matt

Looks like a UK website, but when I decided that my item was too large, I quickly found out that to make a return Smartwool will have you filling out customs forms and paying for international post to Italy. Terrible customer experience.

I bought a replacement piece for our Creality printer for a better price than the manufacturer was offering. It did take almost 3 weeks to arrive, which was longer than I expected.

We have an Osprey suitcase that is over a decade old, seen a lot of use but still going pretty well. One of its rolling wheels broke, and the company sent us a new pair under the lifetime warranty. I'm very impressed with the high level of service.

I used MyExpatTaxes to file my US tax returns for three yeasr. The first two were quite good; my most recent experience was a signficant downgrade. They missed a couple of very material deductions, and took weeks to answer my requests for corrections, making my return even later. The website is unusable for all but the most straightforward returns, so I have always opted for the "deluxe" package and communicated by email.

Accu is the best site for finding little bits and bobs, replacement screws or pins, metric or imperial. They have it all, in every size imaginable and ship quickly.

A month after placing my order, I still hadn't received it so I checked in with Fresh Hoods customer service. They said they would prioritize sending it. 18 days after that, still hadn't received it and customer service gave me the same line about prioritizing the order. I've asked for a refund, and several times received the same canned email about how they will send the order with highest priority. It's clearly a scam.

The customer experience of being an Interactive Brokers client is pretty awful. Most recent example: pre-approved a third-party transfer recipient for an important purchase, but when it came time to make the transfer, they held it up "under review" indefinitely, unable to give a clear answer as to what further information they needed or how long it would take. Account terms can be opaque and change without notice (eg, they silently eliminated Lombard loans). The website portal can display innacurate information (eg, my account shows a significant daily loss every day, because their model for declining balance bonds is broken and they are not interested in fixing it; there's no cash settlement ladder, so it's difficult to see how much cash in an account versus pending). Corporate bond execution is spotty to poor, and there is no access historical prices. Cash sweep between account segments is incomprehensible, leading to unwarranted interest charges. The phone app is slow and clunky, prone to logging you out when you try to access a different area of functionality.

Why even bother with IBKR? They offer the widest range of investment products of any broker I know of, and fees are quite reasonable. If you're experienced, need access to lots of product types, and don't mind being ignored when there is a problem, IBKR is a good broker for you.

After quite a steep learning curve, we have been able to get acceptable output from our K1-C. But if something goes wrong, Creality simply is not there to stand behind their products. A few months of light use into owning our printer, the glass door just "exploded" with a loud bang for no reason. There were bits of shattered glass everywhere, luckily no one hurt. I've contacted the company several times for a replacement and received no response. Zero. In working ith the printer, I've noticed quality issues, like stripped screws (from the factory) on replaceable parts. I wouldn't buy from Creality again.

The driver did not wait for me to receive my package at the door, but instead dropped it on the doorstep in plain view and ran off, without making any attempt to place it in a discreet location.

I've bought accessories from Gobi a couple of times. They have the recognisably soft cashmere feel and are of acceptable (not high) quality. Sizing is somewhat variable. In one instance, as is service.

I've used chairhire.co.uk twice, and had good experiences. Items were efficiently delivered and collected, chairs, tables and linens exactly as expected. Good communication from staff around delivery.

Fittedmirrors.co.uk delivered a mirror cut and polished to my specification, no complaints there. Communication and delivery left something to be desired, however. Ten days after ordering, I chased up to check on delivery. They confirmed a date, but then with no notice proceeded to deliver a few days ahead of that. I was lucky someone was home.

I've used PinesAndNeedles for the last 3-4 years, and always received a quality tree, delivered on time with no fuss.

There is no better way to buy trousers - with Spoke I can choose a style and colour, know instantly the one I want is in stock, and have it delivered to my door to try on at home. The no quibbles return policy is top-notch, in case a pair doesn't suit. Fit consistency has drifted a bit over time, however, and I wish they had more wool options.

It's not always easy find a quality turkey for Thanksgiving in the UK, and Dukes Hill delivered. Service and communications from the company were excellent (if not as much from delivery partner APC).

I've bought a whirlpool bath and a steam generator from Vidalux. Some positive, some negative interactions. Very flexible, good communication regarding shipping and installation. However, it turned out that the electrical specifications of the steam generator are not as stated on the website and manual. It was very difficult to drag this information out of them, and they offer no solution (nor have they revised the false specs).

Web chat does not work with Chrome, you need to use another browser. If you don't know this, it will appear that there is no way to contact BGL without logging in - impossible if you don't have a login, and very frustrating! I needed to close electricity supply after a tenant has left. He was BGL's customer and disappeared. An email to their complaints team received an unhelpful form response. Eventually I was able to contact them via web chat by switching browsers.

Dealing with Oncologica for Day 2 & 8 Covid-19 tests has been a problem from the beginning: the email with the required test package code never arrived, so I had to spend half an hour holding, then pleading with customer service to give it to me. The Day 2 result did not arrive until and hour before Day 6. The link to the certificate in my Day 8 result does not work. An email to customer service took 4 days for a response.

I have a double oven Britannia range, about 6 years old. It has developed a few minor problems - an oven light doesn't work (no, it's not just the bulb), one of the gas ring starters has stopped functioning. It's a bit soon to experience this sort of reliability issue in my opinion, but I thought I would bite the bullet and pay the hefty £250 call-out charge (excluding parts!) to have it fixed. Scheduled the visit (and the time off work) weeks in advance, only for Britannia to call the a day before to cancel because they had run out of spare parts. Couldn't even tell me when they might be able to reschedule, and didn't want to refund my £250. Terrible and horribly expensive customer service, pity I'm stuck with the range. After this experience I wouldn't choose Britannia again.

Appleyard flowers failed to deliver the sympathy bouquet I ordered on time for my friend's funeral. Customer service was terrible as well - when I saw there was a problem, Appleyard's lines were too busy to get through to a person, and by the time they rung me back it was too late.