Early Learning Centre Reviews 206

We ordered a Big City Train track from them, I rang and spoke to customer services who reassured me that the table had been packed and picked and was ready by the door to go out for delivery! Had no further contact, no one replying on twitter, facebook, i spent over 1 hour on hold on two occassions and no one answered the phone. Managed to do a live chat and was told that they item was out of stock and was never going to be delivered!One very sad little boy as we cannot get any other train table delivered in time for his birthday! - They weren't even going to let us know

They dispatched my order to Yodel who repeatedly contacted them to confirm my address as the house number was missing from my order. Yodel could therefore not deliver and returned the items to ELC. I found this out from Yodel's tracking information. I was not contacted at any time to confirm my address. I phoned ELC today who just said that as the items were returned the order was now cancelled. If I hadn't contacted them then at no point would I have known that my order was cancelled and I would just have been waiting. I just hope that I get my refund now.

This company are the worst, the reviews say it all. They obviously wont be trading soon. Been waiting on my order since November, the staff tell me different things "its on its way" to "oh my colleague got it wrong its not on its way" to "we don't have this in stock we'll just refund you instead"
I honestly think monkeys could run this business better.
DO NOT ORDER FROM THIS COMPANY THEY WILL ONLY LET YOU DOWN. TRUST THE REVIEWS.

So wish I had read these reviews before ordering on-line!

The order I placed totalled £33.00 and I collected this on 5th December. When collecting the items the assistant at the Ipswich branch brought out two boxes and one bag asking if I had placed two separate orders which I had not.
Upon inspection it was discovered two deliveries of the same items had arrived but under two different order numbers, according to the supervisor this had been happening a lot.
They asked if I had been charged twice and I replied I had not just two deductions from my account at this time.
I left with one parcel containing my three items and the supervisor returned the duplicate order.
The following day they took another £27.00 from my account !
I have spoken with customer services and forwarded onto them three different format's of my bank statement showing the withdrawals (as they keep saying they have been unable to open the attachments I send). On 12th Julia from Escalations emailed that 'any pending payment will drop back into my account without further action'... I'm still waiting. Tried ringing customer services again and gave up after an hour.
Absolutely amazed that ELC can get this so wrong very disappointed.

Outrageous customer service! Ordered my sons xmas present, big city lifting bridge rail play table, online. Transaction went through and money left account and received email confirmation of expected delivery date. When we were notified to collect it, we were told it hadn't arrived. This went on for days and after several visits and phonecards, we were eventually told the item was out of stock! So my question is why take customers money if the item is out of stock? We then asked for a refund to our card and we're told we would have to ring a number which we did, and the lines were busy the entire day with the same recorded message! So now we are out of pocket and have no refund and had to buy the same toy elsewhere! Absolutely disgusting especially at Xmas! I want to know how to get my refund ASAP, and there's no option to do it online which is actually illegal. When you click on the link it goes to an error 404 page, meaning it does not exist! Very angry indeed! Will not buy from ELC again!

I placed an order on the 28th November which was for a birthday present. The money was in the bank ready to take for a full week but then it bounced back and went into my bank. As I had no further correspondence stating that the order had been received processed or delivered I assumed that there was a fault with the transaction and bought another gift instead. On the 8th of December the parcel arrived and was signed for by a family member as I was working. The money was instantly taken from my bank without warning or approval which resulted in an overdrawn account which I will be charged for. This was their response

I am sorry to find that you are not happy with a recent order you have placed with us.

Please be advised that when you place an order with us the payment is held in reserve until the item is dispatched. At this stage we then take payment. If there is a delay in the order being dispatched this payment may drop back into your account, however this amount will remain earmarked for us unless the item is cancelled.

I am sharing this so that other people are aware of it. My bank fees are now very likely going to to be more than the cost of the gift itself.

I will be referring this matter further. I just wish I had read these reviews before I made my purchase. I expected better from a well known long standing company than the service I received and I would not recommend nor will I be using them again as they clearly do not care about the concerns of the customer nor the inadequacies of their current methods which result in so many unhappy customers. I shall not return.

Placed a order on the 6th December for next day delivery still not had order it’s the 13th December today if you want stuff for Christmas I wouldn’t bother they’re a absolute joke never again !!! The order still says processing said they had backlog from Black Friday now they’re blaming weather !!

I ordered a wooden pram , workbench walker, & a wooden table & chairs from elc for my children last christmas, over the year wheels have dropped off aswell as other parts my daughter was sat on one oo the chairs when the leg dropped off we have repaired it so many times the screws wont tighten so now have to go in the bin, i spoke to elc only to be told there is nothing they can do as its more than 30 days, this is disgusting there toys are unsafe will never buy from them again

Ordered gift originally said delivery would be 22/11 , didn't arrive phoned customer services reason backlog in warehouse , wold arrive by evening of 26th nothing came. Emailed office they replied it was a 7-10 working day delivery Eventually arrived in 2 deliveries one 1/12 second one 5/12.
The present was for a 1st birthday on the 27/11 only reason we ordered from them was because of the initial date quoted.

Contacted customer service via website as I have a part missing from the Happyland Farm. Have had no response.

Sent for a pirate ship got my grandsons birthday a week ago. No sign. My wife placed the order and rang to explain on Tuesday 21 November the parcel was urgent. Despite paying 3.95 postage, there is still no sign. We had to go to smyths and buy another toy. It's disgusting as no excuse. What a dreadful company. To top it all my wife has a serious heart condition and cannot go out alone.

I ordered multiple items for my sons first birthday. They were due to arrive latest 3 days before however they weren’t even dispatched until 3 days after the event. This was after customer service promising me they had been dispatched and would arrive on time. Organising the return of the goods was equally shambolic and I’ve had to chase the refund twice! I’ve never written a review on here before but I have been so disappointed with the service. I usually shop in the store direct but chose the online option for efficiency but unfortunately it was the complete opposite. Very disappointed

I ordered some toys on their recent 3 for 2 promotion. On arrival, the games which had been advertised and paid for at £8 each had £6 stickers on them. I wasn't able to return them as they were birthday gifts and they arrived the day before they were needed so I emailed to complain. I didn't receive any emails back so I tweeted them; no response. I feel really let down by what I always thought was a very reputable company. I'll think twice before ordering anything from elc again.

Made an online order. Never received an email saying it had arrived in store. I contacted them to query and got a very rude reply saying I hadn't bothered to collect and giving an (incorrect) number to call to arrange a refund. I replied and said this was ridiculous and they should just reverse the payment. They said they couldn't so I had to phone a premium line to get my money back. This presumably means that they don't refund people who for whatever reason don't collect orders. I would say that's lazy at best and outright theft at worst. I will never use them again. There are always whispers that they're going bust and this is why. They have the money-grubbing of modern business practice combined with the incompetence of old.

No wonder they didn't seem to care when I said I am extremely unhappy and dissatisfied with your customer service, when I saw the rating on Trustpilot I know why.

Ordered lots of gifts for Christmas and things arrived with different parcels, and in the last batch, I was sent a wrong faulty item. My daughter has opened it without knowing it was a miss pick by them, and then I was told it can not be returned and my missing items can not be sent as well! WHAT?! They sent a faulty wrong item to me worth less than £10 and said my other correct missing items can be sent out to me as the wrong item has been opened.

Spending long time dealing with their customer service and then a return label was sent and my missing order can only be sent out if they (ever) receive the wrong item. Unbelievable.

Thanks for delivering me a massive bag of shredding. I ordered a pirate ship!!!! Then I keep having to call customer service to attempt collection because I keep missing collection (apparently) . Customer service sound like they need to wake up! Rubbish all round!

Bought a small climbing frame/slide swing combination from ELC/Mothercare. I knew it required assembly but was a bit surprised that the instructions said 2 people would take 5 hrs (not true, fortunately, one person assembled it in 5 hrs.) Two small metal parts were missing. One was an easily replaced nut, one acspecialist metal bracket. Phoned ELC, response was that I should go back to store for bracket. Bought it online, nearest store 25+ miles away, so refused. No, they couldn’t post bracket, only alternative offered was to disassemble whole thing and return it.

Appalling customer service.

(Have contrived with a different, locally-sourced, bracket.)

Excellent customer service from Julia yesterday... she has exchanged the bubble machines I bought and didn't like.
Would buy from ELC again due to this x

I WOULD HIGHLY SUGGEST YOU DO NOT ORDER FROM THEM. THEY DEBITED MY ACCOUNT 3 TIMES AND WOULDNT REFUND UNTIL I PROVIDED TONNES OF INFORMATION FROM MY BANK. ITEMS TOOK OVER 2 WEEKS TO TURN UP AND WERE ALL LEFT SITTING ON MY DOORSTEP. CUSTOMER SERVICES HAVE A DONT CARE ATTITUDE. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED

Rubbish customer service, bought items over a month ago some items were delivered within a week but the rest were due on another shipment. a month later still nothing. i contact customer services who said that the items are out of stock

no one told me that the items were out of stock - they were buyable on the webstie at the time and a few weeks later.
to make it worse the items bought were on offer and now will need to be bought at full price elsewhere.
and books bought on a 3 for 2 basis. well the third book wasnt delivered so not the case.