Debenhams Direct online shopping disaster
This is my experience of shopping through the website of this major uk (high street and online) department store. I feel that I have been treated badly so please consider this review and do a little research before parting with your hard earned cash.
I ordered a dress from Debenhams Direct and the money flew out of my Visa account in seconds. I was promised a 4 to 5 day delivery so after day 6 with no sign of the goods I started chasing. As there was no contact number, I decided I'd email them.
11 days later I am still e-mailing them and I get various responses. These range from 'thank you for your e-mail which we will respond to in 4 days', to 'the courier company has lost your dress', 'the courier company reported your dress damaged', 'we have no idea where your dress is', 'we have ordered you a replacement', 'your dress is in transit', 'we are an internet service so we cannot call you', 'thank you for your e-mail we will respond in 4 days'.
The best one was 4 days ago when they supplied a telephone number that guess what... did not work! Eventually started e-mailing them a couple of times a day in bold text, asking for a refund as I had to find an alternative dress. I printed all the e-mails out and sent them to Debenhams Managing Director (1 Welbeck Street, London) suggesting they reimburse me my hourly rate for the time I have wasted on this order including finding another dress.
Telephoned their head office on 0207 408 4444 by going through directory enquiries. They ignored my question whether Debenhams Direct is outsourced to people who cannot speak English and therefore are incapable of making a phone call in the interests of customer service. After some fairly blunt talk on my part, they contacted Debenhams Direct and organised a refund (18 days after placing the order) and only because I was not about to take no for an answer.
How stressful? My experience with Debenhams Direct, it is the worst online shopping service I have encountered. Not once did they think to contact me and tell me there was a delay. They seem to think it is OK to leave a customer dangling with no information for 17 days plus... just madness. Don't they have processes in place to deal with lost/damaged goods and contacting their customers? It's not rocket science!
Comments from visitors
you should go to the shops and get your clothing and items. you should know that online orders aren't reliable
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Purchased a dress online from Debenhams that arrived after a week. However It was unsuitable and I phoned to return they said Thursday between 8.00am and 6.00pm.
Stayed in all day no one turned up to collect. Phoned again "Sorry we will collect tomorrow (Friday) between 8.00am and 6.00pm. They didn't turn up and after seeing other peoples gripes I will tale it back to the local store and (hopefully) get my money back. Seeing other peoples gripes this seems to be the only way.
Stayed in all day no one turned up to collect. Phoned again "Sorry we will collect tomorrow (Friday) between 8.00am and 6.00pm. They didn't turn up and after seeing other peoples gripes I will tale it back to the local store and (hopefully) get my money back. Seeing other peoples gripes this seems to be the only way.
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Crawl back under your stone little worm. The adults are talking now, time for you to be quiet and reflect upon your criminal behaviour!
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You do surprise me fff. I would not have thought that Debenhams would stock the literature that you require.
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I ordered several items in the new year sale. All arrived two days later. All were correct. I guess I must have got lucky!
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I ordered my son's christening gown in the sale. Rec an email saying it was on its way.Turned up, wrong item with the dispatch note for someone else along with my dispatch note without my item. Rang them, they said it is out of stock and offered me a refund. I said can i have my item when it came back in stock, they said no please take the refund. Looked on it is online in stock full price!!!!!!
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I couldnt agree more, absolute gits. I placed an order on the 22nd Nov, two items never arrived (the money was taken from my bank account). I was able to track the parcel and found out that the items were damaged in transit and returned to Debenhams before being delivered to me by the courier. I have called 4 times to chase my refund and each time I get fobbed off. On one occassion I was promised the refund would be issued the same day and of course never was! I have written a letter to their customer services department (sent recorded delivery before Christmas) but I havent had a reply or refund yet! If I havent heard from them by Friday I will be contacting trading standards and maybe even Watchdog :-). It seems Im not a one off and they need to know that their customers cant be treated like this!
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I agree with all these comments also I returned 3 items 4 weeks ago totaling £75 and am still waiting for refund replys to my emails say I will be refunded when they receive items,surely they have arrived by now,I have just put my request in writing and posted it to them NEVER again will I shop debenhams online.I need this money for christmas.
+2
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I had problems too. First I had lots of emails saying there were problems in getting my orders out and then not all the refunds came through for items I returned on 3Dec. I rang today (used 01823 364711 thanks to saynoto0870.com) but in contrast to others got through to a helpful rep who arranged some refunds there and then however I will have to ring back in a couple of weeks (groan) because the goods have to go back to the manufacturer's warehouse. I'll have to wait and see what reply I get in 2 weeks, but try the number above (which should be less expensive - part of mobile plane minutes) or other numbers on the "saynoto0870" website and I hope you get success
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I too have had terrible customer service from debenhams. They didn't even respond to my complaint and ignored my repeated emails. I ordered a frame, which was perfect for my sister in law's christmas present (i'd looked everywhere and this was the only one that suited), which didnt arrive and when i called them to find out where it was i was fobbed off and told a replacement could not be sent as it was a fragile item. I then asked why it was still for sale on the website if it was not fit for transit/delivery. They said there system was more up to date that mine and it was showing as unable to be delivered! Yet its still for sale and orderable 7 days later on their website!!! I am never going to order from Debenhams again. I am 9 months pregnant and unable to get to the shops now and explained this to them, yet they had no form or solution - customer service team - think thats rich coming from them!
Asked to make a complaint and they said i would be on the phone for at least 30 minutes trying to get through to the head office complaints team - oh yeah, at my own cost of course!!!
Asked to make a complaint and they said i would be on the phone for at least 30 minutes trying to get through to the head office complaints team - oh yeah, at my own cost of course!!!
-46
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I too have had the most terrible experience with Debenhams...or at least the COURIER VENTURA.
Ordered and arranged delivery of table and chair,s , I made specific times between 12.00h and 16.00h as we where having a decorator in doing some work in hall, at 11.50 he saw a card being put through letter-box and called on my husband who noted it was from the delivery company he ran after the van but they didn't see him, he then phoned me I in turn phoned VENTURA and basically told I was lying there was no-one at home I have contacted Debenhams about this but am waiting on a reply it was only yesterday so I will wait afew days to see what happens
Ordered and arranged delivery of table and chair,s , I made specific times between 12.00h and 16.00h as we where having a decorator in doing some work in hall, at 11.50 he saw a card being put through letter-box and called on my husband who noted it was from the delivery company he ran after the van but they didn't see him, he then phoned me I in turn phoned VENTURA and basically told I was lying there was no-one at home I have contacted Debenhams about this but am waiting on a reply it was only yesterday so I will wait afew days to see what happens
-3
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DO NOT SHOP AT DEBENHAMS, they are impossible to contact and have no regard for their customers. I needed to return some items ordered online and as there was no returns form ( customer services informed me this would be confusing for customers)A courier was arragnged to call the following Monday.No time could be given and I was advised to wait in all day.No courier arrived.This happened 3 times.I tried to print off a returns note to return the items by post but could not.I was advised by customer services they would post me a returns note,over ten days leter and numerous phone calls I received a returns note.Then out of the blue a courier arrived.She informed me she had been advised to collect from me the day before and that there was always problems with Debenhams.I posted the items that could not go by courier ( very cunfusing some items have to go to another warehouse- hardly customer friendly)I have been charged for the returned items and have spent HOURS trying to get through on the phone to sort this matter out, still to no avail.I have been charged interest on my account but infact Debenhams owe me.Debenhams have no regard for their customers and I strongly advise you to shop elsewhere. John Lewis and House of Fraser offer a fantastic online service and with great customer care.DEBENHAMS TAKE YOUR MONEY BUT DO NOT RESPOND WHEN THEY OWE YOU.
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I ordered a number of items in their "Christmas Sale" with up to 40% off. Yeah, 40% of nothing is more accurate. The biggest discounted items were the ones that they couldn't fulfil but they took over a week to tell me that they "could not fulfil" the order. They took the money out of my bank account and then told me about 3 days later that my goods would not be arriving after all. We called their o so not caring customer services and head office and spoke to numerous people. We were told different stories on each occasion. They even re-ordered one of the items a further 3 times and then, you guessed it, cancelled them again a further 3 times. The whole thing is a joke and I can't believe they get away with this. My husband and I placed separate orders and we have both been treated the same way with regards to the cancellation of orders, however, we appear to be treated completely differently from their customer services both receiving completely different e-mails about the situation, being told completely different stories about what has gone wrong.
Please someone from Watchdog, trading standards or someone do something about this!!!
Please someone from Watchdog, trading standards or someone do something about this!!!
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Just had the phone put down on me by Debenhams Head office customer service.
i was trying to sort out a problem with an order and had gone through emails, phone calls no one would help so was eventually put through to head office. after explaining the problem to her the phone went dead....where do i go from here? I've been trying to sort this out for 3 days now i'm in tears!!!
i was trying to sort out a problem with an order and had gone through emails, phone calls no one would help so was eventually put through to head office. after explaining the problem to her the phone went dead....where do i go from here? I've been trying to sort this out for 3 days now i'm in tears!!!
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Never again Debenhams, received my order to find an item of clothing stained, quite disgustingly. I complained to Customer (no) services to get an email back about how they prevent faulty goods at the time of manufacture and i was unlucky!!
My complaint was carefully worded and specific but yet that meant i deserved a preformatted answer that wasn't relative to my complaint.
To compound this there was barely an apology in the email.
My complaint was carefully worded and specific but yet that meant i deserved a preformatted answer that wasn't relative to my complaint.
To compound this there was barely an apology in the email.
-4
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Never again! Ordered a radley purse and used order codes, order went through fine and money went off my visa balance. An email a few days later to say order couldnt be fulfilled! Checked site again and purses are still being advertised as in stock. Rang customer services (very noisy and took forever) and was put through to another department to redo order but had to hang up as it was taking so long. Rang later and the customer services rep tried to fob me off saying is was googles fault!a technical hitch had occured and there wasnt any stock of radley purses to be had at all! I dont believe this at all and this means I can go through the palava of reordering where they will take my money and again unfulfill the order. I will be shopping with john lewis where customer service is much better. Debenhams, you have a lot to learn
+2
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Tried Debenhams online service and it was a nightmare. The customer service was the good old fashioned jobsworth attitude. The 30 minute cancellation policy is a breach of Distance Selling Regulations but they don't care. Trying to cancel an order and get a refund takes about 2 weeks. Even before the goods were dispatched they refused to cancel another breach of DSR. This company is staffed by money grabbing arrogant people who don't give a damn about customer service. Will never buy any of the low quality junk they sell ever again.
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I ordered over £1000 of clothes from the Debenhams online service and it has been a dreadful experience. A discount code I was sent didn't work and I was charged the full price for the items. I have spoken to customer services numerous times who point me to small print that doesn't exist. They asked me to email their Head Office complaints team which I did and I have not heard back from them in a week. I have tried to speak to the Customer Resolutions Team at Debenhams Head Office and they are exceptionally rude and unhelpful. I am considering sending the whole order back and never ordering anything from them again.
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I ordered a LEC fridge freezer from Debenham's Direct. 24 hours later I received confirmation that the fridge was in stock and would be delivered on the Saturday. Unfortunately we were going to see family on the same date so I rearranged the delivery date. Debenham's said no problem. On the morning of delivery I received a phone call from the courier company to say that Debenham's hadn't placed the order and the fridge wasn't even in stock! The previous evening we had emptied our old fridge freezer of 30 pounds worth of frozen food, in anticipation of receiving our new appliance. I telephoned Debenham's and cancelled the order. The company admitted that they had got it wrong but didn't even apologise. Despite promising to sort this out and refund my money I am still waiting for the refund and when I call the company I am being fobbed off with excuses. I have now threatend to report them to Trading Standards. Debenham's on line service is a joke and their aftercare is not much better. I will not use this company again and I would advise others to avoid them as well.
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Disgruntled of Croydon - 31-Oct-11 20:31
I so wish I had found this site before buying from Debenhams. I had to return one item from an order using their own postal returns service. A month later an no money had been returned so I chased it up. Everytime I speak to someone they assure me that the problem is being dealt with and I wait...and nothing happens. The time and energy spent chasing this up is an utter pain. I shop online quite a bit and this is the worst service I have had. I'm sure there are many satisfied Debenhams customers out there but I will never shop with them again.
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