Colin Dale

Bought a small Seiko piece from a pleasant dealer in Japan, reduced price... all good so far. Payment made and order shipped and that is where the process became a shambles.

Dealer used Japan Post to ship and we paid 30% of the watch price again for 'professional' shipping.

There has then followed almost three weeks of chaos. We've ended up travelling backwards and forwards including two (abortive) trips across a medium sized city, neither actually yielding the watch. I appreciate that duty/tax has to be paid but in the (Far East) country where we are currently that can be done online in seconds, and was.

The dealer was as helpful as they could be and luckily for us it was a cheap item but we would have, literally, had a litter of kittens by now were it an expensive item.

Twice bitten now with Chrono24. Yes they are cheap but sometimes cheap doesn't always bring the best outcome

Coming from another 'fintech' provider where everything had been problematic, Moneybox has been like a breath of fresh air.

Straightforward to open, clear instructions throughout and a cracking interest rate being applied. It is with genuine sadness then that we find ourselves no longer as Moneybox customers as we've used the funds for a purchase now.

Best bit of the lot? Two full withdrawals - mine and my wife - at the click of a button and money in the account the next working day.

Personally, I could not have wished for a smoother experience, thank you all.

CASH ISA x2
SAVINGS x1

Purporting to have a wide range of condos but regularly pull the 'owner not available' followed by 'we have this one instead'.

*****

Response from Fazwaz below, disingenuous to my mind but also now flagged as defamatory. These are the facts:

1. Requested viewing of property inHua Hin, contact from a helpful agent.
2. Decided against viewing when in location, informed agent.
3. Agent requested our details and brief, provided.
4. New agent reached out, large influx of WhatsApp and email messages. Felt uncomfortable. Declined further viewings.
5. Did our own tour and research, selected a unit in a property we liked and had specifically identified to Fazwaz. Requested viewing via search portal, agency not identified.
6. Previous, vociferous agent from FazWaz responded and agreed time/date to view but only confirmed a different unit in same property. We felt we were being misled and declined.
7. Saw an alternative unit in the same property, requested viewing on our last day via same anonymised portal.
8. Same agent responded, offered two viewings but again neither were of the property we had enquired about directly.

Again, we declined, somewhat exasperated.

There was no pivot from Fazwaz as they were not offering the properties we wanted to see. Based on previous experience with Fazwaz in Pattaya, we believe they may be using unrealistic listings.

I've tried to rectify these issues directly with the branch for the last month or so but am giving up in despair.

Attended last month, looking for a Rolex. We appreciate that these are hen's teeth but we thought we would at least follow the process. Attended to by a nice enough chap but he noted that as we hadn't bought anything from Goldsmiths, we were not in a good position.

We pointed out the (reasonably expensive) Tag Heuer we had bought at that branch... of which there was no record. He suggested that we could send in the details from the invoice and they would update their records. My wife is good at this kind of thing, found the invoice and we sent it in. No acknowledgement whatsoever.

Heading out of the country at LHR T-2, we popped into the Goldsmiths in the terminal and saw some pieces at a good price, these were (as always) not for sale but were from older lines according to the nice lady in the store. I asked to be added to the list but she said we had to do that through Reading.

Wrote nicely to Reading via email but - sense the familiar pattern yet? - did not hear a peep back.

A couple of weeks later, had a missed call whilst overseas. Worked out that it was Goldsmiths at Reading and knowing that you have a few seconds to respond if they have a piece, called straight back.

Gentleman answered and when we asked... he said that nobody had called us from the branch. He then said 'we did have some similar pieces a couple of weeks ago but we didn't call you'. Thanks.

I then called to my voicemail and sure enough, there was a message from the Reading number saying 'we understand you have an enquiry, how can we help'.

You'll appreciate that calls back to the UK are not cheap and we were left waiting for quite some time.

Listen, we understand that normal people don't get to play the Rolex game often and we are probably like thousands of others, trying to get an entry level item for my wife. Know the issues... accept the issues.

What we don't accept is the buggering about we're getting from Goldsmiths Reading. We've been customers, bought a couple of watches there, spent towards two grand. We aren't looking for special treatment... but basic, common courtesy and some actual, professional customer service would be nice.

Is that too much to ask? Happy for the branch to reach out to us directly... if it isn't too much trouble for you of course.

Appalling.

It isn't actually a real company nor is it a franchisee like Marriott. Instead it is a banner organisation that is mothing more than a logo.

Tried four times to use Best Rate Guarantee (BRG) for a property. Rejected every claim, for example for not showing a 'cents' value on a foreign currency that has no lower denomination. Utter frauds.

Hotel in question then charged us for the full stay after telling us - and continuing to tell us - we had no booking.

I'll skip the actual state of the BW properties we've used in the UK recently but generally they were poor.

Final recommendation... avoid joining their membership scheme - no actual benefits - and ALWAYS book through a consolidator like Agoda.

Scam.

Booked a BlackPink ticket on Weds 13 for the Fri 15 show at Wembley. Immediate confirmation, email clearly stated ticket to be provided three days before at the latest. All tickets were sold by Ticketmaster some months ago. No ticket provided by 10am on the day of the show although booked overnight hotel in good faith. Ticket rescinded by Viagogo at 11am. Viagogo guarantees replacement tickets... Standing for half the price (but no refund) is stealing.

This is artificial price inflation, dreadful customer service and a 'never again' supplier. Suggest to avoid at all cost.

Took out a Cash ISA with them 12 months ago. All seemed OK at first: good rate (as it turned out to be a teaser though) and a seemingly straightforward platform to use.

Then the problems start. After a few months they changed their interest payment policy and added a month delay to payment of interest unilaterally. I've tried to get clarification on whether this affects AER - it surely does? - but seem now to be in a disconnected loop of AI generated responses.

Better rates now available elsewhere so elected transfer out. Found out that Plum PAYS NO INTEREST on the whole balance in the last month and you are at their mercy for the delay in transferring the funds to the new provider. Again, have asked how this affects the AER but all one gets back is 'this is on our website'.

It may be but not when you take out the investment. This is sharp practice and it is surprising others haven't flagged this? I am now also waiting for almost two months to receive the additional interest that they offered and the last month of interest.

Sharp practice, not indicative of a professionally run organisation and would advise to avoid. I have waited through June for the relevant answers and whilst it isn't hundreds of pounds it will be necessary now to use the Financial Ombudsman and/or HMC&TS Small Claims to recover these sneaky costs.

POST PLUM RESPONSE

Their response is probably the most concerning element of their (lack of) customer support.

I have something like eight (8) emails already from a raft of different people from Plum all promising to look in to this issue already. Clearly they have no customer service capability or capacity to actually engage with their customers. Double avoid imho.

We've spent weeks planning a celebration trip to Oz including a day at the Test Match and have booked our entire itinerary around that day, flights, hotels, restaurants... the works. Pre-sale started exactly on time today at 2:00pm local time...

...but of course the very efficient Ticketmaster AU team had screwed up and the password they had trumpeted endlessly didn't work.

We've lost the chance to get the right seats in the ground now after months of planning and following all the steps we were told to follow.

Only three words to describe this... utter **** show.

Doing some new tax year financial management and have taken out the Tesco credit card... already have a savings account. Both are excellent and I've been able to do everything I needed quickly and cost effectively.

Last call was with a very helpful agent called Cody. Didn't get the usual feedback request but wanted to say that she did an especially good job helping with my requests.

Good job all round, very impressed!

Very pleased with this process... obtained a really good price and Plusheat 'managed' the whole process through perfectly.

Recommended.

Did our annual boiler service, found them through an online booking consolidator. Turned up on time, work completed efficiently and politely. Many thanks to Daniel who carried out the work.

Recommended, we will use them again in the future for our boiler requirements.

Bought additional tickets with GotoGate who have always been keen on pricing... their website now is very functional and effective.

Recommended - give them a try!

Have had a Tesco bank account for a year now. Good rates and found them very helpful on a call yesterday. Would recommend

Super supplier. Razor sharp pricing, excellent communications and delivery perfectly managed to an overseas location.

Recommended in full.

In answer to the Trustpilot 'challenge' as to whether Warmzilla are a good operation and worth four stars... no, they deserve the full five stars!

I've been dealing with Elliott Knight primarily whilst on the other side of the world. They were able to solve everything including awkward dates with tenant availability for fitting a new gas boiler. Sadly, the survey suggests that I'll have to dismantle the whole blooming bathroom to make this work so I have had to decline.

Warmzilla accepted the cancellation three days into the 14 day cooling off period without a quibble. Didn't work for me this time but I know where I will come back to for the next boiler we need to renew in another property.

Great job Warmzilla!

Have had a yesr of problems trying to get a refund from BW over a booking. Tried four times to operate their Best Rate Guarantee but they don't honour it (e.g. 'your rate does not show a decimal point in the image' for a non-decimal currency (Thai baht).

Now about to start a Small Claims Court action over the lost booking they claimed I had not made then charged me for anyway.

Have since discovered that BW is really a very flimsy franchise operation and every property of theirs that I have approached/researched actually has lower, direct rates.

Avoid.

I've used Agoda for c.15 years. It is always hit and miss: sometimes you can pick up a good deal but at other times they will use all sorts of ploys to con you.

Like now.

Currently in Australia, mainly Marriott but a couple of Holiday Inns. Rate on both was inflated but you don't have a choice against the dreadful IHG Best Rate Guarantee which is never enforced.

Agoda's rate dropped by 15% so I duly applied. The larger one came back refunded within the hour but the smaller one took ten days and about 20 emails. Sharky.

Then, when checking in - Sydney - found that the rate had plummeted. No chance now to resolve but crappy way to treat people.

Agoda and Booking are linked but Agoda tries to pass off Booking as a third party. It isn't, at least under the law in my home country.

As others have written, they will screw you over using their regularly changing rules. They have been fined in more regulated environments but sadly are able to get away with this stuff elsewhere.

Have had the misfortune to be a Landlord with two properties - accidental landlord, not running a business - managed by Sequence.

Catastrophic service levels... in the last two months for example they failed to implement an agreed rent increase and now, having applied it retrospectively, refuse to pay out the missing balance to me.

Unable to manage their accounts and with a very poor set of contractors/suppliers so any maintenance issues are trebly problematic. When there is a payment issue - rare with two gold star tenants, both five years in situ so is always of Sequence's own making - they actually add no value whatsoever.

Avoid. I'm being told that I am contracted to a six month break period. Will be instructing a solicitor after completing this review to deal with these... unusually, words fail me.

Main contact is from Hertfordshire and admin done in Suffolk. Both my properties in Berkshire. What a fool I have been.

We have been using this tool for around five years. It is CRUCIAL to doing effective genetic genealogy and adds a whole level of forensic analysis for family tree research. It is, simply, a 'MUST HAVE'.

Call taken by Yvette from a very stressed customer (me!) who could not get the payment function to work. She resolved all the queries in a really friendly and professional manner and was the epitome of effectiveness and courteous service.

Thank you so much!