Expedia. how do you take on the big guys? Expedia should make a refund. You thought that they'd pay? You thought that they'd pay? Well, I thought that would be the end of it. Jeff discovered Expedia wasn't about to be bulldozed. (LAUGHS) Look at that. How best to insure your bling, and secrets of a good fire. Old man pine is actually one of the best burning woods that you can find. Copyright Able 2015 Welcome to Fair Go. Apple, ASOS, Amazon, Expedia ` massive global brands we now deal with directly online. But what happens when things go wrong? Here's Garth on the huge multinational that appears to be having a wee bit of trouble paying some very small bills. Expedia claims it is the world's biggest online travel agent. Its ads make it look like they can get you to anywhere. But what if you want to get to Expedia to get your money back? MAN: There are no more excuses. Don't try telling Geoff and Jill Harper that. They have heard plenty of excuses from Expedia, who've taken them on a frustrating year-long journey to Melbourne, India and the District Court in Tauranga. Jill, Geoff, look at this lavender. You've got a beautiful place here. We could be in Provence already. Why would you ever want to leave Tauranga? We want to see the rest of the world, and we really enjoy shows and sight-seeing. They'd used Expedia before. This time, it was for two weeks in Australia. Geoff's very good at sitting up in the middle of the night and looking through different places. So the internet's great for that, isn't it? So the internet's great for that, isn't it? Oh, the internet's been brilliant. The trip was great, but when they got back, there was a bit of a surprise ` a charge they hadn't expected for a motel in Melbourne. I booked through Expedia. And I booked a motel which was close to the airport, and then realised suddenly that the airport was quite a long way from Melbourne Central area. So I advised Expedia. They just didn't cancel the booking. Geoff had given Expedia plenty of notice before the trip, so he hit the phones and the keyboard. That's the India leg of the trip I mentioned ` Expedia's call centre. There were emails back and forth. We've got four emails in which they acknowledged that they'd made a mistake and that a refund was due. But then they failed to follow through with it. The call centre insisted Geoff had to do something his bank had warned he should not do under any circumstances. They said they wanted security numbers, which my bank said, 'No, you cannot give them.' I gave them the option of refunding it by cheque or any other means, and it just went on and on and on. Which takes us to the final leg ` Tauranga District Court. Is he like this? He doesn't back down at all? (LAUGHS) If he gets a bee in his bonnet, yes. Yes. So you thought you'd win. The adjudicator came out in our favour unequivocally and said that Expedia should make a refund. And you thought that they'd pay? And you thought that they'd pay? Well, I thought that would be the end of it. It wasn't. Expedia seemed deaf to Geoff. ENGINE REVS He sent them the judgement. He's been waiting eight months for his money back. As well as getting his hands dirty in the orchard, Geoff is also an accountant, so he started digging into Expedia's public accounts. Geoff discovered that Expedia wasn't about to be bulldozed. And the more he dug, the more he found that the world's biggest online travel retailer is actually quite surprisingly small here in NZ. Yes, a company that boasts big about bookings has less equity here than most homeowners have in their homes; just $10,000 worth of shareholder capital invested in NZ, no resident directors, and Expedia NZ paid just 8c in the dollar in tax, according to the most recent set of accounts. The company says it's NZ arm just does the marketing, and that expedia.co.nz is covered by our Fair Trading Act. Geoff still felt there was no one to talk to who could fix it. I thought, 'This is rather strange. This is meant to be the world's leading travel agency.' In the case of travel agents that are not present in NZ, there is no redress, and something should be done about it. We'd like to say this was a one-off, but then we heard about Rachel. I've would've spent over $10,000 in the last two years. All of that with Expedia then? All of that with Expedia then? On Expedia. < Wow. So you're a good customer. I am a good customer. Not that it helped. Rachel spent about $428 more than she bargained for last month. Expedia's website crashed as she was booking. It would say your booking's happening, and then, 'Whoops. We've had an error.' She tried again with Expedia using another airline, and was charged for both flights. This may sound familiar, lots of phone calls to India later. It's the on hold stuff. Yeah. Yeah. You know, where you're listening to some dreadful music. Rachel had plenty of promises but still no refund. I must've spent, oh, eight hours on the phone, I would have said, trying to get this money back. Will she be waiting a year? Just such a drama to get your money back. And that seems to be their tactic; um, that you just get shunted from one to the other to the other, and then hope that you'll go away. That's Geoff's opinion. At Fair Go, we know Expedia a little better. We featured their Australia/NZ boss last year talking about the benefits of booking your holidays online. Since then, Expedia has bought wotif.com, making it a huge local player. You're getting the knowledge of the crowd. No interview this time, thanks. But Expedia does 'sincerely apologise' to the Harpers. 'In a rare oversight, the cheque was not sent,' and the team 'mistakenly closed the case', even though Geoff says he sent them three letters with copies of the court order asking them to pay up. It does surprise me. If Expedia belonged to the travel agent's association, Andrew here would have stepped in to mediate. The association also runs a bonding scheme to help protect customer's bookings. That then should be giving consumers some comfort in relation to the monies that they will pass to the travel agent that they are financially sound. Of course, neither he nor we are suggesting Expedia is unsound. The good news here is Expedia has now repaid Geoff, and promised to refund Rachel after we raised both cases. That might mollify Rachel,... I might just give them a second go. ...but as for Geoff,... Oh yes. There's no way that I'll, um, deal with them. No return journey to or with Expedia. How cool is that bulldozer? Oh, your boy, my boy. They'd be all over that. Now, Geoff could take Expedia to the disputes tribunal because he was dealing with a Kiwi company, Expedia NZ Ltd. Good luck trying to get other big global brands to show up in court. So we asked the Consumer Affairs Minister Paul Goldsmith if he thought stricter financial guarantees were needed for big multinationals trading here. Short answer, no. Slightly longer answer, the Minister says it's disappointing and unsatisfactory when a company doesn't comply with legal orders, but he says the courts are the best place to sort this out. Now, a bit of sign language ` street signs, parking signs and traffic signs; the sort of signs you should obey or you'll get into trouble. Terry McIntosh from Tauranga Facebooked us about a parking sign dilemma that was causing him some confusion. So Terry, Mark went in search of your answer. UPBEAT MUSIC (SIGHS) So what happens here? I parked my scooter. It's a pay and display. I'm happy to pay for my parking. So where do I put my ticket? I could put it there, but somebody could nick it. I could put it here, but the wind could blow it away. Here is probably my best bet, but that's not to stop anyone taking it. Sometimes, the rules around parking can be quite confusing. So does that mean it's free? Or does that mean I shouldn't be parking here at all? Which brings me to Terry and this. Now, we all know what this means. But what does this mean? I don't have the answers ` well, not yet anyway. Hi. Can you take a photo for me? Maybe you guys do. I'm gonna post this on Twitter and Facebook and see what you think. WOMAN: There you go. WOMAN: There you go. Awesome. Thank you. Find out later in the show. Well, I'm confused. (LAUGHS) We've been arguing about that sign for days. It's ridiculous; I have no idea what it means. OK. So, you lost your wedding ring; some sentimental jewellery. Shocked at how little the insurer will pay out? It was like, 'You've got to kidding.' This isn't reasonable. We've insured it; we've paid the premiums; we've done the right thing. Insuring your bling can be tricky. (LAUGHS) Look at that. We've got the rules. If that's the contract they've entered into, there's not a great deal that we can do to help them. And is this just the best way to build a fire? Getting hot now! (LAUGHS) Welcome back. Jewellery ` valuable, precious and sometimes priceless, which is why it's important to have such gems insured, right? Oh yes. But jewellery insurance is something that catches people out with devastating consequences. Here's Brodie with the beef on bling. KANYE WEST 'GOLD DIGGER' # Now, I ain't sayin' she a gold digger. This has been my dream since I was about 13 to come and do this in a jewellery shop, you realise. When doing a story about jewellery insurance, it would seem ludicrous not to get a real feel for the story. (LAUGHS) Look at that! Like a kid in a candy store. Maybe that big humdinger of a diamond there. MAN: The humdinger? Yep. Yep. You know what kind of diamond that is? No. A big one? No. A big one? It's a big one. It's actually a princess cut diamond, and will set you back 15 grand. Now it's all very well, me trying these stunning rings on. But what you need to know if you're fortunate enough to own some bling precious to you is to have it insured. Now you might think, 'Yeah, yeah. You're teaching me to suck eggs,' but believe me, jewellery insurance is tricky. Sara knows this first-hand. Hubby James bought her this gorgeous, vintage 1930s Rolex for four and a half grand. Well, it was for a special occasion; it was for my 40th. And we've always been talking about getting something big for our big 4-0. It was just` it was a wonderful watch to have. Very special. Special until the unthinkable happened. I was doing a yoga class and it came off. And, um, I only realised when I was in the car, and when I went back, I couldn't find it. I spoke to reception, put in a reward and everything; it was in their newsletter ` nothing. I was really upset, actually. Yeah, cos it's just a very unique watch. But they had insurance, so thought they'd be sweet. I'll tell you about the nightmare they endured shortly. When it comes to jewellery insurance, Karen Stevens says, as the insurance and savings ombudsman, she gets a lot of complaints from unhappy peeps. We find that most consumers don't know what their policy says. They think that they're just going to be automatically covered, uh, for any loss of jewellery. But it's wrong to assume that, and I'll explain why. You see, most insurance companies will cover the loss of jewellery under your contents policy. But that cover is for unspecified items, and most contents policies have a limit of $2000 or $3000 per item, and a total of between $5000 and $15,000 for the overall loss. Karen Stevens has seen people caught out by this big time, including one very unfortunate burglary. They made a claim. All of the contents were covered except for the jewellery, which was a rather large claim of about $45,000. They hadn't specified any of the items on the policy. Not one of them. So they only got their insurance company's maximum payout of $10,000. The difficulty for us is that if the policy states that maximum and if that's the contract they've entered into, there's not a great deal that we can do to help them. If you've got items worth more than your contents policy states, you must specify the items, which you will pay a premium on. And that is exactly what Sara and James had done. They'd had the Rolex valued, and had specified it on their insurance policy. So we put in a claim, um, and we provided all the information and everything was fine until we then heard from the insurance company a little bit later to say they would settle it for about $1000. < We thought they made a mistake 'Sorry? What?' The watch was bought for $4500, but it was valued down to a replacement value of $3000 because of a modification to the watch's mechanism. But the insurer's valuer deemed the watch 'second-hand' because of that modification, saying they should only be paid out for its 'second-hand cost' of $1050. It was like, 'You're kidding.' This isn't reasonable. We've insured it; we've paid the premiums; we've done the right thing. It was an emotional time anyway, you know, when you lose something. And for them to say that, it was just staggering. Luckily, their Gemlab valuer fought hard for them, and eventually their insurer paid out the $3000. It's a David and Goliath situation at the end of the day. You're a little individual taking on a major insurance company, and to be honest, unless you have an expert working on your side, it probably wouldn't have had much success. So this highlights that even when you do follow the rules, you can still get a bit of a run-around ` all the more reason to be super vigilant when it comes to insuring your precious metal. So we thought we'd get Karen, Sara and James, and Win from The Diamond Shop to hook us up with some tips for you. The first thing is to make sure that you've read your policy and to know that you're covered. Specify items of jewellery that are valuable or precious. The value of a diamond generally goes up over time. Other stones, um, can go down in time. So you have to be aware of what's going to depreciate and what's going to appreciate. You've got to have regular updated valuations. Make sure that, um, you have the receipts; you keep proof of purchase. And a couple of tips from me. If you don't have receipts, be sure to take some photos of your items. And, if after all that, you're still not happy with the settlement, do what Sara and James did and fight it. Because let's be honest, no one wants to lose something that makes them as happy as that girl. Do we like that one? I think we like that one. Nice and classy, and just sort of like, 'Oh, what's this on my hand?' That's what I'd say with that one. 'Oh yeah, this old thing.' (LAUGHS) That is like letting a kid loose in a lolly shop. We'd better check her fingers, actually. We'd better check her fingers, actually. (LAUGHS) I reckon! Plenty of advice there for you if you own valuable jewellery. And there is more info on our website. Look under links and info on our TVNZ page. And if you have any issues with your insurance company, like Brodie said, be sure to fight it. Take it to the insurance and savings ombudsman, and tell us about it too. Now, what do you reckon that weird parking sign in Tauranga means? Mark's been investigating. UPBEAT MUSIC It's amazing what you can find out if you just ask for a little help. Remember Terry McIntosh from Tauranga who wrote to us wanting to know what this sign means? Well, let's find out what you guys thought. We got hundreds of responses. Terry Miringaorangi from Facebook reckons, 'Don't park here and sell your car. Go over there and sell your car.' Over on Twitter, Cherie Jameson says, 'No parking. All vehicles parked are for sale.' Then there's loads more in favour of 'Don't park here. Vehicles for sale are over there.' Phil Daulton reckons, 'No parking here, otherwise your vehicle will be towed and sold.' And then there's our colleague Garth, who tweeted, 'Under no circumstances buy a car from this man.' Thanks, Garth. Find out which of these is right, plus where to put your pay and display ticket on a scooter after the break. Yes, Mark with the answer soon. Winter's coming ` not that you'd believe it from the temperature. But if you've got a wood burner or pizza oven, we're going to show you an absolutely genius way to build and light a fire. It's her idea. Yes. Upside down fire. It will rock your world, Gordon. Yes. Upside down fire. It will rock your world, Gordon. It's amazing, honestly. From this to this. (LAUGHS) You need to know about this. There's cracks going through it. Radial cracks going out from the centre. It's dry. The best wood at the best price... You'd be saving 30%. ...for the best fire. Old man pine is actually one of the best burning woods that you can find. Welcome back. Reckon you've worked out our confusing parking signage? Here's Mark again. The signs that rule parking can be confusing, and we'll tell you what this means in a minute. But remember earlier in the show I struggled to find somewhere to put a pay and display ticket on my scooter? This is what Auckland Transport says ` 'It's the responsibility of the rider to decide how the ticket is displayed,' 'but it must be legible at all times, otherwise you'll be issued a parking ticket.' 'If something happens to your ticket and you're issued an infringement, you can request it to be reviewed.' 'A good idea might be to take a photo of the ticket on the bike as proof you bought it.' Now, as for our Facebook viewer Terry McIntosh trying to make sense of this 'vehicle for sale' sign, Tauranga Council tell us, 'There are very few places you can legally park a vehicle with a 'for sale' sign on it. 'So the correct interpretation of the sign is ` 'no parking if your car's for sale, but you can park there if it's not.' Clear? As mud. Look, somebody at Tauranga City Council must've thought that was obvious. Yes, but it wasn't. A sign that needs that much explaining, it just doesn't work, guys! No, it doesn't. Now, you know one of life's skills is being able to set and light a good fire. A little bit later, I'm going to show you my soon-to-be-famous upside down fire. This is worth waiting for. This is amazing. Honestly, it is quite something. Now, it is still crazy warm - 25 degrees in Christchurch last week, but it can't last. So have you got your firewood in? Do you know how to store it properly? What is the best burning wood? Pippa got her hands proper dirty on this one. Winter's just around the corner, so if you've got a fire or a wood burner, you'll be in the market for some of this stuff. We caught up with young entrepreneur Carlos Ter Huurne, owner of Ignition and Manukau Firewood Yards, to ask him what we should be looking for. You're looking for wood that's been seasoned, you want to know how long it's been seasoned for, and if it's winter, you want to make sure you're ordering dry wood. OK. So seasoned wood means that any sap inside the wood has been dried out. That can take anywhere from 6 to 12 months, but it's well worth it, because seasoned logs burn hotter and more efficiently. Dry wood means any surface dampness like rain water or moisture has been dried out. So, be mindful, you can buy wood that's seasoned but not necessarily dry. Here's a quick way to tell if the wood you're buying is seasoned just by looking at it. So this is unseasoned pine. It hasn't been airing out for long enough, and you can tell there's no cracks that go through it, which show the, um, dryness, as opposed to some of this other seasoned wood, which we keep in a separate pile just next to it. Um, there's cracks going through it; radial cracks going out from the centre. It's dry. Good to go. It's dry. Good to go. And relatively lighter as well. Now, there are two main types of wood ` softwood, which burns fast, and medium or hardwood that burns for longer and puts out more heat. Basically, you need something to get the fire going with. You need a softwood like pine or pine kindling. Um, and then you need something a bit harder like your gum or your macrocarpa to put on second to actually get the heat out and get the embers. What's good for an open fire isn't necessarily good for a wood burner. So tell your supplier what sort of fire you've got and how often you're gonna use it, so they can give you the right mix of hard to softwood. In Auckland, you'll pay around $220 for 3m2 of pine. The same amount of a semi-hardwood like macrocarpa will set you back about $400. Cut and dry, of course. And if you're wondering what 3m2 looks like, well, this. Quite a bit. This is a thrown measure, by the way, not stacked, so not 3m2 of solid wood, but that's how its commonly sold. Once you've bought your wood, make sure you get a dated receipt with all the details ` the type you bought, what it cost and the supplier's name and address. That way, if something goes wrong, you've got some detailed proof. Oh, and shop around too. Anyone can sell wood, so make sure the outfit you buy it from has a good reputation. Go and visually inspect the wood yourself. That's what I always recommend to people that are a unsure as to what they're going to be getting. Particularly important if you leave it till winter and need it dry and seasoned. Another thing to consider for next year is buying off-season and drying it yourself. Ideally January, February, March, you'd get the wood in and get it out of the way. You'd be saving 30% and you'd have guaranteed dry wood come winter. 30%'s a massive saving. So you've bought your wood ` right mix, seasoned, dry, you've got your receipt, ticked all the boxes. Let's talk storage. In a perfect world, you'd store it off the ground so the base of the wood's dry and it's not gonna be sucking moisture up. You'd keep the top covered so you can keep it out of the weather, but ideally, you'd have the sides of the wood stack open so that the air can come through and you can air it out and dry it out. Finally, we asked Carlos if there were any sneaky secrets he was willing to share. Old man pine is actually one of the best burning woods you can find, because the resin in the pine just ignites, and it will just burn for hours and hours. I actually think it burns as long as gum does. Old man pine is more than 30 years old and cheaper too. Enough talking, though. Carlos showed me first-hand his business savvy by putting me to work. It's harder than it looks, by the way. And it was actually really, really hot the day I shot that too. You haven't got a fire, have you? You haven't got a fire, have you? Not now. You haven't got a fire, have you? Not now. I miss having a fire. I love fires. With your upside down fire still to come` With your upside down fire still to come` Well, I've mastered it. Yes. That is soon. But we have finished the main part of the show. We will be on Facebook for the next half hour to answer your questions. Our programme, of course, is all about your problems, your thoughts, so do get in touch. We're on Facebook; email us ` Write to us ` Well, that is the show. But we are going to go out with my way to set up and light a fire ` I call it the 'upside down fire'. GEORGE EZRA 'BUDAPEST' www.able.co.nz Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2015 CRACKLING Getting hot now! (LAUGHS)