Rathwood Furniture Carlow - Poor service, misleading delivery dates

Curb Your Enthusiasm

Hi,

More of a heads up rather than seeking advice really but I have been having a terrible experience with Rathwood, who sell garden furniture online (based in Carlow)

Looking at Google reviews I'm definitely not the only one.

I ordered an expensive garden set worth close to €1000 back in July, with a promised delivery date of mid August. Payment taking upon ordering. I also ordered a cover for the set with it in the same order.

The delivery date came and went, and no contact from them until I contacted them myself.

I was advised of a delay and given a new date. This date came and went also. Same story several more times until my set arrived nearly 3 months after it was due to (summer of course gone at that stage)

The cover didn't come with the table. Apparently these are sent seperately.

Supposed to come in September, it's now the end of October and again multiple promised delivery dates and not met. Only today after emailing them again they've now advised me it'll be due in at the start of December.

Absolutely appalled at the level of service from this crowd. If I wanted poor customer service and slow delivery I'd have ordered these sets from China myself.. for probably half the cost too.

All the excuses under the sun provided too, "ships are stuck at Southampton port", "bad weather", "customs have been holding onto the goods in the UK for a few weeks" - and of course Covid used numerous times too (I ordered the set in July, Covid was known well before this)

Now I've a set with no cover coming into winter too.

Just really poor service and misleading delivery times stated before a customer makes payment.

Is there anyone I can report this behaviour to? Just reading other reviews on Google it looks as if this was the usual behaviour from them even as far back as a year ago.

If I was an isolated case I might have more sympathy but this just stinks of 'take the cash and string them along'.

Thanks.

STCN

Curb Your Enthusiasm wrote: »

Hi,

More of a heads up rather than seeking advice really but I have been having a terrible experience with Rathwood, who sell garden furniture online (based in Carlow)

Looking at Google reviews I'm definitely not the only one.

I ordered an expensive garden set worth close to €1000 back in July, with a promised delivery date of mid August. Payment taking upon ordering. I also ordered a cover for the set with it in the same order.

The delivery date came and went, and no contact from them until I contacted them myself.

I was advised of a delay and given a new date. This date came and went also. Same story several more times until my set arrived nearly 3 months after it was due to (summer of course gone at that stage)

The cover didn't come with the table. Apparently these are sent seperately.

Supposed to come in September, it's now the end of October and again multiple promised delivery dates and not met. Only today after emailing them again they've now advised me it'll be due in at the start of December.

Absolutely appalled at the level of service from this crowd. If I wanted poor customer service and slow delivery I'd have ordered these sets from China myself.. for probably half the cost too.

All the excuses under the sun provided too, "ships are stuck at Southampton port", "bad weather", "customs have been holding onto the goods in the UK for a few weeks" - and of course Covid used numerous times too (I ordered the set in July, Covid was known well before this)

Now I've a set with no cover coming into winter too.

Just really poor service and misleading delivery times stated before a customer makes payment.

Is there anyone I can report this behaviour to? Just reading other reviews on Google it looks as if this was the usual behaviour from them even as far back as a year ago.

If I was an isolated case I might have more sympathy but this just stinks of 'take the cash and string them along'.

Thanks.

Can I ask did you ever get your furniture- I am waiting for an order that was supposed to arrive in April but it has been changed endlessly and is now late July but I’ve a feeling this will move again . They did send a table , a wooden one with a big splinter that wobbles and a parasol without the stand but the rest of a much larger order and is apparently stuck in the Panama canal - sounds familiar reading your story and others . Seems lots of people have the same problem - you pay up front but don’t get the goods until months after you expect them .

silver2020

STCN wrote: »

Can I ask did you ever get your furniture- I am waiting for an order that was supposed to arrive in April but it has been changed endlessly and is now late July but I’ve a feeling this will move again . They did send a table , a wooden one with a big splinter that wobbles and a parasol without the stand but the rest of a much larger order and is apparently stuck in the Panama canal - sounds familiar reading your story and others . Seems lots of people have the same problem - you pay up front but don’t get the goods until months after you expect them .

If the furniture is coming from the far east, there are horrendous shipping delays due to capacity issues. The Panama canal debacle caused further headache.

Not as bad as they were earlier in the year, but still 4-6 weeks additional waiting time unless you have a locked in contract which gets priority (and causes further delays for others).

On top of that there are manufacturing delays.

A company I purchase a lot of product from has pushed two major product launches into 2022 because they can not be guaranteed for the autumn 2021 season.