Mark Brown

I recently had a fault with my washing machine. It was a rare event even according to an independent technician I asked separately. Not only did the engineer quickly diagnose the problem, but he told me it needed replaced.
My heart sank because it was only a few years old and I just moved to the Netherlands.
But no need to worry, Miele offered a replacement and I received it within days, fully installed.

I’ve bought other appliances from Miele over the years and can honestly say no other appliance company has customer service and quality like this. It’s like companies used to be: honest and easily accessible. Just try calling customer service at competitors, you will quickly learn that “goedkoop is duurkoop”. If you care about sustainability and your own sanity, spend more and buy here.

I bought three Miele appliances last year. In my experiences Miele are not just focused on selling, but also maintenance in a way almost no other appliance manufacturer or retailer has been in my many experiences of buying appliances. Only John Lewis compares. Neither Miele nor John Lewis advertise this enough.

As an example, here's two experiences:

1. I bought a fridge-freezer directly from Samsung last year. It arrived scratched. Simple issue to fix right? Wrong. I had that big heap take up my hallway for weeks as I tried to negotiate the crazy ordering and repair 'service' provided by that company, with call centre workers in the Philippines who did not understand, tried to dismiss my issue or to further delay etc. So many calls and days wasted. For a fridge.

2. I recently had an issue with my Miele washing machine (caused by myself) and called Miele: I pressed one button, I didn't hold for long and spoke to a trained and capable UK-base rep. I was offered an appointment for a few days after. The friendly, experienced service rep arrived, got on with it and answered my questions. No charges, no quibbling or otherwise frustrating the process by needlessly asking for receipts, invoices or some other obscure reference. He even had accessories to sell me on the spot.

No, Miele is not cheap (I grew up with "buying cheap is expensive"). Yes, their appliances do last. If you believe in sustainability and want to save yourself a lot of unnecessary stress with getting appliances serviced and not replacing them every few years, invest in quality. Miele do offer zero-interest monthly payment options.

If there's one thing I could ask for, it would be that Miele routinely offer the option to extend warranties with Miele directly (not one of the myriad of companies that offer this make it difficult to claim). Happy to pay for this.

Great company to order from. Happy to recommend after several orders because:

1. HUGE selection of books, some very rare and niche (anything between historic to Star Wars collectors items)
2. Affordable (rare sometimes = more expensive, as you’d expect)
3. Sustainable: what’s more sustainable than reusing an item?
4. Quality: “very good” in my experience is brand new. I have books from 1991 that arrived untouched as an example.
5. Customer service: when things do go wrong (due to Royal Mail/courier), they immediately set it right, even when it’s not their fault. Easy to communicate with on facebook.
6. Ethical: this company seems (B-Cerified) to do right by its staff and pays tax = you and I get a little back.
7. Fast: just as fast as those other companies that don’t pay tax and treat their staff worse than this business treats used books and that operate unsustainably.

I get Bullguard for free with John Lewis Broadband. Seems good. Only small complaint...towards the end of every month it tells me my subscription is about to expire. It doesn't and won't and I assume it's just because my subscription is linked to my John Lewis plan, but it is annoying and I'd appreciate if that could be sorted out. Glad my security is looked after by a business based in the UK.

I carefully researched all the different brands to find a company that produces top quality dog food with a large proportion of proper protein and the rest. I also wanted a product made in the U.K. and sustainably by an ethical company. Barking Heads does all that. I recently had friends over who fed their dog a cheap supermarket variety; unsurpringly the dog hardly ate anything. As soon as I fed her some of our food she finished her bowl in a minute. My only two criticisms: if the website matched Fetch on price I'd prefer buying direct from Barking Heads, but it's about £10 more and with my hungry boys the food costs a lot as it is. Packaging: I'm disappointed to read that it's not recyclable, so really hope this will be sorted out soon with a thicker plastic/paper that is widely recycled.

Very impressed with my first purchase from CeX online. Delivery was fast and easy and the product itself worked and looked brand new.

I have flown with other airlines short and long-haul and always go back to British Airways. The booking process is simple and the product high-class. I have flown BA to Cape Town, Belfast, Johannesburg, Mauritius and elsewhere many times. Getting on board is like being home already. The service is friendly and professional. Their A380's are modern and comfortable. Yes, I might be able to save a few quid flying with some Middle Eastern airlines that are unfairly subsidised by their governments and that treat their staff poorly (and I have) or with Air France (whose plane, albeit brand new, was filthy), but I always come back to BA. A direct route, an ethical company, professional booking staff and a great flying experience is worth it. I think their website is a bit dated, but I'm sure they're working on that.

Tip: if you fly World Traveller like I do most of the time, pay a bit more for the Club meal. Not only is the food always delicious (yes, really) but it comes with proper cutlery and a linen napkin that is a real event to break up an otherwise dreary flight. Also, get a BA credit card, I've free partner flights, upgrades, free flights and lounge access so it has certainly been worth it for me. Check the cost of Traveller Plus and Club, if it's only a bit more, book that for the Avios.

First, let me say that I now have my mobile back and it works, they did a proper job from what I can see. Secondly, their method of purchasing this service and sending it in is easy and works very well, they are streets ahead from other companies in this regard.

Sadly, I also have to say that it took three months for them to replace my screen even though I had paid a lot of money for this. I had to email them many times to get this done, they never once contacted me of out their own to say "okay, we have a problem it will take x amount of time". Once I did contact them they said were waiting for parts, so I waited and had to contact them again and again. Eventually they said they only have the part in a different colour and when I suggested that this would do (just to get it done), only then was this resolved. They have apologised, but if they had told me about the different coloured part three months ago I could have had my phone back in a week, two weeks max. Not having your mobile for three months is not acceptable. I will say that they do offer replacement mobiles, but it's not the same. This seems to be a good company, but I would suggest they work harder at keeping clients updated via email and offering us options if there really is an issue with parts. It's not a major issue to 'fix', if they improved that, I would be happy to use them again.