to think not much can top this for shite customer service, Boots The Chemist?

[LindorDoubleChoc]

Ordered a Christmas gift from Boots for collection from a local store.

I went to collect after a short delay (been really unwell with a chest infection) and they told me it's been sent back and I will receive an email with refund details.

That was about 5 days ago ... no email about a refund.

I tried to chat to their chat bot - chat bot says no, call customer care on this 0345 number.

Call took 3 minutes 19 seconds to go through listening to announcements, the options, entering order number etc.

When I got through the recorded message said "sorry, our lines are now closed, lines are open Mon-Fri until 7pm".

The time was 18.53pm.

That's the last time I order anything from Boots then!

Boots website is shit. Customer service is non existent. The stores themselves are poorly staffed and their customer service is poor too.

I might get something there if I can pick it off the shelf and use self checkout. Forget asking for advice and actually getting any.

That's the last time I order anything from Boots then!

I can't even get that far. Their website constantly asks me to sign in over and over again and verify my email address. I've given in.

If you have twitter/x then you could send them a tweet/x they usually sort that out quite quickly

In my actual Boots in town, one of the nicest women in the world works on the till and the pharmacist is a lovely bloke.

The website, customer care line, vaccination 'help' line and everything else are up there with John Lewis in the utter shite stakes.

Im sure Boots will be another high street shop to go under soon.
I asked in my local store if they had a counter medicine.
I was "no"
No alternative suggestions or no sorry thats out of stock.
Just a rude "no"

Boots website and customer service is proper shit. My local Boots closes for lunch - which has always surprised me for a national retailer. It’s a suburban high street.

I’ll buy something in store (when it’s open!) but not online after getting burned a few times in the last year.

I order quite a bit online from them, and use the online pharmacy for medication too - always had good service and outcomes. I hope your refund arrives soon. I guess the item will have to be recorded as received at their warehouse and then processed, which might take a bit longer at this time of year.

Shit doesn’t even come close to how terrible they are. I ordered an item from them which came via their ‘third party supplier’. I needed to return it which had to be done via the supplier - contacted them and sent back with no issues. Waited more than 2 weeks, no confirmation of return or refund. Called them and they said it’s the suppliers fault I’ve not been refunded and I need to chase the supplier. I pointed out my contract was with Boots, not the supplier but they couldn’t do anymore (contacting their own supplier was clearly a step too far for them).

Contacted the supplier myself who sent them another confirmation I had returned and still no refund. Have called 3 more times and apparently in a queue to be processed. It’s been 5 weeks since I returned it - their policy states refund should be 14 days after returning the item. When I point this out, they simply state there is nothing they can do and it is in the queue. I’ve resorted to using my credit card for a chargeback and will not be shopping with them again.

Service at our local store and pharmacy as always been terrible - not staff fault at all, there’s simply not enough of them and they can’t be bothered to do a thing about it. First time online has been so awful but it’s bad enough to stop me ever considering them for a big purchase

Last week on £10 Tuesday I tried to order 4 items. First time it failed at the final hurdle with an error message . Tried again and got the same thing. Tried a final time with a different bank card - another failure. Decided to give up and try again later only to notice 3 emails from them, each thanking me for my order. I have since received the 4 items 3 times and now need to go and get a refund for 2 of the sets.

a) How long after it arrived did they return it?
b) Did you make them aware you would be delayed collecting it?

My repeat prescriptions go to my local Boots and the staff in there are terrible at customer service. They deliberately blank customers while looking ‘busy’. When they finally bring themselves to acknowledge someone’s presence they act like it’s the biggest inconvenience. They clearly haven’t had any customer service training. If it wasn’t my nearest pharmacy I would never go there again!

Boots are surprisingly crap at customer service. Their pharmacies are so badly staffed that the moment they had a competent person in there I immediately sent a compliment about them to head office.
There's currency a cashier in our Boots who is awful. She has no interest in the role and it so surly I swear she's doing it for a dare.

I booked a flu jab with Boots last week. A few days later I had a text saying 'sorry you've had to cancel your appointment' (I didn't). I rebooked for a different time - avoiding my original time which was still available on the website. That was immediately cancelled. No automatic refund - had to request one. I then gave up and booked with Tesco instead.

I will only use Boots if there is no alternative (and because they do a mascara I like).

Just before covid, I tried to buy something in my local shop and couldn't find a single person to serve me so I put it back and left. And then there was all the hysteria about people possibly buying a non-necessary item like a lipstick and them taping off shelves.

If it weren't for the fact that they have the pharmacy which people rely on, I'd be quite happy for them to go under.

I do wonder if Boots is on the way out and they've all but given up bothering to provide any sort of customer service. It'll be sad if it disappears from the high street but on the same token its been crap since it was taken over.

I've ordered loads of stuff online from boots in the past. Never had a problem. I'm surprised at how many people have had bad experiences with them!

Hope your refund comes through soon OP.

I will be so sad if boots go under as I love no7! But I won't use their website, much as I want to, as it barely works.

Barely any stock or staff to ask in store
Forget about using the pharmacy unless you have a few hours to spare

They are shocking! I ordered something recently for click and collect never arrived, no email, shop couldn't help, finally got a refund.

Item came back online, ordered again but then saw it in real life so bought it. Then went to get a refund back on the click and collect - to be fair I got a refund back but they couldn't give me any proof or receipt they had refunded in store. Just said wait for an email. Which did come through but what if they made a mistake in store, I'd have no proof that I returned it and it was £70.

So never again online !

They drive me mad. I once ordered quite a large number of a product (can't recall what but something like shower gel and something like 15 bottles) as was moving abroad and wanted that specific product which I couldn't get overseas. Their system put the order through, I then got a message my order was being verified. They took my money straight away so I hoped the order was going through rather than that they wre temporarily borrowing my money. Days later they told me the order was cancelled because I couldn't order that many items. So why not just put a block on the system that limits the number you can add to your basket?! Boneheads.

The most frustrating experiences of my life have been with the Boots website. It's mind boggling that a company of that size can't get such a simple thing right like letting customers log in.

I get that it’s frustrating but how long did you leave between the item being ordered and trying to collect it? Ideally you should get through ten minutes before the line closes but there might have been a queue so there wasn’t time and it’s probably better saying to new people calling in that the line is closed than to cut off those waiting at closing time.

I'm reading this while waiting for a response from Swarovski's chat. 12 mins and counting since my last message, 16 mins for them to reply to the first message where I was told because they are busy they are answering more than one chat at once. My offer is worth several hundred pounds and was placed over a fortnight ago, so I don't think I'm being too demanding to ask if I might receive it anytime soon!
This aside, Boots is regularly dreadful and I'm sadly waiting to hear when, not if, they go bust.

The website is utter crap but it did work in my favour recently. There was clearly a glitch and they were offering Clarins Touche E'clat at half price, but the discounted price wasn't registering once it was in the basket. It went back to full price again. I rang them up, got through, same thing happened their end so they told me to buy it at full price and call them once order arrived with the referencenumber they gave me and they would do a refund of 50%. I bought two, for the price of one. I definitely loved Boots that day, I can tell you.

Surely lunchtime is one of their busier times... People popping in when they're on their own lunch break? 🤔 Makes no sense 🤦🏻‍♀️

Having a nightmare with their click and collect. It’s being delivered by Royal Mail to the store, only Royal Mail have attempted to deliver to the shop twice over an hour before they open. Hopefully Royal Mail are sorting it out as now dread dealing with boots customer service.