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)

You know how sometimes people go into shops every evening for a potter about, look for bargains, with no real agenda ? (I do that in my local non-Waitrose shop as I have no social life ).

Some of the checkout staff used to make a point of standing around and go “oh, can’t believe SHE’S in here again must have no life“

I mean I’m not good at chat so I was more “young quick efficient type” but there’s no need to play “mean girls at school”.

Of course there are some gems and decent folk and overall retail is struggling so I’m sure it’s just not John Lewis.

However, I do think what maybe is WORSE than other retailers in that there’s the “association with poshness”.

There’s normally LOADS of applications for jobs from the kind of person who wouldn’t be happy with (say) a higher hourly paid job at B and M bargains.

So you got people starting as a a junior manager or as a checkout assistant thinking that they were going to be doing “naice” high-end sales and hobnobbing with the “wealthy” (not like “chavvy” Aldi or primark)

I actually think some women there had watched too much Love Actually and reckoned they were going to “meet rich men” and he would fall in love with them as they scanned his artichokes and champagne or gave him advice on what tie to pick .

And really it’s just a normal dull stacking shelves/give basic customer service to normal people /mop floors/answer complaints style job, with corners being cut to save money.

I’m sure some of the customers were prosperous but they’re just there to scan their stuff quickly and go!

In fact the only regular customers who would be interested in chatting and getting to know the staff weren’t the well off people - they’d be the local eccentrics (some elderly sweethearts, some utter creeps) who would pop in for their free coffee.

I know it's waitrose not JL but management have merged and same company really.
They nearly made me really ill in waitrose cafe as they'd contaminated their gluten free chips by putting them in same fryer as the battered fish. Its only because I'm paranoid and made the assistant check with the chef that I found out.
Commented on twitter that such practice was neither good for coeliacs or vegetarians and they just replied saying they don't guarantee gluten free status of anything.... Not even a potato product. .
No apology, no acceptance this was poor practice and could have made someone very ill. Poor customer service and an arsey attitude.

Induction hob (£1200) stopped working after 6 months.
Girl on help line told me I didn’t need a hob to cook for 4 as she didnt use hers much.
6 weeks before a new hob was installed.
I contacted their COOs personal line and got a £30 voucher in the post with insufficient postage that cost me £4.50 to collect.
I will avoid JL like the plague from now on until the end of time.

Let me add my woe to this! I had only one of the items delivered which was sold as a pair.
First call to the click and collect place -
Very curt "call JL contract centre"
Second call - JL customer service, the woman who answered the phone was eating something and carried on talking and chewing at the same time. She said she'd call me back.
Third call - no call back so I rang again, this time I was given a case number but said they'd call back
Fourth call - on the line for ages and then automated response that JL would WhatsApp me
Fifth time - WhatsApp contact established, first agent refused to lcheck anything and offered half refund. I asked for a replacement as I needed the pair. Radio silent after that.
Second agent - bit more understanding, helpful and reordered the pair of item.
Automated feedback as after that
And then another agent picked up the chat and then said all done!
So in total I wasted an hr on call and on what's app and on their chat (which was useless).

Absolutely disappointed and has left me with a bad tase, JL are not as they used to be.

@Stupiddriver1

Waitrose bakery. Policy is to keep some cakes sitting there for over a week so they “look good”.

(vom)

Plus with the sickness disciplinary policy basically you have a cold or a vomitting bug you go in.

I got disciplined for catching something from my manager and taking the day off, but after they’d “made their examples” everyone goes in with their ailments. I spent half of one of my shifts on the loo.

My colleague was called to a disciplinary meeting for coughing at one of the counters as a customer made a complaint! So there’s no winning really ....

My husband and I were talking the other night that we think they will be the next to go. There is a palpable decline in standards there at the moment and customer service has gone out of the window. Such a shame, we have been loyal jl customers for years but there is no reason to shop there anymore.

It amazes me that these companies survived this long.
All this crap service and hobs etc going wrong. Thank fuck we have online shopping where everything goes like clockwork and what they sell is perfect. You can't actually go and look at the product or feel the quality or talk to a human but who needs that?

It’s a shame because there is some nice stuff and some nice people there and I do think some people enjoy the JL effect (property prices )

but maybe it’s just trying too hard as a brand to keep going when it shouldn’t be?

I suspect there was/is a lot of figure fiddling at a lot of levels going on.

I mean screwing with pay was obviously the visible one, but also lots of corners were being cut on cleaning/hygiene/health and safety. Unless you came in for an extra day for free there was simply no way you could do all of it right.

There was a eighteen year old Xmas temp who had an offer of a permanent contact revoked because he didn’t think he should be driving a delivery van soon after passing his test and putting the public at risk.

In this atmosphere it’s only the really odd dodgy aggressive types who are unemployable anywhere else who keep hanging on.

Me and a few other people tried to (naively) “take ownership” of customer issues but you just got into trouble for that - like a pp said you’re encouraged to “pass it along” until the customer gives up out of frustration.

My last Xmas I had an old guy with a daughter who lived abroad trying to pay for some nice ready meals for him.

I tried to sort it out myself (he was clearly not very firm on his feet and it was fucking Xmas time?!!!) , and I pushed two managers to authorise the (not very complicated) transaction for me.

Our system could do it and we’d lose no money but I just needed their login.

When I showed them the message, I was told how I clearly couldn’t read or understand English (I’m British but not white and this was said in very slow tones )

although Im thick-skinned and pushed it through, that’s basically the kind of management culture now - any member of staff who tries to be polite and authentically helpful and not cut corners is basically beaten down ?

I went in today to buy my husband some slippers for Christmas - yes, I know but that’s what he wants. I found the pair I wanted in the right size but the box was a bit bent. It didn’t bother me but it did bother the assistant who insisted on going to get me another one from the stockroom.

I got really lovely service there today. Shame about all the other customers!

I am sure lots of good service continues to go on and lots of good people, but there is a decline and a few rogue elements and processes letting the side down. I used to think JL were untouchable for customer service but I don't now. I want to see them continue. I would hate for them to go belly up or turn into a messy bazaar which is what Debenhams and House of Fraser have become.

Just called JL to check stock levels of an item in my local store and try and reserve it.

The person on the phone was in the Philippines!!

And evidently had no clue about my JL store, stock or opening times.
She was going to send a message to my local store.

The phone then rang 2 mins later and it showed as an 'international' mobile number. I answered it, waited 20 seconds or so and it was dead. I'm now a bit concerned! I would never usually answer an international call I don't recognise.

It wasn't that long ago that you could actually speak to someone in your local store.

And given how long the phone queue is to actually get through to customer services I wish they would find some less repetitive, less crackly hold music.

Our JL is OK but staff pitifully thin on the ground.
However I rarely go in since they changed the wooden flooring to hard grey concrete slabs. So hard on the feet and makes the shop feel cold and unwelcoming. Would hate to stand on that floor all day, no give in it whatsoever. Loved the wooden floor.

Looks like nothing has improved since last year. Ordered Xmas pressies a couple of weeks ago and no delivery yet and waited 30 mins on hold to speak to someone in customer service before giving up!