Rathwood second only to Ryanair for consumer complaints in 2025
Thomas and James Keogh of the Rathwood home and garden furniture business
RATHWOOD Home and Garden World was the second most complained about company in Ireland last year, according to a new report from the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC).
The report states that the consumer watchdog received 565 complaints about the company in 2025, compared with just 24 complaints the previous year. Ryanair was the only other company in Ireland that received more complaints, with 593.
The report comes as the CCPC announced on 10 April that Rathwood recently signed legally binding commitments to comply with consumer protection law by refunding customers.
Based just outside Tullow, Rathwood is a family-run retail outlet that has been selling home and garden furniture since 1994 and also operates popular seasonal events such as The Rathwood Christmas experience.
Rathwood’s problems first came to the attention of the public in August 2025 when managing director James Keogh issued an apology to customers who had been experiencing long delays in receiving orders and had received no updates from the company.
In his apology in August, Mr Keogh said one of Rathwood’s key suppliers had suddenly gone into administration, which, in turn, had a knock-on effect on their ability to fulfil orders.
Mr Keogh also mentioned in the apology that Rathwood had expanded its customer support team and had secured new funding and established more secure supply chains to alleviate the issues.
However, in November 2025, published an article outlining that customers were still experiencing problems with the company.
received numerous emails from people who had purchased items from Rathwood but had not received their order nor been contacted with an update.
In January, Dr Ashish Varma from Galway notified about his experience in getting a refund from Rathwood for an order of fire logs.
“I bought fire logs from them in their ‘black Friday’ sale on 30 November 30th for a price of €375 and was given a delivery date of 8 December, which I was happy enough with. But then the date started changing,” Dr Varma explained.
Dr Varma said the delivery date on his order status went from 8 December to 17 December before eventually being given a “shipping date” of 25 December, which led him to cancel his order.
Dr Varma requested a refund from Rathwood, which he was told would be issued within seven days. However, it was well over a month before he received any correspondence from Rathwood, which arrived following an email he sent informing the company that he was reporting his experience to the gardaí and the media.
A full refund was subsequently issued to him.
A spokesperson for Rathwood issued the following statement to : “In 2025, we lost our main supplier of uniquely designed garden furniture and have since rebuilt our supply chain, creating a stronger and more reliable system for the future.
“Last year, we provided over 9,000 complimentary tickets and financial vouchers—including for our Santa train event—as a gesture of appreciation and to help rebuild trust.
“For over 30 years, our family business has been built on trust and shared family memories. We acknowledge we fell short and are fully committed to restoring that trust."
