Which? Recensioni 701

Having found Which magazine enormously useful some years ago re both a range of home, car insurance policies and products re a property refurbishment, the organisation seems sadly unable to provide that same level of accurate and helpful advice. I've given Which the benefit of the doubt twice in recent times since a poor experience with them a year or so ago. It appears that a significant amount of their recommended listings for various services are produced from analysing third party customer review sites. Unfortunately in the era in which we now live, many many reviews are driven by financial incentives and therefore cannot be trusted. So, if that data is part of Which's recommending process, it is not surprising that their advice is questionable. A recent experience on 13th July 2024 with one of their highly recommended home insurance providers proved to be an absolute comedy of errors from start to finish, and I cancelled the policy within 24 hours of having taken it out (Halifax). I wrote a pretty detailed account of my experiences with Which in the same email used to cancel my subscription with them. The cancellation process involved receiving three return emails from their organisation, of which two were probably auto generated. The third one read as if bespoke. Which had absolutely no interest in responding to my comments or experiences with them not actually acknowledging anything at all in those emails, and of course this reflects very badly re their customer service.

I have been a Which? member for many years and find their reviews very useful. Last week I was reading a Which? broadband company review. The review was dated 4 July 2024 and stated a special offer of a £100.00 voucher if the Which? comparison tool was used. My current provider had increased the monthly charge by 69%. I called them and was offered a new contract but had to accept it immediately. As I had not been happy with their service and speed I thought it would be better to go with the Which? voucher offer as it was with their recommended provider. This provider is more expensive than others however the voucher made it more affordable. I contacted Which? on 5 July to clarify how to apply for the voucher and was advised the offer had expired 11 weeks ago! The website was still showing the offer at 1157 on 8 July yet Which? have point blank refused to honour what is clearly their error. This is false advertising and not the service you expect from a consumer company such as Which?

I contacted Which technical help team on 3 July 2024 for help with a computer issue. It turned out I would be better getting some legal advice about getting a replacement or refund for the device.
The agent suggested I join their legal advice service which I did paying out £38. I arranged an appointment with a legal advisor for the following day.
In the meantime I actually solved the technical issue myself so that day I cancelled the appointment and my membership online, so I received no legal advice whatsoever.
Today when no refund had appeared I called to chase it up. After a tense conversation with an agent who initially said I hadn’t cancelled despite me having an email saying I had then deciding maybe I had he refunded me.
I received the refund notification but only £9 had been refunded. On contacting them again I discovered that a £29 joining fee was not refundable and this had been clearly explained when I joined (it wasn’t)
Paying £29 for a 6 hour membership, during which time no services were used I think is far from value for money and maybe Which should consider refunding the joining fee if you cancel within the 14 cooling off period and use none of their services.
Which have since made contact and it turns out I should have had my joining fee refunded, thank you Which

Having used Craig at Mulder Gas and Heating, I throughly recommend this company, he has fitted a new boiler, radiators, stopped a leak in my shower, services my boiler annually. I have found him, honest, trustworthy, reliable and helpful.
A first class service, thank you.

How can they be trusted with their recommendations when their own reviews are poor. I was on their site and they are asking a monthly subscription of £10.99 to view the information. How's that value you for money. If Which? could review themselves, they wouldn't give themselves a Which? recommendation

Make up company policy as they go along. Have been a valid trusted trader with which? for 4 years. Got some snotty assistant telling me my A Class directors need a DBS when for 3 years Which? did not even hold a valid DBS for a 25% owner of our business, and never asked me for A class directors to submit DBS on a previous occassion. Then terminated my membership because I didn't adhere to her ludicrous time frame.

The A Class directors have nothing to do with the domestic arm of the business and go nowhere near domestic customer properties. 😑 They work strictly on commercial operations, yet Which? Think its appropriate to ask a business to carry out an exercise that costs the company money for no apparent reason.

Watch out guys Which? seem to be con men like everyone else out there. And their staff are akin to mini Hitlers, I bet they've never completed an installation or interacted with a customer face to face in their lives.

Traders save your valuable money! This accreditation won't win you any work either and you'll just have to jump through hoops for nothing.

I subscribed for a short time, then cancelled my membership. I never knowingly consented to receiving marketing emails. I have been receiving unwanted marketing emails. I have "unsubscribed" several times, the emails keep coming.

It is interesting to see that most people give this organisation very bad reviews. My feedback is as follows:
Their reviews do not cover all the models currently available. e.g. electrical appliances. They need to use Argos, John Lewis and Currys as a bare minimum to ensure every latest model is covered.
Too many reviews just list definitions without giving the answer Which to buy. eg. Toothpaste.
I recently sent them some queries on their reviews. Instead of getting the answers, they just said they would forward the feedback to their Research department for the future. Obviously this just goes into a black hole. Disgraceful and lazy customer service from an organisation that should review themselves!

THIEVING SCUM !!!!!! , had about 3 magazines through the year then notice a £49.50 subscription come out , I ring and they say it's automatic with a 50% reduction, absolute winkers.

Avoid Which… complete waste of time and money. Very disappointed and not a sincere company at all. Hidden review before subscribing is just not as described so don’t be tempted. Subscription definitely not worth the money and reviews are not good enough to warrant any subscription fee in the first place. Disappointing considering its status. Will not use again. Looks like they will keep my money as did not cancel within 14 days. Don’t fall into the same trap and don’t waste your money!!!

The IT systems unsubscribe you, but does not terminate your account for billing.

Then you discover you cannot login.
But you still have an account debit.
So you discuss with their email team, and they stonewall and tell you that you're liable.

Finally you ask for proof of access that you were able to successfully and their team will do anything to avoid giving you the necessary evidence.

Why are you playing games with people and why are you so downright deceptive?
I am prepared to take this to a broader legal action with other people from this website.

Been a subscriber for a couple of years and mostly, have found the reviews to be helpful but when I receive emails with interesting looking reviews and I try to read them, I find they are hidden behind a paywall (warning of this is given in some cases but not all). I already pay a subscription, why should I pay even more? Judging by the many negative reviews on this site and the exact copy and paste replies to each, I don't expect a useful answer.
As can be seen from the answer below, I did receive the usual copy and paste answer with an extra caveat that I am subscribed to the magazine only. This is true but why then do they keep sending me emails with some items readable and some hidden behind a paywall? What's the point of sending me teaser articles I can't read?

We subscribed to Which? for a few months and bought white goods on recommendation. All of the products have been atrocious despite being "best buys". Replacing the washing machine drum (Zanussi Lindo 300) for second time in 3 years. The machine doesn't have a lint filter on the front either so a call out is necessary each time. Zanussi oven and grill is a joke too.

I will never use Which? again.

Probably the most corrupt consumer magazine!!

I have complained so many times about Octopus energy who gives false lip service and then gives customers hell behind closed doors. Yet Which Magazine is constantly praising Octopus by awarding it the best energy business.

So many time I have notified Which Magazine in the way Octopus continues to treat but they have not take any notice due to probably corruption and being looked after by Octopus other wise why would Which not be impartial??

I trusted a Which review for Emma Mattresses wish I hadn't. Won't trust either again.

I subscribed to which a few months ago. I waited for my magazine that never came. I contacted them. I was told that my subscription was didgital only. Now all I can say is that this was not clear because I don't miss that kind of thing. So watch out for that if you subscribe. Also part of the offer was that I receive a John Lewis Voucher. I have never received this voucher. Again I emailed and was told that they would look into this. I have had no reply although a good month has passed. My advice be careful. The organisation that loves to call out malpractice is not so hot itself!

I signed up for Which as I was buying a new fridge. When I logged into their website they didn't have any reviews of the models I was interested so I decided to cancel immediately. There was no cancellation option on the website at the time and it said to contact them through chat, so I did this, telling them I wanted to cancel my subscription immediately. Instead of accepting my request they tried to stop me and kept trying to sell me, but I told them I just wanted to cancel. I thought they had accepted my cancellation instruction, but I have just discovered they have been billing me for months and when I contacted them they claimed that I had not "confirmed the cancellation". These people pretend to be consumer champions but in fact are just another company with a bad product and dodgy sales tactics.

For specialised items like pour-over kettles the reviews missed the point. Lacks reviews on newly released items.

Very hard to cancel the subscription. You cannot cancel without contacting support, the support is slow and asks for sensitive information like your first and last name, email, and your address. (Why in hell did they ask for my address when I signed up anyway.)

I recently suggested to Which? that their Best Buy recommendation of the Halo Capsule vacuum cleaner needs revising due to the fact Trustpilot's 1* reviews are actually at 43%, while the company's 5* reviews are 1% point behind at 42%.
I stated that most of the 1* reviews were about the same complaints: very poor customer service; poorly manufactured parts - brush heads, motors etc.; unable to claim replacement parts under the 2-year guarantee (that Which? praised) and the battery life. A lot of these complaints also stated that the purchases were made because of Which?'s Best Buy recommendation.
The reply I received from Which?'s Customer Service department was ridiculous in the extreme and didn't address my concerns at all.
Their main part of the reply was, 'None of our reviews are based on customer service, they are a review of the product itself.'
My comment: well, if the product seems to be unfit for purpose, no matter how good or bad the company’s product seems to be, it needs reviewing again. No matter how good it appears to be when new, what is the back-up service like?
The second part of the reply was: 'We would also advise against basing a purchase on reviews from sites like Trustpilot, as on the whole these tend toward the negative.'
My comment: I didn't base my purchase on Trustpilot's review: I based my purchase on Which?'s review.
The final part of the reply was: ‘If you have a problem with a purchased item that's in warranty, we have a free advice guide on this available through our website, and our Legal Advice service is a paid subscription that can help with any consumer rights queries:’
My comment: Er, no thanks. The Citizen’s Advice Bureau offer a completely free Legal Advice service. Don’t bother trying to sell me something else.
However, I'm not surprised about Which?'s dismissive attitude to Trustpilot, given that this once trusted company, noted for its impartiality, has got a 1* review of 68% - 368 of the reviews - against a 5* 10% - 56 reviews.
The Customer Service Department must obviously base their reasoning on the fact that because more people complain than praise, there's therefore nothing to worry about.
They have obviously never heard of the maxim that with good service one person will tell one other person. With bad service one person will tell ten other people. However, always ensure that you counteract that imbalance by striving to make amends if you want your brand to be trusted.
Just a final thought, Which?: remember Gerald Ratner's big blunder? He thought that his High Street jewellery business was so good he could boast about being 'crap.'
Goodbye, Which? from one very disgruntled subscriber.