graham chapman

Always a great support experience with Siteground. This time Petar helped me out made things very clear.

This is additional info after response from Portico.
It is disappointing that despite my complaints to Portico directly, they have not been addressed outside of this platform.
1. Regarding the additional valuation (that I paid for).
"We have confirmed that the valuation was carried out."
This has not been conveyed to me personally (not from the mortgage broker, the lender, nor Portico) and this review response is the only notification that the valuation has indeed been carried out. I am still awaiting the promised recompense from Portico.

2. "Completions Manager is currently establishing the correct process for buyers affected by ESN’s collapse to claim from their PI insurance and will be in touch with you shortly, we hope that all your additional costs will be covered with a claim, we will be on hand to assist where and when necessary."
Might Portico have thought it appropriate to advise me of this personally rather than solely in response to my review?

3. "Going forward though your property will be an excellent investment,"
Sadly, this is proving not to be the case, even with a fully tenanted property a year from today I will still have suffered a financial loss. It is still empty.

4. "[the solicitors] didn’t have any impression you were unhappy with that situation.
They most certainly did, and so did Portico. I made it clear to both that someone else should be paying the late completion penalty, not me.

I've still yet to receive any direct correspondence from Portico regarding my dissatisfaction.

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My experience with Portico Invest has not be so good.
Initially, I was very happy with the decision I had made to invest in a new-build property in the Midlands.
The projected financials looked good (of course they would). As did the location.
I used the experts that Portico connected me with: mortgage broker, solicitors. However, my mortgage offer wasn't very good, but by the time I got the offer, I was too far down the line with Portico to halt the process, at least without taking a huge financial hit.
The solicitor proved less than efficient and just before exchange of contracts the solicitors went into administration, this resulted in further expense and delays, all beyond my control, yet Portico took no responsibility at all. I incurred a delayed completion penalty from the developer, again Portico were not interested in challenging this or offering any assistance.
Then, the 'new' solicitor made financial mistakes on my case, and had I not noticed it would have cost me thousands.

On the day scheduled for completion, I received a message that is wasn't going to happen because the lender was asking for another property valuation to be done. I was billed £345 for this valuation, which it appears now never to have been done. Portico had promised to refund this, but weeks later nothing.

The financial projections for both short-term lets and longer AST lets have proved to be wildly optimistic.
I've now owned this property for nearly 2 months and still it is empty. If I let the property tomorrow, I will still be well out-of-pocket by the end of the year.
In hindsight (oh hindsight), I should have left my money in a savings account and taken the 4% on offer there.
I've recently had the property valued, which seems to indicate that the purchase price was not discounted at all.

Others seemingly have had better outcomes than me. Regardless, with any investment, think carefully, I wish I had not listened to the sales talk.

I find many of the Gov websites good. I have no trouble submitting tax returns, taxing my car. But, Companies House, how can this be so bad?
I've been trying, literally all day, to login to my account so that I can make some urgent changes to my company. Emails don't arrive, the new GOV.UK One Login just seems pointlessly complicated and broken. After not being able to login I've been told to wait 30 minutes to try again. 2 hours later and I get the same message. I phone for support and encountered one of the rudest 'helpers' ever. No wonder she was stressed trying to placate countless frustrated users of a poorly designed and implemented system.
I've been waiting over 25 minutes on the phone and someone has just told me: "Sorry the website has a lot of traffic today, try again tomorrow". At the beginning of the call there was an option to leave feedback at the end of the call which I selected. Needless to say, so such opportunity was given at the end of the call.
Awful, awful website and service.

I have edited this review and upgraded to 3 stars.
Since I posted, Tide have made contact and eventually we have things back in order. The person who called me was extremely efficient and considerate (so 5 Stars to him :)

However, I still stand by the fact that the support system is not very robust or well thought out. If we can't access the app, we need another means to access the account online; having to authenticate with an app that's not accessible is crazy to me.
The app does have issues. My problem was explained to me as having old accounts on their system, but there's no way to know this, let alone delete them. At least none I can find. They do need an efficient way for account holders to seek support if the app fails.

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I've had a business bank account with Tide for a long time. But when I really needed some support, there was none.
My app stopped functioning after I tried to add a savings account.
Trying to login via the web I was quickly stumped, I need the app to authenticate, no other way, that's just plain daft and no good for people like me whose app has stopped working.
Tried all the usual, force stop the app, clear cache, clear data, uninstall, etc.
On reinstall, I had to authenticate with email (my usual email that appears to function perfectly well). No email received, after multiple 'resends'.
the only telephone numbers I could find were for onboarding and fraud. Onboarding said it was a support issue and they'd get someone to call me. Two days later, nothing. I tried the fraud line (maybe the account had been hacked). Never before have I been spoken to so rudely by a banking employee, needless to say, no help at all.
So, presently I am stuck, a paid business account with absolutely no access, and no solution in sight.
Now assessing alternatives, Tide has proved useless when I needed some support.

Apprehensive before paying for this course, but no need to be.
The course is delivered in a very considerate and clear way. Lots of references and resources provided and a real sense of support and hand-holding along the way. Add in a slick and helpful community of like minded people and it's a no brainer.
Luke is very attentive and a great course presenter.
I can already see how this will add another dimension to my offerings.
Easy 5 stars from me.

I moved into a property where Utility Warehouse was the energy provider for gas and electricity. I opened a new account for both with an alternative provider after a disappointing sales call with UW.
The new provider has switched the gas account, but cannot switch the electricity account because UW will not release the account. Meanwhile, I am billed by UW for electricity, but offered no way to pay. All the links on the bill only work if I can login, which I can't because my email address is not associated with the account number.
I am still in this strange situation where UW continue to supply this property, and bill me, but cannot offer a way for me to pay.
I have emailed, phoned, used online payment pages, submitted forms. Nothing.
My complaint was acknowledged but no further communication from them.

Carl very helpful at Eastbourne as usual. Pick up and drop off very convenient. Every time I've hired a van there, the vehicle has been in great condition.

Support brilliant again from Site Ground.

Tempting people to invest their time and then finally asking for payment is sneaky and shameful.

I am not surprised to see so many bad reviews of the AA Insurance service.
I've been insured with AA for some years even though the prices are high. I thought it was worth paying the extra to be dealing with a company with high ethical standards and decent customer service.
Alas, this is not the case.
My renewal was sent as normal, and I agreed. Then some weeks later, a demand for £30, not itemised, but with it a threat to cancel the policy if I did not pay.
Upon enquiry, I was told this was due to my wife having her car damaged while parked some 3 years ago. She made no claim from her insurance company, the other party paid in full.
I disagreed with the way the AA had processed this additional fee, and although just £30, I decided that the AA renewal quote (already high) was no longer competitive and I didn't wish to pay for such poor customer service.
I cancelled my policy at a cost of £87 (a quarter of the premium).
This fee was justified in part by an admin charge(?!) and remaining time on risk (even though the policy is cancelled on the same day).

Appalling service from a once-trusted organisation. The AA is not an Automobile Association. In my experience, it will use unethical means to boost its profits and use second-rate customer service staff to attempt smooth over the cracks.