Episode 1 Watchdog

Hello and welcome to a new series of Watchdog.

Live - and on your side - for the next 60 minutes.

Tonight, we're taking to task some of Britain's best known businesses.

Including three coffee chains that dominate every high street.

Millions of us place an order every day.

But what our tests show up, you won't want in your cup.

Hello, thanks for joining us on Watchdog Live

As ever, we're here to tackle the stories that matter most to you.

And because we're live, together we can get things

You told us about safety problems you've had with newly

Gas leaks and smoke is not what you should be getting.

Tonight, Energy UK are in the studio to explain how

And we're on the trail of more rogue traders.

This week, exposing some of the most appalling

And he's the guy that trains new recruits!

Also tonight, with us are some miffed Ryanair customers.

These guys reckon the airline is deliberately splitting up groups

of passengers who haven't paid for reserved seating.

To find out if they're right, we booked some of our own flights.

And later, I get to sit right next to one of the Ryanair bosses to find

You may have seen in the news we've done

some other tests, too - into hygiene

at the three biggest coffee chains in the UK -

Costa, Starbucks, and Caffe Nero.

Nikki Fox has been investigating with her very own swab mob.

It seems we've turned up a bigger problem

We found something very nasty in almost half

And it prompted this reaction from one of the country's leading

The levels in contamination of faecal bacteria concerns me a lot.

They should not be there. At any level.

The full shocking story coming up shortly.

But we can't do anything without you.

Now the team behind me - give us a wave - they'd love to hear

You can email us - at [email protected].

By 2020, the government wants us all to have one - 53 million.

But in the rush to make that happen, some of you say your homes

It's one of the biggest infrastructure projects ever

undertaken in the UK. Aiming to replace every gas and electricity

meter in homes and small businesses over the next three years. But this

ambitious roll-out has already been hit with a series of delays and

problems. Hundreds of you have been getting in touch about issues with

new smart meters, including inaccurate bills and difficulty

switching suppliers. And we are starting to hear about some really

serious concerns to do with the way smart meters are installed in our

homes. Keith Atkins had his new dual fuel smart meter installed by

British Gas engineer in October 3016. You decided you want a smart

meter, what happened? I phoned my supplier, British Gas, and he

arranged for a guy to come and install. It was about two weeks

later before we discovered we had a leak because we went away for a

couple of days. The house was shut up. I returned and opened the front

door and smelt the gas. Were you in panic? Yes, I didn't have a clue

what was going on. I opened the doors and windows and phoned the

emergency people and they were here within 20 minutes. Keith had a house

full of gas which the emergency engineer established was down to the

installation of the smart meter, a washer had been left off when it was

put in. When you found out it was the smart meter, how did you feel?

Devastated. I thought British Gas are the people you go to for these

jobs. The way it was installed was terrible, really. I phoned the

customer services and she said to me, it's all fixed now, what do you

want us to do about it? It's terrifying. His case isn't the one

off you would hope. Customers from other major energy suppliers have

also contacted us with serious safety concerns over their smart

meters installation. Stephen Allen from Guildford e-mailed us after an

engineer working on behalf of First Utility installed a smart meter in a

box outside his house in January. But after two days he became

increasingly worried about a loud banging noise, so he called out an

emergency engineer who told him the new smart meter installation had

left him with unstable gas levels. I thought my family were in danger

because of the gas, because it's a flammable substance. It is going

through your house. If something went wrong with that, you don't know

what would happen. A worrying time, and during a replacement

installation that also went wrong, Stephen says he saw the engineer hit

the smart meter on the grounds to dislodge a part. Although that

wasn't dangerous, he ended up needing eight third smart meter

fitted. To get an expert view on these cases I have brought our

evidence to two leading professionals. Mike Griffin has more

than 30 years experience in the gas industry. Martin Allen is an

experienced electrician and engineer for a technical company. Looking at

Keith's case, it's all to do with the washer. It's unforgivable to put

it back together and not put the washer in. It's the basics of gas

work and the process of doing that, it set out in gas safety

regulations. Its negligence, lack of enforcement in training to make sure

they understand what they are doing and why. In Stephen's case, it

sounds like loads of things went wrong, so many engineers involved.

Is there anything Stephen could have done? Nothing in this is Stephen's

fault. The only thing he could possibly have done was when he saw

the engineer messing with the meter, may be called the employer. As well

as dangerous gas installations, you have told us about worrying safety

errors made during the fitting of electricity smart meters as well.

Gillian and Alan Handley agreed to let Ovo energy upgrade their home to

a smart meter before Christmas. Everything initially seemed fine but

a few weeks later their son Jack noticed smoke pouring out of the

fuse box in his bedroom cupboard. He was panicking at this smoke coming

out of his cupboard. I followed him through and looked in the fuse box

cupboard and saw this smoke in it, it was a panic. I wasn't sure

whether or not I would electrocute myself or not by turning it off.

After calling an emergency engineer, the family was told there fuse box

had burnt out because of wires not being reconnected properly during

the smart meter installation. I think we were extremely lucky to

catch it when it did. All because of the smell. If we hadn't smelt

anything in the room, I don't know if we would have noticed until it

was on fire. Ovo energy admitted the engineer hadn't left their

electricity in a safe state. The family had to move out for things to

be put right. We were out of the house for ten days trying to stay in

a Hotel with two young children. The dogs were in kennels, we can't get

into the house. I don't believe the Ecotricity supplier checked their

contractors correctly, otherwise they would have known these people

were not fit for the job. -- the electricity supplier. In Gillian and

Alan's case, this is dangerous, being told your electricity isn't in

a safe state. I find that really shocking. It could have easily lead

to a fire and been a terrible outcome. What do you think this is

down to? Part of the training is for them to assess, if there is a chance

of wires faulty in the fuse box, they have to take action. They

didn't follow the procedures and it's inexcusable. How can trained

engineers installing smart meters on behalf of big-name energy companies

make such basic mistakes? One basic explanation could be down to the

sheer scale of the roll-out. The challenge of employing enough

engineers to hit the government's 2020 target has led to a huge

recruitment drive and industry sources have told us they are

concerned whether installations are being left to new engineers who

haven't worked in gas or electricity before. While all the roles, with

some training, Mike and Martin are clear that engineers need real-world

experience alongside more practised colleagues. So do you think it's not

just about training? It's not. From there you need to build experience

and to make somebody competent in carrying out those smart meter

installations. I can't see their not being more mistakes unless we do

shadowing, taking pressure off the guys doing the installing, and make

sure the emphasis is on a good meter that's installed properly and left

safely. At an industry event last year the head of safety at Wales and

West utilities, one of the UK's gas networks, expressed concerns that

with new people coming into the industry, inexperienced meter

workers could increase the number of mistakes. Meanwhile, citizens advice

has confirmed to us that they have also been contacted about a number

of unsafe smart meter installation this year. All of which raises

serious questions about hitting the 2020 target safely. MP Derek Thomas

sits on the House of Commons science and technology select committee,

which is overseeing the smart meter roll-out. He wants the government to

review the deadline and put safety first. I think it's fair to say that

the energy suppliers are under pressure from this timetable. If

there is any indication safeties comprised in somebody's home, we

can't ignore that. The government has nothing to lose by setting up a

review with Ofgem to look at the safety locations around the

programme to protect people's homes. Let's see what the challenges are

and make sure people are safe as we engage in the roll-out.

Well, all the companies in that report have apologised.

British Gas - whose engineer forgot to put on the washer -

says all of its smart meter engineers are trained over

a twelve month period to fit equipment correctly,

The company's given Keith ?200 as a gesture of a goodwill.

First Utility - who replaced Stephen's meter twice -

It says his was a highly irregular example, which it's

Siemens, who actually did the fitting, insist

was carried out safely by an experienced engineer.

It did need replacing, but the company says that's

because the meter itself was faulty and there was no immediate danger.

Or gas leak. It says all its engineers have extensive training.

Finally, Ovo says its meter was wired incorrectly due to several

factors, including human error, old fuse box equipment, and

It says the engineer had successfully completed more than 900

dual-fuel installations in the last 12 months.

He was immediately suspended and retrained,

With me is Audrey Gallacher from Energy Uk, which represents

You just need more time. That's what you should be asking for, surely. We

are seeing the results of that, health and safety in people's homes

being affected. It's no doubt it's a really challenging programme and

there is a lot to be done, but health and safety would never be

compromised to meet a target. I want to reassure people of that. We

already seeing mistakes. Currently you are sitting around 17,000 smart

meters every day. You have to get to 50,000. Where will you magic the

people who will make this happen safely and reliably? There is a big

ramp up and there will be recruitment to do that. Let me

reassure you that there is significant training in place.

People have to have the right skills and competencies. A training regime

is set out by the National skills Academy and people has to go through

accredited training from their providers. It's important people

know the training is there, but once somebody is trained, they don't just

let get out. -- get let out. People will be mentors in them, coaching,

and there are ongoing audits. Every house and job is different. You are

sending out people to do a job for which they are barely equipped. When

you look at the fact that even experienced engineers are going out

to do it and it can result in serious problems to put people's

lives at risk. These problems are completely unacceptable, I agree.

Health and safety is the energy industry's number one priority and

we will never compromise that. People who don't have the skills and

competencies shouldn't be doing the jobs. If we find somebody has made a

mistake, it is properly investigated, and we will look at

their previous jobs. They will be retrained, and if that retraining

doesn't bring them up to standards they will not be installing those

metres. At what point do you go to the government and say you can't do

it? You need to be fitting 50,000 per day. If everybody takes it up,

40 million, and you only have done 7 million in the last few years. You

have another two years. It's going to be a massive challenge, but

health and safety will not be compromised. If it's about meeting

the target or making people safe in their homes, forget the target.

People will eventually make a balance between the problems they

are seeing with this and what we have reported on tonight, and the

savings they will make. Will the savings ever outweigh the risks we

are seeing? I don't think there are any systemic risks in the programme.

The cases you have highlighted are utterly unacceptable. We have 17,000

going in every day. One is one too many but safety is paramount. We

have been doing this for decades. We would never do anything to put

anybody at risk. So there have clearly been

problems with installation. Claire Osborne from the comparison

site uSwitch joins us. Claire's also ready to answer your

energy queries and problems on our Facebook page

while we're on air. This is also your chance to let us

know your experiences with smart Tonight's rogue traders

are something else. It's not often I have the chance

to show you a company whose behaviour encompasses racism,

exploitation of the elderly, dishonesty, mis-selling

and ruthlessly targeting those with dementia, but tonight,

for the first show in our new series, that's

exactly what I can do. The brick. For millennia, it has

protected us humans from the elements, keeping warm and dry. The

brick is considered one of the longest lasting and strongest

building materials in existence. But according to Doctor -based company

EnergySave central limited, temple bricks are no longer enough. They

insist that what you now need is an external wall paint which they say

is not only waterproof, but is also an insulating agent which can save

you hundreds of pounds on your energy bills. The company uses a

national sales team to flog the stuff. And they are awful. I mean,

awful in ways I can't even begin to tell you. In fact, don't take it

from me, take it from them. How very charming. Let's go and see

Audrey. Audrey Wilson is 84. She has Alzheimer's and her son Tony and

family, along with her carers, make sure she stays safe. "Doorstep

Sellers, don't call here". But EnergySave found a way into her home

in spite of their best efforts to protect her. The first day they

visited, the care was here preparing mum's meal. The carer explain to

them that my mother had Alzheimer's and was not in a position to make

decisions and they were to take her off their mailing list and go away

and not come back. So despite the fact that they were specifically

told about your mum's Alzheimer's, this is not the house for you, what

happened then? They came back three days later when the carer wasn't

here and saw my mother on her and they proceeded to sell wall coating

and took a deposit of her using her dead record of over ?1100. The total

amount due for this unnecessary work was ?2300. When I phoned the company

on the Monday and said she had Alzheimer's, it was a case of, so

what? Audrey has no recollection of a salesman ever having called. Do

you ever get people knocking on the door for you, do you get salesman

ringing? No. They don't come round here, do they? If I want something,

I go out and buy it. I don't wait for someone to ask me if I want it.

Sounds like good sense to me. I have had a lovely chat with your mum

today, but a lot of things, two or three times. Only? Said anyone

sitting with your mum for any time... They must have realised she

was vulnerable person, we can sign her up and make commission. After a

lot of hard work and the family's persistence, the company eventually

refunded Audrey her money. But while we were there, her phone rang. And

guess who it was? You can halve our energy bills? EnergySave, who were

yet again trying to sell Audrey some wall paint. If I hadn't been there

to answer the phone, my mum would have answered the phone and they

would have made another appointment for them to come round and see her.

Obviously, they have taken no notice of the fact that she can't make

decisions for herself, so who is to say they will not fund tomorrow?

Thankfully, Audrey has people around her. She

is not alone, and she is far from being alone when it comes to being

targeted by energy saved. This is a company on the up, as can be seen on

this snazzy promotional video on their social media page. From a

single office, they are blossoming like a fungal rashes to a number of

branches. Spondon, Ilkeston, Sheffield, Newcastle-under-Lyme and

coming soon, Birmingham. And of course, the great thing about

success and growth is that if you get bigger, you will need to take on

more people. And if they are hiring, what's to stop them hiring someone

from the BBC who is on the cover with a concealed camera in his hat?

Set it running. David, not his real name, has not only got a job, he is

starting at the Ilkeston headquarters of EnergySave, and it's

not long before years about the commander-in-chief of this

enterprise, this man, "Lord" Jason Rowan, on the left. That is a

Bentley. And he had a Maserati. Lucky guy. Love the personalised

number plates. Our undercover agent also soon met the sales training

guru, Mr Phil Eremenko. He is the man to talk us through some of their

key company policies, which are, oh, my goodness. Never see Asian people.

The reason for that is not racist. Not racist?

Mist, just not right for us. It's actually unlawful for anyone

providing goods, facilities or services in the UK to discriminate

on the basis of race. And of course, we suspect that EnergySave prefers

to deal with a specific clientele. We will be seeing a lot more of the

way EnergySave Celta the over 55s when we invite them out to a house

filled with secret cameras. So, that's racism and exploitation

of the elderly ticked off the list, but it is a long list,

as you'll see in a bit. Matt is going to nail him. Nikki, we

have had lots of messages. Terry on Twitter says, we had a gas leak

since fitting the smart meter. The meter was also wired up the wrong

way for the electric. Please carry on sending us your messages. And

Claire will be giving users tips online, so head to the Facebook page

if you have any questions on your smart meter. We have quite a few

shocking stories tonight. Yes. And to kick that off,

me and my swab mob have been You might want to watch this,

because ice drinks feature heavily. We might be famous around the world

for our love of tea, but many Brits are now switching allegiance to its

cooler cousin, coffee. The UK coffee industry is currently growing faster

than it has in the past ten years. Between us, we drink more than 2.3

billion cups of the stuff every year. But the market remains

dominated by the three big brands. Starbucks, Costa coffee and Caffe

Nero, each of which usually has at least one store in every town.

Costa, with 2121 stores, is by far the largest UK chain. Starbucks has

898 and Caffe Nero 650. But you have been telling us that the quantity of

these shops may not always mean quality when it comes to finding a

clean place to eat or drink. Costa coffee's website says you can always

be sure to find a clean table. But Mark, a regular visitor to his

nearest branch, wouldn't agree. What is your concern with your local

store? Most times, you find trays covered in spilled coffee or food on

the floor like a half eaten sandwich, which is not nice if you

are trying to sit down and read a book for ten minutes. Dirty tables.

When Mark complained, he said he was given an extra 1000 points on his

loyalty card. It was nice to get three points, but I would rather

they cleaned the chairs and made sure the tables were clean and made

it a nice environment. So how clean are the big names coffee shops? To

test that out, we visited ten randomly selected branches of each

of the three main chains - Costa, Starbucks and Caffe Nero. The law

requires all areas in food serving premises to be kept clean. So, using

swapping equipment, our team collected four samples at each

branch they visited, then send them to a lab to check the levels of

bacteria. The results were then reviewed by Tony Lewis, head of

policy at the chartered Institute of environmental health. Is it feasible

with the chains that have so many stores, for each of those stores to

be clean? Yes. The expectation is that they should be. It is the same

for any other food business. It doesn't matter whether to table tops

or trays or anything else or the floor, the expectation is that they

keep it clean. That may be the expectation, but is it what we

found? We tested four key areas in each branch we visited, a table, a

trade, a high chair and a sample of ice. Starting with the tables, just

one of the ten samples from both Costa and Starbucks had a high

bacteria count. Caffe Nero had three. But that is a good result,

suggesting that most tables were being regularly cleaned. High chairs

came off a little worse. Costa and Nero each had three samples with

high bacteria counts, and Starbucks just two. What does a high level of

bacteria mean? Bacteria is everywhere, and most bacteria is

good. A high level of bacteria is indicative of a possible hygiene

failure. So overall, reassuring results on the tables and

highchairs, but trays were a different story. Here, our simples

frequently showed high bacteria levels, indicating a lack of

cleaning. Costa was the exception, with only one dirty tray out of ten.

But there were six at Caffe Nero. And in Starbucks, nine out of the

ten trays had high bacteria counts. We asked the lab to find out more

about the type of bacteria lurking on our trays. Whilst most of the

samples tested came back with bacteria that was harmless, three of

the six trays from Caffe Nero that had a high bacteria count contained

what scientists call faecal coliforms. And at very high levels.

Here they are after incubating for a few days in the lab. Absolutely

disgusting. What are they? The faecal bid indicates their source.

They come from the gut. So what we are also looking at is failure of

hygiene in relation to people when they go to the toilet. So you're

right, it is disgusting. Is there any risk? Absolutely. If you're

exposed to sufficiently high numbers and you ingest it and contaminate

yourself by putting your fingers onto surfaces and enter your mouth,

there is a risk of illness and disease that flows from that. Should

customers be concerned? Absolutely. The expectation is that we go in and

we are safe. But the most worrying results were on our samples of ice.

Hygiene here is even more important, as unlike the surface areas we

tested, ice is something you put straight in your mouth. Ice drinks

are a huge growing market for coffee shops, with all three chains

launching new ranges this summer. So we were shocked to be told by the

lab that nearly half of our ice samples came back with significant

levels of not just any old bacteria, but again, those faecal coliforms

that Tony says are a real risk. It was in three of the Starbucks iced

samples and three of Caffe Nero's. But most alarmingly, seven out of

ten of the ice samples from Costa, the biggest coffee chain in the UK,

contained significant levels of faecal bacteria. And yes, that is

the very eyes used to make those new summer beverages.

So many people buy those blended and iced drinks. The levels of faecal

bacteria concerns me a lot. In relation to some of the bacteria you

found, they are known as opportunistic pathogens, meaning

they are dangerous. Pathogens are the source of human disease. And you

have significant numbers. So there is concern, they should not be there

at any level. In fact, so concerning did Tony consider our findings, that

he advised us to contact environmental health for them to

investigate further. When we ran the results pass choppers in Manchester

they were not impressed. We found high levels of faecal bacteria in

the ice cubes. What?! Really?! Seriously. That's disgusting. That's

put me off. Wow. I'm not going to finish my drink, am I? STUDIO: That

is horrible! How does bacteria get on the ice?

They've said the most likely way is probably staff members not

washing their hands properly after going to the loo,

Did you ever imagine I would ask you to scoop some ice? Do this for me.

So we've got an ice machine here, similar to the ones used

And if you want to give it a go, you'll see

if you're not careful, it's easy to end up getting your

If you haven't washed your hands properly,

even if you don't end up touching the ice, you'll have

touched the scoop - which does touch the ice.

So what are they going to do about it?

Costa think the contamination is down to the ice scoop being stored

with the ice. They have taken immediate action.

Updating their ice handling guide to provide very specific operational

guidelines, which include storing the ice scoop outside the ice well.

They've sent that to all their branches, and are also

in the process of sending out new ice scoop holders.

The stores we visited have already received those,

and additionally had all their equipment deep cleaned

They have done lots about it, what about Starbucks and Caffe Nero?

All three chains have been very proactive on this.

They've stressed how importantly they take hygiene and cleanliness,

highlighting the high ratings most branches achieve on this,

and outlining their processes to ensure everything

Caffe Nero and Starbucks told us they've moved quickly

Caffe Nero promises appropriate action will be taken.

And Starbucks says all employees nationwide have

received updated training, not just on the ice -

which it says staff should never touch by hand -

And wash your hands when you go to the toilet. Good work by the swap

mob. Good luck if you were watching that while eating your teeth. The

Schmidt eating your tea. And our Swab Mob hasn't just

been swabbing cafes. We'll be revealing the dirty secrets

of a different industry next week. Is the airline deliberately

splitting up passengers who didn't In tonight's Rogue Traders,

we're having a look at EnergySave of Ilkeston, Derbyshire -

not to be confused with They offer an external wall

paint that they claim can knock up to 35% off

your heating bills. Our undercover operative

David is working there. And he's about to put them well

and truly in the picture. Training manager Phil Eremenko is

teaching our undercover stooge how to make the right first

impression... How does a nice salesman get into an

old lady's house? Would a vampire tell customers about

their rights to a cooling off period? It's in the company's

training literature? You wouldn't want them knowing they

have a legal right to change their minds about forking out thousands of

pounds. What about the product they sell? The manager will now

demonstrate the benefits of the product in a clear and concise

manner, super easy to follow. Clearly that all makes sense! I'm

utterly convinced. Apparently, he isn't.

Unbelievable, but it's a claim printed in their training materials.

Next he gives us a pretty confusing demonstration. Look at that. What is

that showing us? We need an expert. Barry Cross knows everything about

walls. If Oasis had only spoken to him before they wrote Wonderwall,

they wouldn't be wondering any more. What does he make of EnergySave's

demonstration kit? What we are supposed to do here, the water is

being absorbed on this site, but this side with the product on it,

they are standing proud like duels. The water is being absorbed into the

brick and then will evaporate out again and that's the design of every

house brick in the country. Is there any way at all that some kind of

external cream can improve the thermal qualities of a brick wall?

It simply doesn't, in my view, improve the insulation to the wall.

So if we were to find a traditionally built brick house

without any problems from damp or anything else, there would be no

need for a product like this? Absolutely no need at all. In that

case, that's what we'll do. Have you seen our house? We called out and

EnergySave salesman. Barry is ready. Through the door comes the salesman

Rob Atwood, one of EnergySave's top guys. What exactly is he trying to

sell us? Unbelievable, completely

unbelievable. But this house is very well

insulated, so why would we need this? That's enough sitting around.

Rob needs to check the walls. He has some bad news about the state of the

brickwork. But that's exactly what you do,

isn't it, Rob? What's the damage to our wallet for this unnecessary

products? Really! I'm struggling with that to

be honest. That's your cue to leave, mate. But

he doesn't leave, instead he makes a call to a manager in his office.

What?! His manager, surprise surprise, has come back with a

fantastic offer. That's a shame! After 62 minutes,

he's still here. I thought he'd never give up. Here's

a question, has this salesman decided to sell this way all by

himself, or is he receiving messages from above? Training Guru Phil

Eremenko gives our undercover operative the drill.

That's cleared that up! There is no tomorrow for elderly people in their

own homes to have a bit more time to make huge financial decisions. Back

in the house, what does Barry think? This is a house in good condition,

well insulated. Why would they try to sell us a product for ?4000 that

would have no significant benefit? Albee honest, I don't really know!

-- I will be honest. It beats me. I guess the bosses fancy cars don't

pay for themselves. The Bentley, Maserati and Ferrari. He even has a

Ferrari coffee cup, which he didn't appreciate our undercover operative

drinking at all! Nothing like the threat of physical

violence to make the new boy feel welcome. STUDIO: I'm certainly

looking forward to meeting him in person in about ten minutes! Nikki

Fox, what's in the inbox? Smart meters have struck a chord with

everybody on social media. A lot of people asking, are smart meters

compulsory? They are not compulsory, but they have benefits. Regarding

our delightful coffee. I imagine that's got everybody going. Tracy

sums it up when she says, yuck yuck. Product safety in people's minds.

And Darryl Tallantyre is one of the people to contact us

about the fridge freezer that's been linked to the horrendous

He wants to know if manufacturer Hotpoint can reassure the 64,000

The company's told us it's working with the authorities to get access

to the appliance to assist with the ongoing investigations,

and it can't speculate on further details at this time.

But it says anyone who believes they have either

the FF175 BP or BG models - manufactured by Indesit

between 2006 and 2009 - can call Freephone 0800 316 3826

to register their details so the company can contact them

And that is one of the benefits of registering, that

if there is a problem with a model you own, they can get

in touch, repair it, recall it, whatever it takes.

I thought airlines were supposed to bring people together.

You've been hearing from people who feel that Ryanair has

We have our own airline going on here. People asking for duty-free.

Yes, Ryanair is a company that's no stranger to controversy,

You might remember back in 2014, the airline

promised to change its ways with its Always Getting

As part of this, it brought in allocated seating

to stop the free-for-all when you get on board.

So you either pay to guarantee where you sit, or you don't

and you're allocated seating at check-in from whatever's left.

We have some Ryanair customers with us. Appropriately named Ryan. You

were a big fan of them but you are now getting annoyed. We would fly

maybe once or twice a month and checking in a couple of days before

flying. Every time everybody in the booking was getting sat together.

Maybe a couple of months ago, opposite ends of the plane.

Literally. You have noticed a real change then. Why not pay for

allocated seating? It's kind of not the point. I feel like it's a bit

deceitful. Just a couple of days before you fly you then have to pay

for each person to sit next to each other. Linda, you went with your

mates to Barcelona. What happened? Again, I went to check us in online.

For the last three years we have flown to Barcelona as a group of six

and each time we got seats together. This time all six of us were middle

seats separated through the plane. That must have been a nightmare!

Shouting at each other. But we still had a fantastic time. And you are

still recovering! Philip, you have worked in the industry a long time.

You and your wife were separated on a flight to stop that's right. We

booked in at the first opportunity on the same booking reference. The

seats came up and we were at opposite ends of the aircraft. Was

that a good or bad thing? I did ask if she wanted to pay the extra. She

did say yes! Given your experience in the industry, using its not

right? It's totally not right, it has to be a deliberate ploy. Even

randomly seating, it's not going to keep happening. We have put it to

the test. Over the last few weeks, dozens

of you have been in touch convinced there's been a change in how Ryanair

allocates its seats. So to put that to the test, we

booked some flights for ourselves. We booked a group of four

researchers onto four separate flights. Right from the off, we

could see from the plan of the website which seats were free. But

we didn't pay the extra fee to reserve any together. Instead, we

opted to be allocated seats once the online check-in opened, four days

before departure. Our first flight was from Manchester to Brussels.

Just before check-in, the seat plan clearly had plenty of empty seats

available, shown here in blue. Despite that, a group of four were

all given seats entirely separately, scattered in middle seats across the

plain, shown here in green. Right up to boarding, we could have paid

extra to move seats and all be together. Perhaps that is what

Ryanair hoped we might do after splitting us up. But because we

didn't do that, we were left sitting apart. Even though, as you can see,

on the flight itself there were still empty seats beside us. The

same was true on the return flight. When we checked in, all four

researchers were split across the plain in middle seats, despite

they're still being loads of seats available together. And talking to

fellow passengers, it was clear we were not the only ones to find that.

There were seats, but it is like they deliberately don't sit you

together so you are forced to pay. That is not fat. If they have seats

available together, let us check in together. We also booked return

flight to Dublin. Again, the team were spread throughout the plane, or

on a middle seat. But there had been plenty of seats together we could

have been allocated at the time we checked in. A travel agent Lofton

books groups onto flights reckons she can pinpoint the exact date when

things changed - David 50 this year. So will Ryanair admit to

deliberately separating people on its planes -- May the 5th, this

year. So, four flights,

four researchers. All split into middle

seats across the plane. With us is Dr Jennifer Rogers,

a statistician at the What are the chances this

was just random allocation? I looked at the number of window,

aisle and middle seats available at the time of check-in for each

of your flights and using this data was able to calculate the chances

of all four being given middle seats on all four flights

under random allocation. This probability works out to be

around 1 to 540 million If you consider your chances

of winning the jackpot on the National Lottery are around 1

to 45 million, this means that you are more than 10 times more

likely to win the lottery than you are for this scenario

to happen just by chance. So there's more chance of winning

the lottery 10 times. I met up with Ryanair's head

of marketing, Kenny Jacobs, Well, we will be finding out what

the boss of Ryanair... I wonder if he has done a runner? Don't worry, I

pre-recorded it and he is definitely there. But it is interesting about

the numbers. We have got him. Here is Kenny. Kenny, why do you separate

people who are travelling together when there are seats available next

to them? We don't separate people travelling together. There is no

smoking gun to this story. Our policy has been the same since 2014,

when we introduced reserved seating. That policy has not changed. What is

happening at the moment is two things. We are about to enter the

peak of the summer travel season, when our flights are at their

fullest. So our average load factor is 95% but in the pick of summer,

all of our flights are very full. Over the past few years, more and

more of Ryanair customers are wanting to reserve seats. When

people reserve seats, the number one seat they prefer is window seats and

then I'll seats. Several customers who don't choose to reserve a seat,

the seat they will be randomly allocated is most likely... Randomly

allocated is what I am concerned about because we had four

researchers travelling on four flights. On none of those flights

were they sitting together, yet when they checked in, there were seats

available next to them. That is not random. We ate a statistician about

the survey said the chances of that being random is one in 543 million.

Something has changed. I am not going to get into stats. It is run.

-- it is random. But the complaint have increased. Four is a small

number. Every day, Ryanair carries over 400,000 people. We are not

seeing a big increase in complaints. It is simply the time of year which

is at the busiest peak of travel and more and more people are choosing to

reserve seats. The kids under 12, they get free reserved seats. So if

you have a family with kids under 12, they go for free. The parents

will just have to reserve a seat. But surely it is not random, because

it is happening too often. Over the past three years, we have introduced

the Always Getting Better programme. We have changed more for our

customers than any other airline. We have introduced reserved seating.

Are you trying to make more money out of them? Then we would simply

increase the fares. Ryanair have a reputation for bad customer service.

It feels like you are being dead nasty. Why can't people who check in

together sit together? The majority of our customers asked if they could

pick the seats they want. But why can't the people who have not picked

them sit together? Villa then why have reserved seating for the other

customers? This is not about annoying customers. We have stopped

doing that. This is about most of our customers wanting to reserve a

seat. They mostly want to reserve a window seat or an aisle seat. In the

peak summer months, there are less seats to be allocated to those

farmers who want a random seat. If they don't like a seat, all they

have to do is pay 2 euros to reserve a seat. Our average fare in the UK

is ?35. So it is about having the lowest fares and letting customers

choose the seat that they want. Kenny, thank you for explaining

this. There you go, Watchdog really is

life. Next though, take your

allocated seat for our final visit to EnergySave -

the company you'll recall that's admitted to making false claims

and targetting old ladies. Out there, Derbyshire. In here, we

are getting ready to go to the offices of EnergySave the meet,

hopefully, Jason Rowan and talk to him about his company. Serious

questions coming up. By the time and EnergySave's Bossa arrives, we are

parked up and ready to meet him. Jason Rowan, Matt Allwright, BBC

rogue traders, how are you? You when a despicable company that targets

the over 55s. We have seen evidence that you take people with

Alzheimer's and take money from them and even when you are aware that

they have Alzheimer's, you go back for another go and try and get money

out of them. If that anyway to a business? Is the only way you have

paid for your Bentley and your Maserati and your Ferrari by taking

money from vulnerable people and targeting the over 55s? Let me carry

on talking to you. You have aggressive sales practices, trying

to sell people things they will never need. Let me talk. Go ahead.

We have witnessed your policies. Misleading sales practices. Why

would we hide our conversation from the British public, who need to

understand the way you operate? It is despicable. The way you are

taking money from vulnerable people. Customers are happy with the

product. But you are massively misleading about the energy-saving

bills. It saves up to 30%. You can't believe that. It is a paint that

goes on the outside. Your science is rubbish. Says you. Yes, because that

is what experts told us. We also say the way you sell this product is

shameful. What we have heard is that a woman with Alzheimer's was visited

by one of your sales reps. The carer was there on the sales rep was told

to go away. Somebody from your company then came back and completed

the deal afterwards. I am astounded by that. You have to take

responsibility for the actions of this company. I take responsibility.

We have witnessed one of your leading sales men behaving in a

pressure sales manner. He sat with a woman and even when she said, I need

to think about this, he pushed on. He made the phone call to the

manager, classic technique. And you are presumably continuing to reward

bad behaviour. It all comes back to you because it is your company. Do

you understand that? What are you going to do? I am going to look into

it. You have taken me unawares. This is happening every day. And it all

comes back to you. No further comment. Who are you? That is my

general manager. We do have is we have been asked, but how can Jason

really have no idea what his sales team gets up to? As you could see in

there, Jason Rowan tries to separate himself from the company and the

culture we have seen, a culture which is making life a misery for a

lot of people for whom it is already difficult. We are not prepared to

let that continue. That's why we wanted to get the message through to

EnergySave today. Well, Jason Rowan, Energysave's

director, has since told us he's extremely concerned

about our allegations, which he insists are not

representative of the way claiming that the people

we featured in the film were mainly subcontractors,

and that he's suspended relationships with them

while he carries out significantly in training its sales

reps to ensure such issues don't arise -

and he doesn't condone racist or manipulative behaviour by anyone

associated with the company. And he still says the product

is scientifically proven to work, sending evidence which

he says backs that up. However, there is something

else quite troubling. EnergySave were signed up as members

of the Which Trusted Trader scheme, which is supposed to vet

the businesses you deal with. They had investigated

and expelled EnergySave But the question remains,

how did they get signed Which told us it carries

out multiple checks before endorsing a trader,

and then make regular assessments to ensure ongoing compliance,

and ensure people stick However, if you've experienced

a Which Trusted Trader or a member of any approval scheme

that we should know Now, we are getting lots of

comments. Please keep getting in touch. Go to the website,

bbc.co.uk/watchdog. Just click where it

says "Send us a story". Or if you want to send us

a letter, the address Thanks to everyone who's been

in touch while we've been live I have been working my socks off and

I am not even wearing them. What are the highlights

and low lights? On Twitter, lots of people are not

convinced by Ryanair's answer. Declan says four couples flying to

the same location with Ryanair were all allocated random middle seats,

separately even though there are three seats next to them. And Kay

said, glad Watchdog is talking about smart meters. We have had nothing

but problems. There have been a few of those coming in about smart

meters. If anyone is having problems with that, it is worth getting in

touch with good or bad experiences. It is not all about the bad stuff.

And the coffee story? I thought there would be a few more hashtags.

We'll be back live at 8 o'clock next Wednesday

with a test to see if one of Britain's biggest names

is offering new customers a service it knows it can?t deliver.

And Nick Hewer will be asking if the banks always play fair

with people who've been scammed out of tens of thousands of pounds.

We're not going to get out of this one, are we?