Rip Off Britain (2009) s07e10 Episode Script
Series 7, Episode 10
1 We asked you to tell us what's left you feeling totally ripped off, and you've contacted us in your thousands.
You've told us about the companies that you think get it wrong, and the customer service that simply is not up to scratch.
If you're paying for a good service, you expect a good service and a good product, whatever it may be.
At the end of the day, we expect value for money.
You've asked us to track down the scammers who stole your money and investigate the extra charges you'd say are unfair.
The wool's been pulled over our eyes.
I don't think we get a fair price.
I think they should always put the customer first.
And when you've lost out but no-one else is to blame, you've come to us to stop others falling into the same trap.
- And no-one could sort that out for you over ten years? - No-one has.
So whether it's a blatant Rip-Off or a genuine mistake we're here to find out why you're out of pocket and what you can do about it.
Your stories, your money.
This is Rip-Off Britain.
Hello and welcome once again to Rip-Off Britain, the programme that battles to get you the best customer service every single time.
A lovely ambition though not always the case.
And all the people we'll be meeting today would say that's not remotely the experience they have.
That's absolutely true.
And in each case, they've ended up either frustrated or totally out of pocket.
And, as we're about to see, all that small print can truly catch you out in the most unexpected and really quite extraordinary ways.
And, indeed, how many times has that happened - when we've been making these programmes? - Hmm.
And sometimes, of course, when it does, it's because like most people perhaps you didn't read properly or understand them.
But in other cases, well, it might not be quite so clear cut.
There can also even be situations where the terms and conditions have a clause or a detail that is so unusual that you're left questioning if it's even fair.
Coming up, how an easy booking mistake with a budget airline nearly grounded a family holiday.
I was completely gobsmacked.
We used a budget airline to get a budget deal, and we ended up paying a heck of a lot more than we should have.
And the wedding company whose contracts came with a costly sting in the tail.
Why didn't you tell them to buzz off, that you're not paying any money? I was up to here with it to be honest and I just wanted to get them out of my hair.
Over the years on Rip-Off Britain, we've found some great experts who have become familiar faces at our pop-up shop and in our films.
One of them is the solicitor, Gary Rycroft, he's always on hand when we're looking for some expert advice on a point of law.
Now, it's normally us that takes a case to him, but earlier this year, Gary contacted us with a situation from his own in-tray.
A solicitor for 17 years, Gary Rycroft has worked on almost every type of case you can think of, but even he was shocked by one he took on in November 2014.
One of my clients had been trying to sell a house for quite some time, and it looks like through no fault of her own she's now facing legal action.
And the worst of it is, she could lose thousands of pounds.
The client in question is Philomena Austin from Morecambe in Lancashire.
And what Gary was doing for her should have been simple.
In May 2014, Philomena had decided it was time to move out of her bungalow at Carnforth.
She put it on the market with a local estate agent with an asking price of £250,000.
I lived at Carnforth for a period of 30 years.
My husband had died in 2008.
It was a difficult decision, obviously, to leave a place where I'd spent 30 years, happy years.
But after a year on the market, the bungalow remained unsold, even with £50,000 knocked off the price.
It was then in August 2014, that her agent suggested Philomena might want to think about trying to sell through an auction house as well.
Selling homes by auction is an unusual route for the vast majority of homeowners, but sales of residential property at auction have increased 12% since 2010, with just under 22,000 houses put up for sale in 2014.
Nick Green has been selling homes at auction for ten years.
The process itself is very, very simple.
We work within a timeframe, so from the start of the auction, marketing, to the completion of the property, is generally anywhere between seven and eight weeks.
Whereas with the open market, it could be any time between six weeks to six months.
And another crucial difference is the sale itself.
With auction, it's a definite sale.
Once it's sold, it's sold.
But as we're all too familiar with on Rip-Off Britain, a supposedly straightforward process can go horribly wrong.
Philomena and the auction house, a company called Pattinson, agreed a reserve price of £195,000.
So for the sale to go through, any bidders at the auction would have to meet this minimum figure.
At this stage I thought, "Well, I'm going to have to take less "than I would have liked for it.
I understand that.
" But on the day of the auction, there were no bids.
I was disappointed but more surprised in fact, because it was a presentable property.
So Philomena was delighted when soon afterwards, her estate agent called to say that there was now an interest in the property from a prospective buyer who'd attended the auction but hadn't bid on the day.
But when Philomena started to receive calls from not just her estate agent but the auctioneer too, she was unsure who was actually responsible for trying to sell her house.
As far as she was concerned, there was no longer any reason why she should still be dealing with the auction house.
I was a little bit confused at that stage.
I thought, "Now, who's dealing with me here?" Philomena started receiving offers on her bungalow.
As they were way below what she was hoping for, she rejected them and felt it was worth continuing with the negotiations, a point she thought she'd made clear.
I said, "Oh, good, we can more or less move on from that "and get the price up again if he's really interested.
" But that's where the problems started.
While Philomena believed she was still in negotiations, it seems that what the auction house understood from their conversation was that she'd agreed to sell her home for £175,000, which, after fees, was £30,000 less than the reserve price at auction.
But that wasn't the worst of it.
The auction house, Pattinson, is adamant that the contract also gave them the right to actually sell and exchange contracts on the property.
So Philomena was horrified to discover that a sale she insists she'd never knowingly have agreed to was already under way.
And when she disputed what was happening, she said she was staggered by the auctioneer's response.
The auctioneer said that it was going forward.
Erm but then they said I was I had reneged on the contract.
I said, "I haven't signed any contract.
" So I said, "Well, I need to speak to my solicitor.
" And that's where Gary came in.
Having done other legal work for Philomena, he'd agreed to look after the legal side of selling her home.
He too was staggered to hear that a sale appeared to be going full steam ahead.
Out of the blue, I got a telephone call from a solicitor and he told me that it was all going to go ahead that day.
The solicitor informed Gary that he had been told by the auction house it had the authority to exchange contracts on behalf of Philomena.
But Gary's position was clear, with no evidence Philomena had agreed to the sale of her home at this lower price, she wasn't legally obliged to complete on the deal.
They were saying, "You've got to accept this offer "and it's going to be legally binding.
" Well, I felt a bit threatened really.
I thought, "Why the sudden rush?" I decided I wasn't going to go any further with anything until I'd spoken to you.
When Gary spoke to both the estate agent and the auction house, the auction house maintained that all was in keeping with the terms and conditions that Philomena had agreed to.
But as Gary had seen no evidence to suggest Philomena had given the company authority to exchange contracts, he halted the sale, which, you'd have thought, might have been the end of it, but it wasn't.
In February, Philomena received a very unwelcome letter from the prospective buyer threatening court action to reclaim the £10,000 they said they'd lost because of Philomena's refusal to sell.
The gentleman prospective buyer decided that he was going to come on to me for recompense of expenses incurred by him.
When they believed the sale was going ahead, the buyers had paid not just a deposit on the property but also the auction house's £9,622 fee for handling the sale.
And while they did get the deposit back, the auction house did not return the fee because as far as the company was concerned, it had upheld its side of the bargain and it was Philomena who was responsible for compensating the potential buyers.
We managed to prevent the sale of the house going through - at a price that was much less than you wanted to achieve.
- Uh-huh.
With both sides adamant that they're in the right, it's clear that somewhere along the line there's been quite a misunderstanding.
So we got in touch with both the estate agent and the auction house for their take on all this.
The estate agent told us that once they'd introduce Philomena to the auction house, they had no further involvement with any negotiations beyond passing on some enquiries about the house.
And when we spoke to the auctioneers, Pattinson, they told us that the agreement Philomena signed with them did give Pattinson the right to exchange contracts on her behalf.
And they insisted that Philomena had accepted the reduced offer verbally and had been made aware that contracts would be exchanged in not one but Pattinson acknowledged that the instruction to accept a reduced offer should have been confirmed in writing, something which wasn't done.
And since we got in touch, they've returned the fees paid by the prospective buyers, meaning Philomena need no longer worry about being pursued for these costs and the civil claim from the purchasers has in fact been dropped.
That's a huge relief for Philomena.
But however such a difference of opinion came about, Philomena's keen to ensure nobody else finds themselves in a similar situation.
I would say to anybody, "Whatever agreement or arrangement you're entering into "please be very, very careful "and just thoroughly investigate the situation, "because you never know how it can turn out.
" Now, here's a question.
How do you put down your name when you're filling out an online form? Would you, for example, always do it exactly as it appears on your passport? Or might you sometimes write a shortened version of your first name, or maybe just the initial? Well, here's a very cautionary tale of how what's in a name can prove absolutely crucial when it comes to booking a flight, because putting down even the slightest variation could end up having very costly repercussions.
In June 2014, Jim and Tanya Everett wanted to fly from Belfast to Birmingham, so that they could spend a week with Jim's daughter and his grandson.
I was looking forward very much to seeing my daughter and my grandson, because we see each other two or three times a year and it was a great opportunity to get together.
The family planned a really relaxing trip along Britain's waterways.
I was really looking forward to having a nice float on the canals and stop at the various places and maybe have tea and a scone or something.
Sounds good.
The couple were delighted to see that they could get two return flights with easyJet for a total of £117.
24.
We decided to book flights with easyJet, because their quite competitive and that was the most convenient flight, to be honest with you, and I've used them a lot before.
So Tanya began making what she imagined would be a routine flight booking online.
And as usual she started by filling in the names of the two passengers.
When you're filling in an online application, it does ask you for your first name and your surname, your date of birth and all the various things.
As with all easyJet flights, passengers are encouraged to check in online and print out their own boarding passes at home.
But having done just that and with only hand luggage to their names, Jim and Tanya could go straight to the departure gate.
We went to the gate and when we handed the boarding passes and passports over, they asked us to stand to one side.
Nervous as to what the problem could be, Jim and Tanya looked on as the plane continued boarding and the easyJet representative made a call.
A few minutes later, the rep came back with some rather surprising news.
Despite their boarding passes in each case displaying the correct surname and initial, the couple were now being told that because their first names were not displayed in full they weren't going anywhere.
They said, "I'm sorry, you can't board this flight "because your boarding passes are incorrectly completed.
"It's only got your initial and not your full first name.
" I-I was completely gobsmacked.
Although the flight was about to take off, the couple were told to go back through security to the check-in desk in the departure hall.
There, Jim and Tanya were told they'd have to pay £65 each to change their tickets to show the correct full first name.
The reason they were given was partly because of "security concerns.
" I said, "You're joking?! "We've got to get to Birmingham tonight, because I've got a narrow boat holiday tomorrow.
" I can't see what the security problems would have been to let us on.
Or how could I have possibly been the wrong person? How could we be wrong people? We got the boarding passes from their website.
By now, they'd missed their flight and the next one on that route wouldn't fly until the following morning.
Desperate to get to Jim's daughter that night, they asked if they could transfer onto a different flight to Luton instead.
He said he couldn't transfer us and we'd have to pay for it.
I was beside myself.
To fly that night, the couple had no choice but to buy entirely new tickets to the tune of £241.
98, which on top of the £117.
24 they'd originally paid, meant their supposedly "budget" holiday was turning into something rather more expensive.
We used a budget airline to get a budget deal and we ended up paying a heck of a lot more than we should have.
I feel let down and not at all happy.
It's the fact that the policy to me is severely flawed and they could have let us on.
As far as Jim is concerned, easyJet's attitude was both heavy-handed and pedantic.
He accepts that there is a chance that Tanya did just enter their initials at the time of booking, but he can't see why that should have been a problem.
After all, what was printed wasn't wrong just incomplete.
The issue is that they denied us boarding without using a little bit of customer care and common sense.
But click on the information icon on the easyJet website and it does clearly state that all names should be entered as they are in your passport and you shouldn't simply enter an initial.
But no error message is displayed, so if you do fail to enter your name in full, just like Jim and Tanya, you may only realise that that's an issue when you get to the airport.
And to fly, you might end up having to fork out extra money.
Why should there be a charge? I mean, even if it's in the terms and conditions or not, they shouldn't be allowed to charge that type of money.
Jim and Tanya believe that if they weren't going to be allowed to board with the information that was entered, then the website should not have accepted their booking.
And they don't see why having just their initial on the boarding pass should create a security issue.
So we put that to the airline regulator, the Civil Aviation Authority.
And when we did, it confirmed that in fact They told us that airlines that do require this do so So we asked easyJet about their decision not to allow the Everetts to board.
They maintain that the rules regarding names and documents are in place for security reasons.
And it's the passengers' responsibility to check that their documentation is correct.
But they told us that where a genuine spelling error has been made, they do try to use common sense to rectify this free of charge before the passenger flies.
But because Jim and Tanya printed their boarding cards at home and did not check in any baggage, the first time their mistake came to light was at the gate.
And at that stage it was too late to make any amendments as However, there is good news.
EasyJet recognise that Jim and Tanya may have .
.
and have now refunded them as a gesture of goodwill.
Meanwhile, travel expert, Lisa Francesca Nand, can understand why passengers who get caught out like this might feel hard done by, but she says it's crucial to remember that the responsibility to check your boarding pass lies with you, the consumer, so take care especially when booking online.
Unfortunately, it's a very common mistake.
We are now our own travel agents.
And in the days when you used to go to a travel agent to book, at least you had a third party to check, but these days, we don't have a third party.
And the airlines have every right to charge us what they like, because we tick that little box saying "yes" to the terms and conditions when we book our flights, which is why we need to check very diligently ourselves.
Although it cost them more than they anticipated, Jim and Tanya did manage to catch up with their family as planned, but they'll be extra careful next time they go online to book a flight.
In future I'm sure Tanya will be more cautious in checking, double-checking, treble-checking.
In fact, the last time Tanya booked a flight for me she said, "I've got your first name in, by the way.
" A bit of humour thrown in there.
But, no, we're always very cautious and we will be even more cautious, particularly with easyJet.
Still to come on Rip-Off Britain, how buying a dream caravan turned sour for this couple and others too.
The more we thought about it, the more we didn't like it.
- We felt a bit cheated to be honest.
- Yeah.
Once again we've taken Rip-Off Britain out on the road.
And this year, to one of the busiest shopping centres in the East Midlands.
Here in the Victoria Centre in Nottingham, our pop-up shop gives us the perfect opportunity to meet you face-to-face and hear all about situations where you feel you haven't got what you wanted or, indeed, you feel you've been ripped off.
And the way it works is quite simple -- you come in, tell us your problems, and our wonderful team of experts is here to help you.
When Ian Milne wanted to shorten the length of his mortgage, a change in his terms and conditions meant that he now faced paying a fee, so he's come to see financial expert, Sarah Pennells, for advice.
I went to the mortgage adviser and I originally wanted 25 years, and they said because I'm young and I've only got a low-waged job try 30 years and I can change the term midway and for free.
I went to ring up and change it and they said they've changed their policies and now it's a fee to change the term.
So now I've still got 30 years, when I originally went in and asked for a 25-year term mortgage.
I think you should complain to the mortgage lender.
Give the company eight weeks to sort out your complaint and if it's not been resolved or they don't agree with you, then you can take it to the Financial Ombudsman Service.
But there might be a cleverer way to sort it out without you going through that.
Just tell me, are you on any kind of fixed-rate or tracker deal at the moment? - I'm on a three-year fixed rate.
- OK.
Just in the last couple minutes, I've had a quick look online, cos I know who your mortgage lender is.
Now, you can actually overpay your mortgage by 10% every year.
So 10% of the amount you owe, you can overpay.
So, basically, work out what your repayments would be if you paid over 25 years and not 30.
Pay that every month, - as long as it's within your 10% barrier, which it will be.
- Yes.
Once you get to the end of your three-year deal, remortgage again, but instead of remortgaging for 27 years, remortgage for 22 years.
Check with your lender first, but every payment you make, the money will come off your total straightaway, so you will immediately kind of feel the benefit.
And that will effectively reduce your mortgage term - without you having to do anything.
- Lovely.
Fantastic.
We also let our experts loose in the rest of the shopping centre, where technology expert, David McClelland, was sharing tips on how to maximise your mobile phone security.
- You've got a lock on your phone? - Yeah.
- What kind of lock have you got? - Just the normal phone lock.
OK.
So you think your phone's safe - because you've got that lock on the front, yeah? - Yeah, it's safe.
- You realise that the way he said that, it means it's not.
- Yeah.
I've got some bad news for you, I'm afraid, because even though your phone itself is locked what fraudsters can do is to take the SIM, that little card that goes into your phone, they take that out and they put it into one of their phones, which of course is unlocked.
That still works, it's only your phone that's locked.
And what they can then do is to make calls using your number, using your account.
But even worse than that, they can make premium-rate calls, even to abroad numbers, right, and they can make a heck of a lot of money through doing that.
So one thing that not a lot of people know about and why we're here today, Angela, is to tell people about the SIM pin.
And what that is, it locks down the SIM card.
So even if they take the SIM out of your secured phone and put it into one of their phones, they still cannot make calls.
If anyone takes that SIM out of your phone and pops it into another phone, they will have to know what that pin is.
And if they enter it in wrong three times, then that's it, that SIM will then stop working.
It varies from phone to phone how you do that.
- Go and get it sorted, yes? - That's it, definitely.
Thank you both very much.
- Thank you.
- Thanks.
Bye.
- See ya.
- Bye.
Now if ever there was a story that highlights just how careful you need to be about what you sign up to, it's this next one, because you often tell us about contracts that can automatically just roll on if you haven't got around to cancelling them.
But the consequences of that aren't normally quite as shocking as they turned out to be for some of the people who've got in touch about one particular company.
There are several things you need for a successful wedding.
And smile.
I think this one will be just perfect for you.
Ladies and gentlemen, please stand and greet our lovely bride and groom.
In fact, the 21st-century wedding has a whole host of experts on hand to make sure that your wedding day is as spectacular and special as possible.
So for businesses keen to win a slice of the wedding action, the key to success is making sure as many people as possible know where they can find you.
Dickie Richards is a toastmaster and his job is to make sure that the wedding day runs without a hitch.
Please raise your glasses.
But he knows only too well that in the competitive market of wedding services, standing out from the crowd can be tricky.
It's like any business really, you've got to do some sort of PR or networking.
And websites appear to be the in thing.
So when Dickie received a phone call from a website called .
.
run by Essex-based Wedding Directory UK, and not to be confused with other companies of a similar name, he thought it could just provide him with the type of promotion he needed.
All Dickie had to do was to pay marginally under £250 to advertise on the site, with the hope that more bookings and more work would come through.
Were you happy with what they offered you at the beginning? It sounded very good.
£250 for an entry on their website, and I would be covered in Hampshire.
What did they say you would get from that then? Well, they promised me a lot of bookings, in fact, they quoted a guy who was a toastmaster and said that he was getting three bookings a week.
In fact, so convinced was Dickie by the website's potential, that when they phoned him a month later and offered him some more advertising, this time in Sussex, he agreed.
But despite forking out a total of almost £740 for his ads, they didn't bring in ANY extra business.
I always ask potential clients where they got my name, and none of them have mentioned this particular website, so I've had nothing whatsoever.
Dickie resolved to put the whole thing down to experience and thought little more about it.
Until, that is, his year-long deal with planmyweddinguk.
com was about to end.
And that's when Dickie claims the company rang him with some devastating news.
The bombshell landed this year, when I was approached by a guy asking me for £8,000.
8,000, from the same company? - Plus VAT.
- Same website? - Same website.
But why, offering you what? Well, this was because I hadn't cancelled, and by not cancelling, I had agreed to go nationwide.
So you must have been shocked at that? I was staggered, and I just told them flat, "I haven't got that sort of money.
" Dickie was told that because he had not given enough notice, he was now committed to another 12 months.
The terms and conditions do state that unless you specifically cancel, the contract will roll on, but the extra cost of that is said to be just 20% -- nothing like as much as Dickie says he was asked for.
But still, over £100 more for the same service he had had the previous year.
And were you worried, were you frightened? I was very much intimidated, yeah.
After further negotiation, Dickie says he finally agreed on a price of £1,500, and at the company's request, he went to meet them at a local hotel to pay them face-to-face, something that planmyweddinguk.
com disputes.
But the agreed time came and went with no sign of them.
Dickie says he was left holding £1,500 in cash and completely confused.
In fact, the company had got him in such a spin, that when they later rang asking for £200 to settle the matter once and for all, Dickie immediately agreed to pay it.
I was up to here with it to be honest, and I just wanted to get them out of my hair.
- So you were afraid, and you gave in? - Yeah, yeah.
And there are other customers of planmyweddinguk.
com who have also ended up far from happy.
Introducing Lavina Best, of Viva Bridal.
Lavina paid around £500 for a year's advertising on planmyweddinguk.
com.
With it bringing in no extra work, she didn't want to sign up for another year.
But when she told the company that, she too found herself stuck and worried about another 12 months.
They contacted me explaining that the contract was up for renewal, and he said, "You're in a contract, you have to go ahead.
" Why were you giving in to that? Because I just felt so pressurised.
If I didn't sign up at £485 plus VAT, it was going to go up to over £700, and he said it is a contract I couldn't get out of because I hadn't given notice.
Feeling she was pressurised into paying up, Lavina is trying to claim back the money through her credit card provider.
Introducing Simon Mitchell, of PhotoEnterprise.
Simon Mitchell signed up to planmyweddinguk.
com after a cold call, and has ended up paying around £800.
I feel like a fool.
If what he had said was true, then I'd be any great place right now.
Sadly, I haven't had one phone call.
Now, today I have met three people who feel totally ripped off by what they have experienced, and I have to tell you, I can add many more similar stories to that.
In fact, one of the customers on the website was so incensed by his treatment, he decided to e-mail every single customer that advertised on planmyweddinguk.
com.
Out of the 227 e-mails he said he sent, he got 100 responses, and I have to tell you that each of them had a negative experience to share, and not one of them said they had any leads from advertising on this website.
Wedding expert George Watts, otherwise known as The Wedding Fairy, has looked at the company's website and the terms and conditions that have caught people out.
So, do you think in this case, the company's terms and conditions were fair and accurate? The automatic renewal, no notifications given, all those points are really problematic for me and I would not touch it.
The company behind planmyweddinguk.
com, Wedding Directory UK Ltd, has now ceased trading, and the website is only staying open to honour existing contracts.
The company categorically denied most aspects of the complaints we put to them, especially Dickie's claim that they demanded thousands of pounds in cash from him.
However, they said it has come to their attention that somebody posing as a Plan My Wedding representative has been phoning customers asking for cash.
The company insisted that they .
.
and urged any customer who is contacted in this way to contact the police.
As for other complaints about pushy sales tactics, unfair terms and unexpected charges, Plan My Wedding say no guarantees were ever made for the number of jobs clients might receive, but that Dickie's ad had over 1,000 views, and Simon had over 2,000.
It insists that all of its charges are outlined in the terms and conditions and agreed to by customers, and says none of the customers we spoke to were ever charged the full 20% increase on renewal.
It said Lavina was under no pressure to renew her contract, which was negotiated over the course of five phone calls, giving her plenty of time to consider what to do.
But for those who told us a very different version of events, it's been a sobering and expensive experience.
I feel stupid.
Yeah, totally stupid.
Gutted, angry I feel stupid.
I should have looked at things more closely.
For lots of us, caravanning is a wonderful way to see the world from the luxury of your own mobile home.
It's also big business.
Every year, it brings in more than £6 billion to the UK economy, and for around a million people, it's the best way to holiday.
But whether you're buying the static or the touring kind, caravans don't come cheap.
So you'll want to make sure you've agreed a price you are happy with before going ahead.
Unfortunately, even then, things can go wrong.
As they did for several people who contacted us.
Chris and Pam Burrows from Derbyshire have been hitting Britain's holiday hotspots in their caravan for over 24 years, and with beautiful countryside surrounding them, caravanning seems like the perfect way to spend their leisure time.
Which one of you introduced the other one to the whole idea? We were both together, really.
A friend lent us a caravan in Dorset once, just for a week's holiday.
We quite liked it, and when we got home, turned out some other friends who were selling their caravan.
It was quite cheap, so we thought, "Yeah, give it a go, "if we don't like it, we're not going to lose much.
" - That was 1991 and we've been hooked ever since.
- Never looked back.
- What are the joys of caravanning? - Joys of caravanning? Freedom.
You can go where you want, when you want.
Having bought and sold several caravans in the past, Chris and Pam are familiar with how the process normally works, and they're always tempted by the newer, shinier models on the market.
And when it comes to buying a new caravan, how do you set about it? There are several caravan and camping shows throughout the year where you get all the dealers in one place.
You can go and browse till your heart's content.
And it was while visiting one such show in Birmingham in February 2014, that they spotted a model that set their pulses racing.
- What was it about this particular one? - I was thrilled with it.
I loved the colour scheme on it, it was all blues and greys.
The 2014 Ace Statesman model that they wanted was being sold by Wandahome South Cave Ltd, not to be confused with companies of a similar name.
A family business that says it's .
.
thanks to .
.
and The price was £14,990, and although they didn't have that kind of cash, they did have their old caravan, which, as far as they were concerned, was in good nick and worth a fair bit.
So they agreed a part exchange to help finance the new one.
Taking into account what the couple said about the age and condition of the caravan, the Wandahome representative offered them £10,800 for it, which they were more than happy with.
How much better off were you going with them rather than somebody else? Well, I'd say they were around about £800 better than the nearest other dealer.
Pam and Chris would only need to stump up another £4,190 to get the brand-new caravan.
They'd pay a £2,000 non-refundable deposit there and then, and the outstanding balance -- £2,190 -- would be paid on collection.
Pam and Chris signed on the dotted line.
And did it have conditions on it? The only real condition, I suppose, was that it was non-refundable.
Would that be quite common? In the past, have you made un-refundable deposits? We've always done that, yes.
The couple left the show excited at the prospect of getting their brand-new caravan.
And three months later, they set off for South Humberside to trade in their old one for the new model.
Well, we were sorting out the paperwork, and all of a sudden this chap came in and said, "Oh, there's a couple of problems with your part exchange.
" They'd found some damage to the caravan.
It had a deep scratch at the front corner, which we'd had properly repaired and repainted, it looked as good as new.
But he said that they weren't prepared to accept it.
What did you think at that point? - I felt a bit cheated, to be honest.
- Yeah.
Wandahome told Chris and Pam that the cost of replacing the front panel on their old caravan was going to be another £978.
44.
But according to the contract they'd signed, if the couple didn't go ahead with the deal, they'd lose the £2,000 deposit they'd already paid.
So, rather than be out of pocket, they felt the only option was to pay up and go ahead with the purchase.
The more we thought about it, the more we didn't like it.
So we wrote them a letter of complaint.
And we got a letter back fobbing us off.
But the caravanning community is a close one, and it wasn't long before Chris and Pam got talking to others reporting similar experiences with Wandahome.
Gary and Maxine Pidgeon say they were offered £5,200 for their old caravan by Wandahome, only to have £1,000 knocked off that at the point of exchange, after Wandahome found a crack in one of the panels.
They too had already put down a £2,000 non-refundable deposit, so paid up to avoid losing their money.
Through social media, Chris and Pam made contact with other unhappy customers too.
So, why don't you read out a few of the comments you've had? OK, well, this one here says, "Hi, Chris, exactly the same thing happened to us" Another one over here.
We asked our money expert, Sarah Pennells, to look at Chris and Pam's contract with Wandahome.
A caravan company is perfectly within its rights to drop the price it originally offered you on a part exchange deal, because until it has actually seen the caravan, it doesn't know what it's buying.
But I think to expect someone to lose £2,000 on a non-refundable deposit IS unfair.
When you traded in the caravan, it gave you a price, it said "subject to inspection".
And I think it still leaves an awful lot of room for manoeuvre for a company to drop the price once they actually see the caravan.
When we contacted Wandahome South Cave Ltd, the company was adamant its terms make very clear that a part exchange price can only be guaranteed on final inspection, and relies on customers giving an honest appraisal of the vehicle's condition.
And the company told is that in both Chris and Pam's case, and Gary and Maxine Pidgeon's, this didn't happen.
It said that Chris and Pam told them at the show that the caravan had only two dents, and that it was on this basis that a price was agreed.
Wandahome said its own inspection found more than 20 dents and scratches, as well as poor quality repair work, and it was for this reason that an additional £900 was required.
It says had it known these facts earlier, it would never have agreed a part exchange.
Wandahome pointed out that it did give Chris and Pam the opportunity to obtain a second opinion, which they declined, and insists it would have given them a full refund and cancelled the contract if the couple had formally asked for their deposit to be returned.
Pam and Chris say they felt that was far from the impression given to them at the time.
But for its part, the company made clear that it considers the couple didn't properly represent the condition of the caravan, and that their complaint is unfair.
It went on to say that it only managed to sell on the caravan at below market price.
It's clear that both sides have a very different take on all this, but while Chris and Pam's experience is a reminder of how crucial it is that you're familiar with all the terms before tying yourself into any big purchase like this, it seems what happened hasn't put them off their favourite pastime.
So, where's your next trip? - Next trip is to France, Germany and Holland.
- Wonderful.
In June and July.
Here at Rip-Off Britain, we're always ready to investigate more of your stories, And we'd especially like to hear from you if you've had a problem on holiday or while travelling at home or abroad.
So, if you feel let down by your airline, disappointed that the hotel looked very different from the glossy pictures in the brochure, or maybe you're angry about hidden charges that weren't clear when you booked .
.
you can write to us, at Or send us an e-mail, to The Rip-Off team is ready and waiting to investigate your stories.
Well, however the situations that we had about today came about, and whether or not they really were unfair, I'm sure they will have struck a chord with a number of you, because judging from the letters and e-mails you send us, the pitfalls that are contained within those terms and conditions remain one of the biggest single bugbears that you have.
And, you know, I do have some sympathy with all of that, because we know that we are supposed to read the paperwork from start to finish, but as we showed in the programme before, to do that can take hours and hours, and it won't always be written in a way that is easy to understand.
But, the good news of course is that we were able to help some of the people who shared their stories with us today to get their money back, which happens to be one of the most important things Rip-Off Britain is here for.
And that's a very good note on which to end the programme.
Thank you for watching and we'll see you soon to investigate even more of your stories.
So until then, from all of us - Bye.
- Bye-bye.
- Goodbye.
You've told us about the companies that you think get it wrong, and the customer service that simply is not up to scratch.
If you're paying for a good service, you expect a good service and a good product, whatever it may be.
At the end of the day, we expect value for money.
You've asked us to track down the scammers who stole your money and investigate the extra charges you'd say are unfair.
The wool's been pulled over our eyes.
I don't think we get a fair price.
I think they should always put the customer first.
And when you've lost out but no-one else is to blame, you've come to us to stop others falling into the same trap.
- And no-one could sort that out for you over ten years? - No-one has.
So whether it's a blatant Rip-Off or a genuine mistake we're here to find out why you're out of pocket and what you can do about it.
Your stories, your money.
This is Rip-Off Britain.
Hello and welcome once again to Rip-Off Britain, the programme that battles to get you the best customer service every single time.
A lovely ambition though not always the case.
And all the people we'll be meeting today would say that's not remotely the experience they have.
That's absolutely true.
And in each case, they've ended up either frustrated or totally out of pocket.
And, as we're about to see, all that small print can truly catch you out in the most unexpected and really quite extraordinary ways.
And, indeed, how many times has that happened - when we've been making these programmes? - Hmm.
And sometimes, of course, when it does, it's because like most people perhaps you didn't read properly or understand them.
But in other cases, well, it might not be quite so clear cut.
There can also even be situations where the terms and conditions have a clause or a detail that is so unusual that you're left questioning if it's even fair.
Coming up, how an easy booking mistake with a budget airline nearly grounded a family holiday.
I was completely gobsmacked.
We used a budget airline to get a budget deal, and we ended up paying a heck of a lot more than we should have.
And the wedding company whose contracts came with a costly sting in the tail.
Why didn't you tell them to buzz off, that you're not paying any money? I was up to here with it to be honest and I just wanted to get them out of my hair.
Over the years on Rip-Off Britain, we've found some great experts who have become familiar faces at our pop-up shop and in our films.
One of them is the solicitor, Gary Rycroft, he's always on hand when we're looking for some expert advice on a point of law.
Now, it's normally us that takes a case to him, but earlier this year, Gary contacted us with a situation from his own in-tray.
A solicitor for 17 years, Gary Rycroft has worked on almost every type of case you can think of, but even he was shocked by one he took on in November 2014.
One of my clients had been trying to sell a house for quite some time, and it looks like through no fault of her own she's now facing legal action.
And the worst of it is, she could lose thousands of pounds.
The client in question is Philomena Austin from Morecambe in Lancashire.
And what Gary was doing for her should have been simple.
In May 2014, Philomena had decided it was time to move out of her bungalow at Carnforth.
She put it on the market with a local estate agent with an asking price of £250,000.
I lived at Carnforth for a period of 30 years.
My husband had died in 2008.
It was a difficult decision, obviously, to leave a place where I'd spent 30 years, happy years.
But after a year on the market, the bungalow remained unsold, even with £50,000 knocked off the price.
It was then in August 2014, that her agent suggested Philomena might want to think about trying to sell through an auction house as well.
Selling homes by auction is an unusual route for the vast majority of homeowners, but sales of residential property at auction have increased 12% since 2010, with just under 22,000 houses put up for sale in 2014.
Nick Green has been selling homes at auction for ten years.
The process itself is very, very simple.
We work within a timeframe, so from the start of the auction, marketing, to the completion of the property, is generally anywhere between seven and eight weeks.
Whereas with the open market, it could be any time between six weeks to six months.
And another crucial difference is the sale itself.
With auction, it's a definite sale.
Once it's sold, it's sold.
But as we're all too familiar with on Rip-Off Britain, a supposedly straightforward process can go horribly wrong.
Philomena and the auction house, a company called Pattinson, agreed a reserve price of £195,000.
So for the sale to go through, any bidders at the auction would have to meet this minimum figure.
At this stage I thought, "Well, I'm going to have to take less "than I would have liked for it.
I understand that.
" But on the day of the auction, there were no bids.
I was disappointed but more surprised in fact, because it was a presentable property.
So Philomena was delighted when soon afterwards, her estate agent called to say that there was now an interest in the property from a prospective buyer who'd attended the auction but hadn't bid on the day.
But when Philomena started to receive calls from not just her estate agent but the auctioneer too, she was unsure who was actually responsible for trying to sell her house.
As far as she was concerned, there was no longer any reason why she should still be dealing with the auction house.
I was a little bit confused at that stage.
I thought, "Now, who's dealing with me here?" Philomena started receiving offers on her bungalow.
As they were way below what she was hoping for, she rejected them and felt it was worth continuing with the negotiations, a point she thought she'd made clear.
I said, "Oh, good, we can more or less move on from that "and get the price up again if he's really interested.
" But that's where the problems started.
While Philomena believed she was still in negotiations, it seems that what the auction house understood from their conversation was that she'd agreed to sell her home for £175,000, which, after fees, was £30,000 less than the reserve price at auction.
But that wasn't the worst of it.
The auction house, Pattinson, is adamant that the contract also gave them the right to actually sell and exchange contracts on the property.
So Philomena was horrified to discover that a sale she insists she'd never knowingly have agreed to was already under way.
And when she disputed what was happening, she said she was staggered by the auctioneer's response.
The auctioneer said that it was going forward.
Erm but then they said I was I had reneged on the contract.
I said, "I haven't signed any contract.
" So I said, "Well, I need to speak to my solicitor.
" And that's where Gary came in.
Having done other legal work for Philomena, he'd agreed to look after the legal side of selling her home.
He too was staggered to hear that a sale appeared to be going full steam ahead.
Out of the blue, I got a telephone call from a solicitor and he told me that it was all going to go ahead that day.
The solicitor informed Gary that he had been told by the auction house it had the authority to exchange contracts on behalf of Philomena.
But Gary's position was clear, with no evidence Philomena had agreed to the sale of her home at this lower price, she wasn't legally obliged to complete on the deal.
They were saying, "You've got to accept this offer "and it's going to be legally binding.
" Well, I felt a bit threatened really.
I thought, "Why the sudden rush?" I decided I wasn't going to go any further with anything until I'd spoken to you.
When Gary spoke to both the estate agent and the auction house, the auction house maintained that all was in keeping with the terms and conditions that Philomena had agreed to.
But as Gary had seen no evidence to suggest Philomena had given the company authority to exchange contracts, he halted the sale, which, you'd have thought, might have been the end of it, but it wasn't.
In February, Philomena received a very unwelcome letter from the prospective buyer threatening court action to reclaim the £10,000 they said they'd lost because of Philomena's refusal to sell.
The gentleman prospective buyer decided that he was going to come on to me for recompense of expenses incurred by him.
When they believed the sale was going ahead, the buyers had paid not just a deposit on the property but also the auction house's £9,622 fee for handling the sale.
And while they did get the deposit back, the auction house did not return the fee because as far as the company was concerned, it had upheld its side of the bargain and it was Philomena who was responsible for compensating the potential buyers.
We managed to prevent the sale of the house going through - at a price that was much less than you wanted to achieve.
- Uh-huh.
With both sides adamant that they're in the right, it's clear that somewhere along the line there's been quite a misunderstanding.
So we got in touch with both the estate agent and the auction house for their take on all this.
The estate agent told us that once they'd introduce Philomena to the auction house, they had no further involvement with any negotiations beyond passing on some enquiries about the house.
And when we spoke to the auctioneers, Pattinson, they told us that the agreement Philomena signed with them did give Pattinson the right to exchange contracts on her behalf.
And they insisted that Philomena had accepted the reduced offer verbally and had been made aware that contracts would be exchanged in not one but Pattinson acknowledged that the instruction to accept a reduced offer should have been confirmed in writing, something which wasn't done.
And since we got in touch, they've returned the fees paid by the prospective buyers, meaning Philomena need no longer worry about being pursued for these costs and the civil claim from the purchasers has in fact been dropped.
That's a huge relief for Philomena.
But however such a difference of opinion came about, Philomena's keen to ensure nobody else finds themselves in a similar situation.
I would say to anybody, "Whatever agreement or arrangement you're entering into "please be very, very careful "and just thoroughly investigate the situation, "because you never know how it can turn out.
" Now, here's a question.
How do you put down your name when you're filling out an online form? Would you, for example, always do it exactly as it appears on your passport? Or might you sometimes write a shortened version of your first name, or maybe just the initial? Well, here's a very cautionary tale of how what's in a name can prove absolutely crucial when it comes to booking a flight, because putting down even the slightest variation could end up having very costly repercussions.
In June 2014, Jim and Tanya Everett wanted to fly from Belfast to Birmingham, so that they could spend a week with Jim's daughter and his grandson.
I was looking forward very much to seeing my daughter and my grandson, because we see each other two or three times a year and it was a great opportunity to get together.
The family planned a really relaxing trip along Britain's waterways.
I was really looking forward to having a nice float on the canals and stop at the various places and maybe have tea and a scone or something.
Sounds good.
The couple were delighted to see that they could get two return flights with easyJet for a total of £117.
24.
We decided to book flights with easyJet, because their quite competitive and that was the most convenient flight, to be honest with you, and I've used them a lot before.
So Tanya began making what she imagined would be a routine flight booking online.
And as usual she started by filling in the names of the two passengers.
When you're filling in an online application, it does ask you for your first name and your surname, your date of birth and all the various things.
As with all easyJet flights, passengers are encouraged to check in online and print out their own boarding passes at home.
But having done just that and with only hand luggage to their names, Jim and Tanya could go straight to the departure gate.
We went to the gate and when we handed the boarding passes and passports over, they asked us to stand to one side.
Nervous as to what the problem could be, Jim and Tanya looked on as the plane continued boarding and the easyJet representative made a call.
A few minutes later, the rep came back with some rather surprising news.
Despite their boarding passes in each case displaying the correct surname and initial, the couple were now being told that because their first names were not displayed in full they weren't going anywhere.
They said, "I'm sorry, you can't board this flight "because your boarding passes are incorrectly completed.
"It's only got your initial and not your full first name.
" I-I was completely gobsmacked.
Although the flight was about to take off, the couple were told to go back through security to the check-in desk in the departure hall.
There, Jim and Tanya were told they'd have to pay £65 each to change their tickets to show the correct full first name.
The reason they were given was partly because of "security concerns.
" I said, "You're joking?! "We've got to get to Birmingham tonight, because I've got a narrow boat holiday tomorrow.
" I can't see what the security problems would have been to let us on.
Or how could I have possibly been the wrong person? How could we be wrong people? We got the boarding passes from their website.
By now, they'd missed their flight and the next one on that route wouldn't fly until the following morning.
Desperate to get to Jim's daughter that night, they asked if they could transfer onto a different flight to Luton instead.
He said he couldn't transfer us and we'd have to pay for it.
I was beside myself.
To fly that night, the couple had no choice but to buy entirely new tickets to the tune of £241.
98, which on top of the £117.
24 they'd originally paid, meant their supposedly "budget" holiday was turning into something rather more expensive.
We used a budget airline to get a budget deal and we ended up paying a heck of a lot more than we should have.
I feel let down and not at all happy.
It's the fact that the policy to me is severely flawed and they could have let us on.
As far as Jim is concerned, easyJet's attitude was both heavy-handed and pedantic.
He accepts that there is a chance that Tanya did just enter their initials at the time of booking, but he can't see why that should have been a problem.
After all, what was printed wasn't wrong just incomplete.
The issue is that they denied us boarding without using a little bit of customer care and common sense.
But click on the information icon on the easyJet website and it does clearly state that all names should be entered as they are in your passport and you shouldn't simply enter an initial.
But no error message is displayed, so if you do fail to enter your name in full, just like Jim and Tanya, you may only realise that that's an issue when you get to the airport.
And to fly, you might end up having to fork out extra money.
Why should there be a charge? I mean, even if it's in the terms and conditions or not, they shouldn't be allowed to charge that type of money.
Jim and Tanya believe that if they weren't going to be allowed to board with the information that was entered, then the website should not have accepted their booking.
And they don't see why having just their initial on the boarding pass should create a security issue.
So we put that to the airline regulator, the Civil Aviation Authority.
And when we did, it confirmed that in fact They told us that airlines that do require this do so So we asked easyJet about their decision not to allow the Everetts to board.
They maintain that the rules regarding names and documents are in place for security reasons.
And it's the passengers' responsibility to check that their documentation is correct.
But they told us that where a genuine spelling error has been made, they do try to use common sense to rectify this free of charge before the passenger flies.
But because Jim and Tanya printed their boarding cards at home and did not check in any baggage, the first time their mistake came to light was at the gate.
And at that stage it was too late to make any amendments as However, there is good news.
EasyJet recognise that Jim and Tanya may have .
.
and have now refunded them as a gesture of goodwill.
Meanwhile, travel expert, Lisa Francesca Nand, can understand why passengers who get caught out like this might feel hard done by, but she says it's crucial to remember that the responsibility to check your boarding pass lies with you, the consumer, so take care especially when booking online.
Unfortunately, it's a very common mistake.
We are now our own travel agents.
And in the days when you used to go to a travel agent to book, at least you had a third party to check, but these days, we don't have a third party.
And the airlines have every right to charge us what they like, because we tick that little box saying "yes" to the terms and conditions when we book our flights, which is why we need to check very diligently ourselves.
Although it cost them more than they anticipated, Jim and Tanya did manage to catch up with their family as planned, but they'll be extra careful next time they go online to book a flight.
In future I'm sure Tanya will be more cautious in checking, double-checking, treble-checking.
In fact, the last time Tanya booked a flight for me she said, "I've got your first name in, by the way.
" A bit of humour thrown in there.
But, no, we're always very cautious and we will be even more cautious, particularly with easyJet.
Still to come on Rip-Off Britain, how buying a dream caravan turned sour for this couple and others too.
The more we thought about it, the more we didn't like it.
- We felt a bit cheated to be honest.
- Yeah.
Once again we've taken Rip-Off Britain out on the road.
And this year, to one of the busiest shopping centres in the East Midlands.
Here in the Victoria Centre in Nottingham, our pop-up shop gives us the perfect opportunity to meet you face-to-face and hear all about situations where you feel you haven't got what you wanted or, indeed, you feel you've been ripped off.
And the way it works is quite simple -- you come in, tell us your problems, and our wonderful team of experts is here to help you.
When Ian Milne wanted to shorten the length of his mortgage, a change in his terms and conditions meant that he now faced paying a fee, so he's come to see financial expert, Sarah Pennells, for advice.
I went to the mortgage adviser and I originally wanted 25 years, and they said because I'm young and I've only got a low-waged job try 30 years and I can change the term midway and for free.
I went to ring up and change it and they said they've changed their policies and now it's a fee to change the term.
So now I've still got 30 years, when I originally went in and asked for a 25-year term mortgage.
I think you should complain to the mortgage lender.
Give the company eight weeks to sort out your complaint and if it's not been resolved or they don't agree with you, then you can take it to the Financial Ombudsman Service.
But there might be a cleverer way to sort it out without you going through that.
Just tell me, are you on any kind of fixed-rate or tracker deal at the moment? - I'm on a three-year fixed rate.
- OK.
Just in the last couple minutes, I've had a quick look online, cos I know who your mortgage lender is.
Now, you can actually overpay your mortgage by 10% every year.
So 10% of the amount you owe, you can overpay.
So, basically, work out what your repayments would be if you paid over 25 years and not 30.
Pay that every month, - as long as it's within your 10% barrier, which it will be.
- Yes.
Once you get to the end of your three-year deal, remortgage again, but instead of remortgaging for 27 years, remortgage for 22 years.
Check with your lender first, but every payment you make, the money will come off your total straightaway, so you will immediately kind of feel the benefit.
And that will effectively reduce your mortgage term - without you having to do anything.
- Lovely.
Fantastic.
We also let our experts loose in the rest of the shopping centre, where technology expert, David McClelland, was sharing tips on how to maximise your mobile phone security.
- You've got a lock on your phone? - Yeah.
- What kind of lock have you got? - Just the normal phone lock.
OK.
So you think your phone's safe - because you've got that lock on the front, yeah? - Yeah, it's safe.
- You realise that the way he said that, it means it's not.
- Yeah.
I've got some bad news for you, I'm afraid, because even though your phone itself is locked what fraudsters can do is to take the SIM, that little card that goes into your phone, they take that out and they put it into one of their phones, which of course is unlocked.
That still works, it's only your phone that's locked.
And what they can then do is to make calls using your number, using your account.
But even worse than that, they can make premium-rate calls, even to abroad numbers, right, and they can make a heck of a lot of money through doing that.
So one thing that not a lot of people know about and why we're here today, Angela, is to tell people about the SIM pin.
And what that is, it locks down the SIM card.
So even if they take the SIM out of your secured phone and put it into one of their phones, they still cannot make calls.
If anyone takes that SIM out of your phone and pops it into another phone, they will have to know what that pin is.
And if they enter it in wrong three times, then that's it, that SIM will then stop working.
It varies from phone to phone how you do that.
- Go and get it sorted, yes? - That's it, definitely.
Thank you both very much.
- Thank you.
- Thanks.
Bye.
- See ya.
- Bye.
Now if ever there was a story that highlights just how careful you need to be about what you sign up to, it's this next one, because you often tell us about contracts that can automatically just roll on if you haven't got around to cancelling them.
But the consequences of that aren't normally quite as shocking as they turned out to be for some of the people who've got in touch about one particular company.
There are several things you need for a successful wedding.
And smile.
I think this one will be just perfect for you.
Ladies and gentlemen, please stand and greet our lovely bride and groom.
In fact, the 21st-century wedding has a whole host of experts on hand to make sure that your wedding day is as spectacular and special as possible.
So for businesses keen to win a slice of the wedding action, the key to success is making sure as many people as possible know where they can find you.
Dickie Richards is a toastmaster and his job is to make sure that the wedding day runs without a hitch.
Please raise your glasses.
But he knows only too well that in the competitive market of wedding services, standing out from the crowd can be tricky.
It's like any business really, you've got to do some sort of PR or networking.
And websites appear to be the in thing.
So when Dickie received a phone call from a website called .
.
run by Essex-based Wedding Directory UK, and not to be confused with other companies of a similar name, he thought it could just provide him with the type of promotion he needed.
All Dickie had to do was to pay marginally under £250 to advertise on the site, with the hope that more bookings and more work would come through.
Were you happy with what they offered you at the beginning? It sounded very good.
£250 for an entry on their website, and I would be covered in Hampshire.
What did they say you would get from that then? Well, they promised me a lot of bookings, in fact, they quoted a guy who was a toastmaster and said that he was getting three bookings a week.
In fact, so convinced was Dickie by the website's potential, that when they phoned him a month later and offered him some more advertising, this time in Sussex, he agreed.
But despite forking out a total of almost £740 for his ads, they didn't bring in ANY extra business.
I always ask potential clients where they got my name, and none of them have mentioned this particular website, so I've had nothing whatsoever.
Dickie resolved to put the whole thing down to experience and thought little more about it.
Until, that is, his year-long deal with planmyweddinguk.
com was about to end.
And that's when Dickie claims the company rang him with some devastating news.
The bombshell landed this year, when I was approached by a guy asking me for £8,000.
8,000, from the same company? - Plus VAT.
- Same website? - Same website.
But why, offering you what? Well, this was because I hadn't cancelled, and by not cancelling, I had agreed to go nationwide.
So you must have been shocked at that? I was staggered, and I just told them flat, "I haven't got that sort of money.
" Dickie was told that because he had not given enough notice, he was now committed to another 12 months.
The terms and conditions do state that unless you specifically cancel, the contract will roll on, but the extra cost of that is said to be just 20% -- nothing like as much as Dickie says he was asked for.
But still, over £100 more for the same service he had had the previous year.
And were you worried, were you frightened? I was very much intimidated, yeah.
After further negotiation, Dickie says he finally agreed on a price of £1,500, and at the company's request, he went to meet them at a local hotel to pay them face-to-face, something that planmyweddinguk.
com disputes.
But the agreed time came and went with no sign of them.
Dickie says he was left holding £1,500 in cash and completely confused.
In fact, the company had got him in such a spin, that when they later rang asking for £200 to settle the matter once and for all, Dickie immediately agreed to pay it.
I was up to here with it to be honest, and I just wanted to get them out of my hair.
- So you were afraid, and you gave in? - Yeah, yeah.
And there are other customers of planmyweddinguk.
com who have also ended up far from happy.
Introducing Lavina Best, of Viva Bridal.
Lavina paid around £500 for a year's advertising on planmyweddinguk.
com.
With it bringing in no extra work, she didn't want to sign up for another year.
But when she told the company that, she too found herself stuck and worried about another 12 months.
They contacted me explaining that the contract was up for renewal, and he said, "You're in a contract, you have to go ahead.
" Why were you giving in to that? Because I just felt so pressurised.
If I didn't sign up at £485 plus VAT, it was going to go up to over £700, and he said it is a contract I couldn't get out of because I hadn't given notice.
Feeling she was pressurised into paying up, Lavina is trying to claim back the money through her credit card provider.
Introducing Simon Mitchell, of PhotoEnterprise.
Simon Mitchell signed up to planmyweddinguk.
com after a cold call, and has ended up paying around £800.
I feel like a fool.
If what he had said was true, then I'd be any great place right now.
Sadly, I haven't had one phone call.
Now, today I have met three people who feel totally ripped off by what they have experienced, and I have to tell you, I can add many more similar stories to that.
In fact, one of the customers on the website was so incensed by his treatment, he decided to e-mail every single customer that advertised on planmyweddinguk.
com.
Out of the 227 e-mails he said he sent, he got 100 responses, and I have to tell you that each of them had a negative experience to share, and not one of them said they had any leads from advertising on this website.
Wedding expert George Watts, otherwise known as The Wedding Fairy, has looked at the company's website and the terms and conditions that have caught people out.
So, do you think in this case, the company's terms and conditions were fair and accurate? The automatic renewal, no notifications given, all those points are really problematic for me and I would not touch it.
The company behind planmyweddinguk.
com, Wedding Directory UK Ltd, has now ceased trading, and the website is only staying open to honour existing contracts.
The company categorically denied most aspects of the complaints we put to them, especially Dickie's claim that they demanded thousands of pounds in cash from him.
However, they said it has come to their attention that somebody posing as a Plan My Wedding representative has been phoning customers asking for cash.
The company insisted that they .
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and urged any customer who is contacted in this way to contact the police.
As for other complaints about pushy sales tactics, unfair terms and unexpected charges, Plan My Wedding say no guarantees were ever made for the number of jobs clients might receive, but that Dickie's ad had over 1,000 views, and Simon had over 2,000.
It insists that all of its charges are outlined in the terms and conditions and agreed to by customers, and says none of the customers we spoke to were ever charged the full 20% increase on renewal.
It said Lavina was under no pressure to renew her contract, which was negotiated over the course of five phone calls, giving her plenty of time to consider what to do.
But for those who told us a very different version of events, it's been a sobering and expensive experience.
I feel stupid.
Yeah, totally stupid.
Gutted, angry I feel stupid.
I should have looked at things more closely.
For lots of us, caravanning is a wonderful way to see the world from the luxury of your own mobile home.
It's also big business.
Every year, it brings in more than £6 billion to the UK economy, and for around a million people, it's the best way to holiday.
But whether you're buying the static or the touring kind, caravans don't come cheap.
So you'll want to make sure you've agreed a price you are happy with before going ahead.
Unfortunately, even then, things can go wrong.
As they did for several people who contacted us.
Chris and Pam Burrows from Derbyshire have been hitting Britain's holiday hotspots in their caravan for over 24 years, and with beautiful countryside surrounding them, caravanning seems like the perfect way to spend their leisure time.
Which one of you introduced the other one to the whole idea? We were both together, really.
A friend lent us a caravan in Dorset once, just for a week's holiday.
We quite liked it, and when we got home, turned out some other friends who were selling their caravan.
It was quite cheap, so we thought, "Yeah, give it a go, "if we don't like it, we're not going to lose much.
" - That was 1991 and we've been hooked ever since.
- Never looked back.
- What are the joys of caravanning? - Joys of caravanning? Freedom.
You can go where you want, when you want.
Having bought and sold several caravans in the past, Chris and Pam are familiar with how the process normally works, and they're always tempted by the newer, shinier models on the market.
And when it comes to buying a new caravan, how do you set about it? There are several caravan and camping shows throughout the year where you get all the dealers in one place.
You can go and browse till your heart's content.
And it was while visiting one such show in Birmingham in February 2014, that they spotted a model that set their pulses racing.
- What was it about this particular one? - I was thrilled with it.
I loved the colour scheme on it, it was all blues and greys.
The 2014 Ace Statesman model that they wanted was being sold by Wandahome South Cave Ltd, not to be confused with companies of a similar name.
A family business that says it's .
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thanks to .
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and The price was £14,990, and although they didn't have that kind of cash, they did have their old caravan, which, as far as they were concerned, was in good nick and worth a fair bit.
So they agreed a part exchange to help finance the new one.
Taking into account what the couple said about the age and condition of the caravan, the Wandahome representative offered them £10,800 for it, which they were more than happy with.
How much better off were you going with them rather than somebody else? Well, I'd say they were around about £800 better than the nearest other dealer.
Pam and Chris would only need to stump up another £4,190 to get the brand-new caravan.
They'd pay a £2,000 non-refundable deposit there and then, and the outstanding balance -- £2,190 -- would be paid on collection.
Pam and Chris signed on the dotted line.
And did it have conditions on it? The only real condition, I suppose, was that it was non-refundable.
Would that be quite common? In the past, have you made un-refundable deposits? We've always done that, yes.
The couple left the show excited at the prospect of getting their brand-new caravan.
And three months later, they set off for South Humberside to trade in their old one for the new model.
Well, we were sorting out the paperwork, and all of a sudden this chap came in and said, "Oh, there's a couple of problems with your part exchange.
" They'd found some damage to the caravan.
It had a deep scratch at the front corner, which we'd had properly repaired and repainted, it looked as good as new.
But he said that they weren't prepared to accept it.
What did you think at that point? - I felt a bit cheated, to be honest.
- Yeah.
Wandahome told Chris and Pam that the cost of replacing the front panel on their old caravan was going to be another £978.
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But according to the contract they'd signed, if the couple didn't go ahead with the deal, they'd lose the £2,000 deposit they'd already paid.
So, rather than be out of pocket, they felt the only option was to pay up and go ahead with the purchase.
The more we thought about it, the more we didn't like it.
So we wrote them a letter of complaint.
And we got a letter back fobbing us off.
But the caravanning community is a close one, and it wasn't long before Chris and Pam got talking to others reporting similar experiences with Wandahome.
Gary and Maxine Pidgeon say they were offered £5,200 for their old caravan by Wandahome, only to have £1,000 knocked off that at the point of exchange, after Wandahome found a crack in one of the panels.
They too had already put down a £2,000 non-refundable deposit, so paid up to avoid losing their money.
Through social media, Chris and Pam made contact with other unhappy customers too.
So, why don't you read out a few of the comments you've had? OK, well, this one here says, "Hi, Chris, exactly the same thing happened to us" Another one over here.
We asked our money expert, Sarah Pennells, to look at Chris and Pam's contract with Wandahome.
A caravan company is perfectly within its rights to drop the price it originally offered you on a part exchange deal, because until it has actually seen the caravan, it doesn't know what it's buying.
But I think to expect someone to lose £2,000 on a non-refundable deposit IS unfair.
When you traded in the caravan, it gave you a price, it said "subject to inspection".
And I think it still leaves an awful lot of room for manoeuvre for a company to drop the price once they actually see the caravan.
When we contacted Wandahome South Cave Ltd, the company was adamant its terms make very clear that a part exchange price can only be guaranteed on final inspection, and relies on customers giving an honest appraisal of the vehicle's condition.
And the company told is that in both Chris and Pam's case, and Gary and Maxine Pidgeon's, this didn't happen.
It said that Chris and Pam told them at the show that the caravan had only two dents, and that it was on this basis that a price was agreed.
Wandahome said its own inspection found more than 20 dents and scratches, as well as poor quality repair work, and it was for this reason that an additional £900 was required.
It says had it known these facts earlier, it would never have agreed a part exchange.
Wandahome pointed out that it did give Chris and Pam the opportunity to obtain a second opinion, which they declined, and insists it would have given them a full refund and cancelled the contract if the couple had formally asked for their deposit to be returned.
Pam and Chris say they felt that was far from the impression given to them at the time.
But for its part, the company made clear that it considers the couple didn't properly represent the condition of the caravan, and that their complaint is unfair.
It went on to say that it only managed to sell on the caravan at below market price.
It's clear that both sides have a very different take on all this, but while Chris and Pam's experience is a reminder of how crucial it is that you're familiar with all the terms before tying yourself into any big purchase like this, it seems what happened hasn't put them off their favourite pastime.
So, where's your next trip? - Next trip is to France, Germany and Holland.
- Wonderful.
In June and July.
Here at Rip-Off Britain, we're always ready to investigate more of your stories, And we'd especially like to hear from you if you've had a problem on holiday or while travelling at home or abroad.
So, if you feel let down by your airline, disappointed that the hotel looked very different from the glossy pictures in the brochure, or maybe you're angry about hidden charges that weren't clear when you booked .
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you can write to us, at Or send us an e-mail, to The Rip-Off team is ready and waiting to investigate your stories.
Well, however the situations that we had about today came about, and whether or not they really were unfair, I'm sure they will have struck a chord with a number of you, because judging from the letters and e-mails you send us, the pitfalls that are contained within those terms and conditions remain one of the biggest single bugbears that you have.
And, you know, I do have some sympathy with all of that, because we know that we are supposed to read the paperwork from start to finish, but as we showed in the programme before, to do that can take hours and hours, and it won't always be written in a way that is easy to understand.
But, the good news of course is that we were able to help some of the people who shared their stories with us today to get their money back, which happens to be one of the most important things Rip-Off Britain is here for.
And that's a very good note on which to end the programme.
Thank you for watching and we'll see you soon to investigate even more of your stories.
So until then, from all of us - Bye.
- Bye-bye.
- Goodbye.