Healthy Living Direct Anmeldelser 146

Will not pay for return. Which is against 2015 consumer trading regulations.

My 89 year old mother ordered some items from a Healthy Living Catalogue by phone (as she doesn't use the internet at all). Some items were OK, but the others were not at all suitable for her so she wanted to return them.
The instructions for return were unclear to her, so she asked me to help. These were the problems I experienced:
1. When I followed the instructions for a return using Evri, Healthy Living was not one of the options. I had to phone a premium number to find out that the retailer is actually Kingstown.
2. I had to pay for the return - OK, fair enough - maybe that's reasonable, although I don't think it was particularly clear from the catalogue.
3. The collection was arranged for a specific date. My father waited in all day. I know Evri were at the door because they delivered a parcel (and just left it by the front door). They did not ring the bell, and the parcel was not collected - a wasted day for my father who was very annoyed.
4. My mother waited in all of the following day - Evri did not turn up.
5. Finally, the collection was made on the third day. I had a tracking email to say the parcel would be returned to the retailer within 7 days, and the retailer would be in touch. After a couple of weeks of not hearing anything I phoned Healthy Living (after spending some time online to track down a telephone number that doesn't charge premium rates - a number NOT visible to me on their website, but (thank you TrustPilot) I found it here.
6. They told me to wait 28 days for the return to be received by them. (Quite rude, abrupt and defensive manner from the customer service person)
7. I phoned a couple of weeks later again. They told me the return had been received, but I'd need to wait at least 5 days for the refund to appear in my mother's account. Again - I'd describe the customer service person as very defensive, bordering on rude. I pointed out that the email from Evri that I'd received several weeks earlier had said it would take 7 days, and I suggested Healthy Living should ask Evri to update their email to show whatever agreement Healthy Living have with them, but the customer service rep kept insisting they have no control over what Evri does, which struck me as a ridiculous comment since they have chosen to work with Evri and presumably have some sort of contract or agreement with them.

I'm happy to report that my mother has finally received the refund into her account today.

She would not have been able to navigate this process herself, and the customer service people were not friendly.
I would not recommend this company, especially for elderly people.
This whole thing has wasted so much time.

Update - thanks for the reply, and in particular for taking the feedback and updating your website and taking it up with your courier.

I've used them on and off over a number of years, and some of their items are ok, but some are complete rubbish! Trying to return items is difficult - no return label or details on the despatch note. They tell you to use EVRI, but EVRI doesn't recognise Healthy Living, or Fashion Friendly, or any of the other 6 names. Apparently they trade as "Kingstown", and today I had to pay £3.49 upfront to get the label to send stuff back, so basically a rip-off. The website says nothing about paying for returns, how to make returns, or even a return address. Several times I have found items they sell much cheaper on other sites - for example something I really needed was £30 in their catalogue, and I found the exact same item on Amazon for £17, but I suspect many older or less tech savvy people won't know how to do this. In addition on a number of occasions I have had brand new catalogues come through with an item that I could actually use, but the online site doesn't recognise the code - with my most recent order at least 5 items in the catalogue apparently don't exist. Once I've been refunded, I will cut all contact with them as I can't be bothered with all the extra hassle.

UPDATE:
After having proved to Healthy Living that I was a real customer (or they threatened to take down my review!) I got a facetious reply that I had managed to make a return - this was only because I had googled Healthy Living and discovered that they trade as "Kingstown", which they would have known if they had actually read my review!
I then messaged them to ask for the refund of the parcel I returned via EVRI on February 21st, but they will not because apparently EVRI aren't showing the parcel as delivered, so presumably they will refuse to refund me!

And to add to all of the other poor reviews, I've just noted that Healthy Livings 0871 number seems to be charged out at greater than £1.00 per minute. Circa £14 for 12 minutes on my 86 year old mothers phone bill in November. So as you are trying to order and no doubt being put on hold, you're being charged for the privilege of trying to give them business. Disgraceful..!

useless website will not let you look at anything so wont bother even trying to order.

M7 parents in law (aged 91 and 91) have been using this company to order items over the phone as they cannot use online.
There have been very few problems except for persons unknown - not this company or it's fault - trying to use the card.

My elderly grandmother ordered from here once after relocating and now gets bombarded with junk mail through the post. No permission was given for my Nan’s information to be shared or sold to anyone.

This company has complained about my review so I have been asked to edit. May I say that I am incredulous with the brass neck of this company. Baring in mind they have been twice fined by Trading Standards for misleading & praying on the elderly.
I stand by everything I said it is completely 100% true.
I was asking for the company to be investigated in my previous review but that ship has obviously sailed, with Trading Standards monitoring their actions.
The companies target audience is the old & disabled, however their customer service & returns policy does not reflect that core base.
If you want to return an item there is little or no support, they call it a "cancellation" & the buyer has to first email them for permission & then find their own way to return the item. I simply cannot name another company of this type who does that?
The business model is predominantly hard copy catalogue, where the elderly telephone their orders through. On the other end of the line, a seasoned sales person not only takes their order but talks them into buying other items with promises of discounts. So of course these elderly & disabled vulnerable customers are left with items that they had no intention of buying & with probably no email or no easy way or means to return. This practice of making returns hard means the vulnerable end up keeping goods that are no good to them.
This is absolutely appalling & a targeted approach to fleecing vulnerable people.
My elderly mother rang up to buy one pair of slippers but ended up with 4 pairs, telling me that the sales associate said it would be cheaper to buy all four than one pair. It certainly wasn't, in fact the prices at this company are at least 40% higher than elsewhere.
I finish my review with an example of them selling overpriced goods to the vulnerable. £12 for 3 cans of soup & a hard copy Christmas catalogue with no prices!

Very poor service. Returned some items from my order and it took over 4 weeks after they had received my return, and multiple emails, to get my money back. Do not order from them unless you know you will keep your order. Trying to get your money back from them if you return anything is a nightmare.

To say I am furious is an understatement. My husband bought me a bird table. On receipt and not even opening the parcel, it looked cheap and flimsy and would not stand up to the weather here. I rang Customer Services and asked what their procedure was, they just said 'follow the instructions on the reverse of the Invoice, I asked for a return label or number and was told that it was not required. This I did I duly lugged it to the PO/Evri, only to be told that there is no return label and therefore they could not return it and it was going to cost £8.99 to return it (having already paid £7.99 for delivery). I lugged it back home and called Customer Services again. They confirmed that I would have to pay for it. I pointed out that there is nothing on the paperwork to indicate that the Customer is liable for the cost of the Return. We will never buy from them again.

I am fed up with the deluge of catalogues you send me i have had 3 just in 1 week its a bit much if you want people to buy from you again STOP sending unwanted catalogues

I recently wrote a review saying that in order to stop the deluge of unwanted catalogues from Healthy Living Direct I was saving them, sellotaping them together with my address blacked out and returning them to the return address with no postage. This provoked a response from them saying they would remove my name from the mailing list, which they did and the mail stopped. Until today when it started again but addressed to my partner Mr J Bennett who also does not want it and has never bought from them, so again we will be sending them back without postage.

Well, I must speak as I find and I have found this company to be efficient. I received 2 pairs of shoes very promptly from them. I ordered 2 sizes of the same shoe as not sure about fit, so had to return 1 pair via Evri. Evri took nearly 4 weeks to return the shoes, but the company promptly refunded me as soon as they received them. The customer service gentleman I spoke to when concerned about the delay was very polite and explained the position with Evri clearly. I am very pleased with my red leather loafers, by the way. Thank you.

For heaven's sake, STOP sending me your catalogues!!! I'm receiving one PER WEEK!!! It's TOTAL OVERKILL not to mention JUNK MAIL I DON'T WANT!!!
I ordered ONCE...and since then you've BOMBARDED me!!!
Because of this, I WON'T order from you again.

I placed an order on 3rd December 2024 from one of the SEVERAL catalogues sent. This catalogue offered
''30% off Black Friday deal''. I made several attempts to place an order online but their website would not allow me to complete the order. So I posted it and as it was over £55 I expected to get free delivery as advertised. By 11th December there was no correspondence with regard to order confirmation/ delivery date so I emailed their customer services 3 times before I got a response.
As part of the order was a Christmas gift, I became very anxious not having received the order by 20th December. The order, after several emails AGAIN, arrived on 24th December.
To add insult to injury I have been charged £5.99 delivery as my order was posted not completed online - which I COULDN'T do because of their website.
I would not have placed the order in the first place if I thought there was a delivery charge - it defeats the purpose of a ''Black Friday Discount deal'' and would NEVER use this company again.

Super dodgy company, always mailing my grandad these ‘too good to be true’ offers (place an order get a free gift worth £30 and a discounted watch etc). Twice in the last 4 months he has sent off order forms with cheques and never received his goods. The saving grace is that his cheques were not cashed. He has attempted to phone and said the person who answered gave the name of a different company and told him he shouldn’t call again. All screams scam to me, preying on elderly people who don’t do online shopping. Please avoid.

Edited to add; the company have asked for my full name and phone number to ‘verify my review’ which I’m not giving them. Also they’ve asked for an order number, my grandad posted two order forms to you, he never received them so how would he have an order number?

STOP DO NOT PURCHASE FROM THIS COMPANY

There is an appearance of underhand selling - possibly fraudulent. They also take your money in advance without any obvious signs of delivery. This coupled with charging Premium Telephone calls to make an order - you would have thought in this day and age this behaviour of exploiting the elderly would be eradicated from the UK marketplace

I shall be reporting this company to trading standards. They are preying on elderly people who rarely have the skills to access online services so they are sent catalogues to entice them into buying utter rubbish- along with free utter rubbish to add to land fill. My 85 year old mother bought 2 power banks with useless USB cables. Will cost more postage to return. Do NOT use this company.

it seems impossible to reach an actual ordering situation without constant slippage into advertisement and advertorial content. i have been trying to place an order for three days and given up in disgust. The phone number to order is a similar disappointment - no sooner does the number connect than over two minutes is wasted in unnecessary robotic 'chit-chat' which cost the caller 26p over and above the telephone company's charge. This 26p presumably goes direct to Healthy Living Direct.com as extra income to maintain the very confusing website. A great pity as their catalogue has many desirable items.

I placed my order then added my offer code, got the message that the code didn't work! So I sent an email reporting my frustration, I got a very nice email within the hour, asking me to send the code to the lady who emailed me, I did so and she replied that I was actually using the wrong code, oops, my fault. I thanked her for pointing out the correct code and proceeded to use that one with no problems whatsoever. When my order arrives I will probably give a review again.