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?

I think it's their call centre staff, I find them often quite rude.

I have had the opposite experience with Waitrose recently. My weekly shop contained a lot of short date items. Many of these items expired either on the day of delivery or the next day.

I rang them to complain and after a brief mix up there were great. They refunded for all the items plus sent someone out to deliver replacement items with a longer shelf life.

I guess they can not get it 100% right every time.

I've had mixed service from them. Had a new dishwasher in Feb which all went well. Have ordered a lot of clothes and shoes recently. (Dd getting married and need an outfit). I've had a lot of issues with getting refunds. I'd send something back, half of an order would be refunded immediately but something else in the same return would take weeks. I'd have to keep phoning to be told it takes x time to process. Well why did half the order get processed on day 1 yet the other half takes 3 weeks [angty] It's really not what you expect from them. I do find the in store people lovely though. And if I order anything online, I now take it back to a shop where you get an immediate refund.

Oh god.. I've just remembered taking the TV back to them when it was under warranty. Hours waiting for a technician to look at it, they just asked a load of really obvious questions, put a sticker on it and told me I'd have it back in 3 weeks.

Now, I'm not the type to kick off in a shop (used to work retail, so I know the deal), but bloody hell I kicked off.

This was a 3 month old TV.
In the end they didn't agree to do anything at all. I took the TV home, complained directly to the manufacturer about them and their shitty service. Manufacturer delivered new TV the next day and picked up the faulty one.

Fuck John Lewis. So many things I've ordered have had to be returned, and almost every return has been problematic.

Aldi have better customer service. Actually, Aldi have superb customer service!

I've had mixed experiences too.

Most recently was good, though. It took them quite a while to solve the problem because the item was out of stock, so they couldn't just give me a new one immediately, and then they accidentally cancelled the replacement one so I waited even longer, but they apologised, let me keep both of them, rang them next day to make sure I was happy with the delivery, and sent me vouchers.

Other experiences have been less good, particularly when I've emailed to ask a question. The people they have answering the emails seem a very mixed bag, and frequently just say they don't know or can't help or some other useless reply, very often not answering the actual thing I asked anyway. Their English is often not great, which adds to the miscommunications. When you do finally get someone who does understand what you're asking, they can be very helpful - but it can take several replies and repetitions.

We had issues with them last year - again a large item, online delivery.

Very much et the impression they're reading off their reputation, but that it's starting to wear very thin.

A timely thread OP! In midst of JL delivery nightmare. Delivered 2 out of 3 boxes needed for one whole item. The delivery guys pointed out it was incomplete, there was no paperwork. That was last Tuesday... DH has been dealing with them... oh dear. Passed from pillar to post, lied to about when delivery would arrive, lost 3 days waiting in now.

The telephone customer services could not have cared less. No acknowledgement of their error, seemingly happy to blame the delivery people. Um buck stops with you JL.

DH has declined £50 compo and has been 'escalated' to next level whatever that will turn out to mean. They really are shit.

Maybe I've been lucky but have had good recent customer service from JL including TV repair and large deliveries.

Waitrose online on the other hand are appaling. Late or cancelled deliveries and very rude customer service and delivery staff. The upside is lots of vouchers and compensation if you escalate and are tenacious but shopping shouldn't be that hard.

Love JL but if there's a delivery problem their Customer Services are awful. Condescending, patronising and fuck off attitude.

Have they outsourced their call centre, perhaps? The bad/atrocious phone staff seem at huge odds with the always excellent service instore. 😕 We're very lucky with delivery but I've heard so many incidences of delivery problems and bad customer service recently I wonder if they've outsourced. Bad move.

I wouldn't bother Tweeting them unless you're happy to be completely ignored. 👎

IHateUncleJamie, I had a quick look when I saw your post and found this. The guy I spoke to had a Scottish accent, so the outsourcing may be the problem.

I've mostly had really good service myself, but I'm told the advice is to email the CEO or chairman's office, as they then act directly on the complaints.

I had poor service recently with a furniture delivery. Customer services couldn't care less. Did keep complaining and got a small gift card. But it doesn't make up for the poor service.

Quite - I don't want a gift card, I want the thing I ordered, delivered when they say they'll deliver it!

I'm currently having a mare with Waitrose Garden, plants should've been delivered Friday or Saturdays, chased as I'd heard nothing, was promised they'd be delivered tomorrow and still no dispatch email 😡 The tone of their emails (not to mention the spelling) is really pissing me off!

Actually had amazing customer service over a faulty standard lamp that was 6 months old.

Me : lamp won't stand up straight

John Lewis : ok we'll refund you to your card.

Me : err, shall I bring it in?

JL : no thank you

That was that.

It was over the phone- should have said.

Yep, bad experience with our wedding gift list. Loads of things out of stock, no sense of when they might be back in stock, no communications to explain what was going on. I finally called up for the 5th or 6th time and was asked why I had taken so long to make this complaint. As in, they didn't believe there was really an issue given a few months had passed since our wedding. I explained that we had been sort of busy with honeymoon, new home, work, life, y'know, and that calling up JL customer services at every opportunity we got wasn't really my idea of a fun time (and I had already called multiple times but they didn't seem to have a record of it). I was shocked tbh at how bad it is. I still shop in waitrose and find their staff are polite, helpful, well trained. Never had a problem in a JL store itself either. But the moment you get into ordering online and anything involving their customer services line, they are really, really terrible.

They outsourced to Capita I think. Rude tossers.

They've outsourced their customer disservice to Capita. That's when it all went to shit.

I am a huge user of JL but their telephone customer service is beyond shit. They are so rude, unhelpful, disinterested. As Liney says, they outsourced to Capita and its crystal clear that they are incentivised to clear calls.

Oh gosh, that explains it then. Outsourcing is no doubt cheaper in the short term but the disconnect and resulting complaints you then almost inevitably get is costly in the long run.

I was interested in this from the Guardian article: it is also sending orders made online direct to the manufacturers to fulfill.

That explains why I couldn't buy the oven I wanted from JL plus their add-on disposal/installation service - because the oven would have come straight from the manufacturer. I couldn't be arsed to hire an electrician separately, let alone try to get the old oven to the dump, so I ordered the oven from Currys instead as they could and did do installation and disposal.

So JL might have saved a bit of dosh by not storing that oven but they lost out on a sale. Short-sightedness, never a good trait in business.

I wouldn't buy a 99p hankie from JL any more, let alone another expensive item.

The woman who was rude to me from 'customer service' really did miss her calling as a very angry and stupid barracuda.

I ordered a cot which had a 2 month lead in time for delivery, and booked (and paid for) delivery on a particular day. The cot didn't arrive and I was told JL hadn't put the order through with the supplier.

The customer service representative was completely unconcerned and unapologetic. Just kept repeating I would have to wait a further 2 months for the cot. He got snappy when I asked him where I'd put my baby in the meantime.

An email complaint resolved it, so on the whole I still have faith in the brand, but the person I initially spoke to couldn't have cared less.

I had a terrible experience when JL used Home Delivery Network which is now Yodel. Took day off, waited in all day and it didn't arrive - they told me the driver said 'the road was closed' to my house. There are two roads leading directly to my house and neither were closed yet JL wouldn't take it further until I spent lots of time trying to get it sorted out. Phone staff were rude and dismissive.