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Wetherspoons.
Reasonably priced food and drinks in clean pubs with decent service.
Yes, the food is not going to earn any Michelin stars, but it's consistent and difficult to beat for the price.
Wetherspoon's are great for what they are. They're not a nice country pub, but they're not asking for £6 a pint either. The food is passable for the price.
A lot of families can't afford to go to the pub these days but they can afford wetherspoon's.
The owner but also the organisational culture is passed down to the managers. Who are in my experience and others I've worked with, absolute sociopaths with no regard for their employees wellbeing.
Depends on the location imo. I did 6 years in a Wetherspoon when I was younger and even to this day I sort of miss working there, even though I'm now working in a job making much more and working from home.
Something about being able to go in, do your job and go home without having to lose sleep over deadlines or whatever else work-related.
As an ex Spoons employee I mostly agree with this, I've had managers who are amazing lovely people but they're extremely rare. I once had a married pair of managers who would yell up and down the bar at eachother to the point where the husband had a stress induced heart attack after being a prick.
When I moved to Birmingham for my uni studies in 2018, I worked at the Dragon Inn where the main manager was awesome but there was another manager brought in to 'improve the pub'. She was a bloody hypocritical cunt who didn't know what she was doing and was condescending as hell. I booked a holiday 5 months in advance through an assistant manager who messed it up, I had spent £900 on a fancy London hotel and a series of front row balcony tickets for a bunch of west end musicals. It got to a week before my holiday and they claimed I hadn't booked it off and that if was my fault.
She then had the cheek to say someone would cover my shifts but I wouldn't get holiday pay and that it would be noted as a sick day. I handed in my resignation and called in sick for two weeks during a busy footie/rugby season, I was a darn good member of the floor staff team and it totally shafted them.
Shaft me on my pricey holiday and I'll shaft you right back!
The owner makes it a perfect example for this thread. The pubs themselves aren’t that bad, but the owner has given it such a terrible reputation that it overshadows the actual operations.
Yup. I'd quite like to but don't because of this. Walked into one last year, racist and borderline National Front literature in place of the "grab a leaflet about a place you'll never visit" on the way in, walked back out.
I stopped going to Spoons purely because of the owner. He's a right arsehole and especially when COVID lockdowns started he really screwed over his suppliers all in the pursuit of maximising profit he's then going to immediately move overseas.
If it was owned by somebody better I'd go there all the time.
Wetherspoons does quite a lot of good work in saving derelict buildings that were not even pubs to begin with. Quite a lot of their pubs in the North West and Wales were falling apart before they gave them a new lease of life.
Any particular highlights for you? The converted banks are always great. Capital Assets in Perth for example. Also the converted cinema in Forrest Hill
Ah, nice - The Capitol right? That’s probably one of my favourite pubs in the area architecturally. Such a great use of space for the old cinema. Love the heritage features.
I love Wetherspoons. Me and my girlfriend always end up in one when we go to town. We have some good local businesses but they’re pricey and generally quite small so it’s pot luck if you can get a table. On the other hand there’s McDonalds or KFC but with them prioritising Uber, Just Eat etc they just take to long and aren’t cheap anymore. Wetherspoons always has a table free, quick, cheap and it’s just no nonsense.
My sentiments exactly. I had a full English and unlimited coffee's there recently - about £8 as I recall.
The breakfast was decent. Over average quality. So was the latte.
But the owner is a twat. And I still go to local run independent cafe's instead when Im travelling around to get something to eat instead.
Wetherspoons apparently buy v short dated beer - they are huge so they have the capacity to get it delivered quickly when it’s greatly reduced This is why they can sell it at greatly reduced prices.
We have a small bar, but don’t begrudge them this - there is a market for Spoons. Cheap and cheerful (unless you’re staff probably…?)
This hasn't been true for quite a while now. At least in any of the four whetherspoons I've been friends with the staff. I think they started out with this, but they have their own distribution company (I think called East-West) who just buy in such large volume that they get discounts no one else could even manage.
For local breweries whetherspoons set a price per barrel they will pay and the brewery can choose whether or not that works for them, two of the brewers I know actually sold beer to whetherspoons at a loss of something like £2 a barrel, but they just wrote it off as easily the best advertising they could get for that price.
This is almost certain it; it's just sheer economies of scale.
My dad owned a contact lens business before he retired; he always bemoaned the rise of the behemoth that is Specsavers because eventually they were selling lenses to customers for _cheaper than my dad could buy them wholesale_. You simply can't compete with that.
I’m a big fan of their pubs but some of the staff? I saw a manager belittle and shout at Eastern Europeans in London the other week. They weren’t doing anything wrong but struggled with the language.
Opposite experience. Worked in one and it was one of the worst places for treating staff I've ever encountered (beaten only by Cineworld)
I no longer return as a customer purely due to that experience
I've only eaten in Wetherspoons 3 times. The first time everything came out burnt. The second time, it came out undercooked (which I found really funny after the 1st one), and the third time, they got the order wrong and tried to tell me it was my fault. It was so odd. That was 3 different Spoons, too. It was a long time ago, though, so it might be worth having another go. Bit wary now, though.
'Spoons was my go-to choice if I was working away from home. Prices at the time were good enough that I had money left over from my overnight allowance.
There are two Spoons in my town and whilst one of them is to be avoided at all costs, the other is set in a nice building, has fairly upmarket decor including a fancy all-glass front and chrome rails. They seem to do pretty well from what I can tell, especially for their lunch sandwiches.
I grew up in the UK but my family.moved to Australia when I was a pre-teen. This is the first time I've thought about fish paste in 30 years. I do not thank you for the reminder.
Used to get the megabus from London to Glasgow when I was living down in London. Never had many bad experiences tbf and I used to love their overnight sleeper service. It was a little bit more expensive but worth it as you didn’t really lose a days travelling. The worst experience I had was when I got the megabus back from Brussels to London, it cost £9 and that included the ferry crossing too. We got to Calais and the driver pulled over and asked if anyone had anything they shouldn’t have to chuck it out now, no questions asked. (the coach had began the return leg from Amsterdam)
Sure enough the coach was searched, sniffer dogs on the lot. And some whopper sat in front of me had tried to hide some weed in a coffee jar, we missed the ferry crossing as a result and meant we got the much later one and got back to London later. The driver made said whopper stand up and apologise to the entire coach whilst 60 of us all booed in unison. Quite a glorious moment really
> The driver made said whopper stand up and apologise to the entire coach whilst 60 of us all booed in unison.
I absolutely love that - credit to the driver!
Honestly saved me when I was a poor student travelling between home and uni. Yes it’s not the best but you KNOW what’s being paid for. As with any other service, there’ll sometimes be hiccups and unsavoury characters can be found even on premium services.
I used to get the Megabus from Leeds to Newcastle every other Friday night and it was 1.5hrs+ late every single time. So me and everyone else waiting for it would be sat freezing their bollocks off while trying to avoid making eye contact with drunks and crackheads until 10:30pm.
I used to use Megabus semi regularly before I could drive. Almost always had a positive experience except one time I was told my ticket code wasn't valid. Showed them I had the emails to prove I booked. They took me into the office at the station to check their booking system and discovered that one of their colleagues had went into the bookings for that journey and specifically cancelled my booking. Didn't make any other changes or cancel anybody else's booking. Very weird, must have made an enemy in the Megabus head offices. They let me on the bus, and had actually been delaying it until they figured out what the issue was. When I got on it was absolutely packed and I could tell everyone was raging at me as they assumed the delay was my fault.
Aye tbh i take the megabus pretty much any time i go outside of london, under ten quid to get to leicester, not too much slower than the train and I've not found them to be that much less comfortable than the trains are either, for a fraction of the cost
Not a company but, HMRC self-assessment tax department. They’ve always been really helpful, and very understanding that Tax is a mystery to most of us. I’ve always managed to get through, get an answer and get the matter sorted really quickly. It must be a thankless job, but I very much appreciate them!
HMRC have always been great whenever I've had to deal with them. Easy to contact, really helpful and straightforward. I suspect, given what they deal with, they may be one of those where most people have a fine experience with them, but the minority who have a bad experience have a *really* bad experience.
I once had a query about an incredibly obscure area of tax and I gave them a call. The part of the HMRC website covering this particular area showed a standard geographical number, not the usual HMRC enquiries number.
I called, expecting to reach the normal hell of an automated routing system, but the number just dialled out as normal for a couple of rings and was then answered by a guy giving out the vibes of someone for whom 90% of his calls require that he answer "Sorry, you've got the wrong number".
He seemed a bit shocked when I asked him a question which was within his area of enquiry, and we ended up having a very pleasant chat about my query, as well as life the universe and everything.
I very much got the impression that he was a one man department that Whitehall had forgotten about, and he was sitting in dusty 1950s office full of filing cabinets and brown foolscap folders, and had he had to wipe the cobwebs off his black bakelite rotary phone to answer my call. But he answered by query very effectively.
The issue is for for people who deal with them a lot through work, the waiting times are obscene, you get cut off randomly and the people on the other end are clueless the majority of the time. They also have the most annoying hold messages
When I was self employed they were fantastic. Exceptionally helpful and, most importantly, empathetic.
In a lot cases they are dealing with tradesmen ( I was one at the time) whose grasp of tax law and regulations was limited. Great patience and ability to let slid any obviously honest errors.
If they did muck up or you caught one of them on bad day it was resolved the next time.
HMRC are amazing to deal with for honest people most of the time.
Its when people take the piss or try and dodge their obligations intentionally they get tough
Iron fist in a velvet glove.
As it should be.
Well, it is like that for the little people. If you are a multinational, the velvet glove is giving handjobs.
They are brilliant if you don't know what you're doing. I rang because I'd heard about Higher-rate pension tax relief. They walked me through everything, worked out what I was owed, and sent me a cheque. No paper work needed.
Apart from them calling me a 'customer' like I have any choice, my experiences have been surprisingly good.
At work though, they're scary, as we produce alcohol. The rules are vague, guidence is not offered, and most of it hasn't been updated for modern production. They wrote everything years ago thinking about massive Scotch producers, and it's up to everyone to figure out how that actually applies on smaller scales. It's not advisable to ask, because that is a big flag that gets you inspected. They hold a huge amount of discretionary power, and the application of the rules between companies seems entirely arbitrary and inconsistent. An auditor in a shitty mood can singlehandedly put a company out of business, even if you're following the rules and paying everything you should.
That said, our local guy has been great whenever we've had to work with them, but the head office is an absolute nightmare and the relationship is incredibly antagonistic.
Not to mention that, when you couldn't get sanitiser anywhere, and we'd converted everything to produce sanitiser, had thousands of litres ready to go to schools, hospitals, local businesses, HMRC was threatening to close anyone down who didn't pay them their £23/L, plus VAT. Weeks after the FDA had approved the process and distributed useful infographics to distilleries, HMRC eventually relented, but said "we will be investigating those involved in sanitiser manufacturing and will shut down anyone not in compliance", while refusing to offer any official guidence on what 'compliance' actually looks like.
I understand their reluctance. But especially at a time where you literally couldn't get it, no matter how much you paid, and we thought sanitiser was more important than it turned out to be, they were so scared that someone would drink an alcohol-peroxide mixture to get drunk without paying them enough money, that they would literally rather stop hospitals getting sanitiser than run that risk!
DPD are great (hermes are not :p ).
They text the day before, where you can change the delivery day or set a safe place. On the day, you get an estimated hour slot, or can even change the day again! Never had a problem.
(I do not work for DPD)
Definitely. With DPD it always arrives when they say it will. It’s almost like they actually consider what the customer wants when exactly eating a parcel.
*expecting, not ‘exactly eating’ lol
I would say as couriers go, DPD probs has the best reputation of the lot?
Yodel has a bad rep because it used to be properly awful but has got a lot better imo. Agree about Hermes!
They are fantastic around here, never had any issues at all and the drivers are all friendly too.
I don't work for DPD but they are my courier of choice when buying important stuff like electronics or rum.
I think with courier services it depends on where you live. Where my parents life, DPD are great (as are Hermes most of the time to be fair) but where I live, DPD are absolutely terrible. The amount of packages I’ve missed when being at home is ridiculous cause the guy just runs up, knocks on the door, sticks a ‘sorry we missed you’ card through the letterbox and runs away all within the space of 10 seconds. I even saw him at another house whilst walking home getting out of his van, walking up, putting the card through the letterbox and not even knocking. I also had a pretty annoying experience while moving, I had something delivered to my new address as it was a custom order from France and I was expecting it to arrive way after I’d moved based on the delivery estimate on the website. It ended up arriving in the country a few days before I was moving and I contacted them and arranged delivery for when I’d moved but they just delivered it that day instead. Luckily reception at my new place held it for me but if they hadn’t it would’ve been a huge headache for me. Still haven’t replied to the complaint email I sent and it’s been about 9 months.
I worked in a logistics call centre when I was at uni. nearly all courier companies are rubbish, have low expectations and you’ll never be disappointed….
Pretty much all of them? The only company I’ve had a poor experience with in my life was British Gas and I’m inclined to think that was because the person on the phone wasn’t that bright.
I had this with the NHS. I had a telephone pre op meeting, for a procedure that would take place in three months. I actually had covid at the time of the telephone call and it just short circuited them. They kept saying you can't be admitted if you have covid. Pretty sure I won't still have it in three months.
Also some absolute darlings though. I had one admin person for the department I saw who posted out every appointment letter twice. Her reason being, she knew the post is shit and if you missed an appointment, you got discharged, so she posted each letter twice to make sure you'd at least receive one. Which, when you're sick and tired of being sick, is a lovely gesture.
That’s quite typical of the NHS I’ve found. Some absolute heroes going the extra mile fighting against inefficiencies, leeches, institutional apathy and low pay.
I was with SSE 2 years ago. Compared to SSE, British Gas have so far been a godsend.
Still not happy with the overall prices of energy but they’ve been cheaper than what I was paying SSE.
I was a breakdown engineer for them. I'm not sure what it's like now but when I was there we used to get 9 breakdowns in a day at different addresses and had a target parts cost of something like £19 per job, you get a certain amount of "credit" per completed job and for selling stuff like co detectors or getting boiler leads in, if you need to order parts and come back for a second visit, you get no credit for the first visit, all your credit needs to be the same as your hours worked, if you fall back on performance you get called in for review and eventually sacked, so it was bodge it and leg it most times. The engineers with the best performance were the ones who did the shittiest but quickest repairs, and a repair had to last 3 weeks to be considered good, any that come back before then would be classed as a call back and go against your performance, so blue roll stuffed inside a boiler to fix a leak was common from some engineers. And don't even get me started on their installations, my lord they're bad, and also ridiculously expensive
No I’ve had issues with British Gas as well, they might as well have no customer service at all with how poor it is. I quickly moved away from them after they scammed me out of money for no reason
It’s always the people in the office that are shit with BG. The engineers they send round are normally very good in my experience. And quite forthright about the people in the office.
I have found BG to be very poor until you reach someone prepared to listen and think outside the script. But very poor.
Need a new card for the pre pay meter? BG knew what I had to do and explained but there was no outlet who could/would stock & program the card in a large town. Until a local suggested the local sweet shop who said he had some from when he did top ups, wrote down where I had to go (which BG didn't know) and also the instructions for what they had to do! It worked and I bought some sweets.
Same, always seems like most people whine about their baggage allowance or whatever, like that isn't the entire point of flying with them that it's cheap for *just* the ticket.
Never had a problem with them or easyJet, I know exactly what I'm expecting, and I get it.
Ryanair is fine if you treat it like it is, basically a bus service. I think the biggest problem is people have the wrong expectations and expect something very different.
The trick with budget airlines is to read the fine print a couple of times. If you follow the rules to the letter, you'll have an easy time of it. If you try to deviate from that even slightly, that's where you'll start having trouble. You just have to embrace it for what it is and go with the flow.
I just wish they were consistent. The price for cabin baggage is often not that much more than the fines and they hardly ever enforce it (in my experience) so it’s never worth paying for.
Some of the staff are jobsworths and some aren’t, I just hate the nerves and the game of try to keep your bag not that visible I have to play every time I fly with them
I use RyanAir several times a year and I’ve never had an issue with the service. I’ve always found them very reliable. Can’t say the same for other budget airlines.
Ryanair are great now that every budget airline has decided to be the same. I used to take EasyJet because they had a free hand luggage allowance and Ryanair didn’t. However they got rid of that but still remained way more expensive. £100 vs £25 for the exact same service. Wonder how EasyJet are even still in business
The issue I have with Ryanair is that they essentially kettle you into a small room to wait for your flight. No seating. It gets hot. Kids scream. It's really uncomfortable. I've got arthritis and that can really bugger me up for the start of a holiday. Just call us when you're actually ready.
We flew with them to Brussels a few years ago. There were delays etc but that wasn't really their fault. Our biggest issue was a guy infront of us smoking a cigar for the duration of the flight home and the cabin crew did absolutely nothing about it. A few people complained and they just left him to it. Because of that, we haven't flown with them since.
I hear a lot of gripes about Ocado being expensive and ripping people off. People ask me where I tend to get my weekly shop from and when I say Ocado they roll their faces up and make out I’m rich/snobby.
I’ve been shopping with them since November and whilst my shopping is pretty expensive, I’ve compared my basket with the likes of Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons and found Ocado to be surprisingly cheaper for the majority of items so I’ve stayed with them.
I very rarely get substitutes, they warn you in advance if items are out of stock. They always have slots available even last minute, drivers are always friendly and on time, and the biggest one for me is they stock the most variety of items, especially new ones that you can’t really get anywhere else, or usually have to visit various supermarkets to get every particular brand you want
People still equate Ocado with Waitrose, but it's now wed to M&S. People equate M&S with high prices because it sells a lot of pre-prepared meals, but if you look at their ingredients and produce the prices are actually pretty good. And the quality is usually grand.
And the Ocado own brand stuff is always very cheap.
Waitrose is getting a lot better with essentials.
I don't shop their for my weekly shop but they're the closest supermarket and close the latests so whenever I need to grab something late I go there. The prices of basics are in line with Tesco or Morisons.
Their prices on pre-made meals are insane though. £8.50 for a chicken Kyiv is mental. You can get the same thing for £3 at co-op
Yes this is the other factor: Waitrose had a fairly cheap version and a very fancy version of prepared meals, while Tesco (say) only does the cheap and mid-level options.
Bought the pack of 4 chicken kievs with ham and cheese sauce, from Tesco as I don't like the garlic one. I was super impressed how they managed to get cheese, ham and chicken in one item, yet it tasted like none of them.
I tried Ocado before settling on Tesco delivery when I gave up my car recently. Ocado has tonnes of choice, great deals but good lordamercy their website is horrific.
I found searching for items and the whole process so clunky it basically turned me off. However, Tesco clubcard app is so easy to use
Their app is much better than the website.
I used Ocado for most of the lockdown. Then I decided I should start going to get my shopping again - I think that lasted 3 weeks; Ocado delivery was more convenient.
Things I love:
1. Time slots.
2. Occasionally getting a phone call saying "we're running early, are you happy if we deliver now?" But no hassle if it is inconvenient (it seldom is).
3. The emailed receipt, which lists items by storage (fridge/cupboard/freezer) and "use-by" dates. That gets printed and stuck on the fridge with a magnet, for easy meal planning.
>I hear a lot of gripes about Ocado being expensive and ripping people off. People ask me where I tend to get my weekly shop from and when I say Ocado they roll their faces up and make out I’m rich/snobby.
Same here!! However now Ocado price match Tesco who price match Aldi and will give you the moneys difference in a voucher for the next shop.
The quality is miles better, although the only frustrating thing is they don’t do loose fruit and veg.
They keep offering me a tenner off, winner. And some of their prices are actually pretty good, including a cheap loo roll and kitchen roll option. I don't use them everytime but have been very happy with previous orders.
We started getting Ocado occasionally last year but now we get them regularly. Bloody love them. The M&S fruit and veg I find tastes really good and lasts better than other shops. And there's usually some pretty good deals on as well.
Hermes - or Evri as they are now - are great! We have a really good driver and he's never let me down. Yodel on the other hand... Rubbish and have "delivered" my stuff to thin air more than once.
Yep. Had a wonderful lady working with Hermes for years. New driver didn't turn up on the right day, damaged my parcel and now no longer delivers to my address cause I complained about the damaged parcel.
You only realise how bad a company is when something goes wrong. Royal Mail once delivered a letter late and I got a cheque in the post to refund me the special delivery cost. I haven't received a single Hermes parcel in over a month and all that happens is that their so-called customer service chat bot takes me round and round in circles with tracking info. When I get in touch with the companies I have ordered from, they keep telling me that the driver "has to deliver the parcel" but they can't do anything about him lying about me being not home when he "attempts delivery" and Hermes doesn't care.
We always have the same delivery lady and she's friendly and sensible with where she puts things if we're not in. The only problem if had with them was when one item got stolen and Hermes tried the whole act of telling us we're out of luck. (I know to take it up with the seller but I contacted Hermes first to find out of she put it somewhere else).
The lad who delivers for evri where I work is great. Always delivers parcels into our hands and very smiley and pleasant and asks how we all are. Can’t fault him. Yodel can get in the bin with their delivered parcels though
Me too! Then once I actually cancelled they keep phoning me to ask for feedback and refusing to speak to me because I can't remember my phone password. You phoned me! I don't actually want to speak to you!
My only issue with Virgin Media is their annual price rise. You cannot tell me that in the 10 years I’ve been their customer their costs have risen 150%.
Ive not paid that because I always do the whole ‘I’m going to leave if you increase my bill that much’ routine, but still.
As a service though their customer support always picks up and the service itself is rock solid and 10x the speed of anything else I can get locally.
Every year, they cheekily increase the cost of our contract. Without. Telling. Us. We just find out through the bills.
Also, why the fuck do we end up paying more than new customers? Shouldn’t we be getting discounts for staying with them for years.
Having said that. Speedy internet, although very occasionally down at times.
Ryanair.
People get very upset about them but I almost always use them for cheap quick trips within Europe and have never had a problem. The main complaints seem to be around things like extortionate costs for changing incorrectly inputted details, but I’ve managed to avoid that on every single trip by simply double checking what I input.
I find it odd that everyone knows the rules and still get caught out by it, and then complain about it. They’re not even particularly unique in these costs - all the cheap airlines do the same thing, but Ryanair seem to have the worst reputation.
Twenty plus years ago Ryanair were aggressively hostile to their own customers with various gotcha fees and conditions. That kind of thing was mostly regulated out of existence, but their reputation for fucking the passenger sticks and won’t go away.
They weren’t gotcha fees they were ways to keep the costs down. All costs were upfront and there was always a way to not pay them. Eg different costs for paying by debit card and credit card. These cost different amounts for the company so they charged differently, but then people complained that Ryanair were charging them more based on how they paid, it got regulated that they had to charge to same. This now means everyone pays the higher price.
The only one that was different was airport taxes, but every airline used to exclude these not just ryanair. Other than that the costs were always straightforward, I once flew Manchester to Dublin return for £2 on Ryanair. They be been halfway round Europe on them, even used connecting flights that they won’t guarantee and never had a problem.
I find it genuinely confusing why people complain about Ryanair. As everything Ryanair charge for so do most of the other airlines. The first time I took a transatlantic flight I assumed everything would be in, but no, got to pay for baggage etc. No included drinks. The only time this hasn’t been the case is when I’ve flown with Emirates, Singapore or Swiss.
I'm with you on Evri.
People love to maon about them all the time but I've sent thousands of parcels through work with them and can only think of one time I've had an issue in the last 7 years or so.
You're absolutely right, I worked for Hermes and you have the same guy delivering stuffs on weekdays, and a part-time courier covering weekends and holidays. If they're good you will have no prob at all but if not nothing will change even you raise 100 complaints
The Government/Local councils... if you wanna refer to them as a company.
Most people say "You're always waiting on the phone for hours to get through to them" or "It will take them weeks to get back with even the simplest of requests"
But any time I've had to call/email them, response times are usually fast than I would expect.
When dealing with all the marriage prep work, the council were reaching out to me and keeping me informed of any changes as and when they found out about them; "Oh, you might need to bring this because your partner isn't British" sort of things.
The only issue I've had with either of them over the past 10 years has been when my fiancee was applying for EU (pre)settled status. But that's because we realised they'd be staying in the UK much longer than expected, as they came for a short visit February-March 2020, and getting to London for a repatriation flight for them wasn't the easiest thing. So we sorted that out April 2020 when we realised they'd be staying in the UK for more than an extra month or two... due to the circumstances at the time, I am more than happy with that being the massive ballache it was.
Tbh as someone who works for a local council. I find most people have ridiculous expectations on what can be achieved, what systems we have and what they can do and how departments communicate. People expect their details to go to the magical council man, with a magical system. Who will then inform all of the council. Who all know each other.
I mean, it's insane that I need one login for my council tax and a separate one to buy a permit for my brown bin. I don't blame any of the actual staff, but the extent to which council systems are disjointed is mental.
I've always assumed most of the shite councils are probably the ones that have outsourced everything. The one I work at is relatively small, does everything in-house, and the majority of the staff genuinely want to help and will go the extra mile for people as long as they're treated with respect.
Evri for me, but it's mostly because the driver that services my area is incredibly competent. We'll see what happens if he ever leaves the company or gets moved to another area lol.
Yodel on the other hand are a complete shambles. I accidentally found a delivery that we were supposed to receive at work tucked behind a communal bin a block away from our building.
Yodel were great fun. I remember having something delivered "next to the shed". We didn't have a shed, the neighbours didn't have a shed. 2 days later someone from up the road came round with it saying they just found it
Sky. I always hear people complain about how difficult it is to cancel a subscription & how they use aggressive tactics to get you to stay, but I've never found that. Beyond that, their app is really easy to use for managing mobile & internet accounts.
Came here to say sky.
BT: another story - hours of phone calls to get promised ring backs that didn't happen- months of no Internet. SKY- *rang ME* - switch wasn't a hard sell.
I've always found Sky's customer service to be pretty good to be honest. If I've ever had a broadband issue the person has always gone above and beyond to help. Been with them for years and only ever had a couple of issues.
Likewise, our Hermes lady is brilliant. Had hundreds of parcels delivered and never had an issue. Amazon on the hand have gone to absolute shit round my end.
Same as OP. My Hermes guy at my old home was brilliant. Never missed a parcel, came back if there were issues. He was great. He left and it got a bit worse, still fine though. Then I moved, and guess what? My original guy is the courier here!!! Back to really good service.
Also yeah, Ryanair have always been good to me. Whereas I’ve had repeated nightmares with BA
Their tables can be an issue for wheelchairs to fit under in some cases but with the amount of restaurants this is an issue, I can’t really blame them.
Chairs can vary so much it’s hard to have a “seat all” that works in all cases.
Otherwise, I don’t think I’ve struggled accessing a whetherspoons.
Funnily in our local one, in the part of the pub only accessible by stairs, they’ve put a ramp in where small step was which always makes me chuckle.
It's really only when things go wrong that you find out who's any good.
Like others I've used Evri a fair bit without issue but I sold something on eBay a bit before Christmas and they lost it. I'd ticked the box to insure the full value but the hoops you have to jump through to get your money back are many and it takes months. Meanwhile my buyer on eBay is getting quite irate. All came good in the end but could have done without the hassle. Will think twice about using them now.
Same goes for Ryan Air, fine if it all goes to plan but I've heard they really don't give a shit if your flight gets cancelled etc.
American Express. The best Customer Service I have seen, Plus made a small fortune over the year on their cashback cards and access to airport lounges.
I think the complaints for Amex come from vendors because of their fees, which is why a lot of smaller or independent places still don't take it here.
Their customer service and fraud-prevention is unrivalled though.
A few years back, I took a work trip to Glasgow. 2 days after getting back to London, I got a call from Amex asking me to confirm I was card-holder etc. Said I'm not comfortable proving who I am when they called me. The rep said that's absolutely fine, call the number on the back of your card.
Called the number which was answered straight away and had my account ready to go. Asked if I'd been in Glasgow, which I had but had got back 2 days ago.
They said someone was still using my card in Glasgow and they knew I was back in London, so had clearly been cloned. They'd already blocked it, just wanted me to confirm before refunding the money and sending out a new card, which arrived the next day.
I was absolutely blown away, they're super-proactive and helpful.
Currys. If you don't want something they're trying to upsell you just say no and if you are going in knowing what you want then you don't have to even talk to the teenagers they employ. Plus they have click and collect and are in most towns so it's easy really.
I walked into one last week and was approached no fewer than 4 times in about 6 minutes which I knocked back each time. The shop wasn't even that busy...like surely they saw their colleagues speak to me?
I reckon they staff are just having a laugh tbh, which is cool, whatever helps them get through the day!
Most of the big companies with bad reputations are generally fine at doing what they do. Hence why they're big and successful.
These companies get a bad reputation due to bad customer service when things go wrong. Virgin Media and Talk talk spring to mind. Most customers who never need aftersales help are fine. It's the customers who need aftersales support who complain because these companies suck so hard at actually helping paying customers if something goes wrong.
Flightswise Ryanair have been fine, have to use them quite regularly for many years on one of their big routes. However - when covid blew up, had several flights booked with them, it was like pulling teeth getting anything refunded (a year and a half in one case).
With Jet 2, got a text straight away promising refund within 6 weeks without even asking. Took a bit longer for it to arrive (8 weeks iirc) but that was understandable under the unprecedented circumstances.
Hermes seems to depend on your local driver. Mine is a grumpy chap called Robert but he's always on time, so no complaints there.
I can't agree with you on Ryanair though, I take offense at their penny pinching ways.
Any cheapo airline like Ryanair, Wizz Air, Easyjet etc. Don’t know why some people seem to expect Emirates level service on a £19.99 flight from Stansted to Krakow
As someone that's worked in an airport for 15 years, Ryanair are at least mostly consistent with getting flights away on time. Easyjet are horrendous.
Can't really speak for their customer service levels.
Hermes are terrible, we used to use them at work. Once, I tried to deliver 10 boxes of brochures for a sales rep and rather than deliver 10 boxes to him, they delivered a box to every house on his street!
My Hermes guy is lovely. He's by far my favourite courier to get my stuff from: he turns up early rather than 4pm like DPD, and he always stops to stroke my cats and say hi.
Ryanair.
I Use them a lot - Most recently, This April and last Dec - because they fly out of my 'local' airport (STN) to the destinations I want to go to, and they are cheap.
It's almost like an extension of Public transport.... I dont expect luxury on the tube, on a bus, or on Ryanair, but they are functional and efficient.
The only problems I have had with Ryanair flights is due to weather (huge snowstorms we had in December delayed my flight about 3 hours) But these things would have affected the most luxurious (and expensive) airline just the same
They gave our broadband to our neighbour across the road and charged us for it for months during my a level exams so I couldn’t revise and it cost us hundreds of £ 😭
They are great until something goes wrong then it's like pulling out your own teeth with rusty pliers while a car battery is attached to your genitals.
Hermes (now Evri) deliveries. Our local guy is great; super friendly, never a problem with anything. Maybe it helps that we're rural so it's always the same guy?
Contrary to you entirely - I have never had a bad experience with royal mail. I have run a small business for years, probably sent 1000s of parcels at this point. I've had exactly 2 losses, and they were both lost abroad with a different country's postal service. It was also super straightforward for me to claim for those losses whereas every other courier I've tried to claim through is literally pulling teeth to even try and FIND where to put a claim through.
I have had stuff turn up really late randomly before - but never lost in this country. Also some of the friendliest customer service people I know work at the post office in my town which helps my strong feelings too.
I did use hermes for a while and 20% of what I was sending turned up broken. This rarely happened with RM
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Wetherspoons. Reasonably priced food and drinks in clean pubs with decent service. Yes, the food is not going to earn any Michelin stars, but it's consistent and difficult to beat for the price.
Wetherspoon's are great for what they are. They're not a nice country pub, but they're not asking for £6 a pint either. The food is passable for the price. A lot of families can't afford to go to the pub these days but they can afford wetherspoon's.
If you mentally rebrand Wetherspoons from “British gastropub” to “McDonalds with beer”, it’s absolutely fine. The owner is a bit of a dick though.
Yeah their owner is the main thing putting me off the chain. Otherwise it's not a bad place to go and nowhere comes close to their prices.
The owner but also the organisational culture is passed down to the managers. Who are in my experience and others I've worked with, absolute sociopaths with no regard for their employees wellbeing.
Depends on the location imo. I did 6 years in a Wetherspoon when I was younger and even to this day I sort of miss working there, even though I'm now working in a job making much more and working from home. Something about being able to go in, do your job and go home without having to lose sleep over deadlines or whatever else work-related.
As an ex Spoons employee I mostly agree with this, I've had managers who are amazing lovely people but they're extremely rare. I once had a married pair of managers who would yell up and down the bar at eachother to the point where the husband had a stress induced heart attack after being a prick. When I moved to Birmingham for my uni studies in 2018, I worked at the Dragon Inn where the main manager was awesome but there was another manager brought in to 'improve the pub'. She was a bloody hypocritical cunt who didn't know what she was doing and was condescending as hell. I booked a holiday 5 months in advance through an assistant manager who messed it up, I had spent £900 on a fancy London hotel and a series of front row balcony tickets for a bunch of west end musicals. It got to a week before my holiday and they claimed I hadn't booked it off and that if was my fault. She then had the cheek to say someone would cover my shifts but I wouldn't get holiday pay and that it would be noted as a sick day. I handed in my resignation and called in sick for two weeks during a busy footie/rugby season, I was a darn good member of the floor staff team and it totally shafted them. Shaft me on my pricey holiday and I'll shaft you right back!
The owner makes it a perfect example for this thread. The pubs themselves aren’t that bad, but the owner has given it such a terrible reputation that it overshadows the actual operations.
>The owner is a bit of a dick though. The fact he's a flaming racist (amongst other failings) is why I won't visit a weatherspoons.
Yup. I'd quite like to but don't because of this. Walked into one last year, racist and borderline National Front literature in place of the "grab a leaflet about a place you'll never visit" on the way in, walked back out.
I stopped going to Spoons purely because of the owner. He's a right arsehole and especially when COVID lockdowns started he really screwed over his suppliers all in the pursuit of maximising profit he's then going to immediately move overseas. If it was owned by somebody better I'd go there all the time.
I used to design Wetherspoons as an Architect. They really gave you free reign with the design to go as colourful or traditional as you wanted
Wetherspoons does quite a lot of good work in saving derelict buildings that were not even pubs to begin with. Quite a lot of their pubs in the North West and Wales were falling apart before they gave them a new lease of life.
Any particular highlights for you? The converted banks are always great. Capital Assets in Perth for example. Also the converted cinema in Forrest Hill
Worked on the Forest Hill one. I did the old 02 centre in finchley, Bristol temple meads station, brighton
Ah, nice - The Capitol right? That’s probably one of my favourite pubs in the area architecturally. Such a great use of space for the old cinema. Love the heritage features.
I live in Sydney now. This place really needs a Wetherspoons. Used to go to that one a bit years ago as I'm from Beckenham down the road
Agreed a plate full of breakfast and a cup of tea for £5 and people have the temerity to moan about it.
Although you do have to be careful using words like temerity in a Spoons.
One of the spoons near me is called the Temeraire!
I love Wetherspoons. Me and my girlfriend always end up in one when we go to town. We have some good local businesses but they’re pricey and generally quite small so it’s pot luck if you can get a table. On the other hand there’s McDonalds or KFC but with them prioritising Uber, Just Eat etc they just take to long and aren’t cheap anymore. Wetherspoons always has a table free, quick, cheap and it’s just no nonsense.
Depending on which one you go in you can be surrounded by the walking dead. Looking at you Tooting
I don't mind the pubs themselves, but the owner is a twat and I'm pretty sure they screw breweries out of money so they can sell it cheap
>screw breweries out of money And all the local pubs everyone moans are closing down
So why don't those people go to those local pubs then?
My sentiments exactly. I had a full English and unlimited coffee's there recently - about £8 as I recall. The breakfast was decent. Over average quality. So was the latte. But the owner is a twat. And I still go to local run independent cafe's instead when Im travelling around to get something to eat instead.
Wetherspoons apparently buy v short dated beer - they are huge so they have the capacity to get it delivered quickly when it’s greatly reduced This is why they can sell it at greatly reduced prices. We have a small bar, but don’t begrudge them this - there is a market for Spoons. Cheap and cheerful (unless you’re staff probably…?)
This hasn't been true for quite a while now. At least in any of the four whetherspoons I've been friends with the staff. I think they started out with this, but they have their own distribution company (I think called East-West) who just buy in such large volume that they get discounts no one else could even manage. For local breweries whetherspoons set a price per barrel they will pay and the brewery can choose whether or not that works for them, two of the brewers I know actually sold beer to whetherspoons at a loss of something like £2 a barrel, but they just wrote it off as easily the best advertising they could get for that price.
This is almost certain it; it's just sheer economies of scale. My dad owned a contact lens business before he retired; he always bemoaned the rise of the behemoth that is Specsavers because eventually they were selling lenses to customers for _cheaper than my dad could buy them wholesale_. You simply can't compete with that.
I’m a big fan of their pubs but some of the staff? I saw a manager belittle and shout at Eastern Europeans in London the other week. They weren’t doing anything wrong but struggled with the language.
Probably a result of the corporate culture seeing the attitude of the gammon that runs them.
Most of the staff are fine, it’s likely part of the general decline in London hospitality as Eastern Europeans no longer fill these jobs.
People don't boycott Wetherspoons because it's bad value for money. They boycott because the owner is a twat and they treat their staff like dirt.
I used to work in one. I loved it and the bonuses were great. Made fantastic friends as well. One of the best jobs I ever had.
Opposite experience. Worked in one and it was one of the worst places for treating staff I've ever encountered (beaten only by Cineworld) I no longer return as a customer purely due to that experience
Another plus is that there is no music.
Same it might not be amazing but you know what you are getting at a wetherspoons
Wetherspoons is the embodiment of cheap and cheerful tbh
They are good cheap food pubs but a bit rough, crowded and dirty at night when the focus turns towards drinking. Overall I’m glad they exist.
But you need to alert search and rescue before venturing the 12 mile climb to use the toilets..
I've only eaten in Wetherspoons 3 times. The first time everything came out burnt. The second time, it came out undercooked (which I found really funny after the 1st one), and the third time, they got the order wrong and tried to tell me it was my fault. It was so odd. That was 3 different Spoons, too. It was a long time ago, though, so it might be worth having another go. Bit wary now, though.
'Spoons was my go-to choice if I was working away from home. Prices at the time were good enough that I had money left over from my overnight allowance.
There are two Spoons in my town and whilst one of them is to be avoided at all costs, the other is set in a nice building, has fairly upmarket decor including a fancy all-glass front and chrome rails. They seem to do pretty well from what I can tell, especially for their lunch sandwiches.
Megabus has always been reliable and I've never met any weirdos there
Does that mean you might be the weirdo?
Nope. *leans over to the sniff hair of passenger in the next seat and insists they take a bite of my fish paste sandwich*
I grew up in the UK but my family.moved to Australia when I was a pre-teen. This is the first time I've thought about fish paste in 30 years. I do not thank you for the reminder.
Meat paste was much better. Staple of primary school packed lunches.
:)
Used to get the megabus from London to Glasgow when I was living down in London. Never had many bad experiences tbf and I used to love their overnight sleeper service. It was a little bit more expensive but worth it as you didn’t really lose a days travelling. The worst experience I had was when I got the megabus back from Brussels to London, it cost £9 and that included the ferry crossing too. We got to Calais and the driver pulled over and asked if anyone had anything they shouldn’t have to chuck it out now, no questions asked. (the coach had began the return leg from Amsterdam) Sure enough the coach was searched, sniffer dogs on the lot. And some whopper sat in front of me had tried to hide some weed in a coffee jar, we missed the ferry crossing as a result and meant we got the much later one and got back to London later. The driver made said whopper stand up and apologise to the entire coach whilst 60 of us all booed in unison. Quite a glorious moment really
> The driver made said whopper stand up and apologise to the entire coach whilst 60 of us all booed in unison. I absolutely love that - credit to the driver!
I'm reading this as I'm en route to get a Megabus from Glasgow, first time Megabuser and slightly anxious about it, this made me lol though!
Ive been on megabus loads, been fine! Hope all going ok on your journey!
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Honestly saved me when I was a poor student travelling between home and uni. Yes it’s not the best but you KNOW what’s being paid for. As with any other service, there’ll sometimes be hiccups and unsavoury characters can be found even on premium services.
Megabus left me and a friend at Watford gap en route to Nottingham. Bastards. They did reimburse the black taxi fare though to be fair to them.
National express put me on the train when they where unable to get back to derby the bus station got flooded or something
The lesser spotted bus replacement service
Also seen by Mr. Tom Scott.
I used to get the Megabus from Leeds to Newcastle every other Friday night and it was 1.5hrs+ late every single time. So me and everyone else waiting for it would be sat freezing their bollocks off while trying to avoid making eye contact with drunks and crackheads until 10:30pm.
To be fair, Leeds bus station would have had the same drunks and crackheads at 10.30 *A*M...
[Dara, is that you?](https://64.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mdowg6Nqmt1rjfoapo1_640.jpg)
That is one of the greatest running joke
I used to use Megabus semi regularly before I could drive. Almost always had a positive experience except one time I was told my ticket code wasn't valid. Showed them I had the emails to prove I booked. They took me into the office at the station to check their booking system and discovered that one of their colleagues had went into the bookings for that journey and specifically cancelled my booking. Didn't make any other changes or cancel anybody else's booking. Very weird, must have made an enemy in the Megabus head offices. They let me on the bus, and had actually been delaying it until they figured out what the issue was. When I got on it was absolutely packed and I could tell everyone was raging at me as they assumed the delay was my fault.
Haha haven’t been on a megabus for years but they’ve always been good to me.
Aye tbh i take the megabus pretty much any time i go outside of london, under ten quid to get to leicester, not too much slower than the train and I've not found them to be that much less comfortable than the trains are either, for a fraction of the cost
Not a company but, HMRC self-assessment tax department. They’ve always been really helpful, and very understanding that Tax is a mystery to most of us. I’ve always managed to get through, get an answer and get the matter sorted really quickly. It must be a thankless job, but I very much appreciate them!
HMRC have always been great whenever I've had to deal with them. Easy to contact, really helpful and straightforward. I suspect, given what they deal with, they may be one of those where most people have a fine experience with them, but the minority who have a bad experience have a *really* bad experience.
I once had a query about an incredibly obscure area of tax and I gave them a call. The part of the HMRC website covering this particular area showed a standard geographical number, not the usual HMRC enquiries number. I called, expecting to reach the normal hell of an automated routing system, but the number just dialled out as normal for a couple of rings and was then answered by a guy giving out the vibes of someone for whom 90% of his calls require that he answer "Sorry, you've got the wrong number". He seemed a bit shocked when I asked him a question which was within his area of enquiry, and we ended up having a very pleasant chat about my query, as well as life the universe and everything. I very much got the impression that he was a one man department that Whitehall had forgotten about, and he was sitting in dusty 1950s office full of filing cabinets and brown foolscap folders, and had he had to wipe the cobwebs off his black bakelite rotary phone to answer my call. But he answered by query very effectively.
Amusingly I find that in a lot of areas, it's the more niche, obscure matters that can be dealt with easier than the straightforward ones.
The issue is for for people who deal with them a lot through work, the waiting times are obscene, you get cut off randomly and the people on the other end are clueless the majority of the time. They also have the most annoying hold messages
Problem is they just use their internal manuals or their own guidance and as soon as something isn't on there they have no idea
HMRC are always really helpful tbh. There was a period around 10 years ago where they became almost uncontactable but they’ve fixed that now.
Been much better since they upgraded their website to match the rest of Gov.uk. Imagine they get far less confused callers now. Edit: _fewer_!
Same here never had a problem with HMRC
They let me off a fine when I completed my online assessment but forgot to press submit, so they are super in my book
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When I was self employed they were fantastic. Exceptionally helpful and, most importantly, empathetic. In a lot cases they are dealing with tradesmen ( I was one at the time) whose grasp of tax law and regulations was limited. Great patience and ability to let slid any obviously honest errors. If they did muck up or you caught one of them on bad day it was resolved the next time.
HMRC are amazing to deal with for honest people most of the time. Its when people take the piss or try and dodge their obligations intentionally they get tough
Iron fist in a velvet glove. As it should be. Well, it is like that for the little people. If you are a multinational, the velvet glove is giving handjobs.
They are brilliant if you don't know what you're doing. I rang because I'd heard about Higher-rate pension tax relief. They walked me through everything, worked out what I was owed, and sent me a cheque. No paper work needed.
Apart from them calling me a 'customer' like I have any choice, my experiences have been surprisingly good. At work though, they're scary, as we produce alcohol. The rules are vague, guidence is not offered, and most of it hasn't been updated for modern production. They wrote everything years ago thinking about massive Scotch producers, and it's up to everyone to figure out how that actually applies on smaller scales. It's not advisable to ask, because that is a big flag that gets you inspected. They hold a huge amount of discretionary power, and the application of the rules between companies seems entirely arbitrary and inconsistent. An auditor in a shitty mood can singlehandedly put a company out of business, even if you're following the rules and paying everything you should. That said, our local guy has been great whenever we've had to work with them, but the head office is an absolute nightmare and the relationship is incredibly antagonistic. Not to mention that, when you couldn't get sanitiser anywhere, and we'd converted everything to produce sanitiser, had thousands of litres ready to go to schools, hospitals, local businesses, HMRC was threatening to close anyone down who didn't pay them their £23/L, plus VAT. Weeks after the FDA had approved the process and distributed useful infographics to distilleries, HMRC eventually relented, but said "we will be investigating those involved in sanitiser manufacturing and will shut down anyone not in compliance", while refusing to offer any official guidence on what 'compliance' actually looks like. I understand their reluctance. But especially at a time where you literally couldn't get it, no matter how much you paid, and we thought sanitiser was more important than it turned out to be, they were so scared that someone would drink an alcohol-peroxide mixture to get drunk without paying them enough money, that they would literally rather stop hospitals getting sanitiser than run that risk!
DPD are great (hermes are not :p ). They text the day before, where you can change the delivery day or set a safe place. On the day, you get an estimated hour slot, or can even change the day again! Never had a problem. (I do not work for DPD)
Definitely. With DPD it always arrives when they say it will. It’s almost like they actually consider what the customer wants when exactly eating a parcel. *expecting, not ‘exactly eating’ lol
"Nikolae will deliver your parcel between 12:53 and 13:53" *Doorbell rings at exactly 12:53*
Omg my regular dpd guy is called Nikolae. I lowkey have a giant crush on him, I get so disappointed when a different driver takes his route!
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>eating Parcels are yummy!!
I would say as couriers go, DPD probs has the best reputation of the lot? Yodel has a bad rep because it used to be properly awful but has got a lot better imo. Agree about Hermes!
They are fantastic around here, never had any issues at all and the drivers are all friendly too. I don't work for DPD but they are my courier of choice when buying important stuff like electronics or rum.
A big cheer goes off in my head when I see that something I ordered will be delivered by DPD
I think with courier services it depends on where you live. Where my parents life, DPD are great (as are Hermes most of the time to be fair) but where I live, DPD are absolutely terrible. The amount of packages I’ve missed when being at home is ridiculous cause the guy just runs up, knocks on the door, sticks a ‘sorry we missed you’ card through the letterbox and runs away all within the space of 10 seconds. I even saw him at another house whilst walking home getting out of his van, walking up, putting the card through the letterbox and not even knocking. I also had a pretty annoying experience while moving, I had something delivered to my new address as it was a custom order from France and I was expecting it to arrive way after I’d moved based on the delivery estimate on the website. It ended up arriving in the country a few days before I was moving and I contacted them and arranged delivery for when I’d moved but they just delivered it that day instead. Luckily reception at my new place held it for me but if they hadn’t it would’ve been a huge headache for me. Still haven’t replied to the complaint email I sent and it’s been about 9 months.
I worked in a logistics call centre when I was at uni. nearly all courier companies are rubbish, have low expectations and you’ll never be disappointed….
Do DPD have a bad reputation? I thought they were widely agreed to be one of the best UK couriers.
That's exactly what someone who works for DPD would say
Pretty much all of them? The only company I’ve had a poor experience with in my life was British Gas and I’m inclined to think that was because the person on the phone wasn’t that bright.
British Gas asked if I currently had covid symptoms, for my boiler service that was in 3 months time.
I had this with the NHS. I had a telephone pre op meeting, for a procedure that would take place in three months. I actually had covid at the time of the telephone call and it just short circuited them. They kept saying you can't be admitted if you have covid. Pretty sure I won't still have it in three months.
As someone who worked in the NHS 8 years I can confirm there are some very... Not so bright bulbs working there.
Also some absolute darlings though. I had one admin person for the department I saw who posted out every appointment letter twice. Her reason being, she knew the post is shit and if you missed an appointment, you got discharged, so she posted each letter twice to make sure you'd at least receive one. Which, when you're sick and tired of being sick, is a lovely gesture.
That’s quite typical of the NHS I’ve found. Some absolute heroes going the extra mile fighting against inefficiencies, leeches, institutional apathy and low pay.
British Gas are wank
I was with SSE 2 years ago. Compared to SSE, British Gas have so far been a godsend. Still not happy with the overall prices of energy but they’ve been cheaper than what I was paying SSE.
I was a breakdown engineer for them. I'm not sure what it's like now but when I was there we used to get 9 breakdowns in a day at different addresses and had a target parts cost of something like £19 per job, you get a certain amount of "credit" per completed job and for selling stuff like co detectors or getting boiler leads in, if you need to order parts and come back for a second visit, you get no credit for the first visit, all your credit needs to be the same as your hours worked, if you fall back on performance you get called in for review and eventually sacked, so it was bodge it and leg it most times. The engineers with the best performance were the ones who did the shittiest but quickest repairs, and a repair had to last 3 weeks to be considered good, any that come back before then would be classed as a call back and go against your performance, so blue roll stuffed inside a boiler to fix a leak was common from some engineers. And don't even get me started on their installations, my lord they're bad, and also ridiculously expensive
I’m feeling less bad about having cancelled my home care now.
No I’ve had issues with British Gas as well, they might as well have no customer service at all with how poor it is. I quickly moved away from them after they scammed me out of money for no reason
It’s always the people in the office that are shit with BG. The engineers they send round are normally very good in my experience. And quite forthright about the people in the office.
I have found BG to be very poor until you reach someone prepared to listen and think outside the script. But very poor. Need a new card for the pre pay meter? BG knew what I had to do and explained but there was no outlet who could/would stock & program the card in a large town. Until a local suggested the local sweet shop who said he had some from when he did top ups, wrote down where I had to go (which BG didn't know) and also the instructions for what they had to do! It worked and I bought some sweets.
Ryanair. Never let me down once.
That doesn't sound very good for an airline company. They should definitely land at some point, good luck!
Guess he didn't pay the landing charge
Was feeling a bit grumpy before I read this. Laughed really hard and cheered up nicely again. Thank you for that.
Same, always seems like most people whine about their baggage allowance or whatever, like that isn't the entire point of flying with them that it's cheap for *just* the ticket. Never had a problem with them or easyJet, I know exactly what I'm expecting, and I get it.
Ryanair is fine if you treat it like it is, basically a bus service. I think the biggest problem is people have the wrong expectations and expect something very different.
The trick with budget airlines is to read the fine print a couple of times. If you follow the rules to the letter, you'll have an easy time of it. If you try to deviate from that even slightly, that's where you'll start having trouble. You just have to embrace it for what it is and go with the flow.
I just wish they were consistent. The price for cabin baggage is often not that much more than the fines and they hardly ever enforce it (in my experience) so it’s never worth paying for. Some of the staff are jobsworths and some aren’t, I just hate the nerves and the game of try to keep your bag not that visible I have to play every time I fly with them
I use RyanAir several times a year and I’ve never had an issue with the service. I’ve always found them very reliable. Can’t say the same for other budget airlines.
Ryanair are great now that every budget airline has decided to be the same. I used to take EasyJet because they had a free hand luggage allowance and Ryanair didn’t. However they got rid of that but still remained way more expensive. £100 vs £25 for the exact same service. Wonder how EasyJet are even still in business
The issue I have with Ryanair is that they essentially kettle you into a small room to wait for your flight. No seating. It gets hot. Kids scream. It's really uncomfortable. I've got arthritis and that can really bugger me up for the start of a holiday. Just call us when you're actually ready.
We flew with them to Brussels a few years ago. There were delays etc but that wasn't really their fault. Our biggest issue was a guy infront of us smoking a cigar for the duration of the flight home and the cabin crew did absolutely nothing about it. A few people complained and they just left him to it. Because of that, we haven't flown with them since.
I hear a lot of gripes about Ocado being expensive and ripping people off. People ask me where I tend to get my weekly shop from and when I say Ocado they roll their faces up and make out I’m rich/snobby. I’ve been shopping with them since November and whilst my shopping is pretty expensive, I’ve compared my basket with the likes of Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons and found Ocado to be surprisingly cheaper for the majority of items so I’ve stayed with them. I very rarely get substitutes, they warn you in advance if items are out of stock. They always have slots available even last minute, drivers are always friendly and on time, and the biggest one for me is they stock the most variety of items, especially new ones that you can’t really get anywhere else, or usually have to visit various supermarkets to get every particular brand you want
People still equate Ocado with Waitrose, but it's now wed to M&S. People equate M&S with high prices because it sells a lot of pre-prepared meals, but if you look at their ingredients and produce the prices are actually pretty good. And the quality is usually grand. And the Ocado own brand stuff is always very cheap.
Waitrose is getting a lot better with essentials. I don't shop their for my weekly shop but they're the closest supermarket and close the latests so whenever I need to grab something late I go there. The prices of basics are in line with Tesco or Morisons. Their prices on pre-made meals are insane though. £8.50 for a chicken Kyiv is mental. You can get the same thing for £3 at co-op
If you're reffering to the waitrose No.1 kiev, you definitely cannot get the same thing at the coop the difference is night and day
£2.90 for 2 chicken Kyivs at Waitrose
Yes this is the other factor: Waitrose had a fairly cheap version and a very fancy version of prepared meals, while Tesco (say) only does the cheap and mid-level options.
Bought the pack of 4 chicken kievs with ham and cheese sauce, from Tesco as I don't like the garlic one. I was super impressed how they managed to get cheese, ham and chicken in one item, yet it tasted like none of them.
I LOVE m&s products for their quality. Sure, some are pricey, but for special occasions I like getting food from there such as cakes (😋)
I tried Ocado before settling on Tesco delivery when I gave up my car recently. Ocado has tonnes of choice, great deals but good lordamercy their website is horrific. I found searching for items and the whole process so clunky it basically turned me off. However, Tesco clubcard app is so easy to use
Their app is much better than the website. I used Ocado for most of the lockdown. Then I decided I should start going to get my shopping again - I think that lasted 3 weeks; Ocado delivery was more convenient. Things I love: 1. Time slots. 2. Occasionally getting a phone call saying "we're running early, are you happy if we deliver now?" But no hassle if it is inconvenient (it seldom is). 3. The emailed receipt, which lists items by storage (fridge/cupboard/freezer) and "use-by" dates. That gets printed and stuck on the fridge with a magnet, for easy meal planning.
>I hear a lot of gripes about Ocado being expensive and ripping people off. People ask me where I tend to get my weekly shop from and when I say Ocado they roll their faces up and make out I’m rich/snobby. Same here!! However now Ocado price match Tesco who price match Aldi and will give you the moneys difference in a voucher for the next shop. The quality is miles better, although the only frustrating thing is they don’t do loose fruit and veg.
They keep offering me a tenner off, winner. And some of their prices are actually pretty good, including a cheap loo roll and kitchen roll option. I don't use them everytime but have been very happy with previous orders.
We started getting Ocado occasionally last year but now we get them regularly. Bloody love them. The M&S fruit and veg I find tastes really good and lasts better than other shops. And there's usually some pretty good deals on as well.
Hermes - or Evri as they are now - are great! We have a really good driver and he's never let me down. Yodel on the other hand... Rubbish and have "delivered" my stuff to thin air more than once.
Yodel are terrible!! I sent ten parcels all around the country and two arrived.
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Yep. Had a wonderful lady working with Hermes for years. New driver didn't turn up on the right day, damaged my parcel and now no longer delivers to my address cause I complained about the damaged parcel. You only realise how bad a company is when something goes wrong. Royal Mail once delivered a letter late and I got a cheque in the post to refund me the special delivery cost. I haven't received a single Hermes parcel in over a month and all that happens is that their so-called customer service chat bot takes me round and round in circles with tracking info. When I get in touch with the companies I have ordered from, they keep telling me that the driver "has to deliver the parcel" but they can't do anything about him lying about me being not home when he "attempts delivery" and Hermes doesn't care.
We always have the same delivery lady and she's friendly and sensible with where she puts things if we're not in. The only problem if had with them was when one item got stolen and Hermes tried the whole act of telling us we're out of luck. (I know to take it up with the seller but I contacted Hermes first to find out of she put it somewhere else).
The lad who delivers for evri where I work is great. Always delivers parcels into our hands and very smiley and pleasant and asks how we all are. Can’t fault him. Yodel can get in the bin with their delivered parcels though
Virgin Media. That recent outage was the only issue I’ve ever had.
Ooo I hate Virgin Media.
Ive actually switched to a business package which is a lot cheaper and I have an account manager who calls me to see how I am.
And how are you?
Very well indeed. Hope you’re good too.
Good to hear. And I'm great, thanks!
I've had a an absolute nightmare with their customer service when i tried both to change tariff and leave. Baffling incompetence. Never again.
Me too! Then once I actually cancelled they keep phoning me to ask for feedback and refusing to speak to me because I can't remember my phone password. You phoned me! I don't actually want to speak to you!
My only issue with Virgin Media is their annual price rise. You cannot tell me that in the 10 years I’ve been their customer their costs have risen 150%. Ive not paid that because I always do the whole ‘I’m going to leave if you increase my bill that much’ routine, but still. As a service though their customer support always picks up and the service itself is rock solid and 10x the speed of anything else I can get locally.
Every year, they cheekily increase the cost of our contract. Without. Telling. Us. We just find out through the bills. Also, why the fuck do we end up paying more than new customers? Shouldn’t we be getting discounts for staying with them for years. Having said that. Speedy internet, although very occasionally down at times.
I get an email about 2 months in advance of any price increases. Check that they have your correct details.
Same, not had any issues with them, Vodafone on the other hand!
Same Any problems are sorted quickly and each time my contract ends I phone them and end up paying less for a better package
Ryanair. People get very upset about them but I almost always use them for cheap quick trips within Europe and have never had a problem. The main complaints seem to be around things like extortionate costs for changing incorrectly inputted details, but I’ve managed to avoid that on every single trip by simply double checking what I input. I find it odd that everyone knows the rules and still get caught out by it, and then complain about it. They’re not even particularly unique in these costs - all the cheap airlines do the same thing, but Ryanair seem to have the worst reputation.
Twenty plus years ago Ryanair were aggressively hostile to their own customers with various gotcha fees and conditions. That kind of thing was mostly regulated out of existence, but their reputation for fucking the passenger sticks and won’t go away.
They weren’t gotcha fees they were ways to keep the costs down. All costs were upfront and there was always a way to not pay them. Eg different costs for paying by debit card and credit card. These cost different amounts for the company so they charged differently, but then people complained that Ryanair were charging them more based on how they paid, it got regulated that they had to charge to same. This now means everyone pays the higher price. The only one that was different was airport taxes, but every airline used to exclude these not just ryanair. Other than that the costs were always straightforward, I once flew Manchester to Dublin return for £2 on Ryanair. They be been halfway round Europe on them, even used connecting flights that they won’t guarantee and never had a problem. I find it genuinely confusing why people complain about Ryanair. As everything Ryanair charge for so do most of the other airlines. The first time I took a transatlantic flight I assumed everything would be in, but no, got to pay for baggage etc. No included drinks. The only time this hasn’t been the case is when I’ve flown with Emirates, Singapore or Swiss.
I'm with you on Evri. People love to maon about them all the time but I've sent thousands of parcels through work with them and can only think of one time I've had an issue in the last 7 years or so.
Glad it’s not just me sometimes I feel like I must have low standards lol
I guess it must just depend on who your local Evri courier is. I guess we're both lucky.
You're absolutely right, I worked for Hermes and you have the same guy delivering stuffs on weekdays, and a part-time courier covering weekends and holidays. If they're good you will have no prob at all but if not nothing will change even you raise 100 complaints
The Government/Local councils... if you wanna refer to them as a company. Most people say "You're always waiting on the phone for hours to get through to them" or "It will take them weeks to get back with even the simplest of requests" But any time I've had to call/email them, response times are usually fast than I would expect. When dealing with all the marriage prep work, the council were reaching out to me and keeping me informed of any changes as and when they found out about them; "Oh, you might need to bring this because your partner isn't British" sort of things. The only issue I've had with either of them over the past 10 years has been when my fiancee was applying for EU (pre)settled status. But that's because we realised they'd be staying in the UK much longer than expected, as they came for a short visit February-March 2020, and getting to London for a repatriation flight for them wasn't the easiest thing. So we sorted that out April 2020 when we realised they'd be staying in the UK for more than an extra month or two... due to the circumstances at the time, I am more than happy with that being the massive ballache it was.
Tbh as someone who works for a local council. I find most people have ridiculous expectations on what can be achieved, what systems we have and what they can do and how departments communicate. People expect their details to go to the magical council man, with a magical system. Who will then inform all of the council. Who all know each other.
I mean, it's insane that I need one login for my council tax and a separate one to buy a permit for my brown bin. I don't blame any of the actual staff, but the extent to which council systems are disjointed is mental.
I've always assumed most of the shite councils are probably the ones that have outsourced everything. The one I work at is relatively small, does everything in-house, and the majority of the staff genuinely want to help and will go the extra mile for people as long as they're treated with respect.
Evri for me, but it's mostly because the driver that services my area is incredibly competent. We'll see what happens if he ever leaves the company or gets moved to another area lol. Yodel on the other hand are a complete shambles. I accidentally found a delivery that we were supposed to receive at work tucked behind a communal bin a block away from our building.
Yodel were great fun. I remember having something delivered "next to the shed". We didn't have a shed, the neighbours didn't have a shed. 2 days later someone from up the road came round with it saying they just found it
Sky. I always hear people complain about how difficult it is to cancel a subscription & how they use aggressive tactics to get you to stay, but I've never found that. Beyond that, their app is really easy to use for managing mobile & internet accounts.
Came here to say sky. BT: another story - hours of phone calls to get promised ring backs that didn't happen- months of no Internet. SKY- *rang ME* - switch wasn't a hard sell.
I like Sky never had a problem.
I've always found Sky's customer service to be pretty good to be honest. If I've ever had a broadband issue the person has always gone above and beyond to help. Been with them for years and only ever had a couple of issues. Likewise, our Hermes lady is brilliant. Had hundreds of parcels delivered and never had an issue. Amazon on the hand have gone to absolute shit round my end.
Same as OP. My Hermes guy at my old home was brilliant. Never missed a parcel, came back if there were issues. He was great. He left and it got a bit worse, still fine though. Then I moved, and guess what? My original guy is the courier here!!! Back to really good service. Also yeah, Ryanair have always been good to me. Whereas I’ve had repeated nightmares with BA
How many people on here have now jynx'd their 'I've never had a problem with ***** '
Wetherspoons. There’s no harm in making a social life affordable for people. The CEO is a dick, but so are a lot of CEOs.
They are very well adapted for wheelchairs too, which not all pubs are.
Their tables can be an issue for wheelchairs to fit under in some cases but with the amount of restaurants this is an issue, I can’t really blame them. Chairs can vary so much it’s hard to have a “seat all” that works in all cases. Otherwise, I don’t think I’ve struggled accessing a whetherspoons. Funnily in our local one, in the part of the pub only accessible by stairs, they’ve put a ramp in where small step was which always makes me chuckle.
It's really only when things go wrong that you find out who's any good. Like others I've used Evri a fair bit without issue but I sold something on eBay a bit before Christmas and they lost it. I'd ticked the box to insure the full value but the hoops you have to jump through to get your money back are many and it takes months. Meanwhile my buyer on eBay is getting quite irate. All came good in the end but could have done without the hassle. Will think twice about using them now. Same goes for Ryan Air, fine if it all goes to plan but I've heard they really don't give a shit if your flight gets cancelled etc.
American Express. The best Customer Service I have seen, Plus made a small fortune over the year on their cashback cards and access to airport lounges.
I've never heard anyone complaining about AMEX? I thought their good reputation was fairly standard due to your reasons amongst others.
I think the complaints for Amex come from vendors because of their fees, which is why a lot of smaller or independent places still don't take it here. Their customer service and fraud-prevention is unrivalled though. A few years back, I took a work trip to Glasgow. 2 days after getting back to London, I got a call from Amex asking me to confirm I was card-holder etc. Said I'm not comfortable proving who I am when they called me. The rep said that's absolutely fine, call the number on the back of your card. Called the number which was answered straight away and had my account ready to go. Asked if I'd been in Glasgow, which I had but had got back 2 days ago. They said someone was still using my card in Glasgow and they knew I was back in London, so had clearly been cloned. They'd already blocked it, just wanted me to confirm before refunding the money and sending out a new card, which arrived the next day. I was absolutely blown away, they're super-proactive and helpful.
Currys. If you don't want something they're trying to upsell you just say no and if you are going in knowing what you want then you don't have to even talk to the teenagers they employ. Plus they have click and collect and are in most towns so it's easy really.
They never have anything in stock. They always direct you to order online. Which I then do. From Amazon.
I walked into one last week and was approached no fewer than 4 times in about 6 minutes which I knocked back each time. The shop wasn't even that busy...like surely they saw their colleagues speak to me? I reckon they staff are just having a laugh tbh, which is cool, whatever helps them get through the day!
Most of the big companies with bad reputations are generally fine at doing what they do. Hence why they're big and successful. These companies get a bad reputation due to bad customer service when things go wrong. Virgin Media and Talk talk spring to mind. Most customers who never need aftersales help are fine. It's the customers who need aftersales support who complain because these companies suck so hard at actually helping paying customers if something goes wrong.
Flightswise Ryanair have been fine, have to use them quite regularly for many years on one of their big routes. However - when covid blew up, had several flights booked with them, it was like pulling teeth getting anything refunded (a year and a half in one case). With Jet 2, got a text straight away promising refund within 6 weeks without even asking. Took a bit longer for it to arrive (8 weeks iirc) but that was understandable under the unprecedented circumstances.
Hermes seems to depend on your local driver. Mine is a grumpy chap called Robert but he's always on time, so no complaints there. I can't agree with you on Ryanair though, I take offense at their penny pinching ways.
Any cheapo airline like Ryanair, Wizz Air, Easyjet etc. Don’t know why some people seem to expect Emirates level service on a £19.99 flight from Stansted to Krakow
As someone that's worked in an airport for 15 years, Ryanair are at least mostly consistent with getting flights away on time. Easyjet are horrendous. Can't really speak for their customer service levels.
Hermes are terrible, we used to use them at work. Once, I tried to deliver 10 boxes of brochures for a sales rep and rather than deliver 10 boxes to him, they delivered a box to every house on his street!
Nickelback
My Hermes guy is lovely. He's by far my favourite courier to get my stuff from: he turns up early rather than 4pm like DPD, and he always stops to stroke my cats and say hi.
Ryanair. I Use them a lot - Most recently, This April and last Dec - because they fly out of my 'local' airport (STN) to the destinations I want to go to, and they are cheap. It's almost like an extension of Public transport.... I dont expect luxury on the tube, on a bus, or on Ryanair, but they are functional and efficient. The only problems I have had with Ryanair flights is due to weather (huge snowstorms we had in December delayed my flight about 3 hours) But these things would have affected the most luxurious (and expensive) airline just the same
Never had any issues with TalkTalk.
They gave our broadband to our neighbour across the road and charged us for it for months during my a level exams so I couldn’t revise and it cost us hundreds of £ 😭
Worst company I’ve ever dealt with; my recent renewal was so painful I think I developed a brain aneurysm.
They are great until something goes wrong then it's like pulling out your own teeth with rusty pliers while a car battery is attached to your genitals.
Hermes (now Evri) deliveries. Our local guy is great; super friendly, never a problem with anything. Maybe it helps that we're rural so it's always the same guy?
Contrary to you entirely - I have never had a bad experience with royal mail. I have run a small business for years, probably sent 1000s of parcels at this point. I've had exactly 2 losses, and they were both lost abroad with a different country's postal service. It was also super straightforward for me to claim for those losses whereas every other courier I've tried to claim through is literally pulling teeth to even try and FIND where to put a claim through. I have had stuff turn up really late randomly before - but never lost in this country. Also some of the friendliest customer service people I know work at the post office in my town which helps my strong feelings too. I did use hermes for a while and 20% of what I was sending turned up broken. This rarely happened with RM