To be furious with Marks and Spencer ?

[ChocolateNutsAndCreamLiquer]

For cancelling the order for the Christmas hamper that I ordered in OCTOBER for a gift to be delivered on 20th December, e-mail cancellation sent to me on 19th December, 40 minutes after the e-mail confirming it had been despatched ? They've sent me a refund which I've yet to check on my credit card statement but how does that help ? I live overseas, how the hell am I supposed to send a present to this family for say, fifty quid, in the next 24 hours ?

Someone on another thread had a hamper delivered to the wrong address. Sure you had the right address?

It's possible it might be mistake - I had an email yesterday cancelling my order but I don't even have any orders with them at the moment!

I have vowed never to use M&S delivery again.

I've ordered three bunches of flowers from them this year.

The first turned up on time.
The second turned up not on Mother's Day, as ordered, but the day after. What's the point in that?? My poor old mum thought she'd been forgotten.
The third bunch was to say thank you to someone. They didn't turn up at all. Two weeks later I tentatively texted the giftee who confirmed nothing had arrived. So I look like an ungrateful wretch for a fortnight.

When I complained m&s offered me a £5 voucher. Well there's bugger all point in a measly 5 quid off. I'll never use their flower delivery service again.

Crap . I did an order with about 10 things in. I get an email saying the order will be a week late . I thne get another saying 'sorry we have run out of stock' you have not been charged - 3 weeks after I made the order ok it was stocking stuff . Then when I went into my store there it was on the shelves!!!
OP- Bradfords bakers do nice hampers and might be able to do a last minute one for you.

I ordered a blazer aged 13 from them in the summer and received a dress aged 8!
I will never use them again.

Rosa sorry for your difficulties with M&S. Thanks for your suggestions.

I have ordered a hamper from Waitrose, to be delivered on Christmas Eve. It was discounted and delivery is free.

Hurrah for Waitrose

Shoddy service from M and S, grim

And yes agree Amazon have been perfect this year, spotlessly so

I wouldn't order anything online again. I recently ordered something online for the first time ever from Avon and paid extra for next day delivery. The item never turned up until the day after that. I have e-mailed and complained and am still waiting to hear from them. I am a bit old fashioned and prefer to go in store and look at things and get them there and then.

Amazon have been superb, I agree

M&S have slightly redeemed themselves by still giving me the free beauty box that came with my cancelled order. But I had to call up and check what is what to know that - it wasn't per the email.

I felt sorry for the chap I spoke to, we had a perfectly pleasant chat but he told me I was one of the few people who haven't been screaming down the phone at him today

M&S have been pretty awful this year as a whole not just at Christmas. I always do click and collect but the orders have been taking days to arrive. First port of call is now John Lewis. Order by 2pm and collect from local Waitrose the following day.

I had an apology email from M&S today because they've been so generally shit this Christmas. Perhaps you'll get yours after Christmas, OP.

That's really poor, OP.

I went to collect my turkey and other bits and pieces at 7:00 (the first collection slot of the day) this morning. It was absolute chaos. They couldn't find my turkey. Then they brought a turkey out but when they checked it, it was someone else's turkey and took it back. They finally found my turkey half an hour later. As it turns out, everything I had ordered was on their main shelves anyway so I could have just popped down for opening and been out in 5 minutes. There were lots of mixed up orders around me as well- complete chaos!

Never again!

Have you tried using the "instant chat" option on the M&S website? I used this yesterday when I had to chase up a late delivery. Was good to get an instant response instead of sitting fuming waiting for an email. Obviously they couldn't make the parcel turn up any quicker, but they did send me an on-line voucher (£10) to apologize for the delay.

I got an apology email and I haven't ordered anything...

Feel sorry for their staff answering calls.

Tweet them that you've gone to Waitrose! Really poor of them to cancel :-(

Taz, it was chaos at my M&S too. They weren't serving us by arrival time, just by when they'd completed picking your order (surely you should do that by arrival time?!). I had about 5 people overtake me in the queue and my order was small and uncomplicated. Not good.

Hi all. Same happened to me and just called them and they sent an alternative gift and refunded me price of original gift. So I have a free gift! Maybe same has happened to you?!

Another one praising Amazon. Very fast delivery, no stock problems, no last-minute surprises.

Also ordered from Mothercare and Matalan on a Friday, paid for delivery on Monday and it all came the day after, a Saturday!

Glad you got a replacement present OP

I've just been to M&S and picked up my order quickly and easily (accompanied by a bucks fizz and chocolate ).

I have to rave about Amazon though! I recently had an odd change of delivery date by DPD and Amazon resent the order without charge, so I ended up with 2 of each of the things i ordered. This was a bonus as they were all consumables that I order regularly. I have a theory that sometimes a delivery driver will realise that they won't make the delivery slot specified by their company so they 'invent' a request for change of date or customer not in to save themselves from being penalised.

We had stuff ordered and were given a time slot for collection, for between 9am and 9.30.

DH turned up at 9.15 and it was absolute bedlam - people queuing out of the door because loads of people with 11am time slots were picking their stuff up.

What's the point having time slots?? It was basically first come first served!

We won't bother with M&S next year.

Timeslots? Oh they are fun.

Our butcher has them for tomorrow... the car park can't cope with lots of people turning up at once. But even though this problem is bloody obvious and the explanation is on the order ticket people still do it.

We go in at 7 am, when they open. They will have our order and the other 7 ams ready. We know that we will not be the first there and that we will be queueing behind people with later slots, whose orders will be packed in the chiller in time order and so not get attable.

He usually just says come back at that time your order isn't ready til then, but you might be surprised at how many people (mostly regular customers and normally nice, intelligent people) throw teeny tempy tantys at him. Last year he pointed at half a pig that was just being dragged onto the butcher table and told a lovely Twinset and Pearls lady that her order was somewhere in the middle of that

I look forward to tomorrow, it might be an amusing start to the day!

I ordered an item at the start of December which arrived smashed to smithereens and leaking broken glass everywhere. I still haven't received a refund, and the only explanation I've been given is "it takes time". Really unimpressed.

Their shares plummeted a few weeks ago when it was revealed that they simply weren't on top of deliveries, this Christmas.

It's not just Christmas, though. Twice this year, I've ordered something for named day delivery and got an email on the day saying they couldn't manage that day and refunding the delivery charge. The daft thing was that the first time, in the Spring, the item had already arrive when I got the email. They really are disorganised with it, and I think they know they have been because I was invited to complete a survey about satisfaction with their deliveries after the second time, last month. Their deliveries have never been great, but they really have become shockingly poor. Rivalled only by John Lewis who don't even send despatch confirmations, half the time, so stuff just turns up whenever.

And agreeing about Amazon being really on the ball. Next have been great, too, despite using Hermes.

I had a cancelled delivery email from m&s as well and I hadn't ordered anything either.

I will agree that amazon have been amazing this year - ordered a few bits on 19th and delivered on 21st (Sunday!) - also got an email off them last week to say they had noticed that something I had ordered had not yet been dispatched and if I wanted it for Xmas I might want to look elsewhere. Brilliant!