Waterstones Reviews 

Tom from Richmond was truly wonderful when I visited Waterstones Richmond today, just five minutes before closing time. I had come into the store at the very end of the day, and I completely understood that the team would have been preparing to close after a long working day. In that situation, many people might understandably have been focused on closing the shop and gently rushing customers towards the exit. However, Tom did the complete opposite. I was looking for a particular book, but I could not find it, and because it was so late, I felt awkward asking properly for help. I was almost talking to myself about the book rather than clearly asking anyone, as I did not want to be a burden so close to closing time. Tom overheard me, noticed what I was looking for, and immediately took the initiative to help.

He went out of his way to search for the book across the different sections where it could possibly have been, and he did so with such kindness, patience, and genuine enthusiasm. He eventually found the book and brought it to me, making me feel welcomed rather than inconvenient. I had not planned to spend any money that day, but Tom’s warmth, honesty, and high standard of customer service completely changed my mind. Because of his support, I decided to buy the book, and as it was part of a “buy one, get one half price” offer, I ended up buying two books instead of one. What started as no purchase at all became two purchases simply because Tom cared enough to help. His genuine kindness really brightened my evening, and I left the store feeling grateful. Thank you, Tom, for such thoughtful and excellent customer service. I will definitely come back to Waterstones Richmond and hope to see him again.

Great customer service, really quick to answer with very clear answers.

Always super friendly and helpful staff.
I emailed Waterstones support and again they were really helpful and got back near enough straight away. So lovely.

The best bookshop! Great selection of books, great staff in store and online experience is great too. The Customer Service Team is tops, fast response, lovely service.

Still waiting for a copy of a book I ordered a month ago, in your Carlisle store. My husband has been in to the Branch who again reassured him that I would be contacted by email as soon as it comes in. that was a fortnight ago, still waiting.

Love visiting a Waterstones. Last visit I bought a signed copy that turned out to be missing the signature - didn’t realise this until I got home. Contacted customer service and they shipped a new signed one (to an EU country) the same day without any extra costs to me.
Great books and excellent, kind customer service!

Click and collect is pathetic. You can only order one book at a time. Then tells you that you have to go to a shop 90 mins away and collect it, when i have a dhop 10 mins from me. Waste of time.

Website is awful. When typing in an author the results just show authors they are pushing. I wanted books by J M Hall. I’ll go back to using Amazon!

The best uk bookshops. Always take care of their customers.

Went into the Barrow store to replace all my worn out books. However I was very disappointed when I went in.

Firstly, it’s not wheelchair accessible. I got stuck numerous times and was ignored by staff who didn’t even offer a greeting.

Secondly, most of the shop was dedicated to gifts and accessories, and the books they did have in followed no logical pattern in their placement.

I needed to replace a few series of books, but Waterstones had other ideas. They only had one or two books out of entire series and no gaps for the rest.

I ended up buying just 1 book… and was charged 25p for a PAPER carrier bag!

Guess I need to go elsewhere for the rest.

Shame it’s gone downhill so much because this was my favourite shop. Not anymore.

Extremely helpful customer service got my issue sorted straight away

Lisa was amazing!!! I had made a mistake on my order and she was able to fix it up for me super quickly!! She is a legend! Always love shopping at Waterstones :)

I received a very swift reply to my email asking for a purchase to be credited to my loyalty card and it was done very quickly.

Very easy and query was sorted out very quickly in a friendly positive way .

I had a question on the balance of a gift card. Lisa dealt with my question quickly and efficiently providing a copy of a missing receipt.

My order had an issue during the shipping and delivery process and Waterstones went so far and above my expectations when I reached out to customer service. They are phenomenal.

Amazing customer service. I have a problem with a book I ordered being out of stock. I contacted them via their website and got a response from Steve. He was very helping and even contacted the author of the book. It was all sorted in less than 24 hrs. I just wish other companies could be as nice and supportive as Waterstones.

Great customer support team. Inspiring venues that encourage everyone to read

I telephoned Waterstones' Wolverhampton shop this morning to enquire about the in-store availability of an item. The sales associate told me there was no stock available and in then realising no sale was therefore going to be made presumably, the sales associate promptly hung up on me mid sentence.

Felt very rude. I was made to feel like a nuisance and unworthy of speaking to rather than a valued customer.

I was dealt with in a relegated manner and made to feel small by Waterstones' dismissiveness. I came away deeply upset.

My belief in Waterstones is now so low I have no confidence in their willingness to provide appropriate redress for the disrespectful unprofessionalism I was dealt.

Instead all I expect is their recycled and regurgitated answer to every other person's negative review here. Near enough word for word, it'll read:

"Hello,
Thank you for your feedback, I am sorry to hear of the experience you have had with our team in Wolverhampton, this certainly falls far below the standard of customer care that we strive for.
We do expect our staff to treat all customers in a courteous and polite manner so I'm sorry that this was not your experience on your recent visit.
I have raised this with the store manager and they are currently investigating this further. They will be discussing this complaint with their staff members to prevent it from happening again.
Thank you for bringing this to our attention, it is only with feedback from our customers that we can address instances when our standards of service are not being maintained.
Have a lovely day,
Waterstones Customer Support"

Waterstones will post that empty response for appearances sake and I, the mistreated customer, will be left with no tangible redress for my experience.

E-mailed yesterday (Thurs about 24/04/2026) about a certain publication and they responded the next day. It is nice to go directly to the publishers of the book but I got into trouble when they did not inform me that the book was out of print and they are printing a new one. To prevent the sad experience from happening again, I called Waterstones (because I am ordering in bulk). The price is still the same and these people will tell you if the book is available or out of print.