"Absolutely disgusting company"

Absolutely disgusting company. Tricking people out of their hard earned money. Well they won’t be getting away with our money. I’m not letting this drop.
I’ve also got all the dates and venue names where they will be and will be travelling around to these and letting people know exactly what this company is. SCAMMERS. They’ve blocked me from Facebook, Instagram but I’ll find ways to post on their pages for sure.

"14 weeks later we finally received our…"

14 weeks later we finally received our order. I cannot stress enough for people to avoid this company!! Absolutely disgusting the way we have been treated and lied to throughout the whole period.

"Appalling"

Appalling. Shameful. Horrendous.
Cannot believe that ANY positive reviews have been submitted.
Thank goodness for Barclaycard.
Do NOT buy from this ‘company’
Fact.

"An apathetic company operating hand to mouth"

Before I go in to the details of how bad this company is I must note that sadly all these 1 star reviews don’t matter. Alfresco Rattan operate hand to mouth so they will dissolve by the end of the year and come back with a new name. Even their Facebook page will show the history of this company’s many faces, such as The Garden Furniture Clearance Company.

Look at the Trust Pilot page for the The Garden Furniture Clearance Company. Look familiar? Now look at their website. Does the phone number and address look familiar? Interestingly, the most recent reviews for The Garden Furniture Clearance Company note that this furniture doesn’t last. So even if you do actually receive what you pay for, you won’t have it for very long.

They are also known as WGF - Wholesale Garden Furniture, which is how they appear on bank statements when they take money from you that they do not intend to return.

I have reported them to Trading Standards and sadly there isn’t much that can be done about a company that rob their customers, dissolve, set up under a new name and do it all again. Just don’t buy from this company or any other company affiliated with the person who sets them up (I won’t name this person as I don’t want to give them an excuse to remove this review but you can see it yourself by looking them up on companies house website - Alfresco Rattan LTD).

We bought furniture on 21st April despite the perfidious and instantly unlikeable sales lady. She lied to us about what was included in our set (3 stools not 2) and told us delivery was 4-6 weeks but wrote 6+ weeks on the invoice. She also refused to acknowledge that the website that I was looking at on my phone belonged to the company she was representing (it was Rattan.co.uk) and then told us after we had made the purchase that she didn’t like our furniture and preferred something else. The alarm bells were ringing but that day happened to be my girlfriend’s birthday and she was excited about getting some garden furniture for our first summer together in our brand new home so we bought the furniture anyway.

6 weeks passed with no communication from Alfresco Rattan so we called them (this is before they switched their phones off). Conversations and emails went back and forth with one person telling us our furniture was arriving the following week and another telling us it would be another 6 weeks. Furniture did arrive the following week (9 weeks after we ordered it) but it was not what we ordered. We were given 3 options;
1. They’ll give us £100 to keep it.
2. Return it and they’ll send us the correct order.
3. Our money back.
We opted for the second option so arranged for them to collect the furniture from us. During this time they couldn’t make up their minds about what their terms and conditions were. Originally we had 7-10 days in which to arrange the return, then, before even reaching 7 days, we received a voicemail at 4:30pm followed by an email to say that if they couldn’t collect it that day then we would have to keep it. I ignored this ridiculous demand and successfully arranged the return of the furniture, asking that considering the circumstances, they deliver the correct set quickly. 6 weeks later they emailed me to say that they couldn’t provide what we ordered and would refund us. That’s 15 weeks after accepting the order and sitting on £959 of our money.

I asked that the refund be done quicker than the usual 14 working days and was told that it couldn’t be done any quicker. That was the 29th July, which was the last time I have had any correspondence from Alfresco Rattan. All of my emails since have been ignored. Obviously they have also switched off their phones now so I couldn’t call them either. I decided to email them from a different email address and pretend I was interested in buying some furniture to see if they would reply. Guess what? They replied straight away! We had a lovely email conversation about a potential purchase over a period of about a week. They even offered to call me to make the purchase over the phone - amazing that they found a phone that worked isn’t it? During this time I was still emailing them from my original account asking for my refund with NO REPLY. I still have had no reply from them.

I have now contacted my bank and successfully arranged a chargeback. I also created a money back claim through the government website for small claims, which cost me £60.

About 2 weeks ago I asked my girlfriend to also email Alfresco Rattan as I was fed up of doing it. Coincidentally, over a week after she emailed, 30+ days after a refund was promised, 2 days after my small claim was lodged and on the same day that my chargeback through the bank was successful she received a reply! They were really sorry that she had to resort to claiming the money through the bank etc etc blah blah blah

This company truly is the worst company I have ever had the misfortune to deal with and, sadly for anyone still with an outstanding order, they will dissolve by the end of the year leaving many customers without furniture or refunds, the staff will remain apathetic and they will do it all again next year.

My advice to anyone still waiting on an order is to make a claim through your bank now before they dissolve. If you can’t claim through the bank, make a claim on the gov.uk website immediately.

To put in to contrast how bad these guys are, we ordered a beautiful set from internetgardener.com and received the correct order in less than 24 hours.

"Still say they can provide good but they never do!"

I see this company is still advertising, still posting how good they are on Facebook but still haven’t contacted me or had any comms about my order which I placed in May. No delivery either. Please please think carefully. If you must buy - pay by credit card so you can get your money back because it’s highly likely you will never receive your goods. Shameful.

"Horrendous. GO SOMEWHERE ELSE!!!"

Horrendous. No communication. Outright lies. Never return calls/emails. Had 2 delivery dates by text, 1st "sent in error", 2nd "wasn't put on van" refused to refund delivery charges or compensate time off work. Max £40 offered, delivery is £75, now a month later than advised with no idea if/when delivery will be. Summer is now over! I bought this for a house warming present for my daughter and her partner. It has been extremely stressful for them. Over £1100 of goods. PLEASE DO NOT BUY FROM THESE. I wish I had read the reviews first.

"Slightly slow but got here and happy."

I always try to be fair with my reviews, so firstly I'll say that yes they were a bit slower than initially advised, and yes they were sometimes slow to respond to e-mails,. They also contacted me to say that they could no longer get the colour I had specified, but it then arrived and feels good quality, is comfortable and looks great. They also refunded my delivery cost due to the mess around, so I feel 3 stars could seem to Rattan.co.uk to be unfair, but to those who are reading this and those let down, they might think I'm being generous.
If you decide to buy from them, make sure you're not requiring it urgently and just sit back and wait, because I'm sure you'll be happy when it eventually gets there

"Crap"

I wish I had never heard from pay for my goods told they would be two to three weeks no sign then told end of September so I asked for a refund guess what still waiting find them totally unapproachable arrogant and disgusting I dislike them with a passion
I really am so angry with them I could explode my advise stay away from them they will lie to you

"Poor customer service"

We purchased an outdoor corner sofa from a ‘pop up’ event in Newcastle in April 2019. When we purchased the saleswoman told us the set would be with us in June which we thought was reasonable as we would have it for the start of summer. We paid in full on the day. The furniture eventually arrived in August after the long delay and no updates from the company. Having missed most of the summer we left the delivery boxed in the garage until last weekend when the nice weather returned. On unpacking it the glass on the coffee table was chipped and has a scratch on top of it. I took a photo and sent it to the company expecting a simple replacement (the least they could of done considering the huge delay) however an email was returned saying as we didn’t inform them within 48hrs of delivery they would be unwilling to do anything and basically accused us of damaging it. I replied asking for the complaint to be passed on to a manager however got a blunt reply from the same person again saying they would not be doing anything. I feel the customer service of this company unacceptable and would not deal with them again in the future.

"AWFUL."

AWFUL.
I can’t believe I even have to tick one star!!!!!
So went to a winery near me as they were having a Rattan sale, A nice respectable place, some lovely rattan garden furniture so bought a corner sofa with delivery 5 to 7 weeks this was May. After seven weeks I phoned the company with no answer on the phone and 10 emails later finally got a response, Was told the crate was delayed and could be another few weeks,(would never of known that information if I hadn’t got in contact!) guess what, still no communication with company and lots of emails later as you can never get through on the phone I decided to cancel my order, I was then told that my refund would be with me within 14 days! Guess what, no refund and no response to my emails.
I then went to citizens advice and my bank to start further action, my father-in-law was in Bournemouth so popped in to what was like a shed and asked where my refund was!!!
He was told they only get money in at the weekends so could not process my refund until the weekend, I then got my refund the following week only because my father-in-law went to them in person and said to them I would be taking further action.
I have never dealt with a company that has such shocking customer service and dishonesty, I believe I never would’ve got my furniture.
DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS COMPANY.