Wendy Aridela

A fortnight after ordering, my t-shirt was still "in production" and hadn't been dispatched, despite a couple of emails I sent, chasing it up.
The replies I received gave the impression of a chaotic organisation who couldn't actually track my order or tell whether it had been printed or not.
I had ordered the t-shirt as a Christmas present, on the strength of the assurance on the website that orders are normally dispatched within 2 days, and so I pointed out that the company (actually a Chinese company called
北京细刻网络科技有限公司) had not kept to their side of the sales agreement and asked for a refund. Initially the company refused, on the basis that my order was in production and should be ready for dispatch soon.
"Soon" being unspecified!
However, once I initiated a dispute via PayPal, the company refunded me within 48 hours with no further excuses, which is why I'm giving them 2 stars instead of just 1.

The lamp I ordered was delivered promptly and was just as advertised. I was very happy with the level of communication I received around my order- thanked for my order and the order acknowledged and then informed when my order had been dispatched.
And - a plus - NOT spammed with lots of marketing material about every other product the Glow Company supplies! (Something too many suppliers fall down on)

On 9th October 2025I bought an advance rail ticket for travel on 30th October. On 25th October I had to cancel the ticket due to illness, so I applied for a refund.
The online app took me round in circles and repeatedly told me I hadn't made a booking, so I emailed customer services. It's now December 10th 2025 and my refund has still not been processed. When I've chased it up, (3 times now) I've been informed that my request will be processed in due course and that responses may normally take 20 working days. Unless they are busy, in which case, it may take (unspecified) longer. I think this is atrocious service and I won't be booking tickets via CrossCountry trains in future,

As someone who knows next to nothing about cars, and finds the whole area of car maintenance quite daunting, I was a bit overwhelmed when my wheel was so damaged by potholes that it needed replacing. The idea of having to contact scrap merchants was frankly terrifying. So discovering 1st Choice Spares was amazing.
One online form to fill in to say what I was after, and by the same afternoon, I had received more than a dozen quotes from all round the country.
I picked one, had a message within the hour to say my order was sorted, and would be dispatched later the same day. And I received my replacement wheel, delivered by courier, the next day.
Absolutely brilliant!
I really was impressed.

I liked the tracking app that showed me where the driver was and how many stops he had before my house. As I was having live plants delivered, this let me be outside, in the garden, all ready, when he arrived.

Good notifications about when the package would arrive and then it was delivered exactly when I'd been told it would.

I had a bad cold, I felt rubbish, I was bored - so I took an online personality test from Yourselfirst.com.
It cost £1.99 to get my report - but hey, what's £1.99?
So I paid.
The test was pretty shallow and superficial - about on a level with the free personality tests on social media. I thought no more about it.
A week later, I got billed £23.99.
It turned out that the £1.99 wasn't simply payment for a test. It was a 7-day trial subscription to a whole array of tests. I'd been under the weather, hadn't read the small print, so my fault.
But most reputable companies do remind you in their welcome email what you've signed up to and many send a reminder before the trial period is up. Not these guys.
Not only do you have to cancel within 7 days to not get the additional charge , you actually have only 6 days to cancel because the cancellation has to fall more than 24 hours before the outgoing payment is due to be taken.
So, next time you feel like taking some low-level personality test, stick to the free ones on social media and avoid Yourselfirst.com like the plague.

Honestly, I'd give 6 stars out of 5 if I could. Steven from Team KO at Octopus couldn't have been more helpful. I moved into a new property today and had had an email to say that my gas meter didn't seem to be on the system - could I please email back with the gas meter number?
Have you ever looked at a digital gas meter?
They are COVERED with numbers!
So I wrote down all of them, having absolutely no idea which was was the meter identifier,
Steven helped me find the correct number - and managed to do it without making me feel an utter idiot, too! So, my gas switch is now well under way - great! It's so much easier to be able to phone up and talk to a real person, and get stuff sorted straight away.

Benbow Brothers just removed a dead tree for us, that was overhanging the house. They did a professional job and left the garden and the path neat and tidy.
They asked us if we wanted to keep the logs or have them take them away. We wanted to keep them, so they left them in a stack. Nice, friendly lads, and the job completed on schedule.

Delivered on time, in good condition, by a friendly driver.

The few positive reviews show that this company CAN get it right. However, the much larger number of negative reviews - of which this is one - shows that they very often don't.
I ordered some ointment from them on 19th November, for which payment was taken. A few days later, they emailed to say this item was on back-order and they'd let me know when it was back in stock.
SO - 1st area for improvement - keep your website up to date with stock levels.
2nd area for improvement - if something is out of stock, tell the customer immediately, and if there is no known date for new stock to arrive , offer a refund.
As I needed the ointment immediately, I cancelled my order and asked for a refund. This has taken two weeks to arrive and several reminder emails from me, chasing it up. (I got it today, December 7th)
3rd area for improvement - issue refunds immediately. Don't say "Your refund will be issued asap." That's guaranteed to lose trust.
4th area for improvement - take customer service seriously. It can make or break your business and with so many negative reviews here, it does look as if you're astonishingly unwilling/unable to learn from your mistakes. When people can easily choose to shop elsewhere, don't be surprised if they do!

I was emailing Octopus because I wanted to change the way I paid, from Direct Debit to bank transfers. My first couple of emails went adrift somewhere, so I labelled the 3rd one THIRD EMAIL! Although I sent it on a Sunday, I was amazed to get a reply within a hour or so. The email apologised for delay in answering and went on to say that my Direct Debit had been cancelled and arrangements to send me regular bills already put in motion. Excellent result!

I'm really appreciating my Oddbox. It's a way of getting a regular delivery of fresh fruit and veg with minimal thought and for an economical cost. The quality and quantity are both good and I appreciate being able to swap stuff I don't like, such as potatoes. It's slightly weird that deliveries arrive in the middle of the night but it's great to wake up to a box of goodies to unpack.

Good.
The shoes are very stretchy and are comfortable to wear. I'm not sure how long they'll last - they are somewhat less substantial than I was expecting. But at the price I paid, I don't mind too much if they only last one Summer. (And they may well last two or three!)

I'd give zero stars or less if I could!
I so wish I'd read these reviews before insuring with Halifax. I had an accident where someone ran into me while I was stationary, Halifax don't deal with the claim themselves - they pass it to Enterprise Rent-a-car who do insurance stuff as a sideline. After 3 weeks Enterprise contacted me and said they that as the other driver hadn't yet even reported the accident their time had run out for dealing with my claim - it would be uneconomic for them to spend more time on it, So here's the phone number of the underwriters - sort it out yourself.Which I have been doing! Halifax have been so unhelpful.

Incredibly user-friendly - I found building a website much simpler than I expected!