowed to buy a fish pie as the sauce contained white wine – and the shop cannot sell alcohol before 10am.

If there is a legal reason why you cannot buy it, then it should not be on display. However, it seems to me to be more likely that this was one particularly over-zealous employee who has misunderstood the rules.

SW, Midlothian

A: A spokesman for M&S said: “The sale should not have been refused. It was a till system error on that particular product, which we have now corrected. We will be contacting the customer to apologise and put things right.”

Q2: We moved into a rented property in August, having signed a lease with Edinburgh Spaces and had arranged to pick up the keys on the morning of 15 August. We arrived at the letting agent first thing, but despite repeatedly visiting the offices and phoning, we were unable to make contact with anyone at Edinburgh Spaces until 3:30pm. By that time, we had told our removal men to unpack all our belongings and go home as they had been there all day.

Edinburgh Spaces claimed that the person who should have been in the office had had a flat tyre and had been unable to get to work – but no-one had phoned to tell us that. They told us vaguely at the time that we would be compensated. Due to the delay, we were unable to move until the next day. I am trying to reclaim the extra day’s rent and removal costs – £152.60 – from Edinburgh Spaces, but it claims it is not its responsibility.

I also discovered, after signing the lease and paying £288 in “tenant referencing/admin fees” that these are illegal and have been highlighted by Shelter Scotland as contravening the Rent (Scotland) Act of 1984, but Edinburgh Spaces refuses to refund us.

SC, Edinburgh

A: Chris Dickson of Edinburgh Spaces said: “Tenants can collect keys at any point during office hours between 10am-4pm . No member of staff ever indicated that compensation would be given for the move or a day’s rent, as they collected the keys on date of entry.

Administration and referencing charges are not illegal, it is a charge every letting agent implies for new tenants and it clearly states on the application form what the charges are. Both tenants signed the application forms with no queries about the charges.”

• If you have a consumer issue that you would like tackling, contact Jane Bradley on 0131 620 8432 or e-mail [email protected].