Edfirst Reviews 110

So far so good. Great customer service from Matt. The proof is now in the pudding in terms of driving new, qualified leads. I look forward to upgrading to 5 stars once the work comes through.
Clearhead

After initially posting a 4 star review based on the level of customer service received by "CreativeJigsaw film production" from Edfirst in helping with the initial set-up and profile design, and saying "But of course the main purpose of paying to be part of this service is to gain customers and I hope I'll be able to come back in a month or two and upgrade my rating to 5 stars"...
THIS HAS PROVED TO BE A COMPLETE WASTE OF TIME AND COST!
In close to 7 months we have had NOT ONE SINGLE ENQUIRY as a result of our Edfirst membership. This despite the original Edfirst contact stating "In the last four weeks we have received 14 enquiries in your postcode area. These are for telephone enquiries and online hits, for a company that can provide Video Production in this area."
After a little over 4 months I emailed to point out our disappointment and received a reply "I am going to have a look into your account and see what is going on. Thank you for letting me know so we can take steps to fix this." Two months later nothing further had been heard. On following up I was sent links to tender requirements, all of which were well out of our area and freely available elsewhere - this service was supposed to result in schools (from our area) contacting us, sending links to tender opportunities (especially when they're many miles away) is not the same thing.

We are now seeking a refund of the £450 paid for this service. UPDATE: We were able to recover the £450 via a credit card charge-back. Also, we believe Edfirst no longer exist, however we've heard that they're now operating under several different names so beware!

Matthew Wright was the team leader who took me through a step by step guide on how to get set up. He was very helpful and patient. I really value good customer service as a business owner myself and it made me feel safe and happy by what I received. Thank you!

I have been advertising with Edfirst for a year and had not had one enquiry. Do your homework before signing with this company

Recently begun work with Edfirst and tender for you and am very impressed so far

We've recently started dealing with the guys at Edfirst and the service has been very good, professional and extremely efficient.

Matt has been excellent at guiding us through the first steps and helping us to maximise what we want to do.

Really impressed.

We have been working with Karen Edwards and her helpfulness and speed of communication has been quick and very professional. They have identified the possibilities and put our details to those who matter. We look forward to a long and profitable working relationship.

Edfirst has so far exceeded our expectations, not only are they helpful and fully committed to offering the best service and advice for our business, their hands on input is second to none. This has really made a difference to our teams motivation. Matt and the team thank you.

Matt Wright from EdFirst has given amazing assistance in getting my business profile updated to receive client interest. His deep knowledge with EdFirst and the Tenders4u sites is invaluable in navigating the profile management that is a key market differentiator for my business services. I look forward to further useful interactions in the near future as the business develops.

So far, so very, very good. Matthew has been very patient and helpful and in no time at all came up with all of the relevant information we needed in a user friendly format.

First impressions are very positive. I am working with Matthew Wright who is being very helpful. He has explained the process and his role within the process. I am looking forward to working with him in the coming months.

So far so good.
Matthew Wright has been incredibly proactive in helping hone and refine my offering, taking time to add flavour and colour to my background and in my view gone the the extra mile to get the job done right. Thank you.

I was absolutely delighted with the support I received from Edfirst. Cherie Wolsey demonstrated clear understanding and patience with the multiple editions I requested for my company profile. The speed and simplicity in which she delivered shows great passion for customer experience excellence.

Many thanks Cherie :)

WE have just come on board with Edfirst and my first impressions are very positive. The sales team did a very thorough job before passing us over to an account manager. They then created our profile from our website and got us live. So far our experience has been nothing but positive.

We are new to the platforms but had great service from the tenders4u/edFirst team so far. They have helped us optimise the platforms to suit our business and build out our profile to attract the right clients to our page. Looking forward to hopefully building up opportunities and business through the platform.

As someone who has worked in sales, I know the tricks and techniques used to con people into signing up for something, and it's because I disagree with that practice that I no longer work in sales.
I'm therefore extremely frustrated with myself that I trusted the lies that were told to me on the initial cold call about this.
We work with a lot of schools across the UK, and not one of them that anyone from our team have spoken to has ever used Edfirst.
We have followed everything advised by the Edfirst team - setting up our profile, ensuring it is effective, using their logo on our website - but we have yet to receive a single enquiry after 9 months on the site.
I have complained directly to them about this several times, with the usual response along the lines of they don't promise leads, and that we have received emails from Tenders4U - which is an addition to their service.
Firstly, I am aware they cannot guarantee anything. I am not naive. I know how this kind of thing works and that it can be a hit and miss.
However, we were told in the initial stages - both on the phone and on an email - that there had been “12 searches or requests for video in our area in the previous four weeks” and the average budget from their discussions with schools was “around £4,000 and minimum spend is probably £1000”. If that is correct, it is therefore quite astounding that not ONE school has contacted us in 9 months even a brief enquiry.
Secondly, we did not sign up because of Tenders4U. We do receive emails notifications from this about work that we could tender for, but 99% of these have not been local to us, or indeed even asking for the services we offer. What I cannot make the team at Edfirst understand is WE DID NOT SIGN UP FOR TENDERS4U, and even as an extra that isn’t working for us either.
I have asked for cancellation of our subscription and a refund. I followed their 'complaints procedure', emailed members of the team and even the MD directly, but all has led to nothing but excuses and generic responses, or in some cases no response at all.
We have now reported this to Trading Standards, who are unable to act at this stage but have logged the complaint. They can take action if more people contact them, so if you have had a similar experience to us then please do so.
We are now looking into legal options. A letter before action has been sent, which I know has been received as I tracked it, but that has been ignored, so we are looking into further options. At this stage it is not about the money, it's the principal, and the hope we can stop this happening to others.
There are a couple of people that have posted reviews here with positive experiences, which may or may not be real, but my advice would be do not sign up for this service, as you are working with the odds of anything coming from it strongly stacked against you.

I signed up our company with Edfirst and found the staff incredibly helpful. I must say a particular thank you to Dee, Sarah and Matthew who were clearly right on top of their game. Fantastic - and a lesson for all online businesses on how to take care of customers. Thanks guys!

A highly recommendable service. Matt was fantastic in assisting our company Drain 247 Group and myself in being able to understand this tender platform. He sent us additional documentation and investigated our queries precisely and efficiently. A superb company, we could not recommend them enough!

My company have recently initiated a subscription with Edfirst and I was responsible for coordinating and managing the process. My initial contact was with the business development team who were friendly and willing to answer our questions such that we could better understand the service on offer. Once we had decided to proceed with the subscription I was promptly contacted by a member of the graphic design team and a tenders consultant. Both were very friendly and responsive. Matthew was particularly helpful, providing a tour of the Tenders site in order to ensure maximal benefit to the company. Our team were happy with the initial graphic design provided and minor amendments requested were quickly addressed to allow for insertion into the handbook.

Edfirst team have been extremely helpful and professional in their assistance to our company so far!