Sarah

My boyfriend and I have been together 2 years 9 months, the last 2 years we spend Christmas Eve night with his family, we leave at about 10 am on Christmas Day. This year, it's different. We have our own place, we have our own little family in the form of two dogs and a cat. I want to include them in our Christmas. His family hates animals. Another thing is that their house is pretty crowded this year, we would be crammed on to a choice of a rock of a double bed or a single bed with springs digging in your spine. I'm not happy about this. The main thing is, although they can all speak fluent English, they speak Portuguese whenever I'm there, they don't speak to me apart from the odd word. I find it rude and ignorant. It makes me feel extremely left out and alienated. I don't really want to spend the holidays feeling this way. I don't know if he understands. Am I being rational about not wanting to spend the holidays with them? I want to leave at 10 pm, I don't want to stay there. What do you think?

Basically, I need a bit as a clarification. I work in a pub/restaurant, I'm 20 years old, I'm a girl and I'm like 5"0ft. I don't drive, buses stop running at 11, I can't afford taxis so I rely on my mum to pick me up. She can't pick me up after 11! She works pretty gruelling shifts, she needs her sleep, I don't expect her to cater to my every need. When she can't pick me up, i have to walk. This would be fine if the road I had to walk down to get home wasn't an A-road with no paths and no street lights for about a quarter a mile, it's not safe and I have had people pull over and try get me in their cars in daylight, I don't want to think about what would happen at night! So my bosses and team leaders know all this and yet they continue to put me on shifts called finishes which can (and have) led to me leaving and walking home at 12 at night. I don't feel comfortable doing this and have expressed this however my bosses and team leaders keep pressuring me into these shifts. I have at least three a week. Tonight, I was on a shift, I had done all my jobs, it was just before 11, I asked if I could go and I was denied! My team leader then created jobs for me that I wouldn't usually have to do. I then explained that I had to go because I needed to be picked up by my mum, I was sick of being walked all over. My team leader then said "that's not my problem". I just want yo know where I stand, is there anything I could do? Is it there problem? Or is it mine? If I was abducted or something, it surely would look good on the company.

So basically, in January I began learning to drive. Being unemployed with little money to my name, I chose one of the 10 for 99 deals. They gave me a male instructor who I will not name due to the nature of the question.

Everything was good at first, nothing out of the ordinary. He did however, spend a lot of time of his phone, not paying attention to what I was doing. I could only use 6 of the lesson and had to save 4 for my eventual driving test, I was ok with this as I didn't see the instructor as a problem at this point.

I obviously had to pay for more lessons. He said the normal charge is £200 but due to my financial situation he said he'd give me 10 lessons for £170. I was well happy with that, he explained I just give the money to him. So I did!

This is when things started getting weird.

He began paying even less attention to my driving, I have big problems at traffic lights where I'd stall because I try set off too fast and he'd get angry at me for not completing this correctly. He never taught me how to deal with the situation. Then he began saying inappropriate things abut his and his wife's relationship, began asking me questions about sex, talking about rape and he was late arriving to almost every lesson. Once he didn't turn up.

So I finally got up the courage to ring the company which supplied him as a driving instructor and I explained hat had happened. They understood but they were very hesitant in doing anything at first so I demanded to speak to a manager. I did at last. She got me a new instructor but pretty much all of my money I spend, about £300, was now gone. Being unemployed, that's a hell of a lot of money. They give me £60 and two free lessons. I am very submissive so I just accepted.

I began driving again with my new instructor. It was a nightmare, all my confidence in the car was gone, she made me feel that everything I was taught before was wrong so I had to start from scratch! I am now scared of driving and can't help feeling that I should of gotten more from the company. They've basically robbed me of £240 and taught my nothing about driving.

I just don't know what to do. I've called back and talked to them and they said in plain English that they're not willing to do anything more.

I want to drag there names through the mud or I want my money back. What should I do?