BBC - Watchdog

Switching energy supplier: Easier said than done?

2011-10-20T18:00:00Z

Energy prices are soaring and the advice we're getting sounds simple: if you want to save money on your fuel bills, switch supplier. Energy Secretary Chris Huhne has recently been telling us all to switch, while the companies themselves have been telling us to do it for years.

Sounds simple enough, but is it really? The complaints we've received from energy customers at Watchdog suggest otherwise - Riz Lateef reports on five viewers' switching nightmares.

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Nightmare 1: Cancellation Fees

Rod Attewell and Glyn Annell both decided to switch supplier after their fuel bills rocketed this summer.

Rod had been a British Gas customer but as they increased their prices by an average of 20% shortly after he joined them, he decided to switch to EDF energy. Glyn also switched to EDF, after she received a notification from her previous supplier, Scottish Power, that they were about to put their prices up.

Both notified their previous suppliers that they were about to switch, but both got a nasty shock - switching was going to cost them.

Rod was told by British Gas that he would be charged £60, while Glyn only realised she'd been charged £20 by Scottish Power after she insisted they send her an itemised bill.

Both Rod and Glyn complained and were within their rights to do so. On both these occasions, the suppliers were in breach of rules drawn up by the Energy regulator Ofgem. The Ofgem regulations mean that consumers who are affected by a price rise have thirty days to inform their supplier that they want to leave, and if a termination fee applies to their tariff they don't have to pay it.

And there's no excuse for these companies getting it wrong, because Ofgem reminded them all of the rules just a few months ago.

Nightmare 2: Price Freezes

Paul Millington decided to leave British Gas for EDF last winter. He was told that he wouldn't incur any of the price rises, but when he got his final bill he found that the prices rises had in fact been applied.

And this shouldn't have happened - because when he decided to switch his existing payment rate should have been frozen. When Paul complained, British Gas blamed a computer error, sent him a correct bill and offered him £25 in compensation.

However, when the bill arrived, British Gas had still applied the price rises, but this time, they'd offset the goodwill compensation amount of £25 against the increase - which he wasn't supposed to be paying anyway.

Nightmare 3: Delays

Lloyd Bonson, on the other hand, found his switch was mired in delays. He notified EDF of his intention to leave earlier this year.

But a series of computer errors means he's still on their system as an EDF customer. This means that his new, chosen supplier can't take him on, even after five months of trying.

All in all, Lloyd's found switching to be a frustrating annoying process, but it shouldn't have been because all the big energy suppliers signed up to an agreement called the 'Peace of Mind' guarantee.

This is a voluntary agreement set up to reassure customers that the process of switching is 'simple and hassle free' and, according to them, switching has never been so easy.

Nightmare 4: Double Billing

However, that's not the experience of Melissa Self who switched from Scottish Power to British Gas, last year.

Or so she thought, until Scottish Power - who she thought she'd left - wrote to her demanding five months' worth of payment. It turns out that British Gas had taken over another Scottish Power customer's supply by mistake, and Melissa had been billed for their gas.

British Gas has since refunded Melissa, allowing her to settle her outstanding bill with Scottish Power. However, Scottish Power had passed her details onto a debt collection agency, causing her concern that she'll be unfairly blacklisted.

So, although you can save money if you switch, based on these nightmare experiences, we have to wonder, is it really as easy to do as it is to say?

Please check out the DirectGov Home Energy page for more information: www.directgov.gov.uk/homeenergy

Ofgem's response

Ofgem's role is to ensure that the energy retail market is competitive. In March this year our investigation found that competition is being stifled by a combination of tariff complexity, poor supplier behaviour and a lack of transparency.

This is why we are proposing a package of radical reforms to make it easier for customers to pick out cheaper deals and switch. This includes paring down the number of standard tariffs suppliers can offer to just one for each of the three payment types (direct debit, pre-payment and standard credit where customers pay by cash or card).

For these standard tariffs all other complications like different tier prices and complex discount structures will be removed. So the lower the price the smaller the bill, with no exceptions. More information on our proposals for simplified tariffs is available here: http://www.ofgem.gov.uk/Media/FactSheets/Documents1/Simpler%20energy%20tariffs%20107.pdf

We also want to tackle concerns we have over supplier behaviour towards business customers and in November we will consult on detailed proposals for reforms for this sector of the market. Another reform we are proposing is that the big six suppliers auction up to 20% of their power generation output to improve transparency and make it easier for smaller players to get more of a foothold in the market.

In December further decisions on these proposals will be announced. Provided the industry get fully behind our reforms some of them could be in place next winter We also want to see more transparency in the accounts that each of the big six suppliers publish. In the New Year we will publish high level findings of an independent report into this and set out the next steps.

Suppliers have the responsibility of making sure the switching process runs smoothly. For most customers it does, but if problems occur it is down to suppliers to put them right. Customers have the right to complain to their supplier about any aspect of their energy bill, or the switching process. The complaint handling regulations state that suppliers have up to eight weeks to investigate a customer's complaint once they make it. If the supplier cannot resolve the complaint to the customer's satisfaction, they can take it to the Energy Ombudsman.

The Energy Ombudsman is an independent organisation which can investigate the customer's complaint and where appropriate award customers compensation if the supplier is at fault. More information about the Energy Ombudsman is available here: http://www.ombudsman-services.org/energy.html

If suppliers consistently fail to meet the complaint handling regulations we take strong action. In July we fined British Gas £2.5 million for breaching the regulations and we are still investigating Npower and EDF Energy on compliance with these rules.

Department of Energy and Climate Change

A spokesman for the Department of Energy and Climate Change said:

"Following Monday's energy consumer summit (see outcomes here: http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/news/consumer_summi/consumer_summi.aspx), the Government, consumer groups, and energy suppliers are urging people to Check, Switch, and Insulate to Save - information and advice is available at www.directgov.gov.uk/homeenergy.

"According to Ofgem, only 15 per cent of households switched gas supplier last year and 17 per cent switched electricity supplier - down from 20 per cent (gas) and 19 per cent (electricity) in 2007, despite the fact that it is possible to save up to £200 from an annual dual fuel bill by shopping around for the lowest online rate.

"The Government supports Ofgem's work to simplify the range and complexity of tariffs, and is legislating to limit the time it takes to switch supplier to three weeks following the 'cooling off' period, with implementation of the EU Third Energy Package this autumn.

"In addition, work is underway led by BIS as part of the Government's Midata programme to cut the hassle out of switching, with a next generation online method of checking and changing to the best deal. To facilitate this, energy companies have agreed to give consumers access to their data in electronic format as part of the government Midata programme."

"The Government is also looking at giving Ofgem further powers, so that in addition to fining suppliers, they can make suppliers give redress to customers when things go wrong."

Energy UK

Christine McGourty, Director of Energy UK, said:

"Britain's competitive energy market has provided choice and innovation, with tens of thousands of people switching every week. For many people, the experience is a good one, but where things go wrong, companies will work hard to put them right. The industry is also working on ways to make tariffs easily comparable to help people make good choices when they switch. It is encouraging that Ofgem's own research found one of the main reasons for not switching was that customers were happy with their supplier.

This winter, energy companies are writing to eight million of their customers to remind them they can shop around and make sure they are on the best deal for them. This could be the cheapest deal on the market, a fixed deal that secures their prices for a set period, or even a deal that gives them free insulation or green energy. Customers should also look out for their Annual Energy Statement, another innovation that is providing people with better, clearer information to allow them to check they are on the right tariff and to help them switch.

In addition, Energy companies will be working with the Government this winter to contact vulnerable customers and encourage them to take advantage of free insulation that is available. Over 3.5 million people have already benefitted from free or discounted insulation, which can save huge amounts of money - not just this year but every year."

Scottish Power's response:

Regarding Mrs Annell:

A ScottishPower spokesperson said: "We would like to sincerely apologise to Mrs Annell. The cancellation charge applied to the gas account was done so entirely in error due to an internal mistake. The level of service Mrs Annell received when she contacted ScottishPower to discuss the charge is far below our expected standards, and we will address these issues. We will also ensure that Mrs Annell is compensated for the time spent rectifying the problem."

SCOTTISHPOWER GUARANTEES NO WINTER PRICE INCREASES

ScottishPower has given a Winter Price Guarantee that it will not increase its standard prices for gas and electricity over the winter months, extending until at least 1st April 2012. At a time of rising commodity costs, ScottishPower will absorb any potential increases in the wholesale markets during this period.

Beyond its Winter Price Guarantee, ScottishPower has also outlined a range of extra customer service initiatives to help customers over the winter period.

Tariff check:

ScottishPower will be writing to all customers who pay by cheque or cash to provide them with personalised quotes on how much they can save by switching to cheaper tariffs.

Insulation:

ScottishPower is undertaking a significant programme to extend insulation amongst its customers, especially those most vulnerable. This is being completed through identifying and targeting those in need and will be supported by developing close partnerships with Local Authorities.

Vulnerable customers:

During the winter ScottishPower, will proactively contact vulnerable customers to ensure they have all the help they require to keep their homes heated. These efforts will be boosted by the company's network of Community Liaison Officers who will be on hand to visit customer homes to offer direct assistance.

Flexible Payment Options:

ScottishPower will be introducing new flexible payment options including delaying debt repayment for vulnerable prepayment customers until after the winter - so all of the money they spend over the winter will be on energy and not on any existing debt.

Neil Clitheroe, CEO of ScottishPower Energy Retail, said:

"As winter approaches, we understand that these are difficult economic times and many people have concerns about their energy bills. Wholesale markets remain volatile, as events in Japan and in North Africa have shown this year. However, regardless of movements over the winter months, we are offering extra measures to protect our customers over this period, and we hope that our guarantee will offer peace of mind.

"We also want to ensure that our most vulnerable customers have a service that they can rely on, and we will be increasing the activity of our community teams and customer service teams to offer as much help and support as we possibly can.

"We are writing to customers providing individual quotes demonstrating how much they can save by switching to cheaper tariffs. We also urge any customers worried about their energy bills to contact us to ensure that they are on the best available tariff for their circumstances.

"We are looking forward to meeting the Government today and agreeing to the proposals set out by the summit. Our hope is also that we- the government, regulator, consumer groups and the industry can take a considered approach to energy policy that addresses issues on pricing in the context of regulatory uncertainty and volatile markets, and the need to address the significant investment challenge ahead".

British Gas' response:

Rod Attewell:

Mr Attewell notified us of his intention to leave British Gas within 30 days of our price announcement, and was not subject to higher rates or withdrawal fees. Unfortunately, there was an administrative error, which meant that one of the credits that should have been applied to his account was not. We have since issued a revised final bill and refunded the outstanding amount of £16.85 owing to Mr Attewell, and apologise for any inconvenience caused.

Paul Millington

Mr Millington advised us of his intention to leave and we began the necessary process to prepare for this. However, we did not receive notification from Mr Millington's chosen new supplier for six weeks, and he therefore remained as our customer during this time, and became subject to our higher rates when they took effect. As a gesture of goodwill, we have refunded to Mr Millington £25, the total increased rate he was charged.

Melissa Self

We apologise to Miss Self, as our service clearly fell short of the standard she should have received. The root causes of the problem were two simple errors when Miss Self's name was wrongly entered on our system, and we took over the wrong supply. We have now made all the necessary changes to ensure Miss Self's records are now accurate.

1.Energy summit

For the first time the energy industry, government, consumer groups and the regulator have come together and engaged in an honest conversation about the challenges facing us all.

Firstly, we've got to do all we can this winter to keep bills down - that's why British Gas is supporting the Government's campaign to check tariffs, switch where it makes sense, insulate and save.

But secondly, we need an honest conversation about the UK's energy future. The future of prices - and profits - and the future of investment. We all need to work together to deliver the secure, low carbon and competitive energy industry we desperately need."

2. Switching

The UK's energy market also has far higher switching rates than other retail sectors, such as banking and mobile phones. Energy industry data shows that around 100,000 people switch energy supplier each week.

We are committed to making switching tariffs as easy and hassle-free for our customers as possible.

Switching tariffs is one way to save money, although it's important that customers consider the full value of the package on offer - for example, British Gas is offering all its customers free loft and wall cavity insulation (worth at least £200 per home), together saving the average household more than £200 on their annual dual fuel bill.

E.ON's response:

We always ensure that information given to customers is timely, clear and fulfils all our obligations.

"In addition to the information we provide to customers, by getting in touch with us we can discuss with them their needs and requirements and provide the best help, advice and information possible. Day in, day out we're working hard to engage customers with their energy use and provide a range of tariffs to match the needs of different people, whether that means looking for the cheapest deal available or a tariff that offers extra benefits such as a free energy monitor.

"As our efforts to get the nation Energy Fit show, by taking a few simple steps and working with us, customers can take control of their bills and bring their energy use down. We'd urge everyone who hasn't already, to visit eonenergyfit.com to get tailored advice which will allow them to make positive changes right away."

EDF's response

"EDF Energy would like to apologise to Mr Bonson for any inconvenience caused by this matter.

We originally objected to the transfer of his energy supply as there was debt outstanding on the account, which was then settled. A system error then caused the second objection. We've apologised for this delay in transferring his supply and have offered £65 as a gesture of goodwill which Mr Bonson has accepted.

We receive hundreds of thousands of requests to transfer supply each year. A small percentage are objected to, for a variety of reasons, including debt outstanding on the account - the most common reason for objection. The vast majority of these are resolved very quickly, once the debt has been paid off.

The UK has one of the most competitive energy markets in Europe, with around 16% (Ofgem figures, 2010) of customers switching. Whilst figures over the last few years have shown a slight (one or two percentage point) decline in the numbers of customers switching, over recent months we have seen an increase in the number of customers moving to EDF Energy, largely due to our highly competitive fixed price products. Hundreds of thousands of customers have switched to our fixed products over the last couple of months.

We can confirm that customers on our previously available variable online tariffs will not have to pay a penalty to switch following on from our recent price change. However, they would need to inform us of their intention to switch before the price change date (in this case, 10 November) to ensure they keep their current rates. We've included text in the appendix which formed part of the price change letters sent to customers, which makes this clear.

With regard to tariffs, our customers have told us they want a choice in the type of products we offer. In March 2011, we simplified our tariff structure, following customer feedback, so that each tariff is made up of a basic standing charge reflecting fixed costs plus a unit charge. We were pleased to see this was one of the recommendations made by Ofgem last week in their reform proposals. Currently, we offer five tariffs on sale through all our channels, which fit into three categories; Standard (variable), Fixed, and Green.

These are;
• Standard (Variable) - a rolling contract with no fees, and a variable rate.
• Fix for 2012 - Fixed prices until the end of December 2012
• Price Protection 2013 + welcome bonus - Fixed until 31 March 2013
• Price Protection 2014 + welcome bonus - Fixed until 30 June 2014
• Green - (electricity only) - an equivalent amount of renewable energy is purchase to match the supply for users on this product

Following on from the recent Energy Summit, held between suppliers, the Government, Ofgem and other consumer bodies, we have confirmed that we will be writing to all our customers to make sure they are on the best tariff for them, as well as asking them to check that they are taking advantage of the all dual fuel and direct debit discounts available to them, and offering free insulation to all our customers. We'll be writing to all our customers over the coming weeks to tell them what they need to do to take advantage of this offer.

Appendix - text sent to customers

If you want to leave us, please let us know by 10 November 2011 and we will continue to apply your existing terms, conditions and prices. If you have outstanding charges on your account, we may stop your supply being transferred. If so, we will allow a further 30 working days, giving you time to settle your balance so your new supplier can re-apply to take over your supply.

Comment with regard to Ofgem's recent Electricity and Gas Market Report and Market Reform Proposals

"The profit figures in Ofgem's Electricity and Gas Market Report are not ones that we recognise. In fact, as shown in our official reporting to Ofgem, for the last two years we had a negative net margin on our residential supply business.

EDF Energy is committed to being fair to its customers. We were the last of the major suppliers to announce an increase in prices this summer, and unlike other suppliers we have still not implemented that change. Even when our new prices come into effect on November 10 we will have the cheapest average standard dual fuel prices of all the main suppliers. This follows on from our winter price freeze last year.

We plan to spend billions of pounds on the UK's energy infrastructure over the next few years, playing our part in keeping the lights on and tackling climate change in an affordable way. We have also recently invested in a new customer servicing system, which allows our customers to better manage their energy account with us.

We responded to Ofgem's Retail Market Review and we note that a number of our suggestions are included in today's proposals. We have already simplified our tariff structure along the lines suggested by Ofgem today, with a standing charge and single unit price for all electricity consumed.

We will review today's proposals in detail before responding further, and will work with Ofgem to ensure any changes are in the best interests of consumers.

We look forward to engaging further on this issue and are committed to being transparent and fair with our customers. We were the first of the major energy companies to say a Competition Commission inquiry may be necessary to establish greater trust between consumers and the energy industry."

NPOWER's response:

Does npower believe they have fulfilled the Peace of Mind Guarantee to their customer?

Yes and for more information please see http://www.energymadeclear.co.uk/#making-it-simple-to-switch this link is available through www.npower.com

Can npower explain why fewer consumers are switching?

Recent research shows that around 80,000 consumers switch every week, proving that the market is fluid and competitive. Along with this we need to remember the consumers who regularly switch tariff but not supplier, these individuals are not included in switching figures.

What does npower plan to do to encourage customers to switch, and to make the process easier?

We have a tariff guide that helps consumers research the tariff in detail before switching. The guide is available at npower.com/products. We have recently redeveloped this site to make it easier to navigate and understand. Further developments on our website will see a tool that customers can use to check their own energy use against that of similar households in their area. Along with the tariff guide, we will be changing our bills to signpost the ways in which customers can check out the best deals for them.

RWE npower's response to Ofgem's quarterly profit margin report

Responding to Ofgem's 12th analysis of Energy Companies' profit margins in the last three years, Volker Beckers, CEO RWE npower, said: "Ofgem's analysis shows energy companies are making just over £9 profit on every £100 we receive getting energy to your doorstep."

"Earlier this year, the industry was making just £1.50 on every £100; and between 2004 and 2009 Ofgem's own figures show that the energy industry was making a loss on the average customer."

"These are not the figures associated with an industry that is profiteering or uncompetitive, and despite this challenging financial climate, RWE still managed to invest over £1 Billion into new, more efficient energy infrastructure for the UK in each of the last three years.

RWE npower's response to the DECC Energy Summit

npower announces price freeze for Winter 2011/2 - Cold selling on the doorstep to cease
Speaking in advance of a major energy summit Volker Beckers, CEO of RWE npower, made a new commitment to npower customers for the forthcoming winter. 'I know people want some certainty on energy prices, so today I am announcing that we will fix the prices for all of our customers on standard residential tariffs for the coming winter period so that they can budget with confidence'

He continued: 'I am very aware that there have been significant increases in the cost of living. It's a global phenomenon affecting food prices, fuel prices and other household costs including energy prices. There are many fixed price deals around currently but most charge a premium or have exit fees, unlike our commitment for this winter. For those who want protection for two winters we have a new fixed tariff available at the same price as our standard tariff.'

Further changes regarding cold selling on the doorstep were also announced today. We have been reviewing our approach to doorstep selling through our direct labour force, consultation meetings have been held with representatives of our sales staff and we will cease cold selling on the doorstep through our internal teams on 30 November. Our arrangements in relation to doorstep selling with our third party direct marketing provider will also come to an end at the same time. So we will be stopping cold selling on the doorstep at the end of next month.

Commenting on the DECC Energy Summit Volker Beckers, CEO of RWE npower, said:

"Clear concise and transparent communication between energy suppliers and customers is vital to ensure they are on the best deal and take advantage of free energy saving measures. Although the recent Which? survey placed npower at the top when it came to communicating the cheapest tariffs to customers; today's summit reinforces the message that energy suppliers, government and customers should all redouble our efforts.

"npower has already announced that it will freeze standard residential prices over the winter and has made a commitment to end cold door-step selling by the end of November. In addition we already offer free insulation*, the Warm Home Discount and free energy efficiency advice.

"I would encourage any customer to call their energy supplier to ensure they are on the right tariff for them and to check on what insulation measures are available.

"As Britain stands at the cross-roads of its energy future; we all must ensure that customers are considered at every turn and that we sign-post our best offers and free energy efficiency advice."

SSE's response

We believe we are complying fully with the Peace of Mind Guarantee. It is also worth noting that all energy bills now carry a strapline reminding customers that they can switch suppliers.

The UK energy industry is one of the most competitive in Europe and SSE takes every possible step to ensure the switching process is seamless and as easy as possible for customers. In the event that the anything should go wrong in the switching process, SSE will introduce a mis-selling guarantee which means if it makes a mistake in the sales process, it will make good that mistake.

RESPONSE TO OFGEM'S 'SNAPSHOT ESTIMATE' OF NET MARGIN ON DOMESTIC SUPPLY

SSE does not recognise in any way Ofgem's 'snapshot estimate' that the net margin on supplying a dual fuel domestic customer is approximately £125.

The approach adopted by Ofgem in calculating this figure is entirely theoretical and does not reflect how a responsible energy supply business manages its energy procurement strategy in reality.

This is demonstrated in the way Ofgem's net margin estimate has varied so much during the last 12 months. In June 2011, Ofgem's number was £15, in March 2011 it was £75, in December 2010 it was £90 and in September 2010 it was £65.

The 'snapshot estimate' needs to be compared against SSE's Consolidated Segmental Statement for the last financial year, which reported a profit for supplying domestic customers of £266million, which equates to around £62 or 6% per dual fuel customer. SSE does not expect this margin to change significantly for the current financial year as a whole, although it has already said that its financial results for the first half will be 'substantially lower' than last year.

As part of its drive to build trust in energy supply, SSE has committed to publish on each customer's annual statement the cost breakdown of a typical customer's bill, including any profit.

WHOLESALE ELECTRICITY PRICE TRANSPARENCY

SSE is to introduce a new and transparent approach to the management of its electricity supply and demand requirements. This approach will see SSE phase in the auction of all of its electricity supply1 and purchase all of its electricity demand, in the day ahead market.

SSE aims to begin this approach by trading a proportion of its total electricity supply and demand by Friday 14 October 2011 - with the expectation that it will reach 25% during November. The volume of electricity transacted in this way will then be increased gradually over the next few months with the expectation that all of SSE's electricity supply and demand will be traded in the day ahead market by the end of its current financial year (subject to market conditions and costs).

There has been a perception that SSE currently trades only the difference between its generation and its electricity demand in the wholesale day ahead market. Moving to an approach where gross volumes are clearly being traded, effectively means that SSE will eliminate this perception and provide a new level of transparency.

By selling its total supply of electricity and buying its total electricity demand simultaneously in the day ahead auction, SSE will significantly improve the liquidity, depth and credibility of the market, and assist in the creation of a robust and tangible pricing index.

Currently the GB day ahead electricity market trades volumes of around 40 GWh per day - with a further 200GWh through brokered markets. These volumes compare unfavourably with markets such as Germany and Nordpool which clear between 500 and 750 GWh daily. While SSE and other companies have been seeking to improve liquidity in the wholesale electricity market, Ofgem has stated that more needs to be done to increase the traded volumes. SSE's average daily demand volume is around 165GWh, which means that its move to gross trading will transform the day ahead auction market.

SSE will continue to operate in the Forward market in the same way as it does now, including entering into long term contracts with independent generators and suppliers who require them.

SSE is the second largest electricity generator in the UK and last year generated over 47,500 GWh of electricity, which represents almost 15% of the UK electricity demand.

Alistair Phillips-Davies, SSE's Generation and Supply Director, said: "This commitment from SSE will significantly improve the liquidity in the wholesale electricity market and help to address one of the perceived barriers to entry into the electricity supply market. If other energy companies adopt a similar approach, this commitment could lead to a transformation in the wholesale electricity market in Great Britain.

"We believe this commitment represents the most significant change to the GB electricity market since the market arrangements were amended in 2005, to form the current market arrangements known as BETTA.

"Customers have demanded greater transparency around how we operate in the wholesale market. As well as improving liquidity, this approach will also improve the transparency of SSE's activity in the wholesale market."

HELP FOR ENERGY CUSTOMERS DURING THE WINTER

SSE is implementing a comprehensive plan for helping its customers with their energy bills. The plan has four core elements:

• giving financial help with energy bills through the winter and beyond to over 400,000 customers through the Warm Home Discount, the energyplus care schemes and other initiatives. This help will have a total value of £46m in 2011/12, compared with £28m in the previous year;
• providing payment arrangements that are tailored to the particular circumstances of at least 300,000 customers who may be experiencing hardship and having difficulty in paying their energy bills;
• making proactive calls to vulnerable customers in the final three months of 2011 to ensure they are aware of the support and advice available to them and to avoid situations such as self-disconnection by customers with pre-payment meters; and
• improving energy efficiency through the free or discounted installation of cavity loft insulation in 153,000 homes and of wall insulation in 147,000 homes (excluding DIY insulation) in 2011/12.

For the winter period (December to February), SSE will not disconnect the gas or electricity supply of any customer, unless there are issues of safety or criminality involved.

SSE has already committed that it will not implement another increase in the price of household electricity and gas until August 2012 at the earliest, if it has to.

More broadly, SSE is committed to working with the governments in Westminster, Edinburgh and Cardiff, and to practical partnerships with consumer bodies such as Citizens Advice and Consumer Focus to deliver other workable and substantive steps which actually help customers. It is also engaging with Professor John Hills' independent review of fuel poverty.

As part of its wider initiative to build trust in energy supply, SSE is also piloting an Annual Energy Review to ensure that customers are on the best tariff to suit their needs and to identify the options for other measures such as improved energy efficiency. It intends to offer every customer an Annual Energy Review, starting in 2012.

Richard Westoby, SSE's Director of Energy Demand, said:

"Using electricity and gas more efficiently is the fastest and most cost effective way of keeping energy bills as low as possible for the long term. A lot of progress has been made in energy efficiency in recent years, and we want to maintain that momentum during the coming winter period and beyond."

Tony Keeling, Director of Customer Service, said:

"We have around 6,000 people working across the UK in Customer Service and Metering who are committed to doing everything they can to support customers during the winter months and throughout the rest of the year. Any customer with any worries about energy costs should get in touch with us, because we offer real and practical help."

BUILDING TRUST IN ENERGY RETAILING

SSE plc has today published a document setting out its initial plans and priorities to address retail energy customers' concerns relating to complexity, transparency and customer service. The implementation of a number of these measures is already underway and the whole programme should be completed during 2012.

Complexity
• SSE will introduce an 'APR-style' Energy Price Rate to help customers compare prices on a consistent basis; and
• SSE has terminated around 20% of its tariff arrangements in advance of a more radical approach it expects to unveil next year.

Transparency
• SSE will publish on a continuing basis an externally-sourced and objectively-produced tracker showing the movements in costs that make up an energy bill;
• SSE will set out on customers' Annual Energy Statement how their bill is made up, including any profit that is made; and
• SSE is introducing a new and transparent approach to the trading of its electricity generation and demand.*

Customer Service
• SSE will ensure all of its customers have the opportunity to access any tariff rate it offers;
• SSE will offer every customer an Annual Energy Review to make sure they're getting the most appropriate energy deal;
• SSE will introduce a mis-selling guarantee which means if it makes a mistake in the sales process, it will make good that mistake; and
• SSE will establish formally-constituted forums for customers in England, Scotland and Wales.

In addition to all of the above measures, SSE has re-iterated its commitment to ensuring its tariffs are properly cost-reflective and that no 'predatory pricing' takes place. In line with that, the differential between SSE's standard credit price and its standard online tariff is already, by some distance, the lowest among leading suppliers (as at 7 October 2011).

In July, SSE became the first of the leading energy suppliers to stop commission-based doorstep selling. It also confirmed it would add to its existing disclosure of complaints sent about it to the Energy Ombudsman, Consumer Focus and Consumer Direct by publishing a report on its complaints performance every quarter, and publish this on its customer websites.

SSE is also the only leading energy supplier to state that it will not implement another increase in the price of household electricity and gas, if it has to, before August 2012 at the earliest.

SSE supplies electricity and gas as Southern Electric in England, Scottish Hydro in Scotland, SWALEC in Wales, and through Atlantic via the internet. It has around nine million customers in the Great Britain market.

The full document covering SSE's proposals is available at www.sse.com/buildingtrust.

Ian Marchant, SSE's Chief Executive, presented and discussed these proposals as part of an event hosted by the Policy Exchange at 1.30pm in London today**

SSE Chief Executive Ian Marchant said: "In this decade and beyond, energy needs to be about three things: capacity; carbon and the customer. For very good reasons, much attention has focused on the vital issues of capacity and carbon. But, at the end of the day, it's the customer who needs secure, low carbon and affordable energy, and it's the customer who deserves the best possible deal.

"Energy companies do a huge amount of good work on a day-in, day-out basis. The reality is, however, that too many customers have little or no trust in their supplier or the sector. I want to change that, and at SSE we have a 'starter for 10' - ten early steps we want to take to build trust in us and what we do.

"Earlier this year, Ofgem said that in a period of rising prices, suppliers have to transform the way they deal with customers. Ofgem was right. Last month, the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change said a Competition Commission inquiry would cause two years of delay. He was right too - except the delay would probably be five years.

"That's far too long to wait. The time for action is now, and action is what this company, at least, is determined to take. We want to get on with delivering this plan and identifying and implementing the next set of ideas to build trust. Customers deserve no less."

Is your diesel filter out of kilter?

2011-10-20T17:45:00Z

Whether it's dropping the kids off at school, commuting to work or doing the weekly shop, a city car seems to be the perfect solution for the urban driver.

And they come with some tempting incentives too like being low on emissions, low on tax - and if you chose a diesel car, you could save money on fuel consumption. But did you know that nearly all new diesel cars are fitted with an eco-friendly car component which is leaving some motorists with huge bills to pay? Chris Hollins investigates.

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The part in question is called a Diesel Particulate Filter or DPF. It's fitted to the exhaust to trap the soot and reduce emissions. The part was introduced to bring cars in line with new EU green emissions rules. But if you use your car solely for city driving then you could be in trouble.

The part usually cleans itself when the engine runs at high speeds - a process called regeneration. If this hasn't happened for a while, a warning light indicates that the filter is getting blocked. It must then be cleared by driving the car at high revs for a sustained period of time. This is easily done on the open road but is much more difficult to do around town.

Watchdog has received over two hundred complaints about problems concerning diesel particulate filters. And it's a problem that affects diesel cars made by most manufacturers. Some drivers have had to pay hundreds of pounds to have their filters cleared whilst one customer needed a replacement costing over £1000.

Damon Noad bought a brand new diesel Fiat 500 as a city run-around in 2009 from a local dealership. Within a year Damon noticed a warning light on the dashboard and soon learnt that his little Fiat had a big problem. He learnt that the car was fitted with a DPF and that he would need to take his car out regularly for around 20 minutes and drive constantly for 40-50mph for the vehicle to function properly. Fiat do mention this in their manual but Damon says he wasn't told about it when he bought the car, nor was he told that the car was not suitable for city driving only.

And it's not just the diesel Fiat 500s that have the filter. Wayne Brunton found he had problems when he purchased a so called 'Urbanproof' Nissan Qashqai. Buying the vehicle second hand, Wayne explained that it would mainly be used for day to day commuting as well as pulling his caravan occasionally. Five months after purchase, the amber filter light on the dashboard came on. Wayne followed the guidance in the manual and took his car onto a road where he could drive above 50mph for 30 minutes. It resolved the problem in the short term but a month a later the light came on again, this time accompanied with the engine management light. Wayne took the car into his local dealership for investigation. The filter had to be regenerated, despite the car being under warranty; Wayne was charged nearly £250 because the previous owner had already claimed for the filter. Nissan have agreed to refund Wayne but only on this occasion.

Tim Shallcross from the Institute of Advanced Motorists says that manufacturers make sure dealers are asking questions about buyers driving habits and the care of the car when customers purchase the vehicle. They can do this by asking searching questions and if customers say they are only going to use the vehicle for urban driving, then they may not benefit from a vehicle fitted with DPF; consequently, dealers should be advising them to go for a petrol car instead.

Tim says that in most cases the regeneration process is activated by the exhaust pipe getting hot which is achieved by getting the engine speed up. The best way to ensure a regeneration is successful, is to maintain the engine speed at 2500 rpm for at least 15-20 minutes. Driving along a dual carriage way, for example, at 50 mph and stopping for roundabouts won't be achieve a successful regeneration because a constant high engine speed needs to be maintained for a successful regeneration. He also adds that manufacturers should be advising drivers to drive for a sustained period of time and focus on getting their revs per minute up instead of focusing on the speed.

Fiat Statement:

Fiat does its utmost to ensure our franchised dealer network and their salesmen have full access to training programmes that enable them to qualify the needs of potential customers. This training is supported by regular 'mystery shopper' exercises designed to ensure the training is put into practice to benefit customers.

We would point out that for both prospective purchasers and owners of Fiat vehicles, we make available documents that can be downloaded free of charge from our web site. There is a specific DPF supplement that deals exclusively with the functionality and characteristics of the Diesel Particulate Filter, and details the actions required should the DPF warning light illuminate continually. This information is also included within the Owners Handbook which is again available to download free of charge.

It also details the actions required if the warning light does come on. In this instance, we advise that the optimum conditions for DPF regeneration are to travel at a speed higher than 38mph at approximately 1800rpm for a period of 15 minutes. Clearly, this speed can safely be achieved on many UK roads, without the need to take the car on to a motorway.

At the point of sale our new car brochures contain full details regarding the fitment of a DPF and the supplement and handbook, mentioned above, are provided in hard copy within the customer literature pack supplied by the salesman during the new vehicle handover. Therefore in terms of providing information to our customers, we believe these provisions to be comprehensive.

With regard to the matter of DPF regeneration, the statement given by your expert is of a general nature and is not applicable to the Fiat 500. For your information, the optimum regeneration conditions required for the Fiat 500 are not as exacting as those quoted by your expert and we believe, do not require a change in driving style and are typical of the general use a vehicle will undergo during the ownership period.

We don't comment on individual cases, however we understand that the complaint you are referring to does not allege a fault with the vehicle as such.

We would ask you to note that we have never directly advertised the Fiat 500 diesel version as a city car although the Fiat 500 has received many awards including those in the category City Car of the Year. These categories are created by the organisations or publications that produce the awards and while we are always pleased to receive accolades, we would point out that the Fiat 500 is designed to be used in all driving environments and not just urban areas.

Finally, with regard to Fiat 500 customers' choice of engine option, in the period 2009 to YTD 2011, less than 2% of our customers chose diesel engines.

In closing we would remind all of our customers that Fiat can be contacted on 0080034280000 or by visiting www.fiat.co.uk .

NISSAN DPF STATEMENT

Particulate filters are now fitted to car makers' diesel engines in order to help comply with emissions laws. Most owners are unaware they even exist as they operate automatically when the exhaust temperature reaches a certain level, usually at motorway speeds.

Petrol engined cars in the Nissan range do not use a DPF.

Because of the way most DPFs work, they may not be ideal for cars which are used exclusively for short, low speed journeys.

All Nissan sales staff are trained to help customers make the right choice of engine type for their circumstances. They would recommend one of Nissan's many advanced petrol or electric vehicles for buyers who use their car for short journeys only.

To further assist customers make an informed choice, explanations of how DPFs work are clearly printed in sales literature of both the printed and online eBrochures. Below is an example from the Qashqai brochure:

"The 1.5dCi, 1.6dCi and 2.0dCi engines fitted to QASHQAI include a diesel particulate filter (DPF) to reduce emissions and help protect the environment. The functionality of a DPF may not be suitable for all customers. If your journeys are predominantly urban or low speed, a model without a DPF may be a more suitable alternative."

Owners will also find clear explanations of the DPF maintenance programme printed in the car's manual.

If the car has been unable to regenerate the DPF automatically, a warning light on the instrument panel indicates that the owner should go for a longer drive to create the necessary conditions for the exhaust to reach a higher temperature. If this is carried out correctly a visit to the dealer will be unnecessary.

If an owner still finds they need DPF regeneration at the dealer, Nissan will cover the first instance under warranty and will again seek to educate the owner about the procedure so further work is unnecessary.

When these instructions are followed and the car properly maintained, the DPF should continue to help drivers protect the environment easily and effectively.

SMMT statement:

Diesel models account for around 50% of the overall new car market and nearly 120,000 small, diesel powered cars have been sold so far this year. The majority of motorists are happy with the performance and economy they achieve so it is extremely disappointing when a customer has a bad experience. We work hard to deliver a consistently high quality of service.

Vehicle manufacturers provide extensive information to customers in the form of online resources, advice stickers on the vehicle and dedicated information sheets provided at the point of sale and on their websites to advise buyers before they purchase a new car. This detail is reinforced through the franchise dealer network, whose salespeople are trained to help motorists choose and understand the most appropriate vehicle for their needs. It's important that car buyers discuss their driving habits with their dealer to make sure they get the best advice.

Normal UK driving conditions - even those found in towns and cities - are usually sufficient to allow DPFs to regenerate automatically, and most drivers would not need to do anything specific to maintain their DPF systems, but should an issue occur, drivers should follow the guidance offered in their handbook and by dealer staff to ensure trouble-free motoring.

Manufacturers are committed to continually improving standards and delivering the high levels of customer service most people rightfully expect from the industry and are constantly reviewing and updating their training to deliver a positive customer experience.

As an industry, we support Motor Codes which runs a suite of OFT-backed Codes of Practice within the motor trade and offers free consumer advice and conciliation in the event of customer concern.

Where are they now? An update on some past rogues...

2011-10-20T17:30:00Z

To celebrate the last Rogue Traders of the series, we have updates on Rogues who have previously featured on the programme.

Some viewers have wanted to know why the rogues who have featured on the programme have appeared to get away with their activities. They want to know why Rogue Traders doesn't bring them to justice. Rogue Traders is here to expose them - and it is then down to police and trading standards officers to prosecute or take other appropriate action if they can. And often, they do. So, we are going to show you what happened to some of the rogues after our cameras stopped rolling.

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First up is Nicky Date, a rogue who we exposed in September 2010. He collected people's rubbish, but rather than disposing of it correctly, he would roam the streets of Cardiff looking for somewhere to put it. He has been jailed for this in the past; when we had heard that he was doing it again, we called him out. You can read about him here.

On May 26th 2011, Nicky Date appeared at Cardiff Magistrates Court to get sentenced on two charges of fly tipping, one of which was a charge for tipping oil. Date received a four month suspended sentence and a two month suspended sentence, to be served consecutively. He also received a 12 month supervision order, 200 hours of unpaid work and an ASBO.

Steve Atkins from Cardiff County Council commented: "The Rogue Trader footage was used as supplementary evidence and this helped us secure a five year ASBO against Nicholas Date. Fly tipping is a major problem in Cardiff costing the city council up to £1million a year to clear up."

Our next Rogue is Gurdave Sharma from TVRC, a TV repair company which until recently was based in Birmingham. TVRC went under many different company names, posing as a local company. In 2006 Sharma was sentenced to 12 months in jail after breaching a court order designed to stop him cheating customers and he was served with a further court order. However, in 2009 we caught him back to his old tricks. You can read more about Sharma here.

Earlier this year Sharma was prosecuted again by Trading Standards, who had served the order on him in 2006. He appeared before a court in April 2011 and was jailed for 15 months for breaching that order.

Next up is LBS Enforcement Ltd, a clamping company based in Essex. They were exposed by us for intimidating behaviour and extremely large charges. You can read more about LBS here.

We caught up with one of the directors of LBS Enforcement at the time, and clamped his car. But the good news is, since then the authorities have caught up with the company, too. Ben Collins, who clamped our researcher Hannah, fellow clamper Edward Lapenna, and director Mark Stone have had their SIA vehicale immobilisation licenses taken away. They've also been given 13 week suspended jail sentences for using threatening words and behaviour when posing as debt collectors. And HMRC has won an application to have the company wound up for non-payment of taxes.

Then there's Clive Bramall of Oxford and Abingdon Washing Machine Repairs. He conned his customers into handing over money - for appliances that didn't turn up. He was featured on Rogue Traders in October 2010. You can read more about Bramall here.

Earlier this year, Oxfordshire Trading Standards charged Bramall with three counts of fraud, six counts of misleading customers by taking payment without supplying goods and one count of failing to act with professional diligence.

He pleaded guilty, received a six-week suspended jail sentence and was ordered to carry out 250 hours of unpaid work.

Next up we have brothers Abbas and Bilal Ahmed, who made a business of selling cars with hugely reduced mileages - at massively inflated prices. We were fairly sure the cars they were selling were clocked, but we needed to get them to clock a car for us.

First we had to sell them the car, then buy it back to prove, without any doubt, that they knew exactly what they were selling. The car had 128,000 miles on the clock when we sold it to them, but was showing just 47,000 when we went to buy it back. That meant they could ask £6,200 for it, and not £2,300 for which they had bought it from us. You can read the full story here.

We caught up with Abbas Ahmed when we posed as customers interested in buying our car back. Abbas tried to run away from our very own Matt Allwright but he couldn't outrun the justice system. Abbas and Bilal Ahmed were prosecuted under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations (2008) for the supply of clocked cars. They both pleaded guilty and were sentenced to 200 hours unpaid work. We calculated that they took half a million miles off the cars in one month - that's the distance from here to the moon and back.

The hidden costs of travel insurance

2011-10-20T17:15:00Z

25 million of us took out travel insurance policies in the UK last year, and more and more of us are opting to buy annual travel insurance policies. But some companies are still automatically adding travel insurance to our bills and you might not even realise they've done it. Martin Lewis investigates.

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Choosing the perfect holiday takes time. When you book online, some travel sites can offer you pages and pages of added extras to help you plan your break. And with some companies, if you're not careful, you could end up paying for more than you expected.

By auto-ticking a little box, they add travel insurance or other extras to your bill. Even though you may already have it, or be able to find it cheaper or better elsewhere. Luckily though, EU rules now prevent them from doing this. So none of them would still be at it - would they?

We've been clicking through a sample of online travel sites. The result reveals that big names are costing you big money. By opting you in, unless you check the terms, they'll be jacking up your price. If you don't make sure to de-select your extras at this stage, you could end up paying more. Last month we searched for a week in Florida for a family of four.

One of the companies we looked at was Expedia. They automatically added travel insurance to the price, putting a massive £127.50 on the bill. You have to deselect this before continuing if you didn't want to pay it - but it's so easy to miss.

We also found lastminute.com doing it - they automatically added £99 for travel insurance. Opodo are doing it too - they pre-selected a £110 policy for the week.

But it isn't just travel insurance. Thomson and Flybe say baggage is an optional extra. They don't include in the main price, but then they go and pre-select it. So, how are they all getting away with this?

The EU has rules in place to stop companies pre-selecting extras and automatically adding insurance is a clear breach of them. All EU members have two years to incorporate these rules into national law, and Britain is expected to do so by the end of the year. But, even though travel companies are currently exempt from penalties, the UK's airline industry regulator, the Civil Aviation Authority, wants them to follow the EU rules now.

They told us: "The European Law on pricing transparency is very clear. Optional extras should be clearly displayed and only offered on an opt-in basis. We are doing some work with the Office of Fair Trading to make sure that all of the travel agents and tour operators have no doubt that they need to comply with this."

Although you can opt-out of your extras, it can be easy to miss what has been added to your bill. And ending up paying for travel insurance without realising when you already have a policy? It's unacceptable. Making sure you know how to deal with it - that's essential.

Expedia's response:

Travel insurance is currently automatically added to our flight & hotel package deals, with an explicit 'opt out' option messaged to our customers. The insurance cost is also clearly visible and broken out in the pricing. We believe that our insurance messaging is clearly presented to customers and fully compliant with UK laws.

We are constantly evaluating what and how we communicate to customers and strongly believe that travel insurance is an important message to convey. A positive customer experience is of utmost importance to us and we are continually investigating new ways of communicating important information on our site. As one of our tests of new methods, we have removed this automatic add on from our website for our busy city break booking period. Flight only bookings continue to include insurance only as an optional extra - the form is pre-populated as "no thanks" until a customer chooses to purchase this cover.

Opodo's response:

According to the latest ABTA Travel Trends Report 37% of all trips are uninsured, so it is important for us to offer travel insurance prominently on our website. Our travel insurance product provides good cover at a competitive price, and we communicate the features and benefits of it clearly to people searching on the site. Customers can remove the insurance at the point that it is introduced, or on the next page of the booking process before they pay. They are also entitled to a full refund if they choose to cancel within 14 days of purchase.

Flybe's response:

'Flybe complies with all EU Regulations in relation to its online booking transparency. This applies to both baggage and insurance choices.

Flybe confirms specifically that online bookers have to OPT IN to choose both baggage and travel insurance options when booking a Flybe flight.

An opt out choice is one where the cost is automatically added to the shopping basket. Flybe simply states what is the standard baggage allowance on its flights by selecting the 20kg bag and this is not pre-charged or added to the shopping basket.

Customers have to accept before any charges are added or applied.

Flybe has a strong track record in working with regulatory bodies and has proven to be fully responsive to any compliancy changes required across its business.'

Thomson and First Choice's response:

Following a review of the online booking process specifically looking at the use of opt-in and opt-out extras, Thomson and First Choice took the decision to amend their websites so that charity donations, in-flight meals (when not free of charge) and the selection of baggage options on flight-only bookings are not automatically pre-selected for customers. This change has eliminated any unintentional purchasing and represents a far more transparent system. The company has worked on these changes which were completed by Thursday 8th September. Thomson and First Choice are always striving to look for ways to improve the booking process and these changes have introduced a clearer and more logical process for our web customers.

lastminute.com's response:

"We automatically opt in customers for travel insurance as we are concerned uninsured travellers may be unable to afford medical treatment or transport home should an issue arise. Customers can remove it from their shopping basket at any time. We constantly listen and react to our customers' feedback about their shopping experience on our site and would consider making changes to policies should they feel we need to. The automatic opt in for travel insurance hasn't currently been a problem for them but we will continue to monitor it."

If you are a lastminute.com customer and have questions about our travel insurance offered, please visit the customer support page on our website, www.lastminute.com

Knowhow: Do they know how to give good customer service?

2011-10-20T17:00:00Z

KNOWHOW is the new 360 degree installation and after-sales service offered at Curry's and PC World. The service was previously called 'The Tech Guys' who were a team of so-called experts Watchdog featured a year ago for substandard repairs and terrible customer service.

According to Dixons Retail Group, KNOWHOW is a new and improved service and it's certainly got the board of directors excited but according to some customers, nothing has changed. Rebecca Wilcox reports.

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Since the launch of KNOWHOW in March, Watchdog has had over 100 complaints. Customers have complained of lengthy delays for repairs, items being returned damaged or with parts missing, items being returned faulty and items being lost altogether. The majority of the complaints to Watchdog concern laptops. But surely with their state of the art repair lab they boast of, surely they have the KNOWHOW to fix an obvious fault?

Not the case according to Sarah Taylor who sent her laptop off to KNOWHOW when it kept switching itself off. Sarah's laptop was returned to her within a week but when she started it up she soon learnt that the fault was still there, so off it went straight back to KNOWHOW.

Sarah repeatedly sent off her laptop for repair. She thought that at least she could at least keep track of the repairs with KNOWHOW's track and trace system; however Sarah was never given a tracking number, so she couldn't use the system. After seven attempts to fix the problem, KNOWHOW eventually admitted they didn't have the 'knowhow' to fix her laptop and offered her a replacement.

KNOWHOW collected Rob Hickey's laptop after his hard drive developed a fault. But when they didn't send it back he began to worry. Rob was told that KNOWHOW could not locate his laptop. After the laptop had been in KNOWHOW's possession for two weeks, they still could not trace it and Rob was then told that a whole pallet of laptops due for delivery had gone missing from the South of England. KNOWHOW have since denied that this happened but did offer to replace Rob's laptop.

Ok, so KNOWHOW are not doing great so far. But at least customers can pay extra for 'Whatever Happens Premier' which is meant to be the best possible cover when things go wrong. But try telling that to Michelle Morgan who sent off her daughter's laptop to KNOWHOW when it developed a fault. As a premier cover customer, Michelle was told the laptop would be repaired within 7-10 days. However, weeks later there was still no sign of her laptop; so much for their speedy repair service. After repeated calls by Michelle to KNOWHOW, a laptop was delivered five weeks later. However, for Michelle the story didn't end there as the laptop that was delivered was not the right one. Michelle contacted KNOWHOW who at the time could not locate her laptop. KNOWHOW did agree to replace Michelle's computer and eventually managed to trace her lost data and gave her £40 for the trouble.

So, a new name and new slogans but for some customers it's the same old story.

Dixons Retail response:

"Our service and repair offer is the largest in the UK with the highest success rate - at 99%. We are proud of what we do, so it's upsetting that human error occasionally means that we let some customers down. We know that when things go wrong it can be traumatic for our customers, and every day we try to find ways to get rid of even this small proportion of errors. Our repair centre in Newark is like no other - so proud are we of its success rate, that we hold open days. Our next one is on November 17th and we would love to invite any of your viewers that would be interested to come and see our lab in action. Opening day details will be published on KNOWHOW.com shortly. If you have an unresolved issue, or want to know more about the Open Day, please contact everyissuematters@knowhow.com"

In answer to your questions:

What percentage of repairs does KNOWHOW achieve within the timescale stated in the relevant policy agreements or terms and conditions?

Based on our most recent data, 99% of customers have had their unit repaired or a decision has been made to write it off (ie replace it with a like for like product) within the timescales set in the terms and condition of their agreement.

What percentage of equipment does KNOWHOW repair or replace within the timeframe specified in the relevant policy agreement?

(As above)
We make 1.1 million repairs - the majority of these being Computers and TVs
With regard to replacing units the average duration from collection of a unit through to "writing it off" is 14.2 days

What policies does Dixons Retail have in place to ensure that customer's equipment is kept safe?

When laptops are sent for repair they are placed in padded boxes and sealed. A cable tie and a unique bar-coded label is attached to the taped box in the store. The colleague also attaches a further tracking label directly to the product which documents any existing scratches or damage. The box is scanned at each step of the journey to Newark, (our repair centre), and also as it arrives on the engineer's bench. The product is then examined and the fault diagnosed. Assuming no decision to write off (ie replace), the product is then repaired and safe tested before being returned. At key stages we scan and automatically document the progress of the product and this is made visible to the customer on our web site.

When we remove/replace data sensitive equipment we have robust processes in place to ensure we wipe the data storage medium. These processes comply with UK Government CESG (communications - electronics - security - group) standards. If the hard disk or data storage medium cannot be wiped we will destroy the data storage medium or hard disk, again in accordance with CESH standards

Comments on the 7 highlighted cases

1. Sarah Taylor

It is not acceptable that this laptop was sent for repair a number of times (NB, the laptop had repairs for different issues each time it was sent for repair). We should have spotted this and taken corrective action sooner. We have offered Ms Taylor a brand new laptop and as requested have returned her hard drive.

2. James Leighfield

We are sorry for the confusion caused when Mr Leighfield's laptop was sent for repair. He had changed address in the middle of the process and he had requested a rerouted delivery but unfortunately we failed to action this. His laptop has now been returned to him repaired.

3. Amy Iche

We apologise for the miscommunication which occurred after her laptop was sent for repair. This is a case of us not delivering within the timeframe we gave her to repair. Ms Iche has now received her working laptop back and we have refunded the fee which she had paid for the 'Fault and Fix' service.

4. Carly Chandler

We are extremely sorry that we have been unable to locate the hard drive from Ms Chandler's laptop - the laptop arrived at the repair centre without the hard drive in place - and we have made every effort to locate it. We would like to assure Ms Chandler that we have a robust process for securely destroying any hard drives that we replace or remove from customers' machines as part of a repair and her unit will have been disposed of in accordance with this process. We have given Ms Chandler a new laptop along with free software.

5. Robert Hickey

We apologise for the confusion around the status of Mr Hickey's laptop when it was taken in for repair - (however it is certainly not the case that a whole pallet of laptops went missing). Mr Hickey's laptop has now been located though he opted to accept a refund instead.

6. Kim Payne

We are sorry that Ms Payne had not received her laptop back once it had been repaired. Unfortunately there was a mix up in the delivery addresses- there was another customer A.Payne on the system. Her laptop has now been repaired

7. Michelle Morgan

We are sorry that we failed to repair Ms Morgan's laptop in the promised time of 7 days as stated in her policy, as well as for the miscommunication on our part. We are sorry that she received the wrong laptop, and although her original laptop has now been located, Ms Morgan's hard drive has been returned to her and, due to the time frames involved her unit has been replaced with a new one.

Tickets for music gigs: it's all about the price tag...

2011-10-14T15:38:16Z

We've had a huge response from fans of One Direction and Coldplay since our item in Ticketmaster last week. They were angry to see that tickets that were sold out on Ticketmaster were appearing sometimes just minutes later on Ticketmaster's sister site GetMeIn.com, at hugely inflated prices.

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And is it any wonder, when you look at some of the prices they've been selling for this week? We spotted One Direction tickets with a face value of around £30 on GetMeIn.com priced at £1,439, and on Viagogo - the biggest ticket re-sale site - at £2,179.

And the websites selling them? They take a cut of up to 25% from every ticket sold.

The companies say they provide a marketplace where genuine fans can buy unwanted tickets at a fair price. They say it's preferable to fans having to deal with touts. But if that really is the case, why isn't there a cap on the prices that can be charged? And it's not just music fans who are calling for a cap on charges - the industry itself thinks it's a good idea.

Watchdog spoke to Ben Turner from the Association of Independent Festivals whose members include Bestival, Creamfields and Secret Garden Party. Ben explained, "We really believe that tickets should not be being sold at inflated prices [...] At the moment, if an Arctic Monkeys show is put on sale, sells out, and the tickets resale at an extra £50, the band are not benefiting from that at all. Bands like Arctic Monkeys and Radiohead [are] two that I know particularly care about this subject - they're not looking to earn that money - they just want to see an end to the inflated prices."

Other high profile artists like Arcade Fire and Kylie have also spoke out against the re-sale trade in tickets, and now even politicians have joined the campaign.

Sharon Hodgson is an MP who has drawn up a Private Member's Bill that would put a cap on the profits people can make from re-selling tickets at highly inflated prices. Sharon told Watchdog, "What a cap would do is to take the profit element out of reselling tickets on the secondary market...and if there's no profit element then you won't get the touts buying the tickets up to try and get their hands on as many as they can - the tickets will be left there for genuine fans to buy at the price intended by the artist.

The government has recognised that action needed to be taken in parliament to protect sports fans in regard to the Olympic tickets. It's only a shame that they don't feel as strongly about protecting music fans."

Ticketmaster Response:

We saw an extraordinary level of demand for One Direction tickets. Ticketmaster was not main ticket retailer for this event and only had a limited number of tickets for these concerts. As demand far outstripped the number of tickets available, there have unfortunately been a large number of disappointed fans. It is important to note that there are a number of places to purchase tickets from the primary market, even for those venues for which Ticketmaster is the preferred ticketing partner. Ticketmaster does not exclusively sell all the tickets and the event organiser will allocate their tickets to multiple agencies and are available via the venue's box office. For many events, Ticketmaster has a limited allocation and therefore resellers secure their tickets from a wide range of outlets.

The ticket resale market, driven by the supply and demand for live events tickets, has always existed.

With all popular events the demand for tickets often outstrips the number of tickets available and the speed of sale can also be affected by the number of pre-sales to fan clubs and priority sponsor groups. This means that the original availability of tickets is greatly reduced when tickets go on sale to the general public.

The internet has enabled the number of ticket resale sites to increase over the past 6 years. As illustrated by BBC Watchdog reports in September 2005, October 2005, January 2007 and March 2009, some of these sites have fraudulently capitalised on consumer demand for live entertainment tickets. The DCMS Select Committee investigated the UK resale market on two occasions and concluded that the entertainment industry needs to offer a market based solution for the legitimate resale of tickets. As a result Ticketmaster purchased GET ME IN! primarily to provide Ticketmaster customers with a safe and secure option for purchasing tickets in the resale market, if they so choose.

Consumer protection is a fundamental principle of our resale market offering. GET ME IN!'s buyer guarantee ensures that when consumers purchase tickets listed by sellers they receive those tickets exactly as promised. Tickets cannot be listed on GET ME IN! until they have been made available to purchase through primary sales channels, unlike other sites which list tickets for events which are not yet on sale. There are no price caps on GET ME IN!, nor are there any price minimums; in fact, tickets for a number of popular events sell for average prices below the original face values. Less than 10% of tickets listed for resale on GET ME IN! are actually resold and the price for these tickets can be significantly lower than the price at which they were originally listed.

We would stress that Ticketmaster never diverts tickets allocated to it for sale at face value to GET ME IN! and all such tickets are priced and sold through Ticketmaster, as stipulated by the event organiser. The vast majority of tickets are sold at face value to fans who attend the event.

We would always advise consumers to go to primary ticketing sites first and to sign-up for email alerts about their favourite artists and events to keep up to date with when tickets are going on sale. They should also come back to primary sites after the general sale date because more tickets can be released by event organisers at a later date. Consumers should also use the main established resale sites for the best protection against fraud.

Additional Information

Ticketmaster accepts that as the leading ticket agency one of its core responsibilities is to offer as many genuine fans as possible the opportunity to buy tickets to the event and to help event organisers sell their tickets, which in turn results in more concerts, more tickets and a greater opportunity for more fans to attend. The vast majority of tickets which are bought by fans through Ticketmaster, other ticket agencies and box offices are bought by fans who intend to go to the event themselves.

However, event organisers are increasingly working with sites like Viagogo, Seatwave and GET ME IN! to offer a market based solution to the UK resale market. GET ME IN! is one of a number of recognised resale sites across the UK. A search for tickets through Google for your favourite artists will list hundreds and hundreds of sites offering tickets. However, many of these sites offer music fans little or no information on the quality or location of these tickets.

We do not believe that legislation to ban the reselling of tickets will prevent this market from existing and it could potentially drive the practice further underground and compromise consumer protection. Many consumers have demonstrated their willingness to pay a market price for tickets.

There are a number of initiatives which we currently undertake to help as many genuine fans as possible buy their event tickets.

Paperless Ticketing

Where one of our clients, a venue or promoter, wants to try and eliminate resale market activity Ticketmaster can put in place our Paperless Ticketing solution. This means the individual who purchases the tickets must arrive at the venue with the actual credit/debit card used to buy the tickets and a form of photo ID in order to gain entry to the venue.

This solution has been implemented very successfully by Ticketmaster a number of times at various events and venues. The lack of access control at many venues means that this solution cannot currently be adopted more widely, however, Ticketmaster believes that linking the identity of the original ticket purchaser to the means of entry, be that through their mobile phone, travel card or credit card could become an increasingly common method of preventing resale.

Ticket limits

The ticket limit per event, which is the number of tickets that can be purchased by any one person at a time, is stipulated to Ticketmaster by the event organiser. This limit normally ranges between 2 and 8 tickets per person.

Ticketmaster undertakes regular checks, especially for high profile high demand events, to identify any obvious multiple bookings. If a multiple booking is identified, any excess tickets are cancelled and the tickets reoffered for sale through Ticketmaster. When requested by an event organiser, Ticketmaster will also make even deeper checks, looking for multiple booking by credit/debit cards; bookings from the same postal address or even from the same IP address.

Prevention of bulk and automated bookings
When a customer buys tickets through Ticketmaster.co.uk they will experience the ReCaptcha technology online which prevents automated systems purchasing bulk numbers of tickets.

Platinum Tickets and Auctions

Another response to the secondary market could be the introduction of dynamic pricing, where the market decides the ticket price. Ticketmaster already adopts Platinum Tickets as one such initiative. Some event organisers allocate a limited number of the best tickets for a high profile event for sale through Ticketmaster, and sometimes GET ME IN!, as official Platinum Tickets priced at a market value. These tickets are gradually released for sale from the on sale date to the day of the event, offering those customers looking to buy the best tickets at a market rate, the option of purchasing from a site offering full consumer protection.

The other key positive about this initiative is that any additional revenue is driven back to the event organiser and ultimately back into the UK's entertainment industry, rather than going to unrelated parties in the secondary market. Similarly, Ticketmaster also offers event organisers the chance to run ticket auctions in order to maximise the revenue generated from an event, many of which are in support of charitable organisations.

Resale Market Users

Pre-sales to closed, but extensive users groups such as fan clubs and sponsors have become a regular part of the ticket sales process. A significant number of tickets are sold through these pre-sales and the result is many of the best tickets are often sold before they are made available to the wider public.

We consider that the sellers that offer tickets on resale sites, such as GET ME IN!, can be broken down into three broad categories:

• Organised sellers that buy tickets from a variety of ticket agencies and venues, not only Ticketmaster. These resellers list their tickets on multiple resale sites.

• The fan who buys more tickets than they actually intend to use and then resell their additional tickets to fund their own purchase and to make a profit.

• The fan whose circumstances or preferences change and they use resale sites to sell their tickets.

The majority of tickets that are listed on resale sites are listed by the first two categories.

Consumer Protection

GET ME IN! puts in place a number of measures to ensure consumers are protected. If a seller fails to deliver the tickets they advertised there are penalties and the buyer receives back 150% of the money they spent. Sellers that advertise tickets they cannot deliver are blocked and banned from using the site. By Ticketmaster and GET ME IN! working together we're trying to deliver greater transparency and protection and improve standards in the resale market

The vast majority of tickets for live events are sold at face value to fans that attend the event themselves

Viagogo Response:

We know how important it is to have a guarantee that you will get the right ticket at the right price. There are very few chancers on our website listing their tickets at extortionate prices, and in fact, around half the tickets sold on our website are listed at or below face value. This includes tickets for massive stars like Rihanna and Katy Perry which are available right now. The remainder are sold at an average premium of around 15% - 20%.

We've been through lengthy debates about regulating ticket resellers before, and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport carried out a select committee hearing and a public consultation which concluded that secure websites like ours are in the public interest. It was only a few years ago, before we introduced the concept of secure ticket reselling to the UK, that thousands of people every weekend were left disappointed after buying fake tickets from touts, or fraudulent websites. We're proud that we've had a significant impact on cleaning up a shady marketplace.

A cap on prices is well-intentioned, but ultimately flawed. This is because you can't regulate the touts who would still charge whatever they want. All this would do would be to increase the number of tickets being sold back in the pubs, clubs and car parks of the black market, which would undermine all the work we've been doing to bring security to the market.

Increasingly, the entertainment and sports industries are in agreement that legitimate resellers like us are the best option for consumers, which is why we have a wide range of partners such as the Reading and Leeds Festivals and Madonna's last tour, as well as Chelsea football club. They all understand the importance of providing a safe and secure ticket resale service to fans.

The reality is that there always have been, and there always will be, people reselling tickets. They are either going to do it through a secure exchange or on the black market. Our ethos is to ensure that people can do this securely, legitimately, and with a guarantee that they will get what they paid for.

For further information please contact press@viagogo.com

A DCMS spokesperson said:

"In 2009, the previous administration conducted a consultation on the secondary ticketing market. Rather than regulating, most responses were in favour of the introduction of tighter operating practices by primary ticket distributors, including using technology such as barcodes and paperless tickets. Broadly speaking, the consultation responses suggested that Government intervention should be a last resort.

A separate report by the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee in 2008 concluded that while intervention was justified on grounds of public order and safety at and around football matches, they recommended that regulatory intervention in the wider secondary ticket market should be considered only as a very last resort. The Committee were also concerned by the real risk that a convenient market, which some consumers had grown accustomed to use and trust, would be driven underground.

Hugh Robertson, the Minister for Sport and the Olympics, who leads on this policy area, has looked at the Select Committee findings and is broadly in agreement. It is for individual event holders to decide how to organise the sales of their tickets and how tickets are released on to the market. The Government would not want to interfere in what is, essentially, a commercial operation, and there are currently no plans to introduce legislation to do this. The Government has also made a commitment to reduce regulation and to introduce new regulation only as a last resort.

Legislation preventing the resale of Olympic and Paralympic tickets is a requirement of hosting the Games committed to as part of the host city contract with the IOC."

Martin Lewis' Bank Account Clinic

2011-10-13T18:00:00Z

Mobile insurance, identity theft cover, extended warranties, music downloads. The list of added extras to seduce us into fee paying bank accounts is seemingly endless. But are packaged account customers winners of losers?

Martin Lewis went to North London to find out, and set up the first Watchdog Bank Account Clinic. His aim was to track down packaged account holders and challenge their assumptions to see if they would be better off back with their old free accounts.

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First up, Anthony Ho. He is paying £12.95 a month for his account - that's £155 a year. After chatting with Martin, Anthony told him he uses only one of the many benefits on offer. They both agreed it probably wasn't worth the money.

Martin thinks there are millions of others out there just like Anthony, who have been tempted by a raft of benefits that sound good, but they either don't need them, don't use them, or don't want them. What's more, even if they use some of the benefits, there are often less expensive ways to get similar cover anyway.

For some though, once they have a packaged account, switching to a different account would be a mistake. Martin spoke to Nick, who has a large overdraft. He thought that for the size of the facility, Nick was probably making the right choice to pay the premium. Others did use a lot of their benefits, and it made sense for them to stay where they are, but some customers need to take a good look at their monthly fees and ask themselves if the added extras are really worth the money.

Barclays Response:

"Barclays constantly works to ensure that we offer products and services that best meet customers' needs and provide value for money. Our packaged account range has been designed to include the features customers most value and is constantly monitored to ensure it continues to meet these requirements. Our customers regularly use the features of their chosen packaged account which represent good value for money. We ensure that each of the benefits associated with the account provides extensive cover, equivalent to our standalone policies, for example our mobile phone insurance covers smart phones."

"We have rigorous controls in place through the sales and upgrade process to ensure that it is entirely the customer's decision to take a packaged account. We communicate with customers when they take out the account and, through regular reminders, summarise the features and benefits of their account to ensure they are making the most of the services available to them. Our packaged accounts have no tie-ins meaning customers are free to move onto another account, including our free accounts, at any time."

• Approximately 17% of current accounts held are packaged accounts
• We can confirm that we have only a tiny number of mis-selling complaints for packaged accounts.
• We can confirm that we have only a tiny number of complaints on packaged accounts
• In line with changes to the accounts and increases to component and supplier costs Additions Active increased from £14 to £15 in 2009.
Current Account Plus was launched in 2008 for £3 without additional package features. Some, e.g. mobile phone insurance, were added in 2009 and the fee increased to £5. This has just had additional products added and the fee increased to £6.50
• The Premier is not a packaged account as such - it is our high net worth service, providing a relationship managed account with a lifestyle service and a whole range of preferential offerings beyond just the package features.

Lloyds TSB / Halifax:

"Lloyds TSB packaged current accounts offer a range of benefits at great value to suit the different needs of our customers. Our packaged accounts offer comprehensive levels of cover, which in many cases are more extensive than standalone policies available in the market. Furthermore our sales process is designed to identify and match customer needs. We regularly conduct customer engagement programmes to remind customers of the benefits that come with their account and we encourage customers to contact us should their circumstances change"

Across Lloyds Banking Group we have over 20 years of experience in the packaged account market. We believe that these products can provide value to customers in a number of different ways:
• Value for money compared to standalone insurances
• Peace of mind, including the comfort that the insurances will not expire without the customer realising, and the fact that the insurance policies provide comprehensive levels of cover that can be more extensive than some standalone policies
• The convenience of a single contact point for claims and queries
• Saves contacting a range of suppliers and comparing prices

We have specifically designed our accounts to provide customers with a number of high quality benefits. We regularly review our packaged accounts and make changes based on customer feedback and usage patterns. We are also committed to removing any barriers to customer eligibility, where appropriate. For example,

• In 2010, we removed the need to register for mobile phone insurance and payment card protection to ensure our benefits provided coverage to customers from the time of purchase.
• We changed the Halifax Ultimate Reward Current Account in September 2011 on the back of customer and colleague feedback. As a result, we introduced AA Homestart to our car breakdown cover and extended our home emergency cover to include tenants.
• Similarly, we have announced improvements to Payment Card protection on Lloyds TSB including removal of any excess fee based on colleague and customer feedback

We regularly review the breadth of coverage that the constituent insurance elements provide and the cost of our packaged accounts to ensure that there is clear value in holding a package account compared to similar standalone insurances of comparable quality. For example, we have recently announced the inclusion of travel disruption cover as a part of our Lloyds TSB packaged accounts to bring the policy in line with some of the higher quality standalone travel insurance policies.

To ensure that customers can assess whether they still utilise their packaged account on an on-going basis we issue an annual reminder of benefits to all of our customers. We make it easy for them to find the key information that they need to make a claim or use their benefits. This is both online and in their account opening literature.

Across Lloyds Banking Group we have a range of packaged accounts, which means that we are able to offer customers the type of product with the appropriate levels of insurance cover, to match their personal circumstances. It is very important to us to make sure that customers have the appropriate account and we regularly review this. We write to our customers when they are nearing the age limit for the travel insurance benefit or move overseas, to make sure that they review whether the account is still suitable for them.

• Unfortunately the number of customers holding a packaged current account with us, and the benefits usage are commercially sensitive. However it is worth stressing that whilst customers may not have specifically claimed on an insurance benefit, that does not necessarily mean that they have not enjoyed the benefit of it. To give an obvious example, a customer travelling with their family on holiday to the USA may have had to pay more than £200 for standalone annual travel insurance. They would automatically be covered as part of their packaged account and the fact that they did not need to claim does not mean that they did not receive value for money from the benefit. Additionally, some of our benefits cover more than just the named customer. Travel insurance, for example, can cover the customer's full family, car breakdown covers the car that the customer is travelling in and home emergency covers the whole household.

• Customers are automatically covered for their insurance benefits once they open a packaged account, i.e. they do not need to register for the benefit to be activated, the account really does offer convenience and peace of mind in addition to value for money.

• We have received very few complaints from customers believing that they have been mis-sold. Any accusation of mis-selling is taken extremely seriously and thoroughly investigated. Our sales quality controls and post-sale checks minimise this risk and ensure that packaged accounts are sold appropriately to customers who have a genuine insurance need for the benefit(s). As part of the sales process, the customers' needs are discussed in order to ensure that the customer chooses the most appropriate account for their circumstances.

• Fewer than 0.5% of our customers complain each month. We have procedures in place to ensure that complaint information is used to inform service and product improvements. For example, in the last 18 months we have removed the requirement for customers to register their handset for mobile phone insurance across all of our packaged accounts, as a consequence of this being a recurrent theme for complaints. We also recently extended the home emergency cover (which covers home emergencies from burst pipes to broken windows) of the Halifax Ultimate Reward Current Account to include tenants on the back of feedback we received. Complaints provide us with a key feedback opportunity for us continually to look to develop our accounts to meet our customers' needs.

• As part of our regular on-going reviews we have implemented a number of changes to the features we offer across our range of packaged accounts and the prices we charge. These reflect feedback from customers, usage of the benefits (to ensure we focus on providing high quality benefits that a high proportion of customers will use) and the cost of providing these insurance benefits.

Any changes to benefits or price are communicated to customers in advance with at least two months' notice, so they can assess whether the package of features will still meet their needs. This also gives them time to contact us if they would like to discuss their needs in more detail in case another of our accounts might be better for them.

Full details of the changes we have made are available on our website at:

http://www.lloydstsb.com/current_accounts/added_value_accounts/silver_account_changes.asp

NATWEST / RBS Response:

Our commitment to Helpful Banking means that we offer our customers a range of current accounts from which they can choose the product that best suits their needs. If a customer chooses a packaged account, we believe that the benefits and services included in it are useful and represent good value. We actively encourage our customers to utilise these benefits and services and provide them with clear information about how they can make best use of their account as well as providing an online portal for them to manage their benefits.

http://www.rbs.co.uk/personal/current-accounts/g5/access-your-benefits.ashx

We are also continually reviewing the accounts we offer to ensure that we can best reflect the changing needs of today's customers.

• 19% of our customers have a packaged account. Many of the benefits on our accounts do not require registration so it is not possible to accurately assess how many benefits are utilised. For example by going on holiday, our customers are utilising their travel insurance benefits (without us even knowing). In these situations we will only be notified if our customer makes a claim.
• Less than 0.4% of packaged account customers have complained about packaged accounts in the last two years. Our customers are able to close or downgrade their packaged account at any point with immediate effect. We report our complaints data to the FSA twice a year and publish this data on our website. We also publish our top 5 complaints twice a year in our independently assured Customer Charter.
• Packaged Account Fees Changes - NW & RBS over the last 5 years

* off sale in 2007
** off sale July 2011

SANTANDER Response:

Santander developed its added-value current accounts following detailed customer research, and we keep all the account benefits under constant review to ensure they are appropriate and competitive. Which? recognised this earlier in the year, when it rated our Premium account as the best in the market.

When customers choose one of our added-value accounts in branch we take them through a personal interview to explain and describe all the additional benefits included in considerable detail, enabling customers to make an informed choice about which account they choose.

Santander aims to make the account easy to use; cover is provided within 24 hours, and we remind customers of the benefits, exclusions and limitations of the account annually.

Furthermore, if a customer decides one of our added-value accounts is not for them they are not tied into a 'contract' and can exit the account if they wish. The monthly fee is charged in arrears, which means that a customer will only ever pay for the cover that they have already received.

4 per cent of Santander current account customers hold a packaged account. We regularly remind customers of the benefits they have and to encourage them to use those benefits. Also, we inform customers during our sales process of the benefits of the packaged account and that they may have duplicate cover which they should check whether or not is the case. We also send annual letters to customers reminding them of the benefits they have on their account. However the important point here is that these customers are all benefiting from the insurance cover.

We have received complaints from less than 1 per cent of our packaged account base. The majority of these complaints received are in relation to the service that we have provided and we are working to improve this for our customers. We have received very few complaints from customers in relation to the appropriateness of their account.

There have been no changes to the fees charged on the following Santander packaged accounts (Family; Reward; Travel or Premium). However during this time we have improved the benefits on this account, for example - by replacing vehicle breakdown cover with personal breakdown cover. Premier 50 increased to £12 from £10 in 2010, reflecting significant increases in the costs of the underlying insurance.

COOPERATIVE Response:

15% of our current account customers hold packaged accounts. We have a range of market leading benefits such as European breakdown cover provided by the RAC and worldwide travel insurance, which are offered with our packaged accounts. In addition to this, our Privilege and Privilege Premier accounts are unique in the market given that they have a choice of three additional benefits, meaning that customers can tailor their account by selecting the extras that most suit their needs.

Additional benefit options include Safeguard, which offers identity theft assistance and credit reports. Traveller, which provides airport lounge passes, and Gadget, which offers protection for portable devices or gadgets and any accessories linked to them. To make it as easy as possible for customers to use the extras associated with their account, we have minimised the registration process where possible and removed it entirely for breakdown cover, travel insurance and mobile insurance, meaning that customers are covered from day one.

As a member led organisation, we monitor customer feedback closely to ensure that the benefits offered with our accounts closely meet customer needs. This has recently led to improvements and supplier changes on our Privilege and Privilege Premier accounts. In addition, we aim to be as transparent as possible by checking the customer's suitability for their account at the point of sale.

In the last two years we have received 40 complaints from customers who feel their packaged account was mis-sold. This equates to 0.2 complaints for every 1,000 customers (0.02%) holding a packaged account. Customer satisfaction is our first priority and any customers whose complaints were upheld have had fees associated with their account refunded.

Since October 2009 we have received a total of 288 complaints relating to our packaged accounts, this equates to 1.3 complaints for every 1,000 (0.13%) customers holding these products. In terms of the types of complaints received, 45 are related to the suitability of accounts and 243 are linked to the use of third party suppliers.

As a consumer focused organisation, we regularly listen to customers and take their feedback on board. As a result of this we have recently reviewed our packaged accounts to improve the benefits. We aim to be as transparent as possible by reviewing product suitability at the point of sale and there is no lock-in period on our accounts, so customers can cancel the product at any time and switch over to a non fee paying current account. We also notify customers who may have duplicate cover in place and remind them to constantly review their needs

Fees on our Privilege and Privilege Premier accounts did increase in July 2009 as outlined below. These changes were clearly communicated to customers:

Last month we introduced a number of improvements to our accounts without increasing the monthly fee. Customers were notified in advance of the changes being introduced.

We believe we offer the best value packaged account in the UK. Unlike many other packaged accounts on the market, we believe that the extras linked to our accounts offer genuine value to our customers. Our breakdown cover is industry leading and provided by the RAC. The cover is worth £236 annually and covers account holders on a personal basis for any vehicle they are travelling in rather than just for their own car.

While many elderly customers are not covered under the insurance offered on packaged accounts, our travel insurance offers market leading cover for customers up to the age of 80. This limit is clearly communicated to account holders who are approaching their 80th birthday to ensure that they aware that their cover no longer applies. In addition we provide winter sports cover for customers up to the age of 65 and insurance against airport closures and volcanic ash disruption.

We believe the mobile phone cover we provide also offers good value, covering not just an individual handset for the account holder, but up to four phones within a household. There is no registration of these handsets required in order to be eligible to make a claim.

HSBC Response:

Regarding Mr & Mrs Poole

'It is clear that we made an error with this particular case. Although Mr and Mrs Poole have already used some of the benefits of the account, it appears they were incorrectly told that they could qualify for the full range of benefits, whereas in reality, they could not. As such, we have contacted our customers to not only apologise for the error, but we have also put them back in the position they were before they opened the account in question. Our customers are happy with the outcome.'

ALL the major banks say their packaged accounts offer value for money, and there are very few complaints from customers, especially about mis-selling.

They say they always advise customers of changes to prices and extras, ensure they understand all aspects of the accounts before signing up, and regularly remind them of the benefits.

Hi Ho! It's off to Pontins we go...

2011-10-13T17:45:00Z

Last year when Watchdog visited Pontins Camber Sands resort we were greeted with filthy chalets, broken furniture, rubble under the carpets, dirty beds and even a tamazepam tablet left by a previous guest.

Shortly afterwards Pontins was sold to the Britannia Hotel Group which promised a £25 million investment and Disney-style 'razzmatazz' at all five Pontins resorts. So a year on - is it Magic Kingdom or Little Park of Horrors?

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Pontins has been a household name for more than sixty years and it holds a special place in our childhood memories. There's the fun, the rides, the famous bluecoats and of course their infamous haircuts. Pontins may well be a Great British holiday institution but the new owners said it was ripe for an All-American makeover complete with the sort of costume-characters who keep the crowds at Disneyworld entertained.

However, many Watchdog viewers who've had a holiday at Pontins this year have been in touch to say that they haven't seen any evidence of this Disney style makeover. In fact so many of them have been in touch that we've had to come up with a new filing system - just to cope with the photos. There's Filthy, there's Mouldy, Greasy and Grimy, not forgetting Dusty and Shabby and finally Stinky. Viewers told us about all sorts of things from blood, urine and faeces stains on the bedding, to mould in the bathrooms and on the walls, to grimy carpets, shabby furniture and horrible smells.

These complaints come eleven months after Pontins former owners saw the company put into administration and a whole nine months after it was brought by the Britannia Hotel Group. The new owners described Pontins as a national treasure but its pledge to invest millions into restoring the camps to their former glory doesn't seem to have materialised.

We've had complaints about all five Pontins resorts: Prestatyn Sands, Southport, Pakefield and Camber Sands. But the resort which we received the most complaints about was Brean Sands in Somerset which one viewer described as 'hell on earth'. Therefore, due to the sheer number of complaints Watchdog booked two apartments at Brean Sands and sneaked Chris Hollins and seven of his best little helpers into the park to investigate. Chris and the gang encountered many of the problems that our viewers had to endure including bad smells, dirty bathrooms, grimy carpets, holes in the walls, stains on the bedding and blood on the curtains. Outside of the apartments they found run-down public toilets, grimy floors, dirty chairs, disused chairs around the park and litter by the crazy golf. However, the swimming pool did look like it had seen a lick of paint - but it couldn't really be described as Disney Magic though.

So we thought we'd bring our own touch of Disney razzmatazz to the park and send our seven dwarves Filthy, Dusty, Grimy, Shabby, Greasy, Mouldy and Stinky to clean things up. The clean up was well underway until security stopped us and pointed Chris and the gang towards the exit which was bad news for Pontins' guests - who's going to clean up for them now?

Company Response:

We asked the company to provide a written statement but they declined.

Sky versus Virgin: a multimedia battle

2011-10-13T17:30:00Z

Sky's latest fairytale marketing campaign tells us that we should 'Believe in Better'. Rivals Virgin Media have tried to steal Sky customers by claiming only their fairytales have a happy ending. But who is the fairest broadband supplier in the land?

Rebecca Wilcox reports on the battle of the multi-media giants.

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In a land far, far away... well, Portsmouth... lived a man called Graham Warner. He wanted to pay less for his broadband, so he switched his contract from Sky Connect, which cost £17 a month, to Sky Unlimited, which should have cost £7.50 a month. This went on for a period of five consecutive months.

Graham huffed and he puffed but Sky haven't been much help at all. Eventually they offered Graham a small discount off his television costs as compensation, but he isn't satisfied.

Then there's Tamsyn Milne, who asked Sky to provide her with phone, and broadband services. Sky mistakenly set up two accounts at her address. So, even though she paid her bills in full every month, the duplicate account went unpaid. When Sky discovered this, they cut off her phone line for two years - that's how long it took Sky to fix the problem. But just when Tamsyn thought her troubles were over, they started sending duplicate bills again.

All across the land, Sky customers are being promised a fairy godmother style happy ending. But, as more than a thousand of them have complained to us in the last six months, perhaps the big bad wolf is more fitting?

Sky has a rival called Virgin Media. They scoff at Sky's ads and try to tempt away their TV, phone and broadband customers, promising a real happy ending. Paul Vaughn, Michael Froom and the Critchell family are just some of the 500 customers who have contacted Watchdog this year.

Paul checked twice that he could receive Virgin Media's services before cancelling his other phone and broadband contracts, only to be told several days later that Virgin Media couldn't supply him after all.

Michael Froom switched from Sky to Virgin because they were offering a cut-price deal. However, because the salesman put in the wrong code at the time of purchase, he never got the discount.

And Mary Critchell wanted to change her husbands' Virgin Media account into her name after he passed away. Instead, Virgin set up a new account, cut off her phone line temporarily, then reactivated it with a different number - all without telling her.

So who still believes in fairy stories? And who believes in stories by Virgin Media and Sky...?

Sky Statement:

"We'd like to apologise to any customers who have experienced problems. We've been in touch with Mr Warner and Ms Milne to make sure that their issues are now fully resolved.

We never forget that customers have a choice and that customer service is a hugely important part of what we do.

Recent research from Ofcom rated Sky as having the highest scores for customer satisfaction of any major broadband and phone company in the UK, and we take it very seriously when we fall short of the high standards that we set ourselves."

1. Why weren't the above cases resolved in the timeframes promised by customer services staff when they called to complain?

a) Mr Warner

Mr Warner originally took our Sky Connect broadband service - the product we offer customers who live in areas that aren't on Sky's network - before switching to Sky Broadband Unlimited when his local telephone exchange was upgraded to become part of Sky's network.

Unfortunately, this migration from Sky Connect to Sky Broadband Unlimited did not happen properly, and consequently Mr Warner continued to be billed for Sky Connect at £17/ month, rather than Sky Broadband Unlimited at £7.50/ month. Due to a problem with one of our systems in one of our contact centres, the issue remained unresolved and Mr Warner continued to be charged at the higher rate for his broadband services, despite having made a number of calls to us about this issue.

We realise that this issue should have been resolved more quickly, and apologise for the inconvenience caused to Mr Warner. We've since been in touch with Mr Warner and his broadband account has now been correctly moved over to Sky Broadband Unlimited. Mr Warner has been fully refunded for all the incorrect billing charges, and continued to receive a broadband service during this period.

We have taken action to rectify the system issue, to ensure this doesn't happen to any further customers.

b) Ms Milne

The previous resident in Ms Milne's property was a Sky customer, and when Ms Milne took over the telephone line, our system which closes down an account when a customer leaves a property didn't update properly, so the bills for telephony charges were incorrectly charged to the previous resident of the property.

As a result, the bills addressed to the previous customer were not paid, Ms Milne's phone line was disconnected on two occasions, meaning that she was without a phone line for a total of over 13 months. We apologise that this mistake occurred, and for the delay in getting it rectified. We have also cleared the balance on the account belonging to the previous resident.

2. How and why was a duplicate account activated at Ms Milne's property, for a man who was never a Sky customer in the first place? Why did this take so long to resolve and how did it reoccur a second time?

The previous resident at the address was a Sky customer. The issues arose because our systems didn't update properly to reflect that the customers had moved away, meaning that Ms Milne's phone service was disrupted and that bills continued to be incorrectly issued to the previous resident of the property.

3. What is Sky's target response time for dealing with complaints similar to those detailed here? Does Sky accept that its customer services needs to improve in light of the information supplied above and the sheer number of complaints Watchdog has received this year?

We aim to respond to all complaints within ten days. Some complaints, by their very nature, may take longer than others to resolve, particularly if they are technically complex. 90% of our customer complaints are fully resolved within four days, and 70% of issues resolved on the same day. We realise that there is always room for improvement, however, and are committed to continuing to invest in our people and systems to make sure we deliver the best possible service we can to our customers.

www.sky.com/getintouch
08442 410 107

Virgin statement:

Case 1 - Non-serviceability - Mr Vaughan

A Virgin Media spokesperson said: "Cases such as these are incredibly rare and are related to incomplete coverage information inherited from previous cable companies when the network was being built over twenty years ago. Whilst there are cable services available on Mr Vaughan's street, following a pre-installation serviceability check we discovered two properties that were unable to get service, one of which belonging to Mr Vaughan. We have now marked these properties as unserviceable on our database and apologise for not being able to provide Mr Vaughan our cable services in this instance."

Case 2 - Incorrect application of offer

A Virgin Media spokesperson said: "We're sorry that Mr Froom had to contact us numerous times to correct an error in the offer applied to his account. This was related to an administrational error when loading Mr Froom's order on to our systems. We have since corrected the error and are delighted that Mr Froom has stayed with us and is now enjoy his services on the deal originally offered."

Case 3 - Lost number/Account Transfer

A Virgin Media spokesperson said: "We're incredibly sorry for the issues surrounding transferring Mrs Critchell's phone number to her new account. The account was transferred correctly, however an issue with the number porting process meant that instead of Mrs Critchell's number being allocated to the new account, it returned to the number provider, BT. Unfortunately once the mistake had been discovered the porting window had closed and we were unable to retrieve the number from BT meaning we were unable to restore Mrs Critchell's original number. As part of our investigation into this case we have launched a review of our process for handling such cases to help avoid similar issues in the future."

Please visit http://help.virginmedia.com/ which contains lots of general information on services, status, advice etc, as well as further ways to contact us.

Rogue Traders: A Class UK Limited

2011-10-13T17:15:00Z

A Class UK Ltd, not be confused with companies of similar names, are a property maintenance company based in Kent. The director listed is Jake Mott. They offer emergency call-outs for everything from electrical problems to gas, roofing and drainage. On their website it says they offer a 'no fix no fee' policy for their service.

We've heard from a number of customers that have told us that the company have not giving them an A Class service.

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Carol called out A Class after finding their number on the internet. She told them that she had a problem with her shower, and they sent out one of their subcontractors to have a look. When he arrived he told her that the part she needed was obsolete and that he couldn't fix it, but the company still debited Carol's account for £78. No fix, but still a fee.

Yoko called out the company to fix her leaky tap. They took her credit card details over the phone and sent someone out to do the job. When the plumber arrived he said he'd need to go and buy a new tap. While he was out Yoko did some online banking and found that they'd taken money from her account before they'd even finished the job, more than £350, when it should have actually only cost half that price.

Investigation was needed, so we rigged a house with hidden cameras and called out A Class to fix a faulty plug socket. The job should've only taken 15 minutes and cost £100. This time, the subcontractor did an okay job, fixing the fault and charging £96 cash for his work. However, when we checked our account we discovered A Class had also taken £96 from our bank account, meaning that we'd been charged twice. A number of phone calls later and despite promises of a refund, we were still no closer to getting the money back.

We called A Class out again, this time to fix a connection in a cooker switch. They sent their man Lewis Barker out. Lewis took to his task by spending most of the first 15 minutes fiddling with his phone. 2 hours later he was finished- leaving us with a bill of £203.07. Did we get our money's worth? Well whilst working on the switch, Lewis had removed the earth cable from the back box, and used wood screws to reattach the fitting. This means, that if a fault occurs in the cooker then the back of the switch could become live, and therefore dangerous.

Time to call A Class out once more, this time to fix a problem in the consumer unit controlling the lights downstairs. The man they sent was Cee-Jay, he spent the first half an hour fiddling about with the consumer unit without switching off the power. When he did find the fault he took another hour to fix it, charging us £156 for fixing a 'burnt out cable'- a simple lie, perhaps to justify his time wasting. He took 1 hour and 46 minutes to complete a job that should have been done in half an hour.

We needed to know whether our problems with A Class had been because of bad workmen, or whether the company were calling the shots. So we sent our man Roy Ford undercover. After a 2 minute chat and sending his CV by email he was in, no qualifications checked and no interview carried out. He went out to his first job the very next day. After resetting two appliances, a simple job, he called A Class to tell them the good news, that it had taken him only a matter of minutes. But the A Class team weren't happy. They told him to take longer on jobs: "You wanna be there for hours mate that's what I'm saying you wanna try and get hours on the job yeah?"

We then posed as a customer once more, and called out A Class who sent our very own Roy. All he needed to do was reset a tripped switch. The job should only take 20 seconds, so Roy called his new employers for advice on how to make the job longer. This time he was told to take out a part, go to the shops, and then come back and refit the old part pretending it was new. Roy, being an honest electrician, told them that he wasn't comfortable doing this, so they tried to persuade him that the people who he was doing work could afford it: "These people I'm sending you to, they've all got ******** dough. They're proper loaded up. Do you know what I mean?"

It was clear then, that orders to overcharge and drag out jobs, are coming from above so it was time to put our questions to the company. Posing as a landlord with a portfolio of properties, the producer set up a meeting in a café with a representative from the company. Lewis Barker, from our earlier call out, was the man who arrived. Despite initially saying he was a supervisor with managerial responsibility, as soon as Matt Allwright confronted him he then denied knowing any of the bosses, having any responsibility and stated he was just an honest self employed electrician. But why was he wearing their T-shirt? Driving an A Class branded van? Why is he pictured on company website? And why is he "Facebook" friends with Jakey Mott... when the man registered as Director on Companies House is called Jake Mott. Hardly a coincidence.

Response:

Lewis has since told us he only claimed to be a supervisor to get more work. He put the A Class logos on the van himself and still maintains he's never met the owner. He says the fact he's friends with Jakey Mott on Facebook is totally irrelevant.

Meanwhile Jake Mott - the company director says he's grateful we've brought attention to the company's failings. They have started an investigation, are retraining staff, and checking subcontractors' qualifications. They will also dissociate themselves from staff who tell workmen to string out jobs. The company are setting up a dedicated team to deal with complaints - which are few - they say. They've refunded us for the double-charge. But say they're unsure where we saw their "no fix no fee" policy. Maybe they should check their own website.

They are no longer giving work to Cee-Jay. He has also written to us and says he's trained and competent to work on live installations

The company says Lewis is an honourable trader, not a rogue. He has also written to us and says if he did leave our cooker switch unearthed it was a genuine mistake.

Is your bank account worth it's amount?

2011-10-13T17:00:00Z

HSBC. Barclays. RBS. Just some of the big banks signing customers up to packaged accounts. Or current accounts with perks, like travel insurance and breakdown cover. All in return for a monthly fee, more than seven million bank customers now have them.

But if you're tempted, beware: most monthly fees are rising. And for some, the benefits are useless.

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Banks used to just look after your money, charging your for going into the red, or exceeding your overdraft, and plain old current accounts are still available. But they're outnumbered by heavily marketed packaged accounts, with names like 'Additions Active', 'Advance' and 'Advantage Gold'. As their popularity has increased, so has the number of complaints.

The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) has told us most of the complaints they received about packaged accounts come from people who didn't even know they had this kind of account, or that they signed up to it without really understanding.

What people do understand is the costs, the average annual fee has gone up from £127 in 2006 to £187 now. Research from Which has also shown nearly a third of customers don't use any of the benefits offered with these accounts, and some can be bought cheaper elsewhere anyway. But the most serious complaints are about how people were sold these accounts in the first place, the FOS has told us upheld complaints are usually because information given to the consumer just hasn't been clear enough.

Maureen and Peter Poole visited their local HSBC branch when they were enticed to sign up for a packaged account with a whole range of supposed benefits. They were told the life policies they were paying almost £60 a month for were too much, and that they could receive similar cover with the 'Advance' account for only £12.95 a month. They accepted, cancelling the policies they no longer needed. Only to discover months later that they were in fact too old to qualify for the travel insurance or the life insurance as promised. HSBC were adamant Maureen and Peter were at fault for this for not reading the full terms and conditions before signing up, leaving them uninsured in their mid 70s. To make matters worse, Maureen since developed cancer, making it impossible to find affordable life cover as they had before.

HSBC Response:

Regarding Mr & Mrs Poole

ALL the major banks say their packaged accounts offer value for money, and there are very few complaints from customers, especially about mis-selling.

They say they always advise customers of changes to prices and extras, ensure they understand all aspects of the accounts before signing up, and regularly remind them of the benefits.

You can read the full company responses here

Thinking of making an insurance claim?

2011-10-06T18:00:00Z

The soaring cost of home and motor insurance may be hard to swallow, but at least your policy buys peace of mind - or does it?

Watchdog has discovered that thousands of policy holders who pay their premiums faithfully are at risk of being blacklisted when it comes to claiming payouts - or worse still getting insurance at all. Riz Lateef Reports.

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Deciding whether to make a claim on your insurance can be a bit of a mind field - What's covered? What's the excess? How will it affect No Claims Discounts? A quick call to your insurer should help - but beware. Even if you decide NOT to make a claim, your call could still be logged on your history, and count against you in the future.

As Simon Clayton discovered. He took out car insurance with Budget Insurance in June, but just weeks into his cover they cancelled his policy saying it was because he had failed to disclose two previous claims. The problem was he hadn't made any.

"I phoned up my previous insurer, Swift, and they told me one was for a windscreen repair and one was a notification from where I'd driven into a pothole," explains Simon.

The windscreen repair was provided free as part of his cover and didn't affect his No Claims. And the pothole had caused no damage and was just to get a reference number for his local council. But Swiftcover had logged the incidents on Simon's history AND told Budget all about them. Why?

David Hertzell from the Law Commission explains: "Insurer's are in the risk business, they are looking at you as a policy holder as a risk to them. So they want to know about claims that you've made, but they also want to know about other thing as well, including circumstances that may have happened but didn't result in a claim. And this is your record this will travel with you whichever insurance company you're with"

Budget did offer to reinstate Simons' policy - but they demanded £500 more, double their original quote, which Simon cannot afford. And what's more having a cancelled policy on his record meant he was unable to get affordable car insurance from anyone - leaving him without transport and his car parked constantly on his mum's drive.

And Simon's case isn't a one off. Insurers share this kind of information about us all the time.

One of the ways they do this is through the Claims and Underwriting Exchange- or CUE. It's a central database used by insurers to record and share details of customer's histories. Every time you make a claim the details are recorded on CUE, but if you make a simple enquiry about your policy following an incident that gets logged too.

Which is what happened to 83 year old Doris Jackson. She took out home insurance with Lloyds TSB in June 2009. A few months into her policy the river at the end of her garden burst its banks and destroyed a large retaining wall. Doris contacted Lloyds TSB to make a claim but discovered she wasn't covered at all because they said she had two previous claims on CUE which she hadn't disclosed.

Doris had contacted her previous insurer on two occasions to make enquiries about two other garden walls but neither had resulted in claims. However, Lloyds insisted that her enquiries counted as losses and she should have informed them. They cancelled her policy, left her without home insurance AND having to foot the enormous £23,000 bill for the wall repair.

And it gets worse...having a refused policy on her record meant that Doris was unable to get insurance from anyone. After being uninsured for nearly two years she has now managed to get insurance from a specialist broker, but the cost is much higher than standard policies and she is still trying to get her CUE record corrected.

Lloyds Banking Group:

"It is important for the industry to share information on customers' claims and losses for home insurance, to ensure customers are covered for valid claims and to help the industry keep premiums down for consumers. Providers often use this information when considering applications for new Home Insurance policies. Our process for recording customer information is in line with industry best practice."

Question 1

Lloyds TSB - Mrs Jackson

"The claim Mrs Jackson registered with Lloyds TSB in November 2009 is recorded on our claims system and information has also been sent to the Claims Underwriting Exchange (CUE). The two losses that Mrs Jackson reported were also recorded on CUE by her previous insurer. When Mrs Jackson took out her policy and registered her claim with us in November 2009, we asked her about any previous losses and also during subsequent visits to the property through the claims process.

"Mrs Jackson did contact the Financial Services Ombudsman (FOS) about her claim. The FOS reviewed her claim and the decision made by them was in favour of Lloyds TSB. The FOS is completely independent and impartial. This means that when they decide a complaint, they look carefully at both sides of the story and weigh up all the facts. They decide a complaint by reference to what is, in their opinion, fair and reasonable in all the circumstances of the case."

Halifax - Ms Neal

"There are a number of factors that can change an insurance premium during a quotation, but the advice of the damage to the laptop, which had not been claimed for, is not one of them based on our standard practice. We would like to speak to the customer to discuss their individual details."

Question 2

Halifax/Lloyds TSB consider a loss and claim to be as follows:

• Loss - Losing something that belongs to you, or damage to something that belongs to you
• Claim - Requesting compensation for a loss under an insurance policy

Question 3

"Lloyds Banking Group is committed to putting our customers first and offering products which meet our customers' needs. Together with the ABI, Lloyds Banking Group supports the Consumer Insurance (Disclosure and Representations) Bill which will provide legal status to the industry good practice which we already follow. The Bill will make it easier for both consumers and insurers to know their rights and obligations. "

Swiftcover:

Steve Gaywood, head of counter fraud at swiftcover.com, commented: "Like all major insurance companies undertaking good practice in the UK, we are required to log every incident that our policyholders notify us of, which the CUE system then automatically records. We do this for a number of reasons such as fraud, as well as if the policyholder returns at a future date to update the notification to a claim.

"In Mr Clayton's case, an administrative error caused a notification to be logged on the CUE system as a claim. This was an error on our part and we have now put further measures in place to prevent this ever happening again. We look forward to dealing with his insurer to update the situation and get Mr Clayton back on the road - as we do when the situation is reversed."

Budget:

Can Budget confirm exactly how Mr Clayton's enquiries were recorded on the CUE database, and why they were recorded in this way?

The information about Mr Clayton's non-disclosed claims was not provided to us by the CUE database. Instead we received this information directly from Mr Clayton's previous insurer via his NCD notification.

Can Budget explain why Mr Clayton's policy was cancelled, and why he received different reasons for the issues with his insurance quote?

We have investigated the issues and have discovered that Mr Clayton's policy was cancelled as a result of an Advisor error, and unfortunately Mr Clayton was given conflicting information about the reason for this, which has understandably caused confusion and inconvenience. Although Mr. Clayton initially provided incorrect information in a number of areas, including his NCD entitlement, when he contacted Budget the NCD information was captured incorrectly again. It was this error that generated the cancellation and not the two non-disclosed claims. Budget places great emphasis on providing excellent customer service and we are disappointed that it fell below our expected standards on this occasion. Clearly, our error has caused inconvenience to Mr Clayton, so we have contacted him to agree a compensation package that he is happy with. We have reassured Mr Clayton that he will not need to disclose this policy cancellation in any future insurance quotes, which means that this cancellation would not affect any future premiums.

Does Budget Insurance accept that a change in the law is necessary to protect consumers?

Our question set at Budget has been designed to ensure that we obtain all of the information that our insurers require to enable them to assess the risk as appropriate. This proposed law change will not remove the need for customers to provide full and accurate responses to the questions asked. In terms of the non-disclosed claims, was Budget made aware of them via the previous insurers only, or did Budget also check the CUE database? Budget was only made aware of Mr Clayton's non-disclosed claims by the previous insurer and did not refer to the CUE database.

Is information of this kind normally provided by or requested from previous insurers, or is the CUE database also checked when new customers sign up for insurance with Budget?

It is in the interest of our customers, our insurer panel and ourselves that we hold accurate information about all customers. Primarily, we rely on our customers to provide correct details and question sets are designed to help make the disclosure of information as easy for customers as possible. To ensure our records are accurate, if an insurer has checked CUE information and spots a discrepancy, we will contact the customer to discuss this.

Does Budget record claims and enquiries on the CUE database, or are some incidents and claims kept on Budget's records only?

As an insurance intermediary, we do not supply information about our customers' claims directly to CUE. Any CUE updates in this regard are supplied by the insurer. We do pass on the information provided by customers, such as their claims history, to our insurers so that they have an accurate picture of the customer they are insuring.

ABI:

"Insurers want to ensure that customers fully understand what information they need to disclose and why it may be relevant. They continually review the clarity of their application forms to make sure that customers find it as easy as possible to understand what their rights and obligations are. The last thing any insurer wants is for a confused customer, whose reasonable expectations are not met.
"Incidents reported to an insurer that do not lead to a claim may be relevant and should be disclosed to any new insurer as some insurers have claims data that shows that someone who reports an incident is more likely to claim in the future. Also, reporting an incident to your insurer notifies them of any possible claim that may be made against you at a later date -for example if you are involved in an accident involving another motorist or a pedestrian. The golden rule should be to tell your insurer and let them assess whether or not any incident may be relevant to the risk you present.
"The Claims and Underwriting Exchange (CUE) database helps to prevent fraud, for example where a claimant tries to make the same claim from multiple insurers. It also helps insurers to identify insurance cheats - those people who deliberately lie about previous claims to try and get cheaper insurance. Insurance cheats and fraud are significant factor that push up the price of insurance for honest customers.
"If there is a discrepancy between the record on CUE and the information that the policyholder has supplied, the insurer may discuss this with the customer and/or previous insurers to seek clarity. The database is not intended to be used by insurers as a way to catch out a customer who has made a genuine mistake".

Insurance Database Services Ltd Response:

The Claims and Underwriting Exchange is a database of more than 40m records. The insurance industry uses it to check that the claims history provided to them by a new policyholder matches the records on the database.

The database plays a significant role in the prevention of fraud, which contributes to the cost of insurance premiums. It is used by the industry and the Insurance Fraud Bureau (IFB) to detect and prevent multiple claims being made fraudulently.

Where information held on the database is inconsistent with the policyholder's disclosure, then the insurer may query this with the customer and if necessary the previous insurers.
There are currently 100 members who are responsible for recording and accessing data on the insurance database.

Insurers are required to register both claims and incidents that could lead to a claim on the CUE database. Records on CUE show whether the incident resulted in a claim and if a payment was made. The information held on CUE should simply reflect that which is on the insurer's own claims system.

If you wish to find out what information is held about you on the CUE database, please print and complete the form on the IDSL web site (http://www.insurancedatabases.co.uk/media/2893/data_subject_access_request_form.pdf). This can be sent with the administration fee of £10 to the address below. Cheques or postal orders should be made payable to IDSL. Please note that cash is not acceptable.
If you are unable to access the attached form we are happy to accept written requests as long as they are accompanied by the administration fee and suitable identification. Acceptable forms of identification are:

• Utility Bill
• Local Authority tax bill
• TV License
• Correspondence from HMRC
• Land registry confirmation
• Vehicle registration document
• Student loan statement

As part of your written request please include your date of birth and address information for the past 6 years as well as any former names i.e. maiden name you have been known by in this time.

Requests for personal information held on CUE should be addressed to:

IS & Compliance Officer
Insurance Database Services Limited (IDSL)
Risk & Compliance
Linford Wood House
6 - 12 Capital Drive
Milton Keynes
MK14 6XT

The information contained in the database will comprise that supplied by the policyholder or claimant on their application or claim form, together with other information relating to the incident or claim. It does not hold sensitive information or details relating to the amount of premium paid.

Anyone who thinks that they have registered incidents with only one company can contact that company for their claims information without going through IDSL.

Hotpoint Quadrio: Opening with a bang

2011-10-06T17:45:00Z

Hotpoint describe their Quadrio fridge freezer as an appliance that stands out from the crowd, offers cutting edge design, energy efficiency as well as the ultimate cooling technology. But it's not so keen to shout about another feature - namely one that makes it go bang. Chris Hollins reports

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According to Hotpoint, their Quadrio fridge freezer offers 'complete peace of mind', but we've heard from some Watchdog viewers who bought their Quadrios before July 2009 and found that on opening their fridge doors there was a flash of light coupled with a loud bang. The cause of the problem was the cable which is located at the top of the fridge door. When the door is opened and closed a pressure is applied to the cable. This wasn't so much of a problem when our viewers started using their Quadrios. But over a period of weeks, the stress began to tell and sometimes within a matter of months, the wiring fractured.

We put a fridge, bought as late as December 2009, in a testing lab. It showed signs of the same problem after repeated use, despite the fact it had been slightly modified by Hotpoint. Product Safety Tester Richard Poate told us: "There's a clear design fault with this Hotpoint product. The mains cable is routed directly through the door, it's inevitable that after a period of time with repeated opening and closing those cables are going to become exposed".

The Quadrios we've heard about are the FF4DX and the FF4DK models manufactured between 2008 and 2010. Although all have developed the same problem, Hotpoint's response to complaints has varied. Some customers have been given replacements. While others have had new parts, or free repairs, but only after fighting tooth and nail.

Hotpoint has had criticism from some customers for what it said after this problem developed. As for what it said beforehand - well that's making customers even more angry, because Hotpoint clearly knew about the problem, in February 2011 it owned up to the problem in response to reviews on the online consumer site "Which?". But eight months on you'll still find no warnings about it on the Hotpoint website.

Hotpoint say all Quadrios produced since October 2010 have been further modified, with an altogether different wiring design - making it more flexible and meaning it shouldn't fracture. Which is good news for new buyers, but no help to those whose Quadrios are more than two years old - and who are unaware they could blow at any time.

According to Richard Poate: "There isn't really a fire risk associated with this fault but there certainly is a risk of electrocution, of electric shock, particularly if you happen to be cleaning in the area where those wires are exposed. It's really not acceptable for this product to be tripping for people's electrics, for people to be losing the contents of their fridge freezer and to have this small risk of electric shock. In my opinion, Hotpoint really need to do something about this and should recall the products".

Hotpoint Response:

Hotpoint is aware of a problem caused by the design of an electrical cable located inside the top of the door of an initial production of Quadrio fridge freezers.

This problem only affects a very small number of Quadrios manufactured between June 2008 and October 2010. All Quadrio models currently on sale through retailers are built to a modified design that has eliminated this problem.

The issue is caused by wear to the plastic insulation sleeve that houses the electrical wires that feed into the left hand door of the fridge. These wires are connected to a heater on the fridge door that comes on intermittently to ensure condensation does not build up within the fridge. With repeated opening and closing of the door the cable insulation on the older models has been known to split leaving the wires slightly exposed.

In a few cases, this problem has caused the appliance to 'short' causing the household circuit to trip. While we recognise this has caused inconvenience and could be alarming, we would like to reassure our customers that this will not produce an electric shock when opening or closing the doors in the normal way.

The issue first came to our attention in 2009. In order to evaluate any possible risks to consumers, we immediately instigated a thorough investigation and assessment in line with the General Product Safety Regulations 2005. This assessment concluded that the risk to consumers was 'extremely low' and a product recall was therefore not necessary. This is because the wires are located at the top of the door, within a plastic casing that insulates them from the rest of the appliance; therefore, there is no possible connectivity between the wiring and the metal parts of the door or the door handles. Also the area where the cable insulation has been known to split is located in a recessed part of this casing so, in the course of normal use of the fridge, there is little chance of accidentally touching the wires. Our owners' handbook states clearly that the appliance must be turned off and disconnected from the mains before cleaning.

An initial modification was introduced in 2009, and we instructed our service engineers to automatically replace the hinge block cover to prevent the cable from being squeezed, and to check the wiring on any call to a Quadrio manufactured after June 2008, regardless of whether the appliance has suffered this issue or not. A final modification was introduced in October 2010 and this has completely resolved the issue.
We have been, and will continue to provide free-of-charge repairs to any owner of a Quadrio fridge freezer, manufactured between June 2008 and October 2010, experiencing this issue, regardless of the status of their warranty.

Anyone who purchased a Quadrio manufactured between June 2008 and October 2010 can contact our Quadrio Helpline if they have any problems or concerns.

Quadrio Helpline Telephone: 01733 287 843
Quadrio Helpline Email: quadrio@hotpoint.co.uk

We accept that this failure is not in keeping with our normal high product quality standards and we apologise unreservedly for any inconvenience caused as a result of this. We would also like to reassure all consumers that the reliability and safety of our products is always of the highest priority for Hotpoint.

In response to your questions

Did Hotpoint take any steps to warn customers of the potential fault with the Quadrio as soon as it was brought to the company's attention? If not, why not? If yes, why were the customers in the cases detailed above not given any warning or advice?

When the fault was first reported to us in 2009, we immediately began a thorough investigation and assessment to ascertain the cause of the problem and the risk, if any, to customers. This assessment concluded that the risk to consumers was extremely low, and a product recall was therefore not necessary. However, when it became apparent that this issue was occurring in a small number of cases, we amended our internal customer service process to ensure that Quadrio customers were prioritised and to ensure we could book a free engineer visit as quickly as possible.

What is Hotpoint's response to customers who say that not enough was done to warn them or fix the problem before it occurred?

What was clear from the assessment undertaken in 2009 is that there was an extremely low risk to any consumer or member of the public. Therefore, we did not believe that a warning would be necessary. We maintain that in the vast majority of cases, the appliances pose absolutely no additional risk to consumers; and, in the very small number affected by this problem, the risk is very low. We have ensured that our website provides the telephone helpline and email details for any Quadrio customer experiencing problems or with concerns:

Quadrio Helpline Telephone: 01733 287 843
Quadrio Helpline Email: quadrio@hotpoint.co.uk

Please confirm which Quadrio models are potentially affected by this issue and the dates in which they were manufactured. Why has Hotpoint not recalled these models?

The problem potentially affects the following models, which were manufactured between June 2008 and October 2010: FF4DK, FF4DX, FF4DKTVZ, FF4DSB, FF4DXTVZ. As the thorough investigation we carried out in 2009 (in line with The General Product Safety Regulations 2005) concluded that the risk to consumers was extremely low, a product recall was not necessary.

Please explain how later models of the Quadrio have been modified to prevent this fault occurring. When were these design modifications drawn up and when did they go into manufacture?

In October 2010, we introduced a new 'Super Flex' cable to replace the electric cable used in earlier models. This had been extensively tested to ensure that it would remain flexible after repeated movement and flexing. The introduction of this cable has completely rectified the problem.

Does Hotpoint accept that this is a safety issue?

While we recognise that when the problem has occurred, it has caused inconvenience, we would like to reassure our customers that there is no possible connectivity between the wiring and the metal parts of the door, or door handles as the wires are safely located within the plastic parts of the door. In addition, the wires that have caused the problem in a small number of appliances are situated in a recessed part of the plastic casing at the top of the door. This part of the appliance would not be touched during normal use of the fridge. Our owners' handbook states clearly that the appliance must be turned off and disconnected from the mains before cleaning.

When, in 2009, Mrs Duke first contacted us about a problem with her Quadrio fridge freezer the issue was only just coming to light. As a result of our thorough investigations and assessments that were taking place at that time, we were able to modify the repair to minimise any further problems. We were very sorry to hear that the problem has recurred in Mrs Duke's Quadrio - this is almost certainly because her repair was made before these modifications were put in place. We have now set an appointment for Mrs Duke when we will install the Super Flex cable that will eliminate this problem completely. We could certainly have an engineer with her sooner than 10 October, but this date suited Mrs Duke as she is only available on Monday.

When Mrs Duke called us again last Friday, as a result of seeing the trailer about this issue on last week's programme, she was wrongly advised by one of our helpline staff that she would need to cover the cost of this latest repair herself. This was a mistake and we apologise unreservedly; any engineer visits or repairs to Quadrios manufactured between June 2008 and October 2010 that are suffering with this problem are completely free of charge. We know that Mrs Duke immediately took out an annual service plan with an independent provider; Hotpoint will, of course, reimburse her the cost of the premiums for this.

We are sincerely sorry that Mrs Duke has experienced this problem with her Quadrio and the advice she was given. We pride ourselves on our customer service as much as the quality and effectiveness of our products and we apologise that on this occasion, we have fallen below our usual high standards.

Rogue Traders: Brighter Home Improvements Ltd

2011-10-06T17:30:00Z

Brighter Home Improvements Ltd (not to be confused with companies of a similar name) is a Middlesbrough based company that provide pattern imprinted concrete driveways as one of their products.

The registered director for the company is Paul Farley, and on his first visit to give us a quote he was very keen to impress that there were lots of 'bad tradesmen' out there but his company was not one of them. That's not what some of his unhappy customers have been telling us. One of them is Felicity Seddons from Rotherham.

]]> Felicity told us that she wanted a new driveway and got Paul Farley's company in to do the work. She opted for pattern imprinted concrete but was disappointed with the results of the subcontractors work. Not only had the workmen damaged the gate, they had left footprint marks in the pattern, concreted over an air brick, installed a drain in the wrong place and built a useless step which was far too low. Felicity decided the job was not good enough and only paid Brighter Home Improvements Ltd £2000, less than half the total amount. Felicity has told us that following her complaint Paul Farley paid her a visit and insisted that the driveway was fine, and in fact, better than her neighbours. Something her local trading standards disagreed with, calling it the worst driveway they have seen in 25 years.

Felicity decided to get the courts involved and it was only then that Paul Farley visited again. This time he had definitely changed his tune. Agreeing that it was a terrible job he said he would get his team to put it right, and this time it would be done by a different contractor Lee Boutell, a Golden Trowel award winner.

As it turned out Paul Farley's man Lee was the one who had already been out to do the driveway we had requested in Doncaster. We had invited BHI to install a pattern imprinted concrete drive at a house we had rigged with cameras. We had our requisite actress posing as an elderly homeowner and watched Paul Farley's team get to work. Whilst the finished drive looks okay on the surface, it's a botch job underneath.

Despite all of the original promises made by Paul Farley to our actress during the quote, his team managed to break some of them. Our cameras recorded the whole of the installation and it's a good thing they did. They captured all sorts of failings beneath the exterior. No CAT scan was carried out to check for services while digging out our existing drive. No compacting of the sub-base took place (something that was promised by Paul Farley during the quote and on his website) and our drive didn't see so much as a rake to smooth it out before the concrete was poured. Inadequate drainage was installed and as a result water can now seep into the garage when it rains. There were also many health and safety failings with local children playing on site, a worker smoking whilst using petrol powered tools and concrete piled onto the pavement. Concrete slurry was also poured down a mains drain during the installation which can result in blockages and contamination. On top of the poor workmanship, Paul's men used the side of the property as a lavatory and Golden Trowel winner Lee was smoking illegal substances on the job.

Upon viewing our footage expert chartered surveyor Barry Cross was shocked at the poor workmanship during the installation. He was surprised that the driveway ended up not looking too bad but is unsure how long it will last.

Lee Response:

Lee's since told us he'll never work with Paul Farley again. Whilst he stood by the quality of his work, he's also offered us a full refund or new drive out of his own pocket. He says Farley didn't provide him with the proper tools for OUR driveway, or provide a trough drain in his instructions.

Lee's also promised not to smoke dope on future jobs - AND to use the inside loo. He's apologised - and he says he's learned from the experience!

Brighter Home Improvements Ltd Response:

Paul Farley completely refutes that he is dishonest and a Rogue Trader. He says he has numerous satisfied customers, but has failed to provide us with their contact details. With regards to complaints he recognises that on a small number of jobs there have been issues beyond his immediate control. He blames suppliers and subcontractors for this. He is committed to resolving these issues at his own expense and has already made offers to that effect.

Regarding our Doncaster job he accepts some of the subcontractors working practices were unacceptable but maintains the end product is fine and the concrete supplied was suitable.

As for not overseeing the work, he does not have the time or the resources. He also adds that he sends subcontractors to deal with customers face to face and if appropriate, carry out remedial work.

British Airways: To Fly. To Serve?

2011-10-06T17:15:00Z

British Airways' former slogan was 'The World's Favourite Airline', but you can't have missed their brand new motto, part of their biggest marketing blitz in a decade. They say it's stitched into every uniform of every captain who takes their command - 'To Fly. To Serve.'

Only four words? We've heard from Watchdog viewers who can think of a few more. Rebecca Wilcox reports.

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Take Philip Matthews, who booked a flight from Heathrow to Korea this year through a travel service website. After booking his flight he received a confirmation email addressed to 'Mr Matthews'. Nothing unusual there. However, there was a problem.

Philip explained to Watchdog, 'I'd entered Mr Matthews on the web form rather than Mr Philip Matthews. They told me the ticket was invalid. They said that Mr could have been my first name.' Mr Mr Matthews? Clearly a simple mistake and one that's easy to fix. Or so you'd think....

Philip's ticket had two legs, the first with British Airways and the second with Cathay Pacific. Philip told us that Cathay Pacific agreed to change the name on the ticket, but British Airways refused.

"So just because of this tiny mistake on the ticket, tiny change that I was requesting I had to go out and spend £1000 on a completely different ticket. I find that absolutely incredible." Philip told us.

"The response was that because I hadn't booked direct with British Airways that they'd wash their hands of the whole thing."

So much for setting themselves apart from the opposition!

It seems the motto only applies to customers who book through the company direct, but at least if you do book through their website directly and then find the same flights cheaper elsewhere online, British Airways will refund the difference. That's their price match promise.

Unfortunately, they didn't quite live up to their promise for Ray Tregale, who was planning a holiday to America with his family. He found some flights online with British Airways, but then also found the exact same flights on another website for a cheaper price. Ray called BA, who told him all he needed to do was purchase their more expensive flights, take some screengrabs of the cheaper flights online and he would be refunded the difference.

Ray did as they asked, but explained, "I then received another email back two days later telling me that I needed some information on the fare rules.

I've struggled to find what the fare rules are. I think they're asking for information that's not available."

Ray then sent British Airways FOURTEEN separate emails to explain he couldn't find the fare rule information, before eventually giving up.

One member of British Airways' staff said that it gives them an incentive to deliver an outstanding level of world recognisable customer service. But Watchdog viewer Lynne Calcutt doesn't agree, after she and her husband suffered delays on their flight home from Antigua.

Lynne explained, "My husband is an insulin dependent diabetic, and if he doesn't have food available to him within a very short space of time of having his injection it can create a really serious problem."

There was food on board the aircraft, but it was only served to those sitting in Club Class. Lynne said when she spoke to cabin crew about the matter; they took no notice of her request: "I would certainly not ever have expected that from British Airways, I actually wouldn't expect it from any airline to be perfectly honest."

Then there's Kate Perrior. Kate always chooses to fly with British Airways, and decided to treat herself to an upgrade on a business trip to America. Her flight was delayed and when she boarded the plane she discovered her in-flight entertainment system was not working.

BA offered to try and upgrade Kate on her return flight free of charge. Kate explained, "That really raised my hopes that my complaint had been taken seriously by B A, but when I got back to the airport I was told the flight was full and there was no upgrade."

Kate was offered just £50 in flight vouchers as compensation. But the outcome was very different when the same problem happened again, on a different BA flight, to a different Kate. Kate Middleton.

When the in-flight entertainment broke down on the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's flight, BA offered them a £200 voucher in compensation.

So, refusing to re-issue tickets, broken price match promises, and miserable offers of compensation - unless you're married to a prince.

What was that again BA - To Fly, To Serve?

British Airways Response:

British Airways' aim is to deliver the highest standards of customer service. We are proud to fly around 90,000 customers every day and we strive to ensure that every single customer has a positive experience.

Clearly, it is regrettable when individual lapses occur and we continually review our procedures to minimise the potential for such occurrences.

We are not just talking about improving our services. We have plans to invest more than £5 billion over the next five years on improvements to customers' experience.

These include new aircraft, smarter cabins and new technologies to make customers' lives more comfortable both in the air and on the ground.

Case One: Philip Matthews

We have apologised profusely to Mr Matthews and offered him a full refund plus a further gesture of goodwill in recognition of the frustration he endured.

He should have been offered a full refund and an opportunity to rebook as soon as he approached us about the name change.

We very much regret that this did not happen, and that this error was not rectified on the subsequent occasions he contacted us.

British Airways customers making direct or indirect third party bookings, can usually make minor corrections, such as simple spelling mistakes, to their booking for a service fee of £30.

We recommend that customers check confirmation details of their booking as soon as possible. If there are any mistakes customers should contact whoever made the booking.

Mr Matthews' booking involved connecting flights with other carriers. Many airlines' booking systems are not compatible with each other, so Mr Matthews should have been refunded for the original booking and invited to make a new booking with the correct name details.

Case Two: Ray Tregale

We are extremely sorry for the inconvenience that Mr Tregale has experienced.

We are refunding the difference between the fares, and have offered a gesture of goodwill.

While we do require proof that fares located on alternative UK public websites are based on the same fare conditions as the flight booked through ba.com, the emails sent to Mr Tregale from the airline asking for more information should have been clearer.

We have apologised to Mr Tregale and hope that this experience will not deter him from flying with British Airways in the future.

Case Three: Katie Perrior

We are sorry that Ms Perrior's experience was not up to the standard she would rightly expect from British Airways.

We understand customers' natural disappointment if their personal in-flight entertainment system does not work correctly.

Unfortunately there were no other seats available for Ms Perrior during the flight. In recognition of the in-flight entertainment issue, we offered Mrs Perrior £50 in British Airways vouchers, as she was in our World Traveller Plus cabin. The amount offered reflects the cabin booked, and therefore the price paid. For example, customers travelling in First class would be offered £100 worth of vouchers in similar circumstances.

Case Four: Linda Calcutt

We have apologised to Mr and Mrs Calcutt for the disruption they experienced, and appreciate the extra distress they suffered because of Mr Calcutt's medical condition.

The couple were offered, and have accepted 10,000 BA miles, in addition to £25 worth of British Airways highlife shopping vouchers, in recognition of the inconvenience caused.

The full meal service on the Calcutts' return flight was held back in the hope of not delaying the flight's departure any longer than necessary. However, we appreciate that the timing of the meal service was not early enough for the Calcutts and caused them distress.