We put the word out, asking you to tell us about the rip-offs that make you rage.
And you didn't let us down.
Sharp practice, that's what it is.
There isn't a story too small,
or an issue that we feel we can't take up on your behalf.
Where do you go? Who can you rely on?
People out there believe they are being ripped off,
and indeed they are. We ARE rip-off Britain.
You contacted us in your thousands. You've written to us, e-mailed in,
and you've even stopped us in the street.
It is a blatant rip-off.
I feel aggrieved by it.
Somebody is making a very lot of money on this.
Somebody should take that up.
Our team has travelled the length and breadth of the UK
to hear your stories.
Now it's time for us to investigate on your behalf.
This is Rip-Off Britain.
Hello and welcome to Rip-Off Britain,
the series that investigates your consumer complaints.
Today we're going for gold.
Because the price of this precious metal
has soared during the recession, and it's now worth five times
as much as it was just 10 years ago.
So, not surprisingly, there are a clutch of companies
keen to take it off your hands.
But are you getting a fair price, or are you being fobbed off?
Also on the programme today, the mistakes consumers make
that can hit them where it really hurts.
Plus, paying over the odds for getting overdrawn.
And the insurance policies that don't always pay off.
As a nation we work really hard for our money, and at Rip-Off Britain
we believe that every penny that goes out should be a penny well spent.
But you've been letting us know that it isn't always the case.
When all else fails, there's one investment that continues
to hold its own - gold. Recent months have seen
its value hit an all-time high, and as its price has gone up,
so too have the number of firms
offering to buy your old jewellery for cash.
We've heard from lots and lots of you who want to know if these
companies are the real deal, or is it a real rip-off?
Walk down almost any high street these days, and the chances are you'll see at least one store
offering to buy your gold.
The price of gold has soared during the recession.
In troubled economic times, it's often viewed as the one investment
that will always be safe.
So, when Sue Moorhall needed to raise some funds,
she thought she'd found the perfect answer.
I had a sort through my jewellery box and other bits and pieces,
and gathered everything together that I didn't wear.
Bits that were broken, odds and ends.
Popped it in the envelope, like they said. Made sure I weighed it
before I sent it, so I knew what I was sending them - 132 grams.
Sent it off to them, and just waited for the cheque to come back to me.
In total, Sue sent 17 items to a firm that promised
a fair price for broken, old and unwanted jewellery.
Five days later they responded.
The letter arrived in the post from them with a cheque, which I opened,
and was really disappointed to see it was for the grand sum of £150.29.
I worked out what the equivalent per gram was, which was £1.42.
Convinced that the sums just didn't add up, Sue set about
doing some detective work.
My research told me it was £20 a gram,
but I knew I wouldn't get £20 a gram for it.
But I was expecting probably at least somewhere between £7 and £9 a gram,
but definitely not £1.42.
Sue had hoped her jewellery would fetch in excess of £1,000.
So she contacted the company to say she wasn't going to accept
the £150 cheque they'd sent.
They doubled the offer straight away.
They have this Double G guarantee, so they doubled the offer to me.
I said I wasn't accepting it, I was going to put the cheque
back in the post to them, and I wanted my gold returned.
Sue turned down the increased offer of £300, sent the cheque back
to the firm, and waited for her jewellery to be returned.
And waited.
And waited. It wasn't until over a week later,
when I phoned them to see if my gold was on the way to me,
they then started the return process, which was very worrying.
They only give you 10 days before they melt your gold down.
Their customer service was atrocious, non existent. It was obvious
when you rang them you were speaking to a call centre.
They didn't know what was going on.
You weren't speaking to the people you'd sent the gold to.
That's if you manage to speak to someone in England - quite often my call went through to America.
And they didn't know what was going on. Their literature says they'll send it back to you within
14 days, but it took nearly two months for me to get my gold back.
Every time I phoned them to chase it, they kept saying,
"It'll take 10 days."
Eventually Sue threatened to take legal action,
and, lo and behold, her jewellery arrived.
When I got my gold back, I did some more research,
and found a reputable company in Birmingham.
I rang them and spoke to them, and was happy that they
were reputable, and were going to give me a fair price.
They gave me £7.65 a gram,
compared to £1.42, which was £1,003 in the end,
compared to the £150 that they initially gave me.
Quite a difference in price, and a cause of some concern to Sue, who
decided to report her experience to her local Trading Standards office.
I was completely unfairly treated.
I thought they were a reputable company, they were going to give me a fair price, which they didn't.
I was completely ripped off by them, and I was really angry about it.
That's why I went to Trading Standards, because I don't want other people to be ripped off
in the same way I could have been. Trading Standards are aware
that there can be issues in the money for gold industry.
They're concerned that consumers simply aren't getting a fair deal.
And with such a huge disparity in prices, their advice to customers
is that it's vital to shop around,
as Sue now knows only too well.
When it comes to banks, one of your biggest complaints is to do with the
fees they charge customers who dare to get overdrawn without permission.
With interest rates applied, that can reach as much as,
and wait for this figure, 167%.
So it's not difficult to see how a relatively small debt
can very quickly spiral into something much worse.
We often hear about the importance of saving for that rainy day.
But, in reality, around one third of people in the UK
have less than £500 to fall back on.
And should their personal circumstances change,
figures like that don't provide much of a financial safety net,
as viewer Julie Rawlinson knows only too well.
'Things were going very well for me'
financially, and then unfortunately I lost my job.
And then... So, obviously, panic set in.
'I ended up in a factory job...
'which didn't pay.'
It was a minimum wage job, really.
That was when I started to need a little bit more money.
Julie decided that the best way to deal with her change
in circumstances was to increase the overdraft facility
that she had with her bank.
You know, I needed the money to live,
and to pay all the bills.
I'm a hard worker, so my goal was to just make sure that everything
that I earned went back in, and just keep afloat, really.
But keeping her head above water became more and more difficult.
I went self-employed in February 2009.
Since then I've been committed to the business,
and working every hour that I can.
That £100 I paid last month on interest and charges,
it's like being...
I'm a cleaner, that's my business.
That would be someone's home once a week,
for a month, to pay that off.
The interest charge on Julie's overdraft was growing, and with her
mortgage outstanding, she soon had more money going out than coming in.
On an average I was earning between £500 and £600 per month.
And that money was going straight back into the bank account, to cover
my costs, my direct debits and so on.
The next minute I'd find out that I'd have an unpaid item.
The bank has taken their charges and their interest, but haven't paid
the mortgage or something. And I got a call about that.
I found out once that they didn't pay my mortgage because it was
£11 short, and so I got charged by the bank and by the mortgage
people as well, obviously.
So this was starting to happen quite regularly.
I was earning, I was working hard, I was earning this money.
It WAS going in.
I was trying to keep it afloat, I was doing my best.
But the charges were getting larger and larger,
with the interest on the overdraft, and I was just... That was it then.
I was taking in water, really.
I was starting to drown again.
That's when I went to the bank. I rang the bank up and asked for help.
But Julie's bank charges were all legitimate and she was told that she'd no choice but to pay.
It's not like I don't want to pay it off, I do want to.
I'm like, "I want to pay it off, I'll pay each month,
"I want to pay a certain amount and get rid of it.
"But your charges are a lot higher than what I can afford to pay,
"I can't afford to pay that." Panic-stricken, really.
I thought, "My God I'm going to lose my home here, my house here
"and everything else that I've worked hard to try and keep everything
"within time, all because of overdraft charges, really."
You know, I was earning a wage. I wasn't going on the...
you know, the unemployment.
I was out there trying to build a business.
I was out there trying to...
make a living, not sponge off anybody and I just had these overdrafts that
were there as a buffer to pay my bills and not to get into any debt.
And then the next minute, these charges were just growing and growing and growing.
Overdraft charges have been big news in recent years.
The Office of Fair Trading unsuccessfully tried
to challenge them in court.
Since then, some banks HAVE changed their charging structure.
RBS and NatWest announced that from February,
they'll charge customers £6 per day for unauthorised overdrafts.
This is likely to be cheaper for those who briefly go into the red
but potentially much more expensive for those
with long-term financial problems.
Julie puts herself in that category
and with her costs continuing to mount,
she's now taken the decision to sign up with a debt management company.
It's a drastic step,
but one that she hopes will bring her banking issues to an end.
I feel now that...
being treated by the bank as a number, as a statistic, really,
not as a person, not as...
somebody who's been with them for many years,
who's been a good, loyal customer.
I've just been farmed out to a call centre
and nobody knows who I am. The bank managers don't talk to you any more.
It's heartbreaking, really.
You could at one point, you used to be able to go in
and talk to your bank manager, know their name
and be able to discuss your finances and come up with an agreement.
It's crazy.
When it comes to your bank account, it's not just an overdraft that can
really hit you where it hurts.
All manner of fees and charges can lurk behind transactions
and the chances are, you won't always be expecting them.
Try as far as you can not to get overdrawn.
If you go out for the evening, set yourself a cash limit.
The first thing you must do is to write,
don't send an e-mail, don't phone, but send a formal letter to the bank
requesting all your charges back.
This letter should include an exact...
calculation of what you've done that they've considered wrong
and what they have charged you.
And you need to relate one to the other.
Banks will do everything they can to stall you.
This is normal in banking because
they expect most people will give up at this stage and go away.
You have two options - one is the no-cost option,
which is to complain to the Financial Ombudsman.
The second is to go to court.
In my experience, banks threatened with ombudsman action
will almost certainly reassess.
This is because every time you refer a bank to the ombudsman,
the bank has to pay approximately £500.
If you're arguing over £50, it may decide that it's simply not worth
paying the £500 and then losing.
Court action is really the last resort.
Still to come on Rip-Off Britain - the gold rush continues.
But is it worth its weight?
And the phone insurance that doesn't always pay off.
Now back to a real heavyweight investment - gold.
It's been shooting up in value over the last 12 months.
There's been a veritable explosion of companies in that time
wanting to get their hands on your jewellery.
Most of them do promise consumers
easy money along with "highest prices guaranteed".
But not all of you are convinced that that really is the case.
Jessica Kelly loves her jewellery.
This is quite an expensive piece.
The most expensive piece that I've bought in a long time.
These two were my mother's.
She was quite a jewellery collector.
This was the most recent purchase!
Call me a magpie, if you like. Perhaps I'm a bit of a magpie.
If I could afford it more, I probably would buy more.
But Jessica hasn't been able to add to her collection
over the past few years, not since her husband fell ill.
He was just about 32
when he started to get ill.
So I became his round-the-clock carer.
It meant that you had to go on disability benefit.
That's what we were living on for pretty much the last 20 years
since I've been here. Until he died three years ago.
Since Barry's death, paying the bills has been a real struggle.
And with income support as her only means of revenue,
Jessica found herself faced with a heartbreaking decision.
When I first had to sell stuff, I guess it really upset me
because I promised my husband that I would never, ever do it again.
Unless there was a really good reason. What better reason
is there then when you've got essential bills that have to be paid?
It's got to be done, the money has to come from somewhere.
Companies offering cash for your gold jewellery are on the increase.
More often than not, they don't care what your trinkets look like,
because by the time they've finished with them,
they'll look more like this...
than that.
Initially they said that if I could find a better price
elsewhere then they would double...
the offer.
So Jessica rounded up her gold and sent it off.
The cheque that they sent was a total insult.
I think it was about £72.12.
Which wasn't... I did some checking and it wasn't even the scrap value
on the day. It didn't come anywhere near the scrap value.
When I checked up the actual scrap value of it,
it was more in the region of just £400,
just above maybe £400.
So their £72.12...
..it was literally an insult and it infuriated me!
According to Jessica's research, the company had offered her 75% less
than her jewellery's scrap metal value.
I immediately phoned them and said I didn't want the cheque.
"I said, what's do you want me to do? Do I post it straight back?"
They said, "Yes. As soon as we get the cheque, we will send you back your goods." But they didn't.
It was a long, drawn-out battle to get my property back.
The more I thought about it, the more angry I became.
Because they don't need to operate that way.
I just get so angry thinking about it.
It's so unfair and so many people are so naive and they're just giving it to them.
Jessica isn't alone in feeling angry. High street jewellers across
the country have been besieged by customers turning to them
after being offered measly prices by many postal gold firms.
Got some gold to sell. OK. Let's have a look for you.
'We've had a customer who came in and I remember she sent it to one of the firms over the internet.
'I believe she was offered £160 initially.'
She then phoned to decline the offer
and she was then immediately offered £280.
I think she realised that something was a bit odd that there could be
such a dramatic increase like that.
She had it sent back, which took about a month for her to receive.
When she brought it to us we gave her £610
and she was absolutely delighted with the price in the end.
So, it's fairly regular.
Like many high-street gold buyers, Ben writes rides the daily price
of gold on his blackboard and buys accordingly.
It's tripled in value. Two years, two and a half years ago,
we were paying £2.75 for a gram
of nine carat gold.
Today, we're paying £7.45.
It just shows you the jump it has made, really.
It took a full three weeks for Jessica to get her jewellery back.
She'd still like to sell her gold, but she'll not be tempted
quite so easily by TV adverts in the future.
Wouldn't do it again. I always research everything that I do,
it doesn't matter what it's for, jewellery or anything else.
I do research first.
You know, it's thought that here in the UK there's a massive 14 million
of us that now own a mobile phone. With the price of handsets ranging
from £20 all the way up to £500, it's not surprising that there's
a booming insurance industry keen to offer us cover.
But you've asked us to investigate
if such policies are money well spent,
or just another expense that really doesn't add up.
Rugby full back Jonny Smith has a new fancy mobile
and he's not afraid to use it.
In fact, he couldn't be happier with his flashy gadget.
It does everything that a normal phone does, obviously it calls
and texts and so on, but it's very interactive,
the touch-screen is great. I use it for my dates, meetings
and everything on there and then my e-mails from
friends as well, that's pretty important, and stuff from rugby.
It does cut down a lot of time, you don't have to check out e-mails
on the computer. We're all going out tonight.
'It's very useful, interactive device.' Johnny is so attached
to his new purchase that he's taken out an insurance policy to protect it.
The general mentality these days, with a mobile phone like an iPhone,
it's almost an obligation to take out an insurance.
Most people know that their phones cost
£400-500, Blackberry as well.
Phones like this, I think most people opt for taking out insurance.
Johnny took out his policy with his mobile phone provider.
But when he saw what seemed to be a better deal at his bank,
he decided to check it out and arranged a meeting with a sales man.
And he liked what he heard.
I was going to get my travel insurance and my mobile phone
insurance for almost exactly the same price as I was already paying
for my mobile phone insurance alone.
So, I was going to get basically, hit two for the price of one.
I was going to be covered in exactly the same ways.
The same ways that I was covered by my other two insurers.
Johnny says he was careful to question the level of protection
that his policy would provide and he liked what he heard.
I did ask him directly about loss.
And his answer was, "Yes, you're covered in the same way
"that you are with your current provider."
As it was my bank and I've been banking there since I started,
I didn't think there was any reason to think differently.
So, after looking through a policy summary booklet in the meeting,
Johnny decided to go forward with the deal
and move his phone insurance to the bank.
It was partly financial, but keeping everything in one place seemed like a good idea,
rather than being insured with a sports travel insurer over here
and mobile phone insurance over here and doing it with my bank
and through my bank and where all my money comes and goes.
When the terms and conditions arrived a couple of weeks later,
Johnny didn't spot any problems and put the policy
to the back of his mind. Not for long, though.
Rushing to get off a train which had been cancelled,
Johnny accidentally left the phone in the seat pocket.
When he returned minutes later, it had gone.
And when Johnny tried to claim on his insurance,
he was told he wasn't covered.
They said that my loss was "reckless".
I did pursue it saying, "How would I lose my phone in the correct manner?"
They said, "Well, you wouldn't leave it in a public place". I said,
"OK. So if I'd lost it at home I would have been covered?"
Which of course, the answer was yes.
"Oh, great, I've got phone insurance, presumably just covering me in my house".
Several tries later, Johnny was getting nowhere.
He went back to the terms and conditions, but still couldn't understand why his claim
was being kicked into touch.
I was pretty annoyed that I wasn't covered in the same way that
I'd been led to believe.
The way they termed "reckless"
could be read in a number of different ways
and it really gives the insurer the opportunity...
to simply avoid paying out if they wish, because they can
pull you up in a number of different ways. How do you define "reckless"?
Johnny contacted journalists about his situation. Victoria Bischoff
from the financial website, Citywire followed up the story.
After looking at his individual case, it prompted
us to think, hang on a second, what are other providers saying?
Would they provide cover in that situation?
We contacted six different providers and we had three different outcomes.
One provider said they would pay out in that situation.
Two said they might, they'd have to look at the case in more detail,
but they were hopeful they'd be able to provide cover.
And then three said they would under no circumstances provide cover,
because they state very clearly in their terms and conditions,
"We don't provide cover in these circumstances."
There definitely needs to be more consistency across the board,
for consumers to know when they are and aren't covered.
Victoria believes that when it comes to mobile phone insurance,
we all need to be vigilant.
What people don't realise is there's a whole list of exceptions
for when you're not covered and these are buried away in the small print
that people don't take the time to read.
It's understandable why consumers don't know when they're covered,
because they're told one thing by the person when they take out the policy,
another in the policy summary and something entirely different in the small print
of the terms and conditions that receive, maybe a few weeks later.
Deep breath in, and out.
After Johnny's story appeared on the internet, his bank said they would
pay out on the policy and that Johnny hadn't been reckless after all.
Although he still has his policy with the same bank, the full-back
warns other people to be cautious when it comes to tackling insurance.
I would take out your mobile phone insurance with your network provider,
to not change to somebody that is putting together a bundle package.
If you're with your mobile phone provider, they will understand
that if they replace your phone you're likely to stay with them.
Giving it to your bank, who then outsource it
to a third-party insurer,
just doesn't keep things close together, and makes it a lot harder
with claims and so on in the future.
I would stick with your current provider, definitely.
Well, as we've seen before with insurance policies, there can be
a vast difference between what you think you're covered for
and what the reality actually is.
So, when it comes to mobile phones, here's what you need to know.
It's really important you don't
give in to the hard sell when you're buying a new mobile phone contract.
There's absolutely no obligation to buy mobile phone insurance, even if
you're buying the latest smartphone.
In-store mobile phone insurance can be expensive.
It's often sold by third-party companies.
You may actually already be covered.
Your home contents insurance policy, a bank account add-on
and even your travel insurance may mean you're already covered.
If you feel you do want mobile phone insurance,
then shop around for the best deal for you.
It can be worthwhile if you have a high-value phone
and you're worried about the phone being stolen.
Make sure you read the policy details before signing up.
Most policies will cover you if your phone is stolen.
However they won't all cover you for accidental damage, for instance
if your phone gets water damaged, or if you simply lose your phone.
If you have unwanted mobile phone insurance, then cancel it now.
There are many cases of people are paying for mobile phone insurance
on phones they traded in years ago.
Contact the company that sold you the policy
and be firm and single-minded.
Remember, don't just cancel the direct debit,
you need to cancel it through the company that sold you the policy.
It's important to know your rights.
If you have bought mobile for insurance you don't want, you have
a 14-day cooling off period, where you can cancel it and get
any premiums paid refunded.
Beware a high excess.
It may not be worthwhile insuring a low-value mobile phone
because if you make a claim that you will have to pay an excess
and that may be more than the phone is actually worth.
The battle for our hard earned cash is well and truly on, and with every
penny counting we're here to make sure you're not being ripped off.
And you've certainly been keeping us busy.
Since the recession hit, consumers have found it
increasingly hard to borrow money.
Lenders have become much more cautious and want to feel assured
that they're going to be paid back.
They often rely heavily on the information in one of these,
a credit file. It contains personal details about you and your finances.
But, according to personal finance expert, Sarah Purnells,
credit files aren't always accurate.
Everybody needs to have a credit history, because
that's how it lenders work out whether or not you're a good risk.
So you might think that if you have never had debts
that makes you a really good risk, but from a lender's perspective,
they can't work out how you've managed credit in the past.
So a good tip is, if you're applying for a mortgage,
it's a good idea to get a credit card
before you're thinking of applying.
The reason it's important to have a good credit file is that lenders
use this information to work out whether or not to give you credit in the first place, and secondly,
the interest rate they'll charge you.
One thing that puzzles a lot of people is why one lender
might turn you down for credit when another may except you,
based on the same information.
That's because, as well as your credit file which they look at,
they take into account your credit score, and different
lenders have different ways of assessing what your score is.
Everybody has the right in law to see a copy of their
credit reference file. There are three credit reference agencies -
Equifax, Experian and Callcredit.
There's a lot of duplication between them, in that lenders will
often provide information to more than one credit reference agency,
but I'd recommend you get a copy of your file from each of the three,
certainly if you're going to apply for credit in the future.
The way you can do this is to do it either by phone,
post or online, and you have to pay a £2 fee to each agency each time
you want to see a copy of your file.
Some agencies let you have a trial period where you can sign up to one
of their services for 30 days free of charge, and that means
you can see your file entirely free.
My tip would be that, if you do this, make sure you opt
out of this service again before the 30 days are up, otherwise you
could find some money has been taken from your credit card.
If there's a mistake on your credit file, it's important
you get it corrected, because otherwise the lender
could be relying on that information when it's trying to work out
whether or not to give you credit.
If there's something on your file, you should contact the credit reference agency first of all
if you don't think it's correct.
They've then got 28 days to look at the information and to get back to
you and tell you whether they think you are wrong, whether they think there is a mistake, in which case
they'll correct it, or whether they need longer to look into it for you.
If the information is correct but doesn't reflect what was
happening at the time, you can add a notice of correction
on your credit file, and it's something that all lenders have
to see before they look at the rest of the information on your file.
One thing that's worth knowing about is that it could mean it
takes longer for lenders to work out whether or not to grant you credit,
because you won't be able to be scored through the automatic system.
Today we've been looking at the businesses keen to make a mint
by melting down your old gold.
They all seemed to promise pretty much the same thing - speedy service and easy money.
That may well be the case, but are they offering consumers a fair deal?
We decided to put them to the test.
A little 18 carat key...
This friendly jeweller is worth his weight in gold.
He's agreed to help us take a closer look at the firms jostling
to buy your jewellery and to weigh up the money they offer in return.
With gold, silver and platinum at their highest value in decades...
Simply call us or go online to get your free G pack...
I shopped around and I was happiest with Postgoldforcash.com,
and I think that you will be, too.
First up, a nine carat gold chain...
Made in Italy, but it's got a proper English hallmark on it.
..and an 18 carat gold ring.
Our man's valued them at...
But will they get anywhere near that amount?
What's the easy way to turn your unwanted gold into cash?
Postalgold.com.
Postalgold's website promises 100% satisfaction, so we have high hopes.
Not for long, though...
as they offer us just £18.88.
Quite a price difference.
Time to give Postalgold a call and ask them to reconsider.
They decide to up their offer to £35.
But that's still £73 less than we think our jewellery is worth,
so we decide to turn them down.
I sent in my diamond wedding band from my first marriage
and got more money back than I could ever have imagined.
Next, a firm called Cash4Gold.
They claimed to offer customers 60% more than their competitors.
We're sending off a different 18 carat gold ring...
This is an 18 carat engagement ring.
The diamonds have been taken out and given back to the customer.
..and a nine carat chain. It's broken, but since these firms
often melt the jewellery down, this shouldn't matter.
Our man's weighed up the odds and has priced these items at...
But Cash4Gold don't seem to agree,
offering us just...
Once again, we complain, and the offer is almost doubled,
but it's still £57 less than we want.
Time to try again. And these have on them a Hallmark,
which is normally near the clasp. Let me just have a quick look there.
That is a full English hallmark.
We're going for this nine carat gold locket
with an 18 carat key this time.
Our jeweller has priced them at...
But not all companies are offering the best deal...
But Postgoldforcash.com
offer us just £26,
claiming the key is only nine carat, not 18.
They raise that to £35 when we complain,
and when we grumble even more, that rises to...
Their final offer is £90.
It's close, but still £27 less than we think the gold is worth,
so, once again, we decline. Keen to check our prices are correct...
We take our readings twice a day, those are the spot prices
that are done in the London market price.
We take our gold to a second independent jeweller
to see what he has to say about the money we've been offered.
The figures you keep on telling me don't add up to what
anyone in the store could walk in to.
If I offered that figure, people would just snatch it off me
and run out of the shop. It's that bad.
It's not right.
You have to offer a reasonable price for the gold.
I think people use the postal gold services
as an easy way to get some cash in.
If you're interested in selling your gold, by all means sell your gold,
but sell it to a reputable store on your high street.
You'll get the best price there.
But if you're still determined to send your gold away, our experience
has highlighted two important points.
First, there were substantial differences in the prices offered by the different companies
so always remember to shop around. Secondly, every one of the firms
we contacted upped their offer once we complained.
So, when it comes to exchanging your jewels,
it seems that haggling really can pay off.
Well, with me now is Sylvia Rook from the Trading Standards Institute to talk about all of this.
Sylvia, these gold mailing companies, they offer such tempting deals.
The top prices, they say, but we carried out an investigation
and found that routinely, they were offering about a fifth of
the market value of the gold that we showed them. Are you aware of that?
Absolutely. We've come across worst cases.
We've come across ones offering less than 10% of the market value.
You have to remember they're looking at the smelt of value of gold,
not looking at the value of an item of jewellery.
All the same, how can they be allowed to offer prices that are so very much
lower, one tenth of the high street prices. How can that be allowed?
It depends what people are willing to accept. There's no law that says they have to offer any amount.
They're not saying something is worth an amount, they're just offering you an amount
for the gold and you can refuse to accept that offer. It's perfectly legal?
It's not illegal to offer anything you want.
We would advise people should shop around
to make sure that the offer is a good offer.
Yes, shop around on gold-mailing sites, no?
The best place to start is your local jewellers.
The local jewellers can also value it as an item of jewellery,
as opposed to value it for the amount of gold.
That would give you a feeling.
We would also suggest people weigh their gold so they have an idea how
much it might be worth because you can find the day's value of gold on the website. That's a very good tip.
How many complaints has the Trading Standards had about this issue?
It's an ongoing problem. I can't give you figures,
but there have complaints nationally in relation to a number of different companies.
What's so dispiriting about the whole thing is
they are trading on people's vulnerability, very often.
We had a case of Jessica Kelly and she needed really to sell
the heirlooms that she had acquired to pay her bills.
I mean, it just smacks of rip-off.
You are sending them gold and they are saying,
"We will give you an amount of money for this gold."
You have the right not to accept it. The problem is that people don't have any idea how much an item might
be worth. You could say yes if an item is worth £500 it's completely
wrong of a company to offer you only £50 of something like that.
It's not illegal for them to do it.
That means you can't stop it happening.
You say this is an ongoing issue which it clearly is from the complaints we've had in about it.
The Office of Fair Trading, do you know what they're doing about it?
The Office of Fair Trading are investigating these companies.
They're looking into their trading activities to determine whether or not they are doing anything
that could be considered either to be illegal or wrong.
Two very different things, aren't they, illegal and wrong.
You suggest here we could be talking really about
an ethical, moral issue if you like?
The Office of Fair Trading can only look at unfair practices. They'll
look at the terms and conditions to ensure they're fair.
They'll look at the advertising to ensure it's not misleading.
But what they can't do is say to the companies, "You must offer more for the gold that people send you."
What about advertising? Because I think a lot of people
might feel the advertising of some these gold-mailing companies are,
at best, misleading. They say, many of them say,
"We offer you a better price than anyone else."
If you then check in the terms and conditions, the small print,
you find they're offering a better price
than any other gold-mailing company, not anyone else on the high street.
What does best price mean? Well, here it clearly doesn't mean
better price than anyone else, does it? It's misleading.
I can't comment on that. OK.
Is there anything that the Trading Standards can do to stop companies
like this misleading the public?
If they're actually saying things that are considered to be illegal
under criminal legislation, then, yes we can.
A number of Trading Standards services have advised companies
to what they should do, but if a company chooses not to follow the advice they've been given,
then we have two options. We have to consider taking matters through the criminal courts
or going to get an undertaking under the Enterprise Act.
Clearly, a sound piece of advice,
I imagine, would be if you are going to go down this rather risky route,
you should not accept the first offer you get.
Definitely not. We would also say shop around, go to some local jewellers, get an idea of the cost.
You could even go into a pawnshop and see how much the pawn value would be
because they can resell the item as well.
You get it weighed, you look at the carat of gold so you can get
an approximate valuation for it.
Then you'll know whether or not the offer you're getting from the gold company is a good offer or not.
Generally, we haven't found any postal gold company that will match the high street prices.
From all that you said, it would seem to me that the best way forward is
people simply going to the high street, a proper jeweller's and...
sell their gold that way. It is essentially a rip-off, isn't it?
Their argument would be they provide a service to people
who either can't get to their local high street or don't want to be seen
selling off the family jewels. It's a confidential service.
You can send things without anybody knowing you are in financial difficulties.
They would argue that they are providing a service to the public. What would you suggest?
That people should always be very wary about sending
anything valuable through the post.
You're sending things to people you've never heard of.
Yet you're putting something that may be worth hundreds of pounds in an envelope and sending it
to somewhere you don't know where it's going.
We would always advise people to be extremely careful.
The other thing to bear in mind is these companies don't take
any account of any gems that are fitted in jewellery.
They look at things like diamonds as just being scrap.
If you're sending off gold, they will only give you the smelt value.
So, remove any gems - you might be able to sell them separately.
Diamonds are a girl's best friend! Absolutely! This is terrible!
It seems to me that from all you've said the logical answer
to everything is do not do this.
The logical thing to say is be very, careful about what you choose to do.
We await with interest to see the outcome of the Office of Fair Trading investigation.
With the value of gold at an all-time high,
let's face it, it's a seller's market. Don't be afraid
to turn down an offer if you think it's just too low.
We've also seen just how important it is to carefully consider
the terms and conditions of any contract before you sign it,
no matter how small, the small print actually is. That's it for now.
Please join us again tomorrow when we'll be investigating even more
of the cases that have left you feeling ripped off.
Until then, goodbye. Thanks for your company, bye-bye.
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