Additions Direct www.additionsdirect.co.uk

I ordered a duck down duvet from Additions on the 28th August, which I was told was in stock and would be delivered with the rest of my order the following week.... Then I was told that it was not in stock and had been delayed until the 15th Sept. Then I Was told that it was delayed until around the 22nd Sept, then I got a call to say it had been delayed until the 24th Sept and so I waited in all day and it never arrived. At 4.30 I called up about this and was told that the status on the system is that it was returned to the depot on 16th Sept and if I would like to reorder I could do so?!?!

I am infuriated that I was having calls and text messages to say that it was delayed, however their system said it was already returned. I would like to add that I had no proof of an attempted delivery (usually a card to say that they had been to the house but no one was in), also my father is retired and so at home most of the day and he heard nothing.

When I emailed Additions with my long detailed story, I was simply told that it had been returned and to reorder - no apologies for the obvious miscommunication etc etc. All of the customer service reps I have spoken to have been less than helpful, they all sound miserable on the phone, they pretty much repeat themselves until you get bored or annoyed and hang up and they respond on email much the same. DO NOT USE ADDITIONS DIRECT if you would like to stay sane of mind. Once my account has been closed I will not use them again and will advise my friends of the same.

ordered on 03/04/2010 3 pieces of furniture.

1 arrived on time.

1 had a wrong piece inside: after calls and emails I'm still waiting for it. According to their agreements I cannot send it back since I already started assembling it.

After 2 months I'm still waiting for the third to arrive.

Polite customer service but definitely useless.

I ordered a sliding door wardobe from Additions Direct only for my delivery to consist of sliding doors! When I called them, they said someone would get back to me within 48 hours, which they have not. Then I filed a complaint and was told someone would get back to me within 24 hours, still no response. I have been charged for the amount and still only have the doors for my wardrobe but no wardrobe!! Will never use them again.

ordered a plasma tv delivery supposed to be on 8th, 13th today not turned up yet, haven't received a phone call from courier to arrange delivery, call centre staff do not seem interested at all when i asked to speak to someone else was told no everyone is busy, i will never do business with this company again.

My first interaction Additions Direct, looking for a hard to find item. I dislike particularly that the item continues to be shown as available and the only point at which stock was confirmed was after my registration information was collected.

I found customer service to be extremely poor in my experience. I was given the impression that the advisors I dealt with were not allowed to make any kind of decision based on initiative to solve my problems. I was told delivery would be between 7.30 and 11.30. Had to wait all day and my order still was not delivered. I thought the advisors I spoke to seemed like talking robots. They said they did not have the delivery time on their system due to carrier who called me not them. They also said that there's no guarantee it will be that time and there's nothing they can do but arrange another day. The advisor I spoke to even asked if I wanted to hear about their fantastic offers just after I told him how disappointed I was.

Additions Direct changed the time of my delivery and I received the wrong item.

As a first time customer to www.additionsdirect.co.uk I was offered £10 off first order only to find written print that needed a magnifying glass to read that it was out of date just over 1 week after receiving the catalogue. Out of 10 items looked at to order 1 was in stock!

Formerly known as Argos Additions they have changed their name to reflect their growing independence from the Argos brand. Additions Direct is the UK's largest mail order company and are beginning to circulate their catalogue within Boots stores which alters the exclusive arrangement that they used to have with Argos.

Some of you may have used the main Argos site and indeed from looking at some of the reviews on CIAO there appears to be a mixed response to how user friendly you have found it. Please note that the Additions site is in my opinion much more easy to use and much faster.

Site Navigation - - - -

The front page is really well laid out with virtually all relevant sections available at the click of your mouse, rather than the usual "breadcrumb trail" that requires you to click through multiple times just to find a specfic section.

The site itself is very easy to navigate, and fast although I don't know whether this makes it just too tempting to go click crazy .

Sections -----

The front page lists the main sections that you can view these include, Women's Fashion, Men's Fashion, Women's Footwear, Men's Footwear, Women's Sports, Men's Sports, Babies Kids and Teens, Electrical, Furniture and Homeware and What's new.

I like the way this is broken up it seems very logical afterall being a man if I want to buy Men's shoes why should I need to click through three other pages to get to my specific section? (clearly it was designed by a female, who actually understands what the customer wants!)

To the right of the screen are displayed any main offers that are available, at the moment they have 10% of the New Looks for Winter rang, if you order before the 30th of November.

Wish List ------

I haven't seen this before on most other online shopping portals but the basic concept is that you can create a list of items as you browse through the site that you might like to buy in the future. I like this option as you don't have to add items and remove them from your shopping basket, you just save them to the wish list and then at the end of your browsing you can add the specific items you want to your shopping basket.

What's more, unlike a shopping basket, you can save your wish list for future reference and you'll be particularly pleased to hear you can email it to a friend, an ideal way of dropping hints to your dullard of a husband regarding what you want for Christmas!

Payment Methods ------

The two main ways to pay are via Credit Card directly through the website or through something called a Direct Plus Account.

The Direct Plus Account is an interesting Idea that provides you with a credit limit within the Addition Direct site.

All you need to do is fill in an online form , Name, Address, Income etc, that you would normally expect to complete for a credit card application and Additions Direct will carry out an online credit check, which if successful will allow you to create a new account.

Tips ------

The Direct Plus Account is an excellent idea if you intend to shop regularly with Additions Direct and you can pay off your balance anytime Online, by Post, or at the Post Office

The instant credit is a little dangerous for those of you who are tempted to click and spend!

There are three main credit check organisations that most big name companies use these are Experian, GE Capital and Equifax. There are also a number of small organisations. They apply specific criteria given to them by any company who want to give you credit and these criteria can vary from company to company. For instance that is why you can go into a bank and ask for a loan and one bank will turn you down but another bank will accept you despite the fact that they both use the same credit check agency! I think that Additions use Experian as their preferred company, (although I stand to be corrected.) So if you know that you have credit problems with Experian it's probably not worth applying for the Direct Plus Account.

Delivery -------

Adittions Direct have a great rang of delivery options for you to choose from these include;

Standard Delivery £3

If you order before 1pm it should reach you with 48 hours.

Next Day Delivery £6

If you order before 1pm it will arrive the next working day. It is worth noting though that next day delivery isn't available on weekends, so if you order on a Friday it won't reach you until the Monday.

Specified Day Delivery (Hurray at last) £6

This is so refreshing, I hate receiving deliveries as you can never be entirely sure of when they will arrive, but this solves the problem. You can choose which day your goods are delivered in any of the next seven days (excluding Weekends). i.e. Order on a Monday and choose which day from the next Wednesday onwards that your order is delivered.

If you're a busy person like me this is ideal as I can plan my diary around when the delivery is arriving. Having used this service it really does work!

Delivery times are from 8am - 5pm Monday to Friday.

Returns ------

They're free!!!!!!! If you aren't happy with the product just return it within 14 days in the original packaging.

Having bought some items myself via this website I can vouch for the specificed date delivery, they arrived on the right day and with minimum disturbance to me!