Jackie W.

They made a mistake on my account (not for the first time!), and I was unable to phone them about it as it was a weekend and their call centre was closed. I sent them an email, as they are supposed to have 'award winning email support' which deals with emails 7 days a week with a fast response time - but several days later I had had no response. I sent another email, and 3 days later still no response. A friend of mine had exactly the same experience with them. I will be switching to another supplier, and would definitely not recommend Octopus.

I ordered a washing machine from the Currys website, and paid extra for next day delivery. I was told the washing machine could arrive at any time from 7am to 7pm. I waited in all day, but it didn't arrive. I didn't even get a phone call from Currys to explain why they hadn't delivered, and by the time I realised they weren't coming it was too late for me to call customer services. I rang the next morning, and it took ages to get through. They didn't apologise for the no-show, and when I asked when my washing machine would be delivered, they just said "we may deliver it later today, if we've got time". I had to insist on a refund of the extra delivery charge I had paid, as I didn't see why I should pay extra for next day delivery when they hadn't delivered when they were supposed to! The washing machine did arrive eventually, although I had to stay in all day again without even knowing if they were going to turn up or not. Terrible customer service, I will not be ordering from Currys again.

After being Sky customers for many years, we upgraded to Sky Q. Everything seemed fine at first, but over the next week we had worsening problems with the mini box not connecting to the main box, and the mini box remote not working. We were also repeatedly losing internet on all our other devices, and suffering loss of connection between devices, where we had never had problems before. Things seemed to get worse as the days went by. My husband works in IT, and he spent many hours trying to solve the problems, but couldn't. We looked on the Sky help forums, and there were loads of other people all experiencing exactly the same problems as us with Sky Q. It seems to be a design fault with the equipment, not only does it not work properly, but it floods your home network with data, and causes problems with all your other devices. All the problems go away as soon as the Sky Q boxes are unplugged. We definitely would not recommend Sky Q!

Ordered several kitchen units from the Ikea store. After paying for them, we were told we had to collect them from a collection centre a mile down the road. After being kept waiting for ages, we were given several boxes. I counted the boxes and realised several items were missing. When I asked where the rest of our order was, they said they were out of stock, and they would contact us when they were available. They never contacted us, and it took several months of me phoning and writing letters of complaint before we finally received the items we had paid for. I will not be buying from Ikea again, and would definitely not recommend them.

Ordered a leather sofa from SCS, after trying it out in the shop. Had to wait several weeks for it to arrive. The sofa that arrived was hard and uncomfortable, not at all like the one in the shop. Will not be buying from SCS again, and would not recommend them.

Ordered a leather recliner from Furniture Village, after trying it out in the shop. Had to wait several weeks for it to arrive. The recliner that arrived was hard and uncomfortable, not at all like the one in the shop. Will not be buying from Furniture Village again, and would not recommend.

We ordered some furniture from the Oak Furnitureland website which was supposed to arrive within 6 weeks. We didn't get it until 9 months later. When it arrived, one item was damaged, and another had what looked like flecks of paint or woodstain on it. The furniture is generally not very well put together, with gaps in between the joints. For the price we paid, we expected much better quality – the furniture we received looks like factory rejects. We will not be buying from Oak Furnitureland again, and would definitely not recommend.