To never buy anything from John Lewis ever again?

JL was my go-to store until I visited with the intention of purchasing a duvet. As I reached for a box which was stored close to floor level, a couple walked past with two dogs. Why do JL imagine that their customers would want to buy anything that may have been contaminated by an animal? I abandoned my purchase and hotfooted it down to Dunelm - my choice for bedding ever since.

I don’t bother with JL these days, there are plenty of retailers which have more respect for their customers.

Terrible customer service on a broken air conditioning unit. Fobbed me off on the manufacturer and obviously couldn’t care less.

There is a nice JL walking distance from me - I will happily shop there for things I can pick up off the shelf but I will never again buy electrical goods or anything that needs delivery.

Never had a problem with their customer service (although it can be a bit.. dithery) but I wouldn't buy any JL-branded items again, the quality is very poor. We had a suitcase and a wheel just fell off, managed to get a refund but did have to jump through some hoops to prove it hadn't been damaged - it hadn't even been used!

I had a poor experience recently, but on a smaller scale as it was just a top. They kept sending me the wrong item and not telling me how I could return it. If John Lewis is no longer providing decent customer service, we may all as well give up now. I really hope someone senior there is reading Mumsnet. It’s depressing.

Ten years ago, when we moved to this house, we bought several items from JL. The staff were helpful and knowledgeable. A few years ago, DH wanted information about a particular set of saucepans. The kitchen department was like the Marie Celeste and no one anywhere in the store could advise.

Recently, we wanted to compare tablets. The technology department didn’t have a single member of staff, apart from one man from a TV brand, who only knew about his brand of TV.

They have been going rapidly downhill, we use AO for appliances now. Not sure if they still gurantee to be the cheapest anymore either so that coupled with average customer service means their is no usp for them anymore.

16 years ago they screwed up delivery of a new dishwasher so many times I eventually got the entire thing for free (paid £30 for fitting) so I am on the fence purely because they acknowledged how shit the service was and I have loved my free dishwasher ever since. Don’t know if they’d do that today but always worth a try.

Bought a kettle from JL - ordered online. Within 3 weeks it was leaking - went online, and could see that there were loads of negative reviews for exactly the same issue. Asked for a refund - they were insisting I return to a store - despite the fact I had ordered online. 48mile round trip. After days of emails, I eventually found the CEO email and sent the email with video of the leak. 10mins later - refund and apology.
Then I found out about the removal of female changing rooms - so 100% never buying anything from JL again.

Write to the CEO quoting the consumer rights act.

I still think they are really good! Shame others have had bad experiences

Bugger that, your contract of sale would be with JL.
Nobody wants to help when things go wrong.

Their customer service is dreadful. It took weeks and turning to Twitter to get it resolved when an Item had not been delivered.

By contrast, at the same time a delivery problem from Venum Europe was solved quickly and easily by a chap in their customer services, inn France

I've also stopped using them after they delivered a replacement fridge freezer, damaged the floor in the process and then denied that they had damaged the floor. Luckily the CCTV in the kitchen sorted this issue out. The whole kitchen replacement process was appalling. I am also disgusted by their stance on women and trans related issues. I was a totally loyal customer for years and they have lost my custom entirely. No intention to go back to them shopping for anything until there is an entire change (hopefully with the new CEO)

Sharon White should have stepped down long ago. She was a very poor appointment.

I had brilliant experience with them.
I ordered a baby monitor which gave up working just before the JL guarantee expired (I think it may have been 1 year with the manufacturer then a second year with JL). They asked me to take it to our nearest Waitrose a day or two after I contacted them to exchange it for a new one they had sent out

They will be. The current CEO Ms White is leaving soon and they have chosen someone else with retail experience when she leaves.

I think it may be a bit of cutting your nose off to spite your face @Grrrrrrrrr8 to insist you'd never buy from a shop again, especially a store like JL that sells all sorts.

Even if I had an issue with one item, it wouldn't stop me buying something again, like a jumper or make up.

It's very unusual if no one ever has an issue with any store or supplier.

They were very good to me when I returned an item after the 30 days. It was unworn and (shoes) I decided were too uncomfortable. All the stickers were on the shoes and they were still for sale in the dept. I did have to plead a bit, but they gave me a credit in vouchers which was fine.

I had a bad experience trying to replace a broken wall light. My builder had broken it and was paying for it but it still took months to sort out. I don't know if I would boycott them completely, I'm just a bit more careful about what I order. Almost ordered some wardrobes but went with IKEA instead, who are brilliant.

I found AO to be really good. I had to reschedule deliveries on multiple occasions because by builders weren't there to receive goods when they were supposed to be, and they were nothing but helpful and didn't charge me extra.

Amazon are pretty good too, but I've never had to return a large item.

They are not as good as the recent past in my experience.

Against my better judgement, I just bought something quite expensive online from JL, because nowhere else sold it. It arrived in two days, perfectly packed…just like the old days .

The new chief executive and chairman are both experienced retailers, so I hope they can undo the damage done by the pair of clowns who have been ‘running it! ‘ for the last five years.

Same as @LittleMissViper I stopped shopping in both John Lewis and Waitrose after this. They need to get back to their jobs - selling products and offering proper customer services. These are the basics of retail. Not promotion of seriously questionable 'agendas'.

I had an horrendous experience with John Lewis, in Southampton, at the end of last year, who had a faulty item in front of them, bought a few days before and almost treated me as a criminal and even called over a manager, who then tried to interogate me about use! I buy very little from them now and I did read this weekend that they are re-training their staff, but they need a complete culture flip across the board and at all levels, alongside looking at their product ranges and even the cleanliness of their stores. Wasn't impressed with Peter Jones in London recently and that's just plain sloppy management. Takes a long time to build confidence and seconds to lose it!

My local one were really good, I bought an instant pot which was faulty, took it back, and was asked whether I wanted exchange or refund, chose refund as I wasn't particularly impressed with it. However still annoyed with them halving my credit limit when they changed to New Day.

I too have given up on J Lewis for the same reasons....its as if nobody at the end of the phone actually has the authority to sort anything out.

I also don't use AO after an appalling episode a few years ago where I was literally abused on the phone for not wanting to take out their extended warranty. I had a new baby so I had a lot going on, but in retrospect I should have made a police complaint about that, rather than just telling AO.

I buy all electronics now via amazon and I've found them to give superb customer service, once they delivered the wrong thing, they sent a new one out and refunded me when I dropped the other one in at the post office, before they'd even checked it.
Another time the courier marked something as delivered, I hadn't received it and the photo was of someone else's doorstop. They sent out a replacement, but in the meantime the original one was posted through my door by whoever had received it, Amazon told me to keep it too (£80 running vest).

Had only bad experiences in recent years. Their photo advertising an electric toothbrush showed one head on the toothbrush, a case and another toothbrush head in the case. There was only one toothbrush head in what I was delivered, and I complained it was very misleading- the spare head was one of the things I'd liked when choosing that one. They didn't care, no resolution.

Ordered a toy in the thick of Covid lockdowns, they delivered the wrong item, agreed to send the correct item but I'd need to post them back the wrong one. Told them there was noway I was going into a post office anytime soon and they'd need to arrange a courier. They wouldn't. The wrong item they'd sent only was worth around £5. They eventually sent the correct toy and never did turn up for the wrong item.