Johnnyblue

We had completely the opposite experience to the previous reviewer. Booked a Premier room with a super king size bed for 2 nights to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary, but only stayed one after we spent a sleepless night in an overheated family room with a double bed. If that wasn't bad enough, the extractor fan in the bathroom didn't work and I'd guess hadn't for some time judging by the rank odour that spread into the bedroom, the heated towel rail didn't work either, the toilet seat was loose, the luxury bath towels turned out to be thin hand towels and there was nowhere to put anything on or by the bath, including the soap. Shocking in a supposedly 4 star hotel. The dinner menu, in January, consisted of 2 cold starters and soup, pork, a veggie option and fish and chips, for mains, and 3 variations of ice cream for pudding. Again, shocking for a 4 star hotel. Despite 3 couples eating dinner the wood burner wasn't lit and the room completely lacked atmosphere as we all just ate and left. Breakfast was okay, but the waitress got our order wrong 4 times so it came out in stages from hot to cold. After I complained about our room they knocked about 25% of the bill, but judging by the prices on TripAdvisor we were still overcharged. Overall, the staff were nice enough and the building and location are lovely, but in our experience everything else about this hotel was 2 star at best and our stay there certainly ruined our anniversary.

Really disappointed with UIA these days. As my wife works for the NHS and is a member of Unison we have used them for 30 years and in that time have made minor claims 3 times, but stopped this year. Their quote to renew our house insurance was more than double comparable quotes from other providers. When I rang them to say this wasn't acceptable to us the woman I spoke to just said okay and agreed to cancel it on the spot, which she did. No effort to keep us as customers, no offer to re-quote and no attempt to find a solution. We now have pretty much the same building and contents insurance from a different company for half the price. I don't know what's happened to UIA in recent years but it's not like it used to be and in my opinion is using its past reputation and its connection to the union to exploit Unison members.

Helpful and friendly staff. Booking was fairly easy and friction free, although we did have a couple of issues - a wrong contact number and some doubt of whether dogs were or were not allowed, but quickly sorted out. Only real complaint would be that the description of the property was somewhat generous, but would certainly use again.

Be warned! Any contract with BT starts on the day you agree to it over the phone or online, NOT when they actually install the equipment or when they connect you. So, if you move home you might find that the two weeks grace you have to change your mind will have already run out and BT will charge you a lot of money to cancel the contract. We took out broadband, phone and tv with them. Tv reception was awful, their set top box is like something out of the Nineties, and broadband constantly dropped out, but the right to change our mind had expired on the day we moved in because I arranged it all online two weeks before we moved. Silly me, because it's all there buried in very small print.

In the last 10 years I've bought two stoves from Stovax. They've both been okay without seeming to be any better than cheaper models that friends have bought, but as a company they are appalling. I wanted to convert our multi-fuel Stockton 8 to simply burn wood, as wood burns best on hot ash and most of the ash in a Stockton 8 falls through the multi fuel grate, so you end up using enormous amounts of kindling to get and keep it going. I went online and ordered and paid for the wood conversion kit from Stovax. com. Despite taking my money it turned out that they were out of stock and so I didn't get the kit for over a month (two days after Storm Emma). No communication, just two emails, one an invoice saying one part was out of stock, the other a month later to say they'd despatched it. No indication of how long delivery would take, whether it needed signing for (it did) or who was delivering it. Kit turns up, part doesn't fit. Phoned Stovax, on the phone for 30 minutes. Emailed all my info, given a job number and told technical dept would contact me. That was 10 days ago. I've emailed twice and got no reply.

You only find out how good a company is when things go wrong - and Stovax have certainly proved they're no good at all. I won't be buying Stovax in the future and I wouldn't recommend them. There's better and cheaper stoves out there and there's definitely better companies.

UPDATE: It took Stovax Spares over a month to reply and they just asked for more photos. When I pointed out that this was dreadful customer service I was told that they had been very helpful - god knows how as they had done absolutely nothing. I complained to their customer service who neither acknowledged nor replied to my email. Truly shocking. You expect a reply even if it's just one that fobs you off. Probably the worst reputable(?) company I have ever dealt with. Take my advice and steer well clear as they seem to have zero after sales service.

Really, really poor. We bought a £900 AEG double oven cooker. The top oven didn't work properly from day one. Nobody at AEG seemed to know how it should work but threatened that if they sent an engineer round and it was working properly I would have to pay for him. Engineer arrived, but couldn't fix it and couldn't contact AEG for advice. Returned next week and said it was a known fault with the cut off thermostat and he had a new part. Turned out they had sent him another faulty one. Returned next week with, you guessed it, another faulty part. Finally, the following week another engineer turned up with the right part and after only 3 months and 4 visits the grill was fixed. The only compensation we got was a six month extension to our warranty, which considering the cooker was faulty for 3 months was hardly a great deal. Awful service and awful build quality. Despite being in the upper price range, everything's made in China now, not Germany, and there are plastic parts where they used to be metal. I would never buy AEG again and would not recommend. The seriously need to improve their quality control and customer care.

UPDATE: Haha, just seen AEGs reply regarding the problems with our "tumble dryer". Just about sums them up. Be warned.
FURTHER UPDATE: I replied to AEG's message below (since corrected to say double oven not tumble dryer). Total waste of my time. Just a box ticking exercise of their part, which ended with another empty apology.

Having been let down by ExceptionalAV I ordered an amp from AudioVisual Online for free next day delivery. Good communications from them and I could see on their website whether the item was actually in stock or not. Delivered next day as promised by DPD who gave me a one hour timeslot so I didn't have to wait in all day. Very happy with the amp and with the price and service I received from Audiovisual Online. Would definitely use again and would recommend.

Ordered an amp and paid £4.99 extra for next day delivery. Received an email next day to say item not in stock and no date when it would be so I phoned them. Turns out item was not expected until following week. This was very frustrating because someone needed to be in to sign for delivery and that wasn't always possible, hence paying extra for next day delivery. Phoned again on day it was supposed to be in stock but still not arrived, although due in next day. Phoned next day, still not in stock but due in next day...during entire time still advertised on their website as being available for next day delivery. Gave up and accepted the offered refund and that is the only good thing I can say about this company - they do refund quickly and without any fuss and are very pleasant on the phone. That aside they were awful: advertised goods they didn't have in stock, promised delivery they didn't make and over the course of 8 days only contacted me that one time to say the amp wasn't in stock.

I bought the same amp for £10 more but with free next day delivery from AudioVisual Online. Great communications from them. Also you can see on their website if the item is actually in stock before you waste your time ordering, and DPD gave me a one hour delivery time slot so I could track the parcel. So, five stars for AudioVisualOnline and two for pretty unexceptional service from exceptional av.

Bought carpet for stairs, landing and main bedroom. Estimator visited our home to measure up and as the carpet was deep pile we specifically asked about door clearance and were assured that it would not be a problem. However, after the carpet was fitted, using a thick underlay that they chose, we cannot open the doors on the fitted wardrobe or the linen cupboard and the bedroom is very tight. Also none of the other doors close properly and the fitters didn't warn us about any of this until after they'd finished the job, rather than drawing it to our attention when something could have been done about it. We now have to pay to have all the doors trimmed. According to the fitters, the problem is the thickness of the underlay but when I spoke to the manager of the Poole branch he was not prepared to take any responsibility, even though they had chosen the 10mm underlay when it was obvious from the estimator's notes that a 5mm underlay would have been far more suitable with a deep pile carpet. We need to carpet 3 more rooms and were planning new flooring for 2 bathrooms, 2 toilets and the kitchen, but would never use Carpet Barn again and would definitely not recommend as they are no cheaper than other suppliers and when you add in the cost of rectifying their mistakes they're a lot more expensive. They seem to be the kind of company that are fine if everything goes well, but are not interested if there are problems. Unlike Carpet Barn I'll give you some good advice - shop elsewhere.

Tried to buy a rug on their website, but it was only available as a click and collect item and wasn't in stock within a 50 mile radius of us. Seriously doubt it was in stock anywhere. The last time I used Homebase the delivery service was shambolic. My advice would be to avoid their website and only buy in a store, or go elsewhere. Incidentally, they don't sell decking but do sell hot tubs and spas so not really sure what market they are aiming at and I suspect they don't know either.

Ordered the mirror glass for a Mondeo wing mirror on their website on a Friday morning and it was delivered on the Saturday morning. Decent price and excellent service and I will certainly use them again if I need car parts. Recommended.

Bought a couple of bedside cabinets to match a bed which we bought from Bensons For Beds. They are pretty much identical to the ones in Bensons but two thirds the price. Seem very good quality and are a perfect match. Delivery was painless with very good communication from Oakfurnitureland and the delivery men, who phoned half an hour before they arrived. All in all a good experience.

We were with them for 8 years and they were really incompetent. It started the day we got our debit cards, couldn't use them in the Post Office to draw out money. Phoned CO Op to be told that they knew this was a problem with some cards and they'd send us new ones, but why send the originals in the first place if they knew they wouldn't work? Ordered paying in book and envelopes online. Nothing arrived so ordered online again, still nothing so phoned and complained and repeated order . Result, sent 3 paying in books and 36 envelopes! Five days before my debit card ran out I phoned and asked where the new one was and was told it would probably be sent in time. Wasn't happy about this and asked for one to be sent immediately. Result - 2 new debit cards because the boy wonder I spoke to didn't have the sense to cancel the one they automatically renew (presumably the day before the old one runs out). Also failed to pay mortgage for two months because of a "technical glitch". Everyone very pleasant but it's like they think it's the 1950's. Various other problems too petty to mention, but all in all they don't inspire confidence.

Changed to M&S Bank because we thought they would be better than the Co op. Turned out they're not. The website is very slow and if you phone them the amount of security questions is staggering. You're expected to remember a 6 - 10 digit number that you entered on the first day you signed up (although, of course, for security reasons they tell you that you shouldn't write it down) good luck with that one. Not impressed. Just another bank. Unless they're offering cash incentives to move your account to them I wouldn't bother.

Having been misled by moneysupermarket.com I shall be very reluctant to use their website in future. We moved house and I checked to see who provided phone/broadband at our new address. According to moneysupermarket.com only BT and John Lewis did, which isn't true as you can also get Sky. As tv reception is lousy at our new address most people seem to have Sky satellite. Not us. We're locked into a BT contract for a year, because our 14 day Right To Cancel with BT started on the day I signed up online - 2 weeks before we moved - not the day we were actually connected. Shan't be using either company in future as I don't feel I can trust either of them.

BT are doing a lot of work locally and as a result we have had a lot of problems with our landline. It took them 5 days to sort the first problem, a crossed line, but 2 weeks later we've been cut off completely. I reported the fault immediately but received no response from BT so tracked it online. Informed fault would be repaired within four days I checked after 3 and they claimed fault was repaired. It's not, but when I tried to enter this on the website it kept telling me my session had run out and to start again. The fault reporting and tracking part of the website is a joke with 404 error messages and broken links. Click on Help and you're directed to Community Forums! where a bunch of bovine idiots seem to spend their days ticking off other customers for daring to criticise BT, so a complete waste of time. Response times to everything are 4 - 5 days perhaps because everything goes via India first. We've been told it will take 10 days from my original fault report to be reconnected even though they caused the fault - great service. Probably best to just have a pay as you go mobile in future and let BT die a death they so richly deserve. They must be the single worst company in the UK (or is that India?) and are only surviving on the loyalty of older customers, when they're gone BT are going to realise younger generations aren't prepared to put up with the dreadful service they shovel out. We won't be renewing our contract.

Moving house so wanted a quote for the new place. I phoned and gave all the info but UIA only did the quote in my wife's name, not joint names (despite the fact that I was the one who phoned and made all the arrangements), so wouldn't speak to me about it when I phoned back to amend a couple of details, which included putting my name on the policy .They also have me down as a booking clerk rather than a bookkeeper. They've always been very good in the past, but not impressed this time.
UPDATE: Knocked a star off as I discovered last week that despite cancelling our old direct debit UIA have kept on taking the money from our account along with the new direct debit. Really don't know what's happening at UIA they used to be so good.