Episode 9 X-Ray

You're watching X-Ray, the programme that fights for your rights.

If you have been scammed or you have had a raw deal, we are on your side.

Exposing the truth and tracking down ropes. And we will not take no for

an answer. -- tracking down rogues. On tonight's programme, when Steve

and Elena asked a local builder to renovate their home,

they were not expecting this. This particular column

of brickwork is severely stressed. But their builder is standing

by his work. You are happy that what is there

now is safe, structurally sound? Trailer troubles for horse

lovers June and Catherine. My savings have gone into this

trailer, and it has just gone. And find out how putting up one

of these could slow First tonight, Rachel has been to

a Pembrokeshire village where a family's hopes

of spending Christmas in their new It is a beautiful spot

and it means a lot to us. We married in the church down

at the bottom of the village. Dylan was christened here.

I was christened here. This is where we want to be

for the rest of our lives. I've come to meet Steve and

Elena James in the Pembrokeshire They bought this rundown bungalow

and plan to make it into a dream family home. They hoped to be in it

for Christmas. The plan was to develop it

into a more sort of a four-bedroom In this tiny village,

people trust each other. So a local builder who could

start quickly seemed ideal. We spoke to Mr Morrissey, who was

very obliging and, to be perfectly honest, in the early stages,

he was very, very accommodating. Builder Gary Morrissey,

another native of Camrose, told them that, with 35 years' experience,

he was the man for the job. The fact that he was local,

he lived in the village, Obviously, we knew him, you know

and trust somebody that you know. And he gave us that guarantee, that

it would be done fairly swiftly. His quote wasn't detailed,

but it was competitive. So they put their trust

in a fellow villager. It started going up slowly.

We didn't know how quick to expect it to go up, but it just seemed to

take its time. But when he asked, it was,

you were just reassured that If things did spill over, it would

just be all within the price. His words were,

"A price is a price." Every week, Steve handed over up to

?2500 to pay the workforce. By the end of October,

he had paid ?39,000. That is more than

the original estimate. Then Gary Morrissey dropped

a bombshell. He was there waiting for me, and he

handed me a 3-4 page document. "Read that, any questions,

give me a shout." He was trying to charge us

an extra ?8000 for what he was So we said, "Look, we're absolutely

not giving you any more money." Gary Morrissey insists

the couple had signed off this extra He walked out,

leaving behind a nightmare. This just must be

heartbreaking to see this. The upsetting thing is,

we honestly thought we would be As you can see, we are a long,

long way off that. So is the work that has

been done up to scratch? We asked a chartered

surveyor to take a look. The first thing to say is

that it is incredibly messy. It is always

a sign that something is wrong, The alarm bells are

ringing all around. This particular concrete beam

looks to me undersized. It is resting

on a very small piece of masonry, and it looks as though some

of the masonry has already gone. It is just hanging there

in free air. But on the far end,

he has actually cut an undersized concrete beam to make

it fit into the block work wall, Robert says cutting this

supporting beam could weaken it. And he is even more concerned about

the way these beams are held up. Now this pillar is taking all this

weight of possibly a third of the This particular column of

brickwork is severely stressed. If you think that is bad,

wait until you see the roof. Well, we've got a major problem with

the roof, because at the moment there are no horizontal

main supports for the roof. There's nothing

at the moment stopping the whole What do you mean, exaclty,

by "spread"? By the time you've got slates

on the roof, the insulation, the plasterboard,

snow loading and wind loading, there will be a tremendous force

on that roof, and there's nothing to restrain it, and the weight of

it will just start to push it out. Generally speaking, the quality

of workmanship being carried out on I'm surprised he calls himself

a builder. Steve and Elena spent six months

living in a caravan on the site. But as winter sets in,

they have been forced to pay out This extra cost,

along with the bill for putting the work right, could mean that

they lose their dream house. It has been a hard six months,

but we were always looking To then have to think that,

actually, it's not, we can't, we just can't afford to stay here,

it would be very, very upsetting. Gary Morrissey told us he wasn't

solely responsible He said Steve and Elena had agreed

to build some internal supporting He agreed to meet me in Cardiff.

I asked him about those lintels. Those lintels are more than

sufficient to carry those beams as they are.

As those beams are. So you are happy that what is there

now is safe, structurally sound? Because the lintels were cut, now we

are told by a surveyor, you just don't do that, that it compromises

the strength of the lintel. There was half an inch taken out

of one end. It doesn't matter about cutting

and notch out of that lintel there, when there's a wall going up under

it, because if the wall had already been there, then that lintel would

not be there. The roof is unfinished

and there's no internal Right, are there calculations

from a structural engineer? This is the first time I've ever

been brought in front of anyone. We've just had an 80 mile

an hour winds down with us in Pembrokeshire for two nights,

and the house is still there. It has got no windows in it and it

is taking 80 mile an hour winds. So Gary Morrissey insists

the house is safe, but Steve And a structural engineer has now

told them they need to install steel beams in parts of the downstairs,

and steel supports in the roof, as soon as possible,

which is going to be costly. It shows just how

vital it is to have professional drawings and a detailed contract

drawn up before starting on a build. If you have been let down

by a trader, or a business has We spend millions on batteries

at Christmas. But would you put these

in your child's stocking? In this one, the actual top

of the casing has come off. So you have got the centre

of the battery there with Next, I have been to meet two horse

lovers, left thousands of pounds Horse riding is a popular pastime

in Wales. And if you enjoy galloping through

our countryside, you need to But some horse lovers have

complained that, after handing over thousands

of pounds for their dream trailer, Because

the trailers that these customers The business in question is

Titan Horse Trailers. In March, June Howells from Newport

found one of their products online, and she thought she had found

the ideal trailer to carry Gavin We spent about five months

looking for a trailer. The weight has to be right

for towing. Then I found the one on the

Titan Trailers site. At first, June was told that the

trailer would cost nearly ?14,000. But then she had a very tempting

offer from director, Mandy Moore. She promised a discount

if June was willing to promote She said that it was

a possibility that I could become So she said that, for that,

you will get 10% off your trailer. So I thought, I really haven't

got anything to lose. June paid almost ?7,000 up front

and was told that her trailer would Six weeks came and went,

and the director said, no, Time ticked past,

and Titan told June that the delays were down to problems

on their production line in Spain. June says she hadn't realised that

they were based overseas, because they route their UK calls

through a Manchester number. If you'd known it was

a company based in Spain, would you have ordered the trailer

through them? I thought it was

a company that was in this country. Titan insist that June's paperwork

did make it clear they were Tired of waiting, June wondered

whether she had backed the right They have taken my deposit, they've

taken money I worked hard for, Titan has given June ?1000 back,

but told her that cash flow problems mean they can only pay her

back in instalments. And June is not the only one who has

clashed with Titan Horse Trailers. In the Wye Valley,

Catherine Lovatt agreed to sign up And she paid ?5,000 towards

a trailer, It would have been

our dream trailer. It would have had

everything we wanted. It would have been easy enough

for me to even load the carriage Covered up and protected

from the weather. And May was when I had the first

of our wedding bookings. So we needed to be in on season,

ready to go. But, like June Howells,

eight months has passed, They keep promising, promising,

promising, and still nothing. Titan Horse Trailers also told

Catherine But, confusingly,

her terms and conditions mention a different UK business,

Titan Horse Trailers Ltd, which Catherine now has a County Court

judgment against the UK company, We asked

a legal expert to cast her eye over The really big warning coming

off this is working as an agent. Once you become an agent, you step

across the line, and you cease to be And once you are a business,

your rights are completely different and far less than

when you are acting as a consumer. Do you still have any rights in law,

as a business? You would still have rights under

the Sale of Goods Act, but there is far less protection because it is

assumed that, as a business, you are And does it become more complicated

because it is If it comes to suing them, then you

have to do it in their country. Whereas, when you are a consumer,

you have the right to sue in the UK. For Catherine, it has been

upsetting and costly experience. It caused so much stress

and it still causes so much stress. And my savings have gone into

this trailer, and it is just gone. the long delays are down to

production problems in Spain. They say Catherine Lovatt took out

her County Court judgment against the wrong company - their UK firm -

which is about to be liquidated. But they've promised that their

Spain-based company will give Catherine and June all their money

back eventually, although problems with cash flow mean they can't say

exactly when that will be. We'll be checking,

to make sure that happens. Now, how fast is

your internet connection? If it's not as speedy as you'd like,

Rhod has a few ideas up his sleeve. Not so long ago,

this was what you heard as you connected to the internet

at home. All that changed with the arrival

of broadband. We use it for practically

everything - shopping, skyping and

streaming TV programmes. We've all been there -

you're just getting comfy to watch your favourite show

and things start slowing up. Snail-paced internet speeds have

become such an issue, that just this month the Prime

Minister pledged that every single home in the UK would have

access to fast broadband by 2020. In Wales, four out of five

households are already hooked up But even some of those homes are

having problems. It just takes ages to load,

that's the only thing. I'm fed up with the little thing

going round and round all the time. It's rubbish.

It cuts off when it feels like. Mine doesn't reach every room

in my house, either. You've got to be in one half

of my house for it to work. But if your broadband connection

is sluggish, it could be down to issues within your home, according

to telecoms regulator Ofcom. We're finding that about one

in five users are suffering from problems, ie not getting

the speeds they would otherwise get because of problems that are

associated with their wi-fi router. Electrical devices, dimmer switches,

halogen lamps, even baby monitors, if you have cordless phones around

the house, all of these things can interfere with the wi-fi signal

and means what's getting to your computer is slower than what you'd

expect. To speed things up, you

may even have to ditch the fish! Wi-fi signals can be blocked

by water, so keep that fish tank And the same goes for your Christmas

tree. The electrical field

from those twinkling lights can play havoc with your wi-fi

performance. and my Christmas tree in front

of it. Engineer and telecoms

troubleshooter Dickon Payne. So when it comes to the broadband in

the house, what are your thoughts? We're getting a speed

of 0.48 megabits per second. I think if we try turning

the Christmas lights off, we may see an improvement to the

speed... OK, 2.6 megabits per second.

Now that is a massive improvement. And Dickon has a couple more tips

up his sleeve. We'll try rebooting the router so it

picks a less busy wireless channel. So we just unplug it

and plug it back in. I should hopeso!

And most simplest of all, don't stuff your router behind the TV,

bring it up and out in the open. By putting it out on a shelf,

it'll make a difference? Now we've adjusted

a few things around the house. We got a reading

of 11.06 megabits per second. That's a whopping 23 times faster

than when we first started. Now you can stream

your favourite film, glitch-free. Gone With The Wind.

Casablanca. So there you have it -

a few technical tips of how to get the best out of your

broadband and beat the buffering. Oh, before I log on,

I'd better find that snail. Not the kind of slippery customer we

normally get on X-Ray! And we'll put all that advice

on our website. Now, when you're buying Christmas

presents, you'll no doubt be buying But one well-known high street store

which sells millions of them We all look forward to seeing

children unwrap their presents But many of those toys won't

work without batteries. We spend ?300 million

a year on them and the big-name

brands can be pricey. Poundstretcher is one of the

best-known names on the high street, And until recently they were selling

these "bargain" batteries for - More than three million Hyundai and

V2 Xtreme Power batteries were sold. But they've landed the store

in deep trouble. That's because they are leaking

dangerous chemicals and Poundstretcher's been

in the dock for repeatedly

putting its customers at risk. Rhys Harries from Swansea Trading

Standards led the investigation

into the discount chain. Last place you'd expect to find

products from a major retailer. Yeah, um, what we've got here is

approximately 85,000 batteries When we've gone into Poundstretchers

we've found batteries that are actually leaking on the shelves and

it would be quite clear to anyone working in that store and stacking

them on the shelves that these When we looked at the packs we could

see the top and the bottom of the battery were leaking, so what we

decided to do then, was to actually strip off the coating and found that

the chemicals were coming through the

casing, and in this one the actual So you've got the centre

of the battery there with It's a horrific sight - certainly

not something you'd want to be putting

into a child's toy this Christmas. Any product that's put on the

market, in the UK or Europe, needs to be safe, especially if they're in

young children's toys or even if the child's using a remote control and

it starts to leak, they going to get it on their hands,

they may put it in their mouth or To see just how dangerous

Poundstretcher's faulty batteries are, I took some to

the public analysts who tested them in order to determine if there's any

chloride chemicals which would indicate the presence of

zinc chloride and ammonium chloride. And that is noticeably cloudier,

isn't it? Definitely - indicating that the

internal chemicals are leaching out. How dangerous is it to come

into contact with these chemicals? On the skin and the hands,

they will form discomfort, reddening and itchiness. They're classified

as corrosive and they shouldn't be Almost all of the samples Alastair

tested were leaking. And incredibly,

this has happened before. Three years ago, Poundstretcher was

fined ?16,000 when its Superpower batteries, made by the same

manufacturer, spilled chemicals over A grandfather had given his

granddaughter a torch and he noticed it was wet, so he took it off her.

He was able to wash the child's But instead of learning

their lesson, Poundstretcher simply rebranded batteries made

by the same Chinese manufacturer. When Trading Standards found these

were leaking too, they took action. We'd served them with

a suspension notice to tell them do not sell any more, but what we found

was they stopped selling them in the shops but continued to sell

them via their online shop. In all, Poundstretcher has been

prosecuted four times - most recently admitting 37 charges

of selling unsafe batteries. And this time, its disregard

for the law has really landed

the company in hot water. Well, last week, Swansea Crown

Court handed Poundstretcher and their parent company Crown Crest a

massive fine of more than ?500,000! Poundstretcher have apologised

"unreservedly" and say all affected batteries have been withdrawn

from sale, they've reviewed their supplier arrangements

and improved safety testing. Now, it's the last programme

of 2015, so what better time to look back on some of the stories

we've brought you this year. Hundreds of you complained to us

about rogue traders ripping you off and poor service which has driven

you mad. And when you get in touch with

X-Ray, We've had chases...

No, no, no, no! And runaways.

Do you have anything to say? That was a bit of a surprise,

I think. Do you have a hygiene score? I

couldn't see one. No.

You don't have one? With this, it hasn't been

in any sort of accident? Made sure you're clued up on your

rights They came and said, sorry,

we've only got one bedroom. At that point, orange flames

started licking out of the engine bay, up over

the windscreen and up over the car. X-Ray has been

on the case for you. In February, we made headlines when

Reverend Wena Parry's insurers refused to pay out for damage

to her car because they said she'd modified

it with Christian stickers. But, after we got in touch, Age UK

saw the light and paid out ?725. We also had one

of our biggest results yet. Two years ago, we heard the saga

of a badly built wall which towered over Nigel Moore's house in

Holyhead. We heard a loud bang,

the wall had collapsed completely. There was 40-50 tonnes

of masonry and bricks The wall was part

of a new housing estate and owners RBS were refusing

to pay out. But when we got involved,

they had a change of heart. And this year, the bank re-built it

at a cost of more than ?100,000. And the law caught up with some

X-Ray rogues, too. who conned viewers into buying bogus

plots of land in Pembrokeshire. In February, she was sentenced

to three years in prison. Tom Connors, the cowboy behind

Bellway Paving, But this year, police went

a step further and seized And not forgetting the most

complained-about car dealer in Barry, Nasser Asfi, who finally

got his comeuppance in court and could be facing Christmas

behind bars. And in total,

we've got more than ?135,000 back for viewers this year, which should

buy a Christmas present or two! But we'd love to do

even better next year. So if you need our help,

give us a call on: We'll be back on your screens

in the New Year. Hello, I'm Riz Lateef with

your 90 second update. Tomorrow's strike by junior doctors

in England has been called off.