Mike Wicks

Wakefield Total Fitness had been promoted earlier this year as having been through a full refurbishment, which I have now discovered at my cost to be a complete fabrication.

I joined the gym a couple of days ago, and when I enquired over the phone about a monthly ongoing membership, I asked if it was possible to avoid the usual £25 joining fee which I felt was excessive. I was told that my timing was very fortunate because head office had earlier that same day introduced an offer which meant there was no joining fee up until the end of October.

I therefore travelled to the gym and we then completed an online registration because the membership team said their in house system wasn't responding, but when it came to the card payment I was asked for the £25 fee. I queried this and was told that the offer didn't include the monthly membership package, which was not what I had been told over the phone. Rather than feel embarrassed by the circumstances, I felt that I had no option other than to continue and pay this extra charge. So a total of £79 for one month.

I have now subsequently attended the gym on 2 occasions, and I am extremely shocked and very disappointed with the condition of the gym as a whole. Almost without exception, all the machines are extremely rusty and the free weights racking system is also terribly rusty. There is no excuse for this. Even budget gyms are presented in a much better state. The equipment must all be in excess of 20 yrs old and certainly not to the standard I would expect from a national group such as Total Fitness. This is certainly not the standard that I was led to believe. Maybe the cardio equipment was replaced earlier in the year, but I don't know how they can possibly refer to this as an extensive refit.

Additionally, I am not happy with the standard of the men's changing rooms and shower areas. Once again this is all very dated and urgently in need of a professional refit. I have spent the last 20+ yrs as a member of their various competitors gyms, and all of these have been far superior in both standards and value for money.

I feel cheated by the whole process from start to finish , and have sent an email to their head office with my comments, to which there has been no reply.

I could not recommend this gym to anyone, and I just wish I'd looked at all the very damning reviews before I gave this terrible business my hard earned money.

Whilst the staff in the Wakefield store are very helpful and professional, the carpet fitters were not . I had a join in the carpet in the hallway which I was expecting, but the way this was left was quite frankly appalling. He just sprayed adhesive all over the new underlay and told the apprentice to keep walking on it. No carpet tape was used, it was so amateurish, I felt insulted that they thought I would accept this.
I went back to store and discussed this with them and they arranged to send the fitters out again. Whilst this is now better than it was, it is still very obvious and crooked . It annoys me every day when I look at it. This can't be right! The trouble Is I don't generally like to complain so I am putting up with it rather than go back and complain again, which everyone tells me isn't acceptable.

So far Im not impressed.
Ordered some ink cartridges as a first time order to see if they were honest and reliable. Tracking ref indicated goods had been dispatched, but now appears they addressed the package incorrectly. Package returned by Royal Mail. I contacted them and they promised to check and get back to me. Im still waiting after having sent 2 subsequent emails asking for a prompt update. I'm Not happy with this business and unless they pull a rabbit out of the hat quick, I'm requesting a refund.

I have found it necessary to raise a complaint and I followed their recommendations and emailed them. I have done this several times now over the last few weeks and so far I still haven't had any acknowledgement of my emails. I have definitely used the correct address and even copied other departments in on correspondence. Does anyone at Castle Bank actually read customer emails ?

I took a chance by installing a boiler from Ideal, having always used another manufacturer without issue. I regret this decision and feel that I should have listened to the many critics out there who have previously voiced their concerns.

The boiler in question has always been serviced meticulously every year and having only just gone outside it's warranty period it has now failed miserably. The fault in question has caused an extensive leak to my property and is now going to cost £300 to repair the boiler, which is now a very urgent repair.

Having discussed this at length with several heating engineers, I am told that this type of failure is very unusual especially on such a new appliance, which just confirms my opinion that the plastic parts which Ideal now use are below standard and not fit for purpose.

I spoke to the customer service team, and whilst they were polite, it was like talking to a robot most probably reading from a script. I asked if Ideal would make a gesture in this case with the answer being NO, and then to make matters worse, I was told to have a nice day!

Ideal need to do the honourable thing here and meet the cost of this urgent repair caused by this failed part which should never have occurred on such a new boiler.

Update 14 Aug. Not prepared to accept the situation, I contacted the MD and put my views to him. Eventually it was agreed a repair at a 50% reduction. I still feel very strongly that these parts are not adequately pressure tested, and they should given sufficient tolerance over and above their current stress rating which would avoid premature failure. Let's not forget when they fail your house is then flooded which is devastating, so for a few extra pence of manufacturing costs they could avoid this worry. They were previously manufactured in brass and now they are all plastic and are prone to failure on the seam.
The matter is now closed.

After 5 years of terrible performance, no meaningful investment help and excuses over poor growth, I left this shambolic outfit. In the last 12 months of investing in my own Sipp, I have grown my pension more in 12 months than they did in 5 years.So that says it all, doesn't it! I wish I had never been taken in by their empty rhetoric. Look at the fund manager performance tables and see for yourself
My advice is avoid these so called experts.

Enquired about renewal deals , very helpful

A complete shambles- Avoid !
I don’t actually know where to begin, but I have lost 5 hours of my life in the last 2 days trying to resolve issues which should have been simple straightforward banking practice.

Poorly trained and ill informed customer service staff, error after error and my faster payment bank transfer still not sent as we approach a bank holiday, so unlikely to arrive now for another 5 days.

The amount of phone calls I have endured and still no further. I have itemised everything along the way and kept sending emails to the complaints team so they have all the facts in chronological order with names and times. The problem is when will they respond, because the automatic email reply I receive says it may take up to 8 weeks !

The stress, and cost this has caused me is hard to believe. I feel drained and very let down!

Georgia was very helpful.
Lovely to speak with her, she resolved the query in a professional manner.
A little later in the day Megan rang me and confirmed everything was now fully resolved.

Thank you

I can’t praise this company enough. I recently experienced an issue with my ear buds which were just still within the 2 year warranty. I emailed them on a Saturday evening and received an immediate reply.
No I don’t mean an automated reply.
They were asking for proof of purchase etc so I replied on Sunday morning. I didn’t expect a further reply until Monday, but sure enough the reply was received the very same day and my warranty was confirmed. Instructions were provided by them on how to order replacements on their website which I did. Within 24 hrs I received a replacement FOC delivered by Riyal Mail recorded delivery.
Excellent hassle free service- well done guys

I invested a large sum of money with Wesleyan Bank who were soon after taken over by HTB. My bond matured on 21 April and they were given my maturity instructions. As of today 27th April they still haven’t returned my funds. I have sent them several Secure Messages all of which have been ignored. I have now sent 2 official complaints neither of which have been acknowledged. What is wrong with our banking industry, they just don’t care. My money send it back, and I expect some compensation for the shocking way you’ve treated me.

This bank should be avoided at all costs. I invested a large sum of money with them, I immediately started experiencing problems. They were sending me messages in the middle of the night. I complained, even sending copies to the CEO James Farrar. Despite a reply it was clear they didn’t really give a damn. A greedy bank with zero compassion for customers! I am now in the process of taking this complaint to the FOS out of pure principle.

Why do banks seem to treat people so badly. Investec.co,uk have been sending me texts and emails in the middle of the night! This is completely unacceptable. Despite making a complaint about this practice the behaviour still continues. How would their CEO Ruth Leas like to be repeatedly woken in the middle of the night I wonder? I’m now having to take this matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

I posted a review 3 days ago, and I contacted Holland and Barrett with the details- this is the reply I received today- what a disgrace they clearly didn’t even read my original complaint. This company doesn’t deserve to survive.
Jaz (Holland & Barrett UK)
13 Mar 2022, 17:18 GMT

Hello Mike,



Thanks for getting in touch.



If there's anything else I can help you with, please let me know.



Hope you have a great day.

Haven’t used Holland and Barrett for a long time until recently- and this will be my last! I have used so many different brands of Whey Protein over the years from other suppliers and when I found I was running short I went to H+B where I purchased PE Nutrition Performance Whey Protein, and it is awful. It’s a terrible tasteless product, like dishwater and no matter how I mix it this seems to be so weak. I don’t believe for one minute they will keep stocking this, but unfortunately for me I was one of the guinea pigs who was robbed in the process. This was a total waste of money and I won’t be using this terrible stuff which s heading for the bin. Holland and Barrett should be ashamed of themselves for supplying this stuff! They can refund me if they have any decency?

This is an update of my previous post.
I have sent a total of 4 online complaint forms now, each time they say I will receive a response within 72 hrs. I haven’t received anything at all and this has been going in for weeks. I spoke again to someone on the phone a few days ago and she checked the system and said I would receive a call tomorrow. That call never came. What a disgrace.

This is a disgrace! I have rung this number 03002220000 several times.Today I spoke to Mohammed who didn’t have a clue and obviously didn’t care. I was passed on to another dept and guess what- I was hanging in for 1hr 26 minutes and still no reply. I had no option but to hang up the call.What a shambles.Previously when I get through to someone they sound half asleep, presumably still working from home and wearing their pyjamas. They promise me call backs, but nothing happens. The online complaints form says they will reply in 72 hrs. I filled this in twice now and weeks later I still haven’t had a reply.

The lot of them want sacking.

Two years ago I was involved in a accident which after a great deal of denial on their part I eventually got them to admit liability. This took me a great deal of effort and caused much stress. Should have been unnecessary. They ignore emails and don’t even have an automated reply system so you have no idea if they have even received the communication. I complained to the CEO about Anna Jackson and a few weeks later she left the company after many years of working there. Coincidence or not, I was obviously pleased. Now I’m dealing with Stewart Bryson a so called senior claims adjuster - yes you guessed it he is also ignoring emails. Such an ignorant and unprofessional way to behave. This company is an absolute disgrace!