This is a list of frequently
asked questions about this site. If you have any further queries, please email:
info@ukservicesguide.com
Because we're ordinary people who
are tired of having to endure bad service. We think it's wrong that certain
suppliers can continue to survive for years, provide appalling service to
customers, simply because new customers aren't properly warned about them. At
the same time we want to promote and encourage the good guys - the people who
really treat their customers well. Maybe this will make it more difficult for
the bad guys to stay in business, by enabling customers to be smarter in their
choice of supplier. Who knows, maybe in the long term it can even help to raise
overall standards of service.
The method used to rate suppliers
is simple. We collect feedback from customers using a
standard electronic form. This form asks
customers to rate the supplier in 3 categories: quality of service, price and
overall satisfaction. A choice of 5 ratings is available for each of these
categories. The results of all customer feedback are collected for each
supplier, stored in a database, and an average rating calculated for each of the
3 categories.
Any UK supplier can be included - i.e.
any person or institution who offers any type of service to UK customers. This
can include pubs, restaurants, retail outlets, phone companies, cable TV
companies, etc, as well as builders, plumbers, etc. If you don't see an
appropriate category for your supplier in the list, then select "Other" and tell
us what sort of supplier it is - we'll make sure that we add this category to
our list in the future.
Ultimately, we can't guarantee
that all of the feedback we receive is genuine, but we do take steps to avoid
abuse of the system. We only accept feedback where a valid email address is
supplied, and where this email address is not obviously associated with the
supplier. We send a confirmation email to all contributors to verify the
validity of their email address - if this confirmation is returned undelivered,
perhaps indicating that the email address is not valid, we ignore the
input of that contributor. We check for multiple reviews from the same or
similar sources, perhaps indicating an attempt to manipulate ratings. We are
also wary of several reviews appearing for the same supplier in a short period
of time. Anything we think is suspicious we simply ignore.
The content of this site is
moderated, and comes directly from customers. Any content considered potentially
libellous will be removed. As a simple rule of thumb, any comments which would
be considered suitable for the letters page of a written publication, or for
broadcast on a consumer-oriented TV or radio show, will also be considered
suitable for inclusion on this site.
No. This is NOT a smart way of
collecting email addresses so that they can be used for spamming. Your email
address will be used only to verify that you are a valid contributor, and to
prevent abusers of the system from sending multiple reviews in an attempt to
manipulate ratings.
None, other than where we have been customers ourselves.
Definitely NOT! We have no
affiliation with any of the suppliers on this list, nor can we vouch for the
accuracy of most of the review comments (although some have come from pretty
reliable friends and acquaintances). We're only passing on what we've been told
- judge its reliability and authenticity in the same way that you would the
letters page of a newspaper.
