Swell Reptiles Reviews 2,127

Customer service is slow and obviously struggle to read a full conversation. I orders glass for my gecko tank and payed fast delivery, took over a week after pay extra for next day delivery and was told it would arrive by Tuesday. Doesn’t fit would like to return and the customer service is shocking. As I’d have to sort return delivery myself I will only get £10 from the £20 I spent on delivery and glass.

Abysmal first customer experience. I avoid writing bad reviews unless something is truly awful so as not to unfairly damage companies reputations due to circumstances outside of their control. But this time I felt I had to.

Me and my partner were excited to welcome our first reptiles together and have been planning it for ages. We also were supposed to be collecting them this weekend, which swell messed up ( see below)

Ordered a reptile enclosure last Monday, said it'd be arriving Thursday the same week absolute latest. Wednesday comes, no dispatch email, nothing. Sent an email nothing.
Chased via phone on Thursday and was promised it was going out Friday next day to arrive on Monday.
Friday comes, no dispatch email, nothing so was basically lied to.
This was annoying at best, as we were meant to pick up our new friends on the Sunday. But delayed their collection until Tuesday by taking a day off work.

Finally dispatched today via Yodel 48 which won't be collected until Monday at 5pm and won't arrive until Wednesday/Thursday at the earliest if I'm lucky due to the BF sales period. Can't speak to anyone as they don't work weekends.

So basically screwed. I won't be accepting the parcel, assuming Yodel even deliver it/it's not totally trashed.

I just don't get how a company who are supposed to be big and reptile specialists can be so crap.

Purchased a few vivs from this place they’ve always been affordable and great quality, excellent customer service aswell if you have an issues that arise

Nathan from Swell was super helpful. (patient!

thank you

Placed an order on the 8th for a new enclosure for our reptile. It’s a palletised delivery so I understand it takes between 3-5 working days but not had any communication from them and still says processing.

I have tried calling around 12 times and cannot get through every time. I’m trying to get through to them whist writing this. I have sent emails but again no response.

Absolutely disgusting service. All I want to know is when my order is getting delivered

Plenty of other shops to get your suppliers from. Honestly think twice before buying from here as you will not be able to speak to anyone if you need to.

Absolutely awful company. Thermostat is faulty and heatmat intermittent. I have been trying to speak to someone since Friday with no luck. I called again at 9am this morning just after they opened and was told all there operators were busy. I held on for 15 minutes with no answer. My reptiles are freezing cold and there incompetence is causing them harm. Do not use this company at all costs. Due to there lack of response I will be reporting them to the bank. DISGUSTING!!!! I'd give 0 stars if I could.

Horrendous company to deal with. Due to them apparently suffering a system issue their side, they took close to week to dispatch something I paid next day delivery on as I needed it urgently.

Having spent an hour on hold waiting to get through to their customer service, I gave up and used their online support to cancel my order as it was needed urgently and it was radio silence from SwellUK.
However, instead of cancelling my order as i requested, three days after that request, they instead decided to process a refund on my express shipping and gave me a 10% voucher (which im obviously never using) and shipped my items.

I'll now have to pay out of my pocket to return the items because this greedy company decides to make their current system issues even worse with a black Friday sale, and employ Customer Service Reps who cant follow simple requests from their conned customers.

Save yourself a tonne of hassle and shop elsewhere. The reptile branch of SwellUK is an embarrassment.

Paid for next day delivery which didnt atrive and no time frame when they look to ship out. Tried calling multiple times waiting 20 mins on 1 call with no answer to any call. Will not ve using this company again

Only giving it a two for the staff that handle the phone calls as I’m sure people get pretty aggy with them and I feel bad. I picked next day delivery as a matter of necessity, I was only going to be home for the first half of the week! Was due Monday or Tuesday, it’s Wednesday and no dispatched update at all even though I called yesterday to chase it. Had to cancel and will be ordering elsewhere from somewhere that actually seems to deliver their items. So much unnecessary stress for what should be a happy time setting up a new animal…

Attempted to order 3 x Tortoise Substrate. Authorised Payment 3 times on Banking App at Checkout, Swell Site did not proceed any further and the ‘Place Order’ button remained greyed out and was unable to proceed. Contacted Customer Service via Telephone and after 20 minutes was answered by a rude, over talking female Agent. More concerted informing me that I could not have the product next day as to busy! That said the Site will still take your money for Next Day Delivery had the order of gone through! Didn’t wait for an explanation re the site not working correctly due to her rudeness, and ordered elsewhere, whereby they are able to manage the Website, and Delivery. This may be one of the biggest Reptile Sites, however plenty of other independent Companies who are waiting to take their business when they are unable to deliver! Will not use again.

I made an order on Thursday evening for a tank, paid for next day delivery and was advised I would receive it Saturday. Friday 5pm comes and the order still hasn't been dispatched, so I email looking for an update. Saturday rolls around, still not shipped, and no response to my email.

On Sunday, I get an email advising the parcel has been dispatched, however I would not get an update on tracking until the courier picks up the order (so it's not been dispatched, you've packaged it and created a label). It advised on the email that the couriers pick up orders Monday-Friday at 5pm, so I definitely wasn't going to be getting it on Monday. I had also noticed that it was shipped under FedEx Economy, not next day, so I wasn't going to be getting it Tuesday either.

I've checked the tracking this morning, and it's still not been picked up by the couriers! So 3 days after I was supposed to receive it, and it's still not even been sent out. On top of that, I get a generic email response from the company, offering me a 10% discount on my next order! I don't want the discount, I want a refund for the next day shipping I paid for, and I want my order to be sent out!

Nathan emailed me back about an issue I had with an order really quickly, fixing the issue promptly. Really appreciate his help.

Very good service and product

The products are really competitively priced, always as described, and when I've had stuff break during postage it's been replaced. Can't fault them.

Well where do I start delivery was quick ,, but we ordered a platinum setup for a bearded dragon which we ordered thinking everything we would receive would be perfect so we could buy a bearded dragon,, but oh no they sent wrong thermostat/dimmer , wrong size UVB unit kit ,, no basking light cage , and wrong basking bulb ,, but only found all this out when we went to purchase our bearded dragon so instead of being able to get our new family member, we had to buy all of the things again to be suitable for our vivarium that we got in the supposedly platinum setup,, would never recommend this company

I had a wax worm subscription that I was very pleased with. Always arrived on time and with plenty of worms. Good value for money. But I needed to cancel as I no longer had the animal they were being fed to. I couldn’t see how to cancel, but Holly from Swell sorted it out for me very quickly. I’d certainly use Swell again if I had the need to do so.

Order was delayed being picked and packed so had to wait longer for it to be delivered.
Tank is a good size and the only downside is the door is a bit difficult to open and the digital thermo hydrometer did not work properly and kept giving false readings so had to buy a new one.

Terrible customer service. I placed an order very late on a Thursday but realised that this wouldn’t arrive on time, 100% my fault. However I spent over 4.5hrs on Friday trying to get through to swell via phone to cancel the order. This didn’t work and it seems they now have turned off their phone lines completely.

I then emailed to cancel the order, this was within 24hrs of placing the order. On Monday I got a reply to say the item had been shipped on Saturday so the order couldn’t be cancelled. I reached out to the courier, FedEx, who informed me that the order had not been shipped and wouldn’t be collected until the following day. I chased Swell again for a cancellation and they just kept refusing again lying about the shipping status and kept saying “FedEx don’t scan items until they reach your local depot”, another lie. The item was collected Tuesday and delivery attempted Thursday. Delivery was refused and returned to Swell by Friday 11am. Swell held out on refunding me claiming they couldn’t refund me until FedEx had confirmed the delivery to them. I obtained this information in 15 minutes via FedEx on the Friday. They refused to accept proof and despite physically having the items delayed the refund. After a full week of chasing the refund I got fed up and threatened to pursue the matter with my bank to which suddenly the refund was approved, funny that.

Swell customer service will do everything in their power to avoid doing their actual jobs to the point they will feed you straight up lies. Getting an apology out of them despite being caught with their pants round their ankles is like getting blood from a stone. I dealt with Emily & Lyndsey.

P.S. their frozen rats are dropshipped from Peregrine Foods, I suggest going direct.

Lyndsey was a tremendous help when I accidentally ordered the wrong item from swell aquarium and was able to sort out a collection for the item and get the correct item i was meant to order sent out straight away!

Specifically paid for next day delivery as my tortoise is unwell and the product was needed ASAP. Didnt arrive. Questioned them and said its still being packaged ... 4 days now, no package and apparently still being packed. Requested refund for shipping I paid for, agreed...but you guessed it, still not recived that or the parcel. Terrible service!!! Avoid!