Episode 10 Rip Off Britain

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

and you contacted us in your thousands by post, email,

even stopping us on the streets, and the message couldn't be clearer.

I think there's a lot of hidden information about your bills

that should be made a lot more clear.

I don't feel I get treated how I should be.

You've told us, with money tighter than ever,

you need to be sure that every pound you spend is worth it.

How do I get my money back? Cos I just think I'm entitled to it.

So, whether it's a deliberate rip off, a simple mistake,

or a catch in the small print,

we'll find out why it is that you're out of pocket

AND what you can do about it.

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

We do get results, I mean that's the interesting thing.

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

Hello and welcome to Rip Off Britain where, as ever,

we're going in to battle on your behalf

and challenging the companies that you've told us

have left you out of pocket.

Sometimes by hundreds of pounds or more.

We're going to be asking them the really tough questions

that sometimes you can't.

And if we can help more of you avoid losing out in the first place,

well then, so much the better.

Because, as you know, once you've handed over your well-earned money,

sadly, if you then need to get it back...

Well, that can prove very difficult indeed.

And how many times have we seen that on the programme?

More then we'd like to.

And really that applies whether you're dealing with companies that

are respectable household names, or ones that aren't that familiar.

And, who knows, perhaps one or two who are not that respectable either.

Coming up...

A company that's driven off

with thousands of pounds of these people's money.

I thought, "There is no chance of me getting my money back"

and I was, I was devastated.

I just feel like they're just daylight robbers.

I just think they're scammers, complete and utter scammers.

The fan calling foul after hundreds of pounds

was taken from his bank account for tickets he never got.

It absolutely killed me,

this unfortunate feeling that I was not going to the game.

And we take up more of your problems face to face at our pop-up shop.

Maggie and Rick Hilton are a couple in the business

of making other peoples' wedding dreams come true.

But after what they thought was a dream purchase of their own,

they've been left distinctly unhappy themselves,

not to mention thousands of pounds worse off.

That's bad enough, but what really frustrates them

is that, although they've lost an awful lot of money,

there doesn't seem to be anything they can do to get it back.

For the blushing bride and beaming groom,

every detail counts on the big day.

You may kiss your wife.

And, over six years, Rick and Maggie Hilton

have perfected the art of providing a fairytale wedding

to hundreds of couples.

They run this bed and breakfast and wedding venue on the Isle of Wight.

But there was one detail

they felt was missing from this perfect scene -

a wedding car to drive the bride and groom around the grounds.

The car that we've got now, I mean, it's not really something

that we can use physically to transport people.

It's only really for photography purposes.

It's just to add a little extra to the couples

that are getting married, so they can have photographs.

So, in 2008, Rick and Maggie found a man called Mark Ackers,

from a Preston-based company, Elite Wedding Cars Lancashire Ltd.

Not to be confused with other businesses of similar names.

They commissioned Mark to build a kit car called a Beauford,

personalised with a fleck, glitter-paint finish.

It was like a Beauford Tourer, beautiful 1930s Gatsby style.

You had the big-spoke wheels,

wheel on the side, convertible.

Beautiful leather seats.

Very eco-friendly, which he agreed to build.

I mean, it was special.

Mark quoted them a price for the car of £21,000,

which the couple had budgeted for.

They agreed to pay him in three instalments - the first immediately,

the second a few weeks later, and the final payment on delivery.

And obviously thought that being a legitimate limited company

that he'd be reputable.

So...we were very confident to go ahead with him.

We even got a chauffeur's uniform for you, didn't we?

Oh yes, a very enchanted chauffeur's uniform for me!

So Rick and Maggie paid the first instalment of £7,000,

and started taking bookings for the car

from prospective bride and grooms as part of their wedding package.

That was like the icing on the cake, to give that little value-added thing

to make peoples' weddings or breaks here something really special.

But, as the delivery date fast approached

and despite handing over the SECOND £7,000 instalment...

..progress on the car seemed to be agonisingly slow.

Oh, hello!

Oh, look at some of these excuses..

Rick and Maggie repeatedly contacted Mark Ackers

to see what the hold-up was about.

Here's a few of his excuses.

He was "Really busy,"

"Off work with a bad stomach,"

and, "At a funeral."

Didn't get back to us as he, "Had the day off."

Couldn't take any more pictures, "Due to the rain."

There was quite a few more.

We were living in hope all the time, hoping that it was all true.

Mark Ackers' stalling meant Rick and Maggie had to put the brakes

on their plans, and let down the clients who'd ordered the car

as part of their wedding package.

But finally, in August 2008.

four weeks AFTER the promised delivery date,

Ackers sent some pictures of the car through to the couple.

Trouble was, it was nowhere near finished.

By the time he did send these pictures,

the car was meant to be near enough completed

but it was obvious, when you looked at the pictures, that it wasn't.

Looks like probably one of his wedding cars there.

Mark Ackers still seemed to be living out his own fairytale.

He told the Hiltons that the car was still on track for delivery,

and in fact had just passed its roadworthiness test.

Unfortunately for him, Maggie was learning

not to accept anything he said at face value,

and checked out his claims

with the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency.

When I got onto the... I think it's the VOSA,

they confirmed that it hadn't even been in for the test,

yet he had told us, "It had passed."

So, in actual fact, all the emails that he was sending

were just total lies and obviously...

..then we knew that there was something seriously wrong.

With proof that what he'd told them was untrue,

Rick and Maggie demanded an explanation.

At which point, Mark Ackers suddenly told them

that another buyer was offering to pay MORE money for the car

he was building especially for them!

The Hiltons sought legal help.

And Mark Ackers suddenly went silent, effectively disappearing

with their money AND the car.

We did everything - we went to Trading Standards,

Citizens Advice, debt collectors, courts.

In the end, we had a judgment in our favour for nearly £30,000.

CONVERSATION INAUDIBLE

Despite the court ordering Mark Ackers

and Elite Wedding Cars Lancashire Ltd to reimburse the Hiltons

nearly £30,000 to cover the money they'd paid

and the losses they'd suffered, Ackers didn't pay up.

Once we'd got the judgment, we thought,

"Wow, we're starting to get somewhere.

And then you think to yourself,

"Well, it's been through a court of law, the law is on your side."

Unfortunately, that doesn't always make any difference.

And, actually, getting back what the law says you're owed

can be very difficult indeed.

As solicitor Maung Aye explains.

Unfortunately, obtaining a court order doesn't necessarily mean

that the claimants will receive their monies back.

The Hiltons, in this case, had a substantial sum due to them

but they were dependent on the bailiffs

being able to enforce the debt against the company

and the company having sufficient assets to satisfy the debt.

Bailiffs can't just go into property, break in and retrieve the assets.

So, quite feasibly, if the director

either doesn't answer the door of the property

or moves assets around,

bailiffs will have difficulty locating the assets

to satisfy the debt.

In a final twist to the story,

Rick and Maggie discovered through the chassis number

that their dream car HAD been sold to someone else.

So not only had Mark Ackers taken £14,000 from THEM,

he'd also made MORE money selling the car.

He was brought back into court

and they actually ordered him to pay £16,000 into the court,

which he refused, or didn't act on it.

And by that stage... I mean, obviously...

you know, we were just absolutely devastated.

And because of our financial situation,

we couldn't just keep getting lawyers to act on our behalf.

We tried to contact Mark Ackers by post, email and phone.

But despite repeated attempts,

he hasn't responded to ANY of our questions.

And, extraordinary as it seems,

there isn't much more Rick and Maggie can do.

Because their contract was with a limited company

that Mark Ackers has now dissolved,

and they'd be unlikely to get any joy

joining a list of creditors with the Insolvency Agency,

they really have reached the end of the road.

We chased him for over three years.

I mean, this is the fourth year now, and we've actually got nowhere.

It does wear you down after a while

but we've decided now just to draw a line under it

and get on and just carry on making people happy.

If you're a sport or a music fan desperate to see your heroes,

then a company that promises it can get you those hard-to-find

or even sold-out seats can seem just the ticket.

But those companies can often deliver an unexpected result,

as one of them did for our next viewer.

He was determined to get to Barcelona for a football game

but the company he used kept moving the goalposts.

It's an open goal!

Aside from his day job,

there's only one thing that really takes up the time of Bes Sezer,

and that's his beloved Arsenal.

Arsenal!

Arsenal's in my blood,

I was raised an Arsenal fan by my father, my uncle.

Those were the days when we used to be able to go

and, you know, for £10 we could go watch the game, buy a programme

and a hotdog and the train fare home! If I can't get to a game,

I like to try and be involved with the Arsenal community somehow

because it's just a love of mine.

So in February, last year, when Arsenal beat Barcelona

in the first leg of their Champions League tie,

there was no doubt about what Bes would need to do next.

The very next day, I was straight online looking to buy some tickets

to go out there and watch the game.

This website came up, they were called onlineticketexpress.com.

In hindsight,

I didn't put any research into this company whatsoever,

and, obviously, it came back to hit me hard.

The match tickets weren't cheap.

But, as it was such a crucial game,

Bes wasn't put off and he ordered two - one for himself,

and one for his brother, Oz, at a total cost of £524.

'Having made the purchase online,'

the very next thing that was asked was that I returned

a email, signed back to them via fax,

to confirm that I was definitely making a purchase of these tickets.

I did that immediately.

I'd never made a purchase online for a sporting event before,

so nothing triggered my mind

that there was anything abnormal about that.

Tickets apparently sorted, Bes set about organising

what should have been the perfect holiday -

sun, sea and Arsenal.

But then the company sent him an unexpected request.

I received an email from onlineticketexpress.com

requesting that I make scanned copies of my passport

and the card that I'd used to make the purchase.

I called them and said, "What's this all about?"

I spoke to a lady who said to me, "This is completely normal."

I said, "OK, I'm going to need to question that, really."

I contacted Barclays and I was told straight away, immediately,

"Under no uncertainty,

"do you ever send scanned copies

"of your passport to anyone."

So Bes said, "No."

And Online Ticket Express told him

that, without the documents, the purchase couldn't be completed.

Despite that, four days later,

they took over £600 from his account.

Bes asked them to refund it

and though they agreed on the phone that they'd do just that,

they then stopped acknowledging any further calls or emails.

At that point, I realised that I was just being taken for a fool

and that this company was just...

..you know, playing me.

And at that moment I got very worried

and thought, "Well, am I going to be losing this money now?"

But with his flights and hotel already booked,

a few days later, Bes flew to Barcelona,

resigned to watching the game from OUTSIDE the stadium.

And now for Gunners, wow!

The atmosphere was brilliant, the buzz was amazing,

but there was always this, just... You know, it absolutely killed me,

this unfortunate feeling that I was not going to the game.

Bes couldn't resist buying a ticket outside the game.

I managed to purchase a ticket,

which I had to pay a lot of money for.

But I was all...I was out there already in Barcelona

so, you know, I had to...see that match

But it really was a game of two halves

because when he got home, Bes found an email waiting for him.

Headed, "Last Call", it had been sent by onlineticketexpress.com

just a few hours before the game,

instructing him to pick up his tickets from an unspecified area

"near the box office."

Bes was baffled.

As far as he'd been concerned, the purchase hadn't gone ahead

and he'd still been waiting for a refund.

But he was worried to see that the email also stated

that regardless of whether these tickets were collected,

they would be considered delivered with a refund not an option!

I immediately contacted Barclays and informed them of this.

At the same time, I contacted Barcelona FC

and asked them if they knew about this company.

Barcelona FC immediately told me, "You know, this company,

"we've heard their name before, they continually do this.

"We always have people coming and asking,

"where is there a pick-up point for this company?

"No such pick-up point exists."

Upon hearing this, Barclays returned the ticket purchase price

to Bes's account in full.

However, the ticket site played the game too well,

and as the final whistle blew, they had one last shot.

I realised that this amount of money

had gone back out of my account again.

I then contacted Barclays

and asked them what was going on here and Barclays then told me

that the amount had been "Disputed, counteracted by the company."

Onlineticketexpress.com argued that,

as Bes had signed the terms and conditions,

he had agreed to the company's trading methods.

And, regardless of the fact that the purchase hadn't been completed,

and that his tickets had never materialised,

the bank agreed with them, and Bes lost his money.

I said to Barclays,

"But I never received the tickets that I paid for."

So then Barclays said that there is nothing that they could do,

that the terms and conditions had been signed

and that the charge-back scheme had been challenged.

We contacted onlineticketexpress.com who are based in Andorra.

They didn't reply.

We also got in touch with Barclays, who said they did approach Bes

to see if he wished to continue with the dispute,

but due to his delay in replying, they are...

I didn't do enough research

and it's really cost me now,

because I'm out of pocket by £600 because I never got what I paid for.

FOOTBALL CROWD CHEERS

So, whether it's for a game or a gig,

how can you be confident about where you buy your tickets?

Tony Neate from Get Safe Online has some advice

to make sure you don't lose out.

Buying tickets online for sporting events, for concerts,

for festivals is fantastic -

the opportunity there to get exactly what you're looking for is great.

But we've gotta make sure that we're not being ripped off.

50% of the websites that were selling tickets last year

were unauthorised websites that had no tickets to sell.

One of the main problem is it's very difficult

to find out whether the ticket that you're buying

is from an authorised re-seller.

These websites look very, very, genuine.

They can even have names of genuine companies linked to it.

So you need to do background checks

or you end up by not having tickets

or for buying tickets for a concert

that never really existed in the first place.

The sort of things that you should check out is...

Check the actual website that you're on, ask questions,

have a look and see if there's a postal address,

is there a telephone number?

If you're going to pay, then pay with a credit card.

It gives you far more security if something should go wrong.

Make sure you go to the event's website,

make sure you go to the concert website

to find out who was selling their tickets.

If you get a ticket that actually doesn't look right,

if the tickets never arrive,

or if you suddenly realise that the concert doesn't exist,

contact your local police.

Tell the ticket company or the agents

that are dealing with that particular concert or festival.

Tell your credit card company straight away,

cos you may be able to get a refund.

Here at Rip Off Britain, we like to be able to help

with as many of your consumer troubles as we can.

And with our pop-up shop, we've got just the place to do it.

Inside, our team of experts is ready and waiting

to try and solve your problems.

Sylvia Rooks from Trading Standards

has been answering your questions, and Anita wants to know

what else she can do to try and get her money back

after being refused a refund.

I purchased a sofa

and, after six months, the cushions weren't plumping up.

You could almost feel the frame when you sat on them.

They said it's not covered by the guarantee.

It's a common misconception with retailers

that the guarantee is the be-all and end-all,

but it is in addition to your rights, it doesn't replace your rights.

Under the Sale of Goods Act, you have the rights that

any goods you buy should be of satisfactory quality

and fit for their purpose and remain so for a reasonable period of time.

You need to get an independent expert out to do a report

to find out why the cushions are not supporting weight properly.

If they're unable or unwilling to solve the problem,

then you'll have to pursue the matter through the Small Claims Court

in order to try and get your money back.

I was just about to give up and put up with the sofa,

but now I think I will actually take it further.

Over the weekend it was open, our shop was absolutely inundated

with people keen to share their concerns.

You've set out very clearly at the top of your letter

how you want this to be resolved.

Our experts were amazed at the variety of topics that came up.

And they'll look into it for you and make sure it doesn't happen again.

But travel-related problems were high on the list of complaints.

Organising a holiday can take an awful lot of planning

but as our travel expert, Simon Calder, has been hearing,

that dream holiday can very often

turn into a very expensive nightmare.

And unfortunately for Joyce Frain and her travel companions,

it seems there's no way of getting back the money they've lost.

We intended to go to on a cruise which included the Greek Islands.

-SIMON:

-Lovely.

-Very nice.

-That's what we intended to do.

So you were all excited about going, presumably?

-Absolutely, yes.

-What could possibly go wrong?

THEY ALL LAUGH That's what we thought.

A few weeks later, we found out the cruise had been cancelled.

When they cancelled the cruise,

it was because the ship was going into dry dock at Malaga.

Surely if it's going into dry dock, they must know some time in advance.

When that was cancelled,

all you can do is say, "Right, we'll have our money back."

What the crucial thing in this case is that you had bought, separately,

flights and therefore the airline is going to say,

"Well, ladies the flight's still here, we're still here - you can't have your money back."

But you got the cruise money back, didn't you?

-We did.

-You got that.

-So it's purely the flights we're talking about?

-ALL: Yeah.

-So how much did you lose?

-Just under £1,400 for the six of us.

Next time, make sure you know exactly what would happen

if you've booked a flight

and the cruise, for some reason, is changed or doesn't go.

Well, girls, I'm really sorry.

That is not what you wanted to hear, I know,

but I sympathise with you,

-because you know you didn't expect the boat to go into dry dock.

-Yes.

Still to come on Rip Off Britain...

A car too dangerous to drive and that can't be fixed.

So why was it sold that way by the dealer?

I literally don't know what to do with it.

I'm so tired and so fed up of this whole situation.

It's been going on too long now and I just want my money back

and I just want it to be over.

Now, here at Rip Off Britain, we get thousands of emails and letters

covering a very wide range of subjects -

and, by the way, we love hearing from you.

So when we suddenly get a lot of correspondence,

not just about the same topic, but complaining about the same company,

well, we know straight away that is something we need to investigate.

And that's exactly what happened with our next story.

One name kept coming up again and again,

a business which has let an awful lot of people down.

And, in a way, that seems particularly cruel,

because all those people in tough times

had found a way to make their lives better - or so they thought.

Constant phone calls, being fobbed off, put on hold.

Your dad's been stupid enough to get ripped off by a dodgy company.

Basically, you're, like, cheated out of your money.

These are some of the dozens of people who've contacted us

after chasing the same dream -

and finding the same way to try and make it happen.

So why have they all ended up hundreds of pounds out of pocket?

The idea was to become truck drivers,

which meant signing up for expert training to fulfil that ambition.

For 25-year-old Mark Higgins,

that training would be a way to transform his life.

It's hard industry round where we live so, yeah,

truck-driving would be a way out, really.

'It would be a dream.'

It's a massive career change, it's something I've always wanted to do.

Eager to get the wheels in motion, Mark had searched the internet

for the perfect company to get him on the road.

And he soon found one.

Called Direct LGV, they not only employed experienced drivers

to facilitate their training, but made an irresistible promise

that "As one of the leading LGV training companies in the UK,"

they'd make becoming a driver...

It was a brilliant, glossy website and it looked really appealing.

I applied for it...

..and everything was fine.

So Mark signed up, and agreed to pay Direct LGV £1,200

in 12 monthly instalments.

Now although they didn't sort dates for the training straight away,

they kept reassuring him that all was in hand.

But while he continued to pay the instalments,

he was making some big sacrifices.

It was a very big deal, because me and my partner were living together

and I was paying rent.

I had to put a bit aside to pay Direct LGV, which was...

All I could afford at the time was £100.

It eventually got to the point where I had to...

I moved back to my parents' and I paid...

The last payment was £500 to them, and that was it.

£1,200 lighter but no closer to getting his training,

Mark kept calling Direct LGV to find out what was going on.

And after a further two months,

he WAS finally given the dates for his course.

But then, he got an unexpected and devastating call from the driver

that he'd been allocated for his training, Andy Ferguson.

The course WASN'T going to happen.

Because Andy was also having problems with Direct LGV.

They haven't paid me at all for two guys that I've trained.

They've just basically said, "We're not paying you."

They've left me, basically, high and dry.

Andy was left £1,480 out of pocket.

And every time he contacted Direct LGV,

the man he'd spoken to, Haaris Mahmood,

just gave him a whole string of excuses.

I was going to be paid that day.

On another occasion, "I've just done it ten minutes ago, Andy.

"It-It's paid directly into your account."

And it never happened.

So, without payment, Mark couldn't come on the course.

So Mark had handed over £1,200 to Direct LGV

with absolutely nothing to show for it.

And with no alternative training offered,

his dreams of becoming a truck driver were shattered.

I thought, you know, there's no chance of me

getting my money back and I was, I was devastated.

I feel like they're just daylight robbers.

I just think they're scammers, complete and utter scammers.

Now then, Mark, how are you doing?

Mark and Andy stayed in touch and became allies against Direct LGV.

Andy even helped Mark to get £500 of his money back through his bank.

Although Andy himself has yet to see a penny of the money he's owed.

And neither of them has been able

to get any sort of response from Direct LGV.

-They need to be outed, this company.

-Yeah.

-They need to be outed.

-100%.

And brought to justice for what they've done.

Because there's not only just...

me and you, there must be about 35 others

that we've contacted on the internet

and these guys are just left high and dry.

What kind of advert is that for this industry?

When we're trying to teach people to, to drive lorries

-and this is what they're doing, they're just taking peoples' money.

-Taking peoples' money off them, yeah.

And it does seem that they've taken a LOT of money

from a lot of people.

We invited some of them

to a traditional truckers' stop in the Midlands.

So meet Mike, Claire, Paul and Rupal.

They're ALL owed money by Direct LGV.

Mike's already been a truck driver,

but needed to renew his license - which meant retaking his test.

He's owed £2,199 by Direct LGV.

My dealings with direct LGV, how it's affected me personally,

is obviously the loss of the money,

the £2,199 - that's had a knock-on effect.

I've borrowed that money off my mother,

but also part of that money was for my summer holidays.

And now I've got to explain to the two kids

that maybe we're not going to able to have that holiday

because your dad's been ripped off,

he's been stupid enough to get ripped off by a dodgy company.

Claire has lost £1,800

and has abandoned her dream of becoming a truck driver.

My future's gone on hold.

I'm just going to move on from this experience,

hopefully try and get my money back

and I'm just going to go into a different profession.

Paul and Rupal paid Direct LGV £2,099 for Paul's training course

but they're among the lucky ones.

Because they HAVE managed to get £1,500 of that back.

It took a big toll on our relationship,

in respect of constantly arguing about it,

constantly chasing the money.

We borrowed the money from her mother-in-law.

So that was a pressure,

because obviously the money she'd given us, she saw no return for it.

Um...

Also having lost three days of work.

Yeah. Being on a self-employed basis,

we don't get paid for that money, so it's hard to recoup those losses.

And it's unlikely they'll now get what they were promised,

OR their money back, because Direct LGV is no longer trading.

That glossy website has been replaced

with a message saying the company has "Ceased to trade."

We tried to contact the company and indeed,

Haaris Mahmood, who worked there.

But our letters to various addresses were either marked

"return to sender" or simply ignored.

It seems that Direct LGV was just the latest

in a line of companies

that offered this kind of training but didn't deliver.

See that little tyre wire that's sticking down here?

So next time, Mark will be trying to find one of the companies that DOES.

That's all I've ever wanted to do is drive bigger and better things.

Because, despite what happened, he's still determined

to follow his dream - to be a truck driver.

Now it's just going to take me a bit of a longer time

because I have to save the money up again to go back and pursue it.

But, yeah, I will. 100% I will

because it's what I want to do with my life so, yeah.

We all make mistakes and big companies are no exception.

Even if they've had years of experience.

It's what they do to put those mistakes right

that can leave you feeling ripped off.

So you need to know what your rights are and where to go

when you don't think that you've been treated fairly.

So we've put together a booklet of tips and advice.

You can find a link to the new, free guide on our website.

Or to receive a copy in the post,

send a stamped, self-addressed A5 envelope

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

Next - a car sold in a pretty shocking state of repair.

But that's perhaps not even the worst part of the story.

The car's owner has had the law on her side

in demanding her money back.

So why is it that she still hasn't seen any of it?

Over 6.7 million people

bought a second-hand car in the UK last year.

And 22-year-old Ruth Kennett was one of them.

I had my old car and its time was up,

so I thought I'd get a bit of money together

and buy something a bit more decent for myself.

She soon found a dealer that seemed to be offering something reliable.

But how wrong she was.

I came across this website for Kingswood Bargains,

and basically they said their website they had "quality used cars"

and all the cars "came with full history and MOT certificates."

So they seemed quite trustworthy.

So, reassured by the website of Kingswood Bargains -

not to be confused with other companies with similar names -

Ruth headed down to the dealership on Two Mile Hill Road in Bristol

to take a look.

I found this Ford KA and it was in my price range - it was £1,395.

And so I put down a £100 deposit on that day.

They wouldn't let me take it away with me

because they wanted to check it over in the garage for me

to make sure everything was OK

and they also gave me three months' free warranty as well

in case anything went wrong.

When she WAS able to drive it away a few days later,

Ruth was very happy with the service she'd had so far.

Delighted the car had been checked over, and that it came with

a three-month warranty, she was sure that she'd bagged herself a bargain.

And it did seem like the perfect little run-around,

or at least it did until five months later,

when she booked it in for an MOT.

The man at the garage gave me a call

basically to tell me that it had failed miserably.

It needed so much welding but there wasn't any clean metal

to weld to and also loads of other problems, mainly corrosion,

even the seatbelts were corroding away, power steering was leaking,

problem with the brakes, all sorts of things really.

So many things in fact

that the mechanic said he wouldn't even attempt the repairs.

He told me it was "dangerous to drive,"

so dangerous that it shouldn't have been sold to me in the first place.

I was really upset, actually.

I was... I didn't know what to say.

Ruth was even more upset when she read the three-page MOT report,

because it seemed clear that the car had been in this condition

when she'd bought it and had been told they were checking it over.

-Hello, come to collect your car.

-Hello. Yeah, OK.

-There's the keys.

-Thank you.

To see for ourselves the full state of the car,

we arranged for it to have a second MOT.

And the independent garage we chose

came back with the same devastating results.

Cheerio.

Bye.

I failed this car on rust to the front suspension

and rust to the rear and a wheel.

The front suspension rust is in a place

where, if it failed, it would cause a serious accident,

it could cause the suspension to collapse.

And the front wheel rim, which I failed,

has got a serious dent in it, which could cause a blow out

and obviously cause an accident.

With rust, all of a sudden, it can go from a position

where it's an advisory to a fail, but from start to finish,

the rust takes years to occur.

Although Ruth's problems are extreme,

a recent Office of Fair Trading survey

estimates that one in five people

who buy a second-hand car from a dealer

will have some sort of trouble with it.

When buying a second-hand car, my advice would be -

if you don't know a lot about cars, take someone who does.

Your local garage would have look over the car,

probably for a small amount of money -

could save you thousands in the long run.

But if you ARE sold a car with an existing fault,

and that WASN'T made clear when you bought it,

then you should be entitled to a refund, repair or replacement

under the Sale of Goods Act 1979.

So, armed with this knowledge,

Ruth contacted Kingswood Bargains to get her money back.

He basically said on the phone that it wasn't his problem

and how was he supposed to know the car was in that state?

If a car has an MOT certificate, he will sell it.

Ruth sent two letters of complaint by registered post,

but had no reply to either.

Determined to get her money back,

she decided to make a claim through the courts,

which she did over the internet

using the government website, Money Claim Online.

So I paid £70.

You write out your case and you submit it,

and then what happens is the court will write

a further two letters to the dealership.

But, despite having the weight of the law behind her,

Ruth still got no response from the company.

And when the court sent a bailiff to visit Kingswood Bargains,

he was told that a DIFFERENT dealership

was now trading from the premises.

And they insisted that they knew nothing about Ruth's case.

Well, I felt devastated again,

because I thought, "I've gone through this whole process.

"I've paid for the bailiff, I've paid the court fees

"and I'm still not going to get my money back."

When we got in touch, the man who now runs the dealership

denied having had ANYTHING to do with the business

in the days when it was called Kingswood Bargains.

So Ruth has hit something of a brick wall.

Although she's fighting on to get her money back,

and has been to court TWICE,

she's hindered by the fact that, despite asking, she was never given

the name of the man who ran the original dealership.

So although she's convinced that the new business

IS connected to the old one,

with the dealership so adamant that it ISN'T,

moving her case on hasn't proved straightforward.

In the meantime, I'm afraid she's stuck with a car

that's cost her £1,395, it's got no MOT

and has been branded "too dangerous to drive."

I don't know what to do with it.

I'm so tired and so fed up of this whole situation.

It's been going on too long now and I just want my money back

and I just want it to be over.

Judging from the correspondence that we get,

one of your biggest frustrations is paying for goods or services

and then discovering that you actually receive neither.

And, moreover, that the company concerned

is in no hurry to put things right.

In those circumstances,

your only option may be to take them to the Small Claims Court.

But how many of us know exactly how to do that?

As far as I can understand it,

is that if you get no satisfaction from the retailer,

you threaten them with the Small Claims Court.

I haven't got a clue what a Small Claims Court is or does,

to be honest.

I mean, I'm pretty sure the clue's probably in the title,

but the specifics, I couldn't tell you.

In the past year, over 97,500 trials and hearings

went through Small Claims Courts across the UK.

They're open to any individual or business,

provided your claim is not more than £5,000 in England and Wales

or more than 3,000 in Scotland.

And although it may sound like a lot of hassle,

it's actually a lot less complicated than you might think.

In fact, these days, you can even do most of the process online.

Ministry of Justice figures show

that it takes an average of 30 weeks for small claims hearings.

Although, even if you do win the case, there's no guarantee

that you'll always get the money that you're owed.

Costs to make a claim start at £25,

but if you have to take further action to get your money,

this could cost more.

However, quite often the threat of court action may in itself be enough

to get the other party to settle, or at least pay what they owe you.

Just one word of caution.

Some cases can take quite a long time

to be processed through the courts,

so make sure that you've examined every other avenue

before you take THAT particular route -

it isn't always going to be a quick fix!

But research from Consumer Focus has demonstrated

that some 75% of cases do have a successful outcome.

And only 12% of those have needed to send in

the enforcement agencies to get hold of the money.

So, for most people, it really is a successful exercise.

But if you'd like to find out more

about how to go through the Small Claims Court,

then just go to our website, where you'll find a lot of information.

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

Confused over your bills?

Trying to wade through never-ending small print?

We should read it, but it's not in plain English it's not...

It should be simple, you know, ABC, you know - very basic stuff.

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

and that "great deal" has ended up costing YOU money?

You get home, you get your bill and it's like £70,

when it's meant to be £35.

And it's just basically... You just get ripped off, don't you?

You might have a cautionary tale of your own

and want to share the mistakes that you've made with us,

so that others don't do the same.

We paid them good money to act in our best interest, they didn't.

You can write to us at...

Or send us an email...

The Rip Off team is ready and waiting to investigate your stories.

Well, sadly, as we've been hearing today,

even when you do all your research,

or think you've gone about things in exactly the right way,

it DOESN'T guarantee that you won't end up feeling ripped off.

Now perhaps the biggest frustration of all

is that even when the law says that you should have your money back,

you may end up not seeing a single penny.

So I'm afraid the best advice we can give

is still what we always say, "Check and check again

"exactly who you're giving your hard-earned money to

"BEFORE you agree to hand it over."

And we can't say that often enough, can we?

Because what it means is that you may not be able to avoid

ALL of the risks but at least you can reduce them as much as possible.

Well, I'm afraid that's all we've got time for today

but I do hope that you will join us again the next time

that we investigate even more of your stories.

-But until then, from all of us, goodbye.

-Bye.

-Bye.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd