(JAZZ MUSIC) www.able.co.nz Copyright Able 2023. - Tonight ` you can book it, you can pay for it, but when you arrive... - It's not available ` it hasn't been available for over a year. - Why did Booking.com accept money for properties no longer for rent? - I panicked, and I thought, 'What are we going to do? 'Where am we going to sleep?' - Plus ` the case of the missing contractor. - Well, I'm really embarrassed to say it, but he's got $6000 of mine. - Can Fair Go track him down? - The people living there say they know him. They say he owes them money. - And why these glasses have customers seeing red. - The principle is that they should advertise correctly. - E nga mana o te motu, tena koutou katoa ` to Kiwis up and down the country, hello! - Welcome to the show. It's Maori Language Week. Kia kaha te reo Maori. - First up, he was the handyman with the sort of social media profile that said trust me, I'm your guy; the sort that would happily do all those smallish jobs that are difficult to get done. - Mm. But the bloke smiling and working hard in the videos became a very different person once he got the money. So, where is he now? That's another big surprise. Garth's been on the hunt. (RHYTHMIC PERCUSSIVE MUSIC) - If you've hired a handyman to fix up your place, this is exactly what you want to see ` a crew hard at work, getting the job done; a boss more than happy to show his face. Auckland contractor Ian Uhatahi and his Facebook Lives have given people confidence to part with money in advance. - So, $21,000 of the, what, $26,000. - That's 80% of the contract Cary and Estelle agreed for a new driveway, a fence and a small rock wall. - I think I'm a good judge of character, but this time, it failed me. (CHUCKLES) - Looking at the truck, it looks like they've been in business for a while, you know, so you think, 'Yeah, OK.' And people just let you down. - 'Let down' doesn't come close for Carmen. - Well, I'm really embarrassed to say it, but he's got $6000 of mine. Yes. You can beep that out if you want. (BOTH CHUCKLE) I feel a little silly that someone has taken my money, and, um... but I don't want him to do it to other people. - Because many months on, no more diggers, no sign of the crew, no more Ian Uhatahi Facebook Lives from these worksites and no word of why. - This part of the job was gonna be $10,000. So, I dunno, that included the concrete down here as well,... - OK. - ...and $16,000 from up there down to here. - Right. That's the $26,000 ` remember, they'd already handed over $21,000 of that. Crikey. - Yeah. The day before the concrete was coming, and I come home and I thought, 'They should be here, 'throwing the rest of the boxing in.' - Mm. - There's nobody here, so alarm bells started ringing, so I said to Estelle, 'Ring the concrete guys.' And the guy said, 'Yep, it's been ordered, but it's not been paid for. - 'We will deliver once you pay for it.' And I was, like, this guy's sitting with our money since the beginning of March. - Carmen had started Ian Uhatahi cautiously with a small job. So this was your wall? - Yup, it's the great wall of Rangiriri. - With this wall, he built your confidence? - Yup. - Carmen then offered the handyman a bigger project at her place, that hasn't gone so well. OK. Ooh. Nice doorstop (!) - Yeah. Quite a large doorstop, actually. - And nice deck (!) - Yeah. Lovely (!) It's a wee bit hard perching on the posts, having my cuppa tea. - The job was supposed to take about a week. - Yep, I'm happy with that. When can you start, and when can you finish? - So many people ask 'When can you start?' How many people ask, 'When can you finish?' Not that many, so well done already. - Mm, well, try to be on the ball. (CHUCKLES) - Carmen is no pushover. It hadn't just been 6 grand in advance ` she'd also been very direct upfront. Listen and learn. - He gave me a price. And, um, I said to him, 'Are you sure that this is going to cover everything? 'Because I don't wanna have an awkward conversation with you, 'either during the time that you're building it or at the end, 'where you're gonna go, "Oh, actually, "I haven't covered my costs ` I need some more money." I said, 'Cos it's probably going to be more awkward for you when I say no.' - That's a pro talking. Building her deck in December for Christmas was the final test of the handyman, before she employed him in her day job as a property manager. So there was every reason for him to do the best he could? - Yep. Finding good trades, there's lots out there, but they're also super-busy. And so when you find them, then you stick to them, especially in property management, cos they do help you out of tight spots. - This one still looks pretty tight. At the same time, Cary and Estelle's job had just stalled, after they spotted negative feedback on the same Facebook community pages where they'd found their contractor. - On Facebook, there's three other people that we know of. - I went on Messenger, and I said, 'Oh, Ian, please don't tell me this is true', and that ` it feels like that sort of triggered him. And that's when all this happened, where he stopped. - So what had happened? Why had a seemingly busy contractor vanished with other people's money in his pockets for work unfinished? His customers, his companies or the places they were registered to, they're all a short drive down SH 1, mostly around Pukekohe. With a disconnected phone number and no reply to emails, we hit the streets for any trace. Just up the road is one address where Ian Uhatahi registered a company. The people living there say they know him, they say he owes them money, they say he owes other people money and they come calling from time to time, but that Ian Uhatahi himself hasn't lived at the address for quite some time, so we need to keep looking. And I'll be leaving the camera crew outside again ` no point hassling innocent bystanders. Right, so, it turns out the person that used to live there maybe knows Ian ` certainly they're on the documents for the company that, uh, they helped create, but they haven't been there for quite some time. We're spreading the net wider. Someone here might know someone who knows Ian. See if they're home. Like with fishing, you have to be patient. There's no one home here, so we left a note ` we're trying. And diving deeper into those records for a second company, deregistered 15 years ago. Buried in those records ` a mobile number and a name. Yeah, Susan. Susan from Uhatahi Services Ltd? - Yeah. - Garth Bray from Fair Go. No, I promise I'm not a scammer. How can I prove that? How about I take a photo? I'll just get some help. Hey, guys, can I get some help? Can you just wave to Susan? Susan, ready? I'll take a picture. Hi. Sending it through now, OK? You know this chap Ian Uhatahi we're trying to get a hold of? OK. So you have never lived in Auckland, you've never heard of this person, you've never given him your phone number? Right. Good talking to you, Susan. That was Susan Uhatahi, except it wasn't ` that was her first name, but not her last name. It was the right phone number, but she has never heard of this company. This man never lived at any of those addresses and sent me some evidence that suggests that's the case, so it looks like another dead end in the search for Mr Ian Uhatahi. Weird. But persistence pays ` I get a call from one of those places we visited. They helped Ian Uhatahi get started in business. They'll try to help us talk to him. They say he now has my number ` he just hasn't used it yet. We have found some more traces on yet more Facebook pages ` we can try to place a video call. Straight away just denied, because we're not Friends, and the account doesn't allow new message requests from everyone. Same for a business Facebook listing, but it all takes us closer to the elusive Ian Uhatahi. We've been keeping tabs on his travels. Here is where we've found him. (REGGAE MUSIC) That is downtown Nuku'alofa ` the capital of Tonga. Looks like he's being taken for a ride. Another day, looks like he's supervising some construction work. He's keeping an eye on some land... and enjoying the day's catch ` nice for him. - There's my driveway. - What about his customers back in Auckland? - You trust, I think that's what we did, and, yeah, it burned us. - At some point, you've got to trust people if you're gonna do stuff, but everybody works hard ` well, most people ` to get their money, so it shouldn't just be someone's right to come along and scam it off them, and I just want him to stop and to expose him, and then hopefully it'll save someone else from losing their hard-earned money. - Whoa. There's a lot of words I've got for Ian, but my te reo isn't quite up to play in that area, so I'm just gonna say tino kino, which means that is pretty poor. And that's pretty mild. - Yes, it is. So, come on, Ian ` get in touch. We know you're big on social media. And Garth is standing by, right now, watching our inbox. And if you know Ian or want to share anything with us,... - Mm. - ...don't slam it on the public page ` our DMs are open. - Wide open. E haere ake nei, coming up ` why is this online accommodation provider booking out unavailable rooms? - Disgusted, actually, and shocked. And I worry ` I worry about how many other people are being caught out. - And they're good in your waka, on skis, on the golf course, even in combat ` so what can't these glasses do? # Summer in the morning light, # everything's feeling right. # The waves in the distance calling me home again. # Back to the maunga, # down to the moana ` # you and me, takahia atu te whenua, # singing, 'Pick me up on the baseline.' We see you moving with the times, Aotearoa, - Whakapiri mai ano ` welcome back. The Nelson-based couple in our next story were looking forward to a stress-free break in Auckland, at a great-looking apartment they'd booked online. - Sounds great. But when they arrived, they was denied access. Why? The apartment wasn't available. - No, it hadn't been double-booked ` it wasn't supposed to be rented out at all. Kaitlin has the story. (RELAXED MUSIC) - Virginia knows it's just a matter of time until what happens to her, happens to someone else. - That people can still be paying their money and not getting accommodation ` I mean, how can they do that? - She's a thousand kilometres away from the travel trap now, but she can't put it behind her. - I'm gonna keep fighting. You know, this is not right, and I don't want anyone else to go through this. - And it's a problem that's hard for us to ignore, because, well... It's happening just across the road from TVNZ. Here in Auckland's CBD is where Virginia and her partner had booked accommodation for a couple of nights before heading off on an overseas holiday. - Just downtime, not working, spending time together. - No stress? - No stress ` exactly. No stress. - It started off that way. - Oh, look at that! - Back home in Nelson, Virginia used online travel agency Booking.com to see what was out there. - We found a really nice apartment that we thought was within our budget and with our price range. - $320 for two nights at The Heritage Haven ` an apartment within the Heritage Hotel complex, the old Farmers' building, but owned and rented out privately. - Oh, my God, it's got a swimming pool. That looks amazing. - Good reviews too ` 8.5 out of 10. So she booked it in, three months before their trip in July. - There was a thing of we could pay straight away or we could wait, and if we waited, we'd have to pay a lot more, so we chose to pay straight away. - Which only became an issue when they arrived in Auckland, where no one was expecting them ` not even the host. - We rang up the phone number, and we found out that the accommodation no longer existed. It's not available ` it hasn't been available for over a year. - How did you feel when you heard those words, 'It's not available'? - At first, I didn't actually understand. I was, like, 'What? What do you mean?' Like, 'What do you mean by not available?' Then I panicked, and I thought, 'What are we going to do? 'Where are we gonna sleep?' - She immediately called up Booking.com, but couldn't get a hold of anyone. - I felt that time was ticking by and that we were losing this time that we thought we were going to have. - Thankfully, beyond the mirage of their Heritage Haven, was the very real Heritage Hotel, which was happy to find them a room. That cost another $437, but it was somewhere to cast their bags and worries aside. And when Virginia finally got through to Booking.com, she was promised as much. - They would look after us and that we'd get a full refund, and I questioned him on that ` I says, 'Are you definitely sure that we will get all our money back?' And he said, 'Yes, you'll get all your money back', and he just needed to ring the person themselves, to find out why they hadn't honoured the booking. - But maybe Booking.com should have already known the answer to that question, because the former manager of the apartment told us the listing mix-up's been going on for years. - And it drives me absolutely insane, to the point where I'm gonna be talking to, potentially, a lawyer locally to get this sorted, because it's causing me huge amounts of stress, because I get these random calls from people. - The Heritage Haven was one of a number of apartments managed by a rental company that went bust during Covid. - I don't have access to any of the emails any more, so I couldn't even remove the listings if I wanted to. - So, how did you tell Booking.com at the time that the company was being wound down and you wanted the listing removed? Apparently, that wasn't an issue for other online travel companies, like Air BNB. Yes, listings, plural ` the former host recalls there were half a dozen still up on 'Booking.com'. So his phone keeps ringing. How many times would you say this has happened? And he continued to get more calls after we spoke. And after letting her hair down on holiday, Virginia returned home to find she hadn't been refunded and the listing was still on 'Booking.com'. - Disgusted, actually, and shocked. And I worry ` I worry about how many other people are being caught out. What would you do if you turned up and there was no other accommodation or you couldn't afford to pay extra? - We're filming this at the end of August, and the listing is still up, so I'm going to try and book like Virginia ` two night's stay for two people. And, ooh, I'm in luck ` it's available this weekend, and I can go ahead and pay right now. Booking.com explained in an email to Virginia that after her checkout date, there was little they could do to help. - That I should have contacted them at the time of the booking and that, um, here was the person's phone number that owned the apartment, and I'd have to go to them directly to get my money back. - But you had called them. - Yes. I had called them. - So then we got on to Booking.com, which prompted it to investigate. A spokesperson told us listings can be removed by its partners on the website or with the help of its support team. - 'We are sorry for the experience this customer and partner have had. 'It's definitely not what we want for anyone using 'Booking.com'. 'In this instance,... 'and we apologise for the delay in doing so...' - It's now closed the listing down, as well as the others associated with the defunct company's account. It's also refunded Virginia for both her non-existent stay and costs to stay somewhere else. - Really happy. Really, really chuffed. And really pleased and grateful that, um, we have now got our money back, so thank you, Fair Go. And we hope that this never, ever happens to anyone else. - It's a problem these days, isn't it ` these 'Booking.com's are everywhere, hard to miss, got so much accommodations on them, but when you want someone? Hmm. - Hmm. Very hard to get hold of. But that was a great story. Great outcome, Kaity. Ka rawe tena purongo e hoa. - E haere ake nei, coming up ` they were the sunglasses that came with big promises. - TAC glasses can do things no ordinary sunglasses can do, like block blinding glare so well, invisible objects suddenly become visible. - So why did they go from this... - BOTH: Wow! - ...to this? - Good grief. - Nau mai, hoki mai. Welcome back. Now, we've all been there, haven't we; we're probably doing it right now ` feet up, watching ads on the telly. Then something nifty pops up, like, you know, your, kind of, vibrating thing that tightens everything up or the ladder ` I must have the ladder; we've just gotta have these things in our life. They're very convincing. - Yeah, I think you've been convinced one time too many, haven't you? - Oh yeah. - Well, for the couple in our story, that was a snazzy pair of sunnies advertised for use in all sorts of situations. The trouble was, there was something crucial they couldn't do. Haydo has the story. - TV: You have one minute to build up as much money as you can. - Every night, come 5.30,... - Toothpaste. - ...Dot Anderson-Lee becomes a world authority... - 200. - ...on everything trivial. - Bond Street? Green. - Husband Wayne, not so much. - She's too fast for me. - And recently during the ads,... - Everybody has sunglasses, but most sunglasses make things darker. - Look at that. - Something featured many times that piqued their interest. - But most sunglasses make things darker and are useless when it comes to blinding glare. Not these. - You might like those for fishing and driving. - We call 'em TAC glasses. - Well, they should be good-quality. - Wayne needed some new driving glasses, and the TAC glasses really spoke to him. - TAC glasses can do things no ordinary sunglasses can do ` like block blinding glare so well, invisible objects suddenly become visible. - Yeah, look at that ` they must be good for driving. - After twice coming home empty handed because they were sold out, Wayne returned from The Warehouse triumphant. - Well, these will do me. There's the road. Look at the road. - Whoa! - Wayne tried them on. - Wow! - Dot tried them on. - Oh wow! - But when he inspected the tag, Wayne Anderson-Lee got a fright. - Good grief. Must not be used when driving. - Wayne wanted them specifically... - For driving. - Driving in the ad,... driving on the box, but you can't wear them driving. - I was pretty annoyed, really. - This was when they hit the phones. Dot looked at some reviews. - The reviews said, 'Forbidden to drive.' - Wayne rang the company doing the advertising ` Global Shop Direct, also known as As Seen On TV. - The advertising on the box doesn't say anything about using them for driving, and I want them for driving, so I think it's false advertising. - Global Shop Direct told Wayne to go back to where he bought the glasses, The Warehouse, where they gave him a refund ` good news. - They make us look wonderful. (CHUCKLES) - Mm. But something stuck with both of them. - The principle is that they should advertise correctly. - Introducing Blade Maid. - Introducing the Sonic Scrubber. - When we rang Global Shop Direct, the New Zealand importer and online retailer,... Can you use them while driving? ...Beth told us... Cos it says on your website that they're not to be used while driving. OK. But the TV ad, it's got driving ` it's got, like, trucks and a road, and it shows how when you put the glasses on, you can see the truck. - Yeah, it's here in the FAQs... - Then we talked to Angelo. But Angelo and the TV commercial are both wrong ` an optometrist we spoke to said the lenses are too dark to make driving safe. And the commercial was found to be so misleading and unsafe, the Advertising Standards Authority banned it from New Zealand television in March. So how could Dot and Wayne watch it many, many times on their couch in August, when it was banned in March? - Yeah, we've seen it lot of times. - Well, despite pulling 14 versions of the ad in March,... - What?! - ...a 30-second edit slipped through, back on to our screens. - Wow! - And after another complaint in late August,... - Whoa. What? - ...this final commercial was pulled. - There's just nothing like them on the market today. - Dot and Wayne still go driving. Although Wayne wears a cap. While Dot enjoys the bedazzling twilight in another pair of TAC glasses we brought with us. - As a passenger, they're fabulous. It's so bright today, but when you put these you, you can actually look at the sun. It's just a shame that Wayne can't wear them driving. - You want some, don't you? - Well, here I was, thinking this morning, waking up, thinking, 'I'm gonna get gifted those glasses today.' That's what Haydo will do. - (LAUGHS) - And you left them at home, because secretly you want them for yourself. - Pretty much. - Mm-hm. Look, just so you know, The Warehouse is working with a supplier to get better packaging. Right. Kua mutu ` that is it from us, but if you only caught part of the show, you can catch all of it, plus past episodes and some handy consumer information on the Fair Go page on TVNZ+ whenever you want, because we're always here to help. - Sure is ` no koutou; it's yours. Fair Go is all about you and your consumer aches and pains, so please, do get in touch. - We're on Facebook, Tiktok and Instagram. You can go to our webpage, tvnz.co.nz Email us ` fairgo@tvnz.co.nz Or write to us ` - Thank you for watching. If you're after the glasses, I've got two pairs. Slide into the DMs ` I'll hook you up. Until next week,... - BOTH: ...pomarie.