大象传媒

A Pembrokeshire traveller has told X-Ray about his terrifying experience at Changi Airport in Singapore, after being told he was considered too dangerous to fly.

Last October 21-year-old Daniel James from Solva was set to spend the winter working in New Zealand as a lifeguard, along with two other friends.

After weeks of preparation, departure day finally arrived. Daniel and his friends travelled to Heathrow Airport to catch their Singapore Airlines flight.

They would travel from Heathrow to Singapore where they would have a short wait before catching their connecting flight onto Auckland.

The three friends boarded their flight without any problems but just 12 hours later, when Daniel landed in Singapore and tried to check in for his connecting flight to New Zealand, things started to go horribly wrong.

He said: 鈥淚 got to the boarding gates and handed over my passport and gave them my boarding pass. My passport made a funny noise. I was told I couldn't be unattended in the airport. It was a security risk."

"I was made to feel like a criminal basically and that I'd done something wrong. I thought this can't be happening to me.鈥�

Daniel was told that some of his details had been placed on a security database and so he wouldn't be allowed to fly.

Daniel said: 鈥淭hey couldn't tell me why I was on it, they just said that your name's come up and we can't let you fly for security reasons. I was telling them that it's not me, I've never been in trouble before in my life."

In the meantime the original flight to Auckland was leaving and Daniel's mates had already boarded the flight hoping he'd make it too. But for four more hours Daniel was stuck in Singapore Airport under the watch of security guards.

Eventually Daniel was given access to the internet and was able to contact his family back in Pembrokeshire who were all trying to sort out the problem. But Singapore Airlines wouldn鈥檛 allow Daniel to fly onto Auckland.

They gave him two options 鈥� he could have his ticket price refunded but he鈥檇 have to leave the airport immediately or he could board a flight back to Heathrow. With no visa or local currency, Daniel felt he had no other option than to return to the UK.

He said: 鈥淭o be told that you're going to have to go home on another 12-hour flight, I was pretty devastated and just shattered basically.鈥�

So what had gone SO wrong that meant Daniel was now considered such a security risk he couldn't fly?

He was told that his name was on a United States watch list of potentially dangerous people and his movements were being monitored.

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So, Daniel contacted Homeland Security in America. They gave him a something called a redress control number to use when booking flights, to prove he wasn't a security risk.

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Eventually he was able to fly to New Zealand with no problems. But when it was time to return home, Daniel discovered that his name was still classed as a risk.

He was due to fly back to the UK via San Francisco so he tried to get the necessary visas sorted in good time. But when he got to San Francisco he was flagged up as a security risk again.

Daniel returned home a few weeks ago but he's afraid the problems he's had on this trip could follow him for the rest of his life.

He said: 鈥淚'm always going to be wary about what's going to happen when I get to the check in am I going to be held up. It's not my fault, it's not me on that list."

X-Ray has been investigating why Daniel's name was put on these lists in the first place. BUT both the FBI and the Terrorist Screening Centre in the US are staying tight-lipped on this. For security reasons they can't tell us who is on or off the watch list.

But Singapore Airlines have apologised for Daniel's experience.

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They admit their systems should have picked up the problem at Heathrow Airport rather than at Singapore and say they had refunded him the cost of his ticket, and the expenses he incurred once they stopped him travelling on to New Zealand.

A music fan who sold concert tickets online has described how problems after the sale led to a debt collector chasing her for money.

Ffion Roberts, from Anglesey, was hugely disappointed when she couldn鈥檛 get time off work to see her icon Lady Gaga so, rather than lose money, advertised the tickets on eBay.

A man called Elengo Papacostas agreed to the 拢170 asking price and paid via online payment service Paypal. Ffion sent the tickets and got eBay feedback from Elengo saying 鈥淩eceived item straight away! Absolutely amazing!鈥�.

But two months later, PayPal e-mailed Ffion to say Elengo had filed a chargeback and had asked his bank to reverse the payment because someone else had used his credit card to buy the tickets.

Ffion said: 鈥淎ll I understood from the email was that they were taking money off me and I didn't understand why because I hadn't done anything wrong.鈥�

But Ffion hadn't read the PayPal e-mails immediately so missed a 10-day deadline to send proof of her case. So it was up to Elengo鈥檚 card company to decide the case, and they found in his favour.

Because the payment had been reversed through the PayPal system, PayPal now wanted Ffion to repay them and eventually employed a debt collector.

Ffion said: 鈥淚 just panicked. Everything was going through my head. It was just horrible.鈥�

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Online, Ffion found more than a dozen sellers complaining of similar problems with Elengo Papacostas.

Elengo says he did receive Ffion's tickets. He blames PayPal and says an internal investigation by them meant all his transactions were reversed. He says he鈥檚 done all he can to help any unhappy sellers who鈥檝e contacted him.

PayPal say they would only investigate a transaction if a buyer told them it was unauthorised.

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They also say chargebacks only happen when a buyer flags up fraud to their card company.

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They highlight that Ffion missed the deadline they gave her but they are now investigating and, as a gesture of goodwill, won鈥檛 pursue Ffion for the money.

These days most mobile phone contracts last for two years so it鈥檚 important to know the price you鈥檒l be paying each month.

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But did you know that the price you鈥檙e quoted when you sign up probably won鈥檛 be the price you鈥檒l still be paying at the end of your contract?

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That鈥檚 because mobile phone companies can 鈥� and probably will - increase the amount you pay mid-contract.

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But in the last few months the big mobile chains have come under fire for failing to make that clear to customers.

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The companies say this is all stated in the small print of their contracts but when you鈥檙e shopping around staff should be spelling this out too.

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The situation's got so bad that communications regulator Ofcom has been flooded with complaints, and they鈥檙e thinking about changing the rules.

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We decided to check out whether customers are being told the truth about mobile phone deals.

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We sent a member of our team undercover in Newport city centre to film at the four major network providers - Vodafone, Three, O2 and Everything Everywhere - and at the two biggest independent stores - Carphone Warehouse and Phones 4u.

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First up was Three, where a sales assistant discussed a two-year deal for 拢28 a month with our researcher. But the store said the monthly price would definitely remain the same throughout the contract, which is just not true.

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At Everything Everywhere, which owns Orange and T-Mobile, their sales assistant also failed to tell our researcher that prices can go up mid-contract.

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But there was better news at Vodafone, who admitted that the price COULD change, influenced by inflation and VAT rises.

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O2 told our researcher that prices were set across all contracts. But again, that's not true - prices CAN change. O2鈥檚 small print says they can go up once a year.

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When we returned to O2 later the sales assistant did mention upcoming price rises, but didn鈥檛 make it clear that this can happen mid-contract.

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As for the big independent chains, Carphone Warehouse told us the price would remain the same, even though the company鈥檚 terms and conditions say prices can change.

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When our researcher revisited the shop, he was told a VAT rise could affect the monthly payments, but the store didn鈥檛 mention anything about other reasons for price rises, such as inflation or rising costs.

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The last shop was Phones 4u, where we were told prices were fixed for two years, which is certainly not the case.

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So of the six shops we visited, only Vodafone clearly explained that prices could go up mid-contract.

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When we revealed our findings to the stores Three, Carphone Warehouse and Phones 4u held their hands up, and said they'll talk to staff to stop this from happening again.

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Everything Everywhere said they will take action if they find their staff aren't giving clear information to customers. And O2 apologised that price increases were only mentioned on our second visit, after we'd asked about it repeatedly - but say there are signs in store.

We鈥檇 all like to have a little first class service in our lives, but what if it doesn鈥檛 live up to expectations?

David and Shirley Heale from Rhiwbina in Cardiff employed Cardiff-based 1st Class Roofing and Building last year.

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Its owner, Howard Young, quoted just under 拢3,000 to fit a new flat roof to their garage.

After suffering a stroke two years ago, David was in need of a little help with house maintenance. He said: 鈥淚 was thinking I'm 77 years old now, I'll get [the garage] done now before anything does happen."

Last summer the roof was completed but weeks later David noticed a problem with one of their drains. He called in his insurance company Liverpool Victoria to check it out, but the surveyor was more worried about the state of the new flat roof.

Very concerned, David employed two other experts to check out the roof. All three believed the problems included poor guttering, gaps where water could get in and freeze, poor quality cement and edges that hadn鈥檛 been sealed, and they thought the old roof felt hadn鈥檛 been removed.

But to make matters worse, David and Shirley had also paid Mr Young to replace the roof on their son Gareth鈥檚 new house, including fitting new snow guards to the back wall of his house.

Sadly they didn鈥檛 live up to their name either and this January during the bad weather, they came crashing down onto his conservatory.

At the time, Mr Young did agree to come out and carry out repairs for the Heales but they haven鈥檛 heard from him since.

However, since we wrote to 1st Class Roofing and Building the company has responded. Mrs Young, Howard鈥檚 wife, tells us she is now running the business and has apologised for the standard of the work and said it was a one-off due to her husband鈥檚 poor health at the time.

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But she says the company did remove all the old felt from the roof and only top quality cement was used. The company has also offered to fix both the flat roof and the snow guards.