B&Q Don't Get Done Get Dom

'I've been backing your consumer rights for years,

'but it seems some companies still aren't getting the message.'

The main aim and goal for companies is profit.

They don't care about the customers.

'Day in, day out, thousands of you are still being taken for a ride,

'and it's always the same old things -

'shoddy products, small print and bad customer service.'

If they are rude to the customers, they're the losers, big time.

'Some firms are driving you barmy, causing you sleepless nights

'and making you feel like you're the one to blame.'

But don't despair, because I'm here to take up the fight

and make sure that you don't get done.

Coming up on today's show...

'One family's fight against their bathroom installers

'which went down the plughole.'

See the state that they've left it in.

Anybody should know that, especially a B&Q fitter.

'Follow my guide to pension and I'll try

'to help you avoid the pot from running dry.'

The way things are now, I'm going to have to carry on working

probably till I'm 70.

'And we hit the high street to find out

'if you know your consumer rights from your consumer wrongs.'

So that's really interesting.

No matter how good we might think we are at DIY,

when it comes to things like showers and bathrooms,

most of us will get in the professionals.

With tiling, plumbing and fixtures and fittings all coming together

in a confined space, there's a lot of things that can go wrong.

Oops.

When it comes to giving your home that much needed makeover,

a lot of us return to a company, a name that we trust.

But not just to buy the goods, also to get them to fit them.

The trouble with that is,

what happens when your redecorating dream turns into a nightmare?

And one family know that situation only too well.

Meet John and Judy Stenstrom,

who live in Cheshire with their three daughters.

In 2006, they thought it was high time that their four-bedroom house

was treated to a bit of a makeover

and decided to splash out on a new kitchen and some new bathrooms.

When the house is that old you have to spend some money

on the bathrooms and the kitchens.

They have to be replaced, and these really needed replacing.

I'd rather spend money on nice things and fun things and holidays,

but we had to get a new bathroom and we had to get a new kitchen.

'I agree, topping up a tan in Tenerife is much more appealing

'than new sinks and taps, but with little choice

'but to fork out for those practical necessities,

'John and Judy wanted to go with a name they trusted,

'which is why they opted for DIY giant B&Q.'

The staff in the shop were excellent and really helpful

and helped us pick out tiles,

something if you've not done before, you don't know what goes with what.

So I thought the staff in there were really good and really helpful.

'In fact, John and Judy were so impressed,

'they bought a new kitchen, along with not one, not two,

'but three spanking new bathrooms.

'They paid for the kitchen outright, but put the cost of the bathrooms -

'just shy of £12,500 - on a finance deal with B&Q.

'The price included the suites and the installation

'by professional fitters, which they were told

'would be arranged and overseen by B&Q.'

One of the aspects that really sold it to me

was the project management, the idea that they would take hold

of our project for us and they would run it from start to finish.

There was nothing for us to worry about.

All we had to do was pick the bathrooms, pick the tiles,

and leave everything else to them.

Really good idea. That's exactly what we wanted to happen.

But sadly, it didn't happen, and not by a long stretch.

Soon after the bathrooms were installed,

John and Judy got that sinking feeling.

Their three spanking new bathrooms were riddled with defects.

Leaking seals and dodgy tiling were just the tip of the iceberg.

We couldn't use the bath one day or the shower the other day,

we were left with a toilet and very little other facilities upstairs.

Everything that could go wrong has gone wrong.

John contacted B&Q,

who immediately sent someone round to investigate their problems.

When that didn't work, they sent somebody else round.

And then somebody else and THEN somebody else.

I think you know where this is going.

We were constantly visited by streams of different builders

attempting to make repairs and we're still waiting.

And when John says waiting, he means REALLY waiting.

Five years in fact.

His hopes of getting it sorted have disappeared down the plughole,

and that's why he's contacted me.

So here I am in Cheshire to try and get to the bottom of it.

Hmm. Hope not.

-John.

-Hello, Dom. How are you? Nice to meet you.

-And nice to meet you.

'John immediately wants to show me the damage,

'and on the surface, the £12,500 bathrooms looks nice and shiny.

'But as I'm led towards the stairs, I don't have to look far

'for clues that something's not quite right.'

Here you can see the damage that's been caused by the shower.

This is the reason we haven't been able to use the shower for the past two years.

Because it's leaking and the ceiling's cracking.

The first thing you see when you come down the stairs, all that.

-OK. What else, John?

-Let's go to the bathroom.

'And it soon becomes obvious that beneath the false veneer

'lies a multitude of sins.'

You can see as soon as you walk in here, this particular wall

is bowed here, got chipped mosaics, they're are unevenly set...

I can see the grouting at the to. That looks awful.

That's quite an eyesore.

And I've got the same problem with the window.

We've got this area where they've used trim that's too big for the job.

That is such a stupid mistake.

That... It's only a few quid to buy,

and throughout every single bathroom, they've obviously realised they had the wrong one.

Rather than replace them they've just tried to bodge round it.

-It's just all little, niggly sloppy bits, isn't it?

-Yeah.

If any of these...

If it was just one of these defects,

you'd' live with it to a small scale, but the number of defects

in every room is just completely unacceptable.

Which is the room with the shower that's leaking?

We'll go there next.

Again, the suited look OK at first glance,

but the way they've been fitted leaves a lot to be desired.

-Here's the shower room, Dom.

-All right.

You can see the similar visual defects.

Look around the door, there's a tile that's been missed altogether.

-And they just filled it with grout?

-Yeah.

-OK.

Inside the shower, you can see there's a tile been removed

where they've just dot and dabbed.

We can see again the problem on the window with the incorrect size trim.

Along here, you can see the mosaic tile, where they're unevenly set.

Looking around, only one word springs into my mind - shoddy.

But, there's something else even more shocking.

Now, I just want to have a look at these lights.

Easy with the light off, but you can see they're heavily pitted,

which concerns me, because electrical lights in a bathroom,

you have to be extremely careful with.

If they are the wrong ones,

there's always that risk of electrocution.

I'm not saying they are,

but it does concern me that water has affected those like that.

I just noticed down there, that also looks extremely sloppy, doesn't it?

You can look underneath the shower tray,

if we pull that away, and you can see the state that they've left it in.

Right.

Along the right-hand side there,

-you can see evidence of where the water has run through.

-Right.

Where it's leaked.

You can also see that they've tiled here onto the floor boards,

so as the floorboards have got damp and they've moved,

it's resulted in one of the tiles here cracking.

Now, that is the basic ABC of building.

You've got floorboards here, which flex and you've got ceramic tiles.

Someone has stuck them directly on there, so, they're going to crack.

Anybody should know that! Especially a B&Q fitter!

-You'd think so.

-If it was an apprentice, on his first day,

maybe you'd allow a bit of slack. Other than that, not good enough.

OK, I've seen enough, John.

Thanks very much.

John not only paid B&Q £12,500 for this botched job bonanza,

he also bought one of their kitchens

and I want to find out what state that's in.

Very fortunately,

we didn't have anywhere near the problems with that particular job.

Was it different fitters that fitted the kitchen to the bathrooms?

Yes, two completely different teams.

John is more than happy with the kitchen that B&Q installed.

Shame the same team of fitters didn't put in his bathrooms.

And, as John's battle with B&Q dragged on,

just to add insult to injury,

the shower started leaking, ruining the ceiling and the family karma.

We've lived without a shower now effectively for two years.

How many times have you had a problem

with the ladies being in there

and you need in and it's come to verbal blows?

-On a regular basis!

-Has it really?

-I know my place now.

-Right, OK.

That doesn't sound like much fun,

and John's daughters are equally as fed up with the lack of facilities.

We're all waiting to get a bath and it's really annoying.

Tensions are rising in the house.

The amount of stress over who's in the bath next

and why nobody's had a bath yet at this time of night...

Doesn't bear thinking about, really.

If I'm going to stand a chance

of getting John's family life back on track,

I need to find out what he's been doing

to sort out his bothersome bathrooms.

The thing that surprised me is that it's been going for 5 1/2 years.

You've obviously not just sat on your laurels, you've been trying to sort it out.

Yeah, we had a period of about nine months,

where they would come along and fix some of the problems.

They documented all of the defects

in great detail, very early on in the case.

-Three big files there, John.

-Yeah.

It's been ongoing for a while, hasn't it?

John tells me that three months after the bathrooms were installed,

a B&Q manager carried out an inspection

and produced a report which outlined 36 jobs that needed to be done,

including some major works to the tiling.

They determined that the tiling was of such a poor standard,

the best solution was to rip it out and retile it

and that was the plan at Easter 2007.

-And that came from one of the bosses at B&Q?

-Correct.

That's his report, that was his recommendation.

So, why didn't they do it?

We went away on holiday, they had free access to the house,

-over the Easter period.

-Right.

When we got back off holiday, the job hadn't been done

and then the manager that's dealing with you, disappears,

you don't hear from them for six months.

And then, when they come back again,

they deny that the problems actually exist.

Half a decade and three managers later,

many of the faults on the original report

still haven't been rectified

and because of this, John has refused to pay them a penny.

However, there is one thing B&Q have managed to deliver

on several occasions and that's the bill.

They had their legal people sending us letters

threatening to take us to court.

I referred back to the original defect report

and asked them to come back and check it.

-They hadn't got a copy of it on their file.

-Ouch.

So, they asked me to send them a copy of their report, which I did.

The next I heard of it, was in 2010, when they sent me another letter

threatening to take me to court if I didn't pay them.

So, they've done nothing in between.

You don't want to pay any money until it's sorted out

and all they seem to be doing, every now and again

their computer systems throw up this huge debt outstanding,

you get a letter and get chased. You throw that back at them,

and it all lies dormant again.

-This could go on for decades.

-That's right.

And to further complicate matters,

John and B&Q have been quibbling over the price.

After identifying the defects, they dropped the cost

of the bathroom from £12,500

to £7,500 and then...

£6,000. Crikey! I can hardly keep up!

In the latest letter they sent me, they advised me

to go to the Furniture Ombudsman. I agreed to that

-in order to prevent the case going to court.

-Yeah.

Eventually, the ombudsman sent a consultant along to do an inspection.

-I've got a copy of his report.

-You presented that to them.

-What did they say about it?

-The ombudsman came back

and their decision found in my favour.

However, the ombudsman still felt

that I ought to pay B&Q some money.

In fairness here, and I'm sitting on the fence,

you have had £12,500 worth

of bathrooms and en-suites installed,

not properly, and I'm not saying it's been done correctly,

but as far as you're concerned,

are you happy to be paying some money for what you got?

I'm happy to pay B&Q some money,

when we've got a bathroom installation that's serviceable.

That's the answer I wanted to hear.

I completely understand why he wants B&Q to finish what they started

and not just walk away after five years, because if they don't,

John could be facing a large bill to clean up this mess himself.

That's why I want him to do some research for me,

to find out what it will cost to sort this lot out.

What I'd like you to do for me,

is to get some kitchen and bathroom installers and fitters

to come round and price up how much it would cost

to replace those bathrooms at today's prices.

Hopefully, talking to more tradesmen

won't send John completely around the bend!

Wow!

This is over five years worth of correspondence

between John and B&Q, just because he's trying to get this sorted out.

Now, B&Q are a huge company,

they should have done the job right first time round.

The fact it's five years late,

is going to cause me all sorts of problems.

Still, it won't put me off. I'll get a result.

But, as I get busy with B&Q,

John receives some shocking news.

You're looking at around £10,000.

Consumer law can be very confusing.

You've got your Sales Of Goods Act, distance selling,

right to return, I could go on and on.

And knowing a few of these laws can save you, not only money,

but a lot of hassle as well.

My research team have been out on the street, armed with questions

to put to you, the buying public, to find out

if you know your consumer rights, from your consumer wrongs.

Today, we've hit the shopping centres in our quest for spreading knowledge.

First question for you shrewd shoppers - liquidated lamp.

You buy a lamp from a shop, but two months later, it breaks.

When you go to take the lamp back,

you find out the shop has gone bust. Can you still get your money back?

I guess not, because the shop is not there any more.

I don't suppose you could do anything?

If you bought it with a credit card,

you should be able to get your money back.

Correct.

But one out of three is pretty poor.

Any purchase, between £100 and £30,000

made using a credit card or certain debit cards,

is guaranteed under the Consumer Credit Act.

But, and there's always a but,

you have to raise the claim within 120 days of the shop going bust.

So, if you're worried about the stability of the shop,

stick it on a credit card.

That's like a pleasant surprise, to be honest.

Well, I'm pleased to hear it. It's all part of the service.

Next up, boiler breakdown.

Your boiler breaks down,

but you should be covered under its warranty.

When you come to the claim, the warranty provider won't pay out

as the boiler hasn't been serviced in the past year. Can they do this?

Probably they can.

That should be fair.

OK, I think they could do that.

Correct. Three out of three, I am impressed!

Most new heating appliances come with a warranty,

but these may carry certain conditions.

Failure to get your boiler serviced regularly is not only dangerous,

it could render your warranty invalid,

leaving you to pick up the bill if it goes wrong.

Terms and conditions of warranties vary from company to company,

so make sure you thoroughly check small print.

Do I win something?

I'll stick a medal in the post and if you keep listening,

you might even learn something more. Last up, contract killer.

You sign up for a mobile phone contract in a shop,

but then find the contract much cheaper with a different company.

You go to cancel your current contract. They say you have to pay

the remainder of the contract or a cancellation fee. Can they do this?

I think they can do this.

You've signed the contract, you can't cancel it.

I'd imagine they can do.

Yes they can.

Correct.

Once you sign up to a phone deal in a shop,

you are contractually obliged to honour the length of the contract,

or pay the cancellation fee outlined in the terms and conditions.

Some providers in phone shops offer customers a cooling off period

which allows you to cancel the contract

within a specific timeframe,

but you should clarify this before making your purchase.

Never signed a contract in a shop, so that's really interesting.

It just goes to show, it pays to be a cautious consumer.

I'm pleased some of you are on the road to becoming brilliant buyers,

but as for the rest of you, there's still a bit to learn.

I've been called in to help John Stenstrom and his family wash their hands

of their bathroom botched job.

Five years ago, they had three shiny new suites supplied by DIY giant B&Q

and fitted by a team of their approved contractors

but it didn't take long for the sheen to wear off

as they soon discovered the bathrooms were riddled with faults.

Several B&Q managers initially spotted the problems,

but failed to get a grip on the repairs.

So, poor old John's hit a brick wall.

I thought it was quite incredible,

trying to deal with a company like B&Q

and being met with total resistance.

John's even written to the chairman of B&Q,

quoting the trusty Supply of Goods and Services Act and I agree.

John's got them bang to rights.

But the only thing B&Q are chasing John for is their payment!

Originally £12,500, which dropped

to £7,500 and then £6,000 for the pleasure

of having his families lives blighted for the past five years.

But before I get down to business,

I want to take a closer look at who I'm up against.

B&Q takes its name from the initials of the firm's founding fathers,

Mr Block and Mr Quayle,

who set up their first DIY store in 1969.

40 years later,

they've grown to be the largest DIY retailer in Europe.

Oh, I love a bit of a challenge! Watch out B&Q!

I'll hammer on your door until I get John's bathroom sorted once and for all!

Poor old John has been waiting over five years

to get all his problems sorted out.

Let's see if I can speed that up a little bit...

Good morning. How can I help you?

Good morning, my name's Dominic Littlewood

and I'm calling from the BBC.

I need to speak to somebody about a problem with one of your customers.

'But, I'm not holding out too much hope for a speedy response,

'as it's a couple of calls just to get through to the right person.'

The problem's been going on since 2006.

Because it's been going on for so long, there's been quite a few complaints

and a Furniture Ombudsman was actually called in.

'I'll leave them to dig out John's file,

'but if they think I'm waiting five years, they've got another thing coming.'

The lady on the other end of that phone

didn't want her side of the conversation used - fair enough.

But I got all her details.

I've put the cat amongst the pigeons with a few of the things I've said,

but then I pushed for the boss' number and I got it.

I've got the phone number

and I've also got her name and her e-mail address.

Not going to ring her yet, but that's the little ace up my sleeve,

just in case I need to start really rocking the boat.

Right, B&Q, come on, sort your act out.

So, whilst I wait for B&Q's next move,

I'm going to have a nosy at the report John received from the Furniture Ombudsman.

The Furniture Ombudsman is an independent organisation

which specialises in providing dispute resolution solutions

to consumers and retailers

in the furniture and home improvement industry.

They sent an inspector round to look at John's bathrooms

and the results are pretty damning.

After a thorough inspection, the report outlined 12 areas of concern

including poor tiling, a leaking shower and corroded radiators.

But that wasn't all...

In John's case, they found the fitters were far from fabulous.

The report stated,

"I can find very little in the way of properly executed workmanship"

and that they "failed to demonstrate

"the necessary skills and expertise to carry out such a project."

So for me, the bottom line is,

the contractors B&Q hired to fit the bathrooms completely bodged it up,

but what does the Furniture Ombudsman suggest as a solution?

The type of remedies that we will make in an adjudication

can vary from case to case.

Sometimes, we might award compensation.

Sometimes, we might award remedial work,

depending on what evidence has been supplied from the expert consultant.

In John's case, they suggested he pay B&Q a reduced price of £4,000

for the badly fitted bathrooms and then walk their separate ways.

John rejected FIRA's decision.

The thing is with John, he never had up problem paying for the goods.

He was just concerned that he'd be left with a big bill

putting right B&Q's wrong.

The past few weeks have seen

a flurry of e-mails between me and B&Q.

I sent them the Furniture Ombudsman's report,

but it seems B&Q have tried to avoid yours truly

and contacted John directly.

He's happy for me to handle this one

and has bounced them straight back to me.

I want to find out what it was about.

Good morning, can I speak to Parveen, please?

Somebody from B&Q called John the other day, were you aware of that?

Have you any idea what they wanted to speak to him about?

Parveen, at B&Q's PR firm, says

they just wanted to discuss the bathroom issue with John,

but they've had five years to do that!

He requested that you deal with us as it's been going on too long.

Now I've cleared that one up, it's time to find out

what they think of the Furniture Ombudsman's report,

which I might add, says exactly the same

as the reports produced by B&Q's own managers.

What's the news on this one?

'She says B&Q are still investigating.

'If they think I'm waiting five years,

'they've got another thing coming.'

If you can get back to me this afternoon or sometime today

with some answers and let us know where we're at?

Thanks, Parveen. Bye-bye.

Very polite, but very noncommittal. Yes, they did ring him last week.

She said, I don't really know why, just to discuss the case.

She said, I'll give you a call back later.

Now, although technically I haven't done much there,

I have again stirred up the little hornets' nest,

just to let people know you're not going away, you are polite,

you are civil, but you want resolution.

It all builds up, it all makes a difference.

Right...

Parveen promised me a call back...

five and a half hours ago.

I think I'll call her.

Hi, is Parveen there, please?

Parveen, it's Dominic from the BBC. Hi there.

'Surprise surprise, B&Q are still investigating.'

Right, first thing she said was "Sorry". I should think so, I've been waiting five and a half hours!

She said, still not heard back. I'm going to ring them now and call you back.

So, give her five or 10 minutes.

If not this time, I'll be straight back on the phone. Come on, Parveen.

Looks like I'm going to have to wait a little longer to find out

whether B&Q think it's fair for John to pay four grand for his badly fitted bathrooms

or whether they're willing to pull up their socks and do something about it.

In the meantime, I want to find out just how much it would cost

to put right John's bathrooms.

Earlier, I asked him to do some extra research for me

by getting round some independent tradesmen

and one of the three John's called round

is experienced bathroom fitter, Colin Mannering.

-How do you do? Colin, Neptune. You all right?

-How do you do? Come in.

Colin's seen it all, from leaking taps to gaping cracks.

I wonder what he'll make of John's bathrooms.

To be honest with you, John, I would say that certainly on our jobs,

we wouldn't accept some of the quality that's been installed here.

The trim's a nightmare. That's meant to cover the edge of the tile.

It's meant to be smooth.

As you can see, there's a lip right the way across, right the way down.

Cuts aren't good, like I say, here.

-It's not been tiled right cos the cuts there in your corner, see the small sliver?

-Yeah.

Then you've got a tile this size, here.

The way they've started the tiling is incorrect anyway.

Colin's clearly far from impressed with the downstairs bathroom

and upstairs, he finds more evidence of one of the major issues outlined

in both the Furniture Ombudsman's

and B&Q's own manager's report - the poor tiling.

The basic rules of tiling have not been followed.

Around the windows you can see

they've not centralised off it, the cuts are different on either side.

The focal point is a window, so you can certainly tell

a bad tiling job when you're looking at a window.

The floor looks scruffy.

I can certainly say it doesn't look like they've put a board down

and tiled on top of the board,

I think they've gone straight onto your floor,

which is not the right thing to do.

I can normally tell from the height of the threshold

because they do increase when you put a board underneath the tile.

Sorting out the tacky tiling's not going to be cheap

but before they talk money,

Colin has a butchers at the bane of John's life -

the leaking en-suite shower.

There's a couple of problems, apart from the tiles.

I've noticed just on the other side of each enclosure,

there's a lot of dark marks, which is showing that water is

attacking the plasterboard from that point as well.

It's sometimes again lack of silicone behind the wall posts.

It's down to installation.

That doesn't sound good.

But how much is it going to cost to put this right?

John's already had two quotes from two other tradespeople.

One costed up the repairs at around £8,000 and the other, £11,000.

Let's see what figure Colin comes up with.

I would say that for everything, new products, new tiling,

all the rooms to be gutted, you'd be looking at around £10,000.

Certainly under, but it's subject to your choices and what you want.

Ouch!

So, John's three quotes come out at an average of just over £9,500.

That's almost as much as the three bathrooms cost him in the first place.

John's been left with a situation where potentially,

he could end up having to pay out more than when he first started,

which has got me thinking about the bigger issue here -

you go to a company like B&Q,

because it's a name we all know and trust.

When you find out that not only do they supply the goods

but also fit them as well, bingo!

It saves all that shopping around.

But lo and behold, some of these companies only go

and subcontract their fitters, so you could end up dealing with

the exact same people that you were trying to avoid in the first place.

Tradespeople like bathroom fitters are not a regulated industry,

but the government has set standards.

Although these aren't enforced, there are organisations out there

who list companies who have adopted them.

What we do is signpost people to where they can find good guys, the good traders out there.

We're all plagued so much

with stories about cowboy builders and rogue traders.

TrustMark is the scheme that

points you in the direction of the good guys.

Companies that have been checked by these standards should be more reliable.

That tradesman will have been inspected

by someone who knows the trade, so we have plumbers who inspect plumbers,

electricians who inspect electricians,

and they will be able to tell

whether that tradesman is actually capable of doing a competent job.

This is some protection for anyone wanting to hire an independent tradesperson.

But what about the fitters working for big companies?

I can see why going to a well-known name

brings a certain amount of reassurance but actually,

what we find is the vast majority of tradesmen registered

are quite small local firms and not the big, big brands

and they're not necessarily the big firms that advertise on telly.

So, being a big brand name doesn't necessarily mean

they are using contractors who abide by government guidelines.

B&Q have recently said, we want to make sure that all our contractors

are now operating to a recognised set of government-endorsed standards.

But at the time John's bathrooms were installed,

he might have had a better experience with an independent tradesperson

that was covered by the guidelines, but that's no help to him now.

Funnily enough though, B&Q stands by the Furniture Ombudsman's decision

that John pay a reduced price of £4,000 for his bathrooms.

But they do want to talk about this very issue,

so I called them while out on the road.

'We want to get in there and resolve it as quickly as possible.'

On the surface, this sounds like progress.

They're keen to look into getting John's bathroom issues resolved.

But remember, John has been down this road before

and I want to make sure B&Q have learned from their mistakes.

A couple of issues we want to clarify is

the contractors used at that time. How do you vet these people?

Obviously, the standard of the work from these guys was way below

-what it should have been.

-'We don't work with them any more.'

So those guys weren't good enough?

'Now, at B&Q, the majority of their contractors are, um, in-house now.'

When you do have to use contactors,

how can you be sure of the standard of their work?

'Yeah. They have to go through an intense auditing programme,

'but obviously, because this case goes back to, I think 2005-2006,

'we are dealing with historical, um, you know, work, really.'

OK, so I think we agree here, it's fair to say the contractors

that were used at that time didn't do the job properly,

they're no longer working for B&Q and, mostly speaking,

you don't use contractors unless you really have to

-and they're carefully vetted.

-'Yeah, that's right.'

'Judging by the job they did on John's bathrooms,

'I'm glad to hear it, but I'm still not happy with their belief

'that John can pay a reduced price and they walk away.'

This has been going on so long now, it's embarrassing.

He's been very, very patient. Far more patient than I would've been.

Why don't you guys put it right and wipe the bill totally?

'We do want to put it right, but I'm not going to agree that

'in this conversation right now, because I don't actually

-'have the authority to do that.'

-No, it's OK.

'I knew it was a long shot, but I'll leave it with her to mull over.'

Take care, bye-bye.

Now, what happened there is a very important point.

I've now got to speak to the main person

and I can tell she's very efficient and wants to get this sorted out,

but at a certain point in any conversation,

you have to tell people what you want, because otherwise, you're beating round the bush.

Now, I've given them all my facts, I've got everything over to them.

Now I've hit the nail on the head and said, "This is what I want.

"Ideally, no bill, sort it out, end of problem."

How they play it now is really down to that lady in B&Q.

I'm going to keep my fingers crossed they choose the right option.

'B&Q do come up with a final offer,

'but how will it go down with John and Judy?'

B&Q, in this case, got it wrong

and they've basically put their hands up and admitted that,

but...money.

So many of you get in touch giving me the lowdown on your consumer nightmares

that my little team of helpers here are worked to the bone.

Mind you, so they should be.

My inbox is overflowing and the phone hardly ever stops ringing.

But sadly, I can't meet every one of you face to face,

so follow my guide and, hopefully, you won't get done.

Right, crack on, guys. Come on!

Today, we're talking about the minefield that is pensions.

Meet 64-year-old Mick Wren. He's learned the hard way

that pensions aren't always something you can rely on.

Probably about a lottery win is about the only way

I'm going to be able to retire at 65.

As a hard-working family man with a pension,

Mick has come to the age when he'd like to slow down and retire.

..where I'd like to spend more time at home with my wife

and do things that need doing.

I've got a lot of, um, interests around the home.

I looked at, um, what my options were for retiring

and, um, that's when I looked into my pension.

Mick is like any one of the 6.4 million people in the UK

that have private pensions and, without careful attention,

any one of them could go the same way.

Let's see where it went wrong for Mick.

Well, he started out by doing all the right things,

by first paying into a pension when he was in his 20s.

Yeah, I was in the army for three years and, um, after that,

I worked for Pan American Airways at Heathrow for, er, 11 years

and took out the company pension,

which I'd paid into for the full time I was there, the 11 years.

Mick got off to a flying start

as, the earlier in life you start your pension, the better.

In Mick's case, he chose to take a pension

with the company he worked for, which is a good place to start,

as many employers offer incentive schemes,

whereby the more you pay in, the more they'll pay in on your behalf.

Company pension contributions are usually based on your salary,

so, as your wages go up, so do the payments to your pension.

But like many people, Mick didn't stay in the same job

for his entire career. So, when he left, he had decide

whether to keep his pension where it was

or to move it to a different pension provider.

I didn't do much about it for two years, um...but after that time,

I thought, "I've got to really do something for the future."

I was 39 and, um, I need to reinvest it

or find something substantial to look forward to the future.

If, like Mick, you're changing jobs

and have to decide whether to move your pension,

the first thing you should seek is professional independent advice,

but don't just take the first deal that comes along.

Instead, compare a variety of different options

to find out what best suits your needs.

Mick stumbled across a pension he thought would give him

a healthy return come retirement.

Er, this opportunity came along with this company.

They gave a good forecast of what I was likely to get,

so I'd walk away with a lump sum of 20,000 and have an annual pension

of at least 20,000, but there were higher forecast of up to 30,000.

Mick took the forecasts at face value and this was a big mistake.

Forecasts are exactly as described, just that.

And like the weather, pension forecasts can be completely wrong.

Be wary as companies offering pensions will often try

to lure you in with the prospect of potentially large returns

which are not always guaranteed.

And keep a close eye on how your pension is doing.

And if you're not happy with the way it's going, take action.

I expected that was going to be more than enough

for me to be able to retire when I'm 65.

So I was quite happy with it and thought the future's secure,

so I just forgot about it in effect.

Forgot about it? That's the one thing not to do with pensions.

What you need to be asking is,

"What is the guaranteed income from that pension?"

And this is usually considerably lower than the forecast,

as Mick discovered.

So I, um, wrote a letter off asking for a forecast

of what they thought I might get.

And, um, a figure came back and I thought, "This doesn't

"look very much at all to what I considered I was going to get."

The guaranteed income with any pension is exactly what it says on the tin - it's guaranteed.

Decide whether that's enough for you before you take out the deal.

And if you do decide to go for a pension which has high forecasts,

be aware that the guaranteed income is often much lower.

Forecasts are our often based on the stock market investments,

which can go down as well as up. For Mick,

sadly, the retirement he'd pinned his hopes on

has had to be put on the backburner.

I've been looking forward to retirement.

It doesn't look like it's going to be an option at this moment,

unless my luck changes quite a lot.

Mick learnt the hard way, so if you have a pension you're ignoring,

or thinking of starting one, follow my tips and you won't get done.

Five years after John Stenstrom

bought three defective bathrooms from B&Q,

he's received showers of excuses

and is still no closer to bath-time bliss.

I would like to have serviceable bathrooms that look nice,

that are going to endure the test of time that a bathroom should do.

I'd just like some nice bathrooms.

Both B&Q and the Furniture Ombudsman produced reports that condemned

the work of the contractors hired to fit the bathrooms,

so I've been putting pressure on B&Q to come up with a solution and, in the last few weeks,

they've had their new in-house fitters take a look at rectifying their faults.

I went all out and told them I not only wanted them

to sort out the issues, but as compensation

for having to wait five years, to give them the bathrooms for free.

'It's time I called B&Q to find out whether they're willing to meet my demands.'

I'm trying to put this to bed. Let's see what I can do.

Can you just give me sort of an idea now of what you're doing and sort of where we stand?

'Um, so we were proposing that we completely refit the three bathrooms.

'We will do whatever it takes to bring them up

'to the comparable standard that Mr Stenstrom had envisaged.'

'It's looking good so far, but remember, I've told B&Q,

'in light of the five years it's taken them

'to sort the bathrooms once and for all, I want them to do it for free.'

There was an amount which the Furniture Ombudsman mentioned as

a sort of maximum that he should end up paying, which was a £4,000 fee.

I know when I last spoke to you, I suggested wiping that totally,

so that he was given basically what you're doing as a goodwill gesture

and really would put B&Q in a very favourable position to say,

"This is what we'll do, holding our hands up and we want customers to be happy."

'There's an offer on the table, but will the family be happy with it?'

'OK, bye.' SHE HANGS UP

-John! Dom!

-Hello, Dom!

-How are you, you all right?

-Come in.

-Have you got the kettle on?

-It's on.

-Good, good, good!

Well, let's get down to the meat on the bones now

and let you know how I got on with B&Q.

And I've got to say, once I started dealing with the right people,

they were very, very good, very professional.

And I'm pleased to say that,

because they're are big company and everybody gets it wrong

and B&Q, in this case, have got it wrong.

And they basically put their hands up and admitted that.

Now, of course, we need to sort out what they're going to do about it.

Now, I know, John, you said to me you'd be happy to get this

sorted out and everything else and pay the maximum,

which is what the Furniture Ombudsman has said, which is £4,000.

-You'd be happy with that.

-Yeah.

-What would you be happy with, Judy?

I'm not happy about paying any money until I've got a serviceable bathroom.

I think you're 100% right. So can I ask you this question?

If B&Q were going to sort out those en-suites and bathrooms

to your standard and your liking, would you be happy to pay the money?

-I'd be delighted.

-John?

-Absolutely.

-Yeah.

OK, this is the situation as we stand now.

As soon as I'm finished here today, B&Q want to hear from you guys.

-Right.

-They want to get a team of fitters round here tomorrow,

-as early as that if you can have it.

-Yeah.

-If you can accommodate that.

They want you guys to go in to see them, choose new bathroom suites,

new en-suites, whatever is needed to replace those bathrooms.

-All new tiles, whatever...

-Yeah.

-OK?

And they will come round and send their team of fitters -

and, trust me, they will not send round any apprentices -

and they will put your en-suites and bathrooms

back to the condition they should've been 5½ years ago,

-A1, brand spanking new.

-SHE SIGHS

-But...

-Right?

-..money.

No money! Free of charge!

-Stop it!

-SHE LAUGHS

Thank you so much!

Wait till I tell the kids.

-You happy?

-Speechless. Speechless.

-He's crying. Thank you.

-Right, let's give credit to B&Q.

They've put their hands up, taken it on the chin,

sorting out the problems, I think that's very decent.

-Yeah, it is, yeah. Thank you.

-It's taken a while, but we got there.

-Job done?

-Yeah.

-Absolutely.

-Thank you very much, Dom.

-You happy?

-Very, I'm ecstatic.

'It's great news and, since we filmed this, the new bathrooms have been fitted

'and John and Judy are thrilled with the results. B&Q say...'

B&Q have certainly cleaned up their act and are now not only

using fitters conforming to government-approved standards,

but last year, they even won an award for their customer service training.

You know what they say about good things comes to those who wait?

Well, it certainly has done for John and Judy.

It might've taken 5½ years, but at least all their bathroom

and en-suite problems are soon to be a thing of the past.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd