Robert Atkin

This review is directed solely to the security staff at Victoria Station.( It will probably go unnoticed as I note that no responses to any reviews have been given but, here goes anyway.) My wife and I visited the station for a quick snack at midday on Saturday 21st July 2026. We were seated at a table outside a cafe in the corner and had just started eating our croissants and drinking our tea and cappuccinos. We were approached by a beggar and he proceeded to spin a yarn about his military escapades in Iraq, Afghanistan and wherever else he could think of. I stopped him in his tracks and he walked away to make a nuisance of himself to others at an adjacent food establishment, whilst all the time furtively looking around for a police or security presence. After ten minutes or so he returned and came out with the same spiel to other customers sitting near us. When we left to catch a bus I approached two of the security staff and reported him to them and they immediately began to go to where we had last seen him. Another member of staff instructed another one to go with them. As we were leaving the station we saw the beggar accosting more people in the entrance arch so I went back and located security and they came out with me. I said that "they obviously knew him" , which they did. I would like to thank them for getting on it very quickly and enthusiastically and hope they, or their managers do actually see this review.

Usually I will not order items from sellers that use Evri or Yodel but there wasn't another option for this particular item from Bristol Museum. My previous reviews have all been one star but, I always give entirely honest reviews, no problems with this one !

On 1/3/2026 my wife sent a 75th birthday gift to a recipient in Sweden via DPD from our local post office. The gift was valued at £36 and we completed the required customs slip, clearly indicating "GIFT" in the tickbox. We have a copy of the completed label. The recipient had to pay 210 SEK in Sweden to receive her gift because Asendia, a DPD partner, had affixed another customs label and altered "Gift" to "Sales". We have made a formal complaint to DPD UK and the recipient has made a formal complaint to PostNord in Sweden about this unethical / corrupt / negligent practice. An outcome is awaited. needless to say we will never be using DPD or Asendia again.

When I bought my new VW Golf I stopped using my Stoplock Original device as it damaged the steering wheel leather on my previous Golf. I saw the Titan lock advertised, watched the video and decided to buy one. Great communication with Ouvra and lock arrived in one week. Easy to fit and will not damage the steering wheel. Great bit of kit. Can recommend both the product and Ouvra.

Generally Lakeside St Neots is very good but there is one thing that is annoying regarding appointments. 99 percent of occasions when an appointment is sought we are sent all the way to Eaton Socon. When one lives at Eynesbury that entails passing right by Dumbelton surgery and within 200 yards of Cedar House surgery to get there ! I appreciate some services are only available at Eaton Socon but surely it can be flagged up on patients files which their nearest surgery is ? Failing that, add "preferred surgery" to the "preferred practitioner" box on Anima.

Bought my wife a bunch of Valentine's Day roses on Friday. Dead by Tuesday. £10 for 5 days. Rip off !!

I order a lot of items on ebay and generally there is no problem if one is careful and selective. Of late, however, there is a practice by some dishonest sellers that needs stamping out. When a seller clearly indicate they use Royal Mail as their courier I absolutely despise it when they then use Evri instead. This week I ordered an item from a seller that indicated delivery would be by Royal Mail and when I received a delivery email this morning it stated it would be with Evri. I avoid Evri like the plague and if a seller states they use Evri that is fine, I just will not place an order with them, no problem. What I don't like is being conned by sellers lying as to which courier they use.

I was trying to source a railway book but the publishers showed it as out of print. I discovered it on the Videoscene website and emailed a query to them. They responded very quickly and I placed an order the next day. Book arrived in two days and was very well packed. I can definitely recommend Videoscene and hope to source further books from them.

Booked because there was a £7 for 8 hours offer with prebooking for attendees of the Theatre Royal. Entered car park on level one and all those that arrived earlier had hogged the middle bay of the blocks of three and there were no blue badge disabled bays on level one or two. This made it difficult for us to find a suitable place to park. After we had parked, the lift was out of order so we had to go up several flights of stairs to get out. The only good thing for our "experience" was that the £7 prebooked charge was 1/3 of the normal £21 charge. Even so, we would not use this car park in future.

I wanted two boxes and visited their stores in St Neots, Spalding, Peterborough and Huntingdon. All were out of stock. When I went into St Neots they suggested ordering on line so I ordered 2 for click and collect at about 2200 one evening. Early the next morning I received a message to say they were ready to collect - only they weren't ! Later in the morning I received a telephone call from St Neots to say they were not there as "the computer" said they had 8 in stock but they didn't have any. ( probably the same reason all the other stores didn't have any ! ) They suggested I place another order on line for click and collect, which I did, and they gave me a refund for the 2 boxes. I am still waiting for the boxes and today I received an email asking me to give The Works a review. I did so, with it being as above and I am still waiting for the two boxes I have paid for but don't yet have. Clueless and inefficient company.

I ordered a 44 page A4 size book, which was a birthday present for me from my wife. It cost £15.50 including postage. Postman Prat delivered the book along with three normal letters. The three letters were okay but the inept Postman Prat decided he would fold the book in half to shove it through the letterbox. This broke the spine of the book and damaged it. This was totally unnecessary as the book, which was in a Jiffy type bubble wrap envelope, fitted perfectly well through the letterbox when I tried it. I submitted a claim and in due course I received "compensation" of... a book of stamps ! So that's alright then. No - it isn't. I wrote a letter of complaint to the CEO of Royal Fail, returned his stamps and told him I obviously could not buy a replacement book with "a book of stamps" and suggested he send me a cheque for £15.50 instead,- which he did!

Visited Tesco Extra St Neots, Cambs, today. Again, several vehicles, including two "white van men" parked in disabled bays and not displaying blue badges. One of the vans drivers was happily munching away on his lunch when we parked, did our shopping and was still munching away when we came out. Staff are not interested and stock answer is, "There's nothing we can do about it". Also - why don't the staff manning the self checkout areas tell customers with half a dozen items , or fewer, in a basket to go to the basket checkouts and not use the trolley checkouts. It is very prevalent of late and a damn nuisance.

Got an email first thing this morning to say a parcel was out for delivery and would be delivered today. Waited in for it. Checked tracking later this afternoon - delayed 24 hours, will be delivered tomorrow. Typical Evri cowboy outfit. Incompetent and inconveniencing. UPDATE:- And then the next day , when I checked tracking, Evri's system told me my parcel was not actually being delivered and was on its way back to the seller ! I despair !! From now on, when a seller indicates "other courier" I will ask them which one it will be. If the response is "Evri" they wont be getting an order.

Went online to check bank accounts 1600 19/11/25. Screen there to view all my accounts but unable to access any of them to do what I needed to do. Went onto chat and the AI Bot is very unintelligent and just asks stupid questions. Even went on to question about a cheque I paid in a couple of weeks ago, which was not the issue I was asking about. Asked to be connected to agent - yes, fine, just hold on for "up to 30 minutes". Looks like I will be closing my accounts with Halifax and banking somewhere else pretty soon.

Considering other options for printing in the future. For people that do limited printing plans are not good. Not happy at the moment.

Ongoing saga with the illustrious bin collectors of St Neots leaving wheelie bins all over the footpath, thus blocking the way for disabled people and those with prams and pushchairs. The CEO and refuse collection manager of HDC appear to condone this thuggish behaviour because time and time again they fail to do anything about it. Perhaps they are not familiar with Section 137 of the Highways Act 1980 and the general guidelines regarding collectors responsibilities ? The CEO just ignores complaints and bungs it over to the collection manager. he comes out to see what the problem is, fobs me off with excuses and is not interested in doing anything about it. And so it goes on and on and on. Even when photographs of the numerous obstructions are supplied they are not interested. Disability discrimination is obviously condoned by the HDC CEO and refuse collection manager.

We don't usually order anything from sellers that use Evri to deliver but on this occasion we didn't have a choice. We ordered some curtains, in store, from Dunelm and they use Evri. Delivery was arranged for Thursday 11/9/2025. Then Evri "delivered" the curtains today, Wednesday 10/9/2025. We have a sign by the front doorbell that clearly says Do Not Leave Parcels in the front or back garden. So what does the Evri idiot do ? He rings the doorbell and by the time my wife got to the door he was 50 yards away up the road, looked round and pointed and shouted to my wife, "It's down there", having dumped it in the front garden and then cleared off. Fortunately we were at home and the parcel was safely retrieved but our sign is there for a reason. We are by a very busy footpath which is in clear view of anyone passing and we have had parcels stolen in the past. Yet another 1 star Evri review ! I despair.

Further to my 1 star review of Evri, three days ago, they eventually managed to find the collection point shop and I walked up to fetch my belated parcel. The packaging was shredded to pieces and had obviously been thrown and dragged about with no consideration or respect. I commented to the shop manager about it as it was that bad. I photographed the parcel before opening it as I suspected the contents would be damaged and indeed they were. Evri cannot get anything right. What a cowboy outfit. Avoiding them like the plague now and will not order anything from sellers that use them.

Yet another poor experience of EVRI. Had an email Saturday 23/9/2025 to say "parcel would be delivered today". Later, a communication to say it wouldn't be "delivered today" due to confusion over delivery address. The delivery address was CLEARLY shown as the Post Office 400 yards up the road from my house but, apparently, that is too difficult for the Evri idiots and the tracking now says it has been returned to "the national hub", wherever that might be from St Neots. Outer Mongolia, perhaps ? Or the dark side of the moon ? From now on sellers that use Evri for deliveries will not get an order from me. Enough is enough. They are just a cowboy outfit.

Worst scenario ever today - 21/8/2025. Came home, footpath which we use to get to our house totally blocked by wheelie bins left by the council. Had to go a different way and again bins everywhere. Over the road were four bins on the footpath, two of which were blocking a driveway so no-one could get a car in or out without moving the bins. And for good measure, they even left one on the road, immediately behind a car. Huntingdonshire District Clowncil should get a bin manager that can manage and they couldn't care less about disabled people wanting to get past their bins.