Episode 21 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. Exposing the rogues, confronting the

conmen - we're here to help you fight back.

After the storms, the clear up. What does it all mean for your insurance?

We have had three floods since Christmas. So if I claim for the

three times, they are not going to insure me again. We are going to be

looking at those extra fees that budget airlines charge, especially

when it comes to these. Ole senor - the Welsh lads who ended up with a

very Latin identity crisis. But first, the clear up is underway

following the massive winter storms. There's going to be some big

insurance claims and homeowners are worried that they'll struggle to

find affordable insurance again. Lucy's been investigating.

The wild winter weather has brought misery for many in Wales with high

winds and flooding wrecking homes and damaging property.

Here on Aberystwyth seafront, evidence of the storms is still

plain to see. Huge piles of sand thrown up onto the seafront by

massive waves. Across Wales, the personal cost in terms of wrecked

homes and ruined possessions is impossible to measure.

People here have still got sandbags out to protect themselves, but once

the immediate risk subsides, they'll be asking the question, will I be

able to get affordable insurance cover in case this happens again?

This isn't the first time that this part of Wales has been hit by freak

weather. In 2012, nearby communities suffered major floods.

I'm heading back to the scene of those devastating floods to meet

homeowners who had radically different experiences of getting

insurance after making major claims. I'm coming to Llanbadam Fawr, where

memories of the floods are still raw for neighbours

The water came down from the mountains, filled this field, and

the water gushed across the road. In about 20 minutes, these 26 houses in

these two estates were completely flooded. You are helpless to do

anything about it so it doesn't matter how many sandbags or whatever

we put up to try to save our properties, it was just an

impossible task. We were in about three feet of water. We were up to

above my knees. I changed into my shorts and even the water was

reaching my shorts. It just came up through the floor.

We've got a suspended floor so it went in through the airbricks and

just came up through the floor. The water came to the top of the steps.

I did dinner and the wife went to bed and I was having a kip and all

of a sudden my feet were cold. And when I opened my eyes, it was right

throughout the house. The houses have all now been repaired but the

costs were massive. These houses flooded to the same level. You would

expect them all to be treated equally by their insurance

companies. But that wasn't the case. Well, check this out, their claims

were much the same. Gareth claimed over ?60,000. His next door

neighbour, Hefin, says his claim was nearly ?48,000. But it was a

different story with the premiums. Gareth's went up 11%. Hefin's went

up by a whopping 44%. But the big shock was the excess. Gareth's

excess stayed at ?75. Hefin's new flood excess was a massive ?5,000.

Hefin's insurance company, Barclays, is unapologetic, saying they had

reassessed the risks in the wake of the floods. But he can't understand

why it was just him. I talked to my neighbours and none of them had had

an increase. I tried six different companies to insure my house and as

soon as they heard about the flooding, not one of them was

interested. So what was it like having that ?5,000 excess hanging

over your head? I thought, flippin' heck. A ?5,000 excess would have

killed me. Hefin hopes he'll never have to experience this kind of

flooding again, but across Wales there are people facing the

frightening prospect of not getting any flood insurance at all.

When Howard and Elaine Baker's pub in Crickhowell flooded in 2002, it

was a major insurance claim. And the water was in again this

Christmas, flooding the beer cellar and closing the pub.

This is the water being pumped out of the pub and we are trying to get

an even balance to the water coming in to the water coming out.

The cellar is below river level. There's about ?2,000 of stock down

there at any one go. If you consider that I have been flooded three times

in the last six weeks, it's a lot of money to have floating about there,

you know? Howard's suffered thousands of pounds in losses, but

is too afraid to make a claim on his insurance. We've had three floods

since Christmas. If I claimed for the three times, they would never

insure me again. We're better off waiting for the big one, then we'll

have to make our claim. It's been a really difficult time.

Luckily for Heiyn, he has now been able to find cheaper insurance by

shopping around. Paul Hendy is from the National Flood Forum. It's good

to see you, Paul. It's definitely worth people shopping around, isn't

it? It's absolutely essential. Shop around. Speak to insurance brokers.

They will have contacts in the industry. Don't deal with Internet

websites, go directly to insurance companies and speak to them. It may

be that they will have to refer to underwriters to see if they are

willing to take the risk, but more importantly look at what you can do

yourself to protect your own property against flooding. That will

reduce risk and also enable your property to be more easily covered

by insurance. So could we find that all our insurance premiums are going

to go up to cover the costs? Indirectly, yes, they are. Although,

most insurance companies in the competitive field will try to keep

insurance premiums down, but when you've got a big hit like you've got

at the moment with the number of flooded properties, you've got a

situation now where insurance companies will want to recover some

of those losses and as a result of that, inevitable some premiums will

of those losses and as a result of go up. So when is that likely to

happen? We are looking probably at the next couple of years. The

government have brought out in consultation with the insurance

industry a new scheme called Flood Re. It will be funded by a levy on

every insurance company. People will pay about ?10 a year in to a central

pot, where if there is a major claim, then the funding of the

repairs will come out of the pot as well as being partly met by the

insurance industry. Paul, thank you very much.

A few weeks ago we confronted a garage owner in Cwmbran who made a

habit of flogging faulty cars before turning nasty when his customers

tried to complain. Well, it seems we hadn't heard the worst of it.

He's the garage owner with an interesting style of customer

service. Rob Knight. Abusive, threatening, very aggressive. He was

just swinging his arms everywhere, shouting and screaming.

Rob Knight, why are you running away? Why do you abuse and threaten

your customers when they return your faulty cars?

He said, "You can either come up here and sort me out or me and the

boys can come to your house and we'll sort you out." When he was

faced with our questions, his bravado seemed to disappear.

Although his staff had no problems about manhandling our camera crew.

Why don't you just come here and talk? When we first reported on RK

Trade Centre in Cwmbran, another unhappy customer Louise Holmes was

watching. That's my car. There it is. Louise hadn't seen her car for

weeks after being on the receiving end of Rob Knight's special brand of

customer service. She'd returned it to RK Trade Centre hoping to get the

gears repaired. Rob Knight said he would help, but instead kept it at

the garage. I'm just really upset and angry that he's got my money and

my car and my logbook. When Louise tried to ask for her money back, Mr

Knight issued the most chilling threat we've ever come across.

Remember, I know where you live. I know that you're there on your own

at night. I'm going to smash your face in. I'm going to smash your

husband's face in. Terrified Louise never returned. She says she's still

owed around ?800. I've been really stressed out and quite anxious

because he knows where I live and he's made threats to come and visit

me in the night. He's a horrible nasty man and he seems to get away

with it. People are scared of him. Well, Rob Knight may not be getting

away with it for much longer. Trading Standards are now

investigating. Rob Knight's refusing to comment while that's going on. We

will keep you posted with any developments.

If you have anything you'd like us to investigate, get in touch. You

can call us on 03703 334 334 or drop us an email, [email protected] or why

not send us a tweet? Still to come, she won a work-out in

the sun, but ended up hundreds of pounds out of pocket.

Now, if you're looking to go abroad for a break, then booking your

flights on the Internet can be a great way to bag a cheap deal, but

you've got to be careful who you're dealing with.

At this time of year, we could all do with something to warm the blood.

And when four friends won a week away at a villa in the sun, he and

his friends were delighted. But a mistake with their booking meant

three of the lads mysteriously turned into passengers with very

Spanish sounding names. Ole! Tell me how this all started, then. I won a

week's accommodation in Portugal in a charity raffle in work. I was

ecstatic. I thought, not only did I think I had an opportunity for

myself to have a cheap holiday, but also my mates, obviously. Alex and

his mates, who all met when they were at school in

his mates, who all met when they wait to go. They got straight

online, looking for flights with low-cost airline Ryanair. But when

the flight confirmations arrived, they had a big surprise. On the one

going out it had all the correct time, correct flight number, correct

names and everything, all three bags that we were taking with us. And

then on the return flight, it had my mate Nick, who's coming with us, it

had his name and it had Spanish people's names on there. Instead of

Alex, Luke and Adam, the return flights were booked in the names of

Rosa, Fernando and Elena. Ole! What did you think when you saw these

Spanish names on the email? I only filled out one form for both flight

so I don't understand how the names could be right on the one flight and

not the other. How it could be my fault if I filled out one form for

both flights. It doesn't make any sense.

But when Alex rang Ryanair to sort it out. He didn't get the answers he

was hoping for. So you rang up to put the right names on the tickets.

What did she tell you? That it would cost us 110 euros per person to

change it. You'd have to pay 110 euros each. That's 330 euros in all.

Yeah, more than the price of the flights for all four of us. You're

joking? No. So how did you feel? At a loss, really.

But why had the names got muddled up in the first place? Well, it turns

out they hadn't made their booking direct with Ryanair. They'd

inadvertently gone through eDreams, an online travel agency based in

Barcelona. Ole! So why did Alex think the

eDreams site was the official Ryanair website?

eDreams site was the official Well, let's see what happens when I

type Ryanair into the Google search engine. This is the site that

appears on the top of the list. And if you look very closely in the

address, it says Ryanair. It looks like a Ryanair website. But what

happens when you kick on the link? We get to a different website

showing the real address - edreams.co.uk. EDreams have been

allowed to advertise on Google using a misleading web address. Apparently

this is completely legal. You can see why Alex and his friends were

misled. The company insists its websites are all clearly branded. I

don't really know what to do. I mean, I invited my friends out with

me for a cheap holiday to save money for everyone, get out in

me for a cheap holiday to save money cheap. And now I've ended maybe

costing them 110 euros more each. They may as well have bought a

normal holiday anyway so, yeah, I'm in a bit of a loss to be honest with

you. I'm very upset about it. It's put a damper on the holiday before

I've even gone on it. What a mess. Well, Google say they won't be

taking any action over the misleading web address that eDreams

are using. Ryanair say they did offer to change the names at a

reduced price and it's not their fault the boys did not want to pay

it. They say that eDreams aren't authorised to sell their flights and

using companies like them can lead to problems with customer service.

Unsurprisingly, eDreams don't agree with that. They say they do offer

travellers superior choice with competitive prices. They have now

agreed to pay to change the names on the tickets and they've also offered

Alex a voucher for the tickets and they've also offered

bookings. Well, changing names on flight tickets isn't the only way

budget airlines can get more money out of you. Checking in your hand

luggage too big is another. But how clued up are the people of

Aberystwyth when it comes to knowing their luggage sizes? We've set up a

little test - three suitcases all sold as hand luggage. But which of

these cases would get on to all the budget airlines? The little one in

the middle. The middle one. If that one says it is hand luggage, that

one. I will go for that one. I would probably go for this one because it

is small. In fact, none of these bags would get in the cabin of every

budget airline. This one bags would get in the cabin of every

black one, through the magic of TV, is the only one that you'd be

allowed to take. I'd take that one, then. Different airlines have

different size limits for hand luggage and they do change them from

time to time. Now, tour operator Aled Rhys joins me now. Good to see

you, Aled. So, if you take your chances and find out that your bag

is too big, too late. That can be quite costly, can't it? Definetly.

You could end up having to pay anything from ?12 a kilogram to

maybe a fixed fee of ?70 a bag. So, when you're talking of a family of

four going on holiday, that could significantly add to their total

costs. I've got a collection of luggage here. It's all advertised

and claims to be suitable for cabin luggage or hand luggage, but there

is a huge variety in size. How can you avoid being stung? Basically,

the simple advice is, you avoid being stung? Basically,

what the labels say. Measure the bag yourself, weigh the bag yourself and

double check with your airline for their size limit. If you're using

maybe more than one airline for your holiday, always go with the worst

case scenario, so always the smaller recommendation. Aled, thank you very

much. Well, earlier we saw the damage that the recent bad weather

has been causing to homes and businesses in Wales and here in

Talybont. They know only too well how devastating flooding can be. Two

years ago, the village was badly flooded leaving dozens of homes

under water. Well, Mike Fothergill was one of those worst affected with

seven feet of water flowing through his home. Mike, that must have been

absolutely horrendous for you. It was a terrible day. It really was.

The river just came up and overwhelmed us and we had to climb

out of the window about three o'clock in the morning. Although the

water was only in the house for a few hours, it took many months for

the house to dry out and get back in to liveable condition. We were out

of the house for over ten months. Mike didn't want to go through that

again. So with the help of a grant, he's tried to flood-proof the house

by building barriers in front of the doors. Well, the first board goes in

and locks into the base plate and then the second board just drops

into place like so, and you push it down so that it locks. And then you

crank up the little lock and it all locks it into place and seals

against the rubber seal. Then you build that up, and this comes up to

the height of here, which is the height of the road. So we are

protected until the water then expels over the road surface. That

must give you peace of mind. I know you've done some work inside as

well, can we go and have a look at that? Well, Mike, I can imagine this

is one of the most important areas to protect in the risk of flooding,

if you can. Yes, after securing the doors this is the first thing that

we do and it would be to seal the pan to stop the ingress of more

sewage, and this is a very simple device, quite a cheap device, that

fits into the toilet bowl. It has a rubber expandable seal which you

then attach a pump. Then, as you pump, it expands the rubber seal and

blocks off the pan and it's in place. That's great, isn't it?

Really quick and easy. It is, and it's not very expensive. That would

cost about 30 or 40 pounds. Great, well, let's see what else you've

done. OK. Well, what have you got here then, Mike? Well, the best

solution to stop water coming up from the sinks and into the house is

to have non returns bowls and that's quite expensive and quite a big job.

So failing that, we are looking for a simpler and cheaper option, just

as a stopgap. So, we have found these expandable stoppers that can

go into the sinks and it seals off and it stops water ingress through

the sink system. So you just put them in the sink. That goes in

place, then you wind it down, which compresses the rubber bung and

creates a really good seal. Then again, it looks really simple again,

which is great. Very simple and very cheap. Only a matter of a few

pounds. And I bet it gives you peace of mind. Absolutely, I don't really

want to go through all that again. Now, if you spent week at a luxury

fitness camp you'd expect to lose a few pounds. But one fitness fanatic

ended up shedding hundreds from her purse. Rachel has the story. When it

comes to getting losing weight and getting fit, there are no quick

fixes. You need hard work and dedication. Of course, some of us

prefer a little more luxury when working out. Now, this is more like

it. A beautiful location, wall-to-wall sunshine and a team of

specialist staff on hand to make those gruelling workouts a little

easier. That's the kind of experience TV fitness trainer Danni

Levy was offering at her Five Star Boot Camp in Marbella in Spain. With

a string of celebrity clients, TV appearances and even her own diet

book, Danni Levy seems to know what she's on about. Come on, banish

those bingo wings, Nicole - nose to the floor. But that kind of work-out

doesn't come cheap. Guests can expect to fork out thousands of

pounds for a week. So when Jackie Mullen from Pontypool spotted a

Valentine's-themed competition online that included a stay at Danni

Levy's Five Star Boot Camp, she didn't hesitate to enter. What could

be better? To go abroad and have the sunshine and exercise and nice food

made for you. And she was delighted when she found out that she was the

lucky winner. They said "Congratulations, Jackie, you've won

the Valentine's package" and I said, "Oh, my God! I can't believe it." I

was going round the "Oh, my God! I can't believe it." I

nutter, I was going so fast. I didn't know what I was doing, I was

so excited. And in keeping with the competition's Valentine's theme,

Jackie and her husband Cliff decided to stay at the Five Star Boot Camp

to celebrate their third wedding anniversary in August. But there was

one vital element that wasn't included in the prize - transport.

In order to be able to attend the boot camp, Jackie and Cliff would

have to fork out more than ?500 for flights. I was quite happy to pay

for it because I knew we were going to get a lovely holiday at the end

of it. And Cliff, how did you feel about the prospect of going on a

boot camp for a week? Jackie was obviously thrilled at the idea, what

about you? A little bit daunted to start with, because I wondered if I

was actually fit enough to start with, because I wondered if I

yeah, as time went on I was looking forward to it. But just weeks after

paying for the flights, Jackie started to suspect that Five Star

Boot Camp was running out of steam - after spotting some worrying reviews

online. Comments started becoming very negative. People were saying it

won't be long now before it's all ended and I began to think, "Oh, my

God, are things going wrong here?" Just days later, Jackie's fears came

true. Five Star Boot Camp emailed to say the company was going under and

they were cancelling her prize holiday. I was devastated. I

couldn't believe it. We tried to actually sell the flights. No-one

wanted to pay the ?110 transfer fee. So who was responsible for saving

Jackie's prize holiday and the ?500 she'd paid out for flights? Five

Star Boot Camp and its glamorous director Danni Levy or the company

that organised the competition, Rebecca Garrett Media? Five Star

Boot Camp said they couldn't pay any money to Jackie as the business was

being liquidated. With Danni Levy's company owing thousands of pounds to

debtors, it seemed Jackie had no chance of getting any money back

from her. But if she hadn't won the competition, she'd never have bought

the flights. So Jackie turned to Rebecca Garrett Media to see if they

could work out a solution by either honouring the prize, or at least

refunding her the money she'd paid for flights. After all, they provide

competitions for a string of TV programmes, magazines and brands. I

assumed they'd be able to transfer it over to another place. At first

they seemed helpful, but it's now it over to another place. At first

eight months since Jackie was first told the holiday would be cancelled.

And she's still no closer to getting her money back. They've not kept us

up to date with anything and I don't think they've treated us very well,

to be honest with you. He made me feel like he was doing me a favour.

I was being impatient. I think they could have done it much better.

Rebecca Garrett Media have now told Jackie it's in their terms and

conditions that they're not responsible for providing the prizes

- even though there was no sign of that clause in the small print for

the competition Jackie entered. So before entering any kind of

competition, it's worth checking the small print. Normally do associate a

contractual relationship arising when you hand over cash or use your

credit card but that is not the case. There will be term that apply

and you might, for example, be agreed to submit yourself to

requests for publicity, so you are helping them promote their business

and you are getting something in return. Jackie and Cliff found the

whole experience much more gruelling than any boot camp. To have actually

won a competition and it cost us money. I feel like we've just thrown

?500 up in the air. I don't think it's fair, really. It was like being

on cloud nine and then being so low you can't imagine. We've written to

Danni Levy and she says she had offered the couple money for the

flights, but not if Jackie spoke out about her experiences. We've had

more luck with Rebecca Garrett Media, who organised the

competition. They say there are also victims of Danni Levy's company. But

since X-Ray got involved, they have offered Jackie and Cliff a stay at

another boot camp, although this one is based in Northumberland. They are

also offering to refund the ?500 the couple paid for the fights to Spain.

So that should be some consolation to Jackie and Cliff. And that's it

for tonight. Next week, Rachel investigates the call centre making

big promises. Are you looking at getting compensation? It will be

just over ?25,000. That would be ?25,000? Yes. Remember if you have a

consumer problem you need help with, give us a call, the lines are open

now 03703 334 334. give us a call, the lines are open

And don't forget to leave a telephone number. Or you can drop us

an email, [email protected]. See you next week. Bye.