Chichester furniture company reveals 'thorough recovery plan' following continued delivery and customer service complaints

Feather & Black, which was originally headquartered in Terminus Road, Chichester, was bought out by Hilding Anders at the end of 2017. On July 21 of this year, the new owners decided to move the warehouse and head office to Elstead, Surrey.

According to the company, this led to an investment in the brand, and supported the move to a new warehousing and logistics partner, ArrowXL, to provide 'better customer deliveries', by the beginning of August.

However, a spokesman for Feather and Black said the 'complexity of the move', which started in July, was 'underestimated' by both partners.

It added: "[This] resulted in [us] having a lack of stock clarity for a significant time, some lost stock and inaccurate stock information.

"This impacted a number of customer’s orders, plus made it very difficult for Feather & Black store teams and the customer service team to provide accurate stock information for their customers."

The spokesman added that the number of customer queries increased 'significantly beyond' the normal capacity the teams were planned to manage.

"In spite of bolstering the teams, there were a number of instances where customers weren’t able to get through to a Feather & Black team member," it continued.

"A thorough recovery plan has been put in place, including an in-depth stock-take at the ArrowXL warehouse, and Feather & Black are now in a much clearer position regarding stock, and are fast on the road to getting back to the strong customer service proposition they were proud to deliver previously."

This comes after Feather & Black, in August, reassured residents it has not gone into administration after readers complained about not receiving deliveries. Read more on that here.

However, despite outlining plans to improve the telecommunications systems and adding more customer service representatives, complaints are still coming thick and fast.

As of 5.30pm on Friday (November 23), on uk.trustpilot.com, 312 people out of the 372 who gave feedback, gave 'bad' reviews (84 per cent) of Feather & Black, whilst it also had a significant number of complaints raised on social media.

In the comments of the Feather & Black Facebook page, one customer wrote: "We ordered on June 6 and are still awaiting our delivery confirmation after many delays and cancellations. It’s eight items in total and you were speedy to take our money but incredibly slow to respond to enquiries."

Another said: "I ordered a bed on July 7. And still no sign of it despite taking nearly £900 off me. And no answers to many emails, or calls back if I have managed to get through or response to my twitter. Absolutely appalling."

Adding to the argument, another customer wrote: "Looks like I’m joining a very long list of those who have had countless apologies, promises of delivery (x4) and yet still nothing!!"

A fourth comment of complaint read: "Hello, excuse me... can someone, ANYONE please help me receive my order that I placed over 20 weeks ago / a third of a year ago please. I have called - no answer, I have emailed - no reply."

Feather & Black said the company apologises 'profusely' for any inconvenience or concern some customers may have experienced.