Falkland Square, Poole. I ordered three books on line but when I went to the store only two had arrived. In all it took three trips to get the third book. I am a pensioner with cancer and find it difficult to get out. The female staff member I spoke to was not particularly helpful. There is nowhere to sit down in the store. There is no lift and I was not able to manage the stairs so did not get to see the military history section and other genres that were upstairs. Very disappointing and I will not be returning.

I used to love going to Waterstones as the customer service was really good and they had a fair selection of books. In the last year or so they have really gone downhill, I have visited multiple branches and experienced nothing but stress, anger and a fully negative experience. They call themselves a book shop but now where I live the majority is e-readers or pencils or silly joke gifts and desk accessories. The ratio of books to junk is getting worse. The tables in there are so cramped, a skinny woman like myself can barely squeeze through the piles of junk lying around. Books are crammed onto shelves so tightly you break a nail trying to get them out, or they are just slung everywhere, upside down, back to front, floating around the ceiling, thrown on the floor and the assistance don't spare them a glance. Offers? what offers. They cut out 3 for 2, BOGOF, BOGOHP, any money off for your card, the only think they managed to keep is money off for reservations which seems to have gone up so there's little point reserving them now as it's near enough the retail price. Their customer service is the worst. I have been glared at whilst shop assistants stamp past me like I'm a criminal, they throw your change at you, they roll their eyes if you ask for help, they are snide, rude and have even pretended they can't hear me when I ask for a certain section. I will not be spending my money there anymore! taking my custom to WHSmith!!

I loved this book because it drew me in from the start. It is a beautifully written first novel by an author who obviously loves people. The story concerns the community living on Esperanza Street in a town near Manila; it is the Phillipines of the 60s and 70s. Seen throught the eyes of 12 year old Joseph, Niyati Keni gives us so many bright pen portraits of the people Joseph sees every day, either on the street or in the house of Mary Morelos where he works as a houseboy. The community is on the verge of change and Joseph observes with quiet but startling wisdom what is happening around him. Being a houseboy gives his easy access to some of the conversations in Mary Morelos' house when she is entertaining the powerful people of the area. This new author is able to write with grace and gentleness and with brutal force that surprises, as well as humour.I look forward to reading more from her.

I used to shop here just about every week, I have in the past spent a lot of money and time in their stores, not just one, and online. Recently I have noticed how badly this shop has gone downhill. Before Christmas I went into three different stores, they seemed to all have been overhauled with tons of books crammed by the doors (which are left open regardless of how bitterly cold and windy it is) so you may feel like a penguin trying to look at books. I noticed how they have added more gift stock and e-readers to their stock but they've also crammed everything in so tightly it's hard to get around the shop. Waterstones was always renowned as a quiet sanctuary to go and enjoy picking out a book. Not anymore. They removed all the sitting chairs, children are running up and down screaming, people throw everything everywhere and the staff can't be bothered to tidy it up, but they seem more than happy to be as rude to you as they possibly can be humiliating and crushing every ounce of your self-esteem. I have been laughed at whilst looking at books, snappy comments, eye rolls, etc. When I ask if they have a book they tut, sigh and sometimes pretend they can't hear you. I reserved a book online, went to collect it after receiving email confirmation so I phoned them just to make sure as I have had trouble with this service in the past and they confirmed the book was definitely there. I got to the shop and they had sold my reservation to someone else. Another time they insisted they had a book only to then email me later and tell me it's out of stock and I could pay the full retail price instead of reduced online price to have it ordered in within 2 weeks. Not good enough. I will not be shopping in Waterstones anymore!

Been unable to buy digital books online with Waterstones for months due to their sites inability to take Barclays debit or credit cards. After numerous phone calls to my bank and Barclaycard - I eventually find out it is Waterstones issue. If they had replied to any of my emails or calls to customer service, I wouldn't have wasted the hours that I did. Eventually I got a reply from my 5th email to tell me that it was their fault and they couldn't take Barclays cards. The good news was that this would soon be sorted. However after 6 months it wasn't sorted. Eventually after 9 months it worked. Hallelujah! Great news. And then a new site, even better - but hold on Barclays cards don't work again. I've emailed customer services for an answer and once again no reply - despite an acknowledgement tells ng me I would get an answer in 72 hours. Cowboy company with IT people that would struggle with an abacus

It's bad enough when the company processes your payment, assures you the book has been dispatched and it fails to show up, but the tracking system is shocking and it would seem that they deliberately make it difficult to contact them. This is my first, and last, encounter with Waterstones online. I will stick to Amazon in future.

Found a cookbook cheaper in the supermarket next door - wrote privately on Facebook to let them know. Was asked to email them which i did - only for customer services to patronise me and knock copy of the supermarket@ That made me cross.

Never again will I order on line or purchase books in store at Waterstones. Having received a gift token for Christmas, I ordered two books on line. 1 is showing as despatched but has still not been delivered 28 days later. The other I'm told is out of stock, and so I'm still waiting to see if that one will ever materialise. 5 days ago I contacted Waterstones customer services to log my concern, again by email, and other than automated reply have heard nothing. Having read other appalling reviews I am now contemplating taking my case to trading standards.

We tried to do the right thing this year and not order books from Amazon. Big mistake. I ordered five books on Dec 7 from Waterstones online. A week later we received an email saying that two of the books weren't in their warehouse and they'd have to find them from one of their stores. We have a local store, so this shouldn't have been a problem, especially since the books were current titles that I saw plenty of when we were there. It took a week for them to deliver the three books they did have in the warehouse and the fourth one didn't arrive until two weeks later. They sent an email saying the fifth book was shipped a couple of days before Christmas and, obviously, did not arrive in time for Christmas morning. I won't be ordering online from Waterstones again. Too bad too because I like the store in the city, but ordering from Amazon is always going to be quicker than Waterstones.

What an awful online company, offering poor feedback to customers, and very bad information. I ordered a book, which was not clearly labelled as "out of stock" The order page made me think all was good, until a few days later when I realized I hadn't had any communication about my order. Went to my online account to find the item was out of stock so selected the option to cancel my order. Purchased the product from elsewhere, a week later received an email telling me the book had been "completely dispatched" and I had been charged, instantly tried to call Waterstones, no customer services on the weekend, so sent an email expressing my disgust with the service. 30 minutes later, I received an email to tell me the item was not in stock and would not be delivered until after Christmas (This time now being too late to order elsewhere and receive, luckily I had already ordered it from elsewhere) I did managed to send an email to Waterstones requesting that my order be cancelled, just as I had selected online almost 2 weeks prior, and I have been informed that they have made a full refund, although 2 days later, I have still not seen the refund. Unpleasant experience. There is such a variety of places available to purchase goods from, it seems Waterstones have got the mix between sale price and cutomer service horribly wrong. Pay less and expect poor service, or pay more and expect good service, not pay medium and have very poor service. SORT IT OUT WATERSTONES - Stop conning people to buy items you do not even have for sale.

Had a gift voucher for £10. Bought 3 books online (£26) all of which stated "Free postage". Went to pay and saw that £4 postage had been added. Still went ahead with purchase, thought I would ring them and sort it out later. Entered gift voucher details but was told that the card was not acceptable. And I was left hanging in the air. There is little wonder that Amazon beats them hands down.

Thought I'd throw a bit of business in Waterstones' direction - an online order with quoted expected delivery time of 7-10 days. 5 days later, I received an automated message to notify me that the book was out of stock and would be ordered in from their supplier. Either I am to believe that Waterstones are so incompetent that it takes them 5 days to figure out if a book is in their warehouse (which is something any e-business that manages stock should know within hours if not instantly), or that they deliberately drag their feet on telling you something is out of stock so that you do not immediately go elsewhere. Another 10 days pass with no further notification. The online order tracking gives no useful information about status, and no estimated shipment dates. I cancelled the order (pending their approval, go figure). I'll be taking my business back to Amazon, and have every confidence that the book will arrive within 3-5 days as claimed. Won't be using Waterstones again and wouldn't be sad to see those heavy debts catch up with them. For a company with such an extensive history in selling books their e-business is hopelessly antiquated.