Steve Crichton

I used to go for Sunday lunch at the Belfry a few years ago and it was always a very special experience. Whilst it was priced around £30 a few years ago this was seen as expensive but you got so much value, excellent service and beautiful surroundings. Our last two trips have been a far cry from the good old days. The price has now soared to nearly £40 per person and the venue has become something more akin to a whacky warehouse with families packed into every inch of the rooms. On today’s visit we waited 20 minutes to be seated and a further 20 minutes to be served our drinks. The first drinks order was wrong and my partners Chardonnay turned into a pint of Stella? We then received a 250ml glass of Chardonnay, not the 125ml we’d order and got charged £17.50 for it! Now let’s put this into perspective, the bottle retails at £9.99 online and you’re being charged £17.50 for a large glass of bang average plonk. The place is being run by young kids that are probably on minimum wage that haven’t got a clue what they are doing. Come on the Belfry. Your making enough money to start paying for quality staff that know what service looks like. Your charging prices that would be more suited to a Michelin Star restaurant and your serving Toby Inn food. I’d sooner go down my local country pub for a much better meal at a fraction of the price.

Great experience from building bike on the Canyon app to placing the order and tracking the delivery. All done within the space of a couple of weeks. Once delivered the ride didn’t disappoint. Everything about this bike is quality.

Great communication and accurate delivery timelines. Had an issue with a missing item and replaced via their app. Thoroughly recommended.

Original service level was exceptional but then I had an issue with my monthly charges increasing to nearly double the original estimate. I now have around £1000 of credit that’s been sitting in the Octopus account since June. Despite requesting a refund and raising a formal complaint I’m still no nearer receiving a refund on my balance and I’m about to be charged another £380 direct debit at the beginning of August.

Great service and the only way to grab a bargain upgrade. My first booking with them the trip was cancelled and they refunded the tickets without any issues. Will use this as my main booking app from now on.

Brought a transit custom from the clowns in 2023. 12 months after i purchased the van I get pulled over by the police to say it didn’t have any tax. Turns out the clowns at Holdcroft never processed the V5 document. Whilst I’m driving around thinking I’ve got direct debit with the DVLA it transpires I don’t legally own the van. On discovering the issue when in received a £250 fine I went to see the dealer to ‘resolve’ the issue. That took no interest in the fact that they’d been negligent in not processing the paperwork and was more interested in doing a deal with me to settle the bill. Their words, and I quote, “well you’ve not paid any tax for 12 months so we’ll give you £120 and you’ll be £30 better off!” Bish bash bosh! What a load of amateurs clowns. Steer clear guys.

As described and quick delivery

Usually a bit sceptical when companies offer 10 year warranties only to find that when you claim there’s an abundance of excuses as to why your not covered. Happy to say Baxi aren’t in that category. Boiler failed on 27th January. Claim made online and provided you’ve got the boiler registered and annually serviced by a decent plumber (£60 a year for me) all parts and labour are covered. Engineer came and fixed the boiler within half an hour. Would have cost me £453 if I didn’t have the warranty. Brilliant service.

Came across DPJ via an internet search for boiler repairs and services local to Lichfield as I’d been let down by my regular plumber and needed an urgent fix in the middle of a cold spell. The reviews were excellent and appeared genuine so I completed a form online and waited for a call back. Within the hour Dan called me back which was impressive as it was 9pm at night. We discussed the issues I was having with the boiler losing pressure and Dan suggested it could be one of a number of causes. He managed to fit me in the next morning for a service and check. Initial thoughts were slightly worrying as my gut feel was that I’d be waiting at least a few days for an engineer to turn up that was any good (on the basis that everybody in January would be calling on them!). My concerns were gladly proved wrong. Dan turned up on time, completed the service and rectified the fault within an hour. From start to finish he was excellent and gave me the confidence that I was in safe hands. Once he’d completed the works he filled in the service records on the manual and emailed me a copy of the paperwork and invoice. The heating has now been transformed with the house toasty warm as a result of the service. Communication throughout was excellent and more akin to what you’d expect from a big company. The bill was far from big and I was very surprised how reasonable he was for the work done. I work in construction and come across engineers from a variety of organisations. Dan was up there with the best of them and will be my engineer of choice going forward. I’d happily recommend him and DPJ to anybody looking for an expert to service and repair their boiler. Internet searches usually throw up a few curve balls and bad recommendations. On this occasion I was lucky to get Dan come back as one of the top choices.

Feedback and reviews online are backed up by personal experience. No nonsense utility provider that’s considerably cheaper than me precious one.

Whatever they offer you on the weblink take around 25% off it when you take the car to their local dealer. The web valuation is higher than they’ll pay to get you to take the car. You’ll then be given a pre rehearsed load of spiel that gaslights you into thinking your getting a deal.

Sought advice from pension access team on how I could free up £12,000.00 from one of my pensions. After they contacted me and reviewed my options they took me on a journey that ultimately resulted in them charging me £3,000.00 to release a £12,000.00 tax free lump. They failed to advise me at the onset that I could have simply contacted standard life direct to release the funds without being charged any fees whatsoever. Complete crooks that admitted liability and refunded me £350.00 but still claimed entitlement to £1,700.00 from my pension pot. Standard of staff that dealt with my claim was also poor often young trainees reading from a script that was clearly designed to achieve maximum commission. I won’t even go into the personal data they asked me to provide that had no relevance with the pension advise sought. Suggest you speak to an alternative pension advisor and save your hard earned cash. These advisors are cowboys that are only interested in taking a large cut of your pension and doing so on a regular basis thereafter.

I’ve now booked two events through Skiddle one was cancelled a week before the other 24 hours before. On both occasions I was offered alternative tickets for events I had no interest in attending. On both occasions I claimed a refund and on both occasions Skiddle retained the booking fees charges (circa 10% of the value of tickets!). This was made even more frustrating by the fact that Skiddle actively encouraged me to pre charge my wristband with credit in advance of the second event to avoid ‘queues’ at check in and save hassle at the cashless event. So imagine my further frustration when the concert was cancelled they still have my credit, have taken a fee to arrange the credit and will take a further fee to reimburse the credit! All to an event that they cancelled. So I’ve worked out that I’m out of pocket circa £30 for actually doing nothing bar booking via Skiddle. Not sure that offers any value and makes a mockery of the entertainments organisers. I won’t book an event with their name against the organisation again.

Excellent service, great cause and fun items to boot. 👍

Wished I’d had read these reviews before I ordered my daughter some crocs. Took the money over four weeks ago and was told item was posted. Tracked the item this week only to find it had been ‘lost in the post’. No apology just a promise to refund the money. Absolute disgrace and should be banned from trading.

First class service from the initial enquiry on their website through to template preparation and installation. The original quotation provided online was extremely accurate and provided comfort on early budgeting which allowed us to amend the design and specification of final surfacing. Template team came and competed their survey within an hour which fed into the installation plans. Communication was great throughout and works were completed from the initial enquiry within 6 weeks.

May be cheap but Buyer Beware!!! Recently attempted to make a claim on my house policy to be informed I wasn’t covered despite having £6000’s worth of business cover (the claim was only for a mobile phone too so nothing earth shattering). Sadly and like most other insurance companies their army of staff have a policy of rejecting everything they possibly can at the onset. I seriously didn’t have the drive or energy to take it further so decided to cancel my policy and move to Direct Line. This is when they really excelled by charging me a cancellation fee that was the same figure as the remaining three month balance. £65 to press a button on a laptop to close an account is daylight robbery and pretty disgusting in my option. Hastings will state some small print that states what their fees are but not sure I can comprehend how cancelling a policy that has three months left to run equates to the same amount? Will never use them again!

Great price communication and delivery. Will use these guys again without fail.

Been in an apartment now for 6 months with a faulty electric meter that hasn’t been replaced. Being billed based on estimated readings from previous occupiers that bears no resemblance to actual usage. Have reported this on numerous occasions and still awaiting date. Despite this I still get chased every month for a meter reading?!?

Dropped car off today for annual vehicle check and oil change, filter and brake fluid. £260 as expected so no complaints as main dealer and book maintains FDSH. What happens next is astonishing. Dealership calls advising me of a number of faults and engine warning light display? Car has no issues when dropped off but now amazingly requires lots of work. I actually have a photograph of dashboard that shows this as car was advertised for sale with ‘No’ warning lights visible. I advise the car is under extended BMW warranty but not worth the paper it’s written on. Want £90 for a diagnostic check and then still unable to advise om repairs plus I have a £250 excess on policy. 7th BMW and last ever time I will step into their dealership.