S James

Andrew Martin’s contracted courier, UPS, delivered my material to a random address in a different town. I immediately contacted UPS to sort the issue and did receive the material 5 days later. Andrew Martin sent an email giving me the new delivery time, but omitted the date.

This was my first purchase so wasn’t a great start and I don’t feel it was particularly well handled, either in terms of resolving it or apologising. It is always important to remember that couriers are contracted by the vendor and blame can’t be passed on.

I was given the opportunity to see the reply below and edit the above. I am grateful for the response below, thank you.

I entered the registration number (correctly) for my 2023 car and booked an appointment. 5 minutes after arrival the WBAC assistant told me that their records showed it as a van of the same make. I hour later, after inspections, photos, document check etc, he told the price was £3,000 less, not because of any damage (as the car is scratch less) but because the WBAC quote was for a van. The assistant was lovely and helpful, but WBAC wasted my time because their database is rubbish. If they had confirmed my car details and given a phone number then it could have been sorted, but their secrecy, which is designed to trap you, wasted my time and possible other sale routes. There are other implications on me as I still have to sell my car.
Any other company would make it right in some way, but I doubt that WBAC will do so. Crap company, crap systems, I suggest you look at other providers.
Edit: WBAC’s answer of training misses the point, this is WBAC’s system issue and entrapment strategy, not training. The drop-off rep was excellent. Nevertheless, their answer proves my point; crap company.

Bought a SIM card top up for my 87 yr old father, it took two days to come through then I got a subscription charge of £49 on my credit card for a subscription I did not sign up for. I have no doubt that these scammers will say that the subscription was clearly detailed and I agree it was mentioned on the website, however it was not obvious that having an unrelated one-off £10 top up involved an auto-signup to a monthly subscription for £49, supposedly for the benefit of getting “up to £100” back on a mobile phone bill! I have only had a bill of that size once in nearly 40 years of company mobile use including overseas use and my normal bill is £8. Why would I want a £49 subscription? This lot is a bunch of scammers, their site is misleading and their service is slow anyway.

I agree with Clare Docherty. I have an ‘on-line only account). My experience is different but the same principle; inability to communicate and incompetence: I have broken my leg so need to add my son to the policy as the car needs to be moved. He is 30. When entering his details, the computer says no because he is outside the age range required of 18-80. Clearly he isn’t outside that range. Tried multiple times, same result. Did an online chat, agent repeated he does not comply with age requirements so I pointed out the problem. I now have two queries raised, they say they will respond in 24-48 hours, but it has now been over a week with no update. Of course, this is a computer glitch so you would think that GA would want to fix it.
This morning I got an paper letter to say a the change had been made, zero cost, but no change to extra drivers was made, so this is a hangover from failure to make the change (no issues here). Also this morning I got an email demanding £688 as I had missed a payment plan payment, yet I paid in full at the start of the policy; I checked to see if my son had been added and there is still no change to my policy so what is this spurious payment request? In all, this online only method of administering a policy is a disaster and should be stopped. I have written to complain and unless it is sorted quickly, will cancel and write to the CEO and regulator. How can GA (Aviva) have set up something so poor?

Really well packaged and presented.

Seasalt socks are just brill, best there is.

Great selection of ski goggles at a good price with quick delivery. I can’t ask for anymore.

Selling a car on auto trader isn’t a pleasant experience and it isn’t pleasant on other platforms either, so I think it is an industry problem; so what is Auto Trader doing to be better than the rest? In the first few hours after listing your car you are contacted by people who are looking to #@!& you, who ask questions you have adequately responded to in the advert and who are chancers “I will give you [30% less] than you asked for, and can be there tomorrow morning with the cash”, yet my car was already priced low to sell. To be fair, Autotrader did send me two texts to tell me not to contact two people again “as we have concerns about their authenticity”, but I think they could do more to keep these people away to start with.
Their pricing banners are a load of tosh. What is auto trader actually doing for their money, apart of having a site with high traffic? Nothing really. No personal contact, no help, don’t filter the contacts, no advice about protections, no checks how it is going, just a website - perhaps it is this hands-off approach which makes the whole process confidential which had the effect of attracting undesirables. Having said that, I did sell my car for what I wanted to, but I would avoid this process in the future.

I bought the Suri toothbrush as a part present for my wife. I was a little worried about buying a present with a plug, but I know how she hates plastic but likes her electric toothbrush and it was a real hit, perhaps to a surprisingly high level. She loves using it and it looks great in the bathroom, also because it is attached with the holder, it doesn’t bathe in a horribly slimy glass in between uses.

Everything was good with this simple order.

Quick delivery, good packaging and easy to use website. No problems.

Black circles is OK but I expect your fitters to have better facilities in this modern era: warm office, desk, wifi. I don't want to feel as though I am in a cold shack on the side of a garage. If I was leaving the premis then you don't need somewhere to work but since tyres are a "while you wait" thing, the space needs to be pleasant and functional for a 1 hour or 90 minute stay during the working day.

I have just received my first Newday statement and tried to pay the full statement amount online, but this is really hard to do and the information on the statement is incomplete. Trying on Newday’s app is also difficult as it required information from my bank that I just don’t have to mind. It is all well and good having apps, but I have paid simply by bank transfer for 20 years and find that the simplest method.

Black circles could not contact the garage I chose (STS Huntingdon), they supposedly tried several times so called me to ask me to select another garage. This delayed fitting by two days. The second garage people were lovely ant I will use them again. The point is that Black circles rely on phoning a garage, really? This is the 21st century. It seems the date selection is all about Black circles delivering tyres rather than an agreed fitting time.

Now on this occasion the fitting date did not matter as I am working from home and didn’t book it before a holiday etc. However this situation will affect my future buying pattern.

The chap in the Black Circles call centre in India was nice enough, worked hard to sort it and apologised. However there was no partial refund as a sorry, no discount off a future purchase.

All in all, it was a pretty rubbish experience from Black Circles.

The staff were so helpful in aiding me to get the ladders I needed at short notice. Great service.

We had an excellent experience with Sofas by Saxon. In the end we opted for a bespoke size of sofa in order to maximise the space and it right thing to do. The sales team were lovely to deal with, the designers were very professional, the site assessment (would it fit check) was excellent and flexible and we couldn’t be happier with our purchase.
The sofa does appear hard when you first sit down, but just like a Mercedes car is, the important thing is that it is comfortable not just when you sit down but 4 hours later, also just like a Mercedes car.

The mirror arrived quickly and looks lovely in the shower room in our holiday let in Cornwall.