Shopping from Home Next Directory (Next Directory)

Member Name: mumof2boys

Product:	Next Directory
Date:	11/01/09 (180 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Free Returns, Wide Range of goods, Excellent quality, Next Day delivery

Disadvantages: Apr is high

What I love about Next is shopping from home, with 2 small children under 3 walking round a Next store for me is just something out of a nightmare also it allows me to spread the cost, infact there are a ton of benefits I will get to later in this review.


WHAT DOES NEXT SELL?

Next is mainly popular for selling clothing for Women, Men and Children although they do everything now from flowers to electrical items.


OPENING AN ACCOUNT

To shop with Next Directory the first thing you must do is open an account. I did this by going to www.next.co.uk and click on my account, your then see a register button where you fill in all your details and they will send you out a catalogue at £3.75 which some people are not happy with doing but they are very impressive catalogues so I can see they need to charge for theem and Next also supply a few delivery codes and there always some on the internet so this really covers this in the long term.

They send out a Spring and Summer Brochure in January and then I think its around June although not 100% sure they send out a Autumn Winter one and also a bit later through the year a Christmas one.
You get 2 catalogues at a time, Clothing and fashion and homeware.

I cant remember how long it took for them to send my Next catalogue and account number probably a week or two.

I was given a £200 account limit so they must do a credit check as one of my friends signed up and she had to pay instead of using the credit facility that Next Offer which isnt a bad thing as I know I tend to spend more If I dont have to pay for it straight away.

Once you have your account number your account is all set up and your ready to shop! This is where the fun starts!

Once you have decided what you wish to purchase its added to your account and you can select your day of delivery which is by a courier and the quickest it can come is the Next Day which is excellent service.

The couriers tend to be people deliverying the goods in there cars and you also get a more personal service as they also come and collect your goods from you too.

Delivery is £3.95 although if you google around there is normally a free delivery code around!

Returns are free too! which is the one thing I love as I can order a few different sizes and send the ones back that dont fit!

To send a return back your courier might supply there telephone number but the easier thing to do is log on your online account and you can arrange for the courier to come and collect your goods.

Once you have been with Next for a while they tend to increase your balance. I started off at £200 and now I have a £1300 account limit which I must say I would no way spend that much although it would be easily done.

They then send you an itemised bill a month later telling you what the minimum repayment is although I always pay more as otherwise I would never pay off my Next Account.

I think the Apr is around 26% which is very high but if you keep your account to a reasonable amount its manageable.

I have bought loads of items from Next and there sales are brillant.

The Spring Summer sale is not too bad and the midseason is pretty rubbish but then they have a really good sale just before Xmas usually.

I have always been given a VIP slot which basically means they allocate me a slot which I can chose myself by logging into my account to shop at sale prices. You normally get half and hour and not all account holders get this but I have been very lucky to get it the last couple of years.

An example of what I have previously bought the last month was half priced childrens clothes, a nice print to go in my living room which was meant to be £55 and I got it for £20!

The only thing I would change about Next really would be the APR is a bit too high, Id like to see them go down an interest free period like Great Universal do where you pay so much a week interest free.

They also gave me a Next Directory card to use in shops but I hid this somewhere in my house as I know I would just cause chaos with it if I went out shopping!

I hope I havent left anything out and If i remember anything else in the meantime I will add.

Summary: Overall Excellent Good Customer Service