AIBU to have expected more from John Lewis???

[YouAreHavingAGiraffe]

I order a lot from John Lewis on line, & collect from my local Waitrose (no JL dept store near me). All usually with no problems.

However I sent back some items to them 10 days ago via Royal Mail. The parcel has not yet arrived - likely it has been lost. This has only happened to me once before, with a smaller retailer, and when I phoned, they refunded me straightaway - all I had to do was to send them the postage receipt so they could claim back from Royal Mail.

However John Lewis have told me it's not their problem; they won't refund; I have to take it up with Royal Mail. Why should this be my problem, when I have returned stuff to them the way they say I should? At the moment I'm £77 down

I'm seriously pissed off. AIBU to have expected a retailer with John Lewis' reputation to have handled this differently?!?!!

Anastasia, that's a good point.

Although I posted the parcel, John Lewis paid for the postage.

So, who is the contract with Royal Mail with - me or JL? And therefore who should the onus on sorting all this out, and any possible loss, lie with? (Disclaimer: I'm not a lawyer. I genuinely have no idea what the answer to that is).

Yabu. This is why I don't do internet shopping, I buy on the high street and return anything to the shop in person (if needed). I don't like the attitude that big companies can just suck up losses like this one - it ends up costing them and therefore other customers.

I don't think YABU, not least because the most likely place that the parcel has been "lost" is in the JL warehouse. Everyone likes to blame Royal Mail, but really when you know it was sent and can be certain of the trustworthiness and efficiency of the recipient, how often do things really go missing in the mail?

My MIL has been sending birthday presents to us all for decades and one has never gone astray. That form I needed from the bank? Amazing how often that or things like it go missing.

I've just had the same issue with Debenhams and they've refunded without question.

Ribbit, I'd argue that by saving the retailers a fortune by shopping on-line, I'm actually subsidising your High Street habit

OP, this happened to me at the beginning of April. My dad returned two dresses for me via Royal Mail and to this day they haven't turned up. They cost 350 pounds and the post office has offered 23 pounds compensation that Im not going to bother with, and Ive also now given up trying to get JL to do anything about it.

Im putting it down to experience and wont shop with JL again.

giraffe have you also seen that JL will be charging a fee to collect from waitrose stores from now on?

It's one of the main reasons I use them, so that I can collect from somewhere convenient - after hearing about your experience I will stop using them too.

And what really pees me off is that the clothes were part on an internatinional order that got here in record quick time via aramex. Then they were taken by to the UK by my son and taken to a collection point listed on the website under returns. The collection point said oh we dont deal with them anymore so you should return it by mail, so my dad who had the clothes by then did - after downloading the correct label off the website.

An absolute bloody palaver though I have to say it was the first order Ive ever had trouble with.

Weebirdie that's appalling.

Fleurchamp yes, I had seen that - it might only be £2, but it's annoying. I think the combination of that, and this experience, will definitely make me think very carefully whether to bother with JL in the future.

I've had an auto reply to my email saying they'll get back to me - I'll let you know how I get on...

I'm 2 weeks waiting on a return from John Lewis - somethings is not right there at the moment.

I ordered a bodyscrub from there recently - I think it was £25 - the delivery note had a subtotal and total of £1,880 on it.

Most odd.

I had this with Joules once and it dragged on for months. In my case it was a return for a faulty item Id sent back to them using their pre paid return sticker. Royal Mail refused to refund as they said that the Joules postal address was an incorrect address. Joules were adament it was the right address. Tried explaining to RM that I doubt a company as big as Joules have put the wrong address on their returns labels. RM washed their hands of it.

Joules eventually replaced the item but wouldn't refund the money which is what I wanted. And the replacement was equally faulty....leaky welly boots. So I lost £40.

If you've fulfilled your end of the bargain, which all these cases seem to do, then the small claims court is intended for you. Which? give good advice on it. You have to send the retailer a letter officially stating you intend to make a claim and why. If they don't pay in a certain time frame, you fill out a gov form online and pay £25 which is refunded if you win. Then the retailer will receive a notification from the court requesting the claim be paid or if they still refuse, a court date. The retailers in my opinioncannot be bothered to go to court, so pay (though, more to the point, I believe from what I write here they should pay, as they are in the wrong).

For future ref, you can return stuff to john lewis via waitrose ( I think only to the same one you collected from).

They issue you with a receipt as proof of return and jl will refund as normal.

Doesn't help you right now though.

Yes, you ABU, because John Lewis are pretty rubbish!
I returned a stairgate that didn't fit our weird stairs, via the Hermes courier, and it took about three weeks after JL confirmed receiving the package to actually get the refund.

How annoying. You've sent the items back and have proof of postage, I would assume this would be enough but I have no idea.

I don't shop online much because of these sort of issues. I was delivered a parcel by Royal Mail (an important one) with a 'sorry your package has been damaged' card. It was just an empty box which clearly had been opened, no item inside all damage my arse and they couldn't have cared less. Thankfully the seller took my word for it and refunded me, but it's so frustrating.

I really hate it when people start with I order a lot from this company so therefore I should get preferential treatment why is your money any better than mine just because you use their service more maybe I spend a lot of money in their store so wouldn't have a "profile" and ordered one thing online to this ordeal. That attitude really really annoys me.

Eh?

They've certainly gone downhill as far as deliveries or lack of them are concerned. Even if you order a few things it's now collect or post. No delivery even for items they would deliver in the past. Can you claim on your credit card I wonder if you did pay by credit card.

I had it with french connection. Called, scanned and sent copy of the POP, refund issued.

JL believes it's own hype too much. Have you been informed about the size of the Bury call centre yet OP? You will be. 500 people you know. None able to sort an unscripted problem.

Returning via waitrose doesn't always work that well either - depends how often the returns are collected. Local waitrose told me they'd had some waiting out the back to be picked up by JL for a couple of weeks.

Something is very wrong with JL at the moment. They clearly can't cope with all the online and click and collect hence now deciding to start charging for it.

An update: I was spoiling for a fight, but it's all been ruined.

I had an email back from JL this morning apologising that my refund had not gone as smoothly as they would have liked, that my issue was going to be escalated, and if RM had lost the parcel, they would refund me and claim back the losses from RM.

And then I checked on the parcel status, and RM had only gone and delivered it today anyway!

So all sorted. Phew.