Citizensadvice Reviews 

I was signposted to another organisation, who were also useless.
I'm still no further ahead and feel I have been left to hang out and dry. Left messages for a call back, and still waiting. If I could give less than one star I would.

Was greeted by a young lad that was completely out of his depth , i went there for advice on a letter i recently recieved from DWP about new rules with social support his advice was if i phone them it will spark a reassessment and i could lose the award i already have , i have since found out this totally the wrong advice ...there is also no privacy as all this had to be explained in a room full of people , im not blaming the young lad he didnt have a clue but all in all a bad experience

I spend half an hour filling in the online form explaining my problem.

Wake up to a voicemail from them “as we have rung 3 times to no answer your query is now closed”

To which I was surprised - I hadn’t noticed that. I checked and they rang on the SAME DAY, 9:02, 9:02, 9:03

Which seems utterly bizarre to me. Because I work and can’t check my phone nonstop and missed that entire minute, my entire query was binned?

And to reopen my query I’ll have to ring them, stay in the queue, re explain my entire query again. Not only is that a waste of time for me, but surely you’re wasting your own advisors time

I work full time and am on a low income, my working hours do not free me up to make calls even in my lunch break as citizens advice are closed by which time, I therefore requested a food voucher via online enquiry, I recieved a call and was told that I can only get a food voucher if I call them at a certain time and not to issue this online. I am now left without any support. Moral point I thought they were supposed to help and make ot easy for those who can't act under usual circumstances. I have now left it as I have no choice but to do without as I would loose my job call out in work times. The person who called me was most unhelpful and lacked care

Be prepared for 4minutes 9 seconds call to listen to a story monologue straight away .then for to be told the users mail box is full so you can't even leave a message ..do you think that's a good serivce I don't. 10 working days for them to call you back is that a good service .and when they do call you back eventually after months of making a complaint they expect you to do all the hard work by calling lots of other organisations causing all this anxiety and get more stressed and anxious in the process .

I phoned because I wanted to know how to check a company was legitimate or whether I was being scammed (govt grant heat pump/solar panel installers and you hear of scammers all the time in this market). So I phoned the local council. They told me to call Citizens Advice. I'm afraid CAB were just not of any use whatsoever. They disregarded my actual query and told me to complete a Freedom of Information form (takes 1 month) because otherwise if they gave me information it would be a data breach on the company. I can't wait a month for this information. All I wanted was help to get an understanding of whether this was a legitimate company for delivering the services they purport to. Not helpful. And kind of talked over me too. Sorry, I'm sure they are all very nice people but as a service it doesn't fulfil the brief.

Went to citizens advice in Stockport for help and didn't even get to speak to anyone apart from the woman with glasses on reception, she was a horrible, nasty woman who looked and spoke to us like dirt. When we asked to speak to someone for advice. We tried to explain and she had no intrest and just said i don't know where you should go but we cant help. She didn't even know what we was there for because she wasn't even listening. What is wrong with people? Walked out feeling 100 times worse than when we walked in. I would NEVER go there again. Where are people supposed to go if citizens advice DONT help?

I was uplifted by the service I received from Madeline firstly on Friday 1/11/24 and another excellent experience today a 6/11/24 from Joel who went above and beyond. It was a breath of fresh air after the guy I had spoken to on 31/10/24 who was unhelpful, cut me off and didn't send the email he promised to.
A big thank you to the ladies who helped me

I don't think I can give less than 1 star. Kept on the phone for an hour then the machine said 'we are busy and unable to take your call, thank you for calling, goodbye'...then cut me off.
I was in a queue waiting for someone the entire time, and if I had to keep waiting so be it but why cut me off?!
Service should be disbanded, it's of no use to us

I went to the Bury & Bolton Citizens advice centre, after a housing dispute in another Borough. They offered to assist only to misrepresent me and failed to assist at a later stage. They hindered my time as I had 21 days to apply to a tribunal court for a second housing appeal. The housing solicitor fobbed me off after making me fill out Legal aid forms knowing full well they were not going to assist me in my case. I then took the complaint of false misrepresentation to their CEO and took it to report the case to the Solicitors Regulation Authority or SRA then to the Legal Ombudsman. They want to defund this particular branch, as the staff are extremely unhelpful and it is not fit for purpose for public use.

SLOW, SLOW & SLOWEST!!! BUREAUCRATS WITH AN ALLERGY TO WORK.

WAITED TWO MONTHS BEFORE CONTACTED! THEN, WHEN AGREED WE'D DO THIS VIA PHONE, GET EMAIL ASKING ME TO PHYSICALLY ATTEND...VERY UNPROFESSIONAL.

CLOSE IT DOWN...WASTE OF TAXPAYER MONEY.

Impossible to use chat - no advisors available. 20 minutes on hold with horrible whistling music. I am autistic and it made me want to scream. Keeps telling you to try the website, with its simple and irrelevant advice. Frustrating and utterly useless.

Waste of time, just lied to me when I asked about parking easements and didn't want to help.... They just couldn't be bothered and bad attitude.

I think that unless you get a face to face meeting with one of their advisors, then trying to communicate by phone or email is a waste of time.

My experience is that they never return a call or reply to emails once the case is passed to a local office.

Once a case is passed on to an advisor it is forgotten about and that's the last you'll hear from them.

After a bad experience with a website I was looking for some advice and hoping it would get escalated to trading standards. I filled out the form and got a response saying they would reply within 5 days. It's now over two weeks later and I still haven't had a reply making them even worse at answering emails than the original company I wanted help with! Waste of time using them.

Update: still waiting for the reply five weeks later!

Update: May 2025 now, still waiting for a reply! Obviously no care for customers being effected by unlawful businesses.

Waste of time! Called 3 times( after waiting on line between 30 to 40 mins!) one day last week because of a serious situation with a PCP bought car. None of the 3 people were unable to give any actual, helpful advice. The first man just ended the conversation abruptly after 15 mins, the second man gave a phone number to book for a face to face app, phone number that did not have any option for such a thing, nor does the Taunton CA phone number have such an option. Literally going in circles.
The third staff was, a woman, was absolutely rude, passive aggressive, over speaking me, not letting me tell my story.

Totally useless. It's impossible to talk to anyone. Even today I was on hold for over an hour, listening to that music that makes you even more stressed and annoyed than you are, after over an hour they decided that they were closed and cut the call off. I waited all that time and didn't manage to talk to anyone, again. And it was only 13 00 when they said they were closed, but on Friday they supposed to close at 15 30.
I got section 21, I might end up in the street as I have nowhere to go, I m jobless and sick, but between the council and citizens advice I am not getting any help. I paid taxes for 30 years in this country and this is what I get back for once I need serious help.
Not impressed. Total disappointment!
If end up in the street, I ll camp in front of their offices and remind them every day that thanks to their "help" I m homeless now...
It's really a lonely world....nobody here to help the poor ones. If you can't help yourself, noonelse will...definitely no CA!!!

Just moved into a new property been hard of for cash as I had to pay weeks rent in advance after being homeless 8months in a tent only wanted advise to see what I can do to get financial help for heating as I'm on oil not gas and I couldn't get through to anyone period put me through to an operator and terminated the call on me tf is going on!!!!!:@

I phoned very early so i managed to speak to someone who couldn't advise so she told me to hold as she needs to consult whith a senior colleague, after an hour holding i gave up. It use to be ok be it on the phone or face to face but got much worse in the last couple of years or so.
Today was pretty desastrous and not even worth criticising or talking about. They should choose volonteers that are a bit more educated and train them better otherwise they'll sink into oblivion even though they're getting money from the government and no longer a charitable organisation.

Appalling service (or lack of)!! Waited 1.5 hours on the phone to then have the call terminated to say there is no one to answer my call. Not fit for purpose by the looks of things. Maybe the government could put some money into the UK services that really matter in this country!