The Works Stores Limited Reviews 

I have been waiting over 3 weeks for my order which hasn't even been packed yet. They let you place an order, then inform you via email that it will take 15 working days to be delivered. It's passed that now, and my order still isn't here!!

Books damaged so not arrived. Had to order again as they could not resend. a few have turned up no way of finding out if the others will be delivered. Tried to phone and was number 64 in the queue. If you are this number in a queue you know there is a big problem

In the past, I have given good reviews for The Works, but this time 1 Star is too high! I placed an order at the beginning of November, and as of today's date (14/12/25), it has still not been dispatched - they were quick enough to take payment for it though! When I placed the order, there was no banner declaring 'allow 15 days for delivery'. When I asked about the order not having been dispatched as quickly as normal, I was told that the delays were mentioned under the 'delivery option', as I'd not had a problem before, I hadn't looked this time. Having communicated again with customer services, I don't think it will arrive before Christmas. I mean, what sort of company moves to a new warehouse this time of year, just madness!

I ordered on the 20th Nov. Was told it will take 15 working days. It still hasn't been dispatched. There is no trace of it in the tracking service. I have contacted customer services and no reply. I am very unlikely to get this parcel (several presents for my children) and also unlikely to receive a refund in time to order more. I think it's absolutely disgusting. I will never shop at the works again. Absolutely appalling way of doing business.

Went to the Newbury Store today in the Kennet Centre. I don't think the woman behind the till could have been less interested. Barely looked up from whatever she was tapping away at on her desk. No 'Hello, how are you today?, just a sigh and a moany 'Wanna bag wiv that?'. She couldn't even be bothered to tell me how much I needed to pay. As soon as we were done, back to tapping and looking at the desk. Miserable.

Don’t waste your time ordering online, they are moving sites so you will not receive any orders I waited 17 days to be told I will have to wait another 5 days to get a refund because my order has been lost.

I placed an order with The Works on November 26, 2025, and it hasn't even been dispatched yet. I've tried emailing, but received no response. When I called customer service, I found myself 32 people ahead in the queue and gave up after 20 minutes of waiting. At this point, all I want is a refund so I can purchase my items elsewhere. Extremely disappointed with the service; I will never order from The Works again!

Said it would take 10 days to arrive but did not arrive at all. Took over a month for someone to actually speak to me and agree to a refund I am still waiting for who knows if I will actually get it. Was met with nothing but bots while trying to deal with this I was hung up on and emails ignored. Shipping company also would not speak to me and no one knew where my parcel was and no one would speak to me or be held accountable. Will never use again absolutely awful service, I wish I looked on here before ordering, get on fine in store but online is a joke and should be shut down

Ordered my items over 3 weeks ago and still not had my delivery. Had an email at 3 weeks (though a 10 day delivery) to say now 6 of my items were out of stock. Still not received or had an email responding back. Such a terrible customer experience - my first and last unfortunately. Which is such a shame as they have some great little bits. Hopefully I get my items before Christmas as they were ordered middle of November! Bought as 3 for 2 and missing items mean I have lost the deals!

Jen in the Colwyn Bay The Works was really helpful. She took the time to find a book that we really wanted. She found it. Thank you Jen

As others saying ordered online nothing stated when ordering about warehouse problems or 15 day deliverys. Yet no confirmation of order took my money customer service just keep saying about warehouse issues and that it was a 15 day order yet has been longer than 15 days still no confirmation of order pretty poor service and should really not take money before confirming dispatch. Wont be ordering again still no idea where my order is and unlikely I'll get anything for my inconvenience. Don't even know if the items will ever show up as wasn't given a tracking number. Still haven't had a refund.

Dreadful. Avoid. Items ordered 1 month prior and no sign. Tracking not updated and no response from customer service with about 40 people in the queue on the phone and no response after 1hr.

This company is going bust. Keep your money safe and shop elsewhere.

Ordered on 15.11.25, Christmas ornaments, gifts etc. My order was on a 10 working day timescale. 10 days later and the order hadn't been processed. I called on the 11th working day to be told the same thing over and over again "you're on a 10 day timescale" but it's the 11th day?
I requested a refund and was told they would cancel the order and refund me. No email confirmation of this cancellation. I emailed them to ask for confirmation and was told on the 12th working day that they had processed the order so it couldn't be cancelled. I waited again and called on the 14th working day, to be told again that my order hadn't been processed. I asked for my money or for the items to be sent urgently. I was told they would be sent out as a priority. The dispatch email was received and they only sent 2 of the 8 items I ordered.
On the 20th day since placing my order the order arrived via Evri. As suspected 6 of my items hadn't been picked or sent.
I have complained and apparently they are issuing a refund for the missing items. I'll believe it when I see it! Will the items arrive? Will I get a refund? Will it be correct? At this point WHO KNOWS.
I have reported this to my credit card company so I will be getting the money back.
I will personally never use The Works again and I won't be purchasing in-store either. Which is a shame for a store that is reasonably priced.
Customer service is non existent, they don't reply to emails and they are unhelpful on the phone also, if they answer at all! Alot of the time you just get cut off after waiting in a Queue.
I hope all these negative reviews results in some kind of all around improvement. Because currently they are a waste of space.

On the 14th November I ordered a Xmas present. On the 28th November I complained, by e-mail about the non delivery. I then asked for the order to be cancelled and that I need the money back to buy the item from elsewhere. As of today no e-mail confirming when I will get paid. I need the money to buy elsewhere. They say they have delivery problems. If they can't deliver in their contracted time. They shouldn't take the money.

Always enjoyed doing jigsaw puzzles from the Works and as a keen puzzler I thought I was going mad at first when I found 5 corner pieces to my newest puzzle and thinking there were some pieces missing. Determined to carry on and complete the puzzle I finished it yesterday with a tally of 8 duplicated pieces and 10 missing pieces. Having never seen anything like this before I can only hazard a guess at what has happened but it is very disappointing!

The puzzle box and inner packet were sealed when I bought the puzzle. I contacted the Works Customer Services and attached a photo of the (finished) puzzle with the duplicate pieces marked in blue and missing pieces in yellow. I have to say the response from their Customer Services was tepid and luke warm to say the least!

Having spent quite a few hours trying to complete the puzzle and giving them full details and evidence of the problems with the puzzle I would have expected at the least some kind of explanation as to what had gone wrong. I was actually in the shop yesterday and noticed that this puzzle was no longer on the shelf, so I suspect they have had a malfunction in the manufacturing process and removed it from sale.

In my naivety I thought they might offer a genuine apology, an explanation and a voucher for a couple of replacement puzzles, but they sent yet another very tepid response!

BE AWARE THAT JIGSAW PUZZLES FROM THE WORKS MAY BE MISSING PIECES AND HAVE SEVERAL DUPLICATE PIECES – VERY ANNOYING AND FRUSTRATING!


Puzzle details
Title -     Amsterdam in the Snow
Bar code - 052089 395107
Batch -    WAE 0184934

Purchased from The Works, Crystal Peaks on 20 October 2025 for £9.00

Horrible lady manager shouting at her staff member (it was a guy )...I found this utterly discusting. .was on 18th October broardstone mill.
Contacted customer services on this matter as I stated it against law discrimination and bully someone who has a disability..(but guess what customer sevices not bothered they think this is acceptable of there manager's ...
never shop here, at this company again ...she needs sacking ..never seen such a nasty person treat staff in this manner.....

Called at Bangor NI branch for gift ideas..
the lady Suzanne was fantastic!
Lovely to get proper old fashioned customer service .
Left satisfied 😊

Have contacted customer service numerous times requesting updated on order and were very unhelpful. Finally received my order today, over 1 month later. Had been intended as a book advent calendar but too late now for this year. Parcel arrived in a black bin back which was torn and left sitting at front door in the rain. I am still missing books which I ordered and have received some wrong books that I didn’t order, including someone’s personalised photo book. Customer service has been awful. Have contacted them with updates so will see if they offer to do anything to fix mistakes this time.

My order said 3-5 working days, when I checked to see how my order was going, the site now is saying up to 15 days! So do not buy if to late if you're expecting in time to wrap before Christmas. I understand that if they had to change thier delivery process, but they did not inform me of this process, I only found out by my own research. Not acceptable at all. One of the gifts is a puzzle advent calender for my daughter, I'm now left very anxious she won't recive this when back from her time with her dad & his family to open not just the 4-6 days of doors, but now it seems a completely pointless purchase & I will have to get a refund.

Ordered on the 13th of November got loads of stuff for Christmas waited for ages and they said they were moving warehouse so it wasn’t dispatched. It was finally dispatched on the 25 then the parcel was lost. Had to ring to find that out was on hold for ages then through to a very abrupt lady who basically said we won’t resend it that’s that. Wouldn’t recommend ordering anything. It’s a shambles