Nobody does it better, unfortunately.
So I need to preface this review with a simple fact. You can't get better coffee in the UK. Clifton have many large contracts for a reason, their beans are second to none, but I also think this may be part of the problem I have with them.
I am just one person, not Coffee #1 or whoever else. I order a couple of bags of beans a month, rather than 12kg a day, and in this respect I don't really think they are bothered by my opinion nor my satisfaction.
Firstly, their website is very clunky. I keep getting pop-ups offering me a "new customer/first order" bonus offer, when I've been ordering from them for over a year now. It's also really unintuitive when dealing with subscriptions, which I've needed to change a couple of times because I was trying to find the sweet spot between ordering too much, and not enough to get me through a month, without needless waste of stale beans. I was unable to find an option to alter my ongoing subscription, so had to cancel that one and start a new one, only to find many months later that this old subscription was still active according to the website. It wasn't taking my money or anything, but it was telling me it was going to and ultimately, to be sure, did prompt me to email Clifton to clarify what was going on, before finally finding an option to delete the subscription properly from my account on my own.
Speaking of emails, they won't answer you. They didn't with my previously mentioned email attempt and several others too. They just don't bother, so neither should you. Just call them. I've spoken to two different people there who were very nice, but if you need something doing, you simply have to speak to someone. The only time they have ever answered one of my queries through email, it was directly after speaking to someone, and even then they contradicted one another leading to more confusion and yet another phone call.
Which leads me to the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. A sequence of events that have led me to leave this review. My subscription is due, it's sent, I receive confirmation of Royal Mail 48 hour tracking and payment is taken, so far, so good. Tracking updates a day later to say Royal Mail have my parcel, perfect. A week later the tracking has not updated, so I send an email, this was a Thursday, so they had the whole of Friday to answer. On the Monday following no reply, I call them and speak to a nice, apologetic lady who tells me that my parcel will be delivered that day according to Royal Mail and to call them the next day if it isn't. An hour or two later I finally receive an email from Clifton Coffee, in reply to my previous query over the missing parcel, only to completely contradict the lady I spoke to earlier and confirm that the parcel is, in fact, lost and that they will send a replacement. Okay, a bit confusing, but fair enough, these things happen. When will you send a replacement, though? Any chance of a tracking number? This information would have been nice, but I know not to bother emailing them, so I wait another day and call them again for confirmation. I speak to the same, nice, apologetic lady as before, who confirms that my delivery should be with me the following day.
Which brings me to today and that small, beautifully presented black box of bristolian beans that greeted me on my doorstep. That I may finally shake off the cobwebs of my coffeeless, melancholic reality and bask in the vigour and relentlessness of my caffeine induced enlightenment and finally finish that essay I've been...
...that is a VERY small box, you know.
Back on the phone, AGAIN, to which I'm greeted by a new lady, not quite as nice or apologetic as the last who rather begrudgingly, almost reluctantly tells me she will send me my order, AGAIN. Not even a hint of sincerity in her apology, LET ALONE a good will gesture of a compensatory bean or two to make up for the THREE PHONE CALLS in has taken me to get my order.
In conclusion. If any coffee roaster in the UK compared in product quality to Clifton Coffee, or even came close, I would take my business elsewhere. I still might to be honest, because as nice as the first lady I spoke to was, a subscription is supposed to be convenient. For mistakes to continue following several emails and a couple of phone calls, it really does emphasize the complete and utter lack of empathy I've been shown by the company as a whole.
Edit: When the rest of my order finally arrived they had included a random bag of beans (would have been nice to receive my usual, but there you go) and random piece of branded tat that went straight in the bin.
Credit for at least sending out a token gesture, but it's too late, as I've cancelled my subscription and walked away.
