peterj

Oh dear. I just transferred from PlusNet (as I didn’t want to be shoved off to EE and pay EU roaming). I entered the PAC code and porting no. in the online order. I activated my new sim on Thursday. I phoned late Friday and there’s no record of the PAC code. Told on Friday port would be Monday. Just had an sms saying Tuesday, which is not convenient.
Not a good start for my new mobile provider.

I have got off lightly compared with other customers' reviews of lavenderworld.co.uk, in that I have received plants, but not in accordance with the order. I paid an additional £7.99 for "next working day delivery", and placed an order at 10.00am on a Friday morning. Their website states "Order placed Monday - Friday before 12pm: Delivered next working day". I therefore expected delivery on the Monday, and arranged for a contractor to do the planting the next day, as I am elderly, and of course I had to pay him.
The plants arrived on WEDNESDAY, with the courier paperwork showing the plants were collected on the Tuesday, not on the Friday.

They initially replied to me apologising for the "confusion". Not on my part!

No phone number on the website is a big red flag.

They are ignoring my subsequent emailed requests for a partial refund, and so at the moment I am disputing the transaction with my cc company.
For all the reviewers who have not received plants after an extraordinary amount of time, I suggest you request a "section 75" chargeback from your cc company.
I will not give them any more business.

I have been a loyal customer for many years, and have noted the price steadily increasing after recent treatments, unsurprising given Putin’s war, but with no prior warning. My Spring treatment cost £112 for a large lawn area. The technician yesterday recommended oasis to retain whatever moisture is available, in addition to the Summer treatment, and I agreed when he said the additional cost would be the same as for the normal treatment.
I have received today the invoices, one for £151, for the standard treatment, which is a 35% increase on the last cost, when UK Fertiliser prices have REDUCED by 40+% in the last 12 months, and £190 for the oasis. So, instead of an expected cost of £224, I am billed for £341!
As far as the standard treatment is concerned, they might have included the new level of prices in their treatment notification emails, but no doubt they would then correctly fear mass cancellations.
I advise all customers to check with Green Thumb what their price will be as soon as you receive the treatment notice, and before treatment.
UPDATE: After a lot of debate, a lovely lady has just agreed to reduce the cost of both treatments to the previously expected price, but future treatments will be at the new price. That's fair enough as I have the option to discontinue if I wish to.
However, I am very concerned that an inflationary “favourable wage increase for our employees” is used to justify massive price increases. Hello? I’m on a pension! Your customer demand is very much not elastic. You put your prices up, you lose customers, and so the downward spiral continues…

Be aware, when taking out an annual policy, that if you declare you are having a test during the policy year, they immediately withdraw cover for ALL previously declared and accepted medical conditions, including any that are completely unconnected and irrelevant to the test you are undergoing.
What is the logic for that?
I appealed to a manager, who promised to review this with the underwriter and call me back within 48 hours, and didn’t, so I had to call again 5 days later, but got nowhere speaking to someone else. I have asked again for the manager to call me.
Absolutely illogical and arbitrary, but the underwriter’s decision is final, even when it’s wrong (policy no. 51358250).
UPDATE 1: the manager called me back on day 6, and has undertaken to attempt again to get a rationale from the underwriter for the decision. Please Mr Underwriter, assuming you’re not a doctor, try Google!
Or I can get a letter to you from my consultant cardiologist?
UPDATE 2: regarding the response saying “they are unable to determine how the current medical circumstance with your condition is or will be affecting your other declared pre-existing conditions”, I have offered them a letter from a consultant cardiologist helping this determination - not taken up! Your apologies are disingenuous.
UPDATE 3: Final appeal rejected. The underwriter knows more about medical conditions than a consultant cardiologist. What nonsense!

Gosh, I was about to place an order, but thought I would check Trustpilot first. The preponderance of very recent installation and connection problems, combined with long unresolved downtimes reported in these reviews has put me right off!
How the umpteen 1* recent reviews rate as a 3.8* out of 5*, goodness knows...
EDIT: Re the disingenuous response below, yes, I have chosen to miss out on the appalling customer service highlighted by all these continuing dissatisfied customers. Get your act together!

My Porsches have always been bought from, and serviced by, Jardine’s Porsche Cambridge dealership over the last 20 years, and when I called to book in my Cayenne, I prudently got a comparative quote first from Porsche Hatfield. I was shocked to find that Cambridge quoted me £200 more than Hatfield!!
Their explanation is that Hatfield are part of the Porsche Fixed Price Service scheme, and Cambridge are not, so are free to charge what they like, including labour at £199 per hour!
Cambridge, after some discussion, eventually offered to match the Hatfield price, but I feel very disappointed at such opaque two tier pricing within the Porsche network.
Not at all the best customer experience they aspire to in the almost identical and tone deaf responses to most of the critical reviews below!
I will have my car serviced at Hatfield instead.
EDIT: the response below is, as forecast, completely disingenuous.
A £200 overcharge is not a “Discrepancy”!

I ordered a Valentines Day card today enticed by a 30% off Valentines Card discount code on the website. Having spent a considerable time personalising a card, upon checkout the voucher was said to have expired. This is so irritating and is the SECOND time that I have experienced such a “come on” discount which is in fact expired. Upon complaining, I have received a bland response totally lacking any specifics to my complaint, sheltered by “I do not have access to the discount codes”. Then escalate my complaint to someone who does!
I’m left to assume that this is a deliberate policy to incite orders with fictitious discounts, since this is a repeat of a previous poor experience. I won’t be proceeding with the order and will instead buy a card from a local retailer.
UPDATE: re the instant response below, please contact your Elaine, to whom I have already emailed!
UPDATE: Moonpig now admit IT error and discount should not have expired. Poor performance!

I noticed that my car policy renewal was for the same day as the expiry date. Upon querying this, I am told that the policy expires at midday. I have never heard of a car policy expiring other than at midnight! If I had just moved my policy to a new insurer, I would naturally have started it from the next day after expiry. So I would have been unwittingly uninsured, and committing a criminal offence, for half a day. I can find no reference in the policy to a midday expiry, merely the expiry date.
BEWARE!
Update: to correct the disingenuous response below, my current policy started at midnight and ends at midday. The proposed renewal ends at midnight the day before the previous expiry. So, I have been diddled for half a day for each year, making a day short in total. That’s a surreptitious and crafty price increase, equivalent to putting one less sweetie in the packet, that needs highlighting to Direct Line customers.

Ordered today 2/12. Much the best price and an easy process. Recommended.

Customer Service uncontactable...
I have wasted 14 hours across 14 phone calls. Not one is answered. I emailed customer services and the CEO requesting a call back. Nothing, not even an acknowledgement.
UPDATE: As soon as I submitted a formal complaint. using the Qantas complaint form online, my issue was resolved. In future, just go straight to Complaints!

Miele appliances are very expensive, but you usually get a reliable, top quality and long lasting appliance, of which we have several.
However, we have just taken delivery of a new Miele freezer, from John Lewis, and are absolutely exasperated to find that there are 12 booklets of operating instructions inside, of 60+ pages each, in Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, Turkish, Spanish, French, Belgian, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Flemish, and German.
FFS - no booklet in English!
JL advised me to contact Miele Customer Services, so I did. At 17.57, they cut me off twice after the multiple choice computer options, and on the third time simply answered with "we are now closed". Today is Friday, so no doubt I will have to wait until Monday.
Very irritating!
Rant over.
UPDATE: Miele contacted me on the Monday and promised an English booklet. It has arrived and is a black and white photocopy! I had not realised I was dealing with such a cheapskate company!

GP no longer offers earwax removal, so I have tried to make an appointment at Specsavers. Although the website offers the ability to book online, there is no availability at all. I phone the nearest store that provides the service, no joy as they know that you cannot in fact book online, but nor can you book with the store, so please ring the regional number.
Ok, tried that, staff busy, had to wait for a callback. When callback happened, no joy, they do know that you cannot book online, and appointments are being dealt with nationally; someone will call back.
Hmmm.
Specsavers, has it occurred to you to disable the website wax removal booking process online rather than just teasing and irritating your potential customers by making it frustratingly impossible to do so? Just provide the national phone number!
Poor service.
UPDATE: following the response below:
They say that "Our ear wax removal service is not available to book online". I know that now! BUT:
- googling specsavers earwax removal results in a link that says "Earwax removal and build up/ book online/ specsavers UK"
- the website states "visit your store page and book your earwax removal appointment".
I rest my case!!

I spent almost £180 across two orders, but when the clothing items arrived, they were all too small. I returned them within 24 hours to their UK address, which is a freight company who presumably consolidate the returns to Germany into a bulk load. Ten days later, no communication, and only music on the UK phone number even during their very limited opening hours, and no replies at all to emails.
I am now very concerned about my refund and will have to contact my cc company. A simple email confirming receipt of the returns would have resolved all my concerns. Very poor service, in line with so many reviews here.

I have always used the no.1 player, moonpig, but was seduced to try funkypigeon by a 30% off all cards offer. However, having chosen and edited a card and registered an account, I was dismayed to find that the offer had expired. I rechecked the Google offer and it is still there. I complained about it, was offered a new discount which had expired and then a third. Four days later, the original expired code is still on the Google advert, so having brought it to their attention, it is clearly a deliberate act to attract customers with an expired discount code, no doubt in the hope that new customers will proceed to order after investing so much time. Not me, I have returned to moonpig.
UPDATE: ref the response below, apparently I "located" an expired discount code. Well, just google moonpig and there is the "expired" funkypigeon advert for 30% off all cards STILL THERE twelve days after their reply. The vendor response is either totally disingenuous or just incompetent. Either way, they won't get any business from me.

Truly dreadful laptop performance from an Ideapad 320. Freezing, hopelessly slow, and by far the worst computer I have ever owned. The hard disk is almost always at >100%, which means a massive delay in achieving anything.
A budget laptop but not fit for purpose. I would not have another one even if it was free!
I have recommended friends to avoid Lenovo products. Just look at all the other reviews.

I emailed them 4 days ago, saying "Hi, I am considering purchasing two of your frying pans as above, attracted by the "lifetime guarantee". However, I am disturbed by the customer reviews that state that their pans lost their nonstickability in fairly short order, and that failure of the non stick surface is not covered by this guarantee as that you will say that this is due to "wear and tear". Kindly clarify please as the only thing to do with a non stick frying pan that sticks is to throw it in the bin, in which case a lifetime guarantee is particularly misleading."
No reply, not even an acknowledgement!
Appalling customer care...

Excellent service - car sold in 48 hours for £400 more than webuyanycar and no quibbling or hassle plus the buyer collects.
I will use them again.

I took out a new car insurance policy yesterday via confused.com. I spotted this morning that the car value that confused.com had estimated was some £14000 light. I contacted Autonet and was quoted an additional £30 premium or £25 to cancel.
I reran the comparison using the correct value estimate and the premium with Autonet using the same insurer only increased by £14.
Beware that there is no free cooling off period, even only after a few hours! They shelter behind their T&Cs...
Autonet were intransigent, demanding one or other of £30 or £25 to cancel. They said that the additional £30 was what I should have paid if the correct value had been used by confused.com. WRONG! it is £14!
They came up with several other incorrect excuses during my chat session, and then refused twice to get a manager to call me.
I felt like a fly trapped in a web, and had to pay the £30, but I will take this into account at the next renewal.
Only small amounts involved, but the principle irritated me intensely.
Don't expect much once they have your money!
Caveat Emptor...
UPDATE:
I emailed the Chief Executive’s PA with full details for his attention and comment, but he can’t even be bothered to acknowledge receipt, let alone respond to my complaint. It shows that Mollie’s comment below may be rather disingenuous.

When is a bargain not such a bargain? Answer = when it’s on Secret Escapes. I was considering a Sri Lanka holiday but was disappointed to find that the price on the calendar for any specific date increased substantially on the next screen, even before flight selection and without any adequate explanation why.
When I complained to customer support, their verbal and emailed responses were disingenuous in their obfuscation.
All that glisters is not gold....

Very poor aftersales service. I bought extended warranty to go with a new laptop bought on 31/12/18. Online their system told me I had bought the laptop last August and the warranty expired next April. Customer Services (India?) told me they are not trained to deal with such an issue. The warranty helpline (must be lots of such problems!), after 12 minutes music, sent me a form to fill in so that they could deal with the problem manually. This is a computer company! Hopeless. Am dreading having to make a warranty claim...
UPDATE: Lenovo laptop performance is soooo slow that I am binning it after 2 years and will never buy another Lenovo product. Horrendous...