The Warehouse

There are 12 reviews of The Warehouse.

• Unfortunately my only honest recommendation for this place is AVOID. The manager, Stewart, is very unprofessional and does business in bad faith. We agreed a price, and then it was changed twice afterwards. He claims that the list of equipment advertised (at www.hallshire.com/halls/view/829/the-warehouse, where I said I found out about them) is not equipment 'included' but 'available'. (Included on this list are fire alarms; unfortunately I wasn't quick-witted enough to ask if I had to pay extra for these!) When the price was changed for the second time (via email; it was an increase in the tariff and the deposit), I replied to say that I would pay the extra deposit, but not the extra tariff (£30), as I feel once you agree a price, that's the price you go for. I didn't get a reply to this email, or to a chasing-up email that I sent, for 10 days. Finally I phoned Stewart directly, and was able to speak to him. (He did apologise for not getting back to me... but that doesn't let him off the hook: it still happened, and greatly inconvenienced me!) He gave some nonsense about not having changed the price (and here said about the advertised equipment not being included). He said, "it's up to you if you want to take it [ie pay the increased amount] or not"; at this point, I replied saying that I would like to cancel (even though now the event was happening in only seven days). At this point, he conveniently said he would waive the extra tariff. It appears that he was just trying to 'play hardball', increasing the cost until I said I would take no more; where at all possible, I do not deal with people how negotiate in bad faith. I did try to find another place, but with only seven days, I couldn't get anywhere else, so I ended up going with his place – this was really a last resort, but it couldn't be helped. Needless to say I was concerned that he'd conveniently find (ie make up) some issue in order to withhold £30 of the deposit, and hence I videoed our entire evening; I have to say, he did not do this, but made no complaints about returning the deposit. (He did try to return it to the wrong bank account initially, and only returned £100, not the full £200, but this was rectified fairly quickly.) So I did end up hiring his place, and upon meeting him his behaviour became even worse... One item that was on the list but I was told by Stewart wasn't included was the oven – this was being used by a different group. When ordering food for my party, I accidentally ordered frozen sausage rolls (that needed cooking in the oven), rather than chilled ones (that are eaten chilled) – it was an online supermarket order; a bit careless of me, I know! The other group weren't actually using the oven, so I asked them if I could use it; they were perfectly reasonably and had no problem with this, and one of them went off to get a lighter to light the oven. Stewart saw me waiting in the kitchen-area, and came over. He was subsequently openly hostile and rude to me in front of the other guests (much to their shock). He made a massive deal out of the fact that I was using the oven, that "we had discussed it, and you [ie me] know you shouldn't be there". The other guests were quite in shock at his behaviour, and when he'd gone told me that I wasn't being any problem to them at all, and that they had absolutely no problem with my using the oven. I thought that would be the end of it, but after waiting a significant amount of time for the lady to come back with the lighter, one of the other guests went off to find her. It turned out that Stewart had, without saying to us in the kitchen, gone and found her and told her not to light the oven for me. Extremely petty behaviour. When one of the other guests told me this, she added, "but I said to her to come and light it anyway". Clearly they also thought that this behaviour was not ok! In addition, we were also quite disturbed by kids playing football outside, which in of itself is fine, but they kept kicking the ball into the windows (which didn't look that solid), and it sounded like they were going to break every time! It was quite concerning! In summary, I should have perhaps considered more some of the poor reviews. Unfortunately, the extremely poor response time left me in a situation with few options. Being a Christian myself, I had hoped that they would deal fairly and honestly. Unfortunately this was not the case; I was hoping for a lot better, and was seriously let down. I had thought I would give a 2 star review before going, given all the issues – maybe 3 if the place was excellent. Now that I've been and he has been so rude to me in person, it's can be no more than a 1 star.

  Reviewed by Anonymous 5 years ago

• I have booked a room at The Warehouse for 10 consecutive weeks and I can only say that Stewart has been extremely helpful in accommodating our weight management programme. We started on Thursday 12th September and have a lovely group to start a sucessful Eat 4 Health class which is very much needed in this particular part of Reading. Thank you Stewart for all your help, and hope we can continue to work closely and run many more sessions from your centre.

  Reviewed by Melanie 10 years ago

• SHOW SOME RESPECT TO LOCAL RESIDENTS!!!!! On a regular basis, residents are disturbed until the early hours of the morning with underage youths leaving the warehouse whom are clearly intoxicated. Behaviours include reckless drivers, fights, smashing of bottles, congregation of big groups all of whom scream, shout and behave in an unacceptable manner. This is a statutory nuisance and extremely unfair on local residents! Please address this and show respect, these issues could be resolved by employing a bouncer by moving people along and ensuring order is kept. this has been a problem for 2 years now and I have had enough. I will be keeping a noise diary from now on and will inform the council if this continues. An unhappy local resident

  Reviewed by Unhappy 10 years ago

• we were told by stewart the so called manager that because we did not follow their beliefs, he said "we do-not hire our rooms to any one who does not believe in our religion " I pointed out that we do believe in the same god,he still refused to hire a room to us,we have never been so offended, we said we do not follow any religion but we believe in the one and only god. this person has a serious attitude problem and a bigot and is judgmental and discrimatory please take note people best not to go to the to THE WAREHOUSE 1a CUMBERLAND ROAD unless you like being offended

  Reviewed by nigel 10 years ago

• Although we have booked this hall, our booking has been cancelled. The reason they have told us is the content of the speech. They said "you are going to talk about another prophet - not Jesus and this is not acceptable for them". They have no respect and not open to dialogue with other religions. They wanted us to change the content of the speech, or gave another option: do the speech in another place and come back for the rest of the programme. This is the wierdest thing I have seen in the UK. I don't know if this is common in all Baptist Churches.

  Reviewed by M 10 years ago

• RESPONSE TO PREVIOUS COMMENTS This is written by Stewart, the manager. I'm not going to dispute the previous comment, everyone has a right to be unhappy and express that, but I do have to say that we cannot find any record of a booking on 1/6/12 or any possible bookings in the weeks surrounding it and because no name has been left we cannot follow up on this. Some of the points made about charging don't make sense to us but without specific details of the booking its impossible to comment further. We find it odd that it has taken nearly a year to post the comment and do note that the comment is very personal in tone. If the writer wishes to get in touch we would be happy to talk and discuss their issues.

  Reviewed by Stewart 10 years ago

• Stewart Johnston (operations manager) whom happens to be a so-called devout Christian and upkeep's the running of the adjoining Wycliffe Church next door is a untrustworthy person, very ride and awfully arrogant. He has truly blemished the reputation of the Warehouse which has so much potential. He had charged me a double the price for the main sports hall in comparison to the price when we booked 3 weeks before. 3 weeks beforehand it was my 65th Birthday, and I invited a dozen friends in the sports hall (the smaller rooms at the time were all so-called booked - so he said - although no one was in them for the 2 1/2 hours we spent near them). He was completely happy with the state we left it (as we were no longer the drunk rowdy teenagers as we once were so he had to be!) and he returned our deposits. But 3 weeks after (when wanting to book this for my elderly friend for a surprise party) the price has doubled, just shocked me, when politely queried about the great difference in prices from before and now he became awfully rude and replied "it's my choice, you can book or go elsewhere". I left the place really shaken. Less then 2 weeks down the line, a friend booked the same sports hall and he'd charged her £25 less then what I was charged (!)but still charged her "almost" double. I asked my friend (member of the same Church, but doesn't know him well) to ring and ask the same quotation for the room, she was quoted the "normal/average price". The manager changes the prices from customer to customer - appears one has to be a member of the Church in order to get the "advertised" and previous prices or if he's in a good mood might let you pay the average charge. Just phenomenal. The manager is scandalous and certainly has a chip on his shoulder, stay well clear of this place.

  Reviewed by Janice 10 years ago

• Nobody contacted me though I left my mobile and e-mail address! So nothing has been booked yet! It seems they are not bothered for business. No wonder we are going done. We are a local social organisation looking for a regular booking of the main sports hall for an hour every week between 7:00PM to 8:00PM, Saturday.

  Reviewed by Anonymous 10 years ago

• Once again, excellent in every way. Very highly recommended. Many thanks to Stewart & Team, Kind regards, Gina

  Reviewed by Anonymous 10 years ago

• I did make an enquiry but to be honest I can't remember the exact reason why I was declined. I think there was a booking already or the length of time I wanted it for was not possible. But might try again.

  Reviewed by Anonymous 11 years ago

• Hello no i didn't make my booking in the end i had to cancel the party as i was taken into hospital with a mild heart attack. And wasn't able to contact you and as it was a surprise party no one knew i had booked it.

  Reviewed by Anonymous 11 years ago

• Excellent in every way. Very highly recommended. Many thanks to Stewart and Staff, Kind regards, Gina

  Reviewed by Anonymous 11 years ago

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