Iain Gallagher

Today's bill from Zipvit for a year's supply of Glucosamine Sulphate, Glucosamine, Chondroitin & MSM, A - Z Multivitamins and Cod Liver Oil = £104.95!

Last year, the bill for the same products was £75.14.

So, Zipvit, has hiked my bill by almost 40% in 12 months; 51% in fact; but your telesales operative "managed" to give me a paltry £9 off the total bill of £113.95. But I'm afraid that a discount of £9.00 just isn't going to placate on this occasion!

Zipvit, I look forward to your explanation. I am truly disgusted at this outrageous price increase and angry that it's so clear that my loyalty to you of over 20 years means absolutely nothing.

This one star review = totally justified.

Went in to our local Morrisons last night (Morrisons Kendal) after I was asked by my partner to get some Garlic infused oil. Morrisons had just two offerings on the shelves - both pricey; their own Extra Special brand at £4.99 for 250ml or a Phillipo Berio Brand (again, 250ml) which according to what it said on the shelf labelling, was reduced from £6.90 to £4.99. So I bought the Phillipo Berio bottle seeing as it was the same price as Morrisons own - but presumably better quality?

On getting back home with it, my partner went nuts saying that she "never" paid that much for Garlic infused oil and that it was a lot cheaper at Lidl!

Accepting the "flea in the ear" I called in at Lidl today where I bought a similar product (ok - just 51% Olive oil not 95%) for just £2.29 for a 250ml bottle.

I then returned the bottle I'd bought at Morrisons where they happily refunded £6.90 - not £4.99!! Hey! Hang on! Seems that yet again, there had been a discrepancy between the pricing on the shelves and the price at the till and I'd actually made no saving at all on this ridiculously priced bottle of oil - nor had I checked the price when I had scanned it: but you shouldn't have to - right! The price you see on the shelves should be the price you pay at the till!

Now I like shopping at Morrisons, there are lots of positives such as stock choice and a good bakery, but then there are also negatives, such as this one which happens far too often! Morrisons - get your pricings sorted out!

I've bought batteries from this company three times in the last few years. They offer competitive prices and speedy delivery - BUT!

How many of us expect, when buying a new battery, that it is going to be tip top, 100% fully charged: et cetera? All of us - right? However, when what appears to be a brand new battery to all intents and purposes, lands on your doorstep, how do you know if it actually IS in as good a condition as it should be? You cannot tell a battery's condition by a visible inspection alone and it's possible the sellers may be no more aware of this than you!

I only found this out after fitting the last new battery I ordered from Battery Group which arrived early December. The battery I removed appeared to be at the end of it's life, however when I fitted the new one, it appeared to be little better in terms of it's ability to crank over the engine in my car.

A friend who has a battery tester tested both batteries. He found that the battery I had removed was of 62% health which he said wasn't bad for a 3 - 4 year old battery. When he tested the new battery, he found it to be just 77%.

Perhaps battery group would like to explain why this was? An Auto-electrician told me that more likely than not, the battery had been sat on the shelf in the company's warehouse for some time between being manufactured and sent out; and that batteries left uncharged for some time do degrade and this accounts for the less than satisfactory condition of the "new" battery I received.

Battery Group - over to you for your explanation!

As everyone says - excellent. Very competitively priced inks and good communications/prompt delivery.

We've been using Stinkyink for a good few years now!

FAO
ReAssure,
Windsor House,
Telford.
TN3 4NB
1st September 2023

Having started the process of trying to reach you in respect of your mis-management of my pension fund on August 12th, it took you until August 22nd to respond having failed to reply to my initial email sent on that date.

However, this was only after I sent you a registered letter which you received on August 22nd; and after I had logged a review about my experience with the company so far as regards being ignored and the ridiculous length of time sat waiting in a call queue on 0800 073 1777. This review was posted via Trustpilot, on August 18th.

These things seemed to galvanise you in to action as I received, on the 24th, a missed call from Catherine in Complaints asking me to call her back on 0800 073 1666 and then on the 25th a missed call from Joe asking me to call back on 0800 073 1777 and also saying that you would call back on Tuesday 29th.

ReAssure also posted a response to my Trustpilot Review on Friday 25th in which you stated, amongst other things that “A letter dated 25th August has been posted with details of withdrawing your funds. I have asked that this be emailed to you as well”.

Since then. All that you promised in your reply to my Trustpilot review which you undoubtedly, must have hoped would make you look good in readers eyes, has come to absolutely nothing!

• I did not receive the promised phone call on Tuesday 29th August which I made sure I was available to take all day from 9am to 5pm.

• And I have not received the letter alleged to have been posted to me as written in your response to my Trustpilot review on Friday 25th August!

However, on August 29th, I did finally receive an email from yourselves at 15:19 headed Customer resolution at reassure.co.uk CS/95032 Complaint Acknowledgement which contained a “Secure Message”.

So secure did it prove to be that even I couldn’t open it! As directed, I opened the webpage, clicked on “Read message” and then was asked to input a “1 time passcode” which had been sent to my email address. I entered the passcode and received the message “incorrect passcode entered” at the same time I realised another passcode had been sent to my email inbox so I inputted that. Guess what! – Nope – “Incorrect passcode entered”!

• All in all, I inputted nine different passcodes into the required field. After the first two failed attempts, I cut & pasted the passcodes received so there could be absolutely no error. Each time I entered the passcode, I immediately received an email notification indicating that a new passcode had been received “before” the webpage told me I’d entered the incorrect passcode! What is that all about!

Anyway, as everyone might imagine, I gave up after nine attempts and I will tell you this now. Do NOT send me any further “Secure Messages”!

Next, on Wednesday 30th of August, I went back to work; and guess what! One of you tried to call me again! I cannot answer calls whilst at work!

Yesterday, August 31st, I waited until mid afternoon to see if you would get in touch and when you didn’t, I attempted to call Catherine on 0800 073 1666 – I got through quickly enough, inside a couple of minutes for a change; and when the chap asked how he could help I said I wished to close my pension account and draw down the funds. His response “I can’t deal with that from here – I need to put you though to another department”. If you get cut off, you’ll need to ring 0800 073 1777.

So, he transferred me, in to what was quite clearly the 0800 073 1777 call queue where I sat, once again, for a total of 16 minutes.

During this - my second time in one of your ridiculously long call queues, I was given the option to request a call back by pressing 1 which I did. I left my details and a short message stating the reason for my call before hanging up.

My experience so far since posting my first Trustpilot review – you seem to be intent on playing some sort of protracted Cat & Mouse game with me. Calling when I cannot answer, not calling when you say you will, sending me secure messages that I cannot open and failing to send me letters that you say you will. You seem to be intent on messing me about and winding me up – why else would you be operating in the way that you are?

I’ve now spent a total of over half an hour waiting in call queues on 0800 073 1777 trying to speak to someone. The length of wait times are unacceptable; therefore, I will not be calling that number again at any time.

Trying to access your “secure message” was another waste of my time; I will not attempt to access any further communications sent via this route so do not send me any more messages that way either!

As of today. Friday 1st September, I am still awaiting your letter detailing how I can withdraw my funds and close my pension account:

Where is it? - WRITE to me now!

Yours

Iain Gallagher.

Well, like many others, I was probably mis-sold a private pension plan at the end of the 1980's which, over the years has been paid into rather sporadically. Until recently, it was in the hands of Legal & General who, like the current bunch of shysters failed to correctly invest and generate growth in my fund, but then were entitled to deduct "charges" from my fund calling them "management fees". A few years ago, I received news that Legal & General were transferring my Pension Plan to another provider "don't worry" they said "You don't need to do anything". So like a fool, I let them get on with it and they transferred my pension to ReAssure.

Since August 2021 my pension pot has shrunk by approximately £2315.45 that being due to a fall in "with profits bonus rates" whatever they are, but also due to the fact that ReAssure have charged me a whopping £813.44 - for what!

How can it possibly be legal for these companies to fail to do what they are supposed to do (ie invest your funds appropriately and "grow" the value of your pot) and then just help themselves to that fund citing them as management charges when all they are doing is mismanaging your fund! At no point other than the annual pension review will this company make any effort to contact you if your pension shows negative growth but instead they will blithely continue to withdraw an annual management fee from your fund.

It's beyond shocking and unreal that they can get away with this!

Anyway, I've had enough and so upon receipt of the latest "annual statement" I emailed ReAssure asking them to contact me to discuss closing down the account and getting from them what I can as it would be better off in a high interest bank account.

Guess what! Six days later I have received no reply to my email.

So, I got on the phone and yes - you've guessed it; the usual call handling queue "sorry all our advisers are really really busy! We'll get to you when we can!" Well, I waited 15 &1/2 minutes in said call queue before hanging up - probably exactly what they were hoping for!

So I'll see if they reply to my second rather angrier email but I'm minded to instigate proceedings with the financial services Ombudsman right away.

ReAssure - be reassured; I'm coming after you!

Bought this product to deal with rust on a car chassis in late 2021/early 2022. It seemed to be the best product out there for stopping rusting of mild steel and preventing further rusting - given that it's recommended for protecting ship hulls in corrosive salt water you'd think it would work - right! Wrong!

It wasn't cheap but I didn't want cheap; I wanted a product that would work so I paid the £41+ for the 1 litre bottle which duly arrived.

I waited for the middle of Summer 2022 to use the product during a dry warm spell then went to work removing as much of the rust from my Mondeo's rear subframe as I could and then making sure it was free of contamination before applying the product as suggested using two coats. It looks spectacular - product painted rusty metal goes black so it appears to do it's work. I gave it 24 hours to thoroughly dry before applying several top coats of oil based (as recommended by Corroseal) black chassis paint. I thought that would be the end of the rusting of my subframe - wrong!

And so followed, the usual winter, where as soon as there's a hint of the temperature dropping towards freezing, the local council liberally slather the roads in salt. At the end of the winter, I had a look underneath the rear of the car and was extremely disappointed to find that it was corroding again in all of the treated areas.

So, Case Chemicals, whilst I'm aware you are only the importers for this product you need to be aware of this experience. I did the work as directed and it has failed to do the job. I certainly won't be buying Corroseal again.

So, I've had an email from DHL telling me they will be delivering my parcel today between 1 & 2 pm and it needs to be signed for.

As I'm not going to be in (funny that hey! - most of us have to work Monday to Friday but DHL don't seem to get that!) I looked into alternative delivery options. Now I do have an alternative address that the parcel "could" have been delivered to today and looked to see if there was an option to change delivery address which there appeared to be.

So, before you can "change delivery address", you have to tick a waiver obviously absolving DHL of any responsibility after delivering elsewhere which I did and then I found found myself with "Deliver to a neighbour option" which I clicked because I assumed that there would be a further option stating "enter delivery address" which there wasn't!!

DHL - YOU ARE B&^%£Y CRAP!

Ringing them to discuss the matter does not lead you to a "person on the end of the phone" either - just an automated Q & A system; you don't get to speak to anyone! As a consequence of that, I "hope" I have managed to redirect my parcel to be redelivered to my home address on Friday as I don't want you dropping off my parcel with my nearest neighbours none of whom I know! And if you want to deliver it on Friday and we are not in then you had better sort it out!

Your user service is rigid and inflexible an I'm NOT impressed with my experience on this occasion AT ALL!

Good customer service from El Camino when I wanted to exchange a country step.

Jenny at El Camino was very helpful when I got in touch regarding this and right throughout the process.

It's clear that they regarding communication with customers as being paramount - unlike so many other uk businesses! The products are excellent and as we continue to travel the world, I will continue to purchase new country steps for my partners travel bracelet.

Thank you very much.

I bought a full carburettor rebuild kit from this company via Ebay (item #143547258099) for a Zenith 36IV Carburettor prior going on a road trip of a lifetime to The Outer Hebrides in a Series 2 Land Rover in May.

The kit was intended as a backup in case anything went wrong with the carburettor on this 62 year old vehicle. Unfortunately, we had an episode where the engine started running rich and suspecting that the E10 Petrol had destroyed the O ring or the accelerator pump diaphragm in the carburettor, I broke in to the kit to replace both components.

What I found was alarming. We were in the middle of nowhere on the Isle of Lewis and the components in question in this brand new kit were of the wrong dimensions and wouldn't fit in place. The only part that would fit was the main gasket and I used just that and a couple of split pins out of the kit. We were extremely lucky in that the components I had intended to replace were not completely unserviceable as it turned out; and with a little flexible gasket compound, I was able to fix the carburettor and we were able to continue with our holiday.

On our return to England, I returned the kit to Scotts via Ebay and asked for a full refund - quite justifiably, I felt. Scotts response was that I must have ordered the wrong carburettor kit as, in their words "the kit was perfectly good for the application and that I shouldn't blame them or the kit". They refunded less than half of the cost of the kit, but again, fortunately, I was able to recover most of my outlay via Ebay resolution.

Scotts claim to have sold over 150 of these kits with no complaint. I put it to them that they have never actually tried themselves to fit one of these rebuild kits to the carburettor for which they are specified to see for themselves that they do not fit. They also claimed that they buy the kit from a reputable manufacturer of Land Rover components.

I have asked Scotts to supply details of this supplier so that I can discuss the incompatibility of the components with them. I am still waiting for a response from Scotts in this respect. So far they have ignored a number of messages regarding the matter. One only has to look at their responses on Ebay to neutral or negative feedback they have received to see what sort of a company you are dealing with!

So, this has been my first; and it will definitely be my last experience purchasing classic car components via this trader. Sadly, it goes to show the pitfalls of buying online from supposedly trustworthy sellers - particularly where critical parts for classic vehicles are concerned...be warned!

Got ripped off in Kendal today. The key cutter I normally use was closed as it turned out (just my luck!) so as Timpson's across the square "was" open in I went.

£25 to cut three keys and none of them were security type ones. My first & last visit to this chain if I can possibly help it!

Subsequently as can be seen below. Timpsons responded to my review and have issued a substantial refund by way of apology. I feel therefore that it is unfair to leave a 1 star review when they have gone to some lengths to rectify my dis-satisfaction.