Name: The Flash Centre
Address: Spectrum Point, 164 Clapgate Lane, Birmingham, London
Rating: 4.86

“If you are buying to have posted to Northern Ireland I would avoid. Product and company fine I'm sure but they ship using UPS. This means as well as the Flash Centre charging extra for delivery to Northern Ireland (still part of the UK) UPS will add on a customs charge and a brokerage charge. Your £40 item will mactually cost you £69! Maybe if they use a company that doesn't add on these charges I will try them again considering I have had deliveries at the same time from England delivered by DHL and Royal Mail with nothing added on. Avoid!”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 weeks ago

Hi Sam, Thank you for taking the time to share your experience, and for bringing this to our attention. We’re genuinely sorry that your delivery to Northern Ireland ended up costing more than expected, and we completely understand your frustration. We have relatively few customers in Northern Ireland, so hearing about experiences like yours first-hand is incredibly valuable. Unless we know what’s happening on your end, especially when it comes to unexpected customs and brokerage fees, we don’t know what needs fixing. Your feedback helps us spot the gaps and do better. As you mentioned, some couriers like UPS do treat shipments to NI as if they’re international, which can trigger additional charges. Other services, such as Royal Mail and some (but not all) DHL options, may handle things differently, but it varies widely and is quite difficult and complicated for us to predict. We’re actively reviewing our shipping options with this in mind and looking at ways to minimise these kinds of charges for our NI customers. There are also changes coming under the governments' Windsor Framework in 2025 that aim to standardise and simplify parcel deliveries from GB to NI. Plus, with the very recent UK-EU trade agreement announced just yesterday, we may see further improvements, so we’re keeping a close eye on how it all develops. Our goal is to make delivery as smooth and affordable as possible for everyone, including customers in Northern Ireland, and your feedback is helping us get there. Thanks again, Mike

Posted 3 weeks ago

“I bought 4 light bulbs and some fuses. The ups delivery was terrible the ups delivery driver just chuck my parcel over the fence and did not pass it to me it was lucky that my bulbs survived I would definitely pick a new company to do your delivery’s”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 months ago

Hi William, thank you so much for your review of The Flash Centre, whilst it's never nice to hear negative feedback, in many ways these types of reviews are the most important to us, as it gives us a chance to hear direct from our customers where we can improve, and to investigate new ideas for enhancing the customer experience for all. We're really sorry to hear that the UPS driver mishandled your parcel, but relieved to here that the packaging from our team was sufficient to protect the fragile glass bulbs, even after being thrown around like this. Rest assured we'll be reporting this to UPS to minimise the chance of it happening again. I'll also reach out to you personally, and if you happened to have taken any photos of how the package arrived it would be really useful for me to attach these to our complaint to UPS. Onto the wider issue of courier choice, alas in something like 40 years sending parcels to our customers, we are yet to find a perfect solution (and not entirely sure that the "perfect" courier exists). Just in my 17 or so years at TFC we have tried Interlink Express, DPD, TNT, and Parcelforce, before settling on our current pairing of UPS and DX (the latter required for our very large parcels). As a consumer myself i've also had experiences with DHL, Fedex, Evri, Royal Mail and more. All we have tried over the years have unfortunately been guilty of occasionally throwing a parcel over a fence, losing a parcel, leaving a parcel out in the rain etc. So the best we can do is try to find the courier that provides the best overall value and experience to our customers, minimising the number of mistakes like this, but accepting that a few problems are unfortunately unavoidable. The vast majority of our reviews have specifically complimented the service of UPS, but occasionally one goes wrong, and we're really sorry that it was you on this occasion. Rest assured, your comments have been noted, reported to UPS, and most importantly will factor into our courier selection, which we try to review and assess regularly to make sure we are making the best decision for our customers. In addition to this, we always do our best to make sure that products are packaged very carefully, to mitigate the risk of any damage, which it sounds like worked in our favour for your delivery! However, if something did break or damage in transit, we would simply send you a free of charge replacement or refund you for the item (whichever you prefer) with no hesitation. Whilst we can't promise that every delivery will be 100% perfect (although UPS' record is definitely better than the other couriers we've used before!) we can promise that it won't cost our customers a penny to solve any problems. I hope that helps you to understand how we came to chose UPS, and gives you some faith that you can be confident shopping with TFC again. As mentioned above, I have also reached out to your personally, and would welcome any additional feedback, or answer any questions you might have. Have a great Sunday! Mike

Posted 3 months ago

“Ordered on 7th December, although TFC did confirm despatch to UPS on 9th (the next working day) by the 12th it was still sitting in the couriers hub with no confirmation of a delivery date. I emailed TFC to ask them to chase and did receive a prompt reply saying delay was due to time of the year but if I had not received by the end of the following working day they would despatch a replacement with an alternative courier. UPS reported a missed delivery the following day (Saturday) but as there was somebody at home at the time they purport to have tried this is blatantly untrue. I reported this to TFC first thing on Monday morning (16th), told them we had had these sort of issues with UPS with other deliveries in the past. I asked for confirmation that they would stick to their original promise and send out a replacement and I would return the first package if it was ever delivered. I received a reply later in day saying that my order had been cancelled. So that has left me trying to find a replacement for delivery with only 1 week until Christmas. I chose TFC as my supplier as I try to order from smaller businesses than Amazon, but I have ended up going back to Amazon. I have received the goods from them today!”

Helpful Report

Posted 5 months ago

Hi Claire, Thank you for taking the time to share your experience with The Flash Centre. While it’s never pleasant to hear about a negative experience, we truly value your honest feedback as it helps us identify areas for improvement. I’ve reviewed your order and can confirm it was dispatched promptly on the next working day (Monday) via a next-day service. Unfortunately, UPS experienced issues delivering to your address, which we understand has been a recurring problem in your area. Despite our best efforts to resolve this, we issued a refund quickly to allow you to source a replacement elsewhere, as we wanted to avoid further delays or disappointment. We’re deeply sorry for the frustration this caused and have escalated the issue with UPS to prevent similar occurrences in the future. As part of our ongoing efforts to improve, we are looking into the prospect of giving customers more courier options in the future. However, as with any solution, there are trade-offs. Different couriers arrive for pickup at varying times, which impacts daily cut-off times, and some couriers come with their own set of challenges. For example, we’ve previously faced issues with DPD failing to show up and Parcelforce leaving packages unattended. It’s something we’re carefully considering to ensure we provide the best possible service. As a gesture of goodwill, if your original package does eventually arrive, it’s yours to keep for free. I'm pleased to hear you did manage to source from elsewhere in time for Christmas, so hopefully you also end up with a spare from us free of charge. Thank you again for your feedback, and we sincerely wish you a Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year. Best regards, Mike

Posted 5 months ago

“Ordered 2 colouramas for our studio and only received 1. Contacted the web sales team on the email they provided explaining the situation and received no response. Still waiting for the issue to be resolved/any form of communication explaining what has happened.”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 year ago

Hi Jack, thank you so much for leaving a review. Whilst it's never nice to get negative feedback, in many ways it is more important to us than the 5-star reviews, as it gives us an opportunity to reflect on how we can perfect our service, which is something we are constantly striving to achieve. I can see that your order was placed on the 2nd February, and that our team booked your shipping label for a next working day service about 30 minutes later. This package did arrive next working day, but unfortunately, our team made a misread on your packing slip, and accidentally read your order quantity as 1, instead of 2. So for this we can only sincerely apologise. I can see that you emailed our team to inform us of the error and that we replied within a couple of hours to say that the second roll had been dispatched. We replied to that email about 24 hours before you left this review. We're not sure why you didn't see our response, but rest assured as soon as the issue was brought to our attention we sprung into action to ensure the second roll would arrive next day! I can see the item did arrive next day, shortly after you left this review. We can only but apologise again for the picking error. Unfortunately, these things happen from time to time (we are only human), but we have conducted an internal review and will make some tweaks to minimise the risk of this happening in future. If in future you have an urgent query, if you would prefer we are also available by telephone on 02078375649. Or, you can use the live chat facility on our website for more instant replies. If you would prefer to continue communicating by email going forwards, please just give your junk folder a quick check and make sure our replies haven't ended up in there. We hope to see you again at TFC, despite this one negative experience, I am confident we can make it up to you given the chance. Warm regards, Mike

Posted 1 year ago

“My package was not delivered and sent to a random address that is not mine”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 year ago

Thank you for taking the time to provide us with feedback. I looked into your order and due to the sizeand awkwardness of Colorama roll, we had to dispatch in two packages. Both were dispatched to the same address and the other items on your order were received by reception, however the Colorama was sent on a larger vehicle, and that driver could not locate the address. The Colorama was then returned to our facilities and I can see that we have already provided a refund. We really apologise for the failed delivery of the Colorama. I can see you already used a free delivery code from signing up to our marketing newsletter but by way of an apology we will email you an additional free delivery code. Looking through the records for your order, I can see the first we learned about the failed delivery, is when UPS returned the parcel to us, at which point we reached out to you to discuss your options. If in future, your package does not arrive in the time frame as expected, please email us on sales@theflashcentre.com, call us on 02078375649, or use the live chat facility on our website. A member of our team is always happy to assist you with the query, and in your case, we probably could have helped UPS find your address and get the Colorama delivered in time for your shoot. Unfortunatley couriers are never 100% in their service, but if you let us know there's been a delay, we're on hand to help in any way we can!

Posted 1 year ago

“£9.95 for the bulb. £9.95 for postage very, very greedy and no warning what the postage would be until they your credit card details.”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 year ago

Hi, thank you so much for the feedback, and sorry to hear you weren't happy with the shipping price. Because of the fragile and normally expensive (on this occasion your order was not expensive, but it was a very fragile item) nature of the products we sell, we exclusively use an express tracked and insured carrier for our deliveries. Whilst this can make a few deliveries a little pricier, hopefully the peace of mind around your delivery makes it worth it. For any orders over £150 shipped to the UK mainland, we do offer this delivery service free of charge, and in response to your feedback we have now setup a free delivery coupon for customers who are signed up to our newsletter. Please feel free to use that coupon on your next order. Sorry to hear that the shipping price was not more obviously visible to you. We do have an option in the cart page to calculate shipping costs before proceeding to check out. Customers can select to pay from the cart or proceed directly to checkout where delivery details are entered and a delivery charge is then displayed on the payment screen. Because shipping varies by location, it is only once address info is entered that we can calulate the shipping. That being said, we are constantly looking for ways to improve our website and will take your comments on board to see if we can make the shipping pricing options more apparent. Thanks for your invaluable feedback, it is greatly appreciated, even if it is negative feedback on this occasion. The TFC Team

Posted 1 year ago

“8 days after my online order I still had not received any communication re order status. I rang the flash centre and the option for sales / enquiries put me through to an answerphone. I eventually managed to chase them up via online chat from their website. I received the order 12 days after it was placed, but honestly if I hadn't chased it up I think I'd still be waiting for it.”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 year ago

Hi, thank you so much for your honest feedback. Whilst it's never nice to see a negative review, we can only sincerely thank you for taking the time to bring this to our attention, as we will use this as a learning experience to perfect our customer service. Rest assured we will conduct a full investigation as to how your order slipped through the system and did not get delivered sooner. Your custom and support over the years is greatly appreciated, so we take the feedback very seriously. A member of our team will be in contact to apologise to you personally.

Posted 1 year ago

“Have not received my backdrop yet. It’s meant to be for a photo-shoot first thing tomorrow. Tried getting in touch with UPS no joy. Left emails and answering messages wit the flash centre no one has got back to me so all in all very disappointed!”

Helpful Report

Posted 2 years ago

Hi Alexandrea, I'm so sorry to hear you had a negative experience shopping at TFC. We always try to provide the best customer service possible, so although it's not nice to hear negative feedback, we always use it as an opportunity to improve. I've conducted a thorough investigation of your order. I can see that in part the delivery was delayed because the building name was missing from the delivery address you entered when placing your order, and that this confused the courier slightly. Regarding your unanswered email, I can see you contacted us late on a Friday and I believe you accidentally emailed our accounts department, not our sales email address. I can see that accounts forwarded the email to our sales team who replied around midday the following Monday. Apologies we did not come back to you sooner, but unfortunately we are not open on the weekends. Finally I can see a member of our team scheduled a new delivery of a second roll to come out to you on a pre midday service, to ensure you got it before your important job. Hopefully that has resolved everything to your satisfaction. I hope you can understand that we did everything in our power to resolve the issue for you as fast as possible, given the circumstances and timings. We really value your support, and sincerely hope you would consider ordering again from us in future. Sincere apologies once again, Mike

Posted 2 years ago

“Got defective item. No response from the seller.”

Helpful Report

Posted 2 years ago

Hi Vitalii, the last communication I can see from you was to let us know that the collection we had arranged for your faulty item was collected on the evening of Friday the 23rd December. Since then TFC has been closed for the Christmas break. We open again at 9am on Tuesday the 3rd January, and rest assured our customer service team will check on the status of the return first thing and action your refund / replacement (depending on which you chose) as a priority. Wishing you and yours a very Happy New Year! TFC

Posted 2 years ago

“The items didn’t arrive in time for the shoot. No explanation why dispatch was delayed so long.”

Helpful Report

Posted 2 years ago

Hi Bradley, thank you for the honest review. Whilst it is never nice to see negative customer feedback, it gives us an opportunity to assess what we're doing and improve our service for all our customers. The service you received is not to the standard a valued customer deserves, and is not in line with the very high standard we set for ourselves, so I can only apologise sincerely. We have conducted a thorough internal investigation to find out what went wrong, and ensure it doesn't happen again. I have reached out to you directly with some further details, please check your email inbox. Thanks and apologies again. Mike

Posted 2 years ago

Shipping & Delivery
Delivery Methods	Courier
Average Delivery Time	Next Day
On-time Delivery	Greater than 94%
Accurate And Undamaged Orders	99%
Customer Service
Communication Channels	Telephone, Email, Live Chat
Queries Resolved In	Under An Hour
Customer Service	5 out of 5

The Flash Centre Reviews