Bristow & Sutor Reviews 830

if I could give no stars for this company then I would. they decided to clamp our car (ILLEGALLY!!!) at 7am in the morning, and demand we pay £425 for a PCN which we received only one letter about (on 04/12/2025 for £190) - I asked them how on earth it's more than doubled in such a short space of time and explained we never received any letters. I explained we're struggling financially, I suffer with anxiety/depression and they did not give a sh**. I asked for a payment plan due to the high amount, and it being so close to Christmas and the woman I spoke to said "no disrespect but if you paid it when you received the first letter you wouldn't be in this situation". I've only just returned to work from maternity leave, have a young child, have extortionate bills to pay and they didn't even want to listen - not even when I burst into tears, they just cut the call!! They have absolutely NO empathy, they are BULLIES, they ignore your messages/calls/emails - they are the absolute worst and I don't know how they sleep at night. I hope this company gets shut down!!

Absolutely disgusted by this company parking ticket fine I phoned the council to try and sort it out and dispute it as I don’t actually own the car anymore then I had a bailiff at my door I was not in as I was out with my four children then all of a sudden I had a message and pictures of my dog sent to me the bailiff was inside of my house my dog was absolutely terrified barking I made it very clear I’m a vulnerable single mum with four children one of my children is disabled he was walking around my house threatening to take all my things I have evidence of this on messages that he sent to me absolutely disgusting behaviour I phoned the police the police could not believe what was going on he was rude to the police I feel violated I feel like I’ve been burgled I’ve had a strange man in my house walking around my children are terrified will not sleep because they’re scared he’s gonna come back I made it very clear to the man I couldn’t pay the fine I was sorting it out with the council as I’m out of work at the moment due to ill health but that wasn’t good enough for him I will be taking this further and the police made me aware that his badge was actually out of date and the paper that he gave me wasn’t even a court order it’s just a summary of what I owe this company cannot get away with this behaviour

What a pure barsteward of a company; have some BS agreement with Nottingham Council to send a horrible letter for a car penalty charge (when Notts could have contacted us directly) AND this 'offence' happened in June; and Bristow & Sutor sat on this for months, add £75 to the charge and posted a nasty letter that arrived on Saturday 6th Dec demanding payment on the 10th Dec.
Luckily we're financially good for it but a lot of people are not; therefore B&S are giving people 4 days notice a couple of weeks before Christmas, obviously deliberately trying to get people into more debt purposely. They should be ashamed of themselves!

Not two brain cells between both admin staff I’ve spoken to. Trying to pay and they don’t want to help. Clown agency

Ignore any attempts at contact them via channels stated, then send you reminders about their case with you, to then ignore attempts at contact again.
And then send bailiffs to collect in full without any knowledge or attempt to talk to you

Absolutely vile company: wrongly accused me of not paying a parking fine even though I had proof I did, And extorted money to take off the car clamp. How they think they can tow a £10,000 car away for a £60 parking fine that was paid is beyond me

intimidating staff member, who only pretending to be reasonable when the police showed up, absolute joke

Terrible people. Absolutely bullies. Firstly they demanded full payment and when i informed them it was .ore than i get in a month they then demanded it in 3 payments of 400. Told them what I can afford to pay they told me not enough and demanded 7 times the amount or they'd send the bailiffs in to a vulnerable person. I have anxiety as well as adhd and autism and her response was i don't care about that, you need to pay and we won't accept less than this amount.

Despite my being vulnerable and on a very limited income they seem to think I have money to spare. Well done bullies on making a vulnerable person more vulnerable by taking money that is needed to heat my home.

I passed through Birmingham caz on the 28th March 2025 I paid the charge three days later, took a screenshot and thought nothing of it. Two weeks later I received correspondence from Birmingham City council requesting £60.00 fine for not paying the caz charge. I contacted Birmingham City Council via email and told them I had paid. Two weeks after this I received another letter this time requesting £180.00 so at this point I phoned them. I was told I had paid a bogus company and I had overpaid by £7.00. The member of staff told me I could appeal this was my only option open to me. I was sent the link where I could upload my evidence. I uploaded a bank statement showing payment and a screenshot I was sent after making payment. The adjudicator who assessed my case upheld the fine as Birmingham city council failed to pass on my evidence that I had taken the time to upload. The adjudicator did comment and say that Birmingham city could have treated this as mitigating circumstances but they chose to go after me instead even though there was full intention to pay the charge which I did. I could then appeal to the traffic enforcement at Northampton court. I again sent all my information in but because there is no tick box for ‘Birmingham city council did not pass on my details ‘ the case was passed to Bristow and Sutor. This without any notification. I tried to appeal to them explaining what had happened they were not interested instead they laughed when I called you and treated me with utter contempt. To get them off my back whilst I continued to appeal to this kangaroo court I offered to pay in instalments they ignored it , I got no response then last week whilst myself and my husband were at work a bailiff named Chris turned up at our home he tried my porch door entered my porch and posted a threatening letter through the internal door he then contacted the mobile number that was on the file. My husband had the phone Chris breached GDPR he did not verify who he was talking to he told my husband he could enter our property even if no one was in the property when my husband told him I had offered to pay in instalments he said the company were under no obligation to read it !!! the debt that was a £190 a week ago was now £500 he used threatening language and my husband transferred £500 as he was in a state of anxiety due to the threats and thinking someone would enter our home, Chris did not check if we were financially able to pay this. I have written to the company reported the number of breaches by Chris but I am still waiting for a response I want a breakdown of how the debt reached £500 in the space of a week. It cost me £514 to drive through Birmingham I have sought legal advice on my rights and I will do everything I can to expose this bullying company

You don’t deserve a star, your service is poor, it’s intimidating, frightening and i’m not sure if I will survive after this, thank you for making me this anxious, this frightened this low.
written comms in the post, arriving after deadlines
Doing absolutely nothing about anything.
Made up financial amounts, I went from owing £350 to £590 and the threat of bailiffs with only a letter on the doormat.
No reply to any of my complaints or comms on their website.
A phone number to ring, but only options if the enforcement officer hasn’t already been and my letters were after deadlines had passed.
Watts app where they don’t recognise the references, then after sending a copy of the letter on watts app, they become automated.
I’ve now sent 2 complaints and each time they have moved me to another website or email.
They hope I can afford to lose £600 and hope that i will dismiss it, but i won’t, even if this is the last thing I do.

Absolutely disgusting . Send threatening messages . Speak down to you . I rang to ask for complaints e mail address and was told I cant have it unless I speak to the.person I want to.complain about . I cant believe that this kind of harrasement and bullying is allowed in this day and age . I am disabled and husband has learning difficulties they couldn't care less

My experience with Bristow & Sutor on 23 November 2025 represents a profound and unacceptable failure to follow the legal requirements that govern enforcement in England and Wales. I received no prior written notice whatsoever before my vehicle was clamped.No Notice of Enforcement, no letters, no emails, and no communication of any kind . The first and only indication of any enforcement activity was the agent immobilising my vehicle on my driveway and demanding immediate payment.

The Taking Control of Goods Regulations 2013 make it absolutely clear that a Notice of Enforcement must be properly issued and served at least seven clear days before any enforcement action is taken. No such notice was ever provided.

This alone renders the enforcement deeply questionable.

The written notice left on my car stated that removal would occur “within a week,” yet the enforcement agent verbally claimed the vehicle would be removed “within two hours.” Written notices govern the legal timeline of enforcement. Verbal threats that contradict written documentation are misleading and wholly inconsistent with the standards expected of certificated enforcement agents.
When I explained that I had received no communication at all, the agent stated that this was “not his concern.” Respectfully, the law makes it very much his concern. Enforcement cannot lawfully begin without a Notice of Enforcement being served.
To be clear, I am not disputing the underlying debt. My concern is the manner in which the enforcement was executed: without notice, without due process, without transparency, and in direct contradiction to the regulations that safeguard individuals in these situations.

Under the Data Protection Act 2018 (UK GDPR), I am legally entitled to copies of all correspondence, records, notices, and proof of service held about me. I have contacted Bristow & Sutor by recorded post, via their formal complaints email, and attempted to reach them on WhatsApp, which is non-functional. I have formally requested proof of service and all data they hold in relation to this enforcement. To date, no such evidence has been provided because none appears to exist.

If this matter is not resolved appropriately, I will escalate my complaint to the Enforcement Conduct Board, and thereafter to the Local Government Ombudsman. Individuals should not be subjected to enforcement action without lawful notice, nor to contradictory information delivered at the doorstep.
This was an obscene failure of lawful process and has caused significant distress. No enforcement company should operate in this manner.

UPDATE- company below asks for further info and then does not contact

Appalling Service and Distasteful Conduct

My experience with this company has been nothing short of appalling. The staff are extremely distasteful in their attitude, and Wendy in particular was shockingly rude and unprofessional. The moment I asked whether the call was being recorded and if she was aware of certain regulations, her tone immediately became aggressive.

I explained that the letter stated I could choose one of the three contact options. I chose WhatsApp due to my daughter’s additional needs and my inability to stay on long phone calls. I received no response for days, yet Wendy told me I “should have chosen another option” and insisted they “don’t use” the one they offered. When I challenged this, she became even ruder, told me to pay tomorrow, and hung up on me.

I am now making a formal complaint and have escalated this to the HCEOA due to her conduct. Absolutely disgraceful service.

My five star review is a reflection of the person that helped me after a few bad experiences with other people at Bristow. Isabelle was incredibly reasonable and understanding and has restored my faith in humanity. Deserves a promotion. Big up empathy in hard times.

What a joke these people are threatening people. trying to pressuring me into paying a debt that I’m actually paying and never missed a payment in the 4 years we arranged me to pay at.i received a text today telling me that I need to pay the full amount that’s now due before they come and take my goods my car I’ve not got.! This debt occurred because of an overpayment the council paid me when I was claiming housing benefits whilst I was working then they sent me a letter to say that they made a mistake and want 6thousand so they sold the debt to Bristol to collect and climbed and it’s still 6k after paying it off for 4 years I’m 65 will be retired so if they want this money they need to stop putting pressure on the vulnerable people I’ve already had a stroke. 2 years ago and lost my sight on the right eye I’ve got all sorts of things going on and these guys are going to be the death of me and you will end up with nothing

So these so called bailiffs turned up at my shop . For council rates , I explained to them the council had cancelled it as I proved that I shouldn’t be paying rates as was getting small business relief , only for the bailiffs from bristow and sutor to turned up threaten my staff with pay or we are emptying the shop of all its goods So had no choice but to pay . I’ve been chasing the council every day and bristow and sutor kept my money for 3 weeks before sending the money to council for them to refund me , which I have to wait another 10 days for , so this company have kept £3000 of my money in there account for 3 weeks , absolutely disgusting and these company’s should be made accountable if we didn’t have £3000 to pay they would have closed my business only for it to be refunded , they need to do there homework before they turn up to business . The directors of this company are being paid millions of pounds every one look on company’s house and see for yourselves ,

Aggressive and unprofessional bullies, If I could give them a minus rating, I would.
This company should be prosecuted for the way it treats people, especially the vulnerable and disabled 🤬

Family emergency,mother in law dying in hospital,wife found out she has pancreatic cancer so need surgery to take out her pancreas and I have ADHD, autism and heart failure. Offered no support demanding money I havent got , and offering a payment plan way to expensive when I'm on universal credit.

Awful company, I’ve got a DRO they keep hounding me from no reply emails I contacted them on WhatsApp and they gave me no information then just said goodbye and cut me off, never in my life have a met a company so iseless

Utterly appalling. No empathy or understanding. I'm now on a payment plan that isn't even close to being affordable.

Rude customer service...... don't work with you..... I am on benefits and they have taken all my money and left with nothing.......as I probably didn't have any items they wanted, when they sent bailiffs to remove goods. I said take what you want but like they said they can take everything and I will still owe more than what the debt was...... but they work on behalf of a fraudulent company.......who stated they will not pass my information to a third party....... now me and my children have to go without but this company has what they want. absolutely disgusting no compassion for a single dad with children.. probably because I am a male. Licenced bullies.......I can't wait for your time to come