To expect more than just a refund from John Lewis?

[mindthegap79]

Ordered a hob from John Lewis 3 weeks ago. Website said delivery within 4 working days. I got an email confirmation and a guarantee was emailed to me the next day. Dispatched on the 3rd day and they debited my account. 2 weeks later, no hob! I emailed them and today they called to say that unfortunately the hob was out of stock and would I rather have a refund or a different hob. Ffs!

The 2 other shops which had stock 3 weeks ago no longer have stock, so now I cannot have my lovely hob from anywhere. I know this is a first world problem, but I've had no kitchen or bathroom since November due to cowboy builders. I finally have new builders in, and they're now delayed due to no hob. Grrr.

I asked John Lewis for a refund (which will take a few days, grrr again) and some additional compensation. They said they were only authorised to refund me, but they're phoning back tomorrow.

Reckon they should give me some vouchers or something? I've spent a bloody fortune in that shop over the years. Feeling peeved.

Thanks ratspeaker - I'd never heard of ao.com but just had a look. They don't have the original hob but there are some really nice alternatives with the same dimensions. Have you used them before - are they good? As a minimum, I'm guessing they haven't promised stock, taken your money and then sat on it for 3 weeks whilst doing nothing and then taken an age to refund you without so much as an apology...

Yes I've used AO before - excellent service & good prices. Saved a couple of hundred on my range, hood & splashback & was all delivered the next day.

Thanks! I've found one on there that I'm a little bit drooly over. Hope I can remember how to cook after 5 months of microwave meals and sandwiches!

They've certainly been crap but you don't have any rights to more compensation. (Oh and it's not akin to fraud for goodness sake. It's a mistake in their stock taking/ordering process. No company would want the hassle involved with selling something they don't have.) I can see how it's annoying and it would be nice to have a bit more from them for the inconvenience. If you complain like mad then they might end up sending you something just to keep you quiet. But this is one of those where if you're not careful you'll end up getting increasingly pissed off about. Do you really want that sort of stress, especially if it's been stressful with the build anyway?

lavenderboy John Lewis have an excellent reputation which is why people use them. They fucked up on such a grand scale with me over a period of time I thought there was some kind of personal vendetta.

I honestly don't know why John Lewis continues to have such a good reputation. Almost every time I have ordered something from them, it has gone wrong. I've had carpets that don't arrive and then don't fit and 4 different visits to refit them, lift them and refit again. The whole sorry saga took months. Both computers I've bought from there were faulty (with them wasting further time on several unsuccessful repair attempts). The two kitchen appliances I've ordered have arrived with dents, with a choice of a small amount of money off or leave it and book in a new delivery date about a month later.

Even in the store, actually finding a service point that you can pay at can be a challenge! I once went in at 5pm to buy some cosmetics (it closed at 6 or later), only to be told that because that specific customer service advisor had left for the day, they couldn't let me buy anything and suggested I "come back in at 9am tomorrow morning".

I now only use them a bit like a showroom, and then search for the items online elsewhere. Maybe the two branches I use are just exceptionally bad or something?

scroll down for head of CS email address

love ao.com!

Yeah but what exactly were you hoping to be financially compensated for? They gave you a refund , Compensation culture needs to end as it adds to all our costs for everything.

HellRunner
Yeah but what exactly were you hoping to be financially compensated for? They gave you a refund , Compensation culture needs to end as it adds to all our costs for everything

I don't entirely disagree but JL's incompetence has inconvenienced the OP. Their incompetence greatly inconvenienced me. Why is it ok for that to happen? I voted with my feet, as I felt whatthey basically said to me was "yeah, we've made a mistake, suck it up - your time is of no interest to us" - which is very probably true but I've voted with my feet since then, so their loss.

Sitting here Mumsnetting as I am waiting in today from 9-5 for my computer to be collected. (Reason: computer had failed epically and the JL repair agent did the biggest crappest job of fixing it so it needs to go back again). Called at 11am to find out when courier would be coming. Guess what - the courier has no record of collection

I am waiting for JL Manager to call back to explain yet another failure in process. The one I spoke to yesterday for over an hour about this. My nearest JL is a round trip of 30 miles and all I have been offered is a coffee voucher.

Something is failing badly at JL. I may be using that DEO details.

IIRC John Lewis updated their IT system for stock about a year ago (when we needed stuff ordering) and it's absolutely dreadful so that would explain the repeated failures to send stuff properly.

It's funny because at my generally hated company, John Lewis gets held up as an example of fantastic customer service that we aspire to so it's strange that they don't see a need to compensate for inconvenience where we would.

By our rules OP would be eligible for £25 compensation for inconvenience, rising to £50 if it caused significant distress - living off microwave meals for 3 weeks because of us would definitely count. We'd ensure that OP was refunded for phone calls, travel costs or significant time spent so she wouldn't be out of pocket because of our mistake. We'd also try to honour our original agreement, even if we realised it was a mistake, so in this case offering a like-for-like within a reasonable price range.

I have had some shockingly bad service from JL, much worse than any other company, but for some strange reason I still use them.

I think we are brainwashed somehow into thinking that they are better than they really are.

Have had excellent service from ao.com, used to be Appliances Online, apart from their annoying follow up calls. They ring to see if you are happy with your appliance and try to sell you insurance on the sly. Beware.