Southwark Council - Children Services Review

RUBBISH WEBSITE, i AM TRYING TO REPORT A LEAK FROM THE UPSTAIRS FLAT, I AM UNABLE TO LOG IN TO THE MY SOUTHWARK REPAIRS REPORTING PAGE..BUT I KEEP GETTING A "NO INFO" ICON, I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO PHONE THEM, ON HOLD FOR AGES AFTER BEING CUT OFF, AFTER I EMAILED THEM,THEY EMAILED BACK TO SAY I HAD LOGGED IN, I HADNT, I LOGGED IN TO THE MYSOUTHWARK ICON, BUT UNABLE TO GO ANY FURTHER TO THE REPORT REPAIRS BIT...SO USELESS...
NOT ONLY THAT, EVEN WITH LOADS OF WARNING ABOUT THE RECENT SNOW, THEY DID NOT GRIT ANY MAJOR ROADS, SUCH AS DOG KENNEL HILL,WALWORTH ROAD, CAMBERWELL AREA, NOT GRITTED.. AND THEY JUST CHANGED SOME SIGNS IN THE BLOCK THAT DIDNT NEED CHANGING..CANT WAIT TO GET BILLED FOR THAT !

WHEN I HAVE HAD A QUERY THE STAFF I HAVE SPOKEN TO ARE LOVELY AND HELPFUL

WHO DESIGNED THAT WEBSITE?.. ONLY GOOD TO PAY A BILL,BUT NOTHING ELSE

Testing and rubbish customer services. Registering and trying to get their records updated with the correct values ends up in so many calls and a complaints procedure to be able to rectify. Only then will things get done.

Convinced the people answering the phones either need training or need replacing. I think it's the latter!

Doesn't even deserve one star the absolute worst customer service ever. I wanted to order a new garbage bin as it is damaged so I called he said I have to use the website I told him my computer isn't working he said well I have to use the website I said but I've called you and been on hold forever what about the elderly what about someone who doesn't have access to a computer how would you help them?.. he didn't care said it was simple enough to do.. so why didn't he do it during my phone call? Rude, unhelpful and not very understanding.

I rang the council 45 minutes BEFORE THE WEBSITE says it is closed but got an out of hours answering machine. Really poor service.

Unbelievably bad service from the disabled travel team. I applied for a renewal of my Blue Badge, 4 weeks before the old one expired, and 5 weeks later the new badge has still not come through. Each time I phone them up, I keep being promised a call back from the team, which never materialises. I am left stranded at home, as I can't travel anywhere without the Blue Badge. I am desperate!

"the only thing that saves us from the bureaucracy is its inefficiency"

Sadly, however, their inefficiency and abysmal inability to communicate internally greatly effects a certain portion of society; normally people on the ropes in desperate situations.

Rude, unprofessional, uneducated, no manners, low skilled and pathetic people work in southwark council. Full of African people who lack the basic communication skills. Unbelievably rude people

I wasn t very happy how I was treated from the enforcement people in south wark my husband was paying already the penalty charge in 2018 and I was appealing and I told them that my husband payed already I gave them evidence the bank statement and they didn t tell me what the reason was because they refused the appeal . The bailiffs asked the enforcement and they said there was no reference number and they couldn t find the payment now the bailiffs want to have 500 pounds it s so rediculous. I am sure they didn t even check if the payment is in the system . They do so many mistakes this Enforcement people. I heard from another enforcement officer that they do a lot of mistakes in south wark enforcement. And we have to suffer because they do not do their job properly and I know they didn t even check that the payment for the penalty charge was already made .

Pretty decent overall, though annoying how they now charge for large refuse collection. Just encourages fly tipping.

Don't reply to emails and just don't communicate at all. They just messed with my account and my landlords without saying anything and doing the opposite of what they should have done. Absolutely useless can't believe I pay my taxes for this they are a massive agruement against devolution.

An organization without ethics, or competence. The best thing it's constituents could do is burn it to the ground.

If you are don't bother contacting them: you are not welcome!

Poor service, extremely poor service! Normally I don't like writing negative reviews but this place needs one, left on hold for over 15 mins just to be put through to some unhelpful people, who just don't know what they are doing. Utterly useless.

They want you to think they are doing something but in reality like my housing office they are visiting friends in work hours and they always try to make you feel really small they robbed me of 400pound and won't give it back Do not trust this council it is very orientated on them selfs

I would like to give my compliments to one of the housing advisors ( Tosin)she has been very helpful and great dealing with my case. Her customer service is outstanding. Thank you so much.

Worst Council ever, poor customer service. They take ages to deal with matters but are very quickly to treat you with legal actions when is the other way round. If you are living in this council, please don't expect much from this council.

Dreadful website does not give garage details on the MySouthwark page. Does not give South Council's actual address. Does not give contact numbers and addresses for any of its staff or departments and you can not even search for them in the search bar. Does not link to other pages.

One of incompetent , rudest , untrained staffs I have ever encounter . They dont have answer to most do the queries at customer services and cut the calls off if not sure what to say . If you complaint about about one incompetent employ to thr manager ,the manager (so called ) calls back with defends rather than look openly into the matter . Uk changed a lot now a days Those days gone when the uk been best in customer services and ethics .
Seems like Call is directed to the Lagos Nigeria rather than in the uk .

Having worked here I understand the frustration, the place is a mess, the management are utterly incompetent, all they do is chat and have meetings meanwhile they set targets for their slaves to hit, the worst employers ever!

The council only want to take your rent, they don't care about helping you.

Nice refurbished building. If you need help from Southwark council ask at reception. They are helpful

40 mins on phone to be told noone available and will get a call back.
LIVE ELSEWHERE SO YOU CAN AVOID THIS COUNCIL!!!!

The worst council with policies that put families at risk. No star is what I rate this council's service or lack of service.

After calling many times they tell you to send an email and still they do nothing, what a bunch of useless people working in there

Extremely rude customer service by a man named Habib 'I'm not obliged to give you my last name'. Not helpful at all - when I told him I couldn't see the link he was referring to, he said "it's there". It was, in fact, not there but on a different page.

Get your act together.

Horrific people - I just got off the phone with a lady who first sounded bored then started to yell at me for quering the charges they have added to my council tax. That is after I waited for 20 minutes to ring through. They don't reply to emails and they don't want to help you. I feel incredibly sorry for people who may be disadvantaged and vulnerable calling in. They honestly should all be fired. I really do hope they record phonecalls so they can hear how disgraceful they are to people.

I have lived in Southwark for 20 years. This year has been the worst and dealing with the most horrendous rude people in repairs and leaks from above and other department has left me infuriated that such imbeciles could be appointed by the council

They have public accessible toilets at the council office 160 Tooley St just walk in. Public cafe as well.

Southwark Council are the worst most useless council in the country. Their staff in particular are useless morons who's only response to a question is - do it online - and if you say that you are unable to they just hang up the phone on you. Disgusting. This council is a disgrace.

Extremely rude and aggressive staff, I would have given no star if I could

The opening times are wrong. When calling them up they direct you to their website, which is terribly unhelpful - it just redirects you to forms which take 10 days to process. It takes them two and a half weeks to fix a simple window. Incompetent morons. And they waste time sending court summons for non-payment of council tax to students.

Southwark Council make Scarfolk Council look like a beacon of humanism and competence. The website looks modern enough but the information architecture is poorly (or sadistically?) thought out. Endless web forms and practically impossible to speak with anyone or find the necessary information. On the rare occasions you actually get through to a real person on the phone, it usually turns to be the wrong department.

Agreed that most services are terrible, most staff are totally incompetent, but I have just had the MOST helpful lady in the Council tax department help me, she went out of her way to make sure that my issue was resolved when I was the one in the wrong not opening my letters! I don't have a surname for her, but Dolores from the council tax department, you are BRILLIANT and shouldn't be tarred with the same brush as the other employees who work for the council!

Southwark Council are useless rude disrespectful
And really do not care never answer the phone if you go in to sort a matter it takes up your whole day basically
They add on rent arrears I can see how they get to drive new company cars and new vans it s all a scam in there housing is a joke no help they say what goes we have to go with it and make their own rules up
It s corrupt they get away with it if you ask me the whole building in Bournemouth road should be knocked down and new staff relocation get rid !

A dreadfully designed website one of the most concerning parts was not being able to find information on my local election. The people on the help line rushed me through and talked over me as if they where annoyed at me for calling. Dreadful

This is the worst council website in London, it is so hard to find a contact number on it or a way to contact them, I am not even sure there is a way.

Totally incompetent council. Don't bother dealing with them. They will not help you in any way. My life quality has been drastically reduced by having to handle Southwark council's horrendous procedures, decision-making and inept staff.

Do not bother calling the education welfare department. The rudest customer service I have experienced. very rude not letting you even ask a question but just shouting downing the phone with which appeared to me she is the one who had called and not me. some parents have some really concerning issues about their children's education the person I spoke too was extremely rude and not helpful she didn't even give a chance to ask any questions. I honestly don't understand how some of the Tax payer's money is used. This particular department is better off to go int o administration and let the public rely online.

Awful. Awful staff. Awful service. Incompetent. Incomplete and incorrect costings. Billed for fardening never done. Inadequte communication

After reading these reviews I hope Southwark is checking to train their staff in customer care I have never had any trouble with Southwark

Awful website, gives no contact details to speak to real human beings. I needed to speak with someone about ending my mother's tenancy following her sudden death, and what to do about returning her keys etc. Not everything is solved by an online form, and yet on the only occasions I did manage to track down a teleohone number, I was either offered a succession of unsuitable options by an automated answer 'service', or else directed back to this useless website. We have spent many hours in this fruitless exercise. A very distressing time made even more stressful by this terrible lack of customer service.

Just got a negative responce for a challenged penalty notice, shameful and disgrasful council, money grabbing robbers, despite displaying valid permit still got penalty that day, challenged rejected for not putting the number plates as i didnt have a pen., despite scratching the correct day, time and month, they never offered refund for the permit I have spent on it. I hope you choke in this money. Everybody knows what are the councils capable of. Hopefully you will get justice for that.

Awfully rude customer service. Enough to make me reconsider living in Southwark!

log in has failed twice now, on hold for 20 mins yesterday and now on hold for over 27 min again and counting. Shocking.

By far the worst customer service experience on record. Constantly misinformed, verbally rude and abusive staff with the "if you keep calling, i'll bump you down the queue" being my favourite quote. this was after waiting 3 months for planning approval.

Every time I call Southwark Council, I get a staff member with an attitude, who huffs and puffs about whatever I m saying. They then rarely offer any actual help or pass me on to another who does the same and helps no further. Sick of it! What do I pay you for! You take so much money from us every month and you cant even get your staff to be polite.

Not even funny now bad this council is to deal with. If I could give negative stars I would.

No point trying to get to speak to anyone, no one answers. Costs a fortune in phone bills!!!!

I was on the phone to Julie she was great and she very helpful. She answered all my questions and now there is no questions on my head.

The website conveys what Southwark Council really think....
No tenants voice or consultations on anything.that effects us.
No, It's a case of - Don't contact us. We don't give a s##t about you.
Just keep giving us all of your money and we'll keep telling you what's best for you,
Meantime, some designer glasses wearing never owned a car cyclist on 200.000 a year and a Gold plated inflation busting pension, paid for by our overpriced council tax, water rates and parking fines ect ect ect, will be sitting in some town hall office, concocting ever more devious schemes to squeeze even more money out of us..
Probably one of the worse Councils in London.

Absolutely rude, don't know what they do. Typical lazy gits, but safe in there pensions F/h

Just useless.
Nobody cares or takes any responsibility when trying to deal with an issue. Simply trying to purchase a residents parking permit has taken 2 weeks to no avail. Their website is utterly dated and one cannot even make a simple payment online.

Staff NEVER call back, promise the world and deliver nothing.

Called to licencing department, really helpful staff

I think the 1.4 average star rating says it all. Utterly shocking, if this was a restaurant it would have shut down decades ago!

It Is like trying to get water from a rock when trying to get the council to carry out a repair. I actually gave one star because it won't allow me post my comment without it, otherwise I won't because its doesn't deserve it.

The phone rings out, they take days to answer urgent emails. Useless.

Please fix your website or just do not charge council taxes from us cos we have no ways to pay lol (and Google please as well add a zero-star option)

To be honest I had to ring to confirm some information and had questions, and I got what i needed pretty quick and the 2 staff members were really polite and helpful, so cant agree atm with some of these 1 star reviews.

As a resident myself I love Southwark. The council are very helpful, it all depends on who you get on the phone and how you approach them. Give respect, Get respect.

It seems to be impossible to talk to anyone!! you have to do everything by completing forms. I just want to talk to someone about a query that I can't find the answer about on line. What a waste of our time and what a rotten service.

NO useful info or contact numbers,just a waste of time.
and the new site is worse.
who ever they paid to make this with OUR money should NOT be paid.

terrible website, very hard to find information and often takes you round in circles.

Very poor service. Nobody there seems to know who you should talk to about any concerns or issues you may raise. Staff seem untrained.

I would give 0 if i could - shambolic.
No email reminder was sent to me when my parking permit expired but they were so quick to give me a ticket. I made it clear that the lack of an auto-renewal process made it clear this was a money making idea, rather than something that would make it easier for residents to park.
I asked if it was possible to auto-renew as i live here, so it's something i will be paying every year, i was told this was not possible.
The fact you are unable to appeal via a phone call is just another means to throw people off too. I wish anyone luck who has to deal with this council - half the time noone picks up the phone.

Possibly the worst citizen website ever created. I experienced login troubles and in the entire website there is NO phone number whatsoever to speak with an employee.

On the phone: Go through all the options, got through to someone, he said I'll need to be transferred and sent me back to where I was before. 20min on the phone for a fob, to find out that they don't deal with it and I have to be transferred. I got transferred and the line went dead. Very typical. When they don't know what to say to you, they send you to their black hole non-existent team.

Extremely bad services by commercial property department on Southwark park road, Bermondsey.
Senior surveyor paul extremely rude and biased, made simple things purposely complicated and at end I had to closed my business. Want to increase rent where you hardly find any footfall and council can afford to keep them empty instead of giving any relief to tenants. Specially on southwark park road few council shops are empty from months/years but no bother about public property.
If you have any property would you afford to keep it empty the way public properties are? Answer: No.....................will rent ASAP on any condition.. Any sensible responsible please go visit the area and get feedback from shops about your area manager, need to dump him ASAP too.
Otherwise
Sorry Southwark Park road business - You have no future, all have to go one by one, the way I ..................

This is a dreadful website. Impossible to use. I am a Council tenant. If they want us to use online services then make the Homepage user-friendly!

Would honestly give 0 stars if I could! Such appalling service, takes ages to get through to them and they are a bunch of incompetent f*****s! They do not know how to speak to anyone and they 'hang up' if you do not have the information that they require.

I am honestly SO glad I am not a Southwark resident because god knows what would happen if I was! DO NOT LIVE THERE SIMPLY BECAUSE THE COUNCIL ARE A BUNCH OF TWATS! AVOID AVOID AVOID AT ALL COSTS. DISAPPOINTED WITH THE S**T SERVICE. THEY NEED BETTER STAFF WHO CAN ACTUALLY TALK TO THE RESIDENTS AND DO NOT HANG UP THE CALL.

Very rude,unproffessional and miserable people at the southwark council call centre.

Apart from been able to make online payments. This website & southwark services are appalling.

Why are you forcing XXL Club to shut? Who is on the take here?

The worst service over the phone and the worst website to navigate around. They are rude on the phone and dont want to help, they pass you around departments and dont have a clue. It's like they were all employed yesterday and have no care or detail for the job. Cant string a sentence together most of the time and mumble their way through calls with a lazy drawl. Cant wait to leave this area so I dont have to deal with these incompetent people again.

Far easier to deal with on the telephone than Lewisham was when I lived there. Library services are much better too. I feel I'm getting better value for my Council Tax than in my previous borough.

I am a residents of Southwark Council, I pay my council tax every months on time and am absolutely horrified with the council. I was due a refund from the council, they said it would take 6-8 weeks t o process and I am still waiting for it 11 months on, almost a whole year of chasing, quite shocking.

Cannot talk to anybody. Website takes you round in circle. If you are lucky enough to get through to them nothing gets done anyway.

Worthless website. They seem to go to great lengths to hide their telephone number, and none of their e-services related to council tax work well or at all. Finally had to Google it to find their phone number

Worse customer service .
Booking appointment is hard and they don t turn up to fix the problem. They don t even bother emailing or calling . I had leakage outside my flat and it was mess and they took 2 months to fix the pipes and I fell off few times from the wet floor passing by .
When it was snowing they cut the water from the building because they pipe broke and took them over 2 weeks to fix it . Imagine it s cold and no hot water !!
To apply for council flat you need to be in the area for 5 years which is ridiculous!!!
Then after applying u probably will get it after 15 years of staying in SE!!!!
Absolutely rubbish customer service I agree with most reviews here !!!!

Staff so unhelpful and the site is useless if you are not making a payment.

This is the worse service I have ever received in my life. The staff are a joke and nothing gets resolved. I will be taking them to court as this is unacceptable. I would give 0 stars if I could. Totally useless council

Abandoned cars reported various times. Not action taken. Then we have those lazy traffic Warners going around the estate giving penalty tickets. Wondering why they not remove the abandoned cars.

I've reported to southwark council and paid a fee for some items to be collected and nearly every email I have sent 7 emails I've got back 3 replies I'm disgusted with the service due to the collectors stating they didn't have access as I made other arrangements for them to gain access to the building! There isn't a number for me to ring just having to email back and forth which isn't helping.

Can I give zero stars? Worst Customer Service. Worst Website. Shambolic

OMG! Who is working in that council, who is managing our money??!!! What are we paying money for???!!! For this kind of service???!!! Dont bother to call council, the rudest people on this earth. Dont have basic manners! Dont want to take any responsibility! Where can we complain about this horrible council, something needs to be done. No one deserves to be treated the way they treat us!!

Absolutely awful customer service, no chance of ever speaking to anybody. And they don't even respond to your emails! deserve NO stars.