Tonight ` All he wants is, you know, someone to hang out with. this man of the land went looking for love, hooked up with a dating agency and lost thousands. I don't know what he's more embarrassed about ` whether it was the fact that he'd been ripped off or the fact that he was trying to go out and, you know, find someone. Plus ` Hold daddy's hand. Watch your feet. Careful. the re-carpeting job that's got Dad seeing red. What I'm feeling is the sharp, nasty, pointy edge, and they're just like sharp bits of metal. And ` I saw the sign up on top of the building and I thought, 'Great. I'll go in there and I'll get myself a Kiwi big breakfast.' He went in hungry and came out grumpy. And she said, 'Oh, yes, but that's on selected items only.' I said, 'Well, it doesn't say that on your sign.' Are you fed up with fine print? It was a whole lot of codswallop. Copyright Able 2016. Welcome to the show. Dating agencies can offer a welcome ray of hope to singletons searching for love and companionship. But a word of warning ` if you're not careful, you can end up with much more than a broken heart. Yes, as one Kiwi bloke discovered, the pitfalls of dating agencies can reach deep into the pocket. Here's Anna. STRUMMED GUITAR MUSIC A single pair of gumboots,... a mug of tea for one ` it's the life of a lonely heart. So when 66-year-old Keith spotted an ad for a dating service in his local paper, he decided to give it a go. He's just looking for someone, to go, you know, on social events, to go somewhere and do things with ` it's not... nothing, um... You know, he's not looking for a wife or anything. All he wants is, you know, someone to hang out with. This is Mike, Keith's son. He's telling us this story because Keith, understandably, is a bit embarrassed about the situation he's found himself in. I don't know what he's more embarrassed about ` whether it was the... the fact that he'd been ripped off or the fact that he was trying to go out and, you know, find someone. You see, Keith's looking for love, but all he found was heartache. He hasn't got a girlfriend or even a companion, but he has got a $25,000 debt. He came out of it that confused, he doesn't even know what he signed up for. A couple of weeks ago, Mike's dad saw an ad for the Love Success dating agency. He gave them a call and agreed to sign up, he says, for a $4000 fee. It was a lot of money, but Keith thought it was worth a shot. Love Success quickly gave him the phone number of his first potential date, and he met her for a cup of tea. But then... He had been told by the lady at this dating service, 'Do not tell the girls how much this has cost you.' And, um, yeah, that's sort of what set him off. Alarm bells ringing, Keith checked his bank statement and couldn't believe his eyes. It wasn't $4000; it had skyrocketed to more than $25,000 ` well over his credit-card limit. Love Success had been charging his account twice a day, every day, in the four days since he signed up. It's a lot of money in anyone's language. You know, and for a dating service? I don't know. That's insane. Keith rang Love Success to dispute the bill, but with no success. They basically said that it was a bargain, they thought they were professionals, and this is what we do; you know, you can't compare us to any online dating, cos we're professionals, professional matchmakers and stuff like that and, you know, basically, you know, in America or the UK, that they wouldn't even look at you for this price ` you know, $25,000's nothing. Love Success didn't conduct any background checks on Keith, and one of the matches he was given was a lady he already knew. The company also runs another dating service, called Bridges. They advertise in Rural NZ newspapers, from The Northern Advocate to The Otago Southland Famer. 'Love is closer than you think,' they say, and other endless promises of the perfect match. But it all comes at a cost. Love Success told Keith he hadn't just signed up for a standard membership ` they had a verbal contract with him for a 'gold' membership ` that's $30,000. Love Success' Joanne Monaghan said while she could sympathise with Keith's "accidental overspend", she'd listened to the recording, and that's what he'd agreed to. So Keith and his son Mike asked for a copy of the call. They just really will not give up that voice recording, no matter how much we ask. That's all we want, for now, is to know what he signed up for. And then we can get advice on how do we, you know, try and get his money back, cos if it was crystal clear, and they said at the end, 'Righty-oh, sir. This is gonna cost you over $25,000 for this service. 'Do you wanna do it,' uh, pretty sure he wouldn't have, uh, signed up for that. Love Success has a NZ 0800 phone number, but it's actually based in Australia, and under Australian privacy law, the company is obliged to provide Keith with a copy of the call. They charged him in Aussie dollars too, but whatever the currency, Keith doesn't think the service he got was worth $25,000, and he says he never agreed to be charged that much. Love Success says that ain't so. Yep. Great. Sure. Uh-huh. Mike says his dad asked for no such thing, but he just can't get hold of the proof. I'd just like to discuss the money that he's got taken from his, uh, credit card. It's just frustrating for us. We get off the phone, and we... The last phone call went for half an hour. At the end of it, we came out it with nothing. You know, we got... we were none the wiser. The family reckon they're being given the runaround, but Love Success' lawyer says that's not true. OK, so what's the reason? What's the reason? We also asked for a copy of the voice recording. So, we're not putting a hold on the story. What we would like is the voice recording from the original conversation. Well, no, we wouldn't want a transcript of that. We would want the original. You're more than welcome to accompany it with a transcription of what the conversation says, but we would like the original audio file. Love Success' lawyer said she'd send through the recording, but she hasn't. That's a verbal contract` Anna` ...that he agreed to, and he is entitled to hear a recording of that verbal contract. He's signed a privacy waiver for that verbal contract, and still there is no verbal contract being sent through. So what is the issue? But neither Love Success nor their lawyer's been able to answer the family's concerns, including an explanation of why the company took $13,000 out of Keith's account on the very day he signed up. I don't know how they justify their prices. I honestly don't. Keith's since laid a complaint with the BNZ's fraud department, and it's investigating. In the meantime, the bank's refunded the $5000 that went over his credit card's limit. Keith's decided once was enough to be burned by love ` he's gonna go it alone for now. That's a really sad story. $25,000. Anyway, like me, you're probably dying to hear from Love Success. Well, their lawyers have promised to send us a copy of the recording. They never did. They did, however, send us a statement refuting Keith's version of events. And they also gave us a couple of transcripts which they claim exonerates their client. These are the Love Success transcripts of Keith's phone call, and the company says they prove he knew exactly what he was signing up to. In the first conversation, this script says Keith agreed to a nearly $4000 fee. Great. I will just read out a confirmation of the service you have joined. In the second, he agrees to another $20,000. Do you understand and confirm those details? Transcript one pretty well matches Keith's version of events, but transcript two raises some serious concerns for us. In it, the company says Keith agreed to sign up for its VIP Gold service. It's normally advertised as being worth nearly 30 grand, but on this day they were only charging 20. What concerns us is this quote ` You have authorised Success Network to debit the sum of $20,000 only from your card. And of this, AU$9000 has already been processed. The transcript makes no mention of how or why he'd already paid 9 grand off when he'd only agreed to 4. That's not all. Neither transcript makes any mention of the three-day cooling off period. Keith wasn't told about that until the 9th of September, more than two weeks too late. Keith's adamant he only had one conversation, not two. While this paperwork is interesting, the best proof of what was really said is that voice recording. But Love Success and its lawyers have failed to hand that over to either ourselves or to Keith, even though they're legally required to. So it's pretty obvious, isn't it? We need to hear the recording. Well, it would certainly clear things up. Look, Love Success and Bridges Dating are still advertising in rural NZ newspapers. Yeah, the 0800 number, like, it might be free, but we can't help but feel they're putting the 'broke' in broken-hearted. Mm. That's certainly Keith's view, and he is not alone ` the Commerce Commission's also received two complaints in the past two years. OK. Coming up after the break ` we're gonna meet a family floored by poor workmanship. Hold Daddy's hand. Watch your feet. Careful. Carpet is for comfort, but this job's got Dad seeing red. What I'm feeling is the sharp, nasty, pointy edge, and they're just like sharp bits of metal. The flooring didn't measure up, but the man responsible is unsympathetic. He said F-this, F-that. It was completely shocking. And ` You go into a shop and you get asked to hand in all your belongings ` handbag, the works ` before you can have a look around. Is that cool or creepy? Welcome back. Everybody loves a bit of retail therapy. And everybody loves being treated with respect. So is it cool or creepy to be treated with suspicion when you go shopping? WEEZER'S 'ISLAND IN THE SUN' The Mahurangi River weaves through the picturesque town of Warkworth. This is the Kowhai Coast, and we've come to ask a bit of a curly question. You go into a shop and you get asked to hand in all your belongings ` handbag, the works ` before you can have a look around. Is that cool or creepy? Yeah, it's pretty creepy. Yeah. OK. Uh, troubling. I'd be really concerned what was happening with my handbag. (CHUCKLES) I'm a genuine, trustworthy person, so I'd be a little bit troubled. Yeah. I think that's troubling. Troubling. Yes. Cool. Yeah, should be OK. Yeah. OK, I reckon. BOTH: It's all right. Happen to you before? > There's a shop up the road that does it. Yeah. Troubling. I'm not quite cool with this one, but I think it's OK. You can always shop somewhere else if it bothers you that much. And given those costs are passed on to consumers, it's in everyone's interest to reduce it. Is this the time in the show where I can make some general comments? Oh, I think definitely. (LAUGHS) My general comment would be to those at home considering stealing stuff, what about don't? And then we don't have to hand our bags in. And our problem is solved. All right. Look, there are some jobs DIY enthusiasts stay well clear of, like floor coverings. Yeah, you might think it is a case of cut it out to size, whack it down, bit of glue in the middle and whammo, you're all done. No, you would be wrong, very wrong. Even the experts can turn a dream floor into a DIY disaster when they fail to measure up. Here's Hannah. Hang on. Hang on. Hold Daddy's hand. You have to hold Daddy's hand. Daddy Tomas is not being a helicopter parent. Watch your feet. Careful. There's at least a dozen very spiky reasons he's telling 3-year-old Cooper to go slow on the stairs. Good boy. You can't see them, but you can definitely feel them along here ` very sharp tack sticking out. Ooh yeah. What I'm feeling is the sharp, nasty, pointy edge, so easily in a place where little feet or big feet could step on it. And they're just, like, sharp bits of metal. Sharp enough for poor Tomas to do this while showing me the dangers hidden in this recently laid carpet. We found evidence of a metal minefield on every step we checked. This is really bad. So that is actually a row of tacks all the way along the step. And the thing is, it looks like such lovely soft carpet, and then the little foot goes down on it ` hmm, ouch. We'll get to the who behind the carpet job in a mo; first, the why. What happened is our son, Cooper, was quite ill, um, and he had vomiting and diarrhoea. And unfortunately, it had gone on the carpet. We did try and get stain out, but it wouldn't, um, so we had to put an insurance claim in. The insurance company hired Carpets Online to do the job. Tomas and his wife, Steph, wanted new kitchen and bathroom lino, so they paid around $1000 for that; insurance paid the rest. But the work was patchy ` a hole here, lumpy lino there. There's, um, lumps and bumps. It feels a bit like the glue or an air bubble trapped in it. Um, and that's actually the same over in this corner. Um, the lino's actually not stuck down to the floor at all. They sent these photos off to Carpets Online showing lino cut too short or badly cut of, well, just a bit rough. Manager Bruce Payne came to see for himself. And he did agree that it wasn't the best and it did need to be fixed. Um, he did say that he was gonna go away and speak to the tradesman that actually did lay the vinyl, um, and get him out to fix it. And then what happened after that? I called them numerous times and still heard nothing. Um, and this went on for a good few weeks. Bruce came back for a second look, but still no action on the lino or the stairs. < But he didn't immediately say, 'I need to get someone back straightaway to make those safe? No. Did that surprise you? Yes. < Cos it surprises me. Yes, big time. 'And if you're wondering why Tomas didn't try and fix the stairs himself...' I'm not a handyman, I'm not a builder ` I'm nothing like that, so I actually don't know what it is. I don't know actually how to fix it. I'm not sure if hammering it into the floor would lift the carpet or, um... or what it would actually do. Whoa! Am I winning? Yes, you are. Several months had passed since the job had been done, and nothing was happening. Tomas wasn't giving up, though, and called Bruce again. Oh, I win! (LAUGHS) Um, he swore at me, said F-this, F-that. It was completely shocking. What do you think triggered that response? All I can think is that I continuously put pressure on to get these issues fixed, as we'd paid for a job and it hadn't been completed. The last Tomas heard was about six weeks ago. He did say to us that, um, he had ordered the vinyl in, um, and that it was going to be in sometime mid-August,... um, and that he'd be out to the property to re-lay it and redo it. READS: Buddy pants hard, and his tongue drips. This became even more of a horror story when Tomas got a second opinion. What's on his pyjamas? Boats! Boats. He got another carpet company in to assess the job. They said rip up the lino and start again. < So that's a big job. Oh, it's a huge job. And we don't have the money to do it, so that's why we haven't. Do you see it every day? Does it bother you every day? Yep, every day. Every day, I walk past and I can see it. All I would like this company to do is to come and fix their work or give us our money back so I can get it fixed. < By someone else. By someone else. I mean, seriously, I can feel your pain. It's hard enough getting the kids to bed as it is, without road spikes up the stairs. Exactly. So we chased up Bruce Payne ` he runs the show ` to see if we could turn little Cooper's toes into happy feet. You've got a problem with this one, though, Bruce, I have to say. So, do you agree with me there? Yes, I do, yeah, and I said I'd replace it. But why has it taken you so long? Yes. Miraculously, just hours after this chat, Bruce found some replacement lino. And finally, he says he didn't know about the carpet tacks, but he'll fix them pronto. Yeah. I've got some good news. For everyone at home, we can categorically confirm Bruce has fixed the stairs. Awesome. Which is great news. He's booked to lay the new vinyl Saturday fortnight. We'll keep on to this. Now, coming up after the break ` are you infuriated or confounded by fine print? McDonald's all-day breakfast has got this guy fed up. I saw the sign up on top of the building, and I thought, 'Great. 'I'll go in there and I'll get myself a Kiwi big breakfast. And she said, 'Oh, yes, but that's on selected items only.' I said, 'Well, it doesn't say that on your sign.' And she said, 'Well, yes, it does. It's in small writing.' Fine print can be so unsatisfying. You definitely need a magnifying glass to read that. Welcome back. Why is it the tiniest of words more often than not have the biggest meaning? Yep, I'm gonna say it ` size matters. We're talking fine print, small print, mouseprint. It reeks of trickery and underhandedness. So if the little things count, why bury them in the fine print? DUB MUSIC Martin Williams was heading across town. He was hungry, it was midday, so he fancied having breakfast for lunch. And I saw the sign up on top of the building, and I thought, 'Great. I'll go in there and I'll get myself a Kiwi big breakfast.' The sign simply said... Martin went in hungry and came out with nothing but a bad mood. And they said, 'We've stopped serving at 10 o'clock.' And I said, 'Well, hang on. 'I want a Kiwi big breakfast. I said, the sign on your building says breakfast all day.' And basically, the answer back from the person was a standard shrugged shoulder. Martin rung McDonald's head office. And she said, 'Oh, yes, but that's on selected items only.' I said, 'Well, it doesn't say that on your sign,' and she said, 'Well, yes, it does. It's in small writing,' so I thought, 'What?' Martin Williams was done out of breakfast for lunch by fine print you can't see from the street. I thought, 'I can't believe this.' So he went home and started typing. It was a whole load of codswallop is exactly what I said to them. McDonald's sent him a copy of the sign, and sure enough, underneath is the fine print. READS: Selected breakfast items available all day. You definitely need a magnifying glass to read that. I think it's actually not good enough. I think they need to bring that writing size up. Martin Williams may have a point. Right. McDonald's. Here we go. So we McDonald's one simple question. Why is your writing... so small? I'll show you their response later. But first, let's consider our society, all awash with big writing followed by little writing with really important stuff on it. Sometimes there's not even big writing. Did you actually think you had communicated that by putting it in small? What are you trying to hide? Are you trying to cover something? Paula Shelton teaches companies to communicate clearly. I would always think if this was important enough to put it here at all on this page, why has someone written it so small that I can't really read it? She works for Write Ltd, a company that turns small print into big. You authorise us without further reference to you to destroy all files and documents... She hates big words written with small letters. Or earlier, if we have converted those files and documents to an electronic format. That's quite long. What is the need to have to... fall back on some form of archaic language that nobody but the elite understands? And even the elite would much rather you didn't pull it through their torn and bleeding brain. They would much rather be able to read it once and go home and eat their tea. Paula says there's actually no need for tiny writing. Her company rewrote this insurance policy, and it's now half the size it used to be, and there's no fine print. Whereas most insurance documents are 25,000 or so words long, this one is only 12,000 words long. So by not only writing clearly in the first place, by not writing two documents, one which is the words of the policy plus another one which is the fine print for the policy, they have managed to create something which is only half the length of Romeo And Juliet. Your insurance policy may be the most important document you ever sign. There is research out there that suggests that for example, with an insurance policy, people only read about 15% of the words. Legally, you can write as small... BECK'S 'WHERE IT'S AT' ...or as big as you want. Fine print is fine as long as it doesn't conceal any important information. Meanwhile, McDonalds have answered my question. Why is your writing so small? Meanwhile, I've found out Martin's a funeral director. He says this fine-print mix-up has got him thinking about his own business. You wonder if we were to, uh, put our business up against advertising like that, and say a big sign on top of the funeral home ` free funerals, you know, and then in little writing, at the bottom, 'Conditions apply,' and then those conditions would be you'd have to be 110. Martin Williams has not had a big breakfast since. He's on a hunger strike from McDonalds, but he's certainly not starving. I was really put off from McDonald's after that, so I went and bought noodles. (CHUCKLES) There's a great reporter, that guy. We should keep him round. In fact, so good that Haydn has now joined the team officially as my co-host. It is lovely to have you on board. Oh, thank you very much for having me, as my mum would say. Good manners. So that's the show, but we'll be on Facebook for the next half hour to answer your questions. Our programme is all about your problems, your thoughts. We do love to hear from you. So we're on Facebook. You can get us there. Or you can email us fairgo@tvnz.co.nz You can write to us ` Pippa loves writing letters back ` Private Bag 92038 in Auckland is our address. The postcode is 1142. And that's the show for tonight. Goodnight. Copyright Able 2016.