Not the best for stationery, considering it's a stationery store! Very limited materials for crafting, beyond wooden boxes and canvases. Not bad for notebooks, but other than that, I don't feel like... See more
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The Works is the UK’s leading family-friendly retailer of value gifts, arts, crafts, toys, books, and stationery. With over 500 stores across UK and Ireland and a customer website, The Works offers a wide range of screen free activities inspiring reading, learning, creativity and play.
Contact info
Boldmere House, Faraday Avenue, Hams Hall Distribution Park, Coleshill, B46 1AL, Birmingham, United Kingdom
- 0121 313 6050
- enquiries@theworks.co.uk
- www.theworks.co.uk
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Hasn’t replied to negative reviews
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Shipping time is ridiculous
I have recently bought some books for my sister for Christmas on the 22nd of November because the works is really well priced and they were in the 3 for £7.50 deal which I think is priced amazingly hence why I gave them two stars, however this would have been much higher if I wasn’t still waiting for my order to be shipped as it is coming up to two weeks later and I have heard nothing from them regarding my order and when I go in tracking it still says preparing which I think it poor due to the fact I had to pay £3.99 for delivery as it was under £30, I appreciate this time of the year is more busy but at least let customers know of possibly delays as I’m worried that they wont be here on time as I need them to be able to send to her house as she doesn’t live near me
I would give no stars if I could
I would give no stars if I could. DO NOT order from the works. I ordered on 12th nov & I spent over £100, my order has only been dispatched today after sending 9 emails& asking for a refund. Nearly a whole month I have been waiting for my order. Terrible phone lines with a que of 40+ people & then put the phone down on you. Email response is absolutely awful & was ignored for 2 whole days. It’s only when i threatened to contact head office that they decided to email me back.
Ordered an advent calendar for my…
Ordered an advent calendar for my granddaughter, rang them last Tuesday as the ten days had arrived, and still not showing dispatched. Spoke to what appeared to be a very disinterested girl on the phone, who said she would make it a priority. A week later still not arrived and it’s now the 2nd December.
At this rate it won’t make it until the new year.
Definitely won’t be using them again
Do not buy online! Service is a slow and time consuming
Do not buy online! Order took 2weeks to send! (If it actually ever did?!?) they took my money straight away…. Package got held up In The works warehouse with evri waiting days for it to come….so I chased it suddenly it dispatched after chasing, and then evri lost the ‘supposed’ parcel not reaching the depot! the parcel has been Lost for days. evri or ‘the works’ not responding to me, you can’t actually talk to a human from either company, finally evri replied yesterday after 2 weeks saying they can’t find a parcel and to take it up with the works, who you can’t actually get hold of anybody…no one replies…I’ve rang no answer just an automated message apologising for all the incidents on deliveries…and I’ve emailed multiple times….no answer! I feel like no one actually seems to care. But they took my money straight away! They have taken my money, I have no parcel for what I’ve paid for, no one is responding to me, not even an apology…
Message updated 1st dec lunchtime: finally got through after a 40min que wait on telephone…awaiting my refund!!
Waste of time avoid them
Ordered 3 fidget advent calenders , 13 pound each after seeing multiple a few days before in store this was around mid November , took my money immediately, 0 tracking was given , I began to worry 27th still nothing , got email today ( 29th November on a Saturday ) not able to fulfil order refund has been issued , no offer of goodwill gesture just we can't do it take your money back , so now I have no calenders for my 3 young children , and no money or time to get one , thanks alot. Never going to use them again
Don't use online store.
Ordered over £40 of product for Christmas in mid November but not sign of despatch. Requested a refund but won't be using the Works online again.
Amazing Lancaster store
Amazing service in-store! (Looks like they're having major problems with online orders at the moment though)
Rebekah at the Lancaster store was brilliant. I'd bought some books from the Skipton store, but even though I asked the cashier if the 10 for £10 deal went through, she lied and told me it had. So now I needed to head out again to my local Lancaster store but the manager made it so easy for me to exchange and amend what I'd bought. Plus she let me know the toy deal had changed for Black Friday so I left the store with three extra books and two extra toys. Great team and great service thank you!
They're selling things for Christmas and not delivering
Revised my review as the produce actually arrived - literally the day before it was needed.
The product itself is really good and fantastic value for money. However, I can’t give them any more than 2 stars as the delivery is shocking.
They're selling things for Christmas on their website, yet they have no means of actually delivering them. I ordered at the start of November, an advent calendar package of books and it took three weeks to arrive. When you order it says delivery in 3-4 days but the elsewhere on the site it says upto 15 working days… which is really three weeks. You’d think a company that must shift a fair amount of goods before Christmas through online sales would handle the logistics of a warehouse move in a way that doesn’t disrupt deliveries, in the lead up to Christmas.
And their customer service isn’t great. If you call you just get cut off and if you use the webform, you get zero response.
Great product, poor logistics and execution.
Very poor
Do NOT order anything from Works. Absolutely the worst service I’ve ever experienced. I placed an order for calendars and diaries for kids in need back on October 27th—time-sensitive gifts that were supposed to arrive before year-end. It’s now been weeks, and I STILL haven’t received a thing. I’ve contacted customer care three separate times, and every single time they gave the same empty promise that my order would be dispatched “within a couple of days.” Yet here I am, still waiting. This level of incompetence is unbelievable. I just hope the items somehow show up before the year ends, but at this point I’m not holding my breath. Utterly unacceptable.
DO NOT ORDER FROM THE WORKS IF YOU…
DO NOT ORDER FROM THE WORKS IF YOU ACTUALLY WISH TO RECEIVE YOUR ORDER.
Placed an order 16 days ago. Neither The Works nor Evri have been able to locate or provide a genuine ETA for delivery. I have been advised again and again that my order will be delivered but it has yet to materialize. The Works’ Customer Service is less than useless. I’ve reached out via the telephone and have been on hold multiple times but as soon as you get through to a person they just hang up on you, without cause, immediately after you provide your order number. I have reached out to them via email too but have just been fobbed off with excuses about a warehouse move. There has been no effort made to locate or deliver my parcel.
Ordered at beginning of November
Ordered at beginning of November, by 20th November I had had enough of to-ing and fro-ing with emails regarding this order to a customer services department who couldn't care less. Got my money back and from now on will take my money elsewhere.
Bad Times
Still waiting for part of my order - wondering if its ever going to come. First part arrived badly damaged and badly packed. Insides had exploded over everything. Photos provided.
No help in getting a refund as they want me to take everything to a store (I don't have one close by) but its all in the bin. Will not be using again - heed the recent reviews and pay a bit extra from elsewhere!
The Works has gone rapidly downhill!
I have experienced the most atrocious customer service in my recent orders. I purchased a large number of books as santa presents. After paying, I was then told one order was out of stock. When I looked online, it was in stock and even if it had been out of stock, there were lots of other Christmas book bundles that could have been substituted. Another order was announced undeliverable due to damage. Each time, they had to reimburse me and then told me to order again. I had originally ordered with a 15% discount voucher which I was never able to apply again. The customer service going back and forth was awful. After a number of years, I will now be looking for alternative suppliers for Santa gifts. Judging by these reviews, The Works is seriously going downhill.
UPDATE: My replacement order has now got 'damaged in transit' AGAIN! So, now back to the beginning of getting refunded and then having to reorder. Unbelievable! The Works will not be around much longer I fear!
Slow delivery, incomplete and not as described
Unlike most other internet companies, the order wasn't received very promptly. An order placed on 10th November was received on 24th November, and was incomplete. One item was refunded, and the other should have been red and green blank cards, but was in fact red and black. I don't think I will use their online service again.
No order delievered
Ordered 8th November to be told 10 working days.
Spent a good amount of money there!
Items not dispatched 2 weeks later.
Checked the tracking 18 days later to it saying my order number wasnt recognised!
1.5 hours on the phone trying to get through to someone!
Absolutely ridiculous.
Now trying to get a refund.
Won't be ordering ever again.
And advise anyone to not order online either. Absolutely ridiculous
Ordered on the 11th of November
Ordered on the 11th of November! Not even an update nothing just saying order placed!!! What terrible customer service I will never ever be shopping here again… And for anyone that hasn’t received an order go through resolver or your bank that’s what I’m going to be doing if I don’t see my order soon.
Products are not being delivered
I placed a large order on 1st November and still haven’t received it-or any updates 3weeks later. At the time I ordered there was no indication on the web site that there were issues with deliveries.
Customer services told me 5 days ago that they would ask for a priority delivery. Still nothing. Are they going bust?
Annoyingly adverts for The Works products continue to arrive regularly in my inbox.
Wish I’d read these review before…
Wish I’d read these review before ordering
Placed an order 10 days ago and there was nothing on the website to say there might be delays — if I’d known, I wouldn’t have bothered ordering!
I contacted customer service twice and both times I got the same unhelpful response: wait 10 days and if it doesn’t arrive, contact us again. My order was supposed to arrive on 24/11 but I still haven’t even received a dispatch email, so I highly doubt it will turn up. The replies I did get felt completely unsympathetic.
Honestly, if you’re thinking of ordering from here, I wouldn’t bother — go elsewhere
Poor service
Ordered on 27th of October, website said 7 day delivery. Now 20th of November and nothing has arrived. One item was cancelled due to being out of stock. Customer service response was that they a have moved warehouse and were experiencing delays and I could cancel or wait a few more days.. this was ten days ago and still waiting for it to be dispatched. Not good service.
Terrible Service
Ordered on the 8th of this month. I had read on the website that there will be a delay of UP TO ten working days for me to RECEIVE (not for them to dispatch) my order. 12 days on, they still haven't even dispatched it or sent any kind of update, and when I emailed customer service, they basically said, "we can't give you a time frame of when it might be dispatched, either wait or cancel your order." I need my items before December 1st, but they have since changed the website to state that there are delays, but it no longer states a time frame, so I can't even fall back on the fact that their website states a 10 day wait, even though it did when I placed my order, which seems like a really sneaky thing for them to have done without even emailing customers to update them on this change. I get the feeling that they couldn't care less about their customers. I've placed so many huge orders with them in the past, and they've always been okay up until recently. My last order experience wasn't great either, but I did eventually receive it, so I had hoped that was just a one-off, however I won't be ordering from them again after this. If they can't fulfill orders currently, they should be shutting down business until they're able to do so, because it's disgusting to take people's hard-earned money with no regard for customer service or actually providing customers with the items they've paid for.
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