London Paolo

Do not buy anything from Smartwool. That is the only advice you need to take from this and other reviews.

AVOID, AVOID, AVOID.

Smartwool pretends to be a UK-based company. They say they are Smartwool UK. They sell through a .co.uk website. Goods are priced in UK £. But in fact they are located in Italy. It's bordering on a scam.

The goods are despatched from Italy. And if you need to return anything - which you probably will as the sizing of their clothing is not great and the quality no more than average - that's when your nightmare begins.

You have to arrange shipping to Italy as if you are an exporter. You have to prepare complex documentation, including commercial invoices for Customs, as well as specific packaging materials for Customs to open/close. And of course, it's more expensive - maybe 3x the cost of shipping within the UK.

The 'importer' named on the documents is not even Smartwool but some Italian import agency. The email address given for them by Smartwool does not work - it doesn't exist.

Then their chosen delivery partner, UPS, kicks in. They will find something wrong with the Customs documents, even if there isn't, and UPS in turn prove to be hopeless and difficult.

So you contact Smartwool 'UK' customer service. You won't get a response. I sent multiple emails over a stressful 3-week period. Not a single response. They are uncontactable. You might notice they don't respond on here to reviews.

In desperation I contacted Smartwool in the US. Smartwool is an American company and I thought maybe they could force Smartwool Italia to respond. But no, they say they are nothing to do with them, even though they own the company.

Like I said, do not buy from Smartwool unless you want a nightmare like I had. Just avoid altogether.

Our driver Pankaj, as ever, was on time, polite and waited for me to answer the door (so many delivery companies just dump the parcel and run away - Evri, Yodel and Amazon Delivery in particular).

I realise that DPD can also have its issues, but Pankaj is very reliable.

I can only comment on their men's socks and boxers. Nice feel to wear (but then most bamboo cotton + elastane materials are) but the quality of manufacture is terrible.

Develop holes very quickly. Material falls apart at the seams. You'll be throwing Thought clothing away soon after receiving it. I could go on.

They went into administration and it's easy to understand why. I think they've been bought since.

Customer service is somewhere between dreadful and non-existent. Want to contact them? Don't even give it a second thought. They won't respond - particularly if it's about product defects.

Save your money. Plenty of better bamboo clothing brands out there.

DPD used to be good but now they are as bad as Evri and Yodel, the other cancers of the delivery industry.

Last few deliveries, including today's just dumped outside our front door in full view of the street a few feet away. A previous delivery was taken to the wrong house, not left with a neighbour when no-one answered the. Instead taken to a "pick-up point" in the next Borough, on a busy road with no parking.

These liars are now as useless as the other wretches. What is wrong with this industry?

These people have absolutely ruined coverage of the Champions League.

They have totally butchered the Champions League Goals Show, which used to be the best football programme on TV. They had a panel of three intelligent, knowledgeable European journalists, chaired by the excellent James Richardson. Now we have to suffer plebs like Joe Cole, Steve McManaman, some unknown woman with no experience of mens football let alone Champions League. Fronted by some downmarket Scouser.

It's terrible. They offer no insight, have virtually no combined knowledge of European teams - all they can comment on is the Premier League clubs, or what we can already see for ourselves with our own eyes. Constantly talking over one another. some of them can barely string a sentence together.

Whoever destroyed this previously successful format should be sacked.

And don't get me going on the dreadful co-commentary by Lucy Ward. Games that she is on are unwatchable.

Good - Wide range of pet products including veterinary/prescription. Decent prices.

Bad - Sometimes don't have products in stock and have to order them in, even though they show as being 'in stock'. Take a long time to deliver products

Never had to claim and they have increased their premium 50% this year.

But they have good customer service, and reassuringly are the market leader.

Probably would have voted 3.5 stars had there been the option.

Reasonably efficient telephone banking.

Useless online banking platform. Takes ages to do most things, and you end up phoning them anyway. Any changes made are usually going backwards.

Customer service was always dubious despite their self-gratifying PR. This was due more to incompetence and disorganisation than a bad attitude. But now they have moved the call centre to South Africa.

I don't think a UK company should be locating its services and support in a country that is an ally of Russia. Even if South Africa didn't have deepening ties with Russia, its call centre staff are poor communicators and downright rude. i.e. expect them to hang up the phone when you get exasperated at them not answering your questions.

Absolutely shocking company - ZERO customer support. Today, and without warning, they 'migrated' my email accounts to a new system. Suddenly I have no email.

I have spent THE ENTIRE DAY, and counting, trying to contact them to find out how to restore my email mailboxes. They never answer the phone. No advisor is ever available on 'Live' Chat. If you manage to reset your inexplicably 'incorrect' login details to get into your control panel and raise a ticket - they take half a day to respond and then completely misunderstand the issue and hence fail to resolve the problem. You reply again. Wait three hours. No response. Now they have a "problem loading tickets". I am going backwards.

Join the 'Chat queue again. Wait 132 minutes. Get to position #2 and then Bang! You're dropped like a stone and cut off.

Rejoin Chat. Connection time 132 minutes!!! Wait over two hours, get to Position #7/ 4 minutes away and guess what? Page refreshes and it's back to 138 minutes wait again.

Screw this company. If they are going to mess with something as important as your email, they need to provide some support to resolve the problems. Instead they hide away and do absolutely nothing. They are diabolical.

I won't be able to leave fast enough, never coming back, and I would urge anyone wanting to avoid the awful experiences I have had to AVOID UK2 completely. Email is too critical to leave yours to a useless company like UK2 that does not care.


UPDATE: pathetic response below, with weasel words. Just answer the phone, or get people manning your 'Live' 🤣🤣 Chat. I have spent ELEVEN HOURS today trying to get help in restoring my migrated email account that you've messed up. Then when someone took over the chat he rudely disconnected and told me to raise a 'ticket' tomorrow (which you take ages to respond to and then don't understand the issue). You are absolutely unfit for purpose, and people should avoid UK2. I still don't have email on my computer and it is getting desperate, So stick your weasel words where the sun don't shine.

We were one of iMist's first customers in 2016. Really liked the idea of their product - as it's mains supplied there's no big water tank required (as with sprinkler systems).

Initially Building Control were unfamiliar with this new technology, but now realise its significant advantages over other systems.

iMist service engineers have always been efficient, friendly and helpful in explaining how the system works, anything you need to do etc. Tom and Bailey certainly were.

Of course this is an item that you hope never goes into action!

Engineers' names: Tom & Bailey
Q code: 15-0030

Rang the doorbell at 7.00am when we were asleep.

Dumped the parcel on the doorstep a few feet from and in full view of passers by. Could easily have been stolen.

Lied that I had received the package in person.

Only ever bought socks from Sea Salt, but I love them. The best quality of all the brands I've tried. Some fun designs too.

Just got home to find parcels dumped by Yodel outside our front door yet again, just 3 metres from the pavement and in full view of passers by. Luckily I got home before they were stolen again.

They do this every single time.

Not only are they utterly incompetent, they are also liars. They will claim the parcel was 'handed to resident' or 'left in a safe place'.

Absolute scum of a delivery company, although Hermes/Evri are just as bad.


I've just seen the response below from Yodel's UK customer service team in Africa. Don't believe a word of it. They will do nothing, And nothing will change. The same lies and rotten service will be repeated over and over and over again - as it always has been. As to the 'public view area' in my house remark - Lol. Shows how semi-literate their 'customer support' is.

Never ring the doorbell.
Never wait to see if anyone is at home.
Always dump the parcel outside our house in full view of passers by, where it can easily be stolen.
Always lie about delivery.
They are useless, liars and scum.
Never, ever trust them.

Easy to deal with.
Prices seem reasonable and competitive.
Flexible to add/amend details, level of cover.

Never had to make a claim though - that is the acid test for all insurance companies.

First time I have bought from Must Have Ideas but very good, attentive customer service.

Avoid this company. At this moment I have serious doubts whether they are actually a retailer - it's beginning to look like an online scam. I ordered goods almost two weeks ago and sure enough, I have received nothing.

They publish a phone number on their website which, on their anything-but-Live 'Chat', have said is "not working" at the moment. It's been 'not working' for two weeks. But if you dial the number, the BT recorded message says "the number you have dialled has not been recognised" - not that it is temporarily unavailable or has a fault. It doesn't even exist!

These people are liars.

Of course they are blaming the Royal Mail, even though there has not been a single day of industrial action since I placed the order and all other parcels have arrived OK.

They quoted a number which they claimed was a Royal Mail 'tracking number'. Royal Mail say it is definitely NOT a tracking number. Nor is it proof that any package relating to it has even been scanned and received into the Royal Mail network, so it hasn't even been despatched as 'Petwell' claim. They are lying again.

I have asked for a refund but they have refused even to acknowledge this request, let alone give the refund. I have raised a dispute with PayPal but that will take 10-11 days to get my money back (thank heavens I used PayPal though).

So the best I can do for now is advise:

AVOID PETWELL LIKE THE PLAGUE. DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY. DODGY AS ANYTHING.

This is the worst delivery company in existence - completely unfit for purpose. Even Yodel and Hermes, while they might leave packages outside your front door or throw into the garden where they are easily stolen, at least they do this in a reasonable timeframe.

With the despicable Royal Mail, you will be waiting for ages, if the package even arrives at all. As I am. Eight days and counting awaiting two important packages and these clowns don't even know where they are.

As Serge describes below, very succinctly, there are so many things wrong with their service and attitude. No tracking, no flexibility, no information, no communication, don't leave with a neighbour, no option to collect for yourself until many days later etc. etc.

Add to that rude, ignorant customer service people who demand respect but show you none in return.

They are the worst company I have ever known. How their militant, useless staff are striking for more pay is beyond words.

Similarly it is beyond words how anyone can write a positive review for Royal Mail here. I can only assume they get their employees and families to write positive reviews. Maybe Royal Mail is owned by the Qataris.

My advice, which I will make sure I follow myself, is NEVER to buy goods from retailers that use the Royal Mail - and let the retailer know this.

Would give a higher rating but I still haven't received my order, placed 8 days ago. That's not Animed's fault per se - it's down to the utterly incompetent, unhelpful Royal Mail. However Animed should offer the option of another, proper courier company, even if it meant a surcharge.

Ordering goods from any company that uses the Royal Snail carries the risk that you are likely to be waiting ages for your goods to arrive. And that's if they don't get 'lost' altogether.

On the other hand, Animed prices are very good, particularly for vet-recommended products. Their customer service is good too - answer the phones very quickly, always helpful.

They just need to get rid of the Royal Mail.