Mark Charlton

Real estate research font of knowledge. Staying alive through travel, live music, classic cars and sport.

[Purplereign @Angiemut]

GOOD POINT👇👇👇
To all the Supermarkets and big commercial stores that operate 'Self Check-outs'....... You are heading towards almost exclusively self-checkout now. Yesterday I went shopping at one such store and the lady checking receipts at the exit was stopping everyone.
I didn't choose to participate in that nonsense, I had already filled my trolly, emptied my trolly and scanned the items, refilled my trolly and so I just skipped the exit line and left.
I heard her saying "Umm - Excuse me “ as I kept walking and raised the receipt above my head, leaving the store.
You can either trust me to do self-checkout, or you can put your cashiers back in place like it used to be.
• I'm not interested in proving that I did your job for you.
• If you want me to be a cashier with no training then that's your problem not mine.
• Keep employing young people and give them job opportunities.
YOU DON'T PAY ME TO SCAN MY OWN SHOPPING.
YOU DON’T GIVE ME STAFF DISCOUNT FOR WORKING FOR YOU.
Signed ......All of us
People we need to share this statement its basically about PROFIT to the stores AND putting People out of a JOB....!!!

[Mark Charlton @markc5022]

@ZachMovesAbroad Rain?- no rain in UK for 30+ days. Where are you?

[Mark Charlton @markc5022]

@williamnhutton Not the full picture is it? Days in January at just 2%. Paying operators to turn of wind - simply crazy. We need to be able to store the energy that we harness - now, not in 20 yrs time!

[Mark Charlton @markc5022]

@SpeedSportLife Indeed - it’s a feature on my 1975 BMW 2002.

[Mark Charlton @markc5022]

@longnloudusa You’ve gotta be joking! An out and out rip-off.

[Charles Archer @that_stocks_guy]

#ConsumerRightsAct #Currys #KnowYourRights

A rant for @currys, who are currently breaking the law.

Normally I'd let it go, but your customer service is a shitshow and your desire to wash your hands of the faulty items you sell is illegal.

On 10 October 2025, I walked into your Exeter shop and bought a PCSpecialist computer.

This was the birthday present for my 12-year-old.

A present they'd been dropping hints about for months with the subtlety of a child who remains terrible at poker. They'd saved their own pocket money towards it. I topped it up.

It was, genuinely, a lovely moment.

For four months, it was perfect. Homework. Games. The full experience of being 12 in 2025.

On 22 February 2026, four months and 12 days after purchase, it stopped working.

No final farewell.

It just… stopped.

My child sat there pressing the power button with increasing desperation, and nothing happened. The machine that had cost a significant amount of adult money, and a not-insignificant amount of 12-year-old pocket money, was dead.

Fine, I thought.

This is what a receipt is for.

I'll call Currys (the shop I bought it from, with my money, as a birthday present for my child) and they'll sort it.

Your staff told me that my contract wasn't with Currys, and that I should contact the manufacturer.

They also told me to go in-store with the machine to have it looked at.

I went in-store.

The in-store staff told me to call the number I had just called.

I called again.

I was given the phone number for PCSpecialist.

Phone → store → same phone → manufacturer.

A perfect circle of not helping.

A masterpiece of redirection.

If it weren't happening to me, I'd almost admire it.

Now let's talk about the law, because I think someone at Currys may have forgotten it exists.

The Consumer Rights Act 2015 is not a suggestion.

It is extremely clear on this point: when you buy something from a retailer, your legal contract is with that retailer.

Not the brand on the box.

Not the manufacturer.

Not some third party you've never met.

The shop. The one that took your money and handed you a receipt.

Within the first six months of purchase, the law presumes the fault existed at the point of sale.

I don't have to prove the computer was faulty when I bought it. Currys has to prove it wasn't. The burden of proof sits entirely with them.

During this window, I am legally entitled to a repair or a replacement, and if either of those fails, a full refund.

We are currently inside that six-month window. I bought it on 10 October 2025. I complained on 22 February 2026. I am four and a half months in.

The law is not ambiguous about what happens here.

What makes this particularly spectacular is that Currys' own published policy acknowledges the six-month framework.

It is written down on their website. They know the rules.

They have typed them up and put them on the internet.

They are simply hoping that their customers are too tired from the runaround to actually enforce them.

PCSpecialist are entirely blameless in this story. They manufactured a machine.

Currys sold that machine to me.

My dispute is with Currys.

Directing me to PCSpecialist is the retail equivalent of Tesco selling you a gone-off chicken, and when you try to return it, handing you the farmer's phone number.

The farmer didn't sell you the chicken.

You don't have to knock on the farmer's door.

You go back to the supermarket.

This is not a controversial legal position. It is just how shops work.

My 12-year-old has been without their birthday present for a few days now. They have been, I have to say, considerably more gracious about this than I have.

They haven't complained. They've been patient. They are, in this situation, the bigger person — which is a sentence I never expected to write about a primary school leaver, but here we are.

They shouldn't have to be patient. They should just have a working computer.

So this is where we are, @currys.

I know my rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015.

But before I go down the small claims court route, and start contacting every journalist in my network on a slow news day, I am giving you the opportunity to do the right thing, in the hope that public accountability is more efficient than your customer service helpline.

A child saved their pocket money for this. Sort it out.

[Mark Charlton @markc5022]

@easycouncil @carwowuk Citroen BX GTI 16v? On paper, faster than Golf GTI…

[Save Wimbledon Park @SaveWimbldnPark]

🚨 Important Update: Save Wimbledon Park Ltd has applied for permission to appeal the recent High Court decision about the AELTC Wimbledon Park Project. Support our cause by sharing this news! Read more: https://t.co/3IIsQvry9Y #SWP #WimbledonPark #CourtAppeal

[Earth_Wanderer @earth_tracker]

A wholesome thread on Simple Ideas can have big Impacts.🧵

1. Great idea 💡

[Green (tennis) not greed @Greennotgreed]

Spotted in Wimbledon Village today … what’s the betting this wins “Best Window” this year?

#greennotgreed #Wimbledon2025 #Wimbledon @SaveWimbldnPark @badfaithAELTC

[Mark Charlton @markc5022]

@Wimbledon Corporate greed and environmental destruction.

[Save Wimbledon Park @SaveWimbldnPark]

🚨 Big news! Two court cases are currently in progress regarding the future of Wimbledon Park. Support our mission and stay informed about our legal fight. Read the full update here: https://t.co/sNXfrnVLhQ #WimbledonPark #CrowdJustice #StayInformed #GreenNotGreed #Environment

[Putney.news @PutneyNews]

Bank Holiday long read:
From prestige to protest — the years-long row over Wimbledon Park comes to a head this summer in the High Court.
Why locals are taking on tennis powerhouses:
https://t.co/pcKxfBGHTU

[Mark Charlton @markc5022]

@Robbie133463 France are all over this. Surface car parks = Solar panels. Why is the UK not doing this - and also solar panels on the roof a requirement for every new residential and commercial new build?

[Green (tennis) not greed @Greennotgreed]

Just 3K to go to reach our target so we can go to Judicial Review of planning permission to build on protected Wimbledon Park by @Wimbledon 🎾
The fight continues!
#greennotgreed #Wimbledon #cprelondon #greendefenders #judicialreview

https://t.co/4KPp6rhNF8

[Save Wimbledon Park @SaveWimbldnPark]

Fifty Metropolitan Open Land (Green Spaces) under threat of development in the London area

If Wimbledon Tennis get permission to build over Wimbledon Park it sets a precedent – where next ?

Please help fund our legal costs in stopping this!

https://t.co/UpRBriZX3w

[Tim Peters @TimPeters517631]

Unbelievable destruction of Metropolitan Open Land so Wimbledon Tennis will have over 80 tennis courts for private use 3 weeks of the year. 8 years of construction traffic. Loss of 500 mature trees. They paved paradise and put up a parking lot. Environmental madness!

[Save Wimbledon Park @SaveWimbldnPark]

AELTC are NOT paying SWP’s costs in the one legal case (of two) that really matters - to stop the planning permission - which will see us in the High Court on July 8th and 9th. But only if we can raise the last of the £200k we need. Please help!

https://t.co/UpRBriZX3w

[Green (tennis) not greed @Greennotgreed]

Another packed meeting last night hosted by Andy Hamilton and joined by Thelma and Gabriel. We still have a long way to go so please donate here: https://t.co/4KPp6rhNF8

[Mark Charlton @markc5022]

@crazymamatami @ProudAFAmerican Ha!! You need to get out more!!