Alternative Stores Reviews 58

Great customer service and great product!

Really Terrible customer service. I’ve been calling, leaving voicemails and sending emails for 3 days now and as yet have not had any response whatsoever. I run a small vegan bakery and have ordered a bulk order of natural spread Ali g with other incidental items. The natural is needed for a wedding cake I have to make this weekend and the company knows this. The initial order was placed over 2 weeks ago but didn’t arrive till 6 days later so was automatically returned due to the items being chilled. I called and left a message and got a call back the following day and explained the urgency of the order( the one and only response). I was told it was an issue with the courier and they were re-sending out to me that day with a different one. This is a week ago and since then, despite calling throughout the day and leaving increasingly desperate messages plus emails, I e been met with total silence. I’ve spent all morning trying to source the product from somewhere else but no one seems to offer express delivery so they have really left me in a horrible position. Such a shame because they offer a great selection on the website but not much use if they don’t arrive and you are completely ignored while they hang on to your money though.

I placed a chilled order well within the window for next day delivery but my order wasn't even dispatched til the next day which meant it sat in a warehouse for two days and arrived lukewarm and no longer edible. I have contacted them to request a refund and am awaiting their response. From some of the other comments on here, I am not getting my hopes up and wish I had checked here before ordering.

Update. I received an apology within an hour of contacting them. A refund has been processed and a replacement order was delivered the next day and what I've had so far was delicious.

10/10 for customer service. I'll definitely give them another try.

Terrible customer service. I've had the same experience as the other reviews that had spoiled food delivered. My parcel was damaged and all the frozen food defrosted and squashed. AlternativeStores offered me store credit as a refund but failed to give me the credit. They're now ignoring my emails and calls. It's been over 6 weeks now. Avoid this company!

Update: 13/11/25
They failed to give the credit and ignored all emails. I finally gave up. Don't use this company.

Scammers stole my cash!
Order spoiled as damaged in delivery on 16/07/2025. No replies to emails or calls since. Today is 22/07/2025. Order number 110356. I will consider upgrading to 3 stars if you refund me asap.

My order did not arrive. It was sent by DHL Commerce, and their tracker still shows it's due 'the next working day'. It's been saying that for three months. I have emailed Alternative Stores multiple times, but haven't received a single reply. Taking an order and not delivering seems like simple theft to me. What a disappointment from a supposedly ethical company.

Baring in mind this is a website designed to providing alternative foods for dairy and gluten. I came across a product that had wheat in the ingredients but not bolded which is not highlighting this as an allergn. I got in touch with customer service to advise them and ask them to rectify this so someone doesn’t buy this in error without seeing wheat as a bolded ingredients. Sadly I got an appalling email back to say they most likely wouldn’t be able to look into this and highlight the gluten in the product because they have too many SKU’s

I’m utterly disappointed that this company doesn’t think it has the time to highlight a known allergen which is part of the main 14 recognised in the UK and is a legal requirement. Absolutely appalling and disgusting response in my opinion for a company setup as an alternative website.

Customer Service is appalling. My emails and messages left on their answer phone are not responded to.
My order was delivered a day later than it was due. The frozen and chilled were defrosted and warm. Delivery was refused. Then I was told I should of taken the ambient items out? I wasn’t prepared to return a tampered with parcel! I had to chase for a refund for spoilt items and asked for ambient to either be re delivered or refunded. No response and it’s nearly 2 weeks on. The box that the items were delivered in was not marked ‘chilled and frozen’ so apparently got left off of the delivery van for the next day.
When you spend £83 you expect to get what you ordered and paid extra for the chilled and frozen packaging.
We needed these items for a family party. So disappointing.
I will never use this company again, still owed £31.34 for the ambient goods.

We ordered a 1 kilo of sos mix , and waited for the despatch and tracking details . Nothing appeared contacted the company of many occassions ,,but they stopped communicating . This is not the first time they've done this to us. Beware if your ordering from outside UK.

Very happy with the first class service and products
Highly recommend their sinless egg selection
Thank you Leanne for your prompt professionalism

Best regards Kaldeep Singh -Dulay

Excellent service order after 5pm came next day it was that good I ordered again came with 2 days and a very impressive product keep up the good work

Absolutely awful company! Firstly, they told me that “they’d been too busy” to send out my order so delayed. Okay, what can y’do. Then it took them days to notify me of some bits being out of stock. They tried ringing me apparently but I work in a hospital so cannot answer and no VM left. I said please send what you have and refund the out of stock products. Week since order was placed and nothing, not even correspondence. Disgusting! I would not recommend to any of my vegan friends.

Ordered a Shibuya Duel Click sight, plus a couple of odds and ends on Monday afternoon delivered Wednesday morning by 9am. Free delivery and cheaper than other websites that add delivery charges on top of that. Can't argue with that!
First order placed, will not be the last.
*****

Great selection of vegan products and wonderful customer service. Will definitely be ordering again!

I've ordered from Alternative Stores a couple of times now and can confirm they are a trustworthy online company. I mostly ordered products I consume regularly and found their prices reasonable. On my most recent order there was a slight problem, I ordered multiples of a certain item and they found they had one less in stock than I had ordered - I accept that this can happen from time to time and was very happy with how they dealt with it, a prompt phone call to explain, apologise and ask if I would prefer a substitute or a refund for the single unavailable item. I opted for a refund and was refunded very quickly and the change was marked clearly on the receipt inside the parcel. For this reason I would be confident in their customer service in future and trust that, in the event of any issue it would dealt with quickly and efficiently. Overall very happy with items, prices, service and delivery times.

Always quick delivery with dpd tracking where you can set safe places, latest order is next day delivery, tomorrow and previously also only two days.

Great products, you can’t get many other places.

Excellent service! Order arrived within a day, and all fresh with good dates on. Well packaged. Reasonable prices. One happy customer who will return!

I've ordered from Alternative Stores twice now and both times i've been extremely happy with the service. They shipped my most recent order out not even an hour after I placed the order. Really impressive stuff. My items always come well packaged. I really recommend them

Would like to thank Alternative Stores for their variety of vegan food and products they offer, staff is so well-informed, which makes it so much easier to find the right products! The price points are reasonable and I will certainly be back on a regular basis.
Thank you Alternative Stores

Excellent website, excellent customer service. I regularly order sosmix from Alternative Stores and it’s outstanding. It is AUTHENTIC sosmix- the same brand I have been enjoying for the last decade. It’s becoming increasingly hard to find- thankful Alternative Stores has it!