Ede and Ravenscroft Avis 

I’ve been a customer of Ede & Ravenscroft for over 15 years, and the experience has consistently been exceptional across every branch I’ve visited. Their products are timeless classics — beautifully made, elegant, and built to last for years if properly cared for.

The customer service has always been impeccable: professional, knowledgeable, and genuinely attentive. The Burlington Gardens shop is especially reliable if you have a formal event coming up and suddenly realise you’re missing something essential — they always seem to have exactly what you need in stock.

A truly dependable institution for classic menswear and formalwear. Highly recommended.

A beautiful shop with first class service. Booked a fitting for my daughter's first set of legal attire. Excellent service from Michael. Explaining the history of the gown and instructions on care. Found the whole experience very memorable. Michael should be cloned and put in every establishment.

Absolute rip off. I can't believe they charge such an inflated and extortionate price for photos, then add £10 for postage in mainland UK.
Even special delivery (guaranteed by 1pm the next day) doesn't cost this with Royal Mail, and they sure aren't using special delivery because the postage terms state up to 28 days for them to arrive. What a joke! If I wasn't forced to use them for the photography, I sure as hell wouldn't have chosen them myself.

The expensive graduation photo package was delivered with two photos that had not been cut apart. There is no telephone number to call, and the webform for help does not have Durham university listed. Altogether very below par.

The company only gets one star because there is no option for less!

Deeply dissatisfied, I am a serving member of HM Forces and ordered in good faith at the insistence of my University.

I am now refused permission to return sub-standard goods due to a ridiculously short return window.

No feedback email address, very poor customer service and a company that changes my account details without permission.

Very incensed.

UPDATE.

Received a very sympathetic response on Trustpilot, therefore replied to the given email address.

All I received was a further unsatisfactory excuse about the changes to my account WITHOUT permission or consultation and a repeat of the Company returns policy, which refuses to recognise extenuating circumstances.

I remain deeply dissatisfied and will be forced to take the matter up with trading standards for the supply of poor quality, overpriced goods.

The saddest part is that this dreadful service has nearly monopolised the graduation hire provision, finding alternatives is very time consuming.

I was deeply disappointed at the USB images. I cannot fault the package I purchased but I do think they fail to be explicit about the contents of the USB. You can only buy the USB if you get another package which is a bit wrong in my opinion. It was twenty pounds for ONE photo and it was a photo I didn't even like I just got for my family because they liked it. I was hoping to access the photo I liked on the USB as it meant a lot to me. It doesn't take much to be honest when students are paying a substantial amount of money.

Absolutely dreadful experience and a total rip off!
My son Graduated from Bournemouth as had my daughter the year before. The graduation process is a productions line with 3 ceremonies per day for a week. Each gown by the end of the week will have been worn up to 15 times and it shows. They charge £74 a pop!!
The digital image is a further £45 and 2 weeks later still has not been delivered. The web site states up to 6 weeks which is utterly ludicrous for a simple digital image.
The graduation is a milestone event in someone's life after 3-4 years of hard work and enormous debt. In steps Ede Ravenscroft who suck all the joy out of the event with their extortionate prices and woeful service. They should be wearing masks!

Edited following reply below”

And then you get the cut and paste reply that is given to every complaint. I have no intention of engaging with this firm and advise others to look for alternatives for you own big day. The Universities who permit this monopoly should be looking for alternatives too.

I am deeply disappointed and angry at this company's predatory business practices. They were the official photographers at my university graduation, which I now see as a huge mistake by the university.

Here is the trap they set for students:

You pay a £20 deposit (or "sitting fee") which they vaguely promise will be "refunded".

This is not a refund. It is a "discount" that you can only use on their outrageously overpriced packages.

I went to their website hoping to get my digital images. I discovered there is no option to just buy the digital files.

The website is deliberately designed to force you into buying a package, such as one print, a frame, and a USB of that single image for over £100 (mine was £107!).

Worse, when I tried to find a cheaper workaround (like just buying the USB), the website conveniently produced a "payment error" every single time. It is clearly a deliberate trap to block you from choosing any option other than their most expensive ones.

What kind of business model preys on students, many of whom are financially stretched, during what should be a happy celebration? You are exploiting a captive audience.

I blame my university for choosing this company, but I blame this company for its dishonest and manipulative sales tactics.

My advice to other students: Do not pay their £20 fee. It's a con. Just take more pictures on your own phone. You will be much happier and won't be supporting this awful business.

I couldn't recommend their professional, welcoming and efficient service highly enough, and the quality is superb.
I visited the Oxford branch last Tuesday, and it was well worth the 7 hour round trip to do so. A member of staff (Hermione) had ordered the necessary sizes in advance and I was helped and advised throughout by Andrew who could not have done more to assist, their aftercare service for alterations has been excellent and well advised.
The fantastic range held in store, the lifetime quality of their products and their excellent customer service is worth its weight in gold, I now wouldn't think of going anywhere else and am happy to drive from deepest Somerset to visit, the difference in every particular is well worth it.

Lovely staff. A gentleman showed around the shop. He was very knowledgeable and friendly.

I had a graduation ceremony last week and the service provided by Ede & Ravenscrott is a pure scam. I paid at the ceremony 30£ to get photographs, as advertised on the banner. Next day I was informed that I paid for the right of the photographer to take pictures of me. By the Act 2015 of the consumer rights, I have not received anything tangible in return from them. They are refusing to refund me or provide photographs in any form (digital, unedited and etc.) this is a pure scam, as a people are not informed what they are paying for and at the end customers receive “air”. Avoid using the services.

At Aberdeen NEScol graduation I had the misfortune of dealing with this company.

I pre-booked photography on the day, queued for ages and eventually got my turn. The photographer spoke no words to me and quickly posed me. I felt very uncomfortable and stiff in the pose I was given.
They then started taking photos, there was no countdown or anything just silence. I felt deeply uncomfortable and awkward.
This is then reflected in the images I was given, I hate the images. I am extremely awkward in the images.

Customer service - Null.
The customer service first response was basically "we can partially refund and that's it. Sorry no sorry."
I then wrote a large complaint email which again fell on deaf ears with a basic response and fake sorry followed with "either take the refund or select your image as ordered" .
They did mention a sitting fee which basically said I paid £20 to even get my images taken, hence the partial refund.
I find this sitting fee ludicrous and it is just to extort students and family's on such an important day.

You do not get shown the image on the day so you do not know if it is a good photo or not until you get them. Considering you are urged to pre-book photos, you should be shown the images and at least be offered a retake of 2 images.
Or at the very very least be refunded all the money you paid for the photos. None of this sitting fee rubbish.

I absolutely cannot recommend this company and urge you not to pre-book photos. Just don't get any photos

I used this company for my graduation. The photos were sent but stayed in the box, when reframing them the I noticed there was flaws in the photo. I contacted them and was asked to send a copy of the photo to highlight the bad areas. I did so just to be told that after 28 days nothing will be done anyway. Firstly, why bother asking me to send a photo of the original if nothing would be done after 28 days, secondly, this is poor for a photography company where digital copies are easy to store and photoshop/rectify. All I can say is they aren’t very good. Maybe universities should find another contractor.

Had to use them for my graduation, unfortunately 2 days before I was trapped abroad and unable to make it back.
I contacted them the moment I knew but had no reply.
I chased them up a few days later and they only said their policy would allow refunds with 7 days notice.
Despite being an extreme situation, they just repeated the policy and said I had 12 months to use the order for a future graduation but I would never get a refund.
It was very frustrating as the issues abroad cost money, my hotel booking, bookings for my family all extra costs and ultimately I missed my graduation.
They just cared about their policy.

ADDITION!
I responded to their reply below and included the email chain they asked for details again and then told me again that I wasn't due a refund!!!
Absolute time wasters and a disgusting level of customer service.

I paid £80 in advance for studio graduation photos and simply can’t get them. The links don’t work, they suggested I had to download chrome (who does that?) but that didn’t work and now a deafening silence. I asked for e-images because the website is sooo difficult to navigate but am planning now to contact my bank to cancel. So great …. no graduation pics!🥵

Extremely poor photo quality

Most confusing ordering system ever. I inadvertently cancelled my first tickets so reordered them with the gown etc. It is still not clear as to whether I actually have tickets as customer services can’t give me a straight answer. My app & bank account say one thing but customer services say different.
Please sort your website & ordering system so it’s more user friendly. I use computers everyday & your website is not one of the better ones.
It has made what should be an exciting achievement very stressful.

This was the most disappointing experience I've encountered. The quality of the photographs was subpar, and I was provided with the incorrect gown for the ceremony. Customer service was unsatisfactory, and I paid £200 for their services. It appears that they have a dominant position in the university graduation market.

I had previously paid for my gown hire for my graduation. Which I no longer went to and had asked this company to hold the gown till next year. To find out my university is no longer using them for this years graduation so I then asked for a refund which they said they will give. I have waited weeks and now I don’t even get a response back from them. There very unprofessional and you should not hire your gown from them. They have stopped communication which makes sense as to why they don’t have a telephone line wnd why my university is not using there services moving forward.