John Lewis in Trouble

Ditching "never knowingly undersold" was a huge mistake.

I'd always head there for every large purchase, knowing I'd paid a fair price. Now I shop around

Whenever I wanted to buy something online, I used to check if the John Lewis website sold it. I liked ordering from them as they offered free delivery and free returns. When that stopped, I had no reason to choose them over any other reputable online retailer.

I work at JLP. I have worked in retail all my career and unfortunately it is a sector that 'right sizes' it's workforce often.

I'm not going to lie, morale isn't great but we have a plan.

To those who have experienced poor customer service, I am sorry. It's definitely not what JLP is about. We are human and out of the 10s of thousands of people who work here, maybe this person was having a really bad day - not an excuse but we have all been there.

Yes redundancies in any retailer which affect store staff will hit women more, however, we don't know which departments will be cut.

I think the customer service standards have slipped considerably. You can see the staff are hating their jobs. I know they are all partners but I heard the benefits of that have been cut, or something?

If I go at all, it's Oxford Circus (dreadful) or Westfield Stratford City (a bit better, their electronics department is very good.) But overall it's a bit...BHS (as was) during the Christmas season (selling all kinds of overpriced tat).

I miss the excellent stationary department at Oxo . During the last refurb they got rid of it. 😭

Oh, and at a different JLP store. Shopping for an office chair. Found one I liked. Waited patiently for about 20 minutes for the (very busy) floor staff to get round to us. Many minutes more for them to investigate, and then tell us the item wasn't in stock and , no, they didn't know when it would be back in stock. Could we take the one that was there on the shop floor? No, because they used that to advertise the product.

Well I've been patronised to fuck by one of the staff in Waitrose this evening so I'm not feeling any sympathy for them (yes, I do know to put my cup on the tray first then press the button in order to work the coffee machine, I've been using your bloody machines for years and I do know when one isn't working)

They missed a trick also with leaving Ocado I think

I kept finding that they just didn’t have staff on the floor to help me shop. And the ones on the tills moved like they were underwater. They sent me a bra with no return slip and dealing with their “customer service” line was a total nightmare. Went to Waitrose where found they removed most of their tills. Complained. Assistant said their jobs were safe. I said they weren’t.

I was a decades-long JLP fan. Used to work in a town where it was my lunchtime go-to venue, I'd spend hours and ££££s there.

Dec 2022, after COVID, I took myself off to that same store to do some Christmas shopping.
The glassware dept - used to stock crystal by all the major UK manufactures - looked like it was a closing down sale. Lots of plain pint mugs and wine glasses. The only item I liked didn't have a price tag. (I later bought it directly from the manfacturer online.)
The toy department looked like it had been stocked by a 1950s headmaster who hated kids. A good Lego selection, but everything else "worthy" and retro.
I found a thrown in the bedding section, but no price tag again. Looked it up on their website, but it wasn't listed. Bought a similar item at T. K. Maxx the next day.
The jigsaw collection? There wasn't one.
The ceramics and pottery section? Three shelves haphazardly arranged.
The second-hand jewellery section - gone.
I came home empty-handed.

(Oh, and the changing-room thing meant I didn't even consider clothes shopping.)

I got such an eye-wateringly rude and patronising response from a JL store manager to a problem I raised (I wasn’t even complaining- just needed help with something), that I now avoid their brand. He was a young man, I am a middle-aged woman. His contempt was plain.

I wonder how many of their customer base are middle-aged women 🤔

I used to go there because it was a good place to start looking for something, especially white goods, because they had already done their research and had the best selection. This was really useful, because if you buy a new washing machine after 10+ years quite often the shop where you bought it is no longer there.

Now it seems they are going the same way.

I have noticed that the selection is not what it was and I think they have prioritised image and lifestyle over the old fashioned skills of stock buyers.

Also, they have stopped stocking the perfect bean slicer.