Episode 13 X-Ray

We are here to fight for your rights and making sure you make the most of

your money. It disturbs my day. It is annoying. Exposing the roads and

confronting the conmen. We are here to fight that. -- fight back.

Hello. Nuisance calls are an absolute pain. But what if someone

told you they could make them all stop. Tonight, we investigate a firm

that claims to be able to do just that. Christmas hampers. Easy to

give and a joy to receive. But are our top stores charging too much?

And warnings about some of our traditional Christmas treats. This

year, many contain a hidden surprise. I've cut fruit open and

I've had as many as five escape live. Well, here in Cardiff,

Christmas shopping is in full swing and we've found out some very

surprising stuff about buying and sending presents tonight. First

though, wouldn't it be great if there was a way of stopping those

nuisance calls that make our lives a misery? Rachel's been investigating

one company who've been saying they can do just that. Hello? Hello!

Oooh! Hello, who is this? Hello? No, I've never had PPI, will you please

stop wasting my time?! Nuisance callers, people you've never heard

of, ringing you up from goodness knows where to try to sell you

something. We'd all like to just pull the plug on them.

Unfortunately, it's just not that easy. Bob Andrews from Llanddarog

near Carmarthen gets as many as four calls a day. And he's fed up. It

just disturbs my day, it's annoying, it's been going on for ages and

ages, and you just lose your temper after a while. Bob's already

registered with the official body set up to stop nuisance calls, the

free Telephone Preference Service. It provides UK call centres with

lists of people who don't want to be rung. Ignoring the list can lead to

big fines but that doesn't seem to stop Bob getting calls. I mention

the Telephone Preference Service and then they invariably apologise, say

they'll take my name off their database, which clearly they don't,

and the conversation ends. But there's a business that's been

operating out of this building in Llanelli which has been telling

people it has all the answers already. The Nuisance Call Registry

claimed to be able to stop you getting cold-calls. But we were

contacted by a former employee concerned about the company's sales

pitch. He said they would tell customers that they knew exactly how

many other call centres already had their home number. It was pretty

much made up as you went along. Pretty much a random number that had

just been plucked from thin air. That sounded vaguely believable. I

was always a little suspicious because most of it sounded too good

to be true. I didn't see how it could possibly stop 100% of the

calls. Now that doesn't sound like a company that can stop you being

cold-called or one you'd want ringing you at all. Let's see what

sort of claims the Nuisance Call Registry makes when they're speaking

to us. Posing as a potential customer, X-Ray registered on their

website under the name of Glyn Jones. Hello. Oh hello, it's Jamie

calling back from Nuisance Calls for Glyn Jones. Do you know what, I

heard him doing something in the background, it's his wife it is. He

says for a one-off payment of ?42, they can stop us ever being

cold-called again. That's some claim. Basically, any nuisance calls

that you receive from overseas, UK based and the rogue and scam

companies, we do stop 100% of them. Oh, right. 100%? Yes. Every single

sales call. So every 28 days, we always send out calling lists of who

you can call, not who you can't call. Right, OK. So you send those

out to these companies? That's right and say now you register with us

today... Yes. In 28 days time, the new calling list will be updated

without your number on it. Time to put him on the spot. Just how

exactly can they stop us being rung by any call centre anywhere in the

world? But what you just said is that you published the list that the

foreign call centres get. It sounds like you're trying to hold me to

ransom really. If I give you money, you won't give them my number? No,

no, I do completely understand what you're thinking there. No, it's not

like that. Basically, we get passed on information as well. It doesn't

come just directly from us. We have to get it from Ofcom. Another big

claim. He's saying they buy our telephone numbers from Ofcom, the

UK's official communications regulator. We play the call to them.

Ridiculous and untrue. We don't provide anyone's telephone numbers

to anybody. It is a bizarre and totally untruthful claim. And then

there are the company's allegations about the government-backed

Telephone Preference Service. He claims it sells on people's details

to foreign call centres and takes a cut of any money they get. If the

TPS didn't exist ,then you wouldn't have any nuisance calls. Thousands

of people are under the impression that the government should be

trusted with the TPS. Unfortunately that is not the case because they

claim that they can't stop the overseas calls. The reason they

can't is because they sell their calling lists overseas. You're

joking? They supply the foreign call centres, yes. So are they actually

getting commission and things from these companies or anything like

that, or is it just a case of selling off the number? It is just a

case of selling on the number. They do make a small percentage. Say now

I was a PPI company, phoning to claim back. Yes? It was ?300. They

would make a small percentage of that ?300 as well. This is not what

the TPS does. It provides a service that is accredited by Ofcom and

works with the industry to try and keep nuisance calls to a minimum.

The idea that they are then selling those numbers to other people, I

find totally incredible. There is a catalogue of lies that I have

listened to there and that is something that concerns us very much

because if people are taken in by that kind of thing, I think what

they are going to find is that they are paying money and still receiving

nuisance calls. So who exactly is behind the Nuisance Call Registry

and its parent company, Nuisance Call Services Ltd? Well, not

surprisingly, they're keen to stay out of the spotlight. The company

was initially registered to a Michael Bourne from Surrey, except

those details are forged. We've been told the man running the call centre

in Llanelli used the very similar name of Matthew Bourne. This is a

picture of Matthew Bourne, identified by our whistle-blower as

the man who employed him. Except his real name is Matthew Hayes and guess

what? He has the same date of birth as Michael Bourne gave to Companies

House. What a coincidence! And Mr Hayes is no stranger to this type of

business. Nearly a decade ago, Pembrokeshire Trading Standards had

80 complaints about a firm he was running in Haverfordwest called the

Phone Protection Agency. It had been calling people up claiming to be the

Telephone Preference Service. In May 2004, Matthew Hayes ended up here -

Cardiff County Court. An enforcement order was made against him to stop

him breaching consumer protection regulations again. It's still in

force apparently which means if he was found to be in breach of it, say

with a business like the Nuisance Call Registry, well that could be

contempt of court. Very serious stuff. The good news, though, is

that the Nuisance Call Registry shut down its website a few weeks ago.

The not so good news is that another business has already sprung up in

its place - the Call Blocking Registry. This new company operates

out of the same office in Llanelli. The director is a woman called

Deborah Evans. This is her with Matthew Hayes. And just so we're

absolutely clear, she says they are not a couple. We might have said

goodbye to the Nuisance Call Registry but there are other

companies selling similar services, so beware of anyone making big

promises about ending cold-calling. Strong words there. Well, Deborah

Evans who runs the new firm in Llanelli has been in touch. She says

her business has nothing to do with the old one and offers a completely

different service. The 20 staff from the Nuisance Call Registry do now

work for her, but they have been retrained. She says that any claims

made about the Telephone Preference Service are not the views of her new

company. And as for Mr Hayes, well, we have had absolutely no response

to our letters and e-mails. It's not clear either where exactly he is,

but we have uncovered a recent phone number for him. So let's give that a

try. No answers on that either. So if you know where Matthew Hayes is,

we'd love to hear from you. Now, do you remember a few weeks ago we

featured 28-year-old Mario Quiniones from Chile, who paid ?800 for a

student flat in Newport, only to discover he'd been conned? Mario had

booked and paid for his accommodation on-line before

travelling to Wales to study. When he arrived, he found the flat he'd

paid for didn't exist. However there is now some great news. Mario,

what's happened? A viewer of the show saw what happened to me and the

scam and a kind person has come forward to offer me the money. Do we

know who it was? No. It's someone who has visited Chile in the past.

They had been well looked after by the family they stayed with in Chile

and wanted to put things right. Thank you very much to this

anonymous person. Still to come on tonight's programme: We're putting

parcel delivery companies to the test after one viewer's goods were

badly damaged. I've just had to pay out ?1,100 for a brand new laptop

and you're offering me ?12.49. I was like, that's ridiculous. ?WHITE If,

like me, you really struggle to decide what to buy your friends and

family for Christmas, a hamper might seem like a great idea. But as

Lucy's been finding out, you could be paying over the odds for the

convenience. Well, it's not that long to go now

and these Christmas trees will soon be in our homes and that means one

thing for me. I've still got a long list of presents to get! But with so

much on offer, it can be hard to choose. What do you get those people

who are difficult to buy for? Lots to get. Nothing says Christmas to me

more than all the amazing food that's around. Little Christmas

pudding, got to have a bit of chocolate and some pickle. So a food

hamper seems like the perfect choice. But are we getting value for

our money? Are pre-packaged Christmas hampers really worth what

we pay for them? This ?20,000 hamper from Harrods may be out of most

people's price range but there are many more to choose from on the high

street. So we chose two high end supermarkets, Marks Spencer and

Waitrose, to see exactly what was in their hampers. The Christmas

selection hamper from Marks Spencer looks very tempting. At

?100, they say it's the ideal hamper to delight any family at Christmas.

The Waitrose festive sparkle hamper is also ?100. They say it's bursting

with delicious treats. They're certainly popular with some people.

It just sums up Christmas doesn't it? It's a good little treat. You

can have sweets, whatever. A little gift, it's nice. Did you like it? I

wouldn't ask for one again. Why not? I didn't use it. I gave my dad one

once. A cheese one. Cheese and biscuits and relish and stuff. Did

your dad like it? Yes. All very Christmassy. But how much are the

contents of those hampers actually worth? We decided to do some

shopping of our own. We bought the hamper items from Marks Spencer

and Waitrose. If products weren't available, we asked customer

services what a suitable substitute would be. Then we added up exactly

what they cost. We bought the entire contents of the Marks Spencer ?100

hamper for just ?53. That's almost half the price. There were 13 items

inside. The cheapest was the Christmas tea at just ?1.59 and the

most expensive was the wine at ?8.00. And Waitrose fare even worse.

The mark up on their hamper is more than half the true cost of the items

in their ?100 hamper at ?43.10. The Waitrose hamper had 11 items inside,

ranging from ?1.85 for the camembert to almost ?10.50 for the wine. So

are the stores charging us ?50 for a pretty basket and wrapping? We

bought these two empty hampers on line for around ?8.000 each. So why

are people willing to pay these prices? I think one of the first

things is quality, so they think it's of higher quality as opposed to

other products. I also think that they are trying to get across that

they have the ability to purchase something quite expensive and

therefore also that they are showing a caring side, that they are

prepared to spend quite a lot of money on someone they care for. But

you don't need to spend a fortune to impress your loved ones. If you're

looking for Christmas ideas, here's one cut price solution. We made this

Christmas hamper complete with wine, chocolates, biscuits, Christmas cake

and the basket itself for under ?25. Bargain! So what have the companies

got to say? Waitrose have told us thier hampers offer good value for

money and are popular with customers. The price reflects the

effort they put into selecting, packing and presenting products, as

well as the cost of the hamper or box. And Marks and Spencer, well,

they say their hampers and gifts are ideal for customers who don't have

time to shop. They're put together by hand and delivered to the door.

Now if you do decide to put your own chrsitmas hamper together you might

well decide to include some figs or dates. But public analyst Alastair

Low, you've got some bad news for us about these classic Christmas

treats? What's going on? Cardiff Council's Regulatory

Services have been busy testing dates and figs from all over the

shops in the city. Dates and figs like these. I've looked at 3,500

dates and figs and about 60% of the dates we've actually sampled have

been infested and about 75% of the fig samples have been infested

aswell. I have to say, it sounds absolutely disgusting. What kinds of

insects are we talking about? Ive got a couple of examples here. We've

got a larva here. Sometimes they're the same colour as the fruit inside.

We have a Saw Tooth Green Beetle here. I've cut some fruit open and

Ive had as many as five escape live! Dried fruit beetle here. This little

chappy here as well. You've looked at samples across Cardiff, but are

you concerned this might be a problem across Wales? We dont know

how far across Wales this will be. If it;s present in a large city then

those types of shops appear all over you know so its certainly something

to consider. Obviously you dont want to consume one of these. You say its

unsafe but what should people do? My advice would be to cut fruits such

as these open, have a look, the difference being the tell tale

signs. This being a fruit with no infestation, and this is a fruit

with obvious infestation. If you do find fruit like this, please contact

your local Trading Standards Dept because they're here with the Public

Analyst Lab to protect you as citizens from such foods. The sooner

we know about infested foods on the shelves then the sooner we can deal

with it. Alastair, thank you. Earlier in the programme we heard

about the Nuisance Call Registry, who were offering to get rid of

those tiresome nuisance calls, all for a one off fee of ?42.

We've also been hearing from viewers who have been sold a gadget which

they can plug into the phone to block nuisance calls. There are

several companies selling different versions, but Kay White from

Abergavenny certainly isn't happy with hers.

She bought her call blocking device in the hope it would stop the

nuisance calls she was getting from all kinds of companies I thought it

was a good idea, give me a bit of peace, you're afriad to switch the

phone off in case it's family. But it didn't work, she's still

getting calls from those overseas call centres.

I thought I was paying for a lot more than I was getting, I wasn't

getting satisfaction from it so I wasn't very happy with the thing.

I'm joined by David Hickson from the Fair Telecoms Campaign. Are there

any gadgets it's worth investing in? Some of them are very good but those

are the more expensive ones. Unfortunately the cheaper more

available ones can offer do little good in stopping nuisance calls, and

often stop calls you want to receive. -- often do. And thats

where youve got to be very, very careful.

And companies who offer to stop all of these calls, are they all

misleading? YELLOW Theyre trying to encourage

you to sign up and may give you some hope, but Im afraid its a very vain

hope. To stop all of the calls, alot of work is needed to get on top of

this problem and seriously stop these people doing it.

So talk us through what we can do to stop these calls.

The first thing to do is to not allow yourself to get more concerned

by them than you need to. Keep calm, remember its your home, nobody has

invaded it. Dont get too upset about it. Keep control of your telephone

and put it down if you don want to speak to someone. What needs to be

done to stop cold-calling? What we have to do is focus most heavily on

the areas where most of them are coming from. It is the PPI claims

the "ambulance chasing" companies. It is these sorts of people. If we

stop them being able to use the info generated by tele-marketing, that

would cut off the whole over-seas operation where people are just

gathering leads and sending them on. If we got strong in that area, that

would be far more effective than the present methods that are being used

and it would just cut their income off at a stroke. David thank you

very much. Now, who do you trust to deliver

your parcels safely? Before you get out the brown paper and string,

we've been testing out some courier companies for you.

Yes, it's nearly that time of year again. I hate wrapping presents, but

would you believe it, we sent almost a billion parcels in the UK last

year. And we also spent a massive ?78 billion buying presents for our

loved ones online. So it's no wonder a brand new breed of delivery

business is emerging. Websites that offer you a choice of available

parcel courier services promising to find you the best deal. It is a bit

like using a comparison site to buy your holiday or your car insurance.

The websites buy courier deals cheaply, you search through and find

the one you want. But do they work? Are they reliable? We decided to do

our own Christmas Courier Challenge. Now I think Rachel would like these.

I'm going to pack them carefully, exactly the same and send them off

to her at home in Pembrokeshire. I'm using six popular third party

courier websites. Should look great on her Christmas tree.

We booked for the parcels to be sent next day delivery with different

couriers through the websites. All of the couriers turned up to collect

the parcels, So far so good. But Lucy has been in Llandudno to meet a

student who isn't so happy. I went to meet Katie O Rourke who

used "Parcel Monkey" last winter to send her laptop to her Uncle in

Durham to be mended. CYAN My relatives company have used

parcel Monkey in the past, he was like we've used them, they're

cheaper than the Royal Mail so use these and they do next day delivery

so we can mend it asap and send it back to you asap. ?NEWLINE Katie

relies on her laptop so she arranged the next day delivery. The following

day the couriers left a slip at her uncle's house saying they'd

attempted delivery. He assumed the parcel was at a nearby depot, but it

wasn't. I got a phone call that evening he

said it wasn't at the depot and he'd actually discovered it in his back

garden underneath his bbq when they'd had snow..and that was the

following day so it had been left in the snow overnight. It was totally

broken, it wouldn't charge it wouldn't do anything.

The laptop had been listed on Parcel Monkeys restricted items, but Katie

had paid something called Carriage Guarantee insurance. Surely that

would mean something? They said as it's a restricted item

we accept no responsibility. Well I had paid extra money can you at

least tell me why it wasn't looked after. They basically offered me

?12.49 for the insurance. I have had to pay out ?1,100 on a new laptop

and you're offering me ?12.49, ridiculous, I just felt really

insulted. But what about my Christmas presents

for Rachel? Did the six different websites we used manage to get the

couriers to deliver the parcels safely and on time? Well she did

have to wait,but not too long. The six online companies all used

different couriers to get my presents to Rachel.

And there was no problem with these three Parcelmonkey, Parcel2go and

myparceldelivery.com. They arrived safely, and if Rachel wasn't in they

left a card to explain that they'd left her lovely gift with a

neighbour. As for the other three, well, they didn't do so well.

I wasn't in when the first troublesome parcel arrived.

Just got back from the hairdressers and its half past one, my neighbour

came bounding across because he had a parcel for me this one is from

Ipostparcels, but black mark cos they didn't put a card in the box.

Next was collectmyparcel.com. Back again, but the slightly weird

thing was it wasn't in the post box it was just in the loose. Maybe the

courier driver likes a game of hide and seek? And the couriers for

Interparcel.com didn't even take my parcel to my neighbour. There was a

parcel sitting, sneaking by when I havent been out. The partial sitting

on top of my post box, it is a good stroppy burglar did not come by.

So a mixed bag then. Three perfect deliveries and three that weren't so

good. Maybe I'll leave it to Father Christmas to deliver the parcels

next time! And what have Ipost parcels,

Collectmyparcel and Interparcel got to say abou their less than

satisfactory delivery of our parcels? I-post say their driver

genuinely forgot to put a card through the Rachel's door and

'corrective measures' have been issued. Collectmyparcel says they

can't comment as they are investigating, but the timely and

secure delivery of parcels is a top priority for them. And Interparcel?

They say that investigations are still ongoing, and appropriate

action will be taken. But there is some good news for student Katie,

Parcel Monkey is going to refund her ?750 to cover the cost of her

computer, and the delivery costs. A great result.

Coming up on next week's programme: Are parking spaces getting smaller?

Lucy's behind the wheel finding out why it's sometime such a struggle.

If there's anything you'd like us to investigate - then get in touch

straightaway on 03703 334 334. The lines are open now, we're waiting

for your calls. Or you can e-mail us - [email protected]. We'll see you next

week. Bye.