Minerva Opiniones 1099

I almost didn't order from here because negative reviews regarding despatch and website problems have reduced Minerva's ratings. I'm glad I went ahead and had to come back here to leave an honest review of my experience.

The fabric and trims I ordered were exactly as pictured, and beautiful quality. Plus, the samples I ordered were a good size to check suitability for future orders.

I had no problems with the website or my order so if there were problems in the past, they appear to have been resolved by Minerva.

With regard to shipping, I love that they provide free shipping over £25 and the standard £1.99 is a fair rate. It took 3 business days to process my order (including the day I placed my order and the day they shipped) and Royal Mail took a further 2 business days (as the service states).

I think 5 business days is perfectly reasonable for cheap or free shipping and some of the negativity is due to people expecting an Amazon-style next-day service without realising the huge fees that are buried in the price of the goods to cover those processing and delivery costs.

I'll be coming back to Minerva again and again: a wealth of choice, great prices, fair shipping rates, and good quality fabric. What more can you ask for?

Things started off great with my first order, arrived quickly and as expected. However I have been waiting now for a week for two orders having only just today received notification they have been dispatched, however one of them, upon tracking, hasn’t yet been received by Royal Mail, “we are expecting it” is the message. I may be wrong but I’m guessing that much of their stock is with a third party company, this would explain the terrible delays, if and when I get these two parcels it will have been at least ten days delivery. Additionally the website is the worst I have ever come across, so so slow and crashes all the time. I will not be using Minerva again which is a shame

I've bought fabrics from Minerva for several years. In the last few years the company has produced it's own designs of fabrics, from bold and bright to as subtle as you like. My choice is bold and bright and I've been really encouraged by the kind compliments I get about my home made clothes, even from complete strangers. The prints come in every type of fabric you could wish for. If it's great choice of unique designs and looks you're after, I can't recommend Minerva highly enough. Kate Bridges

A good price for the pattern I wanted, but had I known it was going to take six days just to dispatch it I probably would’ve gone to somewhere a bit quicker.

I placed an order on the 9th October. As of 15th it still hasn't been despatched. I had to contact Minerva for an update. Surely they could be more pro active in informing their customers of any delay? They could not tell me when my order would be despatched, just that I'd get an email. I make a lot of craft products for charity and need a reliable source. Unfortunately my first experience with this company will be my last.

Great choice but dreadfully slow website and dispatch time. I have already waited well over a week for my orders to be dispatched. Poor service.

I’ve placed many orders with Minerva and have only had excellent service. Every order has arrived in good time and in perfect condition.

They've always been fairly slow with sending orders, But recently have been even worse. I don't know if they're still trying to catch up from when their website went down or simply don't have enough staff to keep up with the demand, but orders are taking over a week to even be dispatched. Three times now I have been told by their customer service team that something would be dispatched by the end of the day and it fail to happen. Please at least just be honest with your customers and give a realistic timeframe. It just causes uneeded stress when I am trying to run a small business and fulfill my own customer orders.

The do have a great selection, and reasonable prices for most of their stock, but I think I will be going elsewhere from now on.

The positives are that they have a very wide product range that is very well presented on the website. I particularly like the videos that show the properties of each fabric. However, the new website is beyond awful - so many glitches and dreadful slow performance. Worse though is their painfully slow fulfilment time for orders and associated lack of communication. I keep giving them another chance simply because of their product range but sadly I think that the order that I’ve currently been waiting for a week for, and it still hasn’t been dispatched, will be my last.

Some years ago, shortly after brexit, I wrote a review stating that minerva do not take the vat off the fabric coming to the eu which they should do . Now, several years on, they are still doing the same. I know if no other company doing this. This means you pay vat twice as you have to pay vat and import charge in spain which means my £33.98 order had a charge of €16.36 on it! Malpractice on part of minerva

So many fabrics to choose from, and the most extensive range of patterns from both independent and big 4 pattern companies. All dispatched quickly! I particularly like the ‘filter’ function so I can find what I’m looking for. I also love that this is a family run business.

First things first, one of four fabrics I ordered recently was no longer available; I quickly received an email asking if I would like a different fabric or a refund before my order was sent out. I requested a replacement fabric (which I was easily able to find on the website, although I did have reservations about whether the colours would be compatible with the other fabric I had ordered to combine into one dress) and I received my complete order the following day.
When I opened the parcel up, I couldn't believe my eyes; both pairs of fabrics were a perfect match colourwise to produce one dress each! I still can't believe just how accurate the colours come up on the website, but I certainly won't be worried in the future when combining two very different fabrics to make one dress and will have no hesitation in choosing colours simply by looking online. This has been a fantastic experience for me, having not been an "active" sewist for some years now and being somewhat nervous about re-entering the whole sewing world!

My wife took up sewing a few years ago and it's only recently she's subjected me to wearing her projects! I must say the three short sleeved shirts she's made for me are fantastic. I could not have bought anything from a shop in better fabric. She now lets me choose my own. We both rate Minerva for their excellent choice of fabrics, for men and women. Their advice and customer service is also excellent. I wonder what I'll choose next! John Bridges

I bought some metallic fabric for a project.
Unfortunately, I had started cutting it when I noticed a large colour flaw through the centre of the fabric where it had been folded when packed. It is therefore unusable.
I was offered 10% off my next project- what a joke and complete waste of time and money !
it might also be useful if your staff checked the quality of the fabric when cutting it , not much quality control going on here.

After the bad service now a bad product. I don’t believe this is above 150gsm the fabric is so thin. This is the second time this has happened, and the previous was over the summer because I asked for some denim for my birthday and it was awkward to return it as a gift.

They mentioned they had been hacked - I think they need to close temporarily and check their stock. Hoping for a full refund and I hope they reach out to my mother and refund her too.

***They have offered a full refund and I can return the fabric , as it was end of roll.

Unfortunately had the same experience as most recent poster - ordered two lots of fabric and had to chase status of my order as wasn’t send a confirmation (apparently an error on the website). Very slow process and then told weeks later that neither of my fabrics could be delivered in one continuous strip, but rather in much smaller pieces (1.30m max). Requested a refund and still no response two days later.

I placed an order for fabric on 19 Aug. The order was for a piece of 1.5m of fabric, not exactly long. On 27 Aug I got an email that “the order has been sent to the warehouse for processing” and that the parcel will be sent on Royal Mail 48 tracked.
However, on 30 Aug (Friday 15:40), I got an email asking me to choose between getting the fabric as two pieces, 1x0.8m and 1x0.7m (basically leftovers) or cancel and get a refund.
The issue with this fabric affected the other fabric in might order as well, as it was not posted either. Obviously they couldn’t honour the order I paid for in good faith and instead of just sending me the other fabric as it was ready, they kept it back so as not to pay for additional postage, even though it was the company’s fault the issue arose in the first place.
Why would a company STILL actively sell fabric that they are fully aware is not in stock? (see update below) Then take their time to inform the customer? I paid for the order almost 2 weeks ago. Very unprofessional and bad customer service. Working in this field, similar issues have happened to me but other companies recognised it was a human / system error and did their best to sort it out quickly and bearing in mind that it was their fault, focusing on customer satisfaction or indeed the simple idea that honouring a contract is a sign of professionalism and reliability. I never had to wait for other items held back because of an issue with one particular item in my order. It might have saved minerva 1 postage and the hassle to source my fabric from somewhere else but it has lost them a customer who had been willing to put up with shoddy packaging and long delivery times. Not anymore. I’d rather pay more at competitors but I value their reliability and willingness to go the extra mile to sort out their mistakes.

Update: on the day of writing this review, the fabric that was not available in one continuous piece of 1.5m is STILL being sold as 2m in stock remaining, no mention of length restrictions. BUYERS BEWARE

This is the 2nd pattern I have ordered as both times it only took 2 days to arrive. Very quick and efficient. Very impressed with Minerva

Minerva sent me completely the wrong fabric. I emailed them the “evidence” they wanted to prove this. I explained to Gemma in Sales that I needed the replacement fabric ASAP, as I was making something for my upcoming holiday. Minerva were unwilling to make any effort to help me with the predicament they had put me in, saying I would have to return the fabric for a full refund and start the ordering process from scratch again. Even though I suggested a replacement fabric of comparable price and quality, they were unwilling to make any effort whatsoever to get this quickly sent to me, whilst I returned the incorrect fabric. I feel Minerva have shown a lazy and unsympathetic approach in finding a solution to the problem they created. They only seemed content in blaming their supplier and their customer care has been appalling.

Lovely range of materials at reasonable prices, but the packaging is shocking. Sateen fabric directly put in the postage bag, arrived quite frayed. Bias tapes rammed into a plastic bag, not rolled/folded like every other retailer I’ve ordered from. Was quite surprised when I opened the package.