PLATFORM_ Bedford

"I did not live here, but just filled in the form to get more info. Did not receive any response or acknowledgement in a week, so thought best not to engage further as if they cannot even answer before you are paying imagine after. After reading further reviews here I am extremely glad they did not respond, as they sound like very badly managed apts."

"Platform_ are a group of scammers, never contract anything with them. I was living there about a year ago with my boyfriend. At first, it is striking that it is quite expensive and does not correspond to what you receive, but if they are characterized by something, it is for wanting to steal your deposit. They did the same thing to us as to other people, they ask you to hire a cleaning service so they don't have to pay for it with your deposit and then they say it wasn't clean enough and they had to clean it again, but they can't prove that you did it As if that were not enough, they use the "references" scheme so common lately in the UK to extort you and they tell you that if you sue them they will take care of giving you bad references so that nobody rents from you. The door of the house had two ways to open: a kind of magnetic flame and also the normal key. The surprise is that they enter the house without warning, saying that they made a mistake because they had to check another apartment, so we decided to change the lock on the door to avoid unwanted access. One day that we are on vacation they call us saying that they are trying to enter and the key does not work, sorry, what are you doing entering MY HOME WITHOUT MY PERMISSION? That's trespassing. If you still decide to rent here, I give you some advice: 1- Never pay extra for the furniture. For the exaggerated amount that they charge for the furniture, you can find your own furniture, there are several second-hand pages where many people sell used furniture (like the ones they give you) and they cost you less than 1 year of "rent" of these. 2- Never pay the extra for broadband. Once you are living there, talk to any neighbor and share the Wi-Fi network halfway. What Platform_ does is that it contracts a single data line (high capacity, yes) and resells it to all tenants charging extra. A building manager with whom I developed a good relationship showed me the accounts and Platform_, in total, charged all tenants 6 times more for internet than what the telecommunications company charged. 3- Make sure you read the contract well and never accept those abusive clauses like the one they wanted to put in us, for which we could only leave the apartment at the end of each year and giving 2 months notice but they could throw us out when they would like 4- As soon you enter to live there, change the lock on the door of the house. They can say what they want, but it is your legal right to protect access to your home from unwanted intrusions. The clause that they put that "in the face of any unanswered entry notice, permission is considered granted" do not pay attention, it is illegal. If necessary, you go to court. It is the only way to end the abuse. Finally, do not believe the 5-star opinions, they are made by the company's own staff, sometimes with their own accounts and other times with fake accounts. It seems that it is a general policy of the company in all its promotions, to impersonate fake users to get a good score."

"I lived here for a bit over 2 and a half years and just moved out a month ago. Pros: Decent flats (albeit a bit small), pretty good location, concierge staff are lovely Cons: - Dealing with the head office for any matter regarding payments, renewals, trying to get your deposit back etc. is an absolute pain. Even the smallest thing takes ages to sort out and they take several working to get back to you. After being advised to get it professionally cleaned on checkout, I arranged for a company to do an end of tenancy clean. A week after I moved out, Platform insisted that the flat was not cleaned to ‘their standard’ and they have tried to deduct nearly £200 from my deposit for it. - Rather expensive flats. The price definitely does not match the quality of service. Especially considering parking is not included in the standard rent and you don’t have the freedom to choose your own broadband provider and utilities provider (the only options for broadband they provide are all suspiciously more expensive than the competition… )"

"It’s a nice/alright place to live, but after a change of senior management – it’s become very poorly run (not the fault of the team on the ground who are very helpful). I left in Dec 2021 – I am still waiting for my deposit to be refunded, totally unacceptable and in breach of contract, and I’ve now raised a dispute with TDS (tenant deposit protection). Their Payments team are short, snappy and disrespectful. There are niggly security issues that would be expected from any city centre location but if Platform wishes to keep its previous good reputation they must sort out their customer service. On that note I wouldn’t recommend that anyone think about living here until Platform do."

"Been here since Feb 2020. Jodi, Dove and Raj are the team on site and nothing is too much trouble. The flats have an ideal location close to town and the station. I use the car parking and furniture package and it was great on arrival and really made my life much easier for the initial move. Other tenants all seem fine, and having concierge for deliveries is a god send. It’s always warm, I wish there was a balcony but I knew that when I reserved the apartment - my fault! I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend, i come and go and use it like a hotel really but with my own stuff it’s so much more comfortable."