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 show that investigates
your consumer woes to find out if you've been ripped off.
In an age of spending cuts and tax rises, it can feel like
our finances are being stretched further than ever before.
And still the cost of living continues to rise.
So ensuring that we get value for money really has become vital.
But, judging by the letters that you've been sending us, it's not something we can take for granted.
Also in the programme:
The mistakes consumers make that can come with a heavy price.
Plus, the second-hand car trade that's costing drivers millions.
And the money-lending middle men whose bills really add up.
The battle for our hard-earned cash is well and truly on, and when every penny counts,
you need to make sure you're getting the best deals possible.
You've certainly given us plenty to work with.
Over the past year, car insurance premiums have shot up, in some cases by as much as 50%.
And, when you're paying as much as that, you'd be forgiven for thinking that, if something happened
to your four-wheeled pride and joy, you'd be suitably compensated.
When Alice Austin set eyes on her new car, it was love at first sight.
It was only a couple of years old.
It was new to me, and that's all that mattered.
It only had about 15,000 on the clock.
So it still felt quite new.
Whoever had it before really looked after it - there was hardly a dent.
The seating looked lovely, no scuffs, no nothing.
Excited about the potential for day trips to the country,
and long weekends at the seaside, Alice knew wherever she needed to go, her car would get her there.
My mum is not registered disabled, but she's elderly, and I take her shopping once a week.
I need it for that, and also, because I live just round the corner to her,
if she needs to go to the hospital, then I can go off and do it.
But all that was about to change.
One morning, as she prepared to set off in her new four-wheeled friend, Alice made a startling discovery.
It had gone. Well, I was gobsmacked. I had to double check myself.
I honestly thought I'd parked it elsewhere. But no.
My partner had left for work at 6:30am. I left at 8:30am.
It was there when he left, and it wasn't there when I left.
Annoyed was not a word to use, I really felt...
stupid as well. Because I was sitting here.
I must have been sitting here when they stole it.
Buying a new car is a happy time.
Having it stolen four weeks later isn't.
But that's what insurance is for, isn't it?
I left it to the brokers, who then informed my insurance company.
They said that's all I could do. So I went to work, and then just got the phone calls from the police
and the insurance company to finalise the bits and pieces for reporting the theft.
Alice thought it would only be a matter of time before she was back behind the wheel.
But I called them after a month, to find out what was going on.
That's when I was told, "A cheque's in the post to you."
But the cheque in the post wasn't for the full value
of her stolen car. I thought it was a ridiculous offer.
I know you have to go low, but that was just, well, it was insulting.
I paid £7,995 for it. So they were giving me £6,300 to replace my car.
I thought, "What happens if they won't give me any more money?
"What if I've been the idiot who paid a ridiculous price to start with?
"And now, how am I going to get a car again?"
I bought it from a dealer because I wanted the guarantee of the used-car warranty.
So I wasn't going to buy from an independent dealer.
I just thought I can't do that. I'm not going to be able to replace it, and get the guarantees and
assurances that I had when I bought my initial car from the garage.
They're only going to give me money to buy it from an independent dealer.
Alice's insurers argued that they had phoned dealers in her area
and had been told the car was worth £1,700 less than she'd paid for it.
Straight away I went on to the internet. I went to the various sites, got cars that were similar.
You can't get exact. I sent them as an e-mail attachment.
And I said, "As you can see, this is the value of the car."
They then e-mailed me back to say, "As you can see, this is the value of the car."
They sent me back ones that were £6,100, £6,200, £6,500.
So then I wrote back and said, "Well, here are some more that I've found that are in the higher range."
We did twice the batting back and forwards, and then I said,
"This is ridiculous, we'll never agree."
The used car expert is the one we should be looking at.
When we investigated one of them that was really cheap at £6,000,
the man wanted to clear his forecourt. That's why he could sell it so cheap.
Alice felt she was being ripped off.
I wasn't polite to the man on the phone. I told him that I felt that he'd robbed me twice -
once when they stole the car and here again.
They're just not giving me the money to replace my car.
She may have been without her wheels, but Alice was determined
to put in the leg-work needed to fight her corner.
You're spending the whole time, every day, doing your e-mail.
Responding to their e-mail. Putting your argument forward.
There's all that hassle, and the fact that I'd have to go through it again.
I'd have to find another car, and barter with another salesman, to buy another car!
And this time with less money than I had before. And no car to take in for collateral.
Alice felt she was getting nowhere, until that is, she threatened to involve the authorities.
I said I'd take them to the Ombudsman, because we couldn't agree.
So that's what prompted a pay rise, if you like.
It's the inconvenience, you can't put a price on time, really, can you?
You know, I'm supposed to be doing my job, not finding out prices on cars.
It's just time wasting that you're never going to get back,
just to get what you are entitled to because you pay your insurance.
Eventually Alice's insurers agreed to settle for a total of £7,500.
That's over £1,000 more than their original offer.
At last she could choose a new car.
But she'd had to navigate her way through an awful lot of dead ends,
diversions and road blocks, to get to this point.
There are something like 34 million
motor insurance policies out there
and, inevitably, some of them are likely to go wrong.
If you think you haven't been offered like for like, or you think
that it doesn't take account of the particular characteristics,
that's something to discuss with your insurance company.
I hope that this was sorted in this case.
But the idea is that if things go wrong, there should be speedy channels
in which it can be redressed, and people can sort things out quickly and fairly.
As for Alice, she says she'll be choosing her next insurance policy a lot more carefully.
I went for the cheapest deal, and that was obviously not a good thing.
You've just got to think about, why are they so cheap?
there might be something you won't get in their service.
I think you'll know that, since the credit crunch began to bite,
our banks have become much more cautious when it comes to lending money.
As a result, many people are turning to loan brokers.
They're companies who don't lend money themselves, but instead match-make you with firms that do.
They in turn earn commission.
But some also charge for their services and that's where the problems can begin.
Lena Bruzaight is a 24-year-old single mother.
She says making ends meet can be a bit of a struggle.
I was working as a night manager in a hotel. I was earning a decent wage.
But, unfortunately, I fell ill after I had deep vein thrombosis in my leg.
And I couldn't walk for about three weeks.
But I still had to provide for my daughter.
All the rent, food...
clothing and bills, they were still due.
So I applied for a loan with my bank.
But I got refused there.
So I went online, basically Googled 'loans'.
And then I was quite tempted, because they basically say that they approve
everybody's application, no matter if you've got court judgments,
defaults, whatever.
Surprise, surprise, they phoned me within about two minutes,
saying, "Are you looking for a loan? How much are you looking for?"
So they put me on hold, and the second they've answered the phone again, they said,
"Congratulations, you've been approved for a loan."
Lena had contacted a loan broker, a firm that acts as a kind of
middle man when it comes to borrowing money.
After they said that my loan was approved, I was told that I would
need to pay a £69.50 fee in order to go ahead with my application
and to have the money in the bank within five working days.
Lena's loan never arrived, despite the fact the firm had told her it would
and even though they'd charged her an admin fee.
I phoned them back,
saying, "Where's my loan?"
And then I heard...
that they never offered me a loan.
That their...
part of a contract...
..is to pass my details on to loan companies who would deal with me.
I was very angry and disappointed, because I thought that I was approved for a loan.
But I wasn't.
Sale today, so everything's just £1.
With her financial situation still shaky, Lena turned elsewhere in a bid to borrow money. And guess what?
The same thing happened again.
What angers me the most is that these sort of companies, they target
the group of people who are the most vulnerable, and they are the most in need.
They're taking money for a service that they're not providing.
As it turns out, they never intended to provide.
I don't know how they get away with it, it's really illegal.
Loan brokers have to be licensed by the Office of Fair Trading, and their rules state that
a customer is always entitled to have an admin fee refunded, minus £5,
if for whatever reason the customer doesn't end up borrowing the cash.
The OFT's advice to anyone who gets caught out like Lena
is to contact them, or Trading Standards, immediately.
The rules are there to keep consumers safe.
So, if you know a company that's breaking them, you need to do something about it.
If you are using a loan broker to help you borrow money, it's important to remember
that they need to be licensed, and that the regulations surrounding them give you certain rights.
Ray Watson from the Office of Fair Trading has everything you need to know.
A number of brokers advertise online, so
people who will put in searches into their computer looking for loans are likely to pull up a loan broker.
They may not realise it's a broker.
They may think this is the person who's going to provide the money to them.
So a lot of people don't actually know that they're dealing with a broker when they first make contact.
Brokers will have a range of lenders that they can refer customers to, and they will take a fee for those
referrals, and quite often they will take a fee from the customer.
They may also get commission from the lender.
Once someone has entered into an agreement with the broker,
if it's online they have 14 days to change their mind,
so they can cancel that agreement, and they're entitled to a full refund of any money they've paid.
For all brokers, whether it's online or someone who they will visit personally, they have the right
to refuse any loan offers that are made to them within six months.
If they do so, they have a right to get their money back,
minus £5, and this is a statutory protection they're given under the Consumer Credit Act.
For anyone who thinks that they want to take out a loan, some simple advice would be,
consider whether you really need to take out a loan in the first place.
Could you do something like saving for what you want to buy?
Make sure you know who you're dealing with. Is it a broker?
Are you dealing with a lender? If it's a broker,
what service are they going to provide for you,
which lenders can they obtain credit from
and how much are they going to charge you.
Secondly, you should look at the affordability of the loan over the period of the loan.
Your circumstances may change.
You need to be aware that, if things change, for example if you're made redundant,
if something happens, you have a loss in the family, then you may be under more financial pressure.
So consider how long you're taking the loan out for, how much you're repaying, and that you're confident
that you can repay that over the full period of the loan.
Thirdly, you should also be aware that you have rights
that protect you when you're dealing with a broker.
If you want to cancel, and have your brokerage fee returned,
then you have a right to return that fee, minus £5.
Still to come on Rip-Off Britain...
Putting you in the picture when it comes to HDTV.
And the car finance packages that can run your finances of the road.
The second-hand car industry is big, big business.
For example, in the UK, we buy more than 3,500,000 previously-owned vehicles every single year.
But when it comes to customer satisfaction, I'm afraid the figures don't stack up quite so well.
There were 38,000 complaints about cars bought from dealers which hit the desks of Consumer Direct
in the first six months of this year alone.
Now, the Office of Fair Trading has warned that the second-hand car trade can be fraught with risk.
And that's advice that Richard Birch wishes he'd heard before he decided to buy.
It all started so promisingly.
Richard Birch spotted an internet advert.
It was for a 2001 four-door Subaru saloon,
complete with air conditioning, ABS, sport seats,
in other words, the works.
For what model it was, they were selling it for quite cheap.
And when I phoned them up and asked them why they were selling it so cheap,
they said they don't deal with this type of car.
They just said that everything was fine with the car and we wouldn't be disappointed.
So Richard set out on a 170-mile journey to collect his new purchase.
But there was trouble in store.
Heavy snow and icy roads cause chaos across most of the UK,
with severe weather warnings in place as the deep freeze continues.
The deep freeze meant that it took Richard three hours to get to
the garage, but the stress of his journey was soon a distant memory
when he saw his shiny, nearly-new second-hand car,
which came with a three-month warranty.
Little did Richard know how quickly he'd need it.
As soon as I got on the motorway, the 'check engine' light came on.
When I stopped at the service station, the steam was coming out of the bonnet.
I rung my wife up, I told her what had happened.
He sounded quite distressed
and he just told me that the engine light had came on and there was smoke coming from the bonnet,
and he thought there was something really wrong with it.
Cold, confused and desperate for help, Richard contacted the garage.
I phoned them up and told them what had happened.
I said, "I bought the car 20 minutes ago from yourselves."
They just didn't want to know, they just said,
"Well, tough luck," more or less.
But what about that three-month warranty that he'd signed just one hour before?
They told us that Richard knew the car was unroadworthy at the time of the sale, which he didn't,
cos he wouldn't attempt to drive a car from Birmingham to Cumbria
in an unroadworthy state. But then they gave us a warranty,
which he has signed at the garage, stating that it is a roadworthy car.
Helen had phoned Birmingham Police and they were very, very helpful.
They'd given me some numbers of breakdown services.
They picked us up and they checked the car over.
And that's how I found out that it was the head gasket had gone.
Richard's second-hand car needed more than £1,000-worth of work.
And according to the Office of Fair Trading, this isn't an isolated incident.
They think problems with second-hand dealerships
are costing consumers
£85 million a year.
We just can't afford to get the car fixed
and we, well, we don't believe...
we believe that the garage should fix it,
seeing as though it was under warranty, and the garage should pay for it.
Sick of the whole situation,
the Birches have now sold their car on for less than they paid for it.
The Office of Fair Trading have told us
the Birches could have contacted Consumer Direct.
They think the couple could well have had a case.
As consumers, always remember we have rights.
I think you'd expect me to say that I love the telly, and I've been analysing a few lately,
but the price of flat-screen televisions has plummeted over the past 12 months.
And when it comes to buying one, there's a lot to consider.
There's resolution, stereo sound,
picture processing, connectivity. It can be confusing, to say the least.
And then there's high definition - oh, boy, I love that one.
But the bulk of new televisions now claim to be HD ready.
What exactly, though, does that mean?
Anita Bishop loves her gadgets
and prides herself on being ahead of the curve.
In 2006, she decided to get a flashy new television.
I had a television that was old, it didn't have Freeview,
and I wanted a flat-screen television.
So I decided to buy a flat-screen television after doing various research on...
cost, guarantees, etc, etc,
where is the best place to buy?
Anita was particularly interested in the prospect of high definition TV. And whilst
at the time, there wasn't much of it about, Anita wanted to be sure
that her new purchase would be ready for it in the future.
The thing I specifically said was, "Will it be HD ready?"
And they said, "Yeah."
So there was nothing to...
for them to dispute about it, or me to dispute about it.
I took their word as gospel.
In 2008, Lionel and Jackie Barnet, from Walsall,
also decided to improve their viewing by going HD.
Like Anita, they did their homework before deciding what to buy.
Knowing what I wanted, I didn't have to spend a lot of time in the shop,
and I just said, "I want that model.
"Have you got it in stock?" "Yeah."
"Great." So I paid for it and they delivered it within a couple of days, I think.
Lionel soon realised something was wrong with his new television
when he had problems with the set-up,
so he went online to get some help.
I went on the net to find out if I needed a digital aerial,
or to see if I was doing something wrong. I put a post on this forum
and within a few minutes, someone answered what I'd put,
saying, "Lionel, you're confused...
"you're confusing a digital signal with HDTV,
"and the two are completely divorced.
"You will need to buy one of these set-top boxes." They were right.
To watch his new TV in high definition, Lionel would need to buy a set-top box
or a satellite dish for each of his televisions, costing at least an extra £280.
I thought we would be looking at a brilliant picture
and unfortunately, no, I was wrong.
A bit disconcerting, isn't it, to have bought something that you can't
get the full benefit from? Unless you spend a lot more money again
Anita discovered she was in exactly the same position.
She'd paid for a television that she thought would automatically show programmes in HD.
But this clearly wasn't the case, so she wrote to the manufacturer to complain.
They just sent a reply to say that, no, the television did need an HD box
and it's only now that the new televisions are in-built with HD ready.
In other words, too bad.
It's the annoyance... that I was conned, in other words.
I really thought it would automatically turn over to HD.
Neither manufacturer nor whoever's selling the television, whatever store you went into,
would tell you it wasn't going to be in-built in the television,
because they want to sell the televisions at the time.
But did the sales assistants deliberately mislead Anita, or did they simply not know themselves?
An Ofcom survey in November 2007 found there was significant confusion amongst retail staff
over HD services, with 12% of mystery shoppers given the impression that
an HD ready TV set would show HD pictures from analogue broadcasts.
7% were wrongly told no extra equipment was needed
and 14% were incorrectly informed that an HD ready TV
would enable them to receive HD pictures
via their standard Freeview.
I suppose they thought if they told me it wasn't built in,
I, like many other people, would have thought twice of
buying a television if it wasn't really something they needed at that particular time.
I probably would have bought an ordinary television, probably with a flat screen -
I think they still did those - at half the cost,
and then just eventually bought one now which is all HD in-built in the televisions.
So if a new TV is on your Christmas shopping list, technology guru
Barry Fox has some valuable advice to help put you
right in the picture.
The advertising blurb "HD ready", that's an accepted way
of describing a TV set that is ready to receive HD.
That's all you have to remember, it's ready,
but it doesn't mean that it will deliver HD unless you push some high definition signals into it.
If your TV set is connected by one of these,
called a SCART cable - you can't miss them, they're big
chunky things - you're not going to get high definition pictures.
Quite simply, because high definition pictures don't run down a SCART cable.
To get high definition pictures, you need something called an HDMI cable.
And that is currently the main way of getting HDTV.
So, it's very simple. Look and see how your set's connected.
If you've got SCART, you're not getting high definition, if you've got HDMI,
you're probably getting high definition.
Unless you've got quite a big screen, you aren't going to notice
that much difference with a modern TV set between standard definition and high definition.
Then you decide, how do I want to watch those pictures?
Do I watch them from discs? Because that's very simple, you go out and buy a Blu-ray player,
which is a glorified DVD player, and you watch Blu-ray movies, OK, end of story.
If you want to watch television, live television,
can I get it from a roof aerial, can I get it from cable or from satellite?
Now, cable may be a very convenient way of doing it.
You need no dish and no roof aerial.
If you have a good roof aerial
and you check with the website, the Freeview website,
with your postcode, that you can get high definition television
in your area, from Freeview, then that's a very good way to do it.
You buy either a Freeview HD box to plug into a TV set
or a Freeview HD television.
And if you can't get signals through roof aerial,
or your roof aerial is very bad, then you have a satellite dish.
And there are two ways of doing that.
One is to pay nothing other than the money for a box and a dish,
and you use Freesat, which will give you a few high definition channels.
Or you pay Sky and you get a lot of channels, like movies and sports,
but you pay quite a lot of money for the privilege.
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.
This year, Rip-Off Britain has teamed up with the BBC campaign First Click.
Now, its aim is to give the 9,500,000 people who've
never used the internet before some online skills.
Now, the internet really can be an amazing resource for canny consumers,
allowing you to research your rights and comprehensively compare prices.
# Sha-la-la, la-la, la-la-la
# Sha-la-la, la-la, la-la-la... #
We've come to Bolton, where we've lined up experts on surfing the web, where to find the best energy
and travel deals online, as well as a team of computer mentors.
They all have one aim, to get the people of Bolton online.
And making the most of all that the internet has to offer.
# ..Sha-la-la, la-la, la-la-la... #
What are the fears about actually using the machine?
The fear of breaking the computer.
They just don't want to press any key. They think, "Oh, I've broke it."
As soon as the page disappears, "Oh, I've broke it." They haven't,
so we're going over the fear culture.
You've never been on one?
Oh, that is amazing. What do you think of it so far?
Well, it's taken 10 minutes to warm up!
I've got a lot of friends that are on the internet and I did buy a laptop, but it's not actually sunk in yet.
We're the experts. You're the experts?
No! These three are experts.
So what are you? I'm from Age Concern Bolton.
We start off by saying, "This is the mouse." Yes, I know.
Yes, but that's where we start from.
Oh, right. And this is a keyboard. Oh.
I haven't got any worries, it's just that I don't know how to do it!
Just keep trying, just keep clicking.
# ..Sha-la-la, la-la, la-la-la
# Sha-la-la, la-la, la-la-la... #
This is Gareth. APPLAUSE
And downstairs, there's a practical demonstration with Gareth Kloet,
from the website Confused.com,
one of the many price comparison sites aimed at helping consumers make more informed decisions.
When you come to the website, the most important thing is - it's free to use,
you can't break the website with anything that you do.
And, what we'll do is we'll take you through a series of questions
such that you can then establish what choices you have available.
Then you make the choice that's right for you.
Today, he's telling the people of Bolton how they can get a better deal on their energy bills.
We encourage everyone to get an online tariff.
It's not for everyone,
because some people don't want to get their bills electronically,
but that's where you make the larger savings.
And there's also time for some one-on-one advice.
Jim wants to find out if he can save money by switching his gas and electricity to a different company.
There's all different products. If we click on Utilities, Compare Gas and Electricity...
Right. Do I need an awful lot of information to feed in?
No, you don't, cos I'm going to show you this...
You're asked for your postcode. Right...
Do you want to compare gas? Tick yes. Your current supplier.
And you can see how much you could potentially save by switching.
And there's no other way you can get that sort of comparison, is there?
No. I mean, the advantage is that because of, you know...
Comparison sites make it so easy, because you don't have to
go to each individual provider and find out how much they'd charge you - you can see it all there.
I'm going to have to get more confident on the internet, that's all there is to it.
The consumer experts here think that using the internet to shop around
can result in substantial savings when it comes to household bills.
What they've got is... This is an online tariff.
If somebody knocked on your door, in order to try to get you to switch,
you wouldn't be able to find this tariff.
They wouldn't be able to offer it to you.
If someone DOES knock on your door offering that sort of thing -
which happened to my mother not very long ago...
She rather wisely, I think, told them to go away.
But should one accept someone on the doorstep like that?
You CAN make savings by switching on the doorstep, but we would certainly
not recommend it, purely because you're not performing a comparison of all the tariffs in the market,
and it's significantly better to use a price comparison website
and see all of the choices that are available to you.
A busy day in Bolton.
But one that will, hopefully, lead to some savings, and to
more people using the internet to help them become cannier consumers.
If you want to know more about how First Click could help you,
you can call this number.
Calls from most landlines are free.
Now, when it comes to buying a new car, many of us decide
to take up the finance packages that are offered by the dealership.
Most offer very competitive rates, and in some instances, signing up
to one CAN mean that you get the car itself for a much better price.
But, as always, there's usually a lot of very small print and financial jargon to wade through.
And unsurprisingly - that can lead to problems.
When Dan Stringer saw this car on the forecourt
of a dealership in Stockport, he knew it was the one for him.
It's a good-size family car. Probably slightly too big really
for one family, but all the same it was a good car.
Ticked all the boxes in terms of space and performance, and all those sorts of things.
Ready to go forward with the deal and happy with the £10,000 price,
Dan asked the salesman about his finance options.
I asked him very clearly, "What's the APR on the finance?"
And he replied, "It's a flat rate 7%."
I assumed, when I was told the interest rate was a flat rate 7%,
that he meant it was a fixed rate 7% APR,
and therefore it wasn't a variable rate.
Well, I was really happy with that.
I paid a £2,000 deposit on a credit card, to secure the vehicle. And that was fine.
Dan drove back to the dealership the following day to finalise the deal.
And that's when he realised the implications of signing up to a flat rate finance deal.
Flat rate finance means that you pay interest on
the original amount borrowed, regardless of what's been paid back.
So, in the last year, Dan would be expected to pay
the same amount of interest as he would have done in the first year.
With APR, the interest rate is charged on the amount of outstanding debt.
So, in theory, payments go down over time.
For Dan, it meant he'd be paying almost three times MORE interest than he'd been expecting.
He felt the salesman had steered him in the wrong direction.
I said, "Hang on a minute, yesterday when we were talking about the APR, you said it was 7%."
And he immediately replied, "No, Mr Stringer, I said it was a flat rate 7% interest."
Which was meaningless to me.
Flat rate is a sneaky way to charge a lot more money from the borrower.
So if you take out a £5,000 loan, it's a 10% flat rate - that's £500,
and you carry on paying £500 a year until you've paid ALL the debt off.
So in reality - 10% flat rate, you're actually paying a lot more.
If a dealer quotes you a flat rate for a car loan, he's obliged also
to tell you the APR, which tells you the real cost of the loan.
I said, "Forget the whole thing, I don't want the car.
"Not interested."
To which point the salesman said, "OK, we'll refund your deposit tomorrow,"
and then he walked off.
But the next day, the salesman called Dan to say he WOULDN'T be
getting his deposit back, because he'd already signed the paperwork.
'I was really angry.'
Sure, I'd committed to buying the car - but I committed buying the car based on the finance being at 7% APR.
Several phone calls later to the garage, and their offer remained the same.
The dealership principle told Dan
he was free to look elsewhere for finance - but he had to buy the car
or face losing his £2,000 deposit.
I told him that I would take the complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service.
His reply to that was that I should go and write my letter.
About 15 minutes later he called me back, and said that they'd
managed to get me an APR of 15.8% rather than 20.5%.
And the bottom line was, I WAS happy with that -
because it meant that I could get the car I wanted, quickly...
Although his payments HAVE come down by about £30 a month, Dan still feels he was misled.
The APR at 15.8% was still
more than double what I was expecting to pay originally.
Money is something that I work hard for - you know, my wife works hard for -
and we don't have buckets of it just slushing about ready to spend frivolously on cars.
So I'm talking with Mr Paul Williams, who is representing the Retail Motor Industry Federation.
Now, you've had a opportunity, Mr Williams, of looking at some of our case studies.
Let me talk to you about one in particular, first of all.
We have a story of a consumer who bought a car - second-hand, three-month warranty -
20 minutes later, driving it home, the head gasket went.
The garage, even though it was under guarantee,
refused to honour that guarantee. How is that possible?
It shouldn't have happened.
It's very disappointing to hear that instance,
but the consumer needs to take all the action they possibly can against anything like that happening.
You say "take all the action" - what action CAN they take?
Well, as soon as the vehicle breaks down, they get in touch with the dealers. They did.
If that manager or salesman
won't answer, they ask for the sales manager. Did that.
If he won't help them - the owner, the proprietor.
Did that. In that case, they should then get the vehicle fixed,
because obviously at that site they're not going to be helped.
But as soon as they arrive home, they should then go to Trading Standards,
or they should contact us, the RMI, on rmif.co.uk,
and we will try and help them.
Or they should go to legal people. One thing they should not do is roll over.
You see, I've got figures in front of me here which say that
Consumer Direct has had 38,000 complaints.
38,000, in the first six months of this year, about your industry -
which suggests that, even though you're sitting here and being, as it were, the champion of the consumer,
it does appear that yours is a very badly regulated industry.
I can only be the champion of the industry, I can't manage the dealerships, Angela.
But what I would say to you is that's a disappointing number,
but there are nine million used car transactions take place every year.
Nine million.
Now, whether you want to do that as a percentage - I'm not clever enough.
But even it's only one...
Exactly so, it doesn't matter.
But it isn't just the complaint, you see, it's the way in which that complaint is handled that matters.
In other words, you come to me with a complaint and I say, "Go away."
That complaint is still registered.
If you come to me, and I say, "Angela, I'm terribly sorry that has happened, how can I help you?" -
that's a complaint also, but I've actually resolved your problem.
I would suggest to you that out of those complaints
an awful lot have been satisfied to the consumer's satisfaction.
Now, what we'd like to do is to go back and say,
"OK, you've had a complaint - was it handled properly?"
And then maybe look at the number that weren't handled properly, and I think it would be a lower number.
It's not doing your industry any favours at all, though, is it,
to have the kind of dealer who is bringing down your reputation for honesty?
Absolutely not.
The joke "Would you buy that from a used car dealer?" has been around so long,
it suggests that actually your industry does have an awful lot of ground to make up.
Yes, I think estate agents are catching us up now.
But, yes, I agree with you, it is a perception problem.
And it annoys me, actually. I get quite impassioned about it.
What more do you think you CAN do to, if you like, clean up your act as an industry?
Well, I think, people like me to come on programmes like this,
and tell the consumer that if they're badly treated,
to get in touch with organisations and to pursue these dealers who don't do
what the majority of our dealers do,
and take away this dreadful perception that we have.
Because it annoys me and frustrates me, because I know of the work that is going in
to the majority of our members in trying to give a good service to the consumer.
Let's talk now about financing.
Can you explain to me exactly what "flat rate" means?
Flat rate really is the figure that indicates how much you're going to pay,
per annum, for that particular vehicle.
The complexity comes where you've got flat rate and APR. Mm-hm.
Now, the APR is a truer figure -
it's the figure that you would use to compare rates. So, if you're buying a
a vehicle off me, and you have another gentleman
wishing to sell you the same product and you want to compare
which is the better deal, you would compare the APRs, not the flat rates.
In terms of the consumer, the first thing the consumer
has to do is to make sure they can afford that monthly payment.
If they can't afford that monthly payment it doesn't matter what the rate is.
Having decided they can pay it, they should then make sure the dealer gives them the two rates.
Now, that's important -
because if any dealer CAN'T give you the two rates, or doesn't give you the two rates,
they are, again, outside the bounds of legal jurisdiction.
When you say the two rates, they must give you the flat rate and the APR?
Absolutely right.
If they can't do that - or won't do that -
I'm saying to you don't do business with them.
Because either they don't know what they're doing,
or they DO know and they're trying to mislead you.
So, in a nutshell, what are the rights you have as a consumer when you are buying a second-hand car?
Well, you are entitled to buy - legally entitled to buy - a car, or a product - in this case a car -
that is fit for the purpose, ie. you can sit in it and drive it, and it is of merchantable quality.
Now, if either of those provisions are not...
And is protected by the Sale of Goods Act.
Those are the clauses within the Sales of Goods Act.
Now, if that product falls behind any of those two, you have the right to take it back to the retailer.
Now, the retailer also has rights here.
He's entitled to say, "Terribly sorry, I will fix that for you."
He has that right. Which I think is reasonable.
If he can't fix it for you, you then say, "OK, I'd like my money back, or I'd like another
"vehicle of exactly the same specification."
And he must do either of those.
Now, if he doesn't - that's when you start to engage with the RMIF, with Trading Standards.
In terms of finance,
make sure the people give you the two rates -
if they don't, walk away.
Make sure you read what the finance agreement is -
if you're not happy with it when you get home,
you have 14 days to go somewhere else to find finance for that.
In terms of the warranty, exactly the same -
have a look at it, see what it excludes.
And make sure it actually is beneficial to you, bearing in mind
used cars are covered by the Sales of Goods Act anyway.
So don't roll over, and question everything?
As you would with any other purchase.
And if you DO get badly treated, contact the RMIF or Trading Standards.
Thank you very much indeed.
My pleasure.
Now, the stories that you've shared with us today show that as consumers
we have certain rights, but we don't always know what they are.
And that can leave us feeling ripped off.
Too true. And when it comes to borrowing money, it's vital
that we scrutinise all the terms and conditions really thoroughly.
Ask any questions whatsoever you have upfront, or, I have to warn you, you pay the price later.
You really do. That's really good advice.
And that is where we leave it for today.
But I do hope you'll join us again when we'll be investigating
even more of your stories, right here on another round of Rip-Off Britain.
Until then, from all of us, bye-bye. We'll see you soon. Bye.
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk