Watchdog At 40 on The One Show - Nikki Fox and Matt Allwright recall the show's most shocking moments as they celebrate its milestone birthday

BBC News

6 days ago

Watchdog on The One Show, where Matt Allwright and Nikki Fox investigate your consumer issues, is turning 40 this June.
We caught up with the duo to find out how they stay ahead of the latest scams, share advice, and reflect on Watchdog's impact over the past four decades...
Watchdog has been going for 40 years…why is it so important?
Nikki Fox: I can't believe it's been that long actually, but I love it. I feel very privileged that I get to be a part of helping solve people's issues, those kind of issues that are so frustrating for so many people. You know, the way you feel like you're one tiny person trying to fight a huge company and you're getting nowhere, and at the same time, you're trying to live your life and work and do everything, and then you have this problem, and you can't get an answer, and you feel like you're hitting your head against a brick wall. And I get that, I've been there. We all have, and it's so frustrating. And the fact that I get to meet these people, and at least play a small part in telling their stories and getting this injustice out there on Watchdog on The One Show, and getting a solution. And when we get a solution it's joyful, that's what I love.
Matt Allwright: And it's absolutely the role of the BBC. That's what we can do without fear or favour, without adverts, it's what we should be doing as much as we possibly can.
Matt: We're just there as cyphers to get it to telly and then ask the same question of the company that for some reason is ignoring them when they're there by themselves.
Matt: I like the sense that you can represent people who feel like their voices are not being heard, and you can take an idea of somebody who's at their wits end trying to get some sort of result, and you can not only get that result, but use that as an example to help people who maybe don't feel they can speak up or don't feel brave enough to go on TV. So there's a real sense of satisfaction of closing the circle for somebody. And when we've got tens of thousands of pounds back for individuals, I think obviously that helps the individual and helps them be more confident in the way they live their lives, but also it gives ammunition to other people who might be in a similar situation. I think being part of that process is a real privilege, and those sorts of roles don't come along very often. I really cherish it. I love it.
What are some of the biggest stories over recent years?
Matt: Let's talk about tickets, indeed, one of the biggest stories we've looked at over recent years. It's like when you've got stories where everybody knows something's wrong and you can't quite put your finger on exactly why it's wrong, and you get the same response from companies over and over again. And we've been covering that on Watchdog for years and years and years now. And it just goes to show if you just keep pushing, then eventually the truth comes out.
Nikki: Then there's the miss-billing stories where energy companies are sending bills to people who aren't even their customers, it's so frustrating for people, especially nowadays in the world that we're living in, where life is incredibly stressful, everything is so expensive, and then you're getting bills from a company that you're not with, saying you owe thousands of pounds, and that is scary. You know, I've been in debt, and I've been in a position where I've dreaded every letter that comes through the door. But when you're getting these kinds of letters, and they're not even meant for you, it's scary. You worry about your credit score. You worry about what is going to happen. You worry whether you're going to get debt collectors coming at your door. And it's just not nice and so I feel very proud of those stories that we do, because I just think they're so important.
So what changes have you seen being on the show for that length of time?
Matt: I was 27 when I joined in 1997. It's 28 and a half years now, and boy, it shows! The changes I've seen over the years - obviously, when I started people were writing in and phoning in. And we were really taking calls at the back of studio. But that was how we got our stories… email occasionally. And now that's changed completely. We still get a lot of people's complaints and story ideas through email, but social media is a big way now. And we don't have to have people sitting on phones anymore. They accumulate, and we can search through and find threads and streams and themes and ideas. When we see that a certain name or idea crops up enough times, then there's a good chance that it's something we should have a serious look at.
Nikki: What I also love as well, and I bet this happens to Matt a lot more than it happens to me, is that people stop you on the street, and they'll tell you they recognise you from Watchdog. They trust Watchdog.
Matt: Yeah, they tell you their stories right there and then.
What changes have you seen in the types of stories covered?
Matt: In terms of the types of stories my big concern at the moment is the consumer rights that we have fought for for centuries. Some of them go back hundreds of years. People like Lynn Faulds Wood, John Stapleton, Anne Robinson. all of our predecessors…Nicky Campbell, Julia Bradbury, you know, these rights are being eroded because of the way we shop. And when we're buying things through a platform of some sort that is not the seller, they evade responsibility for that. And we get so many companies saying: 'this is nothing to do with us…the seller is at the other end in China or somewhere else ..so it's not our responsibility.' And that's a big change, and it's a change we should all be really worried about, because if you try and fight your corner and get a result, it's so much harder now than it was five or ten years ago, because that tends to be the way we buy a lot of things that we need these days.
Matt: I think a lot of companies pay lip service to customer service, but actually, if they can get away with it, a lot of them will continue to do so. And I think that tool of reputational loss, of saying, 'Do you know how bad you look right now?' I think the more that we can bring that to bear it works. But obviously, you know the world is a different place. We don't all sit down and watch three channels every night and we don't all receive the same message, like when we had the Hoover scandal in 1993 where the company claimed that if you bought a machine for more than £100, you got two free flights. I mean, that was so damaging to that company, because everybody knew about it straight away. After the Watchdog piece, cases were taken to court with many customers receiving flights or financial settlements as a result. So we do what we can to make sure everybody knows when a firm is not sorting out its mess. And we're still in a privileged position of being able to broadcast to between 2-3 million viewers each week.
Do you find that say elderly people get in touch with you more because they genuinely don't know where to go?
Nikki: Or their relatives. A lot of their relatives. I get contacted by quite a lot, and I'm sure Matt does as well all the time from the sons and the daughters of elderly parents who have either been scammed or they've got this company they're trying to deal with and get a resolution from, and they're getting nowhere. Many people are frustrated by the fact that they can't speak to a real person and are left, having to deal with bots.
Matt: You know, people who watch telly are getting older all the time. But actually, I think the same stories, the same issues, affect people regardless of their age. I mean gig tickets – whoever you're a fan of /whatever your music taste – you can be subject to exactly the same problems. So people who spend money are getting let down across the board. It's regardless of their age. And you know, I think people who are stuck in those situations….very often it will be a relative who will say, 'have you thought about Watchdog?'
That is the reason that Watchdog is still going after 40 years, these problems affect everybody. You know, there's no impartiality issue here, because we're all consumers. So there's no them and us. This is helping everybody.
What would be the one story that stands out for both of you?
Matt: I love it when a company is trying to get away with something by dealing with customers individually, whereas we can see the whole picture. And there was a manufacturer of white goods who had a problem with their white goods catching fire, and we could see the problem. Everybody could see the problem, but they were dealing with it by going to one customer at a time and trying to get away with some kind of halfway house, piecemeal answer, and we're standing there looking saying, 'you've got a problem. You can't just keep dealing with it like that, because this is posing a risk to people's homes'. When you get that kind of action it doesn't happen overnight. It happens because you do it week after week after week. I find that reassuring, that we can still have that. We can still put that pressure on and still get those results. That means that people are safe in their beds at night. That means a lot.
Nikki: In 2017, the team tested ice samples, and it was Starbucks, Costa and Caffé Nero because they all launched their ranges. Nearly half of the ice samples came back with significant levels of faecal coliforms. And the expert actually told us that that would cause a significant risk. So the team tested ten iced drinks in each store - there were three in the Starbucks samples, there were three in Caffé Nero, and there were seven out of ten in Costa, that all contained presence of faecal coliforms. So it was a huge story. And the most important thing is the change that that brings about. We brought about internal investigations at all three stores, with Caffé Nero promising to take action, and Starbucks and Costa updating their ice handling guidelines.
So what are some of the recent success stories that you've had?
Matt: I was really interested to look at airport parking and it is something we really need to focus on. People leave their cars over a week or two weeks with someone that says that it's going into a safe compound with CCTV and the rest of it. And we've been into fields and stolen our own cars back because you know, hundreds of dog walkers had perfect access to where they were being stored, so that kind of dishonesty, which results in people losing their cars on some occasions or getting damaged, that's another one we're going to keep fighting for.
Nikki: We had a recent one, with a holiday Insurance company, and we managed to get about $175,000 dollars of medical bills wiped completely for a viewer. I mean, you know, that's a staggering amount. It's huge.
Matt: I think Royal Mail as well, the fake stamp story - viewers were being charged a £5 fee for receiving letters with counterfeit stamps. Some of which were bought from the Post Office. We managed to demonstrate that Royal Mail themselves couldn't identify fake stamps as fake and real stamps as real…and now they've waived that charge. You can always say it's only five or ten quid, but then you realise again that you multiply that across the country and we're talking about thousands and thousands of pounds, possibly for no reason at all.
How much money have you got back for consumers over the years?
Matt: Definitely we've had instances of getting tens of thousands of pounds back for people. But the ripple effect of that is all those other people who look at that as an example and use it as a negotiating tactic. I think whatever we've got back for people, and it's millions of pounds without a shadow of a doubt, but whatever we've got back on the show, you can add the multiplier to that, to the effect that people have been able to say, well, Watchdog proved the principle.
Nikki: And we've got individual cases like Arthur in 2018. Arthur was a NatWest customer who had his card stolen, and twenty grand was taken by scammers. The bank had originally rejected his claim, but when we got involved, they gave him the £20,000 back.
We have an awful lot of scam stories, don't we? And whenever I do a scam story, I like to make the point that when I'm speaking to whoever has got scammed, they always feel so stupid. And what I love about Watchdog is actually you can always push that point that you are not stupid. These scams are designed to trick us. We can all get scammed. Don't feel embarrassed. Don't feel any shame about it.. And it's just awful when banks aren't supporting customers who have been scammed. Sometimes it's large sums of money. You know, it's a really expensive world we're living in. It's very stressful.
Matt: I do think we've pushed the needle on that a long way, because banks were regularly saying to people, 'well, you know, you should have been more careful. It's not our responsibility if somebody calls you up and pretends to be us'. And as of October, the onus is now on the bank to demonstrate that it's done everything possible - I think because we fought those cases so clearly and strongly over the last twenty years. I think the industry's had to wake up and say, 'no, they're our systems, they're our apps, our credit cards and debit cards that you're using. So we need to take more responsibility.'
Nikki: And there was Vicky in 2023 and her email was hacked, and she was buying her first home, and the scammers intercepted the money, and I think she had a deposit of around £27,000, and we got all her money back as well.
So what have been the most shocking stories you've both covered recently?
Matt: I think spray foam. So people who sell things misleadingly or dishonestly, that's what they do, and it doesn't actually matter too much what it is that they're selling. They will find a way. They'll have a script. They'll have a procedure for pressure selling you something, and it doesn't matter if it's double glazing or solar panels, and over the last few years it's been spray foam insulation. So most homes don't need spray foam insulation. You can use fibreglass matting, like most of us have in a loft.
But we found that there was a company called Home Logic, which was selling and miss-selling spray foam as the answer to a lot of homeowners' problems. Now the problem with it is that it can also cause damage to a home in certain circumstances, and as a result, a lot of mortgage lenders aren't happy about lending on a home that's got it, it's also very difficult to remove. You've got to make that sort of thing really clear. If you're selling something that costs thousands of pounds and would cost thousands of pounds to remove, and could therefore stop the sale of your home at the point where you need it, and that's when you find out, because the surveyor comes in. So we got involved with that and Home Logic. And they admitted it was a high pressure sales approach and we managed to get them to cease all sales and installation for a period until they could decide a method where they could do it responsibly and safely, so everybody knows exactly what they're letting themselves in for.
Matt: Some of us are better than others at spotting scams. We are more trusting, and that's what I really hate is the idea that being trusting is a weapon that can be used against you, because it's one of the best things you can be … to trust somebody and show faith in people. When people would weaponize that and turn it against you, then I think that's really wicked.
What's the best piece of advice you've got for the audience that watches you weekly?
Matt: So the one thing I'd say over and over and over again, which covers you for so much of life - Out Of The Blue Not For You. So if you receive something out of the blue, whether it's a text, a phone call, an email or WhatsApp, just ask yourself where it's really come from, and why somebody would be contacting you, offering something, or looking like your bank, or just unsolicited contact from anyone, just be naturally suspicious of it, and especially at the point where they are asking you for something which is sacred to you, either your bank account details, or to make a payment, or whatever it might be, just go back to that first point of contact and say, 'Did I go looking for them, or did they come looking for me?' Then, if it's the latter, be very suspicious.
Nikki: You know, you have a product, you pay for it, you might be out of warranty or whatever, but it hasn't lasted as long as it should last. You wouldn't expect your TV to just last a year and a half. So you can use this. This is not fit for purpose. You kind of know what lifespan a product has. You buy an electric toothbrush, and it conks out after six months. That's not fit for purpose. I tell everyone this, I love Matt teaching me this.
Has working on the show changed how you approach situations in your own lives?
Matt: I think I get better service in restaurants than I deserve!
Nikki: I think the programme has made me even more aware. You know, I used to be one of those people that just didn't check things thoroughly. And, you know, I was probably not as security conscious as I should have been back in the day. You know, too busy trying to work and be disabled! It's two full time jobs it really is! So I was maybe a little bit less security conscious than I should have been. I think now I'm on Watchdog I take on board everything that we talk about in the show.
Do you both have a sense of pride working on a show that helps so many people?
Matt: Yeah, I mean, I don't like bullies. I've never liked bullies. I don't like people that use the strength of their position to get one over on other people. And I think you know that sense of injustice, where you can see somebody who has got your money, for instance, and doesn't feel the need to do right by you as a result, because they're a big company and they'll never see you again. I think that's the pride I feel, is that just once a week you get the chance to turn that on its head and say, 'No, you're not always going to win'.
I think that's as much as anybody could ask for from a job, you know, to be paid to do that, to be asked to go out and represent people when they feel powerless and voiceless, and to put things through, not every time, but the times that we can, that's as good as it gets.
What has been the most shocking or standout moment from your time on Watchdog, for both of you, was there anything that was particularly shocking?
Matt: I'm going to talk about pre-payment metres. There are so many, but there was a moment when people were really struggling with their bills. Rather than finding ways to help them, we were seeing companies break into homes and fit pre-payment metres.
What that means is that when your emergency credit of £10 runs out, you have no way to turn the lights on or possibly heat your home or give your kids a bath and that's when you see a sense of bullying. It's like, you could have responded to this in so many ways and that's the way you chose to respond. Well, you got what's coming to you. Energy companies are paying out more than £70m in compensation to tens of thousands of customers because of forced pre-payment meters.
Nikki: I'm really passionate about highlighting these companies that try to trick people out.
Matt, who would be your consumer hero, who inspired you - over the past 40 years, Nikki aside, obviously.
Matt: Okay, if Nikki is out, then one of my great heroes of all time is Lynn Faulds Wood, because she campaigned her whole life. When she was on Watchdog, she did amazing things. You know, I could look around this room, that's a moulded plug on the end of a piece of flex. Lynn Faulds Wood did that. Before that point, we had to root around and fit our own plugs, pay for our own plugs or appliances. Every biro top has got a hole in it. Every time you go to your oven and the oven door is cold, so your kid doesn't get burnt, down to Lynn Faulds Wood.
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