Alistair Scott

The true measure of a company is not how well they do the things they're supposed to do day to day, but how well they deal with things when they go wrong. By this metric, TalkTalk have comprehensively failed. On Friday 9th Jan, after a couple of weeks of occasional loss of signal requiring a power cycle, my WiFi router failed completely. Repeated power cycling and resetting the router have not worked - it's dead. It provides no internet either over wireless or when connected to a device via an Ethernet cable. I reported this to TalkTalk on the morning of Saturday 10th, expecting a quick couple of messages, a line test, then confirmation that a new router would be sent out immediately, ready to be plugged in on Monday morning, keeping my lack of internet to a minimum. No more than half an hour getting this sorted, I thought. How wrong I was.
To begin with, it took several attempts over an hour to actually get connected to their website based chat service, which turned out to be an AI bot that was worse than useless and took too long to realise that it could not help before finally transferring me to a human. Then halfway through this chat, their chat service failed completely and I lost the conversation, after which I got a message to contact them via WhatsApp, where I then had to deal with the same useless AI bot for a second time before getting a human operator. All I needed was for them to send me out a new router, but every time I asked for this to happen the chat closed with the message "Our team are always happy to help. If you do still need us, pop back here." Four times I asked for a new router to be sent out, four times I received that message.
I did not hear anything back for the rest of the weekend, so on Monday 12th Jan I complained, thinking that this would result in a router being sent straight away. Wrong. I heard nothing until Tuesday 13th when I got an automated message saying I would be contacted within 72 hours.
Then yesterday on 14th Jan I did actually get a message apologising for the issues and stating that they were making sure a replacement router was arranged as soon as possible, but NOT that one was already on the way.
Then today I received a text message saying someone would contact me about my complaint on 19th Jan. It is unclear whether this means that a new router will not be sent until at least that date or whether this is a separate call regarding the complaint and a new router is still being organised for delivery before then. All in all their customer service is shambolic. Their chat system is unstable, their AI bot is thoroughly unhelpful and they cut me off each time I asked for a new router to be sent out - four times in total. I am now almost a week without internet and no idea if they are actually getting me a new router sent out or I'm still in internet limbo until they contact me on 19th Jan. Very very far from a competent level of customer service.

Ordered some heated gloves advertised as "on/off switch, leather finger pads" and a heated hoodie advertised as "cotton with wool lining" and multiple heated zones in the hoodie. Professional looking website with photos showing good quality products. Then once I ordered I got emails showing shipping from China, which made me nervous. When the items arrived they were clearly NOT what was advertised on their website. Cheap polyester hoodies with 1 cheap heating pad stuck in the pocket with velcro. The gloves were the same - cheap unbranded tat that I've seen elsewhere on the internet for less than 20% of what this company are charging. I've disputed the transaction with PayPal.

I've used Convey Law before and found them to be very good. I'm pleased to say my experience this time round exceeded expectations. I had I instructed them on my house purchase, for which I had to forward an initial £300 so they could start the process. In the meantime I booked a surveyor to attend the property I had offered on. Unfortunately, the survey turned up some issues that meant I could not proceed with the purchase and I informed Convey Law I had pulled out. A few days later I received an email from them telling me I was due some of the £300 back as they hadn't used it all. The other day I received £260 back in my bank. When you hand over an initial sum of money for a service and then you yourself make the choice that you no longer require that service, you don't expect to see any of that money back. They could have kept it and I'd have been none the wiser. I certainly wasn't expecting any of it back. Very commendable service and proof of their integrity. You can't argue with that.

Boiler stopped working yesterday at 10am. Vaillant engineer 260 arrived at 8am this morning and fitted a new fan. Boiler was working by 9am. Can't argue with that. The engineer who arrived was polite and efficient. All in all the boiler was out of action less than 25 hours.

Called the Folkestone branch to enquire why ads for properties they are selling contain a note that all buyers must pay £60 plus VAT for anti money laundering checks before a memorandum of sale can be issued. The girl I spoke to simply said that this was a policy set by their head office. These checks cost pocket change and most estate agents in the area (I checked with at least 8 of them) told me they cover this as a normal cost of business. Charging this sort of price is nothing more than utter greed and profiteering off of people who don't realise they're being fleeced. When I told the girl that this would prevent me from buying a property through them she was unconcerned. I hope potential sellers realise that their business practices will put buyers off. Absolutely unacceptable.

Editing review on 23/09/25 to include and address reply from Miles and Barr as follows:
We take the point raised in your review seriously, as we take great care in delivering a professional and transparent experience. Sellers and buyers are required by law to have an Anti-Money Laundering (AML) check before a home can be marketed to buyers and a sale agreed to buyers. We take our legal obligations seriously and like many other businesses within our industry, these checks are an additional charge as they are carried out by a professional, qualified third party.

With regards to their comment that "many other businesses within our industry" levy an additional charge, the following local Estate Agents in the Folkestone, Kent area have all confirmed that they do NOT charge buyers for anti money laundering checks, most of them further commented that they found it a poor business practice that took advantage of people who did not know better. They all said that they perform fully compliant AML checks in house for less than £5, which they covered themselves as a normal business cost:
Burnap+Abel, Colebrook Sturrock, Laing Bennet, Skippers, Mapps, Bairstow Eves, Lawrence+Co, Match Estates, Rogans, Wards, Hunters, Reeds Raines, Geering+Colyer. In fact, out of the 15 estate agents I spoke to, only Miles and Barr and Ewe Move said they charge buyers for these checks, so bear that in mind if you're looking at property in the Folkestone area.

The true measure of a company is not how well they do the things they're supposed to do day to day, but how well they deal with things when they go wrong. I used LaP as my letting agent for a flat I rent out for 2 years, before swapping to my local high street agent due to price. They were perfectly fine the whole time I used them, but my tenant moved out owing rent and proved to be extremely hard to contact. Initially, communication from LaP was fine, but the process of claiming the deposit to cover rent arrears was stressful and did not seem to be well handled. There was confusion over the tenant's email address and the communication was not great, leaving me out of pocket with no idea when I might be able to recoup the lost funds. With the tax return looming, it was essential that I had this money to budget for this. After some backwards and forwards, Natalie Deakin, one of their managers, contacted me personally and we were able to come to an agreement about how to proceed. She was polite, professional and listened to my complaints and proposed an acceptable solution to get the funds to me within a few days. All in all, despite the hiccups, I am would be happy to recommend to landlords on the whole. If something goes wrong, my experience it that they will work hard to rectify it, which is commendable.

Laptop ordered at 4pm, arrived the next morning before midday. Can't argue with that. Hopefully nothing will go wrong with it during its warranty period and I'll have no reason to downgrade this review if any future service I need during a warranty claim is not up to scratch, but based on my experience of the delivery time they've done very well.

I bought a large leather colourant kit in black with a repair add-on to recolour and patch up a tired black leather interior on a small 2 door car. The quality of the product and the standard of repair I was able to achieve even as someone who has never done this before was superb. If you're careful, take your time and follow the instructions you really can make a 14 year old 100,000 mile interior look almost brand new. I cannot speak highly enough of the product itself. The only reason I cannot give a full 5 stars is the quantities supplied in the kit were inaccurate for the job. The large kit is billed as being enough to work on a small car, however the 3 cans of air supplied to use with the airbrush is nowhere near enough, even to recolour the existing leather. If I wanted to change the colour it would have been even more inadequate. However, I only used about a quarter of the paint supplied, so I'm confident there would have been enough of that to fully dye a white interior completely jet black if I'd wanted to. The leather prep solution was barely enough to remove the old finish, could probably have done with some more. There was plenty of filler supplied in the repair add on, no issues there. The biggest issue was the lack of air to run the airbrush, meaning I could not complete the job in one go and have had to order some more air, which did not arrive when promised, I should add through no fault of Furniture Clinic, UPS are useless. To be fair to Furniture Clinic, they offer a bigger kit for doing a larger car interior, but this would have left me with even more paint left over, and it is billed as being for 5 seats and 4 door cards and the dashboard, much more than is in my small 2 door car. The customer service is faultless, I asked for advice before making a purchase and received prompt and informative replies from Tammy, who has been extremely helpful. The only minor niggle is the the fact that the kit is sold as "everything you need" giving the impression you could do what was required in one go without anything extra, when in fact I've had to order more air and was therefore not able to complete everything in the time I had set aside. The product itself is absolutely fantastic and has done a mind blowingly excellent job on the leather. It really does look nearly brand new. Very, very, very impressed.

My mother ordered a shed from this company at the end of April. She did not want to spend too much, and the size she wanted was about half the price of a local, well respected shed manufacturer. How much worse could it be for being half the price? Well I found out when I went to put it up. Stupidly, when the delivery was made, I assumed it would all be in order and let the two delivery guys go before checking everything over. Due to some bad weather and other commitments, the panels stayed in the garage, stored appropriately, not leaned at an angle, in a dry, well insulated garage. The smaller parts for the windows, roof truss, beams, etc were not even unwrapped. Due to poor weather, I decided to paint the panels in the garage and assemble afterwards when the weather improved, thereby unfortunately meaning we could not return it. When I finally got round to putting it up the quality and fit of the panels was shockingly bad. The panel for the windows to be fitted into was so far out of square there was no way the windows (supposedly shatterproof- apart from one that had shattered) would fit. I ended up dismantling part of the factory made panel and putting it back together so it was square. Panel gaps you could put your finger through, slats that are nowhere near being close together, multiple split slats, the two apex panels would not line up, I think due to inconsistencies in the side panels, meaning that although the roof truss was centered along the middle of the shed, the roof panels would not square up, resulting in one rising up and the sharp edge of the wood coming straight through the felt as soon as it was laid on. Some roof beams and the vertical door slam panel were bowed. I was prepared to accept something a bit rough around the edges for the price, I knew before it turned up the wood would be thin, knotty and poorly finished. To supply a product at this price point corners have to be cut somewhere. I did not expect to be as bad as it was. I've seen pallets that were better made. I cannot emphasise enough how shoddy this shed is. It has been assembled as well as possible given the quality of the panels supplied, but even brand new it has a broken window, the walls don't line up properly and the roof does not sit well. Please, please consider spending a bit more with another supplier, or be prepared to keep the delivery people on site until you've checked every single part with a straight edge, square and tape measure as I now wish I'd done. I can comfortably say I would have rejected half the panels if I had done so.

Promised next day delivery by a supplier. Ordered something Monday evening. Tuesday morning the supplier confirmed the item had been received by UPS. On Tuesday afternoon at 2pm I received a text and email from UPS with my tracking number and a delivery window of Wednesday between midday and 2pm. Waited in all day at some inconvenience when I could have been doing other things. Never arrived. Both their tracking enquiry system and virtual assistant are worse than useless and sent me round in a loop of FAQs and pre generated generic statements. Based on this experience I would not use them if I had to send something time sensitive.

Miles and Barr proved quite difficult to get hold of, several call to their lettings number went unanswered and promised call backs did not happen. I finally got a call and arranged a viewing, while waiting outside the flat I was called to say that there was a problem with the keys and they would have to cancel. However, this was rectified and I was finally shown round by Jake Chamberlain, who was polite and courteous. If he didn't know an answer to my question he said so, rather than try and bluff his way through, which I appreciated. The flat was not for me in the end, but I have nothing bad to say about the agent who showed it to me. The agency itself came across as a bit disorganised, but they got there in the end.

Found Fluent after a Google search for mortgage brokers as I my current deal was coming to an end and wanted to sign a new deal before interest rates skyrocketed. Initial contact was good, documents sent promptly then there was a gap in contact, during which time the app that they prefer you to use stopped working and I was also unable to use my login details to access their website. This was pretty stressful as I was aware I only had a limited time to secure the interest rate that was being offered.
I emailed them stating that I found their app to be unreliable and to their credit I was called back promptly and after a password reset over the phone I was able to use the app with no further issues.
From then on they were fine, kept me updated with regular messages and voicemails if I'd missed their calls. The three people I had contact with, Rebecca, Shane and Greg were polite and professional and seemed efficient and keen to provide a good service. Would recommend on the whole.

Ashford Autos were very friendly, very careful when dealing with expensive alloy wheels and happy to hand tighten wheelbolts with torque wrench and spray copper grease on hubs and threads to prevent galvanic corrosion from causing wheels to stick. Used Blackcircles before with a different garage and was not impressed with them. Next time I need tyres I will come back here without question.

turned up promptly, no hassle to order, good price for what I wanted

Bought a load of stuff online. Well priced, turned up when they said it would, very well packed. Can't complain.

Ordered a new bike to replace a stolen one just before Christmas. took a while to get here but I suppose that's to be expected over the holiday period. Bike was mostly assembled when it arrived and seemed like it had been done properly. It came with a note with the name of who'd put it together and they answered the phone very quickly and were very helpful when I needed to call them to confirm the frame number. No complaints.

Everything turned up when they said it would and was securely packaged. No complaints.

Extremely good prices, excellent range, turned up when they said it would. Can't complain

Turned up days quicker than I expected, great item for the price.

Very prompt delivery, very well packed. Excellent service so far. Will definitely continue to be a customer based on my experience so far.