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AS EXPERIENCED BY THE HASTINGS PRESS What happens when we as consumers feel badly treated by the shops, restaurants, businesses and tradesmen that we try to do business with? We never say anything, and they get away with it. I think it's time to start being honest and saying what we think when we feel badly treated. I also believe in giving credit where it is due. This is a totally impartial review. We have no relationship to any of the companies listed here, other than as new customers. We also have no history of previous connection: in each case we approached them as strangers. |
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Good service received from... PRIDE AND JOY DECORATING Val Joy did a super job at a fair price. 01424 465119 CONQUEST CLEANING SERVICES 01424 871444 Director Michael Langley must be the politest tradesman in Sussex. He cheerily removed seven years of grime from my yellow chenille sofa - it looks brand new now! CORNER CARPETS, 36 LONDON ROAD, ST LEONARDS Did a beautiful job at the best price in town! Phone them on 01424 446222 and mention this page. TOBY, WILLINGDON DROVE, EASTBOURNE The best carvery in Sussex. MR HEELEY'S, KING'S ROAD, ST LEONARDS Always helpful and professional. LLOYD'S TSB BUILDINGS INSURANCE Handled our claim incredibly well, very quick, no quibbling. GASTECH SERVICES Probably the best CORGI gas fitter. Always on time. ROTOROD DRAINS Wonderfully quick and efficient service. |
Bad service received from... FASTWAY COURIERS SUSSEX Fastway offered me parcel delivery to the whole of Sussex, I have a PDF of their terms and conditions which clearly lists PO1-22 postcodes (the Bognor area) as being included in their Sussex area. I purchased 50 posting labels on the strength of this. The labels last indefinitely. A year later I have a parcel for Bognor and they are refusing to take it, as they no longer cover the PO1-22 area. Trading Standards tell me they must honour the contract with me until all my labels are used up. The general manager Rob Burton, just phoned me (9.30am, 22nd April 2009). He spoke in a pompous, arrogant and overbearing manner. After I had listened quietly, taking notes, I tried to reply. A soon as I tried to put my side of the matter he interrupted and shouted me down merely to repeat what he said before. He said: "Trading standards are wrong. There is no contract." "Fastway can change whatever we like, whenever we want." "We are not going to change our position on this." Because of his constant interrupting and his refusal to listen to a word I was trying to say it was impossible to have a proper conversation with him so I simply had to hang up. What a lovely way to treat your paying customers! What a way to do business! A1 DOMESTIC APPLIANCES of 65 LONDON ROAD ST LEONARDS TN37 6AR (top of King's Road steps) A month ago Pete here charged me £40 to mend my washing machine. Four weeks later the same fault developed. This is what has happened: Monday 16 March 2009. My friend called in to him and asked him to phone me or pop round (I live near). He ignored this. Later I got him on his mobile and he promised to phone me back first thing next morning. Tuesday morning he did not phone. Lunchtime I phoned him and left my phone number and address on his answerphone. He didn't respond. Tuesday afternoon I called in person and he was there, he'd got my message, no reason for not calling me. He wrote my number down in his notebook and made an appointment to do the repair the next morning (Weds). Wednesday. Waited in all morning. He didn't turn up and didn't phone. Eventually I phoned him and he was there in the shop. Had no good reason for not turning up or phoning me. Made a firm appointment to come next day between 12noon and 2pm. Thursday. Sat indoors patiently waiting for him from 11am till 3.30pm, when I phoned him. He said he had been "held up on another job". When I asked him (very reasonably) why he didn't phone to say he isn't coming, or will be late, and to reschedule the appointment, he said he is "going to leave it at that" as he "does not like my attitude" and will now not be coming at all. So from my side that's two personal visits to his shop and six phone calls, two of them to his mobile. From his side two broken appointments, no apology and now a refusal to come at all. I phoned Trading Standards 01323 463420 and reported him. They said the repair should last much longer than a month and advised me to get the machine repaired by another (reputable) company and send him the bill, then sue him if he refuses to pay it. He would then have to pay all the court costs as well as the bill from the other company. Alternatively I could ask him to refund me the £40 I paid. They also advised me to go to the local press and see if they would be interested in running a story about it. I phoned him again today (Thurs) and he made it clear that he could not care less. He refused to give me a refund and invited me to sue him! So he'd rather pay another company to do the repair AND pay a court bill, than just pop round and repair the machine! KEMPTOWN BOOKS, BRIGHTON 91 St George's Road, Brighton, BN2 1EE tel: 01273 682110 www.kemptownbookshop.co.uk Lovely, friendly website conceals a very rude owner. As part of my usual publisher's round of soliciting and taking orders from about 50 bookshops across Sussex, I phoned him on 5th June, he ordered one copy of my latest book. When he received it on 9th, with the usual invoice that I send with all books to every retailer that I deal with, he phoned me, extremely angry at having received an invoice! He informed me that he does not pay for books, he only accepts what he calls 'complimentary copies'. This was rather puzzling, but each time I attempted to ask if all his book suppliers sent him free books to sell, he shouted over my words and slammed down the phone. I've called him back three times but he just slams down the phone without listening. I am curious to know about this aspect of publishing/retailing, the like of which I have never before heard. I 'm going to phone Brighton Trading Standards, email the local paper and write to The Bookseller about this. MICK CLARK, BUILDER Hastings 01424 421698/07947795338 Do not employ this man. Don't say I didn't warn you! THE HASTINGS TRUST Robertson Street, Hastings I live next to one of their properties. One day in April 2007 Mick Clark (cited above) appeared on my doorstep asking if he could have access to my garden just to renew the render on a a wall owned by the Hastings Trust. Naturally I let him through. Big mistake: what he failed to mention was that we were going to entirely lose the use of the garden, and lose all our privacy, for the next four months ~ and without a penny of compensation being offered! Then the workmen left, and have not been seen since September. 13 months on, the work is STILL not finished, despite my repeatedly complaining to the Hastings Trust and its director promising me two months ago that she is treating this matter as "urgent". She tells me that it is all the fault of Mick Clark, above, who has failed to do the work the Trust employed him to do. Why they cannot just sack him and employ another builder is totally beyond me! TONY O'REILLY, PLASTERER Hastings 07738066819 May 2007. Did a plastering job for me. When dried it had a big, ugly ridge. It took him almost a month to come round and re-skim it (half an hour's work). Despite my giving him twenty dust sheets, the first visit he left piles of rubble (from removing the old plaster) all the way down my carpeted staircase; second visit he spattered gobs of wet plaster over my carpet, a large mirror, all the bannister rails and the polished, antique handrail, and a newly-painted adjacent wall. When I pointed this out, on both occasions, he just laughed and called me 'obsessively houseproud'. We are STILL trying to get gobs of plaster out of the carpet. COMPLETE CLEANING SERVICES - HASTINGS 01424 721004 07724698431 Owner Dave Rixon - "The Name you can Trust and Rely On" - leafletted my street (Friday 17th May 2006) asking "Are you tired of trying to get a reliable window cleaning service?" Phoned him, asked him to clean my windows. Said he'd ring back; he didn't. Rang him again, said he'd ring to make an appointment; he didn't. Rang again, made appointment to clean windows Monday 20th. He failed to show. Rang him again, made appt for Tuesday; he didn't show up. Rang him Weds, he said his car had broken down; promised to come Thursday; didn't turn up. He rang me Thursday, promised to come Friday. Didn't turn up, or ring me. Phoned him Saturday, he slammed the phone down. RAYTON PLUMBING - HASTINGS He advertised in the Friday-Ad as a CORGI gas fitter. Tony assessed job involving gas and we agreed a price. I asked for his CORGI card but he could not produce one; he said only his partner Ray is CORGI registered. I said that I needed the job done within 10 days, which he said he could do. I also said I'd need to see a card before they start work. He promised to post a written quote but nothing arrived. When 7 of the 10 days had passed I began to ring him again ... and again ... and again, to no avail. When I phone his mobile on 0798 4693072 it rings then goes dead. When I phone his home on 01424 438684 his wife promises that he will ring me back and he never does. She also promised to re-send the quote in the post but nothing arrived. I reported this to CORGI. BEXHILL AERIALS - BASED IN EASTBOURNE I called them to fit an aerial. They opened my loft hatch and above that a hatch out to my roof. The boss said they were going to get something out of the van, and they did not return, leaving the loft hatch open to the elements. Torrential rain followed, and my carpets were soaked. JON'S WINDOW CLEANING, St Leonards/Hastings 07915 651 493. Hand delivered a note to all houses in my street offering a "reliable service". Failed to turn up to assess and quote for the job (nor did he phone). I gave him a second chance. He came, I agreed to his price, then he failed to show up at the appointed time, chosen by him, to clean the windows. Still waiting 35 weeks later. FRANCIS in St Leonards 07951872211 His flyer reads: "Having a job finding a thorough and reliable window cleaner? Call Francis ..." Cleaned my windows once, in January. A few weeks later turned up on the doorstep on asking if I wanted them done again. Made appointment for 10am, 25th April 2007. He didn't show up. I phoned him about twenty times over the next two to three weeks, and again just now, but his phone is permanently 'unavailable'. EMERGENCY PLUMBER 07901 572690/ 01424 441693 Found in the Friday-Ad, 28/1/05. Water was pouring down through the electric light cable in one of the ceilings of the Hastings Press. He said he'd be there in 30 minutes. After 90 minutes I rang again only to be told by his wife that my house was a "derelict building" (obviously they had taken down the address wrongly). She called me a 'timewaster' and refused to take down the correct address. While on the phone to her, the entire ceiling collapsed. HASTINGS COMPUTERS, ST ANDREWS MEWS OFFICIAL EPSON SERVICE CENTRE. When our office Epson broke down, I phoned them 15 times to speak to an engineer (who was always "out", and left my name and number at least 8 times. They never called, and we bought a new printer rather than give them any business. MARLAN'S ESTATE AGENCY, ST LEONARDS Ruined my chances of letting a property by placing filthy, obnoxious, drug-addict tenants in the flat beneath mine. These tenants sat on the stairs of the shared hallway intimidating all my potential tenants. When I went to their office to complain, the manager Andy Williams called the police to have me removed. Postscript: the police told him to deal with my complaint and declined to remove me! DRAWFLIGHT ESTATE AGENCY, HASTINGS When tenants found and vetted by them trashed our property, they denied all responsibility and ordered me off their premises! PAST TIMES - HEAD OFFICE I had to email them eighteen times over a period of 39 months to get an answer to a simple question. My first email was in December 2003 and I got a reply today, 26 March 2007. Y2K MINICABS St Leonards 01424 722000. Their night surcharge ends at 7.am. I booked a cab for 7.am. The driver turned up three minutes early then charged me the night surcharge because I had got into the cab at 6:58! On 21st July 2007 I booked a cab for 7.15.am. At destination the night surcharge was slapped on my fare! Driver said it "now applies till 8am". Later, the owner said it is in fact 7am, but declined to refund me on either overcharge. |