"Blame everyone but themselves"

I've ordered from Chaos Cards plenty of times before without issue, but it seems they've proven themselves to be a company that are okay taking your money but are not okay with offering it back after errors they fail to take responsibility for.

In early October I placed multiple orders for the latest release of Pokemon Surging Sparks (one calendar month before release). On the evening of the day of release, however, Tim Skinner (director) sent a very unprofessional and strongly worded email out to all customers who had not yet had their orders dispatched stating:

''...there was a very late arrival of Surging Sparks stock in to the country thanks to a customs delay between the Pokemon Company International and the UK Distributor.

When this delivery arrived it transpired we would only have 60% of the Booster Boxes we needed to complete our orders in the short time we had, the remaining 40% were due to follow immediately, at the latest we should have received these today.

Unfortunately due to a complete failure by our distributor this has not happened. We have waited until after our last postage pick-up of the day at 6pm to confirm we can not dispatch any more orders for today.''

None of this is considerably awful just yet, beside the use of 'thanks to' in the first paragraph (unprofessional). The email continues:

''Because of this we are unable to dispatch your order for Surging Sparks until our distributor (regrettably the only UK distributor) does their job properly and forwards our bought and paid for stock.''

This is incredibly unprofessional and an attack on the distributor (keep note of this for later on).

The email continues:

''we have a set of standards at Chaos Cards which are far higher than the situation we have been placed in by the exclusive distribution partner for Pokemon.''

Well clearly not, otherwise I'd be giving you more than one star.

The email promised:

''What should happen is that our remaining Booster Box stock arrives on Monday and they will go to the front of the warehouse queue and be sent immediately.''

Chaos dispatched the orders on Tuesday (not Monday) via second class: this was their 'immediately,' and no further contact was sent by Tim or any other member of Chaos to customers.

Thanks to failures by Royal Mail I did not receive my parcel by Thursday evening, and so when it was clear I would receive my order on Friday (a whole week after release, and by which time every other company had managed to dispatch my orders without issue) I emailed Chaos stating that given the amount of money I had spent with them I want my confidence reinstated via a small refund or some form of compensation that future investments in pre-orders would not be a repeat of this. I understood that there were issues UK wide, but that to wait an entire week after release is not acceptable. Chaos Cards responded:

''I’m sorry to hear that you are dissatisfied with your recent orders and the delays caused by the primary UK supplier for Pokémon products.''

They take no accountability.

''However, I regret to inform you that we are unable to offer compensation or partial refunds for circumstances outside of our control.''

This is beyond unacceptable. How, I am left wondering, can it be beyond your control when it is your own company? What you really mean is you fail to take ownership that you let many customers down and want to do nothing and sit on your hands. You could have offered a 5 percent off code, free delivery on an order under £20. You could have offered absolutely anything; but instead you did nothing.

The response continues:

''Regarding your order, it was dispatched via the free shipping option you selected, which is a 2–5 working day service (not second class). In most cases, orders arrive within two working days, though this may vary.''

Yes, sorry Chaos Cards its totally my fault that I left the delivery option on default for a PRE-ORDER that was over £100 (on multiple orders) and that I did not predict that you would fail to dispatch the orders on the date advertised as displayed on your website at the time of purchase or at the time stated in the email sent by your director. I understand how this is my fault and that I should be able to see into the future.

''We appreciate your understanding and patience and once again apologise for the delay this set suffered.''

Well you don't, do you? You've done nothing but blame everyone else and fail to offer anything for the couriers and suppliers you've chosen to use. Actions speak louder than words, and right now your company is silent.

Finally:

''we have a set of standards at Chaos Cards''

Yes, and their on the floor with the rest of the rubbish.

edit: thanks for your reply Liz, but you forgot to mention the bit where you flagged my review for 'harmful or illegal content' and had it temporarily removed.

"Fantastic customer service- highly…"

Fantastic customer service- highly recommend

"I have always received great customer…"

I have always received great customer service from Chaos Cards and they are my go to store for games. This is due to a combination of sensible pricing, excellent customer service and safe, but speedy shipping of games. They are also very responsive if there are issues and happy to help where they can.

"Purchased numerous times over the last…"

Purchased numerous times over the last 3 years. Mixed reviews to be honest with a few orders but to be fair they have dealt with all issues professionally and resolved all concerns.
Packaging and deliveries have been excellent. Recieved Pre-Order on time and still purchase from them tho this day.

"Always great to deal with"

Always great to deal with. Quick dispatch. Well packed. A very honourable company always putting there customers first

"Great company if your a nerd "

Great company if your a nerd . Always had my items well packaged to ensure nothings damaged and always comes pretty quick too .

"Deceitful and dishonest (LOOSE BOOSTERS ONLY)"

Only buy sets from them, never buy loose boosters from them; bought more than 13 packs of Pokémon from them, not a single one had a holographic; which is ridiculous, the chances of that are around 3.5%, assuming a holographic is 1 in 5 packs (which is already a low probability LMAO) which is crazy!!

So this lead me to believe they are resealed, after checking reviews it convinces me even more; however the customer service tells us we are just extremely unlucky, so please avoid them if you're thinking of buying loose boosters.

However, if you're buying sealed sets like booster boxes or elite trainer boxes you will definitely have better luck.

"Perfect every time"

Great prices. Speedy dispatch. Secure packaging. Perfect every time.

"Made quite a few orders from them…"

Made quite a few orders from them recently highly recommended quick delivery

"Stick to in stock items, don't rely on them for pre-orders."

I've used Chaos Cards multiple times to order in stock items, and it's never been an issue. I would definitely recommend ordering from them if the items are in stock, however I would go elsewhere when it comes to wanting to pre-order anything.

I had multiple items that I was looking to pre-order via Chaos Cards, all with the same early October release date. I had signed up for email notifications for said items, and had been checking at least once a day to see if the items would be available to order as they were listed but not able to add them to cart. It came as a concerning shock to me when I checked one morning, and all of the items went from saying pre-order to out of stock. I had received no emails, so I decided to get in contact with them to find out what was going on. A member of the customer service team called Andy replied, and was completely unhelpful. I replied back and clearly stated the questions I wanted answers for, just to receive yet another unhelpful response thay didn't answer what I had asked despite specifically stating exactly what I wanted to know. Andy couldn't even get basic information correct. For example, Andy claimed that it was past the release date of the items despite that not being the case and even Magic Madhouse has the release set to September 30th. It's honestly been a joke to try and pre-order these items and the customer service has been lacking, so I would highly recommend that others avoid them if you are looking to pre-order items.

In response to the reply:
Myself and my friends all saw on the website that release dates were set to October. I will not have mine and their memories put into question on this. As for the 'informed clearly' and 'undoubtedly answered all of those queries' stuff, this was only after several back and forth emails where I ended up having to provide a specific list of questions I was trying to get answered. I was not getting any clear answers on anything I had specifically asked. It was an absolute pain to deal with, but sadly I highly doubt that Chaos Cards will take any steps to address their lacklustre customer service. I recind my previous statement of recommending them for in stock items, in case there is an issue with your order and have to encounter their customer service.