Alex Pavlides

I’ve been trying to obtain a document that HMRC have requested showing interest for a complete tax year (interest certificate). I was told it would take 2 weeks. The first time it was the wrong year, the second time it didn’t arrive and now 5 weeks on I’m requesting it again and I’m told another 2 weeks. This is insane. I need this to get a pension rebate and shortly I’m going to be leaving the country. Absolutely useless. Santander and HSBC have these documents for download, I got them both in 15mins. I’m closing my account as soon as this is finalised.

Edit: the online complaint service takes so long that it times out before you get to speak to anyone. I tried twice on my phone while in the gym. Nationwide’s service seems designed to frustrate.

Everyone I’ve dealt with at purple bricks has been professional and a pleasure to speak with. Carlo in Bristol was our agent. He has loads of experience and knew the area well. While we didn’t quite get the asking price it wasn’t for Carlo’s lack of trying and reflects the market at the moment. I can recommend Purplebricks and Carlo in particular. Our negotiator Tori also did a good job.

Being paid via Deel cost me almost £5000 in lost income due to poor handling of tax issues. I cannot recommend them and in future will be looking for an alternative. The thing to remember about Deel is it's a very impersonal service. They won't give you a heads up if something seems incorrect and you may come to find out later when you get a nasty tax bill. They were also evasive in helping me understand the problem, I needed to seek guidance elsewhere from an accountant who explained to me what had happened and how it could have been avoided (and yes this bill was avoidable).

Edit: Yes Deel did everything correct legally. However, there was another way to do it legally that wouldn't have left me with the huge bill or at the very least they failed to inform me of such a possibility. So Deel is correct, they did things correct legally, but I am still out of pocket for equity that was ultimately kept by the company that made everyone redundant. Equity is a common way to incentivise employees, in my case it became a liability and I was not informed. In addition to this I was taxed on expenses and was not informed. In my own experience in small to medium companies I have been treated better and with more consideration than with Deel.

The bag looked good but unfortunately it only lasted 1 and a half years. The top of the bag split near the handle and it quickly deteriorated. I'm now looking to replace it with an Ortlieb because my previous Ortlieb is 8 years old and has been through much more use before failing. I don't recommend this product and I will never buy again.

EDIT: Stubble and Co customer services reached out and sent me a new bag due to the fault of the previous one. I was not expecting their customer service to be as good as it was and so I am improving the rating. While customer service was a 5 star experience I cannot give 5 overall due to the fact the bag still failed within 2 years. However, its a very good sign about how the company is run that they tried to make up for the issue. I will consider buying their products again in future.

I ordered a fair quality iphone 12. It has many small marks on the screen and one more noticeable scratch. The back and side of the phone are better, although there is a bit of dirt. My main issue with the phones is that blackmarket do not state the battery health, mine was 86%. Looking through the reviews it makes no difference what quality you buy. So someone buying an excellent condition phone could have 85% and someone with fair condition could have 100%. The difference in cost between excellent and fair is £70, which is exactly the cost of a replacement battery (from apple). So it's a gamble which is why I can only give 3 stars. You might get lucky, but if not it's disappointing. A phone shop near me quotes the battery health on their used phones. I didn't go there because I wanted a phone they didn't have, but I prefer their transparency. Anyway, the phone from blackmarket was ok, I'm going to keep it, but I can't give top marks for experience because of this.

I wish I had looked at this before buying from Diesel. I bought from a shop in Hungary. The price on the item was not clear, I paid and then realised there were two prices on the item. When I asked for a refund in the shop just after I purchased I was refused!! They just blankly told me they don't do refunds. I just spent £300 and wanted only refund on one item. I am furious and will never shop at Diesel again.

Terrible experience. We ordered a chair on the 5th of September and 3 months later the chair hasn't arrived and there is no date for arrival. It feels as though they have taken our money and they do not offer a phone number on their website to call.