Ellen

Item arrived damaged, was provided a free returns code and was told to get in contact once I had dropped the return off at the Royal Mail Drop off shop and the refund could be processed in advance as the usual timeframe of up to 14 working days would be unfair when a customer receives a damaged item. I’ve dropped the item off, got in touch, provided the proof of postage receipt, also a screenshot of the Royal Mail tracking page which shows the item has been dropped off and also provided the direct tracking link itself and apparently none of that is good enough for the refund to be processed all because their own return portal has not updated. Very poor.

UPDATE: yes I finally received a refund after much persistence from me. I am awaiting your response to my email.

Was sent this as a gift so don’t mean to sound ungrateful to who sent it but WOW what an absolute con. £22.50 for a Hamper that has at most £7 (and that’s being generous) worth of chocolate in. Most of the chocolate bars have RRP prices on them ranging from 35p up to £1.69 shame you can’t upload pictures on here for everyone to see

Had a complaint being dealt with by their Customer Relations Team which I then requested to be escalated to their Director Customer Relations Team because I wasn’t getting anywhere with the Customer Relations Team even though there had been talk of compensation or how they like to call it goodwill but it never actually materialised, their Director Customer Relations is meant to be the highest department within the whole business a customer can talk to, the team that works directly under the Chairman, Directors etc. I got a call from one of their advisors and explained the complaint in detail so it was fully understood, was told they’d go away and conduct a full and thorough investigation, got a call the following day and everything that I had explained the day before had clear just gone in one ear and out the other, the advisor brought stuff up that just wasn’t true at all, they also stated their were no notes about goodwill even being discussed so it clearly was the case that their Customer Relations advisors hadn’t noted everything, I asked if they’d gone away and listened to calls to be told this isn’t something that they had access to, what a load of rubbish that is, we’re talking about an advisor who works in the highest of Customer Relations within the business, they also tried to tell me when it comes to DPD delivering if it’s before or after the one hour time slot you’re given they can’t deliver therefore meaning if they’re ahead of or fall behind on their deliver schedule during the day for whatever reason then they have to take all the parcels back to the depot where they haven’t met the one hour time slot, tried explaining that was a load of rubbish but they weren’t for listening. It certainly was not a full and thorough investigation, I asked for their Manager to get in contact with me via telephone, instead they emailed, backed the advisor and somehow tried turning it round onto me.

REPLY TO JOHN LEWIS COMMENT:

I’ve had this dealt with by the highest point of escalation possible, however much I’d love for you to resolve it better I can’t imagine you’ll be authorised to go above the department it’s already been at, unfortunately they failed to conduct a full and thorough investigation even though they claimed they did, maybe they do this because they know there’s no one that can challenge them as there’s no one above them

I’m not going to write a long drawn out review about my whole scenario I’ll just say it’s the most pointless “independent” service ever. I’ve had a number of financial complaints with them. They don’t have this within their remit and they don’t have that, they will never rule against the company you’re complaining about, the best you’ll get is them agreeing that the offer you’ve already been made by the company you’re complaining about is fair and reasonable when it quite clearly isn’t. The whole process can take a very long time as well and there’s no way they’ve been working on your complaint for that length of time, 100% what happens is your complaint will sit there for weeks with nothing happening, it will then be assigned to a case handler (who aren’t Ombudsman’s by the way) and they’ll scan over it and simply throw it off their desk as quick as they can. If you don’t agree with their ruling you can request an Ombudsman to look over it and make a final decision but again they’ll just stick with the original ruling anyway

Had dealings with them through an insurance claim with Domestic and General, came out and said it was a backlight issue and wanted to take the TV away, D&G however told me they wouldn’t need to take it when I booked the appointment so I declined them taking it to go back and speak with D&G, (the misinformation from D&G not their fault), after speaking with D&G’s executive office I had to let them take my TV so they came back a week later and took it, when they arrived I asked them to double check the fault again and this time they weren’t convinced it was the backlight so video called the office, they took it anyway, I spoke with them on a few occasions and they had spent 2 working days trying to source parts, they then told me they had ordered the parts and they would be due around early next week, later on that day I got a call from D&G’s executive office telling me Satelitte Sound and Vision were struggling finding the parts so had decided to write it off. Not sure what the hell went on, one minute they had the parts the next they didn’t. Shambles

Disgraceful complaint handlers that are based in South Africa. Allowed to lie through their back teeth and they expect you to just sit there and accept it. Claimed to have listened to the call recording in question and what I claimed was said on the call wasn’t true, I’ve since obtained a copy of the call after a data subject access request and it’s there in black and white (sort of speak), exactly what I said was said was actually said which means the complaint handler has either not listened to the call or they have and they’ve tried twisting the truth either way it means the complaint handler is a liar. Tried since to speak to someone to get the situation resolved correctly and anyone who can help doesn’t seem to want to help.

REPLY:

For the purposes of the review, they have reached out to me on the back of this review and have forwarded the case to the executive level complaints, I will update this review once I have had contact from them and with the outcome. Whilst their intervention is appreciated it is a poor show that as customers you have to go to these lengths to get something done, was clear it should have been escalated by normal complaints the minute they in not so many words called me a liar.

UPDATE:

I have now heard from the Executive complaints office and they have fully accepted the faults made by D&G however the resolution that has been offered is nowhere near satisfactory as the television still needs to go through the repair process and the compensation offered is of very mere value compared to the issues and inconvenience faced. Unfortunately to move it forward I’ve had to accept that the television is taken away and worse case be without it for up to 14 days but I’ll be checking in regularly with the repair agents so there are absolutely no unnecessary delays to avoid anymore inconvenience than there needs to be (I’m almost certain they’ll see me as the worse customer they’ve ever had and get fed up with me) but it’s something I’ve got to do based on the experience I’ve already had, I have also made it clear to the Executive office that they have to be the ones that now deal with this until the end so that there is no more talking to incapable advisors in South Africa. Will provide a further update once the outcome of the repair has been finalised.

My actual registered veterinary practice informs me that I should have been sent to Manchester and not Preston as that is the agreement they have with Vets Now but I was sent to Preston. I don’t necessarily have an issue with the actual staff in terms of their politeness but the communication is non-existent if I’m being truly honest, there were a couple of occasions where we was waiting for communication regarding updates on our pet but we had to make contact even though we were promised calls. We were informed on the Saturday morning and Saturday afternoon that our pet was doing well, we visited him a couple of times and one visit which was the aforementioned Saturday we was just left sat in a room with him for around 40 minutes before I decided to get up and ask reception what was going on, we was under the impression that they had gone to test his urine and was coming back to let us know if we could feed him whilst we was with him as he hadn’t been eating, after disappearing as mentioned it was around 40 minutes before we asked reception and then the receptionist came back to tell us that they thought we wanted to see a vet even though there was absolutely zero mention of a vet, we got an apology for the mis-communication but as we had waited 40 minutes anyway thought we may as well hang on for the vet, once seeing the vet we were told things weren’t going to plan which was surprising considering we had been told twice previously that day he was doing well, brought this up and there was clearly some major communication issues, this wasn’t a case of things had changed (as can happen) this was just a case of there’d been a mistake somewhere along the line or something like the wrong cats notes had been being looked at which isn’t great when people are already stressed and concerned. The particular room we were in when visiting was massively dirty, the tap had something congealed around it purely because it clearly hadn’t been cleaned in a long time, one of the handles on the tap had dried blood on it, the sink was filthy and the table full of hair from the animals that had been on it previously. After getting my pet home and emptying his cat box and removing his blanket it was soaked in urine (can’t say when that happened of course) however it also had 4 pieces of faeces in it which were rock hard and stuck to the blanket so that had clearly been there a good while and I know it’s since they had been responsible for my pet because they told me they’d washed the blanket. My bill was £3226 and for the issues I had I can’t accept it. Also disputing the cost of an ultrasound as I was told it was £170 which did actually surprise me and I even said ‘is that it’ to the vet when they told me as I was expecting hundreds however I’ve been charged £357. I’ve obviously also been charged for cleaning etc. and from what I saw there was no evidence to suggest that cleaning is undertaken or certainly not very well anyway. I raised a complaint and was informed I’d have to wait up to 35 working days for a response, their final response came within 11 working days (2 weeks and one day), obviously they didn’t admit any wrong doing and they made me an offer of goodwill which let's just say was a really "small token" compared to the £3226 bill I received, I've had to sign an agreement and cannot disclose the terms of said agreement though. To help others I can make mention of the cost of the Ultrasound scan, apparently there are two different Ultrasound Scans, one a basic (£170) the other more in depth (£357) but I was just quoted £170 however I'm told we received the £357 hence being charged £357, I would just tell others to clarify this with them if you're ever quoted for an Ultrasound scan.

Overall I'm really dissatisfied with the outcome of the complaint considering everything but you know when you’re not going to get anything else so not to waste your time with it.

Would I use Vets Now again? I’d seriously have to consider it and look for alternatives if there are any but I certainly won’t be anywhere near the Preston Clinic again.

REPLY TO COMMENT LEFT:

As you can see from my review I have been in contact with your customer care and complaints team and I’ve had the resolution, I expected a better resolution but was clearly the best I was going to get.

I see more and more people have suffered at the hands of this business since I was 6 months ago. Jayson Kandiah you should be ashamed of yourself you’ve been stealing off innocent members of the public for years and years under different company names and you’ve somehow evaded justice. It isn’t just him though, thoroughly check companies house and you’ll see he seems to have links to other people registered as directors of other businesses linked to the same correspondence address.

All companies he is registered to as a director on companies house have either dissolved or the ones that are still active have all their accounts overdue with one in the pipeline of being struck off. He had the audacity to give people advice on business in YouTube videos, quite laughable really, I would say don’t order from here but there’s no way you can now the website has been taken down

Leaving another separate review.

Still not received anything and it has now been 14 days since ordering on a next day delivery service.

Now blocked on their Facebook page and the shop owner is now not answering his mobile to me after I was able to obtain his personal mobile number, looks as though the company name has changed on here although this is the trustpilot page for Greens Essentials.

The owner (I won’t post his name here but check companies house website and you’ll find it) has to be a thief and you could even say a fraudster surely? Just look at all the reviews here. DO NOT BUY from here and if you have then contact the Police (Hertfordshire Constabulary), Action Fraud UK and Trading Standards. If everyone that has had issues does this then the relevant authorities will have to take note and do something because this has now been going on for a number of years across different companies that are all linked to the same owner/director, you’re talking thousands of pounds.

Also if your order has been shipped via DPD then get in contact with them, report the business and this will aid the case for them to permanently suspend the shop from being able to use them as a courier and be one of their pick up shops.

UPDATE:

Spoken with DPD and they’ve informed me that they are no longer offering courier services to the business, just hope that’s actually the case and they’re not telling me something they think I want to hear.

They are in administration and have stated that there is no plan in place regarding refunds as they are currently “assessing” the situation but they think it’s ok to request payment for outstanding orders and when you don’t pay charge late fees and threaten you with a debt collection agency. I tell you what once you give me the money you owe me I’ll pay what I owe you. Fact of the matter is I probably won’t see the nearly 200 pound you owe me because you’ll be throwing it all to your creditors paying off your debts therefore you won’t see the 111 pound I owe you. Tried contacting which can only be done via email or messaging and had no response either.

I could write an essay about everything but it would be a ridiculously long review. All I’m going to say is stay well clear of it, research the company name on Companies House and then you’ll find the sole director (and it is not Fin who the auto respond emails come from), you can then check the profile of said director and you’ll realise at 29 years of age they’ve been director of 4 companies, one that has dissolved, one gone into liquidation and then renamed and reopened and then of course Greens Essentials, if you then search the renamed company you’ll see trustpilot reviews that show the exact same as these of Greens Essentials which suggests something has been going on for a long, long time. Thankfully my order was only £14 odd and if they really want to make a poxy £10 off me then they can go ahead, I say only £10 although my order was £14 odd because they did actually produce a DPD shipping label which would have cost them but I give them £4.99 for it in the first place so it’s not like they’re losing any money on that although they like to say they would.

Don’t bother with the email address, don’t bother with the so called live chat and don’t bother trying to call, one of the numbers no longer exists and the other rings out and goes to voicemail which the inbox is full (no surprise there).

Their Facebook profile has now been wiped and looks as though there is 4 profiles so clearly they wipe them and create new ones over and over.

I wouldn’t use the word scam or scammers though as there is an actual physical shop, it isn’t like they’re claiming to be something they’re not or something that doesn’t exist and they do actually ship “some” parcels, now some reviews would suggest it’s not what you’ve ordered but who knows because I didn’t actually receive anything. Have absolutely no idea how it’s been going on for so long and it is still continuing.

UPDATE:

I’ve just received an email from the listed director stating:

“ Dear customer,

Your order has been escalated and will be shipped next week.

We know there’s been a delay over the last few weeks and we are on the final day (today) of the new order system going live.

From next week it shall be plain sailing. It’s all on customer feedback which is why we’ve decided to make this miraculous change.

I appreciate your patience.”

This is after he’s already informed me on a number of occasions the order has been dispatched, they can’t even remember their own lies haha

I say don’t bother. Whilst some staff are helpful and I use the word helpful very loosely most are just hopeless, have absolutely no idea and on occasion liars. My device was faulty, the iPad had somehow developed a bend in the casing, I submitted the claim on a Tuesday evening, my proof of purchase was initially declined but then sent other documents and was accepted, this was done very quickly on the following morning but that's the only good part about the experience. Initially I was asked to either send in or walk in for repair, I contacted them to state that it isn’t repairable and after sending photos (for some reason you’re not asked to send photos when actually submitting the claim) they deemed it beyond economical repair, when paying the excess of £149 for them to replace I was told they didn’t have the iPad in stock and there would be a 3-5 working day period in which they would attempt to obtain a replacement, absolute ridiculous timeframe especially when told that they struggle getting hold of “gadgets” in particular iPads and Apple Watches and they had absolutely no iPads regardless of model in stock, I asked about the process if they can’t obtain a replacement and was told it would be a cash settlement. After having time to think about what I was told on the phone I called back to ask why if you know you struggle so much getting these replacements why are you asking me to wait 3-5 working days, was told it was just the process however in the next breathe the advisor told me it would be a 95% likelihood it would have to be a cash reimbursement so again why 3-5 working days for something with only a 5% chance of happening RIDICULOUS!! Eventually I spoke with a supervisor on the Thursday evening who was confused about where the 95% figure had come from but he pushed my claim along a little and got me a phone call regarding the cash reimbursement on the Friday morning, I had a green iPad Air, they used the website back market for their valuation and because the green iPad on there was £639 and the space grey was £478.35 they offered me £479, I did question and was told £479 is all they were willing to offer because colour is not guaranteed so really didn’t have much choice but to accept. I was told the collection of the faulty device would happen on the Monday because they don’t collect on weekends, I was told multiple times by multiple advisors that once the DPD tracking had updated to say they had collected that I could call and get the payment processed so on the Monday after collection of the faulty iPad that’s exactly what I did and was told the payment would be processed that day, later that day I was told no we have to wait for it to get checked at the warehouse before payment is processed, I then spoke to someone else and they spoke to the admin team and they manually bypassed the system and sent it for processing. Another advisor then got involved and seemed to be the one putting a stop to the payment being processed before it was scanned and checked at the warehouse, they simply told me what I had been told previously was incorrect which isn’t good enough, if a customer is told something will happen then you expect it to happen whether it is right or wrong or not you deal with the member of staff afterwards. I was then told through the course of the next week multiple times that the payment would be made on every single day I called then the next day came and it still wasn't, the payment was finally made on the 16th February and I received the funds the same day so it obviously isn't a BACS payment but instead a faster bank payment like you would pay friends or family through your own bank.

What I mean by lies isn't just around when the reimbursement payment would be paid but one of the advisors I spoke to during the time told me that the 3-5 working day sourcing of a replacement timeframe is written into the T&C's of the policy, upon reading these thoroughly I couldn't see it so called to clarify and was told no it wasn't in the T&C's it is just a "in house" process so basically nothing written into any official documentation meaning they can just implement things when they wish. What makes the lies even worse is that a member of the customer relations team was actually helping me with the claim at one point and her herself told me lies even though she'd probably say she just made small mistakes and try to backtrack but the bottom line is it was just all lies.

I say don’t bother. Whilst some staff are helpful and I use the word helpful very loosely most are just hopeless, have absolutely no idea and on occasion liars. My device was faulty, the iPad had somehow developed a bend in the casing, I submitted the claim on a Tuesday evening, my proof of purchase was initially declined but then sent other documents and was accepted, this was done very quickly on the following morning but that's the only good part about the experience. Initially I was asked to either send in or walk in for repair, I contacted them to state that it isn’t repairable and after sending photos (for some reason you’re not asked to send photos when actually submitting the claim) they deemed it beyond economical repair, when paying the excess of £149 for them to replace I was told they didn’t have the iPad in stock and there would be a 3-5 working day period in which they would attempt to obtain a replacement, absolute ridiculous timeframe especially when told that they struggle getting hold of “gadgets” in particular iPads and Apple Watches and they had absolutely no iPads regardless of model in stock, I asked about the process if they can’t obtain a replacement and was told it would be a cash settlement. After having time to think about what I was told on the phone I called back to ask why if you know you struggle so much getting these replacements why are you asking me to wait 3-5 working days, was told it was just the process however in the next breathe the advisor told me it would be a 95% likelihood it would have to be a cash reimbursement so again why 3-5 working days for something with only a 5% chance of happening RIDICULOUS!! Eventually I spoke with a supervisor on the Thursday evening who was confused about where the 95% figure had come from but he pushed my claim along a little and got me a phone call regarding the cash reimbursement on the Friday morning, I had a green iPad Air, they used the website back market for their valuation and because the green iPad on there was £639 and the space grey was £478.35 they offered me £479, I did question and was told £479 is all they were willing to offer because colour is not guaranteed so really didn’t have much choice but to accept. I was told the collection of the faulty device would happen on the Monday because they don’t collect on weekends, I was told multiple times by multiple advisors that once the DPD tracking had updated to say they had collected that I could call and get the payment processed so on the Monday after collection of the faulty iPad that’s exactly what I did and was told the payment would be processed that day, later that day I was told no we have to wait for it to get checked at the warehouse before payment is processed, I then spoke to someone else and they spoke to the admin team and they manually bypassed the system and sent it for processing. Another advisor then got involved and seemed to be the one putting a stop to the payment being processed before it was scanned and checked at the warehouse, they simply told me what I had been told previously was incorrect which isn’t good enough, if a customer is told something will happen then you expect it to happen whether it is right or wrong or not you deal with the member of staff afterwards. I was then told through the course of the next week multiple times that the payment would be made on every single day I called then the next day came and it still wasn't, the payment was finally made on the 16th February and I received the funds the same day so it obviously isn't a BACS payment but instead a faster bank payment like you would pay friends or family through your own bank.

What I mean by lies isn't just around when the reimbursement payment would be paid but one of the advisors I spoke to during the time told me that the 3-5 working day sourcing of a replacement timeframe is written into the T&C's of the policy, upon reading these thoroughly I couldn't see it so called to clarify and was told no it wasn't in the T&C's it is just a "in house" process so basically nothing written into any official documentation meaning they can just implement things when they wish. What makes the lies even worse is that a member of the customer relations team was actually helping me with the claim at one point and her herself told me lies even though she'd probably say she just made small mistakes and try to backtrack but the bottom line is it was just all lies.

To be fair they’re usually very good but I have been waiting 2/3 days now for my refund to be sorted, I’ve sent multiple emails and even responded to a couple of replies I’ve received with the refund confirmation from the retailer like I’ve been asked and I’m still waiting. I’m hoping writing this review will get me a response

REPLY:

I have sent you the information you’ve requested

Ordered a pair of jeans and when they arrived one of the tags were already off and a piece of the stitching wasn’t right so I got in touch and was advised they’d get a manager to check the CCTV for the history of the item, I’m not entirely sure how you check the history of an item through CCTV but anyway I was told it would take up to 24 hours which was no good as the person I bought the jeans for needed them for the day after, I managed to get through to a manager on the phone who said she would get in touch with the relevant department and get the CCTV checked etc. I was also asked to send photos in of the issues which I did, I asked what the options were in terms of getting a new pair of jeans for the following day considering the circumstances, the jeans I’d ordered were no longer in stock in the size so I was asked which jeans and I was told they’d give me a call back. When calling me back they said the issues weren’t considered a fault even though the stitching was different on one back pocket than the other they said I’d have to return the jeans so they could inspect them and then they’d refund me, they also told me if I wanted another pair then I’d had to place another order for the other pair before the next day delivery cut off because you know people just have money to buy another pair of jeans when the ones that were originally sent weren’t up to standard. They tried to tell me that the CCTV showed the tags were on the jeans when they were shipped so it must have come off in transit, there is no way you are seeing on CCTV whether or not a tag was on the jeans and they also did acknowledge the particular pair of jeans had been returned previously. They didn’t offer a free return and wanted to charge me the £3.99 returns fee and even if I wanted to buy a new pair they didn’t even offer to waive the next day delivery charge because they claim they aren’t faulty absolute load of rubbish. Glad they were in the sale as I’ve had to keep them as I don’t have time to get another pair from anywhere else now. They claim these trustpilot reviews aren’t genuine shopping experiences and they don’t use this platform for reviews they use their own neglecting the fact that they are verified on here and are asking for reviews and also have the ability to report reviews on here to trustpilot for trustpilot for them to verify them which looking at the bad reviews that’s clearly what they do.

Never meet delivery timeframes especially with the express 2 day delivery or next day delivery (when next day is actually an option) and never contact the customer letting them know of delays