Otford Ron

I have now purchased three blinds from English Blinds, two roller blinds and one vertical, all within the last six months. I have always found their prices very competitive and delivery times are acceptable. In fact, the vertical blind that I ordered recently arrived within a matter of a few days; the roller blind took a bit longer but hey-ho.
In a previous review of English Blinds I was critical of the fact that you had to supply your own screws and "Rawlplugs" and the fitting instructions were rolled up within the blind. No such problem this time! Six screws, six "Rawlpugs" and the instructions right at the front. Good job, English Blinds. I'll be back again next time I need a blind.

Have used Best4frames for some years now whilst working for various organisations and have always found their prices very competitive with quick delivery.

Ordered two large frames, this time for me personally and used their Print and Frame service where I sent over the images and they printed, mounted and framed them. Really like this service and one of the images printed up really well. The other was not so good and you can see pixels if you look closely (from a couple of feet away). This image was actually shot on a Samsung phone and so I wouldn't expect it to be top quality but when it was uploaded it was described on the website as "perfect ..... Your framed print will look immaculate at all distances".

Personally, I think that is being a bit generous and had it been rated a bit lower I would have, probably, gone for a smaller image that wouldn't have pixelated to the same extent.

Have to say though that I have always been happy with Best4frames and will continue to use them and their Print and Frame service. In future though, I will be a little more careful which image I use.

Back in March I needed to replace a Kudos shower cubicle that had been in place for nearly 20 years. Unfortunately, it was out of stock at Ergonomic Designs, my preferred supplier (as they were the cheapest!), so I order it from another company called Aqva Bathrooms. They were a complete shambles! I had to chase delivery FIVE times before it eventually turned up in the middle of October.

Rather foolishly I had ordered the wrong size. :-( Anyway, decided to phone ED to see if they had one in stock. Spoke to a young lady called Beth who was excellent. They didn't have one but she rang me back in a matter of minutes and told me that delivery was expected soon. A good innovation on the ED website is the facility to receive an e-mail when an item comes back into stock and I made use of this. Within a couple of days I received an e-mail so I went straight back on the site and order the correct one this time! Within about two working days the new one had arrived and is now being installed by my plumber. Very happy!!!

If I had to have one little gripe it would be the £45 delivery charge. I realise that ED use an outside contractor to delivery these items but there must be somebody cheaper?

I ordered a replacement shower cubicle from Aqva Bathrooms. I had previously tried to order it from another (cheaper) supplier but their website said that it was out of stock. Having search the web, Aqva Bathrooms offered the next best price and no mention of it being out of stock so I ordered one (for £510.00!) on 30th July.

A week later I received an e-mail saying that delivery would be in 2-3 weeks.

I'm not going to go through the entire sorry episode as that's not what I came on here for. Suffice it to say that the item actually arrived on 22nd October.

The reason for the two stars is not because it took ages for Aqva to deliver this item; I understand that they were waiting for delivery from the manufacturers/distributors. I get that but I had to write to them FIVE times asking what was going on.

OK. Aqva are not bad for prices but if you are looking for sparkling (make that alright!) customer service/liaison don't go there. I'm sorry to say that I am not the only customer who has had this sort of experience so judge for yourself.

I've been using Kaspersky Total Security for a few years now. I like it.

However, there is one thing that drives me mad! Kaspersky start writing to me about a month before my subscription expires. That's fine. I don't have a problem with that but what does get me is that I renew my subscription I get issued with an activation code which I then put into the system and behold, when it comes to the expiry date of my original subscription it starts telling me that my subscription has expired and I have to find the activation code again and re-enter it.

This is a mild inconvenience but I would expect a software company to be able to make renewing subscriptions easier.

Have used eSpares several times now, usually for replacement parts for my fridge/freezer! As ever, found this transaction efficient with easy ordering and prompt delivery (actually faster than stated).

Will continue to use eSpares.

Don't think that I have used this company before but I have to say that I was very impressed.

The blind arrived when they said that it would and was remarkably easy to install (and it's a big blind measuring over 1.5m x 2.2m!).

It's actually been fitted in our local village Hall and I have already had an e-mail from one of our regular hirers saying what a huge improvement it has made.

Would not hesitate to use Blinds Direct again.

I wrote this, original, review (below) on 19 April. I have just been told (on 3rd May) that it will now be another 10 days before they can get an unlock code from Vodafone. With the experience that I have had there is no guarantee that this one will work either! It has now been four weeks since I was last able to make or receive a call on my phone or send or receive a text. Heaven only knows how much business this has cost. Some of the TalkTalk staff have been really good but the company are just something else. How can it take 10 days to get a computer to generate a code?


I am sure that even you can do better than this TalkTalk!
I have now been waiting nearly two weeks for an unlock code for my mobile (that shouldn't really have been needed in the first place as the phone was purchased about a year ago unlocked) and I still haven't got it. I have now been promised that someone will call tomorrow (Friday) but, of course, if no one rings then I will have to wait until Monday as, surprise surprise, they don't work over the weekend. I have now gone two weeks unable to make or receive calls or to send or receive messages. Not impressed.