Episode 4 Watchdog

Tonight on Watchdog we find lax security at takeaway delivery

company which is allowing fraudsters to steal hundreds of thousands of

pounds from customers. I was shocked, as soon as we heard it we

were straight onto the bank to get the card cancelled. Plus, fly BA,

the services they removed after you paid for your ticket.

Hello and welcome to Watchdog from BBC broadcasting house. Another

bumper week of stories that you have sent into our team behind us.

Tonight, changes with British airway is, no sitting with your family or

free food and drink even when you pay for the privilege.

Black Friday is the biggest shopping day of the year and we can show you

how to avoid money and using it to scam artists.

Team Watchdog investigates whether it is cheaper to replace household

appliances rather than repair them. Yes, it is working really well. It

is not as hard as you think and it could save you money.

And Michelle is back with a new investigation. Who has got an old

phone gathering dust in a drawer. One recycling company says they will

buy it off you, but some customers say you will not get anything back.

I have lost my phone and my money and it is irritating because I could

have given the phone to somebody and they could have got more use out of

them. And in Rogue Traders are fly-tipper gets his day in court.

You might just remember this. It is only water. If you are wondering how

those puppy farmers could get away with it, they did not.

First, the way we order our take aways is changing fast. Nearly half

of all orders are made online. Deliveroo is one of the fastest

growing companies in the UK. You choose the restaurant and they will

fetch your food, but some customers are being charged hundreds of pounds

for food they have not ordered. Turquoise clad delivery riders, they

are becoming an increasingly common sight across Britain, whisking

through the traffic, transporting restaurant food to the homes of

hungry customers. It only launched three years ago, but already

Deliveroo is one of the most successful names in online takeaways

and it is expanding to towns and cities all over the UK. But

alongside growing sales figures are growing number of customers have

found it can be all too easy for fraudsters to use their accounts. We

have seen scores of complaints from Deliveroo customers who say their

accounts have been hacked, they have been charged for food they never

ordered. Including Judith Macfadyen from Reading. We had been out for

the day and I looked at my e-mail when I got home and I noticed I had

a thank you for your order e-mail from Deliveroo. I thought it was

strange and I opened it up and it said, thank you for your order from

a burger joint in Chiswick. I thought it was very odd and I looked

at my account and there had been four orders that afternoon to a

couple of addresses in London. It turned out fraudsters had hacked

into her account and ordered chicken, burgers, chips, milkshakes

and more to address is 30 miles away from her home. In the end more than

?240 was taken from the debit card that Judith used on her account. I

was pretty shocked. Does that mean they had all the card details? If it

were straight onto the bank to get the card cancelled. Deliveroo did

refund dude the full amount, but she was concerned by how easy it had

been for scammers to spend money from her account. It is not clear

how fraudsters got into her account, but one thing is certain, it is

happening time and time again. Margaret Warner from Manchester was

charged ?113 for chicken, waffles and chips she did not order. Steve

Taplin was charged ?98 for a delivery from a TGI Friday more than

80 miles away from his home. They both also got full refunds from

Deliveroo. I have come for lunch with flatmate Mary and Michael,

students at Southampton University. They share our household Deliveroo

account for their takeaways. How did you first discover that something

was wrong? We were at a party and it was 2:30am and we got a stream of

e-mails coming into the phone saying we had made various Deliveroo

orders. Yes, scammers had hacked into their account and ordered four

carries, and kebabs to an address in Leicester 120 miles away. Plus three

grilled chickens, four pizzas, five cheesecakes, garlic bread and eight

bottles of vodka to multiple locations across London. Quite a

party. What was your response? To stop any further payments coming out

we called up our bank to cancel our cars. How much money had gone? For

me it was ?220. Just over ?220 for me as well. ?440 went out of your

account? Yes. This is where we think Deliveroo has a serious problem.

Their system failed to pick up on multiple orders being made to

address is nowhere near the customer's home. How long did you

have to wait to get the money back? It came back yesterday, ten days

after the money was taken and being a student is a lot to lose. It is

awful, data nearly everything and I have had to beg, borrow and steal

off fellow flatmates and chorus friends and parents as well. You

might be wondering why Deliveroo cannot just track these criminals to

the address where the food is being delivered. It is not that easy. In

cases we have seen the scammers will meet the Deliveroo rider outside a

public building to collect the order. There seems to be a problem

with Deliveroo's security, so what is the company doing to protect

customers' accounts? Not enough according to Internet security

expert David McClelland. When we buy things online, the more hoops we

have to jump through to complete that poachers, the more likely we

will do something else instead and Deliveroo realises that. It tries to

remove as many hoops as possible. However, some of those they are

removing out there for security purposes. Whilst it makes it easier

for us to place orders, it is also making it easier for us to be

defrauded. We asked David to setup an account to see what they be doing

to prevent fraudulent transactions. It does not require the code that is

on our credit cards which means fraudulent transactions are going

through because they do not have the code in front of them. Others

require the customers to enter the code when delivering to an address.

Another area is looking at profiles and saying, normally they order a

curry from this curry house, and then spotting a transaction where

there is several hundreds of pounds worth of our goal being ordered at

the other end of the country. Delivery is not looking at that and

it certainly should be. It sounds simple enough. Deliveroo has grown

at lightning speed over the past three years. Surely it is time its

security caught up? This is what Deliveroo had to say. They sate

instances of fraud on its system are rare, but where customers have

encountered a problem it takes it very seriously. It says the cases

raised by Watchdog involved stolen food and not credit card numbers and

blamed criminals using login details stolen from another company to

access an account. Deliveroo says it is constantly improving security

measures and no frequently asks customers to verify themselves. It

says it uses detection techniques to block suspicious transactions.

Deliveroo has a bit of work to do to improve security, but we can protect

ourselves. If you think you are safe, listen. We used an online tool

widely available weather Team Watchdog e-mail accounts have been

subjected to a data breach. More than half of the group said their

login had been compromised at some point.

The problem is a lot of people use the same password for multiple

accounts, so if hackers break through one Internet site, they may

be able to access your password allowing them to get into all

accounts that use that password. Experts say make sure your password

is strong. Put together three words that are not related to you. You can

add numbers and punctuation. Choose a different password for each

different site and if you suspect you have been hacked, change your

password. More details on our website. Our

investigation into the company offering to buy your old phone, but

not always paying up. With two days to go until Black Friday, we have

some advise you will not want to miss.

Rogue Traders looks forward, keeping our eyes on the horizon for the next

scam and swindle, but occasionally we have to go back to rogues are

passed to make sure they get what they deserve. Yes, fly-tipping is

the scourge of the country, turning green and pleasant into dirty,

smelly and dangerous quicker than a power cut does to a fridge salad.

Mark Burstow was a champion fly-tipper, redefining the term by

selecting the most challenging and offensive of environments to

fly-tip. Who flighted a graveyard? Mark Burstow does. Martin Petch, the

warden at Millbrook in Southampton told us all about Burstow's frequent

visits to church. Describe what you would see when you

came around the corner? It was an assortment of materials from house

clearances, building materials, rubbish, Tories, it was all there.

It was a considerable amount that took several days to clear. How low

can he go? So, we got him to pick up a load of our rubbish with Smart

water which shows up in ultraviolet light. Just how much is getting rid

of this stuff going to cost? And off he goes. After making a pit stop the

tracker shows Mark took the rubbish to an industrial estate. We knew it

was ours because of the smart water. We had the evidence we needed to

show that at the Church of Rogue Traders he was a sinner and not a

bean. Time to hear his confession and where better than at another

church. We set up a pile of rubbish for him to collect and our actor

waited for the second coming. This is the rubbish I want to have moved

here. Map all right from BBC Rogue Traders. What is it about churches

in particular you do not like? Is it just churches where you fly-tip or

is it other places as well? He has only gone around the corner and he

is calling me. Hello. Sorry, I did not catch that last

bit, Mark. I think he is going to put a curse on me. But before long

he was back and he had slipped into something more comfortable. We have

got you tipping and we have traced it all the way. You might have my

rubbish in that place, but that rubbish would not have come from the

jobs I had done. My friend took the rubbish from my lorry and what he

does I do not know. And I still under a curse? A gypsy curse, yes.

The new look for this summer and autumn is... Did you get that? Yes,

we got that. So far his curse has not brought me any bad luck

whatsoever. Yes. I wish I could say the same for beer stove. Although

what he is experiencing is not bad luck, but the inevitable

consequences of illegal actions. In March, 2011, he was jailed for 33

months. It did not seem to have an effect because afterwards he

continued to fly-tip, except now he has rented a plot of land where he

could illegally dump and burn his rubbish. The Environment Agency do

not like that. Mike O'Neill from their South Downs branch does not

like it. When he came out of prison, he went

quiet for a bit, but then there were reports that he was operating

illegal waste sites around the Southampton area. The big thing for

us was when the fire that he was having on his site one evening set

fire to a tree and also to the neighbouring builders yard. The

police and the Fire Services attended. We identified him as Mark

Burstow. He said, it's my site. The cost of the damage to the builders

yard was ?53,000. And the damage is still festering now on the land. It

isn't often you catch someone read handing and they actually admit to

doing it, but it didn't stop there. This isn't some more footage from

the pub car park obtained by the police. That is Mark Burstow's van.

He is fly-tipping a couple of mattresses in broad daylight. The

manager was angered by what he saw. To get it off my land I had to pay

?250 on each occasion, totalling ?500. I have a real problem with

rubbish not been disposed of properly. It was clear that another

day in court was beckoning for Mark Bairstow. When it arrived in

September this year, we were there to see what we anticipated would be

a proper spanking. Here he is with some more fancy headgear. Going in,

but not coming out. Because Mark Bairstow pleaded guilty to

depositing waste without a licence, contravening an environmental

permit, and breaching an existing ASBO. He was sentenced to 30 weeks,

half of which will be served behind bars.

Yes, it seems that where broke fly-tippers are concerned, black is

the new Day-Glo. Remember gizmo, the dogs that we plucked from danger

last year? That means just is for rogue puppy dealers is just minutes

away. Before that, Steph. Our nationwide poll is whether you are

better off repairing broken appliances or buy new ones. In

Sweden, the government is working on tax breaks to encourage people to

repair things to reduce the waste. Let's have a look at our results on

this. We found that 12% of Brits said that they would consider

repairing their toasters and their irons, which are generally the

cheaper items. What about the more expensive ones? TVs, 40% said they

would, and that goes up for fridges, mobiles, and washing machines. The

big question is, can you actually save money from doing this?

We recruited a team of Watchdog viewers right across the UK to

test... Interrogate... I am not impressed with that. And investigate

how to get us all a better deal. This is Team Watchdog.

Hello, Team Watchdog. This week, I want to know if you are a six or a

ditch, and I don't mean in your love life. When something round your

house breaks, what do you do about it? We want to test if it is cheaper

to get your stuff repaired compared to replacing it. So we have set you

a challenge to get you started. Good luck. What does Team Watchdog thing?

I've had three, four, five years out of a washing machine. To me, that's

done it. If it breaks I will get a new one. If you have an item that

costs about ?1000, and costs ?700 to replace, I would replace it. We are

fixers. We are very efficient. Hundreds of years ago, things lasted

better than they do today. I feel there is some built in obsolescence.

That is a popular view. We have taken a regular household items, the

humble toaster, and asked them to see how easy it is to fix a simple

fault with it, and how much it would cost. The toaster part of it isn't

heating up. Imagining their toaster's heating element is broken,

we want them to find a replacement part and get a quote from a local

company for a fix. Will it be worth fixing, or is it just easier to

ditch it? I have been online to see if I can source one, and no one

seems to be able to supply one. We throw away 1.5 million tonnes of

electronic waste every year in Britain. Things were very different

70 years ago. It is a world away from the old make do and mend

attitude of World War II. As a rationing hit, Brits were encouraged

to get creative, fixing and reusing their old and worn out stuff. After

the war, this attitude towards repairing continued into the

following decades, and the emergence of a DIY culture in the 50s and 60s

meant a tool box became an essential part of many homes. But with greater

access to global markets now, it means that ever cheaper appliances

are filling our shelves. So if something breaks, we are less likely

to get it repaired and more likely to buy a new one. And manufacturers

don't always make it easy if you do want to repair. Some appliances are

produced with parts that you simply cannot replace. So what has Team

Watchdog found from their repair research? Our team told us the

average cost of their toaster was ?25, and only a quarter of them were

able to source a replacement parts for their toaster. On average, the

cost of this part was ?15. Plus the average cost of labour was ?16. I am

sure you are not surprised to hear that only one in 20 thought it was

worth repairing. What about other stuff? Coming up, I try to convince

a family of ditch is to become fixers. This is the first time I

have taken up an electrical device. And I will give you advice on how to

make your stuff lasts longer. So, probably not worth fixing a

broken toaster, but who is more likely to fix a washing machine?

There are differences with age and gender. 67% of 18 to 34-year-olds

said they would repair or consider repairing a broken washing machine,

compared to only 45% of its age 65 or over. There is a big gender

divide here. 20% of men say they would try to mend one themselves,

and 9% of women. 48% of women say they would pay someone to try and

fix it, compared to 39% of men. Let's see if I convince a ditcher

family that fixing might be easier than they think. This week I am

meeting two Team Watchdog families. First up, the Meyer family. They are

a family of self-confessed ditchers. We have a couple of things that

don't work. Pretty pricey things, like a fancy laptop. What happens to

them? They tend to gather dust in the spare room or the garage. They

get eventually replaced, but never fixed. So ditch rather than six?

Yes. This other family are a world apart. They are fixers. How often

are you fixing things in this house? I would say every week. Something

breaks and it gets fixed. Tell us about your boot. The rubber bit at

the bottom was peeling away, so I put some glue inside and put it

under a stack of books for a week. It is how we were brought up, to six

and repair things and not throw them away. We have asked our top fixers

to put together some video diaries with some advice to help the Meyer

family repair and get more out of their appliances. First tip, look

after those manuals. Follow the manufacturing guidelines. Don't

throw the manual away. If you have thrown it away, look for it online.

And don't throw away those annoying warranty forms. Some manufacturers

will offer a free parts guarantee long after your regular warranty has

run out. Secondly, make sure things like filters and replaceable parts

are kept in good working order. Tumble dryers have a thing that

pulls out that catches all the lint. This one is nice and clean because I

cleaned it earlier. There is another one here that catches lint. It is

important to clean those regularly and get rid of all Balint, and it

helps your machine function better be less likely to break down. And

look out for community fixing events, where experts will help you

see if an appliance has any life left in them. And this is where we

have sent the Meyers. First up, a swimming doll who no longer swims.

It's not long before they find the source of the problem. Is it a

common problem that battery operated products stop working, due to leaks?

Yes, especially older things. The connection goes bad and it builds up

more and more. So how are fixers clean out the acid. Then it is the

moment of truth. Then it is a broken digital radio. We plugged it in and

it just didn't work one day. I have to admit, this is the first time I

have ever taken the back off an electrical device. Got quite a few

cables here. A quick clean of the dust that has built up inside, and

the radio is good to go. But check with experts before fiddling with

your electronics. Excellent! Final challenge, a pricey laptop. The

screen goes on, but it isn't as bright as it once was. The screen

would need to be replaced. You can look into where you would find a

replacement. So it is the battery at fault, and at ?32 to replace, much

cheaper than a new laptop. Has all of this turns the Meyers into

fixers? I would definitely do it again. It would be exciting to see

more of these events around the country. If you want more details on

fixing events, check out our website and let us know how you get on.

Nice work. Now welcome to watch. Airways, where complaints really

take off. We are getting a lot of complaints about British air is

charging for things that were previously free stop ladies, having

a nice flight? Yes. Can we have three gin and tonics, cheddar cheese

Ploughman 's, a mozzarella Panini, and some were Saab EP is. Certainly.

?32. Is it not included in the price? No, because from now on,

British Airways will be charging for food and drink in economy cabins

flying to and from Heathrow and Gatwick from January. That is

exactly what it will cost you. The question of be a charging for food

is something that has annoyed one of our viewers. He booked his family

flights before BAe announced they would be charging for food, and he

worked out this could cost him up to ?78 extra. He wrote to agree-macro

to complain. It offered him a V 's points, which he turned down. BA

charging for other things that they never used to, like reserving seats

in advance. What happened to you? My wife and I booked a holiday to South

Africa, flying into Johannesburg and out of Cape Town. We decided that it

was a long flight and we needed extra legroom, so we looked on the

BAe computerised map, found the seats, paid an extra ?142, both

ways, and unfortunately when we arrived on the aircraft, the seats

were not where they had been indicated to be. ?142, and you did

not get what you thought you would? Know. So you could have gone online

the day before and got them for free? Yes. You must have been pretty

angry. Did you get a refund? The Cabinet crew said that if we wrote

to BA, we would get a refund, but that was not the case. We have

another upset customer here. Joan, you wanted to take your family

with you to Orlando with British Airways and it was imported you are

altogether, why was that? It was a mixture of adults and children and a

six-year-old and a 12-year-old granddaughter and a 12-year-old was

very nervous travelling and flying. On a flight like that we all wanted

to be together. I paid just under ?700 to reserve our seats so we were

all together. That is on top of the cost of the flights? That is right.

What happened? On the way out we were given our allocated seats, but

the problems started on the way back. The BA policy is you are not

allowed to check-in until 24 hours before the flight takes off and when

my son is checked in he found out we were separated which included the

six-year-old and a 12-year-old sitting away from the family. That

is what you wanted to avoid undue paid nearly ?700 to try and achieve

that and it did not work. You must have been furious. Very furious. It

is now November, that was in August, have they sorted it out? They have

still not put it right. Let's find out what they had to say.

We put your complaints to BEA who told us this. BA will be charging to

food to offer the lowest possible fares, adding it informed customers

as early as possible of this change. They say Russ tag art flew in the

seat he selected which did not offer extra legroom. It says seat plans

are for guidance only. All customers can book seats for a free 24 hours

before flying. BA has apologised to Joan for the delay in giving her a

refund, which it has now paid. It says when it changes aircraft it

sometimes has to move passengers which it explains when booking. If

you have had problems with BA or any other airlines, get in touch.

They are going to pay you. Are you happy with that? It would be good to

see the money because at the moment I have not seen it. If they do not

get you that, get in touch. Come up, the pyjamas you cannot

sleep in. And Black Friday scams, if you are shopping online how can you

avoid it being a dark day? Rogues revisited, and groundhog day for the

ones who did not get away. We know they can wind you up, but I do not

think we have ever had a response when we showed you Bernadette and

John Wilcox who ran a puppy farm in Wiltshire. But what we did not

anticipate was just how appalling their trade wars.

Last autumn we went on the trail of puppy dealers of John Wilcox and

Bernadette Nanny after receiving very worrying complains in Wiltshire

that they were selling six dogs for profit to people who loved animals.

Emma Castle made the mistake of responding to one of their adverts,

but as soon as she got to the farm she started to feel uneasy.

There were two Westies in and out building in a cage with hay in the

bottom. I started to think, what is going on? It made me nervous. He got

them out of the cage and she clung to me and she was skin and bone and

was really then. I said, I have got another dog, but there were no

questions coming back to me in terms of making sure that the dog was

going to a good home. Emma could not leave Daisy Bell, so she paid ?350

to take her home. I know it is the wrong thing to do, but I knew that I

could deal with a vet bill and as a dog lover I could not leave her

there. But within days Emma found out that Daisy had fleas and she

began vomiting and bleeding. The vet confirmed that Daisy had a

life-threatening virus. They have not had a puppy that has survived

this before at the vet's before. But after three days on a drip Daisy

pulled through. It turned into a mercy mission. Yes, ultimately we

are dealing with people who do not seek animals as animals, they see

them as a commodity to make money out of. Sadly, the only way to find

out what is going on is to buy a dog ourselves. It is a big

responsibility and something we prepared for, making sure that as

soon as we bought our dog we would give it proper care and a home for

life and the vets came with us. He was posing as a buyer. Have you had

lots of puppies? It became clear just how little time

they had for animals in their care when Mike assessed the puppy that we

bought, who we named gizmo. He is shockingly underweight and his spine

is standing out and you can rattle those ribs and he looks terrified of

life. Gizmo was in a terrible state and we wanted to know how anyone

could allow an animal to get this fixed, let alone to make money from

it, so we returned to the farm to ask John and Bernadette to explain.

How can you own dogs yourself and still keep that many? Call the

police any time you like. How can you sell dogs in that condition to

people who take them home and within days they die. We tried to look to

see where the dogs are kept so we could understand the conditions that

Gizmo had been kept in. John Wilcox did not want us anywhere near there.

How can you keep dogs in this condition and then hand them out to

people? What are you doing with that? Are you going to jet wash us.

We made for the exit, but John made sure that we were not leaving drive.

There is nothing dirty about us, John. You are the one who needs

cleaning up. It is only water, John. You are the one who needs to clean

up your act. Then things took a much more serious turn. A woman at the

farm picked up a break and threw it at our cameraman. It bounced off the

back of his camera and then his neck. Get off! We made a fast exit.

Or at least we tried to, because as we left the farm a white van and two

of John Wilcock's friends are blocked the exit. Luckily the pleas

were nearby and we were able to drive away, but even then we were

followed and intimidated until they eventually gave up.

You had a lucky escape as did the gorgeous Gizmo.

Unfortunately the illegal trade in puppies is still growing. A raid

that took place in North Wales earlier this month were almost 100

puppies were rescued from filthy, non-ventilated lorries. That trade

can only continue as long as we continue to buy puppies from places

like this. The problem is when you buy you may

not realise who you are dealing with. What are the questions you

should be asking? First of all, where is the puppy's mother? If the

sellers cannot produce the mother, do not accept an excuse. Be prepared

to walk away however far you have travelled and indeed however much

you have fallen in love with the puppy. Visit more than once and ask

lots of questions about the puppy you are thinking of buying. Do not

pick the puppy up from an arranged location or even have it brought to

your own home. You do not have to buy a puppy.

Always check with your local rescue centre who will have plenty of dogs

who desperately need new homes. There is more information on our

website and if you suspect somebody of being a rogue dealer or puppy

trader, we will investigate. We are not done with the illegal

puppy farm yet, find out what happens to them.

What is next? We have had a lot of people writing to us and a lot of

people saving money. A couple of people commenting on my German.

Apologies. Remember a couple of weeks ago we were talking about

broadband speeds and the fact providers could advertise a speed as

long as 10% of their customers could get that speed. I mentioned those

rules could change and now the Advertising Standards Authority have

said that these descriptions of up to speeds are confusing and it will

be changed in spring, 2017. Stewart Butterfield sent us an e-mail and

this is a picture of him with his grandson. He got in touch about

these pyjamas. He noticed that on the tag it says they should not be

worn to sleep in. He complained in store and a manager told him that

top is too warm to wear in bed and should be worn after a bath and

before going to bed. Stewart said his grandson is not Noel Coward, he

is 18 months old and when children put on pyjamas they normally go to

bed. He got a refund, but was concerned at their parents might not

notice the warning. We contacted Tesco and it has changed its mind

and it says it is completely safe to wear this loungewear set when

sleeping and they are changing the messages. Thank you very much for

contacting us, Stuart. Another e-mail is from Andy Osborne and he

is a guitar player and teacher from Dorset. He was on a Ryanair flight

when his guitar got smashed and the airline said it would pay for the

repairs. But when Andy sent the receipt the airline refused to

reimburse the ?450 because it said the receipt did not have the right

company information. We contacted Ryanair which has now refunded Andy

and he sent us this lovely message. Thank you, Watchdog, for getting the

result I could not get. Thank you. Thank you for all of your

messages. If you want to get in touch with us, here are the details.

And of course you can e-mail us. You can write to us as well.

93% of us own or use a mobile phone, but what do you do with your old

handset when you upgrade? There are plenty of companies offering to buy

your old mobile. You can make hundreds of pounds, but can you

trust them to give you a fair deal? The Shell has investigated one of

the biggest companies called Phone Recyclers, who do not always come up

with the money. Whether you shove them in a drawer

or chuck them in the bin or lose them entirely, it is estimated there

are 90 million unused phones in the UK, but a growing number of us are

starting to sell our phones to companies offering to recycle them.

The offers look tempting. A smartphone like this can fetch up to

?600, but we have heard from lots of you with suspicions about how these

phones are being valued. The company we get the most complained about is

Phone Recyclers. It is simple, you go to the website, it values the

foam, you pop it in the post, it checks the condition and then it

sends you money. Simple. That is the idea, but a number of you say it has

not been delivering on its promises. One of those who contacted us is

generally from Oxfordshire. She said her two-month-old phone to them back

in May. I said my iPhone and got an original price of ?79. After testing

it they said it was worth ?46, claiming there was damage on the

back and front. She disputed the damage, but eventually accepted the

lower price. I was always careful, so I knew it never had any damage

that they claimed. I accepted the offer because I thought it was

better than nothing. Phone Recyclers promised her she would be paid

within 48 hours, she was not. I started ringing the contact number

on the website and I must have run them about ten times and I still had

nothing. It is irritating because I could have given the phone to

somebody I knew and they could have got much more use out of it.

In the end, Phone Recyclers only paid Joely back after we contacted

them. This is a story we hear time and time again. There are lots of

complaints online. We sent in the Watchdog mystery shoppers to

investigate for ourselves. Well, the mystery phones, really. We got

ourselves five phones, all in good condition. No scratches, no dents,

no damage. It seemed Phone Recyclers didn't agree with us. Every single

phone we sent them they seemed to think was damaged, and each time,

they knocked down the price from their original valuation. First up,

this Samsung Galaxy Ace. Phone Recyclers initially offered as ?20,

but due to scratches on the back, and screen, and all over the body,

that we were unable to see, they only offered us ?13. Next, the

Alcatel pixie numerics three. They offered us ?15, but dropped it to

?10 20 due to scratches on the screen and body. Then this Nokia

Leumi 710. We were promised ?15, but then that dropped to ?7 80 due to

scratches and dents. Are you spotting a pattern? That is what

they did without the cheaper phones. Time to upped the ante. What would

they do with more expensive models? We sent in the Samsung Galaxy letter

alphanumeric five. Due to the "Back cover deep scratches" as well as a

scratches all over the body and screen, they only offered us ?48.

Worst of all, this Samsung Galaxy phone, original offer ?54. But due

to the scratches all over the body, back cover scratches and the Google

account being locked, which we ensured was not, they offered us a

total of nothing. Yes, every single one of the phones that we sent in

and saw the price reduced for damage that we simply couldn't see. We took

the money for two of the phones and asked for the other three back.

Phone Recyclers promise to pay us within 48 hours. This didn't happen,

and they didn't send the phones back either. Mystery damage, reduced

quotes, and payments nowhere to be seen. What is going on, Phone

Recyclers? So what did Phone Recyclers have to

say about the investigation? They told us it sincerely apologises for

the inconvenience caused to customers. It said it is a growing

business and has experienced some administrative problems. It admitted

it had dropped its commitment to customer service, and it did say

that it had credited Joely with money. It said it aimed to resolve

customer problems in a swift and timely manner. Black Friday is

coming up this Friday. What advice do you have? Black Friday is about

short-term sales, and people will go out there trying to bag what appeals

to be a great deal. The main thing to watch out for is making sure that

deal is as good as it appears. Which attracts a number of deals over a

number of different shopping sites, and they found that only 8% of deals

were cheaper on Black Friday. You could think that it was cheaper on

Black Friday, but it could be cheaper on another day. Viewers have

been in touch about Superdrug's members only Black Friday deal.

Amanda got in touch because she thought she got a great early Black

Friday deal. She got this Perthshire am on a great deal for ?15. She was

then told by Superdrug that they were not going to honour that deal.

Superdrug said that they were sorry, it was human error, and they

apologise to customers affected. You also have to watch out who you buy

from. What about fraudulent vendors? Shoppers have been warned to be

particularly wary about buying from third-party traders on online

marketplaces. Some cheeky fraudsters or allowing you to process an order,

and then asking you to cancel and do it via a bank transfer. Try and

avoid that as possible. People can get carried away with the madness

that is Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and fraudsters take

advantage of that. They take advantage of hasty purchases. So

take some time to think about the purchase you are making. And

finally, the extra careful. There's a lot of links and e-mails going

around on social media. You can be enticed by things that look like a

great deal, but in fact are a scam. Back to Yorkshire now and illegal

poppy sellers. We received complaints they were selling six

dogs kept in appalling conditions at their base in Yorkshire. The RSPCA

also launched an investigation. They visited the farm with the police and

what they found was truly shocking. We have not been able to share their

footage with you until now. Please be warned, the following contains

images many of you will find distressing.

On the 24th of September 2015, the RSPCA and the police raided this

farm. Gizmo had been very lucky to escape. I met with Mike Butcher,

RSPCA Chief inspector for the investigations unit, to get the full

information. Tell me about your experience with the farm. There had

been a number of complaints. We had been before with individual

complaints and not been that welcomed. This time, they will

warrant was issued because of the amount of complaints. Once inside,

officers made a chilling discovery. We are not showing you all the

footage of everything found by the RSPCA, because it is too upsetting.

This is the first thing RSPCA officers saw. A pile of poppies in a

wheelbarrow. One still breathing, but the others all dead. That was

quite horrendous. A number of officers and inspectors were

affected by that. The surviving puppy was rushed to the vet, but

sadly, died later that day. Do we know what they died of? They died of

a virus. You can protect against it. Against the odds, some dogs had

survived. Inspectors found living in squalid conditions without water or

bedding. Among them was a litter of very young puppies with no mother in

sight. There was 43 dogs and puppies found on the day. Following the

raid, John will cut and Bernadette Nani worth charged with causing

unnecessary suffering to animals. What was the reaction of despair in

court, when this evidence was presented? Uncooperative and

unfriendly. They spoke to the inspector with threats of violence.

That is John Wilcock's speciality, as we discovered for ourselves. The

case was heard at Leeds Magistrates' Court last month. The evidence

produced in court was what was filmed on the day, but there were

over 20 statements of witnesses who bought puppies who then became ill

in some ways, because of the neglect it had beforehand. With such a

strong case against them, the pair were both convicted of animal

cruelty offences. They were sentenced last Friday, hurrying into

court to try to hide from view. They were banned for life from keeping,

trading or transporting dogs, and handed a 20 week suspended prison

sentence. I met up with RSPCA Chief Inspector Ian Briggs for his

reaction. The band that was imposed on the defendants is ultimately what

we were looking for. An indefinite ban on them possessing and trading

dogs is key for us to monitor and intervene, should they try and start

back up in the future. Some people might be surprised and disappointed

that neither of those characters, given the footage we saw, has gone

to prison. Ordinarily, yes, you would expect that cruelty at that

level would end up with a prison sentence, but they were sentenced

within the limitations of the animal welfare act. They have not gone to

jail today, but they do have an indefinite ban on possessing and

participating in the trading of dogs. For them, the trading dogs was

their lifeblood. That is what they were making their money from. How do

you enforce that ban? If anybody out there has dealings with those

people, we need the public to notify ourselves or the police. We want to

know if you encounter John Wilcock or Bernadette Mani having anything

to do with dogs, or anyone you suspect having anything to do with

this trade. The rogues' Gallery has three faces on it, but there is

plenty of room for them on it. Do keep sending us your stories and

your tip off. Go to our website. You can write to us as well, at this

address. Next week on Watchdog, our energy special. We will show you the

latest ways to make sure you are paying the lowest unit price for gas

and electricity. And Team Watchdog are on an energy efficiency drive to

show you how to reduce the amount you use in the first place. See you

next Wednesday at 8pm. Goodbye. with even bigger stars, even bigger

laughs and even bigger surprises.