Leigh

Bought a product and the first line of product description was: "rattle with 6 detachable colored rings that can be combined to form a chain." Toy arrives and doesn't actually have either feature that's advertised (not detachable, and can't form a chain). I chose to buy this toy when similar toys were sold much cheaper elsewhere because of the features advertised. When I contacted Kiddies Kingdom about the problem (product not at all as advertised) they refused to take responsibility or a return/full refund, even though I'd contacted them as soon as I found out (the day I received the item).

They said it was because the toy had been opened - what a joke! Which customer buys in good faith then when they get the item, thinks, "No, I'd better not open it in case it's been falsely advertised by the company and I need to return it." The whole issue stemmed from Kiddies Kingdom, yet they refuse to acknowledge it, offering a pithy of a partial refund that doesn't reflect the fact that the problem of FALSE ADVERTISING was entirely their own fault. I wouldn't even need to contemplate a refund if not for the toy showing up without the features advertised.

So potential customers, please know that Kiddies Kingdom wants you to know that if they make an error, it's just too bad for you because there's no way they will take full responsibility for it.

Honestly, based on this experience this whole company works a lot like a scam. Hook a customer in with false advertisement, take their money, if customer realises the error just offer one-third the amount they paid as refund so ultimately, we keep the bulk of the money. Profit! Rinse and repeat.

AWFUL business practices. AVOID AVOID AVOID.

TOTAL SCAM! I'd cancelled within my trial period and they STILL charged me for two months (during which I didn't touch my account as I had cancelled during the trial period)!! THEY ARE ROBBERS. As other reviewers have said, DO NOT give them ANY credit card details. Simply do not engage!!

Starling is fine when things are normal, but they're AWFUL when things go wrong with a merchant, so be aware and consider if you want to park your money with such a bank. In my case, a merchant had wrongly charged me money on 27 Aug; I didn't realised this until October, so I raised this with merchant in October. Dispute was settled on 7 Nov (prior to 7 Nov, merchant had ignored my complaints). Starling then claims that the refund was processed same day, but that the refund was added retroactively as a line to my *August statement* despite also saying that the refund was made on their end on 7 Nov. This is already weird to me (why would you do something that's factually incorrect, like claiming a refund happened in August when that did not occur?)

So the problem: my account balance did not change after the refund had supposedly come through. On 6 Nov (the date before dispute was settled with merchant) my balance was X. After Starling supposedly refunded me, the balance on 7 Nov and 8 Nov remained X. So even though there's now a new "refund" showing in my August statement, that is a lie and I still haven't actually received any money from Starling. Total nightmare. AVOID AVOID AVOID.

UPDATE: Was contacted by the merchant and told that they needed a few days to process the refund so the refund had not in fact been completed on the same day as Starling had claimed. Refund only reached my account 5 days later. This whole confusion/problem with Starling could've been avoided if Starling had just checked with the merchant to understand where the refund was actually at, rather than make up a blatant lie and INSIST that the refund was received and given back to me on the same day. The ensuing lies and illogical explanations were awful and wasted a lot of time on my part (and theirs). Not a good look, Starling. How about checking refunds are actually in place before claiming you've given money back when in fact you hadn't?

A SCAM OF A PROVIDER. Was with them for my mobile phone contract for a few years but coverage was always spotty; so I informed them in April 2024 that I wanted to give a 1 month notice period and terminate the monthly rolling contract in May. They said no problems. Contract terminated and I switched to my new provider in May SEEMINGLY without issues. Then in late August, out of the blue Three charged me £12, claiming that I'd used their Roaming service.

TOTAL JOKE. For one, I've not left the country this entire year. In fact, I've not even spent one day away from London. How can I possibly use their add-on roaming service when I no longer use Three's mobile services to begin with? Asked them to provide proof - they could not. LOL

I raised a dispute about this random charge - TWICE. They never got back to me on both occasions and I'd been patient waiting for an update (at least 3 weeks since I lsat contacted them). In short, Three Mobile is acting like a SCAMMER and THIEF just stealing money from people WHO NO LONGER USE THEIR SERVICES. BEWARE if you are using/ HAVE USED their services. They're just thieves taking small bits of money from you, hoping you won't notice.

(Oh actually, at one point of the dispute, Three hilariously tried to offer this as a "resolution": "We will give you a £12 credit in your Three account." AND USE IT FOR WHAT?? No one can use your credits when they no longer use your services or have a phone contract with you. I HAVE NO USE for this and rejected it on the spot. I just want the £12 back in my wallet. Credits are pointless when I don't even use Three's services.)

Three, if you're reading and honestly want to show you aren't a scammer, REFUND MY money. Here's my case ID that you provided for my dispute which I still haven't heard back from: 241024102833731

UPDATE: Three's reply from Jade below is pathetic. To be very specific, I hadn't actually been abroad for 14 months straight PRIOR to the end of contract. So I CERTAINLY didn't go abroad and use any Go Roam passes and merely get charged for some recent usage. (and in Three's own words below, Go Roam passes take up to 3 months to process so the 14 month time frame is well beyond what they're talking about.) They don't even know what they're talking about and STILL can't provide any proof of what sort of roaming passes I'd used that they are trying to charge me for LOL If they're so certain I'd used roaming services as they claim, why do they fall silent EVERY TIME I ask them to provide details of the services used (eg. which country are you claiming I used it and the dates). They don't have dates nor details because they made a mistake but WANT TO KEEP STOLEN MONEY.

SCAM OF A COMPANY

Stubhub is the craziest company I've ever seen. They profit from both buyers and sellers by lying to BOTH. Here's what happened: Listed my ticket and Stubhub asks how much to price each ticket. I put in a number (£193) but when I checked my listing afterwards, I realised Stubhub was quoting buyers a much higher price per ticket (£233!! That's 21% more than what I put in as the sell price). And on the sell page for my tickets they even say "Prices are set by sellers." LIE.

And of course I don't get paid £193 because stubhub charges me a sky high commission of £23 per ticket for selling. All in, if my tickets sell, Stubhub makes a profit of £63 PER TICKET because they're charging both buyers AND sellers through the nose. I have 2 tickets for sale so it's a profit of £126 for them just for one transaction of a pair of tix! I've NEVER seen such high commissions pushed onto buyers and sellers at the same time.

Stubhub really shouldn't be misleading/lying to sellers by asking us for a selling price then disregarding this figure and sell each ticket for £40 MORE than what the seller had set. Daylight robbery for buyers and sellers. Considering pulling my listing from the site and would recommend avoiding them. Why buy/sell from a company that lies to both its buyers AND sellers?

UPDATE: Stubhub reached out to me and they did not dispute the facts I'd mentioned (ie. they did indeed raise my ticket prices by £40 each without my consent whilst telling their buyers that these prices are "set by sellers"). Instead, they defended this lying move by saying it was totally fine since it was covered in their terms and conditions. In other words, this company thinks it's fine to tell their sellers one thing and then lie about it to their buyers, and think that it's all "fine" because their T&Cs cover their lies. I told them I could not agree to that viewpoint and explained to StubHub that's not how T&Cs work. You cannot clear yourself of guilt just by saying in your T&Cs that it's ok to lie LOL. What a joke of a company.

Viagogo seems determined to run themselves to the ground. Had previously bought and sold tickets through them without any issues - everything seemed to have been smooth, but this time, with 2 spare tickets to a popular show in London, I thought I'd sell them on Viagogo. First attempt to do this was in late November. 3 months and 5 attempts later, they still haven't added the date of my show to their database (although other dates for the same show are showing just fine). They don't seem to want any more business from real people (non-scalper) so I'll just take my business elsewhere.

BetterHelp's customer service team is, bar none, the most empathetic and effective customer service team I've ever come across. They really try to help you as much as possible, and I (without exaggeration) believe that if we all treated one another with the same amount of kindness and compassion that the BetterHelp team has for their customers, there'd be no war in this world.

Therapists are also fantastic (and they do a great job matching you to your preferences!!)

100% recommend.

As other reviewers have already noted, this website has some VERY deceptive (borderline dishonest) business practices that will catch many customers offguard. Their pricing model is very unclear and they don't make any effort to explain this to you clearly until you're left with a whopping bill, just quietly accumulating a charge until you try to cancel.

To make it worse, when you do try to cancel your membership to stop them from charging you weekly (yes, even on all the weeks when you haven't used their services), they make you jump through sooo many hoops, click through sooo many pages, and you're FORCED to complete a survey for them before you're allowed to cancel.

Probably the most questionable business practices around I've seen in a while. The sitters on there are fine. Shame about the business.

Fortunately, there are loads of other apps and businesses that allow you to book sitters and charge much more reasonably (eg. charge a small commission for a babysitting session only, not charge you on a weekly basis all year round, regardless of whether you use their services or not).

I echo all the reviews here that say it's fine UNTIL you run into a problem with your purchase and need to reach out to Vinted's customer service. Then you're up left to survive on your own because their customer service is absolutely appalling and won't help at all - EVEN WHEN the problem was caused by the seller.

eg. An item I bought arrived damaged due to poor packaging (seller just threw it into a plastic bag, with no bubble wrap/anything to protect the item, which is plastic). I informed Vinted but apparently if you wish to return an item to the seller, EVEN WHEN it's their fault that the item is damaged, you as the buyer have to cover the return shipping so you will get a refund MINUS your Buyer Protection Fee (LOL) and the cost of return shipping. It makes no sense but Vinted won't care. They just tell you that's just part of the terms and conditions that you agreed to when buying on their platform.

In short, the way they respond to you (and always take no responsibility for issues that actually stem from the seller or Vinted) shows you the truth: this is a company that does not at all care for their customers. They will find every opportunity to evade any responsibility and make as much money as they can from you. Never again.

BUYER BEWARE.

Don't believe the claims they make on their website about delivery times of 1-3 working days for whatever you buy from them. Bought an air conditioner ahead of the heatwave thinking there'd be time to spare. But after waiting 3 days and receiving multiple shipping confirmation emails from DeLonghi, the day that the item was to be delivered, we got an email from DeLonghi telling us to ignore all previous shipping confirmation emails as the item is actually too heavy to be sent by DPD (no kidding! You should know your own ACs all weigh about 30kg) so we'll have to wait for another courier to get in touch with us in order to arrange a new delivery date. Why this email came after the 3 day wait period and why they don't already know their own items are too heavy to be delivered by a certain courier is a mystery.

We're now looking at a delivery time frame of about 2 WEEKS (possibly more). Tried to reach out to customer service but as others have said, impossible to reach anyone and clearly DeLonghi just doesn't care enough once they've got the money from you. DON'T BUY FROM THEM!

Excellent blinds. Once the blinds are down, you really can't see an inch in front of you. Was perfect as we needed something for the bedroom. Would recommend for anyone looking for a proper blackout solution.

Awful, irresponsible company that has ZERO CONCERNS about what happens to your parcel once they take your money. Like so many others have shared in their review, I paid the DHL courier fees to get a shipment quickly delivered from the UK to the US. DHL stated that it would be delivered in 4 days. It is now 15 days since they took my parcel, and the receiver still hasn't received the parcel.

The reason for the delay according to DHL is that they needed additional info for customs clearance (which is odd, because I've shipped the same thing from the UK to the US with other couriers, and the info that DHL wants is NEVER requested by other couriers, who deliver in a timely manner).

Worse still, DHL makes NO EFFORT to contact you about them needing the info, or to tell you that your parcel is delayed and needs your attention/information. We only realised this was an issue when I checked the tracking number and chased DHL myself to ask why it wasn't delivered yet. Now, after all the delays that were due to DHL's irresponsible, disorganised way of shipping customers' parcels, DHL has the gall to charge me an ADDITIONAL US$164 for what they call "duties and taxes" (the original courier charge was US$93). But when you look at the breakdown of these additional charges, not a single dollar is actually for duties, but there is a US$120 charge for "storage" - presumably for DHL to store the parcel whilst its delivery was delayed (BECAUSE OF DHL).

More outrageously, they sent an email to both the shipper AND the receiver demanding we each pay the additional charge of $164. They are absolutely gouging customers.

A company that delays your parcel's delivery yet makes no effort to contact you (despite having your phone number and email address) and then tries to trap you with an additional charge before they are willing to release your parcel are just shameless thieves trading under a corporate name. That is what DHL is.

The receiver for this parcel handles a lot of shipment on their end. To quote the receiver, "in future, please use UPS or FedEx, not DHL, as we have seen this kind of gouging with them (DHL) in the past."

So now you know this wasn't a one-off incident - DHL actually actively practices this sort of customer gouging as a business strategy to get more money off unsuspecting customers.

STAY AWAY!!

I completed the 4-week antenatal course with Noreen and also a single session breastfeeding course that Blossom offered. These offered tremendous value as we got to learn from two very experienced instructors who had years of experience as midwives/doulas. They offered practical advice and also invaluable insights that I've not come across elsewhere (even though I've done an online hypnobirthing and read about 5 prenatal books and enjoy researching things and reading clinical studies!)

Would 100% recommend Blossom courses to all expecting parents as I came out feeling much better prepared for the exciting chapter ahead. Thank you to the Blossom team for offering such a tremendous resource for us all!

Was with ABC Harley Street and had my egg collection/embryo transfer done at their sister clinic Create St Paul's. Both clinics are rather disorganised and at some points, it turned into a comedy of errors. eg. A nurse miscalculated the amount of medication I needed for the IVF and I was told to buy more boxes of meds than I actually needed (so I overpaid), at Harley St. staff failed to do their job of simply locking the door before the ultrasound scan/vaginal examination was to begin and a doctor failed to knock and check before entering the room whilst I was lying half naked waiting for the scan to begin (so I ended up exposing myself to her and we all got a fright). The doctor apologised profusely afterwards but frankly this could've all been avoided if either the nurse/doctor had done their part for patient privacy but in my case, neither had done what was needed.

There was also a case of a patient/embryo mix up. The day before my embryo transfer, a clinician/embryologist called me to inform what time I should arrive for the procedure but had mixed me up with another patient. Was told that "just so you know, we are using an untested embryo this time" - which was confusing because I had never asked or paid for any of my embryos to be tested. Asked the clinician if they had mixed me up with another patient who did have their embryo tested. Clinician promptly apologises for the mistake, but again it's just poor reflection on both clinics. Very unprofessional. I can only hope they'd used the right patient's embryo during the procedure!

Also, note that the staff will try to pressure you into opting for a medicated FET instead of a natural FET because (by their own admission) the medicated route makes their job easier, even if it doesn't necessarily help the patient. So do your own research and decide which is better!

These are just the highlights of my experiences with both clinics. There've been more snafus but let's just say it's been an unpleasant experience overall. Agree with previous reviewers who flagged the utter lack of aftercare as well. Would not recommend ABC. There are much better clinics out there.

Unfortunately, a nightmare. They made a mistake on one of my recent payments to them (incorrect amount) and it's been impossible to get through to anyone who can help. Online chat? Sorry, they only answer general questions and can't discuss specific account details. Calling in? Sorry, even if you call them right when lines open, you'll still be placed on a 2-hour wait (and counting... still waiting as I type this). Good job I just let the call run on the background or else what a grand waste of time it would've been!

Regret picking Barclays. There are better providers out there...

Have ordered over 10 boxes of groceries with Wellocks during this extended lockdown period and they've all been fab. Deliveries are always prompt and boxes are compact to reduce cardboard use but they pack SO MUCH in them! Really thrilled with the quality of the produce and plan to stick with them. Definitely recommended!

Seems like buying from them is a bit of a gamble - if you get your stuff, great. If you're unlucky, be prepared for a nightmare.

We'd placed a pre-order for a large chocolate box on their site one whole month before Christmas (was meant to be a Christmas gift), and then the week before Christmas, they emailed us first saying the box has been dispatched, and THEN two days later, they send another email saying "there was a discrepancy in our stock" so it turns out they didn't have what we paid for.

So instead, they sent 4 smaller (souvenir-sized) boxes of chocolate to us as a replacement. But imagine how strange it'd be to gift someone 4 random packets of chocolate! Four small £15 boxes does not equate to one big £60 box...

AND there was no guarantee the parcel would have arrived in time either! When we tried to call the customer service hotline, we were put on hold for half an hour before reaching a rather disinterested person on the other end who sounded rather righteous, saying that we were getting more than we'd paid for...

We ended up returning the order for a refund. Hope THAT doesn't end up the way the order did!

My experience with BT matches those of the other reviewers. We had recently moved house and thought it'd be easier if we just brought our BT wifi along with us instead of getting a new wifi provider at the new home. Low and behold, for the same speed they were suddenly charging us 50% more per month (speed: 50 MBps, price went from £30 to £45). I asked why and was told that it was because the broadband plan was now "out of contract". I was then told that it meant I could cancel any time. Great! I was happy to do so as I found a cheaper and faster provider at the new home (Hyperoptic - all residents in that area love them it seems). But when I called BT again to confirm the cancellation, I was then told there'd be a £96 charge for cancellation. "But I was told I'm no longer in a contract, so why is there still a charge for cancelling a non-contracted plan?" That, I was told, was because even though the broadband was indeed out of contract, the land line that came with the broadband was contracted again when I moved addresses. You can imagine the expletives that were going through my head then. BT is clearly a company who tries desperate to go after every piece of scrap £ they can get their slimy hands on because they have no better way of generating revenue or keeping their customers. And it will take them another 30 days to close my plan whereas Hyperoptic is able to get my wifi up and running within 5 minutes of a phone call to them because the equipment is already in the house. BT in a nutshell: a company stuck in the Stone Ages that work at the speed of a snail and will no doubt go the way of the dinosaurs. Good riddance.

Very buggy app and very dragged out process to just make a payment. You can't seem to login with a password; you need to get them to send a login email every time you want to login, and after you get that you need to provide more details (phone number) for them to send a verification code. But that doesn't get sent until 10 minutes later so you're just waiting and waiting without knowing when you can proceed. And then finally when you login, and you try to pay - another issue. Turns out the app doesn't work well on Chrome browsers, and you get stuck on the payment page after entering your card details (the "pay" button is simply unresponsive). So then you restart the whole process with another browser and what should've been a 1 second process of paying with a credit card when buying a product turned into a 20 minute horror show. And even after submitting your card details, instead of giving you a "payment complete" confirmation screen, you're just told "payment in progress". What a mess. Never going to opt for Klarna payments ever again when I shop in the future.

This, for me, is that rare brand that does things right where it matters. They have clothes that are petite-friendly, which is so hard to find for people like myself. So when we find a clothing line that fits beautifully like Karen Millen, we are more than happy to become loyal customers. I originally had some concerns about whether KM's clothes/quality may change following the recent acquisition by Boohoo, but very happy to report that of the 7 pieces of clothes I've gotten from them in the last month, everything has been solid.

Customer service is also amazingly efficient and helpful. I used their Whatsapp function to flag an issue relating to the size of a skirt I got. I contacted them on a Sunday (early morning) and about an hour later I got a helpful response. Before lunchtime, things were fully resolved and the staff member I'd been texting (named Tunis) even mentioned that they'd flagged the issue with the warehouse team as well so they can troubleshoot the problem on their end in case it's affecting more of the same skirt. That's proactive service and teamwork for you.

So right now, Karen Millen is my go-to brand whenever I want to pick up something new. Love their line of clothes and that they do right by their customers. Keep up with the amazing work, KM team!