Boosey & Hawkes Reviews 20

The official online music shop of the Associated Boards of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM). Today there's a notice on the website that The Shop at Boosey.com is closing on 2nd December.... that explains their recent appalling customer service! My son is taking his Descant Recorder Grade 1 in less than 2 weeks. It's compulsory to have a live accompaniment in the exam. I ordered the accompaniment 2 months ago. Emails chasing the order are met with very vague scripted responses with no useful information. I'm now in the position of having to write an accompaniment myself! What a shame...it used to be a good quality retailer

Date of experience: November 06, 2024

Ordered RBRSM grade 5 and 6 . Payment pending.. not received books ..no one answers phone…

Date of experience: October 05, 2024

This company has the manpower capability of a sloth. They don't respond to e-mails, telephone calls and I am pulling my hair out trying to resolve an unsatisfied order.

Date of experience: September 16, 2024

You pay them and they don't send out your order. Then they don't respond to your emails or calls.

Date of experience: June 07, 2024

B&H are just uncontactable. I used their website's Contact Form six weeks ago and they've not been bothered to respond. I followed this with two emails separated by a week - again with no acknowledgement or reply. And they don't answer the phone or get back to you when you leave a voice message. Abysmal.

Date of experience: February 01, 2024

On November 8 we placed an order online and paid for for a piece of music my wife was planning to use at a service at her Church on 19 November. On the 15th having had no contact I emailed Boosey and got a reply that it would be despatched "within 48 hours" I emailed back that this was going to be touch and go whether it would turn up on time and asked if we had wasted our money. On the 16th an email from Boosey informed me that owing to "staffing difficulties" there would be a delay of up to seven days. I replied suggesting that they should have told us this before taking our money - now we were stuck with my wife having to rearrange her programme and money wasted thanks to their incompetence. Still awaiting a response or offer of a refund.

Date of experience: November 08, 2023

for all Italians who buy books from BOOSEy:
pay attention to the lack of transparency!!!!
I'll tell you my story: I place an order Prokofiev op 67; Ligeti, Sippal, dobbal; and Barber op 14. I pay at the end 68,39 euros. I thought I paid the whole bill, no!
I paid only Prokofiev +ligeti+VAT 55,50 POUNDS+ 10,50 punds about delivery charge + (without knowing, on delivery i paid) euro 11,42 customs duties + euro 5 euros other postal duties total 2 scores: euro 68,39+16,42 is EUROS 84,81.
It's not over and my question is: why did boosey, in addition to the lack of transparency on the final cost of the product, not make a single shipment????
yes, becouse after a few days I receive Barber score 48.78 euros (total) that is: score 29.99 punds + 10.25 pounds shipping costs + 7.62 euros customs charges + 5 euros postage fees.
3 SCORES AT ONLY EUROS 146,22 EUROOOO
I FEEL TO CRY FOR MY MONEY!!

Date of experience: November 17, 2023

Shocking website! can't login because newly created passer doesn't work, worse it gives you a temporary password to login but then rejects its own coding because it doesn't have a capital letter but you can't change it. to enhance the bad experience the typeface is so light you can't see it. Companies with Boosy's reputation shouldn't outsource their IT and give no help customers just walk away

Date of experience: October 17, 2023

I was thinking it would be a safe bet to buy music from this supplier to an ABRSM exam. Items never arrived and in the end I had to order from another supplier. I fear it will take a number of Emails and phone calls to get reimbursed

Date of experience: March 11, 2023

Incredibly poor service. I've placed an order on the 4 November - it hasn't arrived yet. I have received the very same 'update on my order' i.e. 'We are currently awaiting delivery of the following item you recently ordered', nine times. I gave them a call once and I was reminded by a customer care assistant to read the info on their page carefully: 'despatched within 20-30 working days'. 38 days now. Can't reach them via phone. Ridiculous.

Date of experience: December 28, 2022

I echo what other reviewers have said. Go elsewhere. If you do order from Boosey & Hawkes, don't pay for the courier service. It's a rip-off. If they haven't got some of your order in stock, they don't tell you at point of ordering. They hold back the entire order and email you. I emailed back and asked for the books they had in stock to be couriered. They gave them to the courier the next day, despite the fact that I emailed my request in the morning so you'd think they'd have plenty of time to treat the order as urgent. In the end I paid £12 courier fee to get the books after the lesson I urgently needed them for. The customer service at the music shop at the Barbican is way better and is where I'll go in future.

Date of experience: April 26, 2022

Dreadful service - I ordered an item 11 weeks ago, was told a month ago that it would arrive within a week, and now have just been told that it needs to be reprinted and they have no idea when it will arrive if ever, all this after being promised 7-10 days for delivery. Poor communication and crazy delays.

Date of experience: March 23, 2022

Embarrassingly poor service. Out of two orders I have received only one and it took over a month to arrive. When it did arrive I realised that was sent the incorrect music. I tried to speak to someone on the phone and left a message to call me back. No one did. I sent an email today and the response seemed automated “if you want to return a product that’s fine…” Yes of course it’s fine. I could do with a “sorry”. Awful.

Date of experience: March 01, 2022

Poorly shipped.
Very mad and disappointed, I just received my package to only see it mistreated. Don't let them trick you with the prices, I can assure you to find somewhere else with better care.

Date of experience: September 19, 2021

Disgusting experience.
I’ve ordered 11 books with express delivery and 8 of them came fast. But other 3 were not available (and customer will get that information only after the order was done and payment for shipping of 11 books will be calculated).
I was not in rush so decided to wait as they said books are on order. Later they asked if i want to cancel the rest of the order as they don’t know how long it will take. I clearly said no- I’ll wait as I’ve made the payment. When books came in stock they sent me an email about it and added another shipping to the books cost!!! But I’ve paid for the full shipping already so I’ve texted them. They said I’ll get refund( but if I’d not check I’d be charged twice for shipping!!! So guys be careful).
I thought finally I’ll get my books ,but no. They sent me books by post office, not courier as I was charged for at the beginning!!! After I got back to them they said someone made a mistake and it was sent with a courier!!! But that’s a lie as courier delivery doesn’t take more than 2 weeks!!! So after I asked them to check what’s actually going on with my order some Mathew decided to cancel my order!!!🤬.
I told them (as it’s clearly their mistake )to fix the issue and send me the books with express delivery - the way they were ordered in the first place , but Mathew told me it too late, order is canceled and if you need those books order them again!!!
So I’ve wasted more than a month and paid full express delivery cost for 11 books and still didn’t get the books
Honestly I don’t know how to resolve this as I’m first time experiencing such an amateur approach
Very poor service. Shame on you Mathew

Date of experience: May 19, 2021

Really poor service from a supposedly reputable publisher. I ordered 3 books, 2 arrived within a couple of weeks and 2 months later I got an email saying the 3rd wasn’t available. No idea why it took so long to establish this. When I investigated the payment I discovered I was significantly overcharged for one of the books that did arrive. This company have a policy of advertising a price on their website and charging the customer whatever they feel like.

Within all this I had the most frustrating email exchange with the customer advisor mentioned below. I will be shopping elsewhere from now on.

Date of experience: February 17, 2021

After reading Max Hepburn's review I can guess that the unrevealed "M." is for Mathew. Talking to a wall is more useful and less annoying by far. In my case I ordered six books "Usually despatched within 24 - 48 hours", but only five were actually available, so five were delivered without asking me if I was interested in receiving only five, or if I wanted to cancel the order, or whatever... When I complained about not being informed it was my fault according to Mathew. Quoting him "I will make the point that our website does not state stock quantities, and therefore does not state whether items are in or out of stock". And that is only the beginning...

Date of experience: February 13, 2021

First, some of the products were not on stock as stated.
Second they offer me to send the missing items later - of I pay double shipping. Terrible service.
Third, suddenly without reason my whole order is canceled. Waisting my time.
This is not quality. I'm a professional musician and I could I have been a very good and loyal customer. Now I searching something else.

Date of experience: November 30, 2020

Not great, their website is clunky and misleading (and orders can't be tracked if you are not already registered and logged in). Impossible to change temporary password due to website fault. Beware, order confirmation email will go to a spam folder. Website smallprint says some items may not be in stock, and will have to be back-ordered from publisher. B&H please enter 21st century and state clearly beside the item in question if it is in stock or not, or discontinued. Having to wait weeks and call up your office to find out what is happening is a pain. I spoke to 3 people; Nigel and Martin were very friendly and helpful. Their colleague 'M' (I won't name him, but you'll know who it is) was downright rude and ill-mannered. I ended up cancelling my whole order (7 items) but one was overlooked and got sent out by expensive courier (this fee should only be charged if total order - which I had cancelled - is over 2 kg in weight). Martin kindly refunded me the courier fee, so I just paid for the item alone. I ended up getting the other items from Amazon quickly and easily. So much for trying to support an independent British company... If you have to use B&H, call the Manchester office to order, so that you can find out if the items you want are in stock or not. The 2 stars are purely because of Nigel and Martin being helpful. Otherwise, I would have given 0 stars.

Date of experience: September 28, 2020