The Ordinary Reviews 734

What kind of arrangement is there between The Ordinary and UPS? If you look at the reviews here, it’s obvious what you should be doing: change your delivery provider. Even if you spend 10 days preparing shipments, they don’t reach customers. Are you really able to handle a large volume of orders during a one-month promotion? Because of delays in packaging and UPS, you’re only going to get more one-star reviews here. I was planning to fully switch to The Ordinary for my skincare routine: moisturizer, sunscreen, and foundation in order to solve the issue of my foundation pilling. However, the moisturizer and sunscreen I ordered did not arrive. I no longer want to use the official website because UPS is the delivery carrier. However, since the foundation is only sold on the official website, I will give up on purchasing the moisturizer and sunscreen as well. Please process my refund as soon as possible. ORDER 23270869

I’m very disappointed with my experience.

I placed an order on March 21st and initially received a notification saying it had been shipped. Shortly after, I got another email saying that it had not actually been sent and would be dispatched in a few business days.

It has now been almost two weeks, and I still haven’t received anything. The order status on the website continues to show as “sent,” which is misleading and confusing.

To make matters worse, the contact form on the website does not work properly, making it impossible to get a clear update or support.

Had I known about these delays and issues, I would have ordered through a retailer instead.

At this point, I would like a clear update on where my order is, or a prompt resolution to this situation.

EDIT: I reached out to the team, but it was actually the website’s bot that provided the solution. It turns out the parcel had already been shipped and was waiting for me at a UPS relay point... I never received any email or text notification about this. I did eventually get my parcel, but I’m not sure whether the fault lies with the brand or UPS. In any case, I’ll likely order through a retailer next time.

I received my first bottle of glycolic acid from the ordinary and have only been using it for about three weeks and can already see it working! I have some small dark spots on my face and was looking for a product to incorporate into my skin care routine. I had seen so many ads and reviews for the glycolic acid on Tiktok and they all seemed to be positive. My skin feels smoother and less textured. I've not seen the dark spots go away yet but it's only been a couple weeks so hoping for results with continued use.

confusing, too strong, caused peeling and flakiness

Ordered some products at the end of last week and have already received them, which is great considering they had to come to Ireland. Was recommended them by a friend to help with redness and uneven skin tone. I hadn't done much online research so was surprised to see such a low score. Seems to be more about customer service than the products. Early days in my new skincare routine but, so far I'm liking the feel of the products and I'm feeling optimistic.

I actually love the product results especially Niacinamide

After doing some research about toners and brighters, The Ordinary came on top! Ordered right away! I couldn't be happier!

I used the ordinary hyaluronic acid serum and it was lovely no problems at all. I then decided to purchase their niacinemide 10% + zinc 1% and after just 3 days my face and neck was burning quite badly and I had red patches in places. I received a questionnaire from the ordinary asking how I was getting on with this product, as soon as I mentioned this product had burnt my face and neck, their questionnaire suddenly disappeared, gone! This says it all, they don't care and they're only interested in taking our money and looking for 5 🌟 ratings. I won't ever buy from them again and in fact I now purchase my skincare from Holland and Barrett, excellent products and excellent customer care service, I now have beautiful skin and I'm very happy indeed 😊

Customer service is terrible. Takes forever to get back to you, if at all. They don’t care and will fill the email with emojis to make it feel more fun while they tell you nothing about your order. I made a large order for a birthday gift, for someone who had never tried their products but wanted to based on my recommendations. The order never arrived and the ordinary told me it was because of bad weather. It’s been sunny and warm here for the entirety of winter. I have received other orders from other companies with no issue. The ordinary basically told me to kick rocks. Did not offer to replace my order or find out where it went. Won’t order from them again.

Raised a delivery issue where my parcel was not delivered. Was given the option to resend the parcel or be given a full refund. I opted for a new parcel and was told new delivery details would be given and 'a new order number shortly.'
I have since received no further correspondence since 09/01/2026 and have had to raise the issue again 06/02/2026. I will take my business elsewhere going forward.

I ordered three products on The Ordinary website, but I later realized the delivery time is longer than my vacation time in the USA, so I requested to cancel my order (5 hours after my payment). I believed that they had not processed my order yet, which is why I requested to cancel, so they would not have to ship them. However, they rejected my request. I then had to email them to explain the issue. Their advice is to return the package if I am not willing to keep it. When I tried to contact them for the return process, they completely ignored and avoided me. I submitted two contact forms (I received the confirmation on my submission as well), used their live chat during working hours (they said no people available all the time), and sent them an email, and below is what I received:
"Title: We're sorry! We didn't get your email :-(
Hi :-)

Thank you for getting in touch. Unfortunately, this email address is now out of service. Would you be able to fill out one of our contact forms here: "#their website link". We promise it only takes two minutes, and then we have a bunch of lovely humans ready and waiting to deal with your query.

Hopefully, speak to you soon,

DECIEM Customer Happiness Team"

We, as adults, all know that the DECIEM supporting team is looking down on the customer at this point. I am trying my best to be polite and nice to you, but I don't think this is what I should be received as a customer. I wish to hear more about your viewpoints on this situation.

My parcel was marked as “delivered” by Royal Mail on 27 January. By “delivered,” I mean it was left unattended in the ground-floor foyer of my apartment building — no concierge, open to anyone passing by.

When I reported this to Customer Service, they claimed to have “investigated” and then told me that because Royal Mail marked it as delivered, it was now my responsibility to chase Royal Mail myself. This is unacceptable.

You are the seller and the shipper. I paid for postage. It should not be the customer’s responsibility to resolve a missing parcel caused by the courier you chose. This should be covered under Royal Mail’s lost parcel process, which you should be handling — not passing the burden to the buyer.

Very poor customer service and a complete lack of accountability. I regret not reading the Trustpilot reviews before placing my order.

Ordered the Mini Icons Set from Boots.
Unfortunately The Ordinary assembly line missed the Hyaluronic Acid 2% + B5 bottle in the box.
Sent a complaint to the company and that state they cannot offer a refund or replacement as it was purchased from them.
This makes no sense to me because the fault came from the person in their assembly line who didn't put the product in the box? All I asked was for the missing bottle to be sent and they said the same thing.

Will not be buying from them again.

I did not consent to you sharing my personal details with Meta for the purpose of advertising to me.

"You may see ads because an advertiser has included you in an audience based on your information or off-Meta technologies activity. Advertisers can use or upload a list of information that we can match to your profile to show or exclude you from seeing certain ads."

After waiting a month I still hadn’t received my order. The track and trace wasn’t working so there was no way to know where my package was. After sending multiple messages to customer care and writing a bad review here I’m finally getting my money back and got an sincere apologie. Hence the updated review.

If you can order from a reseller, I absolutely recommend you do that. The Ordinary works with UPS which isn’t the best delivery service (maybe even the worst?) and you can only reach the customer care through email (or phone if you want to really up your phone bill). The chat is always unavailable and no way to contact through whatsapp.

The products are great though. Really love them and most definitely going to keep buying them, but also most definitely through a reseller like Douglas:)

I placed the order on 30/11 after a lot of calls to the courier company, on 5/1 I was told the parcel was lost by UPS and they could send it again but without the free gift I was entitled to as they didn’t have it any more (no mention for alternative!!). It is 24/1 and still the order hasn’t arrived and the in the tracking page it only says “delay”. I check here and I am shocked by the amount of parcels lost globally and the comments around the bad customer service… It is clear this company is not professional… I am wondering if we should trust its products even cause obviously quality and respect to the customers is not in their priorities….

The monkey are working at their Customer Happiness team, DO NOT ORDER anything from this website, vote with your money and let them feel the pain.

I have emailed them four times with a complaint and heard nothing. A couple of products are good. But for me it’s the customer service every time. So back to Elmis I go.

A loyal customer with a history of pretty large orders for gifting along with myself but my recent order that said a gift would be included was not and then needed to speak to customer service regarding a change to the next order and it’s been a month. Still no response, the chat bot never works and call times are not as listed. Be cautious. I have liked most of the products but they don’t seem as strong as previously and would be curious to have them 3rd party tested for my website. Unfortunately without a response from the company it wouldn’t be a company I continue with. Customer service is needed and so easy to set up with AI these days even if they can’t afford to hire human support. 😞

I'm discontinuing my purchases from The Ordinary (online or in-store) for two key reasons.

First, the delivery experience with DHL in Spain has been consistently terrible. Across multiple orders, they've repeatedly claimed my address is "incorrect" and forced me to travel to the nearest city (1-hour round-trip) to collect packages from a DHL point. My address is always supplied 100% accurately – and DHL has successfully delivered dozens of orders from other companies to this same address over the past decade (as have countless other delivery companies). This is clearly a service issue specific to The Ordinary's logistics arrangement.

Second – and more importantly to me in light of the world we're now living in – I'm uncomfortable with the brand's ownership structure. The Ordinary is owned by Estée Lauder Group, and until recently, Ronald Lauder (founder's son) served on the board and donated $5 million to Trump's MAGA Inc. super PAC. He's also credited with originally suggesting to Trump the idea of purchasing/invading Greenland. While he retired from the board in January 2025, the family maintains significant influence over the company.

Between the delivery nightmares and ethical concerns about the parent company's icky political connections, I'll be taking my business elsewhere.

In the meantime, my The Ordinary stuff will be going in the bin – they’re actually good beauty products on the surface, it’s just a shame they come with such ugly baggage attached.