The Cotswold Company (prior to 1st january 2010)

Placed an order for a rug before Christmas, which was listed as 'in stock' on the website. I received an email informing me that this item was no longer available and they cancelled. I (foolishly) placed an order for an alternative rug, which again was listed as 'in stock'. After a wait of 5 weeks they emailed saying the item was out of stock, and should be available within the next week. The rug did not arrive so I rang and was told that it is in stock and should be sent in the next couple of days. It still didn't arrive and, despite being listed as having 10 in stock, when I rang again I was told it now was not in stock. So, after a wait of over 2 months, I finally cancelled the order. Wish I had done that weeks ago! Boo to The Costwold Company.

I have always liked the furniture from Cotswold Company and in the last few months have made 2 orders with them. The first time I ordered 2 items of furniture and was told they would arrive within a matter of days (I believe my delivery was scheduled to take place 5 working days later) It was mid november and I was hoping to have them in plenty of time for christmas. Well one item arrived by chance about 10 days before christmas (i say by chance because cotswold co assured me to expect a call with my delivery times only I don't recall this actually ever happening in this case), anyway, it was nearly 4 weeks after my initial order and the other piece of furniture wasn't there. I kept getting emails back saying it would be the next day and the day after that, then it would be the next week, then the next month! Eventually I cancelled my order and placed another one for something else about a month later. Everything seemed ok to be honest except the delivery is due today and I hadn't yet received the phone call from them with my 4 hour allocated delivery slot. As I have a job and dogs that need out and nobody to sit in for me to get deliveries I called them. The woman who seemed pleasant and helpful enough said 'she could only apologize and chase up the time' she then promised to call me back in a 'moment' and I thought perfect! What seemed to be 2 hours later she phoned back and gave me a 6 hour time slot which had begun 20 minutes prior to her phoning. This meant that I couldn't take my dogs out or run to my office before it closed as I had planned. I very nicely explained that it was really unfortunate that I was given misinformation and could they at least narrow it down somewhat, for example, did they think it would arrive within 20 minutes? (at least that way I could take my dogs out - I don't have a garden) I mean in my opinion they must have some idea of how long they'll be. She said no and I told her that In my opinion it was poor for cotswold co to give people the wrong information when she apparently seemed to hang up on me! I couldn't believe it. I feel I have never been treated in such a way before, especially by a company I am spending vast amounts of money with. The thing is that I am still awaiting a constructive response from the last time I sent a complaint to the cotswold co - All I got was a standard response that I felt did nothing for me nor did it get me the furniture I had bought but hadn't received.

Several weeks after ordering goods,

The Cotswold Company inform me they are out of stock. The website still says the good are in stock, at an even lower price than the one I agreed to pay. Emails are not answered. A textbook case of appalling customer service and how not to run a business. Atrocious service

The quality of some furniture is good, but this is heavily outweighed by the negatives.

Took my order, Cotswold Company confirmed a week later that it was being processed with delivery dates. Then 2 days later wrote to say that one item no longer available but they would send the rest. This was the main item I wanted. Checking their tracking system they had already despatched the other items the day before which meant that I could not cancel the total order before despatch. The products I have ordered are ok but in my opinion they do not seem to have an effective online ordering system. This happened exactly the same with a previous order just before Christmas.

I do not recommend The Cotswold Company. At the end of January I ordered some furniture at checkout I was given a delivery date, waited in on this day nothing arrived as far as I am aware, called customer service and I was told delivery courier was now closed so call back again Monday, called Monday and I was informed he would look into it and get back to me with 24 hours, no call back it seemed, I called again after no response for 48 hours to be told that gentleman was on holiday. I was then informed that my item had not yet been dispatched from the supplier she had no idea when it would be and call back in a week. I called again in a week to be told they had quality control issues and they would call me when it was in (at no point was I informed when I could expect delivery despite the website showing that this item was now due in stock in July).

Beginning of April I'd now seen something similar and cheaper so asked to cancel the order, I was informed that delivery was now due August so I went ahead and canceled the order and had an apologetic e-mail and letter about the service I received.

That, I hoped was the end of myself dealing with that company

On the 8th May I received a phone call from the delivery guys asking to deliver the furniture, I informed them that I had canceled the order, and they said they would inform Cotsworld Head Office. I checked my Visa statement that night and nothing had been charged.

I've now had my visa statement and 5 days after that call I was charged £339, so know I'm in the throws of trying to get my money back,

I do not recommend The Cotswold Company.

I moved recently and I placed a large internet order with this company on 17th December 2007 including large furniture items with a specified delivery date and three items to be delivered by courier. I noticed that the order receipt indicated that the courier items would be delivered within 10 working days. Since I was going away for 9 days on the 18th December i immediately 'phoned their customer services to let them know and to tell them not to despatch anything until the 27th December. They said that a note would be placed on the order to that effect. On my return on the 27th I found three soaking wet boxes outside my front door where they had been left by the Cotswold courier it seems on the 20th December. I immediately telephoned their customer services to say that as far as I am concerned I have not accepted this delivery as the goods left in the open for a week must be irretrievably damaged and they can arrange to take them away. At the same time I cancelled the rest of the order. They said that the three boxes would be collected by their couriers on the 31st December. I called them again on the 31st to confirm that they would be collected that day. I was assured they would be and I waited in all day. They were not collected. I just had a rude and surly person call to the door to say he was collecting an item, I said that he was supposed to call on the 31st and he told me that they did not do collections on the 31st so I could not have been told that. I assured him that I was told that by the Cotswold company. He then said that he could only collect one box not three and when I said that Cotswold me that all three boxes would be collected on the 31st he said he was not collecting anything and walked off. I just phoned Cotswold to tell them of this incident that I would be returning the boxes to where their couriers had originally left them outside my front door and they could collect them whenever. I will never use these people again and I would advise anyone to be very wary.

It was not made clear that this was the company policy and I object to being charged for something that was not my fault. The other irritation with this company was that their paperwork was confusing and they gave me one order number on-line and when the goods arrive it was a completely different one on the accompanying paperwork.

I won't use them again.

I will never use The Cotswold Company again, as they failed on every level of customer service.

Probably the worst service I have ever had from a company.

Still waiting on an order I placed last month with The Cotswold Company despite several phone calls where each time I was promised a return call to establish what was happening. None of these materialised and I also e-mailed and was told I would have a reply within 48 hours. I'm still waiting.

Very poor customer service and some of their staff - deliveries and collections are handled by the chaos system - good luck if you intend to spend money.