Which? Reviews 711

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Which Awards. I raised an issue with Which Awards to car insurers who either refuse to insure or charge extra for older drivers even if they have a clean record and extensive driving experience. Which Consumer Awards did not want to know and dismissed my concerns in a very disparaging and patronising way. It makes me feel like taking all of their recommendations for products with a pinch of salt!

I recently had a frustrating experience with Which.co.uk that made me question their commitment to championing consumer rights. As a consumer organization, I expected them to uphold the values they advocate for, but unfortunately, my experience was quite the opposite.

My subscription was set to automatically renew annually, and my account was debited on 19 November without any prior warning. When I tried to cancel today, I was told it was too late because I had missed the 14-day cooling-off period. I understand the policy, but given that the automatic renewal was done without clear communication, this felt extremely unfair.

I then asked if it would be possible to change my subscription from annual to monthly, so I could terminate it next month if needed, but this request was also refused. The irony here is that Which.co.uk, a supposed advocate for consumer rights, is applying the same practices they often criticise, leaving me feeling frustrated and powerless.

As a long-time supporter of Which.co.uk, I expected better customer service and more consumer-friendly practices. I hope they reconsider their approach to automatic renewals and customer satisfaction in the future.

Update dated 03/02/2025

I confirm that I have received a pro-rated refund, for which I am sincerely grateful. However, this was only processed after I submitted a formal complaint. It would have been preferable for the refund to be granted promptly upon my initial contact with customer service.

Please for heavens sake Which Customer Services, just answer the complaint in a simple, transparent and open manner. My question to Which is very simple. Do you receive a commission or remuneration from your promotion of Octupus Energy? The answer from this Consumer Company should be a simple yes or no. Instead the response from Which to my complaint and the many other complaints on this forum, is to continually refer consumers to their customer services department. Please Which just post an honest and open reply on this forum to the many complaints your Company generates.

Please do not subscribe to Which. They are the ‘Consumer champion’ but mislead you in payments. Despite being a member for a number of years they continued to charge me an inflated monthly amount. In addition they continue to take payments from my account following cancellation and a complaint. Which are guilty of everything they advise customers to avoid and I feel disappointed for being taken advantage of by such a company. Please do not be drawn in to signing up -AVOID

I joined Which? last week purely to obtain a Best Buy suggestion for a household appliance. Quite why Which? do not sell such information on a case-by-case basis rather than insisting we all sign up and then cancel immediately once we've downloaded the relevant document, I do not know!

Anyway, having subscribed and obtained my review I then wanted to cancel my subscription having paid the £5 minimum fee which I was quite happy to do. However, on getting to the correct webpage it said systems were in the process of being updated and "please try again later".

In the meantime, and by way of something of an aside, I received a couple of Witch? magazines in the post. I read them fairly thoroughly and was pretty shocked at some of the truly moronic things it had to say. For example, in a piece on room heaters it mentioned that a heater with a higher kW output will use more electricity and will heat up a room more quickly. If this is an example of the quality of assessment that Which? carries out when formulating its reviews, my advice would be *don't bother*.

So, a week later I decided to try again only to find exactly the same "Please try later" message on their webpage.

I then used the online chat facility to try to cancel as per the webpage information. I entered my name and other details as requested and waited for someone to connect. 10 minutes later someone responded and the first thing they did was to ask me my name. Why do I need to type my name in all over again having already done so to start the chat session, FCOL?!! In the meantime I got distracted by something else and by the time I returned to the chat it had ended.

This whole process is so utterly infuriating and unnecessary I cannot understand how Which? is still in business. The cynic in me thinks the whole "please try later" thing is just a scam, frankly, to put people off cancelling and thereby obtaining least another month's subscription.

My advice would be to have absolutely nothing to do with Which? and obtain your reviews somewhere else – Amazon is quite good. Judging by the number of negative reviews here on Trustpilot, lots of other people feel the same way!

I gave up on John Lewis and turned to Which? for help with my ongoing mattress saga. I should not have bothered.

I have been a member of the consumer association all my adult life. I trusted them with any reccommendation as independent reviewers.

This week I tried to get a simple answer: Of your Best Buys, which mattress compares in firmness to the old Tempur HD20? Something that one of the 'expert' they say we can call on demand should easily be able to answer. I also asked for an article on mattresses for back pain, none exist that I can find on the website. I asked for an explanation of their firmness scale as there is no mattress that scores below 5 (firm =1).

I have tried all week: phone, waited 20 mins noone answered, email no response all week, live chat does not work, phone again just now and they cannot put me through to the 'research team' I pay for. I had a very helpful person doing very badly what I can already do on the website - search.

No commitment to finding me an answer. Just the old platitudes they all use these days: we will pass the feedback on. What use is that? I need an answer. I pay my membership for that. BTW in the many years I have been a member this was the first time I called.

I come here and find an avarage 1.8 score. I was shocked. But I guess the Consumer Association is not what it once was, I will be cancelling my membership...if I can get through.

Edit after response: It seems the same process applies to their complaints email. I sent in the thread of my complaint and a short explanation. Automated email about how much they 'care'. Answer in 24 hours if you are lucky. So far? Crickets.

Edit again, after a response on email that said 'we are investigating'.

Crickets. as of 11 December 2024

Edit December 13th 2024 - Funny how I got a response the next day after posting above. The response simply restated in canned paragraphs that they were right and I was wrong to want a simple answer. Don't bother with this organisation, The Google Bot will be more polite and give you better info.

I raised a query with Which regarding my subscription, using their "LiveChat" function. The respondent was unable to answer my query but said they would contact the Marketing team and get back to me by email. I have had no response whatsoever. I've tried to contact them by phone but it is virtually impossible to speak to any one. Very ironic considering their Customer Service Counts campaign states the following "What happened to customer service? We're passed around from pillar to post, on hold for ages in frustrating phone queues. Companies say we're important to them - it's time to show us they mean it and put customers first."

I’ll start this review off by stating that Which are the “consumer champion” who are quite happy to hold other companies to account for horrible customer service so my expectations are sky high when I deal with them.

Anyway, I’m a long-time subscriber who decided to cancel because I didn’t think it was worth it to me any longer. Obviously, I couldn’t cancel online (the Which system has been saying it is being ‘updated…’ as long as I can remember) so I contacted them by Live Chat on the website. The representative spent about 10 minutes attempting to persuade me to continue my membership but, eventually, finally agreed to cancel my subscription. He stated that everything was in order and confirmed the date that my subscription would cease. Also confirmed that no further payments would be taken.

Inevitably, a further payment was taken and my subscription looks like it has not been cancelled. I emailed the complaints team, got an autoreply stating that I should expect a response within 24 hours but definitely within 3 days. That was 8 days ago and I still haven’t had even a holding email from a human. Chased again this morning and, unsurprisingly, still nothing.

Am at the point now where, if Which don’t get back to me soon, I’ll be contacting the credit card company to do a chargeback and telling them to bar any further payments to Which.

I can’t trust a company that exists to help consumers whilst giving their own customers such a poor experience so I doubt we’ll ever use them again.

UPDATE 20 November 2024: Which has now replied. It is upholding the complaint alongside promising to cancel my subscription and refund the unauthorised amount taken. Time will tell.

I was totally unaware that my subscription would renew automatically. I was charged the full price for 1 year even though I have not used the service since the automatic renewal. Which? complaints officer who called me after I requested a full refund was polite but totally unflexible and uncommercial. Not impressed by this behaviour from an organisation which claims to be the consumer champion.

Did not complete their home energy review as my property does not fit their questionaire. Guess this is another marketing exercise to earn income from providers.
So many review questionaires do not fit the individual circumstances. I have balanced flue wall heaters and multipoint gas water heater far from unique energy, review does not help.

I changed my bank details which involved being issued with a new debit card, requiring an update to which?. Strangely it is not possible to change the details online so I called the customer line. You are met by a truly terrible automated system which shouts at you. There is no option for bank changes but in the end I selected 1 and than listened to an intermittent shouting message telling me to go to the which help webpage, as we already know that is no help as it cannot be done online.
I waited for 11 minutes and then gave up. If this had been an energy or broadband company which? would be shouting about the terrible customer service, but having looked at other reviews I can see my experience is not unique. Hard to believe from a consumer association that sets its to be so high and mighty.
I have now cancelled my subscription and will spend the money somewhere that actually wants it.

I have been trying for days to get to speak with someone using their various phone numbers and live chat but without success. I cannot do what I want online as it tells me I need to speak to an adviser. Laughable when they write articles criticising other companies lack of customer service. Now they are one of them. Very disappointing when I’ve been a member for years but if I can’t get through then I will have no option but to cancel.

I am a new member. First item I bought from their best buy a VonShef rice cooker. USELESS. The rice kept coming out warm and hard.. The warm setting was tepid. Had to return. I don't trust Which they do not test the items. Will not be buying anything they recommend.

Limited number of reviews in some categories e.g. cars. Also managing your subscription is very difficult. I tried to remove one subscription but keep my other. However you can’t manage your subscription online,by email or even live chat but you have to phone with the inevitable long waiting times. Amazing that an organisation that criticises others for poor customer service has such bad customer service themselves. They didn’t even bother to ask why I wanted to cancel.

I was told on livechat that I couldn’t cancel just one subscription on livechat nor was that an option via email. A phone call is certainly NOT my preferred option given the long waiting time. To be clear I just wanted to cancel one magazine subscription not my full membership. However it was easier to cancel my full membership.

Find 'which' very helpful in choosing whatever goods you're looking for, giving a detailed account of pros and cons..

I am sorry for Which? At one time it was referred to as the middle class bible. In recent years I feel it has been displaced by the internet. Often specialist online reviews are in greater depth than the Consumer Association ones. Of course you need to sift through junk to find them.

A lot of the magazine articles explain what most people know already or feel dunbed down. Often irrelevant.

I want to buy for reliability or to save money. And I cannot honestly say either has happened.

The people they use as so called ‘experts’ are not experts at all. How can anyone understand hearing aid technology other than the audiologist’s who providing it!

Please take advice from the professional not a lady who wears aids and thinks she knows best! The NHS is great but it cannot provide the same time or tech that private hearing care can and if there is only 1 year difference how on earth do they exist.

Company’s can use different types of manufactures but they specialise in certain ones. Independent will have a chosen manufacturer also.

Which? Stop asking people for their advice and read the reviews of the actual clinics. You harm more people with your falsehoods. Take the time and actually research the people!!

This sector is not a new TV and should not be treated as such, it’s an important aspect of people’s lives that has the ability to save and transform them. Health is not to be messed with!

Which.co.uk does the same every year they are influenced and biased. Please shop around, do your own research and please stop paying for a guide that quite frankly doesn’t have a clue!

In my opinion, Which has slowly turned from a consumer driven company into an advert for Amazon, Currys and others.

I bought one of their Best Buy Smeg cookers, as recommended by Which, and have had nothing but problems with it. The cooker door fell apart - mid way through cooking, dropping the burning hot inner glass door onto the floor on several occasions.

The knobs that control the hob continually fall off and the large hob burner frequently just goes out mid cooking. A minor annoyance to add to this is that burners on the cooker hob make a loud whistling noise (think fingers down a blackboard) when on low. Smeg sent out an engineer on 4 occasions to fix it (told us the whistling was something we have to put up with) and replaced the door 4 times - but never actually fixing it. Eventually Smeg replaced the complete cooker after 18 months.

However, the replacement is just as bad, whistling, burned going out - so far the door has stayed on... but Smeg now refuse any further support as it is now out of warranty.

I tried report our terrible experience to Which, but they were not interested and still list it as a 'Best Buy'.

To add to this, Currys, who I bought the cooker from and one of the companies that Which provide a price and a link to, do not provide a way to leave a rating for the goods they sell. They told me I have to apply to leave a review, which I did, but nothing comes through and so they still show glowing reviews.

How can Which support a company that does not allow customers to leave a review of their goods?

How can which give a Best Buy to goods that are inadequate at best and dangerous at worst?

So I have now cancelled my subscription to Which as they were no help whatsoever, not interested in the consumer and continue to show the cooker as a best buy - the worst cooker I have had the misfortune to own.

My advice is you should not waste your money using Which.

Very disappointed.I joined this as I wanted some information about 32 inch tvs.Hardly any reviews.Went to look at hybrid cars this morning.Hardly any reviews for cars under 50 k.Absolute waste of time.I was a member 10 years ago and it was completely different.Dont waste your money.You can get better info for fee by just surfing the net.

I have a subscription to Which Magazine. A few days ago I took advantage of their free legal advice, because an item ordered online had failed to be delivered (despite "proof of delivery"). My legal rights were explained, and I applied for a refund from the company concerned, and received a refund within 24 hours.