The Saturday List #345 - Five useless companies and the corporate failures that have cost me a fortune

Time to name and shame a few useless organisations, who have cost me a fortune with their incompetence and uselessness. 

1. BT Since January, we've had problems with our business phones and Internet. This is down to a massive cock up by BT, who sold us a fibre internet upgrade, which the local exchange couldn't support. Over the last week we've had three weeks without Internet and now we have no phone service. Every day we are promised "It will be fixed by tomorrow". We've even been told it's fixed but it hasn't been. It's probably cost us over £5,000 in lost business, especially as we couldn't take credit card transactions.

2. Santander Bank. When we redeveloped our studio and built our new reception in 2012, we needed to raise around a million quid in finance. We had a cast irpon business case. We went to our own bank, Santander and they said "We don't lend for this type of 'speculative development' ". We tried other banks, with no success. I was then introduced to a Mortgage broker, who for a fee of £8,000 said he could arrange a loan. Guess what? He introduced us to our own bank, Santander, who apparently have a specialist department that do just this type of lending. You couldn't make it up. Needless to say, we built the building and it has far exceeded our rather conservative projections in our business plan. 

3. Purple Parking. In October 2020, we went on holiday to Madeira. We left our car with Purple Parking. We collected it from Heathrow on our return and as we drove, I noticed that all manner of things weren't working, including the headlights and heating. The next day, my mechanic inspected the car. It had been attacked by Squirrels whilst parked. It cost nearly £1,000 to fix. Purple Parking refused to take any responsibility and said we had to report it at the time of collection. I was disgusted, not least because their operative, who returned it from the remote car park would have known it was damaged. Don't touch them with a bargepole.

4. The RAC. I'd been an RAC member for over twenty five years. Each year I paid £100's for the privelige. Last May, the battery on my Vauxhall Corsa failed. The RAC replaced it. The bloke who did it said "I've got a super heavy duty battery with a lifetime guarantee". It was £110, far more than a normal battery (I can get them for £40), but I needed the car and so I took it. The battery failed in September. I contacted the RAC, the same bloke came and said I needed a new battery. I asked about the warranty. "Sorry mate, you've not done enough miles, the warranty is invalidated". I complained. No joy. I asked them for my money back, they said as I'd had a call out, they wouldn't. So I've left, all those years and that's how they treat you? If they'd simply changed the crap battery, I'd have carried on paying the hundreds for another twenty years. What a complete bunch of twats. 

5. Jetline Cruises. We were meant to have the holiday of a lifetime in October 2020, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and San Fransisco, a cruise and seeing a few of my fave US bands. Covid struck. We had paid over £8,000 for the privelige. We understood that there were problems. Last year, when it became clear that we weren't going, we asked for a refund. They fobbed us off. On three occasions, they told us they'd pay. They didn't. It was only when we paid the Small Claims Court over £500 to take out a claim, did they begrudgingly return our money. An awful company. Avoid.