Beryl

Make sure you keep a copy of that email, go on, print it off now and keep it safe and in triplicate. Without that, you will get laughed out of the store if you try and take it back next year.[:(] It may be worth looking at this site http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/redress/out_of_court/ecc_france_en.htm  it is very useful.  

When I visited my CPAM office in Spring after the E106 expired, I was informed that I would hear from them again in September in order that they could reassess my contributions based on my level of income. I have today received the same form that Cooperlola has and I think it will be sufficient to send along with details of income. Copy of Carte Vitale and the attestation Copy of passports Copy of marriage certificat  and childrens birth certificate ( if appropriate) EDF factures  or tenancy agreement IF you have been in France for more than 3 months. Fortunately, I have had the tax form thing back so I can press on with it straightaway.

From what I have read on here, that seems feasible as you will probably have to pay for the privilege of improving your own home [:D] This post may help you until someone comes along with the definitive answer, though I vaguely recall an older posting where the taxes  or whatever were horrendous; http://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/768383/ShowPost.aspx

An update Apparently the charges I had to pay are all  bona fide [:(] including the duty that I had to pay on the US postage costs! So for goods and postage that cost a combined $ 112   I had to pay €44 in various extra fees/ taxes ![:@] The next time I order internationally, I will certainly get whatever taxes I can paid at the other end. I realise that they cannot be escaped but somehow they would have been cheaper if I had paid them when I placed the order. Still we live and learn.

Super. A BIG thank you to everyone for your help and recommendations. The reason for trying out a free one is that I am not very technically minded and I want to have a play around before I invest in anything pricey. I am hoping to use the photo on a website in due course, hence the concerns over copyright, but I think these concerns have been abated a little now.

I have some old family photos (dating back to don't know when probably pre WW2) are in the format of postcards. Does anyone know when the copyright expires on old photos ? The company that took them is no longer in existance. Secondly, does anyone know of any FREE internet program where I can tinker about with photos and create different effects, mosaic, turn them into 'oil paintings' etc? Thank you  

My goodness, what are you going to do when the winter comes?[:D] I would have lit mine last night if I had got one

Apologies in advance if this is clouding the issue, but doesn't there become a time when if you return to the UK you no longer qualify for NHS treatment automatically ? I realise that perhaps the monitoring / detector system in the UK may not be that hot, but isn't this another piece of evidence to show that regardless of what a British passporter holder might deem to be his usual place of 'residence' the UK, not to mention France may draw the line in the strangest of places?

According the brilliant moneysavingexpert site, in the UK  if a service charge has been included and the service then turns out to be less than satisfactory, you are within your rights to withold 10 -15 percent. It does unfortunately add that the restaurant staff may threaten to call the police however[Www]

There was a super thread about this very problem earlier in the year and unfortunately it was 'temporarily deleted' whilst admin looked at it ( any news on that yet?) here is a little bit of an update http://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/964299/ShowPost.aspx Rightly or wrongly, the law appears to be on the side of the tenant and I think you stand to be out of pocket no matter what you do, it's now just a question of degrees. Why can he not pay and is he not entitled to financial assistance from the state to ensure a roof over his head ? In other words what is he doing to put right this state of affairs ? Personally, I would change give them a dead line to pay up and then every option to leave ( sooner rather than later before the debt builds up and accept the loss of that money) , if they started playing silly buggers, I would  go for option 7 .

No I didn't see or feel anything until much later. I have read many account of pet owners having  to forcibly remove the ticks from their pets but I also read (somewhere) that once they are full and bloated  they drop off, which if true might account for why I didn't feel anything , assuming it was a tick of course. Still with amount of goodies the Dr has given me, touchwood, my leg will soon be back to its old self .[:)]

There was never any danger of them being counterfeit, what kind of gal do you think I am?[:D] I have emailed UPS ( and the company in the US ) to ask for some kind of explanation and will report back if I get a reply. I will certainly get the taxes calculated and paid for at the US end in future, lesson learned!

As nasty as this episode was for you, I would imagine that they are all bluster. I can't see many people wanting to interupt their holidays to go and have a moan , that's even if they can find the place and their language skills are up to it. It was probably a threat to try and force you to back down , I think we have a good idea of the calibre of person you are dealing with here. I would make a note of it and them for future reference and if they have paid you and left, try and forget about them.[:)]

I had just updated this and it  vanished from the list of postings , so I have written this simply to kickstart it!

Got stung again! It came via UPS, the company I bought from in America gave me the option of paying $ 15 to cover the taxes etc but said it would take a little longer , so I opted to pay them this end. BIG MISTAKE € 44 [:(]   this is €23 TVA ,€6 droits de douane and charges additionnelles / dedouanement €13 and than anothe 2.55 tva ! I cannot understand the disparity and how this figure is worked out as the  value of the goods was a tad under $70 which is about 50 euros, which means the TVA is running at 90 % ! Have UPS done their sums wrong ? Can anyone shed any light on this please before I send them an email ?