Which? Reviews

Ordered flowers to be delivered and cheer a sick member of my family up.
The flowers and chocolates were delivered in a wheelie bin.
I was appalled by this. Customer service was not interested. Said they were delivered in a safe place. Apparently it’s acceptable to deliver flowers and chocolates in a wheelie bin. Seriously! More concerned now from the response I received quite honestly.

Good set of reviews and I like their consumer campaigning, but their publications seem a little expensive for what they are.

Cancelled my membership months ago by phone only to be charged, without warning, yesterday £79. Online chat now inform me Which haven't kept a record of that call (their mistake) and so they are unable to refund me.

Disgusting smug customer service agents and reliance on T&C's to steal money from people.

I would have given them 0 stars if I could. Not a bereavement friendly company. Death in a family and would not put a pause on payments, nor block account. Demanded death certificate before this could happen, even thought it will take weeks for this to happen. Very poor customer service. NOT RECOMMENDED AT ALL!

I signed up for the free one month subscription and cancelled online just before the month was up but the company never implemented this and continued taking money out of my account for a further 6 months. I am very dissatisfied with this and wanted to warn others not to sign up.

Cancellation process is ridiculous - can't do this online it must be by email or over the phone. I emailed to cancel my subscription ahead of the renewal date and they just took the money from my bank account and renewed anyway! Poor practice.

Living in a time where a British prime minister can deny events we all know took place, it’s perhaps unsurprising that a household name ‘consumer champion’ can behave in a similar manner. I’m actually more surprised by the latter, cause, let’s face it, politicians aren’t exactly known for their integrity. Which? however, are promoting ethical businesses practices – so their bad behaviour is riddled with hypocrisy.

Most of us see the Which? brand logo and consider this an endorsement of quality. While I was one of these people for many years, I’m now questioning if they’re worthy of this status bestowed on them by UK consumers, and it seems I’m not alone in my thinking. Looking at this Trustpilot page, it’s hard to comprehend how a national consumer-supporting organisation could end up with 80% of their reviews being either poor or bad.

Here’s a summary of my Which? experience...

Looking for help with a tenancy issue, I signed up to Which? Legal expecting a highly professional support line but found myself receiving incorrect, conflicting and confusing advice. For example, one of their solicitors advised me that I wouldn't be liable to pay the other party's legal costs and later did a complete U-turn on this – warning costs could be awarded against me. He also continually changed his advice regarding the court track my cases would be allocated to – on one particular call, changing his mind three times. On top of this, he advised me I could only use the small claims track if one of my claims was below £1,000, when the correct amount was £10,000. We’re talking here about basic tenancy legal advice and this service was way out of their depth with it.

Eventually, I gave up on Which? Legal and turned to the charity Shelter for help. This free service was able to clarify in three succinct sentences the information regarding the court track, that I'd struggled to glean from Which? Legal over several calls with them. When later writing to the Head of Legal Operations at Which? Legal to ask if there was a reason their solicitor hadn't provided me with the same information as Shelter, he insisted they had done this and the solicitor’s advice had been correct and not at odds with that of Shelter. Having listened back to recordings of my calls with that solicitor, I knew this wasn’t the case and it felt like I was being gaslighted.

As if it wasn’t bad enough receiving such poor advice from Which? Legal, the worst was yet to come. When I raised my concerns about their service, they didn’t uphold my complaint and simply stated they ‘could have been clearer’ regarding certain aspects of their advice. I encouraged their Head of Legal Operations to listen to the call where the solicitor had changed his mind several times and he agreed the advice had been ‘less than conclusive’. Feeling sure he would now uphold my complaint, I was amazed that he didn’t do this and only agreed to uphold the part of my complaint relating to that one call.

The Which? Legal website (at the time) claimed to provide ‘crystal clear answers to your questions and what you’re entitled to’. So, the fact they acknowledged ‘we were not as clear as we could have been’ and that part of their advice was ‘less than conclusive’, gave them more than enough reason to uphold my complaint. I was literally dumbfounded to be having such a horrible experience with this organisation who claim to ‘make life simpler, fairer and safer for everyone’!

In my view, Which? want to save face at all costs and admitting their legal service was unprofessional is a reality they don’t wish to face. Given the status they hold, they’re obviously aware that it’s difficult for an individual like me to hold them to account for their unethical behaviour and so they use dismissive tactics. I’ve written twice to their CEO, Anabel Hoult, who hasn’t responded directly to my concerns and I’ve come up against a wall of senior management who are complicit in disclaiming responsibility for many of the issues I've encountered.

You may ask yourself why Which? would go into ‘denial mode’ when they mess up, as it seems counterintuitive. In reality, this is common behaviour for organisations and institutions when feeling their reputation is being challenged. It’s also extremely common for such strategies to backfire, as we’ve seen in recent times with the BBC and Post Office. These both tried to quash investigations into serious concerns about their conduct, which turned out to be two of the biggest scandals the UK has ever seen. While I’m not suggesting the problems at Which? are on the same scale, there certainly seems to be a similar cultural attitude at play.

It’s my intention to keep pursuing Which? and I encourage all consumers, who feel let down by them, to do the same. Hopefully, we can bring about change in numbers!

I was going to go with Golden Charter for my Funeral Plan as they were very good for my wifes Funeral but WHICH recommended SAFE HANDS so I desided to go with them only to find they stole my money £3700 when I contaced WHICH they did'nt want to know I would never trust WHICH again and would recommend do your own checks and do not trust WHICH I'M 75 and just trying to make ends meet and not to leave any depts for my family but now i do not know weather i'l get anything back to pay for my funeral

Cancellation it s a nightmare. I have emailed them already 3 times and they are still charging me. ( they don't seem to find my account to cancel it ...)

I checked smart meters review on WHich?
Instead of the even-handed description of smart meters, Which? subjected me to one-sided propaganda saying how great smart meters are and why I should get one.
I can get this stuff from the energy companies, I do not expect it from Which? Are the energy companies paying them? My faith in Which? is shattered.

UPDATE: To their credit, Which? replies (see below). Sadly, no admission that they promoted the use of smart metres (sic) without mentioning costs of installation (passed on to all users), risks (e.g. data harvesting leading to identity theft), and why the energy companies are so keen on them.
Instead they produced the usual cut'n'paste about being independent. Most disappointing.

Thought I'd give it a try. Did the decent thing and paid for two months.
Really disappointing though, as almost all of the reviews I found were ancient. As an example, the most recent for sunglasses was from 2011! As a minimum the old ones should be deleted and should not come up, accompanied by a which ad, on a web search.

Reply to 'Which Support' response:
You should not be relying on subscribers to point out ancient and out of date articles and reviews. There should be a process in place for filtering these out automatically.

We applied for the Trust Trader Scheme. Despite holding a vast array of industry qualifications, policies and procedures that go over and above the level the scheme requires in terms of customer protection and customer service - We were denied endorsement because of the wording of our website.

For a company that apparently champions consumers and companies that put customers first; we were thoroughly disappointed.

There was no show of good will, no common sense applied and very little in the way to make us want to apply again.

Disappointing really.

I asked appliance repair technicians about the reviews of electrical products on which they advise in their experience which reviews are not accurate so I decided not to join.Information comparing products can be found without paying which

Well waddya know. I check here to see why switch just recommends I sign up to a dodgy energy who forces you to also sign up to phone/tv etc at additional £30pm ON TOP of your energy bill!!! a scam if ever there was one. And lookesee WHICH has probably one of the worst reviews ever for an alleged consumer support group. You really couldnt make it up how these scam protection groups are worse than the real world scammers fleecing and still allowed to trade. Just another fat cat phoney support group milking it for all its worth.

Just look at the dough they are coining in for their own pockets. Charity begins at home right!!
Employees with total benefits over £60,000
Number of employees
£60k to £70k 59
£70k to £80k 22
£80k to £90k 26
£90k to £100k 11
£100k to £110k 8
£110k to £120k 4
£120k to £130k 3
£130k to £140k 4
£140k to £150k 1
£150k to £200k 6
£200k to £250k 5
£250k to £300k 1
£350k to £400k 1

Needs to get with the Real world.
With the cost of living crisis it’s time to start cutting out posts pointless monthly outgoings. £9.99 a month for what exactly? What are we even getting that’s not already out there.
2.99 every month and more people would likely subscribe meaning more money. Or do what other sites do and just have some advert income.