Episode 17 X-Ray

You're watching X-Ray, the programme that fights

In a scam or dealt a raw deal, we are on your side. Exposing the truth

and tracking down blokes, we will not take no for an answer.

Tonight: They picked a top travel company

to arrange their wedding in paradise.

They said that they'd been there that the pictures were good,

This stairlift is the key to Dora's independence.

Pins have actually worked their way out, if those pins do come out this

part of the rail can actually collapse.

And, fed up juggling passwords, Could this be the answer?

First tonight - Rachel's been to meet a couple whose dream wedding

in the Caribbean didn't turn out quite as they'd hoped.

Every couple dreams of a fairy tale wedding.

Emily and Tommy Tsiattalou from Penarth near Cardiff

It all started with a romantic proposal in Majorca.

We always go over to this little island.

Proposed to her when we climbed to the top of the mountain.

I remember thinking, wow, he'd thought about that.

With the ring on Emily's finger the wedding planning began.

I didn't want a big fuss, just intimate family,

We both agreed somewhere abroad would be ideal.

I wanted to do something that wasn't a traditional wedding,

Emily and Tommy visited the Thomson Holiday Superstore

They were sort of really over zealous about how amazing everything

was over there and how much we would not be regretting

With their minds made up Emily and Tommy booked an all-inclusive

holiday with Thomson's sister company First Choice -

staying at the five star Azul Fives resort on the Caribbean coast.

Their wedding would take place at the same venue on 9

That was it then it was all weddings, weddings, weddings.

We were talking about it all the time.

Counting down the months, then it was counting down the days

The happy couple paid ?17,000, for themselves, their five children

and close family members - everyone else who was invited

The venue was booked, the date was set and

All Emily and Tommy had to do was jet off and tie

But the couple's five-star experience hit turbulence as soon

First the kids weren't allowed to join them in the VIP Lounge.

Then the vegetarian in-flight meal wasn't exactly five star!

All the way on an eleven hour flight.

He was so wound up on the plane I said don't worry just relax,

Tom, when we get there, we'll be just fine.

When they arrived at their five star resort they intended

But what they found in their room left them feeling very flat.

We found mouldy plates of food from the previous guests.

We had to use all of our bath towels to dry the floor.

The light shades were hanging off, the plug sockets fell out

There were so many things wrong with that room.

We started to see rat droppings around the bath area.

She was sorry for the problems we had had so far and would log

We didn't have much faith in the hotel to even get anything

right, so we were praying the wedding would go

But when the big day finally arrived Tommy began getting nervous

I was supposed to have transport from the room,

to the wedding, but that didn't arrive.

Eventually the hotel sent a golf buggy to take him to the ceremony.

The couple took their vows in the Caribbean sunshine.

On their wedding night, they got a new room.

It had an interesting water feature...

There was severe health and safety issues with water running down

It should have been the holiday of a lifetime.

They'd spent ?17,000, but - after a lot of haggling -

all First Choice offered was ?2,000 worth of vouchers towards another

of their holidays - which they didn't want!

We essentially were sold the dream by the company,

and it turned out to be a nightmare when we got there.

We trusted them that they'd been there, that the pictures were good,

that it was going to be special for us.

So, have the tour operator First Choice had to say?

Well they've apologised to Tommy and Emily for the problems they had

- and say they did try to do everything they could to resolve

And they have now agreed to inprove their offer

Now, I'm joined by consumer law expert Professor Margaret Griffiths.

Margaret - this isn't the first time we've come across cases

where companies have offered compensation in vouchers.

Well, they are allowed to in that it's not illegal, but,

Whatever the compensation is that you're due, you're entitled to have

If you choose to accept it in vouchers, that's your business,

but there's no obligation on you to do so.

So what's your advice then, Margaret, if the holiday doesn't go

according to plan, what should you do?

Well, first off you must, must, must complain to the rep

Make sure they know all the details, exactly what the problem

is and what you're looking for them to do.

Also, of course, make sure you take lots of photographs,

videos, comments from other people at the hotel who have

And we do get a lot of complaints about package holidays.

Realistically, can you expect to get the full value

If it's been an absolute disaster from start to finish, then yes.

But in practice, if the flights have been fine, there's no

If you've been staying in a hotel for 14 days,

and there was a problem for three of them, and the rest was perfectly

OK, then the compensation reflects the problem on those three days,

and that's quite a reasonable approach for them to take.

And straight after the programme tonight, Margaret's going to be

on the BBC Cymru Wales Facebook page, answering any questions

It could be how to avoid a scam when you're booking,

or what your rights are if things don't meet your expectations.

So that's on the BBC Cymru Wales Facebook

page at eight o'clock, straight after this programme.

Still to come tonight - Linda thought this ?500 computer

would help her to rehome these rescued dogs.

Next - Rhod's investigating the new technology which could mean

you no longer have to remember passwords for everything!

Keeping our money safe can be a bit of a juggling act.

Dozens of accounts all needing a password -

that's a lot of balls to keep in the air!

Many of us base our passwords on personal information

But that also makes it easy for criminals to crack our codes -

I think I use the same password for everything,

But soon you might not need a password at all!

Imagine being able stay one step ahead of criminals

by using your own body as a secure password!

It's called Biometrics - using things like fingerprints

or the patterns in your eyes to identify you.

The latest technology to hit the mainstream promises high grade

It's voice biometrics and it uses our speech patterns

It's already widely used in Australia and Canada.

In a few months' time, HSBC and First Direct will be

offering this technology to 15 million UK customers who use

So what we have here is a voice biometric system that

analyses your voice and that can determine that you are

who you say you are, based on the characteristics

Such as the rhythms of your speech. We pick up these characteristics.

The voice biometric algorithms look for over 100 different

characteristics, some of those are physical,

some of those are behavioural, such as the rhythm of your speech,

do you speak in peaks and valleys, do you speak in a monotone

These are all characteristics that we're picking up to make sure

OK, well let's put this to the test, let's give it a go.

The first thing I needed to do was register my voice so the system

So - will it allow Brett to access my account?

Computer: Please say your passphrase again.

It's basically not letting me through.

Next, it was time to hit the streets so I could test the system.

Brett stayed in the office to monitor the calls.

I'm in the centre of London, a noisy street, building works

Hello, it's Rhodri Owen here from BBC Wales' X-Ray.

We're sorting out security features where it's all down to the voice.

We're collecting the audio - and we've got a positive match,

Right, I'm going to complicate this a little bit more now with a little

Rhodri Owen sydd fan hyn yn Llundain.

When he was speaking in a normal fashion in Welsh or in English,

it's the same voice characteristics, even though the words

I was determined to cheat the system so I played a little trick on it.

I made a high quality recording of my voice.

Would the Biometric software recognise that

Now, it's suspicious that this was a recording, so it's asking me

to say a completely different random phrase before it will let me in.

And there's no way I'll have a recording of THAT

It looks pretty good - so could the days of juggling

Unfortunately, there isn't really such a thing as a fail-safe system

in the world, let alone in technology and security.

If our passwords get hacked, we're in trouble.

But with biometrics, the stakes are even higher.

It does get more serious if you're building up a data base of people's

digital profiles, which includes their fingerprints,

That becomes incredibly serious and people perhaps need to be more

serious about understanding what exactly they would do if their

So when it comes to keeping our financial data secure,

biometrics is a pretty exciting step forward to a brave new world.

But the tried-and-tested password will be around for a while yet.

And voice recognition is really starting to take off.

In the last couple of days, Telecoms giant Talk Talk

has just started using the technology.

If you sign up for it - let us know how you get on.

Now, we've been getting tweets about Mothers' Day flowers

which still haven't arrived three weeks later!

Rob Evans from Usk in Monmouthshire wanted to say it with flowers -

so he ordered an ?18 bunch from a website called

But he was far from delighted with the service he received.

When you've gone to the trouble of organising flowers,

when you're having to ring on the Monday and Tuesday

and they still haven't arrived, erm, you, uh...

Under new consumer laws, if you order something

for a specific occasion and it doesn't arrive in time,

Now we've got in touch with Delightful Bouquets -

and they admitted there was a problem with a supplier.

They've agreed to give Rob a full refund.

Next, I've been to meet the owners of a kennels in Llandysul,

whose experience of buying a computer turned out to be a bit

If you are anything like me, when you need to replace

or fix your computer you call in the professionals.

And you'd assume hiring someone who calls themselves

an IT Consultant would be a safe pair of hands.

Linda White and Tony King from Llandysul rely

on their computer to run their kennels and animal rescue service.

It is our lifeline, we're in the middle of nowhere,

we cover the whole of the UK with our rescue dogs.

Advertising, invoicing, everything is done on the computer.

But back in January last year, it was them that needed rescuing

when their old computer went to the dogs.

They turned to a local computer firm, MY IT Matters,

He said he would build us a new one, an upgrade,

he said he was going to put Windows 7 on it, he said

Tony and Linda agreed to pay him ?500.

He took the old one away to download all the data and transfer

He brought the computer and set it up.

I asked had he got my old computer and he said,

it's no good to you, you don't need it.

He has got the hard drive with all our personal details on it

which we want back right now, really.

I lost a load of data when he transferred the stuff,

I have lost a lot of my photographs of my rescue dogs from 2014 that

I need, it's my records of what I had in.

A month later, there were yet more problems.

I get a sign coming up saying my Windows 7 Professional

needed a code put in, which I haven't got.

I now get a black screen saying the copy of Windows is not genuine.

It crashes at least five times a day

and slow, a snail could beat it.

Linda and Tony have complained to MY IT Matters 16 times,

So they called in a PC expert to inspect their computer.

He said the Windows was only the trial version

and that it was just a complete and utter waste of money.

I feel as though I have been ripped off.

I decided to do some digging into MY IT Matters.

The website certainly looks impressive.

The company's been trading for 12 years, they have three offices

in west Wales and lots of expert staff.

But we couldn't find any addresses for those three offices.

And despite claiming to be a Limited company, it's not.

Trading Standards told us this is misleading and breaches

We took Tony and Linda's PC to a cyber forensics research lab

Let's have a look and see what's inside.

This is a minimalistic board, 4GB of RAM, your processor is not

that powerful, it is a low-power pc board.

Well, there's about ?100-?120 worth of components there

so if I was buying that from a shop I would expect to pay somewhere

This micro PC which children are using in school today,

which retails for about ?30-?40, is as powerful as Tony

He's conceivably committing a criminal act under the Theft Act

IT consultant is quite a glamourous title, isn't it?

But the real victims are the rescue dogs.

Without an effective computer, Linda can't put them online,

Just like the dogs, Linda feels she's been abandoned.

He has just swept me under the carpet.

I have asked him for help but he's just not interested any more.

Well, after Tony and Linda wrote to us we took up their case

He says he's sorry they're not happy with his work but insists he did

everything he could for them, including some work free of charge.

Matthew insists he discussed the specifications of computer

with them and gave them a genuine Windows 7 access code.

He hasn't said where the old hard drive is, but says the data on it

Next, I've been to Denbighshire to meet an elderly couple who paid

thousands for a stairlift they are now too scared to use.

We all get old, and when we do we sometimes need a little extra

help with everyday things, like climbing the stairs.

For Gwyn and Dora Hughes from Ruthin, a stairlift was vital

if they were to stay in their own home.

My mother, who's 85, had a fall outside her home,

broke her hip, was in hospital for seven weeks.

But it was crucial really that we had a stairlift installed

at home for my mother to come home as she wouldn't have been able

Gwyn and Dora's daughter Olwen found a contractor -

the very regal-sounding Balmoral Stairlifts.

Director Quinn O'Loughlin came out and offered to install

a reconditioned Stannah chair for ?3,500.

The family paid their deposit and hoped for a fine level

But instead, they ended up in a right royal mess!

They say they asked for the stairlift to end

on the landing so Dora could step off easily.

Balmoral even removed the old radiator to make way for it.

Instead, the chair stops short of the landing,

The power-assisted swivel doesn't work either so 91-year-old husband

It just doesn't make sense for us, safety-wise.

As you can see, we feel it's dangerous stopping here.

If my mother opened this belt, safety belt here,

before swivelling the chair, she could really fall and be

They used to be here safe in their own home.

And now we feel they're not and it's a constant worry.

Left with a potentially dangerous stairlift,

the family complained to director Quinn O'Loughlin.

But he told them it was a "standard finish" and if they wanted it

altered, they'd have to pay another ?1,000!

So, what would an expert make of Balmoral's installation?

First being the base leg is not secured at all.

It's just sort of left flapping around.

There's a lot of movement on the chair.

Yeah, it does seem very unstable, loose.

These pins that are sticking out there.

Those have actually worked their way loose out of the rail.

If those do come out, this part of the rail

And the whole thing could drop which would put you in

Steve's also worried about the electrics.

There's been a hole drilled into the battery charger

and the wires have been shoved inside.

That's a safety concern, obviously - electricity, fire, things like that.

That is not the standard way of fitting the battery charger.

And in your opinion that is a danger?

That needs to be rectified straightaway.

I'm sorry, that was a shock, wasn't it?

Thank you very much for exposing it all.

I was concerned for it as it was but now its made us more

The family is devasted by the quality of the work.

But Balmoral Stairlifts has posted pictures of their lift online -

and describes them as "very happy customers"!

They are not the only people fed up with Balmoral.

86-year-old Derek Hine from Rhos on Sea wanted a repair to his lift.

He couldn't get it working so off he went.

He came back for a third visit and decided the transformer

He then asked for ?300 for the batteries and transformer.

But after Balmoral fitted the new parts, the stair-lift

Anyway, he came back for a fifth visit and wasn't getting anywhere.

I said I'm not spending any more money on it,

So Balmoral left, taking the new parts Derek had paid for.

In the end, the family brought in another company who fixed

the lift in one visit but Quinn O'loughlin never returned

We've got court order against him and he's ignored that too.

He had a deadline and he's just ignored everything.

So what do you think of the way that your dad's been treated?

It's just disgusting, isn't it, to think that people think it's OK

Back in Denbighshire, Dora, Gwyn and their daughter Olwen

It's very stressful for us, we are concerned that are parents

aren't safe in there own home which they have been for 60 years.

It's very disappointing that a company can treat someone

We've taken up these complaints with Quinn O'Loughlin of

In Derek's case he has apologised for any distress he's caused

but says he went through the correct procedures to fix the problem.

Even though he visited the house five times,

he says he wasn't allowed to finish the job.

But there are no apologies for Gwyn and Dora.

And he's offering them no further help.

He does say he discussed the specifications of the stairlift

before it was installed and says they were always going to get

If you - or your elderly relatives - have had dealings with

Quinn O'Loughlin we'd like to hear from you.

Why did it take a furniture chain a whole year,

I don't know how they could get it so wrong.

Now we are nearly at the end of this series, but we are planning some

special holiday programmes in the summer.

So if you have something you want us to investigate give us a call.

And you can find us on twitter @BBCXray.

But if you want some expert advice before that -

Professor Margaret Griffiths - one of Wales top consumer law

experts is live on Facebook right now giving advice on any

The session - which is on the BBC Cymru Wales page -

not the news page - runs until half past eight -

Remember, don't include company names!

We won't be able to answer if you do!

And that's it for this week - see you next Monday.