John Lewis and not brand new items?

[CalmShaker]

Has anyone received items from John Lewis and had suspicion item were not brand new (or possibly a previously returned item?).

I've taken delivery of a lamp, the box was not sealed and the packaging inside was 'scruffy'. Also ordered a Smart Plug and had trouble pairing it to router, I then tried a setting which said 'use if item had been previously used / not new' on the app and that worked.

A couple of months ago we ordered a coffee grinder (electrical mains) and box again scruffy and a top cover was missing making the item unusable, I left a negative review saying we think item has been previously returned and JL deleted it!

Perhaps I've just been unlucky but wondered if anyone else found this?

I ordered an item which was clearly opened en route by someone in the delivery chain. They had resealed the outer cardboard box with sellotape, not the John Lewis tape, and had removed the item from the inner box.

JL refunded it, apologised and ordered another one, which I collected instead. Great customer service when things had gone wrong.

Yes we had a pre used (dented and wet and stale inside) dishwasher. Complained, took ages to get a refund and no compensation at all. I bought the replacement from AO and have resolved to use them from now on.

Well if it’s missing a part that means it’s unusable the you return it.
But of course sometimes you’re possibly going to get an item that has been previously bought and then returned. What does the scruffiness of the pack matter?
John Lewis are usually very generous with their returns policy which works in your favour. It does however mean that someone may have already opened an item that you’ve subsequently bought.
This will be true of all shoes that let you return stuff..

I received a black jersey dress from JL that was covered in white cat hair. I returned it and I did get a refund but it put me off buying clothes from them.

Of course shops aren't going to just get rid of all the stock they have returned. As legally they have to accept returns online, someone else is going to get the returned item, wherever you buy from.

I had a similar experience with John Lewis which led me to AO a few years ago. Never going back, their customer service is actually brilliant.

I’ve never experienced the famous wonderful John Lewis service, every single time I have to deal with them I regret buying from them!

I’ve taken delivery of a lamp, the box was not sealed and the packaging inside was ‘scruffy’

So? You can’t think they chuck away perfectly fine products - you don’t mention anything wrong with the lamp itself - that would be so wasteful!!

Obviously if they send something with parts missing, that’s an issue.

I agree their return policy is widely accepted to be very good and understand it would be wasteful if they simply disposed of their returned items. But (in case of unusable coffee grinder) returning it is faff, it's not just a case a simple oversight sending out incomplete goods with a quick fix solution.
On their site everything is shown shiny and bright (and complete) and that's what you expect. Opening up a box where it seems you're not the first user is not something I invisige when buying from JL but perhaps I'm being fussy.

What do you think happens to all of the items that have been returned??

Big John Lewis customer and this hasn’t happened to me yet.

once had a lost order for make up and they resolved it really quickly and were lovely

It should be incumbent on JL to ensure that if they are sending out previously turned items, they are fit for purpose. A black dress shouldn’t be covered in cat hair. A dishwasher shouldn’t be wet and stale. Items should have all their component parts. Otherwise, you’re paying full price for a second hand item.

But we're talking John Lewis here, not eBay

🤷🏻‍♀️ we’re not going to agree on this. The product should be in the same condition as if it was being sold for the first time. But a dented box is a non-issue to me.

That’s interesting. My friend had real JL problems too and told me about AO and I also won’t go back. Such lovely customer service too.
What I find mad is that more than a decade ago I bought JL sofa seconds that were simply returns that were scratched. You could filter on ebay to buy their returns and it was great. That is what I assumed they would do with manky returned appliances rather than send them out from their website , pick up the return with a dodgy outsourced transit (I wondered if they were actually scrap metal guys) and then refuse to refund until the customer becomes really annoyed and grumpy. It’s really sad to burn through all that generational good will.

It wasn't just a dented box more a poorly re-wrapped Christmas present

We'll agree to disagree.

@PotatoBreadForTheWin
@Fasterthan40
Snap! I had terrible service from John Lewis re a dishwasher some years ago. Plus they didn’t collect their faulty one for three weeks by which time I had had one from Curry’s installed….