Good & Bad

Set up account and put in discount code but site wouldn't allow me to proceed to credit and requested immediate payment. I called them instead and explained and the girl said we could do it by phone and it would be x amount. I had the checkout page open with cheaper total and despite this, she repeatedly stated the wrong amount-ignoring the discount code which gave me 10% off. It was a long, pointless call and I eventually gave up and agreed to proceed with her total. After waiting for my parcel to arrive, I went online about a week later to see that my account said credit rejected. I rang them and was informed that it is policy to have to pay €39 before first order is released. I asked why no one had told me this-either on website or by phone (during the conversation which ended with the girl saying my order had been placed)-and another pointless conversation ensued. They said they sent a letter. (They did and it arrived 4 weeks later......)

I paid the €39 and waited. I eventually rang them and was told that it hadn't been sent as the credit had been rejected and I had to pay €39.I explained that I HAD.The payment was found and she said she would take order again by phone. I reordered and the total was higher yet again due to an item now being more expensive than at time of original order. I explained that it hadn't been that price at the time but to no avail. After banging my head off a brick wall I eventually asked the girl to just cancel everything because I didn't want to pay so much money. I then almost immediately got an email to confirm the order! I called straight back and spoke to a man who said he could promise me that the order would not be sent under any circumstances. 4 days later, it arrived but was missing the aforementioned item which was now more expensive! I decided to keep some items and kept two from the 3 for 2 offer, the third being the item which didn't arrive.

After a couple of weeks I realised that I hadn't actually gotten 3 for 2 so I called them to see if I could pick something to replace the item which was missing. I was told no as the order had been placed more than a month ago. It was actually less than 2 weeks as the other orders were not sent. I explained the sequence of events but this girl really wasn't equipped to sort it. Friendly but not capable.

I decided to just let it go and didn't order anything for a while. Then I got letters to say I owed money when I knew I had paid so I called them and they had no record of payment. My fault as I had used incorrect reference online but it took an hour and three transfers to get them to update this. It was really bad staff training more than bad customer care and having worked in mail order, customers need to realise that the systems staff are using are often useless and they don't record information as they should. There is no point shouting at the person on the other end of the line as they really can be as in the dark as you as to what happened because the various departments are not connected. It did take this guy 40 minutes, during which I was put on hold many,many,MANY times, to make sure my phone number was correct though. I kind of felt for him because I could hear that he was feeling REALLY stupid but I was not in any hurry and I wasn't paying for the call so why not give him a break. After all that I got more letters still saying I hadn't paid and it seems the date of printing the statement/letter and the date of arrival are 2 weeks apart. Bit pointless. It suggests that the statements are printed off ready for despatch regardless of what may happen in the interim.

Also, the website is pretty poor. Often down and will have the wrong colours tagged on stock or items in really weird departments so you can't find them. I only found this page as I googled how often their site is down!

Overall if you buy little and don't return items, I think Littlewood's is fine. The mark ups are huge at times but if you don't want to pay it, don't buy it. Delivery is generally 4 days and I have ordered a few times in last 10 weeks and it has been spot on every time. No problems.