Paul

I quite liked the service at first, then the deluge of spam arrived! I don't mind the occasional email - especially at first but not continuous.

Their spam has no opt out link. They'd opted me in to their newsletter - I had to opt manually out of this.

Despite this the spam keeps coming.

Their marketing emails - in breach of GDPR - do not contain any opt out links.

I've unticked everything to do with contact and marketing in their admin but still it keeps coming.

I guess most people don't mind being flooded with emails but if you are not keen on spam, this is not the company for you.

A real shame as site seemed professional and registering for a domain name was fine. I had thought about registering for more domains but the endless spam with no opt out has put me off.

Given they clearly don't take GDPR seriously it concerns me whether they will respect other areas of my privacy? Will my details be passed to other companies for marketing purposes?

With landlines being discontinued I decided to upgrade to a VOIP service with Voipfone.

I bought a Gradwell adapter and carried on using my old phone - works really well.

Had to contact customer support a few times with minor issues and they generally go above and beyond.

While Windscribe don't read or respond to support emails, they clearly do spend much time abusing and insulting customers on TrustPilot.

I notice they are neither providing the service nor providing a refund. Simply criminals and untrustworthy. I don't buy that their involvement in Russia is innocent.

Account is now ( hopefully! ) deleted. $25 lost forever but I guess live and learn.

The service ( Russian links excepted ) was fine but they turn abusive if you dare leave them.

I no more trust them than I would trust Vladimir Putin ( Friend of theirs? )

I've been with SurfShark for 6 months and a breath of fresh air and decent human beings in comparison to WindRage and co. Also no Google CAPTCHA all the time!

***

I remember now why I stopped using their service some time ago. I use Little Snitch app on the MacOS and discovered their VPN was passing data to servers in Russia, even when based in the UK and connected to UK VPN servers. I can't say what data but no other VPN passes data to Russia.

So I cancelled the service - it had some months to run but I just wrote off the money.

That they didn't cancel the PayPal automatic payment at the time and now refuse to refund it, is to me criminal.

Would you trust criminals who pass data to Russia and steal your money?

I certainly don't!

I used to like their jokes but the joke is on me this time.



*** Update ***

Wow I'm really shocked by Windscribe's reply.

I cancelled via their admin system quite some time ago.

Indeed although they billed me on the 10th Oct 2025 for the Pro service, they sent an email on the 11th Oct 2025 saying:

"Looks like your Pro account has expired. I hope this doesn't mean we're breaking up, because we really like you and we will be sad for a while if you leave us."

So clearly they had been informed and were well aware.

The issue is while I cancelled it via their admin, they didn't do their bit and cancel the PayPal automatic payment they'd set up. That went out on the 10th Oct 2025 much to my surprise.

They just need to refund the payment for a service they are not providing and reply to my email.

I guess I have to take the hit and write off the $24 charged in error.

But wow - talk about hostile and terrible customer service!

Avoid like the plague!


*** Original Review ***

I decided some time ago to cancel due to issues with the VPN - in particular it constantly got blocked by Google as being anonymous.

I set auto renew to off and thought nothing more of it.

Then many months later they charged me for renewal!

Then they sent me an email saying my service was now stopped as I'd set to not auto renew and that any emails to them would take a long time to get replied to.

And so its proven to be - I emailed about the incorrect payment but days later heard nothing back.

Still waiting for a reply which I imagine now I'm a paying free customer will take weeks. Then weeks to refund.

SSL Certificates can be a bit stressful and have to be renewed every year.

I had issues with the certificate working on my Windows server due to changes made by the certificate authorities.

I spent a few hours trying to figure out the issue. But spoke to SSL2BUY support and had the issue resolved in less than 15 minutes.

I write this as an author of a book.

My book was originally published by a company in Birmingham UK. They went bust and without me knowing APress/Springer Nature got hold of the book and published it without my consent and without payment a single penny of royalties.

I only found out by accident many years after when I saw my book, which I assumed was no longer available, appear on the Amazon site.

I would warn future authors to be very aware that this company may well not pay your for your work.

I have spoken to them and at first they were co-operative and looked like they would pay back and future royalties. But the last few months have ignored all emails and no payment has ever been received.

I ordered esomeprazole for my acid reflux issues due to a possible hiatus hernia.

While you can buy esomeprazole from any supermarket or Amazon its quite expensive.

I placed an order with e-surgery - there was no mention that buying esomeprazole requires a prescription from a doctor.

So my order was declined.

They really need to make it clear that many items on their site are prescription only - so you don't waste time placing and order then fighting to get a refund.

*** Update ***

I can see SurfShark replied. I never opted in to the marketing emails. But they sent them anyway. So I clicked the unsubscribe link in each marketing email. They sent more. I then logged on to my SurfShark account and set my preferences to absolutely no marketing or other emails. They carried on sending them.

I opted out some time ago so its not like its down to a delay.

I have contacted their support to change my email address to an email I rarely check and use for companies that are quite spammy.

That was 24 hours ago and still no reply.

Part of the point of a VPN is privacy. SurfShark abuse this trust and don't respect my privacy.

*** Original Review ***

I have a VPN service with SurfShark and its pretty reliable. I've been using their service since Feb of this year.

The reason for the less than 5 star review is they send out a huge number of marketing emails even though my settings say no marketing emails.

I really don't like it when a company doesn't respect my privacy wishes.

But as I say the VPN service is ok, just not sure how much I trust them with my data.

I've bought from Scan a lot of times in the past and always opt out of marketing emails.

I'm now getting sent unwanted spam from them.

The unsubscribe link in the email goes to a page not found!

However they have now contacted me to say they are looking in to the unsubscribe link issue.

I sold some blu ray discs via MusicMagpie.

All went well to start - it was collected successfully and moved through the system.

But its been over a week now since collection and no closer to MusicMagpie processing the things I sent.

While I didn't need the cash in a rush I had no idea it could be something that could take weeks or months to happen.

I'm now starting to wonder if it'll happen at all.

Anyway if my items ever get processed I'll update the review to reflect the situation

We get our letters in batches twice a week now.

Parcels used to be delivered more frequently but now they are taking much longer.

First class takes 2 - 4 days and second class 3 - 5 working days.

What makes it even more annoying is the postman marks parcels as undeliverable due to issues accessing my house.

Today for example the postie did deliver a 24 hour tracked parcel from boots but a 48 hour parcel from HMV that's 4 days late was marked as undeliverable to access issues! Even though he'd been that very day with the Boots parcel.

Still makes their stats look good I suppose.

I bought a reclining chair online from their website.

When it was delivered it was totally unsuitable - wrong size for my body.

Anderson's were brilliant at sorting out the issue - even though really my own fault. They arranged the chair to be picked up and refunded my original purchase costs, though I still had to pay the cost of it being picked up.

I can't fault their service and think the negative reviews are a little unfair. I'd certainly use them again.

My delivery never arrived.

I used the online chat on their website - it started off with one of those dreaded chat bots.

But I was able to get through to a real person who discussed my delivery issues with DPD.

Within 30 minutes of chatting to John Lewis someone from DPD called me and the issue was resolved.

So well done John Lewis!

Not always the cheapest place but at least if something goes wrong there's someone to help.

Item bought online turned out not to be in stock.

Seller never contacted me - I had to contact them to find out why nothing was sent over a week after the order.

They have now refunded me.

If the normal postie is off on holiday they largely stop delivering letters and parcels are marked as "property inaccessible". That way they can claim they are still providing good service and it's the customers fault.

To be fair many of the post people are hard working but understaffing and poor management mean a very third rate service.

All that marking parcels "property inaccessible" does is cover up the issue. But it doesn't hide it from the customer.

My review is based on using them for returning an item I bought online.

Birkenstock, the company I bought the item from, use Evri to return items.

I don't drive and unable to get to the nearest drop off point easily so arranged collection for Friday.

Friday came and went and no one collected the item.

I arranged for a new collection but again no one collected the item.

I did email customer support but they didn't appear to understand my issue was no one collecting the item when arranged.

I'll use Royal Mail instead as their collection service is very reliable.

I've used this company quite a bit recently for purchases.

Very quick and efficient dispatch.

I had to return a pair of boots due to poor fit - they processed the return as efficiently as they do their orders.

I bought some Hanwag shoes online from this company.

They arrived very quickly but the left shoe caused pain.

When I contacted them they suggested an idea that might help - and indeed it did!

Very friendly and professional small company

Their website says express delivery items ordered before 2pm will be dispatched same day.

So I placed my order on the Sunday and paid for express delivery expecting it to go out Monday. It didn't go out Monday, Tuesday and it took an email and negative review on Trustpilot to ensure it moved further along the dispatch process.

But even worse while they don't actually dispatch your items, they do quickly dispatch a lot of marketing emails - even though I opted out of them!

A poor firm and best avoided.

Very efficient. Kept informed with regular updates on delivery progress. Two man team delivered my new gym exercise bike and quickly assembled it. Great service!

I've had a number of patches of skin cancer in the past - all basal cell carcinomas. So the least scary of skin cancers but still needs treating.

I knew suspicious patch appeared on my hand. I emailed some photos on a Sunday over a bank holiday weekend and didn't expect a reply until later in the week.

Dr John Ashworth replied the next day and a day after that I had cream to treat the skin cancer.

Can't ask for better service. Under the NHS this would have taken many, many months to get treated. My GP has no future appointments as they only plan 4 weeks ahead and that's all booked. So getting seen by someone is close to impossible unless its an emergency.