Age UK Reviews 350

I received an email from Age UK inviting me to apply for car insurance ( due shortly).
I completed their form on line and received the message that they could not insure me due to my age. I am 76 and have a clean licence with no claims for at least 12 years.

So, Age UK will not insure drivers in their mid 70s! What’s in a name? Seemingly not a lot!

A £5 cheque isn’t a great way to receive winnings. There should be an alternative way which doesn’t involve several miles to my nearest branch or the cost of a postage stamp. My 2 previous emails haven’t had a response.

I Have put a review on here and still haven’t had a answer, I have noticed only certain people have had a answer.

Age UK Crewe, not to be confused with Age UK Cheshire. The shop in Crewe is a “discount store” it takes over the door donations and clothes from other Age UK stores to sell at unbelievable low prices. You can literally buy a complete outfit for under £10!!! A dress £2, shoes £2, jacket/coat £2 and bag £2, leaving you £2 to spend on a piece of jewellery. In this financial recession, there is always a bargain to be find in the shop Bric a brac is sensitively priced and a must for anyone starting out in a new home. If you’re staying in for the evening there is a vast display of books, DVDs and CDs to be had. The staff at the shop are friendly, welcoming and knowledgeable about their stock.

Supposedly the new superstore in Lincoln is a charity shop. When entering the store, all we could see was new goods and large prices. How can people afford these prices, its a charity shop, people usually go there for a few reasons, the first is to help support the charity as a whole to raise funds, Secondly people who cannot afford a lot know they can pick up a bargain. Have Age UK forgotten what the word Charity means. Help the elderly to help people who are struggling and have little money. We was in the store for approx 30 seconds. What a waste, it could be so good.

Absolutely disgusting attitude from the staff when I went in to donate items at Uppingham. I was clearly an inconvenience, their eyes only lighting up at the big ticket item which was freshly priced and heading to the shelf before I’d even finished my donation.

My mother was taken advantage of as the cleaner did not clean . My mother had since died and it was her money down the drain.

The cleaner was pretending to clean by using a broken vacuum.

Age concern is not age concern at all. They are definitely not concerned about the older generation who don’t have emails to provide when trying to get a quote for insurance. Goes to show. They are obviously not thinking about the older generation in full 😡

really hostile and unfriendly phone staff, never assisted me and having been referred to a service locally following surgery, only found out today she works for this charity , she never told me that and the lack of transparency and the fact no help or assistance was given, is clearly down to discrimination. i then self referred and still no help. it caused sgnificant loss to me and distress. they discriminate against who they help and they believe you are not entitled to ask questions and they def. do not like that.

Having read all the poor reviews here, I've decided to use my detective skills to look deeper into the background of the Age UK's charity status. I am a detective constable in Berkshire. My mother-in-law who lives near Reading was not given time to think about her Stairlift purchase of over £5000. The salesman told me that his boss, Carl Lutchavitch tells everyone to sell on the day and push for sales. You'll hear more from me and the authorities soon. I will not disclose her name and address, so please don't ask me to.

I took in some rather good stuff today to age UK in Hove they just stood around and couldn’t be bothered to offer to Help, when Id finished. I didn’t even get a thank you…That will definitely be the last stuff I ever give to AgeUK.
I understand the CEO of this charity gets £110,000 a year wages.

Unfortunately not the best. Ive offered my services to the local branches all free of charge. Basically they couldn't even be bothered to answer.

I've deleted the email because it basically said complain,the email I originally sent was to the local chief executive but he/she couldn't be bothered. So what's the chance of me getting a response to a complaint. Well nothing I suspect. So basically why waste my time.

I'm seeing a lot of 1* here, not looking good.
What did I see online about fraud?? Or is that incorrect?
Before I have a rant about what was wrong, I will say, I loved going to age uk in Wanstead, the people, the food, the activities, a Ray of sunshine, but didn't last long... Also the wild flowers everywhere lofting peoples spirits.
But Epping forest has none of this. Geraniums & Begonias in rows!!
Or anywhere like Allan Burgess house.
Lou knew I wasn't in the area, when I enquired, but said, that it was fine.

I do hope I get some sort of apology, as it's upset me & others greatly.
But there's always a reason for these things to happen.
I deal with an x husband married 30 yrs, divorced 20 & still friends & family.
He had 2 strokes in 2017 & Iv cared for him along with carers & he's been in a care home for a yr, but needing to move him.
Paying £1½ - £2k a WEEK!
For bullying side stepping terse managers.
Also all in our 4 flats are on the Spectrum.
3 tenants & I'm a leaseholder.
Efdc are making up loop de loop!

I don't need more stress

Too good to be true!
Hi Karen, I'll ring age uk next wk & tried (impossible!) to speak to Lou's manager.
Who was quite rude & spoke over me!
A manager's trait, it seems!

As I'm out of the area, that was all she wanted to know. They hav none of my details, altho I asked.

But apparently Lou said, she has given me a form many times!!!???

Not once has anyone asked!
Iv said myself where I'm from & was told that was ok!
Why, becos the nos look better, I think!

Anyhow I spent 15 mins while you played chess, filling in the last questionnaire about transport etc & my details were all there for anyone to see.

So that's an important bit of evidence!

Cont. The manager has obviously not seen it, or she would've told Lou not to take peple out of the area!

This isn't the end of this fiasco.
I'm just letting uno in case there are fireworks one dy soon!

The whole things due to Lous out of control conditions, many of us on Spectrum too.
But it seems too much for Lou at times & she becomes aggressive & defensive & cannot handle situations which crop up.
Like 2 peple trying to speak to here or sorting a problem out, such as when people were talking & others couldn't concentrate on the chess.

Instead of civilly asking either chess players or talkers to move to an empty room, she declared the lady on the phone (you could hear the other person on fone too, it was loud) she declared, it was her friend & she was allowed to be there!
Hmm not how I would've dealt with it.
Lou is very short tempered at times & has told me her complete medical history,when in a relaxed mood on first meeting her!
I'm unable to scroll here, so cannot edit what I had onmy clipboard

I'm finding the same with managers at the care home, same insecurities & aggressive bullying behaviour.
Usual bog standard unhelpful reply fro. Age UK.

I hav no need to email, Iv written most of the details here & attempted to speak to a side stepping manager, who just spoke over me & not interested in improving a bad situation & to avoid it repeatedly happening.
We can all pass the buck!! ☯️

Advice given was wrong. They told me I couldn't claim AA because the illness only started 5 months ago, ignored the fact that care had been required for longer than that.
I found out afterwards from several other sources that the advice given was wrong.

Four weeks ago my father lost his Wife of 55 years. My father is 80. It was recommended by a social worker that my father spoke to Age UK in relation to receiving a benefits check. Consequently, we arranged an appointment with someone named Lynn from Age UK to call my father on Thursday 27th June at 10.00am.

A few days earlier I'd taken my dad home with me to the South West for a break to help him/me come to terms with our loss. I live in a rural area 7.5 hours away from Dad and our phone signal is patchy. Despite awaiting Lynn's call it never came but we did receive a voicemail message on the afternoonof the 27th. I immediately called Lynn to offer an apology from Dad and I in relation to the poor signal to which I received a terse response and was proceeded to be spoken to like a five year old and clearly she could not wait to end the call.

I arranged another appointment for today at 10.00am in which I would call Lynn. I indeed called to undertake the scheduled appointment and Lynn did not pick up nor return my voicemail.

At this time both my father and myself are dealing with an immeasurable amount of form filling, correspondence, email and telephone calls in relation to the death of my mother, so not only would we have expected a representative of Age UK to have a polite, compassionate and understanding telephone manner, we'd have been grateful for Lynn to keep to this scheduled appointment. This has contributed to further anxiety and stress for my father.

Tried to update parents policies , new address, mothers new policy sent when I phoned Age uk to ask about Fathers policy , yes I agree with data protection, but explained father deaf and blind, managed to get him to say name and date of birth had to prompt him with post code , because I helped him , would not proceed , very unhelpful !!!

This is a comment on my experience with my local AgeUK person who visits clients at home and offers advice on interacting with various governmental agencies and their forms and procedures.

Steve (of W Berkshire branch) attended our home and offered advice on how to fill out my local council's application for a blue badge. His main advice was pointing out that a blue badge was to address issues of someone's mobility, and that I should leave off the application mention of conditions which were not relevant to my wife's mobility issues.

Note that this was not advice on how to speak "untruthfully". Rather, for instance, my wife's diabeties has no impact on her mobility and so I did not need to mention that condition.

Two weeks after submitting the application, we have received my wife's blue badge.

Thanks Steve.

Appalling and unreliable cleaning service from Age UK Northamptonshire.

My father is terminally ill, immunosuppressed, therefore he is presently extremely vulnerable.

To-date, Age UK have sent out 2 different cleaners to his property. Both have proved unreliable and certainly not fit for purpose. This was despite an initial indepth meeting to discuss tasks required, and to risk assess the property.
So far, this diabolical service has cost my father £80, he has not received the service that he has paid for, and in the process has been put at risk from having different people through his door.

The first cleaner, stated that the majority of her clients didn't actually want her to clean, instead, they just wanted to chat and it was only the families that wanted her to clean. She seemed clueless about basic infection control and used 1 bucket of dirty water to clean 6 rooms at the property. Two of those rooms being the bathroom and kitchen, spreading germs around my immnosuppressed fathers home. The cleaning cloth used didn't such much as make contact with clean water for the duration. She was far more interested in chatting, and moaning that Age Concern had only provided her with 1 pair of gloves when she commenced employment with them 12 months ago. I offered her disposable gloves, but she declined.

A few days later I received a call from from the office, stating that the cleaner didn't wish to attend the property again, as she was 'frightened' of my father's dog, which at the time of her visit was secured outside of the property, as agreed, during the initial assessment.

A second cleaner was put in place. She attended the property in her NHS cleaning uniform. She asked to change once she arrived at the property. Not only did this 10 minutes eat into the 2 hours that my father pays for, it was also bringing germs into my father's home from the hospital. My father remained outside in the garden and the dog was also outside, and secured out of sight for the duration.
The cleaner failed to clean the bathroom, and also under the bed, this is despite the cordless hoover and the mop being able to access it easily. No water at any point was used on the dry cleaning cloths.
She also instigated a conversation during her visit,stating that she would be happy to attend the property even if there was no-one there present. I found this statement odd, as It was stipulated during the assessment that someone always needed to be at the property during visits.
The said cleaner then left the property early, but signed the yellow card stating that she had attended for the full 2 hours. It was only when I brought this to her attention that she changed it to reflect the actual time.

A few days later, I received another call from the office stating that the 2nd cleaner would not be returning as she felt uncomfortable.

My family are going through an extremely emotional and difficult period at present. Age Concern were supposed to make life a little easier. Instead this whole experience has be nothing but stressful, and at a cost to my seriously ill father. Not only did both cleaners seemed clueless regarding the basic fundamentals of cleaning/infection control they also appeared clueless regarding the cleaning tasks required at the property, which were discussed/documented during the initial assessment? Out of the 2 visits my father has had he has only received 2 hours of cleaning at most. The rest of the time was either spent going through the list of tasks, showing the location of cleaning products/equipment, chatting, or leaving early. I presume that my father will not be credited for such incompetence?!

I am so disappointed and upset with the service my father has so far received. It's certainly not the service that I expect from a large charitable organisation that has been set up to help the elderly.

Avoid and save yourself the cost/hassle.

Terrible, I should have looked at their reviews beforehand and they’re very much deserved. Gateshead area is just as bad, their reputation is in the dumps, steer clear!