Wesley Barrell Reviews 

I have purchased several items from Wesley Barrell in Chester and found quality above and beyond satisfactory. Always very helpful staff and was so disappointed to hear they had closed their doors.
Due to downsizing I am now faced with the sale of two sofas which upsets me as I will never be able to purchase from them again.

We bought a 'Deddington' from the Chester branch, which was delivered in early 2019 shortly before the firm went into administration after 124 years of trading. The sofa is excellent, a very comfortable, solid and well built item, which I expect will last us a great many years. Staff in store where friendly helpful and well informed, with the choice of fabric, filling and sizes including extra height/depth second to none. My parents bought a sofa and matching chair 30 years ago which are still in daily use, I would certainly recommend and consider buying a used item and having it recovered. Such a shame the family sold it to an investment group who appear to have asset stripped it and run it into the ground.

Massive Cost, Biggest RIP Off

Blimey I was told by a friend that they had a WB sofa which I admired. So I was looking to order. having read this the company seems to be run by a very unsavoury character so I will not be going any where near them.

Such a shame for Customers and Staff.
This was a great Company with wonderful committed staff.
After saving we bought a lovely (fully sprung) WB Sofa that is still going strong 10 years later.
Do try to buy s/hand and get recovered.

Paid £5000 to have my Wesley Barrell sofas recovered. Did manage to get them back but faulty material. Agreed for WB to come and look at the sofas, did not turn up. No reply to further emails. Avoid this company.

Wesley Barrell today is not the Wesley Barrell of a couple of years ago. The quality of their products was one of the reasons we were prepared to pay the expensive prices. We ordered a 3 seater sofa, snuggler chair, ottoman and scatter cushions in November, paying the deposit (thankfully by credit card) of c. £4k. We were then contacted on the 15th December and told our furniture was due to be delivered on the 15th January therefore the balance was now due c. £4K, duly paid again by credit card.

We were then contacted on the 14th January to be told that one of the pieces was ready for delivery but that there was a delay due to difficulties with the stain guard process of about 10 days. We said we would wait and take delivery of the whole order at the end of the month rather than have one piece delivered on its own. No sign of any furniture by early February. Contacted the Company and were advised the factory had actually lied to us and the delay had nothing to do with the stain guard process but that they were having difficulty getting hold of the Sanderson fabric. (Sanderson refusing to supply I suspect)

The staff we spoke to seemed to be genuine in their concern for customers but they simply could not deliver. Any semblance of the old business built on quality and good service (it was 127 years old!) had completely gone. It turns out that we had originally paid our deposit to Wesley Barrell ltd. This business was placed into in administration and then apparently a new company Wesley Barrell was formed and we were told they had agreed to fulfil customer orders placed with the previous company. Looking back at the receipts we paid the balance to Wesley Barrell. The website carried no indication of any difficulties with the company. On one phone call we spoke with a member of staff who appeared to be doing his best to sort out our order and had been a long serving employee of the company of many years.

The reality is however we have one snuggler chair (we are actually pleased with) and have currently lost £5.5k. We understand the business has gone completely bust, is now in administration, did not pay its staff their final month’s wages. No one has contacted us and we cannot raise anybody from WB or the administrators. We are now pursuing recovery via our credit card company, feel completely duped by the business and are very wary of placing an order elsewhere in case the same thing happens. The owner pre administration, Mr Ahmed, should be thoroughly ashamed of his shoddy business practices and his complete disregard for customers and his staff. I hope he is never again able to take over a respected brand, run it into the ground and frankly defraud his customers in the same way we feel we have been treated.

As a former employee made redundant in January I am appalled at the owner Mr Ayiaz Ahmed behaviour. He has taken a 124 year company and drove it into the ground. Furnishing Report (a trade magazine) has reported on 5th April liquidators hired specialists to find Mr Ahmed to clear his debts of up 2 million, they went to the former CH factory and Mr Ahmed nowhere to be found. Personally I still have not been paid the proper amount, due to administrative errors (possibly on purpose,) how is it possible to give wrong NI # to the administrators??? I have been greatly disadvantage by all of this as well as the customers who have paid deposits in good faith. I call for a petition against Mr Ahmed to be banned from directorship again. Please let’s not let this happen to customers and employees again.

We’ve just fell into the same trap as others and lost a lot of money to this company for an item which never appeared. After doing some digging all fingers point to Mr ayiaz ahmed who owns Wessex Bristol. They appear to buy long standing British companies then run them into the ground. No one from from the Wesley Barrell family is on the board any more, they all resigned when they were taken over a number of years ago. It seems to have gone from bad to worse since then. There needs to be some investigation into Mr ayiaz ahmed business practices as something is definitely fishy.

According to social media a disappointid customer went to the factory in Ducklington to confront them but they found two men loading furniture in to a lorry. They said they were managers and offerd them some free furniture. If they are in administration you can not take assets & where is it going. Is this furniture yours???????

Appalled, disgusted, I could go on and on. Is there any one there?
Nobody returns any call, emails etc.
please advise of next step your customers do to receive their funds back.I mean the money you took from us all under false selling.

ashamed of you WB for the treatment we are receiving, you deserve to go under with the NON CUSTOMER service you don't offer

We've ordered a £2000 armchair from Wesley Barrell and it's now over a month past its delivery date. I've contacted the company several times and the promised follow ups haven't happened. We received an email from a director a few weeks ago about a recent organisational change and confirming they would honour our order. We responded asking for a delivery date and we've had no response to our email, not even an acknowledgement. I plan to cancel our order and ask for our deposit to be returned and look elsewhere. If you're looking for some furniture, I suggest you don't consider Wesley Barrell.

Do not trust this company. They lie and are deceitful.
We purchased an Anjou console table sept 2018 with a 16 week delivery and paid in full by debit card.
29th jan 2019 it was delivered and was scratched. It was obvious that this was a shop soiled one and not brand new.
I immediately contacted Head Office in Witney and was assured a brand new one would be ordered and they would collect damaged one on delivery of new one. I followed this call up with an email and photos of the scratches.
They did not acknowledge this email for over a week and only then because i kept emailing them requesting they did so.
The purchasing manager stated thar a new one had been ordered and that delivery would be 4 to 6 weeks.
Six weeks passed and had heard nothing from them. So i emailed said purchasing manager fir an update...24 hours later no reply so i phoned WB surprise surprise she was not available to take my call but an hour later she emailed ti say she was waiting a,delivery date from Anjou and would let me know the next day. To date she has not let me know. I doubt it was ever ordered.
22nd March i called into the Cheltenham store to see if they could help.. it was at this point i was informed WB had gone into Administration and also that there had been a delivery 10 days earlier but obviously not my new console table which really confirms one had never been ordered.
The manager said he would contact his area manager regarding this and would let me know.
26th March called into Cheltenham shop again as hadn't heard anything back from rhe manager. I spoke to the assistant as manager on holiday..she said she would contact the area manager so i called back in about an hour later to be told the area manager had contacted the purchasing manager at Head Office and she told him that she had emailed me to say they did not kniw when their next delivery would be. She blatantly lied as i have never received this email.
As i have still got the damaged table i am unable to do a charge back on debit card.
I appreciate that many others on here have lost a lot of money and will not receive their orders and i at least have damaged goods.
I just wanted to report that this company are not to be trusted. I feel they took my money and didnt even order a new table just sourced one from another store near the delivery date.
Deceitful to say the least.

I wish i had read the companies house profile of the single shareholder before i placed business with this company . Numerous directorships of companies .EVERY ONE of which has entered administration . A sorry tale of methodic asset stripping .

I feel sorry for the staff , suppliers and the customers , particularly those who have paid deposits to Witney Barrell Interiors over the past 7 weeks after Witney Barrell Witney entered administration.This latter company sadly prolonged the agony for potential customers .Fortunately i got my deposit back from my credit card company , unfortunately that doesn't compensate for the months of lies and false promises that surrounded my original order back in 2018 .

I was supplier to them, they stung me for around £11K and I believe they ran up total debts of around £1.2 million. All of the assets were signed over to the owners holding company, then he bought the business back for £20K and set up under a different name, so he is quids in. There are far more trustworthy furniture suppliers out there, that won't leave you out of pocket, hence I would avoid them like the plague.

I may be able to top all and am feeling very stupid for being so ridiculously patient. We ordered our sofa back in 2017 and there have simply been a catalogue of errors including delivery of wrong sofa. Finally thought all was resolved but realised cushions were wrong. The factory currently has my material whilst we have a sofa with uncomfortable cushions and no covers.

Can I at least get the material back?!!

So they’ve gone into administration. So we will have lost our deposit. But what anout the fabric that I bought elsewhere and had delivered to them? It doesn’t belong to them. How do I get it back?

I ordered two sofas from the Birmingham store on 24/10/18, I was promised delivery prior to Christmas. I contacted Wesley-Barrell at the beginning of January as I had no contact to that point. After a 6-hour delay, I was contacted and informed just the day before they had made the sofa and realised the material wasn’t good enough. I was informed my order was a priority and would be delivered before the end of January (I assume 2019!)

On 22/1/19 I again chased and was told that just yesterday a terrible accident occurred, and something was spilled on to my sofa!
I raised this with Senior members of the business including the National Sales Manager who accepted I had been lied to and promised delivery by the end of February. I was informed that Wesley Barrell Interiors would honour all previous orders.

Now 20 weeks after my original order the National Sales Manager won't respond to my calls or emails and I have no furniture. I paid the £1900 deposit by Debit Card and suspect that money is gone.

We ordered the sofas because the quality looked excellent, our experience is the worst we've experienced as a buyer. If you are tempted to purchase from Wesley-Barrell can I suggest you ensure you pay by credit card so you have a right of redress if things don't work out.

Update 15.3.19
I have now been contacted but unfortunately they’re unable to give me a delivery date.

Recently purchased a foot stool from Wesley Barrell, having waited over a month for the item to be delivered, unfortunately we were unable to open the item and check it due to some building work being undertaken at our home. When we eventually did open the box we noticed that there appeared to be two holes in the fabric on the top of the stool. We duly reported this to WB only to be advised that they had gone into administration and were trading under a new('ish) name. The Customer Service Manager took all of the details and promised to get back within a few days to advise what could be done to try and resolve this issue. We are now two weeks on and WB have ignored multiple emails and messages left. Having read the other reviews on this site it really does not look like we are going to get a satisfactory response! Very disappointing..

Interesting that Wesley-Barrell has gone into administration, with all its assets sold to a Wesley-Barrell Interiors, which is of course a completely different company ...
Ummm ... What could possibly be wrong with that ?
Anyway, on a slightly different subject:
I bought an Anjou sideboard from WB last October.
It was delivered 5 weeks late, but ok.
When I had a look at it that night, I saw that the top looked like it had been riddled with wood-worm. Tried to count the holes: between 175 - 200 holes, all over the top.
I asked WB for a replacement, or refund.
They replied that Anjou furniture is ‘aged’, ie it is done deliberately as part of the design...
Who would DO THAT to a nice piece of furniture ?
It looks like it has been attacked by a demented woodpecker !
I’m guessing it was done by a school leaver with no training ? I’ve seen the sideboard in Marlow and StAlbs, and checked them again, and they are nothing LIKE this mess.
Anyway, looks like I need to write to the General Manager if I am not happy; I’m not sure what to do next, especially since WB is in administration.
SO, this is just a warning if you buy Anjou from WB (or WBI) ...
You might end up with a piece of furniture that looks like it has been attacked by a demented woodpecker !!
Of course, if the demented woodpecker look is your style, then you have nothing to worry about ...