Avoid, avoid, avoid!
I placed an order for an oak dining table, 6 chairs and 2 lamp tables in July 2021. I wanted the dining table for Christmas and delivery was scheduled for 29 November. I then received an email on 18 November to tell me there was a delay with my order, due to the pandemic, and that my order would now be delivered on 25 February 2022! (7 months after I'd ordered and paid). So that messed up our Christmas dinner plans for a start! Fast forward to February 2022 and I was expecting my order to be delivered on the 25 February. Yes, you guessed it …. I get another email, this time just 3 days before the delivery date, to tell me of yet ANOTHER delay (again due to the pandemic) and advising me to log into my account and book a new delivery date. I logged in to find that the items hadn't even been shipped yet and the earliest delivery date is now 20th September 2022 – a whole 14 MONTHS after I ordered and paid for them. So, by the time I get my goods (assuming of course that they do come in September, and I don't get yet ANOTHER email advising of a delay), Oak Furnitureland will have been sitting with my £1500+ in their bank account for well over a year. Now, multiply that by however many people they've messed around and let down over delivery dates. Something smells a bit fishy here – if this company isn't in trouble now then I think it soon will be. I have now cancelled my order so that I can get my money back now before they go belly up! Mind you they don't make this bit easy in the slightest – 3 times I had to ring, each time I was on hold for over 30 minutes before getting through to an adviser that asked for my name and order number before telling me they couldn't process cancellations as they didn't have the authority. So, each time I was then transferred to the cancellations department. Twice they hung up on me, the third time I eventually got through and I couldn't cancel fast enough! While I was waiting I ended up reading other reviews of Oak Furnitureland, none of which were very good (re the quality of the goods when customers do eventually receive them). I'm so glad I've cancelled - there was no way I was waiting for 14 months for poor quality goods to rock up! My advice is to avoid and go elsewhere for your furniture, somewhere that doesn't repeatedly let you down and has better reviews and better customer service.

SHOCKING CUSTOMER SERVICE DEPARTMENT!

We've been told constant lies and all they can say is 'I don't know why you've been told that'

We cancelled our original order on the 01/02/2022, and reordered an item with a discount code. Unfortunately the card we originally paid on expired so the refund couldn't go through.

We called them on 09/02/2022 and provided our sort code and account number over the phone. After receiving no refund we called again but we've been constantly faced with 50+ minute wait times so we emailed our bank details on 15/02/2022. We received no reply or refund so called again 17/02/2022 to be told we needed to provide identification, why had we not been told this before? Only when we had chased them? We provided ID the same day.

On Tues 22/02/2022 we called chasing our refund to be told it was processed the day before but the card details were expired. Yes we knew that, that's why we provided our SC and AN. When she realised, she said the refund would be processed that day.

We called again Fri 25/02/2022 to check the refund had been proceeded to be told it was done on Wed and would be with us no later than the following Wed (02/03/2022), so not Tues like previously stated.

We are now on Thur 03/03/2022 and still no refund of £650! I called again to be told the refund would be with us no later than the following Monday, another 5 days! After giving an arm and a leg to speak to a manger, I was told that all refunds are processed on a Wednesday and it was done yesterday. So I was lied to when I rang and was told the refund was done the day before (a Tuesday) and lied to again when I rang on Fri to be told it was done on the Wed 23/02/2022. The manager couldn't explain why I had been told all this incorrect information.

I'd just like to add that their website T&Cs states:

9.11 We will make the reimbursement without undue delay, and no later than 14 days after the day on which we are informed about your decision to cancel the order.

This clearly hasn't happened now we are well over 14 days and they have done little to resolve this situation other than a 'sorry' which I don't think is good enough for the amount of time and hassle I've spent trying to get MY money back.

Oh and to add, I still haven't received any replies to my emails, including the one on the 17/02/2022 which had a complaint attached to it… SHOCKING!

I was saving money for all summer to buy furniture from Oak Furniture Land. VERY POOR QUALITY!

I ordered 2 sofas at the beginning of March 2020. I visited the store in Colwick Nottingham after lockdown on 29th July to look at the sofas again and the salesman assured me that the order was going through as normal. The delivery date was given to me was 11th August. I was informed on 6th August, 5 days beforehand that the delivery had been delayed for a month, no reason given and the new date given me was 10th September.

My old sofas were picked up on 9th September for donation to a charity. A text at 08.10 the same day informed me that the delivery slot for my sofas for the following day, Thursday was between 10am-1pm. At 17.10 on the Wednesday, I was sent a text telling me to phone the company "at my convenience" regarding my order. I rung the number to be told that my sofas "could not be delivered tomorrow". I asked why and was told they did not know the reason- they may have been damaged or gone astray. I spoke to the manager who gave no further information.

The following day, 10th September, a van drew up outside my house. Two guys turned up to give me my free gift of a dressing table mirror. They said they were expecting to bring me two sofas that morning and queried why they weren't at the warehouse to be told they were not available. They were extremely shocked and very apologetic that I had been so let down so badly. (They are the only people who treated me with any decency in this comedy of errors.) Incidentally the dressing table mirror was damaged and unusable- what a surprise!

As you can imagine I was extremely upset and angry. I had waited over 6 months for this order to come, it had already been deferred once and now I was told there was no alternative but to re-order, the order would take a further 18 weeks with no guarantee of getting the sofas at the end. Other alternatives were to choose other sofas and £250 would be credited against my account or if I cancelled, to be compensated with a £100 voucher. When I asked the manager why I would ever use a voucher to buy anything from OFL stores ever again, he had no answer. I wonder why? He offered to ring me again on 11th September at 10am after discussion with his team to see if there were any other options. He rung late at 10.40am on 11th September and said the same things. There were no other options presented and I said I still hadn't made up my mind what to do. He said he would phone 16th Sept at 10am. He did NOT ring.

I was absolutely furious at the utter contempt with which I have been treated by OFL. No-one cared (except the delivery guys) about what has happened or that I was left without sofas to sit on. Clearly no-one bothered to check that the sofas (presumably) did not ever exist, until 5 pm on the day before they were due to be delivered. I was not phoned nor have I been given a reason as to what happened.

To be texted, and not even get the courtesy of a phone call to tell me the sofas would not be delivered after 6 months without any reason given added insult to injury and reminded me again that this company has treated me with utter contempt. No phone call from the manager as promised has reiterated the same impression.

I wrote and complained to the firm for attention of CEO. Eventually someone got back to me and after being pressed eventually admitted that the order had never gone through! No offer of compensation for the inconvenience and distress and waste of 6 months. Got a miserable £100 voucher after insisting on something. I will NEVER buy anything from them again. Have now got 2 sofas from Next, delivered in days, great quality and service.
Have figured out the reason why their official reviews are so good- they ask you for a review just after you have ordered the furniture, NOT after they have delivered it- often late, poor quality, damaged, with poor after sales service or not at all! Wish I could give them 0 stars. Don't touch them with a barge pole!

Updated a day ago

Me and my partner ordered £4000 of

Me and my partner ordered £4000 of items between us in May 2020.

We E-mailed on 3 separate occasions to cancel the orders well before delivery dates. We E-mailed Mon 18th, Wed 20th and Fri 22nd which was the week before the following Wednesday 27th delivery.

The E-mails had an automated response, but we had no reply until Monday 25th which is understandable due to covid-19. To be fair. One week after the first E-mail and 2 days before the delivery date was my response time.

We received a phone call that was from John on the retentions team on Monday 25th.

I was cancelling because I had seen lots of pictures of reviews on sitejabber. Oh my God those reviews were accurate btw!

During the phone call with John on the retentions team. He assured me there can be problems but not often. This was untrue. I knew I was going to have issues and oh boy I did! My biggest regret was not cancelling there and then.

So Wednesday 27th comes. I received a wiltshire dining table that was ok, but it did have imperfections on it. Strange light cube/square like marks about 2cm x 2cm on the dining top in 2 places. I could live with that not too bad. I am not complaining about that. I'll give a bit of leaway.

So I waxed my Wiltshire bookshelf and used one of the dining chairs to get to the top. The seat made a crunching noise from the leather seat, so I got off it immediately. This shows how poorly they are made. The 6 chairs were half price which seems to go on forever to be honest. Bank holiday, end of month sale and big savings event are 3 things I have seen in the past 2 weeks on the website. It's a load of rubbish and a selling point.

Getting back to the furniture. I also received 2 wiltshire bedside tables. This range has a line pattern around the top, this is created by putting a square panel of wood into the centre on the top of the drawers creating a gap around it. That square panel was put on without care diagonally instead of straight and looks ridiculous. Some sides are thick now some thin around the top. It obviously looks pretty strange not being asymmetrical. Pictures of this were sent to customer services on Saturday and I am awaiting a response.

The second bedside table is natural light coloured wood everywhere and a bottom drawer on one side of the drawer is half light and dark coloured that also looks silly. Looks like it's been built with wood scraps, no wastage. There is no fault on this but it looks silly.

Major concerns

A wardrobe arrived badly damaged and I had to lift 100kg to the shed as well as putting my old furniture back upstairs! Almost broke my fiancees back. Lucky I had a shed because it would have been left outside otherwise. My house is small and the returns team are not working at the moment. I now have to wait for returns to resume to swap the wardrobe. Arranging a replacement wasn't easy. I was on hold for 30 mins, the assistant never called me back after uploading photo evidence, so I was on hold for another 30 mins. The second assistant had cartoons on quite loud in the background too. It feels like an interrogation when they deliver damaged items... it shouldn't be like this.

Me and my fiancee had to carry the 100kg wardrobe from the side of our house to our shed. The wardrobe arrived with the base inside the wardrobe doors and the sides of the wardrobe were completly snapped. Huge 80cm splits in the side panelling shows how thin the wood is as it was well packed and the back panelling was moving freely. Lots of packaging to get rid of too. So I had to go to the tip.

I have 2 outstanding orders of a Hercules range of a double wardrobe, 2 bedside tables, bedroom drawers in another order too; so I'm pooping myself here.

Think I might have to cancel those 2 orders as they are £1500 and I don't fancy lifting another broken wardrobe to my shed or getting other imperfect bedside tables. I am left with a wardrobe in my shed with an unknown pickup and swap date and 2 weird bedside tables.

John was fair with me and added the free gifts that I didn't add to my basket which was kind of him.

This furniture in made in Vietnam, takes ages to deliver if not available and is made without care and cheaply where possible, side panels especially. The only positive thing I can say is that the drawers have dovetail joints and are pretty solid as are legs.

Quite gutted overall

Delivered order numbers are

******* dining suite

******* 2 x Wiltshire bedroom tables, tallboy, double wardrobe and bookshelf.

Outstanding orders:

******* 2 x hercules bedroom tables and double wardrobe, 4 free gifts from spend £1500 offer x 2 (July 6th delivery)

******* hercules drawers, wax and a mirror (July 6th delivery)

Which I may cancel as I'm not very pleased.

Absolutely disgusted by this shop. My mum brought a two seater recliner sofa and 2 recliner chairs from here a few weeks ago and since doing it she had loads of problems.

First she went there and Monica did a contract for her, only for her to call my mum back a couple of days later to tell her she needs to come back into the store as the contract didn't save on the computer. Bareing in mind it's a 17 mile trip there from where my mother lives so the shop isn't close.
So she turns up to sort out the contract again but for some reason Monica has split the contract so it is now 2 contracts instead of one (to me that's a bit odd to do). According to Monica it's because the sofa and chairs have to come on two separate deliveries that is why there are now 2 contracts

Next thing with 2 contracts come with 2 delivery charges of £50 each = £100 altogether. But Monica promises us:

"that not only are they delivering the furniture but they will be setting it all up for us and removing the rubbish all we have to do is remove are old furniture."

OK cool, that sounds reasonable, WRONG on the delivery guys sheet, they are not allowed to set the furniture up just deliver it so why is Monica lieing to us? Apparently she didn't is what she told us when confronted which is another lie - showing good customer service here... NOT. If I knew we would have to set it up, I would have gone to IKEA!

Next... Monica gave us some samples of the three colours. The colour picked was black and gold the sofa that arrived was light grey and white. Their website shows charcoal not light grey and white. So the Stevenage store needs new colour samples for their furniture because again she's been promised something that isn't correct.

So off my mum, me (her daughter) and my partner go for a 3rd trip to the shop, to speak to Monica. Well she lies to our faces about it being set up, and tells us they can't do anything in store we ourselves have to call customer services. The older gentleman there passes on a message to the manager she said she'll pass it to customer serves, 2 days have past no phone call so now we are going public, to make sure Oak furniture land Stevenage doesn't con another person.
Also one other thing customer services your not open late so how do we contact you as we work so when we get home your close. Not good at all.

Worst experience of ordering furniture the hassle of toing and froing is not worth ordering from this company. Their Customer service is mediocre and they definitely do not go out of the way to try to help correct your order.

We ordered the Hercules dining table with 8 chairs and brown check seat covers in the middle of September inside the store, customer service inside the store was wonderful and we paid extra to have it delivered within 2 days.

Friday morning the delivery men came, was a little bit excited and what was delivered was someone else's cancelled order, the same table however completely different chairs. We decided to keep the table and the delivery men took back the chairs. We opened the table to find the metal pole to extend the table was bent so wouldn't extend and at the side of the table the wood had a small split. We spoke to customer services who were helpful after the 3rd time of calling because apparently they had no record of us ringing up the first 2 times and they arranged for us to have our correct chairs and another table top delivered but we would have to wait 1 & half weeks so we waited.

I received a text message with my allocated time slot and was told I would receive a 30 minute phone call before hand (like my first order) the deliver came before the time slot so I wasn't around and I had no call to say they would be 30 minutes.
Finally the second table top and 8 chairs arrived. We opened the table top first to find the table had completely split on one side, we then checked the chairs which were fine 8 chairs all correct but the seat covers weren't I had 6 brown check which I wanted and 2 beige. We rang customer service straight away who just said we can arrange another delivery in a couple of days and they apologised, we asked if the furniture could be quality checked before it went out to delivery but the answer was that they don't quality check once it is at the depot to be released. We are now waiting for our 3rd table and chair covers to be delivered but will not know what it looks like until it arrives as Oak Furniture Land do not quality check.

Come on Oak Furntiure Land you are supposed to be selling top of the range wooden furniture and you cant even organise your furniture to be quality checked and delivered on time.

Overall I would recommend not going with Oak Furniture Land because you will just spend over a month unpacking and packing the boxes back up for them to just "Keep Trying" to get it right.

I ordered 4 items and 2 of the items were replaced. One of the replacements was damaged on arrival and had to be touch up by Homeserve.

I made the mistake of accepting Homeserve to repair the coffee table as the finish is like that of a deck chair. OFL advise to bees wax. But then they aldo offered to relaquer. Homeserve arrived and explained it is impossible to relaquer a stained oak coffee table without sanding down and respraying. Homeserve accepted the coffee table was unnaccptable, also that 50% of items are usually faulty from the source in the far East. (OFL then reclaim 100% of the purchase price from the sweat shop in Vietnam).

Subsequently OFL will not replace as they insist relaquering is their offering.

Advice. If you use them... make sure you can afford to have at least 2 days off work for repeat deliveries and Homeserve.

If you pay for the insurance and Homeserve come out, their report carries more weight than you... even though the chap from Homeserve is not a craftsman. So, don't let Homeserve come to you, send the goods back. Ensure the order is fulfilled within 14 days so you can cancel the order on OFL as per credit card.

The credit card company won't protect you (after 14 days) if OFL have offered you some sort of resolution... even if this resolutiin is unacceptable. Obviously respaying on top of bees wax is extremely unacceptable.

I'm disappointed to say the least. I'm glad my dealings with them are over.

Finally... don't trust them. Even customer services are obstructive. Once the items are delivered and Homeserve are involved the telephone people you are switched to are more fob-off/negotiators.

I can live with the QC faults but they have given me a stressful few days. If you can afford to pay 10% more go to a quality supplier who is customer focused, the 10% extra will be saved on wasted time.

Oak Furniture Land is a ruthless company.

Disgusting Service!

Bought a full bedroom set which was delivered yesterday for nothing short of £1,500. Wardrobe is split into 4 parts so the delivery driver can get it upstairs yet the 2 largest parts are boxed together inside each other. Delivery drivers refuse to take it up our standard sized stairs because of the weight and size of how it was packaged due to insurance reasons (too heavy and large for them), then had the nerve to threaten me with either we leave it down stairs for you to deal with or we take it back and you'll be charge 25% of the cost!?

When I challenged him on this, he said he didn't know, he's 'just a delivery driver'. They couldn't get out the house quick enough. Threatening messages all over the boxes saying the return is void if box is damaged. How on earth can you not rip the box open? The item is too large and ceilings too low to take the box off in one piece once it is in your house?

Item was damaged which is why the delivery drivers won't unbox it for you and separate the 2 largest parts of the wardrobe in order to get it upstairs, because they know, they'll end up taking most of the furniture back. That's why they try to cover theirselves with a bunch of disclaimers.

I would suggest Oak Furniture Land look to box these separately, so they can be transferred upstairs by your driver's?

You can see that the item was damaged before painting and delivery as the grooves in it have been painted over.

DO NOT BUY UNLESS YOU ARE EXPECTING SOME MINOR DAMAGE AND HAVE FULL RESOURCE TO GET IT UPSTAIRS YOURSELF. Luckily I did...

But would never ever use this company again, would of been cheaper, less time consuming and better quality getting a flatpack from IKEA.

You've been warned.

Our experience in the Hull store in June 2019 was excellent. Melvyn Hammond really looked after us, offering us a choice of hot drinks, and helping us navigate around the store as my wife suffers from multiple sclerosis and uses a wheelchair. We found all of the staff to be polite, friendly and knowledgeable. The actual sales process with Melvyn was easy and stress free, and we give the Hull store a maximum 5-star rating. However, we would have to rate the after-sales service as truly appalling.

The delivery came on time. The men who brought our new dresser were polite and friendly. The dresser came in 2 parts, packed in very large JB Global boxes. I had to unpack the furniture myself. The driver suggested that I open the base of the box and then tip the box base down so that I could lift the box off, as the delivery staff didn't unpack items. They left and I began with the dresser unit. I'm pretty fit and strong, but I have to say it's a tricky, awkward job that requires some strength.

Once the dresser was unpacked, I discovered that its left hand door would not close. On examination it appeared that the magnetic catches were faulty and the door appeared to be warped.

I telephoned the Hull store and spoke to Gavin. He was very apologetic about the faulty door, but he couldn't do anything about it at that time as the store's computer system was down. Gavin gave me the number of the Oak Furnitureland service centre, *******254 and told me that they would arrange for a replacement.

I rang the service centre. After a 10 minute wait I finally managed to speak with a member of staff. I explained the problem. The man I spoke to told me that in order to have the faulty product collected and replaced I would have to take pictures of the fault and also of the labels attached to each unit of furniture. I told him that meant I would have to unpack the sideboard and then repack it, but he insisted that that was what I had to do.

During the call the man told me the label in question would be stuck to the back of the dresser. I checked and there was no label. Following his instructions, I checked inside the drawers, underneath the drawers and in the cupboards. I even lifted the unit up and checked underneath, but found no label. In doing so I found a 1 inch brass screw rolling around loose inside the left hand dresser cupboard. Thankfully it hadn't caused any damage.

The man I was dealing with came across as uninterested and, frankly, not very bright. He said all he could do was to email me a link to arrange the return online. I was by this time extremely angry, and I informed him that I was legally trained, and that if the matter wasn't dealt with quickly, I would be taking legal action. I also explained to him that as my wife has multiple sclerosis, having all the packing materials strewn around the floor was a very serious trip hazard for her. He told me there was nothing further he could do and the call ended.

I checked my inbox and located the email. It was no help at all. The link supplied me with a one-time password that didn't work. I tried to register and found I already had an account, which I then recalled Melvyn had very kindly set up with me in-store. I clicked on the Forgotten Password link but that didn't work either. I would add that I have over 30 years of in-depth IT experience.

I decided to unpack the sideboard and try to locate a label on it, but yet again I couldn't find it. I rang the service centre a second time. After another long wait I spoke to a woman. She informed me that I would need photograph the fault on the dresser and the labels on the outside of the boxes. I said I would do that.

I explained to the woman that I would need a Saturday delivery. I informed her that I had taken a day's leave to receive the delivery and that I now only had 2 further days of leave until November. Looking after my wife, who suffers with multiple sclerosis, meant I could not afford to take another day of leave. The woman was as unsympathetic as the first person I spoke to at the service centre. She informed me Oak Furnitureland do not make Saturday deliveries and that I would have to arrange a week day delivery. She then said "Have a nice day". I was astonished. I asked her if it sounded like I was having a nice day, and told her that her comment was unbelievably stupid in the circumstances. I ended the call.

Once I calmed down, I decided to check the faulty dresser door again, this time with a powerful torch. After 10 minutes of careful examination, and by comparing the faulty door with the one that closed properly, I discovered that the shelf in the dresser cupboard was misaligned by approximately 1.5 millimetres. That was the reason the door wouldn't close.

I checked the brackets holding the shelf in place and discovered that they were adjustable. I carefully unscrewed the brackets so I could adjust the shelf and align it correctly. The door then closed properly. I tightened up the screws and was able to mount the top of the dresser on the base and complete assembly.

Our experience of the after-sales service of Oak Furnitureland is that it is truly dreadful.

It is inexcusable that the dresser was sent out in that condition, and with a loose screw rattling around in side it. Your quality assurance process is clearly inadequate. The team that packed the dresser cannot have failed to notice that the door kept swinging open, and they must have deliberately packed it knowing it was defective.

The Oak Furnitureland service centre was laughable. Both people I talked with were uninterested and unhelpful. Your returns process is flawed and of poor quality. The packing around the furniture was very good, but it appeared to have been done with the aid of an industrial packing machine. The packaging was so complex that it would have been virtually impossible for me to repack the items in the same way, particularly as my wife is physically unable to assist me.

I telephoned Melvyn at around 11:15 am on the delivery day and explained what had happened and that I had, eventually, managed to do what the quality assurance checker at the factory should have done, and repaired the fault. I also told him about our experience with the service centre. I thanked Melvyn for the excellent service we had received in the store, but I explained that the dreadful after-sales service we experienced meant we wouldn't be buying anymore furniture from Oak Furnitureland or recommending them to friends and family. It was a shame to have to tell Melvyn that and he was clearly unhappy for us and what had happened. It's a shame that Oak Furnitureland employs such good quality staff in the shops but then backs them up with such a sub-standard after-sales service.

I did eventually find the labels on the furniture. I had to use a torch, put my head inside the cupboard of each piece of furniture, twist around and look at the inside corner of the roof of the compartment. The labels were so well hidden that I only discovered them when I gave the furniture a thorough waxing. It seems incredible to me that the service centre staff would not know where the labels are located.

From the perspective of my wife's condition it also seems to me that Oak Furnitureland may not be satisfying the requirements of the Equality Act 2010 for some of its customers.

Providers of goods, facilities and services must not treat you less favourably than they would treat a person who is not disabled. Service providers must make 'reasonable adjustments' to allow a disabled person to use their services. If they don't do this, they must be able to show that their failure to do so is reasonable.

We fail to see how someone like my wife, or an elderly person, would be able to deal with a delivery from Oak Furnitureland if they live on their own.

I wrote to the Chairman, CEO and COO of Oak Furnitureland. All I received back was a call from a fairly inept complaints department operative who admitted that the customer supprt team had totally mis-informed me. I should not have had to repack the furntiure and they should have just arranged a pick-up and redelivery. We have not had any sort of written apology from the firm as of end of July 2019, and the Board really don't seem to give a toss. I have several work colleagues who have also experienced similar problems with Oak Furnitureland.

Our advice? DON'T USE OAK FURNITURELAND! THEY DON'T GIVE A DAMN ABOUT CUSTOMER SERVICE ONCE THEY HAVE YOUR MONEY AND THE BOARD IS ARROGANT AND DISINTERESTED!

Regards,

Peter Jones.