Steve Dauwalder

Avoid - Complete timewasters
Arranged Broadband installation two days ago for 30 March.

Vodaphone called me today to say they have cancelled order due to an issue at their end.

They said they could set me up over phone but couldn’t do the £14(5 card by offer as that could only be done online.

Their managers were too busy to speak with me. I looked again online and they were quoting I stallatil. Dates in middle of April. No customer focus at all at Vodaphone.

Now gone to PlusNet for identical desk and they can install sooner on 25 March.

Customer Lost
9 months in on a Broadband only contract Dky have imposed an 8% increase in the monthly fee.

Had to email them three times and spoken three times too to give notice.

This completely none focussed organisation don’t accept notice in writing - only over the phone.

Phone calls were dropped by them twice. Once I finally spoke to a lady there she was rude, argumentative and patronising and the only excuse she could give for the increase was that most of their competitors have also put up prices.

She kept over talking whenever I said anything - well we have since found another supplier charging less than they do now even after an auto increase of £3 of next year on a two year contract.

I’m not going to be ripped off by you Sky and won’t put up with second rate rude staff so you have lost my business

Ironically their competitors are offering exactly the same service through the same open world Fibre cable for a lot less money. More than £200 saved over the next two years.

To sum up -

Sky - you are both expensive and very rude to customers.

Terrible Customer Service

Customer service without any human qualities at all or perhaps no one managing their wholly incompetent customer service staff.

Had a bad experience with this lot a few years ago where they sent something different to what I ordered.

Thought I would give them a second chance.

How wrong I was. They contacted me last Wednesday saying product was being passed to courior.

Had another email today saying exactly the same and giving a tracking number. However the courior does not have the item.

Customer Servuce say already dispatched.

Complained to Customer Service and they just thanked me for the feedback with no credible Information.

Almost impossible to cancel this useless service. Keep trying to cancel and they come back to my bank account in a different guise.

They ignore emails and make it impossible to cancel via login.

So far they have stolen 4x £9.99 from my account under 3 different names

THEY HAVNT -fully refunded as the claim below - just the most recent payment. We cancelled back in May and they continued to keep stealing money from me.

Appalling Customer Service

Last month I purchased some garden paving and with the run up to Christmas thought it practical to pay by three interest free payments via Klarna.

Using my debit card details the took the first payment on the day of purchase. Over this weekend the 2nd payment was due but I got a message from my bank saying that they declined my debit card payment to Klarna. Thus I thought odd as there were more than sufficient funds to cover it.

This morning it took me the best part of an hour to find out from my bank that it was declined due to Klarna using the wrong CVV number. This was again odd because they had taken the first payment successfully.

My bankers suggested I contacted Klarna to find out why before any further payments are attempted.

By this time Klarna had contacted me to say that the payment had been declined.

I went in a chat link to speak to them.

I asked them why they hadn’t used the correct CVV number. I then got a very patronising statement “ It's important to make sure that your funding sources are set up to allow the payment to go through including sufficient funds”

By the time I asked them about the CVV number for the third time they asked if I wished to speak to a human being.

They called me placing me 10th in the queue. It was eventually answered by a very polite lad with a North American accent.

He was very focussed in me making payment rather than them not using the right CVV number.

He then advised me that they had used a CVV from some old card details from a previous purchase almost two years ago.

He was very apologetic. I asked if I could speak with a manager for an explanation as to why they didn’t use the most recently supplied card details and why they were still holding card details relevant to a historic purchase previously completed.

He then said that he would message management who then came back saying they would not call me despite their error.

I then told the lad that I would share my bad experience on Trustpilot and other consumer sites.

The lad then burst into tears asking me not to as there would be reprocussions towards him for not sorting the problem out at his level.

It’s pretty clear to me that the Directors and Management at Klarna are nothing short of being common bullies towards both their staff and customers. Bullying in the work place is illegal in most countries and bullying of any kind is intolerable.

Subsequent calls to Klarnas so called Customer Service agents have resulted in frustration as they seem to continually answer a different question as to that asked !

In all I have wasted around 2.5hours of my time on this achieving nothing.

I received an emailed acknowledgement on Tuesday acknowledging recite complaint inviting me to respond to that very same email with additional information which- which I did. I then got a response saying that that inbox does not accept incoming mail.

I spent over a further hour on the phone and chat service today trying to get this Infirmation to them.

They were unable to connect me with their complaints department and refused to give me a phone number or email address.

Now well over 4 hours of my time wasted by Klarna baseboard no customer service and continually absent management.

Not That Impressed So Far

In Late September I called them to start the process of moving my Mums matured ISA at another bank to them.

A letter with POA form dated 1st Ictober arrived in mid October saying that I had 14 days from the date of the letter to respond.

I immediately filled out the form and enclosed all the required documents.

Almost a further two weeks on I get a letter saying they need proof of my Mums loss of capacity plus a copy of a bank statement to prove that my Mums bank account is hers - which they could have easily checked or asked for at the outset.

First impressions are not that great a one feels that they are not that interested in taking on new savers.

Emailed documents and they responded saying they needed them by post.

After more than 5 weeks have given up on Aldermore. - their customer service lacks any focus.

Managed to get a similar account running online within just FOUR DAYS with Nationwide including sorting out all the POA stuff.

Maladministration

Applied to open a current account in early August - on 28/8 they wrote to me and said all was good and provided sort code and account number.

By 17/9 no debit cards had arrived and the took far too long to get them to us. A total of 7 weeks to open a current account.

When I called them 17/9 I spent nearly two hours on the phone they could not find me from the account number they supplied or my name and address. It took the first 47 minutes of the call for them to find me. They said that I should have quoted the application number which did not show on their letter of 28/8.

We took our business elsewhere. They said that it was because of an error made by their Bristol Branch.

No one took ownership of this issue and I feel their complaints team is run by a bunch of uncaring incompetents who lack the basic skills to place themselves in the customers shoes.

They offered me £100 but refused to remove the credit check from my record which bears a grossly unfair and unjustified negative on my Credit Record.

Avoid opening an account at this bank they are very uncaring even when admit they got things wrong.

UPDATE
Shortly after writing this review I was contacted by Cooperative and they said that they could not get a decision maker to contact me and explain why the credit check will remain. Really goes to show the Cooperative Mannagement are arrogant and insular to genuine consumer complaints.

No Management
I am a POA on my Mums accounts at Barclays as well as banking there myself for 35 years.
Despite being the contact for my Mums affairs at my home address Barclays lost all security inhibitions and sent an ISA maturity letter addressed to my Mum directly to her at her Nursing Home.

My poor old Mum has a rare form of dementia and Barclays are fully aware that she lacks any capacity whatsoever.
We have an arrangement with the Nursing Home allowing them to open any mail addressed to Mum as she has to date only recieved letters from NHS or anything relating to her care so that they get necessary information first hand.

They of course opened her letter from Barclays - they were very apologetic about it.

What could have happened due to Barclays stupidity someone unscrupulous at the home would have had first hand Info to where her savings were and used personal details held at the home for medical reasons to access her funds.

I called Barclays on 24th August and the lady I first spoke to was very understanding and agreed that this should not have happened.

She said that she was unable to explain how it happened. I asked that she put me in touch with the appropriate Manager for an explanation.

She did call me back a couple of times and last called me on 24th August saying that a manager has agreed to call me back within the next 30 minutes.

This never happened and I have been on holiday for the last two weeks and called Barclays today to ask why I didn’t get the call back.

Today I spent the best part of four hours on the phone to at least five ill equipped customer service staff.

Through their actions or inactions, they made it quite clear that Managers at Barclays consider themselves far too important to speak to a mere customer.

Not one of them could explain why the manager didn’t call back within 30 minutes on 29th August as promised although one did say that they did try and call me 6 days later on 4th September and got voicemail.

This was nothing more than Fictional Rubbish because there was no missed calls showing on my phone and upon later checking my phone records online this just did not happen. I was in range with a good signal and no one called at the time they quoted.

Despite Barclays obvious shortcomings they said they were unable to put me through to a manager or even give me the name of the Manager who allegedly tried to call me or who should have called me.

Barclays why do you not equip your staff to do their jobs properly and serve your customers and DO YOU really have any managers that are consumer focussed enough to speak with customers especially when you mess up.

After 35 years I am now taking a serious look at your competitors, ones that are rated higher by its customers for customer service.

There is not much point in having good customer service staff if you as managers don’t properly support them.

Unhelpful Staff

I act as POA on my mother’s affairs as she has Fronteral Lobe Dementia.

Barclays do not allow you to use their App for a POA and won’t give reason.

They insist that you use their internet banking service which for POAs is almost impossible due to their security.

I have spent hours on the phone to their ill equipped staff who say that it is down to their IT staff who are not “Customer Facing”. You get Zero Customer Service from Barclays on POA accounts.

They advertise strongly to get POAs to bring their relatives accounts to Barclays but staff lack the tools to support the account.

Managers are just as bad and and you are not allowed to speak with a decision maker.

Barclays staff use their term “not customer facing” far too much and it is a proven obstacle to getting good customer service.

I recommend that POAs avoid Barclays and use a more caring bank.

I honestly believe that they are in breach of the Equalities Act 2010.

Avoid: Zero Customer Service

We have been with this outfit for 2 1/2 years and renewed once during that period.

The contract came up for review this month and their initial quote was on another planet - so expensive.

They requoted and were not anywhere near their competitor - I gave them notice.

Since then I have been bombarded with Marketing Emails and calls despite “No Marketing” showing on my account.

Talk Talk have no respect for UK GDPR rules. I made a complaint 3 weeks ago and they have reassigned a total of 4 complaints handlers to look at this case. I get an email from someone saying that they have taken on my case and hear nothing from them.

Yesterday I get an email Thanking us for staying with Talk Talk, despite us going over to the cheaper SKY, 3 days ago.

I called them and was on the phone for 76 minutes to basically what I would call two completely unhelpful and useless members of staff. I asked the second one if I could speak to a manager and he told me that he could deal with the issues and there were no managers available. Well he couldn’t answer any question I threw at him.

Despite explaining to him that Talk Tslk had breached GDPR regulations he said Talk Talk respect UK law.

The guy was full of meaningless soundbites. He said he would get a manager to call back at Talk Talks convenience.

A complaints case manager called me today but couldn’t explain why Talk Talk broke GDPR rules or how I got put on their marketing database marketing database or why they kept contacting me after saying that I had arranged to go to another provider.

He said he would try and find out why all of these things happened or why the proper managers (if they exist) are all hiding from customers under their desks. He too was full of BS and Soundbites.

Another 20 minutes of my life wasted.

No one at Talk Talk understands the meaning of the words “Customer Service” and their processes are not consumer focussed.

All of their staff appear feral.

I WILL NEVER GO BACK TO TALK TALK

Don’t Buy From This Outfit

Terrible Customer Service
Purchased a boiling water boiler from these people two weeks ago to replace a similar unit.

It arrived within a day or two. However once we turned on the water nothing passed through it and water just poured from the base. Clearly if faulty manufacture.

They have had it back for almost a week and say that they have to refer the matter to the manufacturer.

I spoke with the Customer Service Manager there and she said it could be another week before they come to a conclusion

The Manager clearly hadn’t a clue about the Consumer Rights Act 2015 or understanding that my contract was with her company and not with the manufacturer.

You lacked basic of just for a moment placing herself in the shoes of the consumer. She made it quite clear that the owner of the business would not be interest in dealing with this which really sums up the standards operated by this firm.

It seems that Heater Shop are a part of Edison House Group based in Suffolk. I understand the customer service manager was acting for the group - AVOID

Been with Revolut a while but considered upgrading to their “Metal” account. The travel insurance element is not worth the paper it is written on or the premium. They don’t cover any pre-existing conditions which rules out eligibility for most over 40s. I’m T1 Diabetic and will continue with my Barclays Travel Pack thanks.

The reply from Revolut only reinforces my original comments that makes the “Metal” account unrealistic for most older customers or those with pre-existing conditions. They are not interested in low risk customers, only NO risk customers.

The ever incompetent Wessex Water increase prices by over 22% this week (8 x the rate of inflation) saying that it is to carry out the work needed to stop them chucking our sewerage into the public waterways and suddenly we get a letter that next week they are starting to install Smart Meters in our street.

Surely smart meters are a much lower priority than ceasing sewerage dumping.

The CEO at Wessex Wster has had 35 years to sort out the sewerage issue and failed.

What is going on with their board of directors. Where are their priorities.

ADD
Quite a disappointing and somewhat patronising response from Wessex Water. It implies a struggle to pay the bills. Everyone will struggle and no matter how you pay it we all have to pay for our usage at the end of the day.

Had the Directors of Wessex Water addressed the spillage issues from the start of privatisation 35 years ago, they would not be in the mess they are in. Instead they rather than reinvest dwindled much of their profits on shareholder dividends and bonuses for their incompetent leadership. They have also had to pay fines for polluting our regions lovely water ways.

It’s a no brainer, water should be in the public sector. Wessex Water are inflation creators. Their ludicrous increases will have a direct negative impact on the national rate of inflation and will drive other prices up.

The public should not be paying for the incompetence of this companies directors

Avoid this misleading company

Their site clearly says NO MINIMUM CHARGE yet for a £6.99 item they applied a minimum charge of £20. Also the item was of very poor quality Chinese manufacture and we wanted to return it.

Their site implied that they had a UK base including a UK phone number and priced in GBP. Regarding the minimum charge they came back and said it was an “ECO” charge. However they still sent it to us despite their so called ECO morals. Furthermore they wanted us to send it to China at our own postage cost.

2nd rate priduct and zero credible customer service.


Will never use this misleading company again.

Avoid - Claims Department Useless
Been trying to manage a claim as POA to my Mum following storm damage claim in Mid December.

We are now at the end of February and this company’s sham of a claims office based in Manchester are still faffing around.

10 weeks on the hole in the occupied house still remains unattended while useless staff and inept manager show themselves to be professionally inept.

Despite providing a copy of the POA at the time of taking out the policy last August, they asked for a copy again when the claim was delayed before they could even look at the claim.

The guy managing the claim went off for Christmas and holiday with no one able to access his emails.

I spoke to a so called manager on 2nd January who assured me that she would follow this through. They appointed a contracting company to get quotes. I get a phone call from a contractor a few days later wishing to take a look.

A month ago I get a contact from the contracting company saying they were forwarding a quote and report to RSA.

I phone RSA last week chasing this up and they tell me they hadn’t seen the quote yet.

This morning I get a txt from the contracting company with a link to pay the excess - I thought progress at last although I hadn’t seen any other details relating to the proposed work or costs.

I spoke to RSA this morning asking for more information. They say they hadn’t heard anything from the contracting company, clearly indicating they didn’t follow it through last week.

This is the first time that I had been asked for an excess in advance of any table of works.

No one at RSA seems to follow anything through. Staff seem to be insular to the problem being experienced by the consumer and the Head of Claims seems to be running a shambles of a department.

Environmentally Out of Touch
I have recently moved over to Medtronic’s Hybrid Loop Insulin Pump System via my local NHS diabetic clinic.

Whilst the system is good for managing my diabetes control, Medtronic as a manufacturer of life and health improvement products, they appear COMPLETELY out of touch with their responsibility towards the environment.

Almost ALL of their products and disposables come with far too much packaging and multi language “booklets” showing technical information and instructions.

For example, their Simplera Glucose sensors are in packaging that is over 4x the volume of the product inside. It has full colour printing on the glossy exterior of the box. The information booklet contained inside the box is in 9 different languages with just 10% printed in English.

This is effectively a prescribed aid to diabetes control, so Medtronic know the mother tongue of the diabetic they are sending out to.

It’s marketing gone too far by individuals within Medtronic who clearly do not have an ounce of respect for the environment.

The unnecessary packaging adds to both the environmental and fiscal cost of transporting the product from factory to warehouse to consumer.

Equally Medtronic charge the NHS around £195 for a 5 week box of theses sensors - the extra cost can only be reflected in the unnecessary packaging and print. Unfortunately this extra cost is borne upon the UK taxpayer and limits other NHS services.

The CEO of Nedtronic needs a reality check.

Zero Customer Service

Did a return flight Gatwick to Malaga in September.

Outgoing flight: Due to a fault all boarded passengers were kept waiting stationery on inside aircraft for over 3 hours. Of course faults happen but passengers had no access to refreshment or toilets during that time breaching Civil Aviation Authority Rules. The flight arrived 2hours 58 minutes late at Malaga under the 3 hours to claim compensation for late arrival. However this doesent override the requirement to provide access to toilets and refreshment.

On return flight the flight never showed “boarding” just “last call” we then had to run as quickly as possible through page passport control and despite the board at the gate still saying “last call” and the person in front being allowed through the attendant said that we could not board due to being too late.

We were then forced to fork out €740 for a pair of tickets on a later flight. Whilst we were waiting they kept apologising over the tannoy for late information on some of the flight boards.

Totally beyond our control.

I complained 10 weeks ago and BA still havn’t address our complaint. All you get in their Customer Rejatiobs Libebis “call back another day. No email address for them and their sales department can’t put you through and behave as if they are an unconnected company.

My daughter lives in Tasmania Australia and we both fly in both directions in alternate years and we have a home in Spain and regularly fly there at least twice per year. We will certainly NEVER consider BA again as their customer service is non existent and the absoloubt pants of their industry.

Looking at this review site it’s clear that BA don’t quite get it. They are my national airline and I’m saddened that their board of directors through their staff don’t care.

Zero Zilch Nil Customer Service

Tried contacting Deliveroo Customer Service THREE times because payment on three different cards and via Apple Pay and via PayPal were being declined by their payment portal.

I got surveys on all three occasions asking how I felt about their response but never got a response.

Got through on the phone and got through to a manager who had no managerial qualities whatsoever and lacked the basic ability to stand in the customers shoes even just a few seconds.

She said they had responded by email and despite being told THREE times that I had checked my SPAM she still insisted that I checked my spam again.

As a result, I have now closed my Deliveroo account and removed the app - it’s useless and supported by equally useless uncaring staff.

As for the restaurants - avoid Deliveroo they don’t care about customer service at all.

Useless Unhelpful & Unprifesdional

Avoid if you want your accident managed efficiently.

This unscrupulous company also take away your rights to go to the Financial Services Ombudsman.

They also provide mis-information by say that on a non fault accident, if you have a non fault accident you will have to pay your excess and have to recover it from the other party. This is COMPLETELY incorrect !

The guy we initially spoke to this morning about a non fault accident came across well although it took about an hour. We even had to wait for him to try and call up the witness during our call.

He then said he was putting us through to a company who will arrange car hire and repair (which turned out to be One Calls sister business)

We go cut off from that call and had to call them direct. Despite the original agent saying he had everything he needed to expedite the claim they said I will have to go back to the claim manager because there was information missing.

I called them back and asked to speak to a manager. The operator did everything possible to demonstrate that Managers were too important to speak to mere mortal customers. Eventually I was put through to Manager LP2 who lacked any ability to place herself in the customers shoes.

She told me that the claim file had not been saved earlier, despite them emailing the details to me and confirming a non fault claim.

She said that she would recall the phone recording and reset the claim. By this time I had spent over two hours on the phone today to this useless company.

I then got an email from them asking me to call the underwriter. I called One Call back asking them why. They said it was to arrange the repair and car hire.

I called the underwriter and they advised that they had recieved no details of the accident at all from OneCall.

I was then on the phone to them for 45 minutes going all through the details of the claim again. Fortunately Ageas were much more competent than OneCall.

One Call have absoloubt contempt for consumers time - whilst their useless staff and illusive managers get paid to waste your time.

Sorting out things after an accident can be stressful, especially if you were not at fault. Through his staff the CEO of One Call just effectively add to the problems in efficiently managing a claim.

Poorly Manufactured Product Zero Customer Service

Purchased a Neff Combi oven I. April 2022

Have had chrome plated steel shelf replaced 3 times due to rust. Despite five engineer visits they are now claiming that because we do not have a vent at the base of the housing unit - that is causing the rust.

This is despite there being superb ventilation on 3 other sides and a draught of air passing under the product continually.

Neff Customer Trkations staff lack any ability to look at this from the consumers perspective. Their marketing photographs don’t even show a vent to the front which is wholly misleading.

If you buy a Neff product, I hope you don’t have to contact their staff who are clueless.