This is a feed of the latest reviews for Empire Direct on TheUKHighStreet.com. http://www.theukhighstreet.com/rss/rss_reviews_1215.rss Wed, 00 Dec 0 12:00:00 GMT http://www.theukhighstreet.com/images/tinylogo.jpg http://www.theukhighstreet.com/rss/rss_reviews_1215.rss UK High Street Shops and Services 120 60 On 14th August this year I ordered a MIELE F1365 S freezer online from Empire Direct. The following day I had a telephone call from a very nice young man, who explained that delivery on this item would be a minimum of 3 weeks because it had to be ordered in (delivery was 7 to 10 days on the site), did I still wish to proceed with the sale. Unfortunately, (in hindsight) I did. Last week I was emailed by the salesman to say delivery of the freezer would be on Saturday 29th September between 8am and 5.30pm. I emailed back to thank him and confirm that delivery could be taken that day. The day arrived and went, but there was no freezer, Empire Direct’s Customer Care Team aren’t available on a Saturday. On Monday morning at 9.00am I rang Customer Care and spoke to a representative, she said she would enquire into the non delivery and call me back. No call came. I rang 7 times over the next couple days, was told I would be called back but no one ever did. Having still heard nothing I rang again on Wednesday morning, I spoke to yet another person, he tried to pass me to someone who could help, but couldn’t find anyone. Then finally, he said I should ring sales because there was a three week delivery on the item and there was none in stock. I pointed out that I had paid for the freezer 5 weeks ago, it had been ordered and I had been emailed with a delivery date. I asked to speak to a supervisor and was told I would be rung by someone as soon as they became available. I then rang sales I explained the situation to one of his colleagues and asked for a full refund. A Sales Representative rang me back within 20 minutes, (Customer Don’t Care Team hadn’t bothered to call) he apologised profusely, then explained that the freezer had come in to the Bradford Depot and should have been delivered but had been sent to another customer by the Bradford Depot. He asked if I wished to reorder, this would take at least another 3 weeks, but I declined and asked for a full refund. I have in effect lent Empire Direct money for 5 weeks, we had a wasted day on Saturday, I have been stressed out by Empire Direct’s Customer Don’t Care team’s inability to let me know what is going on, I also wasted time and money on phone calls. The website and sales team seem very good (I was promised a refund immediately but I will not know for a couple days about that). The Customer Care Team and the Delivery side of the operation seem to be very poor. I am unable to recommend them. By the way Comet are delivering the same model freezer 12th October. It was slightly more expensive but there is no delivery charge, and I only ordered it today 4th October. http://www.theukhighstreet.com/perl/review.cgi?ReviewID=2493 http://www.theukhighstreet.com/perl/review.cgi?ReviewID=2493 Wed, 00 Dec 0 12:00:00 GMT I bought a dvd recorder with freeview built in .After 1 week i could not tune in freeview any more(it just locked up), sent it back to Empire Direct they told me there,s nothing wrong with it you need a new earial, so £50 for a new earial still and it still locked up, so took machine to a sony centre, they tried to tune in freeview they could not either. so sent machine back to E .direct unbelievably they said its fine , so sony , myself, earial engineer and a friend who has freeview and also tried to tune in for me(at his house) dont know what were doing , so at a stale mate . SO I WILL NEVER BUY FROM THEM AGAIN . BEWARE http://www.theukhighstreet.com/perl/review.cgi?ReviewID=2425 http://www.theukhighstreet.com/perl/review.cgi?ReviewID=2425 Thu, 12 Oct 2006 12:00:00 GMT I ordered a dvd recorder with Hard drive. They took the payment for this TWICE out of my account. It took them over a week to put the payment they had taken twice back into my account. They sent me a £40 gift voucher to cover this, which did not work on their web site and didn't cover purchase for most of the items on their web site. The DVD player was faulty (surprise) and received astonishingly poor service from their 'help desk'. I arranged for this to be collected by them ( they have to do this before sending out a new dvd player). Waited in ALL day and no one turned up even though I phoned them about 4 times during the day to make sure they were coming. I would urge EVERYONE NOT TO BUY ANYTHING FROM THIS SITE. THEY ARE INCOMPETANT AND IF ANYTHING GOES WRONG THEY DON'T WANT TO KNOW. PLEASE DO NOT PURCHASE FORM THIS SITE. EXTREMELY POOR. AND STILL THEY HAVEN'T RESOLVED THIS AND I HAVE NO REFUND. http://www.theukhighstreet.com/perl/review.cgi?ReviewID=2306 http://www.theukhighstreet.com/perl/review.cgi?ReviewID=2306 Fri, 30 Dec 2005 12:00:00 GMT Wow. Wished I had read the previous reviews before using Empire direct. Bought an expensive digital camera in August 2004. Service & delivery were fantastic and all promises were kept. However my problems started when the camera went wrong in June 2005. I rang and was told I would have the camera repaired under warrenty and returned within the week and it was collected within 4 hours. I may see it some time in the future. Despite numerous calls and e-mails all I get is promises, no return calls, and now staff do not want to speak to me. I have asked to speak to a supervisor, but he will not speak directly to customers, call staff have to send him an e-mail. I have asked for a contact for a senior member of staff but that has been flatly refused, and I am at a loss of what to do next. I found this site doing a search for a Directors number. I will now contact Trading Standards for advice, but the way things are going I don't expect to see my beloved camera again. I will definitely not be using or recommending Empire ever again. Has anyone ever managed to talk to a Senior person? Another direct telephone num,ber I have been given is 01132094362 http://www.theukhighstreet.com/perl/review.cgi?ReviewID=2207 http://www.theukhighstreet.com/perl/review.cgi?ReviewID=2207 Mon, 25 Jul 2005 12:00:00 GMT I ordered a JVC36P38 television on 30th December 2004 over the telephone and paid £799 including delivery. I took delivery of the television on 15th January 2005. Since the TV weighs over 50kg, I have to literally cut the box in pieces before I can get it out. In fact, the instruction on the box was to cut it open and tear down the front panel to get the TV out. I then threw the box away as it is no good any more. The television broke down within 5 minutes. An engineer came on 18th January 2005 and confirmed that the power unit is broken and a replacement or full refund should be given. When I rang up to ask for a replacement, I was told the TV is not in stock any more. I then asked for a full refund, and I was told by Erin at customer's service that because I do not have the box, I am not entitled to a refund. I was told that it is stated in the terms and conditions that I am required to the keep the box for 28 days. This is entirely unacceptable because: 1, I bought the TV over the phone and at no point was I asked to read the terms and conditions before I paid. 2, The box has to be cut open with the front panel torn apart in order the get the TV out with clear instruction written on the box. Now, I am left with a broken 36 inch TV at my front room, denied a replacement because they decide not to stock it any more (whhich is the newest JVC model), and refused a fund because I did not have the stupid box!! And at no point was I offered repair as an option. Please, do NOT, I repeat, DO NOT shop at Empiredirect!!! [Note from TheUKHighStreet: Please see http://www.tradingstandards.gov.uk/cgi-bin/calitem.cgi?file=ADV0043-1011.txt and http://www.tradingstandards.gov.uk/cgi-bin/calitem.cgi?file=ADV0050-1011.txt for your rights - if you informed the company immediately you should be entitled to a full refund. If you need advice, see http://www.consumercomplaints.org.uk to contact your local Trading Standards Office.] http://www.theukhighstreet.com/perl/review.cgi?ReviewID=2088 http://www.theukhighstreet.com/perl/review.cgi?ReviewID=2088 Sat, 22 Jan 2005 12:00:00 GMT This company is a joke. They make Fawlty Towers look organised. I have now taken 3 days of work to wait for my plasma wall mount and its still not arrived. Every time I call I'm promised it will arrive tomorrow including a special Saturday delivery and a before 9.00am. All time nothing!! Whats more annoying is apparently there are no senior customer service managers ever available. No reply has been recieved from any faxes or letters. I'm getting fed up of hearing "our systems are down there is nothing we can do"!! I have never got a phone call returned once in two weeks. Save yourself the agro go to Currys same price quality service!!!!! PS the delivery charge cost me £70 aswell http://www.theukhighstreet.com/perl/review.cgi?ReviewID=2048 http://www.theukhighstreet.com/perl/review.cgi?ReviewID=2048 Thu, 16 Dec 2004 12:00:00 GMT I read the reviews on this site regarding Empire Direct and it really put me off buying from them. However, their price was very competitive so after much delibration I decided to bite the bullet and placed an order. I ordered my cordless phone via the web on the morning of Friday (10th). A confirmation email was received almost immediately which (to my surprise) was followed up by a phone call to check that I would be available on Monday (13th) to receive the delivery. So today, as promised, I am now in possesion of my cordless phone. Needless to say as soon as I closed the front door on Royal Mail, my hands were pulling the packaging apart and giving the phone a thorough check for usage, scratches, dents - anything to see if it was a customer return. I am very happy to say that the phone is brand new and I am really pleased. I am sorry to hear that other people had poor service from Empire Direct but I cannot fault them at all. Their service was excellent and pricing was so competitive. I know people do tend to report on negative experiences so I felt compelled to write this review. For those of you who need to call their customer service, the landline number is 0113 209 4346. (They only advertise the 0870 number which is charged at national rate on their website.) http://www.theukhighstreet.com/perl/review.cgi?ReviewID=1942 http://www.theukhighstreet.com/perl/review.cgi?ReviewID=1942 Mon, 13 Sep 2004 12:00:00 GMT Maybe I was lucky?. don't know, but I couldn't fault them. Very late last Thursday evening I was looking around on the web for a new TV using various comparison tools when I came across empire direct and saw just what I wanted at a very competitive price, so didn't hesitate and placed an order on their site which was very easy to use (another brownie point). Within a couple of minutes I received a confirmation of order email. So feeling very pleased with myself for having got such a bargain, I patted myself on the back and went off to bed feeling rather smug with myself. In work the next morning I mentioned to a colleague my purchase and she said that she'd been going to buy one from them but had been put off by all the bad reviews on various sites and from what she could make out they shouldn't be touched with a barge pole. I was horrified and rushed in from work, intending to do all the research that I should have done BEFORE placing the order (yes, I know I'm stupid!) and wondering if I should try and cancel the order. I was therefore pleasantly surprised to find a message on my answering machine from Empire direct customer services thanking me for my order and advising me that it would be delivered on Tuesday. Yes, I did still read all the reviews on this and other sites but decided to give them the benefit of the doubt and wait and see what happened. Tuesday morning dawned and at 0740 my doorbell rang and there was a courier with my new toy as promised. Further investigation showed it to be in immaculate condition and I spent the morning happily setting it up and playing with it. (But also, I must admit, feeling quite relieved that I hadn't had the problems others have obviously had) As I said, maybe I was just lucky but they certainly get 10/10 from me and I'm chuffed to pieces with my new TV! http://www.theukhighstreet.com/perl/review.cgi?ReviewID=1379 http://www.theukhighstreet.com/perl/review.cgi?ReviewID=1379 Wed, 17 Sep 2003 12:00:00 GMT