Peter Sowerby

Jake made the process very straightforward and easy, quickly picking up my original quote from earlier in the month and putting everything in place within a few minutes.

I'm absolutely thrilled with the quality of the product I bought through Bestatprinting.co.uk. The leaflets have rich colouring, clear images, high quality paper and thickness + I benefitted from fast delivery - for an extremely competitive price. It's a credit to 'my' business to be able to distribute these leaflets and I place an enormous amount of value on that. I highly recommend this business and personally, I will be using them a great deal in the future.

I have dealt with this company for three years and I can't say it has been a positive experience overall. The biggest problem has been their operatives consistent failure to lock and secure the bins after collection. Because our bins are opposite some social housing, this caused a consistent problem with fly-tipping, which resulted in Fresh Start either refusing to collect the bin concerned and/or applying excess weight charges to our account. Placing signage on the bins, asking for them to be locked after collection, made no difference whatsoever. On occasion, during storms, the wind caught one of the empty bins, taking in down the street onto the main road into the path of traffic, which could have caused serious consequences for our business, as we would no doubt bear liability for an any accidents resulting.

Just recently, the pin in the lock wore down on our general waste bin and we have been unable to lock the bin after collection. Despite reporting this problem 2 months ago, the issue was never resolved. Subsequently, the fly tipping increased substantially, almost doubling the charges on our account. This caused a direct debit to fail, whereon Fresh Start applied an immediate stop on collections and applied a penalty charge, then they left it over a month to deal with the issue. In contrast, the other bin, which we were able to keep locked, did not suffer any fly-tipping. Therefore, it could not be more obvious as to why this problem occurred.

Of course, when in the past, when collections have been delayed or missed, no credit is applied, which seems hypocritical at best. We are expected to simply understand operating issues within their company and accept them without complaint.

We are a small hospitality business operating in currently quieter times than usual. If anything, we should be well below weight limits in all our bins.

Fresh Start's excuse is that our glass bin is not kept in the garden, which has never had a lock on it and has never really been a problem in respect of fly tipping. It is the large general waste bin and cardboard bins that are most affected and these are the ones we need to keep locked.

Fresh Start have offered to exchange the faulty bin but only when the 'full' charges are paid, including all the excess weight charges, plus another month's charges contractually due, even though they haven't been collecting any of the bins.

I just don't think that's good enough. As far as I am concerned, the onus is upon their operatives to lock a bin after collection when they find it locked on arrival, and to secure the brakes on bins that they find the brakes applied on, but most of all, to have dealt with the issue of the broken lock in a timely fashion, rather than leave the bins to overflow and then apply excess weight charges!

I approached the Ombudsman because my energy provider increased my monthly budget from around £150 to £1550 a month from October 2023. I told the energy company I believed the meter to be faulty and I advised them, as well as sent them, photographic evidence proving this to be true - but they insisted upon an engineer attending, at my cost. Even on the readings from the faulty meter, actual consumption was half the amount demanded each month. Despite the fact that I told my energy supplier that the business could not possibly afford that monthly budget, they persisted in their demands. This stripped away all the business's cash reserves, a bar/bed & breakfast, directly preventing me from opening two of the three rooms I planned - and needed - to open in Spring 2024. In turn, at least £25,000 of losses resulted from the inability to open those rooms. My complaint was dealt with reasonably quickly, efficiently and was also upheld, but the amount the Ombudsman ordered my energy company to pay me for their failings and poor handling of my case was just £100, plus a letter of apology. It appears that an energy provider deliberately driving a company out of business in such a fashion isn't something the industry regulator concerns itself with and therefore, condones. Going to law, which I certainly cannot afford now, seems the only realistic option - but then, what is the purpose of having a regulator if not to challenge and properly punish an energy provider when so clearly at fault?

What on earth has Betfair done to it's online app??? They've taken something completely user friendly and simple, over-complicating it to the point where it's unusable. I could not even find my way to the betting slip. Ridiculous!

I am unfortunate enough to be a 'Partner' with Booking.com, which means I pay the 15% + VAT for bookings at my boutique hostel and in return, they treat me with contempt. My experience has been that they employ large numbers of homeworkers in various countries, many of whom have very poor english, so misunderstandings and errors arise due to the language barrier, but then Booking.com put their head in the sand - contemptuously ignoring all complaints - and continue demanding their fees even when they are wholly at fault. Due to messing up my onboarding vetting procedure and the poor advice I received from their representative in setting up my reservation policies, I have been left with thousands of pounds of losses (both past and incoming), because 5.7/10 guests are not showing up/canceling inside the chargeable period but I cannot charge them because Booking.com will not provide me with the card details and even when 'they' have them, they are not charging the cancelation fee - despite the fact that their reservation page specifically states - The guest 'will' be charged the first nights stay/whole cost of booking if they cancel within 1 day/3 days of arrival/at any time. Incredibly, as this problem developed, they proposed nothing to stop it apart from giving them control of collecting payment!? Why would anyone agree to that when the same company insists on charging a commission on the bookings that don't show up or cancel too late - knowing full well that the 'partner' isn't just losing the 15% + VAT buit the WHOLE value of the booking? Such disreputable behaviour does not inspire trust - at all! So, as a partner, serious problems and financial losses don't seem to be of a concern to Booking.com but compare this to their treatments of guests, its a very different story. As stated, if a guest cancels or doesn't show up, its just hard cheese for me - even though they might have blocked out several days of availability in the week ahead, so two,three or more nights income could be lost - but - if I need to cancel on a guest, well that doesn't sit well with Booking.com at all! Firstly, as always, they want their fee (a given) but then, they want ME to pay the difference between my accommodation price (very competitive) and the rate demanded by another Booking.com 'partner' for their accommodation (often more than double my price) to host the guest and whom who they will ALSO collect a fee from! Add to this the fact that if a guest does no show up, cancels inside the chargeable period but does not pay the cancelation charge or even runs off without paying, Booking.com will not even do as much as remove the 'Genius' level award that allows them access to discounts on bookings, which should be the very bare minimum penalty for such behaviour. They are clearly biased towards guests, seeming to react immediately in their favour when there is a problem - being in direct contract with the stone wall that meets the 'partner' that encounters a problem. As far as I am concerned, anyone thinking of using booking.com to let their property should tread very carefully indeed. Their system is highly complicated/confusing and if there is any sort of issue - however serious - only expect ignorance and fees!

As a venue owner, I was approached by BT Sport last month with a GREAT offer... Half Price BT Sport, a social media coaching session, starter pack (with banner) in return for a Budweiser product to be offered on my bar, a projector AND screen! It was an offer none could refuse

Except - IT NEVER HAPPENED!

I got BT Sports installed and the 'BILL' - taken by DD - but NO Banner, NO Social Media Support, NO projector and Screen and NOT even the event Posters to ADVERTISE the actual content (AT ALL!) and NO new product to offer on my bar either...

I complained - TWICE - and got BLANKED...

ALL I am saying is, as a venue, they COULD 'NOT' have UTTERLY FAILED US more miserably than this...

So...just make sure you 'wind' that into the next conversation with the BT Sport Rep that calls you...

Utterly DEFICIENT customer service needs to be called out, always!

Now to the DISGRACE that is Twitch TV. A service that flogs its wares shamelessly to CHILDREN without any consideration for the emotional and mental burden they place upon that child, tempting them with something that they desire so much but often cannot afford, so they will seek any means to get, even stealing - Sound 'Familiar' anyone?

Kids love games, games are supplied by the UBER Dealer, Microsoft. and to access those games online - the only way to play - there has to be a subscription, which means, in effect, a route to a bank account/card details.

Now, these guys fob off any responsibility by sending out 'parental guidance' emails and other such rubbish, but even so, they are quite capable of repeatedly overcharging or ignoring cancellations/ denying refund requests (IF you can even unravel the ball of wool that it is to find your way into that process to begin with) and if your request doesn't fit their criteria, your money is gone - that's that.

As for TWITCH, when my son mistakenly clicked on 16 'subscriptions' to 'watch' someone else play a game, running up a bill of £78 on his mum's bank account, TWITCH said that he should have 'read the Terms of Sale'.

What is the Terms of Sale? Well, it's an enormous legal document. How old is said child....? He's THIRTEEN.

They WON'T give the money back and DO expect our son to understand Legalese - and unfortunately - there is no Regulator there to go to, to encourage them not only to be more reasonable but maybe just REALISTIC. just as a start!

This wasn't an inadvertent 'click', it was SIXTEEN separate transactions... yet the onus remains on the CHILD to read the legal documents, rather than the company to flag up a potential issue...REALLY (?)

Best of all, they would have taken that £78 EVERY month thereafter...

I would encourage all parents to Boycott this service and bar their children from accessing it, whether via parental controls or your Firewall. Even a kid doesn't make the same mistake sixteen times unless they really believe that what they are doing isn't wrong.

Always problems with passwords and the reset process always jams. In the end, you just give up.

On visiting the Eccles store today I had the misfortune of dropping six bottles of wine when the box gave way. Strictly speaking, it was more my fault because I was holding it by the grips, which seemed strong enough by far. Unfortunately, it wasn't! I felt the staff handle this situation amazingly well, arriving quickly with an anti slip sign and collecting up the broken glass with safety gloves, then clearing up the mess and then, amazingly, offering me a free replacement box of wine. They were pleasant and helpful throughout the experience, sparing me my blushes. I have worked in mystery shopping for many years and in my opinion, this was absolutely first-class service and the best possible way that they could have handled the unfortunate accident. In fact, I now feel obliged to visit the store much more often on my way home. Full marks!

I have just had a run-in with this company. It has taken all afternoon and four chat sessions - that have been ended before resolution - until I finally managed to get some of my money back for a subscription that was 'inserted' into the checkout summary on a product I had genuinely intended to purchase.

The single response offered was to extend my AVAST Internet Security subscription, instead of giving a refund - and it was replying to that, with a testy demand for a refund, which finally elicited one.

On any level, that proposal could never be acceptable. There was no need for an unwanted product to be 'slotted in' to the checkout page like that and it could not have been but a deliberate act.

The fact is, I use this company to PROTECT me from the downsides of buying online, not to become a victim of sharp practices!

In fairness, perhaps their customer services is outsourced abroad, perhaps there were misunderstandings, but it was not a positive experience for me, throughout.

All I would say is, I'm happy enough with the products I have bought but if there is a next time, I will check that all the T's are crossed and the I's dotted before going ahead with anything.

Simple process, competitive quote, followed up immediately with the right documents. I am not sure if this company is a new kid on the block, but regardless, they are doing things right. That is what counts. Highly Recommended in my book

These jokers keep telling me that I've put in the wrong password when I go to have it changed, they're stupid, useless app doesn't come up and give me any kind of a chance to do so. ridiculous!

I originally answered the advertisement on Facebook for specsfactory thinking that, by the time I got to the end of the quotation at the appointment, the price would probably be much the same as I had been quoted by other opticians. I could not have been more pleasantly surprised.

I was able to purchase varifocal lenses, with a wide-angle reading area, for just £109 all in. The choice of frames was very good and comfortably matched the range I had seen in other opticians. The assistants at the Eye Centre in Heywood could not have been more friendly and helpful. I also appreciated theit very careful observance of covid-19 precautions. Overall, I was delighted with my purchase and have saved something in the order of £150. It doesn't get better than that!

I have just spent two hours trying to contact Virgin Media to no avail. My contract price was virtually doubled last month and when I tried to look to see if I could trim services, as I was happy with the broadband, zero information was available. Contacting them by phone was impossible. The suggested alternative text link was never sent to my mobile despite two requests and trying to cancel the service was even less joyous yet! You just end up going around and around in a loop and when you complain, there is a dead link in the footnotes of the form entitled 'get in touch'...IF ONLY!? In the end, there was NO alternative but to cancel my direct debit as the ONLY means of getting some attention from this company. It's a dire standard of service, whereas the services provided have been reliable and - until now - reasonably priced. I am not, at all, convinced that all the faffing about isn;t deliberately designed to deter cancellations or even enquiries.