Episode 11 X-Ray

I'm Lucy Owen. And I'm Rhodri Owen. You're watching X-Ray, bringing you

the stories that matter. The Mazda 6. The advert says it's

not for everyone and the diesel version is certainly not for city

drivers like Chris. Those carrier bag charges - we ask

the Minister in charge to answer your questions.

And buying the dream - how a scam Hello. Tonight we're in Llanelli.

Over the last few weeks you've certainly let us know how you feel

about paying 5p for your carrier bags. It's been over a month now

since the charge came in and from the phone calls and e-mails we've

had, Tesco's decision to stop awarding green Clubcard points to

shoppers who use their own bags has made a lot of you very cross. Glyn

Williams from Flintshire wants to know if the promise of green points

printed on his reusable bag from Tesco forms the basis of a contract.

Nina Ward from Penarth says she thinks Tesco deserved a good slap.

And Rachel Dickson from Aberdare thinks it's extremely unfair that

she's not getting green points any more and she was horrified that her

Tesco home delivery driver asked for her carrier bags back, even

though she'd paid for them! here in Llanelli there are some

pretty strong opinions too... Tesco. We shot the same as they do

in England. We have to pay for the carrier bags, we should get the

points. A everybody should be treated the same. Tesco and will

not tell us how many green points they give away. On their website we

found this statement. Tesco customers in Wales have saved

over 500 million bags in the last five years.

We've done some maths based on that claim and if we assume that Welsh

customers have sayed 100 million bags per year, in theory that's a

100 million Green clubcard points that Tesco won't be giving out any

more. And at a penny a point that could save them �1 million.

So why does marketing expert Paul Buckley think Tesco's have done

this? They had just seen it as part of their promotional saving. They

probably think the customer will not notice. I suppose you could say

every little helps, but Tesco a little bit more than the customers.

Interesting. So what have Tesco's got to say? Well once again they

have turned down our offer of an interview. But they say:

They see Green Clubcard points as an incentive, not a loyalty reward,

and with the new regulations the incentive to reuse bags is now to

avoid paying for new ones. They don't think this means that Welsh

customers are missing out. More on that carrier bag charge

later. Now, over the past couple of years changes to diesel cars mean

they have become greener. But that's not without it's problems,

as Lucy's been finding out. The Mazda 6 - advertised as a very

exclusive car and can cost more than 20 grand. It's not for

everyone. And it definitely wasn't for the

guy who bought this one. Chris Nichols fell in love with the

Mazda 6 and travelled all the way to Shires Mazda in Taunton to buy a

second hand model. We'd had some inheritance through

my grandmother passing away last January. We'd been having slight

problems with our previous car, so we decided that it was a good idea

to upgrade the car to something a little bit bigger that would give

us a little more space. He paid over �14,000 for a 2.2

litre diese, but it was back in the garage three months later.

I was doing a routine check of the car and discovered that the oil

level in the engine was starting to rise. I rang both the Mazda

dealership in Cardiff and the Mazda dealership that I purchased the car

from. Both dealerships stated that if I did not change the oil then I

would invalidate the warranty. But you'd only had the car a few

months. How did you feel about having to get the oil changed?

Gutted, frankly. I was very very very disappointed. $$NEWLINEChris

was told his car was struggling to cope with urban driving conditions.

He'd stumbled on a major problem with modern diesel cars.

For the last two years almost all diesel cars have had to be fitted

with filters like this which cut emissions of soot. But these

filters aren't simple things. They have to clean themselves of trapped

soot - a process called regeneration. If the cleaning

process is interrupted then diesel can end up in the oil. And that is

why Chris's oil level keeps rising. That's because the car needs to be

driven hard for a continuous period for the filter to regenerate. The

engine need to be at over 2,000 revs for between ten and 15 minutes.

But Chris is a city commuter, so there's no chance of constant revs

on that commute. But his wife drives to Pencoed near Brigend once

a week - a 15 mile trip. Will that regenerate the filter?

So what we're looking for now is between ten and 15 mins at 2,000

revs. How are we doing at the moment?

Well, we're doing just about 65mph and about 2,200 revs. But whilst

driving along the motorway I am actually in fifth gear, not sixth

gear. If I was to try and do 2,000 revs in sixth gear I would actually

be breaking the national speed limit.

So what strikes me is that you are actually having to think about a

lot of things, monitoring your rev counter the whole time.

So we're coming up to the Pencoed exit now and we've done about seven

minutes I would say? Yeah, if that.

And have we maintained the revs? Only for five or six minutes.

Not nearly enough to make sure the car's diesel filter cleans itself

properly. So every weekend Chris has to drive as far as Pyle just to

avoid the costly business of replacing the filter. How do you

feel about this issue with the vehicle now?

There is just no enjoyment left with owning the car and driving it.

It's become a chore to use, a chore to regenerate.

But X-Ray's discovered that the problem Chris is experiencing could

have far more serious consequences. At Romford in Essex Mehdi Raifai

has a horror story to tell. It was a nice sunny day, I had the

radio on windows down. All of a sudden I noticed a huge increase in

the revs. You could hear it and looking behind me I seen big clouds

of white smoke. As the revs hit maximum, Mehdi was

fast approaching a roundabout. He says his car was out of control and

he switched the engine off. I hit 110mph I actually did feel

like my life was in danger. I had to swerve over with the engine off

and literally stopping just before a ditch in a layby.

But what could have caused this terrifying incident?

Mechanic came down and the first thing after explaining to me what

happened, the first thing he done was open the bonnet. He took the

dipstick out and he said he's never seen a car with oil levels this

high before. He straight away mentioned the huge amound of diesel.

I mean, you could smell it. Mehdi believes the high oil level

was caused by the diesel filter failing to regenerate. Mazda say

the oil level was too high however inbuilt safety systems are in place

prevent this kind of incident. They've not yet established exactly

what caused Medhi's frightening experience but say drivers DO need

to check their oil levels. Chris is now a worried man, stuck

with a car he bought from Shires Mazda for �14,600.

He says the company didn't warn him that this diesel engine was not

suitable for every driver. The company say that because Chris had

researched the car on the internet they assumed he knew about the

pitfalls. But that would have been a big ask.

There's nothing in the Mazda 6 brochures or the whole Mazda

website which mentions these problems.

The only place we found any official written information about

the diesel filter was in the handbook. And you only get that

when you buy the car. Which does seem a little bit late.

Mazda say dealers are trained to check customers driving habits when

selling a diesel model. The garage denies there is anything wrong with

the car. But they will buy it back for �5,000 less than Chris paid for

�14,000 is a lot of money in anybody's book and I was very lucky

I had that money as inheritance. And I'm massively disapointed that

the money is effectively going down the drain.

So Chris is disappointed with his Mazda. Now I'm joined by Tim

Shallcross, from the Institue of Advanced Motorists. Tim, does this

problem only relate to Mazdas? No it doesn't. This filter is

somethng that's fitted to almost every diesel car made today. It has

to be here so cars pass modern emissions regulations, and that's

important so they don't damage us. So does this mean all diesel cars

bought within the last few years aren't really suitable as a

runaround for town? It does. I must emphasise here that

the majority of owners will have no problem at all with diesel cars.

They can buy them with confidence. But if you only intend to use the

car as a runabout in town, and it's going to stick to 30 mph streets

and crawling traffic jams, you are liable to end up with problems with

this filter. I bet this is going to come as

quite a shock to people who have bought a diesel car in recent years.

Why aren't people being told about This is where it's quite ridiculous

to be honest. The dealers and the manufacturers need to be more

honest with people about the potential drawbacks of technology

as well as the advantages. They need to ask a few more questions of

people so if someone's out shopping for a small car in a dealership,

they should be asking what are you going to use the car for? How are

you going to use it? It's not a question of losing a sale - there

are perfectly good small peterol alternatives. That won't give any

problems in town. Tim, thank you.

Good to know. Remember, if there's anything you'd like us to look into

we'd love to hear from you. Our contact details are on the screen

now. Next - VW Campervans. Always very popular. No wonder one couple

from Swansea were keen to act quickly when they found one that

The campervan - an iconic vehicle loved by festival goers, surfers

and fans of the open road. Last September, Colin McFadden from

Swansea started dreaming about buying his very own classic van.

We was in Brighton at one time and we was walking along looking in

them. All different colours shapes and sizes and they all looked so

pretty, I thought how about buying one of them?

I thought yes. Now the children are grown up, it's our time now our

adventure. So, as Colin's wife Maria also

liked the idea the couple started searching for a campervan online.

On eBay they came across what they thought was a genuine advert for a

1979 Devon Bay window camper. One of us got excited. Oh, come and

look at this. Look at the colour of this because it was like sky blue

and Maria always fancied a sky blue one with a white top.

They couldn't believe their luck. Straight away they messaged the

seller who clarified it was still for sale and forwarded some

photographs. That was it, I was hooked. I

couldn't resist her. So I said, yeah, where is it. I'll have it. He

said I'm up in Scotland, but for a quick sale you can have it for

�4,500 and I'll deliver it free of charge.

It seemed a bargain and compared to the going rate for campervans it

certainly was. Colin might have expected to pay

ten to �15,000 or a lot extra for something of the quality of this

one rather than �4,500. So how could he not be tempted?

Anxious to get their hands on the vehicle they made a suggestion to

push the process along. We wanted to physically see it

really, so I said why don't we come up on the train and pick it up and

I could drive it back? Oh, no, no, no. Work commitments, it's not

suitable, he replied. Delivery is best option for me.

Not wanting to lose out, they agreed and pushed ahead with the

sale. The seller emailed Colin back and gave him instructions on how to

pay, telling him that he would be using a secure eBay payment

protection method. He sent me a page that I thought

came from eBay. It said payment protection page. All the rules and

regulations about how they keep the money for three days till you're

happy with the camper and if you're happy with it then they send the

money to him. He'd given me the account number to transfer the

money into and I thought right, that's it. I'll transfer the money

over to who I thought was eBay and that was it.

Happy the van was theirs, they started to dream about the trips

they would share together, until the day of delivery arrived.

Every time I heard what I thought was a lorry or something, I'd come

round the side quick. Oh, here comes the camper! Getting my phone

ready to take a photo of it on the back of the trailer or whatever.

I started questioning Colin how many hours did it take to get down

from Scotland to South Wales, you know

At what point then did the penny drop?

By seven that evening. It wasn't going to come.

By that time my young son was here. He said, what time's it supposed to

be here, Dad? I said it's supposed to be between two and four. He said,

I reckon you've been scammed. Searching for answers, they looked

back through all the e-mails and the realisation hit them.

He said, you pay through Paypal anyway Dad. Of course the penny

dropped. Of course you do. You don't pay through eBay, you pay

through Paypal. So how did you feel at that point?

I felt sick. Opened a can a beer to steady me down a bit. I thought

this is ridiculous. I've been So how were Colin and Maria duped?

Get Safe Online is the initiative that provides computer users with

free advice on how to use the internet securely. This scam works

because they are advertising on a well known website. They're putting

the price of the item they are selling slightly cheaper and then

they know how the system works. They talk about we'll make sure how

you pay us is a guaranteed method, you won't have to lose your money

unless you get the van. These are the type of things that start to

ring bells with people that this is genuine and I'm being looked after.

What you've got to make sure is you do your own checking. For Colin and

Maria, it's been an expensive lesson. But they haven't abandoned

their dream completely. They've now found another van but it's going to

take them quite some time to do it up. The moral of the story is don't

pay for it until it's actually on the drive. Cash on delivery. Good

advice. We've been in touch with Colin's bank, Lloyds TSB, but they

won't provide a refund as he had authorised the payment. We've also

spoken to eBay. They say they warn people to guard against fraudsters

impersonating companies. Their advice is that a reputable seller

will only ask you to pay via one of eBay's accepted payment methods,

Paypal, Credit Card and paying when you accept the goods. Next, time

for Lucy to tackle one of your Ken Evans from Neath thought his

Apple iMac would be built to last, but just four years after buying it,

a problem has appeared. I'm on the case. I spent hundreds of pounds on

an iMac. Now the screen's gone faulty and Apple won't help me.

dear, time for a trip to Neath. In March 2007, Ken decided to splash

out on an Apple iMac for the whole family to enjoy. We went with the

Mac because it's a premier product. It had all the facilities on it we

needed. Apple was a well known make and we thought any problems that

might arise from it would have been solved. And what do you use it for?

Photography mainly, my wife is interested in photography. We've

just been on a holiday and we're doing a DVD from video snaps I took

photographs my wife took. My wife also uses it to run the website for

the local church. It has the iweb facility and it's easy to use. It's

absolutely brilliant. But in August this year, the iMac developed a

very visible problem. A little line developed about three inches in

from the screen. Thought nothing of it until about a week later. A one

and a quarter inch bar appeared again just in from the screen and I

thought right this isn't very good and I did little bit of

investigation on the internet and discovered that it was a

manufacturer's problem with the screens of the batch of late 2006

iMacs that ours was a part of. contacted Applecare who gave him a

reference number for a free repair. But when he went to the Apple store

he was told that number was wrong. So back to Applecare. I was then

put through to a supervisor after some considerable time. The

supervisor explained to me there was nothing they could do for me

because Apple had written off the problem on May 26 this year.

you think it was odd that they offered you a free repair only to

take it back the next day? It did a little bit, yes. I thought

something was going on here. It was obvious at some point they had been

giving free repairs. And this was a product you bought hoping to use it

for many more years than you have? Yes, I realise that things become

redundant as our old PC did but I thought a Mac would last a bit more

than four years. So, Ken what would you like me to try and do? I would

like you to try and get Apple to fix the screen. Ken, I'm on the

It seems that Ken did everything right. And looking at the number of

complaints on the internet, it seems he's not the only person to

experience problems with the 2006 model of the Apple iMac. If you

have bought a product and believe that there could be a known fault

with that model, it's always worth contacting the retailer to find out

what help they will provide you with. Under the Sale of Goods Act,

retailers are responsible for faulty goods for up to six years

after purchase. So if something goes wrong with your item in that

timescale, then they should either provide a repair or a refund for

the product, minus the value of the usage you've had. As Ken bought the

iMac from an Apple retailer he was right to go straight to the company

when the fault appeared on the screen. But it still doesn't

explain why he was told he would have a free repair only for the

offer to be withdrawn the next day. Well, they've got back to us and

they're not saying much at all, They've simply said that they don't

comment on individual customer cases. However, after we contacted

them, they did get hold of Ken and told him they would repair his iMac

screen for free. Now we have the iMac back. The screen is repaired.

The whole family can start using it again. And that's another case

Now, judging from the emails and phone calls we've been getting over

the past few weeks, the introduction of carrier bag charges

has been pretty confusing. So we sent Rachel on a mission to get

some answers for your most In the last month, we've been

inundated with emails and phone calls from our viewers asking when

you should and shouldn't have to pay for carrier bags. So we've

decided to give you the definitive guide on when and where you'll need

to pay that 5p charge. We'll be hearing how the new law has

affected some of our viewers. And I'll be putting some of your

questions and concerns to the Environment Minister, John

Griffiths. And trying to find out the answers to some of your

questions. Like Caroline Camplin's from Maesycymmer. My issue is that

supermarkets are no longer providing a bag on a roll at the

checkouts for items such as meat products. I resent the fact that

you are expected to put pre- packaged meat into your bags

alongside things such as fruit and veg. So I went out to find out what

they're supposed to be doing. Now, according to our research, there

should be no charge for a small plastic bag placed around packages

of meat to avoid contamination. Even if it's already in a pack like

this one, but, it must be a small plastic bag not a standard sized

And we've checked with the four major supermarkets. Tesco, Asda and

Morrisons say their staff should still be giving out these smaller

plastic bags for free for items such as meat but Sainsbury's no

longer do. So, time to put the first of your questions to the

Environment Minister, John Griffiths. Lots of confusion about

what bag should be charged for, particularly small bags. I think

people are thinking about meat products. They don't want things

contaminated. Is it a bit confusing for everybody. Well, I think it

takes time for any change to bed in. There was a lot of concern that

there might be confusion around the imposition of the charge but the

actual experience has been very positive indeed. Perhaps there is

just a question mark then about when the smaller bags should be

charged for? Well, you know there will always be questions about the

detail. We do take account of issues like food hygiene and all of

that was considered in working out And many more of you have also been

in touch, like Eleanor Webber, who runs a twice weekly car boot sale

in Valley on Anglesey. Do we need to charge for carrier bags when

we're selling clothes for 5 pence or 50 pence each and selling books

for 50 pence each? Well, carrier bags will only ever be charged for

once. So if you're handing out old bags then you don't need to worry.

That counts for car boot sales as well as charity shops. But if the

bags are new ones, then you will need to start charging. A lot of

you want to know why paper bags are also being charged for. First up

John Willis from Llanelli. Why, when we go to restaurants like

Burger King and McDonald's, we're being charged 5p for a paper

carrier bag? I thought the new law was bought in for plastic only.

my name is Petra and I'm from Caerleon. If the reason the Welsh

Assembly has bought in the charge on carrier bags is that of an

environmental issues, why did they not bring in paper bags years ago

just like Dublin did? So Minister, why is that then? Paper bags are

biodegradable. Well, the production process for paper bags is equally

if not more environmentally damaging than that involved with

plastic bags. But the key message is about behavioural change, and we

need a consistent message. That consistent message is take your own

bags with you to re-use because of the environmental benefit. That

avoids litter from both plastic bags and paper bags. Now, we've

heard about some of the environmental issues surrounding

the new law, but what about the charge itself, and where the money

goes to? At the moment, it's not a legal requirement for shops to give

the 5p to charity. We know which charities some of the bigger shops

are giving to. For example, Tesco are giving to the RSPB, John Lewis

to Keep Wales Tidy and Morrisons to Save the Children. But what about

some of the smaller shops? We sent our researchers around the shops on

this street in Cardiff to find out what they were doing with their 5p

charge. And there was certainly some confusion about what and how

they should be charging. Over half of the 15 shops we asked didn't

know what they should be doing with We just made it up, put our 5

pences in, when they were on about making charges for carrier bags, we

just thought we'd do it ourselves. We don't know exactly what to do

with the 5ps. Are they going to charity or are they going somewhere

else? Nobody turned up to tell us exactly what to do with the money.

I don't think it really matters how they charge as long as they do

charge. So there is no one single right way. But surely there should

be some system so they know that money was carrier bag money.

they have more than ten employees, they are required to record the

amount of money that they received from the plastic bag charge and

indeed account for the use of that money. Almost two thirds of the

shops didn't know which charity their money was going to, now if

it's not against the law to keep that money, how is that going to be

enforced? Through pressure from customers. People do actually ask

what's happening to this money and you know they expect answers.

will you take the comments on board that you've heard today? Absolutely.

We're very keen to understand issues as they arise and work

through them. We don't want to see people making these payments. We

want to see people helping the environment and re-using their bags.

Time will tell. And we'll be keeping an eye on the situation

over the months to come. Now, just time to update you on a couple of

stories. Remember last week we told you how Barry Rawson from

Ystradgynlais and Leanne Griffiths from Wrexham had been refused

refunds via the Visa Chargeback scheme for tickets that never

arrived? Well, Lloyds TSB say they were eligible and should have been

told that when they asked at their branch. So it's full refunds all

Excellent and there's some progress at Clos-y-fferm, the housing

development in Aberporth where landslip caused this damage to some

of the homes. Barclays, who insured Jenny Davies, now say they will be

paying out for the repairs to her home. Remember, if you'd like us to

investigate anything on your behalf get in touch as soon as you can.

You can pick up the phone and dial 03703 334 334. The lines are open