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.

It feels to me that I'm fighting a battle that I can't win.

It costs a fortune, and when you actually get through you get fobbed off.

With money tighter than ever, you need to be sure every pound you spend is worth it.

We ploughed thousands into it and we had nowhere to turn.

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.

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

Hello and welcome to Rip-Off Britain,

the programme that when you feel you've had a raw deal, is here to find out why,

so that with a bit of luck, we can stop the same thing happening to anyone else.

It's not always easy to predict how exactly things will turn out

and in most of the situations that you asked us to investigate,

at the time you signed up or handed over your money,

there was no reason to suspect that you would not get exactly what you paid for.

That's definitely the case with our stories today.

All of the people who've contacted us

did so because their hard-earned cash just did not produce what they were expecting,

and in some cases, it's got them absolutely nothing at all.

We've been trying to get the answers to exactly what's been going on.

Coming up on today's programme,

the couple who packed everything they own into a shipping container,

only for it to vanish into thin air.

We don't even know where it is. I mean, it's big, it's 20-feet-long,

it's bright green, it weighs five tonnes!

How could you mislay something like that?

A business opportunity supposed to earn you thousands from your own home,

so why have some of you ended up with nothing?

I went into it hook, line and sinker

and, yes, I feel like I was done over.

Plus, more unmissable advice from our annual pop-up shop,

this time in Liverpool.

It's bad enough when any treasured possession is misplaced,

but it's hard to imagine just how it must feel

to have all of your worldly goods

seemingly disappear in one fell swoop.

Sadly, that's the situation that one couple find themselves in

after paying a shipping company to transport everything that they own back to the UK.

They watched as their things, safely stored in a 20-foot-long shipping container,

were loaded up and sent on their way.

But that was the last they saw of them.

With no clue as to where they've ended up,

they've asked us to try and track them down.

It's the stuff of nightmares -

nearly everything you've ever owned,

including the entire contents of your house, gone.

There's our wedding photos, two three-piece suites,

a large pine Welsh dresser, a pine cupboard,

a pine shelving unit, a very large old pine tack cupboard,

a Stoves gas cooker, a microwave, dishwasher, fridge...

In December 2003, Mike and his wife Brenda

packed all their worldly goods into a 20-foot shipping container.

So, why have they no idea where it ended up?

How do you lose something like this?

It's 20-feet-long and weighs over five tonnes.

If things had gone to plan,

Mike and Brenda would now be living in Spain, near the Costa del Sol.

It's ten years since they decided to move out there,

with hopes of finding a plot of land on which they could build their dream home.

We decided to embark on a new life.

We chose a country that would offer the lifestyle we were looking for

and also the climate, which is very important.

We chose Spain. We moved there pretty much lock, stock and barrel

and decided we'd take a bit of time to settle down and get used to that lifestyle

and then we'd look for some land to build a house.

Whilst they looked for somewhere to build their home

the couple were renting a fully-furnished villa,

so most of their belongings stayed locked up in their shipping container.

Everything we treasured would be in that container, including a kitchen sink.

It wasn't ideal being separated from all their worldly goods,

but at least they knew where they were

and they didn't think they'd be waiting long to build their new home.

By this time, we'd acquired the land we loved.

Now it was a case of waiting for the permissions to come through so we could build the house,

and all of our possessions could come out of the container and into the house.

But that's when their new life started to go wrong.

Things started off really well,

but it seemed then the authorities started to throw one problem after another at us

and it became increasingly difficult. It just became intolerable.

Throughout it all, their shipping container -

with their belongings inside - was sitting in a storage facility

and the couple made regular visits to check on it.

But by late 2011,

as it became clear that their plans to build a home were getting nowhere,

the couple decided to bring their Spanish adventure to an end.

We'd become disenchanted with the whole idea of attempting to build this house.

The culminating factor on that was that Brenda became ill

and so we decided to come home, come back to the UK.

I think the stress of where we were, not being able to build our property

and everything was falling around about us,

we just decided we needed to come home,

we needed to spend time with the family, find a home,

put our nice personal items in there and live our lives.

So that meant finding a way to get the shipping container with all their possessions

back to the UK.

We did a lot of research and found a UK-based company called ASTE Shipping

who agreed to bring it back for us.

The initial price agreed was £1,480,

but after a few days that price actually doubled.

Mike understood from ASTE Shipping that the reason for the price hike

was that a specialist vehicle would be required for transporting their container.

The plan was that it was to be collected from Torrox,

delivered to Valencia and driven all the way to Lincolnshire.

I was asked to pay for the collection and delivery of the container in advance,

some £3,000.

It did strike me as slightly odd when I received instruction from ASTE Shipping

to pay this money into Deutsche Bank in the Czech Republic.

But looking forward to finally being able to unpack their belongings,

Mike transferred the money.

A couple of days later, he watched as the shipping container was loaded onto a lorry

and driven off into the Spanish sunset.

It was being taken to Valencia. From then, I'm not sure of the route

but it was due to arrive at our house nine days later.

Little did Mike and Brenda know that this would be the last they saw of their shipping container.

The first hint of trouble ahead was when, a few days later,

the boss of ASTE Shipping Group said that he was having problems tracing payment,

although Mike's bank had very quickly provided proof

that it had gone through exactly as instructed.

But then the Spanish company transporting their belongings

started to query their payment from ASTE Shipping.

Amidst the confusion, the progress of the container somehow became unclear.

We didn't know for sure where the container was.

Things were beginning to unravel.

And they only got worse.

Although ASTE Shipping Group insisted that they would sort everything out, they didn't,

and as the days became weeks, the company's vagueness turned into a worrying silence.

Mike and Brenda were without their possessions

and had no idea of where the container might be.

We don't even know where it is. I mean, it's big, it's 20-feet-long,

it's bright green, it weighs five tonnes.

How could you mislay something like that?

They turned to a solicitor for help, but couldn't afford the legal bills.

So now, almost 18 months since they last waved the container off in Torrox,

it is still missing

and the couple feel that the boss of ASTE Shipping, Andrew Smart,

has simply left them to it.

Mr Smart can't or won't tell us where the container is,

if he knows where it is himself.

All our worldly possessions, our life, is in that container

and we'd like our life back.

Mike and Brenda are now living in a rented house in Lincolnshire,

which they've had to fill with other people's possessions.

I feel very upset by the whole thing.

I don't have my own home

and I don't have my own furniture and my own belongings.

Things that I've saved, collected and treasured

are all gone in a container that I don't know where it is

or if I'm ever going to get it back.

So, can we help locate the mystery vanishing container?

We know that Mike last saw it on January 27th, 2012.

I was there. I saw it being loaded onto the lorry and driven away.

I have a receipt from the driver of that lorry to prove it.

And we know that it was bound for the shipping port of Valencia.

So after a bit of digging, our researcher calls Mike and Brenda

with some good... and bad news.

"Hi, Mike. I'm just calling because we've located the container."

-Right.

-It's actually still in Valencia.

-"It went from Malaga to Valencia..."

-Right.

-"..and it stayed there."

So, we now know definitely where it is, then?

"We definitely know where it is."

We have asked them to tell us

roughly how much it will cost to get it back.

-OK.

-We think it's going to be in the region of 10,000 euros

to get this container back to the UK.

10,000 euros?

Oh, no!

Although Mike had paid ASTE Shipping Group up front,

a haulage company they booked to do the job

insists that none of that money was passed onto them.

They've been keeping the container in storage,

all the time racking up extra costs.

We haven't got 10,000 euros to spend on that,

so I don't know what the next step is.

We've lost the money and the container,

because I know that Spanish company will not release that container till they've got the money.

I know they won't release it.

We don't have that amount of money,

-so...

-SHE SIGHS

..I can't see an end to this situation at all.

Mike and Brenda don't see why they should have to spend any more money getting the container home

when they'd already paid someone to do exactly that.

The situation's diabolical.

We trusted a company, a British company,

we paid them in advance to collect this container,

it's not a difficult job and he's made a complete mess of it.

We tried to track down Andrew Smart, the MD of ASTE Shipping Group,

but despite sending letters to six different postal addresses,

five company email addresses and ringing their offices,

we haven't had any reply.

As for the Spanish company that has the container,

though they won't release it without being paid,

they are currently negotiating with Mike and Brenda

to try and find a price that they're all happy with,

which means that the couple hope that they can find a way to be reunited with the possessions

that they paid ASTE Shipping Group to bring home all that time ago.

My whole world is in that container,

pictures of my children when they were growing up,

items that my grandparents have given to me,

lots of treasures, lots of memories,

all these things that are just lost to me now.

Many times in the past, we've highlighted companies that make a charge

for something that, in fact, you can quite easily arrange for absolutely nothing.

Whether they're offering to get you back mis-sold PPI,

re-band your council tax

or supply you with a European Health Insurance Card,

the chances are you could easily sort the whole thing out yourself

without having to hand over a single penny.

Here's another one to add to your list - booking a driving test.

You've been telling us about a company that sounds like it's offering a great deal,

but once you've paid your fee

you may find you get absolutely nothing back in return.

Being able to drive means more to 18-year-old Arjun

than most boys his age.

It's not just about gaining independence for himself.

It would mean he could give crucial extra support to the rest of the family

at a time when they need it most.

My wife had a stroke.

She's lost vision in one eye

and she's unable to walk, so she's in a wheelchair.

He does a lot around the house.

He looks after the two wee ones. He's a second father, in a way.

It'll help my younger siblings to get out a lot more

so we can do more activities together and have a lot more freedom,

rather than staying in the house all the time.

Of course, learning to drive isn't cheap.

The average driving lesson costs £24 per hour,

and with official figures suggesting the average learner needs at least 47 lessons,

the total cost can soon add up.

But Arjun knew that it would be worth it, so he worked very hard to save up.

I've been doing a paper round for two years previously.

That requires me to get up

at six o'clock in the morning before school.

That was the only income I had.

But all the saving paid off.

Arjun finally had enough money to start his lessons

and it wasn't long before he was ready to take his test.

I was learning for about 20 lessons before I had to put in for my test.

That felt really good. I was excited about that.

I just wanted to get it over and done with.

Arjun looked on the internet to find out how to book his test.

The site he came across first was called Book-Your-Driving-Test-Online.co.uk.

The people behind it were advertising a deal that Arjun just couldn't refuse.

For a total of £88,

they promised to not only book him his test,

but they'd cover the cost of free additional resits if he failed first time.

As each new resit with the Driving Standards Agency cost £62,

Arjun thought this would be a really good way of saving money.

That's what really was appealing because I wanted a backup.

I was confident in passing,

but I was always like, "I need a backup."

The site also looked very official,

even including a link to the proper Driving Standards Agency website,

even though it does state that they're neither associated or affiliated with them.

I paid online through my debit card and I put in my details

and they said that they would send a confirmation booking email.

But after a few days, when no confirmation of his driving test arrived,

Arjun began to get concerned and started emailing the company,

asking when his test would be booked.

With no response, Arjun then tried to phone the company to see what was going on.

A week passed, passed the deadline for what they said,

and still I had no reply back from them.

I called them and all I heard was them saying, "Hello? Hello, hello?"

and then they hung up.

I thought, "This isn't right. This shouldn't be happening."

If it was legitimate,

they would've called me back or something.

At a loss as to what to do next, Arjun contacted us

to see if we could find out

what had happened to his test and his money.

It was clear from our emails that Arjun isn't our only viewer

who's handed over cash on this website but had nothing in return.

We decided to see what would happen if we booked our own test on the same site.

Here's Holly.

She's a researcher on the programme and a learner driver.

At the time of our experiment,

Book-Your-Driving-Test-Online.co.uk.

was still offering the same great deal as Arjun saw -

not just a driving test but free resits

and now at an even cheaper price of £78.

Holly enters in her payment details, as requested,

and soon receives an email confirmation. Job done.

All we have to do now is wait.

And wait... And wait...

Six days later and no email.

Holly calls them,

but we keep getting put through to an answering machine that says...

To try and get an explanation for all of this,

we wrote to Book-Your-Driving-Test-Online.co.uk. by post and email

but they didn't reply,

so it's not clear why they've taken money for tests it seems were never booked.

There are plenty of other sites that promise to help you book your driving test,

not all of them, of course, are bogus,

but the advice from the Driving Standards Agency

is that the safest way to book a driving test,

without paying any extra costs to do it,

is through the official Government website, GOV.UK.

And it's through that official site that Arjun has had to rebook his test.

The good news is, he passed first time.

And luckily for him, he was also able to get back

the £88 he paid to Book-Your-Driving-Test-Online.co.uk

through his bank, using the charge-back system.

He doesn't understand how a company

can get away with taking money for a service they haven't delivered.

It's left me feeling disbelief

at how easy these companies can take your money

and it's not really... it doesn't mean anything to them

and they don't understand what it means to you.

For one weekend this summer, we opened up our one-stop consumer advice shop again.

Liverpool was the venue

and we were inundated with people who came to talk to our experts,

or simply to get their biggest bugbears off their chests.

I think the customer service in mobile phone companies is pretty shoddy.

In the streets outside,

we ran free workshops for passing shoppers right in the heart of the city.

For one of those, financial expert James Daley took to the stage with Angela

to find out how many of you were saving for the future.

First to join in was Jamie,

soon to be married and on his stag weekend.

-Have you planned financially for your future?

-Not really, no.

-Have you got any kind of pension at all?

-No.

Why not?! You're taking on the responsibility of a wife!

I work as a contractor, so...

-What's that got to do with it?

-I don't have a pension!

When do you want to retire? What would be a good age - 65?

-60.

-60! You want to retire at 60. OK.

How much money would you like to live on every year?

-30 grand a year, maybe.

-30 grand a year.

You'll need to start putting £200 a month aside at least,

probably more like three or 400 if you want to get close to that target.

-60 is not realistic.

-You look quite pale!

So, what about the rest of the stag party,

were they planning for their future?

-You've got a pension?

-I do.

Five percent from the company and five percent from me.

-And was that your idea or theirs?

-It's their fantastic idea!

-You wouldn't have thought to do it?

-I'm financially savvy now.

-You are!

-You wouldn't know it, but I am!

But the groom's dad had his own plans for the future.

-Are you putting anything in?

-No.

-Not a bob.

How much do you reckon you're going to get when you retire?

I won't get enough, anyway!

-That's my son.

-That's your son.

-He might keep me.

James was keen to stress it's particularly important not to ignore a company pension.

Have you got a £10 note in your pocket?

If you give me that tenner, I'll give you this £20 note.

Would you do that? Get your tenner out.

James, you're giving away money?

I'll give him this 20 if he gives me his tenner,

as long as you put into your pension because that's what work offer you.

You put in 10 and they put in 20 and then you've got more money in there.

It's free money, you just don't get it now.

You get it when you retire.

Back inside the shop, you kept us very busy

trying to resolve your consumer troubles.

Cathy and Thomas called in,

hoping we could help with a problem they'd had on their last holiday.

They told travel journalist Simon Calder that their cruise around the Hawaiian islands

had been sold as a spectacular trip, with exceptional service.

What did you lay out? Let's just get the groundwork of how much you paid.

-£2,500 each. £5,000 in total.

-Right.

For the most part, the trip was fantastic,

but then at the end, the couple say things went disastrously wrong.

Two days before the cruise ended, they started to renovate the ship.

They had workmen on board, they had drilling,

they put boards down for the cranes to lift all the machinery.

So, it's not really the noise,

-it's the fact that there were areas of the ship you couldn't use?

-The facilities weren't there.

What a nightmare! It only affected the last two days of your cruise,

so I would say if they offered you, between you, £400,

that would be about right.

-Tell me how much they offered you.

-£200.

Unhappy with this offer, Cathy sent the money back

with a letter, asking how she could take the complaint further.

She was dismayed when the travel company said

she would have to contact the holiday organisation ABTA,

who charge to look at such complaints.

They wanted us to pay out more money, £108, to go to arbitration.

They're absolutely right, ABTA, the arbitration service, cost £108.

However, there is an alternative, which is a bit cheaper.

If you go to Money Claims Online,

it'll cost you £35, I believe, to make that claim.

But make it clear that you are reasonable people, you just want to get something back.

By the way, only settle for real money.

Don't settle for vouchers.

Before Cathy and Thomas left,

Simon had one last piece of advice for anybody in a similar position.

Don't get mad, get even! OK?

Don't say, "This is the worst service I've ever received,

"the worst holiday we've been on, and we're never, ever going to travel with you again"

give them a chance to make amends,

to give you some proper money back for your disappointment

and then decide where to spend it.

Cathy and Thomas took Simon's advice

and we're pleased to tell you that the holiday company did then pay up £500 in total,

so Cathy and Thomas are really pleased they came to see us.

Still to come on Rip-Off Britain, the company that's taken hundreds of pounds

for a once-in-a-lifetime experience they haven't delivered.

I feel really disappointed

that the whole experience just never happened.

Britain's been labelled a nation of shopkeepers,

but these days, in the age of the internet,

you don't even need physical premises to run a shop.

You can do it all from the comfort of your own home.

It's the opportunities offered by that

that led to dozens of you signing up with a company

that seemed to offer the perfect package -

be your own boss, work from home and earn decent money into the bargain.

The only thing not to like, according to some of you,

is how things actually turned out.

These people thought they'd found a way to run a flexible

but, more importantly, profitable business from their own home.

After all, that's what they were promised.

Each of them bought a unique online shop

from a company called "YourOwnStore".

They say they were told they could earn thousands of pounds a year,

but that's not how things have worked out.

I've had it two years and I was told I would earn in excess of £25,000.

All I have earned is £44.96.

I was told I would earn £57,670.

I haven't made a penny yet.

Everyone who's contacted us about YourOwnStore

says the return they expected simply hasn't materialised.

You can see why they found the idea so appealing.

These online stores have none of the hassles of a shop built with bricks and mortar.

They don't need storage space or even physical stock.

Instead, the way they work is by listing goods on sale

at lots of other online shops on their own websites, called affiliates.

So if a shopper likes the look of something on your site,

with one click, they'll be directed to the actual retailer

and in return, you get paid commission.

It's called affiliate marketing

and the man behind YourOwnStore makes big promises about how effective it is.

Hello, I'm Jason West

and I'm the managing director of YourOwnStore.

We've made our websites very, very focused.

All of them are ready to make money.

Stephen West bought a virtual shop from YourOwnStore in April last year.

The store, which cost £5,400,

was aimed at people looking to rent a holiday home in Devon.

They could search available properties on his site

and he'd make a commission every time one was booked.

The package looks so clean and sharp and professional.

A lot of work had gone into it, or appeared to have gone into it,

and, yes, I plunged into it.

YourOwnStore made grand predictions

of how many customers could visit the site

and how much commission Stephen could earn as a result.

They were claiming it was likely you could make £47,000 a year.

I wasn't naive to think I would make £47,000 a year in the first year,

but I thought - I paid £5,400 for my site -

that I would at least be able

to recover that outlay in, say, the first 12 months

and then after that, to be able to make a reasonable income.

But Stephen very quickly realised

that the site was making almost nothing at all.

As he tried to find out why, he claims he was surprised to discover

many of the cottages he was advertising weren't even available.

Some of the products that had been put onto my website by YourOwnStore

had already been booked for the forthcoming year and beyond,

so there was absolutely no way I was going to sell anything or make any commission

because there was no product to sell.

There was another problem, too. The success of a website like this

can depend on how easy it is to find on internet search engines.

Stephen realised that when people were looking online for holiday cottages to rent,

his site wasn't showing anywhere near the top of the results

so he'd be unlikely to make any money.

YourOwnStore's sales pitch

makes a big deal of the support they offer to their customers,

but for Stephen, that didn't make any difference.

I was constantly on the phone to them,

but it still didn't bring any traffic to my website,

it still didn't bring any sales to my website or commission.

It didn't matter what I did, it made no difference.

After a year, Stephen has made a grand total of £81.53,

a long way from the £47,000 a year

he says YourOwnStore had encouraged him to expect.

I wouldn't like to see anybody else go down the same route that I went through

and lose a lot of money as a result of it,

and waste an awful lot of valuable time on something that doesn't work.

But, unfortunately, that's exactly what has happened to plenty more of you.

Ying To from Ipswich hoped to give up the Chinese takeaway he's run for five years

and make money from behind a virtual counter.

So in 2011, he invested nearly £5,000 in a YourOwnStore website,

selling weight-loss products.

Ying says he was told he could potentially make up to ten times that amount in a year.

I thought, hopefully, if it worked,

I could spend more time with my family

and have maybe a few more holidays.

But Ying claims he found himself

having to dedicate up to eight hours a day to his website,

again, with very little reward.

And, like Stephen, he was surprised his site wasn't ranking higher on internet search engines,

with the result that customers were almost non-existent.

He, too, looked for help and went back to YourOwnStore,

even paying them an extra £1,341

for a service supposed to optimise his place in the listings.

They said it would take six months to get high rankings.

But after six months, erm, nothing's changed.

It was the same as the start.

In total, Rip-Off Britain has heard from 15 people

who bought sites from YourOwnStore,

all of whom feel they were mis-sold them by the company.

So, were they ever likely to make the money they were told?

This expert thinks not.

YourOwnStore seems to be selling you the opportunity to make an income

with very little time and very little technical knowledge.

But the reality is, when you're competing against much larger companies,

I don't see how it's possible to walk away from this nowadays

with anything more than pocket money.

Many of these unhappy customers have decided to come together to take on YourOwnStore.

Their battle is headed by Lionel Jouet,

who invested £4,900 in a photography accessory website

that YourOwnStore told him could earn more than £57,000.

I did work for six months on a full-time basis,

trying to create contents and get traffic into my website.

The company had numerous training videos,

which I followed all of them

and implemented what they said.

In the first six months, I've made zero commission.

None of the group has earned more than £100 in commission over a one-year period.

The group attempted to take legal action,

but the company denied any liability and was defending the claim.

Ultimately, it was struck out because the case wasn't properly prepared

and Lionel was ordered to pay YourOwnStore's costs.

He is, however, still determined to go it alone through the courts.

The people that made those acquisitions

potentially put all their savings and their life into this investment

and, in a sense, they lost pretty much everything.

I am 100 percent motivated

to fight for justice.

But YourOwnStore boss Jason West

rejects what these unhappy customers say. He told us...

..some of which are out of their control

and reliant on third-party companies.

The earnings predicted...

He stressed these complainants...

..and he disputes what Lionel says about the effort put into his site, claiming he is...

..and that he has shaped other complainants...

..resulting in many of them giving up their businesses...

He also claims Lionel was offered, but turned down, a full refund,

although Lionel insists he was offered only the chance to resell the company,

which he didn't want to do as the business wasn't a success.

But he and the other people we've spoken to

now bitterly regret ever buying one of the company's sites.

I feel that I'm a victim.

I feel that this company lied to people.

I'm so angry because it's really affected my life.

I went into it hook, line and sinker

and, yes, I-I feel like I was done over.

We've put together a free booklet of tips and advice

to help safeguard your hard-earned cash.

You can download it from our website...

For a hard copy, just send a stamped, self-addressed A5 envelope

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

You'll also find on our website

lots more information on the topics that we're tackling,

with plenty of tips on how to save money

and avoid being caught out.

I'm sure you know the feeling - you want to buy somebody a present but you can't think what.

Well, an increasingly popular choice of gift in recent times

has been not a physical present, but an experience day,

giving you that once-in-a-lifetime chance to try something you've always dreamt of doing,

such as going up in a hot-air balloon or driving a racing car round a track.

After buying one particular day out, quite a few of you have written to us to say

that the only experience you've ended up with

is the feeling of being totally let down.

The thrill of racing on a track is something that most of us only get

from watching the action on TV or from the crowd.

Many companies now offer the chance to experience it for yourself,

marketing an adrenaline-fuelled day out that's now a popular gift,

and one that gives people like Darren Carter

the chance to fulfil a boyhood dream.

Ever since I was a child, I was into my cars.

It's something I've always loved. I've loved speed most of my life

and I used to watch Formula 1 and Rallycross on TV.

I'd heard about a track-day experience,

but never got round to buying it myself, so it's something I've always wanted to do.

Darren was delighted when, in 2010,

his wife Emma bought him a driving experience

from a company called Livit Experiences, or Livit X for short.

I was out Christmas shopping

and I saw this big Lamborghini, and they were selling this driving experience

so I went and had a chat with them.

They were really nice to speak to and seemed very informative about the whole day.

For just £80, Darren would have the chance of a lifetime

to get behind the wheel of a supercar

and drive it round a track in the Midlands.

Emma was given a voucher for the experience, valid for the next 12 months.

Almost as soon as she handed it over,

an excited Darren set about booking a date for the following June

and he wanted to make sure that son Jack had a day to remember, as well.

I gave them a call and asked them if they could accommodate Jack,

possibly send him around in a Ferrari, as well,

as an extra present for his birthday,

so they agreed to do that.

Jack was really, really excited about this experience, too.

It was going to be a birthday treat for him.

We were going to buy the videos and, you know,

make a real day out for him, as well.

Promising "driving days tailored just for you",

Livit Experiences' website also declares...

They say, "You only live once so live the dream."

Sadly, a dream is all that Darren's and Jack's driving experience has turned out to be,

because Livit X sent the family an email with some bad news.

We received an email saying that that date would have to be cancelled

due to problems with the track.

Parts of the track were breaking up so it wasn't safe,

so they asked us to book again and give them another date.

We decided to book late August,

hoping that we'd still get the weather.

We were disappointed that Jack's birthday wasn't going to be incorporated into the day,

but we'd still take him along.

But luck wasn't on Darren's side.

Livit Experience soon contacted the family again

to say that they would have to cancel the second booking.

The family rebooked a third date for late September, 2011.

Ten days before that was supposed to happen - you've guessed it -

the company cancelled again.

Livit X now said it was because they were building a brand-new experience centre,

but Darren wasn't convinced.

After that, we started to doubt whether this was going to happen at all.

We then decided to ask for a refund

because they didn't deliver on what they promised.

That was refused, due to the fact that they said the offer was still there for another date.

I did then ask for another date, which they weren't forthcoming with another one.

Darren persisted, calling repeatedly to either book another date or get a refund,

but he got neither.

A quick look online reveals plenty of other people

apparently in exactly the same position.

All of them had booked a driving package with Livit Experiences,

but despite handing over the money seem no closer to actually getting behind the wheel.

It's now nearly three years since Emma paid for her husband's once-in-a-lifetime experience,

but despite repeated attempts to arrange the date,

they still haven't had their day out or indeed their money back.

Eventually, Livit Experiences stopped answering the phone

and all the couple got was a recorded message.

We got that message, too, after calling to see what would happen

if we tried to book a driving session with Livit Experiences.

"Welcome to Livit Experiences. Livit Experiences are now closed.

"Please contact us via our website."

As instructed, we went to the company's very professional-looking website,

which was still offering their experience days.

However, a week later when we tried to book one, the website was down.

Still posing as a customer, we emailed the company instead.

We then got an automatic reply saying the offices were now closed.

An hour later, they emailed to say they're not holding events this year.

So next we came clean, told them we were from Rip-Off Britain

and asked how they explained the fact that after waiting years,

Darren and Emma still haven't had the experience they paid for.

Livit Experiences told us that at the time Emma bought the voucher, they were...

When that didn't go to plan, they extended customers' vouchers into 2012,

planning events at a venue which they used successfully before, with...

They say they did hold very successful events in spring

but had to cancel the rest, first due to heavy rainfall,

that meant speeds would have to be limited and...

..and then because of...

They tell us they refunded a number of customers

and stopped functioning as a company as soon as they had cleared the backlog.

Although the website was only taken down later,

they stress the payment system had been disabled.

As for why Emma and Darren didn't get a refund,

the company say the couple appear to have slipped through the system

as they can't find their email records,

but they promise that they will refund the money.

However, the couple still feel short-changed

after buying a voucher that's proved as good as useless.

As far as they're concerned, they've been strung along with promises

that came to absolutely nothing.

I feel really disappointed that the whole experience just never happened.

You know, I feel upset for Darren and my children

because it was going to be a full day out for them, as well.

We were all really excited.

Emma feels like she's let me down and it wasn't her fault at all.

So it's just been, overall, a real bad experience with them.

Here at Rip-Off Britain, we are always keen to hear more of your stories.

We're particularly interested in ones to do with food for a new series next year.

Confused by all the different labels on the supermarket shelves?

Worried that products described as healthy

may be nothing of the kind?

Whatever's worrying you about the things we put on our plates,

you can write to us at...

Or send us an email to...

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

There you have it. As you've seen in some of our stories today,

when you don't get what you expected for your money,

one explanation can simply be that a company has run into trouble

or even gone out of business.

Without that crystal ball, that's not something you can necessarily see coming,

-but there are things you can still do to protect yourself.

-There certainly are!

As we've said before, the very best advice

is to use a credit card when paying for goods or services,

particularly if you're spending a lot of money.

That way, if the very worst happens and you end up with nothing,

at least you should be able to get your money back.

With that word of advice, we've run out of time for today.

We'll be back, looking into more of your stories so do keep them coming.

Who knows, it may be yours that we investigate next time.

Until then, from all of us on the team,

-thanks for watching and bye-bye.

-Bye.

-Bye.

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