Paul Hayles

I’m completing my MSc with the EIA. I’ve been with them for over 2 years now and what I’ve learnt about emotional intelligence, particularly in relation to credibility analysis is second to none. I enjoyed the drop in sessions throughout the two years. I did the SCAnR training course with them which was excellent. Anyone thinking of doing a course with them? Don’t think, go for it.

Horrible experience. I had third-party insurance coverage, but the guy at the desk, who was exceptionally rude (literally surreal), claimed it was practically worthless. I lived in Bulgaria for 6 years and am married to a Bulgarian, so I'm aware of how attitudes are towards foreigners in regard to business/opportunity. Anyway, he plucked an arbitrary figure of 40 euros a day for the cover. Total: 400 euros. Then he said they required a return deposit of 1K euros. So, on the way to collect the car, I noticed that there is a stamped notice on it: "Deposit will be returned in 30 working days" (6 weeks).
Collected the car, which was filthy, with an engine management light on and a broken rear door handle. Luckily, I took photos and video. So in typical Bulgarian style, the deposit wasn't returned within the 6 weeks. I called, and they said we damaged the door handle. We didn't. I sent the photos to them. I then got my wife to call them, and the deposit was returned shortly thereafter. They said it was because we had the full insurance. What a saga. I wish I had read the reviews here before I did. Previously, I used another BG car rental company, and the deposit was returned to my credit card as I was exiting the airport. So they have no excuses.
One of the reasons why we left Bulgaria is this constant struggle with retailers and service operators in Bulgaria. They have a HUGE way to come yet to get to Western European ethical values.

I bought EMAC cover when I was buying my car in the Trade Centre Wales at POS. It is sold to you as something you need and the Trade Centre staff have beautiful 3D images of the most expensive engine parts that could fail and and price of getting these repaired is designed to frighten the life out of you.
Anyway, for £720 a year, you get a “service” included, come back to that in a moment and rescue with the AA and peace of mind in the event of something happening. Sounds great? Not so, I got my car serviced with their service partner Halfords. When I asked what had been done, they said oil and filters, so immediate question was, what about the spark plugs? I’ve been told to always get spark plugs changed when getting a car serviced.
So, a few days later I sent EMAC an email asking about the spark plugs and they confirmed spark plugs are not included in the service. The day after the email, my car broke down luckily just before I entered the M4 motorway. Problem? Failed spark plugs. I called EMAC and to be fai, rescue was quick. I went to Halfords in Swansea and they jumped on it straightaway. I had to get back to work.
Changed the plugs as I couldn’t wait for prior approval from EMAC as their email stated that the plugs aren’t covered.
So, the point is, I cancelled the £60 a month because you can get breakdown assistance for less than £70 for your first year. Then shop around. You can get a full service for £350, that’s for everything. So these combined is around £520. Saving of £200.
In the event of a major repair, EMAC have you by just stating “Wear and tear” and then what do you do to challenge that? Drag the broken down car around for second or third opinions? They know this. Anyway, that’s my experience of EMAC.

I took this software for the trial run and paid for the professional voice cloning option. This option requires you to record audio and then upload it into 11 labs. They work their magic, and you are to get a voice that then mirrors your own or very closely aligns with it that you can use for podcasts, YouTube, etc. The recordings should be around 2 hours long to give the software its best chance of creating a high-quality clone.

So I did this twice, because the first time the voice was such a disappointment. I tried again with a Rode Mini USB microphone, which has a pop filter and a background noise suppressant. To say I was disappointed the second time round is an understatement. I literally thought the cloned voice was some sort of a joke. I am Irish with a pronounced Dublin accent, yet it generated a British male voice from the Lake District! Wow...

I worked for Home Logic back in 2022 for 6-7 weeks only as a field salesman. What I witnessed here beggars belief..well and truely shocked. These people are predators. The training was done in Southampton. That was an eye opener. It’s akin to “The Wolf of Wall Street “ they’d ring a bell in the office every time a sale was called in. WhatsApp groups did fist pumps on a sale. They have weekly lists of the best performing salesmen posted on the groups. They tried to shame the non-performers. They’d relish when new media reports came out about the energy prices going through the roof in 2022 as they felt it would make selling insulation easier. The bags of money icon was posted in the WhatsApp groups next to the article.
The training was mostly about structuring a sale and the psychology behind it. So little about the product itself.
The product (Spray foam) itself is lethal to a houses structural integrity overtime. Professional property surveyors detest it. It cost Home Logic £10 a sq meter to buy from “Mr Green” come back to “him” later. Home Logic then sold this crap for £150 a sq metre. They allowed the sales man to drop it to £100 a sq meter to try to bag a sale.
If a customer didn’t buy the “sweep up team” would work their magic the following day behing the customers and salesman’s back.They’d ring the customer if they didn’t buy on the day and cleverly pitch it “That there was a commercial job on in the local Tescos and they could send the lads over while Tesco was taking in food deliveries and wouldn’t allow spraying while the delivery was ongoing and the could do it for £40sqm but would need to know right now as they’re buying it in today at the commercial rate” a lot of people fell for this. No such job was being done. The salesman never heard a thing about the sale the office staff bagged the commission for themselves and played dumb on it when asked.
They didn’t care 2p about the customer and Justin the owner was surrounded by his band of Time Share pond scum salesmen. Thing that surprised me was they knew each other from different dodgy sectors. Time share, home improvement schemes like cavity wall insulation. Justin himself was ex-time share. Water always finds its own level.
Back to “Mr Geeen” Mr Green didn’t exist. He was an independent contractor who they used. Never found out who he was but the sales training told you when calling in your sale (on loudspeaker) the theatrical staff would pretend to have access to Greens diary and magically have a cancellation come in and the install could be done within 48 hours. Why? Because this cut down the chances of the customer changing their mind exponentially. Home Logic know this. You could Google it or talk to someone about it and change your mind so they tried to cut this off as much as possible by having it installed. It’s not a product that can be returned. They then only returned customers deposits by cheque and took ages to write the cheque.
I did contact a few journalists who did similar exposes but for some reason weren’t interested. Just to note-Justin the owner revived a 30 month prison sentence for scamming an elderly lady back in 2016.

So glad to see they’re gone but they’ll resurface again somewhere else with another product and the same faces. These people walk amongst us.

I went for a job with CES about 2 years ago. I didn’t get it, but now looking at how things turned out with them going into liquidation and the really heinous customer reviews, I had a lucky escape.
Typical of companies like this, they always appear where there’s government grant money to be had. As soon as there’s a sniff that the gravy train is coming to an end they’re gone in a flash. They made £25 million last year so they were in a very good financial state. They knew exactly what they were doing by pulling the plug now.
Feel sorry for anyone who has historical or ongoing issues with them because the reality of the building industry is, you’ll find it next to impossible for anyone to take over their work. It’ll be a rip out and start again.

Overall holiday wasn’t bad. Booked Lagotel in Mallorca 9 days. Start with the positives.

App is a god send. Very easy to use. When we landed in Mallorca I got an app notification saying which bus number our transfer was, neat. Transfer was done very fast and bus was comfortable and air conditioned. Everything from booking the holiday to the holiday itself, paying installments, getting local information, the app is brilliant. Staff in Cardiff airport were great.

So few things you need to be aware of. When booking the holiday I put a £400 deposit down with the shop rep telling me that I can pay off the remainder as and when suits. However, what wasn’t mentioned was the fact that any payments after the deposit must be £400 or more, can’t be less than your deposit.
Next thing, you’ll get unmercifully spammed by TUI after you book trying to get you to pay extra for this or that. For example, upgrade your baggage allowance from 20 to 25KG. You’ll also get a phone/sales call close to your holiday asking about have you sorted your local currency out. This question/pitch doesn’t come at the start of the call but is dropped in after being asked about “are you all sorted, packed and excited about your holiday?” Very very annoying
Other thing is that when booking I wasn’t told that your airline seats have to be paid for if you don’t want random seat allocation. Like Ryanair. Couldn’t believe it. Just spent a £100 short of £4K and now they want more for the seats. I got spammed about the seats saying if we want to sit together then pay now. I didn’t and when I checked in 48hrs prior to departure, they put us all sitting together. I could have paid £60 (that’s what was being quoted) extra for nothing. Coming back, my wife was only sitting 1 row behind, kids with me. Saved another £60.
When getting dropped off in Mallorca by the bus transfer, despite the comfort and speed of the transfer there was total confusion as to what hotel the driver was at. It was dark. He didn’t speak any English and people were so confused as to what was happening. A rep could have been present on the bus to assist.
Upon arrival at the hotel you’ve to pay the local taxes yourself. It’s not included in your booking.

Started off fine when I bought the car a few months ago. I have an after-sales issue for which I CANNOT get anyone to answer the phone or contact me back on. Really leaves a bitter taste. We have your money now mentality, poor, poor, poor.

Updated. 23/07/25 Still no reply.

I bought the tyre and mats package for £299. The mats, in fairness, are good quality, but the tyre package means they pump slime into the tires, which allegedly "seals" the tyre in the event of a puncture. Ok—I had a slow puncture, so I thought, How did that happen? After Sales in the Trade Centre wouldn't communicate despite being prompted by the sales to respond. Anyway, after a few days of being ignored, I went there. I told the girl that no one was picking up the phone or returning messages. Her answer: "We are understaffed." I was the only one there. Regardless, she contacted the workshop manager, who was brilliant. Took the car in immediately and confirmed that "not enough slime had been originally applied" and changed the tyre for me free of charge and slimed up the rest of the tires.
Coincidentally, the car was serviced this week by Halfords, and they said (without prompting) the tyre that was put on by TCW was bargain basement stuff. Also now when the car hits a motorway speed of 70 mph, it shakes violently. Halfords said the car is mechanically sound, but it's the slime that causes the shaking. So now I have to go back to TCW. What a saga.

There was a notice on the wall while waiting for the car in TCW that if you have any complaints, write to them. I did, and no reply. They don't care.

In hindsight their admin fee of £350 is ridiculous, along with the trade-in value of what they quote you.

Used to be a decent enough marketplace for businesses but full of absolute rubbish listings now. Someone is creating multiple listings with the same style thumbnail, roughly the same price (under 2K) and trying to flog them to some fool. Emailed customer service-No reply. Obviously happy to take the listing fees from the seller.

Was in a bit of a pickle as my van fob was wearing badly and had no way to open the back doors from the fob with stock inside Contacted Nick, quick reply, posted, got back super quick. Works perfectly.

Started out great. Very impressed by the quick crisp communication. Although in hindsight this I now realise this was to get a potential client hooked. Problem started when I got a notification 12 months on that they renewed without my consent. I logged onto the platform and to my shock I realised that once you register a bank card on their system you cannot remove it. You can update it to another card but can’t remove. This I consider to be very underhanded.
I contacted my bank and they have placed a block on them getting any further payments.

Such a pity as I thought these were a solid company.
Also reading through their replies to other reviews, they are generally generic so it shows they’re well used to bad reviews and couldn’t care less. They rarely address the bad review individually.

Update: Bank has blocked further payments and I have cancelled my business with them. Also-just noted-any bad reviews that are posted are then swamped by great reviews. This stops the Trustpilot star rating dropping below 4 stars.

Truely awful experience and it was my 1st and last time to use Uber eats. Ordered food, delivery guy says he’s outside went outside and no one there. He then says he’s 6 miles away and my order is too far for him to deliver. He then blames me and kept saying “What to do now” He then leaves the food where he’s standing and takes a photo of it and marks it as delivered!!!!!!!

I went to the chip shop in person and while they were polite they weren’t interested but I understand their position. They said once the food is collected it’s then out of their hands it’s between me and Uber.

Contacted support who said that I’m not entitled to a refund because their delivery guy followed procedure!!! They said I was uncontactable. What a lie!!!

Uber taxis have just launched in Swansea and my friends daughter got one the other day. The driver leaves her in completely the wrong place and then she’d to pay a local firm to bring herself home. So it’s just not Uber eats it’s Uber taxi that’s a poor show.

Impressed by Cosmetify. Ordered late in the afternoon but had the order the following morning. I found them by a Google Shopping ad and they were the cheapest. Would use again and recommend them. Thank you.

I found Profit Whales via Amazon Seller Central. They dont have a lot of reviews and their Youtube channel following/views is weak. But they do offer a free scan of your PPC campaigns. The scan did show some interesting insights. The software is impressive, its well constructed. However, thats were the positive experience ended for me. Despite submitting several support tickets, I'd no reply. I booked 2 onboarding meetings with Ihor (Owner of PW) He never showed up to the meetings. I even directly messaged him via his instagram to see if he was turning up. No reply. Several links on their website are not working. One being a demo call or walkthrough of the software. Its brings you to a Calendly booking page to book the meeting but then a message displays saying the person is unavailable. I've gone to a competitor who had no problem communicating.

There's something not quite right with this company. Gut feeling.

I think what puts most people off starting an FBA business is the daunting prospect of sourcing from China. Fear of being scammed, language barrier etc. With Sourcing Pioneer have no such concerns. I’ve dealt with them (Ying) for the last few months. It’s been an absolute pleasure to deal with Ying. Very communicative, very detailed, focused, polite, honest with great English.
I’ve had no problems with payments, with samples or tracking. I’ll be dealing with Sourcing Pioneer for many more years to come. Thanks Ying.

Paul’s YouTube adverts have suddenly disappeared over the last few days. Maybe just coincidental with the mortgage market upheaval? I wonder. What will your answer be Paul to the “thousands”of people that did your expensive property investment courses who will now soon find themselves in severe financial difficulty? Will you be there for them?

I booked a van with Nationwide and I got the van on the day requested. I did book a later time of 9:30 and tried to amend it to 8:30. At this point I noticed customer service was lacking. They had the money now but in fairness the van arrived spot on at 8:30am. The van was only a few months old and did the job perfectly. I got the van back for pick up at 8:30. I was made aware that they have 12 hours to pick it up. I did ask for the van to be picked up at a different location at my work place which is 2 minutes drive time from the drop off location. They said it would be 100 pounds extra for this privilege. I declined and asked could the pick up guys call me about 1hour before to give me a chance to excuse myself from work and bring the van to the drop off location. I was told no problem. Anyway the van wasn’t picked up and I called and emailed-no replies. I tried again and was told “sorry this is not the way it works” if you can’t be there with the van you must leave the key out somewhere. I left my work and gave instructions as to where the key was. When I returned back from work later that day the van was still there. I called again. Now I was told 24 hours. I emailed again (without a reply) to say the van was still there. Anyway it was picked up eventually.

To sum up: Nationwide are not the company who supply your vehicles. They are the middlemen. They provided a quick quote and took the money quickly. Their customer service is only average. HUGE room for improvement guys. If you replied to emails and sung from the one hymn sheet it would have been a 5 star review.