Parsifal

Bonne sélection de vins à un prix raisonnable. Le site web est toutefois trop encombré, saturé d'artifices promotionnels ; il gagnerait à être plus simple et plus clair.
Ce qui me frustre, c'est la très mauvaise expérience de livraison. Premièrement, la tarification de la livraison est illogique. Le coût pour 18 bouteilles est de 12 €, mais il passe ensuite à 1 € par bouteille supplémentaire. En d'autres termes, commander 54 bouteilles revient à 48 €, alors qu'en fractionnant la commande en trois lots, cela ne coûte que 36 €. Je divise donc systématiquement mes achats en commandes distinctes de 18 bouteilles. Pourquoi appliquer aux clients l'inverse d'une remise sur volume ? Être un client fidèle revient plus cher ? C'est aberrant !
Deuxièmement, j'ai passé 14 commandes au cours des cinq dernières années et aucune ne s'est déroulée sans accroc. Des colis sont perdus. La livraison n'a pas lieu le lendemain, malgré les promesses et le surcoût payé. On reçoit le mauvais vin.
De plus, le service client n'est pas à la hauteur pour résoudre ces problèmes. Je m'attends désormais, pour chaque commande, à devoir envoyer de nombreux e-mails et passer plusieurs appels téléphoniques pour régler tous les soucis.
Malgré cela, je continue à commander chez eux. Il n'y a pas vraiment d'autre choix pour un vendeur de vin en ligne en France.

Our local agent, Kirby, was great in creating a programme which suited our preferences. We didn't feel we needed a lot of support or expense with guides and transfers, but we did want a packed itinerary which reflected our interests in nature and culture. And she got it exactly and produced something which was superb while also within our budget.

This is a terrible bank. The tech is really OLD. You cannot get through on the phone without entering passwords and indentifiers, however if your account is blocked then the password has been blocked too, so you cannot get through at all.

Constantly, I cannot use my account.

It is USELESS.

Ce magasin est exaspérant. Depuis deux mois, je suis bloquée sur mon compte en ligne et je n'ai plus accès à ma carte/application de fidélité, simplement parce que mon mot de passe ne fonctionne plus et que je ne peux pas le réinitialiser. J'ai appelé le service client plusieurs fois, je me suis rendue en magasin à de nombreuses reprises pour parler au personnel, mais rien n'y fait. Autrement dit, je veux être cliente, mais je ne peux pas.

My credit card was charged twice for the appointment, I emailed immediately providing information and asking for a refund. After 2 weeks, no response, sent a further email. After another 2 weeks, still abosutely no response.
I am now making a chargeback through the credit card company to get my money back.
Yet another example of TLS incompetent processes and lack of service.

Totally uncommunicative. Do not reply to emails or to the contact form on their website. Difficult to have confidence in this company.

I have BUPA Dental Insurance, but (a) the maximum covered cost per treatment is insufficient to pay for the treatments at BUPA's own dental centres, so each time I have to pay the difference, (b) BUPA insurance and BUPA dental act as if they hate each other - the former refusing to settle claims from the latter, and the patient being caught in the middle trying to sort it out, (c) I pay for 2 check-ups per year under the insurance, but BUPA's dental centres are constantly booked up with no appointments, so in practice it is a waste of money.
Wish I had never taken out this insurance.

The experience of applying for SCHENGEN visas for France through TLS is, every year, a complete NIGHTMARE.

The website constantly crashes. The TLS form and the France-Visas forms require different formats and different data to be enetered, leading to unnecessary confusion and propensity for errors.

Appointment confirmation frequently crashes.

Payment (through service provider Global Payments Direct) crashes every time.

It could be so much simpler and better. A process which could take an hour or less, inevitably takes many attempts over several days.

The "help" telephone number is usually down, and contact emails only recieve an auto-generated response after several days.

For a company whose core business this is, the experience is shockingly bad.

Why does the French immigration service use this provider? It's incredible.

Internet down again, literally for the 30th time in the past three years. Every month it is cut off.
I waited in for the technician appointment - they did not turn up. Called SFR. They said, oh, this is very typical, wait in again next week.
If there was any other provider in my town I would change immediately. SFR is worse than not having internet at all.

The local area had a power cut and UK Power Networks needed to move a large generator onto my garden. Unfortunately the driver ignored my guidance and ploughed straight through a tree - bad! BUT the handling of my complaint couldn't have been simpler. I was asked over the phone what was the value for putting it right, I suggested a reasonable amount, and within three days the sum was in my bank account. That's how complaints should be dealt with.

I have to agree with all other reviewers: The Economist seems determined to take renewal payments against the subscribers' will. I took out a 1-year subscription, I did not agree to continuous renewal and was not informed of any such term. A year later, a (much larger) payment was taken from my bank account, I did not notice at first and then when I complained they refused to refund it. I am now taking the matter up with my bank because this amounts to theft.
Unless you want to deal with a company that will help itself to your bank account without permission or notice then I suggest you steer clear.

UPDATE FOLLOWING REPLY FROM THE ECONOMIST POSTED BELOW 24 JUNE:
Thank you for your post below, asking me to email you. However I have already emailed you on 10th, 13th and 14th June and you have not replied to any of these.
I also called you and explained the complaint on 8th, 10th and 17th June and you have not resolved the situation on any of these calls. During the call on 8th June your colleague promised a call back within 3 to 5 days but no response was received. During the call on 17th June, the colleague promised a call back not later than 20th, again no call back has been received. I have concluded that any further attempt at resolution is useless. You may be interested in nice posts on Trustpilot, but you do not make any attempt to solve my problem.
I have now commenced a reclaim through my bank under the Direct Debit Guarantee.

This is a Chinese scam. The shoes are the shoddiest quality, basically unwearable. Cheapest materials. Not orthopaedic, they are just flat soles. I wish I had read the returns policy - they first deduct a "restocking fee" of 10% of a "gross" price - which is much higher than you actually paid. Then the returns charge is is $40-$50. So in total, it will cost more to return the shoes than to throw them out.
A COMPLETE CON.

SFR is essentially a criminal enterprise. I have had their internet fibre service for 2 years (there is no choice of provider at my France home). It has ceased functioning more than 20 times. It's become apparent that the reason is there are more customers than connections in the local "technique". So whenever a customer complains and is restored, another customer is disconnected! Everyone here has terrible service and constant engineer visits. Now the engineers are demanding cash to "ensure you stay connected" - in other words, this is a protection racket. It is not only incredibly frustrating but quite scary. I have complained many times, and written to SFR's PDG but no response at all. They just don't care.

I bought a SNCF "carte avantage" to enable discounts off rail travel in France for one year. There is a card "adulte" for people aged 25-59, and a card "senior" with slightly different benefits for people aged 60+.
I was eligible for the card "adulte" as I was 59 at the time of purchase. Paid €25 for it. Four months into use of the card, I had my 60th birthday, and guess what? Not eligible to use this card. No discounts. Need to buy a new card!
What a total scandal.
I have written to SNCF and suggested they could refund the 8 months for which the card is unusable. Just got their reply. Their French logic is impeccable: No! - of course! You are no longer under 60!

I received an email (full of typos and spelling mistakes) demanding personal information. Thinking it was a scam (it came from an unrecognised email address) I reported it to Amex, who confirmed that it was a scam and should be ignored. The email demands kept coming, threatening to close my account - so I called Amex and they said "oh yes it is genuine, you must provide this information!".
Since then I have been in a battle for over 6 weeks to give them the information. The portal to upload information does not work, the phones are not answered, finally I uploaded it via the website, was then told that the information is not valid but no explanation given why (it is valid of course). This has been stressing me for 6 weeks, each week I receive another email threatening to close my account. When you do get through to someone they say that the relevant department (KYC) cannot be contacted directly, that they can't tell me what the problem is, and someone will call me back - of course no-one ever does.
I've been an Amex Black Card customer for 35 years. This is now the end of the road. I am resigned to having my account forcibly closed and, frankly, it will be a relief to be rid of Amex. Switching all my spend to Visa.

Worst service. In the past 1 month, we’ve had our broadband and fixed line working for precisely 3 days 8 hours. We call SFR every day to try to get an engineer. Four have been, each one more useless than the last. Total disgrace of a service.

Total criminals:
I booked a car for a trip in France, paid the amount in full and printed my voucher.
When I returned the car at Nice Airport after our rental, I was charged extra. The Budget agent was unable to give any reason, but it was charged to my credit card. There was no damage, the tank was full, simply no reason was given other than "computer says it's extra".
I have complained through Budget website and email but they will not make a refund.
I will avoid this company in the future. Europcar is much better.