Episode 14 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 street

and the message could not be clearer.

Things weren't right, it was costing me time and money

and it was like, "Does anybody listen?"

Unfortunately, I think these companies are more motivated by their share price

than they are by actually looking after the customers.

You've told us with money tighter than ever,

you need to make 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 you're out of pocket

and what you can do about it.

Keep asking the questions, keep... 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,

the series that investigates why you've ended up losing out

or been treated badly

and we've some pretty shocking examples of both

on the programme today.

What's especially frustrating for some of the people we'll be meeting

is that they are paying the price

for the mistakes and the actions of others.

So when they've lost either their money

or certainly in one case, something even worse,

that is usually down to what someone else has done, and not them.

Which does actually make what's happened seem particularly unfair,

but even in situations like these,

I want to you to know there are things you can do to protect yourself

so we'll have some great advice

to try and stop you being caught out the same way.

Later in the programme -

why this woman was forced to turn detective

to get the deal she'd paid for.

I've had no customer satisfaction from them.

They was very blunt and abrupt

and no help whatsoever.

Demands for money you shouldn't have to pay...

I read the letter and it said...

thanking me for placing an advert which I've never advertised.

And we'll tackle more of your problems at our pop-up shop.

When money's tight,

it can be bad enough keeping on top of your own finances,

let alone being dragged into somebody else's.

So imagine suddenly being told

you had to pay off a debt that belonged to someone else

and there was nothing at all you could do about it.

That's what happened to the person we're about to meet

and thanks to a particular type of loan, it could happen to you too.

I was lying in bed in the middle of night,

I was fast asleep and I just heard this almighty hammering on the door.

For Jo Day, that loud knocking one wintry night last December

was to prove a very rude awakening indeed.

I just quickly put some clothes on, came down the stairs

and opened the front door,

and there were these two men standing there

saying the car was being seized

because there was a loan outstanding on it.

So, shocked and confused, I just gave them the car keys,

Terrified, Jo had no idea at all what was going on.

But these men were debt collectors,

chasing a loan she'd never even heard of.

Living alone with my daughter, it was a scary episode to go through

to have two huge men banging on my door at that time of night

demanding my car keys.

The men left her with a letter

explaining there was a loan held against her car

and it needed paying.

Jo was shocked because she'd never taken out such a loan

and she'd only got the car, a second-hand Nissan Micra,

a few months earlier, but from that letter,

she was able to start piecing together what had happened.

The car had been a birthday present from her parents in July 2011.

'Mum and Dad saw the car'

advertised on the side of the road.

It was being advertised for £500.

Like me, my dad doesn't know anything about cars

so he got his friend, who's a mechanic, to come along,

check the vehicle. Having looked under the bonnet,

checked the tyres and the bodywork,

his friend said it was perfect.

In fact, there WAS a problem.

But it wasn't mechanical.

And Jo only found out about it when she came to re-tax the car

three months before the bailiffs came knocking.

When the tax was due to be renewed, it was then that I realised

that I didn't have the full V5 document

you need when you're taxing the car.

That V5C document - more commonly known as the logbook -

is the certificate issued by the DVLA when a vehicle is registered.

It contains the car's details

and information about any previous people who've had the car,

known as its registered keepers.

I phoned the DVLA to see if the car had been registered in my name,

just to see if the logbook had got lost in the post, etc.

They confirmed that the vehicle wasn't registered in my name.

When Jo's parents had bought the car,

they had been given, as is correct, part of the logbook.

What the seller should have done next

was to send the remaining part to the DVLA,

notifying them of the new registered keeper - Jo.

In this case, that hadn't happened.

So to try to put things right,

Jo sent the part of the logbook she did have to the DVLA,

along with some identification.

I received a letter back from them a week or so later

to say they had received the paperwork I'd sent in

and my new logbook would be with me shortly.

Days later, she received the logbook from the DVLA.

At last, the car was officially registered in her name.

But it was because Jo was now traceable as the car's keeper

that a few weeks later,

she received that frightening visit from the debt collectors.

'By them having that information,'

they were actually able to come to my home in the middle of the night

and take that car away.

Jo realised that the reason the previous owner

hadn't sent their part of the logbook to the DVLA

was because they didn't have it.

At some point in the past,

it had been used to take out a so-called "logbook loan"

with that vital certificate handed over as security to borrow cash.

If I'd known there was money outstanding on the car,

I wouldn't... My dad wouldn't have bought it for me,

that's as simple as that.

30,000 logbook loans are recorded in the UK every year,

and the industry is said to be worth around £40 million.

It may seem an easy way to get money

but the repayment rates can be eye-wateringly high

and although they'd no idea at the time,

when Jo's family had bought the car,

they'd been landed with the loan attached to it too.

Having spoken to the logbook loan company,

they said there had been various owners

after the logbook loan had been taken out,

but they'd been unable to track the car down and actually seize it.

'I had no knowledge whatsoever

'that there was any finance outstanding on the car.

'I hadn't received any letters, no phone calls,

'nothing to point out that this loan was outstanding on the car.'

I just feel a victim of somebody else's failings, basically.

They took that loan out, they didn't honour their agreement

and now I've been punished for it.

It's just not fair.

Jo was staggered to find that the only way to get her seized car back

was for HER to pay off the £500 loan.

'My sister transferred £500 to my bank account.

'I then paid the logbook loan company'

over the phone using my debit card.

It was then they told me where my car was

and where I could go and pick it up from.

So after buying the car for £500,

Jo was forced to pay another £500

to collect a debt that wasn't even hers.

'£500 to me is...'

my month's rent,

a week away with my daughter,

it was...you know, it was quite a sizable chunk.

I'm a single mum.

I don't earn a great deal.

It was just soul-destroying, just felt cheated.

The logbook loan company Jo paid the money to is called Mobile Money.

They say they'd normally expect their recovery agents

to work in daylight, and accept that the time and nature of this visit

were "not the most appropriate".

They apologise for that

and say they stopped working with the recovery company as a result.

Even so, they say they were acting within the law

and the relevant code of practice.

They stress advance notice wouldn't normally be given to recover assets

and "urge purchasers of second-hand vehicles to be mindful of the fact

"that the seller may not be the owner of the vehicle".

But since Rip-Off Britain intervened,

Mobile Money have now sent Jo a cheque

for the £500 she had to shell out to get her car back.

It's estimated that as many as a quarter of second-hand cars sold

may turn out to have some sort of outstanding finance deal

or debt attached.

The best way to make sure a possible purchase doesn't

is to get a finance check done before you buy it. That way,

should something like a logbook loan be discovered later on,

you may have some protection.

But as Jo hadn't done that,

she'd been left with two choices -

pay off a complete stranger's loan

or lose her car.

'I was furious that I was having to pay someone else's debt.

'It just doesn't seem fair or just'

that I have to do that

but I had no choice. I needed to get my car back.

'Basically, I was backed into a corner and I'd got no choice.

'I had to pay that money.'

Well, there is now some extra protection

that should mean that you can avoid the same experience as Jo

although the chances are you haven't heard about it yet.

In 2011, the Government introduced measures

designed to protect consumers from the pitfalls of logbook loans

or "bills of sale", as they're referred to within the trade.

Any outstanding finance on vehicles

now has to be registered on what's called an Asset Finance Register.

So if you're buying a used car,

it's essential to check that before handing over your money.

You can find out exactly how to do that on our website...

And let's hope it stops anyone else

being woken up by men demanding money in the middle of the night.

Now, quite a few of the stories that you tell us about involve a mystery,

but we've never had one of them including a murder as well,

so when we saw this one,

we just knew it wasn't an ordinary case for us to solve -

it was a real whodunit.

It was to be a night of dark deeds,

murder most foul...

..and dinner, bed and breakfast thrown in.

Or that's what the "murder mystery" event

advertised on the deals website Living Social promised.

I'd seen murder mystery nights on television and read about them

and they sounded like a good laugh.

Erm, a bit of a detective,

takes you back to your childhood days of playing Cluedo.

And it were £99 for the two of us

so I thought that was quite a bargain.

Debra Denney thought it would be

the perfect way to banish those winter blues.

It was in January. Not a lot happens,

a bit of anti-climax after Christmas and New Year.

So I booked it, and just waited for the vouchers to come through.

The website on which Debra booked the deal, LivingSocial,

is just one of a number of so-called "daily deals" sites

that seem to be a brilliantly simple way to bag a bargain.

Retailers use websites like these

to offer huge discounts on their products - an average of 56%

for a set number of customers each day.

After you've chosen your deal, you'll be emailed a voucher

to redeem directly with the retailer.

I received the voucher within a couple of days.

It said on it I had to ring the hotel

to book my place on the murder mystery night.

I phoned them within a few days

to be told that it had been fully booked, they'd over-booked it.

I told them that the voucher had an expiry date of June.

They said it wouldn't be a problem,

it would still be honoured even if it was after that date.

So Debra waited for the next murder mystery night to be announced.

But as the weeks went by, the situation didn't get any clearer.

I telephoned the hotel several times.

I was fobbed off with different excuses.

I started to get a bit fed up then

and emailed LivingSocial Deals, who never replied.

I telephoned them several times

and you just could never get through, they never answered their phones.

Debra was beginning to get suspicious

but without any clues from either the hotel or LivingSocial,

the mystery of where her night out had gone remained unsolved.

Obviously, somebody had made a mistake somewhere

and overbooked the night. They just...

both of them denying all responsibility of it, really.

But then LivingSocial sent a message

making clear who they considered the guilty party.

I received an email saying that

it was nothing to do with LivingSocial Deals any more,

it was down to the hotel.

LivingSocial just pointed me to the terms and conditions

saying, "Tough," basically, it were nothing they could do about it.

Debra still held out hope that she and her best friend Val

could book themselves on to a new date,

but when Debra contacted the hotel, she was told it had changed hands

and the new owners said they weren't responsible for honouring the deal,

leaving her very confused as to who exactly was.

I feel a bit like I'm stuck in the middle of them both.

I don't know who to blame really cos they're both blaming each other.

It seemed the murder mystery night Debra and Val had so been looking forward to

had vanished,

along with the £99 they'd paid for it.

And of course they're not the only people

to run into mysterious problems after using a daily deals website.

In 2011, the Office of Fair Trading opened an investigation

into the trading practices

of perhaps the best known of these sites, Groupon.

They'd had complaints about services not being delivered,

and consumers not always getting refunds when appropriate.

And although complaints about Groupon have fallen

since this investigation,

the OFT also sent warning letters to 35 other companies

offering daily deals, asking them to review their practices as well.

It was widely reported that LivingSocial was one of them,

something which wouldn't surprise Debra.

I've had no customer satisfaction from them whatsoever.

They just didn't answer telephone calls

and when they did eventually reply to emails,

they were very blunt and abrupt and no help whatsoever.

With all leads exhausted, Debra asked us to see

if we could shed any light on the case.

So we contacted the website LivingSocial and asked them

if they'd be giving Debra a full refund.

After all, their terms and conditions clearly state that

if the seller - in this case the hotel - refuses to honour

the voucher before it expires,

then Living Social will credit the buyer's account

so they can spend it on further deals with the company.

So why hadn't that happened in this case?

LivingSocial told us they work with thousands of local businesses,

with great results, and though they're...

..there are rare instances where that doesn't happen.

They've provided a full refund to Debra

and apologise for any inconvenience.

So, case solved.

But after all this, if Debra and Val ever do get to go

on their murder mystery night, perhaps some of the skills

Debra has developed trying to get to the bottom of all of this

-may well come in handy.

-Oh, definitely!

I'd have to be the detective, I think.

'Rip-Off Britain has created its very own consumer advice shop.

'A place to drop by and tell us about your complaints face to face.'

They'd paid £1,000 for a car

that you'd been told was going to be written off?

-Scrapped, yeah.

-Flipping heck!

Our team of experts is ready with invaluable advice.

Make it very clear. I want my service restored, I want my number back.

They're wrong to charge you for the lesson.

Keith's been ripped off by a claims management company

which promised to write off his debts,

but actually left him even more out of pocket.

They took several payments from various cards

amounting to several thousand pounds

and despite me several times on the telephone and writing to them,

I haven't received a penny from that company.

The interesting thing in this case

that could be one extra avenue for you to explore

is that they make charges to your credit card.

Ultimately, you paid for a service which you never received

and under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act,

you have a right to appeal to your credit card provider

and say, "Look, I paid for this. I never got it.

"I want my money back."

They're obliged to refund you that money and then it's up to them

to chase these people to actually get that money back.

I hope so. Thanks very much for the advice.

Thanks for coming in. Best of luck.

You've not only been telling us about your consumer issues in person

but you also took the opportunity

to tell us about your frustrations and issues in our Gripe Box.

Cold calling should be made absolutely illegal.

You pick the phone up and you can't trust anybody any more.

My gripe with mortgage companies is that they never tell you

when they're going to sell your mortgage on

until after they're doing it.

I'm here to complain about these companies who issue so-called parking tickets

on private land.

'And that's exactly what happened to Linda.

'She's come to see Sarah Pennells for some advice about challenging

'her parking fine.'

Parked our car, quite empty car park, didn't really look around,

but there was no parking system there in the past.

And the first thing we actually heard

was in May this year for £355. No warning, no pre-warning at all.

£355? Saying that that's what you owed them for parking?

-Yes, and if we didn't pay that bill immediately, we'd be taken to court.

-Now let me just get this right.

Was there anything on the windscreen saying you've overstayed?

You're parking here illegally? Nothing at all? Good heavens above!

Sarah, what's the legal position here?

Well, it's an interesting one because if you park on private land,

at the moment, it's completely unregulated.

and it's a real big problem.

These companies that send out these letters

know that if they send out a threatening letter,

many people will pay up.

If you don't pay, you get walloped with a big bill.

It's a real issue.

-Is the company a member of the British Parking Association?

-Yes. As far as I know, they are.

What I would also suggest is that you contact them with the name

and membership number of the company that's been writing to you

and tell them what happened.

Would you be bold enough to go to court on this?

-I think I would, yes.

-If you lose in court, then you have to pay court costs.

But I think that you're in quite a strong position.

I think it's genuinely shocking that a company will send out

a massive bill for £350 and give their customer no way

of disputing that or trying to find out how much they could or should pay legally.

Linda, thanks very much indeed. Let us know what happens.

Still to come, a disastrously botched dental job.

So why hasn't the man responsible put it right?

I cannot even imagine

how I will be able to get this money,

and every day I need to live like this.

I try to hide when I talk to people,

of course I couldn't even dare to smile.

Next, a business that in the past has run into big trouble

for practices that some would call misleading.

Others might describe it as just downright sneaky.

But it seems that they're up to their old tricks again,

forcing people to hand over hundreds of pounds

that they simply shouldn't have to pay.

Dawn Gardener runs a hair salon in North Shields.

She's built up the business from scratch.

But it's not always been easy.

It has been difficult, you know, lots of businesses do struggle.

And we are in a very small-knit community

and they're very loyal to the local businesses in the village,

they are, and that's what we've actually survived on.

To ensure things stay on track,

Dawn keeps an eagle eye on the accounts.

I watch everything that comes through the door and everything that I order

and know that I can afford to pay it.

So she was surprised when in May this year

she received an invoice in the post that she knew NOTHING about.

It was from a company called Industry & Commerce, based in Spain,

who claimed that she owed them 1,000 euros

for an advert that she'd placed for her business on their website.

I opened the post and I read the letter and it said,

thanking me for placing an advert which I've never advertised

in all the years I've been hairdressing.

Along with the invoice, the company had enclosed a copy

of the form that Dawn had supposedly filled in to place the ad.

But not only did this have incorrect information about the business,

the signature on it was not hers.

I'm the only person that receives all the post

and nobody else would have signed.

She immediately rang Industry & Commerce

to tell them she had NEVER placed an advert through them.

But they insisted that she had and that as the contract was now

out of their cooling off period,

Dawn was legally obliged to pay the money.

I said, "How can I have a cool off period when I've not signed anything?

"I'm contacting you today cos this is the first post I've had from you."

And I said I wanted to speak to somebody higher than her.

She said that wasn't possible, just put it in an email to her,

or to the company, which I did do.

Dawn looked into the detail of the letter

and she was horrified to discover

that hidden in the terms and conditions

was an agreement to sign up for three years

and, to make matters worse, she was threatened with court action

if she didn't pay up.

So Dawn contacted Trading Standards who told her that the company

she'd had the letter from, Industry & Commerce,

was actually part of a bigger company called European City Guide.

He said that he'd had dealings with European City Guide some years ago,

but basically to put the stuff in the bin,

not to give them any money

and I was doing the right thing by contacting them.

And that's because although Dawn had never heard about this outfit before,

Trading Standards most certainly had.

The Industry & Commerce company operate European City Guide

and the local Trading Standards and the Office of Fair Trading,

received numerous complaints from businesses,

over probably 15 years, that they've been tricked into a contract

for advertising space in what they thought was a free directory.

Dawn followed Trading Standard's advice, and although she IS still

getting demands for payments from the company,

she now throws them straight in the bin.

But there are plenty of other people

who HAVE felt pressured into paying up,

fearing that if they didn't it would harm their business

and amongst them is builder Raymond Quigley from East Kilbride.

Early part of 2009, I received a letter through the door

from European City Guide with all my details on it.

At that time I was going through a bit of a problem

with my mother not being very well

and, basically, I'd seen all my details and signed it,

sent it back, not realising what I had actually signed

because my mind wasn't on it, and about eight, nine months later

I received a letter through saying that I owed them 997 euros.

Raymond was now locked into an expensive contract with European City Guide,

for an advertising service that he just didn't want

and, indeed, couldn't afford.

The company insisted he had no choice but to pay up.

So, reluctantly, Raymond paid them nearly £800,

fearing that if he didn't he would end up in court.

He thought that that would be the end of it,

but a few months later, the company got in touch again.

I then got a letter in with an invoice,

stating that their second edition was coming out

and I owed them 997 euro again

and I phoned them up and stated that I didn't.

I'd paid last year's and had they made a mistake,

and I got told, no, it was a contract -

this was a second edition.

But this time, Raymond wasn't prepared to keep handing over cash.

After doing some research, he realised how many

other business owners had been stung the same way.

So from then on in,

he simply ignored all further mail from the company.

I mean, at the end of the day, they couldn't care less about you,

they just want your money and just...that's it.

We contacted Industry Commerce in Spain.

They told us that they couldn't find Ray on their system

and as for Dawn, they just sent a copy of the same form

they'd sent her as proof that she'd signed up.

Now they claim that Trading Standards has a "skewed vision"

of their company and it doesn't reflect the fact

that the order form has "become much clearer"

and their "product has also improved".

They also say as their contract is sent to "potential clients" by post,

there's "no obligation to return it",

which actually sounds to us

like they're giving permission for you to throw it in the bin.

Raymond has learned a very expensive lesson from his experience,

and Trading Standards are keen to ensure

that nobody else is caught out the same way.

Businesses should be very, very reticent

in actually signing anything without checking it out first.

Even if they are large companies, the person receiving the advert

will probably think that someone else has actually agreed this

and then will sign it and send it off without giving it a thought.

But with these sort of things, it is incumbent upon them

to actually check it out for themselves

and read all the small print,

and the best idea is don't send anything off.

Big companies don't always make things easy to understand

and you've told us that it can be confusing trying to work out

why you haven't ended up with what you'd expected.

So if you feel bogged down and ripped off, well, 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.

Now when Which? magazine did a survey,

36% of the people they asked said they were finding it hard to manage

on their current income.

As a result, a lot of people desperate for money will try

and find ways to borrow it.

And if they get no joy from the banks, many may find

there's no option but to turn to riskier solutions

such as so called payday loans.

But there IS an alternative.

It's one the government has pledged millions of pounds to support

and like so many good ideas, it isn't a new one.

We're talking about credit unions.

The first one in the UK was established in 1964

and there are now almost 400 of them throughout England, Scotland, and Wales.

Credit unions work by offering savings and loans

to their members and have traditionally appealed to people

on lower incomes or who don't have access to mainstream banking.

The cost of borrowing is much lower than with payday lenders

and so are the risks.

Dawn Blow has been a credit union user for five years.

She turned to them for help after getting into debt.

I got a payday loan once

and when the payday come, they'd put that much interest onto it

that I couldn't afford to pay back what I'd borrowed

but then the month after, I had to pay more,

which to me, that was wrong.

My experience with credit unions has been a lot better.

I have just borrowed £300 and I will pay £25 a week back.

It comes back to the interest - it's very, very low.

Despite that, at the moment, only 2% of people in the UK use

a credit union, compared with 75% in Ireland.

But the government aims to change that.

The government is about to invest

up to £38 million in credit unions in Britain,

and that's because they would like to see the sector grow

to a completely new level,

and serve more and more people with both a safe place

to put their savings but also a very good place to borrow.

The money is to help the credit unions,

maybe as many as 40 or 50 credit unions to change

and to get stronger and to have much more...

available to more people, but to also be more convenient.

It's a real sign of the times that there's now a credit union being

set up in Kensington and Chelsea - one of richest boroughs in Britain.

But can these small-scale operations really take on

the booming payday loan business?

With nearly 10,000 users,

the Manchester Credit Union is one of the UK's biggest.

Our lending is increasing all the time

and as people are becoming aware of the credit union,

we're getting more and more people joining.

The way we differ is, we lend to people who don't,

either don't have a credit history or have a poor credit history,

and we don't hold that against people.

You know, we can give them small loan, but it's an affordable loan,

and then once they repay that back regularly, they can borrow again.

So we give people a chance, basically, who don't have,

the banks don't want to lend small amounts,

they're not interested in giving somebody a £500 loan

and they probably wouldn't give it to some of these people anyway.

For Dawn, the credit union has been a lifeline

and kept her out of the clutches of loan sharks.

My experience with credit unions is a lot better than going to

a loan shark or a bank.

If you miss a payment, they don't put more money on,

not like loan sharks. They put loads of money on your loan

and I have had bad experience with that actually.

If you want to find out more about credit unions

and whether they're right for you,

you can find out information on our website...

Now if there's one thing that most of us want to hang on to

as much as our money, it's our teeth.

Frankly, nobody likes the thought of losing either.

But as we're about to hear,

there are some serious gaps in the way that our dentists are regulated.

So once you put your mouth in their hands,

if something goes seriously wrong,

you may not have the protection that you thought you had.

Though there aren't many of us

who actually look forward to a visit to the dentist,

at least we can rest safe in the chair knowing we're being treated

by someone who knows what they're doing.

But unfortunately, that's not how things worked out for this patient,

Gabriella, who'd saved for years

for some treatment that she desperately needed.

Morning, Gabriella. How are you?

I'm all right, thank you.

'I had a medical condition'

which required years and years of treatment

and that treatment destroyed my teeth.

Gabriella had four implants put in her upper jaw.

But the work that she'd saved so hard for was not done well,

and two years later she's still left with no teeth in her upper jaw,

which is why she's seeing a different dentist today

in the hope that he can put right the disastrous work that had been done.

Gabriella came to see me last year

after she had had some work done at a different practice.

As you can see, on this shot especially,

which is showing the four implants at the top,

they're all different angles, all four of them.

Ideally, they should be parallel.

But they're not, and that won't be cheap to put right.

We're having to correct the wrong angles,

provide her with a telescopic bridge.

So you'll be looking at a cost of anything from £15,000 to £18,000.

It was back in 2009 that Gabriella first visited the local dental clinic

where she would have her treatment,

and made an initial payment of £4,000.

The job was arranged for the following January

when she met the man who would do the work - Dr Piotr Reichel.

He explained to me the whole procedure that would take place

and I agreed with this,

so of course I trusted him.

But that trust proved unfounded,

which is why Gabriella is still suffering today.

Most of the UK's 39,000 dentists are self-employed,

working out of "practices" to help cover the cost

of administration, premises and equipment.

That means each working dentist is usually a separate entity,

liable for their own mistakes.

In order to practise, they're supposed to have insurance

in case anyone makes a claim against them.

The dentist could then make a claim on this policy

on behalf of their patients, but Dr Reichel was no longer around...

..though the first sign Gabriella had of that

was when she went for a follow-up appointment.

She was told another dentist was now treating Dr Reichel's patients.

And that dentist was horrified when he examined Gabriella.

I could see his shock, by the way he talked,

by the way he put his hands on his head.

I found that the implants

were placed wrong and nothing can be done.

Gabriella is angry with the way the clinic then handled her case,

feeling they weren't particularly sympathetic.

And she had no joy in trying to contact Dr Reichel.

As she investigated further, she discovered why.

The General Dental Council, who regulate the industry,

had struck him off the register of dentists

that are allowed to practise. The reason?

"To prevent harm being done to patients,"

after other complaint against him for similarly poor work.

Dr Reichel has now returned to his native Poland

leaving Gabriella stuck -

and unsure how she can afford to put her teeth right.

I cannot even imagine how I will be able to get this money.

How long it's going to take me until I put this money together...

..and every day I need to live like this.

'I try to hide when I talk to people.'

Of course, I couldn't even dare to smile now.

Look at my lip.

There's no lip left any more

because it's sunk in here.

The corners of my mouth go...this, and more and more.

See, look at that. My eyes are going more.

What can I do about this? You see. I can't do anything.

It's just... I don't want to look like that.

I want to look better.

David Coreless Smith is Gabriella's lawyer.

We're acting for Gabriella to try

and persuade Dr Reichel's insurers to deal with her claim.

During Dr Reichel's practice in the UK, he was insured with two separate insurance companies,

neither of those insurances are adequate.

That leaves Gabriella in the position of having

a good, valid claim but no insurance to cover the claim.

The General Dental Council DOES require dentists to have adequate insurance.

But there's no law that makes them do it.

David thinks that should change.

'There needs to be three changes in the law.

'Firstly, it needs to be a legal requirement

that dentists are insured in order to practise.

Secondly, it needs to be a legal requirement that dentists tell patients about their insurance.

And thirdly, it needs to be a legal requirement that insurers deal with patients bringing claims.

We contacted Gabriella's dentist, Dr Reichel, in Poland.

He said he'd be willing to meet us out there to explain things,

but he didn't answer any of our questions.

We also spoke to the clinic where the job was done,

who've reiterated that Dr Reichel was self-employed and simply rented a room from them.

They say Gabriella's case is not straightforward,

and they don't agree with the estimated cost of putting the work right.

But they have told us they think this story is an example of how

the dental indemnity industry is

"letting the public down" by not covering

a patient's legitimate claim unless the insured dentist instructs them to.

Meanwhile, the General Dental Council told us that they're working with the Department Of Health

on plans that it's hoped by October of next year

will make it mandatory for dentists and other health professionals

to have indemnity cover if they're involved in treating patients.

And Gabriella - with no end in sight to her problems -

feels that such changes can't come a moment too soon.

The best thing that can be done is that all...

all the organisations work together with the same purpose -

to create a law for us, to protect us.

Here at Rip-Off Britain we're always ready to investigate more of your stories.

Confused over your bills?

Trying to wade through 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.

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

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

You feel as though, because you've got a cheap deal,

you are not worth their time in the same way.

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.

I feel angry. I feel stupid that I'd allowed this to happen to me.

You can write to us at...

..or send us an email to...

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

I think we would all agree that absolutely no-one likes feeling

that they've had a raw deal, but when there's a lot of money involved,

well, that just makes it even worse.

And certainly for the people that we've met in today's stories,

it was money they simply could not afford to lose.

Well, at Rip-Off Britain, we're here to fight your corner if the same thing happens to you,

but of course, we'd far rather you didn't need to write to us at all,

and that every pound you spend does exactly the job you want it to.

So, to make that happen, it does pay to know your rights

and to really do your research before you agree to hand over your hard-earned cash.

You could save yourself a lot of hassle further down the line.

Well, I'm afraid that's where we've got to leave it for today,

but we'll see you next time to look at more of your stories.

-But until then, from the whole team, bye-bye.

-Bye-bye.

-Bye-bye.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd