Dental Direct
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Yikes.
EDIT: Dental Direct have asked TrustPilot to remove this review based on it containing ‘identifying information’ as I used the first names of two staff members. I can only apologise for this; I had no idea that using first names wasn’t allowed, so I am removing the first names to ensure that Dental Direct will be happy for this review to stay up. Shopping with Dental Direct was just beyond stressful and disappointing. I placed an order on July 11 and received a shipping confirmation on the 12th. I had run out of the product I ordered but figured I could hold off going out to buy more if they would be arriving in the next few days. On the 15th I received an email saying that there had been a ‘technical error’ on their website which had caused a price to show up incorrectly and therefore if I wanted my order I needed to pay the balance (despite having received a shipping confirmation 3 days prior). Usually in this situation I’d reply completely passively and either pay the balance or cancel the order - I have anxiety which makes the idea of ‘confrontation’ seem impossible to deal with - but in this instance I felt like most companies should/would honour pricing errors, so I told them so. Their reply was that they would not honour the price, but could issue me a £10 voucher if I spent £35. I found this kind of insulting - their idea of making their mistake right was to give me a discount that depended on spending a certain amount, when I just wanted my order! I got a very kind reply from EMPLOYEE1 telling me that s/he (not sure if a gender is too identifying) would go ahead and dispatch my order that day and not to worry about the outstanding balance, which was obviously very much appreciated on my end. I thanked EMPLOYEE1 and s/he told me it was his/her pleasure. By this point it was the 17th July and I was so relieved that the situation had been dealt with... which turned out to be wishful thinking. Later that day I got a missed call from a number withholding their caller ID (which my phone blocks) and a voicemail from EMPLOYEE2 of Dental Direct asking me to call back. I was heading into a meeting so I emailed EMPLOYEE1 back and asked if it could be handled over email as I couldn’t return the call. I didn’t hear back, so on the 22nd July (having not received the order) I sent a follow up email asking if there was an issue. The reply I got was from EMPLOYEE2 and was similar to the first email EMPLOYEE1 sent (with the always pleasant addition of spelling my name incorrectly): there was a pricing error so we can’t send you your order. I was obviously confused by this after being told EMPLOYEE1 would ship my order out on the 17th! EMPLOYEE2 told me that s/he would credit my account with £5 (not the original offer of 10 off 35) and refund me. By this point I was incredibly stressed out and asked why the company were going back on their word. I got another missed call and a voicemail asking me to return so I called back less than 15 mins after the missed call but nobody answered, so I emailed AGAIN telling EMPLOYEE2 that I had tried to call. The next email I got said that EMPLOYEE2 was on [REDACTED] leave (redacted in case the specific type of leave is too identifying, although one would argue that I shouldn’t have been given this much information if so) and that my card would be refunded. Clearly I was coming across as the kind of entitled customer who demands the world and they would have preferred that I go away and never attempt to shop with them again, but this was my first time standing up for myself in this sort of situation, and despite knowing they wouldn’t make things right, I did feel I deserved some sort of explanation. I asked why I was told the order would be sent and then that it wouldn’t, and referenced their terms and conditions which clearly stated that a contract is formed between customer and business once a shipping confirmation email is sent out (which happened on July 12th). EMPLOYEE1 told me that his/her manager (EMPLOYEE2) had told him/her s/he couldn’t send my order and that s/he would try to call me again when he was back in the office. By this point it had been almost 2 weeks, 17 emails, and an embarrassing amount of anxiety on my end, so when I got another call from EMPLOYEE2 my husband ‘suggested’ that he be the one to take care of it. After hanging up, my husband told me that EMPLOYEE2 had made it clear that s/he didn’t care about the mistake that had been made, the terms and conditions could be overrided when they wanted, and s/he had no intention of making things right. Yikes. This review was mind-numbingly tedious and frustrating to read, right? Imagine actually dealing with it. That’ll teach me for attempting to stand my ground when a company makes a mistake! You’ll note that all of my other reviews have been 5 stars, and I very nearly didn’t post this at all, but the experience was just SO frustrating that I wanted to alert others who may be on the fence about making a purchase.