Waitrose Avis 

Dreadful wine order delayed DHL delivery a farce letting down the Waitrose brand

I ordered nearly £200 worth of wine last week and paid £8.95 for delivery due last Saturday. Nothing arrived, so I rang Waitrose Cellar and was informed it MAY arrive Sunday or Monday but on Monday 8.30 am I was contacted and told it would be Tuesday. Later on the Monday I got a call saying Parcel Force didnt have my address and could I confirm so they could deliver Tuesday. I informed the I had already responded to the same questions, they had no idea I had been called. Today Tuesday, ive waited all day for delivery but no parcel so I contacted Waitrose at 5.40 pm and apparently the wine isn’t out for delivery. Shambolic incompetence so I’ve asked for a refund and won’t use Waitrose Cellar again.

Avoid, Avoid,Avoid, You ask me about my experience ? I have never received such awful service…… Waitrose Cellar you should be ashamed of yourselves….. placed an order for specific day of delivery, waited in all day and no delivery received. Customer services advised it would probably arrive the following day ….. No, it didn’t arrive the following day….. four days later I’m advised by DHL it’s arriving today …. I’ve waited in again all day, it’s now 5pm and no delivery and no update !!!!! I’m totally fed up now, so REFUND REQUESTED NOW…….

Awful , still no order received after 6 days , they don’t answer the phone either, I will be contacting my card provider .

Absolutely dreadful.
Ordered wine 3 weeks ago.
Was told wine was dispatched and 3 days in a row Parcelforce tracing said ‘incomplete address’. Waitrose said they contacted them to resolve.
They didn’t arrive and was told by Parcelforce tracking that they were being held at a depot 60 miles away, Waitrose said they contacted Parcelforce and it would be delivered the next day.
4 days later I have had a notification from Parcelforce to say their wine is returned as I refused the delivery.
Have a look at the other reviews, this is nothing to do with the delivery companies. It’s Waitrose wine cellar controlling it centrally. They are a bunch of con artists.

I placed an online order on Saturday, 29 November 2025. Friday, 5 December, I received an email from DHL indicating that the order would be delivered on that day, only to be informed shortly afterwards that the delivery had been delayed.
After spending over an hour waiting to speak with customer services, I was advised that their delivery partner, DHL, is experiencing operational issues and currently has a backlog of deliveries.

Was told by the Customer Services lady that she will contact DHL and get an update as to when my order will be delivered, but failed to make any further contact.

Avoid Waitrose Cellar like the plague. This company won’t last long.

I ordered three cases of champagne and wine for delivery on a nominated day. Only one box arrived, while the other two were misdirected to the wrong DHL depot. As I needed the order for the weekend, I cancelled the remaining items on Friday 26th.

Customer Service confirmed by email on Saturday 27th that a refund would be processed. However, speaking to Customer Service again on Friday 5th December, I was told that Waitrose Cellar’s policy is not to refund customers until the items are returned to the warehouse and logged into the system, a process that could take several weeks.

This is despite the fact that the error was entirely on Waitrose’s side. Holding customer funds until misdirected goods are returned is unfair and effectively penalises the customer. I was also surprised that the Customer Service assistant did not even know which items I had received and which I had not, information that had already been shared and could easily be verified with DHL.

Such a process places the organisation’s interests above the customer’s and leaves customers waiting unnecessarily. A more customer‑focused approach would ensure prompt refunds when the seller is at fault.

How does a big company get away with such poor customer service?
I ordered a box of wine in the 25% off deal, set for click and collect at my local branch. Instead, DHL delivered it to a front door—not mine. When I contacted customer service, the agent was dismissive and unhelpful, simply suggesting the order “might turn up” with no timeframe or reassurance.
I then spoke directly with the branch, who manually checked and confirmed my order is not there. Trying to get in touch is a nightmare, and the service is nowhere near what you’d expect from Waitrose.
They’ve taken my money, and I have nothing to show for it.
to add.... I have just been on hold for 10 minutes and now been cut off.
Terrible!

Avoid Waitrose Cellar at all costs.
I received The Ned Sauvignon Blanc BIB in clearly unsafe condition — the box was already open and the inner wine bag was completely unlabelled. The contents could not be identified, traced, or safely consumed. This breaches the Food Safety Act 1990, which requires food and drink to be safe, sealed, and traceable.

Despite this, Waitrose repeatedly insisted on only two “solutions”:
1. Return the unsafe item 25 miles to a branch, or
2. Accept a weekday 9am–5pm all-day collection slot I cannot attend due to work.

Both options cause significant inconvenience and breach the Consumer Rights Act 2015 (s.9, s.11, s.24), which requires retailers to provide a remedy that is reasonable, proportionate, and does not burden the customer — especially when the goods supplied are unsafe and not as described.

Across more than three weeks Waitrose:
• Closed my case in error
• Contacted an incorrect landline number I never provided
• Implied this incorrect data came from my account
• Ignored the food safety issue entirely
• Repeated the same impractical “solutions”
• Failed to provide a lawful or reasonable remedy

This also raises a UK GDPR accuracy breach, as incorrect personal data was recorded and acted upon.

For a retailer claiming to be “trusted” and “premium”, the lack of accountability, safety awareness and competence was shocking.

I have escalated this to Trading Standards and will be reporting the data inaccuracies to the ICO.
If you value safety, service, or your legal rights, avoid Waitrose Cellar.

Ordered a month ago. Farcical experience with customer service. Still have only a partial delivery and no refund.

I would avoid using waitrose cellar while they depend on DHL. It's not that Waitrose are particularly bad it's that their business is being destroyed by DHL, the worst delivery company bar none. Ordered Fri. Email says coming Monday. Then a text saying no we are coming Sunday. So I arrange to be in. No show. DHL say we couldn't access your house. Picture attached of a house 50+ miles away ... So I wait in Monday. No Show. Tracking now says Tue then later Wed. I have now stayed in 4 days . I could go on but the gist is DHL communication is appalling.
So now to Waitrose. I cancelled the order (as there was no chance of it coming according to DHL) and Waitrose tell me i have to wait at least 14 days for a refund on top of the 6 days they already had my cash... they have to receive the order back from DHL before giving me my money. So now I am responsible for their delivery contractor. You couldn't make this up if you tried. What if DHL never return it ( a distinct possibility) do i have to lose my money because their system failed.
So no more orders from me and I suggest you also run a mile....

Avoid!! Terrible customer service when an issue with a collection reported. Failed to appreciate the inconvenience caused to me with any solution offered and a complete lack of empathy with the impact on me. Terrible terrible experience

What a disaster Waitrose cellars appears to be. I ordered on 1st November. This afternoon they tell me order was delivered on Friday. Have just received another email from DHL saying parcel is back at their depot at 4.35pm today, having apparently been out for delivery at 10.30am.
Waitrose don't appear to know what is going on. This was a present expected in 3-5 days, now 10 days will have passed!
Waitrose need to refund and ditch this surface it will have a detrimental effect on their brand name.

I placed an order with these and paid the extra fee for express delivery. The order was not, and three days later, has still not been received. No explanation has been provided. Three emails have been sent to Waitrose cellar - non have been responded to. We will never use these again. Utterly unacceptable.

Every time wine is delivered the delivery instructions are totally ignored by the courier. Waitrose say they will sort this out but they do not. Why do they have a box in which to type delivery instructions if the courier does not bother to read them? Secondly, their website was much better before they needlessly changed it. Now it is not possible to look at one's previous orders. We have to trawl through emails. What was the point of this, no doubt expensive, website 'update'?

This company can’t make their chosen delivery company deliver to where I request.

Terrible service. Waited 4 weeks for delivery, when it eventually turned up I was missing a bottle. I spent 10 days and three emails trying to contact them. Had no reply and a refund today for the missing bottle. I think a reply to keep me in the loop would’ve stretched them a bit too far, I understand it’s quite an arduous task to reply to someone but it would’ve been appreciated.

I ordered a specific bottle of vintage port and was delivered one 6 years younger - I phoned customer support who said they would look into it and would call me back the next day - never heard from them again. The customer service person was rude and very unhelpful. Will never use them again… very poor, I expected better.

Couriers unable to deliver.
I ordered some wine on Monday 20th October from Waitrose Wine Cellar.
They use useless couriers who have repeatedly failed to deliver to our address although last time after 10 days they did find us.
So if you want to buy wine from Waitrose, purchase through their local grocery delivery service - don't use Waitrose Wine Cellar if you want to receive any wine.

We ordered four bottles of a specific vintage and a different vintage was delivered, without any notification of the change by email or in the delivery box/delivery note.

We had specifically researched and ordered this particular wine to give as gifts, which had received significantly positive reviews from a range of professional wine tasting organisations and other media e.g. newspaper reviews. We triple-checked the vintage before ordering. The one we were sent is so recent that it hasn't even been scored yet by the Wine Society.

The vintage of a wine is one of the most important elements that helps buyers understand the quality and external market value of wine. To simply substitute a random wine for a specific, very highly-regared vintage without notifying the customer at all seems wrong. In the same way that I wouldn't expect jewellery marketed as gold to be substituted for something gold-plated without notification, wine shouldn't be swapped without notification. The customer service team weren't exactly unhelpful.... but also weren't particularly pro-active either.