Unfortunately Abel and Cole sounds more idealistic than it is in reality. I first began ordering in January 2012 after pledging to eat more healthily. We had the odd hiccup with an item being missed occasionally, or the dairy produce expiring quicker than the BBE label would suggest, but was always quickly rectified. I thought their customer service was great. However, over the past year the delivery driver has changed numerous times (think I am on my 6th different driver now) and they do not follow delivery instructions properly. The logistics are a nightmare. The final straw for me was today. I had gradually been phasing them out, only ordering the odd thing I really fancied as the quiche is, quite frankly, rather superb. However, I don't find the fruit & veg to be such a good deal anymore but liked the ethics behind it and supporting local farmers. Our delivery arrived today at around 11.30am. The driver - who I have never seen before - drops our order off and puts the slip through the door and drives off. Odd, considering two cars were on the drive, but the dogs had warned me he was there anyway. Ten minutes later I go to find my order dropped off in-between two of our overflowing bins (due to poor council deliveries over Christmas and NY) and put in a puddle with two bags of dog faeces on the floor, which had soaked into the cardboard! I am seven months pregnant and had to bend over to hulk the boxes inside, stinking. Furious, I call Abel & Cole as I an unprepared to even use the food (he didn't even put a bag over the box or anything, considering the floor was wet) and was told, unapologetically that my delivery instructions say to leave 'near the bins' and therefore there is nothing they can do about it. Near the bins isn't exactly in the middle of dirty bins. The lady also stated that the man 'wouldn't have seen' the dog faeces therefore it basically wasn't his fault. So effectively the drivers can leave your food contaminated anywhere and they won't accept any responsibility. Where is the common sense? We were in the middle of clearing the garden, a simple courtesy knock would have sufficed, but to leave our food like that is appalling. I don't buy that people can't see dog faeces. It would have been the same if it was contaminated food or anything to that effect. Pure stupidity is what I call it. I have now had to throw away £40 worth of food. Furious, I have now cancelled all future orders and will migrate over to Ocado who I hear are rather good, and keep offering me £20 off. This should offset some of the Abel & Cole palaver.

having used abel and cole for around 12 months now I have recently felt like the quality of the produce has deteriorated and does not stay fresh for as long as it used to. in fairness their delivery service is still very good but that unfortunately is not enough to disuade me from looking for alternative suppliers.

The first was being sent chicken products that were smelly and far from fresh, then there was a delivery hiccup, but I accept that it was partly my mistake, then there was the quality of some of the vegetables, which I accepted because I had not chosen them. However the final straw was ordering a quantity that fell very short and could not be simply put down to a mistake, e.g. 400g of cavolo nero which weighed in at 260g. Their customer service was always faultless until - I decided not to order from them again, they took no responsibility for the reasons I was closing my account, the email from them stated - "We are always sad to say goodbye to our customers but we understand that people’s circumstances and requirements can change." What cheek ! So they blame their customers for their shortcomings! They have certainly secured my complete rejection of their service for all time.

I purchased two gift boxes for friends as Christmas presents which was fine, the gifts were well received and I was pleased with them as well.
However, I then wanted Able and Cole to come and collect the packaging they delivered my order in as they could re-use it. This was arranged with them and I duly left the boxes outside my house for collection. They were not collected.
I rang again and was told again that they would come and get the boxes. Again they did not come. By this time the boxes were ruined, having been out in the rain. Feeling it would be a waste to throw away the wool insulators that were in the box, I sent them back to Able and Cole via Royal Mail.
The day after I did this, Able and Cole's driver turned up, saying he had come to collect the boxes, which I no longer had.
Having received my parcel, Gabby from Able and Cole rang me up and offered to refund the postage and send me a small veg box as a goodwill gesture. This was much appreciated but I have received the box today and it is missing some of the veg that was supposed to be in it. This is an infuriating and almost farcical situation and due to an apparent inability to get things right I will not be using Able and Cole again.