Episode 5 Watchdog

Vodaphone, don't believe the prices, Virgin Media, don't believe the ads.

Shell, you won't believe the loyalty scheme. Plus, Starbucks,

NatWest and more sons, and the truth about Fairtrade chocolate

will leave a bitter taste. It is Watchdog, the programme you can't

afford to miss. Hello, good evening, welcome to

Watchdog, we're live, as usual, from Television Centre. Tonight,

Vodaphone, O2, if your mobile is stolen, beware. I was phoning them,

distraught, I had this massive bill, I was seven months pregnant, I was

pleading, please, can't you help me. They didn't really try to help me.

Also the Shell loyalty scheme drive 13 though miles and get �10, some

reward. Cadbury, Mars and Nestle, the Fairtrade label, but the non-

Fairtrade ingredients, how fair is that. Virgin Media, the truth about

its broadband speeds, not so fast, you say.

Trouble with your broadband, or any problems with your PC, maybe call

in a computer repair company. The trouble is, you might end up with

this one, which has been interesting approach to customer

complaints. Log on to the company that have

been overcharging for repair, losing customer s' data, and

selling hard drives containing other people's personal information.

This IT crowd would be funny, if it wasn't so serious.

First, O2, Orange, Vodaphone, all battling for your business, if your

phone gets stolen, they are unwilling to help. If thieves steal

your debit card, your bank is liable for the loss, if thieves

steal your mobile, you are on your own, the bill could be thousands.

Bill-shock, that is the term the industry uses when you receive a

bill uncommonly high. One of the reasons, someone stealing your

phone, and running up huge amounts calling numbers in the UK and

abroad. You may not be at fault, but the companies will still make

you pay. Meet Rob, he usually spends around �50 a month with

Orange, after his phone was stolen, he received a shock-bill for nearly

25-times that amount. When I eventually spoke to Orange, I found

my phone bill had gone to over �1 though, the people who had stolen

it had made calls to Algeria and France. They are holding me

responsible for those calls. had never failed to make calls to

Algeria before, but they failed to spot the unusual activity on his

account. He was targeted by fraudsters. The fraud will take

place within hours of your SIM card or phone is stolen. They will carry

on until they are stopped. Traditionally thieves made money by

selling your phone on to someone else. But increasingly organised

gangs set up premium rate phone lines and use your phone to call

them repeatedly. That makes them big money at your expense.

According to police figures, more than 250,000 mobiles are stolen

each year, it is a big problem for customers, but not the big

companies themselves. Unlike banks who take the financial hit, for

fraudulent transactions on your debit card, these companies are not

legally liable. If thieves steal your phone, the bills they run up

are your's. The mobile companies say they try

to minimise your chances of getting a shock-bill, after your phone has

been stolen. They will only charge for calls that are made before they

What is your policy on lost or stolen phones? Would I be

responsible for the charges? You would only be charged for

whatever calls you have made before you give us a call to block it.

Unfortunately,ing to actually -- managing to speak to your mobile

company isn't always possible. As Rob found out. I immediately tried

to phone Orange, and was on hold for 20 minutes, I made five or six

attempts to call Orange, but never made it through because of the time

I was on hold. Contacting your provider outside the UK is even

more difficult. Ask Susan. She usually spends �30 a month with

Vodaphone, her shock bill, more than �1500. Susan's SIM card was

stolen while on holiday in a remote part of the Philippines, unable to

call Vodaphone, she tried to make contact via the Internet.

website was down, they couldn't let me log in, I used one of their web

forms for contacting them. I got a response a few hours later, saying

I could replace the SIM for �5, if I went to a local Vodaphone store.

I replied to that response, and said you have missed the point, I

have lost the SIM, please stop this phone, immediately. Vodaphone later

claimed they didn't receive Susan's web form, even though they replied

to it. The thieves went on to run up �1500 worth of charges, but the

bill is all her's. I haven't got that sort of money. You know, I am

getting to an age when I will be retiring, I can't afford to have

that sort of debt. Mobile companies say you must report a theft to them,

otherwise there is no proof to say you are not the one who is running

up the charges. What if you report it to the police, surely that's

sufficient proof that it's been taken? Well not sufficient for O2,

they sent Laurie a shock bill after her mobile was stolen in South

Africa. The total, more than �5,600. I tried to phone O2 to report the

phone as stolen, but unfortunately I didn't get through. So the next

day I went to the Police Station and I reported it to the police.

Despite this, O2 insist that Laurie is still label for the charges.

That is because she didn't report the theft to them, until she was

back in Britain. I looked into the bill and I could see that whoever

had taken the phone had been speaking to countries in Africa

that I have never been to. He had literally been speaking for 50

hours. Like the other mobile phone companies, O2 do have systems to

monitor unusual usage like this. So why didn't they take action to stop

it? When you are roaming in a different country, you need to

realise the data takes some time to come back from that country to your

home network, for them to analyse the data and to review it. Unlike a

credit card, which is authorised at the point of sale, which may take

one or two minutes to do, if you were abroad. In the mobile phone

industry, we allow calls to take place first, and then look at the

data afterwards. Despite the clear evidence that

Laurie's excessive charges were run up after she reported the theft to

police, O2 haven't stopped pursuing her. They reduced the bill by half,

but have since added on early disconnection fees and legal costs,

that means she still owes �3,700. was phoning them, distraught, I had

this massive bill, I was seven months pregnant, I was pleading,

you know, please, can't you help me, I can't pay this bill, I don't have

any money. You know, they didn't really try and help me. They just

tried to scare me with these horrible letters saying, debt

recovery is coming, you have to owe us this, you owe us that. It was

just not necessary. With phone theft increasing, the mobile

companies are coming under pressure to reduce called bill shock. The

industry regulator Ofcom wants them to study the customer's usage more

closely, looking for signs of fraudulent activity. It is also

considering introducing a limit on the amount of money for which a

customer can be held liable. Until the regulations change, it is up to

the individual companies to decide whether they help us or not.

And judging by the experiences of Rob, Susan and Laurie, the chances

of getting any help are slim. Everything Everwhere, the new name

for Orange, since the merger with T-Mobile, says it sympathises with

Rob Weetman, the customerer who spent two weeks trying to report

the phone stolen, and has offered receipts illusion. It says it has

tough -- resolution. Vodaphone says there was a delay in Susan Wilkins

making contact, but it does acknowledge there was a degree of

confusion. It offered her another 20% reduction, taking the bill down

to �800. O2 said it proactively blocked Lori Parsons's account when

they suspected her account was lost or stolen. They said it had no

contact from her until two weeks later. It has cleared her account

of any outstanding amount and apologised for any inconvenience.

If would you like to comment on that, here is IRA minder of how to

do so. A �5,000 bill written off, we can

call that a result. Coming up, Dairy Milk, Kit Kat, Maltesers, you

might find this news hard to follow. I think consumers are misled by the

labelling at the moment. They believe the labelling represents

the fact of a Fairtrade cocoa beans in the bar, and that may not be

true at all. I think I have just sent a tweet.

We remainly tech on rogue traders. If this machine plays up, one firm

shake it is OK again. If it was a computer, I would have to call

someone out. That someone could be the guy you are going to meet

When computers were the size of a semi-detatched house, we knew where

we stood, they were for men with pebble glasses and white coats, and

German avant garde techno groups. The rest of us made do with a

string and a can and an abacus, and we were happy. Now anybody can be a

techy, and I mean anybody. There is somebody there. They will have to

wait, we are doing book keeping. Turnover was up 32% in Q2. What do

you mean an unexpected error has occurred. The serious point here is

that we all rely on our computer, even those running entirely

fictional tea shops, when they go wrong, all hell breaks loose.

last year my son's new computer started playing up, thinking it was

a virus, not covered unthe manufacturer's waranty, we

contacted a local computer company. They took the laptop away, and

brought it back after three days with the same problem. They charged

me �85. Since then, they have refused to give me a refund, I have

found out it was a faulty hard drive not a virus, can you help.

was charged �135 to reformat my computer, after a day they

contacted me, and they refused to return my computer until such a

point as I paid for it, by debit or credit card. I was reluctant to do

that, as I would like to see my PC working. When they did bring back

my computer, they had lost some of my files, it was running a

different system. I would like a refund. Personal data missing?

Computers held to ransome? It doesn't sound good. And neither

does this. Sarah and Miro who live 100 miles apart, thought they were

dealing with local business, but the same computer repair company,

Click4PC, came out to them both. The company's boss is Yassar Rashid,

the HQ is this shop front in Bromsgrove in Worcester. I think it

is time to call out Click4PC ourselves. We need to get hold of a

ourselves. We need to get hold of a computer and expert. Andrew, used

to investigation on a high-level, more of a spook. You have created a

fault on the screen, what have you done? All we have done is

introduced a second hard drive into the xurter system, that is where it

stores all -- computer system, that is where it stores all the files.

We have set it to the master drive so, the computer doesn't know where

to put the operating system. computer has been confused by outer

intelligence. Very exciting. To fix it, this jumper pin needs to be

removed, that is easy. How long would you say it would

take to fix it? I would say no more than 30 minutes to rectify the

fault, that would be typically covered in the normal callout

charge. Click4PC, here we come. We have called them out to this

bungalow in Redditch, stuffed full of cameras, our silver surfer

Joseph is on the phone and in the hide, and Click4PC are about to

digally activate the -- digitally activate the doorbell. On the

Click4PC website they give us an easy spotter's guide.

This would be Alex, having worked in IT since he was 16. Alex brings

with him a wealth of experience in hardware and software issues. There

are few problems Alex hasn't seen and solved in the past. This should

What does Alex do? Not much, just a five-minute inspection, and then...

Nothing wrong with that hard drive at all.

There is some hard drive noise, that can be quite common, it hasn't

affected the function of the affected the function of the

computer at all. No it doesn't. The hard drive hasn't failed, and no

data is missing, but, according to the Alex, the computer has to be

taken away. And that will cost... Ridiculous, hard drives nowadays

can be picked up for less than �30. Really? Well, if you are going to

Outrageous, outrageous. A new machine for the sake of one simple

jumper pin that he could find within 15 minutes. That's a good

call Joseph. After which, Alex tells him to expect the computer

back in a couple of days. Time to shoot and reboot. That is, back to

the studio. And here we are. A bit shocked at

what we have been told, and what we have been charged, still, we have

now been promised a brand-new hard drive. They will be dropping it off

very soon. Let's hope there won't be any more nasty surprises. Next,

Cadbury, Nestle, Mars, all putting the Fairtrade logo on some of their

biggest chocolate brands. A reassuring label, guarnteeing that

the third world farmers that produce the cocoa bean, get a fair

deal. Or does it mean that? Britains are the world's biggest

consumers of Fairtrade goods, buying �1.2 million pounds worth of

billion pound worth of products all year, from vegtables, flowers and

chocolate So much of my grocery list is Fairtrade. I would buy them

over other products, for ethical reasons. I would think some part of

my money is going to help people who are less advantaged. Yes.

trust the mark when I see it. demand has fuelled a huge ethical

chocolate industry, with some of the biggest names jumping on the

bandwagon. Cadbury made a real song and dance when they turned their

iconic Dairy Milk bar Fairtrade in 2009. Nestle soon followed suit

with Kit Kat, and this summer Mars's Maltesers gained the same

certificatation. Great, or is it? think consumers are misled, they

believe the labelling means there are Fairtrade cocoa beans in the

car, that is not true at all. has criticised the current system

that allows manufacturers to mix up ingredients from lots of different

sources, including non-Fairtrade ones, yet still label the resulting

product as Fairtrade. The result, we can't be sure our favourite bar

contains any Fairtrade cocoa beans at all. If you were to buy a

Fairtrade banana, you would know that banana came from a Fairtrade

farm, and the money would go directly from your pocket to a

Fairtrade farmer. With chocolate, cocoa beans within the bar do not

have to come from Fairtrade farms themselves. Most of the bean, which

the farmers grow, all go into the same spot as the beans from the

non-Fairtrade farmers and they are not separately allocated.

Mixing cocoa beans in this way, is allowed. You see, if a manufacturer

buys 20% of its beans from Fairtrade farms, then it can label

20% of its products as such. And the farmers themselves do get all

the money they are entitled to. Still, it is confusing, because the

fair trade beans are just as likely to end up in your non-Fairtrade

barf Galaxy, as they are in your -- barf Gall lax bar of, Galaxy as any

other bar. My guest is with me. We have heard

the Queen's chocolate man saying people have been misled because

they are buying a bar of chocolate, with a Fairtrade logo, but it might

not actually have any Fairtrade ingredients, is he right? What you

know if you buy a bar of chocolate, that carries the Fairtrade mark,

that it is giving a better deal to farmers in developing countries. In

the chocolate industry beans get mixed all the time. What we have

made sure is that a company who wants to use the mark on its

chocolate, has to buy the exact amount of cocoa in Fairtrade terms

that it needs for that chocolate bar. That means you can be sure

when you buy the bar, 100% of the difference and benefits of

Fairtrade are going to the farmers. Nevertheless, if we take this Co-Op

bar, 100% is Fairtrade ingredients, it has your logo on it. We take

this Nestle Kit Kat, 88% is not Fairtrade ingredients. But they are

the same logos, at best a tiny bite might be Fairtrade cocoa beans, but

maybe none at all. Do you not think you are devaluing your label by

allowing them both to have the same sign on it? I want to be really

clear on this. Both companies have had to buy 100% of the cocoa that

they use for those bars, on Fairtrade terms. In the case of Kit

Kat, 4,000 tonnes they need to produce that Kit Kat, 4,000 tonnes

have been bought on Fairtrade terms, that means the farmers in Ivory

Coast are receiving the full benefits. That still means, in this

bar I'm holding up, there isn't necessarily any Fairtrade cocoa

beans. What we know -- What we know people

care about most, is does my purchase of the bar make a

difference to the farmers? Our system makes sure it does, 100% of

what is used to produce the bar has been bought on Fairtrade terms.

Some manufacturers mix the beans some don't. We have to make sure

that 100% of the beans are Fairtrade and dlefrg 100% of the

benefit. That means farmers living in poverty, that need to invest in

education, health centre, they are able to do that with the bar you

buy. Shouldn't you be tough fare that doesn't contain any of your

ingredients? What we want to get to in the long-term, is all of the

cocoa that they are purchasing is Fairtrade. That is what you and I,

a few years ago one in 100 bars of chocolate sold in the UK was

Fairtrade, today it is one in eight. The three big manufacturers

mentioned all told us their Fairtrade involvement has delivered

significant benefits to the developing world. Cadburys say more

than �6 million has been invested back into the Ghanaian communities

thanks to Fairtrade. Kit Kat says it has improved farmers' collective

future. Mars says it has improved yields and helped social conditions

and protected the environment. It is committed to sourcing 100%

sustainable cocoa by 2020. There are other chocolate products on

sale carrying the same Fairtrade label, that do contain 100%

Fairtrade cocoa beans. Check on the website.

Virgin Media claims to offer the fastest broadband in the UK, and

signed up Usain Bolt, to make sure we got the message. According to

the Virgin ads, speed comes first, the truth is, it often comes a

distant second. Try to avoid these campaigns

recently? You will have been lucky. That is because they are everywhere.

On TV, in the papers, and on-line. Virgin's promises seem to differ

all the time, which could be because it likes changing its ads,

or because it has been forced to. Over the last year-and-a-half, 25

of those ads have been banned for either being misleading, or

factually incorrect. Now, I have always fancied myself as a bit of

an advertising guru, I reckon I could give them a few pointers on

how to keep things...100% accurate. Guys, guys, stop, stop, stop, you

keep making theseed ands, and they keep getting banned, let's see if

we can work out where you are going wrong. Meeting in my room, now.

That includes you, big boy! Come on. First up, some of Virgin's speed

promises that turned out to be nearly as dodgy as Usain's beard.

The ASA banned thised and. Because in some areas it is not the fastest

broadband. Thised and was banned for the same reason, and this one,

for wrongly claiming that everyone's speeds will be doubled.

Customers like Costas know that claim is nonsense. Although his

brondband was meant to double to a speedy 100 mgs, he's getting as low

as 5 at peak times. I'm not able to do anything on-line from six at

night to midnight. People would complain if the electricity company

were cutting your electricity after 6.00pm. I thought this is exactly

what is happening with my internet. We better change that on the new

script. The other thing that you guys

people falling down on, you are not being clear about charges. Have a

look at this. It says, free for three months, now

that isn't exactly true, is it? Well, if they won't answer, let's

hear from Linda. She took Virgin up on the three months for free offer,

only to get a bill for �16.90. qeried this bill, and they said it

was for -- qeried the bill, and they said it was for the line

rental. I said nobody told me hi to pay line rental, as far as I was

concerned it was free for the first three months. The ASA agreed, and

banned theed and for failing to make the line rental charge clear.

A straight forward verdict for a straight forward reason. If you are

telling somebody it is free for three months, it should be free.

Any more dodgy claims? Remember this?, it turns out it wasn't

really free, you could only activate the box if you paid a

�49.95 installation fee, result? You guessed it. The reason why

companies like Virgin Media use small print in their claims, they

are trying to get a clear simple message across, small print

confuses that. The second reason, actually most consumers don't read

the small print. Therefore, they trust that the company won't

mislead them with the main claim. What were you guys thinking with

thised and, this was banned because the small print was too small to

even read? What do you make of it? It is minuscule, as for thised and!

Hi, I'm Richard Branson and I want everyone to say hello to a super-

fast broadband. You honestly claimed you would get rid of...yes

they did, lots of customers fell for it. Like Glyn, whose Virgin

service remains plaged by buffering. It affects a lot of things, the

movie streaming. If you are making a credit card payment over the

Internet, you are not sure if it goes through or not. Also, if my

daughter is playing the XBox, it lock up and freezes. It is just

impossible to play the games on there. As an ex-computer engineer,

Glyn has managed to turn his 3G mobile as a router for his PC, a

bit of a pal lava. I'm lucky I have unlimited data, if I hadn't had

would have cost me a lot of money. It is unacceptable I have to go to

these lengths, considering I have to pay Virgin for a service I'm not

getting. The number of claims they have put out would appear to be way

above the industry norm. Not only do Virgin not have an excuse of

putting up misleading adverts. Nobody has. Because the advertising

standards authority provide a free copy advice service, for anyone

want to go place aned and to have it checked against the guidelines.

We have the perfect advert script, now we have learned from our

mistake. We are the fastest in the UK, not in all areas, all the time.

What we mean by "goodbye to bufferering" is we would really

like to get rid of buffering but haven't yet. Make sure you read the

terms and conditions, sometimes there are charges in there we might

not have drawn your attention to. Much better, cue Usain! Virgin

Media, take what we say with a pinch of salt.

Virgin Media say they recognise they sometimes make mistake, and

when they do they hold their hands up, and do everything they can to

mix the problem. They say their commercials are cleared before

broadcast, and they work on scrutiny of broadband advertising.

As some rivals don't communicate the speeds the majority of their

customers get, they find the authorities' failure to address the

issues that matter to customers, is disappointing. They say they offer

the fastest, widely available broadband, and deliver the speeds

they promised. Still to come, NatWest and its Get Cash app, have

thieves been getting their hands on your money. From lands end to John

o'Groats, 15 times, that is what you need to get �10 back from Shell.

Back to the computer repair company, misdiagnosing faults, overcharging

and losing customers' data. They have hit us with a �200 bill for a

new hard drive, that we didn't need. Now the computer is returned, we

want to see what they have done for their money.

We have sent the PC to our expert, who has given it the onceover.

Explain what they have done to it, Andrew, clearly? We have had a new

hard drive put into the computer system, which is completely

unnecessary, when we looked at the drive, it was apparent straight

away that there is potentionally illegal software on it, there is a

copy of Microsoft Word, registered to a university, for instance,

rather than the individual concerned. Well, manningle my

mother broad, Click4PC have given us a used hard drive, even more

alarming, it contains data belonging to someone else. And not

just any old data. When we have taken it a little bit more of a

deeper look into the drive, using some forensic software, we have

seen it has data on relating to a residential care home, that looks

after young adults with learning disabilities. All sorts of very,

very sensitive medical records on this computer system. It is

important to say, presumably you haven't started going into the

detail of that, you are just aware it is there. It is not our place.

Not for our eyes at all. Too right. We have since returned

the data to the care home it belongs to.

It is all very worrying, considering the pledge on the

Click4PC website. The one that says "all data services are carried out

in a secure environment, ensuring privacy and preventing theft". That

is a familiar promise. It also appears on the website of another

repair company we have had complaints about, the very simply

named Click Computers, also based in the West Midlands. Kelly Goddard

called out a Click Computer's engineer, when her PC, the one with

all her work and photo of her baby, went kaput He said he could repair

it for �120, but as it was five years old I should look at a new

one, at a cost of �240 with everything on it. As the company

promised to transfer all the files over from the old computer, she

agreed to buy the new one. She found it was refurbished, and even

worse, there was no sign of her files. I paid for a new one, and

none of my data was on there, I searched all the folders, there was

nothing. So you are still without your photos of Aaron, your son.

I have lost six months of his life, including his first birthday party,

which was very important. I'm really upset. I rang the company,

they were quite rude to me. And they said that I couldn't have a

refund, I wasn't entitled to a refund, because I had to complain

within a week, and I said that I had done. But they weren't happy,

he just sort of didn't seem to be listening to me, and his attitude

was disgusting. Now, we have since discovered two

interesting facts about Click Computers. Number one, its website

was registered by Amir Rashid, brother of Click4PC's owner, Yassar

Rashid. It is currently recruiting for field engineers, we are

applying for a job, at least our secret squirrel is.

Just come this way, a little bit. A little bit closer. I think he's

behind that bush. It is Nutkins, the rogue traders

secret squirrel. Come on, I can see you. Come out, we have a job for

you. Bring your brief case. Come on. Our bride-eyed and bushy-tailed

hopeful is invited to an interview in Birmingham.

Customers have been told the boss of Click Computers is called Ian

Jenkins, and it is an Ian general kicks who has shown us here. After

a four-hour wait we are shown in. This must be him, Ian Jenkins.

Rattle my router, it is Yassar Rashid, owner of the other company,

Click4PC. He gets straight down to it, explaining how this one

Hold on, our man applied to be a field engineer, not a salesman.

I think it is your customers who will be depressed after hearing

that. Now, for the Lord Sugar moment, you're hired.

That word again. Our secret squirrel is all set for a trial.

Yassar Rashid- style, what will the verdict be? It is Nutkins's first

day at work. He's been hired, despite a complete

absence of IF qualifications, without even having to provide a --

IT qualifications, without even having to provide a reference. He

did wear a costume. Yassar Rashid is planning to send him out to

customers' home immediately.S what OK. �120 is the figure to hit every

time. That's rule number one, when dealing with customers. So, how

Yes, by using fake local addresses, they have managed to get a presence

all over the country. As far apart as Yorkshire and Kent. You could

call that dishonest, and you would be right. They are also dishonest

about names. Remember Ian Jenkins, the called boss? He doesn't exist.

Neither does Steve Johnson, the supposed customer services manager.

Our man finds out the truth on day two. De-frag my dongle, the Rashid

brothers are using fake names. So customers who complain never get to

know who is really in charge. Too much computer confusion, I need to

turn it off and turn it back on. We will do that in ten minutes,

when we see how some of the complaining customers are dealt W

we are coming face-to-fais with Yassar Rashid, -- face-to-face with

Yassar Rashid, with his lawyers. Loyalty schemes are great to keep

you on board and spending. Are those rewards really worth it? What

do you think? Loyalty schemes, hundreds of

companies offer them, all making promises. But all adding in

different terms and conditions. Some customers are confused. Some

are downright angry. Which, rather annoyingly, has given the Watchdog

team a bright idea. Why don't you go on a road trip,

Rick, find out the truth about the loyalty schemes. It will be fun,

they said. Probably won't even cover my petrol. Well, at least if

I buy it at Morrisons -- I will earn reward points. If I want to

get a mere �10 voucher, I need to collect 10,000 points. That's

equivalent to �1,400 of Morrisons petrol at today's prices. My reward

for staying loyal to Morrisons, just 0.71% cashback.

What's the point. If, like me, you want a coffeeen 0 the road, don't

count on reward points to fill your cup. Take Starbucks, their old

loyalty scheme of simple, put �5 on a pre-paid card and you got free

shots and syrups, and money off filter coffee. This is replaced

with the Starbucks reward scheme, with two new levels. When you add

�5 to the card you become a green member, you then have to buy enough

coffee to earn 15stars, you will get a voucher for a free coffee,

posted to your address, which expires after 60 days. To get your

free shots and syrups back you need to be a gold member, buying enough

coffee to earn 50 stars, within a year.

Members of the old scheme have been given gold membership for this

first year. But, to keep gold state us you have to keep earning 50stars

every year. Earn 49 or less -- 50 stars every year, earn 49 or less,

when the 12 months is up, you are back to zero and have to start all

over again. I'm going back to drinking tea.

Disappearing points are a familiar story. Wherever you look. Take

resfraunts, nand does -- restaurants, Nando's changed its

loyalty system earlier in the year. They had to switch to the new peri-

peri system, or they lost all their rewards. The new scheme, eat

quickly, to get the full rewards you need to fill up your new card

before it expires next February. How much chicken? Once you have

battled through the rules and expiry dates, another thing you

need to look out for, exclusions, some loyalty schemes have so many,

you wonder what is left to collect points on. The one like they run in

the Co-Op, stores and services giving you loads of given ways to

pick up points. Loads of exclusions too. There is baby milk, stamps and

savings schemes, pay points, National Lottery, gift vouchers,

instore concessions, newspaper delivery and cigarettes, continuity

programmes and prescriptions. Oh, you can earn points on funeral

plans, if you die yourself, all your points are cancelled. How,

kind! Talking of funerals, here is a place I wouldn't normally be seen

dead in, scheming kids, rides that make you feel sick. You couldn't

pay me to go to Alton Towers. If you are going to pay yourself,

avoid doing it with Nectar points. If you do, you can only buy tickets

on the gate on the day. If I spend 500 point, I will get a discounted

rate of �85, but if I bought the tickets in advance from the website

without points, it is only �67.50, much cheaper, and you don't use up

your points. Well, my laugh-a- minute trip is coming to an

inevitable end, I will have to fork out for more fuel. Let's try Shell

this time, they have to be better value than Morrisons, surely. If I

want to get a �10 voucher for Shell, I need 2,000 points. I get one

point per litre of regular unleaded. That means I would need to buy

2,000ly the Tories get my voucher. An average car uses 103 litres a

month. That means I would have to wait almost two years to get my �10.

At current prices that will cost me nearly �2,800. Oh well, you don't

become a multibillion dollar company by giving money away. I

think I will quit playing the piano and join the oil business. That

would be rewarding. A lot of responses to Rick's report,

I will need some help, standby Annie and Matt. Firstly, Shell say

they have given more than �10 million in rewards last year.

Members of the Shell Drivers' Club earn more than one point a litre

and through various promotions. Morrisons say their reward

programme offers better, less complex and more savings than rival

schemes. What about Starbucks. Regular customers wanted to be

rewarded more than those who visit less often. The new scheme is

working with nearly one million registered card holders, and the

number using cards to pay increasing by 60%. Nando's, from

Matt. We started transferring customers to a simple letter scheme

in April, that wasn't as easy as we thought. Customers will be rewarded

with the peri-peri chicken they love.

Other restaurants specialising in poultry dishes are also available.

A couple more to go, the Co-Op says, its exclusions are similar to those

operated by other retailers, the plans for funeral arrangements will

be revisited. Nectar say the offer at Alton Towers is great value, but

they say a small number of people may find it cheap Tory take

advantage of the 25% on-line discount. Full responses are on the

website. Thanks to all those who have been

in touch about that story. Here is a few more.

The Get Cash mobile app from NatWest, great idea, great song.

But apparently a great opportunity for thieves. The service was

introduced in the spring, allowing customers to withdraw money from

their current account without a debit card, but it was suspended

this week, after some customers found fraudsters had hacked into

their accounts, taking hundreds of pounds in separate transactions.

NatWest says it will refund them, and has now disabled service while

it increases the level of security required. Maybe they will update

thated and while they are at it. A fixed contract with Vodaphone,

those payments aren't fixed at all, following other companies going

back on a promise of keeping prices the same by hiking prices by 2.49%.

Millions of customers are affected. They can't do much about t as a

clause in the small print says Vodaphone can raise prices on

supposedly fixed contracts as long as they don't outstrip inflation.

The Telecoms ombudsman says it is investigating the claims. Vodaphone

says the price changes are in line with the Retail Price Index when it

is seeing rising costs within the business, a business that made

rising profits of �9.5 billion. The Office of Fair Trading, normal loo

attacks budget airlines for -- normally attack budget airlines for

their excessive debit and credit card changes. Now it finds itself

on the naughty step, Flybe stopped credit card charges on its request,

but Flybe and other rivals are refusing to comply. It describes

the current system where airlines can advertise a headline price, but

then charge each passenger up to �6 extra a flight is a shambles. It

criticised the OFT for not coming down harder. It says it has forced

airlines to include extra charges on the advertising, airlines must

change their system by the end of the year. Since the OFT first

announced its clampdown, more than 14pwhooints ago, Flybe might just

have -- 14 months ago, Flybe might just have a point.

Two computer repair companies, run by two brothers, using at least two

false names, plus complaints about misdiagnosed faults, overcharging

and lost data. They even sold us a supposedly new hard drive,

containing sensitive personal information belonging to someone

else. And now, thanks to our undercover agent, getting a job in

one of the companies, we are about to witness their dedication to

customer service. The brothers Rashid, and Click Computers is one

of the businesses. Our man has just been taken on, and is seeing how

they handle customer complaints firsthand. This is the office

manager dealing with a woman who says they have deleted their data.

And here's Yasser being told another woman cried down the phone

cause her computer wasn't returned. We do worry about it. Which is why

we wrote to both Rashid brothers with all our allegations. They

agreed we have uncovered issues that need to be addressed, at both

Click4PC and Click Computers. Yassar Rashid agreed to be

interviewed, as long as it was in the presence of his solicitor, here

in Hereford. So, first question, why does he tell staff to charge

customers at least �120, regardless of what the fault is. That's

absolute categorically not the case. It is not the case? Despite the

quotes that we have seen from you, on film, which are doing exactly

what I described. Which is telling telling engineers or salesmen, as

you call them, going for �120, being the golden figure. Which is

ignoring what the job actually requires. We do take customer

service really seriously, customer service issues, we try 0 give a

very high level of service. The quotes you are referring to are

misrepresentation, you haven't shown the footage. I'm happy to

respond to specific questions. We have been very specific with our

questions. We are not misrepresenting anything. Here a

I mean, I think a lot of those comments have been taken out of

context. That's not the recollection of events I have.

allegation are clear, and the allegations are representative of

the way you behaved. You are wasting my time today? I don't feel

they are. That is not fair, you have to stop. That's not fair.

we just check, this is your solicitor?

Yeah, meet Mike, you will be seeing and hearing a lot more from him.

Meanwhile, if his client doesn't recognise collect his own sales

talk, perhaps he remembers selling us a hard drive containing someone

else's sensitive and confidential data. How can you send out a

recycled hard drive that contains information pertaining to young

adults in a vulnerable position, from a previous customer? We take

data protection very seriously. What happened on that incident,

that hard drive was formated, but not to a high enough standard.

Someone using forensic intelligence, similar to the FBI, was able to

access that data, that was not accessible by a normal person.

software used was available widely? We take data protection very

seriously, we have adjusted our procedures, to make sure,

rigorously, to make sure it never happens that. You have answered

that. Time to move to the next question. Click4PC y has it not

paid two outstanding county court judgments, one for �300, one for

�1394. I haven't come across that. Hang on, stop.

Stop Yasser, Mike assist so. Following the interruption from the

solicitor, his memory was failing him. That is something I wasn't

aware of. You can't remember the outstanding county court judgments,

you can't remember the things you said to one of your sales people.

For someone who works in computers, you have a very small memory.

He goes on to say he had no managerial input at his brother's

business, he was a consultant, paid to help with recruitment, in which

he has ten years experience. Why didn't he spot that our undercover

man had no IT qualifications, and then failed to check his

references? I asked him specific questions about IT. Those

references would have been checked, in due course, by the appropriate

person. How many customers would he have seen beforehand? The other

thing, your actor supplied qualifications, which I viewed,

qualifications...Sorry, Not true. Our man never gave details of IT

qualifications. Here comes the lawyer again. The point that is

being made here, is that using his expertise, ten years in the trade,

in the profession, and his qualifications, his degree, et

cetera, he can work out, in a conversation with someone,

initially, whether or not they have knowledge of this level of

computers. How does that work? Sorry. That is fascinating, I would

love to know how that works, during a conversation you can establish

the credentials someone has, even though they don't give them to you,

that is brilliant. Expertise, not to be misquoted, perhaps you would

like to try him on that. Can I have a seat next to him. Can you stay

out of it, you're only a cameraman. He's a trusted and loved member of

steam. He was only offering you a seat, seeing as you were so keen to

be part of the interview. It is an interview I have had enough of. It

is grand standing, it is evading the point. We have put clear

allegations and if you qnt remember you have a massive problem with

your memory. It is a massive exercise in evasion, all of this is

window dressing. We have put, serious, concrete allegations to

you, and you have evaded them in the most elaborate and expensive

way I can possibly imagine. What we will do is conclude this interview

now, because I have no desire to hear any more evasion from your

lawyer, or from you, we have put clear allegations to you. That is

not the case. You will see the allegation when the programme goes

out, it will be clear to everybody who is watching exactly the nature

of your business. Yassar Rashid has also e-mailed us

about the two Click4PC customers we featured, we couldn't find details

of Miro's job, but said they correctly diagnosed the problem

with Sarah's computer. He said he offered a 50% refund, but she

refuse. He said he will refund her in full as a goodwill gesture, she

is still waiting. His brother says Click Computers are commitmented to

the best customer service, but accepts that there are failures,

and there was a poorly- planned recruitment drive. They will review

training and the pay structure to put less emphasis on commission,

they will also ensure future advertising doesn't mislead. He

denies selling Kelly Goddard a refurbish computer as new, but has

refunded her as a gesture of goodwill. It is all very

interesting, but tonight the Rashid brothers become the latest faces on

our Rogues' Gallery. Quick update on some of your e-

mails, texts and tweets. Some of you were very unhappy to learn that

Fairtrade chocolate bars contained no Fairtrade cocoa beans. One

comment is if only 20% of beans are there, the logo should go on but

spes tide percentage. Lots of mobile phone -- specified

percentages, lots of mobile phones being commented on. Go to the

website. You can write to us as well to get

in touch. Thanks, coming up next week,

Halifax, Santander, fall cuts in mortgage rates, huge rises in fees,

what do they do for their money. Plus, Vauxhall, Ford, Volvo, and