Scope Reviews 93

I rang scope for practical support in filling out a form but they couldn’t offer any support at all

Very bizarre undercurrent on Scopes online community...
Basically, an echo-chamber, and if you raise inconsistencies or even remotely challenge the zeitgeist, you're dogpiled with snide comments..

If I'm honest, I find many of the online community to be very manipulative, as often they shoot themselves in the foot when they slip up and disclose "what are you doing today"... some will say "bike ride" " cooking a nice large sunday roast" etcetra... Now all these things would mean they would never receive the care element of Pip...but the very same people pre- & post comments aforementioned, later go onto state how incapable they are.. Its hard to bite ones tongue when these obvious discrepancies crop up..

And the oddest thing is, its almost like an unwritten rule that theses matters should never be brought up!

THB, the online community is great for general information, but the clicky, often contradicting zeigeist of the community ruins the experience..

Maybe you have to be a specific type of person to enjoy the community.

POWER HUNGRY ADMINS!

My experience with Scope is on their website, its incredibly far left leaning and IF any of your comments are even the remotest of sarcastic to someone who said your post was "rubbish and hearsay" then your comment is removed.

Scope's idea of helping the disabled or people in need is fantastic and works a lot of the time, BUT to spend my time helping keep their forum active to have my comment removed over something so trivial is pretty much childish of the admins.

On social media I used to run as the only admin for large scale groups (60k+ subs) so I have some idea of the typical "Do's and Dont's" but I find the admins are power mad and too stuck in their little world.

In fact someone I know messaged me two months ago and he had been talking with someone on Scope's site and had his rather long reply 'deleted' even though it had no bad words or aggression? what those admins are doing is themselves stressing out members who suffer with mental health by removing justified replies with unjustified admin reasons?

The charity needs to get a new set of admins or/and rules.

Considering the shop is for the benefit of the disabled it’s extremely inaccessible & badly laid out. Have donated twice recently with not so much as a thank you from the curly haired boy on the till or any kind of acknowledgment at all.

I was given a number by step change which sounded promising and it’s like earth reaching mars I feel in terms of them answering their phone line. Its border line ridiculous in my opinion I’ve rang back twice (both with lengthily waiting, this one being over 29 minutes and counting), it’s ridiculous. The website prompt says it all I feel, are they really ready to assist when they are making an excuse on their website and it seemingly being about remote communication. How can it be justified a scope CEO was rumoured to of being paid £150,000 a year I suspect. Perhaps a CEO needs to be on the frontline to sort this out or perhaps or perhaps a more specific individual with a responsibility to monitor service delivery for example (possibility not fact) who may be on a salary to.

Now look I’m sure scope do good, but it makes me wonder where the proceeds from potentially my donated goods really would end up in the sense im a bit reluctant to donate and boy I am under no illusion high salaries (my opinion) for senior people are not occurring in charities other than scope.

Had bad experience but today I was reassurred it was important to them and they are dealing with complaint.

Scope charity shop Wakefield is so expensive, the Christmas trees were more expensive than new ones in Asda.
I saw a jacket in window for weeks then it went on shop floor been there weeks 😳 saw a jumper with hole in it £12 . Drop the prices and you will sell more. I see lots of things but would not pay the price...far too much for a charity shop.

I have applied for housing with scope. I was given great hope on a home to live in.
Unfortunately for me Scope have decided to go on Christmas leave a week early so I am homeless until they return from holidays next year.
I am very disappointed that I am not important enough to help before Christmas but the employees can enjoy a home and food while I'm homeless on NDIS and a week from Christmas they have left me stranded.

These people are incredibly abusive of old folks. Do not trust them. Disgusting treatment, abusing old people. It's absolutely vile.

I have an apology to make I did write bad review in a moment of anger and in reflection I should have sat on my feelings scope has given me support and advice

I have found this forum to be of great benefit to myself tbh and I would describe myself as mainly a watcher whom sometimes posts for advice which is always given and much appreciated 👏

I think what's happening here is a disgruntled ex member is spouting utter rubbish, they certainly have shown their true colours both here and on the scope forum. It's just unfortunate that some may believe such lies.

I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if the latest negative reviews were made by this one person!

The recent marked down reviews are by a member or members of the forum that actually behaved badly, told lies, dissed advice & caused a lot of hurt. Now they're finger pointing & carrying on here & this is not a forum. To those, I'll also add, it is not just your MH that counts!

Scope Forum is a much needed resource for all disabled, giving support & plenty of advice across the board, that comes from fellow disabled people with all types of disabilities & health problems.

You would be forgiven for thinking Scope online forum's
disagreements have just transferred to the Reviews here.

Looking back on previous reviews the same issues are a continuous problem. With the same clique of members who consider themselves the elite acting as the Community Police.

While it may be tempting to define honesty as speaking the truth and abiding by the rules, this is an over - simplistic view of a complex concept.
Telling the truth- the whole truth-is theoretically impossible as morally not required or even wrong.
When you ask a person what they did that day do you want details of their whole day or just the relative parts? Who decides what the relative parts are?
What is the truth about a person anyway.

I have seen over a couple of years at least three members of Scope who have cancelled their membership of Scope and then decided they were still interested in helping other members return with the same user name as before who have been immediately attacked for daring to return.
Therefore they might decide to return with a new user name which is allowed under the Scope rules unfortunately they are still attacked.
Yet it is only this small clique of members who are even interested or bothered by this.
Power is a powerful tool and in the wrong hands can be a disaster.

You might ask where is Admin when all this is going on and you would be right to.
To use a phrase I have recently heard there is a two-tier system within Admin where if you are one of the elite you can do what you like and other members who get no support from them.

I am sorry to say no Company deserves a 5 star as most try hard and listen to reviews and try to correct. Scope is not one of them.

Perhaps be sure of your facts before assuming all the poor reviews have been written by the same person. They have not.

There are a lot of people who have been upset by their treatment on the Scope forum which is why they have written the reviews they have.
They are also real people with real feelings.

There seems to be a lot of nasty comments here from past and present members that have issues in being honest. The same members that caused issues in the past.
I've been a member of scope for 7 years and usually concentrate on just the benefits questions, rather than the coffee lounge or games room and everyday chitchat.

I've made some wonderful friends in the time that I've been there and really do value their friendships greatly. I've even had the privilege of meeting one member several times and now she's a very dear friend.

There's also another member that I've become really good friends with and I appreciate her friendship too. I won't mention any names here but I'm sure they know who I'm talking about.

I've had contact too from other members with support when there's been issues and I really do appreciate all their support.

Is it too much to ask for people to just be honest about who they really are? It seems like it is.

I've always found admin to be very fair and understanding. I've had contact from Adrian quite a lot in the past and always found him very helpful. Albus has also been very kind too. I've even know Adrian to step in out of hours when there's been issues. In other forums I've been on you have to wait until either the following day or a Monday if problems occur on the weekend.

You will always have members that come and go on any forum, with some posting once and never to return. Scope is no different in this case.

Excellent forum. Has always been helpful and given good advice.

It is not for everyone however, it is a forum after all filled with normal people, they aren't benefit advisors etc. So if you can't find what you need best to get proper advice from places like citizens advice.

For people that require general information and support it is an excellent forum with a lot of nice, genuine people.

They helped me

The scope forum isn't a place that has any regard for the disabled. No attempt is made to listen/respond appropriately, no matter how honest, no matter how unwell. Benefits changes are removing, in my case, two thirds of monthly income. The response was that I'm a fraud that's been withholding information from the dwp and will have 1000s taken and be fined, and that I refuse to deal with truth ... these jumped up bullies wish they had my level of honesty and courage, and to imply anything other crossed a line, thus this feedback. Despite explaining severe dissociation, thus I stay away from as much dwp stuff as possible, and also stating I'd been entirely open when contacted by both the ESA and HB in recent months, including sending bank statements, the abuse continued.

The weak response when reporting the abuse just co-enables more abuse, so it's also no surprise to see minions posting fake positive reviews that include naming and abusing people who no doubt didn't do anything wrong, but just didn't go along with the toxic status quo there. This is another forum that sees vulnerable people as targets to be kicked down further; the daily mail's forum offshoot it seems.

I recommend nobody goes there, as there will not be any help. And the main site has no action opportunities, only empty words, right in the middle of some of the worst benefit changes of recent years. A small toxic echo chamber that needs to be seen for what it is.

I like the forum. The members know their stuff and it’s a good spot to share interests and learn new things.

Every forum has its dramas but the mods do a good job keeping the peace.

Overall it’s a good place and honestly, I’ve seen much worse.

I have been using the Scope forum for about 3 years now and have found it a great place to turn to for support at my loneliest times. I am unable to work due to my physical disability and poor mental health so I have been using this forum as an escape, and until recently as a break from thinking about the potential of what could happen next month, BUT over the last few weeks I cannot escape!!!! There are a few people who seem to be feeding off each other’s constant love of moaning about the government and what the outcome will be on 30th October. All I can see is that they are winding each other regarding something we don’t know the outcome of just yet. It is clear to see other members are trying to diffuse the situation and reassure people not to think too far ahead, but the constant moaners are forgetting that the members who are trying to support them are in the same position as them, just as worried, just as scared about the outcome, it’s just that they have more sense than to feed in to your pathetic ‘poor me’ attitudes. Once the outcome of the budget has been given, if people are still troubled and affected, I think there will be a good chance to talk and support each other as the facts will have been stated. Genuine love and support will given, because all the people who have slagged the Scope forum off so badly will have f****d off because they despise it so much. Can’t wait!!!!

I’ve found people on Scope who I feel understand me and with whom there is mutual respect. Not all of these people experience the same, or even vaguely similar, health conditions as me

Lots of the people I’ve come across I’ve become friendly with and I have a handful who I’m proud and grateful to be able to say are true friends. One person in particular I’ve found I can relate to so much that it’s uncanny, but more importantly is just the nicest person I have ever known and knowing them has really changed my life for the better, probably more than they realise

I don’t believe that there is some kind of universal understanding in the community, but I don’t think it’s ever possible, anywhere in life, for everybody to understand everybody else. I’ve had comments, including from admin, who seem dismissive or even critical of me for having certain health issues. I do however understand their thought processes and, in the case of the admin, the need to adopt the stance that benefits the most people

All I can say is that via Scope I’ve met many people, more than anywhere else online or offline, who understand me, and I’m so grateful for that. There are members who seem to be genuinely concerned for others, rather than just saying the right things to benefit their own ends.

My conclusion is that if it were not for Scope, I'd be in a far far worse place than I'm in now. In truth this isn't due to the organisation or any of their activities or policies, just the other members, but ultimately without the charity I'd never have encountered those people!

I hope my review of 4 stars is not treated as being critical, but also as not unconditionally defending Scope. I just want to be realistic and see both sides, and hopefully my comments will come across as balanced and believable