Cooksongold Reviews 164

I am extremely disappointed with the scrap metal refining service.
The entire process took three and a half weeks, compared to the 5–7 working days stated on the website. I did not receive any confirmation that my scrap silver had been received. After one and a half weeks, I contacted customer service and was told it could take 3–4 weeks, but no proactive communication was provided at any stage.
In the fourth week, following a data verification email, a payment simply appeared in my account. However, no settlement statement, breakdown, or invoice was sent. I have no information about the final processed weight, the assessed purity, the silver price applied, or the refining charges deducted.
As a business owner, this lack of transparency is unacceptable. The experience felt informal and unprofessional, which is surprising given that I have been purchasing materials from Cookson Gold for years and have not experienced this level of service before.
A 10% bonus was advertised for first-time refining customers, yet without a detailed breakdown, I have no way of knowing whether this was applied.
Overall, this process lacked transparency, communication, and professionalism.

Tried to order on line. So complicated I gave up. All I wanted was 2 packs of silver clay for my wife. I suggest you use someone else with an easier website

Cookson is an excellent one-stop supplier for both bench and retail jewellers, especially those starting out. Their student discount (10% off) is a genuinely useful bonus.

Delivery is consistently fast and reliable, I’ve never had an issue. They stock well-known, trusted brands, so quality is assured when buying from an authorised retailer. In particular, their Durston rolling mills, ingots, and Busch burrs are excellent, and they also carry a solid range of GRS tools.

I’d highly recommend visiting the Birmingham showroom, where a wide selection of Durston equipment and other essentials are on display. The trade counter staff are always friendly, knowledgeable, and happy to help.

They’re especially strong on everyday essentials like silver findings, round annealed wire, solder, and casting grain. Everything I’ve ordered so far has been spot on.

Another standout feature is their range of newer and experimental equipment, including laser welders, engraving machines, and some interesting modern setter’s tools.

Overall, a very reliable supplier with a great product range and excellent service. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

We bought 14 aprons which are Cooksongold own brand, within 2-3 months the aprons in use have fallen apart. The fabric for ties came away from apron, ripping the leather. Extremely poor quality. I sent photos to the company who asked for videos to send their supplier? Even though they are Cookson's own brand...

Struggled to get any clear communication from them in regards to replacing aprons. Had to chase by phone number of times. They refused to send a 'like for like' apron of a different brand as gesture of goodwill.

Really shocked as we spend lots of money and business with Cooksongold but were not treated well during this complaint. Impossible to get a response and expected to do the leg work when they sold not fit for purpose aprons.

Very dissapointed.

Heavy Duty Genuine Suede Leather Apron With Four Pockets And Waist Tie
Item No: 999 8016

They offer free postage over £50 order, so you put in order, say £75, one item is not available at that time, so you’ve to pay £4 - £5 to get that delivered later, think the postage should be free under these circumstances

Amazing they went above and beyond for me could not recommend this company enough

I have been a loyal Cookson Gold customer for two years, usually buying in person. This was my first high-value online order, and it has been the most stressful customer experience I’ve ever had.

A 50kg jeweller’s bench was delivered by a single courier, despite the weight and despite me explaining that I have fibromyalgia, arthritis, and autism. I live on a first-floor flat. I felt forced to help him carry the extremely heavy parcel upstairs. It was unsafe for both of us — if I had lost my grip, the item could have severely injured him. This should never happen under basic manual-handling or lone-worker guidelines.

When I finally opened the box, the bench was cracked.

From there, everything became chaos:

Nine phone calls in one day

Delivery notices given with almost no warning

Repeatedly ignored instructions about which days/times I am available

Missed delivery on Friday (after I rearranged therapy specifically for it)

A giant damaged 50kg parcel sitting in the middle of my small flat, disrupting my routine and causing sensory overload

Multiple NHS appointments disrupted

TNT then emailed to say delivery would come Monday — when I had explicitly said I am not available

Replacement and collection both scheduled for today, yet DHL arrived alone again, unable to collect the faulty 50kg item

Cookson now say the replacement may not arrive today either

My autism means constant changes, uncertainty, and repeated communication are extremely distressing. I have explained this repeatedly, yet no reasonable adjustments were made.

The entire experience has affected my mental and physical wellbeing, added avoidable stress to my medical routine, and shown a serious lack of safe delivery practices. I’ve received no meaningful support, no proactive help, and no goodwill gesture of any kind.

After years of loyalty, I am deeply disappointed. I cannot recommend Cookson Gold based on this experience.

Was initially put off from buying because of the poor reviews I had read. But my personal experience was very smooth.

As soon as the order was placed I received clear email confirmation. The items arrived at incredible speed exactly when they said it would. Items were packaged perfectly and arrived in excellent condition.

It’s a shame that others had such a bad experience but perhaps the company has changed ownership and improved since then.

I will definitely order from here again.

Unbelievably unsustainable company. Zero thought for the environment. Use ridiculous amounts of plastic packagaing. Send unsolicited marketing pamphlets through my door. Wasteful.

Cookson Gold - Sales & Marketing excellent...... After Sales Support absolute rubbish!
Have been trying for the past four days to ask for advise and the response... awful!!!!!

Oh my gosh. After placing an order for a simple clasp and length of silk - what a complicated runaround in order to pay. Twice I put in my details only to be told they needed the security number from my card (naturally) but there was no where to enter this. Had to start again and - voila - the box for this appeared. Then there were the security OTP numbers - back and forth several times. I realise this company is dealing with high end jewellery findings but, my goodness, they're not selling the Crown Jewels.
Should I need to order from them again, am hoping for a smoother transaction.

TERRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE.
Cooksons could not give a toss about good customer service or doing the right thing. They only want to take your money.

We ordered a large parcel on Saturday to be delivered 48 hour tracked. One of the items in this order was URGENT for the following Friday, so we gave ourselves 6 days, (5 working days) in order to receive this parcel. Ample time considering it was supposed to be 48 hour tracked and therefore arriving on Wednesday, 2 days before the item was needed for the customer.

We spoke to many of the sales representatives who all advised that their managers were in a meeting and therefore could not resolve the issue.

The parcel is actually missing via London and the goods won't be received on time, despite being 48 hour tracked. Now, our choices are as follows; let our customer down and our reputation is ruined (our reputation is everything, being in our first and most important year of business).
Drive to a closer retailers and spend £40 retail price for a silver chain despite being in the trade and knowing the cost price for this item.
Or, drive to Cooksons gold Birmingham store in order to collect a new chain ourselves. As a small independent jewellers of only 2 staff, we cannot close the shop in order to make a 2 hour round trip to collect a new chain and Cooksons certainly did not seem to understand the urgency in our problem, nor did they seem to care about the cost incurred from our loss of income in closing the shop, the cost of fuel, the cost for the congestion charge/clean air zone charge and parking.

Cooksons' resolution was to let them chase up royal mail and see why our parcel is missing. ALL THE WHILE OUR PARCEL IS EVEN MORE DELAYED.
It is Cooksons that are totally missing the point. The goods they have supplied which were meant to be arriving with guaranteed, tracked 48 hour delivery have not arrived, but they have still taken our money. That is theft.
Our items are urgent and we still have not received them, nor do we have a clear timeframe on when they are likely to arrive, even asking for a second payment when we asked them to send out a repeat order so we are not waiting any longer for the goods we paid to have delivered within a guaranteed 48 hour period.

I ordered some seed beads (used for jewellery making or crafting). The pictures/colours on the website were really accurate. Great value for money and they arrived the next day. Fantastic service.

They have now sent me 3 items that were not correct. You can not rely on them to send the correct items or correct lengths of gold in time. Useless.

Ordered over £140 worth of products and tools, turned up stained, poor quality items so decided to return once attempted to use with no satisfaction. Returned all of the tools which made up the majority of the cost to be refunded £43. Absolutely disgusting and no one is returning my emails since. Complete con artists of a company

Third order with them and very satisfied. Packaged very well and the prices are more than fair.

You have a loyal customer with me.

Our experience with Cooksongold has been extremely negative. With every order, problems have arisen – delays, errors, missing products, and above all, a lack of communication and responsibility from the company.

Despite numerous complaints, the situation has not improved. Instead of solutions, we received vague responses and attempts to shift the blame onto the customer. Andrea Halford, in particular, left a very unprofessional impression – instead of addressing our concerns directly, she repeated general statements, ignored key facts, and seemed more interested in closing the issue than resolving it. She even claimed to have contacted us by phone, which never happened – this appeared as an attempt to manipulate the situation.

The company offers no compensation or improvement plan. This approach clearly shows how little they value loyal customers.

In today’s challenging market, where maintaining customer loyalty is crucial, such an attitude is unacceptable. There are other companies that know how to handle problems and treat clients with respect. Unfortunately, Cooksongold is not one of them.

My experience with the Scrap department was disappointing. Selling sterling silver for scrap was not a problem but I do not recommend bringing gold here for scrap. You will get much more for gold by selling it to a reputable jeweler. Also they melt it before you know what you will be paid so once you give it to them, it's gone, and you just wait to see what you'll be paid. Take pictures of everything you give them. Weigh your silver/gold at home and take a picture of that also (ie, the scale showing the weight of the items). When they give you a receipt for your scrap, insist that the receipt shows the weight of the silver and the weight gold (if you are leaving both) separately. If you think the final pay-out is wrong, you'll need to have good evidence of what you left with them. They claim to take photos at each step in the transaction but they don't (or else are not willing to share them). I learned a very difficult lesson in this process.

I bought the Durston ring bender for £275 6 months ago and in this time I've had 1 die break which was covered under the warranty. 2 months later another piece breaks using the exact same metals but somehow this isn't covered under the 1 year warranty and although the listing clearly states this bender can be used for metals up to 2mm according to cookson gold it shouldn't be used for hard metals over 1.5mm yet no where in the manuals or listing does it state this so they're making up nonsense in order not to honour the warranty.

I've already started gathering all of the correspondence between me and cookson gold and I'll be taking legal action over this.

Companies like this really boil my blood. The only reason I bought this overpriced bender was because of the warranty but no...it doesn't mean a thing and what a disgraceful company.

Avoid!

Update**

A representative of Durston contacted me directly after seeing my review and organised a replacement part that was sent out within 24 hours of them making contact!

Absolutely fantastic and the complete opposite to Cookson gold and their awful response.

For all Durston warranties contact Durston directly and bypass this useless company.

I have bought many many times from this company. In the start I had lots of questions and they couldn't have been more helpful. They actually helped me save money by buying wisely. The products are exactly as described and there is a huge selection to choose from, from budget items through to high end ones.

I can't understand the bad reviews of this company, I can only assume people haven't read the descriptions of the products properly. There is nothing misleading and if you have any questions regarding the items on the website the customer service is truly excellent.

I myself will definitely be continuing to use their services in the future.