Carplatesdirect Reviews 1,284

Complete idiots. DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY.

no one answers phone or replies to emails. Ordered plates last week ...still no delivery even after chasing but there again they use Evri which probably explains it all

Bought number plates Friday delivered on Monday morning. Very good service and communication. Would use again no hesitation

Ordered Monday midday - paid £10 the top delivery option. Website clearly states SAME DAY DESPATCH. Wasn't despatched till Wed afternoon. No reason given, no comms at all! Poor customer service follow up as they were not interested trying to resolve. Had to visit Halfords on Wed evening to buy elsewhere for daughters birthday. Company hasn't even offered an appology just copy / pasted small print saying same day despatch not guaranteed. Still ongoing as they do not answer 5 emails later. Wish I had read the reviews here first! Lots of people having problems with this company.

Excellent service,ordered new plates was delivered with in a couple of days,and a nice little note of thanks too,nice touch!

Useless company. I paid for the prority 2-3 day delivery service. They use Evri that are hopeless. I gave them the opportunity to refund the delivery charge but no response so I canclled the order and made it clear if the plates do arrive it is their responsibility not mine. Paypal have refunded me the money so quite frankly do not care.

Ordered my plates on Sunday so I did not expect the order to be picked up until Monday. However. 3 days have passed and I have not been informed that my plates have been dispatched. I have tried contacting them and I do not get a response. Im unhappy as it says same day dispatch 1st class. Im now stuck unable to ride my bike until the plates turn up as everything has been transferred through the DVLA and insurance.
Im now having to order more plates through another company as I need my bike to get to work. Very unhappy. Just a response to my questions would have prevented this review.

They do not send the same day before 5pm! If you are needing plates the next day, don't buy from them and waste your money on express delivery. Their website reviews are misleading and have now made me miss days of work and not get paid because being unable to legally drive my car. Their "live chat" is just a bot and not a bright one at that. Sending emails but like other reviews on here, doubt I'll have any personal response. Luckily have purchased through PayPal.

Update - Thursday 22nd Jan '26:
Got a generic email full of enojis (unprofessional) about dispatch time frames and they said they do not dispatch the same working day before 5pm! They said any express deliveries have to be done by 2pm (although not stated on website) and they then said they can't guarantee same day dispatch. They said that their website doesn't state or offer same day dispatch (I have screenshots of their website stating they do with a countdown at the top of the screen). Do not buy from this site if you are needing the plates within 24 hours.

Non delivery of Plates and non refund of Purchase price
Initially Car Plates Directs website appeared efficient and the order was easily placed. The goods were despatched via Evri. The next day delivery was crucial as the new plates had been allocated by DVLA and the vehicles could not be used until they arrived. After much chasing , the plates have still not arrived a month later. car Plates have gone completely silent now that I have requested a refund re non delivery of the plates.
There is no company registration no or registered address shown on their website and companies House do not have a record of a company of that name, making it difficult to pin them down for enforcement action on recovery of their debt.

I have ordered the shorter plate for rear, but they sent normal size. Order was correct as there was a paper with my order details, clearly stated short plate for rear. It was also alligned to the left with plenty of empty space left to the right, being less charachter than standard. I have sent their sales team an email with picture 6 days ago but no response. I understand its holidays but its been a few working days since.

I purchased a bike number plate on the 7th of December 2025 for my partner’s birthday / Christmas. I have sent 3 emails to the company with no response, I have also tried tracking my parcel with the tracking code the chat bot has given me with no luck. It’s been a month since my purchase and still no parcel. To say I’m disappointed is an understatement, you cant get hold of the company at all. I just want my bike number plate

Placed an order, money taken via PayPal, no email confirmation.
Used website tracker to see where my order is and its not recognising order number or my email address. Luckily I took screenshot, have emailed with all evidence and no reply to when order will be delivered or where my email invoice is?

Edit…
Have emailed now multiple times and still no response, still no trace of email or order number, have requested money refund, bit still nothing…
Poor communication

Raised no reply to PayPal and now fully refunded.

Ordered plates same day dispatch but day 3 and EVRI saying they dont have them . Paid the extra for express delivery. Contacted customer services feels like an AI response and no idea where the plates are

Really poor

Dreadful! Never use this company they will screw you.

Ordered what I thought to be ordinary road legal replacement number plates for my wife's car through this company's website and received illegal 'show plates' instead without the necessary postcode and British Standard number. Nothing was mentioned about 'show plates' on the order confirmation email from the company - if they had done so, I would have cancelled the order immediately. £50 down the drain, buyer beware.

AVOID THIS SELLER

Car Plates Direct supplied number plates that were not road legal, missing all mandatory DVLA markings (BS AU 145e, supplier name and postcode). These plates cannot be used on any UK vehicle.

Their website defaults to a “Custom Plate” option which gives the impression of a normal number plate configuration, yet quietly produces non-legal plates with no clear warning during the order process. This is a misleading design choice that would catch out any customer expecting a standard, legal plate.

When I raised the issue, the company provided a single dismissive response and then stopped replying entirely. No resolution, no explanation, no willingness to put things right.

I'm now having to recover the payment through my credit card provider and report the matter to Trading Standards.

The product was unusable, the communication was unprofessional, and the lack of responsibility is unacceptable.

*UPDATE*: No response. No help. No surprise. This company vanishes the moment there’s a problem.

*UPDATE*: Update: Still nothing from them. Ignored since the 2nd. At this point I’m convinced they only reply when money is coming in, not when there’s an issue.

Update: Another day, still nothing. Not even a “we’ll look into it.” If this is how they treat customers, I dread to think how they run the rest of the business.

Update: No response since 2 Dec. Says everything you need to know.

Update:
1★ – Utterly useless once they’ve got your money
Ordered plates. Got non-legal rubbish I can’t even use.
Pointed it out. They replied once, then vanished completely.
Website quietly defaults to “custom” (apparently meaning “illegal”) with no proper warning. Feels deliberately misleading.

I've reported them to trading standards and will get my money back from credit card but for anyone else there are plenty of companies sell plates without this nonsense — this isn’t one of them.

AVOID unless you enjoy wasting time.

REPLY:
Hi,
Your system DOES NOT automatically default to road legal at all and you know it, that is a blatant lie and I have several screenshots as examples.
This is exactly the issue. The option selected was “Custom Plates”, not “Show Plates”.
At no point does “Custom Plates” clearly state that the plates will be illegal for road use, nor is there any explicit warning during checkout or in the order confirmation that selecting this option results in non-compliant plates.
“Custom” does not reasonably mean “not road legal” it is misleading.
The plates supplied are therefore not fit for purpose and not as described.
Please confirm whether you will issue a refund.

Reply 2:
Hi,
You’re still missing the key issue.
Your builder defaults to “Custom Plates”. I did not actively choose “show plates” — that option was already selected by default. At no point was it made clear that the default selection would result in plates that are illegal for road use.

If adding a slogan automatically makes the plates non-legal, that must be explicitly and unavoidably stated at the point of entry. It was not.

A default option that produces non-road-legal plates, without a clear warning, is misleading. The plates supplied are therefore not fit for purpose and not as described.
Provide a refund and update your process.
Read the reviews on here and you can clearly see it's not fit for purpose and you are misleading customers.

Reply3.
Hi,
I have checked the website.
It now defaults to Legal Plates, however this was not the case at the time of my order or on the picture and video evidence I provided to trading standards. The builder defaulted to Custom Plates throughout the process.
The fact this has since been updated confirms the original default was problematic.
My order was placed under the previous setup, where the default option produced non-road-legal plates without clear warning. The plates supplied remain not fit for purpose and not as described at the time of purchase.

Please process the full refund.

Update:
Funny how the website now defaults to “legal plates”. Shame it didn’t when I ordered. Still no refund.

Excellent . Quick delivery and quality plates. Would highly recommend.

I placed circa. 3/11/25 and as yet I still have to receive my plates. Order #2187814

I have sent numerous emails without response

Absolutely shocking customer service orded over a week ago and still not received them after paying for expenses delivery AVOID

Not very successful with this one. Plates were ordered 2 November. The first delivery seemed to have disappeared. The second order was promised with express delivery. Still no show. Apparently the delivery driver could not find my address ! That a new one considering the amount of shoes my wife orders online ! I cannot find a tel. no. for Car Plates direct... Is this a Scam ? .