John Lewis - What Do You Think of Their Customer Service?

[AnotherRandomUsernom]

My elderly father bought a Beko washing machine from them over a year ago. It leaked from the soap dispenser so he had it replaced. The new one also leaked and he has had 4 engineers calling round advising him to use specific soap, only to use about 2 programmes and to use a cleaning program once a month. Despite all this, the machine still leaks.
I’m worried he is going to slip on the floor. He uses a walker and life is difficult enough already. I’m worried about him catching covid from all these engineers calling over. He spent all day today on the phone trying to get through to JL then was told to get a code from Becko but he didn’t manage to get through to Becko today. He has to try all over again tomorrow. I don’t think he’ll have any luck getting the code as we’ve been through this process before. Becko refused to give us the number and JL refused to help. Surely it is his consumer right to have a refund. What is going on with customer care and consumer rights these days? I think it’s shocking that an elderly and vulnerable man should be treated like this by John Lewis.

@Leafstamp

Appalling policies in place at JL on various customer service topics. The one that has upset me the most is allowing men into the women’s fitting rooms.

They kicked my Dh out, no one else was in there and I had just had breast cancer surgery, he was helping me. If he had said he identified as a women, he would have been allowed in. I was so upset.

In store I find it very god , anything that requires a phone call to the central customer service centre is dire and has been for the past few years. I tried to get hold of a coat they had in the Glasgow store just before , they didn’t have it anywhere else but showed as in stock on their on line stock checker. I was told they couldn’t give me the number or even transfer me to the store as they don’t have phones for incoming calls.

Just to say we had a Beko washing machine that did this. Not every time but often enough for it to be really annoying. It came with the house we bought. We tried everything but nothing seemed to eliminate the fault. Eventually replaced it.

I had to restrict the rate that water went into the machine, by not fully opening the valve on the cold water feed.

AOL after sales service is excellent.

@Yackety

Dreadful. They used to be so good and I always shopped with them for large purchases on the basis that you could rely on them to sort out problems. No longer. I'm currently chasing them for a £700 refund after they delivered the wrong item- have been stuck with the incorrect item ands no money for weeks. You can't call their complaints dept and getting a response to emails takes weeks. Never again.

Snap , they delivered the wrong item twice . Had to wait weeks for a refund They asked me if 'We could come to an arrangement' IE I pay nearly £750 for an item that was wrong When I complained they got the sales lady I had previously dealt with to ring me. She cried down the phone I'll buy bits from them now but never large items

Do you have a Twitter account OP? If so, Twitter shame them. I had to once. It worked.

I think it's the luck of the draw who you get through to - a few months ago my mum's Samsung tablet went on fire while charging and despite it being out of warranty John Lewis apologised and gave her a voucher towards future purchases. Samsung on the other hand said it was our fault due to "damage" (small scratch on the screen, genuinely what they blamed) and refused to admit fault.

You poor Dad. Also recommend naming and shaming on Twitter.

Well my father has waited between 2pm and 4pm for the technical support team to phone him but of course they haven’t. I phoned them from my mobile at 17.30 and was told by someone very helpful- Juliet- to phone back at 6pm if they didn’t call. I am now being asked to wait to be put through to the escalations manager. I’ve been waiting 25 minutes. My call at 5.30pm was also about 40 minutes in all what with the queueing and having to put up with this twee music.

Your poor Dad, how disgusting of John Lewis. Get on to Twitter and link this thread.

I recently moved properties and I used John Lewis for everything (bedroom, living room, dining room, bedding, housing accessories - you name it) and I have only had one problem with them - their customer service is decentralized from the actual Stores so they can’t see what is actually in stock in each store.

I have had many queries and they’ve all been resolved. I used AO the once and they messed up our order however they deliver quicker than JL.

In my experience, they are better than most retailers where there seems to be a race to the bottom but John Lewis don’t seem as bad. I love John Lewis and I always love going for a browse in store when i’m in town.
Sorry to hear about your poor experience OP and hope it gets resolved soon.

@AnotherRandomUsernom I had a similar problem with Currys. I ended up getting an independent engineer report. Cost me £30 sent it with a pre notification of legal action (sold not fit for purpose) Citizen Advice also have free templates.

Gave them the required time, advised I was starting legal proceedings on the next letter, within 48 hours received the engineer fee back and a replacement machine. I was always polite on the phone because I felt sorry for the staff taking the calls but very direct in the letters.

Had similar issues with JL washing machine engineer. I think they’re trained to blame any problems on misuse of the machine. I was told I was using the wrong soap powder and programme. I took the issue further but it was a pain In the neck.

I shop at JL for small things like makeup but not for large appliances. I know people who were made redundant by their big restructuring a few years ago and people they’ve kept on. Customer service doesn’t seem to be their thing anymore. So shortsighted.

Customer service doesn’t seem to be their thing anymore. So shortsighted.

If customer service isn’t their thing, what is their thing?

I think a few people have mentioned the dodgy Becko on here. My father has never had any issues with his washing machines in decades until the Becko.

Anyway, after another couple of hours on hold with the ‘everything is bright and beautiful ‘ twee music, being cut off by the second tech support person, I spoke to John. I explained about the replacement machine, the 5 repair visits including coughing maskless man 2 days ago. Quoted our consumer rights and lack of adherence to them... He went off to a back room to add us to a queue to request an uplift number from Becko.

So, if anyone’s ever asked by JL to phone the manufacturer for an uplift number, interestingly, they CAN do their own dirty work and add you to their queue for an uplift number. Apparently they will then phone back in 48 - 72 hours.

I'm so sad to hear about the deterioration of JL's service levels. They used to be the touchstone for both quality and service and I've had very good experiences with them in the past.

Reading these posts I'd be inclined to steer well clear of purchasing things I've bought online in the past, knowing I'd get treated well if there were problems - eg TV, mattresses, washing machine, fridge freezers, etc. I'm unsure I'd have the confidence to do this now.

This thread is surely one the Daily Mail should look at, if only to shock a possibly complacent management on how some of their customers re customers are feeling. 🌹

Bought a faulty cooker from them and they dragged their heels replacing it and took months to sort it out. I can't remember what the exact issue was but iirc it was something to do with booking the return, they were booked months in advance and it was impossible to get them to collect the faulty appliance or maybe they couldn't replace it, it was a logistical problem that they weren't prepared to solve. Customer services just couldn't have cared less, they acted like it was perfectly reasonable behaviour. This was 20-25yrs ago so their terrible customer service isn't a recent change, for appliances at least. They've been resting on their laurels, their CS has been bad in some quarters for a very long time.

I’d love the Daily Mail highlight the downfall of JL customer service.

Agree 100%. Nobody buys expensive goods from a company with a poor reputation for after care. It’s the kind of thing you learn as a teenage in Argos. In all fairness though, maybe they’ve improved since then.

Used to be fab I bought all my white goods there. TVs had a five year guarantee etc. Rubish now though. Ive found ao really good though.

That explains the alien on last years John Lewis Christmas advert.

It must have been the head of Customer Services - No communication, and from a different planet.

@merrymouse

Customer service doesn’t seem to be their thing anymore. So shortsighted.

If customer service isn’t their thing, what is their thing?

Well exactly! They’ve thrown their USP babies out with the bath water. No customer service and no “never knowingly undersold”.

I’ll miss them when they’re gone.

p.s their cotton bedding sheets are not a patch on what Debenhams (used to sell) or what Habitat sell.

We had a laptop for DD that broke twice, once fresh out of the box the day it was gifted to her. The first time JL replaced it in store(and a Google check tells me it's a common fault with this model). The second time they sent it to the manufacturer and asked for £200 to repair it and blamed her wilful misuse (for context she's a careful older teen and it was the exact same malfunction ). When I queried this as you'd expect it to last a reasonable lifespan, they returned it marked 'customer declined repair'.
I know someone who retired from there after long service and they said there was a definite and deliberate shift in values, customer care, and employee morale even pre-pandemic.
Our local branch is a drab and shabby shadow of its former self. Sad.

Utter crap. I have vowed never to shop there again. Quite useful when you are faced with a plethora of seller options when looking for something online - you can quite confidently strike out John Lewis for a start.