The Dorothy Perkins in Lakeside is a reasonable sized shop, there is only one level though. It…read moreranges a good range of all sizes and has a small area of jewellery products. They have quite a lot of plus sized, petite and maternity clothes which is great to cater for more people. When I have returned anything there, as long as I have a receipt they are very helpful and happy to refund your money. The shop is set out very spaciously and is bright and airy. As it is based in the Lakeside Shopping precinct, there is plenty of parking all around the building.

Me and my girlfriend went to a shopping centre in the hopes of finding some new clothes, we ended…read moreup going into a clothing retailer (Zaras.) and the store was completely packed full of people and was difficult to move around along with this there was no staff to be seen anywhere around the store, after choosing some items we headed to the changing rooms so she could try the clothes on. We were then told that we could only take five items in at a time and that the other items we had chosen would be taken and put back on the shelves which we weren't pleased about but we were not too disheartened. After we had tried the items on, we headed back around the shop to pick up the items that had been taken away, after gathering all the items we headed to the check out however, the line was so long we decided to go to the "self-checkout" we then scanned all of our items and proceeded to pay but to our surprise no receipt was printed and we did not get given the option to take the tags off in hindsight this was down to pure laziness of staff as they couldn't be bothered to refill the receipt paper! This caused my girlfriend to panic as she didn't know what to do so I decided to speak to a staff member about the incident they weren't helpful at all and was very rude and had the audacity to call us liars and insinuated that we were trying to steal! I was disgusted and told them I would return with a receipt from the cash machine to prove we had bought the items. Upon our return we were shocked to find out that they had restocked all the items we had just paid for, and they said the staff member we previously spoke to had now clocked off and went home. We couldn't believe it we were totally neglected! I then demanded to speak to the manager and informed her of how bad our service had been, the manager then apologised for any inconveniences and said that the money would be refunded within five to seven working days, this obviously was not good enough they had virtually taken £300, and we had nothing to show for it. I made a stand and said we wanted the clothes we had just paid for as we don't even have a receipt to show proof of our purchase, they basically ignored us and disappeared into the back room for over an hour we waited for the managers return but to no prevail. I felt sick how a major business (franchise.) could be run this corruptly we were completely lost for words we had wasted three hours by this point and still had nothing to show for it my girlfriend was very distressed as this was almost all her saved money from the previous working month. In the end we never got any compensation for the lost time, money, and effort that day. I then spent three weeks going backwards and forwards trying to get a refund that I was told I would receive automatically after five to seven days as previously stated, after what seemed like an eternity we finally received a call from the bank with a URN number this allowed us to contact their helpline and force the refund as this number proved that the money had left the account and did not go back in, we finally had received the money back and it was all over, in the end this took well over four weeks to resolve and we never received an apology. I would never go back, and I would not recommend shopping in this retailer unless you want to lose time and money, in my opinion it was the worst experience I have had whilst shopping.

Lakeside Primark is really big and is set on 3 floors. It stocks lots more than the smaller stores…read moredo, so its great for cheap shopping. However, every time i visit the Primark in Lakeside its always a mess, its more like a jumble sale. If you visit on a Saturday or Sunday you need to get there early, otherwise you will have to look on the floor to find what your looking for. The mens section is really good here, my partner doesn't really do Primark shopping, but loves this store. He has bought many different nice hooded jumpers, and they have all lasted a long time because the quality is great. I never seem to see many members of staff walking around the store making it tidy. The tills are always packed, you normally have to line up for 10-15 minutes to pay, but if you've got yourself a basket of bargains you really don't mind. Tip - get there early, and use the parking located right outside the store.

Not bad at all. We were looking for handbags but ended up with 12cm heel shoes - pretty gruesome…read moreversion of a Kurt Geiger best seller but very good value for £17 - for that price you could just wear them once and throw them away. Just for fun, we also bought a pack of nine pairs of earrings for £2. Cheap as chips. (Just as well, since they went straight into the dustbin when the wearer realised how itchy they were). Would you believe people shoplift this stuff? Some of the packs had earrings missing - incredible! The queues were long but plenty of staff serving behind the counter so you don't wait long. A good effort.

I ma a big fan of choice. Unfortunately I cannot afford to shop there a great deal as it is so…read moreexpensive but I love to go and have a browse. They sell a wide range of designer clothes. I am reviewing the ladies store but they have a mens store aswell. In the ladies they sell bags and shoes as well. A lot of the products they sell cannot be founf anywhere else in lakeside. The staff are really pleasant and always look really smart. I love the carrier bags because they are very posh, you have to buy something though unfrtnately. You can get most designer ranges in here and they do have sales although it still dont make things cheap.