Rinaldo Merlo

Serious office furniture, not the flat pack tat you get buying a home desk off a high street store.

John Lewis seem to be their own worst enemy these days. Recently I had to buy a fitted kitchen appliance and for various reasons I needed some technical advice about what to buy as it was not straightforward. Obviously not something their central customer service would have been able to help with, but their advisers with more direct knowledge are in-store only and unfortunately it’s not possible to phone or speak to their store departments direct, you have to go into the store yourself, which is not necessarily convenient. The CS couldn’t even give me a number for the department in the store. So I ended up going with a different, online, appliance retailer where I could simply phone up their sales people, speak to just such an adviser, figure out exactly what I needed, and place the order.

Even more recently I had to purchase a set of replacement window blinds. I spent 45 minutes in store, but they only sold what I wanted as part of a fully managed measure / install service etc, which was unnecessary in this case and just adds cost. So in the end I have purchased online where I’m able to just get the replacement blinds I needed without any of the unnecessary faff. And, needless to say, saved myself a ton of money. Even if I’d wanted to phone the store back to discuss further, I couldn’t have.

My experience of buying from Appliance City was impressive. I phoned up to place the order as it was a multibuy quote, and it was a very helpful and (these days) unusual experience to speak to someone knowledgable to discuss exactly what was the right choice of make/model/etc before placing the order, rather than just clicking and buying online.

I don't always have the best relationship with Pimlico Plumbers, but on this occasion the plumber Myles was very knowledgable and helped enormously.

Seem to be complete jokes. I phoned the Reading branch up about a property advertised on rightmove. They said it wasn’t for sale but would contact me about any other similar properties. But they didn’t even take my contact details!


That was about 2 months ago. I emailed them through rightmove this week about another Reading property they had for sale and they didn’t even get back to me.

I've given fantastic cleaners multiple chances over the years, but have come to the conclusion that they are simply unable to provide a consistent regular cleaning person. I can only assume they pay so badly that their cleaners are always leaving them. It makes for a poor customer experience. I just want a regular cleaner who is familiar with my house and knows where everything is. I don't want to be having to give some stranger a tour of my house every two weeks.

Wow, these people really need to work on their manners.

I tried an online portal quote but it got rejected for some reason. Then some hours later I got a call from them, would I like a quote? Ok sure. Then they put me on hold for ages transferring to the quotes team. So you call me, and then I am put on hold in a queue for ages..? I hung up after a few minutes of waiting.

Then get a call back from them the next day. I said no thanks, and she basically put the phone down before I'd even finished speaking.

A bit more notice would be good. I knew apc had my parcel but didn’t know what day it was going to be delivered. Then I received 1 hour’s notice of my delivery, via a text sent at 6am.

I dealt with Phylicia at Eon to set up a new account that was not just a straightforward setup. She was very professional, helpful, and managed to get it done.

When I got the delivery notification from DHL, it was for a parcel from 'Blue Bones Ltd'. So this caused some confusion - I'm refurbing a flat at the moment and having many things delivered all around the same time, and so I had no idea what this delivery was, and ended up sort of making an educated guess after some googling.

The other thing was that the mirror required partial self assembly. This did not present much of a problem for me, but it certainly isn't mentioned anywhere on the Puji website page when you order it, and there's no instructions in the package for those that might need them.

Be warned, once you’re on their list you will be forever plagued with emails, calls, texts.

I only used them a few times, gave up using them because they’re unable to provide a regular cleaner and I got tired of showing my house to new faces each time. But now I can’t seem to get rid of them.

Yes they charge low fees, but with spreads like this who needs fees...(!)

BRITISH & AMERICAN INVESTMENT TRUST ORD GBP1
BID, OFFER
30.00p, 37.00p

easy to get up and running with this platform. But WHY does it not offer two-factor authentication?? How on earth is anyone supposed to commit serious money to this if it’s not up to modern online banking standards?

Excellent customer service and I value their green credentials, but they’re just too expensive. I’ve been an Ecotricity customer for over 10 years and when I see my bills it’s like I’m single-handedly financing their green revolution. So I’m in the process of switching suppliers at the moment and my electricity is going to go from 19.9p per kWh down To 12.57p, and the daily standing charge from 29p to 20p. Similar story for the gas. So my bills are going to virtually halve overnight.

I was very pleased with the electrical work done by Andy in my house. It was a long job - 6 hours in all.

I was not so enamoured with the call-center when I booked. As I knew the job was complicated involving a lot of different types of wiring - telephone, rj45, coax, power, 5amp - I tried to explain the different things involved but they just kept saying "you must be prepared that the engineer might not have all the relevant bits with him and will need to go and get some things during the appointment". Yeah, but, I'm trying to explain to you all the bits he will need to bring with him.

Anyhow, so of course during the appointment he does need to pop out for half an hour to get relevant cables etc, and that's time I am paying for. Rather annoying.

But no reflection on Andy himself - an excellent job done by a very experienced guy.