Piglet

In May 2025 we received an estimated quarterly bill from British Gas which contained a daytime reading that was estimated at approximately £13,000/40,000kW too high. While they acknowledged the error, they appeared incapable of resolving the issue within any given time frame. We'd had a lot of recent meter readings issues and this was the last straw. We moved to another supplier.

British Gas did not send a final bill. A complaint was eventually raised with the Ombudsman, who ruled in our favour. This at least prompted the final bill, but British Gas did not refund the credit we were due within the time limit specified.

We moved suppliers in May, as of late October this still has not been resolved and we are considering issuing proceedings.
Our new supplier, a little pink sea-going creature, is a breath of fresh air...

Signals have a laid back, no-push attitude to selling audio equipment. They're happy to demo equipment in the home with no obligation.

Highly recommended.

After a few quotes for a home battery system, we opted for a Powerwall 3 from Octopus - they were our energy supplier and certainly seemed to talk the talk.
We were given two sales team members as contacts for design and logisitcs. After some detailed converstations and emails everything was apparently sorted, despite no site visit being made (I did request this but was told there were no slots available).

We signed up in mid July 2025 and subsequently got an installation date for late October. An electrician called to fit the required earth rod.

A few days before the installation date, we were contacted us to say there was a problem with the battery location - a brick and flint panel wall. After some more toing and froing, he concluded that they could not complete the contract. The other companies we had initially approached - and whom had had conducted site visits - didn't have any such issue.

I did receive a subsequent call explaining and appologising for the situation. It appears that Octopus's vanilla business model caters only for the most basic install scenarios, but considering they had already undertaken pre-installation works it seems bizarre not to then undertake the simple steps to resolve the situation.

The shop phoned ahead to confirm delivery of the new piano and all went to plan.

I ordered some bare root fruit trees in March. They were at least delivered on time but on unpacking I found the roots to be bone dry. The trees did not look in very good condition - one had side growth only on one side of the tree, some had damaged feathers and poor roots. One tree had no feather branches and was just an 80cm whip. All were smaller than I would expect of a two year old tree and I certainly would not have chosen these at a garden centre.

I feel that Parkers had exhausted the season's good stock and were now shipping what was left. Cannot recommend.

PCR test kits arrived a day late and, from the day of posting, the results emails took a woeful five days to arrive - at the time of purchase they were advertised as 24hrs after receipt in the lab. Could not use the online portal to register barcode numbers as the submission box would not accept them, this required a somewhat painful customer services phone call experience to complete.
Subsequent emails to customer services were ignored.
A thoroughly unprofessional service.

I have placed three orders with CCTV Direct. Two were spot on. The third was for a Hikvision security camera and, while it arrived as scheduled, it was very clearly either demo or returned stock: cosmetic damage to packaging & paint chips on the camera housing, plus an oem accessory had been substituted for a generic one. While it was still usable, I am dissapointed that I have been sold obvioulsy used stock as new.

I am yet to have an issue with a DPD delivery. Delivered within a specified time window, with full journey tracking and proof of delivery that reliably update in real time. Relatively expensive, but you do get what you've paid for.
Hermes (the other end of the scale) - take note...

I have sent many ebay parcels in the past, but now that ebay use Packlink the problems have started. Packlink is an aggregator and this can be a big issue when things go wrong. My first few Packlink/Hermes parcels have all been delayed - with no tracking updates - for some weeks past their delivery estimates: to the buyers they look lost. At this stage buyers, not unreasonably, have asked for refunds and indeed that would eBay's recommendation. Eventually the tracking has updated and deliveries made, it was then a case of persuading disgruntled buyers and paying out again to have the parcels returned. This appears to stem from Packlink-generated labels not scanning correctly and being reprinted mid-journey.

Customer service has proved pitiful. I did manage to successfully claim via insurance for a lost parcel, but it was a painfully protracted process. The combination of Packlink with ebay leaves the door wide open for scammers (ebay is heavily buyer-protection orientated).

Update:
After receiving some 'additional charge' emails for parcels accepted some nine weeks ago and now claimed (but clearly were not) to be oversized I have decided to abandon Packlink altogether and book couriers directly - a few more clicks but effectively cutting out the middleman.
Those five-star reviewers must have been lucky...

Hermes is an economy courier and this to a degree this is reflected in pricing, but improvement is needed with regard to collections, tracking and delivery timing. I have used Hermes with my ebay sellers account.

Tracking is often much delayed or incorrect. I have had ebay buyers leave feedback on items delivered, with tracking stuck at the 'awaiting collection' stage with ebay nagging me to dispatch. This could open the door for scammer-buyers.

I've had far too many 'collection attempted' issues (twice this week alone) where the driver has simply not made a visit and I suspect:
a: If there are no other parcels due in my area, or the driver is passing with an already full vehicle, this is put down as an excuse to avoid making the visit.
b: As drivers are paid per visit this is a means to multiple payments for one collection.

There is no mechanism for a part refund when I have to transport the parcels to a pick-up point after Hermes fail to collect in resonable time.

Delivery is often slower than expected - I've had a few parcels that took around three weeks to be delivered, by this time buyers were refunded and I had to pay again for the return parcel. My lost parcels are at around 1%.

With recent price hikes, they are now close to UPS & DHL's (reliable) 48hr service - but it is the failed collections that have persuaded me finally to abandon Hermes.

I have used Halfords Auto servicing on a number of occasions. The servicing itself is usually fine but has been hugely let down by poor office management. I have had recent Ipswich & Bury St Edmunds bookings cancelled, one last-minute and one when I turned up, due to staff shortages. During my (last) Ipswich service the front desk was manned by two staff. One had to deal with phone calls, walk-in customers, all paperwork and parts ordering/receiving - basically the lot. The other, sat with his screen switched off, had two cups of coffee, a good chat and his lunch in the two hours I was present.
A previous Doncaster branch was an tragic experience, the office having a major 'system' outage. Collection took 45 minutes because they couldn't print anything - I eventually had to contact head office regarding an invoice.
I assume this is down to a company policy of bare-minimum everything for an economy operation, but I do not feel Halfords is now a better bet than main dealer fixed price servicing or smaller independent garages: time to move on.

The Commercial Drone Course I attended in Ipswich in 2018 was certainly intensive and demanding, but ultimately very rewarding. The UAV8 team were at all times helpful and approachable and did a good job in delivering theory and practical aspects of the course with unabated enthusiasm. They even bought everybody a drink at the end of the first day! They offer extended support gratis and have proved to respond very quickly to any such requests.

I can highly recommend UAV8 for commercial UAS training.
David Oliver Media Ltd.