Episode 13

A Welsh car hire company has collapsed leaving customers across Britain out of pocket.
The Car Hire Agency – based in the Vale of Glamorgan – stopped trading in July and went into liquidation in October.

X-Ray’s spoken to six customers from around Britain who found that their car hire vouchers were invalid and they had to pay again for their car hire. Victims included Ian Henderson from Dinas Powys near Cardiff.

He told the programme: “They didn’t even have the decency inform me that they had ceased trading which would have cost them nothing. All you can feel is that you’ve been robbed.”

The company was an agent for larger car hire companies – and normally passed fees on to them. But X-Ray has spoken to people who signed up with the company a year before it went into liquidation and their money was never passed on.

Customers had to pay a second time for their car hire. In Ian’s case that was £450. But other customers lost up to £1,000.

The company founded by Arthur Rowe from Dinas Powys. His daughter-in-law Caroline - who live in Rhoose near Cardiff Airport - was a director. His son Christopher - a former director - was involved in sales.

The family say they have invested heavily in the company and have lost money as a result of its collapse. Christopher is bankrupt and Arthur says he is “virtually bankrupt”. He has a holiday home in Florida but says it is in negative equity.

Accountancy and legal experts consulted by X-Ray have raised questions about a £25,500 dividend paid to Caroline Rowe and her husband Christopher in the year to January 2011. The company denies any wrongdoing.

The Preece family from Neath were looking forward to a sunny Spanish holiday with Thomas Cook. But instead they say the trip almost ended in disaster.

The family paid almost £2,300 for two weeks in the Granada Apartments in Ibiza in August this year and couldn’t wait to go. On the sixth day of the holiday, Jodi put the children to bed and turned on the room’s fan But half an hour later she started to smell burning.

“I searched the apartment, the last room I check was the children’s bedroom,” she said. “I put the light on and the room was full of thick white smoke. I panicked - my first thought was to get the children out of the room.”

The smoke was coming from the room’s fan, which had overheated. When Jodi reported the incident to the Thomas Cook rep, she says he told her that all Thomas Cook properties have smoke detectors. But that wasn’t true - the Granada apartments only had a fire alarm that had to be activated manually.

Jodi said the rep was apologetic and it was no longer safe for the family to stay there. Thomas Cook said they would arrange alternative accommodation, but then the Preeces received a call saying the last room had been taken and they would be going home a week early.

The family were devastated, but Jodi said their rep assured them they’d get their money back. However when Jodi rang the UK Thomas Cook office, the company told her they were not responsible for the problems and she wouldn’t be getting a refund.

When X-Ray contacted Thomas Cook they denied ever offering Jodi a refund and said she didn’t give their staff the chance to resolve the problems in the resort. They also say it was Jodi’s decision to cut short the holiday, something Jodi completely denies.

Thomas Cook also say their properties don’t have to have smoke alarms, the hotel’s fire alarm system meets industry guidelines and they’ll still sending guests there.

But there is some good news after we got in touch, Thomas Cook has agreed to give the Preece family £590 in compensation.

Putting everything in order after the death of a loved one is a distressing job, but when Samantha Brown’s mum died suddenly, a problem with Orange mobile made things even worse.

Samantha’s mum, Sally, died in April this year after a short battle with cancer and Samantha knew she had an Orange mobile account that would need cancelling. She went into the Orange store in Cardiff with her mum’s death certificate to cancel the account and thought the matter was sorted, until she noticed money was still being taken from her mum’s account.

Samantha contacted Orange straight away and they apologised saying the money would be refunded, but no refund was made. She sent a second copy of the death certificate to Orange, but the money was still being taken.

She said: “It was different every time. There would be no record of the death certificate or phone calls. It’s like banging your head against a brick wall really.”

Realising that Orange had taken more than £70 from the account over the months, Samantha decided to return to the Orange store to sort it out once and for all.

“I thought I would come away with a weight lifted off my shoulders but it just didn’t happen like that at all,” she said. “There was no empathy at all for what we’d been through, about all the phone call, nothing and he was just very rude.”

When X-Ray contacted Orange they apologised for the upset and inconvenience caused and confirmed the account was now closed. They said they are carrying out a thorough internal investigation into the actions of staff involved and have sent Samantha a refund along with a bouquet of flowers.