Ryanair is trying to charge me £210 to amend my flight reservation to the names I originally tried to book. On January 18 I attempted to book four return tickets from Bournemouth to Barcelona for my family. When I completed the booking, I noticed that the tickets were all in my name. When I realised the mistake, I tried to contact Ryanair. The first number, at 10p a minute, directed me to a £1-a-minute line, which hung up on me twice.

I phoned Bournemouth Airport and was told that the only option was to pay £70 for each change. The next day I drove to the airport, where two Ryanair staff told me that I must pay the full £210. I tried to telephone its head office. After 17 minutes of holding, I hung up.

On January 28 I wrote a letter. I received the following reply: “Our terms and conditions, which are also agreed to before purchase, detail that passenger names can be changed only on payment of a passenger name-change fee via a Ryanair Reservations Centre.”

Are you able to help?

JULIE JENKINS, Southampton

The bookings were changed back to your name when you went to the next booking screen because of autofill software on your computer. You did not notice, but it is an easy mistake to make. Given how easy the mistake, £70 seems pretty steep. However, Ryanair told Troubleshooter that the high fee is in place to stop travel agents from ripping off passengers by making block bookings and then selling the flights for a higher fee at a later stage. Ryanair, with characteristic audacity, is therefore arguing that its customers should be grateful for the charge. Ironic, but perhaps it has a point.

Obviously, Ryanair should not have applied the charge in your case and it has now changed the names without charge as a gesture of goodwill.

I am a 65-year-old widow. After my husband died I was provided with a state pension, a main private pension and a second private pension. The first private pension, with Legal & General, has been paid since my husband's death. Last November the pension was reduced and I was told that my tax code had changed. My tax office informed me that Legal & General had been using a code that the Revenue had not supplied. This month I received a tax bill for £1,291.87. I complained to Legal & General, which claimed that the tax office issued the code, so it was not its fault. Somebody is at fault and it is causing me a great deal of stress and worry.

CHRISTINE WHITTLES,

Ripley, North Yorkshire

The Revenue is to blame. It did not issue a revised tax code after it changed the pension coding, so you received duplicate allowances between October 2005 and last December. The Revenue says: “We should have updated the records or issued the new code to L&G.”

A right-on admission, but then he adds that there is no chance of a waiver because your case fails the “reasonable belief test”. This is when the Revenue considers whether a taxpayer could reasonably have believed that his or her tax affairs were in order. Although you believed that your affairs were in order, the Revenue says that it was not reasonable for you to have done so.

“Ultimately, the tax code is the individual's responsibility. The tax is due,” was the final, harsh, word. After Troubleshooter called, however, the taxman said that it will allow you to pay over two years instead of one, at a more affordable £53.79 a month. Nevertheless, you have decided to settle in full to “avoid further stress”.

We purchased a laptop from PC World last May but have had problems with the sound. PC World told us that it would have to go to the manufacturer for repair. Acer, the manufacturer, had the laptop for a couple of weeks, then contacted us to say that the machine had been registered previously to another owner and it thought that PC World had sold us a second-hand machine.

Acer said that it would return the laptop so that we could raise this matter with PC World, but it then sent the laptop to the person that it believed was the original owner. The laptop has not been returned to Acer and we are still without our machine.

GORDON ATKINSON, Cheltenham

“We are arranging to replace the laptop for Mr Atkinson, even though it was a business purchase and only has the manufacturer's warranty,” came the reply from PC World.

PC World says that it is “extremely unlikely” that the laptop was second-hand. A more likely explanation is that the serial number was keyed incorrectly when the other customer registered the laptop.

To tell us your problems, visit timesonline.co.uk/troubleshooter or write to Troubleshooter, Times Money, Times House, 1 Pennington Street, London E98 1TB

On the bright side

Diane Fellows, of Surrey, wrote to Troubleshooter to praise her local department store, Collingwood Batchelor, in Horley. “There was a sale and I needed a new double bed,” she says. “The problem was that I needed it that day and only if it would fit it in the car.

“The assistant abandoned his desk, rang for a van and driver, went to the depot three miles away, found the bed, carried it down and tried the size to see if it fitted in the car, wrote down my credit details and waved me on my way. All in under an hour.”

To tell us your tales of excellent customer service, visit Moneycentral.

Readers to the Rescue

My 18-year-old son acted as guarantor for his girlfriend to get an Orange mobile phone contract, as she was only 17. After they split up, the girl enhanced the package with chargeable options and then stopped paying for the phone.

My son is now being pursued by Orange for more than £400 and the girl and her parents refuse to discuss it. Apart from putting this down to an expensive lesson learnt, is there anything he can do?

D.B., Suffolk

Some imaginative and helpful suggestions. “Pay the bill and take the girlfriend to the small claims court,” came the advice from Stephen Linstead, of Solihull, and Peter Collins, from Chislehurst.

Mr Collins, who works in the debt collection industry, says: “Because he agreed to be guarantor, your son is obliged to settle the bill with Orange. But he can ask the ex-girlfriend to come to an out-of-court settlement. If she refuses, the small claims court will chase her for the debt on his behalf, even though she was a minor when the contract was taken out.”

Mr Collins also advises checking the default date on the debt, as your son's credit score might now be damaged. If it is, he can ask the credit reference agency to put a note on his file to explain the blemish.

Robyn Grant, who may or may not be speaking from bitter experience, suggested warning your son away from making guarantees to girlfriends in the future. Ms Grant will receive a £25 John Lewis gift voucher for her words of wisdom.

Can you help? Email troubleshooter@thetimes.co.uk with your answers to the following problem for a chance to win a £25 gift voucher.

“I have just changed jobs and was given a digital photo frame and a CompactFlash storage card as a leaving present. Unfortunately, the card does not fit into the unit bought.

“I took it to PC World but was told that as I had no receipt it could do nothing. I am left with a useless flash card. Where do people stand when given a gift but no receipt? Any suggestions on what I can do?”

ALAN WOODWARD, Warrington