John Lewis in Trouble

It'll take a lot to shrivel my love of Peter Jones but JLP do seem to be giving it their best shot. Slices of cake in the cafes have gone from generous to almost transparent; online orders are haphazard (I've had several invoices printed backwards/on the wrong side so they can't be used as return slips, plus random wrong items); shrinking departments; irritating adverts; constant research emails about financial products and a rental property scheme that sounded a bit culty...

The ANYDAY range felt like a misstep. There's a difference between 'good value' and cheap, and if anyone knows that, it's your core John Lewis shopper.

I feel really sorry for the staff (partners?) at John Lewis. They've been royally screwed and I don't want to see people lose their jobs.

The trouble as I see it with JL, is that their corporate centre was allowed (somehow) to become totally detached from their staff and customers. They introduced things like a call centre. Yuk!! I don't want a bloody call centre, I want what they had - what they used to stand for - good, informed, customer service. This goes way back as a problem:

www.theguardian.com/money/2019/apr/03/john-lewis-makeover-customer-service

They've deskilled and devalued their staff, and they (the corporate "they") don't want know when it goes wrong.

I hope they can turn it round. And start hiring the right people for the jobs at the top. Not people with zero expertise who have overseen utter nonsense like activism displayed on badges, all the while forgetting what matters when people are looking to spend money.

Explains all the emails I'm receiving in the last fortnight
The local store closed a few years ago.

I love JL, and Waitrose!

waitrose is not outrageously expensive for basic foodstuffs.
JL is my starting point for anything and everything I want to buy.

i have no idea why people are asking for free coffee & cake vouchers as the cafes are mediocre. I’d rather go round the corner and pay for decent quality coffee at the Italian independent.

I didn't bother reapplying for the credit card as it was an inferior product they were offering, I just use one of my other credit cards instead

I've only ever been to the Oxford circus one, the beauty hall is ok but the womenswear sections always look like they've been pillaged, so messy and unappealing. The staff are always vaguely unpleasant.

Are the fitting rooms mixed sex? I've only seen women there but of course that might be coincidence.

And it didn’t work contactlessly in Europe!

Same. I’m not a dog hater by any means, but they have no place in a department store (except for guide dogs, obviously). I don’t want to buy stuff that a dog has potentially slobbered on.

To put it simply, Joe Public cannot buy shares in John Lewis like you can M&S shares. There was mention of floating it last year and if they did it would be big news.

I love John Lewis. Rishi sunak will have to prise it from my cold dead fingers.

Agree with everyone else. I used to go into the Edinburgh one often with the DC to look at the toys, probably spend £20 there, then I’d go to the habadasherh and talk to the ladies and get their advice, probably buy something, look at Modern Rarity clothing which I loved. Finish up with all of us having lunch. Now the toys are crap, the habadashery is crap, there’s no modern rarity. We never go any more

It’s still my favorite place for a browse, although there’s not much competition left on the high street. The only other department store nearby is House of Fraser, which is dire. But they aren’t what they were. I do miss the decent haberdashery and fabric department as I make my own curtains and other stuff. I also liked the fact that they used to have interesting stock you didn’t see everywhere else, and each branch was a bit different so it was exciting to visit one in another city. Now they are all rather identical.

My recent experiences with them include not having in stock a king size white deep fitted sheet. Not one in any of the umpteen different ranges and no staff to ask of course. I’m prepared to pay for convenience, quality, nice shopping environment and pleasant service.
No where else seems to be better though.

Not shopped there at all since their stupid advert with the young boy all dressed up in girls clothing and make-up and trashing the house, his sister and mother.
No thank you.
Women don't fund misogyny!

Is John Lewis partnership plc a different company to the high street John Lewis partnership?

The nail in the coffin for me was that stupid advert with "Brat Boy".

ArrestHer · Today 06:33

The one in Newcastle was the place to look for anything I needed. I noticed the customer service changing about 8/9 years ago, I was on mat leave with my youngest and had to return something and it was a bit of a battle.

I bought a Bosch kettle there just before Covid and it died after 18 months. I didn't have the receipt, so they traced it by my card and replaced it with a newer, better model.

I got my daughter some school shoes in August, as Clarke's has closed, they had a good selection and were helpful with the fitting.

I'm sorry everyone else is having bad experiences with them.

They would probably do best to close all the stores and concentrate on the online offerings.

JLP is a partnership, or a form of a co-operative. It's not on the stock market because it's not a PLC.

Used to love JL, but now that kind of spending from our house goes to M&S. The contrast between M&S and JL is phenomenal. M&S food is amazing compared to Waitrose, their delivery and click and collect is superior, and the clothes offering in M&S has massively improved over the past 5 years.

Our local JL is full of stuff costing £500 or more. There’s no incentive to shop there (no good guarantees, it’s expensive to park, no longer free delivery or stuff I want to buy), so for white goods etc I’ll go somewhere mainly on price. I can find plenty of honest reviews without leaving my house, so a salesperson isn’t of much use to me.

Their returns policy is a disaster. I bought a relatively expensive electrical item and it broke just outside the standard 30 day return window. JL insisted it would have to go back to the manufacturer before they could replace it, I was expecting it to be just replaced on the spot.

Manufacturer had a store round the corner so popped over and they provided a letter to say the item was faulty and should be replaced. Went back to JL who said yes, that was all fine but they’d still need to go back to the manufacturer for the manufacturer to send JL a replacement which they’d then give to me. No, they couldn’t give me one from their stock. Yes, it might take weeks.

Eventually, after a lot of arguing they agreed to replace there but the woman I dealt with was so very rude, and that is not the service I expected from JL.

And their Anyday range brand looks so cheap.

Sharon White has been a disaster, heaven knows why the board thought a civil servant was best placed to run a retailer.

@MissLucyEyelesbarrow

It isn't. JLP is a co-operative, it's a co-owned company set up for the benefit of its employees.

I visited JL in Edinburgh for the first time in years. It was early in a week day morning. Very poor customer service. Assistant pounced on me in stationery department and then gotta stroppy when I dared to ask him the price of more than one item. "It is not actually my job". Well I wasn't going to buy without knowing the price and he approached me.

Coffee and cake vouchers always made us start our shopping jaunt in JL. Sometimes we never left the store to go elsewhere. We do now. The Nottingham branch has an ever changing bunch of ill-trained folk, making and serving coffee. We go elsewhere and often miss out JL. M&S turned itself around massively. Come on JL!

Good heavens, I woke up a bit depressed already this morning but reading this about John Lewis has pushed me over the edge!

Some retailers bring an emotional connection and knowing that you could, at any time you wished, go to John Lewis Oxford Street and buy ric-rac trim by the metre or speak to a man who really knew his stuff about suitcases, gave a sense that all was well with the world.

They lost their competitive edge some time ago.

Without ‘never knowingly undersold’ I no longer feel the need to look at their large items.

Their credit card used to be excellent and strongly encouraged me to shop at Waitrose and use my vouchers there, spending extra. I now have the M&S card which is great, and can get many other ‘special’ items from Sainsburys.

Service and range have gone downhill and the shops feel generic and bitty. I’m not surprised if staff are demoralised - I would be.

not being able to try on clothes (and underwear!) in store is just another reason not to shop there.