Ede and Ravenscroft Avis 

I pre-booked and paid for gown hire and photography with Ede & Ravenscroft in 2020 for my graduation ceremony. Due to the pandemic, the ceremony was postponed. At the time, I called Ede & Ravenscroft and was given the choice of a refund or to wait for a rescheduled ceremony. I chose to wait. In 2025, I booked my rescheduled ceremony with the university within their specified deadline. It's important to note that the university only arranges a few London ceremonies per year, with limited slots that fill up quickly. Plus, due to work commitments, I was unable to book sooner. Even so, I still booked my ceremony within the deadline. Despite this, Ede & Ravenscroft required me to pay again for the same services. Their terms and conditions do not address long-term postponements, which is the exact situation I was in. I feel this is unfair and am disappointed.

"Beyond furious with your absolutely pathetic and poor service!
We had a highly disappointing experience with this E&R company. The website lacks essential information, making it difficult to understand the services offered. Attempts to contact them by phone were unsuccessful, as calls often went unanswered. Instead, communication is restricted to email, but responses if they arrive are slow and unhelpful.

Customer service is virtually nonexistent, and the pricing for photography and gown hire is significantly higher than expected, especially given the basic quality of service. It feels as though the company takes advantage of students who simply want to celebrate their special day. With limited alternatives available, they impose high fees for a service that should be smooth, professional, and stress-free.

My concerns regarding poor communication and service have already been raised with the relevant authorities.

If you want a hassle-free and enjoyable graduation experience, I strongly suggest considering other options but NOT with this company. In today's world, high-quality photos can be taken with a mobile phone, making traditional photography services and costly gown rentals an unnecessary expense. Graduation should be a joyful milestone, not a frustrating and overpriced ordeal.

PS: E&R, instead of repeatedly apologising for your poor service, take meaningful action to fix the issues. I don’t need another insincere apology from you if you don’t mean it. Focus on improving your service for future graduates. "I can NOT see this happening"

Terrible graduation picture with no response to emails/ contact. Overpriced items of horrible quality. Their purpose and role is to capture special moments. My friends and I did not have this experience. They don't seem to get much right.

I ordered my graduation photo in good faith, expecting to receive it in a timely manner. However, after a considerable delay, I contacted your team for an update and was informed that Royal Mail had disposed of my photo, accompanied by a picture of it in the bin.

I never specified that the bin was my safe place for deliveries (why would it be?!), yet your company seems to have accepted this as the final proof of delivery. This is both confusing and disappointing, particularly as I have not received any satisfactory resolution despite multiple attempts to reach out.

As a customer, I believe that I am entitled to receive the product I paid for—especially when it pertains to something as significant as a graduation photo, which is a once-in-a-lifetime memento. Unfortunately, I am now left £50 out of pocket with no photo and no recourse from your team, as my emails have gone unanswered.

I find this situation both unacceptable and frustrating. I would appreciate an immediate resolution to this matter, either by providing the photo I ordered or offering a refund. It is crucial that your company addresses customer concerns in a timely and responsible manner, as my experience has left me disheartened and dissatisfied.

I urge prospective customers to reconsider using your services based on my experience, as it appears that your company is quick to take payment but unwilling to fulfill its commitments. Even with the selection of photos, half of them taken had my eyes closed so I couldn’t even have a variety to pick from.

Rude and unfriendly staff with no communication between colleagues. I provided my address to them in person and over the phone and they still asked for it again over email saying that they didn’t have it.
I was told by one of their members of staff to purchase a specific product for my photo which only now I find out is completely wrong and have to amend or cancel my order.
Not once did they apologise for their communication issues or incorrect information or say sorry for the inconvenience, and I was made to feel like everything was my fault.
They will probably reply to this review with a generic ‘please contact our customer service and we will do our best to help you’ response but I know that they don’t intend to help at all. It’s just a shame that universities choose to use this company as you don’t have a choice but to order your photo through them!

Absolute scammers.

The robe was dirty on the day, the hood was far too big and kept sliding off - supposedly this was the smallest size they had. They do not have gowns for smaller people. The graduation hood on my professional photo that the staff took was flipped over the wrong way making the photo look unprofessional.

You are only given 7 days to choose a photo - what if you were abroad or away and didn’t have access in this time.

Tried to communicate with them via the website and no response.

If it wasn’t chosen by my university, I would never use this company.

I booked gown hire for our university matriculation ceremony. Very easy to do via the link the university sent. On the day collection of the gown was seamless and the gown itself was in beautiful clean pressed condition. Staff were also friendly too.
Return of gown was equally as easy.
Thankyou for a great experience and now looking forward to hiring again for full graduation

Went and placed an order for graduation. received mail from college, extra tickets available. Went to reorder extra tickets. Amended order, added extra tickets, previous tickets gone and replaced by extra tickets. Not at all user friendly website. Looks like amateurs have designed it. Please avoid i ordering anything from here if possible. Write to your Uni and ask them to contract another vendor.

Ede and Ravencroft have no respect for personal data or your rights. I requested that my photo was not taken at the ceremony itself, and despite assurance over email no effort at all was taken to ensure this request.

The reason I had requested this was because I had seen how poor the photos were of my brothers ceremony and didn’t want these taken. But my photo was taken and uploaded to their website regardless, and sure enough it was terrible (bad lighting, bizzare time to take the photo)

I had paid for a photo of myself in gown with the scroll, this has come back today and I am so embarrassed the photo is so bad, it will never see the light of day and I feel sick I paid money for it!

I would recommend avoiding all all costs, and certainly not paying for photos. My partner and mum got excellent photos on their phones, the Ede and Ravencroft pictures are just awful. Save your money!

On the day of my daughter's graduation, we came to the desk to order the basic package which was 1 picture and the cost was £44, I paid it and while we still were at the desk with the lady, my daughter decided that didn't want the picture. then Instanstanly I asked the lady for a refund. (while other companies can sort out with the same card reader payment machine, "End and Ravenscroft Ltd" don't do it and there is a reason). She mentioned that she could not do it. The only way was to call customer service, I called a very arrogant lady who answered the phone and told me that they would refund only £42.5 because £1.50 would be charged for admin fees, I asked why and she told me that it was because I call them after the ceremony day. What????? which admin fees? they never took the picture and I asked for a refund a second after we made the order then I understood that this is the reason why the lady didn't, this is a way they take money from the customers I have never seen this in other companies but this is how the dishonesty of this company works, I hope my money be refund

Awful experience. One hour and a half and still can’t check out the photos. Want to add some images and I am very digitally aware and it is impossible. I have logged in and out and reloaded my order and still stuck with a spinning wheel. You charge so much and still think you can offer this well below par experience.

Absolutely the worst website ever in terms of usability. For heaven's sake, you charge enough money for the prints, make the website user friendly. People just want to go there and order prints, it's not that hard! Get you act together and invest in a proper user experience!

Ultimately the worst service! They are foremost the swindling business, and maybe be their front is the gownhire and photography services. Firstly, they charge the most horrific premiums, which i initially made me believe that they must be really good. So i paid it, since it was graduation and i didnt want it to be messed up. Lo & Behold! They made sure to mess it up! Most incompetent people, sent the bill for GBP 120 or something with the parcel which made authorities think there was something value, while all their was in the parcel were a couple of photos which have 0.00 (absolute zero) commercial value. I ended up paying another 45 on taxes just because these incompetent people dont understand the difference between the commercial value of the goods being sent. And to top it all, the pictures service were not even delivered as promised/committed!