Empire Direct www.empiredirect.co.uk-Pre January 2009

The customer service at Empire Direct is very poor. The first delivery was a day late, then missed because it had to be delivered to my work, then it was supposed to be re-scheduled, but Empire Direct did not imforn the delivery company. I only found this out by calling the delivery company directly, who told me it was still sitting on the shelf at their warehouse. It cost me 5 phone calls (each lasting 15mins) and I was only offered (when I asked, incidentally) vouchers. I had a refund and would advise anyone else to avoid this store at all costs.

I bought a Tv from Empire Direct over a week ago over the telephone, they gave me a great price and couldnt be anymore accommodating, they even gave me 10% off and told me my item would be delivered in 2 days, great i thought.

None of their stores had stock of what i wanted and so i rang them to see if i could get hold of one, they said yes we have them in our main warehouse, their website said- availability - selling fast and that they had limited stock.

Over a week later received no tv and no response to over 15 emails, when i did contact them i felt I was given excuses everytime i asked where my tv was.

Finally i have had enough and have gone to comet where i unfortunately paid abit more but at least i have the item without any messing around, I'm currently waiting for Empire Direct to refund me otherwise i shall put them in touch with mastercard.

I ordered 2 pair of sony speaker stands from Empire Direct back in October and here we are are mid-December and still no sign. On initial order they called to say there was a six week delay so fair enough i accepted that. Six weeks came and went no stands and no explanation so I called to be told there was a problem with Sony deliveries and i would be contacted when shipping was due. Needles to say another 2 weeks past with nothing so again I called to say 'They' are the poorest online company i had ever dealt with. Again I was given an apology and told they would e-mail the buyers to find out what was going on and would call me back right away on my mob phone. Again another week has past and no contact in any shape manner or form.

My adviceL Please do not use this company as the customer service is poor.

I ordered a 42 ' LCD on the 6th Nov. They said it would take 7-10days. On the 19th my wife had to ring them to see where the TV had got to, they said the manufacturer has problems and its not there problem. I emailed them the same day and asked them to give me a definitive delivery date but the never answered my email. On the 21st I cancelled the order and they said they would refund that day. It ' s now the 27th and still no refund. I eventually got the same TV at Dixons online within 2 days. Just shows who has the problem. I will never use again and I am now starting legal proceedings.

My builder ordered a fridge and a freezer from Empire Direct on 2/11/08 and on 4/11/08 confirmed delivery on 14/1108. On that day, I called them in the afternoon and was told that they did not place the order on time and therefore, goods are not ready and I had to arrange another date of delivery on 19th Nov. On that day I called them in the morning and was told the courier would contact me an hour before the delivery time. Soon after the call, I received a txt message from my builder asking to call the number to confirm the delivery date. I then called the number and was told there was no record of the delivery to my address and suggested me to contact Empiredirect. I called them and was told the goods had shipped to somewhere else because I had not confirmed the delivery with them. Then I was told I needed to wait for further 2-3 weeks for the goods. I had wasted my 2 days of annual leave on 2 seperated occasions. I then advised my builder to cancel the order the following day. After my builder had cancel the order and had the confirmation of the cancellation from Empiredirect via email, the following day some one from the courier company left a voice message on my mobile asking me to contact them to confirm of the date of the delivery?

I certainly will not order any goods from them in future.

I would neither use Empire Direct again or recommend them to anyone. We tried to buy a fridge freezer from these guys. Firstly they said we would have it within 7 - 10 days. 3 weeks later we received a call saying we would have the item the following thursday and that we should unplug our fridge / defrosted ready for them to take that away. We did putting all our frozen goods in Freezer bags... Only to be told on the day of delivery it would now be a further 5 days before they can deliver the item. So we now have wasted all the frozen food!

I feel I have received bad service from Empire Direct. They delivered a dishwasher broken, and then promised replacement in 4 days (when I needed it in 2). They failed to deliver on that delivery date and then failed to deliver the next delivery date. Various excuses given.

Ordered an oven just over a week ago. Managed to get an extra 10% off the price through a special 10% off day they were running, so in total, they were charging 51% of the price B&Q were ( £390 inc delivery vs. £760 vs delivery - for exactly the same oven).

They phoned the next day to arrange delivery and it arrived today, exactly when they said it would.

Delivery drivers brought the oven into the house and unpacked it so I could check for damage and decide whether to accept or reject item.

Honestly couldn't fault any part of the sale. Recommend them 100%.

My LCD TV I bought of Empire Direct developed a band of light coloured pixels after a couple of weeks, I phoned customer services expecting a battle -particularly as I'd thrown the packaging away. However after putting me on hold for 10 seconds I was told that they would arrange collection and delivery of a new TV and that no packaging was not a problem as the courier would be told to use the packaging for the new TV. Delivery was super quick, with the customer services ringing to arrange a convenient time, brilliant service and such a refreshing change!

I can no longer trust Empire on delivery time. They stated that the item was in stock, but I found out it actually was not. I had to eventually cancel my order, as 4 weeks delivery is just not good enough for me - especially when you have to make continuing trips to the launderette!

It might look a cheap option, but is it really worth the wait?