Most useless council unable to contact them useless staff , no email to contact for any problem there mission is to milk money from Harrow residents by hook or crook, I would give them negative five stars if There is any option I can choose
This place is worse than some 3rd world countries offices ran by illiterates , as they might be capable of doing their job much efficiently...Nightmare and a big SHAME for UK government for hiring such useless and pathetic staff...Their negative ratings speaks for itself.
The worst council service I have ever had to deal with particularly the council tax team. All they care about is rinsing the public for more money and have no sense of understanding or reason. Glad to be moving out of this borough.
Awfully inept staff and generally lacking basic management skills.
My wife applied for a blue badge parking permit. After 3 weeks she sent an email to check on progress ( it's not possible to phone them) they phoned back to say they did not have the application even though they had confirmed receipt of it. Even though she was unable to walk unaided they wanted her to be assessed. When she died I had a letter within 5 days complaining that pass had not been returned. Zero stars is what they should get.
Fantastic customer service from Subhas in the parking permit department. Quick replies, extremely helpful and courteous. Communication skills, fantastic, I can say I haven't experienced this from any other borough!
Highly recommend!
Phone s never answered, we site not working tried to book slot at recycling centre. Waste of time. Shows NO slots for rest of year. Must be the worse council ( = with Brent). In the country . Poor poor poor .
BEWARE OF THIS COUNCIL. They will take your money and not provide a service. They will give you parking tickets with a broken website you have to pay on in order to not get charged double. Rude staff and just a general horrible place to live. FIRST TIME BUYERS BEWARE OF HARROW
Useless website, can not report a missed bin collection. Cant get through on phone. Date to be collected Saturday morning from 6am; bin out from Friday evening. Rest of street bins collected Friday afternoon. No prior notice. Council still believes bins were collected Saturday morning. I guess recycling will have to go in general waste till bin gets empties in 2 weeks time
i just called the pension fund for advice. The guy I spoke to was very polite and helpful.
If you move house and attempt to contact them, no phones are never answered .. so you then use their online portal, recieve and acknowledgement slip for change of address. These are ignored by the council and will likely lead to court summons to pay due council tax, even though you have paid the right amount up to the date of departure, leading to harrassment. It's an embarrassment
This council is an absolute disgrace. I have had a noise complaint since last year July 2019 and they haven t offered any support or resolution. I have followed the complete procedure also. This council has no contact numbers but a mailbox system.
We received contact from an investigation officer John Rattray and due to me challenging his customer skills he felt insulted and was unable to perform his duties and from the time it has taken, has since put my complaint back under the pile. No resolution, no adequate acknowledgment.
We live in a diverse borough that helps make this city thrive but it appears our Eastern European are unable to follow the rules, regulations and show respect or decency to people who have been brought up here. It s a shame really, our council should be helping to educate and guide people that enter here the etiquette that is required to be part of the community.
Theres a reason why harrow council has 1 star... there a joke and they try rip off people with their inadequate signage when it comes to parking. The attendant even took a picture of the plaque opposite the road from where i was parked. Surely he was supposed to take a picture of the plaque we was parked outside.
Electoral customer service
I have been helped by a lovely lady called Ilenia from Electoral roll department to get my details amended and also to receive certificate of residency which helped me a lot in my dispute with credit score agencies who messed up my credit reports. Ilenia was so helpful and so kind as she literally couldn't do more in helping me. This lovely lady called Ilenia is a real benefit for Harrow council and I wish more members of stuff were professional and kind as her. Thank you Ilenia, you definitely make the difference in Harrow Council!!
Just moved in to harrow council, found no bin and have been asked for to place an order for new one on top of high council taxes. absolute disgraceful
I sold my house and left Harrow in 2016 but, guess what, I have been issued with a Summons for my so-called "non-payment of Council Tax" in 2017 which obviously I do not owe. Clearly, the person who bought my house has defaulted. Why are they chasing me for this money?? Annoying, frustrating website and telephone system which do not allow you to speak to a person. Having read the other reviews, I see I am not the only person with this problem but as I have wasted a lot of time and effort in trying (and failing) to speak to someone in the Council Tax Dept, it is very upsetting. They do not deserve to have any star at all.
Total disaster! Staff with rude and poor attitude, interrupting while person is talking to them, making hypothetical excuses(equivalent of 7year old) that are completely irrelevant to your problem and they collect nearly 90mil pounds a year for WHAT? For being totally useless money grabbing scum!? Harrow Council is a total joke! AVOID THIS AREA IF YOU VALUE YOUR TIME OTHERWISE YOU WILL REGRET WHAT YOU HAVE DONE TO YOUR SELF. DEALING WITH INDIVIDUALS THAT HAVE NO IDEA WHAT DOES IT MEANS SELF-REFLECT!
Very slow at letting you know about services you require but quick at telling you if you have missed a payment. VERY VERY DISSAPOINTED.
High council tax and extremely poor service. A key strategy = punish motorist. Be very careful when entering the council boundaries the traffic fines for minor infringements are excessive. Fees for parking in public spaces prohibitive. They wonder why the town centre is dying. High business rates ensuring limited range of retail outlets. Overpaid Council executives that don't give a hoot.
If they had the option of no stars they would of got it. I had a visit from one of the housing team today regarding my disabled partner's needs, as we were having to use the living room of our 2bed property as his bedroom because he was bedridden. She left a card to call her back. I did so, and to my surprise, the officer wanted to see how we were coping with the situation. What was so bad with that? Well my partner died more than 3 years ago, and all relevant people were informed shortly after, in fact Harrow council benefits team wasted no time at all in demanding a back payment for social care and housing. Nice to know they were so concerned for his welfare.
Is there a worst council in London than Harrow ? Please let me know. Useless!
They re good at cashing in my council tax , no problem. Log an emergency? Forget it !
Waste of time. I was issued a FPN whilst visiting relatives for a genuine accident. Officer told me to leave the shop I was in and totally embarrassed me. I disposed the item that I accidentally dropped on the floor but still get charged More
Garden waste not collected on two occasions despite having paid for the service. The second time has required two 'missed bin' reports and still nothing. Phoned and after the inevitable wait............................................"6 minutes" drifted into 10 but was answered by an efficient lady called Amrita. I assured the waste will be collected tomorrow. No stars for missing two collections and four stars for dealing with my enquiry. Average 2
never able to get an answer takes ages to find information on website and generally couldn't be less helpful if they tried
Mountains of rubbish everywhere. Litter everywhere, fly tipping out of control. This area has become pretty much like living in a third world country.
Very poor service, I have been trying to contact Harrow Council since last one year regarding cleaning the river where people has put food and rubbish in detail. But no response. They cancelled road work where we live, the road has so many pot holes it s near to the school. But council doesn t have time to do road work. They will have time when voting comes to ask for votes. They don t won t to provide the service when we ask for. Not asking money just asking for road safety and cleaning river.
Aggree with Lee Langton review "Their automated phone system options are limited and make it difficult to be put through to the correct department. When I did speak to someone they put me on hold and then hung up"
When you go the Civic Centre to speak to someone its like talking to a brick wall. Rude staff.
You are right these people are arrogont staff the housing officer are a wast of time if the problem is not in the intrest of council. I have phoned the council costing me nearly hundred pounds in one mounts
A council who is so far out of touch with their own residents it is embarrassing. Good luck calling them and speaking to somebody with an IQ higher than 14. Don't waste your time thinking your query will be resolved in anything less than 3-6 months. What makes it so appalling is that the way the council is run - which makes somewhere which is genuinely nice to live in, a horrible place to be. I have grown up in Harrow, been schooled here, I have owned and still own businesses here. I try to be a real advocate for the community. But sod all that, if they can squeeze a couple of pennies out of you for no reason they'll be right on it. And judging by every single other review, I'm certainly not the only person to think so.
Hard to get a response from the relevant team when needed
It has taken Harrow council over 12 weeks for a car parking permit in spite of contacting them 8 times to tell them about it. Never have I recieved any response in 12 weeks until I used the 'resolver' service when an outside organisation has has contactes them. I have requested 4 new permits and contacted them using the only method they allow you to using their 'contact us' online form multiple times. I have also used their complaints form, tweeting and evan a call to civic centre to be told there is no council car parking number available (and yet they charge residents for parking). Diabolical council service. Still waiting for any one of my 8 attempts to contact them to have a reply to my issue. 3 months of a 12 month pemit time lost thought their incompetence. Not fit for purpose.
there are not enough words to describe the disgust I feel in regards with this council. Not even going to waste my time to tell you all the issues we've experienced with them ! waste collection - not in time, clean parks - disgrace, parking permits - worse than disgrace and so on....
disgraceful bunch of staff! they dont even know what they are talking about and complete lack of knowledge themselves, not helpful at all, mistakes on everything, how did they actually survive this harrow council wasting taxpayer's money !!!
Terrible council the customer service people are so rude. They lose all your stuff and send you to bailiff for no reason. They don't speak to you over the phone and always try to avoid helping you. Easily the worst council in London. No respect is shown to the people. Even there machines are faulty there whole system is atrocious.
A council that will not move a very small tree to make a driveway for a home that may house a disabled old lady in the future.
A council that has HMO rules that virtually discriminates against friends sharing a house just because they are not one family.
A council without common sense! Is this really the UK or some third world stupidity?
One star is too good for these poor excuses of humanity. .. absolute draconian institution. .
Obnoxious, greedy council, just horrible to deal with. Quelle surprise....
I paid for 1 year bin collection service, it was collected twice and my bin has been full for 6 months. I want my money back or bin collected...but no number to contact and no one responds to my emails. Complete rip off merchants. they have stolen my money and not provided a service!!
I m writing this review because yesterday I was to Council to ask for a few information about the parking permits. Everything starts well , but what followed made me very sad. A mrs whose name is Maggie and a mr whose name is Khiardin , I hope I write the names correctly , made me to want to write this complaint. When I got there, I gave to the lady the car rental agreement and the council tax as proof of adress, and she asked me about what I really want and when I told her again that I want to know something about the parking permit, because I have the car at Harrow Leisure Centre because the parking thickets machine from Masons Ave is not working. With her was that guy too , and they tell me to go to their collegues from office , because they can help me. Everything was ok since I turned around to the offices, and I heard the men telling to that lady that he don t want to talk with romanian people , and of course , both of them started to laugh. When I heard that, I turned back to them , and that men , this time I saw the men from security giggling with them too. That was what made me fell like nothing , and I asked them for their names. This is not normal in a country like this, and this is clearly racism, a racism whitch I really don t understand. I have the right to work here like them, I have the right to ask someone if I don t know what to do, and I think it s not normal to go to an institution like Council and to be greeted by racist people, how don t want to help you, even if this is their job.
Very slow service .inexperienced staff they don't know what they're doing .
At a time when everyone is trying to get back to normal Harrow Council is not answering their emails or phone!
I would give zero or even minus!!
Service we receive : Do we?
Residents find out that there is no one there to speak to you or answer queries when you ring the contact number for the civic centre. It is there for sake of it.
Even smallest shop on the street have there landline number and you can speak to someone unlike council,where all options are automated ! At one point there is a voice says someone from customer service will speak to you and you find the dead end!! AI technology is good but it is not at that satge that beats the real person.That is why council should use both!
Staff at civic centre equally the same read from the book and absolute make no effort to find out information! Lack of training?Lack of knowledge? Or lack of will? Saving money at cost of knowledgable,experianced staff ?
It also shows with so many 1 star reviews there is no effort to change anything.Landline with a real person on other end can be a good start.
Anyone at civic centre?
My experiences of Harrow council has been basic,which could have been solved with one phone call to clerify things.Someone who is knowledgable and trained properly to deal with queries and direct them to the relevant people in various departments only if they need to.
I tried my best not to try and call and find out things from website but it is not always easy to understand clearly or confusing and want someone to claerify before you do things wrong or incorrectly or don't follow the correct procedure.
Who do I go to?
Depressing. You are super lucky if you get an email back or your call answered. Staff don't know what they're doing half the time.
The website is as user unfriendly as it is possible to be. Form didn't download. Chat bot is an idiot that only wants to talk about council tax. Automated reply to emails but promised further reply doesn't materialise.
If you want people to do more online get someone to check that information can be easily found, downloads work, chat bot is not demented, emails get actual replies etc.
Basic communication should not be this difficult.
Lack of response to issues raised on their website. No phone number provided to chase up on issues raised. Made a complaint regarding their process of dealing with issues on their website and that too went unanswered.
They spent thousands of pounds moving the outdoor gym in Priestmead park 70 metres across the grass, for apparently no reason. Also there has been a mound of dirt in the park for years when they 'upgraded' the kids playground. About a year More
Houses in this area are being built by too many unqualified and unregulated builders that have no idea about Health and Safety and have no clue to the regulations that need to be complied with.. The houses are then allowed to be rented.
BAD LANDLORDS, BAD TENNANT, WORST COUNCIL'S
I HAVE NEVER SEEN ANY COUNCIL WORST THAN HARROW. THEY ARE USING PARKING PENALTIES AS THIER MAIN SOURCE OF INCOME. YOU WILL BE ISSUED WITH A PARKING TICKET EVEN IF YOU PAY BY PHONE. I PAID BY PHONE FOR ONE HOUR, WHEN I CAME BACK I WAS ISSUE WITH A FINE. THE NEXT DAY I PAID BY PHONE AGAIN AND ALSO LEFT A MESSAGE ON THE DASHBOARD (SAYING, PAID BY PHONE) SAME THING AGAIN THEY ISSUED A PENALTY. I DONT UNDERSTAND WHY DOES GOVERMENT ALLOW SUCH LUNITICS RUNNING THE COUNCIL. ASK ANY MOTORIST IN HARROW AND THEY WILL TELL YOU THE SAME THING. I WOULD RECOMMEND NOT TO VISIT HARROW UNLESS ITS ABSOLUTE IMPORTANT EXPECIALLY IF YOU ARE DRIVING......
Lines are open to pay council tax but not the line for enquiries..... I am entitled for Ctax reduction support but they took ages to process my claim I mean ages.... Now it has been nearly two months. And they keep sending threatening More
I'm pay the money but what happen with my bills
I have never had a worse experience in my life. I had to deal with several people from the office to check my papers. I have been asked to pay two months of council tax from 5 years ago when I was not even living to that addresses. I have More
Not good. The place is run by the council officers rather than the elected councillors. Changing the ruling party or council leader only makes a marginal difference. The Conservatives freeze spending; Labour increases it with no noticeable effect for the residents. What's needed is an elected council with a mandate to shake things up, and basically, sack have the officers and hangers-on doing nothing useful but drawing a salary anyway.
However, I'm often reminded that there are some dedicated, hard-working people in the council with a common sense attitude to getting things done. They deserve the full five stars, but it has to be an average. Keep it up people - you are appreciated.
I want to change the details of my direct debit but the phone lines are still down due to covid and almost every option on the council tax management screen on the website doesn t work (except for the pay my council tax of course)
Absolutely shocking as always - God forbid you actually try to speak to them. Always long waits, when you get through you get passed around and nobody wants to help you. You would think the amount of council tax we pay you would actually get something that resembles service. Just trying to pay a parking ticked can take 45 minutes as the automated payment line rarely works! I was told last month my direct debit was set up for council tax payment and yet again another payment reminder is sent! Oh well another hour of my life will now be wasted trying to speak to someone...
- Struggled to resolve a simple error which they were at fault.
- Website is poor because it's difficult to find a customer support contact no.
- Spoke to an advisor who was rude and was unable to resolve my simple complaint.
Food Waste two weeks on the trot has not been collected. Department advise to complain in writing. Poor service
I have been on hold for 31 minutes and counting to speak to someone in the council tax team - absolutely absurd!!!! After 23 minutes of holding I got through to switchboard and an awfully grumpy guy called Anthony who said he was directing me to the Council tax team(!) still on hold....33 minutes!
Thanks to this Council, I am now paying for my garden waste to be collected. Why am I paying council tax??? The first collection was due yesterday (16.05.16) and the brown bin is still sitting outside my front door toaday, festering with the black food bin. Of course, they have already taken MY MONEY! Trying to complain about this rotten service, I've been kept on hold for the last 25 MINUTES! SORT IT OUT HARROW COUNCIL!!
Disgraceful services! I have been calling them for 4 days now, each call lasting 30 mins, no one picks up. The matter is so urgent and possible homelessness
horrible services on the phoneeeee,unexperienced customer service,when they don't wanna work,they just hang up
Not Happy that Harrow Council has rehired the same person in the position of CEO. This post made redundant upon his departure and he left with generous pension package. Noe the same person is filling the same post at slightly less remuneration package.
This is totally unfair to the hard pressed council tax payers who are faced with further cuts in services. .
1stDecember 2014
Waited more than twenty minutes to speak to council tax office and finally hung up.
Still no response from council leader regarding having to pay exorbitant tax on empty property. It's like going into shop and paying for non existing shopping. In other words a legalised, for want of another word, robbery.
This council is one of many who have signed up to kingdom limited to apparently fine people to keep streets clean and in doing so subscribe to their bullying tactics where I have witnessed a warden observing an area where builders working on stanmore library had their smoking breaks and continuously left their butts on the ground. The warden did nothing until a young girl did the same and he pounced on her. He ignored her being visibly upset and offering to pick it up and throw it away and fined her (50% of which goes to Harrow council)! Harrow streets are filled with littler, Harrow parks are filled with those gas canisters from people who use them to get high. Harrow alley ways are filled with fly tipping waste. Yet all over Harrow the council proudly boasts that over 8000 fines have been handed out. So where is all the money from the fines being spent exactly?? I received a call recently asking me to participate in a national survey being taken on local councils and they wanted to know my views on Harrow council. I urge anyone who gets this call from a 01422 number to pick up and let your feelings be known!
Probably the worst council in the UK for dealing with phone enquiries.
Setting up a direct debit for council tax payment has been interesting to say the least. The council doesn't recognise the sort code I submit, but complain I don't pay by direct debit. Laughable really!!
Maybe it depends on the service, but I have dealt with Harrow in a professional capacity and as a resident and I think they are very good. I would not want to have to do the job that the Social Workers, Housing Officers, Planners etc have to do, with the massive reduction in resources allocated to councils but at the same time the huge increase in needs.
Is there anyone at the Council who has the dignity to reply to at least to one of the comment below?
How could you ask to pay an high price for the council tax and do not deliver an half of decent service? What do you guys do all day? Why the website never gets updated with the right information?
Awful service, no direct line available, no live chat available, part -time hours! that's what you do. You need to spend a good 45mins at least before to speak to someone who has no clue of anything and passing the ball to someone who is even worse.
How could you not be ashamed when you back go home and think how much nothing you have done?
I bet the only people who have rated above the one star are actually the people who works there!!
Worst council I have ever dealt with as a property manager.
They do not monitor their online services so any forms you send to them are lost and you get sued for either not providing the information or for being late to make payments (which you are not supposed to make).
Their phone advisers seem to be unable to spell as they cannot get the name right on the bill even after 10 times of repeating and spelling it. Also, they believe that it is absolutely ok to be rude and even drop the phone while speaking if they cannot get the things right.
Long story short, their online system is useless and their advisers are rude and unprofessional - I feel sorry for people who live in or have to deal with Harrow council !
No one answering the phones or responding to emails, using covid as an excuse even still at end of July. Awful customer service, deserves 0.
(Most of the staff) at Harrow council are unfriendly, unprofessional & quite frankly, don't give a damn about you or your problems!!! It just amazes me that these people receive an attractive pay packet to do a terrible public service with Absolutely no duty of care towards your needs. I live in Harrow & l have been a resident for eight years now.
In this time, harrow council has got from bad to worse!!! You can never get through to their phone lines & speak with a real person & their website is rubbish! It's emotionally frustrating!!! Harrow council needs a lot of improvement in many areas starting with better staff training, you need to have a sense of care to the local community because everyone's situation is different & not everyone has access a pc or is computer literate for e.g... elderly people.
Harrow council needs to be more caring, understanding!
Truly awful. 1) Trying to find a department phone number is impossible for a significant number of services, 2) Council Tax by stealth - cessation of brown bin waste collection unless we cough up payment (how short-sighted is this and how environmentally unfriendly?) 3) Insistence on payment of parking fines despite reasonable extenuating circumstances; appeal is as good as disallowed because you are told the fee will double if appeal lost. There is an arrogance about this council that is really quite alienating. The only reason they got a star at all is that you need to select at least one to enable publication of comment.
A MONTH LATER AND STILL NO FREAKING PARKING PERMIT...ABSOLUTELY USELESS.......DO AWAY WITH THIS COUNCIL THEY HAVE NO PLACE IN 2018
Unresponsive!
We've moved out the borough of Harrow and I should be credited for the extra council tax I had paid. I filled out the necessary forms on the same day I got the requests via post. During this process, I have tried calling multiple times to ask questions but you can never get through to anyone, the whole country has managed to get back to work and bring some normality but this council still are using Covid as an excuse for not having anyone to speak to on the phone, its shocking. I managed to find a generic email on there website and have reached out 3 times with no response.
On top of that, their website is awful, unhelpful and doesn't provide extensive answers to very normal questions that I had.
Surely, they need to have a better service and respond to the people that they were hired to support. If they were an independent private business they wouldn't last 2 minutes due to their lack of communication with their end customers.
Always the case, quick to take money of you and then ages to give it back.... assuming they giving it back!
Slow response, uncaring and no accountability. I doubt if anyone even reads this review.
Phone calls not answered or hang up on you. On the one occasion I did get through, absolutely poor service. No help to my query at all.
I have been trying to contact you for the past week I moved out of harrow in October and my landlord has sent me letters telling me you are still charging me for council tax I emailed you on the 1st of October letting you know I would be moving out of the borough on the 20th which I have proof of I have also emailed you again no response calling is no help because nobody answers I am put thru to automated services what a joke!! Harrow council so glad I do not live within it anymore! So frustrating! Looking at the rest of the reviews nothing has changed from the last time I wrote a review can't believe nothing has been done to change the way you do things!
There is more chance of walking on the moon than ever managing to speak to someone in the planning department. Absolute joke.
Extremely poor system. Only way to contact the council is via their website which doesn't answer many of the queries and there is no way to contact them. Paying high council tax for nothing.
We have applied for business rates relief and they approved and we have received the money. Thank you so much for helping us with this difficult period. Be Safe
I wish someone pick there rubbish off the floor and they won't do it and there leave there fags buts off the pavement and they should put it in the ashtray I don't like people walking around in Harrow when it gets dark
Harrow council created another problem for residents to made CYCLES LANE I m working as a delivery rider busy hours too much traffic because of cycling lane and I can hardly see cycles on these lanes but genius idea to makes local residents life HARD
This is by far one of the worst council ever. To get through someone to speak to over the phone is next to impossible. All you end up doing is hearing to a long automated message with the hope that you will eventually be connected to someone to speak to. At the end, it just disconnects.
No one picks up the phone. The staff are rude and dismissive unhelpful and quite frankly I am almost always frustrated with them!
Inept, incompetent and irrational. There is an abandoned car at the end of my cul-de-sac. The Harrow council "department" that deals with this area is only good for issuing tickets. Have taken zero ownership over removal of this vehicle. Instead it has been left there for 3 days blocking 4 driveways including an elderly couple and a pregnant lady.
Really really bad and a brunch of liers avoid this place at all lost I've lived north south east and west and this is the worst harrow council should be shut down
Waste of public money housing officers have a thinking that one should live in house with leaking roof seems I though we should have safe environment by law. Useless, worthless and waste of time and public money
The most rubbish council this is in the entire London area may be in the entire england. Their staff extremely rude.. From waste collection service to benefit services, they wont let you live in peace until they abuse you and rob you still with rubbish service.
I have sent them a long complaint about the bin collecting service since almost a month..no reply whatsoever.
I relocated from Brent to Harrow but just because this rubbish council I regret my decision. I will move to Brent again. Never again I will come to live in Harrow and please please guys think 100 times before you come to live in Harrow as this council will eat you up.
I hate this Harrow council so much and their staff too
harrow.gov.uk
