Which? Avis 

It is with regret I write this and is not representative of the respect that I have for WHICH. However, WHICH recommend HUB FINANCIAL SOLUTIONS for the purchase of annuities and I am guessing you are not aware of the appalling service this firm provides on purchasing an Annuity.

The WHICH link to HUB Financial Solutions states " Which? are an Introducer Appointed Representative of HUB Financial Solutions" and reference to HUB is impressive ending with the HUB motto that " We take care of the admin, so you don’t have to.” Having paid a hefty fee to HUB, this firm has taken no responsibility for the transaction, have refused to answer concerns raised and told me to contact the pension providers direct for answers or go to the FOS. Ultimately, the buck stops with HUB Solutions and not with the providers as HUB Solutions took on the admin work. Asking me to waste the valuable time of the FOS whom one should contact as a last resort is unprofessional. HUB clearly know the answers to concerns raised and could provide the audit trail but will not.

Pt 1. I had 5 pensions for transfer to Annuity. On 21st November 2024, 09:27 via email HUB advised they would be processing my application form within the next 2 working days. HUB did not do so and I have lost out on a month's Annuity payment because of their incompetence and total disregard to the client.

Pt 1. In summary, there were delays with 3 pensions and in particular the fact that HUB forgot about one pension completely. Following numerous requests for update, I was told the Annuity firm were finalising the transaction. If I had not questioned the forgotton pension, I would have lost out.

Pt 2 With regard to the forgotton pension,if they had taken care of the admin, they would have identified that one pension required a manual instruction, which led to delays in finalising the Annuity and the payment of my 25% lump sum. No duty of care given to their client to provide the Annuity within 6-8 weeks given. Hence, I have lost out on a month's annuity payment.

The "manual form" I was required to sign for the forgotton pension didn't arrive by post despite reminders by me. No initiative taken by HUB to send the form by email to me, in frustration I asked for this, they just didn't care. When form was sent via email, in view of the problems, one would expect HUB to have provided all the information in the email but once again, this was not the case. No attention to detail given as HUB never provided the address to where I should return the fom, leading to further communication with them in order to get it posted back to the direct site.

Pt 3. Complaints Assessor handling the complaint was rude, unprofessional and a cavalier attitude adopted where she told me if I wanted answers to concerns raised, I should contact the pension providers direct or write to the FOS. Amazing response from HUB whom I had paid over £5K fee to deal with the admin of setting up an Annuity. To-date, HUB have refused to provide answers to reasonable questions put to HUB. I see a Trustpilot Review of 11 Feb.25 is similar to mine and that review state HUB Solutions would not honour the recommendations made by FOS.

Pt 3. Escalation of Complaint: As a result of the refusal to give response to concerns raised with various New Process Advisors and the Complaints Assessor, I escalated the complaint to her Manager and to Mr Perks Chairman of HUB Financial Solutions. I wrote that I had great respect for the FOS and I didn't wish to take up their valuable time to assess this complaint, that I had paid HUB a hefty fee (over £5K) to take over the admin and my questions to HUB were not unreasonable and should be answered.

Pt 4 Escalation of Complaint cont’d: Further emails from me resulted in Complaint Assessor’s Manager writing twice that he needed time to review the complaint. Clearly, no audit trail of my transaction. Eventually, he wrote on 27 March advising he could not attach his Response letter to me via email and that a letter was posted to me. As of 5 March 2025, no letter has been received (note: above where HUB advised they had sent me a form for signing when they forgot one pension, that form did not arrive until circa 7-8 days later, clearly, HUB do not despatch on the date they advise). I emailed again asking for the Complaints Manager to use his initiative and send it by email and have only today received this. He wrote "I agree we did cloud and confuse the situation through our actions.." but no answers why HUB did not take ownership and monitor this transaction to ensure no delays in producing my Annuity which I have lost out on month payment.

FAO WHICH– Sorry to give you a one star review. Advice you offer is brilliant but consider you are not aware of the conduct of this firm. I very much hope that you will reach out to me regarding this stressful situation.

Consumer Champions? Calling out other companies for bad customer service? Which need to get their own house in order first.
Which have utterly messed up renewal of my two subscriptions, (for Which itself and Tech Which). Someone updated my credit card new number phoned in in January (had to phone because system out of order meant I couldn't update online) for Which itself but not for the Tech issue. So I recv'd email notification Tech sub canx. Numerous calls and a long chat later, more muddle discovered. A refund had to be made, and then a tel call payment next day 26/2. This morning 27/2 what do I find on my card a/c? TWO debits, no credit. That means I have now paid for Tech Which three times. I called 9.01 this morning and asked to speak to a manager. "Someone will call you back". I requested before 10am, I have to go out. I am 79 and have been ill during this long saga, and am dealing with a husband with dementia. Dealing with all this has added to my stress.
Customer Service? Huh. You could fool me. I now need to call again 10.15 and ask to speak to a manager. It's a joke.

What a standard and pathetic reply to my review.

Used Which for years but not enough to justify the monthly sub. Ironically, trying to cancel is really difficult! There is no simple option in your account - you have to go through live chat or via phone. Also did not appreciate the hard sell from live chat with other options, just wanted to cancel! This experience has confirmed I won't be subscribing again.

Paid a large subscription and paid extra for legal assistance, no practical solution to my problem - in my view a complete waste of my money.

My wife and I were victims of a scam in 2021 which lost us just under £34,000. We contacted Which for legal advice and they assisted us by guiding us through the process of contacting the bank, the financial ombudsman and provided all relevant templated letters. We managed to recovery the entire lost funds through the help of Which and we are very grateful for this.

I have just used the tech service. Whenever you actually want some help you will be directed to an appointment system when sometimes you just need a quick call to resolve something not working, this can make it a little frustrating and long winded. So for the money it is not going to replace a monthly service contract with a computer specialist. So if urgency is your need this may not be quite for you.

We have been Which subscribers for many years and always refer to it when buying any product or service and have always been very happy with their recommendations

I wanted a new washing machine so I searched the internet and decided to go through the paywall with Which to get more information. My intention was to pay for one month and then cancel. OMG, do Which make it difficult to cancel a subscription....over complicated and obviously done on purpose. They have just taken another £11.99 from my account. Considering they are 'Consumer Champions' it's unbelievable. Waiting for them to make contact with me after this review.... My advice...DO NOT SUBSCRIBE.

I wonder how far Which? recommendations are reliable.
I have just ended a contract with a broadband supplier they rate highly. But it was expensive and the wifi performance and the customer service was distinctly average.
I also stongly disagreed with them a while ago over a recommendation for a holiday rental company. I suggest that Which? is no substitute for doing your own research.
However their Trusted Trader scheme is excellent and they phoned me to verify one of their recommended suppliers.

I rang to try and find out what offers Which magazines were available.
I got sick of listening to an automated voice telling me to press this, that and the other numbers. I got sick of listening to it. I wanted to ask a simple question. Why is it so difficult? Anyway I won't be subscribing.

My father swore by which.co.uk due to their impartiality. That does come at a cost - but I've also found their advice priceless. 4/5 because they charge for their service, and sometime don't offer the best customer care. But in my experience it's mostly been good. And impartiality is rare these days.

Having raised a complaint with Which about not being able to contact them by phone or email, I eventually managed to get through to someone weeks later who told me there had been a big issues with the phones and also being short staffed. I had raised a complaint and have been offered zero compensation, even though I couldn't use the service I signed up for. A warning to others, I would not go near this company, it must have been taken over as the customer service is nothing like it used to be.

It's a biased organisation....it gives great reviews to organisations such as octupus energy...which is a shocking place to work...

Really poor customer service, especially for an organisation that is supposed to support consumers.

I've been a member for many years. When I tried to change my subscription from monthly to annual, they confirmed in writing that this had been changed.

They kept charging me monthly anyway. When I complained I was told 'thanks for the feedback, but we followed our policies'.

It's disappointing to fall back on opaque 'policies' when there is written evidence that they haven't done what they said they would.

A clear cut case, but their customer service teams are not interested. Best avoided.

Shocked at how difficult it is to cancel my subscription for a company that claims to support consumers. Complete fraud of organisation!

I know WHICH has helped re "health& care" I am lucky to have WHICH to help me get full refunds from scam artists like Tony of scam sites like so called "health& careless"Which's letter will work and mr t will have to admit he is a scam artist "trying" to "make"me return his fauly phone. I do not see how many good reviews can be Tony must scare old disabled people by making them return faulty items . only reason maybe? I just sent WHICH'S letter to "tony" of "non heallh and could not care less" today READ IT AND WEEP tony

Would give no stars if I could. Tried to cancel my husband's subscription following his sudden and traumatic death. Can't do online as haven't got his password. Repeatedly phoned over a number of days on hold for ages, no one answers. Appalling for a so called consumer rights company. Should be a TV programme investigating them !!!

Years ago I bought a range cooker from belling. It was a which best buy. Well what a load of rubbish it was. The cooker was so bad the knobs melted after 3 months. When I reported this to which, they replied, its only when customers report these problems do they find out. My question is then how can which mark such items as best buy?. In my opinion you cannot trust which and the procedure they use to grade items. Testing something like a cooker for ten minutes to see how quickly it heats up is a joke. People want longevity for their money, not a quick test and you which say the item is a best buy. In the end I took Glen dimplex to court and won my case. Don't trust which the Testing is flawed

Took out subscription to Which? digital and to Which Legal number of years ago. Had various problems on the Which? reports - queries re gaps in info or reviews of products that are simply not available for the consumer to buy (ceased by Manufacturer 2 yrs earlier) etc. Various problems reported - some just ignored and some given lip service.

Not had to use Which Legal until last year. Booked appointment and explained what issue was about. on the day got a call to the agreed number and confirmed who I was. Then Which Legal wanted to go through what they referred to as "security" - I pointed out I was expecting discussion of a legal issue and no personal information was relevant (and I wasn't asking for any personal info to be confirmed) - I just wanted them to clarify which bit of legislation would be relevant for the circumstances. Which Legal adviser (WL adv) refused to speak to me until I had answered all his "security" questions - I tried to point out he had called me and could be anyone just requesting my security details - I said I should be asking him to prove who he was - he called me ! Clearly very annoyed the WL adv hung up the call !! Tried to register a complaint but unable to get through to anyone.

Current situation - contacted WL re a parking ticket - that I thought was incorrect. Booked appt and got call on the day from adviser. Call was cut off twice - once in the middle of adviser speaking (believe this was a tech issue) and the second time - seemingly - when the adviser didn't want to answer difficult questions ! Adviser took over 10 mins to try call back each time - after the 2nd - I was on phone making a complaint !

Problem - WL adviser stated they didn't provide advise concerning parking tickets issued by councils - I was somewhat shocked as it states parking tickets issued by council very clearly on their website. The adviser was adamant they did not cover this area.

The adviser subsequently sent through a non-working link and a quoted paragraph from there terms and conditions stating they didn't deal with .... strange the quoted list only included moving vehicle offences - nothing about parking at all. I decided to look at the original document and managed to find the proper reference from the un-working link. Surprised to find that not only was there no page 27 (where the adviser stated the quote was from) but the heading provided by the adviser did not exclude parking tickets and did not include her quote.

I went back to the website and found two clear statements from Which? legal stating they could help with parking tickets issued by councils and private companies. No problem, I thought must just be a mix up - I'll send all of this through and they'll sort out the mess and honour what is on the website.

Sent through a very very detailed email and screenshots showing the website etc and also the fact that the document referred to by the adviser - did not state what she had said.

Got a three line response saying phone lines had problems and apologies - nothing whatsoever about the rest of the email - the non-working link, the booklet that does not have a page 27, the quote that does not exist, nor the website that states in several places that council issued tickets are something they give advice on ! All of it just ignored.

Had been told when I phoned to make a complaint that Which Legal manager was away but back following Monday and I would be able to speak to her to get all of this clarified. By Tuesday no call and when I called and they tried to connect the call the manager did not wish to speak to me - really !! Registered a further complaint and cancelled subscription to Which? Digital and Which? Legal - requested a full refund of all monies paid as clearly the service had never been provided and the areas they state are covered was MISREPRESENTED on their website !!!