Episode 18 Rip Off Britain

We asked you to tell us what has left you feeling totally

ripped off and you've contacted us in your thousands.

You've told us about the companies that you think get it wrong

and the customer service that simply is not up to scratch.

If you're paying for good service, you expect a good service and a good product, whatever it may be.

At the end of the day, we expect value for money.

You've asked us to track down the scammers who stole your money

and investigate the extra charges that don't seem fair.

The wool's been pulled over our eyes.

I don't think we get a fair price.

I think they should always put the customer first.

And when you've lost out, but no-one else is to blame,

you've shared your stories with us so others don't do the same.

-And no-one could sort that out for you, over ten years?

-No-one has.

So, whether it's a blatant rip-off or a genuine mistake,

we're here to 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, where today,

we're all about helping you make the most from your cash.

And to do it, we're going to be unpicking whether or not some of

the everyday items that we all buy, all the time,

really are value for money, or as some of you have suggested,

you just might be being taken for a ride.

Now, obviously, we all love a bargain.

And these days, it seems whenever we turn we're inundated

with offers promising that we're going to get one.

But, whoa there! How do we know whether that so-called "great deal"

dangling in front of us is all it's cracked up to be? And can we really

expect the same quality in items, if we're buying them

at just a snip of the usual price?

Which is a very, very good question.

Well, we've done some tests on a product that probably

every single one of us regularly buys,

to see whether paying more actually gets you any more.

So if you're after tips on working out how best to spend your money,

then you're definitely in the right place.

Coming up, the family day out that some say was just a slippery

slope to disappointment.

What was supposed to be a wonderful treat

for my daughter's birthday turned into an absolute disaster.

And an exclusive peek at the tough tests designed to determine

which products on the market are the very best value for money.

This is essentially a "Chuck Test" where we throw the suitcase,

we release it, and it falls to the ground and we see how damaged it is.

Now, let's face it. With the wealth of remote controls

and all those gadgets to be found in most homes these days,

it's no wonder that here in Britain we get through

so many hundreds of millions of batteries every single year.

But knowing which ones are the best value to buy is no easy task,

because, as you know, the price for the same-sized batteries

can vary enormously.

So is that because the more expensive ones are actually

better quality and they last longer?

Or could it be that the cheaper ones will keep on going just as long?

Batteries, little powerhouses of energy.

And they come in all shapes and sizes, disposable,

rechargeable, lithium and alkaline.

And we rely on them to get us through the day,

keeping going appliances such as remote controls,

alarm clocks and shavers.

But the cost of replacing them all can very easily mount up,

especially as there can be a bewildering difference in the price

and indeed, performance of batteries that are the same size, but different brands,

which drives Graham from Billericay in Essex absolutely mad.

Within a particular brand,

I found one that was 40% more, whatever that means,

that was only £5.50, and yet there was a heavy-duty one with the same

number of batteries and that was £8.

But there was no real indication of why there should be a price differential.

Graham wrote to us complaining that the batteries most of us buy,

what the industry call disposable dry cell batteries, don't

always have the capacity displayed either on the battery itself

or on the packaging that they are sold in.

You find these AA dry cells all around the house,

typically you find them in remote controls

like this for the television...

There's one here.

Or alternatively, you've got one here for the video,

all these similar things.

And again, none of these actually show me how much electricity is stored in them.

That means that Graham, and indeed the rest of us,

have no idea how long each battery's going to last

and therefore which ones are the best value for money.

I went to the local supermarket to see what they had to offer.

When I got there, I was surprised at the range of brands

and types of batteries that they had.

But within the labelling, there was nothing to identify

what really differentiated the different types

of batteries, so as a consumer, I didn't know what

I was paying for to make sure I got good value for money.

So is Graham right to worry that different

batteries may pack less of a punch than others?

Well, to find out, we are putting

five different brands of disposable batteries to the test.

We deliberately picked them at random as a typical shopper,

as indeed you might do.

In fact, as we'll see, that's not the best way to choose your batteries.

But what sort of difference will that make when it comes to keeping

this little toy train set moving round and round?

We'll see in a moment which batteries

keep our engine on track the longest.

But in general, how long the same-sized battery will last

depends on whether you're using it in a device that uses a small

amount of power over a period of time, such as remote controls and smoke alarms.

Or something that demands more intensity, like our toy train.

Or indeed, the transmitter that Graham

relies on to pursue his passion for flying gliders.

Because of the amount of energy it consumed it's what's

known as a "high-drain device", in common with other

devices such as digital cameras and video game controllers.

When I buy batteries for my transmitter,

it's important that the batteries are lasting quite a long time

and that I can actually trust they will last,

otherwise there's a risk to the glider.

Although manufacturers have standardised the size of batteries,

with the triple A and double A varieties, the ones most commonly

used in our homes, different manufacturing techniques

mean that even when they do state how much power

is packed in, that won't necessarily reflect how long they'll last.

Which means that two different brands of AA batteries,

when used in exactly the same device,

could each last significantly more or less time than the other.

The story though is very different

when it comes to the more expensive-to-buy rechargeable batteries.

By law, these have to state their capacity, measured in something

called milliamps, either on the battery itself or on the packaging,

making it much easier to compare one brand against another.

Rechargeable batteries identify how much electricity

they store in terms of milliamp powers, and that's really a question

of the amount of current and the time they can actually provide that current for.

And I think as a bare minimum,

the same information should be available for dry cell batteries.

Unfortunately, the National Measurement And Regulation Office

told us that it's not that simple and that the totally different

chemistry and functions of rechargeable and dry cell batteries

mean there are just too many technical complexities to make it possible

to label them in the same way.

But in any case, for Graham, it's the disposable dry cell batteries

that should be the best option for powering his transmitter,

so that he has a ready supply of power.

If only he knew which ones to buy.

Meanwhile, with our battery-powered train now grinding to a halt,

it's time to see which brands kept it going the longest.

Powercell, the pound shop brand costing, you've guessed it,

just £1 for 16 batteries, ran down the fastest.

These batteries only lasted 26 minutes and 52 seconds.

Next to run out of juice, were the batteries we used

from Panasonic, which lasted 52 minutes and 39 seconds.

The most expensive brand we tested, Duracell,

lasted two hours, four minutes and 49 seconds.

While second best was another leading brand, Energizer,

at two hours, 17 minutes and 25 seconds.

But in our test, the batteries

with the most staying power were our supermarket brand,

Aerocell, from Lidl, which kept the train running

for a whopping three hours, two minutes and 33 seconds.

Of course, that's not the full story.

Especially when it comes to value for money.

The batteries we tested came in packets of anything

between four and 16.

But most of those packets were roughly the same price,

so using our test results,

we also calculated the cost per minute to take that into account.

When we did, it was still the Aerocell battery that topped

the list for overall value.

But it was the two batteries that ran out fastest,

the Panasonic and Powercell ones, that then came out second and third.

Now, obviously, our little test wasn't an exhaustive or

remotely scientific study,

as most of the manufacturers were very quick to point out.

Apart from the winners, Lidl, who were pleased with the results,

and Panasonic, who chose not to comment,

they all stressed that our test didn't meet industry testing standards,

didn't reflect the way consumers used batteries in everyday life

and should have been carried out using a range of different

devices for intermittent periods of time.

So, as far as they're concerned, the results are not reliable.

And that's for a very good reason.

Because while it might seem hard enough to remember if what you need

is a double A or triple A, size isn't everything

when it comes to batteries.

You also need to think about the type you are getting.

In our train test,

the two lowest performing batteries were both zinc carbon, whereas the

rest were alkaline, a type of battery that will always perform better.

But of course, most brands will sell both types.

So it's very easy to choose the wrong one,

simply because it's the right size, as I'm sure many of us do.

So rather than being swayed by marketing terms like heavy-duty

or long life, most experts would say it's knowing which kind of battery to buy

that's the key to squeezing as much life out of them

as you possibly can.

To get the most out of your batteries, the most important

thing to do is buy the right ones in the first place.

Alkaline batteries deliver their power more slowly

and they last longer, so they're better for things like TV remotes where you're

just going to need a small amount of power, lots of times, over a few months.

Alkaline batteries do a great job in lots of devices,

but for those really high-drain items you'll need something else.

Er, higher power batteries, such as nickel or lithium batteries,

you want to put those in something like a digital camera.

If you put an alkaline battery into a digital camera it will run out quite quickly.

Another thing, to look for is the expiry date.

That is important, especially with higher power batteries

which can lose quite a bit of power over time.

So, the best thing to do is not to hoard batteries.

That's really good advice.

A battery kept in a drawer for a couple of years could

lose as much as a quarter of its power.

But, clearly choosing the best batteries isn't as simple as it might seem,

and Graham feels that manufacturers could do more to help him

know just how much power per hour he's getting for his pounds.

It won't stop me with my hobby, but it will certainly help me

if I know what batteries I'm buying and what capability they've got.

Now how about a fun day out that keeps all the family happy?

Not so easy, sometimes,

especially if you're looking for something a little bit different.

A new attraction called Slide The City which seems to offer something

new and exciting has appealed to many people at locations across the world.

But, we've been contacted by a number of disillusioned customers who

tried it out in the UK.

They say that instead of the thrilling, huge water slides

they were promised, what they actually got was a pretty damp squib.

It's billed as the slide of your life.

And after watching this advert for Slide The City you might well

be tempted to see if it's true.

Slide The City is an American company that set up inflatable water

slides up to 300 metres long in towns and cities across the world.

And when it came to Britain for the very first

time in summer 2015 the interest was huge.

The first UK stop was Hertfordshire

and hundreds of people lined up to make sure they got a go.

But when they did, not everyone found the experience quite the thrill

they were expecting.

What was supposed to be a wonderful treat for my daughter's birthday turned into an absolute disaster.

It wasn't very much like a slide,

it was more like a sheet of plastic on the floor.

It wasn't a slippery, it didn't have enough water on it.

The whole day was just a disaster.

Instead of the excitement seen in the American video,

this was the rather more British version of events.

Yes, some of these people aren't exactly sliding, in fact,

a few of them are hardly even moving.

Charlotte Woodhouse expected a whole lot more for her

family from the Slide The City UK experience.

When I saw Slide The City's promotional video, I thought

it looked absolutely fantastic for my daughter's upcoming

seventh birthday.

Myself, my daughter and my son were all extremely excited.

We watched the videos over and over again

and couldn't wait to get there and get sliding.

Tickets were priced at either £10 for one single slide,

£20 for three slides, or £35 for an unlimited VIP pass.

So, given the occasion,

Charlotte paid £210 in advance for six VIP tickets.

This was supposed to guarantee the birthday party entry,

a full hour early, as well as unlimited slides.

As we drove up on the day, we were all very excited to see the slide and see how long it was.

We were a little bit concerned as it looked a bit flat,

but we headed off to the registration queue, we'd paid extra

so that we could start sliding an hour before it opened to the public.

But, despite paying an extra £25 for that bonus hour,

Charlotte says her party spent most of the additional time waiting

to get through the registration.

We were there for a good 45 minutes,

waiting to pick up our ring.

Unfortunately, they only had two little pumps

and hundreds of people waiting for their rings to be blown up.

And as the queue got bigger and bigger, we realised we weren't going to get on for 11 o'clock.

In the end we weren't on till probably about 11:45,

so therefore we missed nearly the whole hour that we paid extra for.

And once they did get to the main event, Charlotte thinks it was

the day itself, rather than the slide that went rapidly downhill.

It was ridiculous. There were three lanes and the third lane didn't even have any water in that lane.

There was a man standing there with a hose, trying to put a bit

extra down, but you could see from the gradient, or lack of gradient,

that there was no way anybody was going to be sliding without running and throwing themselves down.

The slide unfortunately was absolutely nothing like we'd seen in the video.

The fact it wasn't really a slide at all, it was more Walk The City(!)

It was almost comical as people were kind of beached on their rings not

going anywhere, they were slipping over and banging themselves.

Jemima and her brother Felix were also feeling, shall we say,

a little deflated.

I felt a bit miserable because my birthdays are normally really good.

The slides were like, well, very flat and they weren't very slidy.

It basically wasn't downhill enough so you couldn't go fast at all.

Most of the time it was just pushing yourself along.

I felt extremely sorry for my sister and quite angry as well.

Also attending the UK's first-ever Slide The City event were

Andrea Carter and her children Finn and Zachary.

They too say they didn't get any benefit from the extra hour they'd paid for,

and were left feeling distinctly underwhelmed by the whole experience.

I was literally having to wade myself down the slide,

there was an area where it kind of went down a bit of a hill,

but it was for a matter of seconds, and then before you hit

the bottom of the slide you were having to get up

and walk the rest of the way down the slide to get off again.

Andrea and the children tried to make the best of the situation,

but after just four slides decided to leave.

She did, however, pop back later in the day with her eldest son,

hoping things might have picked up.

The children, in the end, were just getting rid of their inflatables

and just putting the shampoo on their socks and actually just running down.

Nadia Hall was another disappointed customer,

she'd bought tickets as a surprise for her family.

The staff didn't seem to know what was going on,

they advertised that there would be food and drinks but, when we approached, they didn't have any.

Charlotte too feels it wasn't easy to get things

resolved by staff on the day.

The staff on the day, was pretty much non-existent. Nobody seemed to know what they were doing.

They said they'd just been sent there and weren't sure what they were supposed to be doing.

Everybody I spoke to were just volunteers, they weren't actually, working for the company as such.

They all said, we're just volunteers, we don't know anything more than you do.

Charlotte was determined not to let the matter rest, so she took

to social media to complain in the hope of getting a refund.

I think I would have been happy if they'd just apologised and admitted that things hadn't

gone as planned, but as they repeatedly blamed

the customers, and blamed us for not trying hard enough, I felt that it

wasn't fair, it wasn't handled properly and I wanted a full refund.

Although Slide The City refused to accept Charlotte's claim

that the event wasn't as advertised, it did offer her

six free VIP tickets to the next Slide The City event in Manchester.

It really did feel like an insult to then be offered a voucher.

Also, going to another event across the country, for example, the Manchester one,

would mean that we'd have to pay for transport, and accommodation once we got there,

and it just wasn't a viable option.

So with no sign of any refund, Charlotte, Andrea and Nadia

have signed a petition to the company along with more

than 90 other disappointed customers.

But, when we contacted Slide The City, the company told us that

although its goal is that everyone has a fun time,

the slider experience may vary and that satisfaction cannot be

guaranteed because of the subjective element of the event.

Even so, it's confident that the Hertfordshire event

was as advertised, pointing out that our complainants are not slide experts,

and have misunderstood how the slide is supposed to operate.

It goes on to say that fewer than 3% of participants lodged

an official complaint, and that the company had received some

really positive feedback from other visitors.

Slide The City also reiterated its offer of free entry to

a future event elsewhere in the UK as a gesture of goodwill.

At the Manchester event that Charlotte was offered

tickets to, the slide was both higher and faster.

But Charlotte, Andrea and Nadia remain

unmoved in their opinion that the event they attended was something

of a wash-out, and they would have been better off making their own fun.

It was very disorganised, but I could have forgiven that

if the slide itself would have been better.

It was supposed to be a fun family day out for all of us,

and there was no fun.

Still to come on Rip-Off Britain:

Frock horror!

The online dress shop that you say doesn't deliver the goods.

I was close to tears, I just couldn't believe my eyes.

Devastating. You know, it's your wedding dress.

Our Rip-Off Britain pop-up shop is back in business,

and this year we're in Nottingham.

We really do have a terrific team of experts with us this year

here in our pop-up shop.

We've got legal experts, financial experts,

people from Trading Standards, the holiday industry.

All of them very keen to be able to give on-the-spot help and advice

to ensure that the people who come in to see us

perhaps get their problems sorted.

But, more importantly, you get the kind of advice that will

ensure that you won't get ripped off in the future either.

Graham Hall has a boiler maintenance contract with his energy supplier

but he's come to see our legal expert Gary Rycroft

after having no joy getting the company to fix a problem.

I reported a fault to them in December.

I've had ten visits so far.

On eight occasions they've failed to turn up on the appointed day.

-Just didn't come at all?

-Didn't come at all and I had to rebook.

The eleventh occasion was booked for last Wednesday.

They didn't turn up on Wednesday, they were going to fit

it on Sunday but they still don't have the final part.

I've asked for compensation for keeping me

-waiting around for 60 hours.

-60 hours?

60 hours I've been sitting there waiting for them

and then they don't show up.

-Which is so frustrating.

-They've said it's administrative errors.

We've changed our computer systems, we've lost all the history.

They ordered the wrong part.

How much are you paying for this terrible service?

Off the top of my head I can only say it's somewhere

between £200-300 a year.

You clearly want to get this particular job sorted

and done but after that I think you need to cancel the contract

and look at different options.

Stop the direct debit. You may want to write to them and tell them

what you intend to do and say,

"Unless you are prepared to offer me a free contract for a year,

"I will be taking my custom elsewhere."

When writing letters like that,

it's always good to copy in the CEO, so that the guy or woman

right at the top of the company knows what's happening.

In terms of compensation, you've got to actually show

financial loss because you've had to take time off work or you're

-self-employed and haven't been paid.

-Has there been...?

Unfortunately, I'm retired so I can't claim that

-but it's the inconvenience factor.

-I completely agree.

The alternative is to carry on paying them

every month for a service that you know isn't very good.

So I think it's a case of stopping the rot.

What do you think about Gary's suggestion

of terminating that awful contract?

I shall do that and I will give them notice that I intend doing so

-as soon as it's been fixed with the final part.

-Absolutely.

And also tell them that you've been here and spoken to me and Gloria.

-Definitely.

-Thank you very much.

-Thank you very much.

-Thank you, Gary.

-Thanks, Graham.

After filming, Graham immediately acted on Gary's advice

and, as a result, we are happy to report that his energy company

has now repaired the boiler.

Outside the shop in the covered market, financial expert James Daley

was seeing how much people understood about the financial jargon

we often come across.

I can guarantee you will have had lots of letters through

the door with these three letter acronyms.

-Hopefully you recognise that, APR.

-No.

-No.

-You've never seen that before?

-No.

-No.

So whenever you get a credit card statement through or

a loan statement through, it'll say the interest rate

and then afterwards it will say APR.

What that means is annualised percentage rate.

It includes all of the fees and charges that are associated

with the loan.

It may be that a loan only charges

an interest rate of 10% but then actually it's got all these fees

and charges and if you add them in,

what it amounts to is an annualised rate of, say, 12%.

Here's two saving rates I'm going to show you.

This one, 4% gross and this one 3.5% net.

Which one of those is better?

I think 3.5 is better.

Why do you think that?

-That's the net.

-And what's net?

-Net is after paying your...

-After tax.

But a lot of people don't understand what gross and net mean.

But I knew as a businessman you knew that one.

Like the other experts from our pop-up shop,

James has put together a fact sheet full of tips and useful information.

You can find it on our website:

Over the years we've been absolutely delighted at the way

Rip-Off Britain has been able to help and provide advice

to so many of you.

But there's one long-standing consumer organisation that even

we turn to for advice, one that's become a real

benchmark of quality and standard right across the marketplace.

So we've gone behind the scenes at Which? for an exclusive

look at how they test out the products and how they decide

on the ones they recommended as the best ones to buy.

At a secret location these suitcases are being thrown, stuffed

and sprayed, all in the line of research.

They're being tested almost to destruction to see

which are the most robust and, therefore, the best value for money.

Such rigorous testing has become a key part

of the work of Which?, the campaigning organisation

that for over half a century

has been at the forefront of consumer rights.

Its product reviews have long identified and celebrated

the best and the worst examples of everything and anything

we spend our hard-earned cash on.

With those that come out on top being recommended as the

Which? Best Buys, Which? tests over

2,500 products every year, so the Best Buy accolade

has become the gold standard seal of approval by which many of us

decide which particular car, which TV or toaster

that we might choose over all the others.

But, like many of you, I've always been curious to find out exactly

how they test the products and work out what's worth buying

and what's best avoided.

Nikki Stopford is the head of research who oversees

all of the testing. Nikki, Which? has built up this reputation

of being the voice of consumerism.

So how did it, as an organisation, build up the credibility?

Well, we've obviously got a really long history

campaigning for consumers, campaigning for their rights.

Making sure their lives are safer, simpler and fairer

and really making sure that consumers are as powerful

as the organisations that they're representing.

So we've got over 55 years of history.

We've been testing and we've been campaigning for that whole time.

We have over 8,000 reviews of products telling you

which are the best, which are the worst.

And we decide what we want to test simply by talking to consumers,

finding out what they want advice about.

We've been given rare access to one of the laboratories that Which?

uses for its testing.

Given how commercially sensitive their findings can prove,

we've agreed not to reveal its location or indeed

to indentify the testers.

But today, it's these pieces of luggage that are being

put through their paces.

Now, I'm quite sure like me you need your suitcases

to be able to take quite a battering

but also be easy to carry and move around as well.

So these bags will be tested not just for the way they pull

and move, but for water resistance, handle strength,

impact resistance and, of course, baggage handling.

We're completely independent and impartial

with all of our testing and that's what makes Which? a trusted brand.

So independent in the sense that people don't give you things

to test, you buy them.

Absolutely, we buy everything and we buy them from the places where

consumers shop as well.

Now, of course, high street prices really vary, not just for luggage

but indeed everything that Which? tests.

So I want to find out how they decide what represents good value.

We've got lots of best buys that we recommend that are the cheaper

end of the market as well.

So, you know, it certainly doesn't mean that the more money you spend,

will mean the better product.

That, of course, must be a great bonus for the consumer

because in your mind you tend to think that the expensive one is

the best. So it must be a relief if you find a car seat or a pram

or something, you know, where you don't have to spend a fortune.

Absolutely. And, you know, it's easy to think more money means quality.

It's certainly not the thing we've found when we're testing products.

The first challenge for those cases is the handling and impact tests.

All the tests consider existing British and European

standards but focus on testing the extra elements

that reflect the way people use products and how they value them.

We test on lots of different terrains,

on smooth surfaces like you will have in an airport

and on rougher terrains.

We also test to see how long a suitcase will last

and we put it onto a rolling road rig, as you can see here.

So we weight a suitcase, we then tilt it, as if you're pulling it

and we set up a rolling rig that has studded obstacles

on it and we run that through 2,000 cycles.

Then we'll check to see whether there's

been any damage before running it through another 3,000 cycles.

I got a brand-new case recently and, honestly, the marks on it

were just horrendous, so everybody has problems

with how their cases are handled on a carousel, being put on a plane,

so how robustly do you test that?

Yeah, we've designed tests to test exactly that.

So we have our baggage handlers test.

This is essentially a chuck test.

So we set up a rig and we lift the cases up and we angle them

so they are about 1.5m from the ground

and then we'll essentially just simulate a chuck

where we throw the suitcase,

we release it and it falls to the ground and we see how damaged it is.

Which? does much more than product testing.

Away from the lab, the organisation has an annual award ceremony

recognising companies' achievements, their products and customer service.

It's a chance for Nikki to celebrate the successes of the businesses

we deal with every day.

Unlike many other industry awards,

you can't nominate yourself for an award.

All of the shortlisted companies have received that accolade because of

our research and testing.

So this is a great day to be able to actually recognise the

very best companies out there and, you know, the companies themselves

really see this as a really fantastic accolade to get.

For the companies that turn out on the night,

getting the Which? seal of approval is particularly prized.

It's probably the biggest award

we could win in the year.

It's the one that really matters.

We certainly are always happy to receive their feedback

and we actively engage with them and they have given us

valuable insight over the years that we've acted upon

to really improve what is already a successful business.

Getting the Which? seal of approval

is really valuable for our business.

I mean, it's not always great.

To be brutally honest with you we get negative feedback

and actually sometimes the negative feedback is more important,

you can act on it much faster.

Back at the lab, it's time for the suitcases to face the water

resistance test.

Let's face it, nobody wants their luggage to let the rain in.

It is a key test for us, the water resistance test.

So in this test we load the suitcases

with pre-weighed towels and pre-weighed paper.

We stuff the main body of the suitcase and all the pockets

and then we'll leave it under, essentially, a shower of water,

tilted as if it's being pulled along as well

to see whether any of the water enters the suitcase.

And what about testing for overfilling?

I am guilty as charged, I do tend to try and stuff too much in.

We know from our own research with consumers that often people

will overfill suitcases, so we do the same thing.

We overfill our suitcases, we'll put a 25kg weight

dropping down, as it is here, onto the suitcase to see

whether any of the zips are damaged or burst as a result of that.

While every company desperately wants to come out of such tests

described as a Best Buy,

there's another label that nobody wants,

the one that goes to the products that,

according to the tests, fall spectacularly short.

They can end up with the dreaded words "Don't Buy" next to them.

I can't imagine that their manufacturers are happy with that.

Now, if I ever read about a really bad review about a product, I think

to myself, "What is the manufacturer going to say about that?"

"So how do they react to you?

We do, from time to time, get challenged by manufacturers,

equally we have great examples when manufacturers really listen to what

we've said and they've made changes as a result of that,

by designing their products in better ways,

or by even removing them from the market.

We had that recently with a "Don't Buy" light bulb that we found to be unsafe.

When we get challenged, we're confident that we are really robust with

the way we carry out our testing. We're very happy to stand up

and stand up to the robustness of our authoritativeness

and reliability of our results.

The bottom line is they want that Which? endorsement, don't they?

Yeah, the Best Buy icon is a real badge of honour.

It's an important accolade, it recognises only the very best

products on the market.

As for the results of those luggage tests, well, as ever

some proved tough and resilient but others didn't make the grade.

Which? tested over 40 large and cabin suitcases with only nine

ending up the coveted label Best Buy.

Something that a lot of you point out to us is that

when you feel you've had a raw deal,

it's not always just about the money, it's the sense of injustice

and unfairness that can leave a nasty taste in the mouth.

That's very much the case with this next story and, indeed,

that's exactly why we felt we had to investigate further.

Rebecca Malone has been planning her wedding for three years.

All that was missing was the perfect dress.

It is a difficult thing to choose your wedding dress. It's the biggest

day of your life, you want to look the best you can.

I've looked everywhere for this unique specific dress that

I've been, you know, dreaming of since a little girl.

With her dream Caribbean wedding set for February 2016,

Becky gave herself plenty of time to find the dress.

I wanted a couture wedding dress and they were coming in

at a few grand and I just thought

I'm sure I could get something cheaper than that.

Searching online, mum of three Rebecca came across the website

of a company called Dylan Queen,

which specialises in affordable wedding gowns and evening wear.

The dresses on there just looked amazing.

It seemed to be they had a lot of bargains on there that were

on a, sort of, timer, you know,

"Three days to go, don't miss out," type thing.

The one I found specifically had a few days on it

and I just thought, you know, I've got to get this dress.

Dylan Queen claimed the recommended retail price of the dress

Rebecca had her eye on was just under £600.

But from them all it would cost was £122.

In other words, an absolute knockout bargain, or so she thought.

Seven nail-biting days later and the dress finally arrived.

I was close to tears when I opened the package.

I didn't even want to get it out really.

I just couldn't believe my eyes, the fabric quality of it was appalling.

I was so angry.

I just couldn't believe that these people had taken my money.

Devastating, you know, it's your wedding dress.

It seemed obvious to Rebecca that the quality of the dress

she got did not match up to the pictures on the Dylan Queen website.

The seams are, sort of, coming away

and then we've got...

The panelling on the front is just a murky, dirty colour.

And then we've got pieces of elasticy thread, or something,

just hanging out everywhere.

This isn't a mermaid style dress, that's A-line.

The fabric's horrendous.

This dress is utter tat to me.

Furious at the state of the dress,

Rebecca contacted Dylan Queen for a full refund.

They weren't happy that I'd got in touch wanting to send it back.

They refused to give me a refund.

They were telling me, "It's custom-made.

"It's been made-to-measure."

By this point I was just getting so angry. I think there was just e-mail

back and forth for weeks on end and just wasn't getting anywhere.

Several e-mails later, the company did offer Rebecca

half of the money back. But Rebecca flatly refused.

I didn't end up sending the dress back.

I wasn't happy to be refunded half the price of the dress.

I've actually just left it now.

I couldn't be bothered getting into more rows with them over e-mail.

But Rebecca's experience is far from a one off.

In fact, here at Rip-Off Britain, we've heard from nearly 50 people

who say they've had similar problems with Dylan Queen dresses.

What's more, 90% of them thought they were dealing with a British

company because Dylan Queen's e-mail address and website end in .co.uk.

And it has a billing address in London.

But actually the company is based in China, which Rebecca only

discovered when she was sent a bill for shipping and custom fees.

Not only was the dress horrific and I'm rowing with these people

via e-mail, I've now been invoiced

for the delivery of the dress.

We wanted to take a closer look at more of the Dylan Queen dresses.

So we invited some of the disgruntled customers who'd

been in touch to come and show their addresses to Maria Malone

a fashion lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University.

First on the catwalk, 16-year-old Olia from Birmingham.

She bought one of the company's apparently made-to-measure dresses

for her school prom at a cost of £98.47 plus £25 delivery

and £25 taxes, a total of £148.47.

On the picture looked really nice and I loved it on the picture.

It was, like, my dream dress but when it arrived

it was completely different.

So when you cut a pattern for a dress like this, you would always

cut the pattern slightly bigger than the body.

So that would allow for movement and the ability for you to sit down

and stand up and dance and everything else

you'd want to do in the dress.

Unfortunately, you've got no movement through the thigh here.

The patterns been cut wrong for you. So not very good at all.

Next up, Beverly Richardson from Bradford.

After her mother died, she decided to treat herself to

a cruise holiday and thought the dress she saw for £101

on the Dylan Queen site would be perfect

for formal evening events on the ship.

I suppose what I really wanted was the Princess look.

I wanted something big and flouncy

and this was the one, definitely.

And pink.

-So you ordered a UK size 16 and this is what you got?

-Yes.

So we can see from this, this really just goes nowhere on you.

For you, a size 16 should easily just zip up very, very quickly

and it's not getting anywhere near. It's a disgrace actually.

But it's a really an abysmal fit, that.

Abi Boyce bought a dress for £107 plus over £50 postage

for a double special occasion -

her high school prom and birthday

fell on the same day, so, of course, she wanted to be looking her best.

The dress looked amazing on the website.

It was all quite tight fit to emphasise...

Because I've got quite an hourglass figure,

so I thought I may as well show it off.

The most obvious problem to me is this sleeve.

What you've got here is a double-lined sleeve

with a huge seam here.

But it's not actually hugging the body.

That's supposed to be close to the body and have some stretch in it

for comfort, so that you can move around.

All of these pieces have been appliqued on

but they're all fraying, they've not been stitched on properly.

Very badly fitting.

Four dresses and four very angry women.

Once the dress has gone out and once they've been paid,

they don't want to know.

They don't want to know the problems, they don't want to help

and it's just horrendous.

I definitely won't be wearing this dress.

I'd rather not go to prom then wear this.

It's massive, it doesn't show my figure,

it makes me look like a rectangle.

I'm really angry about them and just upset as well because not only

have I spent the money, but also I'm not really looking forward to prom

because prom is a really big event

and I don't really want to go now.

In Maria's opinion, neither the attention to detail, nor

the service of Dylan Queen come up to scratch.

If you're going to invest money in a dress,

you want it to be made properly but you also

want it to fit properly.

I think they should have offered them a full refund and a return.

If something's wrong, it's wrong.

We've received so many complaints about this one company that we

were really interested to hear their response.

Sadly, when we contacted Dylan Queen,

they didn't comment on the story.

But shopping online isn't always the best approach for a special dress.

They can buy really good quality at not much different

prices on the UK High Street,

where they can try it on, they can consider their purchase,

they can ensure the fit and they can be happy customers.

As for Rebecca, she's once again on the hunt

for her dream wedding dress.

But she has found someone who likes the Dylan Queen number.

-Princess!

-Yeah!

Here at Rip-Off Britain we're always ready to investigate

more of your stories.

Well, you can write to us at:

Or you can send us an e-mail to:

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

I don't know about you but I was absolutely

fascinated by the results of that battery test we did earlier.

There can't be many of us who haven't wondered why it is

that some batteries seem to run out so much quicker than expected.

And it's great to know that it isn't always the most expensive

that prove to be the best value for money.

True but, equally, the cheapest option is often not

the best choice either.

So how can you know for sure if you're going to get

what you paid for?

Well, whether we're talking about made-to-measure clothes or

a family day out, the best advice is to be extremely

wary of claims in ads or on websites.

They may make you think you're on to a winner

when, in fact the opposite could be true.

It's with that really good piece of advice that I'm afraid

we have to leave you for today. But please do keep sending us

your stories for any of the Rip-Off Britain programmes

that are going to be coming up over the next few months

because it could well be one of yours that we're going to be

looking into next time round.

Our team is, as always, chomping at the bit

to crack on and investigate as many of your stories as we possibly can.

We'll be seeing you very soon, hopefully with some of those

stories. But, for today, thanks very much indeed for joining us

and from all of the team, bye-bye.

-Bye-bye.

-Goodbye.