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Quality
Reliability
ValueAll play and no work
Mar 6, 2009Pros: I needed some work done on my car and time was pressing but when I rang Crossroads they were able to fit it in within 24 hours and gave me a time I should be able to collect.
The quote was average but since they were close to where I was, it made sense at the time.
The staff are friendly and approachable.
The building is really smart and it all looks state of the art and it's certainly purpose made, even with a tv screen on the rear wall, though I'm not sure why.
Cons: The reception is in the main working area, so it's really tough to hear what the receptionist says over the pounding and banging noises, plus the tv and sometimes engines and chatter and phones and so on.
I always call for quotes and I always make it super clear that I need to know if there are any changes as the work progresses. As a woman I have felt taken advantage of in garages and rarely stray from my favourite garage whom I trust.
Therefore the leap of faith I had in dealing with Crossroads was all the further crushed when I went to collect my car and found there was a further £70 on the bill.
When I asked about it the receptionist had no idea and seemed put out that I was querying it. She seemed even more amazed that I wanted it clarifying. So she fetched the manager who confessed to having charged me labour time at a rate of £40.00 per hour whilst his mechanics had been 'mucking about', his words, not mine.
So he reduced the bill.
I walked out gobstruck and decided I won't be back, ever. -
Quality
Reliability
ValuePatsys pants show
Feb 17, 2009Pros: The first 20 minutes of the show we recently saw was fine, the kids were sat on best behaviour, enthralled. So far so good.
Patsy is a woman in her 50's at a guess, wearing a decorated shirt and trousers. She has a child friendly manner and a friendly voice.
She has a performance box with all her kit hidden under a black cloth ready for the balloon modelling, a couple of magic tricks and a number of sweets which come out at various times.
She made a great fuss of the birthday child, which is wonderful from the child or parents point of view.
She played some music at the end of the show and gave out sweets to the best dancers who joined in with the disco favourites Superman, Cha Cha slide and other action dances.
She eventually packed up quietly and left whilst the kids ate the party food.
Cons: After about 20 minutes around half the kids were bored and started getting up and wandering around. Many of the jokes are perhaps suitable for kids around 7 or more and with some awareness of celebrities and news. One or two would have puzzled even that age group and only vaguely amused the parents.
Our daughter was amused only by the slapstick, physical humour. The endless fart jokes/noises were a bore and the kids began to get out of hand.
All hell let loose when a child was invited on stage to take part in the show and more and more kids began appearing on stage, wandering around, interrupting and generally causing havoc. The parents should have dealt with the kids but Patsy seemed unable to keep the kids off stage nor to keep anyone's attention.
Mid way through the show, when showing a child how to do a 'circus bow' Patsy managed to slip in some background story about her family heritage in the circus and entertainment, reminding people about her father who was of some repute. Unfortunately Patsy doesn't have the same reputation and although it pains me to write it, I wouldn't recommend her at all. I'd surmise that she's riding on the back of her fathers popularity but failing to deliver the quality that people expect.
My daughter sat, well behaved and attentive for quite some time but eventually, with parents blocking the line of sight as they retrieved their bored kids, the kids themselves kicking up a fuss and Patsy doing little but talking to those on stage and making vague gestures and comments about the influx of kids, my daughter got up and wandered off. Bored.
I was astounded by the lack of professionalism, the poor quality of the verbal repertoire and the overall lack of entertainment.
I hate to rate a sole trader in such a manner and in such times of hardship and I've delayed writing this review for some time in an attempt to try and find more good things to say but honestly, I can't. -
Quality
Reliability
ValueOriental buffetlicious
Feb 9, 2009Pros: A new chinese buffet which opened in December 2008 in what is already a very busy retail park. This is one of Sheffield primary entertainment venues, with a cinema, bowling alley, arcade, play centre and numerous restaurants too.
Flaming Dragon was well placed, filling a gap in the market.
It's large themed restaurant serving buffet Chinese food all day, the best kind I find as you can try all sorts of different dishes, sampling small amounts of wide variety.
There are starters including prawn toast, won ton, prawn crackers and various other items but strangely including a few more traditionally Indian items.
Then there are the main dishes, all types of meat in so many different cuts and sauces, salt and pepper ribs, barbecue park, salt and pepper chicken wings, singapore vermicelli, chicken in yellow bean sauce, chicken with vegetables for lettuce wraps, friend rice dishes, chow mein, boiled vegetables, stir fried vegetables, curries, noodles, and a million more besides.
There's also a Teppen Yaki bar serving a selection of fresh cooked to order dishes, mostly heavy on the spicy side and very yummy, despite the dubious looking photos at the side. I had the spicy prawns last time and although I enjoyed it, I found it wasn't the best prawn dish I've ever eaten. It took les than 5 minutes for them to bring me a lovely hot dish of the prawns though, so I can't complain.
Finally there are desserts. Now I find this odd. You can have cakes from a rotating chilled cabinet, a selection of jelly and blancmange sets, cola bottle sweets, ice cream, chocolate biscuits, apple or banana fritters and syrup. Not really much in terms of traditional Chinese sweets but tasty all the same. I like the fritters with syrup and ice cream.
There's a very reasonable drinks menu with both Chinese and English drinks both alcoholic and otherwise.
The service is very good, extremely well mannered and generally very unobtrusive.
There's currently an offer with the neighbouring cinema where all tickets have a special discount voucher on the back, enabling you to eat for half price Monday to Friday 12 - 6pm. I heartily recommend that, it's excellent value for money.
Cons: The tables are not very private and for some reason the staff seem to seat you in blocks even when it's quiet. I prefer to have conversation which isn' t over heard so I often ask for a table in a quieter area.
One night and friend and I went in quite late and they warned us that they would be removing all the food in 20 minutes. We were still tempted until they mentioned it would cost £9.95. Since I was going to have to eat quickly and possibly not be able to eat dessert due to time I didn't fancy paying the full price. -
Quality
Reliability
ValueHelp the aged please! (staff included)
Feb 9, 2009Pros: A dinky little charity shop buried in what is now mostly a through route and in some of Sheffields old business quarters.
This store is one of the cleanest and best laid out I've ever encountered. It doesn't smell of Eau de Mildew as so many of them do and clothes are hung in suitable sections. There are a few reasonably generous shelves of books, a very small selection of baby/childrens items and a number of brand new items, made purely to fundraise for Help The Aged.
Cons: The changing area is so small you are in danger of revealing more than you'd like with a small tap of the elbow. I wouldn't try anything on in there, I'd rather try on over my clothes but having said that most items they stock are for ladies in their dotage or those with a fascination for the late eighties, just not my bag!
The staff can be a bit potty at times. One lady tried to charge me for 2 more DVDs than I was actually buying and couldn't fathom what she'd done so was hoping I'd just pay it. I might have done if they weren't already the free ones from the newspapers.
They seem to look at each item I buy with surprise, like they've never seen it before. I once bought a pair of trousers for my potty training daughter after an accident and they were commenting on how surely they'd be too big for her, which they were, but they were dry. They completely failed to see the sense in that and suggested perhaps I could save them for when she was bigger.
I turned up the legs and she was fine!
Perhaps they need help too! -
Quality
Reliability
ValueRemar, an unusual charity
Feb 9, 2009Pros: Remar is an unusual store which raises funds to help those in need from poverty, isolation, drugs, depression and so on, giving them somewhere to live and helping to solve the problems which put the person at risk. It is a slightly esoteric group, make of that what you will.
This particular store is a strange corner unit in a heavy car trafficked area and very little passing trade on foot so much of the advertising is done by putting items out on the street.
If you had a house to furnish, this would probably be the perfect place, it's heaving with furniture but there are no end of other items like exercise equipment and boxes of trainers too. It's almost all second hand but generally in excellent condition.
I;ve seen some amazing items outside when I've passed, though rarely so many inside. One was a huge driftwood bar, for the garden or house, who knows. It was made purely out of huge pieces of driftwood, smoothed by the ocean and beautifully shaped.
Cons: Many of the staff speak little English which can makes discussing purchases very difficult, although they all seem to be very nice it can be extremely frustrating.
Someone I knew used the removal service offered by Remar at the time, the washing machine was dropped, they had no removal insurance and the guys didn't speak enough English to resolve the situation. My friend was without a washing machine for sometime and had to replace it himself.
Many of the good are overpriced. Many, if not most, are second hand and would scrape less than a half, sometimes a quarter of the advertised prices in other stores or in private sales and they seem unaware.
Many items are left out on the street to be displayed to people passing, though for a time they get wet when it rains, so it may be prudent to check purchases which could be affected, like wood and fabrics and metal items. I've seen exercise bikes with digital displays left out, suites, a wooden bar set, no end of metal framed beds, piles of sports shoes and no end of other items.
5219
JA W
in Sheffield. Joined BView on Jul 1, 2008
I am a J of all trades.
A bargain hunter and eclectic shopper, prone to demanding high standards, especially within customer care.
User summary
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Latest Reviews
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Mar 6 2009
JA reviewed Crossroads Garage (Redhill) Ltd (Sheffield).
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Feb 17 2009
JA reviewed Patsys Fun Show (Rotherham).
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Feb 9 2009
JA reviewed Flaming Dragon (Sheffield).
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Feb 9 2009
JA reviewed Help The Aged (Sheffield).
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Feb 9 2009
JA reviewed Remar Association UK Ltd (Sheffield).
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Jul 2, 2008 at 12:14 AMJA W wrote Thanks for the welcome :)
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Jul 1, 2008 at 10:37 PMSimon Miller wrote Hi, I'm BView's Community Manager. Welcome to your Post board. Use it to post updates to your subscribers or visit your BView contacts' profiles and add notes to their board. Please contact me if I can be of any assistance.
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