British Essentials Recenzje 2179

The order took 3 weeks from payment to delivery, and Christmas items arrived on 28th December. Their website is highly misleading and after a series of attempts to contact them (they now have no inbound phone number) they replied in a standard form letter that the delays were beyond their control in customs. This makes the claim on their website of fast delivery a big fib, such as the paragraph

'We have been working extremely hard over the last 12 months to offer our customers a solution whereby the British Essentials orders going into the EU are sent on a DDP (Delivery Duties Paid) service. We do this by first completing the customs and import clearance into the EU. From then onwards the orders are able to move freely within the EU without our customers incurring any additional fees upon delivery'

Yes there were no fees we think, but there was also no Christmas arrival despite ordering on the 7th December.

Instead they replied with a form letter, saying they had zero control over customs, in stark contrast to the impression given that they would expedite.
Indeed had I not contacted them, then they would have said nothing at all. Essentially I paid a 400 percent premium to wholesale for them just to mail them by Royal Mail with zero monitoring and zero forewarning from them.

Adding insult to injury their reply told me it was delayed in customs and here was the tracking number - exactly the information I had sent THEM - and followed up with their own rating exercise.

All in all a very disappointing, fire-and-forget business not to be confused with the reliable British Corner Shop.

Placed order before deadline date for Christmas delivery.
Nothing delivered before Christmas but was informed that part of order not available and a refund would be made
No refund yet received but order arrived on 29.12. The package had been damaged and mince pies squashed. Will not be buying from British Essentials again.

Always reliable. Quick delivery. Great customer service.

I discovered some great biscuits, yum! Overall, good quality at fair prices for familiar products which warm the heart. Thank you.

Great prices, fast delivery and everything packed well. Great selection of products.

Cheese crackers arrived broken, otherwise the order was great.

Appreciating the ahead of schedule delivery and the in-transit updates.

Great products from mark and Spencer.
Good delivery

I ordered atora suet for xmas and added marmite and mustard to justify the very high shipping cost. I paid in full on 11/11/25.
The suet arrived 20/11/25, but not the other items. British Essentials repeatedly assured me there was a delay in customs, but 6/12/25 Royal Mail wrote the order was ready to leave the UK.
On 16/12/25 British Essentials cancelled the marmite and mustard without explanation and refunded only those items. I requested a refund of the shipping cost, as I would not have ordered without them, but received no response.

All I expected

Fast delivery, even though a couple of mince pies were broken (we ate them anyway)
Fair prices
We will buy again

Received faster than expected. There were a few out of stock/missing items but they corrected quickly when I notified them. Much better than other British grocery/treat stores we’ve ordered from!

I ordered two items to be delivered to the USA in early December.
On the 23rd of December I received a refund for one item.
There was no communication prior to this so I have no time to resolve the issue.
I could have bought the item from Amazon and posted it myself if I had known.
That will be my approach in the future, I won't go anywhere near these people in the future.

What made the experience “great”? The products. What made the experience less than “great”? The over long lead time between placing an order and it’s final delivery- about 3 weeks

Living in rural France this makes my life much easier

Update to my previous 1 star review as half of order was missing and took over 10 days to get resolution. I have now received the rest of my order in time for Christmas which is great. However, the fact that half the order was missing in the first place and that it took many emails to resolve is not so great. I appreciate it is a busy period for orders but waiting days for a valid response and a resolution will make me question if I order again from this company.

This was a great experience. The goods were well packed and delivered to the USA will astonishing speed. Well Done and Thank You!

I ordered things for two different people, and both put the word "Wow!" in their text response when it was delivered.