We bought a cooker hood costing £199.99 from Currys. At the time, we were having a kitchen fitted, so did not open it straight away. However, when the fitters did open it, they discovered it was damaged. Currys insisted its conditions of sale were that any damage must be reported within 48 hours and would only offer us a 10 pc refund for damaged goods.

Thousands of Britons who have snapped up a 4K television in the Black Friday sale or as a Christmas treat will be facing higher energy bills for the technology, data claims. Energy bills from watching TV are likely to increase for the first time since 2011, according to British Gas's latest home energy report, thanks to the energy sapping devices.

After years of rocky performance, gold, precious metals and oil made a comeback in 2016 as political uncertainty made nervous investors take refuge in 'safe haven' assets.The top performing investment trust sector is Commodities and Natural Resources, up a whopping 72% - rewarding brave value investors.

While the UK overall saw a 6.9 per cent rise, the ONS figures also showed house prices falling in central London. And they arrived a day after Rightmove forecast asking prices to rise just 2 per cent in 2017, as Brexit uncertainty weighs on the housing market. With property values are rising swiftly in some areas, including Basildon and Slough where they are up a fifth, but falling in others, we take a look at what's happening with house prices.

Consumers are spending 13 per cent more on premium lines than they did last year, Kantar Worldpanel data for the 12 weeks to December 4 show. Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar Worldpanel, said: 'Over Christmas it's likely that premium lines will record their highest ever sales figures as even more shoppers trade up to treat their loved ones.'

Do you want to know where the most desirable neighbours might be? Then look out for streets lined with Mercedes and Audis, claims a new poll. And in the survey of 1,000 people by leasing firm UK Carline, 36 per cent said the types of cars in a street would directly affect their decision on whether to live in the area.

Knowing what price to ask for your property can be a daunting task, but our top tips will help to get your home sold. We asked some leading estate agents - with decades of experience between them - what advice they would give to people seeking to achieve the right price for their home.

Property asking prices are tipped to rise by just 2 per cent next year while inner London prices could fall by 5 per cent, according to a forecast by property listings giant Rightmove. Prices will rise for the seventh year in a row, says Rightmove, but the pace of gains will slow as uncertainty weighs on the housing market and the London 'price bubble continues to deflate'.

Investors looking for sharp and quick returns could spend time weighing up the next possible mega merger, after a string of top deals in recent months resulted in hefty payouts. The Brexit vote sent the pound tumbling and soon saw Japan's SoftBank takeover ARM. Now as Sky becomes a target again, broker AJ Bell has revealed five that could be next.

For years, HSBC branded itself as the world's local bank, perpetuating the belief among customers that it cared passionately about having a presence on the high street.

The age of Trump is almost upon us. The billionaire businessman will be sworn in as the 45th President of the United States on January 20. Here, The Mail on Sunday explores what America under Donald Trump will mean for British investors. As I stand in the heart of Manhattan surrounded by the bright lights of Broadway and festive bustle of Christmas shoppers, America seems to be in rude health.

With eight scam calls per second and millions of consumers randomly contacted by strangers about their pension every year, protecting savers from the clutches of fraudsters is a high priority. Those with pension pots have become prime targets for a variety of scams since new rules were introduced in April 2015, giving savers easier access to their retirement funds. Research suggests fraudsters sit behind one in ten requests to transfer money out of a pension pot.

E2V, which has agreed a £620m takeover from California-based Teledyne Technologies, has registered more than 400 inventions in the UK and hundreds more around the world. Its sensors and scanners are used in Nasa spacecraft, the Hadron Collider and in 90 per cent of the world's radiotherapy treatments.

The ten-pin bowling firm, which posted its maiden set of stock market results, saw turnover hit £106m.
Revenue at venues open for more than a year was up 6.8 per cent in the 12 months to September 30.

Now 11 oil producing countries which are not Opec members, including Russia, Mexico, Azerbaijan and Oman, have struck their own deal to cut output by 558,000 barrels a day. It is hoped the move should help reduce the oversupply of oil on the market which has caused the price to crash.

Swimmer Sharron Davies never earned a 'single, solitary penny' competing in the Olympics for Great Britain. But she earned more than £100,000 in her role as 'Amazon' in the Gladiators television series and was paid a six-figure sum to present the Big Breakfast back in the 1990s. Davies, 53, who recently designed and launched her own ProSwim swimming goggle range, also made a fortune speculating on the property market - and bought a Porsche 911 for £60,000.

Syncronized Limited, based in Coventry, has operated various services providing sexual content to mobile phone users, The titles of some are unprintable. Others include 'Glam Pleasures', 'Sex Dose' and 'Lesbiancourse' offering explicit videos. None of this is illegal, but it does not allow Syncronized to charge for services people did not request - and the company has form for this.

Vodafone was recently hit with a record £4.6million fine by Ofcom for serial customer service failings following a sustained campaign by The Mail on Sunday. The fine prompted the company to concede that it had 'let customers down'. Vittorio Colao, group chief executive, confirmed the company was 'working on' fixing its customer service issues which had culminated in inaccurate bills being sent out and complaints being handled poorly.

A survey of more than 2,000 investors who hold online accounts with Hargreaves Lansdown found that just 15 per cent of those aged between 18 and 35 feel lucky or very lucky financially compared with other age groups, while 62 per cent feel their generation is unlucky or very unlucky. Among those aged between 51 and 70, 72 per cent perceive themselves to be lucky or very lucky in the monetary stakes.

Bentley's first diesel, the Bentayga, is also the world's fastest luxury diesel SUV, claims the company. It's no slouch off-road either, managing slippery slopes and rutted tracks with aplomb. With big 21 in wheels and powered by a triple-turbocharged four-litre V8 engine linked to an eight-speed automatic gearbox (with manual paddles for added fun), it accelerates from rest to 60mph in just 4.6 seconds, and has a top speed of 168 mph, yet will still manage 35.8 miles to the gallon with CO2 emissions of 210g/km.

The gold price has endured a rollercoaster ride over the past year, rising to a high of $1,366 (£1,078) per ounce in July before falling back to $1,164 today. Over the past 12 months, it has risen nearly 10 per cent. Yet investors who have put money in to the shares of miners rather than in physical gold have enjoyed a far better year.

The figures from haart, one of London's best known estate agents with branches across England and Wales, follow various tax and mortgage lending changes that have hit small-scale private landlords - including a 3 per cent stamp duty surcharge on buy-to-let purchases introduced in April this year and the removal of certain tax reliefs from April 2017.

Struggling to work out how much your car is worth? You're not alone. One of the most common questions we receive is about accurately valuing a vehicle to buy or sell. We've enlisted an expert who sells used cars to dealerships for the highest price to help.

The next financial crisis is looming and central banks won't be able to handle it. So says Jim Rickards, a New York Times bestselling author, adviser to the US Department of Defence. He explains what it will look like, what can be done to mitigate it and how individuals can prepare - including buying gold, which he believes could increase by almost nine times.

If you have aspirations to buy and extend a historic building, here is what you need to know - with advice from Historic England and Lycetts Insurance Brokers. It is a myth that it is impossible to get an extension on a period building but you may need to compromise on some aspects of your design.

A shortage of properties coming up for sale means Britain's housing market will get off to a slow start next year, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors claim. With few homes coming up for sale and others being snapped up quickly, the housing supply shortage is a 'very dominant feature of the market at present', Rics said. The volume of homes coming up for sale last month created a 'flat supply picture', with the net balance of new instructions coming in at 0 per cent.

Millions of Lloyds customers have been warned to be vigilant against a tide of scam letters purporting to be from the bank, but are actually being posted by fraudsters. In the letter, it uses the customer's name, the Lloyds Bank logo and is even signed off by 'Jamie Smith - Customer Relationship Manager' all in a bid to dupe their potential victim into believing the letter is genuine.

Some cars look menacing even when they're standing still. Many of them are Audi estates, and few things short of an incoming missile could look more threatening than the latest RS6 Performance.

We are launching the ninth annual Money Mail Wooden Spoon Awards. This is your chance to vote for the organisation you think provides Britain's most shambolic service. This year, our inbox has been as full as we can remember. There have been catastrophic meltdowns, as well as niggling problems that just won't go away. Some companies are finding more and more ways to mess up the basics. You say it's common for rude staff to trot out 'computer says no' excuses or send you online when all you want is an accurate bill or a simple mistake put right.

I have an Isa and a self-invested personal pension. Am I better off taking out any profit I make on my investments and putting it in a cash savings account, or should I leave it in the fund? I'm 47 and want to stay invested for at least 20 years. H. L., via email

In some cases borrowers are being asked for two forms of I.D. that have been signed by an independent professional. The move primarily affects long-standing customers who applied for a credit card before M&S; Bank introduced tougher identity checks to prevent fraud. But shoppers say the demands are 'way over the top' and fear they could be blacklisted by the firm if they do not comply with the security checks.

It's been a year of political upheaval and for investors that has meant plenty to think about - but how worried should they be? On the latest Investing Show, Henrietta Grimston, of Seven Investment Management, explains how investors can position themselves for big political and economic events and looks at how deeply they need to consider them.

Tom Cridland, who is loved by celebrities for his sustainable fashion, has started selling £65 Christmas sweatshirts with a 30-year guarantee. The young designer, who founded Tom Cridland in 2014 at the age of 23, said his long-lasting sweatshirt promotes an important 'buy less, buy better' ideology. He said: 'It is a sustainable fashion project designed to lead an industry trend towards protecting our natural resources by making truly durable clothing.'

Britain's luxury goods retailers are booming on the back of the weaker pound, with sales to US and Chinese shoppers soaring in past months. Global real estate advisor Colliers International found that there had been a 44 per cent rise in retail sales to non-EU visitors since August. One sector enjoying the boom is watchmaking, according to Giles English. He founded the Bremont Watch Company with his brother Nick in 2002, a few years after their father, an RAF pilot, died in an air crash. 

To clear the average national household debt of ?13,000 at 6% interest with a monthly repayment of ?100 will take around 17 years. There are, however, plenty of simple ways to make significant savings on your regular spending that could clear your debt - or boost your savings - in less than a year. This is Money's top 50 - updated - money-saving tips may appear light-hearted but are deadly serious.

Choosing the right DIY platform is crucial but a wealth of choice and changes to charges have left many investors scratching their heads. We pick some of the best. We also highlight why investing in an Isa makes sense, as it should protect your hopefully growing investments from tax forever.

Despite endless media coverage of the political wrangling and financial speculation, the average Briton can be forgiven for remaining confused about what 'soft' and 'hard' Brexit really mean. About the difference between the 'Norway model' for the UK's post-Brexit relationship with the UK and the 'Swiss solution'. But a clever table put together by HSBC in a report called 'Is Brexit Getting Harder?' cleaves some clarity from the murk.

An interest rate cut before the end of the year looks less likely following the plunge in the pound. However, the Bank of England has indicated that higher inflation driven by rising import costs won't make it lift rates.

Musicians have seen pay rises averaging nearly 20 per cent in 2015, while cleaners are getting 17.8 per cent more, and window cleaners 12.3 per cent. Artists in general are earning 14.6 per cent more in 2015 than 2014, according to the huge annual data dump of pay scales by the Office For National Statistics highlights.