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If you live in a vibrant city like Cardiff, everything from stadiums to shopping is all within easy reach. Chris Whatley loved the buzz of city life and, in 2005, had just moved into his own flat in a busy suburb.

But, aged just 31, Chris collapsed in the street and became so ill he was forced to give up work and move back with his mum in a quiet Rhondda village. Chris, whose illness has never been diagnosed, has been left virtually housebound for three years.

Chris, who is registered disabled, said: "I'd prefer to be out in the public. Anything that gets me out of these walls which I've been enclosed in for years."

Chris Whatley speaking to Rachel

Chris decided to buy an electric wheelchair and specifically needed it to have a 25st user capacity due to an increase in his weight caused by his illness. He chose the Drive Mambo 363 and ordered it for £1,174 from Bridgend-based Easi Care Mobility.

Initially, Chris was sent someone else's chair by mistake so rejected it. A fortnight later, the correct Drive Mambo 363 arrived but the delivery men explained to Chris that there was a misprint in the owner's manual which said the user weight capacity was 21st. Later that day, Chris realised that a label on the chair also stated 136kg - or 21st.

Chris said: "I was gutted, absolutely devastated to know that again more summer months had been passing by without me being able to become more mobile."

Easi Care Mobility reassured Chris the chair could take up to 25st. However, Chris was confused because staff at the chair's manufacturers - Drive Medical - told Chris on three occasions that it was only designed to take up to 21st. To add to the confusion, Drive Medical's own website stated 25st.

A nervous Chris decided to try the chair but says it soon developed a motor problem. Easi Care Mobility sent out an independent engineer who was unable to find a fault, but by now Chris had lost confidence in the chair and just wanted his money back.

Photograph of the Drive Mambo wheelchair

X-Ray has finally got to the bottom of all this confusion and found out that there had been a manufacturer's misprint. The power chair's actual weight limitÌýis 25 stone. What a shame that the makers, Drive Medical, didn't give Chris the clear answer he needed when he contacted them.

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Chris said: "From a leading manufacturer in the world of mobility products that is a very, very poor mistake to make."

Both companies said they regretted the upheaval this has caused Chris and that their customer service in this instance hadn't been up to their usual high standards.

Chris has, however, now had a refund from Easi Care Mobility and Drive Medical will be crediting them.

SinceÌýX-Ray pointed out the errors to Drive Medical, they have promised that the misprint in the manual and on the chair will be corrected on Drive Mambo 363s made in future. They will also be rectifying the error in the catalogue.

In the meantime, all staff have been made aware of the issue and a note about the misprints will be sent out with all the remaining stock in the batch.

Chris, meanwhile, is now shopping for a new mobility scooter.

I've noticed lots of articles about mushroom foraging since our day's filming so it's obviously 'on trend' as they say, but it was a total mystery to me beforehand.

When I was growing up I was always led to believe that eating ‘wild’ mushrooms was definitely not the thing to do, so I was keen to find out what I’d been missing out on all these years.

Mushrooms

It may seem obvious writing it but the 'wild' mushrooms that we buy when more exotic recipes demand it cannot be cultivated. And so, when you work out how much you're paying for them, they can be absolutely extortionate. Yet I'm told they are growing in abundance in Welsh forests.

A little research pre-forage revealed that there are around 100 edible types native to Britain, but it is the porcini that I was on the hunt for just outside Newport. When my producer told me that they can cost over a £100 a kilo - the game was on… I was hooked.

Helping me in my search was environmental writer and wild food enthusiast Daniel Butler. He kitted me out with a rather cute Little Red Riding Hood-style basket, a mushroom knife (eek!) and some identification cards. Apparently the basket is desirable on two fronts: it allows good airflow around your mushrooms so keeps them in tip-top condition, and it also allows the spores to be distributed.

Rachel pictured with Daniel Butler

I have to say it was a bit of a relief that I had both Daniel and the mushroom ID cards to refer to because there are poisonous varieties in Britain which, if eaten, can cause serious illness. They can be tricky to idenitfy so make sure you use a guidebook or get expert advice (or your very own Daniel) before you go out.

Daniel told me: "Virtually every woodland in Wales is the perfect place to go mushroom hunting. Wales has got the perfect climate for mushrooms, we may not like it always but it's damp and it's mild and that's just what mushrooms love." I also learnt, "there is an edible mushroom out there virtually every month of the year if you know where to look".

So what did I find? Well, it took quite some time to happen upon a porcini much to my frustration! I kept finding bay boletes, or to give them their official name, Boletus Badius. (I wonder who named some of these mushrooms?)

The bay boletes appear to have a much thinner, browner stalk and when you turn them upside down and press on the underside of the cap they immediately looked bruised. And the cutting technique is all important. Daniel coached me to cut them as far down the stalk as possible and to make it a clean cut.

Rachel and Daniel during the mushroom foraging

And eventually we found out first porcini and it was a belter - worth the wait! I must admit that Daniel did nudge me in the right direction but I claimed it as mine, especially when I discovered that at around 300 grams in weight it would be worth about £45 at a food hall in London.

At the end of our forage we assessed our haul, which was about two kilograms of porcini in all (the majority found by Daniel). If you were to pay £125 a kilo we’d netted around £250 of mushrooms, not bad for a morning’s work.

Daniel suggested cooking up a mushroom risotto - but I then took my pickings to another foraging expert and chef, Tony Venditto, who suggested cooking a wild mushroom bruschetta.

Rachel with Tony Venditto

Tony was born in Italy but has lived in Wales for the past 30 years. The mushrooms that he forages are a major feature on the menu at his restaurant, Kemey's Manor just outside Newport.

Apparently, mushroom foraging is highly popular in his home country, and Tony used to go mushroom hunting as a young boy with his father. He thinks this mushroom season has been the best in Wales for 20 years. I wonder why we are so sniffy about foraging here in Britain?

The bruschetta is gorgeous. I never really think of using mushrooms as the star ingredient in a dish but the wild mushrooms we foraged for free were delicious.

Photo of the mushroom bruschetta

‘Locally sourced’ are such buzz words at the moment and you couldn’t get much more locally sourced than the mushrooms we picked - I really should get my wellies back on again and have another go!

Further information

Wild mushrooms recipes and information on ´óÏó´«Ã½ Food

Foraging article on the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Wales Nature website

This week two of our Job Hunters have been taking the first steps towards finding new jobs.

45 year old Tim Rees has just lost his job after 12 years in employment, and is not sure what kind of work he'd like to do next. And 26-year-old Gemma's been a full-time mum for the last five years but would love to find a part time job in a bar or restaurant. So we've called in recruitment consultant AimeeÌýBateman and Sarah Bibby from Careers Wales to give them some tips on how to look for work.

Here are Aimee Bateman's tips on the best ways to find the job you want:

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Recruitment consultant Aimee Bateman

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1. Focus your job search

Decide which jobs and sectors you'd like to work in. If you're unsure, think about the following things:

• What skills do you have? These could be 'hard skills', such as qualifications or technical knowledge from a previous job.Or you may have lots of 'soft skills', for example you may be good at communicating with clients.
• Would you need to retrain in order to pursue your chosen career?
• Are you willing to travel outside your local area to work and can you be flexible with hours/ shift work?

2. Know where to look

You may already know about the job centre and the vacancies advertised in the local papers. However, these days many jobs are only advertised online, so make sure you have access to the internet, either at home or through your local library or internet café. Some companies use online job clubs to advertise posts and if you submit an application via one, it goes straight through to the employer.

You can also find support in your local area from careers agencies, charities and other voluntary groups. Check your local council’s website to make sure you are not missing out on any opportunities.

If you've been made redundant you may also be entitled to help from the Welsh Assembly government's Proact and React schemes. Another option is to register with commercial recruitment agencies.

3. Stay ahead of the game

If you know the area of work you're interested in, it’s a really good idea to find out which companies are moving to your local area or may be expanding, going into new markets or announcing big profits. These are all signs that at some point, they may be looking to recruit new staff.

If you can contact them before they advertise posts, you will seem enthusiastic and it could help you stay one step ahead of the other applicants.

Here are some useful links to get you started:

• Careers Wales:
• Remploy:
• Prime Cymru:
• Go Wales:
• Cyrenians Cymru:

Escaping to sunny skies and golden sands is the dream that has helped sell timeshare and holiday clubs to thousands of families. Rachel met three couples who all signed up to holiday clubs but now believe this has made them the target for a new scam.

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On joining the club - a kind of discount holiday scheme - they were each given a cash-back certificate. These are an incentive often used to encourage people to join holiday clubs and the idea is that once you've registered your certificate, after four or five years you can claim back up to several thousand pounds.

Julie and Gareth Griffiths, from the Rhondda, paid £6,000 to join a holiday club in 2005 but were promised up to £7,500 cash-back.

Gareth said: "We were going to get these holidays and have our money back at the end of it so, that was the clincher as far as I was concerned."

Peter and Sheila Davies from Swansea paid £5,000 to join a holiday club but were promised up to £19,000 cash-back, while and John and Moy Morgan, also from Swansea, paid over £9,000 but were told to expect up to £43,000 back.

All the couples completed the paperwork correctly so were confident they'd get their cash-back. But then all three got a call that threw everything into doubt. Each couple was cold-called by a company they'd never heard of. For Peter and Sheila it was Offshore Solutions, for John and Moy, Fraser and Ward, while Julie and Gareth were contacted by Pro-Call Corporate Solutions SL. The companies had different names but all said there was a problem with the couples' cash-back paperwork.

John said: "We received a call from a company called Fraser and Ward which I assumed, at the time, was a solicitor. They told me that our cash-back certificate hadn't been registered properly and at present was completely worthless. They said that they could re-register this properly for us and get us our money back but we had to go to Tenerife to see them."

The couples were asked to pay around £250 upfront. Fearing their cash-back was at risk, they agreed. Julie and Gareth became increasingly suspicious and decided not to travel. But the other couples decided to go to Tenerife.

When they arrived they were surprised to be met by a brand new company, Leisure Marketing, and it soon became clear that their priority wasn't resolving problems with the cash-back paperwork they had, but getting them to buy a whole new holiday plan.

John said: "They picked us up just before 11 in the morning and we were there until 6.45pm. And they just hammered us... By 5.30pm we were so, I don't know, uptight, we'd been there all that time, and we signed up."

John and Moy agreed to pay almost £8,000 to buy into a new holiday plan. Peter and Sheila did the same, committing to pay almost £9,000. Both couples paid out a hefty £2,000 deposit. Sheila said: "You just couldn't get out of it. They wouldn't take no for an answer."

Back home, the Davieses and Morgans say they told the company they didn't want to proceed. But Leisure Marketing chased them by phone for the thousands of pounds they said they owed and threatened them with court action if they didn't pay.

Moy said: "I feel we've been cheated. They have no intentions of helping you and I feel very angry about it."

The couples who travelled to Tenerife have now managed to claim their £2,000 deposit back through their credit cards.

X-Ray contacted the three companies who cold-called the couples and two refused to comment. Pro-Call Corporate Solutions, who contacted Julie and Gareth, said they are just a call centre, who deal with many different companies. Leisure Marketing haven't replied to any of our questions.

Adam Mortimer, from the UK European Consumer Centre (UK ECC) said his organisation, which assists consumers who are unhappy with purchases made in other EU countries, had seen an increase in complaints about this type of approach.

He said consumers should be wary of unsolicited phone calls from companies they're unaware of, being asked for upfront payments and companies which sound like legal firms but may not have the expertise required.

Anyone considering buying something from another EU country can get pre-shopping advice from the UK ECC's sister organisation: the .

If you've already signed a contract or made the purchase, the can help try to resolve the dispute and work with their colleagues in the country concerned to mediate with the trader.

This series, Lucy Owen is going to be 'on the case' solving your consumer queries. This week, Lucy helps Sharon Bevan from Maesteg, who had a problem with her Asda car insurance.

Sharon Bevan

Sharon had taken out a car insurance policy with Asda for £348.00. She had shopped around online as her renewal quote with her existing insurer had been high due to adding her daughter to her policy, as she had recently passed her driving test.

Having sent the necessary paperwork to Asda by recorded delivery, including proof of her no claims bonus and licences of all the people on the policy, Sharon confusingly received two letters in reply. One was a new certificate of motor insurance, but the second letter informed her that the insurance had been cancelled because they hadn't received any licences - plus they were charging her a £75 cancellation fee.

After seven weeks, Asda admitted they had received the documentation on time and waived the £75 cancellation fee - but Sharon had had to take out another insurance policy in the meantime, which had cost an extra £180 more than the original Asda policy.

Lucy got on the case and questioned Asda, who said the problems were down to a computer error. They are very sorry and have said they will pay the difference between their policy and the replacement policy Sharon had to take out instead.

If you've got a problem that you need X-Ray's help in solving - get in touch.

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Our five Swansea-based job hunters come from different backgrounds and have a range of personalities, skills and experiences, much like the workforce in many companies.

In last week's programme Tim, Gareth, Gemma, Alan and Dwayne were grilled by two business gurus to find out their strengths and weaknesses. One of the key things the experts were looking for was how well they would fit into a team.

So this week, we decided to see how well they can work together on an outdoor team-building day at Red Oak Creek, just outside Cardiff.

Team building expert Nick Lyons explained to Rhodri: "Although they're running round the woods it's all about communicating and the effort you put in. Just solving the simplest little problem can translate back to the workplace and that's what we're trying to do here.

"We quite often see conflict and difference of opinions, so hopefully this will help the guys come to a common goal or a common answer."

Nick and Rhodri watched as the job hunters performed tasks to test their communication, initiative, planning and leadership skills. In the first challenge, four of the group were nominated as 'sheep' and then blindfolded. Then Alan, the 'shepherd' had to herd them into a pen using animal noises!

In the bridge building task, the group built a swing bridge over a ravine, using just three pieces of wood and some rope. This time, Gemma took a commanding role, while other group members worked steadily to decide on the shape of the bridge.

Eventually, after an hour of discussions and arguments in the pouring rain, the job hunters worked together to build a structure which transported them all safely across.

Expert Nick was impressed with their determination and told Rhodri: "Even in the rain, the enthusiasm was great. Hopefully they've noticed things about themselves and working with others that they can put into practice in future."

Let's hope it's an experience which will help them all when they enter the world of work.

We've all heard the alarming headlines about unemployment recently. And with Wales expected to bear the brunt of job losses in the public sector in the next few months we've decided to focus on job hunting.

Our job hunters are five people from Swansea with one thing in common. They want to find work. They're fed up of knock-backs and want to improve their chances of landing the perfect job.

We're going to be putting our job hunters through their paces and with the help of some experts we'll be finding out what their strengths are, and where they're going wrong.

You can find out more about each of the job hunters and what they want to achieve from taking part in the series. If you have tips for getting back into work, let us by posting your comments below.

Feel free to comment! If you want to have your say, on this or any other ´óÏó´«Ã½ blog, you will need to sign in to your ´óÏó´«Ã½ iD account. If you don't have a ´óÏó´«Ã½ iD account, you can - it'll allow you to contribute to a range of ´óÏó´«Ã½ sites and services using a single login.

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Most flat owners are familiar with paying fees to a property management company - but how does over half a million pounds sound? This is the scenario that faced the flat owners at Griffin Press Court in Pontypool.

With 15 flats in all they were looking at nearly £40,000 each - not the sort of sum you'd have lying around for a rainy day or even any day. Put in perspective, the resale value of the flats is £25-70,000.

Suzanne and Tom Davies from Griffin Press Court

As with most flats, the owners there don't own the property outright, they simply own the leasehold - the right to live there for a specific period. The freehold itself is held by a company - which can charge owners for maintenance and ground rent. In the case of Griffin Press Court the freehold has recently changed hands, with Wellington Investments - a company registered in the Seychelles - the new holders.

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