Do you have a story to share about Rip Off Britain?

[OliviaMumsnet]

We're helping the BBC with their preparations of the next series of Rip Off Britain. They want to expose the issues that matter most to you and expose the rip off merchants into the bargain
Can you help?

Have you -
been ripped off?
been a victim of unfair or sharp practice?
paid for something that you feel was a total waste of money?
Post on this thread or email [email protected] with details, or post your grievances to:
Rip Off Britain, PO BOX 4360, Manchester, M61 0DY.
Thanks

Thanks Eleanor
Anyone else?

Another vote for the Asda thing, or more specifically the whole "ghost payments" thingie

Catch up bills from power companies. Scottish Power and Scottish Hydroelectric, for example.

Sky double-direct debiting us and then hanging on to the money.

Tax credits coming back years later with 'We overpaid you! It's our fault, but we're cutting off the money now.'

Where to start! Not just a story but an entire book.

PC World and renting computers for business.

Do not go near the place...

BT. ditto

tesco's blimming yellow sticker system, you need to be able to do maths to work out if it is a bargain or not (they prey on people who can't add up i reckon)

The 'cash till payday' lenders that lend people small amounts of money for a month at 2000% APR. Why are they unregulated in the UK?

The NED yoyo thread.

The follow on baby milk adverts that emphasise the fact that a baby does not get enough iron from cow's milk so parents should buy theirs instead, they forget about iron from a balanced diet and are peddling their formula on the backs of parents worries about their child's health.

Energy and water companies that overcharge.

Yes yes yes to the water company.

We moved house a couple of months ago, from a 3 bed to a 4/5 bed, so granted bigger house, but still same number of people, still same amount of water being used.

Our monthly DD has gone from £24 to nearly £65.

Nearly trebled .

CINEMAS!!
The price of popcorn and those enormous drinks. It cost us nearly £50 to go to the cinema to see Shrek.

You are held to ransom by water companies, it's not as if you can get your water from anyone else either. I found an old water bill from 6 years ago, the water bill was less then £100 for the year. If I hadn't had a meter put in it would be over £300, that's shocking!

Yes to supermarkets making a big deal out of multibuy or large pack offers that are actually more expensive than if you bought individually/two of the smaller size.

I agree cornsilky Cinemas are a total rip off and the popcorn is never fresh and crunchy, it always tasted stale and soft. euch

Also, we got quotes from several removal companies when we were moving house, now, the house we had was rented and no way could we afford to buy it nowadays, but the removal company saw where we lived and thought "kerrching" and quoted us megabucks... around 4K to move, over the hill to the next village. In the end we hired a man with a van and he did it for a few hundred!

Gas and Electricity pre payment metres.

I don't ant to be on the BBC show but i think it is definitly a very good subject matter for them to investigate.

Holidays outwith school term time!!!!

I think children are the biggest rip off. How much money do they cost!! Do we need all the crap that we think we do? Buggy's at £700 a pop!! If we didn't buy all this stuff they wouldn't make it.

Another vote for holidays outwith term time!

Has nobody mentioned petrol prices? They seem to creep up and up when oil prices rise but never seem to creep back down again to where they were when oil prices fall to the same level (or lower).

In supermarkets I hate the way that the price comparison tickets for larger items/multipacks are often not comparable - for example, one product will say 'equivalent to 30p per 100ml' and on another will say 'equivalent to 3.3p each'.

Asda home shopping thread.

Ditto Ex-pat's comment on catch-up bills from power companies. It is a huge con. They turn up on your doorstep and promise you your gas and electric bills will be much smaller. Guarantee the price will stay the same for 12 months. I was given a price almost half of what I was paying with Scottish Power. Then a year later I was told I was using far more than the doorstep salesman had quoted me for. I owe them over £600 in arrears.

In my case this was Scottish Hydro Electic but have heard similar from other companies.

Patient line rip off, tv in hospital for £5 a day! Telephone is £££

Surprised no one has mentioned budget airlines with their attention grabbing fly for £19 and then the costs just rocket once you start the booking process online with fuel surcharge, airport tax, paying by credit card surcharge and extra costs per bag and finally an admin fee.

The rip off charge I hate the most is the one that affects families the most is paying extra to sit together. Would any airline really want a 6yr old sitting 20 seats away from a parent? It does not cost the airline any extra at all to put people who booked together in seats next to each other when they check in.

Companies that by your old mobile from you.

I had barely-used, 3month old Smartphone. Was quoted £42 for it. Sent it to the company, who sent back a valuation of £32. Why? Because, they claimed, the screen was "severely scratched".

What utter nonsense! The phone was so new that I had not even removed the protective film from the screen. Dh, for some reason known only to his naive self, peeled the film off as he was packing the phone up to send to the company. What is more, he wrapped the phone in bubblewrap before putting it into their envelope. There is no waythat phone could have been scratched at all, let alone "severely scratched".

And - this is the icing on the cake - they charge £10 to return the phone to you.

Utter rip-off.

Possibly controversial but 'green' tariffs.

Massive subsidies are given to (mostly) wealthy landowners and the energy customers have to pay this, hence a huge rise in energy bills.

Windfarms spoil areas of natural beauty, the wildlife, ecosystems etc and those who work or visit the areas have no say in any of it.

Stop the subsidies and halt the desecration of the countryside then watch the energy bills stabilise.