Jane

At the beginning of August, I was invited to take part in a payroll user test run by Teal Connect Ltd. At the time, the project was described as "£30 for an interview plus £20 monthly rolling payments for your login credentials". I was selected to take part in October, then saw on the confirmation email that the incentive had changed to £20 but also saying "Your incentive will be paid on or before 08/10/2025". I was asked to upload 3 most recent payslip and sign agreements and participated in the session on 8 October 2025. Everything went fine until about a week later, I realised I had not been paid. I then got in touch with the moderator of the session (Teal), and Take Part in Research direct (through the email you would submit DSAR) several times, but have not heard back at all. It's only £20, yes, but I find it very disappointing that they would use people's time for their benefit and just give them the silent treatment without paying out the incentive. I'm also concerned that they are not responsive since they have my payslips as well as various sensitive data that was mentioned during the research (which was recorded) and I no longer have faith that they would be sufficiently sound to keep them safe or comply with GDPR.

I was able to block my SIM card right away with the help of Faraz through the chat function. Very glad to have been able to do this quickly!

I have purchased 3 mattressed on 29 May. These were delivered on 29 June. Once the courier left, I noticed that one mattress had been delivered damaged and soiled. I notified the company right away, sharing the photograph that was taken a mere 10 minutes after the courier left. However, the company has said that it will need to conduct an "investigation" and thereafter, has been silent for almost a month despite numerous chasers. So not only have I spent GBP 980.99 on a mattress that was delivered in an unsatisfactory condition (and almost risked my visiting parents from being without a mattress to sleep on), I have been stuck with it occupying more than half of my home office. Not particularly looking forward to having this unwelcome guest taking up space in my home office for as long as the legal proceedings will take, but it seems I will have to bear with it.

I placed an order on 2 July. Thereafter I received no updates, notification, anything. No indication that the order was being progressed, delayed, on its way maybe, just silence. So sent an email on Monday to chase and have still not got anything. Good thing I paid through PayPal and can raise a dispute - would have been more complicated and time-consuming if I paid them straight.

I had my MOT done on 6 April. Pick-up went fine, but due to what's going on, I only received the key and did not check the car when the car was returned. In less than 24 hours I got on my car to do my essential shopping and found the car to be making odd noises and shaking generally. Took me a while to realise this was due to a flat tyre at the front after which I had to rush back home. I then called Fixter to ask why my car that passed the MOT only yesterday was not roadworthy and was told: 1) that tyre pressure is not checked (this, I knew), 2) if there was an issue at the time of the MOT the garage would have flagged it. I asked whether Fixter, as the company who arranges for the pick-up and delivery had any liability for what could have happened on the way back. I was told that yes, they had liability but they didn't really know what they could do as the car had passed the MOT. So now I am in the peculiar position of having a car that is supposedly roadworthy but can't actually be driven. Best £30 I spent in my life I'll say!

I have recently had a combination of bad experience from many aspects with Cocosa including severely delayed delivery, however, this is the least of my concern.

My biggest concern is that Cocosa is so blatantly going against the law, namely Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 (more details on its application can be found on Which website).

I shall start with the facts laid out:

1. I placed an order on 23 December 2015 for three items of clothing in their Luxury Winter Warmers sale.

2. The above order was dispatched on 7 January 2016 and was received on 11 January 2016.

3. I wasn't satisfied with one item from the order and wanted to return. So I looked up Cocosa's return policy which states that "A Return Authorisation Number (RAN) is required for all returns." So on 11 January 2016 I filed a request for return accordingly.

5. The next day, I received an email from Cocosa asking for photographs. I replied stating that my understanding was that I did not need to specify the reason for my return as I could simply change my mind for purchases made online.

6. On 13 January 2016, I checked my returns page at Cocosa and discovered that my returns request had been declined. I have not been contacted to notify me of this nor was I provided any rationale.

7. Messages sent through 'Contact Us' since then have simply been ignored.

From what has taken place above, it would seem that:-

1. Cocosa obviously does not stick to its own returns policy.

2. Their practice is clearly against the law (Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013) and is therefore unlawful.

3. It would seem that Cocosa can refuse consumers' request for return with no apparent reason although they would require the consumers to provide reasons for their return although the law allows consumers to return even if it's just due to change of mind.

Having done further research on the company itself, I also found that them approving the returns request would not be the end of the matter as they will not issue the refund within 14 days of them receiving the product (again, contrary to their own returns policy).

As I no longer wanted to have anything to do with Cocosa, I have now requested to return absolutely everything I have purchased from them that falls under the 14 days of receipt limitation set by the law.

As the law is more important than any company's own policy, if Cocosa continues its ignorance of my request and declines my returns request without providing any valid and lawful rationale, I will simply return all the products purchased to their address, retain proof of this and head to Small Claims Court for the total of my orders. Obviously the total value of my orders are significantly larger than the one item I was looking to return, however, I am so thoroughly appalled by this company that I feel it is worth the hassle of making them pay and making many others become aware of such abhorrent business practice.

Overall bad experience, don't even go into any more details than that!

Dishonest? Very. Abrupt? Very.

I used Very for the first time and went through topcashback to purchase a laptop only to receive a notification that my 'application' has been declined one day later.

Not quite sure as to what that meant, I logged into my account and saw that my order had been unilaterally cancelled. No explanation was given but I was told in the email to call their costly 0844 number if I want to know why.

Knowing not to waste time and energy, I emailed them saying that I wanted my account closed (lest they set up some unauthorised direct debits, you never know!). I was then told that the account was already close - so this also seems to have happened unilaterally.

So I'm quite glad that I never had to run into them until now and also that even this experience has been only brief. Will steer way clear of them now.