Philip Long

I wrote to Royal London on 28 July and again on 19 August asking for the forms to enable me to take 25% of my pension as a lump sum. I have had no response from Royal London whatsoever. Useless company. I have today emailed Customer Services to complain. have little faith in receiving a response.

I have just received my water bill for the first 6 months of the year and found Severn Trent has increased the charges they make by 43%. Scandalous and wholly unjustifiable increase. No wonder we now live in Rip Off Britain and the Government and useless Ofwat have allowed Sever Trent to levy the increase. No alternative as Severn Trent is a private monopoly.

My daughter experienced transmission problems with her Juke. The dealer stated she needed a new gearbox even though the car was just 6 years old and had 67,000 miles on the clock. The dealer, Yeoman's of Aldershot, quoted £8500 to replace the gearbox. I complained to Nissan who stated it was fair wear and tear and did nothing. Will never buy a Nissan again.

Used premium drop off at Birmingham airport. The premium drop off is located opposite the terminal so easier to use but flight I was meeting was delayed. The flight landed at 1 a.m. Cost of parking for 1 hour 20 minutes was £71, a complete and utter rip off. Scandalous. Airports abroad charge nothing to drop off. Typical example of rip off Britain.

My daughter took her Juke to Yeomans Aldershot because of a problem with the transmission. They told her she would have to wait 2 weeks before they could look at he car and merely to inspect the vehicle would cost £160. Upon inspection Yeomans told her she needed a new gearbox and they would charge her £8500 to replace the gearbox. Scandalous!

I ordered cosmetics from The Range on 21 Feb. Heard nothing from them and no delivery made. Sent an email cancelling the transaction. They now say they need to contact a third party seller before they can refund the price paid. I ordered the item from The Range unaware they had contracted out the order to another company. No goods received and no refund received.

I paid fir car parking at Churchill Hospital in Oxford. Then received letter from SiP levying a penalty charge of £25 increasing to £50 if not paid within 14 days. They state the cannot trace the payment. I sent a copy of my building society statement to them showing the payment being taken from my account. They dismissed that evidence out of hand but then asked for the last 4 numbers of my debit card. I have advised them that I have provided definitive proof of payment and whether they can trace the payment or not I will not be making any further payment to them

My cousin passed away recently and I found she had prepaid for her funeral with Dignity. I phoned the number on the plan documents and afer10 minutes of listening to Pachelbel's Canon I gave up. I found a Dignity funeral home myself ,A. V. Band in Worcester, who were very helpful but received no help whatsoever from Dignity HQ. Don't pre pay with Dignity.

I ordered a 100% cashmere jumper but what was delivered was a man made fabric jumper. The jumper was delivered without any labels on it and no way of returning it. When I contacted Men's Room they told me I could keep the jumper and they would refund 30% of cost. I told them I did not want the jumper at any price as it was of very poor quality. and not what was advertised by them. Eventually they agreed to take the jumper back but I would have to return it by tracked postage to the Netherlands at my expense. Avoid this bunch of scammers

Ordered descaling and cleaning tablets for Siemens coffee machine. Only received cleaning tablets. Phoned customer service number provided and received automated response stating my call could not be answered and the phone line went dead. I would say that the customer service was woeful but hat is not true, it is non existent. Regretting purchasing a Siemens product al ready.

I booked a 4 night, 5 day stay in MerlinsCrest at Bluestone in July for £2320. However, for 2 days we were unable to access the accommodation as we were not allowed to book in until 4.30 pm on the day of arrival and had to vacate by 10 am on the day of departure so that, in effect, for 2 days of the holiday you have paid for you are living out of a suitcase. The accommodation itself was good and we enjoyed the water park but the activities are expensive. I paid £116 for an hours laser gun shooting and an hour's hire of 2 kayaks. A zip wire ride of under 2 minutes costs £16. The food is expensive also. A burger and chips meal at Bluestone is £18 but the same meal at Folley's Farm, a zoo and fairground attraction nearby, is £12.95. Cooked breakfast at Bluestone £13, the same meal at motorway service area on M4 £9. Overall we thought it poor value for the money we paid and will not be returning.

On 25th June on behalf of my wife I submitted an application form to withdraw 25% of her pension as a lump sum. I received an email from HL staing it would take 5 to 10 working days o issue payment. Heard nothing further so contacted HL on 14 July to be told by email they cannot stick to the deadline promised due to a large number of applications. I would take at least 15 days to issue payment. What a lame excuse. They do not keep you advised of progress or more appropriately lack of progress you have to chase them. Seriously thinking of leaving HL

I contacted Ron smith to collect and service my Husqvarna ride on mower. I also mentioned the rear idler pulley would need changing. Ron Smith quoted £132 to collect and deliver the mower and £300 for the service. Four days after collecting the mower a woman from Ron Smit phoned me to say that their mechanic and inspected the mower and found a number of issues including belts, spindle bearings deck wheel bearings, gear box oil. She told me the cost of rectifying the faults they had identified would be £1384.22. They had not carried out any of the work I had asked them to. I immediately advised Ron Smith I did not want them to carry out any work and that they should return the mower to me. I saw this estimate they provided as a sordid and squalid attempt to extract as much money from me as possible. The woman at Ron Smith had the brass neck to tell me they would charge me £72 for the estimate, an estimate I did not ask them to provide or authorise them to undertake. Ron Smith see me as a cash cow to milk for as much money as they possible thought they could get away with. Ron Smith has no credibility with me and I will never entrust hem with any work in the future. Beware.

Bought 3 trees only one grew successfully. When I wrote to Bowers requesting refund or replacement they never replied. Rubbish firm selling inferior product. Avoid.

My wife sold investments in her ISA on 7 May 2024. The ii web site showed a cash balance of over £50k but when my wife inputted her bank derails she was told she needed to phone ii. She then spent ten minutes sorting out the withdrawal with ii constantly asking why she sold her investments and whether she would leave the balance with ii to be told she could only receive £15k within 24 hours and she would need to telephone the again on 13 May to withdraw the balance of £35k. Still no money received from ii. I sold my ISA with A J Bell on the same day as my wife and received all the money from the sale with no problem yesterday. What a contrast in service. My advice, use A J bell not ii.

Wrote to Aegon in February to close an ISA on my cousin's behalf as she has dementia. Heard nothing from Aegon so wrote to CEO in March. Had a reply to say they never received letter even though I sent proof of postage. Now in mid April have to start the whole process again. If you write to Aegon send it recorded. Nightmare company to deal with.

I bought an R422TS AWD ride on mower at a cost of over £7K and it is undoubtedly the worst piece of machinery I have ever owned. It has broken down at least once a year every year since I bought the mower. It is not reliable nor durable. Even when it breaks down it takes Husqvarna two weeks to send replacement parts. Woeful machine backed up by equally woeful customer service.

Requested to take tax free lump sum from my pension in January 2023, 3 months later and no tax free sum issued. They delay paying out by asking for more needless info. They take at last 3 weeks to reply when I send them the required info and then to ask for more needless info. Wrote to the CEO in person but he failed to reply. Truly hopeless company , don't be tempted to place your pension funds with them.

I purchased the Juliana Gartner greenhouse and also their installation service, paying over £6k. According to their web site, ' A greenhouse can be used as an all weather, all year round, outside room. A greenhouse allows you to control the growing environment to ensure gardening success.' Following the erection of the greenhouse on Friday 31st March I found the greenhouse was leaking like a sieve. There was water ingress at all four corners of the building and also at three separate points in the roof. I initially phoned Juliana Group on Monday 3rd April to explain the issues I had with the greenhouse. I was told Mark Butcher, their technical services manager would phone me. Needless to say I heard nothing on that Monday so I wrote to Juilana Group pointing out the various issues. I received two emails thereafter from Annie Pickwell the office manager and finally Mark Butcher. They both told me the greenhouses are not leak free and leaks can be expected at the ridge, corners, windows and doors. Butcher advised me to try and seal the building myself with silicone and Pickwell stated I should let the building settle and over time algae and debris might help seal the building. When we purchased the building no one told us about leaks in the property in fact the website states the building is an all weather, all year round outside room. In addition the web site states,' Juliana greenhouses are produced in our factory in Denmark and offer Scandinavian design at its best. A Juliana greenhouse is strong on quality ..... and are designed to shrug off Scandinavian weather conditions.' However, even whilst making these claims Juliana know their greenhouses leak and in my case leak in numerous places. I was a Chartered Surveyor for many years and I would be ashamed to put my name to such a woeful building. My advice to anyone buying a greenhouse is avoid the Juliana group unless you want to risk water ingress.

I requested 25% of my pension plan from Aviva. They immediately reduced my pension pot by 25% by will take up to 2 weeks to send my own money to me. In the interim Aviva retain my money. Tried to phone Aviva twice, once I gave up after waiting 25 minutes and finally spoke to someone after waiting 28 minutes. They encourage customers to use the web site but then do not update the website with latest transactions leaving their customers completely in the dark about what has happened to their pension policy. Vey poor customer service.