Blake & Bull Reviews 180

Aga installed mid December 2025 luckily speeded up by my project manager otherwise I would have waited for it in vain as had been due a month later. Fitters were lovely and efficient but now don’t have the 5 yrs parts and labour for it which was paid for in purchase price what can I do ???????

Some of the criticisms may well be valid, but as a former customer I cannot speak highly enough if this lovely family orientated firm. Never did I have poor service nor have I been disappointed by the quality of products, packaging and delivery, all top notch. So, I was really sorry to hear of the liquidation. I sincerely hope Matthew, his team and their young families, come through this positively. People need to remember the best things, not focus so negatively on the less positive, because keeping a small niche business going, and even just afloat is very challenging. I am a pensioner on low to medium income.

I bought several Woll pans from Matthew over the years and was very happy with the service. We liked the website and the recipes but never trusted the idea of “converting” our oil fired Aga and instead replaced it with an electric one from a different supplier. I also applauded and supported Matthew’s fundraising effort to buy vehicles for Ukraine after the invasion, so I am very sorry to learn today that Blake and Bull has folded. Other customers and employees seem to have been treated very badly.

I worked for Blake and Bull, none of us apart from Mathew knew it was going into liquidation!!! i enjoyed visiting new Aga cookers and the people who owned them. i have now started my own company called,
THE AGA JOURNEY. i do refurbs as well as re-enamelling.

Hi, we are yet another victim of what seems to look like mismanagement of a business and greed.

We have paid in full over 13k for a new AGA which was agreed to be delivered to a house we have been renovating for the last 6 months.

I have had no contact from either the insolvency company nor B&B to advise of the wind down and have only found out due to me trying to make contact as it was due to be installed this month.

If somebody can kindly share the insolvency firms details or if there is a wider group who are pursuing court action.

Br

Dale

Look at the Company Accounts for 2023 and then 2024 on Companies House Register - for free. The Director and spouse took a huge amount out as a debt owed back to the company (over£200k) then oddly they have also entered into a Invoice discounting or factoring scheme who took a charge against the company’s assets. Somebody needs to investigate this closely. As an ex customer I feel so sorry for the employees and for the customers who had deposits taken.

Lost over £8k to Blake and Bull since they have gone insolvent.
To add insult to injury their insolvency practitioners, Quantuma, have now sent letters publishing the names and addresses of all the consumer creditors and the amount owed. Surely a massive breach of GDPR?

Our Aga that was converted by Blake & Bull in Feb 2024 just erupted in an electrical fire. Worst thing I ever did was convert to electric with Blake & Bull. We likely need to rip the whole thing out. The icing on the cake is that the defective installation work probably cannot be visited on the now insolvent Blake & Bull.

Have had correspondence from the insolvency firm Quantuma. Matthew Bates started insolvency on 20 th jan 4 days after speaking to me and taking his deposit for goods and services he could not provide. He has paid Quatuma I think £10k so far yet speaking to Companies House he is still trading and they are unaware of any insolvency proceedings.

We have paid in full for a 5 oven Aga which was due to be installed in the spring £13,500. As the previous reviewer said, we will pursue Mr Bates! I am really sad that this company has ended in such a sorry way. Every member of staff who we have dealt with has been a pleasure and it is a shame they have been let down. I hope that the owner will look to his conscience and ensure that all those effected are recompensed.

We have lost £10,500 and lost our original AGA, from the despicable practices of this company and its owner Matthew James Bates. The practice of taking full payment for work that it knew it could not carry out is verging on criminal. I will be pursuing Mr Bates through the court, to pay back what he owes.

Paid £4500 for my conversion 2 months ago. Just found out they have gone into liquidation.
Matthew who owns the business must have known he was going bust but kept taking peoples money.
Administrators have told me I won’t get my money back and my bank have said I’ll have to take Matthew to court
Hes fine in his big country house after stealing our money. Despicable man.

Paid a hefty deposit only a couple of weeks ago……I can’t believe for a single minute the directors didn’t know the financial situation. Didn’t stop them taking deposits up to the last moment

I had issues with a £100 order
Last year in August, items were in stock but the delivery didn't happen for some reason so I cancelled and got a refund.
Before August all my orders were fulfilled, I wonder if this is the time they had issues within the company.
Really feel for customers who have lost serious money as the price of an AGA is the same as purchasing a new car.
Hope he isn't propping up his partners wedding veil business.
Matthew might do the decent thing and sell his huge farmhouse to pay back his loyal customers.

Our converted Aga in no longer an Aga
Essentially, we were miss-sold the Aga conversion as the conversion does virtually none of things Blake & Bull said it would
Specifically, it does not cook like an Aga, it does not cook better, it hardly heats the room, it has not reduced fuel bills and is not more efficient.
We have now decided to replace with a conventional gas Aga.
We will have some second hand conversion parts if anyone wants them despite our review.

We paid over £5,000 for Blake & Bull to convert our gas Aga to electric and refurbish it. The engineer was due today but did not arrive. We then received an email from the administrators to tell us that the company had ceased trading. Sadly we didn't use a credit card for the transaction and we're worried we won't get any of our money back. The majority of the purchase price was for physical materials (Electrokit Classic, oven liners etc.) and we'd be happy to receive those instead, but from what we've read below that's unlikely as Blake & Bull have probably not paid their suppliers. We await a reply from the administrators...

We have spent thousands of pounds on an Aga that they have not yet finished installing.

Something felt a little odd immediately prior to our Aga installation (in part - it remains incomplete) when communication almost ceased.
When I raised this with a staff member , I received a very passive aggressive email in return suggesting that they were perfect and excellent at everything they did and that I was overreacting by worrying that communication had ceased.(despite seemingly round the clock communication prior to handing over thousands of pounds)

I was clearly being gaslit and my “anxiety” was justified.

It’s dreadful they continued to take significant amounts of money from people whilst knowing they could not fulfill their contracts.

And these are not small change purchases. For many people , myself included, this would have been a once in a lifetime dream purchase that had been saved up for for years and years.

Having looked on companies house I have decided to pursue legal action against the director for our loss.

Until 2 weeks ago I worked at Blake & Bull. With no warning, and no satisfactory explanation as to why, the company owner told all employees at a group meeting -on the 21/01/25- the that the company was going under with immediate effect and we were all losing our jobs.
We had all been working under the impression that all was well and that the company was going from strength to strength, as we were detailing new sales targets, business plans and even hiring new staff - turns out it was all an illusion.

I had worked for the company for some years, we were a fairly small close team and I took pride in the fact that B&B took such pains with it's customer service and reputation. I now feel ashamed.

I'm sorry that the company has gone and left so many people out of pocket without so much as a courtesy email to let you know what was going on. I will have personally spent time speaking with many of the customers that have lost out and all I can do is assure you that nobody (aside from the owner) had any idea that things were so perilous.

This company has gone into liquidation. I have paid in full for my Aga to be re enamelled. No one has been in touch from either the company or the receivers. Just FYI.

We have been waiting to have the AGA fixed for several months following an electric conversion by Blake and Bull. They were due to come today but despite lots of calls and emails no engineer and no response. I now find out they are bust. Their conversion did not work and nor do they now!