The Works Stores Limited Reviews 1,376

Ordered 2 weeks ago and heard nothing, called today and told they can’t track it, they don’t know when it will be delivered. Apparently they have moved warehouses and having problems with deliveries, but they are still continuing to take orders, dispite huge backlogs! Shocking! I’ve requested a refund, wouldn’t order from this company again.

Awful, ordered online and my order never moved for days. Phoned up and got told by a rude male called Mathew that I was wasn't supposed to contact them as it takes 7 days to dispatch my item and was told this in my email after I had ordered, I wasn't told this before I had ordered. Another customer lost and one that won't shed a tear when they go into administration. TOTALLY AWFUL

Placed an order on October 1st received no updates whatsoever and when I checked it around the 10th it said a refund had been requested. I phoned up on the 13th and was told the item was out of stock hence the refund but told it was now back in stock so ordered it straight away. Two weeks passed again no updates phoned twice was told it is being processed however it is now being refunded again. Waste of time wish I ordered from somewhere else as terrible organisational skills and no updates whatsoever had to chase up myself both times. Ridiculous.

I ordered 8 books from the works and they took nearly 2 weeks to arrive at the store for me to collect. When opening my parcel, I only had 4 of the books I had actually ordered, 2 were books I hadn't even purchased and then some paint that I didn't even order. So out of the 8 books that I had ordered, I received 4 of the correct items, 3 completely incorrect items and 4 of my items were missing. I phoned customer services who then told me that those books that were missing were out of stock upon packing my order. They failed to notify me of this and hadn't even processed a refund for the missing items. I asked over the phone if the items that I had ordered were back in stock to which I was told they were. I then asked if they could resend the items that were missing from my order but they refused to do so and said the only option I had was to receive a refund but only after I returned the items that I didn't order ! I assume they wouldn't resend me the items due to the cost of the shipping but I think it's appalling that they have messed up and are not willing to rectify their mistake by sending me my items. I am very unhappy with the service I have experienced and I will certainly not be ordering from them again.

Honestly never had such a bad service for there online website, not only was my order 20 plus days late but missing one of the book from the exclusive set. Only till I rang up, they said they will give me a refund for that one book so Im left with a uncomplete set. Never had this type of experience from one of there brick and mortar stores

Customer service just advise to cancel your order rather than actually provide an update. I don't want to cancel my order I would like to receive it! Ordered 11 days ago, was okay with the 10 day delivery wait but called to get an update as still not been dispatched to be told no update can be given and I should just cancel my order. Told to call back on Friday - not that I can see much happening from now till then! Always been a good customer of The Works but this really has put me off.

Order took a long time to arrive and was only partially fulfilled. The main item I ordered (a set of football books)was apparently out of stock. I emailed CS to ask for a refund for delivery (3.99) as I would never have paid £3.99 delivery for the small number of items I did receive (in fact I never would have placed the order which makes me wonder if the books ever even existed in the first place and was it a con to draw customers in??).
They have replied refusing to refund delivery!
I’ve been a loyal customer for years. Will never shop at the Works again.
Terrible customer service.

Received virtually no communication then had one item refunded. Still not received my other items, very dissatisfied

Placed an order on the 3rd October - now 22nd October and no parcel. I have contacted them several times and got 1 reply - 12 days after ordering to say order is still within 10 working days and sorry for inconvenience. Have contacted them again, but heard nothing since and have not received my order. I am expecting to get an email in the future, cancelling my order and stating a refund will be on it's way. Funny that - after weeks of payment sitting in their bank account gaining interest, perhaps like thousands of other customers. I'm pretty sure there are rules against selling items you can't actually deliver to customers ! Like another reviewer has stated - report them to Birmingham Trading Standards - simple to do, on the home page you can either go on live chat with citizens advice or call them - it states they log everything and send a report through to Trading Standards. So they should then start a thorough investigation in to how many customers place an order and how many actually receive them ! Where is the money going to ? It's ............The Works account.

I placed an order on 4th October, when there was a note at the top of their website stating that orders were taking 10 working days to be fulfilled due to a warehouse relocation. Today, 12 working days later, there is still no news about my order and no reply whatsoever to my email.
​Interestingly enough, when I placed my order they had a Halloween promotion going on, and that's basically what I purchased. I had done the maths, and my order would arrive the week before Halloween, allowing me plenty of time to plan activities to entertain my kids during half-term.
​Now I'm left only to wonder if I'll ever get them at all...

EDIT: The order was finally processed & dispatched the day after, but when it arrived two days later, it had someone else's purchase instead of mine. How disappointing! I decided to call them, and was offered a full refund plus a collection of the wrong items. I'd rather have everything that I ordered, but I guess I'll have to find them elsewhere...

Absolutely brilliant staff at Tonbridge. So helpful and friendly. Nothing too much trouble.
Bought spray adhesive (£4) as “advised” suitable for my needs. Absolutely perfect. Great product, super price for spray adhesive. Did the trick.
Highly recommend both the stor and product.
Stocking “crafty” bits are great for a browse in store and ignite ideas!!
Lovely

Placed an order 3 weeks ago with money being taken immediately from my bank.
Dispute contacting customer services who at first said the order was being processed, social media contact, attempting to contact via phone no delivery.
Just received an email saying to expect a refund.
Very disappointed as I’m a long term customer who won’t let this drop until I get proper answers.

agree with previous reviewer customer services abit hard to contact that being said staff at my local merry hill amazing, one comment though you get two 500 pieces jigsaw for £12 or two 1000 for I beleive £16 but I do 500 and wifey does 1000 so we do not get any discount ?.

Never received my order and have emailed them several times asking for updates. Not using them again, as my order has been missing for almost a month.

Order made on 24th September. Delivered to store late. When collected only two of 8 items were sent. There was no note as to why and I was sent no email. I chased this several times only to receive a reply on 18th September telling me that I was to receive a partial refund - no information as to the sum being refunded and no explanation as to why the items had not been sent. Terrible customer service.

I ordered on the 2nd October and still not had delivery!

I ordered 5 books on 20 September but only received 2. After contacting them several times about the missing 3 books, they finally emailed me on 10 October to say they were refunding me for these 3 books as they could not fulfil the order. They did send the refund but I didn't want a refund - I wanted the books I ordered! 2 of the books were for reading on holiday - I had to buy some in WH Smith at the airport and the other book was for my grandson who kept asking me when it was going to arrive. I will NEVER order from The Works again.

Really disappointed. I've shopped here for years and never had an issue, I love this place for stocking fillers or general crafts for my little ones. I typically go into town and buy things but I wanted to use the wider selection online this time. Over 2 weeks later and the items still have not been dispatched; it has surpassed the extended 10 working day timeframe. I contacted the works and I got a very poorly written email back saying "sorr" and how it was within the 10 working days. I'm not sure that person in customer service is able to count working days, or perhaps they are told to just fob customers off at this point given the rise in poor reviews on here lately.

Not sure when or if I will receive my money back or the items, but it's certainly put this long term customer off returning. I hold a grudge like super glue.

Wrong tracking info sent, had to cancel my order
I ordered the books for my daughter’s party, hoping they would arrive in time. Received an email 6 days ago saying dispatched so thought would be fine, checked tracking yesterday and said was delivered but couldn’t find the package. Spent 15 mins on hold to speak to someone as I couldn’t track the package as it kept saying my postcode was wrong, it was because they had sent me the wrong tracking info. Have had to cancel my order now as hasn’t even been dispatched. Tried to review my experience and they wouldn’t post it as it didn’t ’meet the guidelines defined by our third party adjudicator’

I contacted my local Trading Standards via the Citizens Advice Bureau and they sent me a template letter to to cancel my order and obtain a refund. Remember when buying online, everyone in the UK has a 14 day cooling off period where you can cancel orders and obtain refunds.
The Works emailed me apologising for their procedures (apparently they are changing in favour of customers); they also stated that the goods I had ordered were out of stock (at no point was I told that during previous conversations.

I shall be receiving a refund in 3-5 days. However, if I don't receive a refund then I shall go back to the Citizens Advice Bureau for advice and will pursue the matter through the Small Claims Court.

In the meantime, the Citizens Advice Bureau have passed my complaint to Birmingham Trading Standards. If you want your money back and want to complain about The Works' shonky behaviour then call Birmingham Trading Standards. The Works HQ is in Birmingham