*Edit: My first review below was 1* but ive upgraded it after finally speaking to a senior member of the online team who arranged a suitable resolution. This should not have taken the amount of emai... See more
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Find the latest women's clothing and men's fashion at River Island as well as the latest girls and boys clothes collection. Shop online at your favourite high street store
United Kingdom
Replied to 28% of negative reviews
Typically replies within 1 week
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Just been cut off at call centre after holding forever. Problem still unresolved. Promised an email and a refund on Saturday - got neither. Have emailed using the messaging service so many times and get promised that this will be sorted out and it never is. I am owed £36 for a refund and I still haven’t got this. It was promised on Saturday and then tonight somebody is trying to deal with it and then cuts me off and then the call centre is closed. I want to raise a complaint. I’m fed up of chasing back my money because of your mistake. The customer service is absolutely disgraceful for this company. All outsourced to an Indian call centre and nobody really cares. Will somebody reply to this? I doubt it. It makes me think that I would never want to buy anything else from your company because when things go wrong, you are absolutely terrible at trying to resolve the situation. I haven’t got time for this. You just don’t get this sorted.

Reply from River island
River Island in Coventry City Center.
This was, without any doubt, one of the worst customer service experiences I have ever had. I came to this store to return a dress I bought the previous weekend, with my receipt and full proof of payment. What should have been a simple return became an unacceptable and deeply disrespectful situation entirely caused by the behaviour of the staff.
From the very beginning, the first staff member’s attitude was already unprofessional and unpleasant. Before I even had the chance to explain anything, she spoke extremely quickly and with visible impatience, making it very hard for me to understand her. When I told her that I couldn’t follow what she was saying, her behaviour immediately became even more rude and hostile.
She refused to listen, constantly interrupted me, and insisted there was a problem with my payment simply because the card number did not match (something completely normal when paying with a smartwatch).
When she started going through my Google Wallet on my phone, I clearly told her that I did not have to explain the details of my personal cards. She insisted that I did have to explain myself simply because the numbers didn’t match. This was intrusive, inappropriate, and absolutely unacceptable. She had no right to demand personal information from my device when I had already provided valid proof of purchase.
A second staff member later joined, without greeting me, without asking what had happened. Instead, she approached the situation with the same hostile and confrontational attitude. She also made completely unfounded assumptions, including an accusation related to her accent (something both absurd and deeply offensive, especially considering that my own accent is very obvious, and I am clearly not from the UK). Accusing me of reacting to someone’s accent, when mine is extremely noticeable, was shocking and completely unjustified.
Throughout all of this, I remained calm and cooperative. I even offered my bank statement to confirm the payment, yet the hostility continued. Only one staff member behaved professionally and genuinely tried to assist.
The worst part happened when I was leaving. The first staff member was waiting by the entrance, and as I walked out, she laughed directly in my face saying with ironic tone: "Have a FANTASTIC day" or something silly like that, very loud. I just walked out loughing. I told her ‘good luck’ as I laughed, because the Christmas season coming up in the next few weeks, if she is already behaving like this now, I can’t imagine how she will be then, whole situation was so miserable, and it is even more worst when I heard her loudly repeating my laugh inside the store. This behaviour is disgraceful, childish, and absolutely intolerable. No customer should ever be mocked, humiliated, or treated with such disrespect.
I filed a formal complaint with Customer Services immediately after this incident, and I fully expect store management and the business owners to address this seriously. What happened was not “poor service”, it was completely unacceptable conduct that shows a total lack of respect for customers.
I hope this review helps others understand what I experienced and encourages the business to urgently improve its customer service standards.
The jeans i ordered fit and have a nice colour to them but be prepared to lose the skin off your fingers trying to unbutton them and do up the button on them up. Luckily they fit by the time i got them open i had ran out of days to return them i will let you know after xmas if I manage to get them buttoned up.
Make mistake ordering from River Island same again between them and royal mail parcel nt arrived! I paid £6 00 24 hrs delivery yes that's been refunded but my parcel still nowhere to be seen unacceptable if no here next 24 hrs want refund report fraud never ordering again!
I'm not one to ever write reviews but my experience ordering online with RI has been terrible. They charged for delivery to one of their shops and obviously I still had to pick it up. Got it home and it was completely the wrong item! The online chat was sooo bad. They didn't care that it was the wrong item, no apology, no offer to refund delivery fee despite it being their fault. Had me sending pictures of it and all sorts just to say that I would have to send it back and get a refund as normal. They wouldn't even let me exchange it for the actual thing I'd ordered. Chat function kept kicking me out so I had to repeat this conversation 3 times. Then they tried to charge me to send it back!
The cherry on the cake was them not processing the refund so I had to get in touch with them AGAIN.. and again no apology, just sass. I'm still yet to get a refund.
Absolutely useless company, awful customer service, total waste of time. I won't be buying anything else from them.
I’ve had to contact River Island four times now, I’m only asking if a jacket will be restocked in my size but can’t get a simple answer from anyone. First, I was told that they would contact the relevant department and get back to me, they never did. They don’t seem to actually read the questions and just say what they think is relevant, eg wanting to set up a stock notification (which they have done multiple times) or to check in store (this item is online only) when I am just asking if it will be restocked online. Not sure why it’s so hard to just give a simple answer to a simple question instead of going around in circles. I need to know as I currently have the larger size but would rather return it if there’s a chance of the smaller one being restocked.
10% off first order never arrived in my inbox. I had to pay full price. Emailed customer support but still haven’t received a reply —almost 2 years now! I just realized this coz I was just about to order again and thought of checking if I had received any reply yet. What a ploy!
They charged me for returning some shoes with £2.95 after paying the postage another £4.99. Seriously??? A joke of company. Never again buying from them.
I ordered 2 exact same tops from river island so how can anyone get my order wrong! One as come right the other one is sparkly even. On this occasion I am not impressed with river island . I have always recommended this company but now I will not order online anymore. Looking at the reviews they need to improve the company. Now I have to mess about waiting for my refund and returning a wrong product. Signing off as a dissatisfied customer. Also I don't agree with I have to pay out of my own money postage to return the item that they got wrong. Awful. Awful. Awful.
Purchased a shearling lined fur coat - which hasn’t stopped shedding from the moment I’ve got it. The coat itself is lovely but I can’t use it for everyday like I planned as I don’t have time to lint my clothes everytime I take the coat off - customer service advised me either to return the coat online or in store after they asked for pictures?
Don’t think that’s reasonable in my opinion. Overall just not pleased and would not say the coat was worth the price river island are selling for of £110.
I usually love River Island and their clothes. I am usually a size 10 or 12 in trousers, and ordered 2 pairs size 10 jeans online. The fit was okay when I tried them on. However, the waistline has since stretched so much that they no longer fit well at all and look ridiculous. What a waste of money at £49 each. Tried calling customer service who offered me 20% discount for my next purchase. Not impressed.
Ordered a bag from River Island over £30 and EVRi emailed to say it had been damaged in transit. Got in contact with customer services and they kept saying they would send me a new gift card, which they never did. Then I asked for a refund and they said they will but never did again. It’s been 6 months and I’m still chasing for my refund but the customer service team have now started to ignore my messages - so unprofessional and disappointing. The CEO email also hasn’t got back to me. Will never be ordering from here again, customer service team and company are a disgrace.
We were in the shop in Craigavon at Rushmere shopping center. The young lady there was Maram. I had my 2 boys with me and we wanted to buy some new clothes for winter and a trousers for a wedding.
Maram was really helpful and very patient with my indecisive 11 year old. She really went out of her way to help us. She was friendly, kind and helpful. Nothing was too much trouble for her.
Even the kids commented on how nice and helpful Maram was.
Thank you.
Awful, customer service is terrible still trying to locate my parcel.
This review is literally only about river island delivery. I buy online as I have a spinal cord injury. I very rarely leave my house because of that. When I pay for delivery I do not expect to have to ask a friend to go and collect it from the post office because RM tell so many lies about missed deliveries. I actually got a recorded doorbell simply because they do not deliver then put it down as no one in. In fact I actively avoid buying from companies who use RM as not only do they lie they leave parcels by bins, out in the rain or they arrived ripped and on too many occasions ‘loose’ items. When I pay for delivery I expect it to be delivered to my house, not lies I wasn’t in when I am in or to have to ask people to do things for me when I have to ask enough due to the nature of my injury. If this happens again I will not buy from RI again. I’m not at all happy to pay for delivery and end up sorting delivery out myself.
My 2 week stay at rock island has been mostly relaxing and restful which is much needed when I’m working long hours. The Owner is extremely nice and accommodating, I was able to even use my crockpot to cook rather then eat put , it saves me a lot of money, made services is just enough to change things out but not so much as it would feel invasive . I would definitely stay here again!
Chat and email customer service awful. Slow and unhelpful.Also pack a bit of an attitude
Wrong what they did to me i come to exchange my iteam two times instead they return it and when I asked for the manager all what he had to say I got to listen to what he saying or he will walk away and he did
Ordered on 21/10 paid for next day delivery.
Had to call 4 times over 4 days to report my parcel hadn’t arrived. I have never received a dispatch email, or order confirmation email and Evri are still waiting for it to be dispatched to the them.
Was promised twice a manager would call me back, still waiting!
Furthermore, the advisor I spoke to on Friday morning had to be the least unenthusiastic person I have ever had a conversation with.
I understand that she may hater her job, however, that is not my fault and I am just trying to locate my parcel that still hasn’t been dispatched. She was borderline rude and there were times when she didn’t even respond just silent for like 15 seconds.
I have been shopping at River Island for 30 years. That ends today I will never spend another penny of my money there!
The advisor actually agreed you have lost my parcel and said Instil have to wait another 24 hours and call back for a 5th time for her to even issue my refund.
River Island is dead! Died a death and no coming back!
ordered online 2 girls outfits. River Island only sent me the top on both outfits. Then sent me an email to return the item for refund. I spoke to 2 people (in South Africa)!!! to complain. They couldn't help. The truth is the item was priced wrong and they would not own up. They then changed the original order so I had no proof. Disgusting. They should have honoured the order as it was their mistake.
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