To think John Lewis are trying to have me over?

John Lewis customer service used to be brilliant, but it has been shit for a couple of years now.

They are really badly made. Even if you had somehow specified black thread, which they'd want to really double check on as it is extremely odd, it's done really badly. My old school sewing teacher would have made me unpick that if I'd done it and shown her.

It’s outsourced to Capita. Based in the north west. The staff are all very nice but nothing gets sorted.

It looks like they’ve stitched it using a tractor. No way would I accept that.

I know JL are supposed to be brilliant at dealing with problems, but I will no longer buy furniture from them after all of the problems we have had on more than one occasion.

That is appalling. I have very light coloured curtains with blackout lining and the stitching is near invisible.

Pack up the curtains and post to the CEO. Explain briefly the issue and your experience with customer services. Note you want the curtains remade to the appropriate standard and you would like a £100 gift voucher for your inconvenience.

My experience with them has been mixed. We purchased a lot of bedroom furniture from them 12 years ago. They managed to lose a whole dressing table and one of the bedside tables (which arrived ready made) wobbled from side to side. I can’t believe someone thought it was acceptable to dispatch something of such poor quality. It was an absolute nightmare getting them to agree for us to return the items and refund the money. I had to make multiple phone calls and kept having to repeat the details because they didn’t update and save their records properly.

I don't what is wrong with JL and why they don't sort their customer service out. I ordered some curtains and months later there was no sign of them, when I chased them up it turned out they hadn't gone through the system properly. So I (totally calmly and politely) cancelled the order, as I wasn't impressed and by then I had time to make some myself.

Instead of being understanding and apologetic, the person started arguing with me and saying as I had made the order I had to stick to it! No I don't! Surely basic customer service training/practice is you don't start giving people a hard time or lying to them when you have fucked up? I've heard many similar tales from others and it's shit. I really like JL and want to think of them as a lovely quality brand but they've been like this for years now.

Anyway as others say, you are not in the wrong OP!

Find the email of the chief executive of John Lewis and email them directly. Or phone head office and ask to speak to them. You won't get through but someone from their office will get on the case so that you don't have to get through to them with your complaint.

That looks terrible. I’ve had every window in my house fitted with curtains / blinds from Next m2m all with black out lining and none of them have this stitching. I agree with the other posters - post it all over their social media and threaten to go to trading standards. They will have cost a fortune - I would be livid

The black sticky hung is a mistake and they need to sort it out Asap. I'm surprised they haven't already they're usually really good

No part of those curtains should have involved getting black thread out of the box. I agree. No idea what it's doing there.

I've made pleat curtains. The black thread on the pleats is a literal mistake. No part of those curtains should have involved getting black thread out of the box. They should absolutely be returned for that. If they are tacking then they need to be carefully unpicked without damaging the fabric. I'm surprised they passed quality control and left the factory.

The pinpricks of black on the lining hem are the middle blackout layer slightly pulled by the needle, not the end of the world as they are on the back.
Likewise the visible stitching down the side of the lining looks like it was done by a hemstitching machine, it is not the end of the world - if they had been invisibly hand stitched your curtains would have been way more expensive. It's tidy and secure.

I would concentrate on the black stitching as that is an obvious mistake. The other things are just a feature of curtains made by machine. You completely need to get them replaced even if you have to take them into store and slap them down on the desk next to the sample.

These aren’t normal “pinch pleats” made form drawing up curtain header tape (pinch pleat tape). That doesn’t require any top stitching. God knows why they aren’t just using that method. These are folded pleats that have been stitched with this awful hosing top stitch construction. I assume the tape is then added after the folded pleats have been stitched. I’d certainly not buy curtains made like this- as much as anything you can never undo header and draw out pleats to wash the dust out that gatherers over time and iron really flat. These fixed pleats will be a bugger to iron if washed.

I think taking them back to the store you ordered them from is you best option. That black thread on the pleats would annoy me intensely, the finish - eg that lining in the corner - is not as good as I would expect for a very expensive product supposedly made by a professional curtain maker.

Interesting! I ordered mine in the shop and I remember clearly the woman saying this (she also queried my measurements as that particular window is an odd shape, but I thought that was also a good thing to double-check…)

So might you get a better response going into the curtain department and speaking to someone who knows what they are doing?!

And I'm glad you posted too, as have several pairs of curtains to buy...

Wow, that's really poor! Can you take a clearer picture 1, focusing on the thread a bit more? Maybe they're denying they can see a problem because it's a bit blurry.

Unfortunately I think going to store is your best bet but afterwards ask them to contribute to your travel costs.

I would post a link to this thread on their Twitter Account.

I had an issue recently with a kettle that failed after a few months, JL only sorted the problem when I took to social media. Even then they gave me the impression that they were doing it to get me off their backs rather than fulfilling their legal obligations.

That is black thread. I would cut a stitch and pull it out to make it obvious that it’s thread. They need re-doing.

I’ve used JL customer service a few times recently on the phone to sort a faulty order. It was JL staff, quick wait time and they sorted my issues quickly. Definitely phone them, it’s a British call handler and not outsourced. Sometimes a human is better in person than on email.

As I said, on the pleat top stitch it isn’t blackout liner showing- you’d just get small pin pricks where the needle enters and draws out at the start of each stitch….but the colour is showing all the way along the stitch..nope…that is dark thread. If they’re saying it’s the spec then they need to be asking why on earth you’d have a spec that has dark stitching in such stupid places- contrasting top stitch is used as decorative feature- thats butt ugly as it it doesn’t go whole way round, just small section…nope..if that’s design they need to sack designer.

I think if it is not a “mistake” it reads of cutting corners where they have a machinist doing all these types of pleats and not changing the thread to match the particular curtain fabric they’re working on - a one size fits all approach. You can sometimes get away with this by using shades of grey ….but at least they should be grouping light, mid and dark timed materials togther in batches and changing shades of thread. What they’re doing is save them money and time in terms of “changeovers”, over a full year that’d save a lot of money and time. But hells teeth it is just not acceptable or an adequate design feature.