Peninsula - www.peninsulabusinessservices.co.uk

They are nice until you sigh a contract then rubbish.

Don't use them.

In my ten years of trading, this is without a doubt the worst company I have ever dealt with. First and foremost, they refuse to take any accountability or responsibility to protect their own interests, even if it means screwing over paying customers like myself.

I had a case that required me to pay for dismissal services. The supposed “expert” who consulted with me got all the dates and times wrong in the final outcome, drastically altering the course of the case. This resulted in the defendant getting away with dismissal. To make matters worse, one of the crucial bases for this outcome was the assertion that one of the witnesses was my wife's best friend, which was a complete fabrication with no evidence to support it. Shockingly, this was one of the main reasons cited for the outcome.

From my experience, it seems that Peninsula wanted to take the easy way out to avoid pursuing any legal routes against the defendant for gross misconduct, even though all evidence pointed to their guilt. There were countless mistakes. They even redid the final outcome letter after realizing that all the dates and times of the incidents were incorrect. Yet, this still did not change the outcome, which makes no sense at all. Their initial excuse for the outcome was based on the notion that certain actions couldn’t be taken due to prior engagements. However, if the correct dates had been used, he would have been found guilty based on the actual evidence.

This massive mistake ultimately cost me £250,000. Additionally, the contract they offered makes it virtually impossible to cancel. It is a five-year agreement that renewed in December 2023. I provided my six months' notice to cancel based on this significant error, and to this day, I am still receiving invoices. Peninsula has not canceled my contract and seems to expect me to buy my way out of the new five-year agreement, despite my clear legal cancellation in accordance with the terms and conditions six months prior to renewal.

I urge anyone considering their services to think twice. My experience has been nothing short of a nightmare.

this is a terrible organisation for small businesses or micro firms. They sign you up but they have auto renewal feature that requires a 6 months notice to cancel. This is unfair trading standards, i signed up for a 3 year contract with them they dont send you messages to remind you of the cancellation. They are desparate and greedy for business, i am in consultation with a lawyer to get out of their stinking contract. Chat GPT will surely put them out of business

We had to go to a tribunal with a member of staff who accused us of significantly contributing toward her depression and mental state. The process took a year to get to court. During this period you are expected to supply evidence and complete witness statements. During the same period we had 8 different advisors dealing with our case. 3 days before the hearing we were advised a new person had been instructed to attend court to represent our business. We turned up at court and our representative advised us he really didn't want to be in court as he had other plans and wanted to case to be over within 3 days. Having not been involved with a previous tribunal we were at his mercy. Our representative only asked 6 questions and didn't challenge anything presented by the claimant. The claimant had very little evidence and their witnesses left our business prior to the allegations. Our brief had a huge bundle to cross examine and didn't use any. During the hearing our brief sent emails and studied other future cases and didn't pay attention to the judge or the things being discussed. He advised us he gets paid regardless of the outcome!! Absolutely disgraceful. Due to the extremely poor advice and negligent behaviour of our brief we lost the case. When we complained, Peninsula emailed us saying our complaint about our representation in court had been investigated and they weren't going to consider anything we mentioned in our complaint. They have a sister company IRWELL who are the insurer. They are owned by the same people. Because of the judgement IRWELL said they would not contribute toward the remedy reward. Both Peninsula and Irwell have closed ranks and we received an email confirming this. We were let down and cant do anything about it. They just dont care. We have contacted the legal ombudsman and SRA - Hopefully, we may get them to investigate.....

Sales man gives you bunch of nonsense and their commitment is near to zero. I felt I ripped off over 5 years and now even two months left I contacted to cancel and they denied as in small print of T and C they put 6 months in advance they auto renew a FIVE years contract.

I had what I thought is complex HR issue. On the end it was sorted with little help from Peninsual, but I really felt blackmailed by them into signing 5 year contract. It felt like I cannot even go to any other providers for a quote as I stupidly explained the entire case to sales rep ,who made me feel that he will use this information against my company if I dont sign. I really felt extorted. If you don't provide them with 6 month notice of leaving, they will auto extend your contract for next 5 years. Feels so corrupted that this is allowed.

I have discussed a particular case with the advisors over several months. Each time I have been given varying and sometimes conflicting HR advice. They sit on the fence, do not commit, there are many ifs and buts, and all this despite of all the information they need to have to guide us through our HR issue.

Last week, having spoken to an advisor, I asked him to get a senior manager to call me about this case. No one had the civility, professionalism or the decency to contact me. This morning (23 Oct 23), I have already made three calls to speak to a senior manager. Each time I am told the manager is in a meeting and they will get her to call me. Just like previous hollow promises, no one called me. Finally someone from resolution team picked up my call. I refused to engage as this was not what I had asked for the past week or so.

I am at a loss as to how an organisation claiming to advise clients on matters of employment law, how to expect employers and employees behave decently and professionally and within the boundaries of law, could be so alien to these fundamental precepts.

I would not recommend anyone to seek taking up their services. Seek proper source of help elsewhere, as I am just about to do now.

A very let down client!

Worst company ever! They give wrong advice then put you under the bus and their hands up. They lure you in with false promises and don’t deliver. They don’t get back to your questions and leave you stranded for weeks and answer one question at a time which takes 5 different staff! Then they don’t let you out of a contract even though I now have no staff as they made everyone angry and upset! And they haven’t delivered any of their promises and lied!

Sales person talks you into signing their contact which seems to meet everything you need but in reality it does not.

You dont get the support your offered for hr and for health and safety the nice folder they show you will all the paperwork completed for you doesn't happen. You get one visit a year and they all the work to you still

Avoid it’s a waste of money that some business can’t afford to lose.

If you with them watch out for the auto renew clause which ties you in with them more with unlawful exit fees

I don't recommend this company to anyone, they hoodwink small businesses into signing an auto renewal document, even though the sales pitch does not mention this once, its small print. Then when i call up to cancel my subscription 4 months before the end they tell me they've auto renewed it for a further 5 years as its 6 months notice to cancel the auto renewal and if i wish to cancel i have to pay them 80% off the outstanding 5 year balance. Rude on the phone, haven't used them for a full five years. Tried once to gain advise on letting a staff member go who worked for me for only 2 weeks, was a shambles altogether. I'm so disgusted at them I've 2 other businesses which i use them for and I'm ensuring to cancel my auto renewal now. Please avoid, there are many better and more upfront and honest companies out there.