I stayed in 9C - 9 Unthank Road in October for 3 awful weeks. It's difficult to know where to begin ....This apartment was meant to be an improvement on my previous stay with MJB on Earlham Road the previous month (more of this later).... but was actually even worse.....

Initially I was given the wrong key code and could not get into the apartment. Thankfully the cleaner let me in. There was no microwave, ironing board or tea towels in the apartment.
The kitchen area is make shift with no extractor fan. When I spotted there was no microwave as had been advertised, I immediately requested a microwave and I followed this request up on numerous occasions but all the staff appear to be very poorly trained and do not have the common courtesy to respond to email or phone calls.

The very first morning as I went to have a shower I discovered there was no hot water to have a shower. After phoning continuously before I set off for work, I was told somebody would arrive to sort out the boiler for the shower.

When I returned from work, the kitchen sink still had no hot water so after many more calls to MJB offices, the maintenance man eventually instructed me over the phone how to get the kitchen sink boiler working...

The apartment itself was freezing. Again I had to make many calls to MJB office and eventually I was told that the heating controls for the apartment are actually contained in 9D??? So the apartment across the hall controlled my heating. I had to go over and knock on the door of whoever was staying there every evening to ask them to turn the heat on. This was obviously not ideal for me or for the tenant next door.
Eventually after another freezing night and after making another call to the MJB office I had to knock on the door of 9D and using my mobile phone enabled the guy from MJB to instruct the tenant in 9D on how to turn on the heat controls for 9C.

The final straw was when I returned from work at 8pm and turned on the light to find a fuse had blown and I was left in complete darkness. I phoned MJB offices straight away and as usual was told somebody would get on to it. Absolutely nothing was done for the entire night - I was left in the pitch black - I phoned numerous times and was continually fobbed off. I had to phone up again the next morning before I headed to work and the person who took over the morning shift was totally clueless about what was going on.

I had stayed in another of MJB apartments on Earlham Road the month before and had been without a cooker for 3 entire weeks. Again I had to phone the offices every single day to ask when it was going to be fixed. I was constantly fobbed off. After much complaining on my part I was eventually told by Emma - the supervisor - that Mr Burlingham had 'almost passed out' at my request for compensation owing to having no cooker but finally agreed to allow me £70 off the total cost of my next stay which was the stay in 9C.

Conveniently the staff 'forgot' to discount the £70 and also managed to overcharge me by £40 on my credit card even though I had sent an email requesting no money to be debited from my card until the full amount was finalised allowing for the cooker incident..... but the 'good news' was that this 'credit' would be carried over to my next stay.....

After the electricity incident I fully realised what kind of group I was dealing with and cancelled my next dates which were in December. I don't think any person should have to accept these kind of sub standard conditions. My entire free time was spent on the phone trying to get things fixed - and the most basic of requirements are not supplied i.e. hot water, heating, electricity, cooking facilities . Clearly MJB / Cathedral Apartments / Beeches Apartments/ Earlham Road - do not fall into the category of 'serviced apartments'

Understandably I do not wish to spend another night under the roof of any MJB establishment - I have continuously phoned regarding getting my refund of £110 to my credit card - but according to all the staff who work there (Emma, Daniel, Ollie, Chris and many others) - Mr Burlingham - the owner - has refused to refund my money. After umpteen emails and phone calls - still nothing.

PLEASE BE AWARE that even though the website offers all modern cooking facilities ie: microwave and cooker this is not true.

I would strongly advise any person considering a long stay in Norwich to look else where. The standard of customer care here is unbelievably poor - I have never in all my time working and staying in proper serviced apartments in various areas around the UK - come across any establishment like this.

To be fair I gave the owner every opportunity to right the situation but evidently customer service is not their strong point....

If you wish to work up a huge phone bill like I did, then do stay here, as that is what happens when you have to phone every single day to fix the non stop problems...