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Rip Off Britain S18E10
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00:00Today, how a firm providing equipment to children with special educational needs
00:05has left on dozens of families. Seven years after we first find it doing exactly the same thing,
00:12how is this still allowed to operate? I then received an email which had a big overdue
00:17red stamp on it. I knew I was in the right but I just felt, yeah, I felt so horrified.
00:23Plus the used car dealers who left one woman with a smashed up written off
00:27wreck and more than £1,000 out of pocket. Taking on the traders making your lives a misery,
00:34this 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 a sight today, our firms hell-bent on making money
00:56out of your misfortune, including the airport meet and greet firm that took one woman's car to the
01:02shops, 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 hoped to never ever
01:38hear about it again. Then they were letting down customers who'd paid them good money for specialised
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 company
01:56doing that would soon be shut down by the relevant authorities, but not this one as we've been finding
02:02out 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.
02:37So I carried out some searches online and Sensory Education were one of the companies that came up.
02:43They were selling it for a slightly cheaper price to other competitors, so I decided to go with them.
02:50Sensory Education is an online retailer selling toys and educational resources. Its colourful website
02:57boasts 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'd 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 of
03:16the 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 and
03:30emailed the company and was reassured by its reply, which promised that all standard orders would be
03:35dispatched 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.
03:47People were saying they hadn't received orders, that they'd placed weeks before,
03:51so I started to get quite concerned. And I was aware that I couldn't just, you know,
03:55pop out to the shops and buy this from somewhere else.
03:58With no sign of delivery by the 19th of December, Elizabeth decided to order the doll's house from
04:04elsewhere. And she emailed Sensory Education to cancel the original order. But three days later,
04:12Elizabeth got an email saying that the doll's house had been dispatched. And two days after Christmas,
04:18it 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.
04:32For 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,
04:44minus any delivery costs for the return postage, which I was a bit shocked by because I had cancelled
04:51the order before it had been dispatched, so I shouldn't be liable for paying those costs.
04:55Elizabeth stood her ground, but so did Sensory Education. Even after the courier company had
05:01confirmed that the doll's house had arrived back with the retailer, it insisted that she pay for it.
05:07So Elizabeth turned to her bank, which 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.
05:36Not least because Elizabeth knew that her consumer rights meant she was entitled to a full refund.
05:43But when she told Sensory Education that, it threatened to instruct debt collectors.
05:49It said, this email constitutes final notice. Unless payment is received in full,
05:54we will proceed to issue county court proceedings without further correspondence
05:58and credit control action will follow accordingly.
06:01I just felt, yeah, I felt so horrified. I felt sick, to be honest.
06:06And the threats kept coming.
06:08On the 21st of January, I received another email from them that they were now going to charge me
06:13£5 a day for storing the doll's house. The bottom part of the email said,
06:18unless this matter is resolved beforehand, we will also proceed with formal recovery action on Friday.
06:23It's really scary. And I thought, I just can't cope with the stress of being taken to court.
06:35Elizabeth gave in. She sent the firm the £230 it demanded.
06:40The whole thing just started to wear me down. So I just got to the point where I felt I
06:44had no option
06:45other than to pay them 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.
06:58So Sensory Education has both Elizabeth's money and the doll's house.
07:03But she's not the only person we've heard from who's been subject to what they feel are completely
07:08unfair bullying tactics. Nor is this the first time we've heard experiences like this.
07:14Back in 2019, we featured the case of another Sensory Education customer.
07:22Mum Kimberley 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.
07:33I filled out countless forms, online forms saying why I wanted a refund and nothing.
07:39Nothing was answered. 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 Kimberley experienced.
07:58In 2023, Sensory Education was also on the radar BBC watchdog,
08:03where late deliveries and refund refusals were again the focus.
08:07Sensory 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,
08:33threats of additional charges, legal repercussions. I mean, it's a lot. So what's your assessment of that?
08:39Well, I've got to say the paperwork trail is quite eyebrow raising. It dials up very quickly from
08:45sending out an invoice to very urgent letters to threats of storage fees and interest. Now,
08:53let's be absolutely clear about this. It's not lawful to do that. If you're going to impose
08:59additional charges on your customer, they have to be grounded in reality in terms of what the real cost
09:05is to the business. And there's no explanation here at all as to why there should be a £5 storage
09:11fee,
09:12which Elizabeth has a good defence to say, well, it's just simply not due.
09:16In Elizabeth's case where Sensory Education said, and I quote, returning goods outside of the statutory
09:23cancellation and returns framework does not in itself unwind a contract or extinguish a liability.
09:30So do you think Elizabeth did anything that was wrong? I don't think Elizabeth did anything wrong at
09:36all, because actually what Sensory Education said there is legal nonsense. So to be absolutely clear,
09:42under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, you have a general right to cancel a contract that you've
09:50created online and you can cancel it within 14 days of the item being delivered. Or if it's not been
09:58delivered, you can cancel it obviously before that date. So Elizabeth, to be really clear, has done
10:04nothing wrong. All she's been doing is relying on her consumer rights. Producer Sasha's investigation
10:11involved speaking to more Sensory Education customers and uncovering an unorthodox approach to online reviews.
10:19So if you actually go on the Sensory Education website, you can see they've said that they're
10:24rated excellent based on over 20,000 reviews. So all looks very good. All four and five stars.
10:30Now, one thing that we did notice is those green stars, you might notice yourself, are very similar
10:35to another review page, which is very well known, Trustpilot. And actually, if you go on the Trustpilot
10:41page for Sensory Education, it's a very different picture, as you might see. So it's got a warning there.
10:47Maybe we should just read this out. This company's rating is unavailable due to a breach
10:51of our guidelines. And Trustpilot told us that this warning was placed in April 2025,
10:58after 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 we
11:10found is they have posted personal details of the reviewer, including a Google Maps link to their
11:17home address in response to a negative review that they had. Gary, you don't like that one,
11:24do you? I don't like that at all. That's very aggressive tactics for our business.
11:27Now Trustpilot also told us that it had previously warned Sensory Education for threatening reviewers.
11:33So Trustpilot has said it has sent the company a legal cease and desist letter in relation to this.
11:40And Trustpilot also confirmed that they have previously talked to Sensory Education about showing what
11:46it called a false Trustpilot rating and says it's now escalating its enforcement action.
11:51It 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
12:122023, totaling £61,000. Though it's unclear whether those relate directly to customers who sued the
12:20business or to other liabilities. And it was at this point we discovered that not one but two companies
12:27had traded as Sensory Education Limited, run and owned by the same person using the same website and the
12:35same VAT number. What's more, Walsall trading standards confirmed to us in April 2026 that an
12:42investigation into Sensory Education is ongoing. So now we come to the big question. Why is a company
12:50allowed to run their business like this? It does take a while for regulators to piece together their
12:56evidence but of course businesses are allowed to continue trading in the meantime. That's kind of
13:02natural justice because it would be wrong to close down a business or to stop them trading if there
13:08wasn't sufficient evidence for trading standards and the courts to take action. Of course as soon as they
13:14do have sufficient evidence they will take action. But what we can do on programs like this is to try
13:19and upskill people. So before you make those big decisions make some informed choices about who you're
13:27spending your money with. Well I've learned a lot so thank you both very much indeed Sasha and Gary of
13:31course.
13:32When we spoke to Sensory Education it told us that its customer communications were clear
13:38that pre-Christmas delivery could not be guaranteed for some products. Sensory Education told us that
13:44when Elizabeth cancelled the order it had already entered the warehouse fulfillment process and was sent
13:50out three days later. The company said it did not confirm the cancellation had been accepted or processed
13:58and that in instances of refused deliveries return carriage costs must be paid by the customer.
14:04Sensory Education denied charging unlawful fees or imposing arbitrary punishment insisted that it has
14:12a right to recover chargeback related costs incurred as a direct consequence of the customer's actions.
14:19The firm stressed that the company now trading as Sensory Education Limited is a different legal entity
14:26to the one that traded under the same name until September 2024. While that was the firm that
14:32featured on Watchdog in 2023 and our program in 2019, both operations are owned and controlled by the same person.
14:42Sensory Education however pointed out that such separate legal entities are not interchangeable
14:48merely because they may share a director, trading style, branding history or VAT registration.
14:55It also pointed out that the vast majority of the CCJs identified in our investigation
15:00are against the old company.
15:07Well it's time now to put more experts to work on your problems as the Advice Clinic heads off to
15:12Reading.
15:15The Advice Clinic is on the road bringing the best consumer advice.
15:19You are immediately exposed to the prospect of scammers.
15:24I read quite a lot of contracts and this one is badly written with poor English.
15:28To you.
15:32Whatever 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.
15:47Hello Cathy, nice to see you.
15:51Lovely to see you.
15:51I understand you've got a bit of a parking problem.
15:53I have indeed.
15:54Well come and tell me about it.
15:55OK.
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.
16:06We had a lovely holiday last year but we booked an airport valet parking and we thought we'd done it
16:12all by the book.
16:14And this is one of those occasions where you're met by somebody at the airport, they take your keys,
16:20they take your car and the next time you see it it's when they bring it back on your trip.
16:26Cathy and her husband had booked to go to the island of Rhodes in Greece for 11 days.
16:31So after booking a flight from Heathrow, they checked a comparison website for the best deals on airport parking,
16:39eventually paying £90 to a company called Best Heathrow Meet and Greet Parking,
16:45not to be confused with a number of similarly named companies.
16:49We came back from a wonderful holiday, picked the car up, drove home and then about three days later we
16:55got a parking ticket.
16:56But you paid for parking, how can you get a parking ticket?
17:00Oh, it wasn't from the airport, it was from Asda.
17:04We thought, ooh, you know, we're cross that someone's used the car to go to Asda
17:08and park in a disabled car parking space, but, you know, we appealed it.
17:13No, no, no, you can't appeal it unless you can give us the name and address of the driver.
17:19Cathy called the mobile number of the driver they'd collected the car from
17:23to ask for an office phone number, but says she was initially cut off before having her number blocked.
17:30She also contacted Best Heathrow Meet and Greet Parking by email, but got no response,
17:35before trying the comparison website she'd used to book the parking, which said it too was unable to help.
17:43And because she'd paid the comparison site, not the parking company direct,
17:47her bank wouldn't issue a refund. It's all left Cathy feeling like she's got nowhere else to turn.
17:54OK, just to remind me what you paid.
17:56So it was £90 for 11 days, which should have been a bit of a red flag, shouldn't it?
18:02Your face is telling me that.
18:04Right, OK, so there's lots and lots of parking organisations that have Heathrow in their name,
18:12a few of which are actual official Heathrow parking spaces.
18:16But 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,
18:26because it appears to have more than its fair share of rogues.
18:30We're just going to check a location that is popular for use by some of the
18:37licensed Greek parking companies.
18:39In 2017, we followed Manchester City Council, clamping down on companies which left customers'
18:46cars not in a safe 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.
19:11To 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
19:35properly looked 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.
19:47These things are very cheap just to find out where it's been, where it's going,
19:51which particular branch of which supermarket it might turn up in. And by the way, when you're paying,
19:56if you can pay with a credit card direct to the company rather than through a third party,
20:03that means that if you do need to say, I'd like my money back, it's much more straightforward.
20:09Thank you. Really good advice.
20:13Back at Ripoff Britain HQ, we began to look into Best Heathrow meet-and-greet parking
20:18and found some interesting terms and conditions on its website. It admits vehicles may be parked up to
20:2550 miles away from 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 adjacent
21:01Asda car park to temporarily park vehicles there instead. But then we checked with Asda and were
21:07told that simply wasn't true. Asda said it has no relationship with Best Heathrow meet-and-greet
21:14parking and no record of the firm asking to use the car park at its Hayes stall. After that,
21:21we went back to Best Heathrow meet-and-greet parking, but didn't get a response to our emails.
21:26Thankfully for Cathy though, the firm had already reimbursed the £60 she'd paid for the parking charge.
21:36We're next in our Rogue special for some good news. In 2025, we told the story of Carmelo and Chiara,
21:44who ran a Sicilian restaurant, and were talked into signing a deal with an agent who promised to
21:49slash their business rates beyond a 75% discount that they'd already agreed with the council.
21:56But at the end of the tax year, they were hit with a near £3,000 bill for the agent's
22:01work,
22:01and that was just the start. Here's a quick reminder of their story.
22:08Their answer was just, yeah, you must pay this amount because of your contract.
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.
22:51Carmelo asked how to get out of the contract. He was told it would cost another £995.
22:57And 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,
23:09taking the total amount owed to over £4,100.
23:15It 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,
23:31and he's been following the 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 targeted
23:53some 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
24:04fought by corner in court. I'm very pleased to say the court case went in their favour. Ratable Value Experts
24:11were ordered to pay compensation for the money that they'd spent, total of around £500. So that was a really
24:17great result.
24:18That is good news. Well, there is actually more. So it's kind of got a double happy ending, this story.
24:22So Ratable Value Experts was one of five businesses that was kind of operating in this business rates
24:27space that was being run by a man called Matada Abadi. Now, he operated under a number of different
24:33aliases as well. Now, the Valuation Office Agency, that's the government body that's responsible for
24:39business rates valuations, it had been investigating these companies. And in December 2025, it said it would no
24:45longer deal with him or any of his companies, any of his aliases, either now or in the future. So
24:51what
24:51that means is that he can no longer work in any service to do with business rates from now on.
24:55So really, overall, it's a win-win. Yeah, it's a great result for Carmelo and Chiara.
25:04Well, time now to get help for more of your rogue-related problems from our experts.
25:09Gary's back. And we're also joined by personal finance expert, Amy Knight.
25:13Welcome, Amy. And Amy, actually, this first one is for you. It's from Dorothy Revington in Blackpool,
25:19who says she was pressured into agreeing to have repair work done to her chimney by Rufus,
25:24who charged her an excessive amount, promised a guarantee that never materialised,
25:28and lied about being on trusted trades websites. Worse still, another company has now told her the
25:36work was poor and incomplete, and 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
25:46involve roofers. Now, if she's got a written contract with these people and she can actually
25:52contact them, then start with a formal complaint and she should put in that letter a request for
25:57their legal trading name and their registered business address. That signals the intent to take
26:03legal action if she needs to, and that might be enough to get them to cooperate.
26:07If she has no luck after she's written to them, then unfortunately, I think she's going to need
26:11to report this as a scam. So, the first step would be to contact her bank. If she's paid them
26:16via card,
26:17they may be able to use chargeback if it was a debit card transaction, or under her Section 75 rights,
26:22if it was a credit card payment, they may be able to reverse that payment. And then she needs to
26:27speak to
26:28report fraud. And I'd also encourage her to log this with trading standards to make sure that
26:34these 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 London,
26:43and she sent this message.
26:45I was recently locked out of my vicarage. I'd left my keys in the lock on the other side of
26:50the door,
26:51which meant that my spare key wouldn't go in. So, I called a locksmith, and they immediately opened it,
26:56took it off, and it was very expensive. And I was billed for £1,035. Now, I queried this invoice,
27:03and they promised to get back to me. They now don't answer my calls. My bank says they can't
27:08do anything about it. I wonder if you guys can help. Well, Cindy, there's certainly a lot of alarm
27:12bells there. Now, Cindy's quite right to go to the bank, because they have a thing called chargeback.
27:18And I would go back to the bank and say, in this case, there's been a misrepresentation
27:23of the service provided. Now, that's a specific reason for chargeback to be invoked.
27:29If she's not successful, and if she has paid this money over, then ultimately she could go
27:35to the small claims court and actually sue the locksmith for the money that I think she's paid
27:40over the odds. Thank you. Well, next in today's roster of rogues, an industry with a reputation
27:46that leaves a lot to be desired, secondhand car dealers. And there's little wonder, given some of
27:52the stories we've been hearing from people who've handed over thousands of pounds only to be lied to
27:57or sold it down. But none of the stories that we hear ever started out like that,
28:03including that of the woman in our next film. Now, she was impressed by the dealer's assurances,
28:09but she came to regret it all, almost as soon as she had turned on the ignition.
28:17After 47 years on her feet as an NHS nurse, Carol Croft is making the most of her retirement with
28:24her
28:24husband Tony in the Norfolk Broads. And having been part of this rural community for more than 30 years,
28:32she 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 shop. 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
29:05before we went to look at it that it was a safe dealer to buy from.
29:10The 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 the
29:31forecourt. After a successful test drive, she agreed to buy the car for £2,995, with Cobra Cars throwing in
29:41the 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
29:56a 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
30:44the company a call and was in for a shock. They said, we haven't dealt with that company since June,
30:51and 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,
31:04she decided to take it to a trusted local mechanic for a check-up. And it delivered a catastrophic
31:11diagnosis. It said the car's head gasket had blown, a major repair that would cost upward of £1,000 to
31:20fix.
31:22Enough was enough for Carol. She asked Cobra Cars to take the Nissan back and give her a refund. But
31:28it
31:29refused, saying its return window had passed, and instead tried to convince her the problem could be
31:35fixed. He said, if you bring it back, we can do it in a few days and then you'll have
31:41your car back.
31:42It was a reassuring response. But when she dropped the car off, little did Carol realise that that would
31:49be the last time she ever saw it. They promised me I would have my car back by the end
31:55of that week,
31:56and I never saw my car again. A week passed with no word from Cobra Cars and no answer on
32:06the phone.
32:07So she sent messages direct to the salesman. But he replied with what felt to Carol like a string of
32:14excuses. I was very, very suspicious because he was just fobbing me off all the time. And I was just
32:22getting fed up and really, really missing the car. Carol repeated her refund request in a recorded
32:30letter to Cobra. But when the dealer got in touch a few days later, it wasn't to give Carol her
32:36money
32:36back. It was to ask her to pay an extra £250 to have the cam belt and water pump changed.
32:44Carol was reluctant, but she felt trapped. She eventually agreed to pay £100 for the work.
32:51But as things dragged on, the ordeal was taking its toll.
32:55I was getting so fed up with it. I was having sleepless nights. I wasn't eating my food. I was
33:01getting
33:01really stressed and really worked up about what was happening with the car. Finally, on a Wednesday
33:08in late November, almost two months after taking the car back for repair, the firm called to say the
33:14work was complete and it would be returning the Nissan to her the very next day. But that morning,
33:21there was yet another delay. The rep called to say the car had suffered a puncture en route,
33:26and he had no way to change the tyre. Carol would have to wait again. Days passed and no news
33:34until
33:35Monday when the phone rang. The 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
33:54had been smashed. The sat-nav and the radio and everything had been taken out. And she was
34:01treating it as malicious damage and theft. And the car had been taken by the police to their yard for
34:11forensic evidence. I just felt absolutely devastated and felt, what have I done to deserve all this?
34:20The 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.
34:45They said the value was only £2,400 and then I'd got to pay the excess.
34:54So 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
35:08much trust that people 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 been
35:27able 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
35:38one of 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
35:51that 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.
36:04So, 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
36:16of 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,
36:25goods that you buy should be of satisfactory quality, as described fit for purpose. For the
36:31first 30 days, you do have a right to reject the goods and ask for a full refund. After that,
36:38you still have a legal right to request a repair or a replacement. And if you aren't satisfied with
36:45that, again, you can ask for a refund. Now, the other complicating factor is, of course,
36:50the vehicle ended up being damaged. Now, Carol could claim on her insurance, as she has done.
36:56The dealership themselves, they might have insurance as well. And if there is a shortfall
37:01on the insurance with regard to her financial loss, then she could ultimately sue the dealership,
37:06because in this case, they were responsible for the vehicle at the time it was damaged. But it is a
37:12complicated situation. I mean, the other factor is that she was more or less forced to pay by bank
37:17transfer because she was told that credit cards couldn't be used. Does that undermine her position
37:23legally? It's certainly a red flag that she was asked to pay by bank transfer. Of course,
37:31if you do make a card payment, you've got with a debit card, the protection of chargeback. And with a
37:36credit card, you've got the protection of Section 75. So if someone is saying,
37:40sorry, we don't take cards, I personally would step away from that situation.
37:45Katie, what does Cobra Cars have to say about all this?
37:47Well, the company denies being dishonest, but it admits that its communication with Carol
37:52could have been better. It said that it never offered her a refund because that 30-day threshold
37:58where she would have been entitled to one had already passed at the time that she requested her money
38:02back. So instead, it said it offered to repair the car under its own three-month warranty and at
38:08no cost to Carol. It blamed some of the delays on the third-party garages that were conducting the
38:14repairs. Regarding that Autoguard warranty, the dealership admits to using Autoguard's price
38:20boards in the windscreens of cars on sale, which it says is a common practice. Autoguard told us it
38:28will be visiting the site to remove its branding. Cobra Cars, meanwhile, denied that it had failed
38:34to pay the fee for the first Autoguard warranty it sold. Cobra Cars also told us that the events that
38:40led to Carol's car being vandalised were out of its control and argued that it should not be held
38:46responsible for paying Carol's out-of-pocket expenses because the insurance payout was lower
38:52than she expected. It also pointed out that 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.
39:23Hi, Abigail. Thanks for being here. So, you found a car online. You like the look of it.
39:28What are the things to look for? What are the red flags? What do you do next?
39:31First of all, I would look up the vehicle's data and when its last MOT was. So, take the registration
39:37and do a vehicle data check. And that'll tell you things like, does the car have outstanding finance?
39:43Has it been written off before? And you'll also be able to see whether or not the system thinks
39:47that's been stolen before, too. These checks, you have to pay a few pounds,
39:51is it, for something like that? So, an MOT check is free. Just pop the
39:54reg in on the government website. But the other checks you do have to pay for,
39:58but it's worth doing, because otherwise you're going to be wasting your time.
40:01Vehicle data checks, often called HPI checks after the best-known provider,
40:06cost around £10 to £20 and can be found by searching online.
40:11Right, so you've done all those checks. You're happy. You're going to go to the dealership
40:14and see what it looks like and what's the next thing to do.
40:17So, you want to see the service history. Also, really important, you want to see the vehicle's
40:21V5C, which used to be called a logbook. So, in there, it's going to tell you who the registered
40:26keeper is. Does that match the person who's selling you the car? One thing that you really,
40:31really need to look for on the V5C is the chassis number matches. So, you can find the chassis number
40:37in here. So, in the driver's side door, there is a sticker and that number will be there. And you'll
40:43also find it on the windscreen too. Make sure all those numbers match up with what's on the V5C.
40:49If 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
40:59panel gaps, mismatched paintwork indicating dodgy repairs and heavily worn tyres. And red flags under
41:08the bonnet 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
41:25what something, let's say, with 40,000 miles should look like. Or does it look a bit older?
41:29And also check all the features that were in the advert.
41:31So, actually, check the advert in and say, check it off? Yes.
41:35OK. 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 problem to solve if it
41:44doesn't.
41:44Brilliant. So, next thing you do is you want to turn the engine on. What are you looking for there?
41:49You don't want to see any lights. It shouldn't be lit up like Blackpool lights. You also want to
41:54check the mileage. Does it match what was on the advert? I would then take the car for a drive.
41:59You want to be taking it out for, I'd say, at least 15 minutes. I want to take it on
42:04a motorway,
42:04just for a little blast. How does it feel when you're braking? When you're turning a corner,
42:08how 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 doubts about it, what do you do then? What I would do is always take somebody with me that
42:23knows
42:23about cars. If you don't know anybody, you can get the AA or the RAC to do a paid inspection
42:28for you.
42:28But also, if you contact your local garage, that might be a service they offer as well.
42:33But the crux 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,
42:49bbc.co.uk slash ripoffbritain. On which note, I'm afraid that's almost all from us for today.
42:56Now, if you've missed any of the advice that we packed in, from how to avoid a dodgy airport parking
43:01firm, to how to make sure you don't buy a secondhand dud, then you can always catch up on today's
43:07programme and many more on BBC iPlayer. For today, though, thank you so much for joining us. And from
43:13everyone here on the team, it's time to say goodbye. Bye-bye.
43:31Bye-bye.
43:34Bye-bye.
43:35Bye-bye.
43:38Bye-bye.
43:40Bye-bye.
43:41Bye-bye.
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