Rip Off Britain - Season 17 Episode 38 I won in court but Im still out of pock
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00:00Today, mobile calls that drop out, patchy signal, and a service that's driving you mad.
00:07My network provider says that there's a good signal on both routes, but in my experience
00:12that's not true.
00:14Plus the smart meter rollout that's caused misery for millions.
00:18Could new rules from the regulator mean you are now owed a payout?
00:21I was getting desperate.
00:22I was thinking to myself, well, when the meters do get fitted, I'm going to be hit with a
00:27massive big catch-up bill.
00:29Fighting for your rights, this is Rip Off Britain.
00:36Hello, now we're so pleased you've been able to join us and welcome to Rip Off Britain HQ
00:44here in Salford.
00:46This is where we're primed and ready to tackle your consumer concerns.
00:50Coming up, county court judgements, they're meant to make people pay up.
00:54So why do some of you say they're not worth the paper they're written on?
00:58I was expecting a CCJ to be helpful.
01:02Justice hasn't been served.
01:03And there's no repercussions for them.
01:05And a mystery of the missing make-up.
01:09After her order was delivered empty, one woman's been left out of pocket and in need of our
01:13help.
01:14Can our experts piece together what's happened in the advice clinic?
01:18But first, for that all-too-familiar moment.
01:21You're in the middle of a conversation on your phone when your mobile signal suddenly drops
01:25out and you find yourself basically talking to yourself.
01:28And it's one thing if it's just the end of an anecdote that gets cut off, but another
01:32matter entirely if it's an emergency and you need help.
01:36These days we rely on our phones so much, even a short signal outage can feel like losing
01:42a lifeline.
01:43Which is why knowing what kind of coverage you're likely to get from your mobile provider
01:48is really, really important before you actually sign up with them.
01:52But as we're about to find out, what the networks tell their customers and what's actually going
01:57on in the real world can be two very, very different things.
02:05So living in a rural community is fantastic because we've got all these wide open spaces
02:11and lots of places to go.
02:13Vivian Day lives in a village called Enford in the heart of the Wiltshire countryside.
02:19However, there's a downside to that, which means that we don't have a shop close enough to walk
02:26to or any other amenities. So I spend quite a lot of time traveling mostly on the A roads.
02:35Even though the area is rural, Vivian's mobile phone company Vodafone says it has really good
02:41network coverage, even on the A roads out of the village. And when she's at home, Vivian agrees.
02:49So the signal at home's pretty good because we've got a mast not far away. It's when I'm out and about
02:55that I get worried because I know that there are patchy areas that I have to drive to to get to
03:02my normal day-to-day destinations.
03:07Vivian's social commitments mean she's often traveling alone late in the evening and being
03:12able to call family and friends en route is a must. So we asked her to give us a tour,
03:18not of the local hotspots, but of the not spots. So here we are at the junction of 342 to Devizes and
03:27the 345 to Pusey. My network provider says that there's a good signal on both routes. But in my
03:35experience that's not true. Now that's interesting. When I was in the car I didn't have any signal at all.
03:43But now I've got a little bit of a tiny bit of signal. It's so intermittent.
03:47And I travel this road pretty much three times a week and that's worrying.
03:55So I've spoken to some friends of mine about their experiences with network providers and
04:00from what they feed back, they have just as many problems as I do, just in different places. So it
04:07makes me really think it's pointless trying to change to another provider.
04:13Because Vivian loses signal so often, it's even more important that she calls home before leaving
04:19her weekly bridge club so her husband knows when to expect her.
04:22I'll see you on Thursday. Hi, Ellen. I'm on my way. I should be home in about 20 minutes.
04:31Receiving a call on the road can be hit and miss. I was just driving along the A342 just then.
04:37My husband called me, managed to just about say hello and then the signal dropped out and that was that.
04:43If I've got a puncture or if I break down, what am I going to do in the middle of winter at nine
04:48o'clock at night? Vivian says real world reception simply doesn't seem to match the network's own
04:55coverage map. All of which begs one major question. Why, when I'm out on the road, are there so many
05:03places that I don't feel safe because there's no signal? It's 2025. We're not in the back of beyond.
05:11Neither is Kefili in South Wales. Yet, according to Mark Williams, an executive director at the
05:17County Borough Council, reliable mobile coverage also proved elusive for his staff. And that's a
05:24lot of people with a dodgy signal. A few years ago, we had in excess of 4,000 handsets out there
05:30in terms of our workforce. Workforce telling us that the coverage wasn't great in certain areas.
05:37So our existing provider, say national data suggests that the coverage is okay.
05:42Just like Vivian, the council was stumped. The simplest solution would be to switch to another
05:49network. But past experience made them wary of the network's own coverage maps.
05:54So we needed something to actually map scientifically where our coverage was poor. Having the data enables
06:01us to do a couple of things. We can challenge the mobile provider to improve coverage. If that isn't
06:06possible, then we can tailor our mobile provision in certain workforces working in those areas to
06:14perhaps be with another provider. So it turned to a firm called Street Wave. It's one of a number of
06:22companies using real-world data to generate what they say are more accurate coverage maps.
06:28Street Wave does it with the help of, guess what, bin lorries. Company co-founder George Gibson is
06:37back in Coffili to update the data. So this is Street Wave's portable data collection unit. So we
06:42have four phones here. So we have an EE, O2, Vodafone and 3 phone. And these will collect data so we have
06:49a fair test and can assess the mobile network coverage across the council. Bin lorries are one way to get the
06:55job done because they travel along virtually every road in the area and the testing kit goes with
07:00them. Coverage maps published by mobile phone networks are compiled in a completely different
07:07way using mathematical predictions based on information like where phone masks are located.
07:13The operators work it out by saying we've got a mast here, your town, your village should be covered
07:18and it's a prediction, right? So there's so many factors that can influence mobile signal. Buildings can
07:23get in the way, weather can affect signal, the number of people in an area can affect
07:27signal and only by actually measuring it on the ground can we get a true picture of what it is
07:33like for people, you know, outside their homes. The data Street Wave collected allowed Coffili
07:40Council to switch all its 4,000 mobile phones to a network with better coverage. So by recovering
07:47thousands of hours of lost productivity, the council estimates that over five years it could save
07:52around £1.6 million. More than 100 councils around the UK have now followed Coffili's lead
08:00and around 70 have posted Street Wave's data on their websites for the public to access for free.
08:08Back in Wiltshire, we've asked George to map the main routes Vivian takes in her village.
08:14She's matching up its results against what Vodafone's own map promises.
08:18So this is the website of my network provider showing the signal strength and quality on routes that I
08:26travel regularly from home to Devizes and home to Pusey and it shows pretty much a great signal in both directions.
08:36The green areas on Vodafone's map means a good signal both indoors and outdoors and the orange means good
08:43signal outdoors only. So what I'm looking at now is the independently mapped signal strength
08:51and on the A342 towards Devizes it pretty much corresponds to my experience which isn't what my
08:59network provider shows. Street Waves green and yellow spots indicate a good signal outdoors but
09:06orange means the signal is poor and red signifies what it calls complete network failure meaning calls
09:13won't connect at all. On the route to Pusey the quality of the signal there is appalling and yet my
09:21network providers map shows a good signal. So if this information is accurate this is the sort of
09:27information that I would want to have when I choose which network operator to have a mobile phone through.
09:37That's a sentiment shared by many. In fact a recent survey by consumer group which found that 35 percent
09:44of mobile phone users had experienced problems with their mobile signal and network connection.
09:51And in summer 2025 recognizing that many of us could be missing out on better network coverage
09:57telecom's regulator Ofcom launched its own coverage checker called Map Your Mobile. It shows predicted
10:04signal strength using information from mobile providers and real world measurements from a
10:10million people in urban and rural areas across the UK. So joining me now in HQ to find out what all
10:18this means for your mobile phone contract is consumer rights expert Alex Neil along with George Gibson from StreetWave.
10:25George, Ofcom have introduced their own service now so how does that differ from the mobile network
10:34and StreetWave's maps? Yeah so there's basically two parts to their new Map Your Mobile service. They
10:39have the existing map but they have added this new element which is the crowdsource element which gives
10:45you sort of a percentage of good connections in the postcode district that you live in. So the advantage
10:51of this is this is real world data but there are drawbacks some of these postcode districts are
10:56very large some are as big as Greater London and they do bias towards readings that are collected in urban areas
11:03as well. Well let's have a look at a comparison here of Ofcom's map of the roads around Vivian's house which is
11:11on the right and your map which is nearer to me. I mean what is this showing us? According to Ofcom's models
11:18we're seeing good outdoor at a minimum across both of the roads that she mentioned there. So you would infer
11:24here that she could do a call across all of these roads. These are these are the purpley ones? Yeah purple,
11:30dark green, these are all showing good outdoor at a minimum. With the StreetWave maps what we're
11:35seeing with the dark green here is areas where she will be able to do the call and send a text
11:40but some of these red and orange areas are showing areas where actually she would struggle. George,
11:45it's fair to point out surely that it's in your financial interest to point out the flaws in the
11:50mobile phone networks maps in favour of yours isn't it? Yeah well StreetWave's mission is just to show
11:55the truth of what's being experienced on the ground by people and that cuts both ways of course.
12:00So there are successes that our data finds. So if you take the London Underground for example,
12:05a few years ago people were spending two hours on their commute with no signal at all. Some of the
12:10improvements recently we've been measuring and some lines have up to 80% coverage. So if you think of
12:15the tens of millions of hours that are being added in productive time to the economy, the safety that
12:20comes from that or the entertainment options, these are big successes. Well Alex from a consumer's point
12:26of view what do you make of all this? Well I mean our mobiles are just so central to our lives so you'd
12:31really imagine that this would be a lot more straightforward than it is but as George has
12:35really pointed out there is a big variability between all the different maps. That can be a real
12:40problem if you're in a contract and you can't get out of it. If somebody is struggling with their mobile
12:45coverage and they're stuck in a contract what can they do? Yeah I mean if you're lucky and you find out
12:51you've got a problem within the first 14 days of you taking that contract and you took that contract
12:57out either online or by the phone you can get out penalty free. Otherwise you are going to be left
13:03making a complaint and trying to resolve it with them. So I guess this is where I'd say you know a
13:08little bit of homework before you take out a contract really will pay dividends. So really looking at some
13:13of these coverage maps but also blending that with talking to friends, family or people that you know
13:18that live in the areas that you're regularly traveling in to see what their experience has
13:22been or even using a sim only deal or a rolling contract just to make sure especially if you're
13:29traveling in lots of different areas and you really want to pick the right contract
13:33and you don't want to get stuck. But it's an expensive proposition either way isn't it?
13:38It is but mobile contracts tend to be so anything that you can do to sort of limit that time frame
13:43at the start while you're picking your right network is probably better in the long term.
13:47George, Alex thanks both very much. Thank you.
13:53When we spoke to Vodafone about Vivian's case it told us that coverage maps are its best
13:58prediction of outdoor signal adding that Ofcom independently drive test networks
14:03and has found operators predictions to be reasonable. Vodafone also pointed out that since
14:10its merger with three customers of both firms will automatically use each other's network
14:15at no extra cost. Mobile UK which represents all the mobile phone providers told us its members are
14:23investing billions of pounds to improve mobile coverage across the UK and deploying at pace new
14:30technologies which are enhancing mobile connectivity for millions. Mobile UK added that all operators provide
14:38off com with rigorous data about their network coverage and that predictive modeling accounts for real
14:44world variables like terrain or network congestion while street waves physical measurements provide
14:52a snapshot at one point in time are biased towards residential streets and can be subject to interference
14:58caused by the heavy metal structure of bin lorries. Meanwhile Ofcom told us its map your mobile service was introduced
15:06to better reflect the mobile coverage people can expect in their area and that it empowers people to assess
15:12and compare coverage. We've put a link to Ofcom's map your mobile service as well as street waves
15:20maps and the coverage checkers of all four network providers on our website bbc.co.uk slash ripoffbritain
15:28now time for our advice clinic where consumer rights expert martin james is here to help viewer
15:40laura matthews in london who's come unstuck after treating herself to a mystery makeup box hello both
15:48thanks so much for joining us um laura first of all clear up the mystery for me what is a mystery makeup box
15:53so um it's from charlotte tilbury they were running a promotion to buy four products in a mystery box
16:00so he wasn't sure what you were going to get so um i decided to purchase one for me and my mum as we're
16:06big fans of the um as the makeup just tell me how much money are we talking about here just under 50
16:11pounds each so 100 pounds in total laura paid for the mystery boxes using buy now pay later service
16:18clana but when they arrived she and her mum didn't like the makeup inside so she decided to return
16:25them i understand that's where things started going a bit wrong did they yeah i thought i'd send them
16:32back and get a refund i purchased them through clana taking free payments um in three months the first
16:39payment went through and that's when i asked them to put it on hold um because i'd return the items
16:44and then charlotte tilbury said when they received the boxes that there's nothing inside
16:48okay so they've claimed the boxes are empty clana is beginning to take payments and then what happened
16:55so um i asked them to put it on hold um again i then got told to contact in post which was the
17:02courier that i sent the products back with um i basically got passed around between charlotte tilbury
17:09clana and in post for about two months um because none of the parties do except fall okay that must
17:14have been well confusing and really frustrating it was a lot of stress a lot of emails a lot of phone
17:20calls slowly but surely all the parties kind of shut me down and um stopped replying that went on for
17:27two months and in that time to her surprise laura even got letters from debt collectors demanding she
17:34repay the money so she then turned to her bank and it thankfully refunded the 100 pounds
17:41how did you feel given that you'd really try to contact everybody and talk about it it just sent me
17:46into a panic i'm just at a wits end really as to what to do next well thankfully martin's here um
17:52where does she go from here martin what do you make of it all oh laura you've been so unlucky here so
17:57let's just tackle that empty box first and foremost break it down it's not fair for the company to be
18:03uh blaming laura for that they should be taking this up with the courier next up we've got credit
18:07firms like clana what they tend to do is to say you have to sort this out with the retailer it's
18:12not our problem but that's not fair either they should basically hold fire whilst the matter is
18:18being investigated and one of the other problems as well with this type of credit this is buy now pay
18:23later credit this particular type isn't currently currently regulated now the good news is later in
18:292026 in july this will be fully regulated and that means if anyone else finds themselves in a
18:36similar situation to laura they will have the free financial ombudsman that they can go to
18:42but for laura it's the debt collection letters that are more of a worry i am wary that um the debt
18:49collection agency are mentioning sort of putting ccj's on my account or me like not getting credit
18:54anymore so um i am very stressed at the moment what can you do about that if if things like
18:59this start affecting your credit rating well louise there are three main credit reference agencies in
19:04the uk there's um equifax experian and transunion uh you can go onto each of these websites and request
19:11your statutory that's your legal credit file for free they will try suit your credit report anything
19:17that's on there that's unfair that you can object to it and they can put a notice onto the file which
19:23means that while the matter is looked into and you will still get credit applications going through
19:28well when you came to us laura we did actually get on the case of course in post the delivery
19:33company told us that when the problem was raised too much time had passed to check its cctv records
19:39and in post considered the issue closed when it was told you'd raised a case with clarna
19:45meanwhile clarna told us it had looked into the case in detail and i'm pleased to say
19:49it has now written off the outstanding balance on your order and it's made improvements to its
19:55systems to ensure it doesn't happen again we also spoke to charlotte tilbury which maintained that
20:00the package arrived at its warehouse empty which is why it didn't automatically process a refund
20:07however it has now refunded laura and sent a selection of products as a gesture of goodwill i hope
20:14that's a bit of good news for you yes it's it's like a long time coming for them but i appreciate
20:21all your help to get this resolved thank you very much for bringing us the story um and martin thank
20:25you for delving deep into that as well thanks both thank you and after filming laura told us that
20:34thankfully her credit score wasn't affected by this issue
20:44now if like laura you feel as if you've had a really rough ride from a company that you've been
20:48dealing with or we just like some advice and where to go next then do drop us a line because
20:53we have a team of wonderful experts in almost every subject just waiting to help you you can email us the
20:59address is ripoffbritain at bbc.co.uk you could send us a message via whatsapp on 033 0678 1321 or
21:08via facebook just search for bbc ripoff britain or simply put pen to paper the address is ripoff britain
21:15bbc media city uk salford m52 lh but please don't send any original paperwork as we won't be able to return
21:23it next now dealing with tradesmen can be a tricky path to tread no shows shoddy work rise over money
21:32we hear those stories all the time in the program and should a dispute turns sour you can always take
21:38it to the small claims court it is relatively quick cheap and if the judge rules in your favor you get
21:44a county court judgment in theory that means the other party has to pay up but here's the catch
21:52getting a judgment is one thing getting your money that's a whole other fight and for some people
21:57it's left them wondering if the judgment is even worth the paper it's printed on
22:04you can leave all the stress behind that you have it's like being free you don't think about
22:09anything else eva reichhardt from boksha has been riding horses for over 30 years
22:15it's definitely a lifestyle it's a commitment and it brings a lot of joy come on let's go
22:22but it's horsepower of a very different kind that's also absolutely vital so this is my beloved
22:28horse box kermit and i've had it for about five years now there's a lot of things involved in
22:34keeping a horse but transport is key in march 2023 kermit the horse box broke down everything just
22:43stopped automatically there was no power and the engine had completely failed you could tell that
22:49there was instantly a big problem but i haven't got the means to just replace it so it was it was
22:54devastating after being towed home eva looked at getting her horse box back on the road and she
23:00found a company in essex called fix my motor the initial quote was around four thousand pounds
23:07including the full engine replacement which is a reconditioned engine rather than a brand new one
23:13and also the towing from here up to essex
23:17a month later the van was fixed but after just four months the reconditioned engine failed
23:25so eva asked fix my motor to repair it under the 12-month warranty that had come with it
23:31when i contacted them they straight away started saying it's not the engine and it's the auxiliary
23:37parts around the engine which are not covered by the warranty but eva persisted even getting an
23:44independent garage to check the vehicle it concluded that the fault was with the engine and fix my motor
23:50agreed to inspect the van but neither side could reach an agreement on who would cover the hundreds
23:56of pounds it would cost to transport it to the garage when they're behaving like that it makes you feel
24:01like they're taking advantage of you like they're just trying to take your money and rip you off so at
24:07that point i was just getting really sick of it and fed up two months after the four thousand
24:14pounds replacement engine failed eva's patience had just run out she needed something that would
24:20make fix my motor sit up and take notice so she turned to the small claims court the process involved
24:27laying out the details of her claim and submitting it all to the court if the court find in her favor
24:34it would order the firm to pay up issuing a ccj also known as a county court judgment
24:41records of judgments are kept for six years unless you pay the full amount within a month
24:47essentially the defendant in this case fix my motor would have to either honor the warranty or pay me
24:54the money it was a long wait not knowing whether you're going to get the money back because it's a lot
24:59of money to be out of pocket for so it was quite an anxious wait almost a year later the court awarded
25:08eva judgment in default after fix my motor failed to respond to the claim in time and awarded her
25:14four thousand eight hundred pounds it felt amazing and it felt like it was coming to an end i thought i
25:22was going to get the money you know and i would be back on the road and that would be it but she heard
25:30nothing for months and months and months in fact when we filmed with eva it had been almost a year
25:39since the verdict and she hadn't seen a penny of the money that she was owed
25:43eva soon learned she's not the only person with a ccj against the firm there are three others who've
25:50all been waiting even longer so here you can see that there's unpaid amounts of 1200 1400 and another
25:57one for 1900 pounds which are all unsettled at this stage when i saw that it made me feel less hopeful
26:03that i was going to get my money but all was not lost there was one more route that eva could try
26:10she sent in the bailiffs but when they arrived at the address of the company
26:15there was nobody at the property so the high court essentially said that it's unlikely they'll be
26:21able to enforce it justice hasn't been served justice will only be served when i get my money
26:27back to be honest good lad that ccj will remain in place for six years after which time it will expire
26:36whether or not it's been paid in full and as things stand there's a very long list of unsatisfied ccjs
26:44as of july 2025 in england and wales some 4.8 million are either partially or completely unpaid
26:54among them smruti heremath from london she thought that taking out a ccj would be the end of an eight
27:01months struggle with a builder who had failed to complete work on her home the night i filed for
27:06the country court judgment was actually a huge relief because i've kind of taken a step to getting
27:12this right despite the court finding in smruti's favor by default because the builder didn't attend
27:19the hearing he didn't pay the 2200 pounds he owed before sending in the bailiffs smruti and her husband
27:26decided to check whether he was still using his registered address so we found out that he
27:32hasn't been there for over two and a half years and all the letters that we've been sending have
27:36been going there it felt like it was the end of the road and we wouldn't get our money back
27:41with the firm now facing a winding up order from company's house smruti's hopes of ever getting her
27:46money back are gone along with her faith in the system of ccjs a county court judgment i've now
27:53learned is just a piece of paper it can be sent to anybody and if they don't care they can operate
27:58as usual and that's it as for eva she paid just over 4 000 pounds to finally get the van repaired
28:09and to date she still owed 4 800 pounds by the company she has her ccj against i was expecting a ccj
28:18to be helpful to find justice and get some money back but the system's not working and there's no
28:25repercussions for them
28:31when we spoke to fix my motor it insisted that the faults with the van were not to do with the engine
28:37and fell outside its warranty the firm claims that transporting the van to a site for repairs
28:43would have required specialist transport and costs that it could not agree to pay without inspecting
28:48the van first and it said that it would have helped eva if she had paid for the transport
28:54and given the firm the opportunity to assess the fault as for the ccj fix my motor said that a flood
29:01rendered its workshop unusable which is why i did not receive the court documents or defend the claim
29:07however the firm said it does now intend to do so while neither eva or smooty are confident of
29:16getting their money back ccjs can be a useful tool to help people recover debts when other attempts have
29:23failed so joining me in hq to help navigate what can feel like a complicated business is solicitor gary
29:31ryecroft so gary can you explain though that if you've got a ccj and you're taking that out against
29:39a company compared to taking it out against an individual how does it all differ so in legal terms
29:46a company is a separate person it's a separate legal entity it's separate from the directors of the
29:53company and it's separate from the shareholders so in effect you are suing the company now that's
30:00fine if the company has assets but if the company doesn't have assets that's where you face problems
30:07and that's where the frustration comes because you've got a ccj against a company that actually
30:12isn't worth anything if someone as an individual owes you money when they're being paid by their
30:17employer you can go to court and ask for your debt to be taken out of their salary you can also secure a
30:25debt against their house or flat so there are options for pursuing a debt against an individual
30:30i just want to pick up one point because in eva's case the company argued that they didn't receive
30:35the paperwork for the ccj and hence they didn't turn up but is it that simple within the law that
30:42you can just say oh the paperwork didn't turn up well if the person doesn't turn up at court if the
30:48judge will make a default judgment and say well they haven't even bothered to turn up i'm going to
30:52find in favor of the person who is bringing the claim if they say later oh well we would have
30:58turned up but we didn't get the paperwork then the court may give you the benefit of the doubt
31:04you've got to prove two things to the court before they will give you the benefit of the doubt
31:08and one is that you didn't receive the paperwork in the first place but the second point is you've
31:13still got to prove to the court that even if you'd got the paperwork in time you would still
31:19have a valid defense to the case that's been put to you so you've got to overcome those two hurdles
31:27in order for the case to in effect go back to court and be heard again we see i look at those two girls
31:33all the work was done by them and yet at the end of it all they didn't get any of the money back
31:38what should they have done you should do your research about the person or the company that you're
31:43going to enter into business with and hand over money to if it's a company you can do a search
31:49against company's house and see if there are already any existing debts registered against the company
31:55and if you are doing business with a company then it's fair enough to actually ask the company well
32:02will one of the directors actually personally guarantee this for me because then if the company doesn't
32:09have the assets you can go against the individual you can check if a company or individual has ccjs or
32:17certain other court judgments against them by searching trust online.org.uk so here's another
32:25question for you is there any way you can escalate to well after you've got a ccj if if the person
32:31doesn't fold immediately and pay over the debt you can call in the bailiffs they're called enforcement
32:37officers nowadays you can go for an attachment of earnings order if the person is earning money
32:42and getting a salary you can go for a charge against their house if they own a a house or flat
32:48or some other property and eventually you could go for a winding up petition and make them bankrupt in
32:55extreme cases but all of those enforcement options as we call them depend upon the person who owes you
33:02the money actually having some kind of assets actually quite a lot of choices there thank you
33:06very much indeed for all that advice thanks gary thank you when we spoke to the ministry of justice
33:13it told us civil courts offer a range of enforcement methods designed to make it as difficult as possible
33:19for debtors to avoid their responsibilities and it added that if a company doesn't pay its name and
33:26details will be recorded on the publicly searchable register and shared with credit reference agencies
33:33which could affect its ability to gain credit
33:44smart meters were meant to revolutionize our energy bills the promise that we'd finally be in control
33:50seeing what we're using when we're using it and most importantly how we could spend less but the
33:56rollout has been fraught with delayed installations connectivity problems and poor customer service
34:02now the energy regulator of gem is cracking down new rules mean suppliers must fix these issues or pay up
34:10we'll hear exactly what those rules are in a moment first though a reminder of the chaos that has driven some
34:16smart meter users around the bend like many of us gary goldsmith from bedfordshire is keen to keep
34:25his energy bills down and that's why back in 2022 he switched suppliers after hearing about a dual fuel deal
34:33costing 119 pounds a month i thought was within my budget which would be ideal great i thought so i decided to
34:42to sign up and take the deal a smart meter would be an important tool to help monitor his usage
34:48and keep costs down but gary's new supplier told him that in order to qualify for the tariff he'd need
34:55to have his old supplier's smart meter replaced with a new one they sent me a letter out with a welcome pack
35:02saying that my smart meters were going to be fitted in within the next three weeks after signing up
35:07but around 16 weeks later there was no sign of the new meter when i did finally get through to somebody
35:15they said haven't got anybody in your area to fit your meters and we're very very busy at the time
35:19of course just went on and on still waiting waiting and waiting gary couldn't even turn to his old smart
35:27meter setup to work out his bills as the readings were now blank so he didn't know how big his bills were
35:33going to be that left him worried he wouldn't be able to afford to pay i'm sort of trying to not
35:40use as much electric as i can until i know what i'm going to be billed for after filming i'm pleased
35:47to say gary did finally get his smart meter but his is just one of a host of stories about smart meters
35:54we've covered over the years from inaccurate readings to meters that mysteriously stop working
36:00and even ones that can't get a smart connection in the first place in 2024 we grilled a government
36:07minister about it after it emerged more than 4.3 million uk smart meters were faulty this is a far
36:15cry from the idea that a smart meter was going to take away all your troubles and everything would
36:20be fine it's not is it it is in the vast majority of cases but there are still unacceptable amounts of
36:27people that are not getting the services that they require and we need to address that well regulator
36:31offgem says it is addressing it and within the first quarter of 2026 introducing a series of new
36:39standards energy companies must abide by and we're joined now in hq by its deputy director melissa giordano
36:48along with personal finance expert sarah panels melissa giordano i know there are new standards coming
36:57in what are they and how will they make a difference to people so we're putting in place four new
37:02standards which means that consumers shouldn't have to wait more than six weeks to get an appointment
37:07booked to get a smart meter installed if the installer turns up but the smart meter installation can't be
37:14completed and that's within the supplier's control there is another standard that means the customer
37:20would get compensation in that circumstance the third standard is around faster fixes and making
37:27sure there's a remediation plan for the smart meter sent to the customer within five working days of the
37:32report that the meter isn't working and the fourth one is a really important one which is that if this
37:37drags out for the consumer and they're really unlucky and they're not getting anywhere with getting their
37:42meter fixed at 90 days they get and further compensation payment for having had to wait so
37:48long to hear back from their supplier so it's meant to be automatic compensation is it so how will that
37:53kick in so the suppliers have to monitor the system all the time and also have to keep on top of consumer
37:59problems and reports and so once the supplier has passed that point in time and they know that they
38:05have breached a particular standard they have to pay that money straight out to the consumer it can be sent
38:11as cash to their bank account or it can be added as bill credit to their next bill so they get a
38:16discount i don't want to be skeptical but how do we know that will happen we'll be monitoring that
38:22really carefully as the energy regulator and we do act against suppliers where they fail to pay out
38:29compensation on time they have to pay compensation within 10 working days and how is compensation
38:36calculated it's a flat rate of 40 pounds it's per fuel so if a customer is unlucky enough to have
38:43problems with both their gas and their electricity smart meter they could be eligible to receive
38:49payments of 80 pounds so you've listened to the new standards that are coming in what do you make of
38:55them well i think it is welcome but i do think the bigger issue is the number of meters that are currently
39:00not very smart so government figures from march 2025 show that there's about 3.4 million
39:08smart meters that are currently not sending that regular data and where the customer's
39:13having to do the meter reading and tell the energy company but actually i think for people who've got
39:18a smart meter that is not working what they want to know is when is it going to work and how do i have
39:25some sort of guarantee that it will get sorted quickly well here's the person to ask melissa
39:30absolutely and that's what our new standards are going to do they hold the suppliers better to
39:34account and they give the suppliers a direct financial incentive to get on the case and fix problems
39:40quickly sarah what advice would you give to people whose smart meter is not working well first of all
39:45contact your energy supplier and explain the issue to them now if your smart meter isn't working you
39:50should probably still be able to read the meter it just won't be sending that data to the energy
39:55company so make sure you do that so you understand how much energy you're using and there won't be a
40:00sort of surprise bill now the energy company then has eight weeks once you've raised a complaint to
40:06look into it and if they don't resolve it to your satisfaction then you can complain free of charge
40:11to the energy ombudsman and if they think that the energy company hasn't behaved in the way they
40:15they should they can ask that they or insist in fact they pay compensation okay thank you very much
40:21indeed both of you for your time thank you thank you and it's not just of gem that's going to be
40:28keeping an eye on how well energy companies abide by those new standards we will as well so if your
40:34supplier still lets you down do drop us a line ripoff britain at bbc.co.uk
40:45now we've got gary and alex back with us on the sofa to answer more of your questions from the
40:53ripoff britain inbox and starting with you gary here it is susan wyelman bought a car from a trader
40:59only to have it repossessed by the police because it was a stolen vehicle can she recover her six
41:05thousand five hundred pounds well julia the good news is that susan dealt with a trader that means she
41:12was a consumer the trade is a business so the consumer rights act applies for sure and the
41:18consumer rights act says that you can only sell something that you have title to um so there's a
41:24breach of the consumer rights act she 100 should be entitled to get her money back from the trader now if
41:32for whatever reason the trader does not cooperate she needs to put together a package of evidence to
41:37the trader if she still doesn't get satisfaction and this is a matter to be reported to trading
41:43standards because it is a clear breach of the consumer rights act to sell a car that's been
41:48stolen so yes susan you you should in law get your money back and i really hope that you do now alex
41:55somebody with the lovely name of beverly willows wrote in about a fault with her in-laws caravan
42:00which is causing the windows to crack sounds very unusual she says she knows of similar happenings
42:05to the same caravan company goods and believes that it's a manufacturing fault but the company
42:11aren't taking any responsibility what rights does she have well the good news is they do have rights
42:17and as gary mentioned there's the consumer rights act here again that's cropping up that they'd need
42:22to use so they would need to go back to the person who originally sold them the caravan and actually
42:27get them to sort the problem out now if they bought the caravan um less than six months ago the
42:33presumption in law is actually that the fault was there from the start and therefore she has a
42:39right for that to be repaired at no cost to herself if it's been longer than six months it's up to you
42:44to demonstrate that it was there from the start so you could do that by finding other people with a
42:49similar problem and getting an independent report as well and if they're still not playing ball you can
42:55look at whether they're part of an ombudsman scheme and so whether that's the motor ombudsman for
42:59example or if you paid on finance you could also look to go to the financial ombudsman as well
43:04but very frustrating really thank you both very much on which note i'm afraid that's almost all
43:09from us today if you've missed any of the advice we've packed in whether that's mobile phones smart
43:14meters or even makeup you're not happy with then catch up on today's program and many more on bbc
43:20iplayer we'll be back tomorrow with loads more consumer advice but for now from all of us on the rip
43:25both britain team time to say goodbye
43:39so
43:55you
43:57you
43:57you
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