Episode 7 Watchdog

Citroen's unique suspension, letting down owners. A magic diet pill that

takes hundreds of pounds from your pocket. Also, the minnows pizza,

Sky, and webuyanycar.com. It is Watchdog, the programme you cannot

afford to miss. evening and welcome to the

programme. We are live for the next 60 minutes. Tonight... The Citroen

C4 Grand Picasso - the suspension that goes bump in the night. Just

wear and tear, says the car company. The manufacturer must know there is

a problem, and that manufacturer must agree to replace those parts

free of charge. Also tonight - raspberry ketone, the diet pill

which promises you will drop two stone a month. Plus,

webuyanycar.com, forgetting to mention it's hefty admin in fees.

And, the man from Ofgem live in the studio to explain why, when

wholesale fuel prices drop, he has done nothing to reduce our gas and

electricity bills. We have got some questions of our own to answer, like

what happens to the people we investigate once the cameras are

turned off. Tonight, we reveal the next chapter in the stories of two

rogues from yesteryear. First up, a tree surgeon who takes his anger out

on his equipment. And a roof cleaner who just wanted to take his anger

out on us. Get out of my car! You are putting corner at risk by the

way that he is having to do that. What are you doing?! Yes, we will be

taking roguery to dangerous new heights in a little while. Before

that, the French car giant Citroen, renowned for its unique suspension

design, which guarantees a smoother ride, except for those owners of a

C4 Grand Picasso Exclusive, whose unique suspension ends up on the

floor. But Citroen say it is just wear and tear. Motor journalist

Ginny Buckley reports. A car with a mind of its own? A

mechanical tortoise? From driverless cars to robot helpers, the 1950s

were full of wonderful futuristic inventions. Among the most audacious

was an amazing new type of car suspension, pioneered by Citroen. It

worked like this. Most car suspensions use metal springs on

each wheel to cushion the car over the bumps on the road. But

Citroen's new hydro pneumatic suspension changed that, replacing

the springs with pockets of compressed gas. It was an

unqualified success, creating a smoother, more comfortable ride than

ever before. Over the following years, innovative suspension like

this became the calling card of Citroen, the defining feature of

their ongoing success. The suspension systems of some

modern Citroens still use that instead of springs. And this is one

of them. The C4 Grand Picasso Exclusive. This car has an air

suspension system, which uses rubber airbags positioned above each rear

wheel. Just like the pockets of gas from the 1950s, these airbags act as

shock absorbers, giving a nice, even ride. I remember it going on sale

back in 2007, marketed as being both affordable and luxurious. Priced at

?20,000, it was popular. Thousands of customers who bought one looked

forward to years of smooth, trouble-free motoring, and for most

of them, that is what they got. Until recently. When strange things

started happening in the night. We bought a Citroen C4 Grand Picasso

2007 model, and in the first few years, we were quite happy with it.

Than last year, I went out to the car one morning and you could see

that the whole of the bottom of the car had sunk near the ground. As

soon as I started it and drove off, it was just really bumpy. Even my

four-year-old son was saying, why is the car so bumpy, what is wrong with

it? It was obvious that it was a problem with the suspension. We had

heard this same story from 40 other Watchdog viewers. On the internet

you can find the complaint repeated multiple times. With owners of C4

Grand Picassos six years old or less, complaining that the rear

suspension was deflating. But what was going on? My garage said it was

a problem with the airbag which would cost ?400 to fix. I then

contacted Citroen UK, and they told me it was wear and tear, and because

the warranty had expired, we would have to pay for the final bill. We

were extremely upset. Claire's sinking car, like all of the others

we have heard about, was caused by the airbags in the suspension system

leaking, a problem which would eventually make the car and driver.

But the response of Citroen is always the same... It is simple wear

and tear. If the warranty has expired, it is the owner who has to

pay. But is that fair? Well, I am not an engineer but I have been a

motoring journalist for many years, and I would not expect a suspension

airbag to fail so soon. Let's find out what an expert has got to say.

Mike has more than 30 years experience in the industry, and has

seen a number of Grand Picassos displaying the same problem. For

him, it is clear there is a design fault with the airbags. The rubber

has started to degrade here, allowing the air to escape, the

rubber has gone porous. Yes, you can see that. But this is a rubber

component, is that not to be expected? I would expect that

component on a vehicle to last a minimum of 8-10 years. Do you

believe the response of the company is fair? Not at all, why should the

customer pick up a tab for a part which has failed after 4-6 years?

For a second opinion, we took a Grand Picasso to an expert engineer.

Does he agree that the airbags should be lasting longer? I

absolutely agree it is not acceptable. When a component like

this is failing every five years, the manufacturer must know there is

a problem, and that manufacturer must agree to replace those parts

free of charge. Yet Citroen is refusing to budge, maintaining their

is no problem, and customers have to pay for the replacement part. But do

they really have confidence in their sophisticated suspension design?

Evidence suggests they may not. Cars in the new, 2014 version, guess

what, there is not an airbag insight. Citroen's high-tech

suspension system has been quietly removed and replaced with, you

guessed it, good, old-fashioned springs.

But do not underestimate the power of Watchdog. Tonight, Citroen, in

what it describes as an unprecedented step has agreed to pay

80% of parts and labour for all Citroen C4 Grand Picasso Exclusives

suffering the same problem. Citroen will also, I am pleased to say,

refund anybody who has already paid for the result. Fantastic result.

Citroen says it is keeping its customer service lines open until

ten o'clock tonight. You can contact them on 0800 3288 141. Or you can

e-mail them at [email protected]. And

here is our contact details, if you want to comment on tonight's show.

Make sure you start your message with the letters WD. And you can

join in the discussion on Twitter as well. Last week we asked for your

questions to put to the CEO of Ofgem, Dermot Nolan. Annie will be

interviewing him later in the programme, so get in touch if you

would like to ask him anything. Coming up - the diet pills sold by

scores of companies, using fake celebrity endorsements.

It is the end of the series, and on Rogue Traders, that is when we like

to reminisce about rogues gone by, over a nice big plate of sticky

puns. Come with me as I go back to my roots.

Trees. When I was a child, the old tree in my back garden was central

to my fun. It was a sentry tower, it was a goalpost, it was even a

motorcycle. Yes, that tree was my best friend. Until I was 13, when I

chopped it down to make an electric guitar. Kids, don't chop down trees

to make musical instruments. This reminds me of a firm of tree

surgeons I came across in 2011. They were based in Banbury and they were

ripping off elderly people in their own back garden is. They were called

Oaklands Tree Care. Not to be confused with companies of a similar

name. He has got it! Oaklands Tree Care was won by Jason Butcher, who

specialises in charging over the odds, inventing jobs which did not

need doing, and leaving work uncompleted. This lady called him

out to trim her conifers, and he left it looking like this. Back

then, we asked an expert research on what he thought. It is a waste of

your time coming here, because you do not need to be an expert to see

how bad that is. Starts bad, gets worse, and is disastrous at the end.

If it was a haircut, you would ask for your money back, but she paid

?2300 for this, what do you make of that? It is outrageous, ridiculous.

As if he had not taken enough liberties, Jason also asked her to

lend him some money to fix his equipment. They said the chainsaw

was broken and could I give them a cheque for 700, and they would give

it back to me the next day. Why did you give it to them, were you scared

that the work would not get done? Yes. But they did not come back,

despite all the telephone calls. It feels rather stupid. I should not

have been taken in so easily, but I do not know the cost of cutting

hedges and trees down. We knew his method of operation was to pick on

elderly people. Our next step was to find a house, put an elderly actor

in it and go undercover. And here she is. Guess what we called her,

Mrs Greene. Teresa green. Get it? Jason didn't. We told Jason we had

one tree to remove, and want to trim back, the job which should have cost

around 100 quid. But he was anxious to create jobs, and spotting another

dead tree, he told us we had a serious problem on our hands.

Yes, it was not the healthiest of trees, but it did not have the

creeping fungus he claimed to have identified.

It is not like an oil slick spreading across the garden, he is

basically trying to scare her. Teresa stood firm and told him to

just crack on with our original two trees. He worked for just over an

hour, and charged us 400 quid, four times over the odds. So, we

established that Jason Butcher was charging a lot, and that he was

making up problems. But at least he worked safely, right? You have not

seen the rogue run before, have you? Is it like Grange Hill, or

crackerjack, or danger mouse? Sometimes, yes.

remove two trees. To take those two trees down you are looking at about

?500. Yet again he found work that didn't need doing. I can only think

of one thing at once. Jason got to work. But his grasp of safe working

practices, to be honest he didn't have a grasp on anything. The ladder

is not secure. Now he is climbing the ladder with a chainsaw. There's

nothing to stop him falling off and having a terrible accident at all.

Even off the ladder he was a danger to himself, waving the saw around in

the back of his van. I think he might just enjoy chopping things up.

A bit too much. What do you reckon? Just what you need, a destruction

junkie with anger issues. When he wasn't endangering his life or his

machinery he was doing what he bid best -- what he did best, trying to

extract as much money from his customers as possible.

So, ?2,000. How many weeks' pocket money is that? None. Got 5 K in a

cash ISA and a buy-to-let portfolio that brings in the same every month.

You are not me. So, the dodging and weaving Butcher

of Banbury was in our sights but it would soon turn out we weren't the

only ones taking aim. Find out hout this rogue tree surgeon was

eventually felled, in a while. Next the raspberry ketone diet pill,

the laidest world -- the latest worldwide fad for weight loss. Where

do I get them? There's no scientific proof they do. If you are desperate

to drop dress sizes it's easy to be tempted by the price, ?5. They're

advertised throughout the internet and the ads often carry convincing

endorsements from celebs, all of whom apparently use and love the

pills. Here is the thing, none of them have ever heard of the

supplements, let alone tried them. In this series it's been Watchdog's

most complained about product, here is why. Although people think

they're signing up for a cheap trial offer, they end up with a contract

costing them hundreds for a diet pill that's unlikely to help them

lose weight. Who better to report, than Ellie.

Welcome to the raspberry ketone magic show, a masterclass in sleight

of hand. We know of dozens of different websites, most based in

America, selling these products and all operate in a very similar way,

pay a trial price of about ?5 and you will be sent a bottle of pills

that will supposedly melt away fat making you lose weight and feel

great. Let's start there. The first trick is convincing you

the weight loss claims stack up scientifically. But they don't. The

only studies into the fat reducing abilityings of raspberry ketone that

have been reviewed by other scientists are about rodents. Whilst

raspberry ketone has proven effective on some mice there is no

evidence that it works on humans. No waeth loss claims associated with

raspberry ketone products have been authorised by the Food Standards

Agency or the Department of Health. Whilst it's fine to be used in the

food and perfume industry to add flavour or fragance, it's illegal

for raspberry ketone to be sold as a diet supplement in the UK. Because

most of the companies are based abroad, it's hard to prosecute them.

That's rouse number one, the weight loss claims don't hold water. It's

the second trick that catches most people out because the cheap

introductory trial you think you are paying for turns out to be an

illusion too. Let's look at the product we have had most complaints

about, raspberry ketone blast as an example. The site does everything it

can to make you think signing up is easy and risk-free. You are told the

4. ?4.95 to cover postage is all you will have to pay but as Deborah

found out, by signing up you are actually making a much greater

commitment. At what point did you realise things were not as they had

first seemed with this company? When I received a second lot of pills I

didn't expect them, which I thought was a mistake. Then my daughter was

going through my bank statements and realised that roughly around ?100 a

month was coming out of my bank. Every time a bottle was delivered

about ?100 was taken from Deborah's account. I didn't see anything on

the website to say they would be taking money out of my account every

month. I thought it would be a one-off payment for a trial of pills

and that would be it and I wouldn't hear anything else from them. It's a

mistake that hundreds of other customers are making. It's not hard

to see why. It's only when you delve deep into the terms and conditions

that you discover what you are really signing up for.

A clause there states unless you cancel your order within 14 days and

return the pills, you are agreeing to pay ?95 for the bottle you have

already received and the same amount plus postage every month for more

bottles. So by signing up for the trial, you are actually agreeing to

a contract known as a continuous payment authority or CPA. The

company is legally entitled to keep taking payments from you by using

the card details you provided to pay for postage, that is until you

cancel your subscription with them or your bank. Why have so many

Watchdog viewers failed to realise this? Simple, this is an exercise in

misdirection. Let's look again at one of the sites

for raspberry ketone blast. Take the first page. It's designed in a way

to encourage you to make a quick decision about whether or not to

sign up. By using terms such as hurry, claim

today, or the trial is limited, this gets us to think about the

opportunity being very scarce and if we don't act now we are going to

lose the opportunity. They want us to act rather than think which is in

the company's interest. If you are rushing there is a good chance you

will miss the link to the terms and conditions right at the bottom of

the page and instead continue straight on to the next, equally

misleading section of the site. Page two, and suddenly you are hit with

two conflicting bits of information. In a bold, gold star it states you

are entitled to a 30-day 100% moneyback guarantee but up here in

much smaller writing is the first reference to the trial being limited

to 14 days. Confused? I am not surprised. For clarification you

would have to click through to the terms and conditions but the link to

them is written in extremely small letters. There is a further tactic

to keep you from querying the terms and conditions, the box saying you

agreed is automatically ticked for you. What does a consumer lawyer

make of this website? The way somebody pays, in this case it's

continuous payment agreement, should be drawn to the consumer's eye at

the time of entering into the contract when they press the submit

button. It should be in bold in a box and clearly in front of the

consumer. This website fails in showing the pricing, in showing the

cancellation policies clearly. It's already what I would say breaching

consumer regulations. We have seen fat-busting claims that don't stand

up and information on a large financial commitment buried within

the website. When it comes to weight loss everyone is looking for the

magic formula. As we have discovered, the only trick companies

selling raspberry ketone perform, is to make your money vanish.

Ellie is here now. You are not trying it lose weight, are you? Not

yet. I might be in a few months. Congratulations, good luck with the

baby. Thank you. How did you feel about being associated with one of

these companies? Infuriated. It's so irritating to have a company using

your name and image without your permission. How did you find out

about it? People started contacting me on Twitter about a year ago

saying are you aware this is happening, why are you promoting

diet pills? It was all news to me. I had never had any contact from any

of the companies. When I looked at the websites they looked like health

and beauty magazine websites. They even had before and after pictures

of me allegedly I had written this article but it's rubbish, I had

nothing to do with any of it. What did you do next? I phoned my agent

in frustration and said what can we do? He contacted a law firm in the

States acting for other clients but it's like chasing a ghost, these

websites pop up, they're quickly taken down and they pop up again

under a different name. Really difficult to do anything about it.

You did manage to get in touch with the manufacturers of that product,

the raspberry ketone blast. We have had the most number of complaints

about that product. What did they say? It claims there are many

studies to show the weight loss benefits of raspberry ketone on

humans. But it's been unable to provide any valid evidence. The

company also says it's going to change the way it displays terms and

conditions, but as yet the site remains the same as it always was.

Deborah, who we saw in the film, gave us taking the pills. She's got

her money back but that was because it was refunded by her credit card

company, not raspberry ketone blast. Thank you very much. Good luck

again. To recap, by signing up for these

pills you are agreeing to something called a continuous payment

authority or CPA, which allows the company astonishingly to take as

much as it likes, any amount, from your account. It's a very common

practice for companies to charge in this way, how do you know if you

signed up to one and more importantly, how do you get out of

it? Our financial guru games is with me. I hadn't heard of this. A lot of

people haven't but as you say, they're common, even amongst

reputable companies. Companies like Payday loan companies, breakdown

companies, anti-srir -- anti-virus software for a computer. If you sign

up with a credit card, you might use your credit card, give that 16-digit

number to buy something ifshgs like a bag or shoes, how do you know? It

looks and feels very much like using a credit card or debit card, it

works with both. The difference is that you are walking into that

regular payment and there should be an option to pay by direct debit and

you should look out for that. With the good companies it will tell new

the small print on the payment screen you are getting into this

regular payment. Do take care when you are buying online. You are

looking for? Underneath the payment page there will normally be small

print saying, by clicking here you are entering into a regular payment

and it gives us the right to go back to your bank account. Obviously not

good companies, not always doing that but they should be. How do you

get out of it? Two ways. Firstly, go to the company who you have got it

with, you can also go to your bank. Your bank has to cancel that for

you. In the past we have had problems with banks not cancelling

CPAs, be persistent. They must cancel them for you if you ask. But

no refund? Well, depends. In cases like this I think it edges closer to

fraud. Of course then you are covered by the fraud protections.

You may as well have a go? Always have a go, if you didn't know,

always have a go. Thank you very much.

Still to come: The Dominos pizza takeaway restaurant caught

red-handed passing off Aldi's potato wedges as their own.

Jason Butcher of Banbury calls himself a tree surgeon but when we

met him he was more like a deciduous doctor death, diagnosing people's

trees with fungal infections which meant they were doomed to

unnecessary execution by chainsaw. It's scary, but not as scary as the

hefty price tag Butcher himself was about to pay for his slash for cash

operation. He quoted us over the odds when we

invited him to our houses with secret cameras and he lied about the

state of our trees. It was time to confront the man

himself. We called him out to a job at a modest bungalow with a few

trees and, well, this is what happened.

I recognise you. us. Be careful on the road there!

So, when you are taking thousands of pounds off people... And then either

not doing the work... That you were not authorised to do in the first

place...? There you go. That is Jason Butcher, from Oaklands Tree

Care, of Banbury. And that was the last we saw of him. Whether or not I

am easily mistaken for Matt Damon remains a hot topic around the

office. We were not the only ones interested in Jason. Trading

standards had also been having a look at his work. And what they saw

standards had also been having a was not pretty. They had also come

across a number of elderly customers who Jason had ripped off. When you

met these victims and heard the stories about the way he was

behaving, Jason Butcher, what were your feelings? When I kept seeing

the complaints coming in and seeing the age of some of the victims, my

mum is that age, she is 80, the response really is one of disbelief.

It is difficult to understand why anybody would do this if they

understood the impact that it could have on the people that they were

ripping off? They do not see it, because they have got their money,

they have gone, so they do not see what they have left behind, the

problem is that that victim will have with the family, when the

family finds out. Why is it so difficult with cases like these to

get them to court? The people are so elderly and vulnerable, so for them

to go to court it is very traumatic. There are FIFA has in the

mind of the victim. At the end of the day, they have been conned. --

there are fear factors. In the end, some of the victims were persuaded

to testify. A year and a half later, it went to court. There were 13

charges, including theft, fraud, money-laundering and unfair

behaviour in relation to regulations. He pleaded guilty and

was given A12 month custodial sentence. One more rogue off the

streets, or in this case, out of the woods. Upon release from prison,

Jason Butcher went back to being a tree surgeon, which I would imagine

has you quite worried. Well, have a little bit of faith in human nature.

According to trading Standards, he seems like a changed man. All of his

paperwork, rummy complying with the legislation, and he is now doing a

fair day 's work for a fair day's pay. I think it is a real success

story. It would appear for the meantime anyway that Jason Butcher

has turned over a new leaf. Did that kid right this? Well, that

is what happened to Jason Butcher and Oaklands Tree Care. Have you had

enough, or do you want some more? We will give you another story of what

happened to the rogue once we had gone home. Like a genie, your wish

is my command. I will be rubbing my lamp in about ten.

The last show in the series, so let's take a look at some other

companies, like Citroen, who we have had to persuade to buck up their

ideas. Like Audi. This was in relation to the highest possible

safety test. Audi knew that four models, like the A5, A7 and A8, had

not, despite UK dealers are assuring us otherwise. Can you tell me about

the safety standards on these? They are all going to be top rated on the

Euro NCAP. And we had the same misselling from Audi head office. Is

that every car that you are Jews? Audi apologised unreservedly, --

that you produce. -- it admitted that the stringent testing did not

include Euro NCAP. Since then it says it has retrained all of its

sales staff to make sure customers are given the correct information.

Next, Harveys Furniture. Our reporters exposed poor deliveries

and terrible customer service and refusal to repair faulty goods, like

this memorably squeaky sofa. We never know quite what companies

will say when they appear on the show, and we did not expect Harveys

Retail Services director Stephen Campbell to say this. I am going to

phone each and every one of those customers featured in your programme

over the next couple of days. On your website, and we are going to go

viral this evening, I will give my personal e-mail address. With you

compensate people who have been inconvenienced? Absolutely, if that

is what it takes to satisfy those customers. Not only have Harveys

compensated everyone in our film, but he is now working closely to

resolve people's problems. Harveys assures us that it is committed to

resolving and learning from those issues. And then there was Pontin

's, we told you how an 11-year-old boy staying at the Southport resort

ended in casualty after this capacitor fell 30 feet and landed

directly on him, splitting his head open. We have had numerous reports

of unsafe conditions at the park, so we sent our undercover cameras in.

The broken floodlight still had not been fixed. In another area, he

hired a broken gate, they discovered old TV units, broken ladders and a

cabinet full of petrol cans. Meanwhile, we found all this in a

public car park. The worst playground for a child you could

imagine. Unbelievably, the owners of Pontins, the Britannia Hotel Group,

were dismissive, maintaining that their health and safety record was

excellent. After shaming them live on air, we returned to the Southport

camp and despite the indifference of the Britannia Hotel Group, we can

confirm that all of those areas featured have been made safe. But if

you are visiting a Pontins resort over the summer and find anything

which worries you, these get in touch. Now, one of our most

important investigations ever on Watchdog has been to look at the six

energy suppliers and the continuous rise of our gas and electricity

bills, despite they in wholesale prices. Last week, Ofgem announced

the biggest ever investigation into the industry, 14 years after it was

created. Why has it taken so long for the regulator to wake up? Set up

in 2000, Ofgem's task was simple, make sure consumers got a fair deal

from the energy market. In the first seven years of its existence, it

seemed to do barely anything, with bills rising by six to 1%, meaning

that by 2007, consumers were paying more for their energy than ever

before. -- 61%. I was very upset with Ofgem because I did not think

they were doing their best to make this market work and protecting

consumers. The price spiked at an average of ?856 per household per

year, and Ofgem finally acted. After an eight-month investigation, it

called on energy companies to clean up their act, identifying pricing,

billing and transparency of the market as a areas in need of

improvement. But it did not work. Three years later, Ofgem were forced

to admit that the probe had barely achieved anything, and the prices

have continued to rise. Ofgem were not really putting

consumers at the heart of what they were doing. I think it was dreadful

that they presided over a situation where we saw these massive increases

in prices. Last year, it seemed everyone's patience ran out. The

Government's Energy and Climate Change Committee said Ofgem was

failing consumers, a sentiment which was shared by the leader of the

opposition. We set out plans to keep control of

those costs, but the real way we keep control is by freezing prices

and having a tough regulator, with teeth. Unless you have that, this

problem may reoccurrence. Three weeks later, the Secretary of State

for Health GM to change appeared on Watchdog and ordered a new

assessment into the state of the market. Tomorrow I will be

announcing that we are going to have much more transparency. I have asked

Ofgem to do a study into financial transparency into the accounts and

to make recommendations. But nobody has got any faith in Ofgem because

they have done nothing? Within three months, Ofgem had completed the

state of the market assessment, and concluded that another, more

detailed, investigation was needed. Except this time, they would be

handing responsibility over to the Competition and Markets Authority.

Why? Because the regulator felt it did not have the power to delve

deeply in into the financial conduct of the big six. Details of that

investigation were unveiled last week, but the CMA is not due to

publish its findings until Christmas Day 2015. Where does that leave

consumers? We cannot afford to wait 18 months before this market works

for us all. Consumers need help. They have seen bills rising. They

are scared of their energy bills. I want Ofgem to just yet on and do it

and not spend loads of time talking about it. With me now, Dermot Nolan,

the boss of Ofgem. What is the point of Ofgem? The point of Ofgem is to

protect the interests of energy consumers, not just now but 20-30

years in the future. Who say the customers of your priority, we are

your priority, so can you explain, because it is baffling people, the

Energy Minister comes on and announces on Watchdog that there is

going to be this huge review, it takes you six months to decide that

Ofgem that you are not up to the job, and then the competition 's lot

come in, and it is going to take them 18 months.

It is laughable! People have many questions about the big six and

whether they are set up in the right way. I would say this is the body to

look into that. I would also say I agree with that comment made, that

we will be trying to protect consumers we will be trying to

improve customer service, which is at a poor level in many cases. I do

promise you that over this 18 months, we will be doing our very

best to protect consumers. I do not think you have explained to viewers

why it has taken so long to dawn on you that your powers were not

enough. We have looked at the select committees saying they were

bamboozled by the big six. Nobody appears to know what their true

profit margins are. And yet it has taken so long. The persistence of

the problems have indicated that it is the right time to refer it now.

There are major changes in the energy market coming. in the next

few years, there will be smart metres coming in, we will have

customers more empowered. But also, both now and in the future, we will

be trying to make profits and prices as transparent as possible. I can

tell consumers that every aspect of the customer bill is going to be

audited. It will be transparent, and the companies will have to justify

it. It seems to have dawned on us much earlier than you that something

needed to be done, but also, it looks as if you are fiddling around

and delaying things. 18 months, is that because you are waiting until

after the election? Certainly not. That is the timetable for the

competition authority. I really do believe it will be a very thorough

review, it will look at the intrinsic structure of the industry.

All the questions people have I hope will be answered. But as I say, over

that period of the next 18 months, we will be trying our best to take

proactive steps on behalf of consumers, to say, quality of

service is not as good as it could be, and if companies do not put

consumers at the heart of things, we will take action and levy fines on

them. One viewer asks, what about the next 18 months, before you have

any power to do anything, how do we cope? I would say that we will be

taking steps, we will be enforcing against companies. We are taking

steps at the moment to move towards next day switching, so that

consumers can switch within a single day. I would say that it is a good

time for switching. We have laid a campaign about that. I would

encourage people to go out and look for bargains. Just one more question

- why our energy companies allowed to sit on money collected in

overpayments? I would encourage those people to tell us about it and

I promise we will act. OK, we will be keeping a beady eye on Ofgem,

thank you for coming in. Thank you very much.

Keep your stories coming in. Here are a few more.

Dominos Pizza has apologised after a staff member was caught on camera

buying budget supermarket potato wedges that were to be passed off as

the restaurant's own. This worker was snapped buying bags of the

frozen snacks from the local Aldi. When pressed he admitted that the

restaurant had sold out of their own brand of wedges and that the frozen

ones were going to be sold on at the restaurant's normal price of 3. ?3.

49 a portion which is quite a mark-up. A spokesman for the

takeaway chain said it didn't approve of this behaviour and that

all food must be bought from approved suppliers. Apparently,

Dominos has decided against buying their pizza bases from the

supermarket because it believes that would be the thin end of the wedge.

The Advertising Standards Authority have put the breaks on a TVad for

secondhand car dealers We Buy Any Car. They quote a price to buy a

vehicle, what the advert failed to mention is that a fee of between ?50

and ?75 is added to each and every transaction meaning that you will

never actually receive the full amount you are quoted. However, the

ASA ruled that this was not made clear by the advert and as a result,

it has now been banned from all further use.

Sky is shutting down its door-to-door sales operation sacking

all 550 of its so-called Sky walkers after a Guardian newspaper

investigation uncovered claims that in order to sign up customers Sky's

sales agents were exaggerating speeds of its broadband and the

services included in its TV packages. Whistle-blowers within the

company also said they were specifically instructed to target

the elderly and young, unemployed parents. Sky's maintains the

decision to stop door-door selling has nothing to do with these

allegations and is a response to the way customers are now shopping. With

our streets safe there's only wall-to-wall TV adverts and cold

calls left. We are heading back down memory

lane. Before we see our old, old rogues, news from this series of

misleading auction house Coopers, they were the once who a couple of

weeks ago forcibly ejected me and my team through a fire exit. We were

astonished to find out that even after our piece Coopers were able to

run an auction at a London Hilton Hotel. We asked Hilton HQ what

gives? We are pleased to say they told us they have no further Coopers

auctions planned for the future. Now, as we saw earlier, it's not

unusual for our investigations to be followed up by trading standards.

But rogues beware, you never know who else might be watching. So, it's

always a good idea to make sure you keep your whites whiter than white.

It's the soap powder doorstep challenge. It's been 20 years. It

must be due a reboot. Come on. Hello, sir, are you prepared to show

your whites to the entire nation? Sri won something? -- have I won

something? Oh my goodness. At least your roof is clean. I had it

professionally cleaned. That's just a way into the story, isn't it? It

is. Not one of our best ideas. But back in 2013 it still helped us tell

you all about Renovate North West Limited of Manchester, a cleaning

and repair service run by Darren, Daz as in washing. He was paid ?130

to repair her roof, which he did by painting it.

I am in the familiar with the idea of painting -- I am not familiar

with the idea of painting it, us because it's plastic. They said they

could do it. They said no problem and we trusted them. So, they

painted it and by the next day it had started to come off. Lauren rang

to complain but They didn't answer it got worse. We thought it could be

repaented, we have had a surveyor and builder out who said that it

never should have been painted in the first place because it's UPVC

and it needs replacing. The bill for that, ?1200.

So, was this a typical Renov8 job? Here is Daz and his assistant,

Connor. Sounding conVincing, we left them to

it. But once they were left loose on the roof, let's just say they didn't

take precautions to stop themselves falling off. Witness the incredible

walking along the top of the roof without any harness, while smoking a

fag trick. Funnily, Barry wasn't impressed. This is appalling. I hope

he has nine lives. Hold on, make it seven! The water is cascading off

the roof on to the extension lead at the back. This is so, so dangerous.

Believe it or not, that wasn't the most dangerous thing Connor got up

to. What's he doing? He is sawing

something. Yeah, he tried to make a makeshift phone charger by sawing

through a wet cable. Inserting it into his phone and then plugging it

into the equally wet extension lead. That's just the nuttiest thing I

have ever seen. It's breathtaking, because he is using the same

extinction that was covered in water. That -- extension that was

covered in water. It won't charge your phone! He needs to be

counselled on how to live beyond the next birthday. That's three separate

things that have put his life directly in danger. Miraculously

Connor didn't electrocute himself. All they used was water, there was

no sign of any weed killer. And Daz finished the job by giving the

garden a final watering of his own, compounded by the fact that

straightaway after he did this. Oh, no! He hasn't washed his hands.

Six days on, we went back to inspect the work. There were pools of water

in the garage. The gutters were full of mud from the roof. And the muck

that fell out of the gutters was blocking the drains. When we invited

them to out to a second house it was the same story. Same dangerous

working practices, same dodgy work. It was time for Daz's doorstep

challenge. Soapbox in hand, I made my move whilst Darren was quoting

for work in another house we set up. Are you prepared to show your face

to the British public, because what we have seen is that you have been

rinsing your customers. Hi there, Connor. Yeah, might be best to start

packing up, mate. How's it going, all right? What we have seen in two

instances now, two different jobs is that you promised to do work,

including cleaning gutters, using weed killer, and you don't at all,

actually. People pay for this, pay good money for these jobs to be done

and you don't do them at all. He didn't want to chat about the

quality of his work. But what about health and safety? The other thing

you need to watch out for... Get out of the car. You are putting Connor

at risk by the way that he is having to do his job. You are leaving him

up there by himself. You are leaving Connor there by himself up on a roof

slipping around. How did... BLEEP car now. What are you doing? BLEEP.

That was a job and the tiles needed replacing, that's part of the

service you are supposed to offer. But you didn't. Connor, watch out on

those roofs, you are going to get yourself in trouble. You are going

to get hurt. So, Daz, in fact, has vanished.

I love it when a joke comes together.

So, whatever became of Darren Daz Pots? Is Connor still in one piece?

Funny you should ask, because you weren't the only one glued to your

television set that night. The folks at the Health and Safety Executive

were watching too. Walking around the roof, no precautions, no

scaffolding to stop falling. He really is pushing his luck there. Of

cores you have Darren his boss -- of course you have Darren his boss

watching him. Anyone in control of people working at height is governed

by the working at height regulations which tell you what you have to do

to be safe. And not look like an idiot. There was nothing there at

all to stop either man from falling off the roof. It's quite obvious

from what we saw that that's a serious risk of them suffering an

injury, maybe even death from that sort of fall. The HSE decided our

film contained enough evidence to mount an investigation. We

determined that there were effectively two sets of breaches

here, one from the company who have legal responsibilities, and one from

Darren himself because he was seen watching his employee walking around

at risk and on the roof with him putting himself at risk, as well.

They decided it was worth a prosecution for both Darren and the

company for breaches of the regulations. It was put before the

Magistrates courts and both parties, the company and MrPots, pleaded

guilty and were fined ?1,000. MrPots was given 200 hours' community

service and both parties were forced to pay costs of ?12 each. ?3,000 and

-- ?1200 each. The company has been dissolved and Daz is registered as

an energy surveyor which hopefully means he is nowhere near a ladder.

You see, money is useful but it's not as important as stopping someone

from losing an eye. Or getting electrocuted.

Or falling off a high roof. On to a spiked railing! Has anyone ever told

you you are a bit weird? So there we go. Wrongs righted,

justice upheld. Fingers crossed in the future we will have similarly

positive outcomes to bring you about the Rogue's Gallery class of 2014.

Don't forget, we wouldn't know about any of these Rogue Traders if it

wasn't for you. If you have had an experience with conmen, dodgy

dealers or all-round rotters, get in touch. Go to the website find my

face, and click on it, and it says send your story to Rogue Traders. I

am waiting. A massive response to the Citroen

story. Lots of people asking for the customers service details. They're

on the screen now. And also on the Watchdog website.

Gavin on Twitter has been in touch. He was taking in by a diet pill scam

weeks ago, luckily his wife spotted the payments and now the bank has

cancelled the CPA. You can stop it. Also Chequers tweeted to say he is

sad it's our last show. Indeed it is our last show. But please keep your

stories coming in, because we are back in the autumn. But until then,

from all of us, good night.