Holland & Barrett Retail
reviews and complaints

After visiting the Holland & Barrett store online, I was initially drawn in by the enticing offers like 'Penny' deals and buy one get one half price promotions. While I found some products to be a bit pricey even with discounts, the overall quality of goods offered by H&B impressed me. Despite my order costing more than expected due to the tempting deals, I was still satisfied with the service provided. The only downside was the longer-than-expected delivery time. Overall, I would highly recommend Holland & Barrett to others based on the quality of goods and the service received.

I bought £30 worth of these capsules in mid February, on-line, to hopefully help with a stomach problem that I have recently developed. I picked them up from the shop in late February. I decided to start taking them in March so read the ingredients label only to find that the main ingredient is one of the substances causing my stomach problems - Fructoolisaccharides. I have found out over a year of extensive medical tests that I am allergic to it and other sweeteners.

I took the bottles back to the shop in March, unopened, and explained the problem. They said they could refund or exchange but I didn't have the right paperwork so I must print the original order showing how much I paid. I said I would come back next time I was in town.

I went back to the shop but it was now over the 30 day return period, which I didn't know about. The shop assistant went to ask the manager and he just said no he would not accept a return. (Was not polite enough to come and speak/explain to me himself). I was told to ring customer services.

We rang customer services and they said no it's an (inviolable) 30 day policy.

So here's the thing. Not only was there no sympathy, understanding or customer 'care' shown, there was a complete inflexibility that cannot be right. Yes, have a returns policy; you have to for people to change their minds in the short period. But if you unknowingly sell something that is faulty in some way, or a customer unknowingly buys something that will make them ill, then surely these are exceptional circumstances. And you are 'Health' shop.

And here's the other thing - what am I supposed to do with them? I can't take them because they will make me ill. All I can do is throw away 240 perfectly good Friendly Bacteria capsules that have more than a year ahead date on them, causing waste and possible pollution.

Does Holland and Barrett have no heart?

This morning my husband , myself and 19 year old son entered your store in coleraine Northern Ireland. While we where there my son purchased 3 items then we left. Roughly half an hour later as we were walking threw town towards home we were stopped by police looking to search us as your store members had rang and said people following our exact description had stolen an item worth 33 pounds. This has deeply embarrassed and distressed as people we no where watching as we got searched. We had not taken anything from your store and your staff members nor police had not checked cctv. Police advised us to contact your store to complain. I will not be entering your premises again to make a purchase.

6 months ago I was sent an unsolicited batch of CBD oil. Their sell-by date was before I would finish my present batch.

Since May 19 this year I have been trying to get reimbursed. I have sent order number and photos of the sell-by date but now can't find the order number and H and B claim they never received it. Neither will they give me an ombdsman/equivelant to escalate my complaint to. They simply believe that I will give up.

I have been in touch with a number of avenues including resolver/H&B face book and direct to the company

They are liars and thieves.

Order number 1842367513 - I ordered a delivery of goods for which I was charged £40.55. Discounts were applied to this order as I was ordering on the basis of various offers sent to me via email. The delivery came in batches and two items were charged but not delivered. I immediately contacted H&B regarding the missing items and H&B responded that those items were in stock and would be sent. The two items were again delivered in two batches. I then found that they had charged me again for those two items again and at full price. I did not authorised H&B to keep my credit card details or to charge me again for the items I had notified as being missing from the original delivery. I wrote to them to ask them to refund the double charges and waited for the 7 days they said it would take to respond. No response was received and I chased for a response. Again it has now been an additional 3 days and no response has been received and no refund. I have emailed to chase again. This is ridiculous and I don't expect to have to chase every few days to get H&B to do the right thing and return the monies it illegally charged to my credit card.

The Holland and Barrett shop in Coney Street, York, is going down the pan, they have stopped selling meat-free pies, and now the body scanner as gone, I used that every week, to check my weight, body mass.

Stopped shopping there now, the shop only sells nuts, bring back the things that Customers want.

Why have Holland and Barrett now stopped selling in there shops these products.

Holland and barrett you are a disgrace! I have tried to complain on the phone to customer services 11th December and 19th December and again today 22nd December, I have complained on line via resolve as directed by your website and I have complained in person at your store. I have never experienced such poor service. Having been overcharged at your shop we have now been charged £22 for 2 phone calls to your customer service number, we were promised vouchers to correct the situation, you are now denying that, you have accepted no responsibility at all, your customer service team are rude, unhelpful and today left me in tears. I have receipts, phone records and the branch manager at your mold store Emily can vouch for everything I have said. You should be ashamed.

Have ordered on 24th September 2019 eight items (order [protected]), including six remedies. On 28th September 2019 have received parcel with only two items inside (two packs of nuts). Have sent email to customer services straight away-no reply. Sought they might have divided order- no, websites says that all my order was in one parcel and everything has been delivered. Sent several more emails to customer services-no response. Still awaiting for six items/remedies I have paid for worth £33.54 with all discounts taken off the full price.

Appalling customer service. I shopped there 5 minutes before they closed today and was served by some dull faced staff whom I found to be rude and unwelcoming. I asked about one of their sale products, which they knew nothing about. Surely after all the training I hear they receive they should know their products. I ended up not buying it.

The staff service were very cold and you felt like they didn't care about making sales. No wonder the shop is on the brink of collapse with all the price reductions they are having to make.

I found the shop in Ruislip also had unpleasant staff. Some serious training is needed on customer excellence!

Hermes were supposed to deliver on the 19th. They said they attempted delivery at 19.55 hrs. They did not. I was home all evening. I emailed. No reply. Despite them claiming they would deliver next working day, which I presumed was today, as they claim on their web site to work 24/7 on ensuring items are delivered, I still have not received my order. Delivery is something I consider part of any shopping experience.
I certainly dont take kindly to being covertly being called liar by their claim they "attempted" to deliver, but I was not here. It is insulting and dishonest on their part. I would hope you will address the shoddy customer service they offer to protect your reputation. I certainly won't consider shopping this way again with you. As I am house bound I rely on internet shopping.

Today at 2.30 pm I visited a Holland and Barrett Store Habaneras Shopping Centre Torrevieja Spain and enquired about a product DIDDO OR DIDO which I had seen in a magazine and newspaper. The staff member obviously had no knowledge of the product and asked where I had seen the advert. When I said Daily Mail newspaper she became very loud and abusive telling me that that was an english newspapr and an english product and how did I expect to get it in Spain. I could not believe this aggressive attitude since I had made my enquiry in a polite and friendly manner. I raised my right hand to indicate to stop shouting andtrying to belittle me at the same time saying ENOUGH. As I left the store I saids to the staff member " You need to improve your customer service attitude" The staff member started shouting at me again and continued to do so as I walked along the passage away from the shop.
Having been employed in retail sales and management in U.K, New Zealand and Australia and know the importance of customer service it is VERY OBVIOUS that the young woman is in DESPERATE NEED of INTENSE CUSTOMER SERVICE TRAINING.
I look forward to your reply

A.R.Smith

I got a job at Holland and Barrett store in Crawley in February this year.
However, I decided not to take the job following the induction course.
I notified the store manager and she told me to take my bank details in so I could be paid for the dayand my travel expenses reimbursed.. I've now been waiting 4 months.

I have received no money, no replies to my numerous e-mails and no returned telephone calls.

APPALLNG!

Dear Holland and Barrett

For the past week you have been sending me emails telling me the Sales are "about to end", which on the small print says Tuesday 20th March at midnight. Yesterday emails claiming "last day last day".

Consequently I felt pressure by these emails and bought some things yesterday and some were by accident since I was in a rush and felt pressured.

I check your website today and I see the Sales are still "on". Everything I rushed to buy yesterday us very much available today.

This means you were sending me emails of a FALSE nature. Including FALSE ADVERTISING.

I wish to cancel my order immediately on this basis.

I am disgusted and appalled at how you do this to people.

My order no. Is [protected].

I expect this to be cancelled immediately
Otherwise I will seek further action to make a legal complaint.

A very unhappy customer

Frances McCloskey

I am writing this complaint because I have emailed three times now to the customer service and the health email address but I haven't had anything back!

I emailed first of all with just a simple query, I brought some 5-HTP from the store in Cribbs causeway which made me violently vomit and have a migraine.
I rang the shop to ask if these were comment symptoms and the gentleman who answered abruptly "no speak to your doctor" which I thought was rude and dismissive.

Anyway I looked on the internet and found multiple people have had these symptoms.
Alls my question was "can we bring tablets back if they have caused up symptoms?" I don't know why that's such a difficult question to ask your team.

I am really surprised and disappointed in your customer service to not even get a reply to three emails I have sent..

I'm a valuable customer. My membership no is [protected]. I buy lots of products from Holland and barrett all the time. Recently I bought Dr Organic aloe vera gel 200ml and Dr organic aloe vera deodorant and both items has been giving me lots of skin allergies that I end up to go to hospital to be treated for my skin allergies.
I am not happy about these two products and I would to make a complain that I'm very disappointed for using your skin care from now on.
I really appreciate your reply to my complain.
Many thanks

[removed]
[protected]@hotmail.co.uk

I bought some healthy snacks and protein from the company www.hollandandbarrett.com. Their prices are rather high in comparison with other companies. But I left big shock when I noticed that they took different sum for the whole order, because I have counted what sum I would pay, when I placed the order. There were dissimilar prices for the same products on the website and in my receipt. I got the confirmation email and I tried to contact the seller, but their email address didn’t exist. How is it possible? I need to speak with the owner.

I am writing in to share my experience with health supplements purchased from Holland-Barrett underlying a product integrity problem.

Stored on the cool-dry shelves in my study-room where direct sunlight is not within reached, the bottle-caps of Holland-Barrett Effervescent Vitamin-C and Zinc tablets “popped” by themselves, thus far breaking the cap-seals. Surrounding air is further seeped into the bottle causing the tablets becoming oxidized, hardened and changing of color. The expiry date is still more than one year from now, in Mar-2016.

This is clearly a product integrity issue; the bottles were not adequately vacuum-sealed which entails air within the bottles to oxidize the tablets and further creating carbon dioxide aiding the “popped” of the bottle-caps.

I went down to a Holland-Barrett branch @ Jurong Point wanting to point out the problem, however only get to be served by 2 plus-sized Filipino staffs who claimed they’re the Store Supervisor and Manager. Their attitude weren’t very nice though and they aren’t really attentive towards my complaint. They had asked for my receipt in order to facilitate a good exchange, ironically a 7-days refund policy. My question here is: “Who would retain the purchase receipt for some health supplements which in most cases the Customers wouldn’t be opening them straight away to check for their physical condition, unless they’re ready to consume?”

If every Customer has to keep the receipt for health supplements in fear that the product would have gone bad before the expiry date, then I would strongly suggest the whole public not to buy anything from Holland-Barrett. After all, here are so many health product Stores in Singapore to choose from, why should one sticks to Holland-Barrett if Customer Satisfaction isn’t achieved?

To date I have totally lose confidence in Holland-Barrett products; not to mention that I’m utterly disappointed (based on my experience from Jurong Point branch) with their Staffs’ attitude towards the Customer as well.

So where do I start?
In the beginning of April I decided to place an order online for Holland&Barrett, nothing special really, few gluten-free snacks, a soap, some vitamins, as I have experienced that most of the stores do not have some items listed online. Before placing my ordered I changed my address too, since I moved a few months ago. Then the troubles started: the receipt I got stated that my order was going to my old address, although I have changed it. The same evening I sent an email explaining my situation to customer service, they told me they can't help me out and I should give a call to customer service instead to sort out this issue, because you see they cannot cancel anything once it has been confirmed, even though I was just telling them that THEY have the wrong address. First thing in the morning I called customer service, they assured me that my order is going to my current address and that everything is in order. But when I received and email from Hermes, that my order was delivered and I was at home I realized that they indeed delivered it to the wrong address in spite of all my efforts. Therefore, I had to call the customer service. AGAIN. The person on the other line, seemed confused about the mistake, but agreed to sent me replacement parcel. Which I had to wait for another additional 4 days. I receive my package and... I am missing two products that I have ordered and paid for! As if this nightmare never ends.. So I sent another email to customer service, and another, since they could not reply.. It's Customer Service, somehow I did not feel like I was treated seriously at all. The lady who actually replied to me later and in the end sorted everything out, was replying around once a week, due to her being on her leave, so NO ONE COULD TAKE OVER HER WORK? Are you kidding me?
Eventually I was told that the two products that were not delivered actually are not being sold by Holland&Barrett anymore.. It is still on the website, people can still order it and I was not informed about it nor by email nor by phone or text. In the end I received a refund for the two products and a measly 5% discount next time I shop. As if there is going to be a next time. No one bothered to reply to me for more than a week, no one informed me that I paid for non-existing products until I started asking myself. In the end it took me more than a month to get this sorted.
Would I recommend it to a friend? Hell no! Keep as far as possible from this shop and the worst customer service I have ever experienced. Never buying anything from there again.

Very overcharged for St John's Wort.
i bought it in their shop at Savacentre Edinburgh.
Managers Special £39, 95 reduced to £19..77. My sister bought 2 of them.
My son came back from London with the same item for £7.85 on the same day as he heardI wanted to try it.
On Holland and Barrett website there is no price anything like £39.55.

We feel very cheated.
Flora Harrold.
I have already asked for an explanation from Holland and Barrett but no reply and that was a week ago