John Lewis in Trouble

Last week DH bought a new laptop from JL and paid for the full tech support data transfer/handholding for technophobes customer support package - £80. He was at the other end of the country by the time he realised it wasn't charging, and ALL his data had vanished. Took it into another John Lewis branch where the tech support confirmed that the original 'expert' hadn't checked for software updates before handing it back, so nothing had been installed correctly, including the charging functionality. (?!??!!?) Thankfully, DH hadn't wiped his old laptop so was able to reinstall everything but ffs. If the second 'expert' knew immediately what the first 'expert' hadn't done, then why is there no checklist for these 'experts' to follow?

September can't come soon enough, which I am sad to say as normally i am pleased if a woman gets a top job.
I was in a large JL yesterday and it was pretty quiet. I spent ages browsing the shoe section as I need trainers and shoes for a wedding. Zero interaction from any of the staff who were chatting in twos at the counters.
Eventually I found something I wanted to buy in another dept and was served very well with good advice by an older staff member/partner.
I really hope JL can turn this around .

Maybe I should try again. I'd given up.

Both emails acknowledged my travel problem then ignored it!

Glad yours was sorted in the end.

Ouch, that is bad service. They really should have been much more accommodating.

I get the feeling that JL "customer service" (using that term loosely) don't read emails properly. Had an experience like that when the zip of my niece's jacket broke. Took five emails for them to accept that the jacket was 500 miles away in Germany and could not be brought into the Oxford Street store.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-68760475

I bought a very pricey item last month.£450 pricey! Something that I can ill afford but can't sleep without. Online as I'm disabled and can't get to my "local" JL which is a 120-mile round trip.

I emailed them asking for help regarding the battery which is not as advertised by a long way (old stock maybe?).

I had an email back telling me to take it to the nearest store that stocks the item. I checked and that's a 260-mile round trip!

I emailed them back and said again that I am unable to travel to store or I'd have bought it there in the first place.

Had another email telling me they understand but can I take it back? Not very inclusive of people with disabilities either then.

I made the mistake of buying from JL. Never again.

I've been looking for an outfit for a special occasion. At the weekend I went into both the department stores in town which have a range of clothing concessions, of which JL is one, to have a look. First one: really busy, with an appropriate number of helpful, attentive staff - one walked halfway across the department and back to bring me something I'd forgotten to pick up to complete my purchase, all with a smile. JL: absolute ghost town, shoppers/browsers in single figures, hardly a member of staff to be found, and the one I did finally manage to track down wasn't rude, but she was vague and unsure of the answer to my question.

I don't want it to go to the wall because my local town has already lost so many shops and chains, but it really needs to buck up its ideas.

I went there to get a new mattress. The customer service was non-existent. I approached one of the staff and asked a rookie question about the price differential - from a few hundred pounds to a few thousand. Maybe it was a stupid question, but she didn't try to hide her contempt for me. I felt awkward trying out the mattresses so I left. Made an appointment to visit my local Dreams store instead, where I was greeted at the door, offered a hot drink, asked about my preferences, escorted to suitable mattresses and assured that I could and should take as long as I wanted. Such a different experience.

I recently found out that 4 returns I made in February had not been credited- spread across the month. 2 that I didnt collect and were sent back but despite being in 1 parcel only part were refunded, 1 dropped at Waitrose and luckily I had the receipt and 1 sent with Royal Mail.

£290 odd in total. They refunded immediately when I called and so I suspect that they are aware that they had/have an issue.

My experience in JL recently was uninspiring. Went in after school determined to get school shoes. Clarks fall apart and cost ££££ so I wanted start rite or geox. DS1 did well with a pair of start rites for JL last year.

Anyway they had nothing in and as I didn't want Clarks then they just looked embarrassed and turned me away. This is in a major store so no excuse for not stocking a range. I went to M&S and they had a good selection but I'd rather have bought some pricey ones as M&S are poor quality and won't last. I decided buy cheap buy twice probably OK as DS had moved up a shoe size anyway but I don't think JL is going to last given how moribund it is in a major store.

I used waitrose after the pandemic for online shop. The waitrose is a distance from me so it was really only viable as an online shop. I found the introduction of a delivery charge annoying so went back to in person Aldi and Sainsbury's shop. It seemed short sighted to lose customer spending at least £150 weekly (more if I bought a case of wine) on average for the sake of a £4 delivery charge.

At around the same time their "offers" became more expensive and they stopped sending out a magazine. I was prepared to pay more for better quality but didn't like feeling ripped off.

I would probably get my next washing machine from JL as I am very pleased with my present JL brand washing machine bought 5 years ago which I was also happy with the service provided.

Even the staff on the beauty counters seem bored and lacking in knowledge.
However I got a new washing machine from JL this week and paid for it all to be disconnected and the new one out in . They did it very efficiently and were very pleasant. I have bought all my other appliances from AO in the past and been delighted with them but this time the timescale for delivery didn’t suit and the disconnection fees were higher. I don’t like the two tier system either .
customer service in the actual shop at JL is awful now and their stock is very limited compared to online. I went to look at baby stuff and was astonished how little they had in store.

I won't buy from AO now because of the two tier pricing which only really works if you are buying more than one thing in a year which I wouldn't generally do. Having to pay a large fee to get a slightly cheaper price and free delivery doesn't really work with one off purchases like white goods

We bought our most recent dishwasher from AO and paid for disconnection, removal and reconnection. Two guys turned up with the right tools and did a proper job, very efficient.

When we bought the predecessor from JL about 8 years ago, we’d done the same but the delivery team were useless, said they couldn't connect it & left us with a dishwasher in our dining room that we had to work around over Christmas until our own plumber (at extra cost to us) could come and sort it out. I had to argue hard to get the JL connection fee refunded! I didn’t even look at JL for this replacement.

I’m resurrecting an old thread but I wanted to add my opinion!

I have moved home within the last couple of years and have spent 10s of thousands at John Lewis and it has all been fantastic. Really nice furniture and the delivery people (the ones who actually work for John Lewis) were fantastic, polite and nothing was too much of a bother!

Nearly two years ago - I got my shutters installed by John Lewis and that was a shit show. They sent the wrong panel 3 TIMES! It took well over a year for it to be fitted properly when it was suppose to take 6-7 months (initial appointment which was over Zoom, someone coming to measure, making payment, waiting for it to be manufactured, delivery) and I complained to the high heavens which resulted in a £100 gift card. Bought some more shutters from a local business which came quicker and slightly cheaper! I would never buy anything that required fitting (kitchen, bathroom, bedroom furniture) again.

Their customer service has gone downhill. It’s definitely not what it used to be. The staff aren’t as knowledgeable as they used to be however I think this is a trend with retail overall. Wages aren’t high so people don’t see it as a career anymore (unless you’re management) so they don’t take the job seriously.

I still love JL/Waitrose (Waitrose is more expensive than Sainsbury’s but my local Sainsbury’s is always so busy and the fruit/veg never tastes nice) but I am selective what I buy. Hope they turn it around.

It didn't seem so bad yesterday so might be me thinking it's gloomy. I'll ask next time I see a manager.

Another moan about John Lewis, I do most of my shopping online but from time to time go to my nearest John Lewis store.
It is unbelievable how much it has gone downhill, customer service is non existent, the majority of the staff they have now appear to be untrained and are distinctly unpleasant.
If I ever go with the intention of buying a particular item you can guarantee it's out of stock.
Fashion is very poor, hate the Anyday range really cheap and nasty looking.

They have certainly become penny wise and pound foolish. I had to threaten them with litigation to get them to replace a faulty kettle which died after a couple of months.

I realise that retailers get customers trying to scam them all the time and to return goods damaged accidentally or just worn out. But, surely, given that they are constantly collecting data on us, it takes 2 seconds to look at someone's order history, realise that they are excellent customers and hardly ever return something as faulty, and make a calculation that it might be better to spend £35 replacing their dodgy kettle than to lose them as a customer? Amazon clearly do do this. John Lewis? Not so much.

I miss the JL of old. 10-15 years ago we went there often for better quality items. We had our wedding list and made most of our baby purchases there. The coffee and cake vouchers were used and we shopped afterwards.

We've had some shockingly bad customer service experiences over the last 5 years. I want to buy good quality items. Their move to push the cheaper own brand clothes range seems odd. I have more money now, but I certainly shop around now for electrics and big ticket items after their pricing guarantee was stopped.

I mostly shop online these days, but JL rarely have the basics items (like tights) I'm looking for or the sizes I need in kids' clothing etc. I've walked away from online baskets if I don't have the minimum amount for free delivery.

It's such a shame. I used to buy a lot from there.

I think archive links are automatically deleted on MN but it's easy to do yourself. If you copy the URL of the article and paste it into the search box on an archive site you can read it. Many thanks to the MNer who explained this to me a few months ago!

Try this:
https://archive.is/xoFyP

Has anyone a non paywall link to this article??
Thanks.

There's another Telegraph article today. If it's behind a paywall, can someone unpaywall it? I don't know how to do that. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/columnists/2024/02/20/john-lewis-staff-identity-authentic-selves/

I heard that the low dingy lighting was part of their environmental effort. Co op sometimes similar.....