Episode 8 Watchdog

Tonight on Watchdog, Christmas is the one time of year you really want

to get your TV right. Hundreds of thousands of people have signed up

to Skype Others-macro all singing all dancing service, but it might

not be as cute as they expect. But we actually turn on the TV, we don't

know if that will work or not, it comes up as the connection failure,

please wait and back and take up to 30 minutes before it actually

reboots itself, you could end up missing Chris Mears bake off, a lot

of very angry customers want answers and action from Sky. -- Chris Mears.

Hello and welcome to the programme. Tonight, John Lewis, they pride

themselves on being never knowingly undersold but not all their

customers are convinced. I honestly thought that they would respond by

saying thank you, it you found it cheaper, we can change our pricing

to reflect this. But the response was, they were not prepared to price

match. Until 2011, this was the home of the Inland Revenue, the team that

used to count the pennies for the nation and tonight it is the home of

Team Watchdog. The final verdict is in, how much they saved on

broadband, groceries and by fixing their broken appliances? And Team

Watchdog have come together for a Christmas party and we have tried to

spend as little money as possible. All the food is from budget

supermarkets and we will put them through a taste test. How much of

these festive chocolate strung in the last? All will be revealed. At

Christmas, you want to be with the ones you love but what if you have

not met them yet? One solution, internet dating, I have even signed

up myself to see if I could find a fantastic Mr Fox.

We found out that joining one site means your profile could end up in

places you never imagined it would. Tips on how to stay safe and find

love this Christmas coming up in a bit. There will be someone looking

to pick up a dog or puppy in time for Christmas day and in spite of

messages for decades to tell us to avoid doing just that, tonight we

show you that it can be hard to spot the puppy dealers you should avoid

buying from. This is very sad. This little puppy is desperately afraid,

it is trying to appease us by showing submissive behaviour and

backing away from us. Much more on that story later. One of the most

important things about Christmas day is what is on television and there

is a lot to what this Team Watchdog -- tip Patrick Christmas day.

Christmas university challenge. Paul O'Grady, love of dogs at Christmas.

Home alone. I want to watch all of those. I want to watch four things

at the same time. That is why hundreds of thousands of people have

signed up to Sky's fancy new service Q.

We're days away from Christmas and it's that time of year

where festive films and seasonal specials fill TV schedules.

But with so many channels and so much choice it can be very

Especially if your family has somewhat different tastes.

And this is where Sky's flagship new product Sky Q

could make your Christmas all that easier.

Another reason that Sky Q is hugely good, you can axis it in another

room. See? It promises you can record up

to four programmes at once It also allows you to watch Sky

around your house and on the move. So could this be the answer to those

festive telly fights? Well, not according

to some Watchdog viewers. Sky Q uses one main box,

connected to a satellite dish, This is then supposed to seamlessly

connect to wireless miniboxes around your home, allowing you to

watch up to three different channels at the same time, in different

rooms. But we've heard from scores of you

having problems with the service. I'm going to meet Dawn

and husband Colin in Bracknell. They jumped at the chance

of an upgrade to Sky Q. So you had it installed,

what was the reality? It started to sort of deteriorate

after a couple of weeks when you had to keep rebooting things because it

would lose the signal. The picture would be there,

you'd be watching the TV normally, the screen would start to freeze

so you'd get a juddery picture then you'd then lose the screen

altogether and it would just be a blue screen and the reboot

would generally take Tried to contact Sky initially,

which is another frustrating thing They've very difficult

to get hold of. Eventually got hold of someone,

explained the problems and by the end we've had enough

and we said we wanted it removed. If you do decide to pay out

for Sky Q, it's worth noting If you opt for their top package

with Sky Sports and Movies it'll That's before you've even paid

for broadband and a phone line. And once you factor in additional

boxes and installation costs, this can all come to more

than ?1,000 a year. So for all that, you would

expect a premium service. But it seems that when it comes

to getting your Sky Q problems sorted it seems that's

not always on offer. Lee Parker contacted us, after

having problems with his Sky Q. He had it installed for his family

a couple of months ago and is less Basically can't do anything on it,

other than watch the TV. Can't watch On Demand,

can't watch your recordings, can't record, can't pause TV,

can't rewind the TV, The options are there

but they don't work. It's just a blank screen

or an error message. Lee says that with broadband

and phone line on top of his Sky Q, he's paying around

?120 a month to Sky. I would expect to be a VIP member

of Sky for the amount of money I'm paying every month

for them, you know. I've tried getting in touch with Sky

on several occasions. Then when I did finally speak

to someone they said I were going to have to wait two

week for an engineer to come out. With Christmas just around

the corner, Lee and his family are hoping Sky can get things sorted

before the big day. And the frustration of waiting

for an engineer is something we're But some Watchdog viewers have

also told us that even when the engineer does make it out,

it doesn't mean they Richard Briggs from Liversedge

in West Yorkshire emailed us after having weekly problems

with his Sky Q. When we actually turn on the TV we

actually don't know if it's going to work or not, it's so temperamental

as a system, that it's mainly on the main TV that it comes up as a

connection failure, please wait, and that can take up to 30-40 minutes

before it actually reboots itself. I rang Sky up, they

sent out an engineer. The engineer came out

and he explained to me that the reason I wasn't actually

getting a connection was down to the thickness

of the walls within the property and the property's a two-bedroom

cottage, not a five-bed mansion. So, is an internet

problem the cause? Well, Richard has Sky

broadband and says he's never The last conversation I had

with the Sky operator was that there was nothing

more that they could do. With Christmas approaching

we will probably watch a lot more TV than we normally do and it would be

really frustrating and upsetting if we can't watch

the programmes that we enjoy. And our inbox has been filling up

with issues relating to Sky Q. Ryan Hughes from Bristol

had his box installed in July. He says he's had three engineers out

since to try and Whilst Peter Molokwu

from Borehamwood, says he had issues He says his screen would go blank

and he'd sometimes have to restart his box up to six times

a day - whilst still paying full So come on, Sky, can

you get your new flagship product Or are some of your customers

going to be facing a blank screen Sky told us that it has apologised

to everyone in our film and is doing everything it can to fix things. It

said the small percentage of Sky Q households have had problems which

can be due to factors like interference with their home Wi-Fi

or technical bugs which its experts are fixing as they arise with

software updates or home visits. The company added that it is recruiting

hundreds of additional engineers to cut waits for installations.

Consumer Crusaders Team Watchdog have been enormously helpful so we

have treated them to a budget Christmas dinner. Right across the

series they have proved that with some small changes, you can get

cheaper online groceries, cheaper energy and as Keely and Dan found

out, faster broadband. You don't want to be sat in the lounge all the

time, You cannot use it in here. We gave

them some broadband boosting tips, but did they work? Was it 1.4 in

here? Dead slow. What have we got now? 14.7 Mb. That's fantastic.

Chuffed to bits. You are too, I know you are. I will go. That is an

incredible ten times faster and much closer to the 17 megabits top speed

advertised by their provider. So, what difference has it made? With

how the new route and it means we now have the intellect connection in

our new kitchen extension. As a change things? I can watch movies of

the band now. Quality as much as anything else, people come to visit,

lots of people using the Wi-Fi, what can they do to get the best possible

broadband? Keep the route away from electrical devices, make sure you

have the most up-to-date one. Check your software at the computer is

up-to-date and also, if you're not getting the speed that you should

be, contact the provider and have a moan and you can use our speed

checker on the website to see what they should be getting. We have got

a bit more work because we commissioned a special Christmas

nationwide poll that found when it comes to choosing which party food

to buy for friends and family at Christmas, taste and price topped

the list. It is boomtime for budget supermarkets, we know that, what

have we done? We put them to the taste test with our young Team

Watchdog guinea pigs. Three supermarkets, Iceland, Liddell and

all day and you guys did the pigs in blankets test, which one was your

favourite? They were more full of herbs and spices. Shall we look at

which one it is. It is Iceland at ?2 5410. Are you surprised? Let's look

at the others. Underneath here is the Lidl one. It is a bit cheaper.

And then Aldi. Interesting you say about herbs, they do have more herds

in them, a bit of ginger and not make and more sausage and lest they

can. Thank you very much, more Christmas food will be put to the

test later on. Big ones, small ones,

the friendly ones and even Now, because we care so much

we decided to jettison the usual Rogue Traders story tonight to talk

about what you should expect You should expect the breeder

or seller to be properly registered and licenced by the local authority,

which should mean they And if they're licenced you should

feel secure in the knowledge that your puppy has been well reared

and is healthy and happy. and seller called

Ivy Leaf Kennels near Durham. They advertise Cavachons,

Bichon Frise, Cavalier King Charles Spaniels,

Lhasa Apsos and everyone's favourite, the Miniature

Schnauzer for around ?400. The company promises

quality pets from people Kevin Knox, the owner

of the business is licensed to both But six Christmases

ago he featured on BBC current affairs

programme Inside Out, This was following reports

of puppies bought from him illnesses or in some cases died

in front of the families which had So surely, a turn in front

of an audience of millions would a Lhasa Apso for her

and her son Matthew and she saw one for sale

on Ivy Leaf's website. Kevin Knox showed her around,

and her first impression was that the kennels looked clean

and professional but the dogs weren't as social as

they should have been. When we did go

in and view the pups, there were about seven of them

hiding behind the bed. I just thought they were little

babies, so they're shy. Marie is not a puppy expert,

so she wasn't to know that that's Puppies should be interested

in meeting new people and bounding Marie spotted two pups she liked

and bought them both for ?350 each. Within 24 hours thereabouts

Harry became unwell. So I immediately got

in contact with the vets. And it was possibly

about another week I had them back and

forth to the vets. It was at that point that Harry

went to the hospital Marie said he vet at the hospital

was concerned because only the previous week he'd examined

another puppy from Ivy Leaf Kennels that had had Parvo virus,

a potentially fatal infection Concerned Marie's puppies could have

caught the virus, he sent them home with anti-virals plus antibiotics

for Kennel Cough. Fortunately after the medical care

they received Harry and Cooper didn't go on to contract Parvo Virus

and made a full recovery. The fact that they have been

so poorly, has caused an awful lot of upset and stress to the point

that I don't think I'll get over it. Dee Anderson also had a bad

experience with a puppy She bought this Bison Frise

from Kevin Knox in October Within hours Shelby started

showing signs of illness. But through that night,

the puppy was really really On the Monday I took Shelby

to the vets and they said we'll have to give you two lots of different

medications for Kennel Cough, and they said that his little

digestive system wasn't good. But over the next 17 days

Shelby's condition worsened, despite being prescribed with more

antibiotics and steroids. By then Shelby was on a drip

and they had gave Shelby an x-ray. The x-ray showed that

Shelby had pneumonia. And that's when they've said,

you know, he won't make it. He didn't deserve that,

the poor little pup. And I promised him that

I would look after him. I would absolutely wholeheartedly

say never, don't ever go to that kennel and buy a puppy

because it's not good. You know, them pups don't deserve

to be not looked after properly. And then sold on just

for his to build his bank balance. And the sad thing is that we could

have had our pick of Ivy Leaf customers who have seen dogs either

die, or if they are lucky, scrape through serious illness

in the days immediately following a purchase

from Kevin Knox. Since the Inside Out piece in 2010,

we know of at least 52 serious illnesses,

and 11 deaths. Of course, we can only talk

about the dogs we know about. It's hinting at an operation

where things are seriously wrong. Now let's find out if Kevin Knox

is doing everything he can, to make sure the dogs

he sells, don't get sick. And whether he really does offer

the quality pets that he promises. Yes, a licensed breeder who sells

dogs whose chances of survival seem Lessons to be learnt in what to look

for when you a puppy in ten. Next tonight, Internet dating.

Millions if you are signed up and you have been telling us about the

bad experiences you have had. Nikki you have even signed up. Yes, my

profile started popping up on sites for people with interests I

definitely did not share. Yeah, sorry, I don't think this

is going to work out. Which is why internet dating

should make things easier. A seemingly great way

to narrow the field, and meet likeminded people looking

for the same thing. And you might think one sure-fire

way to meet someone you get on with would be to join one

of the more targeted sites - for things like hobbies,

jobs or interests. After all, these are supposed

to match likeminded people. When you sign up to one of these

sites you might not realise that you could then pop up on a site

for those with very One big company will often run

lots of different dating sites. When you sign up to one of these

sites your profile could then end up on several others,

because the big company We wanted to test

this for ourselves. So the team signed me up to a site

called Something Serious UK, It says it's a site for people

looking for romance and it's run by international company,

Venntro. My team of cupids ticked a few vague

interests like "sport" And soon after, my profile started

appearing on sites I hadn't signed Playing video games

really isn't for me. I even ended up on a site called

Football Lover Dating. And I have no clue

about the offside rule. This could make for a very

awkward date, and a huge disappointment for the person

who found me on there. Buried deep in the Terms

and Conditions it says they might But, nowhere does it say

which ones I've been put on, or on what site someone

has found me. Venntro said its database brings

together like-minded people and it regularly receives success stories

from those who signed up to its sites. It says in the terms and

conditions that members' details will be found on other sites.

It is important that you do read the terms and conditions. But it is not

just about your profile. Dating sites can be a gateway for

fraudsters to find you. Criminals can use your profile and chat to

people looking for love. They will then try and get you to part with

your cash by telling you some kind of sob story. It is really difficult

because if you think you have found the one, you could easily fall for

it. Dating fraud cost victims ?27 million last year alone, with 60% of

victims being over 40. How do you spot a fake? They start chatting to

you and try and convince you to get off the site very quickly, be

suspicious of that. State communicating on the site for a

while. And even if they are really tasty, I am talking about people

like Brad Pitt, Keanu Reeves and my favourite, Wayne Rooney, be

suspicious. What if you find the fantastic Mr Fox? You find the one

and you don't want the site any more, some of the sites can be

clingy? Yes, they can. You think it is over but they don't.

If you do manage to meet your perfect partner online,

you'll inevitably want to leave the dating world behind.

And it is problems with this part of the process

Tricky cancellations and surprise auto-renewal costs top our leader

And Match.com is the site we're hearing about most often.

Lawrence Finn cancelled the auto-renewal option

Match.com confirmed this in an email.

A few months down the line I discovered that they had taken

another ?160 out of my account for another six months subscription

I subsequently received an email from Match.com saying

that they weren't going to give me a refund because I'd apparently

reactivated the renewal of my subscription but I had no

recollection of having done so, and they couldn't

And Donald MacLennan faced similar problems after cancelling his

At the due date, when my subscription should have finished

I kept getting just normal messages from ladies as if you know,

As it happened I found out later that I was.

They said that I hadn't cancelled but I had an email

that I had cancelled, so I mean what's what, I don't know,

It's important to keep a close eye on your subscription,

even if you think you've cancelled it, according to dating

A lot of the sites have auto renewal.

You have to be really careful making sure that you have actually

Like any area of the internet sometimes these sites will have

multiple screens that you have to keep going through before

Make sure that any direct debits are cancelled with your bank

and then I would always check my bank statements

for the following couple of months just so that something isn't

Match told us they are very sorry to hear of these users' experiences. It

says the descriptions are automatically renewed for people's

convenience and terms and conditions are carefully reviewed.

Thank you, Nikki, and there is plenty more information on our

website. Coming up, promises, promises, promises. John Lewis says

it is never knowingly undersold but it is not that simple. And an Amazon

delivery sale. This is not how you want to receive your Christmas

presents, is it? A lot of chocolate mysteriously goes

missing in the home around Christmas time. Blame grandad. But this year,

some of your favourite festive chocolate has disappeared even

before you can get your hands on it. I eat Kit Kat a lot but I did not

realise it has reduced in size so yes, quite surprised about that. Kit

Kat 's got smaller so we are getting a smaller break.

15%? I have lost ten Maltesers. But as a handful. It adds up, it counts!

I cannot believe it. What a liberty. I want my chocolate! I am in shock.

I am angry but I will not stop buying it. And the shrinking

chocolate continues with some Christmas classics including these

two stocking fillers. You may have heard the news about Toblerone. 12%

was lopped off the mountainous chocolate bar earlier this year and

it also changed shape with bigger gaps between the triangles. And it

is now on hold triangle and a bit lighter.

But you might not have heard about the Terry's chocolate Orange. It has

decreased from 175 grams to 157 grams, shrinking 10%.

The company that make these chocolate say that the size

reduction is due to higher input costs and a commitment to reduce

portion sizes to tackle obesity and it adds that the Toblerone design

change only affects the 170 grams bar which is now 150 grams. Nestle

makes Kit Kat and they say that the traits had previously been

manufactured in different sizes in different factories and this year it

standardised the size. And Morris which makes Maltesers and Galaxy

counters says it has reduced the size of its products due to higher

costs in raw materials. The companies say they waited as long as

possible before making these changes, only doing them as a last

result. Back to our investigation of

licenced puppy breeders and sellers. When they are fully accredited

you would think that they should be But we've heard reports of 52 dogs

who have become sick and 11 who have died soon after being bought

from one licensed seller. So what are the conditions

like when we buy a puppy there? Team member Mark and expert vet

Simon Thomas are going undercover. They want to see if Kevin Knox ,

licenced breeder and puppy seller of Ivy Leaf Kennels looks

after his puppies in Responsible puppy breeders

and pet-shop owners are those who don't just offer food,

water, lighting and heating for dogs but also soft bedding, toys,

regular human contact and of course, to be kept with their Mum if they're

under eight weeks old. And if they're raised in a kennel,

sounds should be played to them that they might experience

in a domestic home. So, does Ivy Leaf kennels

match these standards? When our undercover puppy purchasers

arrive they meet the man himself. Kevin Knox shows us

through his comfortable house We have there's a couple of beagles

in there but if it's not beagles you're after,

everything else is in here. That's the Cavalier

cross Bichon Frise. One Cocker Spaniel, two

miniature Schnauzers, The kennels look clean

and the litters of puppies We know Kevin is a licenced breeder

but he also has a pet-shop licence, We breed some ourselves

and we also buy them off other They've all had first vaccinations,

they've all been vet checked, they also micro chipped?and

there all sort of up So Kevin does appear

to know his stuff. A responsible breeder

should also be concerned This is their area, they're sort

of restricted in til ten weeks. I go in every day and clean them

out on a regular basis. These have all been cleared out

already this morning, We clean up during the day and again

first thing every morning. The kennels seem clean,

but they are incredibly sparse - Just hard plastic beds and sawdust.

And what happens if we're worried You have 72 hours to get

to take them to your vet. If your vet sees there's anything

wrong with it at whatsoever, fetch it back, we'll give

you a full refund. These are animals we're talking

about, not faulty toasters. Vet Simon Thomas is worried

about the Beagle puppies in particular, because of the way

they avoid contact. Pretending that it's

a present for his wife, Simon asks to see one

of them up close. How quickly can

we get a beagle then? I mean it's there to go now,

if you want to take it now, it's fine but it isn't microchipped

because we've run out I'm getting some delivered today

that should be here by dinner time, but I can't guarantee that.

We are asking to take the puppy away now but it's actually a breach

of regulations for Kevin to sell us a dog before it's been microchipped

if it's older than eight weeks, rules he's already made clear

he is aware of. He's told us that this puppy

is between eight and nine weeks old but is happy for us

to take him away. Remember - when you're buying

a puppy, the seller should ask as many questions

about you as you do about the dog. But having made no background

checks on us at all, and with no microchip in place Kevin

nonchalantly gives us the green Having made our choice we follow

Kevin Knox back in to go This is the pup's pedigree

and registration document. The registration certificate doesn't

tell us anything about who bred Time to get this little

pup checked over. We decide to call our

new puppy Beasley. Wanting to check him out

straightaway, vet Simon Thomas takes Beasley direct to a local vet

practice, and finds he has conjunctivitis and an inherited

defect with his teeth Physically Beasley is in relatively

good health, but Simon is more concerned about the mental wellbeing

of Beasley and all the other dogs. What was terribly lacking for these

puppies was any evidence of socialisation or social

interaction, their whole world was a tiny sawdust pen

an occasional visit from him, a plastic bed and

that was their lot. Simon doubts the puppies are used

to people or the sounds So Beasley's next stop

was Pet Behaviourist Carrie Evans. He's happy to investigate

which is good, that's nice, but he doesn't

want to engage with me. Hello, shall we just say hello

to each other first? This to me is I'm not

happy being held. So that would indicate he's not

had very much social Once a puppy reaches 12 weeks

old, its behavioural But Beasley is young,

and after a few hours in Carrie's company,

he's starting to get used to human With this little man,

we've caught him early enough. We've got a lot of time to work

on him and correct some of the things that have gone wrong

in his life already. If we were going for an older puppy,

of 12 weeks plus, we probably would have mistakes for the rest

of our lives. There is a more worrying example

of a poorly socialised puppy Posted by Kevin Knox it

shows a cocker spaniel This is very sad, this little puppy

is desperately afraid, it is trying to appease us

by showing submissive behaviour and backing away from us,

because it is just terrified of this experience of a human approaching

it, and that really is a clear symbol of a puppy that has

not been socialised. After visiting Ivy Leaf Kennels

Simon Thomas was concerned about Kevin Knox's care

of the puppies that remain there. I worried about the welfare

of all of these puppies. They were just seemed to be

a commodity to him. Beasley and many of his pals

in Ivy Leaf Kennels But the kennels look clean,

and Kevin is a licensed dealer So why have so many other puppies

got sick or died shortly And what do you need to know

if you go to a breeder or puppy Tonight Team Watchdog are here

having a Christmas party and throughout the show we are catching

up with them to remind all of us how to get better value for money. This

time, it is the turn of newly savvy shoppers Sharon and Malley. I've

come to Devon to go on a weekly shop with these girls to see if we can

save them money. Are you going to look at the price of the pack? No, I

don't usually. Is this like a family thing, that you go shopping

together? I do it every now and again and I find that I spend more.

Do you sneak in traits. Those apples look lovely. Are they on your list?

No. Get them out then! What is the total? ?61. Thank you very much. We

also asked Shannon to try online shopping for the same order and it

came in at ?70. That is more expensive than her in-store shop. By

following all of our tips, Shannon could have got her shopping for ?52.

If she did this every week, that could give her a saving of more than

?900 across the year. Malia and Shannon join us now along with

Steph. What is the one thing that you buy now regularly were you make

regular savings? Baked beans. I have changed the way I buy baked beans.

That's a joy for everyone else! What advice did you give them to make

sure that the bills were cheaper. It is like comparing prices, don't just

go for what you think looks cheapest, compare the unit price,

look at sizes as well, bigger packs are not always cheaper and if you're

buying online, look at the different delivery slots because they can vary

in price. We have pitted the budget supermarkets against each other,

Aldi, Iceland and Lidl. We have our mince pie lovers. Which one did you

go for? We went for Lauren Layfield -- letter A. It was buttery. It is

meant fluid in your mouth. Let's look at what it is. It is Iceland.

You mentioned fruitiness. That one has more mincemeat in. Let's look at

the others. Aldi. And C, that was Lidl. Are you surprised? Yes. You

like them, that is the main thing. Sophie, how is the Christmas

shopping going? It is almost done. After a mad panic this morning. It

is stressful, but retailers try to make it easier by giving you a price

matching promise, meaning that you do not have to trek around every

single shop and one of the most trusted claims comes from Jon Lewis

who say that they are never knowingly undersold. It's not always

quite that simple. John Lewis claims to have guests everyone will love,

including the star of its Christmas ad, Buster the boxer dog, but when

it comes to pricing, not all its customers are jumping for joy.

It's all down to John Lewis' pledge to be Never Knowingly Undersold.

It says it has a "dedicated price-monitoring

team" who "proactively check the prices of branded products"

at high street competitors "every day, including online and

John Lewis says it doesn't "expect you to find a lower

price elsewhere" but, if you do, you can request a price match.

Well, not according to Alistair Freegard, from West Yorkshire.

When he was after some Christmas presents on Black Friday,

he was sure John Lewis would give him the best possible deal.

After all, right underneath the product he wanted

was its promise to Never Knowingly be Undersold - even during sales.

I guess I do trust John Lewis because of their Never Knowingly

Undersold - that I do believe that they've gone out, found the best

prices and of course are giving that to the consumer - me.

But Alistair spotted that the iPod was available

So he immediately requested a price match from John Lewis.

It took John Lewis 12 hours to respond to Alistair -

and to his amazement - his price match was refused.

When I got the response from John Lewis I was a little bit surprised.

I honestly thought that they would probably respond by saying: "Thank

What we can now do is change our website, change our pricing

However, the response actually was because Currys now had sold out

they weren't prepared to price match.

I think my frustration with the John Lewis response

was that if somebody had been selling that product cheaper

John Lewis almost ought to kick themselves and say they messed up.

In practice, then, it seems that on one of the most competitive

shopping days of the year - John Lewis hadn't made sure

it was matching the price of one of its biggest electronics

And even when it was told about it, refused to price match.

But at least when John Lewis is told one of its products cheaper

elsewhere - and in stock - it adjusts its price accordingly

to make sure it is not "Knowingly Undersold".

Not so says David Rawle, from London.

Back in January he noticed that a pair of headphones advertised

in John Lewis were ?16 cheaper in Richer Sounds.

So now they knew they were undersold.

But did they change their price in store?

I thought if they found something cheaper somewhere else they should

The reason why John Lewis only lowered the price for David can be

In David's case, John Lewis claimed Richer Sounds did not

meet their strict criteria of a national "high street

competitor" because its prices can differ across its shops and website.

I called a few Richer Sounds to find out if their prices were different.

And every single store that I tried were ?74.

I understand that John Lewis can't check thousands of retailers

so they only can have the slogan Never Knowingly Undersold

And they knew about it for quite a long time

So when it comes to those last minute gifts - rely too heavily

on the John Lewis Price Promise - and you may end up a bit

John Lewis said it was in the process of price matching the iPod

when Alistair Freegard e-mailed and it did reduce the price 20 minutes

after he got in touch and will now provide his price match request. It

said it honoured the price in David Rawle's request that it could not do

it nationally. It says it checks the price of tens of thousands of

products every day and will redouble its efforts to make its pricing

policy even clearer. Now, Steph, what other stories have

the team being looked into this week? We have had loads of messages

on Twitter. Lots of people talking about delivery is going wrong so

let's have a look at some of them. One of them is Michaela. This is a

bit of a shocker of a story. Michaela ordered a picture frame and

some kids paints to make prints of her baby's feat as Christmas

presents for the family. That is a lovely picture there. She bought

them from Amazon but rather than deliver them to her front door, she

came home to find the parcel spread across the garden and this is why.

Can you believe that? Let's have a look in slow motion. The delivery

person has clearly just lobbed it in the garden, nearly hitting the cat.

Thankfully, the cat is all right. Michaela did complain to Amazon who

replaced the paints and gave her free next day delivery on a future

order. We got in touch with Amazon who said it investigated and ensured

the independent delivery provider resolved the issue to the customer's

satisfaction. The good news is Michaela and Leighton managed to

make their picture for their family as well.

Next up, another story from Michelle. She contacted us after she

bought to Hatchimals items from Argos. Sooner is Michelle paid ?120

for the two toys, she got an e-mail from Argos saying they were out of

stock. She was told she would get her money back straightaway but she

did not. Michelle complained to Argos and they offered her the

chance to buy two more at a discount but she did not want to pay any more

money until she got the original ?120 back. We got in touch with

Argos who said a technical error meant and out of stock item was

displayed as available. It said it was rare and they got in touch with

Michelle and are racist link to refund -- they got in touch with

Michelle and our processing her refund. They also sent two more

Hatchimals. Now I have to do this. Contact us through Facebook, BBC

Watchdog and Twitter and have a cracking Christmas.

Back to our investigation of what to look for if you are buying a puppy.

Kevin Knox of County Durham appears to be running a credible operation.

His premises look clean and he seems to know his stuff. But we have found

many dogs are afraid of people and we have not got to the bottom of why

so many animals are sick and dying, yet.

In the last six years we know of 52 dogs that suffered serious illness

and 11 that died soon after leaving Ivy Leaf kennels.

The kennels have appeared in the press many times.

And all the stories tell a similar tale.

After all, the first impression is of a clean

Expert vet Simon Thomas, who came with us to buy Beasley,

There was no facilities to clean our hands on arrival,

no questions about where we might have been, so those were things

And there are more clues of the source of the problems

from videos of puppies for sale that Kevin Knox

This is a video of a litter of cavachon puppies

These puppies are around eight weeks old, yet Kevin had assured us

when we visited that all puppy litters were kept separate in their

These very young puppies will then be susceptible to germs that they've

never met and that's when you get an increased risk of disease.

This video shows some cocker spaniel puppies playing in the yard

But it's rough ground, next to a sewage pipe, and some broken paving.

It really is not going to be possible to properly disinfect

an area like that between groups of puppies and even the concrete I'd

And if you've got a carry over of germs between one group

of puppies and another that comes in, the germs will just

Germs that could include as roundworm, the parasite giardia,

and the bacteria Campylobacta which causes food poisoning

They would also be at risk from parvo virus if any

I mean, parvo virus is highly infectious so that would also

We know of seven dogs that have left Ivy Leaf Kennels with parvo virus,

So we have seen examples of poor care which could explain the high

levels of sickness and death in puppies bought from Kevin Knox.

Instances of infection probably can never be completely ruled out

but they should be very rare and it should be avoidable.

There are many things Kevin Knox could be doing to prevent this

spread of infection and improve the wellbeing of these puppies

So, we wrote to him, suggesting where he was going wrong.

"Kevin Knox refutes the allegation that the puppies are badly

socialized and fearful around humans.

Really? Kevin Knox also refutes the suggestion that he does nothing

to prevent the spread of infectious diseases,

and whilst he may possibly accept that a very small proportion

of his yard might be susceptible to contamination, he doesn't accept

that the area is a health risk to the dogs.

Kevin Knox says he's going to repair the broken area.

And that he's now going to provide soft bedding and toys.

But he refutes our allegation that he has repeatedly sold

So, over the last six years, selling 52 puppies that

and 11 that have died shortly after leaving his care over

six years is not repeatedly selling sick or dying puppies?

But there's one line here that I'm struggling with.

"Our client accepts sometimes puppies die."

Well, we don't accept that and we don't think you accept that

to Kevin Knox's house to remind him what time of year it is.

It's the busiest time of year for the puppy trade.

This is much better. This is what you want.

It's looking nice. Looking Christmassy. Never used to be able

to get these. They are amazing. They make a real splash. Come on!

We wish you a Merry Christmas and a puppy New Year. Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas. Well done. Seriously,

don't be part of the puppy Kevin Knox told us the premises were

inspected every year and a great deal of care was taken regarding

hygiene and sanitation, the pens were regularly power washed and

rinsed with a DEFRA improved disinfected. The allegations that

yuppies were fearful around humans was refuted. Everything is done to

ensure poppies were handled and socialised as much as possible

within the confines of the kennel -- the puppies. Kevin Thomas said if

you want to buy a puppy, the message is simple, by a puppy aged over

eight weeks, see the puppy with its mum, buy from a registered dealer

and if you're not happy walk away. There are plenty of dogs in rescue

centres looking for good homes. They will have been checked by a vet

before coming to you and there is even more advice on our website.

Earlier in the series the Patel family told of their love of fixing

household appliances instead of throwing them away. How often do you

fix things? Every week. It is how we are brought up to repair things, not

throw them away. You gave us some great fixing tips, remind us what

they were. One of them was to always keep the manuals and if you have

lost it have a look online. Keep the warranties. If it is coming to the

end of the warranty, maybe you can get an extended warranty or

sometimes free parts are offered by the manufacturer. And most

importantly, maintaining the appliances. Always follow the

manufacturer's recommended guidelines. Time for another taste

test. Christmas is not complete without the Christmas pudding. Which

one is best? You guys love Christmas pudding? Which one did you go for?

We both went for B. The flavour was great, great spices. Funnily enough

there was less sugar. You felt it was not as sweet as the others?

Let's have a look at which one it was. So it was the Lidl on. It is

75p per portion for that one. You said it was not a sweet but that was

not the one with the least sugar in which is interesting. Let's have a

look at the others. We have Aldi which is 87 pence a portion and then

Iceland which is ?1 portion so you went to the one in the middle. Thank

you both very much and thank you to all of team Watchdog for their help

in this series. If you want to join Team Watchdog then the details are

on our website. Last week on Rogue Traders we

investigated Euxton and the -- we would like to make clear that the

people featured are not related to Exton car sales which has no

association and has never had any association with Euxton motor can be

limited and with Luke Hibbard and Curtis Black.

That is it for this year. Do keep sending your stories and tip-off is.

Go to our website and click where it says send us your story. You can

also write to us as well. You can catch up with previous episodes on

the iPlayer and find out more on online.

Enjoy the festivities. Goodbye. Relying on Josh to get this right.

Watch and learn. OK, here we go. Anyone have a clue?

..a funny dance? No, no dancing.