Swee Q.

Like with many online businesses, when things are going smoothly, there is little by way of problems and Catawiki performs well. But the moment problems appear, it becomes virtually impossible to get hold of Catawiki's Customer Service (assuming it even exists). I rang today at 4:15 CET – 45 minutes before they were meant to shut (according to their voicemail). What did I get but a recorded message saying that their offices are closed and, of course, suggesting that I fill in the form, which I suspect will result in a similar Nada. I can understand that they're trying to cut cost in order to raise their profits, but sacrificing customer service is not the way to do it. I hope that other disruptive online platforms will come up and complete aggressively against Catawiki. Indeed, there are already at least 1 other platform that I use which does a similar job (and arguably better in terms of Customer Service) but charges less. For what it does, Catawiki is certainly not cheap. I have bought 27 watches through Catawiki, but shall not be doing so again.
PS: Catawiki should really show the selling price or highest bid on items that have been sold or for which bidding has closed. It currently fails to do so as if the selling price or closing bid were secret. Being open (like its competitors) would help bidders & watchers better understand the market better, which can only help Catawiki.

An absolute slimeball con!
This company also trades as BestToBuy. It is an absolute scam! It offers attractive items at knock down prices but what you will receive is nothing like what you paid for. I ordered a bronze mechanical automatic watch but received a cheap & nasty quartz watch (without so much as an invoice). They will also cleverly send it by tracked shipping so that they have proof that an item was delivered to you – albeit not what you ordered. When you complain, the Customer Service lady ("Ingrid Nodal") - who seems to be located in Thailand - will first send you detailed tracking information showing it's been delivered. When you point out that you did not receive what you paid for, she will then say that she will send the correct one but it will take a long time. Finally, when you chase up, she will not reply. This is an absolute slimeball con. I have reported it to my credit card company for a refund.

When Bloombar describes a watch as having "papers", do not take their word on it. Check! I recently bought a watch from them through watchcollecting.com. It was described as having "papers". This was not the case as the only thing that came with was a plastic warranty card. They (and watchcollecting.com) insisted that this was correct. I'm a member of a pretty well informed watch forum and having posed the question to some of the experts there, their opinions concurred with mine that a plastic warranty card per se does not constitute "papers". I wrote to Sam Buckell at Bloombar who disappointingly refuted any responsibility by replying, "As our contractual agreement as well as yours is with Watch Collecting, not with us we have referred your complaint to them with our comments." This statement is disingenuous as watchcollecting.com (as all auction houses) state clearly that they act as agents for the seller. This is not the the very first time I've bought from Bloombar but it will be the last. When things go well, they are fine. When things go wrong, however, they will do nothing by way of customer service. Myopically foolish..

SCAM!

Easy to deposit funds but IMPOSSIBLE to sell. I tried selling. Regardless of what option I clicked to pay into (Mastercard, Visa, overseas Visa and even my Binance cash balance), it came up with the following excuses:
1) Card number is not supported
The processor of cards (visa, master) you are using is not supported. Please change another card with different processor and try again (RC*******)
2) Service Not Available
Based on our Internal Policy, this service is not available for your account. Please try again with a different payment method or select another currency.
3) Unable to Process
The issuing country of this card is not supported. Please change a card and try again (RC*******). Binance is such a crooked operation!

Completely useless customer service! I Sent a parcel to California and it was marked delivered. Problem is the recipient has not received the parcel. When I tried to type in the postcode to get details of the journey taken, it would not accept it. I the. Went onto Evri's customer service/help procedure online and the same thing happened. The bot ("Ezra") was off absolutely no help & gave up trying to track the parcel after the first attempt. It simply stated that a postcode was needed (which, of course, rejected) & directed me to their FAQs, which were totally unhelpful. It is hugely problematic when "service" companies try to do things on the cheap to win business only to have customer service suffer. This is yet another company that obviously does not value either its customers or its own reputation. Avoid Evri & use a courier service that has HUMANS manning their customer service!

I bought a step stool from the Home Bargains store at Yate and on one of the very first times it was used, it broke under my wife. It was very fortunate that I was just next to her and managed to catch her
Thus preventing what would likely have been a bad fall. Still, my wife sprained her hip as a consequence. I contacted their customer service dept which gave me the runaround and insisted that I return the stool to the Yate store – even though I sent them several photographs of the broken object. As it had been a few months since I bought the stool, I had not kept the receipt (who keeps receipts for months on a less than £30 purchase?) My wife returned it as instructed and I wrote to customer service again informing them that it had been returned. I also sent them a photo of the receipt provided by the store – which included the name of the person accepting it. It has been three weeks since then and still no reply from home bargains. It just shows how pathetic they are and how little they care about customers and their reputation. They may be cheap, but if you have any problems with their products, do not expect any remedy or service!

I bought a fully comprehensive car insurance policy and due to an accident, need to make a claim. The policy clearly states that to make a claim, go to insurance.claim@*******. Lo & behold, this leads to all avenues EXCEPT that for lodging a claim. When I searched for booking.com's customer service (phone) details, I was delighted to reach their site which proudly claimed that customers could reach them 24/7 - but no matter what I did, no phone number could be found. I am supposed to be a Genius level 3 customer but this doesn't help me one bit! When there is no problem, Booking.com works well BUT the moment you need their help, they become invisible & totally uncontactable! This is a pathetic business that very unprofessionally (& very short-sightedly) ignores customers and treats them as a mere, dispensible inconvenience. Do NOT BUY INSURANCE from this scam merchant!

I transferred my SIPP to Barnet Waddingham (BW) because my previous provider did not allow certain investments. BW is diabolically bad and treats client service as an annoying inconvenience to be dispensed with. On 16th February, I received notice from Interactive Investor (that it would cease providing its Pension Trading Account service and thus clients were to transfer their accounts elsewhere. After many attempts, I managed to get hold of my BW relationship manager, MC. He assured me that he would find an alternative PTA provider and would email me to let me know. That, as always in the past, never happened. MC is a disgrace to his profession. After waiting for several weeks, I contacted BW again and was put through to someone who assured me that he would come back with the information I needed. I also asked for a change of relationship manager because MC was absolutely useless. The person I spoke with agreed to pass my message to his superiors. It has been 1.5 months now and nothing has happened. Today, I tried calling BW again but, of course, their robot informed me that all the agents were tied up… This happens all the time. If you're looking for a SIPP provider, the last firm you should go to should be BW. It is pathetic beyond belief and specialises in adding insult to injury - a true disgrace to its industry.

The 3-strong service crew led by Iryan on Scoot flight TR431 from Kuching to Singapore on 20 April exhibited an appallingly dismal standard of customer service. I had injured my leg and was walking with a cane but had been allocated a seat in the 2nd last row. (Scoot's app is also very poor as confirmed by the senior crewmember, Iryan, when I mentioned it.) The app very annoyingly would not allow me to add a seat selection when checking in. Having thrice asked 2 members of the crew if I could be moved closer the front, I was assured by both that they would check & revert. When this failed to happen, I asked for the 4th time and was promptly told by Iryan that there were no available seats except for upgradable ones. When I informed him that I would be happy to pay for one of these, he said he would need to check (about what I do not know) and revert. Naturally, this failed to happen yet again. I then asked one of his colleagues to call him over. When he finally deigned to appear, I informed him that by failing to deliver what they promised every single time, they were adding insult to injury - which invariably results in poor customer experience. Iryan was surprisingly blasé and didn't seem to be at all bothered by this; almost as if receiving such complaints was a regular occurrence to be ignored. Intriguingly, as he mentioned that he had no idea what customer service training SIA crew received, I detected an ill-concealed smirk. Considering that Scoot is part of SIA (of which I have been a Gold Krisflyer member for well over 2 decades), this is most disappointing. I would've thought that they would select and train their frontline service staff - even for the low end Scoot - to reflect SIA's lofty standards to ensure positive customer experience. (In a world where consumers always have options, customer service is often what differentiates!) This is evidently not the case. Needless to say, I will be avoiding this airline like the plague in future. PS: (1) I never did hear from Iryan if there was an upgradable seat available (I highly suspect that there was). (2) iryan jovially pointed out that SIA's Krisflyer gold membership was worth nothing when flying Scoot.

Sainsbury's is a typical big business that makes it virtually impossible to submit a complaint. Go online and try to find a way of doing so! It is not only do they NOT care about customers, they probably derive pleasure in frustrating them. I wanted to leave a complaint about very poor packaging of one of their products but was (most frustrating and annoying me) unable to do so. Their systems are shortsighted as such annoyance forces customers to go online (& instead of just submitting the complaints to them directly) and leave complaints and bad reviews on platforms like Sitejabber. Additionally, it forces customers to go to their competitors that are both better at customer service and better priced (which is not difficult). Really stupid!

The partner I dealt with is exceedingly poor in communicating & does not bother to reply to voicemails & emails. Quite pathetic. He appointed an associate (consultant - outsourced?) to deal with my issue against a cowboy motor repairer (and scam artist) when they should have known from the outset that this was a non-starter because the scammer had dissolved the company he used. I ended up paying this law firm c. £3,000 for zippo. I now understand why there is such a host of lawyer jokes!

In the last fortnight I have spoken with Which? Legal thrice. Each time, a swift appointment was arranged and each advisor I spoke with was professional, very personable and provided sound advice. One even sent me an excellent template to edit and send to a party with whom I had serious issues with. Another advisor (re another issue) explained that as the company had deviously wound itself up, there was no recourse under UK law (as Lord Denning MR so astutely observed, "the law is an $#*!"). This was very unlike a legal firm which I had engaged. (The latter disgustingly charged me c. £3,000 to come to the same conclusion.) The Which? Legal service at £9 a month is well worth it.

The Car Space is NOT just a great car storage facility (they stored 3 of my cars for months) but its owner, Colin, goes far beyond the call of duty! He has been hugely proactive, professional and (this makes ALL the difference!) personally attentive and helpful in providing expert (and honest) advice on and indeed, solutions for the maintenance and restoration of my vehicles. He certainly does not operate on a "one size fits all" basis but is truly bespoke; bringing to bear his decades of experience in car sports and maintenance. Seriously exceptional customer service - which sets him apart from most in the motor trade. I could not recommend him and The Car Space more highly.

I paid the customs charge on a parcel expecting it to be delivered. No delivery happened. When I checked up 4 days later using the tracking reference, the update stated that delivery had been attempted and a card left. This was most certainly NOT the case! I then called Parcel Force's customer service and was assured that the parcel would be delivered today. Again no delivery. I called customer service again and was told that the previous person I spoke with had made a mistake and I could either re-arrange the delivery OR pick it up. As Parcel Force seems to hire only very "challenged" individuals, I shall pick it up myself. No wonder Parcel Force has its extremely well-deserved 1 star rating!

I have bought through Car And Classic previously and thought they were pretty poor as it seemed that they took far better care of sellers than they did buyers. I was wrong. I sold two cars earlier this week through them and had long conversations with one of the sales people who agreed that as I was going to be taking the photographs, there would be no charge for photography. Obviously (and the next person I spoke with at the company told me this was the case) he did not communicate this arrangement down the line. Indeed, when I received the closing statement, I found that I was charged in full for photography and the editorial (most of which, I provided by way of information). Their "customer success executive" then contacted me to say that I would receive a discount of £50 when I was charged £300 for the "auction editorial fee". (He said that the "discount" would be £400 over 4 cars, so how my discount ended up being £50 is quite beyond me. It is also interesting as the sales rep. I've been dealing with assured me that I'll be getting a discount of "£100 to £200" PER car.) Interestingly, when I tried to find out what their sellers fees are, I found it a real challenge to get the full picture. They seem to try to hide the info in different places i.e. The fee, the minimum fee, and any information relating to photography and editorial costs (which seems not to exist in writing). Car And Classic is quite a distasteful outfit to work with and I am glad to see that there is a "big three" auction house that has started its own online car auction service. I hope it will take a lot of business from this very pathetic cowboy outfit.
PS: I was assured that the payments would be received by me within 24 hours. It's been over 4 days now, and still no funds have been received. Additionally, I've asked Omar to have a senior customer service member ring me. He assured me it would happen. Of course, it hasn't! As I said, pathetic!

We have been far too long-suffering with MRFS. My wife has insisted on using them for the last 20+ years, and I am constantly amazed by how they manage - time, time and time again - to mess up our gate and home security system. It seems that every time they come to fix anything, it is only a matter of weeks (or even days) before they have to come back to try to remedy the very same problem. In the last 3 weeks, our gate (which was only fixed months before), has failed twice. Each time, I've had to go out there to manually unlock the gates and open them. Not great for security. When I called to report the problem today, I asked to speak with a manager. But the lady who took my call informed me that there wasn't a manager available. This may explain the chaos that seems to rule in this company. Interesting to know that the number one top goal on the website reads "customers – we strive to understand customers requirements and preferences and to exceed expectation at all times. We aim to be the best in the industry." Surely, they jest!

UPDATE: After replying to their customer service's request for photos, LightInTheBox agreed to refund my payment without the need to return the items (which I have donated to the homeless). Because of this I have changed my rating to 3 stars.

I have used the AA - of which I have been a member for some 4 decades - for both pre-purchase car inspections and breakdown services. Disappointingly, I have noticed that their service has become increasingly user-unfriendly, sluggish (untimely & convoluted), difficult to access & bureaucratically nonsensical/annoyingly unhelpful i.e. Providing a worsening service for increasing membership fees. For car inspection services, I have recently used a major service provider which delivered a service every bit as good as the AA's but at 60% of the cost. Additionally, unlike the AA, it was very easy to book an inspection. The AA invariably had me fill in lots of details only to tell me that I had to call an operator, who then, for various contrived reasons, ended up charging me more than the online estimate. Today, I called to book a breakdown service on my app, but the robot kept insisting that I do so online or on my app. When I tried the latter, I was unable to login. I wasted no less than 40 minutes trying to get through. It seems to be clear that the AA whilst revelling in its large membership numbers is patently failing to upgrade its infrastructure and capacity. I am now looking at their biggest competitor with a view of joining them - and terminating my AA membership. The AA truly has gone down the pits; adding insult to injury.
PS: I finally got through to an AA operator who proceeded to tell me that (even though my car is taxed) because the MOT had run out a short while before (I have been away for over a month, and today was the first time I driven the car), that they could only transport the car to a garage at my expense! Why would I do that when I know that the AA charges a premium on everything they do?!

I ordered a bludgeon, a trench club and a dead blow truncheon. I arrived today to find that they have been waiting for me for almost a fortnight. I was more than delighted with the quality. Really exquisite and be fitting any collection. I love them!

Contempt & insults for "veteran" ebay member! I have been a very prolific buyer on eBay for over 17 years. Recently (and for the first time in over two years) I listed via auction a number of items on ebay. After a quarter were sold, ebay – without explanation or reason – restricted my account. I contacted them and was told many times by them (& received a message confirming) that the problem had been resolved. However, because I was about to leave for vacation, I told them not to relist the items they had cancelled as I would not be able to post them. After a month, I contacted them again and asked about the funds that were due to me. Two days later I received a message asking me to provide proof that I had bought the items I had sold. This is ludicrous as many of the items were bought years ago and being low-cost items in the main, I have not kept any records. I have also received nearly 1300 100% positive feedbacks! When I called ebay again today to complain, the Ebay staffer hung up on me and has apparently blocked my number as I am now unable to contact them. I have called the financial ombudsman service and they have opened a case. Let this be a warning to anyone thinking of listing on eBay. They may be good to buyers, but they treat sellers like dirt. They seem to be intent on keeping the over £6000 they all me! There are many other wonderful platforms to use and I would suggest that sellers do online searches to find "alternatives to eBay". Do not suffer and be humiliated by this platform the way that I have been.