If you read the one star reviews of Domestica on here you'll see some recurring themes - terrible…read morecommunication, no callbacks, misleading and outright false information given. That's absolutely been my experience when over a 12-week period they failed to fix the malfunctioning fridge they sold me despite countless phone calls from me, countless promises from them and endless buck passing to the fridge manufacturer. I ended up having to do Domestica's job for them by phoning the fridge manufacturer myself - a process that took several days as they are in the Domestica mould of ignoring the customer and refusing to take responsibility for their own mistakes. When, after pressure from my letting agent Robert Aston, they finally replaced the fridge it was with an inferior model - a move that really sums up their contempt for the customers. Domestica's customer service is beyond horrific. They are lazy, arrogant and inept. Words cannot adequately express how badly you need to avoid this vile grubby company.

Domestica is a spares, repairs and appliances shop. It doesn't have the same attraction as the…read morenightlife does to those who are from outside Moseley, but it is appreciated by locals. On the day I needed some, ahem, vacuum cleaner bags. This is hardly retail therapy, so what do I want from the experience? Simply this: The right bags, at a reasonable price, with a friendly service, and the re-assurance that the sales person is knowledgeable enough so that I had the confidence in him that he bags I bought were the right ones. And I get it. You can't ask for much more than that! But don't trust them with repairs, or your time. I 'phoned in for someone to fix my washing machine two weeks ago. I've waited in on three separate days now when they've said they'd be coming. They've said they'd call to give specific times, but they haven't. Not a mention of sorry!!! Two weeks without a washing machine and having to do handwashing. Terrible customer service, so I can't recommend them. 18 months later... It seems I'm not alone in finding Domestica to be shoddy in their timings and arrangements for appointments. A friend has just let me know that she's having similar problems: Vague times, no-shows, and general flippancy. Apparently washing machine manufacturers are referring owners of machines that break within guarantee time to Domestica-Maybe they should start looking elsewhere...

Sold us a washing machine that we viewed in store, we paid for delivery and fitting. The washer…read morethey delivered was not the one we agreed upon, and was not fitted as promised. They did come back and help to fit a few days later after some badgering. Fairly happy now we have a working washer but still feel somewhat deceived. Make sure you check you're getting what you expect.

The Bargain Shop on the Bristol Road is your one stop outlet for all manner of domestic and…read moreelectrical appliances. These kinds of establishments don't crop up all that often anymore which is a shame as the people here offer a good service. They make domestic appliances such as washing machines available at affordable prices which can be an invaluable thing to some people. They even offer a repair service at the Bargain Shop as well as having all manner of spares for appliances from fridge freezers to vacuum cleaners. This is good old fashioned service and many more places should take a leaf out of their book.

There's nothing that bothers me more in life than a vacuum cleaner that doesn't work properly…read more There's also nothing that bothers me more than paying ridiculous amounts of money for a Dyson. So what's to do? Well, I discovered, head to Midland Vac. Amongst many other domestic and industrial floor-cleaning related services, they recommission Dysons that are brought to them for repair, and then sell them on for approximately half the price that a brand new one would cost. Which, for me and my dilemma, is genius. I get a Dyson in good working order and don't have to break the bank for the privilege. The staff all seem to know their stuff and can talk to you about guarantees and warranties and random vacuum cleaner parts, should you feel so inclined. I didn't - I just wanted to get the bad boy back home and try it out. Which I did, and it works perfectly. I am now feeling quite smug, courtesy of Midland Vac. Obviously, I could actually give them 5 stars, considering the fact that all I had was great customer service in buying a great product at a great price. However, I feel a bit of a geek for giving my only 5 star review to vacuum cleaner specialists. It hasn't actually changed my life. But it's certainly made it a little cleaner.

Like so many of the outlets on the Strichley High Street you look at this one and think: "How does…read morehe survive?". Afterall, we live in a culture that throws away anything that doesn't work, and even more so with household appliances that are (usually) so cheap to replace. Repairing things seems to belong to a bygone age. Then, of course, your hoover breaks and you're glad the place exists. What happened in our case was that a friend told us they needed a hoover and, amazingly, that very same day we saw that someone further down our street had left a hoover out with a sign saying "Free to a good home". We picked it up and gave it to our friend and, of course, it didn't work. A quick and cheap visit to this place later and our friend had a fully functioning hoover. So, I can recommend this place!

This place is very similar to the Bargain Shop which can be found a little further up the Bristol…read moreRoad. At the Appliance Repair Centre they guarantee to repair leading makers of everything from microwaves to vacuum cleaners and it is all done with speed and at a price which is more than reasonable. Again this place has a variety of spare parts and as such is in direct competition with the Bargain Shop. I would say there is very little to choose between the two and my decision would be based primarily on the proximity I was to either of the two establishments. To find one of these shops is rare nowadays so two is a minor miracle and the people of Selly Oak can count themselves fortunate.

From the owner: Your local low cost repair centreread more

Brilliant service, was on time and very polite, done a brilliant instalation and left our home…read moreclean and tidy, i recommended them to family and they just caried out a service on my mothers boiler, you dont find many honnest polite respectfull plumbers about nowadays, but this company is top notch ! would recommend to anyone ! so happy and finaly warm with my new system !

From the owner: we specialise in new boiler installations, central heating installations, boiler repairs, general…read moreplumbing, gas pipe work, service and maintenance on all gas appliances, landlord gas saftey certificates, insurance work and more. T.A. Heating & gas engineers is a famliy run business comitted to providing the best high standards and quality of work at competitive prices. Just check out our many reviews on free index and google maps. We are highly reccomended with a current review rating over all of 100%. The company has been up and running, doing central heating boiler repairs, installations and such for over 16 years. All of our engineers are gassafe registerd and have many years of experience We repair all makes and models of boilers. We can also give you advise on the best type of boiler for you to have and the correct set up to have in regards to efficiency. Please also take a look at our detailed web sight. We cover all of birmingham and an extra 25 mile radius from the outskirt

Skill Electronics sell spares, cables, leads, torches, standard and specialist batteries, CCTV…read moreequipment and the occasional microwave oven and refurbished TV. 'There's not much 'skill' in that!', you might exclaim? The 'Skill' part of the name is down to owner, Zahood. Over the last couple of years I've had equipment that hasn't worked and has almost ended up in the bin. Rather than consign it to landfill, I've been into Skill and Zahood has on every occasion bought the life back to my gear. The first time I walked in with an old Stylophone I asked 'Can you fix this?'. 'Is it electrical?' he responded. I nodded. 'Then I can fix it!' he triumphantly replied. It's now a running joke between us and I have him to thanks for repairing countless items recently. He's basically a superhero with a circuit tester and a soldering iron!

This shop is the domestic electrical/electronics equivalent of a top notch old school hardware…read morestore. It's main line is adapters, connectors and wiring for basically any household electrics item. This includes audio/visual and computing. They also sell a small selection of home entertainment goods (radios/MP3/CD/DVD players) but it's pièce de résistance is their knowledge and willingness to impart this to customers when you ask for advice. This is also matched by their repairs service, something that you don't see so often these days. A sound little no-nonsense place to try if you're looking for that hard to find adaptor ... or even harder to find experienced advice.

This electrical supplier has been here ever since I can remember. I was surprised that it managed…read moreto stay open through a changing market and a deep recession, but it did. These days' people prefer to go online or go to a cheap major retailer for their electric good needs. Yet this shop seems to not have been too affected by this. The prices and selection here are varied. Some of the items on offer are a lot cheaper than what most would expect from a small retailer, some are way more expensive than their competitor's prices. The best thing about Denman's is that they can order in anything you like and this can range from anything in the consumer electronics field. The shop has a family feel to it and I am all for supporting independent businesses, so I'm sure to come back here again.

This is an electrical and appliance store that somehow sticks around. And I was glad it has stuck…read morearound recently when I needed an obscure cable for a cellar lamp. Perhaps this is how they do stick around, by supplying all of Kings Heath's obscure electrical needs. Well anyway I was very pleased on my return home to find the cable fitted this strange lamp, thus allowing me to illuminate my cellar, explore the cob-web riddled space and to begin entertaining ideas of using it for storing fine wine and cheese or hosting poker games or something less sophisticated, like throwing lots of useless, semi-unwanted house trash into. Anyway, Denmans have a lot of things of this sort, which without them or with faulty ones make a lot of daily activities almost impossible. I am grateful for Denman's presence on the Kings Heath high street as now, with their very important involvement, I have finally made acquaintance with my cellar. And that's just wonderful.