Think you’re safe from problems when you buy a new home? Think again Dave Prosser and Sylvia Potter bought their brand new home just three years ago, for a few hundred thousand. It was supposed to be their dream home, but instead they’re living a new home nightmare.

New Home Nightmares

Thinking of buying a used car? You’re not alone. In this slowing economy, people are looking to save cash whenever and wherever they can.

The Secret History of Cars

Can cellphone use cause brain tumors? It’s a question that everyone has wondered about, yet there still isn’t a clear answer.

Generation Cellphone

Ailing Canadians are spending up to $200 a session in clinics and even buying the $20,000 "miracle" machine called the EPFX for home use. It's name is as intriguing as its health claims. For those suffering with a serious illness, they are desperate for a miracle cure.

Miracle Makers or Money Takers

Marketplace investigates a company called BIM (Business in Motion) that claims big returns once you buy in. BIM's main product is the UltraLife Club, a travel package that promises vacation deals. Attend a presentation and you're pitched a membership for $3,200 and are told you can earn thousands in commissions by becoming a distributor and selling to others.

Easy Money

Who doesn't want to win $500,000? That’s why so many Canadians are playing the Reader’s Digest sweepstakes. But now some of those people feel confused by the sweepstakes' marketing.

How Not To Win 500000

You might find you're paying for something known as "credit balance insurance." Depending on your credit card, it could be called "BalanceProtector" or "Account Protector," but the idea is the same: for a fee, credit balance insurance promises to cover your monthly minimum credit card payments in case of loss of income to due job loss or extreme illness.

Credit Card Catch

In a split second, do you think you could tell the difference between a real or an imitation gun? Imagine if that gun were pointed in your direction in what could be a life-or-death situation.

The Trouble With Fake Guns

Marketplace has seen it all when it comes to bad service, unsafe products and schemes. Over the years, we’ve seen companies come up with all kinds of tricky ways to separate customers from their cash. We call them the seven sins of the marketplace; a list of how companies try to reach into your wallet.

7 Sins Of The Marketplace

We’ve all heard puppy horror stories about sick dogs from bad breeders. But many pet stores promise problem-free dogs from first-rate breeders.

How Not To Buy A Puppy

Need a loan? As the economy continues to shrink, banks are becoming more and more reluctant to approve new loans — especially if your credit rating is less than stellar.

Lawless Loans

Like any commodity, electricity and natural gas prices go up and down with the markets. In some provinces, you have a choice when it comes to who will supply your power - a public or a private utility. Ontario and Alberta have deregulated both utilities, and in Manitoba and B.C., you can pick your natural gas provider.

Power of Persuasion

Thinking of renovating your home? As resale prices and new home construction drops due to the recession, more and more people are staying in the homes they have and trying to improve upon them.

The Price Cut Promise

Erica Johnson and contractor Mike Holmes reveal a new twist on home inspectors: more Canadians are buying houses that were formerly used as marijuana grow-ops.

Grow-Op Cover Up

Convenience over safety? Marketplace conducts a first of its kind test in Erica Johnson's investigation into GPSs.

GPS Distraction - Busted: Shingles

The pitch is how to get rich, or is it how to get ripped off? Erica Johnson investigates who's getting rich off Rich Dad.

Road to Rich Dad

Erica Johnson investigates one of Canada's largest diet companies, Herbal Magic.

Magic in a Bottle?

Wendy Mesley investigates the story behind huge bills many Canadians rack up from using their cellphones.

Canada's Worst Cellphone Bill

Erica Johnson reveals the newest way thieves are stealing your credit and debit card numbers.

Who's Minding the Store? - Busted: Cord Blood Banks

Firefighters know there's one thing that can help save lives in a fire, so you'll be surprised to learn this one thing is still missing in thousands of buildings across Canada. Also: Erica Johnson investigates a new wave of so-called American-style non-profit charities offering debt advice to Canadians.

Burning Question - The Debt Trap

Stretching the Truth? - Busted: Lysol

It's labelled halibut, but can you count on it? When you buy fish are you getting what you pay for? Erica Johnson goes fishing for answers.

Something's Fishy - Busted: Easyhome

Has your home insurance rate gone up? Wendy Mesley reveals it could be connected to your credit score.

How gym membership contracts affect Canadians and how some gyms are run.

Big Gym Ripoff

Investigating homeopathy, the fastest growing alternative health practice in Canada.

Cure or Con?

Incredible Shrinking Products

Investigating the oral contraceptive Yasmin.

Spinning a Pill

Investigation of the sale of door-to-door water purification systems in Canada.

Clean Water Dirty Tricks

Investigating the world of shady roofers with contractors Mike Holmes.

Hitting the Roof

Investigating the link between the animals we eat and our resistance to antibiotics.

Superbug in the Supermarket

Tom Harrington investigates what insurance companies don't want you to know.

Crash and Burned

We follow up on some of our favourite stories. See what's changed, and who's been busted since we "Busted" them.

Back on the Case

Debt collectors: their business can be ferocious. But when they cross the line, can you count on the rules to protect you? Erica Johnson investigates.

Debt Collector Dread

Taking another look at Canada's cellphone industry.

Canada's Worst Cell Phone Bill: The Sequel

The labels say 'organic' and 'natural' -- but are they really? Erica Johnson separates the truly green products from the 'greenwashed' -- products that look green, but really aren't -- in our top ten countdown of lousy labels.

Lousy Labels

For the first time ever, Marketplace will be running the scams instead of exposing them.

Won't Get Fooled Again

'Marketplace' launches our 39th season with a special one-hour episode that takes on Canada's major store chains.

Canada's Worst Customer Service: Store Edition

Marketplace puts COLD-FX to the test, and discovers that there may be more clever marketing than proven science at the heart of their success. Host Erica Johnson also reveals where the processing of this "Proudly Canadian" product takes place, and speaks with company insiders who reveal a dirty secret.

What FX?

In "Trouble for Rent," Tom Harrington meets tenants of a national rental company and uncovers a disturbing history of unhealthy homes, poor maintenance and corporate callousness. On hidden camera we hear what tenants are told when shopping for a new apartment and with the help of experts we put apartments to the test. What we find is troubling so we go looking for answers from the people at the top.

Trouble For Rent

Marketplace's Tom Harrington wants to find out what's behind one prominent eco-logo. He tracks down a popular toilet paper brand found in Canadian supermarkets to its source, the New Brunswick forest from where it comes, and discovers the answers aren't always clear cut.

The Toilet Paper Chase

In this year's Top 10 countdown of Lousy Labels, Erica Johnson finds the truth behind the latest buzzwords on food packaging. It will make you think twice before filling up your shopping cart.

Lousy Labels: Health Hype

Tom Harrington reveals the story of how, for many unwilling clients, Canada's largest lawn care company has become a more invasive pest than the ones they promise to get rid of. What do you do with a lawn care outfit that won't take no for an answer? Marketplace exposes their over the top tactics, and we speak with an insider who worked for the company.

Snake In The Grass

Tom Harrington exposes the aggressive practices of a job search marketing firm -- one that acts more like a recruitment agency. While this firm does have all sorts of clients, it seems to specifically target new Canadians, charging them for services and information widely -- and freely -- available. "Recruitment Rip-Off" takes us inside the operation, and includes heartbreaking testimony from the victims.

Recruitment Rip-Off

The materials in them are downright cheap. Even crafting the lenses is hardly labour-intensive. So why are prescription eyeglasses so darned expensive? Tom Harrington focuses in on the outrageously high price of spectacles. In this eye-opening report, we test recent changes in retail and regulation, to see if anyone's offering a better deal.

Framed

You've got a problem with something in your home, and you need it fixed -- fast! But who do you call? And who can you trust? We put home service trades-people to the test, in a house wired up with hidden cameras. We watch them while they work on what should be a fairly simple repair job -- only to get charged for unnecessary work.

When The Repairman Knocks

Going on vacation? Think travel health insurance is going to protect you if something goes wrong?Marketplace exposes an industry that's set up to fail -- convoluted medical questionnaires that can trip people up, travel agents on hidden camera giving dangerous advice, and travelers left on the hook for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Watch what happens when Erica Johnson goes looking for answers from a multi-million dollar industry that "regrets your claim is denied.

Tripped Up

Canada has the highest rate of hospital acquired infections in the developed world, and Canada's consumer watchdog wants to know why. Erica Johnson puts hospital cleanliness to the test, and finds a mess that is making you sick. With hidden cameras, including Canada's first hidden camera glo gel test, insider interviews and expert opinions, Marketplace uncovers why people in Canadian hospitals are too often getting sicker instead of better.

Dirty Hospitals

Co-hosts Erica Johnson and Tom Harrington report on shocking claims and shoddy services that drive Canadians crazy. It's an hour of television that will have the country shouting, "You're Busted!" at their TV sets. Anti-viral tissue claims, bank fees, outrageous markups at a national car service chain, cable and phone service charges, fast-food marketing spin, extended warranty fine print -- even charities and government watchdogs get "busted" by Marketplace in this wide-ranging exposé.

The Busted Edition

"They're on your bedding, your kitchenware, and the cleaning products you use: labels claiming products are ""non-toxic"", ""biodegradable"" and include ""natural ingredients."" But are these common household products really as eco-conscious - or as safe - as you think?

Erica Johnson investigates so-called ""green"" household products, putting them to the test, and uncovering surprising truths about some popular brands. She counts down ten products which deserve a Lousy Label for their claims to be greener and safer."

Lousy Labels: Home Edition

"Marketplace is back at it again, putting home repairmen to the test. We're wiring up homes with hidden cameras, rigging a simple, everyday household problem, to find out if repairmen we invite in can figure it out. Turns out, not every repairman can diagnose the problem.

This week, we wade into the world of backyard pools. In the pool business any type of handyman could show up. How would you know if they're really doing a good job? Can you trust them to fix your problem? Is your money well spent? Or will you be sunk? When it comes to testing pool repairmen, Marketplace didn't find much depth."

When The Repairman Knocks: Pools

Thousands of dogs are ill or dying across North America and it's been going on for years. No one can say what, exactly, made the dogs sick. But owners say they fed their dogs a seemingly harmless product: a popular chicken jerky treat.

There are warnings on both sides of the border about the treats, which are made in China and marketed by some of the biggest pet food companies. But there is no definitive link between the treats and the illness. And there have been no recalls.

Tom Harrington is on the trail of the mysterious illness, putting the treats to the test, and asking questions about a product that is not regulated in Canada. We ask: when things go wrong, who is fighting for Fido?

Fighting for Fido

"Buying a new car can be a gamble: you could end up landing a lemon. So what happens if you buy a faulty car that just can't be fixed?

After hearing from car owners across the country who claimed they bought a lemon, Erica Johnson goes searching for answers. She discovers just how difficult it is for owners to get help - from dealerships and from automakers.

And she reveals a possible solution on the other side of the border: lemon laws that protect owners from getting squeezed when something goes wrong.

Plus - Erica Johnson takes a closer look at Apple's latest smartphone. Is it as consumer-friendly as it claims? Check out this week's Busted!"

Getting Squeezed

"In four decades of Marketplace, we've come across a lot of products - and a lot of pitchmen - that proved to be too good to be true.

We're revisiting three of the most outrageous stories, and the people behind them: from an outrageous inventor pitching a $20,000 electronic cure-all; to guarantees of a job in a troubled economy; to a juice marketed as a miracle in a bottle.

Where are they now?"

Too Good To Be True

"When it's time to get our teeth checked, most of us trust our dentist to determine the treatment plan and how much it will cost. They are the experts, aren't they?

Co-host Erica Johnson puts dentists to the test: how does one know for sure what work needs to be done and how much it should cost? We reveal that dentists themselves can't even agree.

In Money Where Your Mouth Is, we send a researcher with hidden cameras to 20 different dentists in Toronto and Vancouver. We want to know: what treatments are recommended for her pearly whites? We discover a wide variation in treatments and costs. It seems dentistry is not that black and white after all -- there are various shades of grey. Marketplace wants to know why -- to get answers for the millions of Canadians who visit their dentist every year."

Money Where Your Mouth Is

"Is the steak you buy as safe as you think? We're taking a sharp look at a little-known process which could affect what you eat. It's a common industry practice that makes steaks and roasts tender, but critics say it can also make beef more susceptible to bacterial contamination. Tom Harrington puts beef to the test, shows you the risks, and reveals what you're not being told."

High Steaks

"The price for premium gas blends is as much as 15 cents more per litre than regular gas. Gas companies make the pitch that premium's better for your car.

While it's true that some car makers recommend putting premium fuel in their high-end models, what about most of us who drive regular cars?

Marketplace takes on Canada's big gas station chains and asks whether Canadians are being misled into paying millions more at the pumps than they need.

It's the Marketplace gas challenge: Premium vs. Regular. You won't believe what we find out"

Pump Fiction

"Marketplace puts six of the largest hotel chains in Canada to the test.

We're investigating the cleanliness of Canadian hotels - in the most comprehensive test of its kind, ever. This month, we'll reveal the risks you don't see - and what you can do about them."

The Dirt on Hotels, Part 1

"Last week's investigation of hotel cleanliness got Canada talking last week. Now, we're digging deeper - testing how well chains are maintaining their hotels.

We reveal some of the most surprising results yet, and what the companies could be doing to clean up their act and protect their guests."

The Dirt on Hotels, Part 2

"What happens when you give shady repair companies a second chance?

Last season we put garage repair companies to the test - and some of them tried to rip us off. Now we're putting them to the test again. We want to know: have they changed their ways?"

When The Repairman Knocks: Garage Doors

"Tom Harrington investigates flame retardants in our homes and reveals the toxic chemicals used to prevent or slow down the spread of fire may be making us sick, and may not be as effective as you think.

From blood tests to fire tests to hidden camera, Marketplace is putting flame retardants in the hot seat. We want to know: are you getting burned?"

Burned

This week on Marketplace: telemarketers from hell. We're out to catch them breaking the rules. We go undercover half a world away, inside a call centre that might be calling you.

To Catch A Telemarketer

This time, we're testing air duct cleaners; yup air ducts... the things that carry hot and cold air from your furnace through your house. Watch what happens when the duct cleaners discover our hidden cameras and we discover they're better at cleaning wallets than air ducts.

When The Repairman Knocks: Air Ducts

"Are you frustrated with banking fees?

Marketplace reveals three sneaky ways the banks fatten their profits at your expense.

We also give one family a financial makeover and reveal easy money-saving tips."

Busting The Banks

"We revisit two stories, and see what happened after the Marketplace bust.

Dirty Hospitals: have they kept their promise to clean up?

Clean Water, Dirty Tricks: Are they still spouting the same old scam?"

Back On The Case

"What they don’t want you to know about prices

You've sent us e-mail after e-mail asking why things cost as much as they do.

It's a mission that people behind the prices don't want us to take. But we're choosing to accept it.

Marketplace investigates shocking secrets about pricey cosmetics, the massive mark-up on hearing aids and the real reason we pay more than Americans for everything."

Price Tag Confidential

Who's Watching the Kids?

Mike Holmes: Home Ripoffs

The Great Salt Shakedown

"We investigate the costs of parking at hospitals in Canada, find who's really making money off those lots and how it's affecting ordinary Canadians.

In many cases, people told us that high hospital parking rates are keeping them from visiting loved ones or cause them to skip their own appointments. The cost and the stress doesn't belong in our health care system, one doctor said.

“Parking fees are a penalty for having a disease,” says cancer specialist Dr. Bob Winston. “It seems like an unfair tax on my patients.”

Do high hospital parking rates keep you from your appointments? Should we pay for hospital parking at all?"

Hospital Parking Pain

"We're on the trail of false claims, rounding up big names with their hands in your pockets. We're cracking five cases that will have you yelling, ""You're Busted!"" 

Has Air Canada come through on its promise to improve punctuality? And is that high-end Kobe beef you're paying for actually Kobe beef? Tom Harrington and Erica Johnson are on the case."

"If a deal sounds too good to be true... then it probably is.

We delve in Dealfind, the largest Canadian-based e-retailer. It claims to offer unbeatable deals... so why are so many people not getting what they paid for?

How can it offer a $299 service for just 24 bucks? Many Canadians are finding it can't.

""I'm beyond angry,"" says one Dealfind customer. Find out why in What's The Deal?"

What’s The Deal?

Trucking is the lifeline of Canada's economy, and as the country faces a shortage of drivers, Marketplace uncovers shocking details about how some unqualified new recruits are finding their way onto our roads.

Truckload of Trouble

Some of Canada's most popular restaurants serve halal food, but a Marketplace investigation finds that many chains fail to answer basic questions about the halal food they serve or provide evidence to back up their certification claims.

Fast-food chains serving up halal food with a side of misinformation, expired certificates

Marketplace compares some of Canada's most stolen vehicles to the same makes and models sold in the U.K. and reveals how the same cars sold overseas have additional security features that aren't provided in Canadian cars.

Stolen in Seconds: Why aren't carmakers doing more?

From staff training to boarding procedures and the availability of lift equipment, Marketplace puts Air Canada to the test again with the help of Paralympian Brock Richardson.

Access Denied: Back on the Case

Revealing how much ginger is really in Canada Dry's Ginger Ale; the "made from real ginger" claim was taken off of American cans after class action lawsuits there.

Lousy labels on popular products

Episode 6

A collage of Marketplace investigations comes together when a father finds his disabled son's story being used to sell a bogus product that claims to remove everything from pesticides to bacteria, including E.coli, from food.

A company profiting from a boy's illness

Marketplace reveals the growing number of vet clinics being bought up by corporations across the country and reveals how those takeovers are driving up cost of care across Canada.

Cause for Paws: The rising cost of pet care

Celebrities including Mike Holmes and former CFL player Graeme Bell make the pitch for renovations and custom home builds done right but a long list of customers with home build and reno nightmares shows that even though they make the pitch to trust them, there is little accountability when things go wrong.

Exposing The Celebrity Sell: Home Edition.

Marketplace tracks sale items at popular stores for more than six months, revealing false discounts, and some products that are advertised on big sales days, but are actually cheaper during other times of the year.

Sale or Fail?

Marketplace reveals the investigations have led to change.  From removing unsafe products from store shelves to changing government and company policies, we take viewers on a journey of some of our most memorable and meaningful moments. Reporter: Charlsie Agro

The Changemakers: Your  voice, our fight

Marketplace investigates the murky world of home heating deals to reveal how consumers who sign up for savings are getting surprises instead, locked into onerous loans that come with broken promises of rebates, energy savings and free service – as calls grow for better consumer protection.

Turning up the Heat

Marketplace investigates how much information you're giving away when playing mobile games, and where that information ends up.  We uncover the methods app developers use to keep kids playing for as long as possible – and expose loopholes in the laws meant to protect children's privacy.

Gaming the System

Episode 14

Marketplace is a Canadian television series, broadcast on CBC Television. Launched in 1972, the series is a consumer advocacy newsmagazine, which shows investigative reports on issues such as product testing, health and safety, fraudulent business practices and other news issues of interest to product and service consumers.

All Episodes of Marketplace

All Episodes of Marketplace

Season 1