Gemma Burke

We received delivery of a very large 4-door wardrobe to a 1st floor flat with restricted parking (bus stop) directly outside. Saman & Ankor arrived on time and handled the outsized load with aplomb, navigating the twisting stairwell and through the fairly narrow entrance into the room where we would be building it. Huge admiration for those who handle such challenging physical work so regularly.

I had an issue with a faulty pair of boots with split soles (quiet common now for Dr Martens, but I won't make this the focus of this review). I received exemplary support from customer care representative Saphia, who swiftly arranged for my boots to be returned and replaced. I upgraded to a Made in England pair, which proved to be slightly smaller than my previous boots and again Saphia made the whole process of return and exchange simple and quick. This experience really ticks all the boxes on what quality customer service means; prompt and clear communication, efficient processes and empathy. Great job, keep it up!

Ordered an "in stock" 3-seater sofa on 6 June, spent a month waiting for it to be delivered and it never turned up. It's now out of stock until September, according to the website - nobody from Very has ever bothered to advise me of this directly or apologise for the inconvenience and botched delivery process so far (2 failed attempts at delivery it from the third party courier, as they phoned to tell me on the day that Very had failed to give them anything to deliver on both occasions). After hounding customer services every day for the past week to cancel and refund the order, I have had to escalate this to my bank to get the money back, as each Very representative consistently lied to me saying "the person you spoke to previously didn't cancel the order, but I've cancelled it for you now." My online account still says 'order dispatched' while the tracking info says 'order cancelled by customer'. Truly unbelievable and dreadful experience. I've complained to Very directly but have had no response on that either. I can only hope that sharing my story will help others to avoid the same weeks of continual hassle. To add insult to injury, I received an email from Very this morning titled 'Have your say' urging me to review my recent purchase and share my shopping experience. A joke of a company that really does not seem to have any concern for its customers or their feedback, so the only way to stop this is to boycott them and encourage as many people as possible to stop reliving experiences like this over and over. Buyer, beware.

Also, after having left a bad review for the sofa on Very's website, this review hasn't made it through the screening process despite some blurb about reporting "all feedback good and bad". It pretty much said all of the above, so now I'm sharing it all over the Internet.