Consortium Education Reviews 

Choosing Consortium Education Supplies was like steering our ship straight into a storm. The promise of smooth sailing turned into a tempest of delays and disappointments. Our anticipated treasure trove of supplies remained buried beneath waves of inefficiency and broken promises.

The arrival of the order felt like opening a cursed chest: instead of gold, we found a Pandora's box of damaged, incomplete, and unusable items. The once vibrant classroom, envisioned as a garden of growth, wilted under the weight of Consortium’s neglect.

Reaching out to customer service was akin to shouting into the void—our pleas for help vanished like whispers in a gale. The vague responses were the hollow echoes of a cavern, leaving us stranded without guidance or support.

The chaos Consortium brought was a storm that ravaged our educational landscape. Students were left to navigate the turbulent seas of learning without the essential tools they needed. It was as if the very foundation of our classroom was being eroded by the relentless tide of their failure.

Ultimately, we abandoned ship, seeking refuge with more reliable suppliers. Our trust in Consortium was not just broken—it was shattered into irreparable fragments. This experience was a shipwreck we hope others can avoid. Steer clear and find safer harbors for your educational needs.

Thieves. Beware, this is the same band of robbers:
tts-international

Would give zero stars if I could! Absolute bunch of scammers. Failed to deliver my son's mini pop-up sensory den and when I asked for a refund, was told I'd be refunded sales tax (£12) and delivery fees (£3), but an extremely rude customer service rep called Kayla called me this morning to advise that they won't be refunding delivery etc. So essentially, I'm being charged £15 for a product I never received!

I'm a single working mum, raising an autistic child alone and this was his big Xmas surprise, and TTS have ruined it.

Still waiting for my refund 4 days later and nobody can seem to tell me when my refund will be processed. I'm disgusted, disappointed and will never use TTS ever again.

BUNCH OF SNAKES.

Update (09/01/24): No contact from Jayne (as stated in her reply) and have since received a full refund via my bank who were in agreement that what TTS/Consortium Education are doing is wrong. Again, please avoid spending your hard earned money with these cowboys. Not worth the aggravation or money.

Firstly, they have changed Consortium Education to be part of TTS Group (undoubtedly because of all the angry reviews on their Consortium Trustpilot page), so I'll be leaving this review on both pages. Wish I'd read them before ordering. I bought a kitchen bin, weeks later and still not even a confirmation of shipping email from them, zilch. Never received the item, emailed them asking where it was, they replied saying that they never received my order or my money, which was a complete LIE, as the money came out of my bank on the day I bought it. They then TOLD ME TO SEND THEM PROOF of my bank statements! After sending them a screenshot, they stopped replying to me, funny that. I sent more emails demanding my money back. They then changed their story and said that they've found my order and cancelled it and refunded me. Again this was a lie. I NEVER received the refund. I contacted my bank directly and made a chargeback claim against them. I'll also be reporting the company to trading standards.

We placed an order on 8th November and paid on our Credit Card but despite sending a number of emails and making a number of calls we still haven't received our order and we can't get any replies to our emails or calls.
Customer service is appalling

So, I made two orders. The first was for a pack of stickers which came in a huge box with lots of packaging. Could have just come in a jiffy bag. The second was a long flip-book which was inadequately packaged and arrived bent and broken. Tried to return via returns page which wouldn't acknowledge my account number and when I finally got it to accept it, didn't send the form. Very disappointed.

I am genuinely appalled at the shambolic quality of service here.

We originally ordered items in July 2022, we are still waiting for some of the items. Since July 2022, there have been goods delayed, wrong goods delivered, goods delivered to the wrong location and returned to them without our knowledge, orders cancelled by them, re-orders by them set up which have then been re-cancelled by them, we have been charged for goods we have not received, told that goods have been delivered when they clearly have not, I could go on. And on. And on.......

I have spoken to Consortium staff on the phone on four occasions to talk through all of this in specific detail and was assured each time that outstanding non-delivered orders were being cancelled and replaced by new orders, for items which were in stock and available to be delivered, only for those replacement orders themselves to be delayed or not be delivered and for yet more confusion to descend.

A small but perfect example of the chaos was when a small part of the order finally arrived here on Thursday 14 September (14 months after we originally ordered it). The package that was delivered was a single box containing 4 x 1litre bottles of glue and was clearly not big enough to hold any more than that. The whole order was 18 x 2 litre bottles of paint and 20 x 1 litre bottles of glue a total of 32 litres of fluid. When I asked where the rest of the order was, I was told it had been delivered on Thursday 14 September. A picture was sent to me prove this. When I explained that I already knew this, that I knew that this box had been delivered, that it only contained 4 x 1litre bottles and repeated my question as to where the rest of the order was, the picture of the box was sent to me again, with the message that the order had been delivered. This happened several times. Anyone looking at the picture should be able to tell that a box of that size would not hold the total fluid that we had ordered. To make the matter even simpler for people (!), I even explained the ‘comparable fluid volume problem’ specifically and in detail at least twice in emails. In response, the original picture of the box was sent to me yet again with the message that the order had been delivered.

A single example. I have many more.

Either the staff team are genuinely professionally incompetent or I have been lied to on several occasions.

I’m really baffled why this is so complicated for them.

I have spent hours trying to sort this mess out and could put an accountable figure on the time that it has cost my business on dealing with it.

I currently have on my desk an order for £900 of art materials that we urgently need, but will not be spending any of it with these people.

I strongly STRONGLY recommend you do not do any business with these folk.

I would have put a zero star if I could.

The worst company and customer service experience I have received. 3 days of no communication, multiple phone calls, being passed to multiple people who have absolutely no idea what they were doing. Full incompetence. Placed an order, 10 days later, no movement. I call, they say the payment hasn't processed. I send them proof of payment from my bank 3 times, no response. No one on the phone can help. No one is helpful on the phone services, just pass you on to someone else. 100% recommend to AVOID. I should have looked at reviews before ordering.

I ordered some silk paints on the 26th of October.
It is now the 6th of November, and since I had had no communications, I chased up my order.
I was told that the item is out of stock; that they have no idea when it will be in stock; and that I cannot cancel my order as it is already being processed. Which it isn’t.
I’m going to report them to trading standards, which everyone should do. This company is a scam, they take your money and don’t have the goods to send out.
Completely fraudulent behaviour.

Order not dispatched after 3 months, no communication, poor customer service with no response to formal email complaint and repeated messages on the phone of incorrect information.

Order EGGPO305
Please provide a contact number or email for me to discuss directly

It’s been almost 3 months since I made a purchase that stated 2-3 weeks delivery. I’ve called 3 times for updates and they can’t give me one even though the item still says available for delivery 2-3 weeks…. You have my money for almost 12 weeks now! Scam? Maybe

now 27/9, still no help on this matter. 2 promised calls to call us back not been done. not sure what else we can do???????????

its been 24hours and no response to sort out what should be a simple issue

if someone can call us on 0208 455 7483 to discuss

trying to get hold of someone to help with our account as absolutely impossible to contact anyone in accounts or customer service.

These are hands down the worst company I have had the experience of dealing with. After ordering a couple of years ago and not receiving my exercise books (they were out of stock and never told us) I vowed I would not use them again but decided to give them a second chance this year and ordered just 3 boxes of red books. I ordered them in July and did not receive my books. I chased at the end of August and they said they would fast track them. They arrived and I got 2 boxes of red and 1 box of pink. I rang again and the poor chap on the end of the phone was so fed up of complaints he had no good word to say about his employer. He did his best to fast track another order of books to me. Fast forward to nearly 2 weeks later and we are now being told (after we have had to chase them) that the books are out of stock and they do not know when they will be back in. Why was this not known when the order was placed. Absolute joke of a company. They do not deserve ANY business that they get.

I would give no stars but that's not possible. Appalling customer service - I ordered 4 office chairs back in June and am still chasing up why they haven't been delivered even though they have been paid for. I have telephoned and emailed multiple times and staff do not deal with this query or they say they will look into it and never get back to me. Don't order from this company! They are a scam!

Customer service lies to us. I ordered a calculator for nearly £20 which my son needs for school, last Thursday it was due to arrive. Unfortunately it did not arrive. I called customer service, a gentleman answered and said the carrier was experiencing delays. It turned out he was lying, shortly after the call I got an email saying my order had just been packed. My son starts school tomorrow and I still don't have the calculator I ordered 😡.

I ordered a pair of large foam dice in early July. Nothing had arrived a month later although the website said the item had been dispatched, so I chased them. They admitted theorder status on their site was a lie, they hadn't yet got the item from their supplier. Another month has gone by with no word from them. I've asked for my money back

Absolutely awful company. Avoid!
Ordered some paints in mid July. They sent the wrong item, then the wrong replacement item. Trying to get a refund but no joy there either and I have wasted a lot of time on the phone and haven't reached a solution. All I want is a refund to the card I originally paid with!!

Terrible management! If I could, I rated no star at all!
I work in a school, so used consortium products before and liked them. So I made a big order and imagined I could spend good time with my primary school age daughter by painting, colouring etc during summer holiday.I placed an order in late June, and guess what, I still haven't received anything.I send a few emails to the company and got replies from different people but looks like they even themselves know whats going on.One person saying we are waiting for x product and the other we are still waiting for another product.So i dont know what is really missing.More important when they are going to deliver as they keep ignoring my question.I suggested them they should post whatever they have and post the rest or refund the rest, still no proper answer.They refunded one of item which was out of stock but still not telling when they will deliver the order.If they are reading this please send the order or refund me the rest.Im going on holiday within 2 weeks.there is no point if i receive them after.order no SO-10196998-reply to consortium:What further details do you need? I already wrote my order number here.I believe you can locate me on your system

I could give more than "0" star if its allows, it been a month since i put order and still waiting for delivery, Customer service agent don't have clue when i will receive delivery,
DONT BUY ANYTHING FROM HERE
RUBBISH

Placed an order on 27/06/2023 and chose a delivery date of 30/06/2023. This date came and went after waiting in. Checked the website and delivery was put forward to 13/07/2023. Emailed the company on 30/06/2023 querying the new date. Response came from Laura Smith on 10/07/2023 stating item is out of stock and they do not have a restock date!!!!! Not to mention no offer of a refund! First of all why are you as a company showing items as “in stock” or “available in a week”???? You have had my money now for five weeks with no word of a delivery date. I have asked to be kept in the loop but funnily enough that email was ignored. Most definitely will not be using again nor will I be recommending your company to others. Order number SO-10195912