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X-Ray has gone undercover to investigate a teeth whitening business, after a viewer got in touch with concerns about the treatment they had received.听

Sure Smiles is based in Holywell in Flintshire. It's run by Corinna Sellers and her husband Peter.听 They advertise their business through Facebook, and have recruited people right across the UK and even abroad to run their clinics.听

Customers who X-Ray has spoken to say they've been left with little to smile about after visiting Sure Smiles in Wrexham. They say that calling it a "clinic" was inappropriate and the results don't last.

Our researchers made an appointment at the Wrexham clinic, posing as customers to find out exactly what the service was like.听

The first surprise is that the clinic was, in fact, someone's back bedroom,听and the woman performing the whitening on us wasn鈥檛 a dentist.听She had simply responded to a Sure Smiles advert on Facebook.听

Our unhappy customers had already told us the hygiene procedures here were questionable. Nothing was sterilised when we went and we weren't told what the gel actually contained. The woman at the Wrexham clinic did tell us the gel would whiten our teeth for a considerable period.听

She said: "It will last up to听two years if you don't smoke."听

But the effect actually lasted weeks, and our researcher had to rinse her mouth out in the family bathroom after treatment.听

Next X-Ray booked in to visit a second Sure Smiles clinic at Kirkby in Liverpool. This was also a room in someone鈥檚 home, but the woman there told us we would have to treat ourselves.听

She said: "It's illegal for me to enter your mouth or anything like that. Basically what we're doing is we are supplying the stuff for you and we are renting the bed and lamp out, that's how we do it."听

We took a sample of their whitening gel to an expert, Professor Alastair Sloan at Cardiff University鈥檚 School of Dentistry.听He said any whitening effect would be short-term.听

He said: "There's the one active agent, the sodium perborate, and when that mixes with water that creates the hydrogen peroxide that we would normally use in a whitening agent, but we don't get very much of that at all."听

It's illegal for anyone other than a dentist or dental profession to do teeth whitening. The General Dental Council can prosecute someone for carrying out teeth whitening without being registered.听

Sure Smiles told X-Ray that they do operate within the law and their policy is not to give treatment or advice. They say they're disappointed by the fact our researcher was given treatment in Wrexham, and that they'll be taking action against the person concerned.听

Sure Smiles also say they don't advertise as being in clinics or high streets and there are many professions that now work from home.听As for their whitening gel, they say it does work.

A couple in Ceredigion say they鈥檝e been left with a new driveway that has weeds breaking through months after they paid out thousands for the work.听

Sonje Checketts and her partner Harry Kellard live at Llanon near Aberystwyth. They are both disabled, and say their old driveway was getting too dangerous for them to walk on.听

Sonje said:听"It was uneven, it was breaking up - and it was dangerous for myself.听I suffer from septic arthritis, and if I have a deep cut I've got to go into hospital. I've already landed in there once."听

Last October they called in local firm Les Hopson and Sons to re-do the drive. The price was 拢5,720. The couple paid in full, but a few months later, in February, they say the firm turned up again, offering to tarmac a car park at the bottom of the drive.听

Harry said: 鈥淚 was quite surprised one morning. I had a knock on the door, and they were there and said they had a load of tarmac left over from another job."听

This time the work cost 拢2,000, but the couple say that they noticed that the new tarmac didn't look the same as the one used on the rest of their drive, and within weeks had weeds breaking through it.听

Harry said: "Initially, when it was done I looked at it and thought it was not as good as their first lot. What they'd actually put down wasn't what you'd call a finished tarmac it was purely a basecoat."听

In total, the couple have paid Les Hopson and Sons 拢7,720. They claim they鈥檝e been left with two separate parts of their driveway that have plants coming through and are uneven. They鈥檝e complained to trading standards and involved a solicitor.听

Sonje said she was now 鈥渧ery scared鈥� to walk on her drive in case she fell.听

When X-Ray contacted the firm, Les Hopson told us he鈥檇 made every effort to put things right for Sonje and Harry.听

He said he had already offered to repay them the two thousand pounds they paid him for tarmacking their car park or to upgrade the surface.听Mr Hopson also said he had always told the couple the tarmac he was using there wasn't the same as the rest of their drive.

A family from Neath听have had a repair nightmare with high street electrical giant, Currys.听

David Howells is a 17-year-old IT student with dreams of becoming a computer games designer.听 He has Asperger鈥檚 syndrome,听a form of autism. To help him with his studies, his gran, Julienne, bought him a 拢330 laptop from Currys, but just three months later the hard drive failed.听
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Julienne said:听鈥淒avid was absolutely gutted because his stuff was on it and he lost it all.鈥澨�

She took the laptop back to Currys to get it fixed by the technicians at their repair arm Knowhow.听 However, when it came back from Currys the hard drive still wasn鈥檛 sorted, the engineers hadn鈥檛 been able to recover the data on it, and there was a deep scratch on the laptop鈥檚 cover.听

Over the next couple of months further faults developed 鈥� a replacement hard drive failed, two touchpads developed faults, the disk drawer could only be opened using a paperclip and the keyboard was badly bent while it was in for repair.听

Julienne demanded a refund because of the constant faults but Currys initially refused.听

David said: 鈥淚鈥檓 not wanting the laptop back. The amount of trouble that it鈥檚 given us, on top of the customer service, I just never want to see it again.鈥澨�

Julienne said: "I've just got no confidence in Currys or their repair people.鈥澨�

Currys have now refunded the full cost of the laptop and made an additional payment of 拢75 for the inconvenience the Howells were put through.听

The company say they're disappointed the matter wasn't resolved sooner, and Julienne and David鈥檚 experience doesn't reflect their usual high customer standards.