Hotel Chocolat Reviews 60,051

Contacted them by email twice and they did not respond. Phoned them. They told me to send a video of the velvetiser not working. Did that. No response. Worst customer service

Brought the new velvetiser few weeks ago, broke within 5 days, emailed them still no reply after 12 days. So far been on hold 35 mins. Can’t take back to shop as they insist it can only be dealt with by head office. Avoid buying anything from this shoddy company. Finally answered after 52 mins. All good with that phone call. 2nd call very rude man/child answered and he hung up on me. I’ll try a third time or small claims court will be the next course of action.

Hello,
Have never tried HC before.

Received a box for Christmas. Beautiful box. Looked high end quality. Lovely box.

I purposely left them until the end of the Christmas consumables as a treat to look forward too.

I opened the box with expectations snd was greeted with a rather “ childlike” selection of cartoon like chocolates. Rather surprised by this however I was not deterred as felt the taste was the most important thing after all.

Disappointed by the taste. Not the creamy, subtle, rich snd sophisticated flavours I was expecting. Plain, ordinary, standard, drab. One of them reminded me of the smell of my toilet cleaner somehow.

Also who in the flippity flop ( see how I’m not swearing) had the idea of putting the “ key” of what flavours the chocolates were on the base of the box, away from the chocolates themselves. This was very irritating.

In summary a disappointing experience lacking the quality snd rich taste I would expect of higher end chocolates. My advice, stick to Lindor and Thornton Continental.

We bought an expensive box of Xmas crackers. On Xmas day we opened them to discover them mouldy and inedible. After Xmas I contacted their customer service. I initially got a bounce back saying that “due to high levels of sickness there will be delay in response “ … a novel response! Over a week later I received a rather formal email asking for photos of the packaging which we had thrown away. I had supplied photos of the chocolates and a copy of the receipt. What more can I do? I expected a refund at least. These guys claim to be an upmarket company and yet their behaviour is poor. Many years ago I had another problem and I received a lovely apology which kept me a loyal customer. Now they’re part of Mars they appear to have totally lost any customer focus. Hey ho … they’ve lost me as a customer. Be warned. Their customer service is appalling.

Returned my order. Haven’t received my money back. Been trying to get through to them for the past two weeks and cannot speak to any person!

Quality let down

Bought hot chocolate as a gift for a friend.
She opened and all the chocolate inside was white - it was clearly past its best!

That being said, mixed into milk, she says it tasted great.
I expect more for the price

I’m not sure what they’ve done to the hot chocolate this year but I bought peanut butter and salted caramel, absolutely no flavour whatsoever you might as well just drink hot milk!🤢🤢🤢. Very disappointing. The standard hot chocolate is still good.

Got my wife a velvetiser for Christmas last year and been locked in some sort of subscription I didn't want for over a year now with no way of cancelling it not a massive amount of money but it's still rising fuming

Delighted with my new velvetiser …..Xmas gift the hot chocolate is so creamy, it thought my old one was good but this is definitely much better.

Fabulous products but soooo expensive. I bought some in the after Christmas sales. Unfortunately didn’t get any email updates on when items would be delivered until day before delivery. Considering it costs £5 I’d expect it quicker and better communication.

Placed an order 13 days ago still not received the audacity to charge £4.95 for delivery and not receive your items nor any updates, as others mentioned customer services is non existent if they are available they are not much help. I really wish I did my research into this company before purchasing the velvitiser so I will now use alternative chocolate for it I will not be funding my money to this shambles of a company. Oh the funny part is they asked me to leave a review on how did you enjoy your purchase didn't get to enjoy it so here's my review.

Ordered a selection of goods 9th December. On arrival, a handful of the chocolates in the H boxes had bloomed and were white. Others were smudged. Not the quality you’d expect from Hotel Chocolat. I used the web form on their website to submit required info. Received four emails from Hotel Chocolat over the course of the next month, one saying due to staff sickness there were delays in responding to emails, one saying they’d had some technical issues. Another saying did I still need help? And another saying they’d lost my initial query. I told them I’d not been happy with the quality and presentation of the chocolates, I sent photos; but due to the lack of response from them, I’d had no other option but to use the chocolates they’d sent me for presents, as the lack of response from them meant I couldn’t get them replaced. They asked for lot numbers and BB codes so that they could investigate, (it’s 3rd January by this point) - all of which is included in my original query, (which they had lost), but that I no longer had. They had ample time to replace the chocolates for me, it was only part of my entire order that was affected, but yet a month later and nothing was ever offered by way of resolution. Completely useless customer service team who clearly don’t want to resolve any issues. Will not be using in future and would not recommend.

I ordered 10 days before the holidays, paid for expedited shipping. Almost 30 days later, no Velvetizer on my hand. Customer service says to keep waiting because delay is due to custom issues (I am in Toronto). The item didn’t start getting shipped out til 3 days after I ordered, got stuck with their shipping partner and surprise, details on the tracking info doesn’t indicate it’s expedited or express or priority shipping until I pointed that out to them. Reached out to their social media, responded a few times then stopped - my issue still unresolved. Refund me my money, I don’t want your product anymore.

I'm a regular customer of Hotel Chocolat and buy my hot chocolate on subscription. I love it! But I was very disappointed to receive my order today and discover it has SHRUNK! The individual sachets have always contained 35g of hot chocolate. Today I received two boxes with a new design, but no mention of the smaller size sachets. But they look smaller so I looked at the small print on the sachets and discovered they now only contain 31g of chocolate. The last price increase was in 2024. This shrinkflation is a dishonest price increase. My mug of hot chocolate will be weaker. So it's a downgrade of quality of product.

For the third year in a row, I’ve placed an an order online and for the third year in a row they take my money give me a VAT receipt but give me no further information as to when I am to expect my delivery if it has been dispatched and does not show on my account that I’ve even placed an order. In 2022 and 2024 I had the same problem and the orders finally showed on my account but still to this day say out for delivery I chased it this time enquiring when I would see my delivery as I had no confirmation of this and was told it would be with me by the 7th of January so I have a couple of days left but still that order is not on my account And the response you get is outdated saying due to high level of sickness which to me seems like it’s the same response from when they had people off with Covid they never update the details last time. It just turned up on my doorstep. I had no idea it was coming and it was a warm day This time. I’ve have no idea if I’ll ever see it because on my account it says the items are still in my basket and cannot be fulfilled due to low stock even though they tell me in the email there was enough stock but it’s not dispatched yet. I have complained in two emails. in three years it has not been corrected this fault on the system even my partner has ordered from them in the summer and had exactly the same problem. I think they need to update their game and sort out their customer service for after sales care as if I’m paying that sort of money for hotel chocolate I want the best service.

Definitely no with the money, overpriced overrated.

As a company specialising in chocolate making this is very disappointing. I was gifted a box of chocolates which cost in excess of £50 and they were of pretty poor quality. No roundness on the tongue, an unpleasant mouth feel and bitter and dry after taste. Three people sharing them all felt the same, generally unpleasant. I’m so glad we didn’t eat them with the kind person who generously gifted them but I would not like others to be lulled by the presentation in the shop. Very over priced for a disappointing experience.

Always good customer service here especially at Liverpool Street station thank you to Marianne and Abbie for being so helpful

Received a box of these for Christmas. So disappointing they were awful. What horrible chocolate . Never worth the money they are charging . They had also bloomed so looked very unappealing inspite of being in date till February .
Much better quality chocolate available as a much more reasonable price . A case of using marketing techniques to make them apoealing rather than quality

Just wanted to leave a review to thank Hannah for her prompt and empathetic response to an issue.

I purchased the Grande calendar in the sale which showed as delivered to my doorstep but was not there when I received the order delivered notification.
The calendar was purchased to break down and make a little gift hamper for my poorly mum.

Obviously this couldn’t happen since I hadn’t received the calendar but Hannah dealt with my query promptly and resolved the issue quickly and with no hassle.

Thank you Hannah for going above and beyond, as a customer service agent myself I really appreciate great customer service and I couldn’t be more appreciative.

Happy new year to you as well and thank you once again 🥰