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00:00Today, how a firm providing equipment to children with special educational needs has left down
00:06dozens of families, seven years after we first find it doing exactly the same thing. How is
00:12this still allowed to operate? I then received an email which had a big overdue red stamp on it.
00:18I knew I was in the right, but I just felt, yeah, I felt so horrified. Plus, the used car
00:24dealers who
00:25left one woman with a smashed up written off wreck and more than a thousand pounds out of pocket.
00:30Taking on the traders making your lives a misery. This is Ripoff Britain rogues.
00:43Hello from Ripoff Britain HQ and welcome to our first ever program dedicated to the fight against
00:50the rogue operations that blight your lives. Now in our sight today, our firms hell-bent on making
00:56money out of your misfortune, including the airport meet and greet firm that took one woman's car to
01:02the shops, got a parking ticket in the process, all the while she was sitting on the beach in Greece.
01:08We came back from a wonderful holiday, picked the car up, drove home and then about three days later
01:14we got a parking ticket. Plus, how a family of restauranteurs took on a rogue who'd been telling
01:21them they could get half-priced business rates, but who was in fact charging them thousands of pounds
01:26in fees. It went all the way to court and we've got an exciting update on how that went.
01:32But first to accompany, I'm sorry to say, we first featured seven years ago and hope to never ever hear
01:38about it again. Then they were letting down customers who'd paid them good money for specialized
01:44equipment for their loved ones in order to help them with their special needs. Now instead,
01:49many got nothing in return and when they complained, got short shrift. Well, surely you'd think any
01:56company doing that would soon be shut down by the relevant authorities, but not this one, as we've
02:01been finding out it's been busy gaslighting, intimidating and failing even more customers.
02:10Elizabeth MacDonald from East Luthien treasures precious moments with her daughter.
02:15Make a monster. Make a monster? My daughter's three and she's just at that age where she's enjoying
02:22make-believe play. Oh, is that his legs? Keen to cultivate her daughter's imagination, Elizabeth decided
02:29to look for the perfect Christmas present, a doll's house. And she had a specific make and model in mind.
02:36So I carried out some searches online and Sensory Education were one of the companies that came up.
02:42They were selling it for a slightly cheaper price to other competitors, so I decided to go with them.
02:49Sensory Education is an online retailer selling toys and educational resources. Its colorful website
02:56boasts charities, schools and even the NHS amongst its customers. I placed the order with Sensory Education
03:04the 12th of December for the doll's house and I had chosen a couple of smaller other toys as well.
03:09Elizabeth paid just over £200 for the presents and the order confirmation showed an estimated delivery
03:16of the 14th to the 15th of December, well before Christmas. However, by the 16th of December,
03:23the order still hadn't even been dispatched. With Christmas fast approaching, Elizabeth called
03:29and emailed the company and was reassured by its reply, which promised that all standard orders would
03:35be dispatched in plenty of time for the big day. But when Elizabeth checked out some online reviews,
03:41she found claims that Sensory Education's promises weren't always kept. People were saying they hadn't
03:48received orders, that they'd placed weeks before, so I started to get quite concerned and I was aware that
03:54I couldn't just, you know, pop out to the shops and buy this from somewhere else. With no sign of
03:59delivery
04:00by the 19th of December, Elizabeth decided to order the doll's house from elsewhere and she emailed Sensory
04:06Education to cancel the original order. But three days later, Elizabeth got an email saying that the
04:14doll's house had been dispatched and two days after Christmas, it arrived on Elizabeth's doorstep.
04:21I declined to accept the delivery and I requested that they send that back to Sensory Education.
04:27I emailed Sensory Education, I think at this point, to tell them that I had done this.
04:31For the first time, Elizabeth received communication from the firm that was not automated.
04:39They said they would pay me a refund once they'd received the doll's house back minus any delivery
04:45costs for the return postage, which I was a bit shocked by because I had cancelled the order before
04:51it had been dispatched, so I shouldn't be liable for paying those costs. Elizabeth stood her ground,
04:57but so did Sensory Education. Even after the courier company had confirmed that the doll's house had
05:03arrived back with a retailer, it insisted that she pay for it. So Elizabeth turned to her bank,
05:09which used the chargeback system to refund the cost.
05:14I then received an email, which was a bit of a shock because it had an invoice attached to it
05:21and a big overdue red stamp on it saying that I was now owing them £230,
05:27which accounted for the doll's house plus a £25 unauthorised chargeback fee,
05:33which I was horrified about, to be honest. Not least because Elizabeth knew that her consumer
05:39rights meant she was entitled to a full refund. But when she told Sensory Education that,
05:45it threatened to instruct debt collectors. It said, this email constitutes final notice.
05:52Unless payment is received in full, we will proceed to issue county court proceedings without further
05:57correspondence and credit control action will follow accordingly. I just felt, yeah, I felt so
06:03horrified. I felt sick, to be honest. And the threats kept coming. On the 21st of January,
06:10I received another email from them that they were now going to charge me £5 a day for storing the
06:15doll's house. The bottom part of the email said, unless this matter is resolved beforehand,
06:19we will also proceed with formal recovery action on Friday. It's really scary. And I thought,
06:24I just can't, I can't cope with the stress of being taken to court.
06:35Elizabeth gave in. She sent the firm the £230 it demanded. The whole thing just started to wear
06:41me down. So I just got to the point where I felt I had no option other than to pay
06:45them the money.
06:48I know that I was in the right and I just feel like I've been harassed into paying the money,
06:53to be honest. So Sensory Education has both Elizabeth's money and the doll's house. But she's
07:03not the only person we've heard from who's been subject to what they feel are completely unfair
07:09bullying tactics. Nor is this the first time we've heard experiences like this. Back in 2019,
07:16we featured the case of another Sensory Education customer.
07:22Mum Kimberly from Berkshire told us she was unable to get any answers from the company
07:27when a bubble tube that she'd ordered for her son Jensen's third birthday never turned up.
07:32I filled out countless forms, online forms saying why I wanted a refund and nothing. Nothing was
07:39answered. I just couldn't believe why they'd be so ignorant and callous, just mean.
07:47At the time, Sensory Education accepted its service didn't meet its standards
07:52and blamed the manufacturer of the bubble tube for the problem Kimberly experienced.
07:57In 2023, Sensory Education was also on the radar BBC watchdog, where late deliveries and refund
08:05refusals were again the focus. Sensory Education said it was working on further improving its operations.
08:12But customers we've heard from would say those improvements haven't gone far enough.
08:18Joining me in HQ is the producer who's been leading our latest investigation into the firm,
08:24Sasha Silverstone, along with solicitor Gary Rycroft.
08:28So Gary, you've actually seen the invoices that Sensory Education sent to Elizabeth,
08:32the threats of additional charges, legal repercussions. I mean, it's a lot. So what's your assessment of that?
08:39I've got to say the paperwork trail is quite eyebrow raising. It dials up very quickly from sending out an
08:46invoice to very urgent letters to threats of storage fees and interest. Now, let's be absolutely clear about this.
08:55It's not lawful to do that. If you're going to impose additional charges on your customer,
09:01they have to be grounded in reality in terms of what the real cost is to the business. And there's
09:07no explanation
09:08here at all as to why there should be a £5 storage fee, which Elizabeth has a good defence to
09:14say,
09:14well, it's just simply not due. In Elizabeth's case where Sensory Education said, and I quote,
09:20returning goods outside of the statutory cancellation and returns framework does not in itself unwind a
09:27contract or extinguish a liability. So do you think Elizabeth did anything that was wrong?
09:33I don't think Elizabeth did anything wrong at all, because actually what Sensory Education have said
09:38there is legal nonsense. So to be absolutely clear, under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013,
09:45you have a general right to cancel a contract that you've created online and you can cancel it within
09:5314 days of the item being delivered. Or if it's not been delivered, you can cancel it obviously before
10:01that date. So Elizabeth, to be really clear, has done nothing wrong. All she's been doing is relying on
10:07her consumer rights.
10:09Producer Sasha's investigation involved speaking to more Sensory Education customers and uncovering
10:16an unorthodox approach to online reviews. So if you actually go on the Sensory Education website,
10:22you can see they've said that they're rated excellent based on over 20,000 reviews. So all looks very good.
10:28All four and five stars. Now, one thing that we did notice is those green stars, you might notice
10:34yourself, are very similar to another review page, which is very well known, Trustpilot. And actually,
10:40if you go on the Trustpilot page for Sensory Education, it's a very different picture, as you
10:44might see. So it's got a warning there. Maybe we should read this out. This company's rating is
10:49unavailable due to a breach of our guidelines. And Trustpilot told us that this warning was placed
10:56in April 2025 after Trustpilot found Sensory Education was abusing the system. So as you can see here,
11:03it said this company has been flagging reviews in a biased way. So another really interesting response
11:10we found is they have posted personal details of the reviewer, including a Google Maps link to their home
11:18address in response to a negative review that they had. Gary, you don't like that one, do you?
11:24I don't like that at all. That's very aggressive tactics from a business.
11:27Now, Trustpilot also told us that it had previously warned Sensory Education for
11:32threatening reviewers. So Trustpilot has said it has sent the company a legal cease and desist letter
11:38in relation to this. And Trustpilot also confirmed that they have previously talked to Sensory Education
11:44about showing what it called a false Trustpilot rating and says it's now escalating its enforcement
11:51action. It also said it has removed a number of replies from the business that breached its guidelines.
11:58Sasha's investigation also took in the financial history of Sensory Education Limited
12:04and searches on the official database of county court judgments find unsatisfied CCJs dating back to 2023
12:13totaling £61,000. Though it's unclear whether those relate directly to customers who sued the business
12:21or to other liabilities. And it was at this point we discovered that not one but two companies had
12:28traded as Sensory Education Limited, run and owned by the same person using the same website and the same VAT
12:36number. What's more, Walsall Trading Standards confirmed to us in April 2026 that an investigation
12:43into Sensory Education is ongoing. So now we come to the big question. Why is a company allowed to run
12:50their business like this? It does take a while for regulators to piece together their evidence but of
12:57course businesses are allowed to continue trading in the meantime. That's kind of natural justice because
13:03it would be wrong to close down a business or to stop them trading if there wasn't sufficient evidence for
13:10trading standards and the courts to take action. Of course as soon as they do have sufficient evidence they will
13:16take action. But what we can do on programs like this is to try and upskill people. So before you
13:21make those big
13:22decisions make some informed choices about who you're spending your money with. Well I've learned a lot so thank you
13:29both
13:29very much indeed Sasha and Gary of course. When we spoke to Sensory Education it told us that its customer
13:36communications were clear that pre-Christmas delivery could not be guaranteed for some products. Sensory
13:43Education told us that when Elizabeth cancelled the order it had already entered the warehouse
13:48fulfilment process and was sent out three days later. The company said it did not confirm the
13:54cancellation had been accepted or processed and that in instances of refused deliveries return carriage
14:01costs must be paid by the customer. Sensory Education denied charging unlawful fees or imposing arbitrary
14:09punishment insisting that it has a right to recover chargeback related costs incurred as a direct
14:16consequence of the customer's actions. The firm stressed that the company now trading as Sensory Education
14:23Limited is a different legal entity to the one that traded under the same name until September 2024.
14:30While that was the firm that featured on Watchdog in 2023 and our program in 2019, both operations are
14:38owned and controlled by the same person. Sensory Education however pointed out that such separate legal
14:45entities are not interchangeable merely because they may share a director, trading style, branding history,
14:53or VAT registration. It also pointed out that the vast majority of the CCJs identified in our
15:00investigation are against the old company. Well it's time now to put more experts to work on your problems
15:10as the advice clinic. The advice clinic is on the road bringing the best consumer advice.
15:19You are immediately exposed to the prospect of scammers. I read quite a lot of contracts and this one is
15:25badly written with poor English. To you.
15:31Whatever your problem is we have an expert who can help you and today we're in Reading where
15:37the UK's most famous travel journalist Simon Calder is here to help with some tricky travel troubles.
15:44Today we're at the headquarters of BBC Berkshire. Hello Cathy, nice to see you.
15:51I understand you've got a bit of a parking problem. I have indeed. Well come and tell me about it.
15:55Okay.
15:56Cathy Rogers from Kent has come to share her experience with an airport meet and greet parking service
16:02where she was greeted with more than she bargained for. We had a lovely holiday last year but we booked
16:08an airport valet parking and we thought we'd done it all by the book. And this is one of those
16:15occasions where you're met by somebody at the airport. They take your keys, they take their car.
16:21Yep. And the next time you see it, it's when they bring it back. Bring it back. Yeah.
16:26Cathy and her husband had booked to go to the island of Rhodes in Greece for 11 days. So after
16:32booking
16:32a flight from Heathrow, they checked a comparison website for the best deals on airport parking,
16:38eventually paying £90 to a company called Best Heathrow Meet and Greet Parking, not to be confused
16:46with a number of similarly named companies. We came back from a wonderful holiday, picked the car up,
16:52drove home and then about three days later we got a parking ticket. But you paid for parking,
16:58how can you get a parking ticket? Oh it wasn't from the airport, it was from Asda. We thought,
17:04ooh, we're cross that someone's used the car to go to Asda and park in a disabled car parking space,
17:10but we appealed it. No, no, no, you can't appeal it unless you can give us the name and address
17:17of the driver. Cathy called the mobile number of the driver they'd collected the car from to ask for
17:23an office phone number, but says she was initially cut off before having her number blocked. She also
17:30contacted Best Heathrow Meet and Greet Parking by email, but got no response, before trying the
17:36comparison website she'd used to book the parking, which said it too was unable to help. And because
17:43she'd paid the comparison site, not the parking company direct, her bank wouldn't issue a refund.
17:50It's all left Cathy feeling like she's got nowhere else to turn.
17:53OK, just remind me what you paid. So it was £90 for 11 days, which should have been a bit
18:01of a red
18:01flag, shouldn't it? Your face is telling me that. Right. OK, so there's lots and lots of parking
18:08organisations that have Heathrow in their name, a few of which are actual official Heathrow parking
18:15spaces. But for something like that, you paid £90. I'd be looking at maybe double that.
18:21The airport parking industry is one we've featured extensively before, because it appears to have
18:27more than its fair share of rogues. We're just going to check a location that is popular
18:34for use by some of the licensed meet and greet parking companies.
18:40In 2017, we followed Manchester City Council clamping down on companies which left customers' cars not in a
18:47safe compound, as it promised, but parked on residential streets near Manchester Airport.
18:53It's no more secure than leaving it on any residential street, drive yourself and park your car,
18:58because that's effectively what these guys are doing, but they're charging you for the privilege.
19:03We also heard from drivers who discovered their cars had been damaged,
19:07all while they were enjoying their holiday sunshine.
19:10To avoid airport meet and greet rogues, Simon has some tips.
19:16My advice to you in future is, well, first of all, start by looking for things like
19:22a member of the Independent Airport Parking Association. They've got a code of conduct.
19:27You can look for the park mark, which is a scheme to emphasise that your car is going to be
19:34properly
19:35looked after in a secure facility. Clearly, when you drop it off, you did the right thing,
19:41taking a picture of the mileage and so on. Worth also putting a tracking device. These things are
19:47very cheap just to find out where it's been, where it's going, which particular branch of which
19:52supermarket it might turn up in. And by the way, when you're paying, if you can pay with a credit
19:58card
19:59direct to the company rather than through a third party, that means that if you do need to
20:05say, I'd like my money back, it's much more straightforward. Thank you. Really good advice.
20:13Back at Ripoff Britain HQ, we began to look into Best Heathrow meet and greet parking and found some
20:19interesting terms and conditions on its website. It admits vehicles may be parked up to 50 miles away
20:26from where it collects them and may be left in a public facility without CCTV.
20:33On Trustpilot, all but one of the company's 43 reviews are one star. But when we got in touch,
20:40it insisted nothing was amiss. It told us it takes the handling and care of customers' vehicles
20:48very seriously. And it claimed that construction work on the estate where its compound is situated,
20:54temporarily obstructed entry and exit, and that it had permission from the management of the
21:00adjacent Asda car park to temporarily park vehicles there instead. But then we checked with Asda and
21:07were told that simply wasn't true. Asda said it has no relationship with Best Heathrow meet and greet
21:13parking and no record of the firm asking to use the car park at its haze stall. After that, we
21:20went back to
21:21Best Heathrow meet and greet parking, but didn't get a response to our emails. Thankfully for Cathy,
21:27though, the firm had already reimbursed the £60 she'd paid for the parking charge.
21:36Well, next in our Rogue special for some good news. In 2025, we told the story of Carmelo and Chiara,
21:43who ran a Sicilian restaurant, who ran a Sicilian restaurant, and were talked into signing a deal
21:47with an agent who promised to slash their business rates beyond a 75% discount that they'd already
21:54agreed with the council. But at the end of the tax year, they were hit with a near £3,000
21:59bill
22:00for the agent's work. And that was just the start. Here's a quick reminder of their story.
22:18It turned out that a clause in their contract allowed the company to claim a 30%
22:23share on a discount, even if it wasn't secured by them. So the £2,900 bill was its cut of
22:31a discount
22:31already arranged with the council by Carmelo and Chiara. So basically, I've paid the money to this
22:38company, Redable Value Expert, for doing nothing. And after they asked me, then 30% of something I've
22:48done by myself. Carmelo asked how to get out of the contract. He was told it would cost another £995.
22:56And while he was deciding what to do next, another invoice dropped into his inbox,
23:02this time for the £995 cancellation fee, plus various admin fees, taking the total amount owed to
23:11over £4,100. It was very painful at the beginning, to be honest, with a lot of stress for us.
23:21No one deserves something like this.
23:27I'm dying to know how it all finishes. Dave Quinn is one of our producers, and he's been following
23:32the story. So do tell me, Dave, that it is good news.
23:35It is indeed, Gloria. So this company, Ratable Value Experts, as we saw, they were trying to charge
23:41Chiara and Carmelo for a cut of fees that they said they'd secured as a discount on business rates.
23:48But actually, Carmelo and Chiara had secured for themselves anyway. Now, we know that they
23:53targeted some other businesses in exactly the same way. The couple refused to pay those fees,
23:59and Ratable Value Experts actually took them to court to try and recover it. Now, Carmelo and Chiara
24:03fought by corner in court, and I'm very pleased to say the court case went in their favour. Ratable
24:10Value Experts were ordered to pay compensation for the money that they'd spent, a total of around £500.
24:16So that was a really great result. That is good news. Well, there is actually more. So it's kind
24:20of got a double happy ending, this story. So Ratable Value Experts was one of five businesses that
24:25was kind of operating in this business rates space that was being run by a man called Matada Abadi.
24:31Now, he operated under a number of different aliases as well. Now, the Valuation Office Agency,
24:36that's the government body that's responsible for business rates valuations. It had been investigating
24:42these companies. And in December 2025, it said it would no longer deal with him or any of his
24:47companies, any of his aliases, either now or in the future. So what that means is that he can no
24:52longer
24:52work in any service to do with business rates from now on. So really, overall, it's a win-win.
24:57Yeah, it's a great result for Carmelo and Chiara.
25:03Well, time now to get help for more of your rogue-related problems from our experts. Gary's back,
25:09and we're also joined by personal finance expert, Amy Knight. Welcome, Amy. And Amy,
25:15actually, this first one is for you. It's from Dorothy Revington in Blackpool, who says she was
25:19pressured into agreeing to have repair work done to her chimney by Rufus, who charged her an excessive
25:25amount, promised a guarantee that never materialized, and lied about being on trusted
25:30trades websites. Worse still, another company has now told her the work was poor and incomplete,
25:37and it's going to cost her more to put right. What would your advice be?
25:41It's really quite shocking when you look at the incidents of Dorset crimes, how many of them involve
25:47roofers. Now, if she's got a written contract with these people, and she can actually contact them,
25:53then start with a formal complaint, and she should put in that letter a request for their legal trading
25:58name and their registered business address. That signals the intent to take legal action if she needs
26:04to, and that might be enough to get them to cooperate. If she has no luck after she's written
26:09to them, then unfortunately, I think she's going to need to report this as a scam. So, the first step
26:14would
26:14be to contact her bank. If she's paid them via card, they may be able to use chargeback if it
26:19was a debit card
26:19transaction, or under her Section 75 rights, if it was a credit card payment, they may be able to reverse
26:25that payment. And then she needs to speak to report fraud, and I'd also encourage her to log this with
26:32trading standards to make sure that these roofers are not going to do this to anybody else.
26:38Okay, Dorothy, there you go. Well, Gary, this is one actually from the Reverend Cindy Kent from North
26:43London, and she sent this message. I was recently locked out of my vicarage. I'd left my keys in the
26:49lock on the other side of the door, which meant that my spare key wouldn't go in. So, I called
26:53a
26:53locksmith, and they immediately opened it, took it off, and it was very expensive. And I was billed for
26:59£1,035. Now, I queried this invoice, and they promised to get back to me. They now don't answer
27:05my calls. My bank says they can't do anything about it. I wonder if you guys can help.
27:10Well, Cindy, there's certainly a lot of alarm bells there. Now, Cindy's quite right to go to the bank,
27:15because they have a thing called chargeback. And I would go back to the bank and say,
27:20in this case, there's been a misrepresentation of the service provided. Now, that's a specific reason
27:26for chargeback to be invoked. If she's not successful, and if she has paid this money over,
27:33then ultimately she could go to the small claims court and actually sue the locksmith for the money
27:39that I think she's paid over the odds. Thank you. Well, next in today's roster of rogues,
27:44it's an industry with a reputation that leaves a lot to be desired, secondhand car dealers.
27:50And there's little wonder, given some of the stories we've been hearing from people
27:53who've handed over thousands of pounds only to be lied to or sold a dud.
27:59But none of the stories that we hear ever started out like that, including that of the woman in our
28:05next film. Now, she was impressed by the dealer's assurances, but she came to regret it all,
28:10almost as soon as she had turned on the ignition.
28:16After 47 years on her feet as an NHS nurse, Carol Croft is making the most of her retirement with
28:24her husband Tony in the Norfolk Broads. And having been part of this rural community for more than 30
28:31years, she knows just how important a reliable set of wheels can be.
28:36I need a car to get to all my hobbies that I do, my swimming, my sewing. I need a
28:42car to get to the
28:43shops. I just need a car all the time.
28:46And in August 2025, she was on the lookout for a new set of wheels. And with help from her
28:53son David,
28:54she found what looked like the ideal runabout on Facebook Marketplace.
28:58He'd checked that it was a good site, got good feedback. So we thought we'd checked thoroughly
29:04before we went to look at it that it was a safe dealer to buy from.
29:09The car was a 2014 Nissan Juke, listed by dealer Cobra Cars based in Swatham, not to be confused with
29:18dealerships of a similar name based elsewhere in the UK. Carol says she was told about an optional
29:2412-month warranty from independent warranty provider Autoguard, with its branding being used across
29:30the forecourt. After a successful test drive, she agreed to buy the car for £2,995, with Cobra Cars
29:40throwing in the usual £150 warranty for free. Securing the car would require a deposit of £995.
29:50So I got my debit card out to pay it, and he said, oh, no, I'm sorry, you can't use
29:55a debit card,
29:56we need to do it by bank transfer. Carol settled the balance three days later. But on the drive home,
30:03problems appeared. One of the headlights wasn't working, and the front wipers weren't clearing
30:09on the windscreen very well at all. So we were really surprised and a bit disappointed in a way.
30:17And as the days passed, more problems came to light. It didn't want to start first thing in the
30:23morning. It was a real, real problem. And then my son found that the water was very low in the
30:29radiator, so he put antifreeze in. And when he started it again, it just threw it all out all over
30:35the floor. Carol hadn't yet received any paperwork about the 12-month auto guard warranty. So she gave
30:43the company a call and was in for a shock. They said we haven't dealt with that company since June,
30:50and we're now at the beginning of September. And they said we've had an issue with him that hasn't
30:58been resolved. Carol was alarmed, but with the problems on the car continuing to bother her,
31:03she decided to take it to a trusted local mechanic for a check-up. And it delivered a
31:10catastrophic diagnosis. It said the car's head gasket had blown, a major repair that would cost
31:18upward of £1,000 to fix. Enough was enough for Carol. She asked Cobra Cars to take the Nissan back
31:26and give her a refund. But it refused, saying its return window had passed, and instead tried to
31:33convince her the problem could be fixed. He said, if you bring it back, we can do it in a
31:39few days,
31:39and then you'll have your car back. It was a reassuring response. But when she dropped the car off,
31:47little did Carol realise that that would be the last time she ever saw it. They promised me I would
31:53have my car back by the end of that week, and I never saw my car again. A week passed
32:03with no word from
32:04Cobra Cars and no answer on the phone. So she sent messages direct to the salesman. But he replied with
32:12what felt to Carol like a string of excuses. I was very, very suspicious because he was just fobbing me
32:19off all the time. And I was just getting fed up and really, really missing the car. Carol repeated
32:28her refund request in a recorded letter to Cobra. But when the dealer got in touch a few days later,
32:34it wasn't to give Carol her money back. It was to ask her to pay an extra £250 to have
32:41the cam belt and
32:42water pump changed. Carol was reluctant, but she felt trapped. She eventually agreed to pay £100 for the
32:50work. But as things dragged on, the ordeal was taking its toll. So I was getting so fed up with
32:56it. I was
32:57having sleepless nights. I wasn't eating my food. I was getting really stressed and really worked up about
33:03what was happening with the car. Finally, on a Wednesday in late November, almost two months
33:10after taking the car back for repair, the firm called to say the work was complete and it would
33:16be returning the Nissan to her the very next day. But that morning, there was yet another delay.
33:22The rep called to say the car had suffered a puncture en route and he had no way to change
33:28the tyre.
33:29Carol would have to wait again. Days passed and no news until Monday, when the phone rang.
33:37The lady says, oh hello, I'm ringing from Norfolk police based in Swatham.
33:44She said she'd found my car on a side road on a back street with a puncture. She said all
33:53the windows
33:53had been smashed. The sat-nav and the radio and everything had been taken out and she was treating it
34:02as malicious damage and theft and the car had been taken by the police to their yard for forensic evidence.
34:14I just felt absolutely devastated and felt what have I done to deserve all this.
34:19The cause of the damage seen here in images provided by Carol's insurer remains a mystery.
34:26Carol assumed, because the car had been in Cobra's care, that the dealership would cover the costs.
34:32But after she was unable to get an answer from the company, she approached her insurer,
34:38which told her it wouldn't cover the entire £3,400 she'd spent on the car and repairs.
34:44They said the value was only £2,400 and then I'd got to pay the excess.
34:53So I'm over £1,000 out of pocket and I'm really upset about it all.
35:01I was trusting with this man. It's really made me think twice about how much to trust
35:09people in general life on a day-to-day basis.
35:16Well, what a story and I'm joined now by solicitor Gary Rycroft and one of our producers,
35:22Katie Saatchi, who's been looking into this case. And Katie, who are Cobra cars and what have you
35:27been able to find out about them? Well, we've spoken to Trading Standards and it confirmed to us
35:32that it has got an active case ongoing looking into Cobra cars. Now, you'll also remember that one
35:38of the reasons Carol was encouraged to buy this car was because she was led to believe it came
35:43with an extended 12-month warranty from Autoguard. Well, we also spoke to Autoguard and it told us
35:50that it cut ties with Cobra cars after the dealers failed to pay the required fee on the very first
35:58Autoguard warranty that they sold. And that was just over a month before Carol's purchase.
36:03So, overall, Julia, what we're looking at is a company that's under ongoing scrutiny
36:09and it has broken relationships with warranty providers and that builds a much clearer picture
36:15of who Carol was really dealing with. Gary, what are Carol's rights in this situation
36:20from a legal point of view? So, under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, goods that you buy should be of
36:28satisfactory quality as described fit for purpose. For the first 30 days, you do have a right to reject
36:35the goods and ask for a full refund. After that, you still have a legal right to request a repair
36:42or a replacement. And if you aren't satisfied with that, again, you can ask for a refund. Now,
36:48the other complicating factor here is, of course, the vehicle ended up being damaged. Now, Carol could
36:53claim on her insurance, as she has done. The dealership themselves, they might have insurance
36:58as well. And if there is a shortfall on the insurance with regard to her financial loss,
37:03then she could ultimately sue the dealership because, in this case, they were responsible
37:08for the vehicle at the time it was damaged. But it is a complicated situation.
37:13I mean, the other factor is that she was more or less forced to pay by bank transfer because
37:18she was told that credit cards couldn't be used. Does that undermine her position legally?
37:24It's certainly a red flag that she was asked to pay by bank transfer. Of course, if you do make
37:31a card payment, you've got with a debit card, the protection of chargeback. And with a credit card,
37:36you've got the protection of Section 75. So, if someone is saying, sorry, we don't take cards,
37:42I personally would step away from that situation.
37:44Katie, what does Cobra Cars have to say about all this? Well, the company denies being dishonest,
37:50but it admits that its communication with Carol could have been better. It said that it never
37:54offered her a refund because that 30-day threshold where she would have been entitled to one had
38:00already passed at the time that she requested her money back. So, instead, it said it offered to
38:05repair the car under its own three-month warranty and at no cost to Carol. It blames some of the
38:11delays
38:11on the third-party garages that were conducting the repairs. Regarding that Autoguard warranty,
38:17the dealership admits to using Autoguard's price boards in the windscreens of cars on sale,
38:23which it says is a common practice. Autoguard told us it will be visiting the site to remove its
38:29branding. Cobra Cars, meanwhile, denied that it had failed to pay the fee for the first Autoguard
38:36warranty it sold. Cobra Cars also told us that the events that led to Carol's car being vandalised
38:42were out of its control and argued that it should not be held responsible for paying Carol's
38:48out-of-pocket expenses because the insurance payout was lower than she expected. It also pointed out
38:54that hundreds of car sales businesses do not accept card payments.
39:01Well, thank you very much, both of you. Well, if all this has made you think about making sure
39:06you do your homework before buying a second-hand car, looking into the company might be a bit easier
39:11than finding hidden flaws in the car itself. For that, you need an expert. And earlier, Dave Quinn met
39:18motoring expert Abigail Andre to find out what you should be looking for. Hi, Abigail. Thanks for
39:24being here. So you found a car online. You like the look of it. What are the things to look
39:29for?
39:29What are the red flags? What do you do next? First of all, I would look up the vehicle's data
39:33and when
39:34its last MOT was. So take the registration and do a vehicle data check. And that'll tell you things like
39:40does the car have outstanding finance? Has it been written off before? And you'll also be able to see
39:45whether or not the system thinks that it's been stolen before too. These checks, you have to pay
39:50a few pounds, is it, for something like that? So an MOT check is free. Just pop the reg in
39:54on the
39:55government website. But the other checks you do have to pay for. But it's worth doing,
39:59because otherwise you're going to be wasting your time. Vehicle data checks, often called HPI checks
40:04after the best-known provider, cost around £10 to £20 and can be found by searching online. Right,
40:11so you've done all those checks. You're happy. You're going to go to the dealership and see what it
40:15looks like and what's the next thing to do. So you want to see the service history. Also,
40:19really important, you want to see the vehicle's V5C, which used to be called a log book. So in there,
40:24it's going to tell you who the registered keeper is. Does that match the person who's selling you
40:29the car? One thing that you really, really need to look for on the V5C is the chassis number matches.
40:35So you can find the chassis number in here. So in the driver's side door, there is a sticker,
40:41and that number will be there. And you'll also find it on the windscreen too. Make sure all those
40:47numbers match up with what's on the V5C. If they don't, walk away, because it could be a sterling car.
40:53Paperwork all ticked off. It's time to look at the car itself. Abigail says check for inconsistent panel
41:00gaps, mismatched paintwork indicating dodgy repairs, and heavily worn tyres. And red flags under the
41:08bonnet include leaks and loose wiring. Next, for a place that many of us are more familiar with,
41:15behind the wheel. So first of all, you want to look at the touch points that you would use the
41:19most.
41:19So look at the steering wheel, the gear stick. You want to look at the seats and see if they
41:24match what
41:25something, let's say, 40,000 miles should look like. Or does it look a bit older? And also check
41:29all the features that were in the advert. So actually check the advert in and say,
41:34check it off. Yes. Okay. Do the parking sensors work? If it's got reversing camera, does that work?
41:39If you've got a phone, does it actually connect? Because that is a very difficult
41:42problem to solve if it doesn't. Brilliant. So next thing you do is you want to turn the engine on.
41:48What are you looking for there? You don't want to see any lights. It shouldn't be lit up like Blackpool
41:53lights. You also want to check the mileage. Does it match what was on the advert? I would then take
41:58the car for a drive. You want to be taking it out for, I'd say, at least 15 minutes. So
42:03I want to take
42:03it on a motorway just for a little blast. How does it feel when you're braking? When you're turning a
42:08corner, how does the steering wheel feel? Are you hearing any strange sounds or smelling anything odd?
42:13So I feel like we've had a very thorough look all around this car. But if you've still got concerns
42:18or
42:18doubts about it, what do you do then? What I would do is always take somebody with me that knows
42:23about
42:23cars. If you don't know anybody, you can get the AA or the RAC to do a paid inspection for
42:28you.
42:28But also, if you contact your local garage, that might be a service they offer as well. But the
42:33crux is, if you are still not sure, there's so many other cars out there, just walk away,
42:38it's not worth it. OK, good advice. Abigail, thank you very much. Thank you.
42:43And we've put a checklist of Abigail's guide to buying a secondhand car on our website,
42:48bbc.co.uk slash ripoffbritain.
42:52On which note, I'm afraid that's almost all from us for today. Now, if you've missed any of the advice
42:58that we packed in, from how to avoid a dodgy airport parking firm, to how to make sure you
43:03don't buy a secondhand dud, then you can always catch up on today's program and many more on BBC
43:09iPlayer. For today, though, thank you so much for joining us. And from everyone here on the team,
43:14it's time to say goodbye. Bye-bye.
43:16Bye-bye.
43:17Bye-bye.
43:20Bye-bye.
43:34Bye-bye.
43:38Bye-bye.
43:46Bye-bye.
43:46Bye-bye.
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