Episode 18 X-Ray

Have you been ripped off, conned or just short changed? We're here to

fight for your rights. Spotting the latest scams and making sure you

make the most of your money. I don't return calls or answer letters. You

feel like you've been robbed. Exposing the rogues and confronting

the conmen. We are here to help you fight back.

Tonight, they spent thousands trying to save on their energy bills. All

they got was a hole in the ground. We are actually not saving now. We

are paying double now for nothing. They went to a big-name website to

book their holiday, but the apartment they got wads a scam. When

you go to big companies and expect that really these sort of things

shouldn't happen. The wonder of science - we can finally find out

what goes through Lucy's head when she goes shopping. People just give

up when it gets more complex and they start to estimate. Later, lots

about saving money. I'll be getting the inside track on the tactics

supermarkets use to get you to spend more on your weekly shop. And Rhodri

will be finding out whether you can really save money at pound shops.

But first, a family who tried to save money on their fuel bills and

ended up nearly ?15,000 out of pocket. Rachel's been investigating.

Nantllwyd Hill Farm outside Tregaron. Six generations of the

Jones family have worked the land here. Now it's time for the next

generation, Rhys, Olwen and their young family. The couple are doing

their best to bring this traditional farm into the 21st century, but with

no main electricity it's not easy. They're totally reliant on a diesel

generator. That means the family spends a massive ?8,000 a year on

fuel. After the winter we had, we knew we had to do some, because the

fuel bills were coming in and we had to look for other ways of saving

money. Looking into solar panels, that was the best use for us really.

When they got a call from Swansea-base Clear Energy they

signed up for a big system. The company wanted ?15-500 for --

?14,500 for the work. Olwen had to take out a loan. How did you feel

about paying out that sort of sum? Were you nervous? Quite excited. I

thought we would save money and we won't are to rely so much on the

fuel company. I thought, yes, we will be saving money. We are doing

the right choice. The bill was paid, but the panels didn't arrive. We

came to a point where I was on the phone with them three or four times

a week. The persist tense paid off. After three months, workmen showed

up. But they didn't stay long. They flattened the ground, as you can

see. They put the cable in. They came here for an hour and a quarter

and flattened ground and then disappeared? Disappeared. How do you

feel about that? I'm annoyed. I feel a fool for trusting this company.

And also we are actually not saving now, we are paying double now for

nothing. We have got no panels, but we still have to pay the finance

every month and we have still got to pay the fuel bill. I want to know

just who Clear Energy are. It seems the company is based on this

industrial estate in Forest Bark in Swansea. And it's run by this man.

John Davies. The offices aren't exactly easy to find. Which is

perhaps not surprise, because they say they ceased all sales activities

last August. They even told staff they were going into liquidation.

That came as a shock to Gwyn Davies. He farms in the hills here. He

played Clear Energy ?3,000 for solar panels in September, after the

company admit they already knew they had financial problems. I didn't

know nothing about that, that they had cash flow problems. We had good

faith and shook hands. Totally wrong. It's totally wrong, what they

done. Back in Tregaron, Olwen and her family are counting the cost of

their encounter with Clear Energy. You are trying your best to balance

life and the finances and everything and making a decision that you think

is going to help your family, it's hard to believe that people can do

that, isn't it? Are you all right. Can you cut? We are building a

future for our kids, including the farm. This is the sixth generation.

I would like to see the kids with the seventh generation here. That is

the future. Life is hard. If you work hard as well. For the company

to do this, it's unfair. They found themselves in a really difficult

situation and Rachel's here with me now. Is the company offering them

anything? Yes. After we wrote to them, they told us they will give

the couple their money back, minus the cost of the ground works. It

sounded fantastic. That was three weeks ago and the couple haven't

heard anything from the company since. Where is the money? It should

be safe. Under the the Renewable Energy Consumer Code it should have

been deposited in a protected bank company. The question is did Clear

Energy do that? That's what the regulators have been trying to find

out since September, but they've had no response from the company.

They've actually now reported them to Trading Standards. You did say in

the fit many that the company seemed to be in financial trouble when they

took money from customers like Gwyn? They have admitted that they

couldn't complete work for 20 customers when they did that. They

haven't said anything about Gwyn's case. What they have said about

another customer is they continue to take money from them because they

have been discussing the sale for some time. Now, they tell us that

their problems are now easing and that everybody will get their solar

panels. They also say that they actually told customers about their

difficulties in October, but many of the customers are telling us they

never saw that letter. What about the people we saw in the film? We

are still working on Gwyn's case, but in the case of Olwen we have had

some success. The finance company, Aldermore have agreed to pay them

back the full ?14,500, so we are thrilled with that news. Excellent.

Thank you very much. If you think you're getting a raw deal, why not

get in touch and see if we can help. You can give us a call:

Still to come - pound stores are all the rage what savvy shoppers, but do

you always get a good deal? It's wet and it is cold. It seems like the

perfect time to start thinking about booking a trip to cheer yourself up.

It might be your summer holiday, or if you're a sports fan, there are

loads of events that you might want to travel to this year. But,

whatever you're planning, you need to watch out if you are booking

on-line. 2014 is definitely turning out to be a bumper year for Welsh

sport. The Six Nations is under way. We've got two football teams

battling it out to stay in the Premier League. And this summer, our

nation's athletes will be going for gold in the 20th Commonwealth Games

in Glasgow. And with all that sporting action, there will be

thousands of fans keen to see their heroes in the flesh. For workmates

Mark and Liz, supporting Swansea City is a big part of their life. I

started going with my father when I was young and I am a season ticket

holder now they're in the Premiership and I live across from

the stadium. We never miss a game if we can help it. We have other

friends who we meet up with before the games. It's a nice way to spend

a Sunday or Saturday afternoon. Mark and Liz had always dreamed of seeing

their beloved Swans play in Europe and after spotting an ad in a local

newspaper, they decided to book a trip with two other workmates to

watch the match in St Gal en in Switzerland. We thought a bit of

shopping and snow at Christmas time and you know, it sounded a very good

trip. The company was called Football Trips.co.uk. It seemed to

be offering a winning deal - return flights with Swissair, transfers to

and from the airport and two nights accommodation, all for just ?220 per

person. What was the company like to deal with? Did you have confidence

in them? They responded to all the e-mails that we sent back and

forward. They were replied to promptly. They dealt with any

inquiries very quickly. Reassured by their business-like approach, Mark

had no worries when it came to paying, sending ?880 via a bank

transfer. The reservations were there. It was just literally a case

of pace up, so I didn't have any hesitation at the time. But, once

the money had left Mark's account things started to go badly wrong. We

had no response to e-mails or phone calls. I would leave a message on

their voicemail. When Mark checked their flight and hotel details, he

realised that none of their money had been passed on by Football

Trips.co.uk. You paid all this money and essentially you had nothing to

do for it? Nothing at all. Just the piece of paper. The reservations had

been made with the hotels and flights, but the payment hadn't been

made. The company appears to have vanished into thin air. The website

is down and their phone number is no longer working. You feel silly

almost that you've been in a position where someone has taken

advantage. We've tried to track down that company, but all of our letters

have been returned unanswered. It seems to be a scam, which shows how

careful you should be before you book a holiday. Even if you use some

of the biggest names in the travel industry, you can still get conned.

More on that later. Next, I've always wanted to know

what goes through Lucy's mind when she's on a shopping trip and thanks

to some hi-tech kit at Bangor University we can find out. We've

all succumbed to the testimonipling offers when do be a -- tempting

offers when doing a supermarket shop. I look at it with interest. Do

you think they are good? Sometimes I think they are and other times you

can tell they're not really. Now, scientists at Bangor University have

decided to find out what makes us go for certain offers over others. I'm

the guinea pig and this is where I'm going. This is a scanner, similar to

one in a hospital. We use it in psychology to research the brain and

how it works. What are Paul and his team of scientists going to be

looking for when I go into the scanner? We are going to look at

what part of the brain is involved when you are making a decision about

purchasing. I'm going to be asked to imagine I'm shopping for a party. I

have to save as much money as possible. I'll see a mixture of good

and bad offers and then make a choice. But how have other people

got on? People really prefer clear price discount. When you are being

told save 20% or 20 pence, people like that much more than buy one and

get one free or two for one. Some people think they're switched on and

they come in telling us that they always pick the best offers and save

the most money. We see from their shopping efficiency scores that

they're not maybe as good as they think they might be. Oh, dear, I

think I'm quite savvy, but I wonder what they'll find in my brain? As

the deals are flashed up on a screen in front of me, the scientists

analyse what's going on inside my head. The tests go on for over half

an hour to simulate a long shopping trip. So, the result are in. Helen,

I'm hoping I didn't make too many terrible choices. No, you actually

did very well. You did better than most of our participates actually,

so you selected over 90% of good offers. Where you got caught out was

with the more complex multi-buys. The orange marks the areas where my

brain is most active. What we are seeing is the regions involved in

mental calculations are less active the more complex the offer. That's

really interesting, because I felt I was working harder trying to

understand those more complicated offers, but obviously my brain

wasn't. This is what we find, people just give up when the offer gets

more complex. The supermarkets and big brands are spending a fortune on

research like this and they are using it to design offers they think

you'll go for. Can you avoid things like this and make sure you get a

genuinely good deal when you're out shopping? Caroline Bowman is a

consumer psychologist. It was definitely the more simple deals

that appealed to me. Is that the same for everyone? Yes, it is.

That's the smart thing for someone to do. When the offer is really

simple it's quite clear how much money you might be saving. There

were times when I was definitely just guessing with the more

complicated offers and may have been kouT out. There -- caught out. Are

there any ways to watch that? You probably have a smartphone in your

back pocket or handbag, so pull it out and use the calculator. Is there

anyway to avoid getting caught out? There are several things to protect

ourselves from dodgy deals. One, make a list and stick to that list.

If you're worried that you're guessing, use a calculator. Take

cash rather than your card then you can't overspend. Thank you.

Now, many of us are seduced by glamorous brands, but just because

something has a slick image doesn't mean you won't have problems.

It sounded like an explosion and it shattered everywhere. It must have

just gone boom. A shower of glass over the entire kitchen. When Vicky

Brown saw the apartments in Bury Port she knew she would love living

here. It's right by the beach on the harbour and it's the first

development here in my lifetime and I'm over 60 now, so it was a

wonderful opportunity. I'm from Llanelli, so it's lovely to be able

to come back and enjoy the beautiful scenery. It is a wonderful

community, because everybody moved in roughly the same time. The

glamorous brands in the kitchen were a major selling point.

The house came complete with Smeg appliances. A company that sells

itself on its high-end products. Smeg is a well-known brand and when

we bought it from the developer the fact that they were quality products

in the kitchen was definitely a selling point. But in August last

year something totally unexpected happened. A friend was here cleaning

for me and he it totally finished and he thought he would polish the

oven door and he wiped it and the yuT door glass totally shattered.

The whole floor was covered in glass and even weeks later you are still

finding little bits of glass everywhere. Vicky immediately phoned

Smeg, who said there was no fault with the built-in oven and to get it

fixed she would need to pay for an engineer to come and replace the

glass. What was their response? Did they say no, it's four years old and

there's nothing they could do? They said it's out of warantee. They

weren't at all interested in the safety aspect, or in fact it was

supposedly is a high-quality brand. News of Vicky's oven door exploding

ban to -- began to spread and soon others began telling of their

experiences. Kate owns a holiday home a few doors away. I was

upstairs changing beds and everything and my husband, because I

was running late, was trying to help me out by cleaning the cooker for

me, which he had just about done and as he went to close the door it just

exploded. I came running down the stairs. I ran into the kitchen and

there was just glass everywhere. It looked like hailstones. It was all

over the work service, in the sink, in the toaster. Later on, we even

found a bit in the kettle. There would have been a toddler in the

kitchen and it could have taken an eye out. At least three other homes

on the development have had the same problem and we found pictures of yet

more cases on the internet. I'm going to show you this photograph we

found on-line of a very similar o veshingS n with a similar -- oven

with a similar problem. It looks like they had the same sort of

explosion. Exactly the same one. Yes, looking at the controls, it's

identical to mine. There's no mention on Smeg's website of there

being any problems with this model. Nearly all of those affected on the

estate contacted Smeg as soon as the glass smashed, but just like Vicky,

the company said there was nothing they could do and they would have to

get in touch with an engineer to fix the glass. Each of them had to pay

up to ?150 to get the glass fixed. I still feel concerned about the

cooker, because I paid for this. It happened to me when it was cold, but

it's possible it maybe would happen when it's hot, so hot bits of glass

flying around seems to me to be dangerous. Well, Smeg have now

admitted that there was a problem with the hinges on the doors which

could have caused the glass to shatter. They've now changed the

design. They also say that the doors are made of safety glass, so there

was no risk of injury, but they have now agreed to pay back the cost of

repairing the doors to all the people we have told them about.

Pound shops are booming, because they seem to offer good deals.

Everything for just ?1. But how good are the deals? We have come to

Newport, the bargain shop capital of Wales to see how savvy shoppers are

in spotting a great deal from a not so great deal. We have cliff, Tasha

and Kerry. Good to see you, from Newport Pantomime Society. Pound

shops, are you fans? Oh, yeah. Yeah, always get a good. Top brands. Can

you top them? I've got a quiz for you. We bought some Heinz tomato

soup. Where do you three think you get the best deal, supermarket or

pound shop? The pound shop. Supermarket. Definitely pound shop.

The supermarket price was 74 pence for the can. In the pound shop you

get two for a pound, which is 50 pence. Good value. Yes. You're

right. The first one, the pound shop wins. Next up, medium Warburton

loaves. Cliff, where's the best deal? Pound shop. The pound shop.

Two against one. What will you go for? Supermarket. Well, the answer

is they were a pound each in the supermarket and the pound shop,

however, if you look carefully you will see that the pound shop bread

is just 600 grammes. The supermarket one is 800 grammes. That's 30% extra

there. It pays to look at the weight. There is an extra sandwich

in there. On this occasion, supermarket wins. Next, this one is

more complicated, it's the closest match we could get. A box of 76

one-cup tea bags or a bag of 80 from the supermarket. Which is the best?

Supermarket. Supermarket. Because they can offer better deals. I'm

going with the pound shop. The pound shop box of 76 tea bags costs ?1.

The bag of 80 from the supermarket, wait for this, double the price, ?2.

But the bags in the pound box are a lot smaller, so gramme for gramme,

pound shop still the cheapest. There we are. We won. Finally, washingup

liquid. What do you think of this here in front of you, supermarket or

pound shop? Definitely pound shop. I'm going for the pound shop. Me

too. Well, we found these on offer at the supermarket, two for ?2. This

from the pound shop, ?1. It's a draw. Or is it? Because if you

notice, these two at the back from the supermarket are bigger. Guys,

you're all wrong. It's a win for the supermarket and it's worth checking

out the offers. It sure is. Some good deals there at the pound store,

but if you look around and check for offers you can beat them at t

supermarkets. We have been looking at branded product here. If you go

for bargain basement lines you could get everything here for as little as

?1.41 from the supermarket. Now, earlier in the programme we told you

about some Swansea fans who lost hundreds of pounds booking a holiday

on a scam website, but it seems even if you go for a big-name website you

can still lose out. Lucy's been investigating.

The countdown is on for the Commonwealth Games in July, when

some of the world's best athletes will be going for gold. And

sports-loving Swansea GP Chris Johns was hoping to grab a piece of that

winning atmosphere. We went to the Games at 2012 as a family and we are

enthusiastic about going to the Glasgow Games. Chris snapped up for

the athletics, boxing and squash. And then sprinted to the UK's

leading hotel booking site, Late Rooms. It was a site that I've been

to and looked at and booked with before. They are well recognised.

One would expect them to be no problem to book with. Chris spotted

a great two-bedroom place called the Dysart Apartments and decided to go

for it. It was just what we were after. A self-catering apartment

block, somewhere we would use as a base for travelling out to the

different events. It turned out to be ?300 for two nights, which I was

more than prepared to pay for the three of us going up. But Chris

would soon find himself crashing out of his Commonwealth dream. Just

weeks after making the booking, Late Rooms contacted him with some

disturbing news. We found out that there was fraudulent activity and in

fact there was no such thing as Dysart Apartments and that there was

a problem with our booking. We had done some digging and it turns out

that the apartment weren't quite what they seemed. These are some of

the images that Chris saw when he was booking the apartment on Late

Rooms. And this one in particular caught our eye, because this is

actually a pretty famous building in Glasgow. It's called the Beresford

and it's situationed slap, bang in the city centre on the famous

Sauchiehall Street. That is more than two miles away from the address

the apartment claimed to be at on the Late Rooms website. Why didn't

Late Rooms, which is part of TUI, realise something wasn't right when

the Dysart Apartments put these photographs on-line? You would

expect that if they put a hotel or apartment on their website that they

would have done a level of vetting to make sure that the company that

they are dealing with is robust and not fraudulent. It is quite clear in

this case that hasn't happened. And what is worse, when Chris checked

his credit card statement he had got a nasty surprise. ?298 had been

taken out of the account by die certificate apartments. -- Dysart

Apartments. Chris has given up on his Commonwealth Games journey.

Butle legacy that Late Rooms has left with stay with Chris for many

years to come. -- but the legacy that Late Rooms has left will stay

with Chris for many years to come. You go to big companies and you

expect that these sort of things shouldn't happen. Well, Late Rooms

say they do make stringent checks before taking a property on, but

this one got through the net and they are looking at ways to tighten

procedures, but they aren't going to offer any compensation -- they are

going -- they aren't going to offer any compensation, but luckily Chris

got his money back through his credit card. We look at counterfeit

goods. Are they the real thing? They are. They are made by Converse? Yes.

Until then, if there's anything you want us to help with, you can give

us a call: Hello, I'm Ellie Crisell with your

90 second update. More flooding misery. Thousand of homes in

Berkshire and Surrey are now vulnerable as Thames river levels

reach record highs. 14 severe flood warnings are in place - meaning

lives are at risk. Full update at ten. Two men have been convicted of

helping triple killer Joanna Dennehy. Gary Stretch was found

guilty of one count of attempted murder. Leslie Leyton was convicted

of perverting the course of justice. An online