E.H. Thorne Avis 45

Great company ! Let down by using FedEx! FedEx delivery tracking is not fit for purpose. FedEx gave me a 5 hour window today for my delivery 9am to 1.00 pm
It arrived at 12.45 , there is no way to track the parcel . I had better things to do than wait for FedEx. If I order from Thornes again I will ask them not to send it by FedEx. FedEx are going to make Thorne a company to avoid if they continue to use this company.

Ordered Christmas labels on the on the 5th of December but it was only dispatched on the 9th! It was a small simple order and they were probably aware of the upcoming Royal Mail strike and the time sensitivity of Christmas labels. It is the 14th of December now and still no labels.
I contacted them and their excuse is the Royal mail strike- yet the there was no strike till the 9th-the day they "dispatched" my order. They had 3 whole days to send the parcel.
Obviously I have already sent my honey order so these Christmas labels -should they ever turn up-will be binned. Total waste of time and money and I inconvenienced greatly a good costumer.
Edit after reading the reply: it is the 16th today and still no labels. Meanwhile royal mail delivered the books I bought from WOB 4 days ago. So please don't blame your slow (or non existent) service on the royal mail. You should not take orders if you are unable to fulfill them.

Ordered some labels, which came incorrectly printed.
Thorne were very quick to rectify the situation and I got the correct ones very quick.
Always had good service from the company.

I ordered a national brood box and two solid floors in the sale. Took a long time (nearly 3 weeks) to arrive. Youtube videos help with assembly and I found the brood box straightforward to construct. The floors had a problem as the wood was not cut to fit. Very frustrating. However Thornes investigated, accepted the problem was at manufacture & not created by me then sent out 2 assembled floors to me at no extra cost and free carriage. So it all worked out OK in the end!

The 'reply' addresses my initial review (added on a weekend) before a satisfactory resolution was found

Excellent product (3 quilts for national hives. Arrived after 4 days well packed.
Happy customer

Good products, their "bees on a budget" hives are good value.

I don't think they have really understood "e commerce in 2022" ... it can be many days before they get around to despatching the order.

Fabulous moulds and candle making supplies. Moulds may look a bit expensive but they last forever and are consistently great candles. Very helpful customer service. Highly recommended

Order 18810

Ordered a spare basic national hive
honey bucket with gate
2x sieves metal.

Took them 7 days to dispatch, complete joke, the first order I had with them, they missed completely and I had to chase them up to send it. Same with this order, had to chase them up for it to be sent. They don't even give you a reason it's taking a week. Other bee suppliers all dispatch within 3 days, and the service is hassle-free. Do not use this company, they are tardy with their dispatching.

Useless! Charged £10 for delivery, says by courier. Chased after 2 working days to be told courier is next day but they’re busy so can’t guarantee it’ll be sent THIS WEEK! If it takes over a week to despatch then better to put that on the website. Order cancelled.

On a winter Friday afternoon, I noticed one hive was flying and happy the other had run out of supplies. I rang E.H. Thorne, and by Saturday morning my postman delivered a pack of fondant. The staff on the phone were really helpful and went out of their way to ensure my parcel was delivered the next day.
Happy beekeeper, happy bees.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic I have ordered items from this company on behave of my 5 beekeeping friends and myself.

I ordered some items from this company on behalf of my friends and myself – 4 glass quilts and 4 cover boards.

When the items arrived at my house, the glass in two of the glass quilts was broken. The glass items were wrapped in thin cardboard. No wonder the glass was broken.

I complained to the company to complain. Rebecca Coleman, a company director, dealt with my complaint. She replaced the two glass quilts, which had the glass smashed. The damage items were also taken away.

The two new glass quilts arrived safely but were not of adequate quality. I complained about the items and sent a photo to Rebecca Coleman. This was the start of the nastiness.

She denied that the glass quilts were not adequate for their purpose. She did agree to have them collected and indeed they were collected. I repacked them in the wrappings supplied by Thorne. Once again, the items were wrapped in thin cardboard.

They arrived at their head office with the glass smashed. It was then that Rebecca Coleman decided to:

1. Remove my name from their mailing list - i have tried but failed to do so for years.

2. She cancelled an unfilled order.

3. She wanted to speak to my legal adviser and obtain legal advice from them, at my expense.

She eventually refunded my money but only after I threatened to take her to court.

I have ceased to be a customer of Thorne's.

I and my friends are disgusted by her behaviour.

Excellent service. Orders arrive super quick and quality of hives is great. My now 'go to' company for beekeeping supplies.

Fantastic quality every time.
Amazing range with everything you could possibly need. I did try another company at one point but the quality wasn’t even close.
Extremely knowledgeable and helpful they even queried an order where I has mistakenly ordered the wrong size. Orders are always confirmed and dispatched quickly.
Goods are very well packaged and they use a quality courier. Cannot fault. They may not be the cheapest but quality costs and they are well worth it.

New Beek: ordered frames and plastic foundation to assemble, it doesn't fit...wasn't informed at point of order, they argue via email 'it does fi't then when I called and 'director' admitted its 5mm short and I should have been told at time of order. Terrible customer service - basically said tough, I cant return as already partially assembled some frames no offer of partial refund. Wont be ordering from them again plenty of other companies who want repeat orders out there.
Have informed my local society of the very poor attitude too, shared my experiences expensive mistake to use Thornes.

I've recently got into beekeeping and I ordered a lot of my gear from Thorne on the recommendation of a friend. I bought a flat-pack beehive. I have to say the quality of the build is excellent. Definitely worth buying British! They have a full range of instructions on youtube that are very easy to follow, but I would recommend that you have some experience with carpentry if you choose the flat-pack. Otherwise, go for a full build. Their delivery time seems to be a standard five working days. They are reliable, but this is quite slow compared to many online shops. Even so, I prefer slow and good quality so I will be using them in the future.

E.H.Thorne is still a family run company. Who carried on throughout the lock-down. The company employee’s, mostly local staff. The Staff try /post, delivery good on request. Like any company the leaders can do no wrong. I was sad to read that it only has 8 reviews on trust pilot and 38% of feedback is bad. I wish the company good will and hope they improve with age.

I purchased a self assembly hive a year ago but never got to unpack it until recently.
Unfortunately the metal roof was bent so I contacted Thorne who sent a replacement roof by 24hr service and also picked up the damaged one.
Replacing a damaged part a year after purchase is outstanding customer service.

I visited the E H Thorne premises in RAND on a beautiful sunny day - it was Bee Keeper's heaven. Before I even went into the store I was overwhelmed with the incredible location. The store was a hive of activity(!) which inside was absolutely amazing and had everything you need for your bees and a few things for your wish list too!

The staff were by far the most polite and helpful individuals I have ever had the pleasure to meet. No hard sell simply polite well informed advice (many of the staff are bee keepers!) special thanks to Liz and Cath.

An item of stock i required wasn't stocked on the shelf and because many of the products are manufactured on site it was suggested that the item would be made for me whilst I waited ! simply incredible...

Highly recommended as being THE place to visit and purchase your bee supplies!

Simon

I had a problem with a 2nd quality broad hive assembly which they promptly replaced (arrived the next day). Excellent service from a R Coleman as couldn't have asked for more assistance. No doubt an excellent company for quality and service.

I am a new beekeeper. I bought two flat packed WBC hives and some tools. I received a personal call to check the order details and Thorne included a small item that I'd forgotten foc. The despatch was not quick and the goods arrived with a few splits in. However I give this a 5 star rating because when I chased up the late delivery it arrived very quickly thereafter. The faulty parts were replaced generally without a quibble. I received a personal, professional service throughout and the products themselves are a thing of beauty. The packaging is excellent quality. The paper instructions are poor but Thorne's have excellent videos showing all construction instructions in detail. I'm really happy with my purchase and want to use Thorne again.