To wonder where the old John Lewis has gone?

[Deadlylampshades]

Is it just me? I am sitting on the phone waiting on hold for the main John Lewis customer services - it has so far been 28 minutes and counting....
I called twice last week to try to resolve the same issue- they were both wait times of over 15 minutes.....

I am trying to replace an expensive boxed table lamp (bought as gift) which JL online decided they would post in a flimsy grey plastic bag- it arrived completely crushed and split - quelle surprise!

I love JL, l spend probably far too much there, especially in the run-up to Christmas, it's always been a good experience and I have bought with confidence knowing that they have (had) great customer service.

Am I alone in seeing a big drop in their approach to customer service?
If staff post fragile items in plastic bags they will also incur significant costs in unnecessary replcements.

Well I've written this post, drunk a cup of coffee and am STILL on hold after 39 MINUTES.

Please come back old John Lewis- customer service was your USP

Have I just been unlucky?

(finally hangs up after 41 minutes)

JL has completely lost touch with it's core customers. The demographic in their adverts bears no resemblance to their actual customer base and it is obviously wanting to lose them,the customers know it so they have lost customer loyalty. Other than the baby dept the customers are all over 50, middle class women who shop in JL because that's what their mother's did. The market for staid, sensible,solid, overpriced products is limited and anyone who has ever had problems with an electrical product knows that the extended warranty is worthless.
They can't compete with IKEA and they need to get back the customers they used to have before trying to find new ones.

As an aside, why has John Lewis changed their name to John Lewis and partners?

This confuses me!!

For this and other reasons, I'm sadly confident that JL won't survive much longer.

To be fair, last week I ordered a 2 pack of some school trousers but only 1 was in the pack. Phoned up, got straight through to someone and they sent a replacement out straight away and let me keep the others. Have actually never had a bad customer services experience with them.

To be fair, their customer base has always been middle class, middle aged and relatively affluent.

I was in waitrose the other day and saw staff member bullying an elderly couple.

They were asking a question and she actually eye rolled at me...

Dreadful it's all deteriorated on a grand scale. I've had numerous incidents in both waitrose and jl over the years. I only go to waitrose for parking ease rarely... I try and avoid it

Found JL instore customer services all right but the telephone customer services awful. The absolute pits is their delivery- things like fridges which you buy in store and then get delivered from some warehouse. Waited in most of the day for a fridge and a tumble dryer only to be told that they didn't think they could deliver that day. Stern call to the shop managed to sort it but have not bought any white goods from them again.

They spent millions building and opening our local Cheltenham branch. And it's a crushing disappointment. We still drive to Cribbs Causeway as there literally is barely anything in Cheltenham apart from the higher end designer stuff and even that seems spread out over a lot of space.

It will be really sad to see them head the same way as M & S.

@Span1els glad it's not just me who thinks that.

We lost Debenhams, BHS went now we have what? H+Ms, M+S, Primark? Not really the same kind of shops. It's not like Cav House is full of stuff I want to buy!

Definitely agree customer service has gone down hill significantly. I bought a laptop a while ago and it became faulty within a matter of months until it stopped working completely. They sent it off for repairs and it still didn't work. They then refused to give me an actual refund and eventually I had to accept a gift card of the same amount!

I bought a dishwasher from them a while ago, precisely because I thought their customer service would be reliable - WRONG.

They arrived earlier than they said they would, refused to come back later that day and the rebooking process and customer service was utterly appalling. I recall it took several attempts and was very stressful. Never again, sadly.

Dislike shopping generally, but JL always had that feel good factor. I too think it won't survive much longer.

The Cheltenham one is my nearest JL now, too. I haven't always lived in this area, so had expectations based on other branches in London and the South, but it doesn't compare. The shape of the store doesn't help, but it just felt a bit empty and dull.

Also think the JL and Partners name change is ridiculous. I can imagine someone suggesting that in a meeting; it seems extraordinary that the rest of the decision makers chose to go with it though.

OP here- I felt I should add an update. I have my new lamp!
I finally got through to the customer services phoneline by calling just before they closed in the evening.

The person I spoke with was actually very pleasant and helpful and arranged a click and collect exchange for the next day. I reiterated about the need to send it in a box with bubble wrap to avoid squashing the box again.

I now have the replacement lamp which arrived in ........another grey plastic bag. They really don't learn do they?

Nothing is broken this time though, presumably as it was a click and collect delivery to a store and not to my house via a courier.

And not sure if I'm the last to know but it was a revelation to me: JL allows dogs in its stores!
I'm not sure whether this is a new thing but I've seen them a couple of times in the stores I've visited recently so checked on their website. Yes dogs, any dogs, are allowed in store.

I know they are allowed in the Liberty store and that Selfridges allow small dogs in a bag but permitting them in all JL stores is very accommodating. I don't think I'll be rushing to take mine though.

I would imagine that not delivering your box inside a box was an effort to reduce waste. Obviously not helpful when you're buying a gift but for most people, so long as the lamp itself was okay they wouldn't mind

I love JL, I grew up seeing my mum shop there regularly and now I am a regular customer.

But I don't like the way things are changing, I definitely agree that customer service has gone downhill. I've actually been looking for a job myself in the partnership for a while but all the stages you have to go through applying makes it near impossible. And yet many of their shop staff just can't be bothered to serve you properly.

And.....call me old fashioned - but they have done away with business dress for staff. They look really scruffy now. I think JL is trying to get with modern times but they should offer something different - old fashioned, traditional values and exceptional customer service.

I love John Lewis but their customer service has been somewhere between indifferent and awful for some time. I’m given to understand they outsourced it to Capita (WHY??) but have now taken it back in-house due to the problems it caused.

There’s been a noticeable improvement but it’s still not great - I have an ongoing problem with an item that turned out to be faulty (which absolutely isn’t JL’s fault) but to say the replacement process has been protracted is an understatement. They promised to call me back “tomorrow” and they actually called more than two weeks later. Still, Crapita are such a shower of incompetents that I’m not surprised it will take a long time to put it all right again.

I love JL- and I'm lucky to have a gorgeous little store of my own within walking distance- anyone living in South Manchester will know the one.

I go in every Saturday just to wander. However the cafe has gone total pants- it feels like a motorway service station now and it was grubby last week

We only got a John Lewis in my reach in the last few years.

I've heard good things but I've been a bit disappointed in it and I don't bother to go in generally now.

I find it's expensive and you can buy like for like products in other shops much cheaper, so I don't usually bother.

The Christmas shop, which I'd heard such good things about is mostly tat in my opinion. Horrible themed 'gifts' and useless rubbish - not anything you would actually want to give to a friend or relative.

It's also pretty empty somehow. I go and look for children's clothes but that department is pretty sparse and I've walked out empty handed more often then not, even though I had money to spend.

I did buy some cutlery from there and disappointingly I've had to throw it away after less then a year of use as it's falling apart.

I think it survives on people buying white goods and electronics who perhaps feel they need to talk to someone in person, but that model of shopping is changing and younger people are more confident buying something like a fridge freezer or a laptop off the internet.

John Lewis customer service is brilliant. The only problem is that people don’t tend to read the fine print with their orders so the call centres (they often use the same ones as First Direct as HSBC helps JL out, so we know customer service is good) are swamped with calls from people demanding to claim past guarantees or trying to take the piss.

Not read all the thread but have had numerous issues over the past 2 years mainly down to their cock-ups. Emails not answered, orders not actioned, no joined up communication between call centres and local branches.

I was told that they had reduced staff at their call centre (think it's Glasgow) and this was a reason my order (agreeing to a quote they had sent me) was not even read and actioned after 3 weeks.
So the item (flooring) is now delayed by 3 weeks...at least and counting.

My biggest grips is you cannot talk to your local store so the call centre has to act as a go-between and like you OP I've hung on for ages and ages.

I had to get a refund for some furnishings that were mis-priced (their website had missed the 20% which should have been shown) and it took me 3 days of trying before the call centre answered- each time I hung on for 20 mins then gave up.

@GrumpyHoonMain Sorry but I think you are wrong there. How do you know they share staff with banks in their call centres? Unlikely.

I very much doubt that the dreadful customer service I’ve experienced from JL comes from the same call centres as the excellent First Direct. It’s quite possibly true of the JLP credit card which is an HSBC product - and also has excellent customer service - but not for retail customer care.

The last time I got great customer service from JL was in 2014. Subsequently it’s been woeful, to the point of having to email their Ops director to get anywhere.

They’ve outsourced their call centre.

I rang to complain about the delivery of some expensive garden chairs. They had zero packaging. It was random. They were flimsy and were rolling around in the back of a JL Van.

Just had an awful experience trying to return something in store.

There was no label when I bought the top and they just scanned a different one in a different size. I thought at the time it was a bit odd as surely stock control should match the sizes.

I will never buy anything again that doesn't have a label/tag as I have been accused of wearing the top!

I had a receipt totalling over £350 that day and this was just one item everything else has been kept.

They are looking into the situation with their security team and will call me tomorrow. I get they are just doing their jobs but I shouldn't have been allowed to buy the top in the first place and I shouldn't have been essentially called a liar at the til point. I was passed to 3 people and one in particular was just so snooty and nasty repeating over and over well it's definitely been worn.

So annoyed as this is a shop I love but if they don't put it right I'll cut my nose off and not spend another penny there.