Please beware of SWINCO - avoid this company

knoydart03

It's getting on five weeks now, and my order, worth £50, has still not arrived. Paul isn't replying to his emails, and the website is down
I will, of course, update you if I do eventually get any joy, but it's looking less and less likely...

sekayens

My experience with Swinco has been overall positive so far. They seem to be the cheapest of the 3 big sites. I Have placed about half a dozen orders and so far so good in terms of packaging, communication and delivery etc. They seemed to hit a blip in June when orders took a big long to deliver (apparently they were moving house).

By the way, is the company still in business, does anyone know?
Have not been able to find them on the net since Saturday.

:j:j:j:j

knoydart03

I finally got my money back, more than six weeks after the order. During this time, Paul ignored polite emails, lied about the location of the package (saying it was in Glasgow when the tracking clearly showed it had last been seen in Goole), and didn't pick up his phone. It was also during this time that he changed the domain name of the website which was a bit of a worry.

During the Google Wallet refund process, he wrote the following:

"The courier company take up to 30days from dispatch to try and locate this parcel, they may find it and send it to the buyer during which i could have send a replacement and the buyer would have two lots delivered and most probably not return to me."

This implies that he has a basic lack of trust in his customers. Trust is a two-way process: I trusted him with my money, so he should trust customers to return imaginary twice-delivered goods. The point was moot anyway, as I can't believe Yodel would refuse to compensate him if such a thing happened.

Anyway, I won't be using Swinco again. The whole experience got me to join MoneySavingExpert, though, so there's a silver lining. My other order was fine, although badly packaged, so it's obviously not a disaster every time - I felt like I had good value for money that time. Treat with caution though. I've had far, far better service from Approved Foods, and will be sticking with them in the future. Unless anyone can recommend another similar company.

Thanks

petesteak

I ordered.

Many items damaged from packaging problems.

Many items missing.

When enquired was told that items could not fit in the package.

Was told I had a credit note for my next order.

I asked for a refund rather than credit for missing items.

Was ignored.

Never use again.

Can anyone recommend legal process to claim money back.

THANKS

collie1

I have recently placed an order with clearance xl (swinco), there was a problem with the postage and I needed to add more p&p to my order, I was emailed a link to use to enable me to do this but it did not work, so I emailed again saying the link didn't work and was emailed the same link again, didn't work for the second time, I sent an email back to swinco, but have heard nothing since, a week later I decided that I no longer wanted the order as communication was zero, I have emailed twice stating I would like a refund but again get no reply, I have been on to trading standards and they told me about the distance selling regs 2000, I have forwarded this info on to swinco, but yet again, no reply. I feel that right from the start it has been a nightmare, however I have used approved foods lots of times and have had no problems at all.
I would not recommend swinco to anyone, poor customer service.

DPJames

More problems here too I'm afraid. My first order was incomplete. It had a couple of small items missing but I just let it go as the cost didn't really bother me, and it could have been a genuine mistake.

But my second order had half of the stuff missing and my emails have thus far been ignored. The value was quite high too so would like my money back this time, but after reading the above comments I won't be holding my breath.

Defo will not be using clearance XL again. They're a cowboy outfit.

debbiereynolds76

Coopdivi wrote: »

The owner of Swineco used to post on MSE pretending to be a satisfied customer

God love this foru, just sit back with some popcorn - great stuff

lofty61

Seems it's not got any better. I to have had the odd item missing, 11 instead of 12 sort of thing and not bothered about it. This time all three of one item were missing and charged £7.00 carriage when it should (according to the website) be £4.50 for up to 30kgs, this was less . E-mailed Paul and just got a "have you checked thoroughly" response. E-mailed back "yes, definitely missing" then got a "We are going through procedure" reply. Nothing since. Will not be using again.

Seakay

I had an item missing recently. Most of my emails are ignored, a couple of replies have been made but they do not address the questions asked. Paul Swinco refuses to refund my money and also refuses to send the missing item. I quoted the 1979 Sales of Goods Act as advised by Which - his only response?

"Please advise what section of the Sale of Goods Act 1979 you are referencing"

obviously he is taking the urine and presumably makes a tidy sum from all the small amounts which he keeps while not filling orders. No one ever answers the phone.

Roddya_2

I placed an order in the afternoon of 20/06/2015 (Saturday) and decided to cancel the order which I did via e-mail to paul@swinco.co.uk just after midnight on 21/06/2015 (Sunday). I then got an e-mail from paul@swinco.co.uk stating that my order had already been picked, packed and was with courier - no tracking number etc given. Then on Monday I get a text from UKMAIL stating that They had rec'd a collection and delivery request and giving me a tracking numbers - I checked the tracking number and it showed that the collection wasn't booked until Monday the 22/06/2015 after 12pm! Yet I had cancelled the order on the Sunday! I tried and failed to contact SWINCO/ClearanceXL on the mobile number they give and UKMAIL wouldn't cancel the collection 0 it was for the booker to do so. As such Tuesday the 23/06/2015 UKMAIL try to delivery - I refuse delivery and the package is returned overnight. I send e-mail to paul@swinco.co.uk and state item being returned and I want my refund. paul@swinco.co.uk states he will deduct the postage and and admin fee. I have stated that I am owed a full refund and now I get no response to my e-mails. As of Sunday 05/07/2015 it will have been two weeks Since I cancelled my order and still no refund.