H Gordon

Bought a Sealskinz hat. Not cheap but I was looking for something for more extreme weather. Marked price £31.50. However, if you are not a Go Outdoors member, it costs £35(!) which is on the price tag in small print. Annual membership costs £5(!) so you have to buy at least one thing a year to make it cost effective. To add insult to injury, I volunteer with a UK mountain rescue team. As we are out a lot in all weather, we go through a lot of kit so most outdoor clothes shops give us a mountain rescue discount (typically about 10%) - but not Go Outdoors, unless you are a member. Range of clothing in the store looks very reasonable but because of price, I won't be rushing back.

The items I ordered were sent in a thin cardboard box with no packing. Unsurprisingly, the box split open in transit. Some of the contents could easily have fallen out or be damaged. The i-gels that were sent were the basic i-gel and not the i-gel Resus pack which was illustrated on their website and was what I wanted. I understand that since complaining, the Resus pack photo has been removed from the website. Finally, I ordered two 20G cannulae and was sent three.

We have used British Gas to service our central heating since 1992. We have consistently found that the BG engineers are excellent. They really know their stuff and are good at their jobs. By contrast, a few years ago, BG started contracting out some of the service work to other plumbers. That was a big mistake. We had to have some work re-done and we complained to BG as we had never had that trouble with BG engineers. Today, we had a BG engineer and he was excellent. So I would say to BG, please just focus on quality rather than convenience or cheapness. I know BG rightly comes in for criticism at times, but when it comes to servicing central heating, our experience has been all good.

The goods (garden chairs) were delivered on the expected day, right on time. The driver notified us ahead of time, and very kindly asked us where we would like them put. That was much appreciated, as the package was heavy.

The only issue was that the cardboard box containing the chairs was damaged, otherwise we would have given 5 stars. We don’t know whether it was sent out like that from the supplier, occurred at the courier warehouse or during transport. The issue was not the packaging itself but on a previous occasion from another company and courier, the damaged packaging was an outward indication that the contents were damaged and had to be returned. We therefore opened the box this time very carefully, taking photographs in case there was a problem. Happily, on this occasion, the contents were undamaged.

First time I have had to deal with this Company. Chat line worked well. The person I spoke to was efficient and helpful and my problem was sorted quickly.

Re DM89 CO2 Indoor Air Quality Carbon Dioxide Monitor

GOOD POINTS
- Clear display
- Instruction leaflet clear (though few typo's and grammatical errors)
- NDIR, so compliant with UK Health & Safety Executive recommendation. Also CE marked.
- First impression is that the battery life is acceptable
- Device arrived quickly after placing the order

THINGS I DIDN'T LIKE
- It only measures CO2, temperature and humidity. It is therefore technically does not measure "Air Quality", as stated on the website, as it doesn't measure e.g. particulates
- Although the website says a 1.5sec sampling time, it feels much slower than that. Takes a few minutes to settle out on all parameters, and is significantly slower than another similar device I have (which also measures particulates).
- Although it says it is sensitive to CO2 changes of 1 ppm, there is no indication of how accurate the meter actually is. For example, if there is a 10% error, then a reading of e.g. 500 will be anywhere between 450-550 ppm. Whether this is significant will depend on how the meter is being used. Also no mention of whether the device needs periodic recalibration or whether this is done automatically.
- Website indicates that CO2 of 1001-2000 means that the air quality is "OK". However, I'm not sure where the evidence for this comes from and suspect that it is very inaccurate as the HSE guidance states: "An average of 1500ppm CO2 concentration over the occupied period in a space is an indicator of poor ventilation. You should take action to improve ventilation where CO2 readings are consistently higher than 1500ppm".

The problem is that, at the moment, there are very few really reliable and thorough reviews of CO2 monitors written for assessing ventilation, so you're largely dependent on what information the seller/manufacturer provides, which in many cases, is very little of real use.

BOTTOM LINE
Would I buy it again? Possibly, but not without having a good look at what else is out there.