Cotswold Outdoor Avis 2 554

Ordered luggage (£129.89) on 10 March for travel on 23 March. Parcel never arrived and DHL have confirmed it is lost.

Despite this, Cotswold Outdoor refused to issue a refund and insisted on waiting for their internal investigation with the courier (6–7 days), even after I explained the item was needed for imminent travel.

I contacted them multiple times (email and phone) and even spoke to a manager, but they would not take responsibility or resolve the issue promptly.

Very disappointing experience — particularly the lack of ownership when something clearly goes wrong in delivery.

Would not recommend based on this.

Staff are knowledgeable and helpful in both branches that I have used recently, both for choosing shoes and helping to fit a rucksack Yes, they can be a little bit more expensive than buying online but I value the personal service and been able to talk through what I need without any ridiculous sales pressure. That is worth a little bit extra - use it or lose it.

I needed advice on choosing the correct size for walking boots, so I visited Cotswold Outdoor in Betws-y-Coed. The shop assistant scanned and measured my feet, recommended a suitable brand, and ordered the right size for me.

Excellent service throughout.

I am currently trying to obtain information regarding a refund that was declined by your bank. To resolve this, I simply require the ARN number so that my bank can investigate further.

So far, I have sent three emails and spoken with three different customer service representatives. Each time, I have been assured that the request would be passed to the finance team or that someone would follow up directly. Unfortunately, I have not received any follow-up communication or the information requested.

This experience has been extremely disappointing and does not reflect the level of service I would expect as a regular customer. I would appreciate a prompt resolution to this matter.

On the Cotswold Outdoor website I found a clothesline I wanted and at a good price. Ordered for click and collect but somehow missed the collection email before I went out of town and missed the collection date. I called later to see if it was too late. My call was answered in good time and the staff were helpful, saying it hadn't been sent back yet and they'd put a note saying I'd be coming in. I was able to pick up my order even though I was quite late and I'm very grateful!

This is the 2nd purchase I’ve made with Snow & Rock (Cotswold Outdoor) that hasn’t arrived. I am going on holiday, and was promised next day delivery but after 2 days nothing has arrived. I need to purchase the item again, but I cannot get a refund because Evri allegedly have the parcel. NEVER AGAIN. When your reviews are full of complaints about Evri, it’s unacceptable not to take your customers feedback and change delivery partners.

Despite my considerable orthopaedic difficulties, Charles (Deansgate Manchester) seemed genuinely interested in achieving a satisfactory result for me and eventually found the right shoes.

Abysmal delivery, charge you for next day delivery but took a whole week with delays and dhl never turning up on time… 7hrs late one day!!(no wonder I wasn’t in…). Need to change away from dhl e-commerce!

Had an item arrive on the 22/2/26. There was an issue with the product. Wrote to you on the same day. I had to wait until the 2nd of march for a reply. On the 4th March I was told I would get a refund of £20 and this would be processed as soon as possible. To this day still no refund. So I wrote to the company yesterday and was told this will be processed now and and I can expect a refund in ten days. Your customer service is totally unacceptable and nobody takes any accountability. Things go wrong, absolutely. But have a system in place where you can rectify these issues before they spiral out of hand. Very poor customer service.
Thank you for your reply. Ten business days was yesterday. Today is 12 business dsys. If this was processed on the 4th, as you say, then there must be an issue. As I haven’t had a refund. Please just refund me. It really can’t be that difficult. How can you run a business this way?

Thank you to Tom, and the young lady with the long hair, in the Ambleside branch for taking the time to help me find the perfect pair of walking boots for a 26-mile charity walk in July in aid of Alzheimer's Society. Both were very helpful, knowledgeable and offered lots of advice whilst helping me try on quite a few different sizes of boots, to find the right size for my feet/toes. I learned a lot and and my boots are a perfect fit. Superb customer service, thank you very much. No more bruised toes on long walks!

Purchased a pair of running shoes as a Christmas present for my granddaughter.
The sole started to come away after very few wearings.
I Emailed Cotswold with complaint, enclosing photos and other details as requested on their web site. They replied asking me to return them for inspection and recommended using track and trace post. They would refund return carriage costs if my complaint was upheld. They received the goods on 26th January.
After several reminders and them requesting information I had already given and employing other delaying tactics they eventually refunded the purchase price only, some 6 weeks later. No mention of the £14.75 carriage costs despite reminders which they not even responded.
The whole process has been slow, unresponsive and impersonal - AI driven? Not recommended.

I’m disappointed that I can’t place an order with Cotswold Outdoor because they only offer delivery through Evri. In my experience, Evri consistently performs very poorly. Parcels often sit in their network for weeks without any movement, and deliveries are frequently not even attempted.

Right now I have two separate parcels from another supplier that were both sent via Evri and have already been declared lost. Given that track record, I simply can’t risk ordering anything valuable or time-sensitive if Evri is the only courier option.

If Cotswold Outdoor wants customers to have confidence when ordering online, they should allow customers to choose their delivery courier. Many retailers offer options such as Royal Mail, DPD, or others for exactly this reason.

Until there’s a choice of delivery partner, I unfortunately won’t be placing an order.
1 star.

Avoid avoid avoid. Ordered an item for pre Christmas delivery well before the advertised cut off. Evri (who they chose to deliver for them) lost the package. Despite countless customer service enquiries that have gone unanswered I have no refund other than for the postage I paid (also exorbitant). I have waited months and messaged repeatedly, constantly being asked ignored. Terrible customer service.

My understanding was that CO was the place to go for expertise and customer service and that is the experience you are paying for (this shop is not the economical option..) aside from quality clothing and footwear.
The walking boot section was really busy with only two assistants serving. They made no effort to acknowledge waiting customers and gave their entire blinkered attention to the customers they were already looking after. One when finished with a customer simply looked around and said ‘who’s next’. A ridiculous way of managing customers as relies on customers (who aren't in any kind of queue) to know the order in which they arrived and the exact moment anyone decided they needed assistance! Beyond that it assumes that everyone whilst irritated at the lack of service will be good natured enough to CARE who has been waiting longer. The outcome is that anyone with manners hangs back and anyone without - elbows their way to being seen first regardless. By this time i was googling my own way to trying to understand the difference between what one item offered vs. another. I could have done that at home and ordered some from an online store for half the price! Because I was desperate and out of time I ended up leaving with a pair of boots that I'd at least managed to get retrieved from the stock room for a hefty but not unreasonable (had there been ANY kind of service) £155.
This would have been enough for me to think twice before using CO again but when I got to the til i was told that my gift voucher had expired (it had, but i had called customer services prior to it expiring and was under the impression that it had been extended in the system). Rather than acknowledging my concern at the misunderstanding the Manager (a thoroughly unpleasant lady) spoke to me like i was an idiot or some kind of con artist and thus exacerbated my embarrassment.
I’m shocked and disappointed – I’d have thought that a store like CO would invest in at least minimal customer service training. Acknowledging customers, managing the order in which customers are looked after in busy periods, multi serving customers – looking after one while another tries on shoes or going to collect shoes for two customers at once from the store room; and CERTAINLY, at the til not seeking to humiliate a customer who has been given unexpected news.
I suggest anyone reading this should choose to take their custom to another outlet who have at least minimally invested in instore customer service.

Bought a jacket from Cotswolds on next day delivery, ordered Thursday 23rd February the sales note said item arrives 24th, this was an urgent order, they didn't dispatch the item for 5 days and then they used Evri, the Evri driver didn't even knock at my house as I was home and sat 3 feet from front door, I get a message saying its delivered and it wasnt, no one knocked, no signature just a photo of my parcel stuffed behind a bin. £160 jacket, reported it to Cotswolds within minutes and they have done nothing to send me a jacket or give me my money back, sending me in circles with Evri, absolutely appalling behaviour. They emailed me to say "Evri said its been delivered so thats it"

recently purchased a women’s
alpine jacket from your Watford branch. After wearing it only twice, feathers have already started coming out of the jacket, which is very disappointing for what I expected to be a quality product.

I returned to the Watford store
to raise this issue but unfortunately had a very poor customer service experience. The response I received from Dominic was dismissive and unhelpful, which made the situation even more frustrating.

I would appreciate it if you
could look into this matter and advise on a replacement or refund, as well as review the customer service experience at the Watford branch.
The customer service agreed
to deal with the product in 4-6 weeks … and we will now be aboard when the product is delivered
I just wanted to reiterate tht the product is not fit for purpose in its current condition

I placed an order on 2 March for an item that was clearly shown as in stock, with an estimated in-store collection date between 6–9 March. As of today, the order is still showing as “processing”, and the only communication I’ve received is a vague email stating that the order is delayed, with no explanation or revised timeframe.

I visited the Norwich store in person to try and resolve the issue. The staff there were helpful and did what they could, but understandably they were limited in what they could do. The problem clearly sits with the online order and stock system rather than the store staff.

I also contacted customer service, which is difficult in itself given the limited hours (9–5:30 Monday–Friday) and the unhelpful chatbot. When I finally spoke to someone, I was told that they cannot locate the stock, cannot process the order, and that I should simply cancel it. No timeframe, no solution, and very little effort to help.

This raises a serious question: why are items being sold online as in stock with specific collection dates if the stock cannot actually be located or fulfilled? This wastes customers’ time and creates false expectations.

If I cancel the order, I’m also told I must wait up to 7 working days for a refund, meaning the entire process has been a significant inconvenience with no resolution.

I wanted a pair of Brooks or possibly Hoka trainers.
Shop Assistant measured my feet amd proceeded to highly recommend I try the Salomon x ultra 360 walking shoes.
I allowed myself to be persuaded, and paid £140.
Googled them when I got back home and realised I paid way over the odds, twice the price of some online retailers.
Think I'll just use the shop to get measured in future,then buy the shoes online.
I've learnt my lesson

Following an order and return in January, several conversations with the customer service team, writing a negative a review, and emailing the company, I am STILL awaiting a refund of £274.67!

On 10/03 Cotswold's replied adviisng that they had tried to pay the refund however their attempts failed. Sadly they did not try to contact me to advise this. They also state that as per an email I recieved payment would be made and ask for my patience. They do not note that the email they have referred to is dated 16/02 and the refund was promised within 5 - 7 days! Patience is an understatement. I've been waiting since January for the refund. Their service continues to be appalling.

Today I went to the Cotswolds outdoors shop near Cirencester to buy some hiking shoes. After arrival I waited patiently in the hiking section for 20 minutes waiting for an attendant. Whilst the section was busy the two shop assistants made no acknowledgement that I, or other patrons, were waiting instead focusing solely on their current customers. When I was eventually served the assistant was helpful but, instead of checking on the fit of the shoes he found for me, he returned his attention to a single customer who had been trying on shoes for over half an hour. Customers should be greated and acknowledged and the assistant should split their time efficiently so that customers don't feel ignored.

That experience would have been simply unfortunate but my visit was spoiled completely by the manager. Upon payment I attempted to use a voucher I had received as a gift, unfortunately it had expired 6 weeks earlier. That a paid for voucher can expire at all is problematic but the manager was dismissive and unhelpful acting as if I was in the wrong for even trying to use the voucher. The whole experience made me feel like Cotswolds Outdoor have little interest in their customers beyond the money they can extract from them.