Cath Kidston - www.cathkidston.co.uk

This is the email I sent to Cath Kidston following my experience!

A friend wanted a CK voucher for her birthday. I ordered the £20 voucher online (I shop online a lot so am quite au fait with how it should work) 2 weeks ahead and 4 days before rang to check where it was. You told me you had never received it.

(By the way, the waiting time when you call is unbelievable - easily 15 min before anyone answers and if you email it can easily take 2 days before you get an answer).

I therefore ordered it again (online) and this time asked for it to go straight to the recipient (it was obviously going to miss the birthday itself which I was annoyed about).

I told my friend to tell me when it arrived - a few days went by and no luck so I rang again and no - they had not received the order again. The woman I spoke with said it was very unusual to have such problem (I now see from many reviews online that this is not the case!) and took the order by phone, promising to send it out for next day delivery as their way of fixing the issue.

Nope - it did not arrive the next day. I rang to chase it up (you ignored an email I sent regarding it) and waited for 15 min before getting through to someone who seemed to have no knowledge of the issue and put me on hold while she went off to investigate. After 5 more min I had to put the phone down as I had someone at the door - no-one bothered to call me back (they did have my number so they could have - I had 20 min in hand when I first placed the call so would have had plenty of time to discuss the issue if the phone had been picked up).

Today I rang and was told that the order had still not left them (how hard is it to put a voucher in the post?!). They also said that the girl last night had 'assumed' the query was dealt with because I had put the phone down.

I asked for a supervisor to call me back.

The supervisor called me back and said it would get to me within 5 working days (!!!!) via Royal mail first class (supposed to take 2 days tops?) - she was defensive and not helpful or apologetic.

I would have cancelled this order a long time ago except it is what my friend wanted. Who knows if she will ever receive it - and her birthday was over a week ago now so I've been trying to get this order for 3 weeks. It is embarrassing.

Worst customer service I have received in years. I will make sure everyone knows about it too, because a company that bad does not deserve to do well. I will be reviewing you online on every site I can find - not something I have ever felt compelled to do. My friend (previously a big fan) is also disappointed in you as she was hoping to use her voucher in your sale which will probably be long gone by the time she receives the

I first placed an order on 25th of dec 2010,a month later ,I am still waiting for it to arrive,during this month, I have got in touch with their customer service few times,spoken to several people,but where are the goods that I have ordered and paid for??This is my 1st time ordering from this company and my last.Has anyone got any similar experience with this company?