Is Derby House as bad as people say?

Do you buy from derby house and what do you think of their service?

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Ziggy_

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I hope this doesn't count as defamatory (sp), if I'm breaking any rules please let me know and I'll delete it.

I've never ordered from Derby House but there are a few things on their website I really want. However, I've read lots of bad press on here and am somewhat hesitant to place an order.

So how many people have had good or bad experiences? Does everything turn up eventually, even if it takes a while? Do small orders or larger ones generally arrive quicker?
 
I've ordered a few things from them recently and I have to say their service was first class! Everything came within two days of ordering on line.
 
Headcollar took 6 months to arrive
boots split within a few wearings (about 3)
rug surcingle clips sheared off when my mare rolled.
Friend ordered boots for an event and had to badger them to get them despite being promised them in time

I don't buy from them at all. Partly due to the bad service but also out of principle as I think Katie Price was a bad choice as an advertising role model - surely there are enough talented riders out there they could have used rather than a cosmetically enhanced chav.
 
I ignore the katie price cr@@@@@p and order regularly, by phone from spain, never had a problem super to deal with in the office.
 
I ordered 3 x rugs for £50, waited ages then they sent 1 x lovely rug and 2 x KP rugs - yuk! No way was I putting them on my boy! I sold them on eBay for £40 so got the 1 lovely rug for £10! Bargain!
The staff at Derby House were very helpful, and I have ordered stuff form them since and not had a problem.
 
once and never ever again!
i wanted to order 2 packs of socks (both said in stock on website) and i needed them for a show but left plenty of time (6 weeks) well what i thought was plenty of time

after a week- not here, so emailed and was told they were on their way
another week later, still nothing so emailed again and they said only one was in stock and were waiting for the others.
another week later, still nothing and no email explaining so i cancelled part of the order and just got the one that was in stock.

they were so slow and quite rude to deal with! no apology from them either!!
 
I have regularly ordered from them, and I will not ever order from them again. The service is disgraceful, and they never, EVER, phone you back when they say they will. They make promises they can't keep, and don't seem to care that they are making their cutomers feel unvalued.

They were much, MUCH better when they were a small store, before they took over the world of tack shops. Olney Saddlery was great until DH took them over and turned them in to another inept DH store.
 
50:50 for me - first time I ordered it was a tail rake, free delivery, came within 48 hours, no problems!

Second time round I ordered one of their own-brand martingales; it took two full weeks to arrive and they'd sent me the wrong size (ordered full, received cob). There was no returns information in the package so I had to call them - took three calls over the space of a day to actually speak to someone, who promised to check if the full size was in stock and call me back to let me know when I could expect it to arrive. 48 hours later I had to call again, several times again as no-one answered, only to be told they had no record of me calling to exchange and wouldn't have any stock in for the next two weeks anyway.

Nearly six weeks later I finally got my martingale. :rolleyes:
 
Ok, interesting, good offers, so who do you recommend, for online orders that will send to europe.
 
I used to use them and found the service gradually going down hill. Items used to arrive quickly and as described but over the past year or so items have been taking up to 2 weeks to arrive (after paying for 2 day delivery) they have arrived soiled (as in been dragged round a field) and when you call you either can't get someone on the phone or the person that does answer couldn't really give a rats ass about your complaint. I stopped using them after waiting 4 weeks for a rug that should have taken 5 - 7 days to arrive, it arrived covered in dirt, couldn't get anyone in customer services to answer my call :(
 
i have used them a couple times 2 times over internet and once over the phone and was impressed really nice girl on phone and got stuff pretty quickly the only down side was waiting for the catalogue had to order a few times.
hate kp stuff would not touch it if life depended on it :D
 
I've ordered quite a few things from there inc Jods, Grooming stuff, side reins, lunge line, nummnahs to name a few recent things, always come really fast, within 2 days, and i find them quite reasonable. No complaints from me!
 
YES, I have ordered from them several times and most of the times have been badly let down. Given up completely with them now!

I did talk to the manager directly as was concerned that 'bait advertising' was going on, ie. advertising as items in stock, when they are actually waiting to get an order together to then bulk buy, whilst the customer is still at home expecting the order to arrive - for several weeks..... too many other internet shops out there to bother with DH again. I need good customer service and items to be in stock then they are advertised as being...
 
I have ordered from them a few times but never had a good service to be honest. I always have to wait weeks for deliveries, things have come in the wrong size/colour to what I ordered. When I have called I end up speaking to some clueless shop assisstant, when I email I wait weeks for a response. They sent me vouchers which had a "website input code" but you then could not use them on their website, and they couldn't take them over the phone either??!! To be fair I've had about the same quality of service from Robinsons too.
 
I've ordered from the twice - and have now completely given up with them.

The first order was placed online and I recieved the confirmation - all fine! After a fortnight and no item (rug hood), I started chasing. Customer services were not overly helpful and I got the feeling that they were going through the book of excuses.

After about 8 weeks, one of them actually told me that the order had been cancelled, as there was no stock. No one had told me! I had a half hour conversation with the head of customer services about that one!

But they had a good sale on about a year later, so I ordered another three items from them. The first (gloves) turned up within a couple of days. The second turned up three months later. By the time the third item (a pair of breeches) appeared, six months after the order was placed, I had actually worn out the gloves that I had bought on the same order!

I had many conversations with Customer Services, including telling them that I know that it only takes a month to sea freight goods from China, so why had it taken SIX MONTHS to get a pair to me!

In the end, I wrote to the Chief Executive. I got another call from the Head of Customer Services. Apparenlty, all the problems that I had experienced with them were down to computer systems failures and glitches. Apparently they were having a new system in March, which would have solved all the problems.

I'm afraid that if I want something within six months, I now go to my local saddlers or use Equestrian Clearance, who are excellent!
 
I've tried to use then twice. First time I ordered something despite saying 'in stock' on the internet, after 3 weeks the item hadn't arrived. I kept phoning (no reply) and emailing (no reply). 6 months later I was still waiting, so wrote a letter to the head office cancelling my order. I then tried to use them a second time (stupid me!) to get some mountain horse boots. The website said out of stock, so I called them to ask when they would get more in. Lady on phone said a delivery was on it's way, so should have them within a couple of days. 2 weeks later I was still waiting, called and emailed with no reply. Eventually after 4 months I managed to speak to somebody who said they were no longer getting in the boots I had ordered. It then took 9 months to get a refund from them!!!!!!! I sent them an email telling them how diabolical their service was, and guess what.................... no reply!!!!!!
 
I have ordered and had no problems, but to be honest that's been over a year ago now. I tend to wait til I have a lot of items to buy then stock up from Equestrian Clearance, or buy from my local tack stores.

One of said tack stores is actually a derby house store. I asked my non-horsey mum to pick me up a brown cob working hunter numnah as she was passing, and having asked for help she returned with a GP numnah. Now I can kind of understand the mistake, as I guess if you don't show you could be unaware that working hunter is done in a straighter cut saddle. I went down with my mum to return it, and saw the kind of numnah I had meant, but they only had it in black. After talking with the girl she called another store who had the numnah in stock. They sent it out to me and it arrived within 2 working days, no problems. The girl was really helpful in arranging that for me.

So I'd be happy enough to go to one of their stores. For all the staff made an error it is an understandable one, and they were great at sorting it out. After everything on here though, not sure I'd buy online from them now.
 
I've ordered with them quiet a few times, never a had a problem, only time I did was when I wasnt present to sign for something (usually got things delivered to work but because it missed the weekend had to go to my house) of course nobody was in during the daytime in the week, so it got returned by the courier service, which I then had to chase up, however they were very helpful and sorted it out.

Thats the only thing that stops me from odering on line, things having to be signed for when your out, they will not simply leave it outside your door (which I can undestand) but if you insist, they the couriers refuse to, its not actually DH that won't.
 
I ordered a sale fly rug last week , had confirmation email straight away, the following day had email to say been dispatched, the day after I had email to say they would be delivering between 3 and 4 that afternoon, and it was. So I think that was pretty fast efficient service, had rug in 3 days and kept well informed all the way own to the actual time of delivery. I also ordered a pair of jods that arrived day after in a seperate package. :)
 
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