AmbienteDirect - www.ambientedirect.com

Bought a lamp which arrived broken and with no documentation, and no self-addressed sticker to return it. Spent ages trying to reach someone on the phone, several calls, several emails and yet, 3 months later only received a CHF41 refund which didn't even cover customs bill. Value of lamp CHF292- approximately still not refunded. Worst online purchase experience ever. Would advise everyone to be extremely careful if/when buying from them, but in particular, NOT to buy from them at all.

Horrible customer service. We bought designer lamps from this company. One of the lamps stopped working and we complaint via email. No one answered within 1 month. After 1 month we got the message that the they have lack Ressourcen and they will come back to us. So far nothing happened. We bought a product that is not working and they do not seem to care. Really horrible. Tried to reach them by phone, no chance. Phone Stopps ringing….

I ordered a floor lamp (over 600 Euros) from Ambiente Direct, and the lamp seemed to be flickering and the sensor seemed not to be working. So I emailed Customer Service Centre to check if there could be a solution to fix it, or I should change back to a normal switch - instead of using the sensor one. the replies from Customer Service Centre were always brief - though they did responded to me within 24 hours usually. But the English used was bad - full typo : "wich lighting have you monted?" and that was the ONLY sentence in one of the replies!

And after I replied to this last email, I waited for another 3 days - no response still, I sent a chaser, expressing my frustration of the wait, still NO reply. So I called after waiting for another 3 days.

The Customer Service Agent sounded impatient, and even NOT happy that I complained. She was literally saying that " now that you have your reply over the phone, that's all solved, so what did you complain about?"

She just didn't understand that it's the entire shopping experience that mattered - it's even more important in the virtual world.

Even though she apologised a few times over the phone, it didn't sound genuine to me. It sounded like she wanted to get off the call.

The entire conversation was 10 mins long, and sort of ended amicably, she just said curtly, "Bye" and literally CUT OFF THE CALL.

There is no way that I would order anything from them anymore. And I was even thinking to return the lamp to them - I don't care if the suggested solution would work or not, I just don't want to give them any business.

There nine months, I ordered a cabinet with Ambiente Direct. It arrived incomplete and today I still have not the missing pieces. 70 emails, a dozen phone call, repeated promises, and still nothing. AmbienteDirect is incompetent. Stay away.

I ordered a Santa and Cole lamp. Whilst I am delighted with the lamp (I already have another from the same manufacturer) this one came with a European plug. Contacted customer services but they just ignore you. I ordered my existing Santa and Cole lamp from another website and this came with an adapter so overall just poor service. This was the cheapest I could get the lamp for - you get what you pay for - rubbish service! I should have gone back to the previous company.

no news no answers to phone calls no response mails no delivery AVOID AVOID AVOID Police must do something about this internet site.

I have spent £2,100 on Muuto chairs and never seen them. Ambiente direct is a German criminal organisation that takes money from people exploiting the big designer brands names. I have contacted the Munich Police and all the brands they pretend to be selling to warn them of the Ambiente direct crimes.

this is the wors site ever! never use it! they take money and never send the goods!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you’re reading this review because you’re one of those clever shoppers that is astute enough to do this kind of thing before ordering anything then it’s very simple: DO NOT EVER CONSIDER BUYING ANYTHING AT ALL FROM AMBIENTE DIRECT! SHOP ELSEWHERE… ANYWHERE! In the succinct words of another reviewer: it is better to live without any furniture or lighting than to buy from Ambiente Direct. You only need to glance at all the extremely negative reviews that other consumers have written detailing so many bad experiences with this company to realise that something is badly wrong.

If you’re reading this review because you made the same mistake as we did, by being drawn in by their web site and the associated ‘consumer guarantees’ and then made an order, you will have many questions and will be extremely frustrated.  Yes, they don’t answer the telephone. Yes, they take all your money via advance payment. No, they won’t deliver your goods when expected or tell you when they will deliver them. Yes, you may think that you will get a refund if you complain or change your mind. Yes, they may promise to refund you but what will you do when they don’t comply? They’re the ones who will have your money so what do you think you can do about it?

In the UK, you can also contact the contact the Trading Standards Institute: http://www.ukecc.net/ (part of the UK European Consumer Centre)

Good luck and if you are unfortunate enough to have been forced to deal with this horrendous company, please write about your experiences here.

They took my money for an order two months before they delivered anything. No communication. When I eventually got through to their customer service after 40 minutes on hold they said they would refund the remaining order but only after I'd opened a PayPal dispute through them.

They then requested I close the dispute else they couldn't refund. I did this and now they are not refunding. Once you close a dispute on PayPal, you can't open another!

So between PayPal and Ambiente Direct I've been swindled out of £100's without any way of getting the money back - or the time and money and stress chasing them.