Episode 3 Rip Off Britain: Holidays

We asked you who's left you feeling ripped off

when it comes to your holidays?

The whole year of our lives waiting for a holiday,

planning for a holiday that has just gone. It's devastating.

They said it was over £3,000. I nearly had a heart attack.

I went, "There's got to be something wrong here."

Whether it's a deliberate rip-off,

a simple mistake or a catch in the small print,

we'll find out why you're out of pocket and what you can do about it.

Your stories, your money, this is Rip Off Britain.

Hello and many thanks for joining us on Rip-off Britain,

the series that fights your corner

when you feel you've been let down or indeed left out of pocket.

We've come to Tenerife,

an island which attracts over 1.5 million British visitors every year.

All this week, we're investigating some of the stories that

you've told us about your holidays and travel and it looks, Angela,

like its all sunshine and swimming all the way.

Today, we're going to be hearing about situations where you

reckon you've been treated in a way that either doesn't feel right

or indeed, may be worse than that, it's just totally unfair.

The companies that are involved may not necessarily have actually

broken the rules, but certainly in some cases,

the customer believes that their concerns have been, well,

-handled rather shabbily, at the least.

-Totally.

Sometimes, as well as being left deeply upset,

they've also been left hundreds of pounds worse off.

Not only are we trying to get to the bottom of what has happened,

but we'll also have advice to stop the same thing happening to you.

Coming up, why buying a travel essential could end up with

you losing out.

I felt very angry and I felt that I'd been deceived by this company.

I think that's a complete rip-off.

And how in Europe you could find yourself hit with a huge bill

for medical treatment that you thought you were getting for free.

I thought, well, 2,000 euros

and we've only been in this hospital three hours.

While most of us take out travel insurance

when we're planning a trip abroad,

when we're staying at home in the UK, well,

we probably don't bother, but you may want to consider thinking again,

particularly if you're paying out lots of cash up front.

As you'll see with our next story, sometimes the worst can happen

and you'll find out how utterly inflexible a holiday company can be.

Green-fingered sisters, Phyllis Holiday

and Margie Williamson, from Cumbria, are garden crazy.

As well as tending their own plots, they love to visit flower shows,

gardens and garden centres all over the UK.

For over 10 years, together with their husbands,

Eric and Colin, they always make sure that they visit

one of the biggest flower shows of all at Tatton Park in Cheshire.

It'll be 12 months gone July we went to Tatton as per usual,

the four of us.

Just wandering around, as well as looking at the garden shows,

there is the displays that are there.

We also look at the tents, the marquees at what they've got in,

food tasting.

Eric was always in the food halls trying every bit of pork pie

or sausage or a taste of the alcohol. Just sampling them.

-They were beautiful shows.

-Oh, yeah.

On that visit in 2012, amidst the stalls selling plants and

everything you could possibly need for the garden, one offered mini

breaks in the Scottish Highlands and that caught Eric's eye.

The hotel was the Portsonachan

on the banks of stunning Loch Awe near the West Coast of Scotland.

The foursome paid a total of £396 for a three-night

break at the hotel, so, essentially, £200 per couple.

It was for an open deal which meant they could choose to go any

time in the next 18 months.

No particular dates were booked, they would arrange

all of that later with the hotel but everything was paid for up front.

It was a nice atmosphere we were in.

It was a lovely day and we thought Scotland, we looked at the brochure,

the picture on the brochure and it looked absolutely gorgeous.

It just pulled us to it. Yeah, it would be lovely.

A nice weekend away.

But before they had a chance to even start thinking about the date

when they might like to go, the unimaginable happened.

Phyllis and her husband, Eric,

received some news from their doctor that would change everything.

They told us he had cancer.

They said it was inoperable,

it was too close to his heart to operate and it was what

they called small cell, which was one of the most quick spreading.

To say it took the wind out of our sails is an understatement.

The whole four of us near enough collapsed.

We were all very, very emotional. We all cried, Margie, didn't we?

We did, we did.

So, facing the prospect of countless visits to the hospital,

they knew at once that they wouldn't be able to go to Scotland,

so Phyllis decided to call the hotel and explain the situation.

We contacted the company straightaway to let them know what was happening.

Phyllis and Marjorie knew that the deal was

advertised as non-refundable, but they had hoped that the hotel

might be willing to make an exception,

especially as it wasn't as if any particular dates had been yet

booked up, so there wasn't an actual weekend to cancel.

When we phoned the hotel and explained what had happened,

it was a young lad and he... Like an assistant,

and he said he'd get the manager to ring us back.

We phoned again and we got hold of the manager and told him

exactly what happened and he said there was nothing they could do.

Naturally surprised at this reaction,

Phyllis asked her brother-in-law, Walter, for some help.

Walter tried to phone the company.

They promised that the manager would phone back. He never did.

He said he'd phone the following day.

Walter again contacted them and they still didn't phone back.

So then Walter went to the Citizens Advice Bureau.

They said that as the hotel was acting within the law,

there was nothing they could do, but, undeterred,

Walter refused to give up.

He called and sent letters to both the hotel

and their parent company called Lock Awe Highland Holidays Ltd.

He phoned numerous times, got no response by phone or by letter.

In despair, they even asked their local MP to have a go,

but he too hit a brick wall.

Trying to get hold of anybody was absolutely impossible.

The amount of letters and phone calls was unbelievable.

No intervention, it seemed,

could break the radio silence from the hotel,

and matters were about to take an even more distressing turn.

One January morning, while their son David was in the house,

Marjorie's husband, Colin, was suddenly taken ill.

He was taking the glass through to the kitchen.

He came back and said, "I don't feel so well."

I just sat on the settee.

Their son David called 999.

We looked at him and I said, "He's gone."

I couldn't believe it.

-You OK?

-Yeah, yeah, I just couldn't believe it.

It's been the most traumatic time.

Both sisters were absolutely devastated

and with Eric becoming more unwell by the day, Phyllis was spending

a lot of time and money on the endless trips to and from hospital.

The travel was costing money every day.

It was, I think, 22 miles to Carlisle and 22 miles back.

It was absolutely wearing on Eric.

The hotel, as well as ignoring our pleas to refund the money,

it was just no good.

They had £200 of our money which could have helped every little bit

with the travelling and that £200 would have helped.

I can't understand the mentality of them.

In February of last year, sadly, Eric died of lung cancer.

In just a few short months since their sunny day

out at Tatton Park Flower Show, both sisters had lost their husbands.

Hoping that in the circumstances they would relent

and give the grieving sisters their money back, in May,

their brother-in-law, Walter, sent yet another letter to the

hotel enclosing copies of Eric and Colin's death certificates.

Surely, he thought, they would now show some heart,

but again, he heard nothing.

The hotel is acting completely within its rights.

Their terms and conditions do state that the payment is

non-refundable, but we wanted to know why the hotel hadn't at least

engaged with Phyllis and Margery to try and find a solution.

After a number of attempts, we managed to speak to a member

of the team at the Portsonachan and although we're continuing to talk,

there has as yet been no change in the hotel's position.

With the hotel refusing to budge or even communicate, the only

way the sisters might have been able to get their money back is if

they had taken out travel insurance but sadly, they hadn't done that.

If you want the honest truth, it didn't even enter our heads.

And I didn't think you needed it, insurance

when you were on holiday in this country.

And who can blame them?

While most of us now won't leave the country without holiday cover,

the amount of people who think about getting it for a British break

is much, much less, but insurance could definitely be something

worth considering for a holiday in the UK as much as for one abroad.

You still might need to cancel at the last minute,

there might be an illness in the family, you might be unable to go.

There might be delays which cause you expense,

your bags might get lost on a domestic flight.

There are lots of reasons that you might need to claim on a

travel insurance policy.

Most people think travel insurance is just for paying for medical

expenses abroad, but actually, it covers a whole host of things.

Meanwhile, despite everyone's best efforts, it unfortunately

looks like Marjorie and Phyllis will not be getting their £396 back.

Very, very disappointed in the people that run that hotel.

That's all I can say. I don't...

I don't really know how they can do things like that.

I mean, it wasn't just the money,

it was their attitude that really got me.

Now there may be some countries where you go on holiday that

if you fall ill, it's not just a very unpleasant experience,

it can also end up costing you an awful lot of money.

Frankly, the last thing you want

if you've just had your holiday ruined is to find that you're

also presented with a bill for huge medical expenses.

If you're travelling in Europe, you should have one of these,

an EHIC, a European Health Insurance Card,

because that means that you should be able to get most treatments

in that country absolutely free and of course if all else fails,

you can fall back on your travel insurance.

But there are some countries, and Tenerife is one of them,

where unless you've done an awful lot of research beforehand,

you really just might find yourself being treated by a doctor

whose costs not only can you not avoid,

but worse than that, you're not going to be able to claim back.

When the weather turns cold, John Halliday and his wife, Jean,

fly south for a bit of winter sun,

enjoying annual trips to the time-share that they own in Tenerife.

I look forward to every January because we go there

so when we go back, most of the winter is finished.

We've missed a lot of the icy weather that we've

had in the last two or three years and it's great.

The weather is beautiful.

But their trip to Tenerife in 2013 did not go so well.

80-year-old Jean developed a stomach upset and bad indigestion,

so John asked someone on reception to call a doctor.

All the time I was there, I kept feeling sick all the time, nonstop.

I wasn't eating, I wasn't sleeping, and then I said,

"You know, I think we'd better call the doctor."

I called reception

and they sent for a doctor which arrived after five minutes.

This doctor walked in, didn't ask any questions,

walked up to my wife, took her blood pressure and said,

"You could be having a stroke or heart attack."

And then he stood up said,

"I'm calling an ambulance and it'll be 110 euros."

John had thought that the cost of Jean's medical treatment

would be covered by her EHIC card which he'd safely brought with him.

The European Health Insurance Card costs nothing for British

citizens and guarantees you the same state-funded health care

in other EU countries that locals are entitled to.

But when he tried to present Jean's card to the ambulance,

John says it was just waved away.

I naturally thought being in Spain,

that when they asked for doctor's money, you just pay it.

I paid him the 110 euros cash. Everything happened so quick.

We were there in the ambulance and gone.

Meanwhile, John's thoughts turned to Jean's health.

The couple had assumed that she was just suffering a repeat

of unpleasant but easily sorted symptoms that she'd had previously

in the UK, so talk of something more serious was very alarming.

This doctor came in and he didn't tell me anything.

John had gone down to the office to show the woman the medical card

and bits and pieces and while he was gone,

they took me up to the intensive care ward.

Whilst Jean was being treated, John went to sort out the paperwork.

Once again, he produced Jean's EHIC card,

but once again he was in for a shock.

I went straight in the office and they asked me for the travel

documents and the insurance and I had everything in an envelope.

I got the medical card and she waved it away.

I did this three times and she kept saying, "No,"

and waved the card away.

I was just a bit confused about it because I expected them

to accept it.

Though worried about what that meant for the cost of treatment,

John was getting increasingly concerned about Jean's condition.

I was terrified because they took me up to intensive care

and told me I was having a heart attack or a stroke, but it was

so bad in there that it really frightened me.

I was absolutely terrified and I told him there and then,

I've got to get out of here.

Despite the quite proper concerns of the medical staff,

Jean began to realise that her symptoms were simply nothing

more than the ones she'd previously had at home.

But when John and Jean decided they wanted to get

out of the hospital, they faced a much larger final bill.

When I told them I was taking my wife out of the hospital,

this woman from the office come down and said to me,

"That will be 1,000 euro."

So, then I had to go into the office and I saw this woman

and she said, "This is going to be 2,000 euro if you take her out."

And I said to her,

"They told me it was 1,000 euro."

And she said, "That was only the deposit." And I thought,

"Well, 2,000 euro and we've only been in this hospital three hours."

Now, Tenerife, of course, is part of Spain, which means that

the terms of this little card really should be honoured.

But it's of no use whatsoever to you in a private hospital.

And that is the crux of John and Jean's problem.

When they'd asked for help calling a doctor, they'd assumed that a state

doctor would be called, one who would be covered by the EHIC scheme.

But when all they'd wanted was to get Jean examined pronto,

they had not specified that to the receptionist who was helping them.

So she immediately called the number for what she considered was

the most appropriate doctor in the area for Jean's symptoms.

And he turned out to be a private doctor.

And they'd gone on to a hospital where their EHIC card

counted for nothing.

It started to dawn on us that the medical card wasn't accepted

because our reception had called a private doctor

and they'd taken us to a private hospital.

When I telephoned the reception, it didn't even dawn on me

if it was going to be a private one.

I just automatically thought it would be a national health

one that goes with the card that I carry.

What happened to Jean is a reminder that if you're in Europe and want

medical help quickly,

you can't assume that your EHIC card will always cover you.

The cost of treatment may be the last thing on your mind

but if you want to avoid a private hospital bill,

it is a very good idea to ask

what sort of doctor you're being referred to.

Language barriers can make that difficult

but it is the official advice that's on the NHS website.

Some hospitals and health centres do have both private

and state-funded care.

But if it's the private one that's selected for you,

then you could end up, like John, having to pay for treatment

that you could have got free from somewhere else.

And though you can try and claim the costs back on your travel insurance,

many policies don't cover the costs of private treatment.

Jean's costs were not covered by her insurance

and though she did recover from what turned out to be the same

symptoms of indigestion that she'd had before,

the whole experience was simply something

they had not realised could happen.

They have now identified the doctor that's near their time-share

from whom they will get free treatment.

But they may not be rushing back for more winter sun.

Naturally, now that I realise what can happen to you

if you don't ask for a national health doctor,

and they call you a private doctor, you're going to have to pay for one.

I couldn't go through all that again.

Still to come on Rip Off Britain -

a couple desperate to sell their time-share

and the companies who took advantage of that.

It was at that point the realisation that I'd been scammed

sort of hit me and I was pretty angry.

And now we're off to the city of Rome, that eternal favourite

for a weekend break.

But just before you taste a little of la dolce vita,

Simon Calder, our travel expert,

has some really good advice on trying to avoid those

underhand tactics to rid you of your hard-earned cash.

When in Rome, they say, do as the Romans do.

And that's pretty good advice if you're going on holiday there,

because the locals wouldn't stand for inflated prices

and tricky scams and neither should you.

The potential problems start at the airport, getting a taxi into town.

The maximum fare you should pay is 55 euros.

If the driver doesn't want to do it for that, find another cab.

And, by the way, that covers four people and their luggage.

Taxi drivers in any country may sometimes try it on,

but here you also need to watch out for the ice creams.

In the summer of 2013, a quartet of British holiday-makers were

famously charged £54 for four ice creams in Rome.

Now, the vast majority of Italian cafes, restaurants and gelaterias

offer good stuff at reasonable prices.

But if you can't see a printed price list, then ask.

Honest traders won't mind at all

and you'll soon find out who the rogue traders are.

And be on your guard against one of the oldest tricks

in the travel book, known as the "bird poo scam".

Here's how it works.

Somebody applies a dollop of harmless substance -

possibly mayonnaise - to your jacket.

Shortly afterwards, their accomplice draws it to your attention

and offers to help you clean up.

While your attention is distracted,

they are helping themselves to your valuables.

Cleaning up indeed.

Finally, remember that one of Rome's most famous tourist sites,

what looks like a bit of local flavour, can come with a cost.

The Roman centurions outside the Colosseum

add to the sense of theatre at this ancient arena.

But they are most definitely in business.

If you so much as point a camera in their direction,

they'll expect a fee.

And if you pose with them, ten euros is the minimum.

Offer just five and you'll get the thumbs down.

Now, there are all sorts of things that we think we need to take

with us when we're getting ready to go on holiday abroad.

But when it comes down to it,

there's only one thing that we really cannot do without,

and that is your passport.

You could say it's the ultimate holiday essential.

But lots of you have been in touch feeling very unhappy after going

online to get hold of a new passport or indeed to renew your old one.

And you've ended up paying more than you bargained for

and had very little in return

because all is not what it seems.

Ordering a passport online should be relatively straightforward,

but unfortunately it's all too easy to get caught out.

That's what happened to Helen Lampard from West Sussex after she

and her family took a trip to the French Alps

where their daughter, Emily, would soon be at university.

Had a lovely time.

She got to visit the university

and also saw the accommodation that she's now in.

But their problems began on the journey home at border patrol.

Got all the passports together.

For some reason, decided to look at Emily's

and realised that it was three months out of date.

Thankfully, both the French and British border guards

let the family through but clearly Emily urgently needed a new passport,

so Helen got straight on the case.

I went online and put in "passport renewal"

and a website came up, the British Passport Application Service.

It looked quite official.

The website Helen had found,

britishpassport.org.uk, looked as if it would get Emily's passport sorted.

As it was Emily's first adult passport,

Helen had to put her own details on the form, too.

Then they were asked to pay the £72.50 fee.

No alarm bells were ringing at this point

because £72.50 is the cost of a new passport.

But in order to fast-track it, we were asked to pay another £20

and for that they said that the application would be

processed within 48 hours.

Unfortunately for Helen,

though she'd assumed she was applying for a passport the official way,

in fact she was using just one of several websites that have sprung up

in the hope that unwitting travellers in a hurry will

click on them rather than the official government web page.

So, what exactly would she get for her money?

Having paid the fee of £92.50,

we realised that Emily hadn't been asked to upload her passport photo,

and we thought that was a bit strange and that's when

the alarm bells started ringing. I looked back at the website

and I started to notice little things like misspellings.

"Father", for instance, was spelt F-A-R-T-H-E-R.

And then that made me think that something was wrong.

So I read a little more closely

and realised that it was just a passport checking service

that we'd paid for and not a new passport.

All these websites do is take the information you give them

and put it into the official government website on your behalf,

something you could very easily do yourself.

The Home Office will still have to send you the official

application form to sign and, crucially,

you'll then be asked to pay again for the actual passport fee.

So by using one of these sites you could find yourself

having to shell out twice.

Now, the people behind the websites like the one Helen used aren't doing

anything illegal and their small print

does often make everything clear.

But there's no doubt they're being a little bit crafty,

not least in the way that the fees they charge are

so often set at the same level as the real passport fee.

So, it's easy why so many of you have thought you were

paying for something that in fact you're not.

I felt very angry and I felt that I'd been deceived by this company

simply because the £72.50 charge was exactly the same

amount as the cost of a new passport.

Having realised her mistake, Helen was quick to contact

the people behind the site to ask for her money back.

They didn't respond to any of my calls.

Nobody picked up at all. But they did respond to my e-mails.

But they resisted my claim to have the transaction cancelled.

They wouldn't refund any money.

And they said that there was no reason to do so.

Though she found it hard to swallow,

by clicking "yes" to the terms and conditions on the website, Helen

had agreed to pay for the form to be filled in and checked on her behalf.

So, all she could do was sit and wait for the completed form

to be sent back to her by the Home Office.

And it did indeed arrive through her letter box just a few days later.

I discovered a number of mistakes.

The type of passport being applied for, they ticked the wrong box.

And they'd also missed out another section.

So, a service you pay to check your passport application is right

had got it wrong.

And worse than that, the people behind the site had ticked

the wrong box, asking for a passport extension, not a renewal.

If Helen didn't correct the form her application would probably be

rejected by the Home Office.

What I received was a half filled-in form. And for £92.50,

I think that's a terrible service, a complete rip-off.

Helen's experience is far from being a one-off.

You keep telling us about other sites -

most of which have very similar names and very similar aims -

to part you from your cash for a service you don't need.

It does seem from these unofficial sites that you're not getting

much for your money or, in some cases, anything at all.

Church caretakers Janet and Pat Cooper from Northumberland

were also caught out when they needed to renew their passports

for a trip to France.

Pat had searched online by typing in the words "passport renewal"

and up came a site called uk-passport.net.

First thing you saw was "UK Passport Application"

and with a picture of a glossy UK passport, which looked very good.

It gave the impression that this an official UK Government website.

But, of course, it was nothing of the kind.

Pat, too, had signed up to a company charging for a checking service,

though he had no idea of that at the time.

It said, "We require your credit card details to pay £40."

The next evening, I was visiting my daughter and I said,

"I've got my passports renewed for £40 each."

And she said, "No, £72.50." I looked again at the website.

I looked at the terms and conditions.

And I realised then there was a £40 non-reimbursable fee to cover

the filling in of this form.

Feeling he'd been mislead, Pat e-mailed the company,

asking for his money back.

But he has yet to receive a reply.

I feel that I've been mugged.

My family say I was perhaps a mug

but I'll leave that to other people to decide that.

The man behind the site Pat used has told us he believes it's made

clear that this is not the official passport site, which is just as well,

as the company's been in trouble for letting people think that before.

He also insisted that the site's polices are made very clear, although

he did claim that if Pat gets in touch he would arrange a refund.

We tried contacting the site that Helen had used too,

but we've had no reply.

Each year, the Passport Office issues 5.5 million passports

and it too is worried many people will unwittingly be handing over

cash on websites such as these in the belief that they're getting

a service they're not.

Indeed, Immigration Minister Mark Harper considers some of these

companies to be...

..telling us it's...

He's taking action...

..with the official Passport Office.

The advice on this one is simple.

To get your passport without paying extra for a service

you probably don't need, there are two clear choices -

you can do it online at the official government website, gov.uk,

or you can pick up one of these, a good old-fashioned form

at the post office, and simply fill it in by hand.

And if you do feel you need someone to check you've filled it in

correctly, the post office can do that, too.

Their Check and Send service currently costs £8.25 on top

of the passport fee - a lot less than you'd pay on any of these websites.

And you can find all this information on our website...

For one weekend last summer, we transformed this shop in Liverpool

into a free consumer advice clinic.

That's a classic case of buck-passing.

Our experts tackled your problems not just inside but outside, too,

with workshops full of hints

and information to make sure you don't end up short-changed.

Fantastic to see you all here.

Ladies and gentlemen, don't get ripped off on holiday.

And giving out travel tips was high on the agenda.

Find out how much it costs to send a text message.

Cos text messages aren't free, even when you're abroad.

Ask your mobile phone operator how much your voicemail's

going to cost and how to get to it.

You told us about all kinds of holiday related problems.

Gave them the holiday voucher and showed them that we actually

had a reservation and they still flatly, "No, you're not booked in."

We thought it was going to be a fantastic holiday.

But from then on it went downhill.

And one consumer looking to make sure she was covered should

anything go wrong on her next trip abroad was Becky.

Hi. I see you reading our Rip Off Britain leaflet.

She was keen to find out from financial journalist Mike Naylor

what protection paying with her new credit card would offer her.

I want to buy a holiday on it, that's one of the reasons I got it.

Cos I know it gives you more protection

-but I don't really know what from.

-Absolutely.

Well, it's called Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act,

and essentially all it does is

whenever you use your credit card to buy something

that costs more than £100 and less than £30,000,

if something goes wrong, so, say, it's not as it was described

or it's not delivered so the company goes out of business,

-or you have a problem with it...

-Or a problem with the holiday.

..with the holiday, in this case, you can then go to the credit card

company and they're legally obliged to help. You've got legal comeback

to say, "Well, actually, I didn't get the holiday that I paid for

"and I want you to sort it out."

-Do you also have a debit card?

-Yeah.

-Is it a Visa Debit card or...?

-Visa Debit.

With Visa Debit Cards you also get protection that's called Chargeback.

It gives you similar protection to the credit card but it doesn't have

the same limit, so it doesn't have to be over £100. So, if you've got

a problem with anything, it's worth going to the bank.

But really the message seems to be that whatever you're buying,

you do have a level of protection from either credit or debit.

Yeah, absolutely, credit and debit cards give you better protection

than paying by cheque or doing a transfer.

With all the advice, all you have to do now is enjoy your holiday.

-Yeah, and remember it.

-It's lovely to see. Bye, Becky.

You can find fact sheets with all the advice from our experts

in Liverpool on our website...

I'm sure that most of us have heard horror stories from the '80s

and '90s of families walking along a beach being accosted

and then pressurised into buying an expensive time-share

which they've later come to regret.

Fortunately, the law has been tightened up

and while there are still a few problems that occur,

on the whole the time-share industry really has cleaned up its act.

But there is one big problem still affecting an awful

lot of Brits who bought back in the bad old days.

And that is, how do you sell a time-share that you no longer want?

Half a million Britons are thought to own a time-share

property in the sun, the majority being in Spain, Portugal and France.

Philip and Anne-Marie Burfield signed up for theirs 14 years ago

after they received a phone call saying that they'd won a holiday

in Portugal. To get their prize, they needed to attend a meeting.

We went there and we had what we felt was a very good presentation,

but it was pretty pushy, pretty hard sell the whole way though.

Even so, they were enthused by what they saw

and they signed up for a week a year in the Algarve.

But on their first trip to their new time-share,

they didn't feel that it was quite what they'd wanted after all.

The beaches always seemed to be very crowded.

The locality was very commercial.

The apartments were so close together and so small,

everybody was on top of one another.

So little, in fact, did their time-share appeal to them,

that Philip and Anne-Marie have not been back since.

They'd love to get rid of it. But that has not been easy, not least

because, as is often the case,

a clause in their contract means that they are committed

to paying for the maintenance of the property for ever.

In theory, that means the contract doesn't even end after their death.

The perpetuity clause means that...

I have got to pay maintenance for the rest of my life.

But the really worrying thing is the fact that...

it will then pass on to my children to pay that.

And on my death, that money will come out of the estate year on year.

In fact, though that is what the contract says,

such a clause won't always be legally enforceable.

The company cannot make somebody who has not signed the agreement

liable to take on the time-share.

Because they're not a party to the agreement.

They may threaten that, they may say they can do that,

but they can't.

But in any case, all the couple wanted to do was get shot

of the place in the sun and the contract that came with it.

12 years ago, barely two years after singing up, they put it up for sale.

But in the dozen years since,

they hadn't had anyone show any interest in buying it.

I feel that having this time-share has been a little

bit like a millstone on our necks.

We would virtually give the time-share away to divest ourselves

of the, you know, responsibilities of it

and the ever-increasing annual fees for maintenance.

So, they were delighted when, last March,

totally out of the blue, Philip received a phone call from someone

saying that they represented a business called

The Exchange Company, offering to help him - at last - dispose of it.

Three days later, we got this wonderful phone call saying

they'd actually found somebody to purchase our property.

The Exchange Company offered us about £3,000...

£3,900 as a one-off payment for the property.

I felt it was a really excellent offer

and I wanted to grab it with both hands.

So, that's exactly what Philip did.

Although, first, he had to had over his debit card details,

as The Exchange Company, which is not to be confused with

companies of a similar name,

said that they would need a deposit of £1,296

before they could process the sale.

This deposit was to be held by a third party

until the actual transaction had taken place,

after which that deposit would be refunded to me in full.

But once he'd handed over money, alarm bells started to ring.

I paid the deposit to The Exchange Company.

But the deposit was taken by another company altogether.

A company called KA Business Services.

And that's shown on my bank statement.

But still feeling relieved that at last

he would be rid of his time-share, Philip continued with the sale.

I felt all my Christmases had come.

It was a great relief.

I was really very happy about it.

But his elation did not last long.

When after a few days he tried contacting both of those companies,

he immediately hit a brick wall.

The Exchange Company's website was gone

and their phone number was dead.

And the second company, KA Business Services, again, not to be confused

with companies of a similar name, also seemed to be untraceable.

When I looked at the KA Business Services documentation,

I noticed immediately there was no address on the communication,

there was no telephone number, there was no e-mail address.

And it was at that point the realisation

that I'd been scammed hit me

and I was pretty angry.

This was a disaster for Philip and his wife.

Not only were they still locked in to that time-share

that they didn't want,

but they were also a further £1,295 out of pocket.

The bank actually tried to get the money back for me

but were told that as a result of a signature

I put on the document KA sent me, there was no way they could help me.

I contacted Action Fraud to let them know what had happened

and to give other people a chance to investigate this organisation

which I feel needs shutting down

as soon as possible.

Sadly, Philip is far from alone in feeling

ripped off by The Exchange Company.

The police in Merseyside, where the firm has an address,

has received more than 30 complaints about the company,

although there have been no arrests.

And who says lightning doesn't strike twice?

Nursing his losses but still keen to off-load his time-share,

just months later Philip received another cold call from a company

promising that they would help.

This time they said they were from a business called FHC.

Immediately, alarm bells rang because the actual way

they approached me and the documentation that they sent me was

a mirror image of that that had been sent to me by the other company.

In fact, the phone number they use is only one digit

difference to the one on The Exchange Company's paperwork.

So, coincidence?

We tried every way we could to contact FHC to see

whether or not they were linked to The Exchange Company,

but we simply could not get a response.

As for The Exchange Company themselves, it was a similar story -

all of our e-mails and letters went unanswered.

But selling or getting rid of unwanted time-shares

is one of the most common problems about which you contact us.

Get your head round the law

and you can sometimes get out of the most restrictive contracts

by sending a strongly-worded letter that references

the Consumer Rights Directive.

In the meantime, don't be tempted by companies that are offering

to sell on your behalf, especially if they're asking for any cash.

Because that's left Philip in an even worse position

than he was in before.

He's out of pocket and stuck with his time-share.

I am very angry about losing my deposit.

It's money that I really couldn't afford to lose.

Here at Rip Off Britain, we're always ready to investigate

more of your stories and not just about holidays.

Confused over your bills?

Or just trying to wade though never-ending small print?

When they sit you down to sign up for things,

they don't really give you the chance or the time

to read through all of that small print.

These people have ripped me off, well and truly.

You might have a cautionary tale of your own and want to share

the mistakes you made with us so others don't do the same.

Whatever's left you feeling ripped off, we want to hear from you.

You can write to us at...

Or send us an e-mail to...

The team here is ready and waiting to look into your stories,

so please do get in touch.

Sometimes when you feel that you've been treated unfairly, it just

might come down to the fact that the level of customer service

that you received has not been what you expected.

But other times, well, it could be that there were key details tucked

away in the small print, those terrible words,

"the small print", that you just had not quite understood. And that,

at least, is a situation that you really can try and avoid, isn't it?

Yes, cos let's face it, we're probably all guilty of not

taking the trouble to read and understand the terms and conditions.

But the information is tucked away in there somewhere.

And you may often stumble across really crucial details

that you do need to know.

It is tedious, but you know what? It is worth plying through all of them.

Because however your holiday may have been sold, there just

could be something that was not made absolutely clear or perhaps

you've made an assumption that's turned out to be just totally wrong.

Either way, the more you are across the detail,

the less likely it is you're going to end up feeling short-changed.

I'm afraid that's it for today, but do join us again very soon

when we'll be investigating even more of your stories.

Until then, if you are going on holiday,

-I hope that yours is a really good one.

-Bye-bye.