They Are Crap

Barclays Bank complaints - my story

barclaybasher — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 20:14:12 +0000

Thanks

NORTHWOOD RESIDENTIAL LETTINGS (Leicester)- THEY ARE CRAP AND HAVE ARROGANT ESTATE AGENTS

suth29 — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 13:35:13 +0000

I have recently been made redundant and had to find a new job very quickly. This has happened prior to the end of my rental period. i’m happy to pay rent for the next two months even though I’m not going to be living in the property. I have to move into my new property by the end of this week (moving to London) and Northwood are stalling gving me a reference to the new estate agents for no reason other than they have an arrogant twat working there. I need to move as i start my new job next week and they’re being really difficult about inspections/refernces etc. I’m 30 yrs old, am married and a perfectly good tenant, go after the people who don’t pay the rent and look after the properties and stop penalising the good tenants.

Don’t ever use the agency as they won’t ever carry out any work that needs doing, you’ve been warned!

Chancer estate agents

MR LIKELY — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 15:02:12 +0000

There’ve probably been numerous complaints like this. About estate agents who use bully tactics and the fact that most people are ignorant of the law to unlawfully retain deposits. Mead Estates in Walworth Road London is such an estate agents. Due to incompetence on behalf of the letting agents we were facing losing our deposit due to our notice only reaching the landlord on Nov 3rd. We mistakenly gave notice to our letting agents 6-8 weeks in advance. They did not inform us it had to be handed to the landlord. The landlord, Mead Estates, said we would lose our deposit for two reasons: 1) we hadn’t given them one months notice, we were 3 days shy of one month, and, 2) we had not met the requirements of the lease. Apparently our lease stated that we had to have been residing at the premises for 6 months before we could hand in notice. This effectively ties you into 7 moths as opposed to 6 which is accepted by law as the get out date of any lease. We’ve read the lease and it says nothing of the sort. We were told by Mead that we would get our deposit back if a tenant was found before our tenancy ended and received an e-mail to that effect telling us a new tenant would be moving in on 09/12. This was mid-november so a holding deposit must have been taken from the prospective tenant in order for the property to be removed from the viewing market. On 30/11 i was informed that the tenant had pulled out and we were once again facing the threat of losing our deposit. I have since sought professional advice and have been told that we are not liable for the property as Mead had found a tenant and had told us so, in writing. Mead is aware of this but is still prepared to go to court, probably in the hope that I will fear the cost of leal council and take the loss. I won’t. I will sue the, and not just for the deposit. i will also sue them for the interest accrued by my deposit while they have held, legal costs and for the traumatic cost. You see, my fiance and are expecting a baby at the end of January and we are in dire need of this money. Mead Estates is aware of this but do not seem to care and are prepared to go to court even though they stand to lose. This has caused a considerable amount of stress as my fiance worries constantly about money.

Shame on those companies that willingly and knowingly take money that isn’t theirs from people who really can’t afford it. Moving house is a costly enough procedure for the average person without ruthless sharks taking advantage of us. having said that, we shouldn’t generalise as my new letting agents, Pickwick Estates, and my new landlord, are bending over backwards for us. It’s just a shame as companies like Mead Estates give the rest a bad name.

WATER FOR WORK

MG — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 11:07:24 +0000

Bad service. Bad account management. Bad customer services.
In short. After chasing us on an account that we had held with them for water and then settled and paid. Water for work then proceeded to pass us on to a debt collection agency. We then provided evidence that we had paid in full, and in the mean time paid an extra amount to call off the debt agency. It has subsequently become apparent that we are over-paid and they owe us close to £50. Which WATER FOR WORK are unwilling to return.
WATER FOR WORK are bad… don’t use them use POWWOW instead they provide much better customer orientated services.

Beware Aria Technology Ltd – aria.co.uk

eren — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 14:00:15 +0000

Goods I bought from Aria Technology Limited (Aria PC Technology –aria.co.uk, an online computer components distance-trader based in Manchester UK) were misdescribed, faulty/unfit –it said they were not.

Shown so, it simply varied on its website the technical specifications, without more.

It wrote that I damaged the two items returned worth some £100; reminded that it had said there was nothing wrong with them when, despite their return within the cooling off period, it refused to refund, it claimed a right to credit only, and only in respect of its house brand, avoiding reference to another brand. It claimed a right to automatically deduct 10%-25% ‘testing & re-stocking fee’ –even for an item never returned it!

Told of the law and its duty to know or ascertain it, it wrote that its company secretary Frank Harasiwka –a member of the (British) Institute of Chartered Secretaries & Administrators, and its “managing”/sole-director-and-owner Aria Taheri advised not to authorise due refund.

When made to refund, it claimed a telephone agreement seeking to make statutory entitlements conditional ~when asked to state time-date-number involved it did not reply.

Having been warned that its failures to respond were necessitating reminders which was costing me time-effort-money, and that I would comment on its trading practice in my experience, it claimed some £500 which it said my faxes administratively had cost it, with a bogus court summons -which the court knew nothing about ~when given opportunity to explain itself, it did not reply!

Its company secretary and sole-director/owner had also not replied to correspondence at their direct contact addresses by law stated for direct contact on companies house records.

Letting/Estate Agents are TW*TS - Discuss…

Rememberthelittleguy — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 10:52:31 +0000

Is it just me or has anyone else found Property Agents complete idiots?

After viewing and agreeing to rent a flat in manchester through the lovely Hugh Grant-Esque fop agent called James (emphasis on the ‘Agreeing’ part of that sentence), we asked him how the credit check system worked. He wasn’t sure about what details we needed so we were assured that “the office will call us to confirm the cost and documents needed”. We shook hands, then confirmed we wanted the flat in a phone call to him the next day.

Imaging my face when when i call them to find out how they want me to hand over my £1500 only for James (Mr Darcy) to inform me that they have given the flat to somebody else.

After the a few mumbling broken words, he hits me with “I did leave a message, let me just find the number i called…”. I think King James the Turd doesn’t realise that mobile phones have this handy feature with the catchy title “Missed Calls”. Added to the revolutionary “Answer Phone” and i am guessing he was just pretty poor at his job and couldn’t be bothered to fulfil the empty promises that spouted from his empty, perfectly parted head. Who needs to call incompetent call centres when you can actually go and meet them face to face for free?

Shame on you James and Letting/Estate Agents in general, if i want to deal with loan-sharks, money launderers and nonces i will go to prison thanks…

CINEWORLD - I want to eat my OWN sweets!

urbanfox — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 14:31:40 +0000

Dear Cineworld,

When I think of the word ‘Cinema’, it conjures memories of yesteryear, a bloke at the front playing the piano while black and white people fall over and hang off buildings in an amusing way, the velour curtains sliding, nay, sweeping majestically to the edges of the screen as the lights fade. The time when the film would have an interval half way through and a woman with a torch and a tray would mill randomly around the cinema selling choc-ices for 15p (That’s about 15p in today’s money), then when the film finished, you could just sit and wait for ten minutes, then watch the whole film again for free!

Sadly, those heady halcyon days have faded into a murky yet somehow golden past. These days we are ‘treated’ to 3D dolby laser-disc digital surround sound experience, a choice between arm-chair Pullman seat luxury, spring loaded cushion pad technology or the wet cardboard boxes down the front, little blue lights that line the aisles guiding you to your seat in the dark and large burly security guards making sure you don’t take sweets into the cinema that were purchased from ‘elsewhere’. It’s comforting to know that these ‘bouncers’ are employed not to protect the public from screaming nutters trying to emulate their hero from the film ‘Who got stabbed this time 2’ but to eject anyone who commits the heinous crime of secreting a packet of polos in their handbag, or a carton of ribena about their person.

As I visited one of your supposedly capitalist Cineworld cinemas yesterday, being charged the princely sum of £6.50 at peak times and £6.49 at off-peak times (Which is normally between the hours of 9am and 11am when the cinema is shut), I entered the foyer and noticed the plethora of snacks and beverages on offer. The first machine I encountered dispensed hot and cold drinks. The first nozzle bestowed me with weak coffee, the second with tea that tasted like coffee, the third was still orange with bits of coffee floating in it and the third was hot chocolate, which was actually coffee as they had run out of hot chocolate.

I then noticed a slightly overweight lady ordering a bucket of coke, a hot dog, 2 trays of nachos (One with salsa dip and one with Garlic), a bucket of popcorn, a bar of chocolate, a tub of Hagen Dasz, a choc ice and a muffin. She promptly had a heart attack, not from the consumption of these high cholesterol foods, but from looking at the bill for her purchase. I prised the invoice from her lifeless fingers after administering an unsuccessful kiss-of-life, the six figure sum made even me a little faint, and I’ve got kids! My daughter has had to re-mortgage her hamster cage just to afford a tiny cup of weak orange juice.

I don’t understand where this money is going? The staff are all dopey and look like they should really be at school studying ‘the anatomy of arses and elbows’, so they can’t be getting paid much, the film industry hasn’t come up with an interesting concept for a film since ‘Pingu the Movie’ having to sit through the so called renaissance of the film industry which includes the recent release “Miami Vice” (A reworking of an old TV show), “Superman Returns” (A Reworking of an old film) and mystery and suspense is certainly alive with “Poseidon” (A reworking of an old Film), “King Kong” (A reworking of an old film) and “Oh no, I think the world’s gonna blow up, get Will Smith to help 2” (The sequel to every film Will Smith has ever made). Do you wonder why DVD piracy is so prevalent?

The fact you have a 150% mark-up on your prices has left me with no option but to teach my children the dying art of Smuggling. It’s only a short step from smuggling Truffles into a Cinema to wearing an eye-patch, cutting one of their legs off and replacing it with a piece of discarded plinth from my recent kitchen refurbishment and saying ‘ahaaar’ before every sentence.

I ask you to please consider the fact that what used to be a relatively inexpensive way to entertain the kids on a Saturday afternoon has turned into something akin to being on the corkscrew at Alton towers! You are taking your customers for a ride! Lets hope you never employ ex-health care staff as the amount of people shuffling through your ‘security’ looking like they have abnormal ‘growths’ under their t-shirts will certainly set the alarm bells ringing. Why not go the whole hog and x-ray the people coming through your doors and confiscate anything edible (Which should include finger nails as these are eaten during moments of mild threat or horror)?

Yours thoroughly skint for the next 3 months,

Disgruntled

New Smarties Tube!!

urbanfox — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 14:18:21 +0000

I recently wrote to Nestle and recieved a less than lukewarm response!!

Dear Nestle,

I am sure you have had many e-mails, letters, phone calls and people standing outside your factory with little placards chanting ‘Bring back the old smarties tube’. I understand that when something you’ve grown up with, something that has formed the cornerstone of society for over 50 years, changes – well, as you can imagine, society itself can crumble. Now, I am not a traditionalist, I don’t hanker for those heady days when you’d forget what the letter ‘a’ looked like so you went out and bought 50 tubes of smarties in the hope there’d be one on the lid. Nor do I pine for that halcyon past when life was easy; those coloured sweets reminding me of a better time when people could just leave their front doors open and we’d all huddle round the coal fire – something we wouldn’t have had to do if we’d just shut the front door! I don’t even sit in the corner, rocking and staring at the wall, wishing things didn’t have to change, wishing I could go into shops again and ask for a Marathon and not get funny looks – any more.

No, I am not one of those people. Yes, the packaging has changed, no doubt cheaper to make, no doubt holding less smarties and no doubt creating a furore so large that it markets your product for you! I understand the health and safety angle; many’s the time my class mates at school started clawing at their throats because they swallowed the lid, mistaking it for chocolate. Also, using the lid as a missile and flicking it off the top of the tube almost always ended up with a classmate ending up in the eye hospital. I am not stupid Mr Nestle, I understand that because you can’t re-seal the new tube like you could with the old one, it means you have to eat all the smarties in one go – increasing the frequency of buying replacements – thus increasing sales. I can also assure you that the presenters of Blue Peter are not happy with you – they are now on the look out for something else they can make into a telescope. Also, my son has ADSD and smarties are his favourite sweet, but he said he will never buy another tube unless the shape of the tube is changed back; he used to use the tube as an escape tunnel for his micro machines.

None of these things concern me however, what does boil my boots is that I have nowhere to put my 20p’s!! With the old tubes, I could tell straight away when I had saved up £15. Now I have to count my money! DO YOU THINK THIS IS ACCEPTABLE??? This is where you have failed me Mr Nestle, my finances are now in chaos thanks to you. I have a mind to copy this e-mail to the government – if you won’t bring back the circular tube, maybe they will make 20p’s hexagonal?

MY LIFE IS IN RUINS! My wife is now having an affair with the next door neighbour, my cat has got flu, the binmen forgot to take my bin this Monday and I have nowhere to put this weeks rubbish, I’m having a bad hair day and on top of all this, I HAVE 20p’s STREWN WILLY-NILLY ACROSS MY DRESSING TABLE!! I hope you’re happy with yourself Mr Nestle, when I’m gone, I’m going to haunt you! I WANT COMPENSATION!

If I am not properly compensated, I’m going to tell your boss you hit me.

Kind Regards,

I at least expected a few free tubes to apologise!!

Public Enemy Number 1 (The Playstation)

definitive — Sun, 08 Oct 2006 10:58:11 +0000

I’d like to think, as a healthy hot-blooded young woman, my biggest enemy wasnt 30 cm wide with a 32MB memory. Did you know that statistically the numbers of middle aged men desperately clinging to their childhood has risen alongside the development of the playstation? The number of men who buy flowers for their better halves, and cook romantic meals has drastically dropped alongside the rise in sales?

I hate the damn things, okay i admit to having button bashed along with tony hawk or whatnot on rare occasions but my inexperienced fumblings in comparison to those of my other half are somewhat similiar to the actions of a child with finger paints sitting next to Dali.

Not to mention the effect that the damn things have on my dear partner. The second the green light flickers and the handsets resting comfortably between his eager hands he reverts back to what i imagine he was like as a child. Im sure if i stripped naked, donned a clowns nose and shoes and started doing the can-can in front of the screen he’d merely respond with “thats lovely sweetheart but look what skills i picked up in level 43!!!!!” and when we’ve given up and we’re sitting forlornly on the edge of the bed listening to the almost hypnotic tapping, they come to us to nurse their poor eyesight and strained thumbs!

If mans common enemy is feminists and vibrators. Our common enemy is the playstation.

That said, where did i put them clown shoes? A womans gotta try!

New Smarties tube

oldhector — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 09:15:02 +0000

It’s not a tube!

What fool decided that it was a good idea to scrap the old Smarties tube packaging for a hexagonal box of thick paper? More importantly who let them scrap the plastic tops with the letters on them. Collecting the tops to see if I could spell my name, popping the tube so the tops flew off, shakin’ them around like maracas when I was half way through a packet; these things are more than packaging perks, they are the stuff that childhood memories are off! The first time I saw the new packs in the shops, I felt like someone had changed the locks on my front door. The old tube is gone, and it’s not coming back.

I must confess I have not bought a packet for a while, but I always new it was there if I wanted it!
I propose a Grade listing for UK brands, similar to architecture. Certain brands should be safeguarded, eg. Digestive biscuits, Des Lynams Moustache, glass milk bottles.

London Transport - 418 & 406 bus routes

jbinc — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 12:07:49 +0000

These bus routes are hands down the worst I have experienced on LT - a company not known for its punctuality. I frequently rely on at least one of these routes being reliable in order to get to uni on time. Nine times out of ten, neither bus can be relied on to arrive at the correct time - as an example today, the 418 was 20 minutes late and the 406 did not arrive when it was supposed (having waited for 20 minutes, I was forced to arrange alternate transport at extra cost to myself). While I can appreciate that traffic can delay a journey during peak periods, the recent bus routes which have been provided for these buses seem to, if anything, made the buses even later than before!

With very little in the way of alternatives (there’s no direct train route and few places to park), I have no choice but to either risk being late even though by the times given I should arrive on time, or catch an earlier bus (resulting in over an hour’s travel time for what should be a 30 minute journey!) That is, if the earlier bus arrives at all…

Natwest & All Banks

unknowndomain — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 17:17:49 +0000

As well all know, all banks are crap! My experiance with natwest was terrible, however when you get an unauthorised overdraft fee through your door, or if you’ve had one in the past few years then you can get it back, visit this bbc news article for details and then google around for a good guide on what you need to do. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4940250.stm

Barclays Bank PLC

Paton — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 21:27:47 +0000

I have been a customer of Barclay bank for 12 years and overall they’d always been alright. Admittedly Barclays fraud prevention squad have cancelled payments to my Barclaycard before now causing me to get late payment charges but I’d rather they were over zealous than complacent. My quibble comes is over a standing order & the most ridiculos conversation I’ve ever had with a bank.

ME: I’m calling with regard to a standing order which hasn’t been paid from my account. The previous payment went out on the 23rd July & my internet banking says the next payment is due to leave my account on the 23rd September. What happened to August?
BARCLAYS: Well I can’t see it on the system…..It must be your fault.
ME:Excuse me?
BARCLAYS: You must have cancelled it.
ME: But then why is it still setup for September?
BARCLAYS: I don’t know. Do you want me to make a one off payment for you?
ME: No I want you to tell me why the standing order hasn’t gone out.
BARCLAYS: Well I can’t tell you madame because I don’t know.
ME: Can I speak to someone who does know?
BARCLAYS: I’m afraid you can’t at this time madame, if you feel it’s necessary to make a complaint madame I can get someone to call you back?
ME: I just think it’s a little unreasonable that you can’t pay a standing order your a bank that’s your job. Do you not think this is a little ridiculous?
BARCLAYS: I have logged your complaint now madame someone will call you back in the next couple of days.
ME: Can I make a one of payment?
BARCLAYS:Yes you can make a payment online or in your branch.
ME: I thought I could make a payment while I’m on the phone?
BARCLAYS: No.
ME: Ok that’s fine. Thank you for your help.
BARCLAYS: Miss Paton have you considered Barclays home insurance?
ME: No thanks. (Hang up)

In the end I made a one off payment and the standing order went out the next day and I ended up £300 down. Barclays phoned to apologise saying that the member of staff I’d spoken too would be retrained, they then dropped the bombshell that if they tried to retrieve my £300 it would take 9 weeks, so it was recommended that I take care of it personally it will be quicker.

Banks ay…

MINT CARD

MG — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 20:04:44 +0000

Having had a MINT credit card for over a year I decided I wanted to change the nominated account from which MINT would take my monthly payments. After around 4 months of MINT failing to reset my direct debit information, MINT assured me that when the DD was finally set up a large payment to cover the payment arrear incured over the previous months would be debited in one lump which I was happy with. I received a call on a Friday night from somebody at MINT asking if that was OK and the debit would be made in 3 days. The payment wasn’t taken for some unknown reason and a month later I received a similar call. After that, payments continued in the usual manner.

However, recently I received a termination notice on the account from MINT and an order to cut up my card for default on payments. The account has been frozen/terminated, damaging my credit rating and causing me inconvenience.

Having explained this to the friendly people at MINT they told me there was nothing they could do and it was my problem!

There incompetence is my problem apparently!!!

WALSH GLAZING LTD.

MG — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 10:30:09 +0000

WALSH GLAZING LTD. Lordship Lane, East Dulwich, LONDON

After going in to Walsh Glazing Ltd to order a simple small mirror to be cut for my hallway on Monday I had nothing other than bad service from incompetent staff.
Breakdown of Events:
Monday: 4pm Order Mirror. A slightly apathetic sales man tells me “it will be ready tomorrow - not sure when, we are waiting for a delivery but we will call you.”
Tuesday: Tuesday come and goes. I leave it, not wanting to be too pushy.
Wednesday: 11am I call Walsh Glazing Ltd. to enquire. An older women with a pissed-off and negative tone says they are not sure when it will be delivered, they haven’t received a delivery and will get back to me that day. I say that it is fine, I’m not in a major rush, but could they deliver it (with their advertised free service) when it is ready. In an arse she agrees!
Thursday: After receiving no contact on Wednesday, I call Walsh Glazing Ltd. to make another enquiry. Sorry no voice recording… but the following is a rough transcript of the conversation:
MG: Hello, I ordered a mirror from you on Monday, I just wondered when it was going to be delivered?
Girl1: What’s your name?
MG: My name’s Matt, I came in on Monday late afternoon, its a smallish mirror with one hole in it.
(put on hold)
Girl1: What size is it?
MG: I can’t remember off the top of my head, sorry, I gave the measurement to your man.
(put on hold)
Girl1: Did you leave or deposit or have you got a receipt?
MG: No, I was told it would be ready on Tuesday and you’d call me, I left my number.
Girl1: Well we don’t take orders like that, we only take deposits!
MG: Well I came in on Monday, that is what your man said.
Girl1: I’m sorry I’ve never spoken to you before though.
MG: (starting to get agitated) Yes, I know that, I just want to know when and if you can deliver the mirror that I ordered? I’ve called quite a few time this week as well.
Girl1: I haven’t spoken to you before though, we’re short staffed cause everyone is on holiday.
MG: (starting to get really agitated) I can appreciate that, but that’s got nothing to do with me, all I’ve done is order a mirror from a man in your shop on Monday night and I haven’t received it.
(put on hold)
Girl1: We can deliver it on Monday, we’ve got your mirror here, but we can’t deliver until Monday.
MG: Is that the best you can do? We really need the mirror and we have waited quite a while now!
(put on hold)
Girl1: My colleage is on the other line, hang on a minute.
(on hold for a long time)
Old Women (from earlier in the week): Hi, you want to speak to somebody else?
MG: No…
(pregnant pause)
Old Women: Oh. OK then. Bye.
Conversation ended!
That is the last contact that I had with Walsh Glazing Ltd.
10 out of 10 for customers service!!!

My problem was solved eventually by a great glass company:
Glass London Ltd in Peckham, www.glassinlondon.co.uk