:00:05. > :00:09.I'm Lucy Owen. And I'm Rhodri Owen. You're watching X-Ray. Bringing you
:00:09. > :00:12.the stories that matter. Thousands of cars on our roads have been
:00:12. > :00:17.clocked - we go undercover to track down the garages willing to help
:00:17. > :00:27.you break the law. 86 quid from Boots, but an experts warns women
:00:27. > :00:29.
:00:29. > :00:32.to be wary of the Breastlight machine.
:00:32. > :00:42.Claims management companies may seem to prioritise a lot - but do
:00:42. > :00:48.
:00:48. > :00:54.they deliver? Hello. Over the last couple of
:00:54. > :00:57.weeks we've been looking at these - Visa Debit cards. Not a lot of you
:00:57. > :01:00.seem to know that you've got the right to a refund in some
:01:00. > :01:05.circumstances when you pay for goods with one. And it seems that
:01:05. > :01:08.quite a few banks and building societies aren't helping. When we
:01:08. > :01:11.checked out the banks here in Pontypridd last week not all of
:01:11. > :01:14.them were able to tell us when you're eligible for a refund if
:01:14. > :01:17.you've used this card. More on that later. First though, if you're
:01:17. > :01:20.looking for a second hand car finding one with a low mileage is
:01:20. > :01:24.always a bonus. But amazingly, there are hundreds of thousands of
:01:24. > :01:32.cars on our roads whose mileage isn't genuine. Rachel Treadaway
:01:32. > :01:35.Williams has been investigating. In the world of second hand cars,
:01:35. > :01:41.mileage is king, the lower the better and the more your vehicle
:01:41. > :01:46.could be worth. But if you thought that just because cars have gone
:01:46. > :01:52.digital no one could change the mileage, well think again! Gabriel
:01:53. > :01:55.O'Connell, from Brynmawr, found that out the hard way. To buy a car
:01:56. > :01:59.that with clocked mileage, I felt totally stitched up and done.
:01:59. > :02:02.he's not alone. In the year to this March, official figures show there
:02:02. > :02:05.were nearly 700,000 cars on British roads which had a lower mileage
:02:05. > :02:13.than the year before - in other words their mileometers had gone
:02:13. > :02:17.backwards. That's more than one in every 40 cars. So how's that
:02:17. > :02:22.possible? One answer could be so- called mileage correction firms,
:02:22. > :02:27.they advertise freely on the internet. They say they help
:02:27. > :02:30.motorists who need to replace or reset broken or faulty mileometers.
:02:30. > :02:34.Using specialist computers, they claim to be able to adjust the
:02:34. > :02:40.mileage on virtually any car. But industry experts doubt the need for
:02:40. > :02:44.so many of the companies. There's no genuine reason why they should
:02:44. > :02:46.exist. Modern dashboards rarely go wrong and the only legitimate
:02:46. > :02:56.reason for them to exist is to actually rectify faulty
:02:56. > :02:57.
:02:57. > :03:02.speedometers. If there are so few genuine reasons to do it, why are
:03:02. > :03:05.there so many companies that are? There are very few legitimate
:03:05. > :03:07.reasons why they should be able to alter or clock a vehicle, but
:03:07. > :03:17.there's many reasons to illegitimately alter them, simply
:03:17. > :03:20.
:03:20. > :03:24.for financial gain. We found eight mileage correction firms in Wales.
:03:24. > :03:27.We told them all we wanted to wind back the mileage on a car before
:03:27. > :03:30.selling it. It's basically got really high mileage and I want to
:03:30. > :03:33.get a biat of mileage knocked off it. A classic case of car clocking.
:03:33. > :03:36.Three refused, the other five appeared ready to do the work. Some
:03:36. > :03:40.of those were mobile operators, but we decided to concentrate on two
:03:40. > :03:42.which operated out of their own garages. These are our two test
:03:42. > :03:44.cars, they're beginning their journey through the world of
:03:44. > :03:49.mileage correction with 130,000 miles between them. This one is
:03:50. > :03:53.going to a firm in Cwmbran, and this to a company in Caerphilly.
:03:53. > :03:58.It's ten years old and in the real world this Peugeot 206 has done
:03:58. > :04:00.nearly 75,000 miles. We went undercover and took the car to
:04:00. > :04:10.Rolling Motion in Caerphilly, telling the owner we wanted 30,000
:04:10. > :04:21.
:04:21. > :04:31.Just a few hours work to wind back the car's clock and potentially add
:04:31. > :04:40.
:04:40. > :04:50.hundreds to its value. He then asked us to sign a disclaimer,
:04:50. > :05:17.
:05:17. > :05:20.saying why we wanted the mileage Selling a car with false mileage or
:05:20. > :05:22.clocking is against the law. But actually doing the work of changing
:05:22. > :05:27.the mileage, so-called mileage correction is normally considered
:05:27. > :05:31.legal. We showed our footage to David Sanders from the Trading
:05:31. > :05:35.Standards Institute. So what do you make of what you've seen? He's
:05:35. > :05:38.actually pointing out that he knows that that is a criminal act, and
:05:38. > :05:46.that if he is associated with it then he becomes an accessory, or
:05:46. > :05:56.he's an aiding and abetting or whatever. The garage even offered
:05:56. > :06:04.
:06:04. > :06:07.this warning for us if we went on By giving you that advice, he's
:06:07. > :06:13.actually assuming that what is to follow isn't something that should
:06:13. > :06:18.happen. So he is in the knowledge? Yes. At what point does mileage
:06:18. > :06:26.correction move from being legal to illegal? If it is exactly what it
:06:26. > :06:29.says, mileage correction, no problem. If it is anything other
:06:29. > :06:32.than that, ie mileage deception, it's got to be illegal. The Office
:06:32. > :06:35.of Fair Trading has already called for mileage correction firms to be
:06:35. > :06:38.banned or regulated. It believes people could be over-paying more
:06:38. > :06:40.than half a billion pounds when it comes to buying cars that have been
:06:40. > :06:43.clocked. That's exactly what Gabriel O'Connell did. A lifelong
:06:43. > :06:52.Audi enthusiast, he travelled to Birmingham to buy what he thought
:06:52. > :06:56.was a bargain - a ten-year-old Audi A3, but he had second thoughts.
:06:56. > :07:00.paid �30 and had an HPI check on the car, to which I physically felt
:07:00. > :07:05.sick. I found out the car was showing a lot more mileage than
:07:05. > :07:08.97,000 and had been clocked twice. So how many miles had it done?
:07:08. > :07:11.worked it out that the car had roughly done 297,000 miles, which
:07:11. > :07:20.is as near as dammit 300,000 miles, which is the distance from South
:07:20. > :07:25.Wales to the moon. Gabriel finally got his money back and has now
:07:25. > :07:29.bought a car he's happy with. He'd paid for an HPI check - it's also
:07:29. > :07:33.possible to look online to see the mileage recorded on a car's MOT
:07:33. > :07:36.certificates. It's time for our other test car - nine-years-old and
:07:36. > :07:46.with 55,000 on the clock - to go to the second of our mileage
:07:46. > :07:56.
:07:56. > :07:59.Secret filming at Secure Wise, a firm offering mileage correction in
:07:59. > :08:09.Cwmbran. The big question is will they do the job when we tell them
:08:09. > :08:39.
:08:39. > :08:44.Secure-wise did, indeed, wind back the clock from nearly 56,000 to
:08:44. > :08:54.just over 35,000. But watch what happened when we asked for a
:08:54. > :09:01.
:09:01. > :09:05.No paper trail, but plenty of evidence on tape. So if a second
:09:05. > :09:08.hand car is what you're after, check the mileage is genuine.
:09:08. > :09:12.Unfortunately, it seems to be a prevailing attitude in the trade
:09:12. > :09:22.that the consumer is a mug and he's there to be ripped off if you can
:09:22. > :09:25.Shocking. So what have those companies got to say for
:09:25. > :09:27.themselves? Well we haven't heard back from Secure Wise in Cwmbran.
:09:27. > :09:32.But Rolling Motion have stopped advertising mileage correction on
:09:32. > :09:36.their website. They say they wouldn't have allowed the vehicle
:09:36. > :09:40.to be removed from the premises without the disclaimer being signed.
:09:40. > :09:43.And if we had refused to sign it then they would have put the
:09:43. > :09:46.mileage back to where it was. They say they acted in good faith, as
:09:46. > :09:50.they'd been led to believe the mileage was incorrect for the
:09:50. > :09:55.reasons set out in the disclaimer. Really? And on the theme of cars,
:09:55. > :09:58.remember the Lewis's? They thought their car was safetly parked at the
:09:58. > :10:04.Sytner garage in Newport, until they got a speeding ticket for an
:10:04. > :10:08.offence that happened 15 miles away from the garage. Well we've heard a
:10:08. > :10:11.few more interesting stories about Sytners. Mike Jenkins from Newport
:10:11. > :10:14.told us that when he went to collect his Mini, the door had been
:10:14. > :10:20.left open, the key was missing and there were McDonalds wrappers on
:10:20. > :10:26.the seat. And Rupert Montgomery from Barry found that the nearly
:10:26. > :10:31.new Mini he bought from Sytners had a very bad smell. It was like
:10:31. > :10:41.driving a compost heap. He took the car back to Sytners. When it was
:10:41. > :10:45.returned he found out why it smelt. There in the passenger footwell was
:10:45. > :10:48.a pile of rotten leaves, which had been the cause of the smell. They'd
:10:48. > :10:51.come in through the vents and had rotted away inside the dashboard of
:10:51. > :10:54.the car. Oh dear - well Sytner say they'll be getting back in touch
:10:54. > :10:57.with Mike and Rupert. Next, 650 Boots stores across the
:10:57. > :11:02.UK sell this - the Breastlight machine. It's used at home by women
:11:02. > :11:05.to increase breast awareness, but do we really need it? With around
:11:05. > :11:11.2600 cases diagnosed here each year women across Wales know it's
:11:11. > :11:14.important to be aware of the early signs of breast cancer. But can
:11:14. > :11:20.this hand held device, designed to be used in the comfort of your home
:11:20. > :11:29.be a useful tool in the fight against cancer? Or at �86 is it
:11:29. > :11:32.cashing in on our health fears? Breastlight is a new product
:11:32. > :11:35.designed to help you care for your breast health at home. Using this
:11:35. > :11:39.LED light women are encouraged to look out for and remember changes
:11:39. > :11:42.in their breasts. According to the kit malignant lumps have an
:11:42. > :11:50.increased blood supply so dark areas or shadows could be a cause
:11:50. > :11:52.for concern. Its makers say it's not a diagnostic tool but on their
:11:52. > :12:02.accompanying video, women using the Breastlight make conclusions about
:12:02. > :12:05.their own health. And it is reassuring that while I found no
:12:05. > :12:11.nasty dark patches, obviously I haven't got a lump because it was
:12:11. > :12:13.all just a big red glow. Since going on sale in 2006, 20,000
:12:13. > :12:18.Breastlights have been sold to retail and medical outlets
:12:18. > :12:28.worldwide. They're on sale in 12 countries and in 650 Boots stores
:12:28. > :12:35.across the UK. At Rhondda Breast Friends cancer support group, Diane
:12:35. > :12:38.Raybould and Sally Stoat have tested the Breastlight. Sally fears
:12:38. > :12:42.its cost and its availability on the High Street could lead women to
:12:42. > :12:45.place their trust in it. It's quite expensive to buy, it's then people
:12:45. > :12:49.think because they've spent quite a lot of money, bought it from a
:12:49. > :12:54.reputable place that this is going to be a really good answer and
:12:54. > :12:59.perhaps rely on it. But Dianne is keen on it. Anything that actually
:12:59. > :13:04.encourages people to check their own bodies is a really good thing.
:13:04. > :13:06.Dr Rose Fox is Director of Screening at Public Health Wales.
:13:06. > :13:16.There isn't any evidence that introducing home testing is going
:13:16. > :13:18.
:13:18. > :13:20.to have any impact on someone's chances of dying from breast cancer.
:13:20. > :13:23.Here in Wales there's a comprehensive evidence-based,
:13:23. > :13:25.screening system for breast cancer. Women over 50 are invited to
:13:25. > :13:27.screening centres like this every three years for checks. These
:13:27. > :13:34.detailed mammograms are diagnosed by professionals with extensive
:13:34. > :13:37.experience. There are lots of different types of cancer, and they
:13:37. > :13:40.all look very different on the x- rays. If someone who didn't have
:13:40. > :13:43.that degree of training looked at a mammogram they wouldn't be able to
:13:43. > :13:46.tell what was normal and what was abnormal. Often it's changes, very
:13:46. > :13:49.subtle changes between an x-ray that was taken three years ago and
:13:49. > :13:55.an x-ray that we've just taken recently that will give the clue to
:13:55. > :13:58.There are concerns that women using the Breastlight at home are
:13:58. > :14:04.expected to understand and compare changes they spot from month to
:14:04. > :14:07.month. Maybe they'd do it and feel that everything was all right when,
:14:08. > :14:10.perhaps, they should be being worried. The other end of the
:14:11. > :14:15.spectrum, if you like, is women trying to look and, perhaps, being
:14:15. > :14:18.anxious and not being sure what they are seeing. Sally, who's had
:14:18. > :14:24.breast cancer, agrees that the Breastlight relies too much on the
:14:24. > :14:28.individual. Most of us aren't medics so when you actually look at
:14:28. > :14:32.your breasts through it you can see your veins. But do we really know
:14:32. > :14:38.what we were looking for? I know when I looked through it I thought,
:14:38. > :14:40."That looks fine", but is it OK? But Diane, who lost her daughter to
:14:40. > :14:44.breast cancer and had her own personal battle with the disease,
:14:44. > :14:49.knows of some women who find the machine reassuring. One lady came
:14:49. > :14:53.back, she had a lump in her breast. She'd actually gone to the GP, the
:14:53. > :14:57.GP said, "Don't worry, it's a cyst. There's no problem". She'd gone
:14:57. > :15:00.away. The worries hadn't gone away. The worries were still there. The
:15:00. > :15:03.lump was still there. She tried the lamp. She said, "I shone the
:15:04. > :15:07.Breastlight on my breast where I felt the lump was. It didn't show
:15:07. > :15:10.anything up and that really gave me a lot more confidence in what the
:15:10. > :15:14.GP had said". But, whilst the UK licensed the Breastlight for sale,
:15:14. > :15:16.last November, Canada recalled the product. Health Canada said there
:15:16. > :15:19.was no clinical evidence that the Breastlight could be used
:15:19. > :15:23.effectively as a screening device for the early detection of breast
:15:23. > :15:30.cancer. Dr Fox agrees that the clinical evidence for the
:15:30. > :15:33.Breastlight isn't convincing. not aware of any evidence. If you
:15:33. > :15:36.think about it logically, if there was that level of evidence there,
:15:36. > :15:43.then maybe we should be offering those tests on the NHS rather than
:15:43. > :15:47.the breast screening programme that we currently do offer. Its makers
:15:47. > :15:49.have told us they make it clear in their literature that they don't
:15:49. > :15:52.encourage women to use the Breastlight as a diagnostic tool to
:15:52. > :15:57.look for cancer, but as an useful addition to their breast awareness
:15:57. > :16:00.routine. Thousands of women use it in this way.
:16:00. > :16:04.Well, Boots say the Breastlight isn't a diagnostic tool and should
:16:05. > :16:08.be used with self awareness checks. It shouldn't be seen as a
:16:08. > :16:11.substitute for mammogram screening. They also say the product comes
:16:12. > :16:15.with information on how to use it properly and customers can also ask
:16:16. > :16:20.a Boots pharmacist for advice if they need to. Remember, if there's
:16:20. > :16:30.anything you'd like us to look into, then get in touch. The details are
:16:30. > :16:37.
:16:37. > :16:41.on your screen now. Next, Lucy's on Carl Davies from Neath thought his
:16:41. > :16:48.laptop was in safe hands when he sent it off for repair but it seems
:16:48. > :16:51.to have disappeared without a trace. I'm on the case. PC World said
:16:51. > :17:01.they'd contact me within ten days but, weeks later, there's still no
:17:01. > :17:02.
:17:02. > :17:05.sign of the laptop. Last November, Carl decided to
:17:05. > :17:13.treat his daughter Alice to an extra special birthday gift and so
:17:13. > :17:18.spent �379.99 on a new laptop from PC World. So Alice was thrilled
:17:18. > :17:21.with her present, was she? She was, yeah. And does she use the laptop a
:17:21. > :17:28.lot? Yes, quite a lot for schoolwork and lots of social
:17:28. > :17:33.networking. And then what happened? The laptop fell off the bed and she
:17:33. > :17:37.cracked the screen. It was quite bad. There was cracks from top to
:17:37. > :17:42.bottom. So it was back to PC World for Carl.
:17:42. > :17:44.They checked the laptop. They said they can replace the screen. We
:17:44. > :17:47.paid a �50 non-refundable deposit and they said it'd take
:17:47. > :17:50.approximately ten days but, in between, somebody would ring us and
:17:50. > :17:55.give us an exact estimate of whether we were going to proceed
:17:55. > :18:01.with the repair. But when three weeks passed by with
:18:01. > :18:04.no word from PC World, Carl got in touch with the company. I was just
:18:04. > :18:08.getting the same answer all the time that it was at the diagnostic
:18:08. > :18:13.stage. I tried to explain to them that it wasn't for diagnosing
:18:13. > :18:17.because the screen was cracked. We just wanted a new screen. Finally,
:18:17. > :18:23.I decided to visit the store and I spoke to the manager on duty at the
:18:23. > :18:26.time, and then they started investigating more deeper.
:18:26. > :18:32.Six weeks later, Carl received a shocking call from PC World's Know
:18:32. > :18:36.How Repair Service admitting they didn't know where his laptop was.
:18:36. > :18:40.They did offer me a voucher so we could visit the local store and get
:18:40. > :18:45.a replacement for Alice. But I didn't receive any confirmation
:18:45. > :18:48.from anybody. It just came to a stalemate.
:18:48. > :18:52.So, Carl, they've taken the laptop off you, admitted they've lost it,
:18:52. > :18:59.said they'd refund you but haven't. How do you feel about that?
:18:59. > :19:06.Frustrated. Disappointed. And how does Alice feel about all this?
:19:06. > :19:11.very happy. And if Alice isn't happy, I'm not happy. $$WHIT OK,
:19:11. > :19:16.Carl, what would you like me to do for you? Please, if you can, find
:19:16. > :19:26.out if I can get a replacement for Alice, please? OK, Carl, I'm on the
:19:26. > :19:30.
:19:30. > :19:34.It's time to contact PC World and Well, they've got back to me. It
:19:34. > :19:37.seems there's still no sign of the laptop. PC World say they did
:19:37. > :19:39.manage to track it to their national repair centre near
:19:39. > :19:45.Nottingham but they don't know where it went from there, which
:19:45. > :19:48.they say is very unusual. They've put a flag on their system to make
:19:48. > :19:57.sure that Carl is contacted as soon as the laptop is found and are
:19:57. > :20:00.going to offer him a voucher worth �379.99 for a replacement. They'll
:20:00. > :20:05.also reimburse the cost of the game that Alice left in the laptop when
:20:05. > :20:08.it was sent for repair. PC World say they're sorry for the issues
:20:08. > :20:16.Carl's had and as a gesture of goodwill they'd like to offer him
:20:16. > :20:19.PC World have given us a voucher to get Alice a new laptop so hopefully
:20:19. > :20:28.she'll get top marks in her GCSEs this year.
:20:28. > :20:33.Good work. Now, over the past few weeks, we've been looking into the
:20:33. > :20:36.way in which you can claim a refund on your Visa Debit card. And it
:20:36. > :20:40.seems that the banks can be quite reluctant to let you know what your
:20:40. > :20:43.rights are. Last week, we featured Gail and Ken Hughes who were told
:20:43. > :20:46.by their bank, HSBC in Porthmadog, that they couldn't claim the cost
:20:47. > :20:50.of two dining chairs they'd bought on their Visa Debit card when the
:20:50. > :20:53.furniture company went bust. when we did a survey of banks here
:20:53. > :20:57.in Pontypridd, asking them in what circumstances we could claim a
:20:57. > :21:03.refund on a Visa Debit card, we got a lot of different answers - some
:21:03. > :21:08.right, some wrong. And it doesn't seem that you're getting the right
:21:08. > :21:11.answers either. Barry Rawson's 80th birthday didn't turn out as planned.
:21:11. > :21:16.His family spent nearly �181 on tickets to see Andre Roo and The
:21:16. > :21:19.Johann Strauss Orchestra in Birmingham. Lovely. But when the
:21:19. > :21:24.tickets didn't arrive, Lloyds TSB told his son they wouldn't be
:21:24. > :21:27.eligible for a refund. And for Leanne Griffiths from Wrexham, it
:21:27. > :21:32.was her Take That tickets which never materialised from website
:21:32. > :21:40.Book Me Tickets. She spent �224 back in November 2008, but never
:21:40. > :21:43.got to see the band. What a shame, Leanne. When she got in contact
:21:43. > :21:48.with her bank, Lloyds TSB again, they said they couldn't help and
:21:48. > :21:51.offered her a credit card instead. The Chargeback guidelines suggest
:21:51. > :21:56.both Leanne and Barry should have been eligible for money back
:21:56. > :22:00.because neither set of ticket ever arrived. We'll be passing their
:22:00. > :22:03.details onto Lloyds TSB. Next - there are plenty of companies who
:22:03. > :22:08.will offer to help you reclaim any insurance you might have been miss-
:22:08. > :22:17.sold on financial products. But, as Rachel finds out, you could end up
:22:17. > :22:21.Have you taken out a loan, mortgage or credit card in the past six
:22:21. > :22:25.years? You might be entitled to thousands of pounds. Pick up the
:22:25. > :22:28.phone and call us now. It's hard to avoid the messages
:22:28. > :22:31.from the claims management companies who all seem eager to
:22:32. > :22:36.help us get money back from the people who loaned it to us in the
:22:36. > :22:42.first place. There are adverts on the TV, radio, internet and even on
:22:42. > :22:48.Reclaiming PPI, or Payment Protection Insurance, has been big
:22:48. > :22:51.business for years. But now the firms which claim on our behalf are
:22:51. > :22:57.branching out, offering to reclaim all sorts of other charges from
:22:57. > :23:05.financial institutions. There are concerns about how some of them are
:23:05. > :23:11.One consumer who's been left baffled by his experience of a
:23:11. > :23:15.claims management firm is PE teacher Haydn Trew from Cardiff.
:23:15. > :23:19.was in the house one evening and had a call. This company said, do
:23:19. > :23:21.you want to win some money back? They were looking into the
:23:21. > :23:24.companies - mortgage companies, credit card companies - to see
:23:24. > :23:33.overcharges, overpayments, charging for late payments or to see if I'd
:23:33. > :23:36.been wrongly sold any mortgages. the phone, the advisor was pretty
:23:36. > :23:42.persuasive, convincing Haydn this was a great way to reclaim money
:23:42. > :23:45.from organisations which had taken advantage of him in the past?
:23:45. > :23:52.were saying things like they'd won money back for people, talking in
:23:52. > :23:56.the tens of thousands. My eyes lit up, as they would if anybody tells
:23:57. > :24:00.you they're going to get a substantial amount of money back.
:24:00. > :24:06.The process was frighteningly efficient. Before he knew it, Haydn
:24:06. > :24:09.was handing over his credit card details. So on the basis of just
:24:09. > :24:16.one phone call, the company was able to withdraw almost �600 from
:24:16. > :24:22.Haydn's credit card. With his claim on-going, a few months later, Haydn
:24:22. > :24:27.was contacted again by the company offering to look into more claims.
:24:27. > :24:32.In for a penny, in for a pound. Or, by now, over a thousand pounds.
:24:32. > :24:35.They wanted more money from Haydn. Because they really wanted to push
:24:36. > :24:39.for these two claims, I thought as I already paid �600 and didn't want
:24:40. > :24:44.to risk losing that, I thought if I gave them the �700 I might have a
:24:44. > :24:51.chance of getting a successful claim and getting something back.
:24:51. > :24:56.How much have they had altogether from you? So far around �1,300.
:24:56. > :25:00.who's Haydn paid his money to? The first letters came from Money
:25:00. > :25:02.Claiming Experts, based in Swansea. But they changed their name to
:25:02. > :25:09.Lifestyle Claims, although the parent company is called Client
:25:09. > :25:13.Connection Limited. It's been over a year since Haydn first heard from
:25:14. > :25:18.the company and most of his claims have been unsuccessful. But there's
:25:18. > :25:22.one still outstanding. I telephoned Lifestyle Claims and the chap that
:25:22. > :25:31.came on the phone said it's gone to another company which deals with
:25:31. > :25:38.the final process. At the moment there's about ten stages and it's
:25:38. > :25:43.on stage five, so I'm not very hopeful with that at the moment.
:25:43. > :25:47.So why did Haydn have faith in the company in the first place?
:25:47. > :25:50.thing that sold me to them was the fact that they said they were with
:25:50. > :25:53.the Ministry of Justice. Client Connection Limited say they
:25:53. > :25:58.only refer to themselves as being regulated by the Ministry of
:25:58. > :26:01.Justice in respect of regulated claims management activities. The
:26:01. > :26:07.first fees of almost �600 were charged to Haydn's credit card the
:26:07. > :26:09.same day as their initial phone call. The Ministry of Justice,
:26:09. > :26:16.which regulates claims management firms, has provided guidance which
:26:16. > :26:21.suggests they aren't allowed to do that. Some firms are taking payment
:26:21. > :26:25.details during their initial call. This is not permitted. Client
:26:25. > :26:30.Connection Limited say. "The guidance note to which you have
:26:30. > :26:33.referred is not statutory and has no legal basis".
:26:33. > :26:39.But the Ministry of Justice is critical of this, saying the
:26:39. > :26:42.guidance clarifies what businesses need to do to protect consumers.
:26:42. > :26:44."If a business is found to be flouting these guidelines, the
:26:44. > :26:49.Ministry of Justice can take appropriate action which can
:26:49. > :26:52.include investigation and suspension of a company".
:26:52. > :26:54.The Ministry of Justice has told us that they are investigating
:26:54. > :26:59.consumer complaints made against Client Connection Ltd - Lifestyle
:27:00. > :27:05.Claims. They say they will carefully consider the issues
:27:05. > :27:10.raised about this business. One of the claims, against Haydn's credit
:27:10. > :27:15.card company, was successful, earning him just over �100. But
:27:15. > :27:18.Client Connection have asked for 30% as their fee. One more claim is
:27:18. > :27:23.still outstanding, so Haydn is still waiting to hear if he's due
:27:23. > :27:27.any more money. I don't understand how they operate and I wish I
:27:27. > :27:30.hadn't entered into it in the first place.
:27:31. > :27:35.The consumer organisation Which? Has recently conducted research
:27:35. > :27:40.into claims management firms. Money editor James Daley has a stark
:27:40. > :27:42.warning. Dozens of firms out there don't declare fees, overstate their
:27:43. > :27:52.value, charge up front fees, get consumers to sign the contract
:27:53. > :27:55.
:27:55. > :27:58.before knowing what the service is. The Ministry of Justice needs to
:27:58. > :28:08.clamp down on this industry so those firms which aren't following
:28:08. > :28:08.
:28:09. > :28:13.And we'll be sure to let you know if Haydn does get any more money
:28:13. > :28:17.back. Now, lots of you have been in touch after we revealed last week
:28:17. > :28:20.that Tesco no longer give Green Clubcard points in Wales. Next week
:28:20. > :28:24.we'll be following up on all your e-mails about the carrier bags
:28:24. > :28:27.charge. So if you want to tell us how you think it's going.
:28:27. > :28:34.there's anything you'd like us to investigate, then get in touch.