Episode 7 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, e-mail, even stopping us in the streets!

And the message could not be clearer.

You don't always get a straight answer. They fob you off.

I'm not happy at all.

It's always that very small print that's got the clause in

that you didn't realise.

We're being ripped off big-time.

Whether it is 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.

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,

the programme that investigates

your consumer complaints and battles on your behalf

to get the answers that you've been fighting for.

Throughout the series,

we're shining a light on the companies you've told us about

that have left you feeling short-changed -

both big and small organisations.

And today, well,

some of the companies that you've contacted us about

are very big indeed.

Today we're tackling problems to do with your phone

or your internet connection.

Services provided by some of the country's best-known names.

But are you always getting what you expect for your money?

Coming up...

Left behind by the broadband revolution -

the village that took matters into their own hands

to get themselves online.

And the couple paying a high price for a low-speed service.

It takes so long to download them that it's virtually useless.

See? Go slow!

And why this man now wonders if, after spending £6,000

on high street hearing aids, he could have got something similar for free.

Now, here's one person who watches Rip-Off Britain regularly

who is absolutely livid about what they've had to go through,

and it's not difficult to see why.

The mobile phone - over 30 million are sold in the UK every year.

The question is, how did we cope without them?

But what happens if you lose yours?

Well, the latest Home Office figures show that,

in a 12-month period, 850,000 people have had their mobile phone stolen,

leaving them not only incommunicado but also out of pocket.

Sam Arnold is a student and he relies heavily on his phone.

But the 21-year-old doesn't make any calls -

he only uses it for text messages, because he's severely deaf.

I constantly use mobile phones, every day,

and I constantly have them with me all the time,

because it's very important for me to contact people

and I can't live without my phone.

But while studying for his final exams at university,

Sam lost his telephone after a night out with pals.

The next day, I just noticed

that I haven't got my phone with me.

So I contact my mates to say, "Have I left my phone in your house?"

But the house was a bit messy, so they said they'll find it.

When the phone wasn't found, his dad, Paul,

called the mobile provider -

in this case, Orange - to cancel the contract.

I asked in that normal, casual way, "Has the phone been used?"

They say, "Yes, the phone has been used."

They start to reel off the countries -

Somalia, UAE,

Nigeria, Netherlands...

I'm sitting there, thinking, "My gosh.

"This bill is getting bigger every time they say another name."

So I said, "What's the total bill?"

They said, "Well, right now, it's up to about £1,450."

So, of course, I just felt that real knot in my stomach.

No wonder, because Sam and his dad

were told it was them that had to foot the bill.

And that's not unusual.

If your mobile is lost or stolen,

it's generally YOU who will be liable

for the cost of calls made on it up to when you reported the loss.

Even though, in this case, clearly Sam had not made them.

When Orange told us to pay £1,452,

I was a bit, like, in shock,

because I never make phone calls because I'm deaf.

He never makes a phone call.

He just used it for text.

So surely when a phone moves

from being text-only to being mainly phone calls,

surely something should be triggered there?

So you went to Brussels, Belarus, Greece...

Paul wonders why the phone company didn't spot the unusual calls

straight away and let them know about the situation.

I was actually quite disgusted,

because how could a bill that is normally about £30, £35,

jump to £1,500 and there's no communication back?

They're a communications company!

Why are they not talking to me?

You'd think they'd do something. Particularly if it goes from

just texting to voicing, then wouldn't you do something about that?

Orange told us that when unusual usage is flagged up by the system,

they take appropriate action as and when required.

But they stress that it's the customer's responsibility

to tell them as soon as the phone goes missing,

as only then can they stop calls being charged to an account.

In this case,

they say it was two days before they were notified of the phone's loss.

They recommend their customers use the security PIN on their phones

to prevent unauthorised loss.

And they say that situations like this

could be avoided by requesting a bar on international calls.

Even so, the company did eventually agree

to cancel the outstanding bill of £1,452.94.

But Sam and Paul still feel that the calls

should never have been allowed to get so high.

It was stressful,

money was hard to come by.

To then suddenly have to find £1,500 out of nowhere

to pay this bill was horrible.

And I just felt that it just didn't seem right that this should happen.

Now, for many of us, whether it's at work or at home,

the internet has become an essential part of everyday life.

In fact, 19 million households are now online.

But exactly how fast your internet connection will be

still, I'm afraid, very much depends

on which part of the country you live in.

Now, in rural areas especially,

trying to get online can be frustratingly slow.

Martin and Diane Verlaine are amongst the people angry about that.

They don't like the fact that they're paying the same

as people who enjoy faster speeds.

And they also reckon that their slow Internet connection

is actually damaging their business.

It's three years since Martin and Diane Verlaine swapped this...

for this.

We're both workaholics and we were like ships that pass in the night.

I was an IT project manager

and quite often I would do a 48-hour stint.

I said to Martin that we need to find something else,

because otherwise we'll cark at our desks

and the taxman will get all our money.

We didn't want that,

so we started looking around for something else we could do.

And here is that "something" - a holiday cottage business

tucked away in a beautiful corner of Devon.

But there's a downside to living in such a remote area -

the speed of their broadband internet connection,

which is very slow indeed.

They've got downloadable lessons now which they haven't had before.

-That's good.

-Yeah, it's good,

but it takes so long to download them

and for them to play,

that it's... It's virtually useless.

Here we go, look.

See? Go slow.

The most that we've ever got is one meg. 1.1, I think.

1.2 at an absolute push,

but that's when I'm using it at 6.30 in the morning

and there's no other interference on the line, nobody else using it.

Martin and Diane don't just need a faster connection for fun,

they need it for their holiday cottage business,

so that they can take bookings online.

We'd like to be able to run the business ourselves,

but we can't, because we have to rely on the booking agent

to get the customers in.

If I can have my own website and I can take my own bookings,

I need to be able to take payments via the internet.

I can't do any of that with this kind of broadband speed.

The problem is that broadband is still a postcode lottery.

If you live in a big city,

chances are that you'll have a fast connection.

In rural areas, where the infrastructure hasn't been upgraded,

it's likely to be much slower.

And though Martin and Diane's guests come to get away from it all,

like the rest of us, they've learned to expect fast internet access wherever they are.

They may be getting five- or six-meg broadband where they are

and expecting, you know, to be able to have a very similar response

when they come away.

Unfortunately, you have to tell them, "It's very disappointing.

"I'm sorry, this is all we can get."

When they signed up,

it was a package advertising speeds of up to 20Mb.

Although now, the maximum BT can claim is up to 16,

because just this month, there's been a major change in the way

that broadband speeds are allowed to be advertised.

Internet service providers, including BT,

can only promote speeds which 10% of their customers can receive.

Of course, Martin and Diane's speeds couldn't be further away

from the maximum that most people can hope for.

They knew they'd never get the fastest connection living here,

but hadn't imagined it would be as slow and unpredictable as it is.

Or that it would have such an impact.

I don't think we thought,

having lived in London and in major towns,

that to have such a slow broadband connection

was something that we needed to take into consideration.

I don't think we believed that it was a situation

that there wasn't a solution to.

And what's especially galling for the couple is that

they still have to pay £19/month to BT,

even though they're not getting anything like

the same broadband speed as most other customers

who are paying the same rate.

The couple say the reason BT have given them for the slow connection

is that they're a long way from the exchange

and the system uses the original copper wiring.

And it's not like they can switch to another provider.

Because we have copper wire and there is no fibre optics,

some companies won't entertain us at all,

other companies will offer us a service,

but with no better speed, but costing us much more money -

almost triple what we're paying now.

And I can't afford that.

Michael Phillips is the broadband expert

for the price comparison site Consumer Choices.

Broadband is now one of life's essentials.

It's like the fourth utility.

So not having a useful broadband connection

can be a massive inconvenience on people's lives.

But that is magnified by an enormous extent for businesses.

It's almost impossible to operate

if you don't have a fast broadband connection.

Martin and Diane would agree,

and are in no doubt about what they'd like to see.

If you're providing a service that's vastly inferior

than someone in the middle of London can get

you have to charge less. And until Ofcom, or someone,

has the power to force British Telecom to do that,

there will be no movement from where we are.

BT told Rip-Off Britain that their policy has always been

to give customers an...

..before they sign up.

And they say that their pricing is based on...

..including usage limits and security features.

They've confirmed that Martin and Diane receive the...

There may yet be some hope.

The Government has invested £530 million

to try and help roll out faster broadband to rural area by 2015.

Martin and Diane's area is set for improvements next summer.

Martin and Diane hope that,

if there are improvements in their area, they don't come

too late for them to realise their dreams

and make a success of their business.

I'm incredibly frustrated by it.

I can't grow my business

because I can't offer the services to my customers and my guests

that they feel - and I feel - they should have.

I just can't grow my business.

'For one weekend only, we opened up a consumer advice clinic

'in a pop-up shop in Manchester.

'We had a team of experts on hand to solve your problems face-to-face.'

We've got a couple of people from Trading Standards

and we've got some other people in there, as well.

I hope there's somebody in there to point you in the right direction.

Thank you very much.

But perhaps the busiest part of the shop was our special gripe box -

a place to come in and tell us what you really think.

-Been ripped-off.

-I want some help.

-I think it's disgusting.

-They've never got back to me.

The price has gone up.

It does look a bit like a TARDIS.

It has been so popular today, I can't tell you.

It's been rather difficult to get people out.

So they love the idea they're in a box, contained.

They can really get everything off their chest.

What I don't like is when you ring up a customer services

and you have to get through to different people every time you ring,

and none of them has the right information on the screen.

One of the things my wife and I find extremely frustrating at home

is the number of unwanted telephone calls we get these days.

Why aren't 0845 numbers straightforward, simple

and who you're going to ring?

Whenever I want to phone up the bank or, increasingly,

other organisations, I'm being charged 40p, 50p per minute,

which I think is unfair

and it seems to be that there aren't any options now to phone a landline.

So, paying for local calls at national rate seems to be

a real bugbear. And Paul asked for some advice

on his gripe from Trading Standards officer Sylvia Rook.

How can I help you?

My particular gripe is with supposedly free telephone numbers -

0800 numbers.

I've just had my mobile phone bill, which normally is £12 a month,

which is now £50 and I just think it's a bit unfair, really.

Not just for students, but for everybody.

Companies do it because it's a standard charge,

no matter where you phone from.

That's the reason they give you the number.

They can say that everybody pays the same amount of money.

If you phone 0800 from a landline, it will always be a free call.

But if you phone it from a mobile, they do charge you.

There's a website called SayNoTo0870.com.

I've got it open here.

What it allows you to do is put in any of these numbers that start

with 08 and, if there is one,

it will provide you with the alternative landline number.

I've got the Student Loan Company.

I can see it's an 0870 number,

so I can understand why it's caused you quite a bit of due stress.

What it's done is come up with a landline number here.

This is a good opportunity. It won't cover everything,

but at least it should cut down on your telephone costs.

I wish you luck with the rest of your degree.

-Thank you very much.

-OK. Good to meet you.

-Bye-bye.

-Thank you.

And we'll be opening up our pop-up shop again

one weekend during this coming June.

For the latest information, keep checking our website.

Next: No-one wants to hand over hard-earned cash

for something they might be able to get for free.

But, according to an investigation by Which? Magazine

and the charity Action On Hearing Loss,

that's exactly what can happen

with the sale of hearing aids on the high street.

And there's one Rip-Off Britain viewer who now wonders

if he spent a lot more than he needed to.

Norman Squire's hearing had served him pretty well until 2010,

when, aged 92, he noticed that he was starting to struggle a little.

I keep asking people to repeat things.

Somebody's got something to tell you and there's a punchline

and you miss that, so you say, "Beg your pardon?"

So they keep telling me I need a hearing aid.

Norman's friend, Chris, was surprised his hearing was failing.

I've never had trouble having a conversation with him.

I think I've got the advantage

of having worked with the deaf, that I'm used to speaking clearly,

which is a benefit to Norman.

Though his problems seemed slight, Norman was pleased when one day a leaflet came through his door

from a chain of shops selling hearing aids, called Hidden Hearing.

They had a local branch, so he popped along to see what they would advise.

They offered me a hearing aid to try and put in me ear

and it was like a big marble.

So he said, "All right, try this one."

And he fits this one in.

And there was nothing else, nothing else was forthcoming.

So I don't know if they make anything else.

Norman agreed to buy two hearing aids there and then -

one for each ear -

but was surprised to find how much they cost.

I did have a friend who said they'd paid 2,000.

So I thought, at tops, it would be 2,000.

Instead of which it was nearly six.

Norman didn't have £6,000, but he was able to spread the cost

with a finance agreement that the shop arranged for him.

The name Hidden Hearing does suggest the shop specialises

in discreet devices.

Norman says he wasn't particularly concerned with how his looked,

so long as they worked.

But the small size of the aids immediately became an issue for him.

Well the main problem

is it's a fiddly little thing to mess about with.

-I can get them in.

-It takes a long time, doesn't it?

I think the aid and its fittings are too small for Norman,

because his hands are big and he has arthritis.

After months of practice, Norman began to find it easier

to put in the hearing aids,

but as far as he was concerned, there was another problem.

Well, on two or three occasions that little piece on the end,

that goes right down into your ear...

..it just didn't come out with the rest of it when you took them off.

It was starting to look like Norman had spent £6,000 on hearing aids

that were not necessarily the most

suitable for him and it's money he may not even have had to spend,

because the NHS can give similar aids for free.

Norman hadn't known that

and Hidden Hearing certainly didn't tell him.

So would he have been eligible?

We have arranged for audiologist Crystal Rolfe to check.

OK, Norman, I'm going to start off by having a look in your ears, OK?

One of the most important things to check

is whether that person will be able to fit it into their ear,

what their dexterity of their hands is like,

because hearing aids can be difficult to get in.

What I'm just going to do is just press the button for me

every time you hear a sound.

Norman would certainly be eligible for an NHS hearing aid.

Based on the tests we did

and talking to him about his dexterity in his fingers,

I'd recommend the normal-sized hearing aids behind his ear,

maybe not one of the very small ones,

just to make it easier for him to hold.

And you can get a couple of different designs I've got here,

on the NHS that would be suitable for you.

Whenever Norman has called into the shop and mentioned his concerns,

the staff have offered to fit his hearing aids for him.

But if he had to do that every time he has trouble,

it would mean a special trip into town.

We contacted Hidden Hearing on Norman's behalf.

They insist his assessment met all required standards

and good practice

and the hearing aids he bought were believed appropriate.

They say it would have been up to Norman's doctor

to explain he was eligible for an NHS one.

But in any case, the particular model he got

would not have been available that way

and they claim they don't have any record of any complaint.

Although Norman insists he has raised it with staff at the shop.

In 2010, Which? carried out an investigation

into a variety of shops selling hearing aids.

A third of the total number of stores they visited

were considered to have poor clinical assessments.

And one of the other high street chains

even risked breaking the law,

by giving misleading information about the NHS

in order to promote their own products.

Meanwhile Hidden Hearing say they're happy to discuss

changing Norman's hearing aids for a different model,

which could stop him worrying his expensive purchase

will end up in the back of a drawer gathering dust.

You lose confidence in them and don't bother to put them on,

which is a blatant waste of money, isn't it?

Today, we've been hearing from people

who feel they've been slightly left behind

by the phone and broadband companies,

not able to communicate as fast as they'd like to.

And that's how things used to be

for the residents of the small fishing village of Robin Hood's Bay

on the Yorkshire coast.

But not any more.

They got so fed up of being told they couldn't get broadband,

they decided to do something about it.

This is Robin Hood's Bay on the North Yorkshire coast.

For years, this seaside village

simply had no access to a broadband internet connection -

until the residents took matters into their own hands.

A local businessman, Cliff Southcombe, kicked things off

after realising his old-school dial-up connection

just wasn't coping with his business needs.

People were using the internet more,

businesses were using e-mail, Skype, those sort of things.

So if things didn't change quickly,

we would be in trouble.

Worried that without broadband, his business could suffer,

Cliff began looking for a solution.

I spotted that there was a government-run scheme

to try and encourage broadband in the region

and a number of businesses were being offered free broadband

through a satellite dish for a year.

I applied and was fortunate enough

to be one of the ones lucky enough to get it.

And he loved having it.

But, as the end of that free year approached,

Cliff was left with two big problems.

One was that, at the end of the year,

I - or our business - was going to have to pay for that.

And even at a cut rate, it was about £260 a month

for the broadband.

And secondly, it wasn't a good position

to be the only one in the village with broadband.

That was something that didn't seem fair.

Cliff got together with some of the other locals

and together they came up with the answer.

They formed a cooperative company and used the technical know-how of a couple of residents

to build their own broadband network

using a system of boxes and aerials

that could bounce the signal

from one central point to everyone in the village.

Their ramshackle system worked a treat.

When, a few years later, BT installed an advanced telephone line,

they were able to use that

to iron out the final few problems.

Another plus point was that, having Wi-Fi round the village,

we have a lot of visitors coming to Robin Hood's Bay,

so they could pick up broadband as well.

And it provides a nice income for the cooperative as well

to help us keep the prices down for those people who live here.

In fact, the cooperative charges users

just £5 a month for the service

and it seems to be going from strength to strength.

Other broadband services have since become available in the area,

but many prefer to stick with the home-grown provider.

It's cheap, reliable,

always looking to extend and improve.

The next thing we're looking at

is the link to the fibre-optic cable in Whitby.

We need to do that via a relay over the hill at High Normanby.

And any customer service issues

can easily be dealt with over a pint at the pub.

Internet just didn't exist before we all got together.

Downloading a web page and you could go and have a cup of coffee

and read the newspaper.

Uploading web pages was a terrible business.

You hardly ever did it because it took so long.

What the locals have achieved here

is something they think could easily be copied elsewhere.

With a bit of determination and know-how,

they've shown that, even if you have to do it yourself,

it is possible to get online, even in the unlikeliest of places.

Here at Rip Off Britain,

we're always ready to investigate more of your stories.

Confused over your bills?

Trying to wade through endless small print

that leaves you none the wiser?

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.

Unsure what to do when you discover you've lost out,

and that great deal has ended up costing you money?

I thought, "This cannot be true."

It's totally unacceptable. I was so angry.

Don't forget you can write to us at -

Or send us an e-mail to -

The Rip-Off Britain team is ready and waiting

to investigate your stories.

And that is it for today.

But we can all learn something

from the locals we saw earlier in Robin Hood's Bay.

Didn't they do very well?

If you are unhappy with service,

not just from your broadband supplier,

but anyone you do business with,

then for goodness' sake, do something about it.

At the very least, speak up and complain, is what we always say.

Absolutely. Make your voices heard.

Meanwhile, we are rather hoping

that the government's plans to upgrade most of us

to the fastest broadband system in Europe,

is going to signal an end to the sort of problems

that you've been telling us about today.

But do let us know how things pan out in your area.

And also, if it looks like the communications revolution

is leaving you behind.

In the meantime, do join us again

when we will be investigating more of your stories

and showing you how to avoid being ripped off. Till next time, goodbye.

-Bye-bye.

-From all of us, bye-bye.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd