Barratts www.barratts.co.uk

On 2 May 2013 I ordered a pair of shoes on-line as a present. I received

an email accepting the order and confirming my payment. I waited for the

email telling me the shoes were despatched. After the Bank Holiday on

7 May 2013 Barratts emailed to say "due to quality issues" they could not

supply the shoes and had cancelled my order. They were refunding my payment

which could take up to 7 days.

The only way I could complain by email was via the Barratts Customer

Support website. I sent an email complaining that by accepting my

order and payment Barratts had made a contract with me. They can

not unilaterally cancel that without offering me an alternative.

Needless to say, I have received no acknowledgement of my complaint

email from Barratts. Because my email was sent via their website, I have no access to a copy of it.

Thanks to your website I can now warn others not to deal with

Barratts. The shoes were a present and thanks to Barratts I had

no time to find a replacement. A year or so ago, I bought shoes

from another well known retailer who apologised promptly for accepting my order when their warehouse couldn't meet it. They told me that

they had asked their branches to search for my shoes, kept me updated,

and within a week had managed to meet my order. That is good customer

service, which Barratts could learn a lot from.

Unbelievable bad service this is a case of a company not managing their orders and dispatch. Spent a small fortune over time in Barratts high street store and online but never again! Ordered online a few times and every time the same problems this time 3 out of 6 items ordered were not then available. Don’t even bother wasting your time selecting as there appear to be a 50% probability you will never get what you ordered. This despite constant apologies and promises from Barratts that I would not encounter the same problems as experienced on previous orders – and to give them another try. Well it appear Barratts would promise and directly lie to their customer in order to meet their own agenda and unscrupulously say and promise whatever is needed in order to do so. Avoid this sham of a company and look elsewhere they do not deserve your business on principle alone.

Ordered two pairs of shoes on the 28th November for my Holiday on the 7th December.

Received an email on the 29th November telling me my order had been despatched.

Received a further email on the 3rd December telling me my order had been despatched along with a tracking number.

The tracking number wasn't working.

I contacted Barratts via email on the 5th December asking for clarification on where my order was...

Received an email later that day telling me that my tracking number was now working and that my shoes were being despatched that day!

Ok so when I got an email on the 29th Nov, that was a lie??

When I got an email on the 3rd December... that was a lie???

Unhappy at this point I call Barratts to be told that they do no know why I have been told the above as my order was despatched on the 30th November and it has been lost in transit!!

2 further points from this:

1) So the customer service rep who emailed me back on the 5th has blatantly lied again by stating my order was being despatched that day.

2) How long would I have had to wait before I was informed that my items were 'lost in transit'? I'm sure until I contacted them is the answer!

This was my first and last experience of ordering from Barratts! I understand all about perspective but I am fuming as I write this. It's just another chore I have to do before leaving for holiday, making a trip out round the busy shops! Grrrrr! Again, I will apply perspective but only once I've calmed down!

I ordered shoes online from this company. They charged my card and after two days emailed me to say my order had been "dispatched" (lie #1).

Two weeks later and still no sign. I contact for an update and am told they were never dispatched due to quality control issues and a "full refund" had been issued (lie #2).

In fact only a partial refund had been issued and after a day of email back and forth they insist a "full refund" has been issued despite the fact that I received an automated response from them and my payment provider stating they had made a "partial refund".

After researching on the web I discover this company has been in bankruptcy at least once and seems to be barely keeping its head above the water - is it any wonder with the incredibly bad service they give? (really, you want to see the email platitudes they sent! ... much of it "cut and paste" from other responses I see they have sent to people online with similar issues!!).

I now have to wonder if they are in difficulty again and cannot fulfil orders because suppliers will not give them product? ... is this the real reason goods were not shipped?

My advice - steer clear - better to give your money to a company that has integrity, customer service and operations systems that actually *work* and do not lie at the first step. Barratts shoes "Once they're gone, they're gone!" (to parody their current sale slogan).

I will now be contacting their suppliers directly to try to determine if they are in fact supplying the company with goods. It is unfortunate that some good product manufacturers get associated with rogue traders like Barratts.

Over the past three years I have purchased several pairs of ladies' shoes, two pairs of leather ankle boots and one pair of long leather boots from BARRATTS.CO.UK. They have all been of EXCELLENT quality and I have had no problems whatsoever with any of them; neither has my daughter, for whom I bought the long leather boots as a gift.

There is always a very wide choice of styles of all types of footwear, ranging from the very cheap upto the quite expensive. They also have a good supply of bargains, of which were a pair of black leather ankle boots I bought for £17 and which I had seen elsewhere for £50! Delivery charges are very reasonable compared to many other sites as well.

All my deliveries with the exception of one have been on time - I rang to enquire where the goods were and was told that they were out of stock - they had not emailed me to tell me, for which they apologized. They refunded the amount I had paid onto my credit card within two days. I then ordered a similar pair of shoes with no further problems.

Their website can be a bit daunting because of the amount of stock they carry but you can break it down into the categories you want.

All in all, I highly recommend Barratts.co.uk for choice, value, delivery and really their customer service, as mine was a minor blip, after all.

good service, good quality