1st Formations: most-reported complaints
Automated analysis of 422 public Trustpilot reviews published 2025-07-04 to 2026-09-20. TrustScore 4.8 from 23,761 total reviews — see the Trustpilot page. Quick answer: is 1st Formations legit? Issues below reflect what reviewers reported, not findings of wrongdoing.
Reviewers most often report that customer support is unhelpful, accounting for 35% of the 51 complaints identified. Other frequent issues include general dissatisfaction (24%) and problems with accounts or the app (18%). Additionally, 16% of complaints cite unreachable support, with reports of delayed or irrelevant responses. The trend for support being unreachable is rising, while other issues are falling.
How to reach 1st Formations
These are the contact details 1st Formations publishes on its Trustpilot profile, as of our last check on 2026-09-23 — phone 020 3897 2233, address 71-75 Shelton Street, London, WC2H 9JQ, GB.
The company claimed its Trustpilot profile on 2014-06-17, uses Trustpilot’s paid features, and last replied to a negative review on 2026-09-21. Trustpilot ranks it 2 of 10 in Company Registry. We last checked this profile on 2026-09-23 and found 14 new reviews. These are facts Trustpilot publishes about the profile, as of our last harvest.
Forum footprint: 2 MoneySavingExpert forum discussions mention this company (browse). Roughly 0 of the top, relevance-sorted search results were posted in the last 90 days — an approximate figure by construction, not a true recency count. Recent thread titles: “Recommended registered/service address providers for new company?”, “Refund for office address service”.
Elsewhere: 4.9★ on Google (0 reviews)
TrustScore over time
4.8 → 4.8 across 14 census measurements since 2026-08-11. Our own record, independent of Trustpilot’s display.
Reply behaviour over time
Solid: % of negative reviews replied to. Dashed: typical days to reply. Both as reported on this company’s Trustpilot profile, recorded whenever our census re-checked it and a figure had changed — the gaps between points are not equal: 2026-08-11 (100%, 0.1d) · 2026-08-14 (97%, 0.1d) · 2026-08-18 (100%, 0.1d) · 2026-08-21 (100%, 0.1d) · 2026-08-24 (100%, 0.1d) · 2026-08-27 (100%, 0.1d) · 2026-09-01 (100%, 0.1d) · 2026-09-04 (100%, 0.1d) · 2026-09-07 (100%, 0.1d) · 2026-09-11 (97%, 0.1d) · 2026-09-14 (95%, 0.1d) · 2026-09-17 (100%, 0.1d) · 2026-09-20 (98%, 0.1d) · 2026-09-23 (100%, 0.2d).
Severity: 22% of this company’s 51 graded complaints were classified as severe (money lost, an essential service cut off, or a problem unresolved for months). See the harm index.
1★ share of negative reviews over time
Share of 1–3★ Trustpilot reviews that were 1★
In July 2023, 54% of 11 one-to-three-star reviews were 1★; in April 2024, 53% of 15.
Counted from July 2023 onward — the period for which our capture of 1★, 2★ and 3★ reviews is complete for all three. Months with fewer than 10 such reviews are omitted.
Reviewers here waited a median of 3.9 days between the experience and publishing their negative review (240 reviews record both dates).
Measured reply time: across 416 negative reviews that received a public reply, the median wait was 0.5 days — the company profile reports an average of under a day.
Reply quality: of 417 company replies to negative reviews analysed, 53% engaged with the specific problem and 16% were generic templates.
57% of its 354 recent 5★ reviews came from accounts that had written only that one review when we captured it (the median across companies is about 39%). A high share is a reason to look closer, not evidence of fake reviews.
Sector benchmark: support unhelpful makes up 35% of this company’s complaints vs a 27% median across 320 ranked companies in its sector.
Review velocity: 1,352 of this company’s 23,761 Trustpilot reviews (6%) were written in the last 12 months.
What are the most common complaints about 1st Formations?
Support unhelpful
18 reports · 35% of complaintssteady“I did **not request this service**. * I **explicitly instructed them not to take payment**.”
The company replied on 2026-03-09: “Dear Richard, Firstly, thank you for taking the time to share your feedback with me over the phone. I am very sorry to hear that you had a frustrating experience when using our services. We set high…”
Our classifier read this reply as a substantive response.
2 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“Nobody replies for days and when they do it's irrelevant to the problem. No help whatsoever.”
The company replied on 2025-12-10: “Dear Ronnie, Firstly, thank you for taking the time to leave us a review. As the Service Improvement Manager, I am genuinely sorry to hear that your experience with our service did not meet your…”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
2 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“Repeatedly promised call-backs and updates that never happened”
The company replied on 2026-01-29: “Dear Nat, Firstly, thank you for taking the time to leave us a review. As the Service Improvement Manager, I am genuinely sorry to hear that your recent experience did not meet your expectations, and…”
Our classifier read this reply as a substantive response.
It promised: to make contact.
2 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
Other
12 reports · 24% of complaintsfalling“the worst service ever”
The company replied on 2025-12-26: “Dear Hassan, Thank you for taking the time to leave us a review. As the Service Improvement Manager, I’m genuinely sorry to hear that your recent experience did not meet your expectations. It’s…”
Our classifier read this reply as a substantive response.
It promised: to make contact.
2 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“After extensive correspondence they refuse to change this policy or to reimburse me for the £90.”
The company replied on 2025-10-03: “Thank you for your review. We’re truly sorry to hear about the frustration you’ve experienced with our services. Our team has made several attempts to reach out to you to address any concerns and…”
Our classifier read this reply as a deflection.
1 reader marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“They take money, cancell service and send email”
The company replied on 2025-08-11: “Thank you for taking the time to share your review and for discussing your feedback with me, it’s genuinely appreciated. I’d like to sincerely apologise for any misunderstanding or frustration…”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
1 reader marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
Account/app problems
9 reports · 18% of complaintsfalling“Insist I need to produce utility bills or council tax to prove I'm a UK resident. Obviously not an option when staying with friends in UK.”
The company replied on 2026-03-17: “Dear Geoff, Thank you for your feedback and for taking the time to speak with us. I’m sorry to hear that your experience did not meet your expectations. I can see that you contacted us on 16 March to…”
Our classifier read this reply as a deflection.
2 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“Repeatedly promised call-backs and updates that never happened”
The company replied on 2026-01-29: “Dear Nat, Firstly, thank you for taking the time to leave us a review. As the Service Improvement Manager, I am genuinely sorry to hear that your recent experience did not meet your expectations, and…”
Our classifier read this reply as a substantive response.
It promised: to make contact.
2 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“I have tried to contact them and no one can answer me or help me further”
The company replied on 2025-11-26: “Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback regarding your order. As discussed in our previous correspondence, recent changes introduced by Companies House now require applicants to complete…”
Our classifier read this reply as a substantive response.
1 reader marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
Support unreachable
8 reports · 16% of complaintsrising since 2026-06“Nobody replies for days and when they do it's irrelevant to the problem. No help whatsoever.”
The company replied on 2025-12-10: “Dear Ronnie, Firstly, thank you for taking the time to leave us a review. As the Service Improvement Manager, I am genuinely sorry to hear that your experience with our service did not meet your…”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
2 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“I sent an email and no one replied.”
The company replied on 2026-01-26: “Thank you for your feedback, Mohamed. As the Head of Customer Services, I'm sincerely sorry to hear about your dissatisfaction with our services. We strive to ensure a positive experience for all our…”
Our classifier read this reply as a deflection.
1 reader marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“I have tried to contact them and no one can answer me or help me further”
The company replied on 2025-11-26: “Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback regarding your order. As discussed in our previous correspondence, recent changes introduced by Companies House now require applicants to complete…”
Our classifier read this reply as a substantive response.
1 reader marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
Misleading pricing
6 reports · 12% of complaintssteady“once WorldFirst realizes you were referred by 1st Formations, you’re given a restricted account”
The company replied on 2025-10-17: “Thank you for your review. I’m sorry to hear about your frustrations with WorldFirst. We completely understand how important having a business bank account is to the smooth running of your company.…”
Our classifier read this reply as a deflection.
2 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“they charge an additional fee of £50 to file [same price as doing it yourself direct]”
The company replied on 2026-05-19: “Dear Emma, Thank you for taking the time to leave us a review. We are very sorry to hear about your frustrations regarding the confirmation statement filing process. The package you selected when…”
Our classifier read this reply as a substantive response.
1 reader marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“This refusal came after I had clearly asked the support team for confirmation.”
The company replied on 2025-11-27: “Dear Ahmed, Firstly, thank you for taking the time to leave us a review. As the Service Improvement Manager, I am truly sorry to hear that your experience with our service fell short of your…”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
1 reader marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
Overcharging
4 reports · 8% of complaintssteady“I did **not request this service**. * I **explicitly instructed them not to take payment**.”
The company replied on 2026-03-09: “Dear Richard, Firstly, thank you for taking the time to share your feedback with me over the phone. I am very sorry to hear that you had a frustrating experience when using our services. We set high…”
Our classifier read this reply as a substantive response.
2 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“their literature suggests mail scanning is included as part of the premium service, yet it turns out to be chargeable”
The company replied on 2025-10-03: “Thank you for taking the time to leave a review, Michael. Your honest feedback is truly important to us. I would like to thank you for speaking with me on the phone earlier today, and also apologise…”
Our classifier read this reply as a substantive response.
1 reader marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“they asked around £90 + Vat for an annual subscription to be able to scan that one item of post.”
The company replied on 2026-06-23: “Thank you for taking the time to leave us a review. We are sorry to hear about your frustrations regarding our mail forwarding service. To clarify, we offer three separate address services. The first…”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
Compare 1st Formations with…
Method: reviews are classified into a fixed complaint taxonomy by an automated reader; every category shown is backed by at least two verbatim quotes from distinct reviews. Trends are computed from dated review counts only. Negative reviews are deliberately over-sampled for evidence depth; headline percentages use an unbiased recent sample only. Report updated 2026-09-20.