Or is John Lewis

[hawai40]

Having a sense of humour failure here. We bought two expensive (for us !) chairs from John Lewis last year. They are different but part of the same range. The leg/dowl unexpectedly broke on one about 6 weeks ago. Contacted John Lewis who accepted the case and put me in touch with their inspectors/ repairers. I've spent 6 weeks trying to contact them but to no avail and they are now apparently entirely closed.

The chair is heavy and I have three small children, we are constantly moving it to prevent them scratched by it or hurt if it falls over.

I have suggested:

We repair it temporarily ourselves and take a video and they can asses it via that and repair in full when possible.

We put the chair in our garden out of the way of children and they asses it when they can (not ideal as it will be ruined and they will have to replace).

They get their repair company do come, asses and take away for repair. We can leave the chair outside at an agreed time so no infringement or social distancing.

Apparently none of those options are acceptable. They have now agreed to take away the chair and issue a refund but for only one chair. I love the chairs and want to keep them if repaired, but I have no desire to be stuck with one chair which I can't find a replacement for when we need two chairs.

What next ! I am so fed up of moving the chair, but we just don't have anywhere to put it and we are in the house all of the time now.

Ask for a partial refund and to keep the chair then pay to have someone fix it at your own cost ?

Photo of where/how broken? Have you emailed the manufacturer with all the information?

YABU OP

But my suggestions seem to be a no go.

Of course they are, OP They’re just not workable at all. They’re not even sensible.

You have three choices:
• keep the broken chair, pay to have it repaired yourself and end contact with John Lewis
• allow John Lewis to refund you the chair and you sort another
• sell the broken chair with or without unprofessional fix from your DP

Whether you like them or not, those are your choices. You won’t get anywhere whinging to customer services because they’ve been more than reasonable already.

What if they refused to refund outright because it was last year?
You'd have to fix it yourself anyway.
So just do that..

Definitely ask JL for a partial refund to cover the cost of you getting the chair repaired. If you tell them you are happy to take JL vouchers you will get a higher value eg they offer you £200 but say your happy for £300 in vouchers. That is a win for both parties.

There is a company called Trade Secret. They buy end of line furniture, chairs, beds, tables etc from places like John Lewis and M&S and sell them at reduced prices. You could try their website (they are delivering during the Covid period) to see if they have any chairs that match the one you have.

Hope this helps

I'd get a price for someone to repair it before I made a decision. JL don't usually refund until the item is back in the warehouse, or that's what they told me when they cocked up my order twice, so it could be a while

I wouldn't expect a heavy, expensive John Lewis chair to "unexpectedly break" all on its own, especially with three small children in the house... anyway, I can see your point about the two chairs being bought as a matching set. Have you looked on ebay/facebook etc to see if you can find a second-hand one in good condition to buy as a replacement? If so, you could accept JL's refund. Otherwise, I'd get it fixed locally (tell them first) and pursue JL for reimbursement. It's bound to cost less than a refund so if they're saying they can't do it, it's likely a "computer says no" response and you'll need to find a way around it, e.g. by escalating the issue to head office, or suggesting they issue the reimbursement in the form of JLP vouchers rather than cash.

And I’d assume John Lewis have a better standard of customer service than just saying no.
What solution would you expect someone with a better standard of customer service to suggest?

JL don't usually refund until the item is back in the warehouse

Yes they do. On delivering the wrong pair of shoes for the third time, they refunded me and told me to keep them.

Very unlikely to happen with an armchair bought a year ago.

Why is everyone falling over the broken chair? Don't people in your home look where they are going?

And the non-broken chair is still a functioning chair. Calling it useless will really lower it's self esteem.

OP I get your point. If JL had sold these chairs as a set of 2 then I imagine they would want both back and refund them. Since they are actually two individual items, with 2 individual prices, you are only getting the refund on one, even though you are using them as if you had bought a set.

I don't think either of you are being unreasonable but I think the way they are dealing with the matter is the "correct" way. If they could pay for an independent repair then it could be a win all round.

My chair was £750 and no they wouldn't @Alsohuman
Perhaps they have changed their policy recently

What solution would you expect someone with a better standard of customer service to suggest?

I did suggest they pay for the repair. They seem unable to do to this due to Lockdown despite it being entirely feasible in a number of ways.

Op says John Lewis who accepted the case and put me in touch with their inspectors/ repairers.

I would expect John Lewis to find a way to have it inspected and repaired

YABU

because JL can't do the repairs themselves (because Covid) and they can't pay for your repair work (because it would void guarantees, contracts etc). They can't magic you a replacement that doesn't exist so they have no other solution,

Expecting to keep the chair and have your money back is not the way the world works.

Op says John Lewis who accepted the case and put me in touch with their inspectors/ repairers.

I would expect John Lewis to find a way to have it inspected and repaired

Why, when outsourcing this particular function appears to be the way they work? They haven't given op Big Jim from No. 39's mobile number and asked her to liase with him herself?
They have offered op a way to have it inspected and repaired

I get you totally OP, I had a similar issue with blinds from Next where one arrived broken and they no longer did them, they offered to take away the broken one and I could order something myself from another supplier. However, I'd bought them in a slae and they ow cost twice as much from somewhere else. Anyway upshot was that they paid for me to get a matching one from elsewhere even though it was more expensive.

You need the chairs to match, if they take away the broken one, you no longer have the option of matching chairs. It's all part of the same order. I'm sure most people wpould be unhappy if they bought two sofas and one broke within a year, getting compensation for one isn't really the point, they are a pair. Im not sure why everyone is getting so snarky to be honest.

Are the legs screw on? Could you get 4 new feet that match or get something the right size and shift it to the back where it's less noticeable?

Remove the foot and send it for repair? Take all the feet off and leave it flat on the floor but still usable until they are able to get a full repair?

Take the refund, stick some books under the leg and get it repaired when things improve.

Take the refund, stick some books under the leg and get it repaired when things improve

The refund means JL get the chair back.

YABU

Did you buy them at the same time? If you did you could reasonably point out you bought them as a set.

Buying two item at the same time doesn't make them a set. Even if they were the same item; and these weren't.

they are a pair.
No they're not.

Im not sure why everyone is getting so snarky to be honest.
Because they're not a pair. And I would say that the responses are not so much snarky as realistic!