paul-uk.com Reviews 

Absolutely terrible service. Received an incomplete order for my daughters birthday. The main element the candles missing. Paul's response, was that for us to order additional stuff and then they will send the candles. Did not want to take responsibility for their error? They wanted me to go and collect, which if I was physically able wouldn't paid a delivery charge. Completely shrugged off their responsibility and wasn't interested in rectifying the situation. No interest that they are ruining a family event. Extremely poor. Frankly less than 1 star.

I ordered the Macaron Fraisier cake for my husband's big birthday a few weeks ago. It looked stunning out of the box. However, it was dry and tasteless. I wanted to leave a review on the page but the Captcha displayed an error message "ERROR for site owner: Invalid site key" so I could not. I contacted customer service to asked them to put my review on the page, but because it was not a totally glowing review they declined to include it. To quote Giuseppina at customer services "At PAUL, we value all customer feedback and use it to improve our products and services. While we encourage customers to share their experiences, our website primarily displays positive feedback, and star ratings take into account all reviews, including internal feedback." Given I had bought on the strength of the now clearly misleading and incomplete reviews on their site, I asked for a refund. I was then told by Matthew this would have been possible within 24 hours of receiving the cake only and I was out of time. He said "Regarding your concern about how we share customer feedback, I want to reassure you that we take all feedback—both positive and negative—into account. While our overall star rating reflects all experiences, the specific comments displayed on our website serve as endorsements, highlighting positive experiences. This is a standard approach used across the industry. However, I apologise if this was unclear, as that was never our intention." I do not think it is standard, good or honourable practice to censor feedback and only display endorsements. I waited a few weeks for the Captcha error to resolve so I could try again but alas, it is still showing on the page. So it is effectively impossible for customers to leave reviews. I wonder where the positive reviews I saw before purchase came from. I seldom write negative reviews but I hope this helps someone who may be on the verge of ordering.

The Christmas cake I have ordered looked nothing like on the picture. I took a photo. It would be lovely to share it here, but there is no option. It was missing decorations from the top: all the candy canes and on a raspberry cake the chocolate macarons looked really ugly. I ordered in advanced. The mouse was not fresh. No one liked it. The cake box is much bigger than the cake. During the delivery my cake suffered damages. It is not something I would it in front of anyone at Christmas Day.

BUYER BEWARE. DON'T ORDER FOR CHRISTMAS - YOU PROBABLY WON'T GET ONE... I ordered a cake for Christmas over a week ago, to be collected at Tottenham Ct Rd location. On 17/12 I had an email advising that the order couldn't be fulfilled at that location and to choose another...ok...so I chose St Pancras Station. Today 18/12 I had another email advising that the order can't be fulfilled at that location either. I will cancel entirely now because I'm not prepared to traipse all over London 3 days before Christmas to collect a cake. The worst customer service ever...great, but entirely empty, advertising

Avoid the marylebone high street and all others at any cost. A staff member with Spanish ethics, who claimed to be a manager was utterly rude, sarcastic and refused to provide her ID or name , displaying unprofessional behavior and a total lack of ethics. This is a Breach of code of practice and ethics standards that all retails are duty bound to comply. Despite claiming it was company policy yet she was unable to provide the policy itself. This has been reported to the business trade association and local authorities. The store is an embarrassment to the high street and the French community. It's time now to go off our street Paul, and be replaced by another business, Over 85 % of reviews are appauled by your staff standards nothing has been done, this speak volume ! A vote of NO Confidence for CEO, Directors and Human resources they are the problem

Bad coffee and customer service, extremely expensive for the service provided, go somewhere else
People serving can't make proper coffee or actually serve

A group of us went to get a take-away in Paul at South Kensington. The staff got the order wrong on three items on the total order. We were too far away by the time we noticed, so when I returned to the area, I popped in to tell the staff. After making me repeat this three times, the woman told me I should have watched them as they made up the order … errrrr … what?!? I don’t accept that it’s my job to supervise Paul’s staff taking very simple orders! The staff were rude and unhelpful and I would be surprised if any of our party returned to Paul. Shame. It used to be a good place. I see by all the poor reviews that this isn’t unusual

Earls Court, 07/11/24, Had a coffee and croissant in this shop every morning for several years. Now it’s dreadful. The coffee is ditchwater, despite explaining to the girl that I wanted less water. And for the second time in a month I’ve walked out without drinking it. The last time a different girl told me the weak coffee was down to “the new rules”. Enough is enough, hence my review. The place is deserted, 3 people sat down in the first hour, the heating is off and it’s beyond freezing, the lights so dimmed to cut costs I can’t even read my newspaper. I suspect it’s only a matter of time before this chain files for bankruptcy, or goes down the PE funded pre-pack route. Next door is Greggs, with this morning a 24 person deep queue. No queue at Paul! And I only came in because I didn’t want to queue. Wish I hadn’t. Yesterday by coincidence I drank for the first time a Greggs coffee. It put Paul to shame. Real coffee at a fraction of the price. If any of the Paul board read this, try Greggs, Earls Court Road. Sad to see a once great shop like Paul failing. And btw, the idiotic London obsession of no longer taking cash. To those of us over 35 it’s an annoyance far greater than the board can imagine. So in summary, brown water masquerading as coffee, bitterly cold and pitch black. Oh, and the jugs of tap water have also gone. Asked last time for a glass of water. Got a stare that would have stopped Putin in his tracks, and then a paper cup thrust towards me. No wonder the chain is losing money hand over fist.

I only asked what time do you close, (yes many times I went to have coffee with my friend but I never noticed opening and closing times on the door).The female staff while she was serving an other customer chose to spend more time giving me the second degree about info on the door and how I should look at it than just giving me a straight answer there and then. As I was upset I left telling her that her customer service was 0 .Being very upset I decided to go back and speak to her manager to my chock she said she was the manager. So I was telling her I am one too and your HR is not doing a good job at selecting employees. I complained to Paul's on their website but have not received any acknowledgement since then. Where I work customer is considered a king.

Terrible rude customer service, will never purchase anything from here again.
Ordered shoes that were very small made, asked to return and the phone was put down on me by a very rude woman after paying £7.50 delivery and now another £7.50 for return. Now won't answer the phone regarding refund.
DO NOT SHOP HERE!

First time ever in PAUL (Bow Lane), and purchased a Chicken salad baguette sandwich for £5.55.

Absolute rubbish. A complete rip-off for the amount of chicken in it. The chicken was carefully positioned to sit on the edge of the baguette opening, to give the illusion of being full, but that's all it was, an illusion.

Why not make it properly by filling it and charge £6.55 or £7.55. I would have still bought it, not complained, and you'd and have repeat custom.

Now, you've lost me forever with this low-end sandwich bar nonsense.

I can't see the general public putting up with for much longer with inflationary costs and deflationary content.

I ordered a cake from Paul and the driver left it in the recycling bin. I couldn't find it and had to run out and buy another cake from Paul for the event (and the previous cake got soaked in the rain). When I contacted customer service, they were incredibly officious and sent me an officious point by point email for why they would not offer me a refund. The advisor, Matthew, even went as far as to say that just because the driver did not ring the doorbell, I should have been aware that someone was outside because Ring doorbells let users know of motion outside. I have to say, as a customer service, they have real commitment to being obstructive and punishing the customer. And I basically spent over £80 on a cake altogether. So, that's the last time I am shopping there. They were always my go-to for parties and BBQs - and reading some of the reviews here, and with my experience, I can see why they are universally reviled.

Terrible attitude and extremely rude employee who served me by the name of Sylvan at the Covent Garden branch. I’ve been going there on and off for years and have never had cause for complaint before. When I mentioned that he was being rude he laughed and said’merci’.

Terrible experience in hampstead branch london. Ordered chicken sandwiches and the bread was like stone. That's the most disgusting things I have eaten in hamstead . The bread at least was few days old . I invite their manager to go to that branch and try their Terrible sandwiches. Picture of the stone old disgusting sandwich available on request

We are very loyal customers of Paul and love the Marylebone branch. The king’s Road branch however has rude customer service, I was told “ if you listened” like I was a 5 year old, no froth on macchiato and when I complained she sullenly responded that she put milk in. Terrible!

Even no star.
They have a terrible customer service in the Kensington Area. I had one more similar bad experience in the same area last year.
We asked to clean a table as we would like to sit. After getting our order we asked to clean the table as it was still dirty and a member of the staff came with some tissues and asked me to clean their dirty table because she did not have time.I was speechless. Paul finished from my side.

Paul UK has gone downhill drastically, very little choice in-store for cakes and online orders they've got rid of some of the best French cakes. Very disappointing as they used to be the go to place in London for French cakes and pastries. The cakes now are just like crap English cakes nothing exciting at all.

Don't take cash!!!

Lost a sale, not everyone has a credit or debit card.

I thought cash was legal tender for goods...
.. Obviously don't need the sale🤣

The service provided by this establishment was utterly despicable, and the attitude of its manager and staff was completely disturbing. Not only did they fail to meet the ethical standards of the Code of trade business act, but they were also extremely rude and aggressive. The manager and staff member in question were unable to demonstrate proper and civilized manners when handling complaints, and the manager even attempted to cover up the attitudes of the staff. What was even more concerning was that the manager threatened to call the police when confronted with the issue. Such an attitude and lack of professionalism is simply unacceptable and needs to be addressed immediately: HR has serious questions to answer to qualify unskilled managers.
The so-called manager refused to provide me with the complaints procedure All companies are duty-bound to provide this is a clear Breach of the code of practice: I have now lodged a formal complaint to the trading standard and will inform not only the local authority but also the local MP.

Always rude staff at airports. Is there any special training in Paul bakeries to threat badly customers? We were waiting our sandwich and really surprised how badly staff in Orly airport spoke to all of us. The staff in Charles de Gaulle exactly equal few time ago.