barrington

Well this should be a good laugh for everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I live in the Loir et Cher and I want to buy an approved used Mercedes 220cdi estate right hand drive in the U K. Well I spotted one on the Mercedes website and I phoned the dealership for more info re number of owners and date of reg etc. I said I would pay a retainer over the phone on my debit card (R B S UK) and they said it was ok and if when I got to the garage in Bromley I didn't like the car they would return my retainer. I had meanwhile spoken to my bank to explain that I might be paying a large sum (the balance if I chose the car) by my debit card and the bank said no problem. I asked about 1 weeks insurance to cover me to my home here until I could go to my broker to arrange cover.All well and good. Well I received a call later from the dealer (official Mercedes garage) saying that they were very sorry but Mercedes would not allow them to sell me the car because my official residence was in FRANCE. I sent an e-mail to Mercedes-Benz UK asking them to explain the situation and today I received a phone call from Mercedes FRANCE telling me that I could not export thr car to France.Wait for it!!!!!!! He said I couldn't get a certificate of conformity because the steering wheel was on the right hand side and the lights would have to be changed etc .Also why did I want a right hand drive car and why didn't I look for a used car in France. I made an enquiry for a Jaguar XF at a Jaguar dealership in the U K and went  into the same details as before and then asked would there be any problem for them because I lived in France and his reply was ''When you have paid us the money you can do what you like with it'' Have I missed something somewhere as I brought a Nissan over here 4 years ago and re registered it for a french number. Whatever happened to the EU directive of free movement of goods between member states? Barrington.

Hi everyone please help clear up my confusion re the correct fitting of flue pipes to a new Godin chauffeco 8kw freestanding woodstove. We have a 3year old bungalow and during the construction we had a stainless steel double skinned chimney installed and left unconnected until we decided to have a woodstove. Well we got a devis for the above stove and fitting, from our local French chauffage engineer and agreed the devis, so eventually he came to fit the stove. After we had had two fires,  one morning we found a pool of water on top of the stove and it appeared that condensation had run down the OUTSIDE of the black flue pipes and left run marks on the pipes. On closer observation I noticed the flue pipes(single wall types) were installed with the female ends pointing downwards and on calling back the engineer Ipointed this out to him. He was adamant that it was correct. The spigot coming out of the stove (125mm) is slightly tapered but will only accept the female end of the flue pipe .This would mean the other end of the flue  would be male and would be pointing UPWARDS so would have to join a female end of pipe pointing DOWNWARDS. I understand that all straight flue pipes are male at one end and female at the other so what is the answer? The distance from the top of the stove to the ceiling is about 1:80cm so does require at lease 2 pipes Please enlighten me. Barrington