Hundreds of people have contacted Rights and Wrongs in the last 12 months with problems ranging from minor arguments with shops to serious disputes with companies.

The year began with a call from a Bradford woman whose 81-year-old mother - suffering from senile dementia - had been persuaded to sign a contract changing her gas supply from British Gas to Scottish Power.

By the time her furious daughter found out, the 14-day cooling-off period had passed and the company said the contract was valid.

Following a call from Rights and Wrongs, Scottish Power launched an investigation and later cancelled the contract.

A short time later we were contacted by woman who was still waiting for Christmas presents she ordered from perfume mail order firm International Direct Inc in November.

When they did eventually arrive, she found the bottles only contained 3mls or 4mls or perfume - instead of the 40mls or 50mls she was expecting for £57.

The Advertising Standards Authority later upheld complaints against the company, deciding its adverts were misleading.

London-based companies 20th Century Fax and Top 20 Ltd were highlighted after sending out surveys and information to Bradford businesses and asking for faxed replies.

The small print revealed the faxlines were premium rate numbers - and sending the replies would cost the businesses between £1 and £9. When questioned by Rights and Wrongs, the companies denied they were misleading the public.

The following month Top 20 Ltd was banned by the High Court from advertising one of its products anywhere in the European Union.

Rights and Wrongs launched an in-depth investigation after receiving five complaints about an escort agency operating in Bradford.

City Escorts - run by Chris Osborne - was advertising for people to act as escorts for clients. New recruits paid him a £30 "portfolio creation fee" - and were lucky to hear from him again. We tracked Mr Osborne down to a bedsit in a house occupied by students in Great Horton - but he had moved out.

The following week - after more complaints - we discovered Mr Osborne had started up business in an office complex in Bradford using a different trading name - Escorts Direct.

When we confronted him he denied he was misleading people and claimed they had all signed contracts stating work would be passed on when it was available. Three weeks later he announced he had closed down because of our publicity and was considering moving away.

In May, grandmother Doreen Murphy and her granddaughter contacted us after failing to trace a builder they paid £500 in advance to carry out work in her kitchen.

Neither they nor Rights and Wrongs were able to trace Legram Builders boss Steve Powell. But another firm offered to do the work for free after reading our report.

In March we helped a Bradford couple facing a £600 plus bill for damp proofing work they claimed they had cancelled.

The company did the work and then demanded payment. But after we contacted him, the boss agreed to cancel the bill.

Home Cote, a Leeds outside wall coating company, was in the news again in June after the couple who complained about the firm in April were left with what they described as a two-tone house.

The firm only did half the outside walls and left the rest. When we contacted the firm we were told the man who did the work was sub-contracted by Home Cote and it was up to him to finish the work.

But within hours the couple had a call from Home Cote saying the work would be finished within days.

Trading Standards officers said the sub-contractor may have done the work but Home Cote was legally responsible for it because the sub-contractor was working on its behalf.

In July we received a complaint from Bradford electrician Peter Forrest who had paid more than £900 to Birmingham-based insurance property claims management business Barkley Maine Corporation Ltd.

In return the firm said it would pass on all suitable insurance work in his area. He claimed he received no extra work and couldn't get his money back.

The company was the subject of several more complaints from Rights and Wrongs readers and we discovered it had been prosecuted earlier in the year for breaches of the Trade Descriptions Act. Within a month it was temporarily closed down by the Department of Trade pending an investigation, and Trade Secretary Stephen Byers presented a petition to the High Court to wind up the company in the public interest.

A bouncing cheque from a Bradford car hire firm caused problems for residential home owner Mary Coulton. She claimed a cheque for the balance of her deposit bounced twice and was having no success with the firm - until Rights and Wrongs stepped in.

Paralysed David Tempest had already had five months of problems with his new digital TV system before he was told it would be another four weeks before he could get some new equipment.

But within an hour of a call from Rights and Wrongs he received a call saying the new digital box would be with him next day - and it was.

Within the last few weeks we have reported two cases of washday blues with Hotpoint machines.

One reader contacted us after repair engineers came out for the 14th time in two years.

The second had repairmen in about 12 times in the same period. In both cases new machines were on their way within hours of our call to the manufacturers - along with apologies.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.