To be livid with this so called customer service from John Lewis

[ManiDeadi]

I'm trying to be organised, so I ordered some Christmas presents from John Lewis online. I got them delivered the other day, and when I opened up the package, two of the boxes were completely bashed up and had holes in them, so there is no way I can present them to someone as a gift.

I decided to email customer services to complain, as the items were just lolling around in a massive bag, so I felt it was JL's fault for them not being packaged correctly.

Here is what I got in return:

Dear Ms XX,

You do realise that it is only October. Therefore, you have 2 months to arrange Christmas presents. So calm down. I will be more than happy to arrange a replacement order to be sent to you. Please advise if you would like me to arrange a courier collection or packet post return for the damaged goods..

I look forward to your reply.

And the more recent posts*

I believe you mani.

And apparently John Lewis isn't one person but lots and lots of people working for an organisation Some are good and some are not so good.

Have none of you ever in your youth worked for an organisation and been umm a little less than professional?

Perhaps the poor Customer Services person has pnd/pmt/bad hair and you know - just snapped (offers all usual mn excuses for unacceptable behaviour).

There was no need to complain, it was an accident in transit. You just call them up, post it back and they send a replacement. Accidents happen.

Honestly, the reason customer service is so shit in this country is because of people like those of you who think the OP's email was 'stroppy'. It wasn't. It stated the facts.

The email she got in response was rude, unprofessional and smug.

I hope whomever sent it gets reprimanded very heavily and retrained in Customer Service.

What a strange response you have had, Mani.

You received goods that were damaged, emailed to ask for replacements and got a stroppy and rude email back.

Why you are getting so much stick for this, is one of those mysterious MN things.

I laughed when I read the email from JL, but would have been rather cross to have received it. Your email was fine, contained all the info that they may have needed to save them checking back with you.

But Hall, that's what she did! Except she emailed because that's what it said on the packaging!
If she'd said "please please can I have a repleacement" they'd have said "why?"
she'd have told them and they'd have asked to see photos.
So she was just up front to pre-empt all that
(see I can do it - back to pedants' corner for me :o)

ahem
repleacement is a new word which means "replacement, please"
None of you will have heard of it yet

can't believe you'd get stick about sending an email!

best way! why would you want to hang on the phone for hours? and with email you have a record.

gah - and hardly the point is it?

mani - yanbu

I had crap service from John Lewis twice this year too.

Had arranged for baby stuff to be delivered about two weeks before DS's due date but unfortunately had to have hin 5 weeks early because he wasn't growing - the delivery people were RUBBISH. My poor husband had to ring and cajole them for days to get them to deliver slightly earlier. It was still 2 weeks after the birth though. Luckily we were in hospital for those two weeks.

Then just last week we ordered stairgates, sleeping bag and playpen for him and the playpen was missing from the delivery so we had to chase it up again. Luckily that arrived the next day.

But yes, OP - of course you weren't unreasonable and I look forward to hearing what the 'customer excellence manager' or whatever they're called comes back to you with.

I'm so disappointed in them. They were one company I always trusted (and loved the ethos of) but the standard of the staff and the service have gone massively downhill recently.

I can't believe some of the responses on this thread! There are posters going through ManiDeadi's email with a toothcomb, saying it's "shirty" and "arsey" but the email sent by JL's customer services is beyond reproach apparently . Takes all kinds, I guess.

Looks like we can't say anything negative about precious John Lewis, but my friend had crap service instore from an assistant who sighed and tutted and simply walked away from her because her English wasn't perfect (she's Albanian and her English is perfect albeit accented). Seriously! She sighed and said, "Madam, I can't understand a thing you're saying", turned her back and walked away leaving my friend slack-jawed in shock. JL aren't perfect you know

Ah, now I think it's the hamming it up that I don't like, and that's why I found the OP's email a bit arsey. Mentioning Christmas made it sound like she was putting a time constraint on the resolution of the issue. Which - considering Christmas is two months away - is a bit daft. No need for JL to point this out to the OP though - that's just stroppy.

I do wonder though if the author of the response was trying (badly) to say "Not to worry! We'll sort it" rather than "calm down" in a Michael Winner style. But perhaps I'm being too charitable. The customer service person was meeting mild arseyness with full on arseyness - it wasn't a measured response.

HalloweeseG the goods had been poorly packaged which is why it happened, an "accident in transit" could have been prevented if they had been boxed up appropriately....so by complaining the OP is bringing this to their attention....

i know ocado always say when you complain about damaged goods that they will follow up with the person who packed the goods (whether or not they do i don't know) but it isn't as if the goods were properly packed and a freak accident occured, they were inappropriately packed so in all likelihood would have arrived in that state with or without a so called "accident"

mani - what was the respondent's name on the email you were sent? With the references to 'I' and 'me' in it, it sounds like it came from a specific named individual.
Your email was snippy but in the complaints genre fairly mild to standard. Their response was way beyond any normal cs response and must have been sent in error - presumably JL or other big organisations have a standard template for responding to complaints?

this is most bizarre... all the poor woman wanted was what she PAID for. i would always send an email rather than phone as it's the easier method and keeps a record, and her email wasn't arsey at all. (although she's entitled to be arsey if she wants, they delivered her damaged goods cos they couldn't be holed packaging it properly). every second of her time spent chasing this is time out of her life that she shouldn't have to spend on JL, and they have a monumental cheek telling her to calm down.

as someone said, if this was mothercare you'd all be going ballistic right now.

I would send an email as well. I get what I need to say across much better if I'm writing than if I'm speaking. And it allows me to have a written record.
Regarding the email, I would be annoyed if I received it, but I think it probably wasn't meant to be sent. A joke one meant to be deleted that then got sent. Maybe on another forum there's some panic stricken JL employee asking how to retrieve sent emails.
However, you are within your rights to complain about it.

I work with lots of unreasonable people - people who commit crimes and get caught are strangely prone to complaining vociferously when advised that they are going to be convicted.
I only once remember uttering the words 'calm down' to a client and that was when he was threatening to shoot me if I didn't get him bail.
Op, assuming that you wre not threatening the JL staff member with grevious bodily harm then YWNBU.
Although I suspect some people on his thread will now start saying 'i bet she did, JL woukd NEVER be so rude otherwise'.

Agree with Aitch. Very bizarre.

I always email rather than phone, but I have a thing about phoning people. I have two companies who I need to phone today and am procrastinating on MN/Twitter rather than doing so.

I think those of you who think my email was arsey obviously lead a very sheltered life......

Goodness me, I mentioned the word Christmas. Norty norty .

SHRIIIEEEKPoolingBearBlood - I am loving the word "repleacement". In fact I may use it when I speak to the Customer Excellence Manager .

nevercansaygoodbye - yes there was a name on the email but despite everything, I don't think it would be fair to "name and shame" on here.

Oh god, I've dealt with far, far worse calls/emails/irate customers in my time. But when people overplay the severity of something, it grates. That's all.

I do want to know how JL deal with this though. What was the agent thinking?!?

As an aside, I've been into JL (at Cribbs Causway) once in my life. I hated it - but then I loathe department stores (other than Selfridges perhaps, for a laugh). I've never ordered from then either. If this had been about c*ing Mothercare I'd have felt the same.

I was in JL in Cambrideg a couple of weeks back and there was a queue stretching right back out the door of the customer services dept. The 1 woman who was behind the gift wrap counter was refusing to make eye contact with anyone and was very rude to a bloke who went in there to complain. Eventually the manager was summoned, appeared and asked what the bloke wanted. His response was a delight - "I came down to find some customer services and there aren't any. I just wanted you to know that I'm taking my custom elsewhere" :o

we've had poor customer service from them too (with a gift list, I'm sorry to say, as I know how much MN loathes the giftlist concept). I'm not going to shop from them again (except to spend my last few gift vouchers!).

OP, the email you got was incredibly poorly thought out by the customer service person - hope you get a proper response soon!

I had a problem with JL too. I asked them to avoid school run times when delivering an item and they turned up at 3.20! They were really arsey with me. Then the aftercare manager didn't want to know. That was Liverpool. I wonder if that was where the OP had her trouble?

I admit, the email response made me smile. :o However, it's entirely inappropriate and worthy of complaint. I think the addresses mentioned earlier in the thread are a good start on that. YANBU!

I don't understand the negative reactions to your email, either. You described the situation and you told them what appears to have happened with the parcel packaging. The last line ("I'd like to know what you're going to do about it" or such- not looking at that page in the thread anymore) is my least favourite to hear in these situations as it comes off a bit haughty. I'm not even in customer service anymore and it makes me cringe a bit to overhear it. :) However, it is certainly not being rude.

And it certainly does not excuse the response mail. It might have made me laugh, but if I were the customer receiving it I would be feeling exactly as the OP does.

I wonder what JL customer service do when they get a snotty email complaint?

the email op has written is hardely snooty or agressive it is to the point, the goods are damaged, they where brought for christams pressies, od they ned evidence?

Hardley a calm down needed she pointed out what was wrong

I can't say I have seen far worse as Op wasn't bad any way to begin with

it really was a how to wind your customer up when sent an email

I would ask for replacement goods and training for the person who wrote the offending email

Well I got a reply.

Not from the Customer Excellence Manager herself (you gotta love that title), but from a lovely lady who apologised and said that senior management are looking into it.

She is sending me replacement goods and also crediting my card with £20 for the inconvenience. I don't even have to send the damaged stuff back.

Personally I think that is excellent customer service and I told her that. It is way above what I would have expected.

That's a good result, good for you for complaining.

I bet someone's going to get in trouble now though.