大象传媒

Booking a holiday well in advance can be a great way to snap up a deal. Back in the summer, Leighton and Rachel Porter from Pontypridd went to Thomas Cook in Merthyr Tydfil and booked a holiday to Salou for a week in May 2011 for themselves and daughter Ruby.

They paid a 拢450 deposit in instalments to Sunset Holidays, which is part of the Thomas Cook Group, and also paid for airport parking. However, in September Rachel discovered she was pregnant - with the new arrival due just days before the holiday.

Leighton and Rachel Porter

Flying in the later stages of pregnancy isn't medically advisable: the say it's sensible to avoid flying after 32 weeks of pregnancy and women are strictly advised not to fly after 35 weeks. And after the birth, some airlines won't let newborns travel for at least a week.

Consequently, the couple decided that their best option was to cancel their holiday. They turned to their travel insurance company, as they had purchased insurance just two days after booking their holiday. Yet Leighton says he was told they weren't covered for cancelling under the pregnancy terms.

The Porters then approached their holiday provider, Thomas Cook, but Leighton explained: "They just advised that if I cancelled the holiday I would lose the full deposit of almost 拢500 or we could take another holiday within the first 3 months of the initial dates we were going away."

But the latter option seemed impossible to Rachel, who thought it impractical to take a newborn abroad just a few weeks after the birth. So the couple wrote to Thomas Cook proposing alternatives; they offered to go in a year's time, or some time before the due date, or to use the deposit on a UK break - but were told all their suggestions weren't possible.

So how does Thomas Cook compare to other large travel companies? With Virgin the Porters would have had up to two years to change their booking and take their holiday, while with Thomson or First Choice they would have had the option to travel any time before the baby arrived.

Rachel Porter

Rachel added: "We're not asking for our money back, we're just asking for them to be a little bit more helpful and sympathetic."

X-Ray asked Rochelle Turner, head of research at consumer publication about the Porters' case. She said that travel insurance companies try to protect you from unforeseen things. However, regardless of what individuals may think about pregnancy, many insurance companies take the view that if you are a woman, the chances are that you may get pregnant and therefore it's one of the things not covered in terms of cancellation.

Rochelle said that while the Porters had contractually signed an agreement with Thomas Cook to travel at a specific time, they now cannot go. She said: "Morally, I think the company probably can be slightly more accommodating than they have been."

Since X-ray contacted Thomas Cook, they've now offered to extend the period in which the Porters can take their holiday. According to their original booking conditions, they could only rebook to travel in the three months after their original departure date. This has now been extended to three months prior and five months after the original dates. They can also now book with any of the operators within the Thomas Cook Tour Operations family, not just Sunset Holidays.

Although the Porters purchased their travel insurance independently, the insurer - Big Blue Cover - is underwritten by a Thomas Cook company. The insurance does cover them for certain unexpected situations surrounding pregnancy but not just for unexpected pregnancies. Unfortunate, but it was in the small print!

When you're planning your holiday or shopping for something new, do you like to read other people's opinions? Perhaps you've even written about your good or bad experiences on a review site?

On the internet you will find thousands of amateur reviewers happy to share their views on anything from hotels to restaurants, taxi firms to telephone providers.

Rachel Treadaway-Williams using a laptop in a hotel

Lucy Leonard-Davies from Porthcawl found review sites invaluable when she booked her honeymoon to Jamaica. "I did quite a bit of research on where I wanted to go first of all," she explained to X-Ray's reporter Rachel Treadaway-Williams.

"I decided that Jamaica would be an appropriate place and I wanted to see who else had stayed in that region, and where they'd stayed and the variety of hotels that were available. The reviews that I looked at tended to be the more recent ones which I think are possibly more important to look at because you're looking at the most recent experience and they were all positive."

Lucy found the sites helpful in planning her special trip, but what about the companies on the receiving end of the reviews? Rachel asked hotel manager Huw Hillary, chairman of the Cardiff Hoteliers Association, whether he thought people were truthful when they used these sites.

"I think the guests are," he said. "However, I think people, hotels and restaurants can manipulate them to suit their own purposes and post a couple of fake reviews on their websites. Overall you're only deluding yourself and eventually you'll be caught out."

Like all business owners, he doesn't enjoy bad reviews. "I absolutely hate them!" he admitted. "However, you have to take these things into context. We can have thousands of guests here every week, you can't please all the people all the time."

As review sites have grown in popularity, their significance has too. These days a bad review can mean make or break, and now all kinds of businesses are fighting back. Solicitor Tracey Singlehurst-Ward is dealing with a growing number of cases where companies that feel they've been unfairly criticised are taking legal action.

"The companies are getting edgy because of course once a post is made on the internet and the whole world can see it, their reputation is potentially vastly damaged," she explained.

"It can be repeated across a whole range of websites and even once it's deleted the damage is already done. There are a lot of allegations about competitors or people putting false statements up just intended solely to damage someone's reputation or a businesses reputation. Those who are abusing the system can be pulled up for it in legal terms."

And high profile cases are now starting to hit the headlines. TripAdvisor, the biggest review site, is braced for possible legal action from companies which say the site allows false statements. Although they wouldn't comment on the legal case, TripAdvisor told X-Ray that they have systems in place to make sure reviews are genuine.

Nicola Tudor is an amateur blogger who feels it's important to be impartial and honest. She reviews restaurants for her own website, Cardiff Bites, and we asked her thoughts on the way review sites had grown in popularity.

"It's kind of weird because you wouldn't necessarily listen to the man in the pub and you're having a conversation with your friends and then someone chips in and says, 'Oh no, I wouldn't bother with that'. Traditional word of mouth hasn't disappeared it's just gone online."

And Nicola thinks it's easy to spot when a reviewer has an ulterior motive. "I'd say if it reads like an advert then usually it's a PR company that has sent along a press release," she said. "It's a very lazy way of doing it so if it does read like an advert then I'd be quite wary of it."

So what happens if you've had a bad experience and you want to tell the whole world about it? Well if you're not careful you can be sued.

"If you write something that's false and it's potentially defamatory then someone might choose to sue you in the courts for damages because you've damaged their reputation," Tracey Singlehurst-Ward explained.

"You should avoid using that blogging site or review site as a vent to exaggerate criticism and trying essentially use it for revenge. Try to avoid making statements of fact which aren't supported and make sure everything's phrased as opinion, such as, 'I liked this place', 'I didn't like this, it was because', 'I thought my food was bad', rather than saying 'I had food poisoning' which could potentially be defamatory if it was not true."

Opinions will vary and you will need to be careful. One thing's for sure, review sites are definitely worth checking out, although take some of the advice with a pinch of salt!

Do you use or browse review websites - what do you think of them? Let us know your experiences of review sites below.

This week, the programme caught up with mum of three Gemma Price and graduate Gareth Abbott-Haigh to see how they're getting on with their search for employment.

26-year-old Gemma hasn't worked since having her children, but money is tight and she's keen to get a part time job. She'd like to do bar work, but lacks the experience and those ever-important references.

Gemma Price

We arranged for her to meet the manager of the Plough and Harrow pub in Llansamlet, Mike Bolter. She impressed him so much that he offered her a trial shift behind the bar, her first taste of work in five years. She felt nervous at the prospect and found it hard to leave her children but was excited to have the chance of meeting new people and earning some money to help the family finances.

After showing her how to pull a pint of real ale and use the till, Mike let Gemma loose on the customers and she spent a busy evening serving drinks and food.

At the end of her shift, Mike told her, "I think you've done really well tonight, a little bit more bar skills maybe needed, but we can teach you that. I suggest I bring you back for another evening without cameras and the glare of the publicity."

Gemma was delighted, saying, "I think a lot of my confidence came out tonight. I was quite shocked he's asked me to come back, really pleased and excited, so far so good!"

Meanwhile, sports science graduate Gareth is torn between two career paths. He's had a taste of life as a sports physio, on work experience with Swansea City Football club. His other choice is teaching, but he failed to get on a training course this year.

Gareth Abbott-Haigh

To improve his chances of getting a teaching place, Gareth needs classroom experience. He's managed to get some part time work as a teaching assistant at Penyrheol Comprehensive in Swansea.

Rhodri visited him after a science lesson with some Year 9 pupils. "It's really good," Gareth said. "The kids are brilliant, it's definitely an eye opener. It's probably more of a challenge than I expected."

So is Gareth any more decided on which career path to take - sports physiotherapist or teacher? "I think this is kind of pulling me towards teaching," Gareth said. "I'm still in the balance at the moment, I still haven't decided!"

Stay tuned to find out how our Job Hunters get on over the coming weeks.

This week, the programme follows job hunters Alan Goss and Timothy Lee Rees in their hunt for employment.

When we first met 55-year-old Alan he was worried that his age and varied career history could count against him. He has run his own business in the past but with a new baby, he's now looking for a secure full time job.

Our experts advised Alan to spruce up his CV and target his job search better. And one of them, Nigel Roberts, arranged an interview for Alan at Excelerate technology in Cardiff. If he impressed the boss, David Savage, there could be a business development job up for grabs.

Job Hunter Alan Goss at his interview with David Savage

David quizzed Alan on his commitment, his willingness to adapt from being self-employed to working for a company, and what he could offer the company as an employee.

When Alan revealed his salary expectations, David told him that he thought the figure was delusional in the current climate! Alan said afterwards: "I really didn't feel that went anything like as well as it should and I blame myself".

However, David was more positive about Alan's interview. "He came across very well", he said. "I'm pretty comfortable that I'd would probably like to see Alan in a different environment, without the 大象传媒 here, and see how he performs in a more natural case, where I actually think he'd do better."

Meanwhile, Timothy Lee Rees has decided to focus on training towards a longer term career, having recently been made redundant after 12 years at a food packaging plant. He said: "Because I was made redundant in the last six months, I can apply for provided by the Assembly government to help people like myself to try something different, a new career."

Tim is interested in getting a forklift operator's licence, which he hopes could lead on to a forklift engineer's course. But to see how realistic his plans are, X-Ray arranged for him to meet Chris Hurlow from South Wales Industrial Equipment in Port Talbot. The company employs engineers to fix forklifts all over South Wales.

Chris advised Tim that entering this trade requires a lot of technical knowledge, that training would take time and he'd have to find an apprenticeship placement, of which there are few in south Wales. Chris also advised Tim to explore the avenue of gaining experience in garages and fast paced MOT garages before going to college.

In last week's programme wannabe chef, 18-year-old Dwayne Landeg, underwent work experience in a five star professional kitchen, Patrick's with Rooms in Mumbles, Swansea. But although he initially impressed head chef Patrick Walsh, Dwayne left his shift early and called in sick the following day.

However, Patrick gave Dwayne a second chance to prove himself and when we caught up with him after his second day's work experience he was feeling optimistic.

Dwayne said: "It was a lot of fun. I'm going to do a couple more shifts and see how it goes from there and if they want to take me on, they can. I definitely do want to do this as a career choice, now I've had this opportunity I'm not letting go, If I do get it, I'll be over the moon, I can say my first job is in a five star restaurant. That's going to be a big achievement for me."

We'll keep you posted on the progress of all our job hunters in the coming weeks.

You may remember our recent investigation featuring X-Ray viewer Chris Whatley, and the problems he encountered in purchasing a power wheelchair.

In 2005, aged just 31, Chris collapsed in the street and became so ill he had to move back in with his mother in the Rhondda. His illness, which has never been diagnosed, left Chris virtually housebound for three years so he decided to buy a power chair to aid his mobility.

However, firstly the wrong chair was delivered, then there was confusion about whether the chair could hold his weight. (Read more on the original investigation in a previous blog article).

Following the broadcast of the programme one generous viewer, Mair Uren from Newport, got in touch with X-Ray to help. Her husband Donald sadly passed away two years ago and ever since, his power chair has been gathering dust.

Photo of Mair Uren and her late husband Donald

Moved by Chris' story, Mair felt the chair would be put to much better use with him, and Chris is understandably thrilled.

Chris said: "After everything bad that's happened over the last few weeks, this has been a massive bonus. It'll be a new lease of life."

He also paid tribute to Mrs Uren, saying: "A massive thank you, very unexpected, but it shows you how kind some members of the public are."

Remember that if you've got a problem or story you'd like X-Ray to investigate, do get in touch with us.

It makes sense to advertise if you are a small business and Dylan was happy with his 拢75 a month advert in Farm & Industry Trader magazine.

But alarm bells started ringing when he received bills for three times as much from companies he鈥檇 never heard of, some of which threatened Dylan and his family with court action if he failed to pay up.

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Dylan said: 鈥淵ou feel that if they take you to court, you鈥檝e got no leg to stand on - they鈥檙e going to win and your credit ratings will go bad.鈥�

Unsure who he had spoken to, Dylan did what he thought was the honourable thing and paid five invoices that cost a combined 拢2,000, even though the publications that his adverts were supposed to appear in had little relevance to his business.

Dylan spends his days marking grooves in farm walkways, so it is difficult to argue that he knowingly chose to advertise in publications like the 鈥楥rime & Safety Awareness Booklet鈥�.

鈥淚 haven鈥檛 got a clue who they are, I haven鈥檛 got a clue where my advert is supposed to be,鈥� he added.

Worryingly it seems Dylan鈥檚 story is far from unique. North West Scambusters are currently investigating complaints against over a hundred businesses and Boyd Black, Regional Investigation Team Manager, told X-Ray the ruthless methods they use.

鈥淥nce they鈥檝e got their grip on somebody they鈥檒l send them invoices,鈥� said Boyd.

鈥淓ven if you say 鈥業鈥檓 not interested鈥� they鈥檒l still send invoices knowing that a certain percentage of businesses trying to be good at paying their bills will immediately pay, and it鈥檚 only later it comes to light that there was no service provided.鈥�

Eventually Dylan decided enough was enough. He stopped paying the companies and turned to Trading Standards for advice, who told him to ignore future invoices - including four more bills he鈥檇 received for a combined 拢1,500.

John Eden Jones, of Gwynedd Trading Standards, said: 鈥淚 think the individual needs to know their legal rights, they need to know where they stand and in this instance it鈥檚 down to the company to prove that the contract has been entered into, and if they鈥檙e unable to do so they really can鈥檛 pursue the matter.鈥�

Dylan is now trying to put his expensive ordeal behind him, but has sound advice for anyone who is contacted by advertising companies they have never heard of.

鈥淚f you don鈥檛 understand what these people are talking about just say no and put the phone down and just carry on doing that,鈥� he said.

鈥淣ever say I will or never say yes, because if doesn鈥檛 make any sense to you then more than likely it鈥檚 all a con.鈥�

Read the rest of this entry

Not a lot of people will know this but litter is a subject quite close to my heart and Pembrokeshire even more so, so I was looking forward to spending the day with Neptune's Army of Rubbish Collectors (NARC for short).

Image of an underwater pushbike

We picked a glorious day for it, and on the surface the scene at Hobbs Point (part of the coastline between Milford Haven and Pembroke) was a fairly neat and clean one. But it's what鈥檚 hidden in the depths that bothers the members of NARC.

The first member of the team that I met was chairman Dave Kennard. He formed NARC five years ago after witnessing first-hand the damage that litter can do on the sea bed. I asked him what we might find lurking below. It seemed that pushbikes, scooters and skateboards were pretty common. Added to that fishing debris, nets, weights and the like. They鈥檇 even dragged a kitchen sink out of the sea on a previous dive. I can鈥檛 imagine why anyone would go to the effort of bringing a kitchen sink to the water鈥檚 edge when they could just take it to the tip?

Prepping his kit before heading underwater I found diver Mark Jones. I was surprised to find out that Mark had travelled from Church Village to take part in the dive because of his concern for the environment. He also said that it was a satisfying way to spend an afternoon and I started to get a feel for that.

Mark was not the only one who got a buzz from doing his bit. By the time the divers were ready to head in, on-shore support had arrived as well as two boats manned by the Maritime Volunteer Service (MVS). Dave explained that once they鈥檇 found an object they would attach a balloon-like lifting bag to it. Once inflated the object would float to the surface where it would be recovered by the boats and then handed to the on-shore team on land.

I took my place on the slipway edge. I鈥檓 not even sure five minutes had passed when the first balloon popped up. It was quite exciting wondering what on earth would be attached. I did ask one of the on-shore crew if they had ever found anything valuable and if so, had they been able to keep it. If they had, they weren鈥檛 telling.

First out was a bike, then after that a steady stream of metallic junk including a satellite dish and lobster pot, oh鈥nd a scooter! (Apparently there is always a scooter.) As it arrived on shore it was clear that the bike also came with its very own commercial fishing net in tow and tangled in the debris were a number of crabs - a pretty depressing sight. But there was a silver lining - as we cut one crab away it moved so somehow it had survived.

I also got a taste of the action on board one of the MVS鈥檚 boats. They have no idea what they are going to be dragging out of the water until they put their hands on it. But even as we dragged out the next find we were still puzzled. It wasn鈥檛 until we discovered some kind of drive on it that the penny dropped 鈥� it was a computer! Why on earth would you chuck a computer over the edge? I could only presume that the person who did the chucking was extremely security conscious. John favoured 鈥榚xtremely lazy鈥�. He told me that the tip was literally within a matter of miles.

It turned out to be a successful day clearing the sea bed. Added to the heap was a lawnmower, three skateboards, two halloween masks, one pair of sunglasses and a boat trailer wheel. Oh, and two pint glasses that diver Ed was going to take home and clean up. Now that鈥檚 what you call recycling. The items are recorded and the team tell me if they can鈥檛 be re-used then they are deposited where they should have been found in the first place, the local tip.

I headed home for a well-earned cuppa, smug in the knowledge that a small patch of the Pembrokeshire coastline was that bit cleaner because of our afternoon鈥檚 activity.

This week, the programme follows job hunters Gareth Abbott-Haigh and Dwayne Landeg. They both have a dream career in mind but until you've tried the job, it can be hard to know if it's the one for you!

Sports science graduate Gareth can't decide between teaching and physiotherapy. To help him make up his mind, we arranged for him to spend some time with the head physiotherapist at , Kate Rees.

Dwayne Landeg tries out being a chef听

During his work experience, Gareth found out about the pressures of keeping top footballers in shape, the different roles within the physio team and which area he'd like to pursue.

He's doing a part time sports massage course at the moment. However, becoming part of a sports physio team is very competitive and will mean going back to college.

Kate was impressed with the way Gareth interacted with players and staff and with the questions her asked. She even agreed to be a referee for Gareth and said that he could come back to get some more hands-on experience, once he's finished certain aspects of his sports massage course.

Eighteen-year-old Dwayne Landeg dreams of being a chef but he's never been in a proper kitchen before, so we arranged for him to get his first taste of a professional kitchen at a 5 star restaurant in Mumbles - .

Dwayne would like to learn his trade on the job instead of in college. And restaurant owner Patrick Walsh agreed to show Dwayne the ropes, starting with a trip to the herb garden and an introduction to knife skills.

Patrick was impressed by his early efforts, chopping vegetables and opening oysters. However, his faith in Dwayne was shaken when Dwayne decided to head home early and the following day he rang in sick for his shift.

So is this it for Dwayne's dreams of being a chef? Patrick agreed to give Dwayne one more chance to do a full shift without the cameras around. Find out how he gets on next week!

But lots of viewers have told X-Ray that after ordering floors from Floors-2-Go all they got were long delays and frustration.

Sandra Chipper

Glyn Williams, from Pontardawe, paid 拢401.35 for solid white oak flooring from Floors-2-Go in the Swansea Enterprise Park last July. He says he was told it would take 10 days to arrive in store.

After 11 days, Glyn visited the store but the wood wasn't in stock so he went home to wait for a call to say it had arrived. When he heard nothing, Glyn returned to the store.

He explained: "The manager who informed me that the goods would arrive in store the week after next. I was pretty annoyed really, I mean I'd made the payment and I expected good service and I felt I wasn't having it."

On Friday July 16th, the store finally said the floor would be delivered on Tuesday but it wasn't, so Glyn asked for a refund. He spent days chasing his refund, being passed from pillar to post between the store and head office and wrote to the chief executive but still got nowhere.

In the last six months we've heard from lots more unhappy customers including Sandra Chipper, from Cwmbran who on May 11 paid more than 拢400 for laminate flooring for her living room and hallway.

She said: "They said it would be ready within two weeks maximum. Time went on after two weeks we didn't have anything they kept fobbing us off every time we phoned."

Despite several broken promises that the flooring would arrive within days, Sandra hoped by the time she returned from a holiday, everything would be ready to go. A fitting date for early September was arranged but the night before, the store called to say that he flooring had been transferred to a shop in England. She then asked for a refund.

Sandra said: "We're disgusted with the company, it's a nationwide company and we can't believe that听we, and other people, have been treated like this."

We wrote to Floors-2-Go who offered their "sincere apologies". They said they had experienced substantial disruption due to the installation of a new IT system and this had impacted on levels of service during the transition. However, the new system was virtually now in place.

They have now given Glyn his refund and planned to send him a letter of apology. They say they had authorised Sandra's refund and were due to post her cheque imminently but will now hand deliver it immediately. Floors-2-Go have also refunded two other customers brought to their attention by X-Ray.

Aimee Bateman takes Dwayne through how to sell yourself on a CV

This week our Job Hunters have been tackling one of the most difficult things to get right about the job search - the CV.

As the CV is often the first thing a potential employer sees it is important to sell yourself to the best of your ability on this piece of paper. It can make the difference between getting an interview or being rejected. See it as an advert to show a potential employer what you can offer and how you can benefit their company.

And for our Job Hunters their CVs were one of the key things they had to work on, and some needed more help than others.

For 18-year-old Dwayne Landeg a lack of qualifications and no work experience means the teenager struggles to know what to put on his CV.

For 45-year-old former factory worker Tim Rees it is a different story. He has years of experience but after a recent redundancy he now needs to hunt for work in a very different job market - and he's never needed a CV before.

So we asked recruitment expert Aimee Bateman to give her own personal masterclass on how to make a CV stand out from the crowd.

She told our job hunters: "Your CV is your personal brochure, giving you a chance to show off all the attributes that make you the perfect choice for employers. These tips show you the key things you need to consider to make sure your CV shows you in the best light."

My tips would be:

For every job you apply for you could be up against hundreds of other candidates so you need to make sure you stand out. Employers don't just buy skills, they buy solutions, so show how can you make the company money and how can you resolve the problems that they have. Make sure you turn the features of your previous jobs, e.g. what you did, into benefits for the new employers.

That means talk about leadership, customer service/satisfaction/attention to detail instead of just listing what you did. If you have little work experience like Dwayne, focus on other examples of your experience. For someone like Dwayne, who volunteers, this is valid experience that should go on a CV.

Employers spend around 5 seconds scanning your CV so it needs to remain clutter-free and easy to read. The last thing a recruiter wants to do is to go hunting for the information that they are looking for so don't hide it amongst an array of elaborate graphics. Keep fonts simple and don't attach a photograph, unless specifically requested.

A CV generally includes a personal statement (a few sentences summing up your key qualities and experience), work experience, qualifications, hobbies/interests and your contact details. Make sure that every inch of the page is selling you to the employers, so use sections like hobbies and interests to show what kind of employee you will be instead of talking about your general likes and dislikes.

It may sound like a time consuming process, but making the effort to tailor your CV to suit the requirements of each particular job that you are applying for can greatly increase your chances of securing an interview. The current market means that there will be a lot of interest for each job so you really need to up your game and stand out from the crowd - this means tailoring experience, qualifications and attributes to the specific jobs you are applying for.

It's deceptively easy to make mistakes on your CV and exceptionally difficult to repair the damage once an employer gets it. As well as checking your spelling and grammar, make sure your employment dates match up and that you've provided the right phone number and email address.

When you put together a CV it's often difficult remembering the projects you have been involved with and the achievements you have made. To avoid missing important pieces of information out, revisit your CV every month adding anything of importance, and cutting any information that is no longer required.