Co-op Legal Services - Bristol

Andrew M.

Buy your Will & Power of Attorney elsewhere!
My biggest regret of 2024 was buying my will & powers of attorney through the Co-Op. Rebecca Swan & Rachel Emery couldn't have been anymore unhelpful.
When the Co-op were taking the appointment & my money they couldn't have been better. It was all so great we agreed there & then 2 pay for 2 wills and 4 powers of attorney. Andrew Dingley was great but seems to have left shortly after joining the Co-op.
But after this is when it went wrong. The aftersales process with their staff needs to be more engaging and supportive on the next steps to finalise the process.
Rebecca Swan couldn’t have sent any more emails, all over whelming , all different secure links for so many documents using all these words which mean nothing to anyone outside of their profession.
After a couple of emails asking for assistance and getting no response they finally responded and just put them in the post. Only one typo on the documents which was easy to fix but annoying as the DOB correction slowed the process down after already being delayed due to lack of response.
I had no idea what I was signing so I asked Rebecca for a call to run through it of which I got no response. I phoned up their central customer services dept who advised I don’t need anyone to sign the LPA’s. I just tell them it’s fine and you action the final version. No one had advised us of this. I said I still had some queries with it all as I don’t fully understand what I’m signing. The central services dept kindly organised a call back from Rebecca a couple of times and surprise surprise no call back. I did phone up after a call was finally scheduled (after they failed to phone me at the appointment time) and another message was sent asking to call me of which I didn’t hear back. The central services dept then agreed the service is poor, they had escalated to a line manager but the best thing to do was to complain in writing.
After putting in the complaint in writing I received no apology or acknowledgement. I did randomly receive a call from Rebecca to go through it but not at a convenient time, no apology and no mention of my email so I wasn't sure if it was a coincidence or not. I had requested a video call to discuss it properly but that request was ignored. I had requested the estate case manager be changed to someone else which was ignored. I also asked for some money back due to the terrible process which was also ignored.
I then chased up my written complaint after 5 months of which Rachel Emery just gave a default corporate response and also offered no money back or even mention of it.

Mark B.

We instructed CLS in early January 2024 to deal with Probate matters, we were informed that normally it would take 6 - 9 months to complete, but as my Mother’s case was considered fairly straightforward and uncomplicated they advised completion would only take 3 - 6 months. Unfortunately it eventually took them 11 months to get the whole process across the line, which was only achieved after I contacted a Team Leader in desperation to complain, only after doing so did I feel that someone had finally taken ownership of our case, and made every effort to get the work completed and aim for a satisfactory outcome. This I was extremely grateful for, but after months and months of poor customer service, with email communication slow and occasionally going ignored and telephone contact impossible it was far too late to salvage a good review!!! They even sent out a Customer satisfaction questionnaire ahead of final case completion which I thought to be both foolish and brave! In short I would never recommend this company, the process took far to long, our original case handler kept us poorly informed throughout, and he left the job when we were almost 10 months in, his replacement never really took charge of our case, the whole journey was an absolute nightmare!!!
Now on reading other customer reviews I can see that we were not an isolated case..............

Ashley O.

If I could give this review less than 1 star I would. Stay far away.

Co Op Legal Services were handed the estate of my step father 13 months ago, in that time we have had 4 different case handlers (without ever being told or them making themselves known to us, we only found out because we called for updates), probate had ONLY JUST been applied for (this is not a difficult estate, straight forward will with nothing hidden or complicated), a previous case handler kept lying and saying the hold up was she hadn’t received ID when in fact ID had been provided 4 times and she was actually the one not following up, we have been brushed under the rug, given the run around, and when asked for a manager to call us they would only send emails at 4.55pm which for anyone who work in an office based role knows that this is done so that you don’t have to read the response/deal with any phone calls off the back of it.

Co Op Legal services have made this entire situation so much worse and so horrible. To lose a loved one and to then have it be dragged out to this extent is one of the saddest things about this. There is no care, no compassion. We just want this chapter closed,

I would advise anyone to stay away from Co Op Legal Services for dealing with a loved one’s estate and probate. They only care about their money.

Darren P.

I would seriously advise you to stay clear of this company for childcare matters, this is after I have compared to multiple other solicitors and experienced the worst customer service by a mile. I am at a loss to know how they have scored so highly. Words can not explain how bad the service was for me. You will be told your solicitor is great, only to be palmed off to paralegal and you will be expected to chase. I recently put a lot of money on account to tell me they can handle my case quickly, I am then told their response time is 5 DAYS. Other solicitors I have spoke to since have been shocked by this response time. Do yourself a favour and avoid at all costs otherwise it will be nothing but stress and frustration getting a response. It could be I was very unlucky with my solicitor assigned, it could be different for each solicitor.

1/I was assigned Danielle Taylor immediately her paralegal made it sound like I should be privileged just to get an appointment telling me when i will be called.

2/She didn't call at agreed time so I had to chase. Not that impressed with the advise given, and was inconsistent with other advise received from solicitor firms so it left me in the dark a little bit. My form seemed completed in a Hurry with inaccuracies compared to what I told her her on the phone. This is after another solicitor told me to be very careful with my wording on the form.

3/Had to continually chase afterwards, only to be told by Danielle their policy is 5 days to return an email so I am still within that time. That is the only time Danielle replied directly to my emails regarding completing the C100 form, every other response was via her paralegal. When I would have appreciated her at least offering her view on my suggested changed, instead they just pasted in what I wrote.

Now its totally different with my new solicitor I message my solicitor direct and get a much more personal service...and never had to wait more than 24 hours for an email.

Andy C. |. S. M.

Please note, the coop will writing service requires upfront payment before you get a draft of your will. If incorrect as ours was they still take your money.
Also make sure they are clear on what’s an absolute and what is only a wish.

Gary D.

Communication is not a strong point. Can't even reply to emails. Its as if they just like to ignore you and possibly keep what's owed to you. Been well over a year now since they were 1st instructed to deal with the probate case. And don't let me get into DC law who they appoint to deal with it. Would not give them the time of day use a decent solicitor's and to think they charge for the service they provide absolute garbage avoid

Anthony W.

Unfortunately, we got taken in by the salesman who sold us the moon. Instead, we seem to have been given a torch to find our own way!

My brother passed away after a very long terminal illness, and I really needed some help in managing his complicated estate, but I've had some incredibly stressful and upsetting times because of their lack of organisation, lack of updates, lack of knowledge and lack of contact.

The sales guy was fantastic at selling the service, but i so wish I'd gone to a local solicitor who we could pop in and see and get that personal touch.

Our original case manager was useless, and we had a serious lack of contact, and now we've been assigned a new one.

7 months later, we're still finding things that haven't been followed up or communicated, and I'm having to deal with them myself.

For the money they are getting, I'd expect a hell of a lot better service! I'd say they are spread too thin, or they are inexperienced, relying on a few who have some knowledge. They certainly don't seem to be experts.

Avoid and go to a local solicitor instead. You'll thank me for it.

Lloyd C.

This used to be a good business, what has happened to it? It has been nearly 3 years since my grandfather(who was a decorated hero of ww2) passed and they have been so unhelpful, insensitive and uncaring in dealing with his probate. my whole family including his children, grandchildren, great grandchildren , and great great grandchildren feel like they cannot greave him until the probate is resolved. The service is the opposite of what I expected of them and the opposite of the great service I got from them just 7 years ago when my uncle passed . What has changed in that time? Co-op used to be a name you could trust, unfortunately this is no longer true!