Episode 3 Rip Off Britain

'We asked you to tell us who's left you feeling ripped off.'

I think this is very, very, very wrong for what they have done.

The bank piles charges upon charges upon charges.

Legally, it was right. Morally, that's where the question of doubt comes in my view.

'And you contacted us in your thousands

'by post, email, even stopping us in the streets. And the message couldn't be clearer.'

-You don't get a straight answer, they try and fob you off.

-I'm not happy at all.

-There's always that small print with the clause that you didn't realise.

-We're being ripped off big time.

'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, indeed, what you can do about it.'

Keep asking the questions, go to the top if you have to.

We do get results. That's the interesting thing.

'Your stories, your money. This is Rip-Off Britain.'

Hello and welcome to Rip-Off Britain, where we are waging a war

against unfair charges, poor service and straight forward rip-offs.

If you've paid for something and not got what you expected, we're here to help.

It's often hard to know where to turn for advice, so we're here

to fight your corner and make sure you get the answers you deserve.

And if we can help more of you avoid being ripped off in the first place, so much the better.

Today, we'll be investigating situations where, as far as you're concerned,

the companies you have done business with have not lived up to their part of the bargain. And quite simply,

we'll be asking them, "Why?"

Also coming up: Having to pay over the odds, with not much you can do about it.

This woman had hundreds of pounds taken out of her

bank account and there was nothing she could do to stop it.

I might have been stupid for not reading it, or I've read it

and not took it in. I could kick myself, I really could.

Plus, motorway service stations.

Why are some prices double what you pay on the high street?

ALL: How much?

And invaluable advice from the experts at our one-stop consumer advice shop.

Of course we're used to hearing complaints about tradesmen,

and we all know that sometimes their charges can seem over the top.

But imagine calling out an emergency plumber

whose rate turned out to be an extraordinary £2,800 per hour.

That happened to Harold Stern. And just wait till you hear the final bill.

Harold Stern is a pensioner from Ealing in London,

and there are few things he loves to do more than to relax listening to classical music.

But recently, his enjoyment has been interrupted by stress

that all stemmed from an overflowing drain in his back garden.

When he first spotted the problem, he thought he'd found the right people for the job.

They said they could get a guy out

to fix my blocked drain.

And that there would be a call-out fee of £59 for half an hour.

Harold, who is disabled and lives in a specially adapted house,

called an emergency plumbing company called Property Care Solutions,

based in Hatfield in Hertfordshire,

and not to be confused with other companies of a similar name.

He'd been delighted when they sent round one of their engineers straight away.

He quickly deduced that it was under the man hole

in my back garden, lifted the cover and revealed this horrible sludge.

And he proceeded to pump water in there and stir it up, with a view to clearing it.

He was stirring up the sludge with his probe, I guess for about four or five hours,

and he wasn't clearing the blockage.

After a few hours of unsuccessfully pumping water into the drain,

the engineer told Harold that he needed to bring in more powerful equipment,

but at a much higher cost.

He produced the invoice with the extra charges on it.

It wasn't an extra charge, it was a total charge.

And this was of the order of £14,000.

Yes, you heard right.

£14,000.

In fact, £14,400, to be precise.

Just to unblock a drain.

I was shocked.

I was shocked with the price, but I felt I had no alternative.

The plumber from Property Care Solutions convinced Harold that if he didn't use this new equipment,

he would be forced out of his home as the drains would need excavating.

The thought of having to leave horrifies me, because

my home is adapted to my needs.

So Harold reluctantly agreed to hand over the money.

After I agreed to pay, and signed on the dotted line, so to speak,

he brought out from his truck some apparatus or other

which he alleged was more powerful than what he had been using to date.

Within a relatively short time, I can't say exactly how long, but within a relatively short time,

the level of the sludge started to drop.

Upon which I nearly cheered.

The equipment may have shifted the sludge, but for five hours work,

the bill came to a staggering £2,280 an hour.

So, was Harold the victim of a rip-off trader?

We asked Dave Taylor, from another local plumbing company,

to look at Harold's drains and give his assessment of the job.

I probably carry everything that's on the market, with regards to cameras, coring machines,

draining machines, high pressure jetting machine, rods, down to a plunger, you know.

Nothing extra special that I wouldn't expect a drainage firm to carry.

Charge £150 an hour. I turn up to do a job and it should be on the van.

Charging 14 grand just for checking?

It's atrocious, isn't it?

You bet, it certainly seems that way. We asked Property Care Solutions for an explanation.

Well, they stand by their charge, which they accept seems high,

but they say it reflects the fact

that they work in an emergency market.

They insisted Harold agreed to the price without any pressure or duress

and it was a fact, not a tactic,

that if the drain wasn't fixed, he might have to move out.

They are furious at any suggestion that this was a rip-off, saying

they are upfront about their prices and that every job is different.

The company also say that they have now ceased trading.

Here's the good news. Since we got in touch, they have now agreed with Harold

a revised and very different price for the work - £849.

They still maintain that the work was worth much more,

but just want to see the matter concluded.

I am 83 years old, and I would like to have a nice, peaceful, quiet and enjoyable retirement.

Certainly I don't want to waste time, as I'm having to waste time, fighting a plumber.

If you've ever visited a motorway service station which, let's face it, most of us have,

then the chances are that you've come away feeling that you've paid a high price for stopping off for a snack.

In fact, a recent survey in What Car? magazine

found that two thirds of the people asked felt ripped off when they'd been to one

and a further 25% thought that prices were way too high.

So, highway robbery or just market forces?

We sent a coach-load of hungry football fans to find out.

'Britain's motorways apparently used to be THE in place to hang out.

'Rocks stars, celebrities and the elite headed to these stops

'for the thrill of the open road and a hint of glamour.

'Nowadays you don't need to be a star to eat at a service station,

'but it does help if you can earn their money.

'Today we're joining Michael Clark and 50 other dedicated Macclesfield Town supporters

'as they travel to an away match in Torquay.'

250 miles or seven hours away.

THEY SING

They'll need a couple of stops,

so who better to put service station prices to the test on our Rip-Off Pit Stop?

Our squad have agreed to stop off at the services en route and buy a range of standard items.

'We'll check these prices against what you'd be charged

'in a typical high street branch of the same store, just to see how they compare.

'Michael is collecting the evidence.'

-First up, Dave.

-What did you buy?

I got some Wine Gums and I wasn't very happy with the price.

-What was the price?

-£2.69.

So, £2.69 for Wine Gums in WH Smith's.

Yet the same item in the high street branch was just £2.42.

'That's a difference of 11%.'

Well, my beloved, what did you buy?'

I had to buy this water because I forgot to bring mine.

-An absolute rip-off.

-How much did you pay for it?

-£2.09.

'£2.09. But we found the same bottle

'in WH Smith's on the high street for exactly £1!

'A difference of 109%.

ALL: How much?!

We've just had two teas and that was £4.48. For two teas.

'You can buy a big box of PG Tips for £2.25.

270 tea bags.

-So how do they get the price for them? It's disgusting, isn't it?

-Yeah.

And it's not just food and drink that are top of the table.

The What Car? survey found that, on average,

'petrol was 7.4% higher on the motorway.

'On to the next services where our test continues.'

John, what did you buy today?

Well, Michael, I bought one of these energy drinks for £2.29,

which I think, for one drink, is absolutely scandalous.

£2.29 for an energy drink from Waitrose

which on the high street we found at £1.45.

That's a difference of 58%.

ALL: What a rip-off!

We spoke to Welcome Break and Moto,

the owners of the two services that we stopped at,

and asked them why prices in their shops were so high.

They said they operate under restrictions that don't apply on the high street.

For example, they need to be open 24 hours

and to offer free facilities, such as toilets, parking and play areas.

In fact, Welcome Break said that two thirds of their visitors

don't spend any money at all.

Both said prices compare favourably with other travel venues, such as airports,

that they have regular deals and special offers

and that there can be ways of getting things like tea and water more cheaply than in the shops,

for example, through vending machines.

They also point out that it's the fuel companies

who set the petrol prices and not them.

We also spoke to the individual stores themselves.

Waitrose and WH Smith all said their motorway branches were franchises

so prices were set either by the franchise owners or the service station operators.

It's the end of a long journey for our weary travellers,

the seaside town of Torquay.

Right, let's have your empties, then. Come on. Chop-chop!

So what does Michael Clark think of the prices that they've paid along the way?

The only thing I find good about service stations, to be honest, are the toilets. They're second to none.

They're very, very good. But apart from that, unless I was absolutely starving,

I would not use them because the prices are absolutely horrendous.

Thousands of you contact us at Rip Off Britain,

so to tackle more of your problems and do it face to face,

in September we opened up a pop-up shop in Manchester, with a team of experts on hand to offer advice.

We've teamed up with BBC Learning to open our own pop-up shop here in Manchester,

and it's going incredibly well.

We've had lots of response. Let's catch up with it.

Carolyn Dee dropped by, unhappy she has to pay for the privilege of paying her phone and broadband bill.

They'd introduced a £5 non-direct debit charge.

So in other words, if you wanted to write a cheque to pay your bill, it cost you £5 to pay that way.

Unless you pay by direct debit,

you have to pay the £5 handling charge, which I think is wrong.

They have now introduced

a paper billing charge of £1.50.

What do you make of this case, Mike?

Unfortunately, it's not unique in the market nowadays.

Providers in all sorts of industries consider cheques to be an expensive

way to take the money from you.

Within broadband, there are only one or two providers who will allow you to pay by cheque for free.

There are two or three providers that will not allow you to take a cheque at all.

The savings to be made for consumers are by bundling both your broadband and your home phone together.

That is a way of bringing back the cost. If you do need to go down the route where you may have to pay

a slight premium to pay via cheque.

You've made that saving by having your broadband and home phone together.

In conclusion to your case,

I guess that's a balancing act.

You're getting a better rate with one company

and they are charging a small amount for paying.

Whereas if you eliminate the charge per month,

then, as Mike says, possibly you'll be paying much more for your service.

We're a little bit confused. You access your computer regularly.

Why are you so resistant to paying your bills online?

Because of the security.

I've never paid anything online or bought anything online,

I don't like my bank details being online,

because you never know, these days, what might happen.

A lot of the providers in the market are security conscious, so if you are going to leave

your details on the account, you should feel secure that nothing is going to happen to them

and you'll be able to make payments without any issues.

You can find tips on paying and shopping safety on our website:

Now, more on an extraordinary problem that we first featured in our last series,

but one that is still leaving many of you thoroughly frustrated.

It is to do with recurring payments

which are regular payments taken from your bank account, like a direct debit,

but with one crucial difference.

If you try and stop them, you may find that you can't.

# Young at heart... #

Ann Bainbridge has always cared about her appearance.

I like my make-up on and I like to be dressed nice.

I don't spend an awful lot.

If I see something and think, "That's a nice colour," and it's not too expensive, I'll buy it.

Ann and husband Eric, who live near Hartlepool,

are regular internet users

and it was while she was online that Ann was tempted by an advert

that unexpectedly popped up on her screen, inviting her to test some collagen anti-ageing cream.

I always assume, when you get a trial or tester or whatever in the stores,

you get a little piece or a sachet or whatever.

I thought, "Well, for £3, it's worth giving it a go."

Ann paid online with her debit card and when the product arrived several weeks later,

she was surprised at how big it was.

I thought, "That's a nice sample," and thought no more about it

until three weeks or so later,

this other one came.

I thought they must have made a mistake.

For Eric, alarm bells had already begun to ring.

But as Ann had purchased the cream through a pop-up advert,

there was no paperwork or confirmation email for them to check what she'd signed up to.

It looks bad. And I said to her, "There'll be more to come."

Sure enough, it kept coming and coming.

# Keep young and beautiful... #

It wasn't until Eric began checking their bank statements

that the couple realised the tubes weren't samples.

They had been charged for each one at £96 a pop.

They had known nothing about it, but up to that point,

almost £500 had already been taken out of their account to pay for the face cream.

Horrified, they contacted their bank to try to stop the payments

and that was when they got an even bigger shock.

The bank couldn't help.

They said they couldn't stop the payments.

It was an ongoing contract or whatever they call it,

which we'd never heard of.

I said, "It's my money. You're sat there.

"I'm telling you to stop paying it." "We can't do that."

The Bainbridges were told that because Ann had unknowingly signed up

to what's called "a continuous payment authority",

only the supplier of the products that was based in America

had the power to stop the money being taken.

The couple tried emailing the company, but got no response.

And having reached a brick wall with their bank, they went online to do some research

where they quickly found dozens of similar complaints.

I mean, did you see that one here? "I too have fallen foul of this scam."

Ann wishes there was some sort of record of what she had signed up to,

but suspects that that pop-up ad may have been deliberately unclear.

I don't know if there was small print there. Maybe there was.

I might have been stupid for not reading it or I've read it and not taken it in.

I could kick myself. I really could.

I feel silly.

With the beauty company still slapping on the payments every month and cream arriving in the post,

in desperation, the Bainbridges contacted Trading Standards.

It wasn't the first time they'd come across this extraordinary problem.

Continuous payment authorities became popular

for internet services, insurance.

A lot of people give their card details and it will be a rolling contract each year.

When you're dealing with a legitimate company who accept your cancellation, there's no problem.

When the company is based outside the UK, it is more difficult to cancel,

or if it's a rogue trader, once they've got your card details, you're open to fraud.

Eventually, Trading Standards got a result.

They were able to get a response from the company who agreed to stop sending more orders.

They also promised to reimburse the Bainbridges for three out of the eight payments that were taken.

After months of worry,

Ann has now finally had another five payments refunded from her bank,

because she paid by debit card.

But that still leaves her nearly £100 out of pocket.

Surely, the financial people know that this goes on.

I mustn't be the only one that's complained about it.

Ann still desperately hopes that she will get the rest of her money back.

We contacted the company to ask when that might happen,

but as yet, we've had no reply.

I only hope anybody watching this programme,

that they don't have the hassle that we've had.

All we've thought about is how can we stop it?

'Big companies don't always make things easy to understand.

'And it can be confusing when you haven't ended up with what you'd expected.'

So if you feel bogged down we've put together a booklet of tips and advice.

You can find a link to the free guide on our website:

Or to receive a copy in the post, send an A5 self-addressed envelope

to the address we'll give you at the end of the programme.

Now on to a subject which, judging from your emails,

is one of the single most infuriating things about buying a flight,

and that is the extra charges you often need to pay just for the privilege

of being able to use your own debit or credit card to purchase a ticket.

Surcharges like this have come under severe criticism

from consumer groups, and most recently from the Office of Fair Trading,

who have now started a formal investigation into whether or not

companies are actually hiding these extra costs from customers when they are booking online.

And they are costs that can very quickly add up, especially if you are travelling in a group,

and with one airline in particular.

The angel of the Lord brought tidings to Mary.

Meet some of the members of the Society of Mary in Ipswich.

Rosemary, Bridget, Celia and David.

They are an Anglo-Catholic group who travel as a pilgrimage every year

to the festival of our Lady of Grace in Italy.

It is a big procession which takes the statue of our Lady down from the Basilica in which

it is normally kept, down to the town church. There she remains for a week.

It is very important to us, because the statue that they do take in procession

originally came from Ipswich, to the best of our knowledge and belief.

So we have that very strong link.

Celia books all the flights with Ryanair, the only airline that flies where and when they want.

But she is always looking to keep costs down.

People can't afford to go on these trips, especially in the present economic climate.

A lot of people who come are priests,

and they are not high earners!

And also the children with their families, they're not well off or anything like that.

So we want to keep the costs right down, so that they, so that people feel that they can come.

Ryanair, like many other airlines, charge an administration fee

when you book using a debit or credit card.

That's a cost that is added just for the privilege of paying by card.

Celia's not happy about it.

We're getting nothing extra for it, it's just making some extra money for them.

I know they've got to make a profit, they are a business,

but I think they're passing it on for a service that isn't a service.

Ryanair charge these fees per person, per flight. They are currently £6 each way.

So for a family of four going on a return trip, that's an extra £48.

When Celia last flew Ryanair, the charge was £5 each way,

which for a group the size of hers, really does add up.

The actual booking fee for paying for the tickets online would have cost us £10 per person,

so we had 62 people, including the children, £620.

Remember, that's not the cost of the flights, it's purely and simply the booking fee.

It affects the very people like us who are trying to keep the costs down.

-You've worked incredibly hard to get all the other costs down.

-Exactly.

I did actually ask Ryanair if they did a group rate, some airlines do, and they said no.

But the size of the group should be irrelevant, because for every debit card transaction,

the airline is only charged about 20p by the bank, however many people might be included in the booking.

So, if customers have to pay £6 for each leg of a flight, that's quite a mark up.

Following widespread criticism of such charges, not least from the Office of Fair Trading,

at Christmas, the government announced it hopes to ban any excessive credit or debit card fees

by the end of this year.

And not just in the travel industry.

Ryanair say this won't apply to them. They insist their charge

isn't a debit or credit card fee, and that instead

it's an admin fee, used to cover their own costs.

So what's the difference? A spokesman for the European Parliament,

also pushing for an end to charges they consider penalise customers, says, none at all!

For me, admin charge, surcharge, add-on charge,

the common denominator is the word "charge."

I just think it is a money-making tool

for airlines at the expense of the passengers.

But Ryanair are sticking to their guns.

They've told us their "admin charge" is avoidable by any passenger

who pays using the airline's Cash Passport card,

a pre-paid MasterCard that you can get direct from them.

For now, at least,

that's the only way to pay avoiding the airline's extra charge.

But, in typically robust style,

Ryanair say they "continue to lower the cost of air travel",

and that "this story does not stand up to factual scrutiny."

But, after the amount of extra money THEY had to pay out,

our pilgrims wouldn't agree.

For the one group, they've made sort of an extra £620

for doing absolutely nothing except booking a ticket

with them, and giving them the custom.

-Are you baffled by your bills?

-I thought, "This cannot be true.

"It's totally unacceptable." I was so angry!

Trying to wade through never-ending small print that leaves you

totally confused?

I might have been stupid for not reading it.

Or I've read it, and not took it in.

I could kick myself. I really could.

Well, you can always write to us...

Or indeed you can send an e-mail.

Remember that the Rip-Off team is always looking for the stories that matter to you.

Well, I'm afraid that's all we've got time for in this edition,

but I do hope that after joining us,

you are going to be just a little bit wiser about the things

that you can do to avoid being taken advantage of

and losing out as a result.

Whether it's pounds or pennies, there's nothing worse than knowing you've had a raw deal.

So keep the stories coming and we'll do our best to see if we can put things right.

If you feel you've been had, left short-changed or are out of pocket,

then I hope you'll get in touch.

And we'll see you again very soon to tackle

more of your rip-offs, so until then,

-thank you for your company, and from us, bye-bye.

-Bye.

-Bye.

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