Mis-selling and very poor delivery service

I've been left feeling very angry with Abel & Cole. Our relationship with them began in February when a young lad knocked at the door and suggested we have a box delivered as we had a lot of neighbours having boxes delivered who were all very pleased. We opted for a medium fruit box and he said it would be delivered each week before 7am in the morning. I was surprised, but he insisted that was the case and since our milkman goes round at 5am, I just thought it was good customer service. I was therefore pleased to find it delivered at about 6.30am the following two weeks. Great I thought, worth buying. Little did I realise what was to come.
The following week, our delivery went to another house down the road - was left out all day and the fruit went downhill quickly as a result. We complained and it turned up correctly for 1 week when the driver turned up and practically threw the box at me after grunting something unintelligible. Then the following week it went missing again. We complained again and thereafter the driver started turning up later and later and ringing the bell continually when he arrived. The final straw was when the driver kicked all the milk bottles smashing them all at the same time as continually ringing the bell. He grunted something at my wife and just left - no apologies or anything.
To be fair, Abel & Cole switchboard was helpful and apologetic, but the driver was just vindictive and unpleasant. And we found out that the promise of deliveries prior to 7am is just not their policy at all (read - misselling of goods and services).
Now - compare this service to the service we get off Ocado every single time we order. Ocado deliver on time - they do vegetable boxes, which are great value and they are NEVER rude. Not once. Avoid Abel & Cole - don't let organic virtuosity blind you to the shortcomings of Abel and Cole - you should be able to order organic goods AND get great service AND at great value

Dump produce anywhere

I have not even ordered from Cole & Abel but the last two Mondays I have found a box left on my doorstep with no ring of the bell. I don't see why I should deliver their stuff to the correct address on their behalf.

Excellent organic fresh produce, love the variety & better than anything you can get from a supermarket

I have been using them for the 5 months and they have been fantastic, the produce if far superior quality to that from the local supermarkets or grocery stores. I am weaning a 7 month old baby & make fresh food also every day for a 3 yr old, and to get pumpkins, chard etc & vegetables I have never even heard of each week is great for bringing more organic variety into our diet. Customer service is simply excellent and more and more of my friends and family are using them and are very impressed. Once I had a Chinese leaf which had some black marks on it & I rang them and they were great, crediting my account. I'm a nutritional therapist and I defy anyone who thinks they can find better organic produce delivered to their home!!!!!!!!

royah behrouz found this review useful

Very poor

Just taken delivery of my first and last mixed fruit and veg box. £19 is a lot for the amount of produce received. Add to that the quality which was average at best. Not a desirable product.

I can get better quality and value at the local supermarket and far superior at my local grocer.

I won't be using them again.

Excellent

Boxes delivered on time. Food fresh and delicious. Good range of fruit and veg and never make mistakes or deliver anything I don't want.

They started by delivering mid afternoon and I asked could it be first thing or last thing. They now deliver before 7am so I can take box in before work. Perfect customer service.

I wouldn't order from them again

I ordered the full Christmas dinner and I wish I had just gone to Aldi instead. The driver never rang the bell or knock on door, he just left order outside. The organic turkey I paid £60 for wasn't even plucked right, lots of bits of feathers left in bird than were near impossible to get out. The oranic pork pie was terrible, the meat grey and it was as dry as anything. I thought i was ordering a luxury Christmas dinner for my family but it was awful, i will never order anything from them ever again.

never again

this was my first attempt at using these guys, the telephone people seemed to imply that the delivery would be there early in the morning, called at 1pm , was told driver would be there in an hour, called at 3 was told 20 min, delivery arrived at 4:15, customer services not great at all, would rather pay twice the price than use them again

just signed up to abel & cole, and cancelled in one week

signed up, looked forward to my lovely healthy organic veggies, thought extra cost would be worth it for taste!
24 hours after delivery. carrots had shrivelled and gone black, cabbage turned yellow! phoned and cancelled regular order, never even apologised when i told them!!

AVOID THIS FIRM, ZERO CUSTOMER SERVICE

This company has zero customer service.

They continuously left my box at my neighbour's flat because it was easier to do than actually ringing my bell. When I complained and asked that they actually try to deliver it to me they delivered it at 4:30 am, ringing my bell and waking me up. All the previous deliveries had come at about 3pm. When I called their so call customer service I was told there was nothing they could do or would do about this. They don't put this on the website.

AVOID THIS FIRM!

Good

So far I've found Abel & Cole to be good. I'm sure I'm saving money overall - not least because I'm not tempted to buy extras while I'm in the shop. I've had some interesting veg in my gourmet box and it's definitely making me eat more fresh food.

royah behrouz found this review useful

Life-changing goods/delivery

My daughter was the first and now the whole family depends on our appreciated Abel & Cole delivery once a week. It is wonderful to have fresh and (where possible) local produce which sustains a nationwide range of farmers. All brought to your doorstep at the push of a button through the extensive Abel & Cole network. How nice never to use a supermarket! Not only the vegetables but also the meats and fish (all carefully sourced), the organic ciders and wines, breads and cheeses are just superb. I have never been disappointed yet. Alison (Oxford)

Thank you Abel and Cole

We started using Abel and Cole a few months ago. I decided it might be nice to try to use seasonal vegetables where possible and a good way to do that without all the hard thinking is to use a supplier like Abel and Cole who source produce almost exclusively from the UK. Since then, we've had our weekly veg. box and added a weekly egg box to it and increasing amounts of meat, game, poultry and fish as the quality and flavour has been really quite impressive. The bone-in sirloin roasting joint we had for New Year was utterly stunning! One of the nice features is that you can let them know if there's a particular fruit or vegetables that you don't like and you'll get something else in place of it in your weekly box if it's due in any. This week, instead of potatoes we got Jerusalem Artichokes, which is great as I've never cooked them before. (Oh yes, we've had the Kohlrabi incident already and I know what to do with that now :o))