大象传媒

The day you get married should be the day that all your dreams come true. Emily and Tommy Tsiattalou from Penarth in the Vale of Glamorgan visited the Thomson Holiday Superstore in Cardiff Bay to get some help arranging a wedding overseas and their advisor suggested Mexico.

鈥�We both agreed somewhere abroad would be ideal. Tropical ocean in the background. I wanted to do something that wasn鈥檛 a traditional wedding, but also memorable鈥�

Tommy and Emily took the advice on offer and booked a two week, all-inclusive package with Thomson鈥檚 sister company First Choice, staying at the 5 star Azul Fives resort on Mexico鈥檚 Caribbean Coast. The wedding would take place there as well and the date was set for the 9th December 2015. They paid 拢17,000 for the package, which included themselves, their five children and some family members. Emily couldn鈥檛 wait.

鈥�It was all weddings, weddings, weddings. We were talking about it all the time. Counting down the months, then it was counting down the days and the weeks. It was just so exciting.鈥�

When they arrived at their five star resort they intended to pop some champagne. But what they found in their room left them feeling very flat because of a long list of problems.

鈥淚t really smelt of sewage..听 We found mouldy plates of food from the previous guests. The bath leaked. We had to use all of our bath tables to dry the floor. The light shades were hanging off and the plug sockets fell out of the wall. There were so many things wrong with that room. We started to see rat droppings around the bath area. The children went 鈥榳e鈥檝e got rats, we鈥檝e got rats鈥�. I was horrified鈥�

Emily and Tommy say they tried to enjoy themselves the week before the wedding, but spent most of it complaining to their rep.听 On their wedding day Tommy and Emily tried to forget about everything that had gone wrong and after the ceremony they moved from their original suite to a new one. But it came with problems of its own.

鈥淭here were severe health and safety issues with water running down the wall onto sockets. The room was flooding鈥�听

Their Mexican wedding was a complete wash out and when they got home they demanded their seventeen thousand pounds back. They were offered 拢1200 in vouchers by First Choice, which was later increased to 拢2000. They declined.

鈥淲e essentially were sold the dream by the company, but it was a nightmare when we got there.鈥�

X-Ray stepped in and the tour operator First Choice have now increased their offer to 拢2700, in cash. They told us 鈥淲e would like to apologise to Mr and Mrs Tsiattalou for their experience at the Azul Fives Hotel by Karisma in Riviera Maya, Mexico, particularly on what was such a special occasion.鈥�

After breaking her hip and spending several weeks in hospital, 85 year old Dora Williams, 85 and her husband Gwyn, 91 decided they needed a stairlift to allow them to continue living independently in their Rhuthin home.

Their daughter Olwen came across a local company, Balmoral Stairlifts whose director Quinn O鈥橪oughlin offered to install a reconditioned Stannah stairlift for 拢3500. The family hoped the stairlift would end on the landing听so Dora could step off easily. They even moved the radiator to make way for it.

Instead the chair stops short of the landing, facing precariously down the stairs and the power-assisted swivel doesn't work either, leaving Olwen really concerned about her parents. 鈥淭hey used to be here safe in their own home. And now we feel they're not and it's a constant worry鈥�.

The family complained to director Quinn O'Loughlin about the potentially dangerous stairlift. But he told them it was a "standard finish" and if they wanted it altered, they'd have to pay ANOTHER thousand pounds!

Upon an inspection by an expert a number of concerns have been raised about the stairlift鈥檚 installation. The base leg isn鈥檛 secure and the rail is in danger of collapse with concerns also being raised about the electrics. The family is devastated by the quality of the work. But on their website, Balmoral shows pictures of their lift听describing them as "very happy customers!"

And it seems Gwyn and Dora aren鈥檛 the only ones to receive a less than satisfactory service from Balmoral Stairlifts. Derek Hine who lives in Rhos on Sea needed his stairlift repaired and called upon Quinn O鈥橪oughlin to do the work.听 After five failed attempts to fix the stairlift, Derek asked Mr O鈥橪oughlin to leave 鈥� and when he did, he took with him the new parts Derek had paid 拢300 for. Although Derek has a court order for Quinn O鈥橪oughlin to refund his money, he is yet to see a penny.

We've taken up these complaints with Quinn O'Loughlin of Balmoral Stairlifts. In Derek's case he has apologised for any distress he's caused but says he听went through the correct procedures to fix the problem. Even though he visited the house five times, he says he wasn't allowed to finish the job. But there are no apologies for Gwyn and Dora and he's offering them no further help. He does say he discussed the specifications of the stairlift before it was installed and says they were always going to get a hand-swivel chair.