I purchased a machete, to chop beet with, from a company in Ireland. It was purchased through Amazon. Several weeks past and no machete, I posted a note to the sellers asking where it was, was there a hold up and joking added hope you didn't send it by Shanks's pony! To keep things light I added that they may have a container to fill and ferries to book, look forward to receiving it! My post was on the reviews, hadn't contacted a seller before and it seemed the only way to contact them. The company came back "your ruining our business" please take off that message and we will send you a gift. I apologized and said it was meant as a light hearted inquire, for all I knew they may have problems! I received a nice baseball cap followed by the machete. The machete was useless, wouldn't cut a banana in half let alone beet! The cost was consistent with the price of a good machete. Arranged return as not ft for purpose and found I was expected to pay postage. The machete was never returned, due to the cost of postage, darn thing sits on the bench in the sun room - and it's not ornamental! Some companies selling through Amazon are out to get 99% feedback, if they get a bad review they go off alarming and ask for it to be removed. I purchased a torch from a company in China, was not a very good torch, they asked for the review to be removed! I removed the review when the new torch arrived. I wouldn't be surprised if the companies threaten to stop selling through Amazon if they get bad reviews. Many reviews are too good, also some people are given a good discount on goods purchased in return for reviewing. Some may even get free goods, I have no proof of that! A discount has been mentioned by some of those reviewing! Amazon wouldn't want to loose a seller so likely they prefer to get rid of a customer who complains and posts poor reviews!

Thanks for posting, I had just started to use Amazon a lot - 3 or 4 times a week for shopping. Will be very careful!!!

From experience, Halifax doesn't contact customers often esp. over important matters. Phoned the Halifax about my mortgage payments and they could not find my mortgage! My mortgage payments went up by nearly £100 over the last year from £300 per month to £400 per month. Yes I have been affected, only got another year and a half to go on ordinary mortgage not one where you pay interest only. Was wondering if they have transferred the mortgage onto another bank!