Southampton Reviews 29

Not very efficient as far as repairs go. It has just taken them '13 YEARS' to carry out what was an 'EMERGENCY REPAIR', namely water ingression making it's way in to my underfloor heating thermostat and shorting it out every year since 2009/2010. Due to Major repairs that needed doing on the block roof and severely corroded joins in rainwater downpipes, one of which runs down inside the Airing cupboard in a bedroom. The signs were obvious, as there was quite a large damp/wet area on the ceiling where the pipe runs down. The pipe is boxed in, but the signs of a major leak were obvious.
Clearly in breach of their 'Own Tenancy Agreement', as EMERGENCY repairs should have been done in 4 hours! Paid for heating I did not get but used 'My OWN heating', so paid TWICE! Yet they REFUSE any reimbursement. A LOT of discrepancies in their reports too. Obviously they won't own up to leaving me living in a 'POTENTIAL FIRE HAZARD' from 2009/2010 up until October 2022.
No one at that Council seems to have a clue what thier obligations are or what they are doing. This is Dereliction of duty! Local Councillors aren't of any help either.
This Council should be ashamed of themselves.
I have had this issue since the end of 2009, but the date of experience calendar doesn't go back that far, so have used a recent random date to be able to post this review

Commercial bins told them cancel bins in January and taken to today to cancel bins now they want us pay for 8 bins that they have not empty. Staff in office which is a young girl answer every time. Does not sort out problem made it hang out for a extra month. So want us pay. Council are a joke staff done there job properly this would not happen. I will see you in court. We are a business not a charity to give money to the council that do noughting.

The bin collection missed my bins I reported and wax told 5 working days which has passed so this means my general waiste has not been collected since a week before Christmas which is now causing all the seagulls to rip the bins all over the street 🤬🤬not the first time it’s happened in our close it’s disgusting and the general is not due till 20th are they for real
Ref number HM66T6E5 if anybody wishes to discuss it with me

Like others would give a zero if it were possible. No understanding of visitors needs, zero empathy, dire communications, painfully slow ...the list goes on.

I really want to give ZERO stars. 5 weeks after various emails and god knows how many phone calls which remain unanswered by both the council tax and housing office, I really give up. Either the housing office does not answer or the wait for council tax is over 1 hour! I am offering to make payments on my son's behalf for his service charge and council tax. Do they want the money or not?

Trying to contact the council about something they need to know and after being through the telephonic abyss i get told the wait is 1hr !!!! This is in relation to an issue on which i have completed an online form, emails sent and even got to speak to an actual person once.
Yet, still they persist in sending me demands for money that has nothing to do with me and a property i have sold. To say they are inept is an understatement.
Compared to Winchester and Portsmouth councils they are useless and its as if they really do not want anyone (lets face it their wage payers) in their area to interact with them. Under staffed, under skilled, uncaring under performing and just a money grabbing exercise for god knows who’s benefit. Just looked it up and its a labour council so that sums it up i guess.

The lowest is shown as 2,which is very poor. If it was possible I would’ve given it a zero. I have been waiting for a repair to be finished since 25th April 2025. Finally a workman turned up yesterday and couldn’t do the job, as he was only given an hour to do the job, but it was going to take 5hrs to do the job. I’m now back on the backlog waiting list, so I expect I’ll have to wait another 3 months, living in a building site,before the council deign to finish the job. A very unhappy tenant.

There is a Hotel called VOCO Hotel in Southampton. I booked in on Sun to Fri 6th to 11th July. Following the GM response on Wed to a review I posted on Trip Advisor on Monday regarding a dangerous meal all photo evidence taken. He pressured me to take review down . As I refused he upped the anti. Despite my company paying in full for the week and £75 a day food and drink expenses I checked out on Wed 2 days earlier booking and paying for another hotel and food at my own expense as money not an issue but safety is. The GM a Mr Doyle never once looked at the problem huge numerous bones in a fish pie with no warning given or on menu. I swallowed and almost choked on some of them as well as pierce my gums. The GM attempted to ignore all this and told me the complaint only happened because they did not put alcohol beverage on as food. This was not true and his excuse of averting the main issue. Also what the GM didn’t know was I was entitled to in any case to have those 2 drinks and it wouldn’t have mattered any way as I was already over my allowance with food and services charges. Services charges added for a dangerous meal. I asked for the pint to be put separately so I could pay for it as I’d exceeded my allowance, so his vain attempt to divert from the real issue had no credibility except prove his narcissistic intentions to avoid the main dangerous issue. I was even happy to lose the hotel and food fund ing and pay my own way despite coy entitlement , as I did not feel safe and felt bullied into removing my review based on actual fact. The GM understandably is protecting his patch, his behaviour goes against his company’s code of conduct. I am a Health and Safety Manager and take Saftey seriously. All I wanted was to report the issue internally to prevent re-occurrences. However, the GM went straight on the defensive , then on the attack , whilst never once making reference to the actual issue.The GM also said he spied on me on camera but could only observe good behaviour he also told me he examined my social profile on line.
I have pictorial evidence time date stamped. As he was Irish he said he checked up on me on social media, mentioned my military background and reminded me he now knew my address and phone number. Jose the duty manager on as I checked out was lovely and couldn’t apologise enough. He was completely different to the GM who was extremely intimidating to his guests in order to to get what he wants.

Southampton city council have not taken out glass bottles for over a month. Keep taking some and not others. So many emails to them and no reply. Why are we paying council
Tax? Useless council. Will be refused to pay soon as it’s not on any more. So many tickets but nothing being done. Just take our glass!

Paying another £9 in council tax. Apart from getting our bins emptied the service run by a bunch of part timers is useless.

Shame on this council leaders! Collect the bloody binssss already! You are creating a terrible health hazard issue? Shame on you!!!!

A Labour council has two choices., it makes cuts. Ruins the complete road system., and sacks council workers. Or fights the Tory Labour government and demands funding , as they did in Liverpool in the 1980s.

mouldy flats and houses, bad foundations, communications is nil, problems after problems, reported over 10 repairs hear nothing, terrible landlord

I have been arguing with council housing about my heating since before covid, they now refuse to send out an engineer saying the system works as intended.
If this system works as intended it wouldn't have recently hit 28.4°C and average over 24°C with the thermostat set to minium, occasionally it goes the other way and I have to get up in the night put tracksuit bottoms and a hoodie on and get back into bed because they switched the system off.
The thermostat does nothing and the system is controlled from somewhere in the Midlands.
Every council tennant is paying through the nose for this stupidity and bad maintenance, I have worked out 80% of my heating bill is due to bad maintenance, negligent operation and I expect some corruption is thrown in there also as the numbers are so far out and they refuse to switch the system to my electricity supply so I can switch it off, and I offered to pay for this, but they refused and told me I can switch it off at the fuse box but I still have to pay the outrageous charges.
My weekly energy bill is 25% higher than my m2 and that's without having hot water most of the time ( but that's another issue) The underfloor heating covers about 2m2 in the main room and about a m2 in kitchen with the thermostat in hallway.
If I had the heating on for an average of 4 hours a day for 6 months underfloor heating should cost £219 yet I am charged £1100 for the same 6 months being blasted with heat stopping me sleeping and forcing me to have all windows and front door open until early hours to let heat out, not only is it an environmental disaster but the council are preying on the poor.
I have seen lifetime guarantee underfloor heating systems on ebay with 8m of Matt with a programmable thermostats for £130 but because the council make so much money from this heating scam this is why they won't switch it off, every tennant is paying more for their negligent operation than they do for the heat.
I have refused to pay heating so the council helped themselves to my benefits but the DWP stopped this this year and I am prepared to be evicted over this as it's purely a scam, every council tennant should challenge their council over the stupidity with which the system is run, controlling heating from 200 miles away is stupid but failing to change thermostats and correctly maintaining systems is why they charge me £1100 to heat a 30m2 flat for 6 months.
I switched the system off about a year ago when it was cold in February and a small 9 fin oil heater was plenty partly due to overheating the flat above me. This was during energy topups from government and it didn't cost me anything.
Every council tennant needs to challenge them about wasting our money

Southampton city council highways department are an absolute disgrace and being run by a bunch of over paid unamusing idiotic jokers , I would hate to be as bad as they all are at my job irrespective of any amounts of money and especially if I was bleeding the poor peoples tax they pay to do so and costing the tax payers even more money in wasted fuel costs to be sat in traffic jams let alone the damage and pollution they are causing to this poorly planet that is being destroyed unnecessarily , shame on you idiots ,

Worst city in the UK. Unkind, unfriendly, dishonest, corrupt to the core. Avoid like the plague.

i had a man from the council come out today to fix and paint my bathroom celling and what a great job he did he was all so polite and just got on with the job i wish i got his name well done and thank you

Absolutely useless 2 hours to answer the phone constantly sending threatening letters & emails for council tax that isn't owed ABSOLUTELY AWFUL !!

Excellent service. Dean is very helpful and knowledgeable, he helped my husband and myself to make the right decision about the riser recliner chairs. He took his time to explain everything. We use Ableworld a lot for disabled items. I have recommended them to quite a few people.

Able world, Woolston, Southampton Many thanks to the lady who gave the very quick response from message left by myself. Also to Dean in the store, for your kindness help and care on my visit to the store. Your knowledge on many things was refreshing. I certainly recommend this store/company for outstanding service.