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Residents of dozens of properties on a housing estate in the Swansea Valley say their gardens are boggy and often waterlogged.听

A Flood Assessment in 2005 stated the area was a significant flood risk.听 Before the homes were built on the site, the land had to be raised and a comprehensive drainage system put in place. Despite this, many residents say they鈥檙e having major problems with their gardens.

Hannah and Mike Williams bought their home on the Barratt Homes Parc Afon Tawe estate in Godre鈥檙 Graig four years ago. But six months later, as autumn and winter set in, the ground in their garden became saturated.听

Hannah says"You couldn't walk on it because you would sink. It was just so boggy". Mike agrees, "There was standing water over the top of the grass - it was saturated."

Barratt Homes tried to put the garden right, but when the wet weather returned so did their problems. They now have no plants or even grass left in their garden, and they have had to pull all of their decking up too.听

The National House Building Council (NHBC) did an inspection after Hannah and Mike complained; the report found that the garden was not up to building regulations.听But at present, the couple are still waiting to find out what is going to be done to their garden.听

"It's been going on for four years now and I thought it would have been resolved. To be honest when you buy a house and you're spending all this money you would expect to get what you pay for" says Hannah.

"You feel guilty for keeping the kids indoors, 听it's like being in a prison."

The problem is not just with Barratt Homes. There are also many complaints about homes built by Taylor Wimpey on the neighbouring estate.

In total, X-ray spoke to 27 families and none were warned that their gardens could be waterlogged before they bought their properties.

We asked local surveyor Roger Roberts to look a few of the gardens. He described them as "unacceptable" and 听鈥渁 bog鈥�

Both Barratt Homes and Taylor Wimpey say they installed drainage for the houses and their driveways, but the planning rules did not require them to put separate drainage in the gardens.

Barratt Homes, who built Hannah and Mike's house, believe they have "fulfilled their responsibilities" to home owners, but say they're willing to "look again" at customers' concerns.

Taylor Wimpey blamed the problems on unusually wet weather and agree that further drainage work may be needed in some gardens. They say they鈥檙e committed to putting things right as soon as possible.听

Over the years we鈥檝e often told you about customers whose deliveries haven鈥檛 gone to plan but how would you feel if you had to wait a YEAR for the correct furniture to be delivered?

Vicky Griffiths from Merthyr Tydfil ordered two new cream sofas from Harvey鈥檚 in Pontypridd in February 2015. However, on the delivery day she received one cream and one dark brown sofa.

Vicky says the delivery team encouraged her to sign to accept the items, assuring her she didn鈥檛 need to worry as Harveys would soon put the error right. But instead Vicky was given excuse after excuse as to why Harveys couldn鈥檛 deliver the right sofas to her.

Over the next year she exchanged more than 100 emails with Harveys, before Vicky FINALLY got the right sofas delivered to her home last month. She said, 鈥淚 don鈥檛 believe for a minute they had any interest in the fact that they got something wrong and they weren鈥檛 in a rush to put it right.鈥�

When Vicky鈥檚 new sofas were delivered in February, we saw for ourselves that the delivery van was crammed to bursting and we witnessed brand new sofas being unpacked on the roadside. And some viewers have been complaining to us about the condition of their Harveys furniture when it arrives.

Lynette Lawry from Caldicot spent more than 拢2000 in the Cribbs Causeway branch of Harveys in the January sales last year. She was excited to kit out her new dining room and bought a new table, chairs and sideboard. But the excitement soon stopped when Harveys delivered her furniture as EACH piece of furniture was covered in scratches and dents.

Just like Vicky, Lynette had her own frustrating battle with the furniture chain which also spanned across a whole year.听 She said, 鈥淚 never thought that I would have to wait nearly a year to get my furniture replaced, it鈥檚 been really stressful.鈥�

We asked Harveys why it took so long to deliver the correct goods to these customers - and why the lorry we saw was crammed full of so much furniture. They didn't answer that but they did apologise to Vicky and Lynette and say they've now compensated them both. Harveys insist that problems like these are rare and say they're investigating the mistakes which were made so they can make improvements to their service.听

Signal problems, contracts and networks - here at X-Ray we get emails and calls about them all.听 There are now more mobiles in the UK than people, but finding the right network, tariff and handset for you can be tricky.听

To help you navigate the minefield of mobile phone deals, we鈥檝e put together some top tips:

Picking the right network

Many of us think that we 鈥榡ust live in an area with poor signal鈥� but signal strength varies dramatically from network to network. Using Ofcom鈥檚 mobile coverage checker you can get a better idea of a networks鈥� capabilities in your area and avoid getting stuck on a network with poor reception.

If you live in an area where only one of the major four networks (EE, Vodafone, O2 and Three) have signal then there is still hope. Networks like Tesco, Adsa, Giff Gaff and Lebara use the same infrastructure as the major networks so you might be able to get a better deal on one of these networks.

Getting a good tariff

Nine out of ten of us are wasting money on contracts which don鈥檛 fit our usage - and we鈥檙e overspending by an average of 拢160 a year.

By using Ofcom approved websites like Bill Monitor you can check your usage and compare almost 3 million other contracts, so there鈥檚 no excuse for spending money on minutes, texts and data you don鈥檛 need.

For pay as you go users there are ways to save money too. Making the most of apps like Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp to make calls and texts over wi-fi can significantly reduce your bills.

Paying for your handset

When you pay for a phone as part of a contract you are often paying over the odds for the actual handset 鈥� in some cases as much as 40% more. That鈥檚 because the network are essentially lending you the money to pay for the phone 鈥� with interest! Do the maths before committing to a contract and see if you can get the phone cheaper elsewhere.

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Links:

Ofcom Mobile Coverage Checker

Bill Monitor

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