:00:05. > :00:11.You're watching X-Ray. On tonight's programme: Hello! Rachel's tracking
:00:11. > :00:15.down the company bosses behind a call centre scandal. High Street
:00:15. > :00:21.rental shops are on their way out but do online DVD companies come up
:00:21. > :00:31.with the goods? And the Batacan family wishing for a family reunion.
:00:31. > :00:42.
:00:42. > :00:45.Hello there. Welcome to the programme. Now if you're planning
:00:45. > :00:48.to entertain the kids with some DVD's this half term, there aren't
:00:48. > :00:51.many places left on the High Street where you can hire the latest
:00:51. > :00:56.blockbuster for a few quid. So we've been checking out those
:00:56. > :00:59.companies who seem to be offering a great deal. But first, here in
:00:59. > :01:04.Swansea, quite a few call centres have attracted our attention over
:01:04. > :01:07.the years. One of them, Lifestyle Claims, stopped trading last autumn.
:01:07. > :01:09.In this special investigation, Rachel's been finding out what
:01:09. > :01:19.exactly was going on before the company closed its doors, owing
:01:19. > :01:25.
:01:25. > :01:30.Hello, my name is Stephanie. I'm calling from Lifestyle Claims. How
:01:30. > :01:33.are you today? Ever wondered what it's like to work in a call centre,
:01:33. > :01:37.cold-calling people in their homes and telling them they could be due
:01:37. > :01:41.a pay-out worth thousands? Well, that's exactly what Stephanie
:01:41. > :01:46.Graham did for just under two months. It was the 20-year-old's
:01:46. > :01:49.first full-time job. You would say something like, "You could be due
:01:49. > :01:54.thousands of pounds back in compensation from your high street
:01:54. > :01:57.lenders. Have you been to see about it? Have you had your money?"
:01:57. > :02:01.You've got to keep them on the phone. You're not allowed to hang
:02:01. > :02:04.up on them. The customer has to hang up on us. All that came to an
:02:04. > :02:07.end last October when the firm stopped trading. Lifestyle Claims
:02:07. > :02:09.had been ringing people in their homes and promising to help recover
:02:09. > :02:13.compensation for mis-sold payment protection insurance for a few
:02:13. > :02:21.years. In that time, they've clocked up over 200 complaints to
:02:22. > :02:26.Swansea's Trading Standards. number of complaints that come to
:02:26. > :02:29.our organisation is the tip of the iceberg. Christine Reith from
:02:29. > :02:34.Cwmbran is one of those unhappy customers. Lifestyle Claims rang
:02:34. > :02:38.her in 2010 and convinced her to try to claim back PPI. At first,
:02:38. > :02:43.they told her there was nothing to pay up-front. But then they
:02:43. > :02:47.persuaded her to pay on her credit card to speed up her claims.
:02:47. > :02:50.would take longer unless I paid a charge on a credit card to have a
:02:50. > :02:58.priority to fast-track me through the system, and then it would only
:02:58. > :03:03.take about 90 days. She had six claims each costing more than �350.
:03:03. > :03:08.The total bill to her credit card was �2,400. They promised it was
:03:08. > :03:12.all risk-free. They said you can't lose because it's on your credit
:03:12. > :03:15.card and as soon as we get a response back we will automatically
:03:15. > :03:22.pay it you back, so I said okay and foolishly I gave them my credit
:03:22. > :03:29.card number.. Did they give you any more impression about how much you
:03:29. > :03:34.might be looking at? Well, anything up to �2,000 for each claim. At the
:03:34. > :03:38.call centre, promising thousands was part of the hard-sell.
:03:38. > :03:41.always said thousands. You had to because if you spoke in thousands,
:03:41. > :03:46.when it came to the end and you were only asking for �360, it
:03:46. > :03:52.doesn't sound that much. The other big promise was they'd tell you how
:03:52. > :03:56.much you'd get within 90 days. were told not to tell them it would
:03:56. > :04:00.take two years. Don't tell them that, tell them the first bit. The
:04:00. > :04:03.90 days that it would take to find out how much they would get.
:04:03. > :04:06.this is where Stephanie was based. One of the two addresses in Swansea
:04:06. > :04:13.listed for Lifestyle Claims. Although, you'll see on that sign
:04:13. > :04:17.behind me that it says Cellcom. Cellcom Communications Ltd were the
:04:17. > :04:23.company that employed Stephanie. They were contracted by Lifestyle
:04:23. > :04:27.Claims to make many of their calls. She started work there last summer.
:04:27. > :04:30.You used to have to tell them, a shock tactic is what they called it,
:04:30. > :04:33.where each bank was fined a certain amount for doing it. You'd tell
:04:33. > :04:41.them how much. "Oh, Lloyds, they were fined �3.2 billion. That could
:04:41. > :04:46.be yours." And these are some of the booklets for Lifestyle Claims.
:04:46. > :04:50.They tell call centre staff how to keep people on the phone. Oh, hello,
:04:50. > :04:53.is that Mr Jones Wrong number? Well that's okay, as there is a high
:04:53. > :04:57.chance this will effect you too. It's Karen calling from Lifestyle
:04:57. > :05:01.Claims. How are you today? We had a big list of objections and the
:05:01. > :05:04.answers you should give if they were to give them. If they were to
:05:04. > :05:07.say, "I'm not interested", my answer would have to be, "That's
:05:07. > :05:10.the reason why I'm calling you", and I'd just carry on with the
:05:10. > :05:20.script, go back to the script straight away without answering any
:05:20. > :05:23.more questions. And there were plenty of incentives to make a sale.
:05:23. > :05:27.This sliding scale starts at �300 a week for three sales, rising to
:05:27. > :05:36.�1,000 a week if you can make 15 deals. And for the very top sales
:05:36. > :05:39.people, �1,500 a week for 25 deals. Another former employee who worked
:05:39. > :05:42.there for a few months last year spoke to us anonymously about how
:05:42. > :05:48.they were told to do almost anything to get the customer on-
:05:48. > :05:52.side. If I was speaking to a woman, I would pretend I was roughly the
:05:53. > :05:56.same age as her. I would pretend I had a husband as well, just make up
:05:56. > :05:59.things on the spot about my personal life, so we sort of had
:05:59. > :06:02.something in common. They did tell us to say during rapport building,
:06:02. > :06:06.if it comes to it, if you think they're going to hang up the phone,
:06:06. > :06:11.build up that rapport and then say, "Oh, I had PPI. I just got mine
:06:11. > :06:14.back for so and so amount." And then they would think, I may get
:06:14. > :06:18.mine back for the same as her. We'll have a go at this, kind of
:06:18. > :06:21.thing. Were there ever times where you felt the person at the other
:06:21. > :06:25.end of the phone was vulnerable? one point, I had a woman crying on
:06:25. > :06:28.the phone to me because her husband had died, and this, that and the
:06:28. > :06:33.other. I just spoke to her for an hour about nothing, and she was
:06:33. > :06:35.crying, and I couldn't do it. I had to put the phone down, but I had a
:06:35. > :06:39.row for that because I didn't take her details. For Christine,
:06:39. > :06:44.meanwhile, there'd been two years of frustration. She'd had one
:06:44. > :06:46.successful claim of �100. But as for the �2,400 she'd spent on her
:06:46. > :06:49.credit card, well, she couldn't have that back until the remaining
:06:49. > :06:57.five claims were dealt with. And that didn't happen until last
:06:57. > :07:00.summer. I rang them up, and I said, you know, I expect the money to
:07:00. > :07:08.come back. The claims have been unsuccessful now, which they
:07:08. > :07:11.admitted to. And they said, yeah, they would, within 30 days.
:07:11. > :07:13.behind the scenes, there were mounting problems. Lifestyle Claims
:07:13. > :07:16.was under pressure from its bank because of the number of
:07:16. > :07:19.dissatisfied customers trying to get their money back and then from
:07:19. > :07:26.the Ministry of Justice, which wanted it to stop charging up-front
:07:26. > :07:29.fees. The turning point for Stephanie was when she failed to
:07:29. > :07:35.reach her weekly target of three sales. In desperation, she signed
:07:35. > :07:39.up her own mum, but then had doubts. I went and spoke to my floor
:07:39. > :07:42.manager. I was like, my mother hasn't heard anything, and he was
:07:42. > :07:46.like, leave it with me, but he never gave me an answer. I kept
:07:46. > :07:51.asking and asking and asking, and then they sacked me. But by this
:07:51. > :07:54.stage, it was all over for the company. In September last year,
:07:54. > :07:58.the Ministry of Justice banned Lifestyle Claims from charging
:07:58. > :08:01.customers up-front fees. Weeks later, it was in administration. So
:08:01. > :08:04.a firm which in its last year appeared to make somewhere between
:08:05. > :08:14.�7 million and �8 million was gone just like that, leaving a thousand
:08:15. > :08:20.
:08:20. > :08:24.customers owed �1.1 million. But now, another firm appeared on the
:08:24. > :08:28.scene. Redhawk Legal bought Lifestyle's old customer list from
:08:28. > :08:32.the administrator. They, too, used Cellcom Communications to make
:08:32. > :08:35.their phone calls. And if you're wondering whether these three
:08:35. > :08:42.companies have any connections, well, Kevin Kearle was one of the
:08:42. > :08:45.early directors of Lifestyle Claims for a few months back in 2009. He's
:08:45. > :08:48.still a director at, yes, you guessed it, Cellcom Communications
:08:48. > :08:58.and last year one of his fellow Cellcom directors also became a
:08:58. > :09:01.
:09:01. > :09:04.director of Redhawk Legal. Mmmh! What was in it for Redhawk? Well,
:09:04. > :09:07.they wanted to take the 30% cut of any pay-out the former Lifestyle
:09:07. > :09:10.customers might get. Our anonymous Cellcom worker was there on the day
:09:10. > :09:13.it all happened. We were told Lifestyle Claims went into
:09:13. > :09:17.administration and we were taken into the training room by one of
:09:17. > :09:21.the managers. He did a massive talk with us and he said, "We now from
:09:21. > :09:24.today don't know who Lifestyle Claims are. You never worked for
:09:24. > :09:27.them you don't know any details. You are only carrying on the claims
:09:27. > :09:30.from the customers they previously produced and you are now Redhawk
:09:30. > :09:33.Legal Ltd and the only thing you can tell the customer is that
:09:33. > :09:36.you're taking the claims on from here on in and you don't know
:09:36. > :09:46.anything else apart from that. You have to take on the mess that
:09:46. > :09:47.
:09:47. > :09:50.Lifestyle made." So how big a mess are we talking about? We've been
:09:50. > :09:53.told there was a massive backlog of claims, 16,000 of them, many lying
:09:53. > :10:02.boxed up around Cellcom Communication's offices. We decided
:10:02. > :10:04.it was time to pay them a call. We've written to Llifestyle Claims
:10:04. > :10:14.and Cellcom Communications but they've failed to answer our main
:10:14. > :10:16.
:10:16. > :10:25.questions. So we're here in person to see if they'll respond now. Are
:10:25. > :10:32.they upstairs? But there was no sign of Kevin Kearle or anyone else.
:10:32. > :10:36.Time to leave. So once again, no response. So we've got companies
:10:36. > :10:38.here who are only too keen to engage you in conversation but when
:10:38. > :10:41.it comes to engaging with us, they're nowhere near as upfront
:10:41. > :10:44.with us. A lot of unanswered questions there. Well, those claims
:10:44. > :10:48.firms are regulated by the Ministry of Justice, who have refused to
:10:48. > :10:51.give us an interview. They did close down 209 claims firms in a
:10:51. > :11:01.crack down last year, but clearly there's still some way to go. We'll
:11:01. > :11:09.
:11:09. > :11:13.keep you posted. Still to come: Find out why Barbara's had to leave
:11:13. > :11:17.her own home after it was destroyed by damp. Now, I don't know about
:11:17. > :11:20.you but I like a nice night in. Fire on, feet up, and maybe a nice
:11:20. > :11:24.film on the TV. But fewer and fewer shops have DVD's you can rent and
:11:24. > :11:31.even the big daddy of them all, Blockbuster, could soon be gone. So
:11:32. > :11:35.we sent Rhod to check out the new kids on the block. When the weather
:11:35. > :11:37.is doing its worst, what better way to spend an evening than on the
:11:38. > :11:40.sofa with the latest Hollywood offering. With local video shops
:11:41. > :11:50.closing down, many of us are turning to the internet for our
:11:51. > :11:53.
:11:53. > :11:58.films. Loads of new entertainment companies have popped up online and
:11:58. > :12:03.it seems everyone's getting in on the act. You can even get a movie
:12:03. > :12:06.with your pizza! But are they just as good as the old fashioned
:12:06. > :12:16.alternative of the video store where you can walk in and pick up
:12:16. > :12:26.the latest release? I used love of film about it did not work very
:12:26. > :12:27.
:12:27. > :12:33.well. You never get the prioritised ones. I have used them but they
:12:33. > :12:41.don't blow it properly. You didn't have much of a choice of current
:12:41. > :12:45.films. You had to wait one or two years. So we're going to test two
:12:45. > :12:49.options. Ordering a DVD online to arrive in the post and watching the
:12:49. > :12:54.films live over the internet. We want to see how the top companies
:12:54. > :13:01.do when we order the top five DVD releases of the week. And here they
:13:01. > :13:06.are. At five, it's Lucy's favourite hunk, Tom Cruise, in Rock of Ages.
:13:06. > :13:11.At four, Lucy would love this, it's Snow White and the Huntsman. At
:13:11. > :13:15.three, the latest teenage craze, The Hunger Games. At two it's
:13:15. > :13:22.Lawless, that's more like it. And in at number one, finally, a proper
:13:23. > :13:27.bloke's action blockbuster, Dredd. So, first up it's the turn of the
:13:27. > :13:34.companies offering you DVD's through the post. And technology
:13:34. > :13:37.expert James Rivington has the lowdown on how these services work.
:13:37. > :13:40.So With a DVD through the post service like LOVE FILM or
:13:40. > :13:43.Blockbuster, it allows you to manage a wish list of DVD's, Blue
:13:43. > :13:49.Rays or games and they will literally stick it in the post to
:13:49. > :13:53.you. You keep those disks for as long as you like and when you're
:13:53. > :13:56.done with them you post them back and they'll send you the next thing
:13:57. > :14:00.on the list. These three companies offer this kind of service for a
:14:00. > :14:05.monthly subscription. Blockbuster Online, Cinema Paradiso and the
:14:05. > :14:10.biggest player on the block, Love Film. They claim to have thousands
:14:10. > :14:13.of titles in their libraries including new releases. So can we
:14:13. > :14:20.order our top five DVD's from these firms on a Wednesday and have at
:14:20. > :14:24.least one of them through our door in time for our Saturday night in?
:14:24. > :14:28.Both Blockbuster and Love Film came up with the goods by the Friday
:14:28. > :14:32.after we ordered, well in time for our Saturday night in. Blockbuster
:14:32. > :14:37.sent Snow White and the Huntsman and Love Film, The Hunger Games.
:14:37. > :14:41.But Cinema Paradiso didn't deliver in time for the weekend. Their DVD
:14:41. > :14:47.turned up six days after we ordered it. They say that's down to delays
:14:47. > :14:53.in the post and not their service. But why wait three days for a DVD
:14:53. > :14:57.to arrive when you can watch movies online straightaway? You choose the
:14:57. > :15:00.one you want you press "Go" and then the movie literally comes down
:15:00. > :15:04.through your broadband 3G or 4G connection, and you watch it direct
:15:04. > :15:10.on your device. These companies all offer this service for a monthly
:15:10. > :15:14.subscription. Love Film Instant, Netflix, Now TV and Picture Box.
:15:14. > :15:19.And like the firms offering DVD's by post, they claim to have a
:15:20. > :15:23.selection of movies for you to watch. So all four firms are making
:15:23. > :15:31.claims that wouldn't look bad on a movie billboard but can they live
:15:31. > :15:36.up to their own hype? All it takes is a quick check online to see if
:15:36. > :15:41.our top five films are available. Let's see if Dredd is there. Nope.
:15:41. > :15:44.What about Lawless. No sign of that one either. But despite their
:15:45. > :15:50.blockbusting claims, none of them have the top five films in the DVD
:15:50. > :15:54.charts. Not the VIP treatment we were hoping for. The current
:15:54. > :15:57.services aren't really ideal for anyone. If you're going to go
:15:57. > :16:01.through the postal route, the fact that you can't guarantee the latest
:16:01. > :16:03.movies isn't great. If you're going to go streaming, the fact that the
:16:03. > :16:07.latest releases simply aren't available on any service isn't
:16:07. > :16:11.great. The fact is that the movie studios, the TV studios, they want
:16:11. > :16:18.you to go out into a shop and pay �15 for a DVD because that means
:16:18. > :16:21.that they get more money for their content. $WHITE So if you're really
:16:21. > :16:24.desperate to see the latest DVD, you'll still need to get up off
:16:24. > :16:33.your sofa, find a local rental shop that's still open and pick it up
:16:33. > :16:35.yourself. So. Now you know. And what are the companies saying?
:16:36. > :16:38.Blockbuster says it offers customers the latest films faster
:16:39. > :16:42.than the other firms, and their Top Ticket service is something other
:16:42. > :16:46.companies don't have. Cinema Paradiso, whose DVD didn't arrive
:16:46. > :16:51.in time, admit it can be difficult for them to supply popular new
:16:51. > :16:54.films as a first choice. Love Film say that 94% of their customers get
:16:54. > :16:57.their top choice through the post but the choice they offer to their
:16:57. > :17:04.online customers is limited to films made by the studios they have
:17:04. > :17:06.agreements with. That's also true of NETFLIX. And Now TV say their
:17:06. > :17:11.customers can view blockbuster releases around six months after
:17:11. > :17:14.they've ended their cinema run. So if you're thinking of subscribing,
:17:14. > :17:24.I'd say it's worth checking out the films on offer from each company
:17:24. > :17:27.
:17:27. > :17:37.Next up it's the online holiday firm that promised one family a
:17:37. > :17:39.
:17:39. > :17:43.magic deal on flights to a faraway land. Rachel has the story.
:17:43. > :17:45.I love looking having a good old nose around these kinds of old
:17:45. > :17:54.curiosity shops because just like Aladdin's cave, you never know what
:17:54. > :17:59.you're going to find. If I had one of these, I know what my first wish
:17:59. > :18:05.would be. And no, I'm not going to tell you but I can reveal what the
:18:05. > :18:09.Batacan family from Pontyclun's wish is - a trip to the Philippines.
:18:09. > :18:12.Dad Jeffrey is from Manila. He met Rebecca when they both worked on
:18:12. > :18:17.cruise ships. Since 2001 they have lived happily ever after in
:18:17. > :18:20.Pontyclun. Now family man Jeff is keen to take his children Megan,
:18:21. > :18:29.Jack, Maya and Natasha back to his homeland to meet his ten brothers
:18:29. > :18:34.and sisters. It is important for us, for me, to go back to the
:18:34. > :18:38.Philippines to see them and see them growing. All together there's
:18:38. > :18:45.ten of them so when we get together there's quite a lot of us. You have
:18:45. > :18:49.fun together? We do, absolutely. Oh yes, singing, dancing. Getting to
:18:49. > :18:51.the Philippines certainly isn't cheap. The family saved hard for
:18:52. > :18:57.five years in order to spend Christmas 2011 with Jeffrey's
:18:57. > :19:00.family. Then they made a magical discovery - online travel firm
:19:00. > :19:09.Holiday Genie claimed they could grant three wishes of convenience,
:19:09. > :19:12.value for money and expertise. So the couple made a booking. The six
:19:13. > :19:20.of them would fly from Heathrow to Manila at the end of November and
:19:20. > :19:24.return home five weeks later. All for just under �3,500. What about
:19:24. > :19:29.the children, were they excited? Well Maya is packed three months
:19:29. > :19:33.before we go. Yes, three months. That's how excited she is. She had
:19:33. > :19:36.a bag packed three months before. But just eight days before they
:19:36. > :19:41.were due to fly, it seemed like Holiday Genie's magic spell was
:19:41. > :19:44.broken. We received a phone call from somebody from Holiday Genie,
:19:44. > :19:52.informing us that our tickets had been cancelled because a third
:19:52. > :19:55.party had apparently gone into administration. We had no written
:19:55. > :20:04.confirmation of anything, just that one phone call telling us we would
:20:04. > :20:09.have to pay an extra �1,000 or to get a full refund. Paying the extra
:20:09. > :20:12.money wasn't an option for Rebecca and Jeffrey. So Holiday Genie
:20:12. > :20:15.offered the family a new wish - rather than pay the extra �1,000
:20:15. > :20:17.for the same dates, they could change their return flights and
:20:17. > :20:27.stay in Manila for an extra fortnight but they'd still be
:20:27. > :20:28.
:20:28. > :20:33.paying an extra �600 for the privilege! We couldn't cancel. The
:20:33. > :20:39.plans had been made, we hadn't seen everybody for so long. So we
:20:39. > :20:41.decided to pay the extra �600 and stay for longer. They felt forced
:20:41. > :20:47.into the decision and just days before their holiday, they asked
:20:47. > :20:54.Holiday Genie for a refund. But they found it almost impossible to
:20:54. > :20:58.summon any response from the firm about what went wrong. What
:20:58. > :21:01.concerned us was they phoned us a week before we were due to fly and
:21:01. > :21:11.we didn't get anything in writing at all, it was all done on the
:21:11. > :21:14.phone. It just seems... It doesn't feel right at all. But it's not
:21:14. > :21:17.just Rebecca and Jeffrey who have had their holiday wishes turn sour
:21:17. > :21:20.after summoning the Holiday Genie. We have found dozens of other
:21:20. > :21:27.unhappy customers online, many of them complaining that they couldn't
:21:27. > :21:30.get any answers. Holiday Genie is a member of the travel association
:21:30. > :21:40.ABTA, which should guarantee good service and offers to help put
:21:40. > :21:41.
:21:41. > :21:44.things right. We contacted ABTA and they said to leave it for a longer
:21:44. > :21:48.period, which I then did and still to this day, I have not heard
:21:48. > :21:51.anything at all. More than a year has now passed since the family
:21:51. > :21:56.returned home from Manila and while they did manage to collect some
:21:56. > :22:00.magic memories on the trip, Jeffrey and Rebecca remain out of pocket.
:22:00. > :22:06.They would still like Holiday Genie to fulfil one last wish and put
:22:06. > :22:13.things right. For them not to respond to any of the emails or the
:22:13. > :22:16.letters they've been sent, it just seems really, really unfair.
:22:16. > :22:21.isn't just their customers that Holiday Genie are reluctant to
:22:21. > :22:24.speak to. It took us weeks to speak to a manager at their call centre.
:22:24. > :22:27.When we finally got through, they told us they had already offered
:22:27. > :22:30.the family a full refund, and they had answered the Batacan's letter
:22:30. > :22:35.of complaint. But Rebecca and Jeffrey say they have never
:22:35. > :22:40.received any letters from Holiday Genie. The couple has also written
:22:40. > :22:42.to ABTA with no success, so we chased them up, too. ABTA has now
:22:42. > :22:49.promised to investigate Holiday Genie's actions and make sure they
:22:49. > :22:51.sort things out. We'll be checking! If you're a regular viewer, you'll
:22:51. > :22:55.know that problems with cavity wall insulation feature on this
:22:55. > :23:03.programme fairly often. But when we heard about one great grandmother's
:23:03. > :23:07.five year battle to get her home put right, we had to find out more.
:23:07. > :23:12.Meet Barbara Davies. She moved to this house in Ammanford with her
:23:13. > :23:18.family 65 years ago. How long have you lived here? Since I was seven
:23:18. > :23:23.years old and I am 72 now. So this house must be full of memories?
:23:23. > :23:26.my memories are here, every one. Barbara's home has been pride and
:23:26. > :23:34.joy all her life - here she has cared for children, grandchildren
:23:34. > :23:37.and even great grandchildren. So when a company called Miller
:23:37. > :23:45.Pattison knocked on her door back in 2005 offering free cavity wall
:23:45. > :23:47.insulation to make her home warm and cosy, she jumped at the chance.
:23:48. > :23:51.Now, here on X-Ray we're no strangers to cavity wall insulation,
:23:51. > :23:57.having heard from dozens of viewers over the years who all believe the
:23:57. > :24:03.process left their homes damp and dismal. It seems Barbara would be
:24:03. > :24:08.no exception. Just two years after it was installed, things started to
:24:08. > :24:13.go wrong and damp patches began appearing around Barbara's house.
:24:13. > :24:16.It was six months after my husband passed away. The paper was going
:24:16. > :24:24.black and then in the kitchen the wall had blown behind the fridge
:24:24. > :24:28.freezer, well, it blew then in the living room. Barbara called out
:24:28. > :24:32.Miller Pattison who found rubble in the wall cavities. They removed it
:24:33. > :24:36.and plastered and re-rendered the walls but the damp kept coming back.
:24:36. > :24:39.I had them back then to take the insulation out and it was coming
:24:39. > :24:48.out and it was absolutely soaking, but it wasn't solving the problem
:24:48. > :24:53.for me. Fast forward to 2011 and all of a sudden things got really
:24:53. > :24:58.bad. Barbara had to enlist the help of her grandson Jamie, who was
:24:58. > :25:01.shocked to discover they were now dealing with dry rot. When we took
:25:01. > :25:05.the floor up in this bedroom and we could see what was actually
:25:05. > :25:09.underneath, it was beyond words of what was going on. The floor didn't
:25:10. > :25:16.exist. There was nothing there, it had all disintergrated. There were
:25:16. > :25:19.all these spores, the beams had gone. I was so shocked I didn't
:25:19. > :25:24.know what to do. She was lying in bed at night balanced on basically
:25:24. > :25:29.nothing because the floorboards had just putrefied into dust. She could
:25:29. > :25:35.have just gone straight through and landed downstairs. Barbara moved to
:25:35. > :25:38.a different bedroom. Just in time. It must have been about 3.00am in
:25:38. > :25:42.the morning, I heard this almighty crash and when I got up in the
:25:42. > :25:46.morning, it was the ceiling, coving, all fallen through downstairs.
:25:46. > :25:51.Horrendous. How did you feel, your house is literally collapsing
:25:51. > :25:56.around you? My house is falling apart around me and there's nothing
:25:56. > :25:59.I can do. I have had, excuse me saying it, I have had a hell of a
:26:00. > :26:02.year of it. Terrible. For months Jamie persevered - telephoning and
:26:03. > :26:12.emailing Miller Pattison, now known as SIG Energy Management By now it
:26:13. > :26:13.
:26:13. > :26:17.was 2012 and most of Barbara's house was affected by the damp.
:26:17. > :26:20.just wanted the house to be repaired. The house wasn't falling
:26:20. > :26:23.down through no fault of our own, it was purely because of the cavity
:26:24. > :26:28.wall insulation and we felt it was their responsibility to put it
:26:28. > :26:35.right. Then suddenly things looked up. SIG agreed to pay another
:26:35. > :26:39.company �10,000 to fix all the problems. At last it looked like
:26:39. > :26:42.everything would be put right. It was September and Barbara packed
:26:42. > :26:48.her bags, her furniture went into storage and she headed off to her
:26:48. > :26:52.daughter's. But whilst Barbara was optimistic, Jamie wasn't convinced.
:26:52. > :26:54.If you think of the works that needed doing, we needed two living
:26:54. > :26:57.rooms redecorated, there's a bedroom, there's a kitchen. The
:26:57. > :27:01.kitchen itself was costing way over �5,000 so we knew the �10,000
:27:01. > :27:04.wasn't even going to scratch the surface of what was needed. Then
:27:04. > :27:10.Jamie was told by SIG's insurers that the kitchen had rising damp
:27:10. > :27:16.which they claimed wasn't caused by the cavity wall insulation. They
:27:16. > :27:19.now refused to pay for a replacement kitchen at all. It was
:27:19. > :27:23.beyond belief, it was ridiculous, because we have had reports to say
:27:23. > :27:27.that the damage was caused by the CWI. What was your reaction to
:27:27. > :27:30.that? It was disappointing because we wanted to get my Gran back in
:27:30. > :27:39.before Christmas. The longest I have ever been away is a fortnight
:27:39. > :27:43.on holidays. They told me six weeks and I am still here 16 weeks later.
:27:43. > :27:47.Six years now this has been going on back and forth, back and forth,
:27:47. > :27:50.and I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy - terrible. Poor Barbara, I
:27:50. > :27:55.really felt for her. SIG Energy Management, who installed the
:27:55. > :27:59.insulation, are denying it caused the damp in Barbara's house. But
:27:59. > :28:02.they have apologised for the time it has taken to deal with it, and
:28:02. > :28:09.said they will put everything right, including paying for a brand new
:28:09. > :28:11.kitchen as a gesture of goodwill. It is being installed today. So
:28:11. > :28:18.after all those months living with her daughter, Barbara should be
:28:18. > :28:23.able to move back home very soon. Next week - how did Donna end up