To think John Lewis customer service is crap?

[ThomasinaCoverly]

I had an issue with a delivery - I'd ordered three things and only two of them turned up. Delivery driver had no knowledge of the third thing (£199, so not a trivial item), so I called JL.

Customer service guy totally uninterested, patronising, arsey (and then took very flouncy offence when I got cross - I might add that I wasn't rude to him, just making it plain that I didn't appreciate the way he was talking to me). I was supposed to know, presumably by telepathy, that the things were coming from different warehouses and although the website said 7 days for each thing, I shouldn't have interpreted that as meaning they were going to arrive on the same day, and when their text message said my "delivery" would come today, that didn't mean all of it. I will, apparently, hear when the third thing will come when they graciously decide to contact me about it.

The stupid thing is that till I rang them I just wanted to know what was happening: now I'm really pissed off! AIBU to think that my next lot of furniture should come from somewhere else?

Have had major problems with furniture delivery from them too OP. I have yet to face writing the letter, yet it was 3mths ago.

Most of the time JL is great. But it seems they have the odd glitch where things are a total mess, their phone staff get annoyed that you don't know things they've never told you and they get completely flustered that things aren't following the normal script. I had a 12 month battle with them over a huge delivery when we moved into a new house a few years ago. It never got resolved properly and technically I still owe them something in the region of a thousand quid, but they have been unable to resolve the issues and didn't even bother getting back to me last time I tried to get things sorted. I'm quids in over all so I've stopped chasing them, because there is only o much effort I'm prepared to put into fixing someone else's mistake, even if I do owe money.

It is and they know it is. They are having a big internal pus to improve (I have lost patience with them this year myself. Young relative works there and was telling me about the reforms.)

BoomBoomsCousin, that sounds exactly like what's happened to me, except that sadly I'm not quids in. Not that he sounded flustered, exactly, just arsey.

Sadly I didn't get his name: he put the phone down as I was asking for it. So I could complain but couldn't guarantee it would come back to bite the right customer service person. I wrote a note to the customer service email account to say that their communication about the delivery hadn't been clear, which they will no doubt ignore.

Escalate it if you don't get a response.

I had a bad experience with them too. Was moving house and ordered a new mattress online a few weeks beforehand to be delivered on the day we moved. Bought it online, 8 in stock at the time. On the day we moved I got a call to say they wouldn't be delivering it as they were out of stock and wouldn't have any more in for several months asked if there were any available to collect and they said yes, there's one in Croydon so drove 2hrs and the store didn't actually have any. Called jl back and they said we could have a more expensive mattress if we would like to pay the difference of £300. Funnily enough we declined. No apology from them, awful service

Every time they have messed something up for me (I am a loyal customer, so has happened a few times, although actually a small minority of my orders/transactions with them to be fair), they have apologised profusely and either refunded more than the overall amount as a goodwill gesture, given me hefty vouchers to spend in store/online to compensate for petrol/inconvenience, or for a couple of small things, have given me cake and coffee vouchers to make up for the bother.

I have seen a couple of people complaining that customer service has gone downhill recently, but I expect they will work hard to pull their socks up, as that is one of their biggest advantages for me. I have always been able to count on them putting a problem right so far and that's why I'm happy to give them my money.

SerfTerf, what are they doing about it, and does it include tackling the bad attitude? Mistakes happen, I get that - but starting by apologising to me and then explaining what was happening would have gone a long way.

I have been a loyal customer (nearest supermarket is a Waitrose and I have one of their credit cards) but don't have much experience of buying furniture from them -most of my orders are click and collect, which I've had no real problems with.

Their loss: I'm in the market for a bed, a chaise longue and a table, all of which I will now buy somewhere else.

I've had MAJOR issues with them regarding a large piece of furniture. It broke after a couple of years, and was something you'd expect to last a decade or so. It took 4 months of emails, phone calls and lots and lots of explaining to lots of different people.

It eventually got escalated and dealt with, but it took hours of my time. Probably days actually, and was very frustrating and stressful. Oh, and when they did finally replace it the delivery drivers really complained about having to take it upstairs!

It does look as though the furniture is the disaster area...

Yes I had issues and they just sounded arsey! I asked to speak to a supervisor and she was arsey too. She got even arsier when I told her she was arsey!!!
It puts me off ordering from them now.

I'm not entirely clear TBH. I was mid-moan at the point I was told about it. It all sounded a bit American and peppy and not very JL. Apparently they've got into trouble by "successfully" expanding their online "offer" so fast. They can't keep up in delivery and non-sullen-youth-on-the-phone terms. (I'm paraphrasing bitterly.) They're basically just a very old fashioned department store that's mushroomed and gone dot com.

I ordered a dining room table and six chairs from them some time ago - so not a cheap item. For some reason I decided not to pay for a delivery slot, not sure why. Anyway, I sat in all day waiting for the delivery, which never came.

Delivery man rang about 9pm telling me he wouldn't be coming that day and would deliver it the next day. I told him I couldn't sit in all day again and he assured me it would be one of their early delivery slots. Also spoke to delivery department who told me the same.

Mid evening on the second day, the delivery driver rang me to let me know that he was running late and would be with me at about 10pm. I told him not to bother as I was cancelling the order, which is what I did.

Spoke to customer service. Did they care? No. Were they rude and dismissive? Yes.

I sent an email explaining why I had cancelled my order and how disgusted I was with their 'service'. I got a reply acknowledging my complaint but nowhere in their email did it actually say they were sorry.

Would never order a large item from them again. Awful company.

pigs, if I get anything saying sorry I shall fall over in shock...I'm sure they think it's all my fault for not understanding their internal processes.

I ordered a very expensive item. It arrived. It wasn't what I ordered. I rang customer services.

They were a bunch of rude, useless tossers.

I escalated it to the Chairman's office. Got the right item, and a goodwill gesture of hard cash.

SerfTerf, that really doesn't sound as though it's going to improve anything - probably just demoralise the non-arsey staff, and convert arsiness into passive aggression among the others.

If my order actually turns up I don't want to expend the time and energy on escalating this anywhere - I'll just order future furniture from elsewhere. Obviously if it doesn't turn up I shall have to escalate matters. I feel tired just thinking about it.

I think you're pretty safe Coverly. JL clearly don't do apologies.

Agree it's been bad this year. They started charging for collect in store even for quite pricey items.

Deliver options are DPD Hermes and parcel force and things often don't come on the same order and you can't choose. For such expensive items I would expect DPD only and being able to select your own day not just randomly having it arrive.

I have had a bad attitude from a staff member several times in various stores. One seemed like I was wasting her time when thinking about buying an expensive item, another asked to see ID for collecting an item from the same household I said that on their website it says I just need MY ID to which I was told " I'm not trying to have a row about it".

Someone should tweet their thread, I am loyal but the staff seem to be quite entitled lately and they used to seem like they had more extensive customer service training.

We had trouble over some very expensive LV floor tiles. Had to really chase up the delivery side of things. We found out that the delivery arm of JL is outsourced. Another loyal JL shopper here, but would be very wary of ordering something that had to be delivered and particularly something with a time frame on it. Right hand/left and all that.

Have had bad experience, bought integral dishwasher which I booked fitting for. JL cancelled booking for fitting and turned up without informing us of this. I rang to say I don't want it left in my kitchen until they can fit it (three and a half weeks later!) and I want to return it, cue big debate. They eventually took it back and only when I was checking bank statement eight weeks later did I realise they hadn't refunded it.

We had a food processor we'd ordered online break. DH took it to a store and was told they'd send it off to get mended. Apparently the replacement for shoddy goods guarantee only applies to online purchases, not those made in store.
DH argued the toss and was patronizingly told they'd order a replacement lid 'just this once,' like they were doing him a huge favour. It's outrageous that they have different policies for online and in store purchases; if something's not fit for use, surely it doesn't matter where you bought it from? It's the same company!

Yes it is. NEXT!

Sorry spent 1000s over the years at JL (home, baby etc). The last 5 years no! Massive issues, poor customer service. I take my business elsewhere now. Some mugs keep shopping there. Hope its OK for them.

Right, not buying anything that needs fitting from them! I may have had a lucky escape: I thought our dishwasher had died over Christmas, and almost ordered one from JL to replace it, but fortunately we managed to resurrect the dishwasher.

I'm not on Twitter, but feel free to tweet this if you think they'll notice or care...

Sorry, the comment about tweeting was to DestinationSofa; more people had posted their bad experiences while I was typing.

I'm weirdly comforted to know I'm not the only one.