AIBU John Lewis

[StoneofDestiny]

AIBU to think that an e mail or written complaint to John lewis should be answered within a few days at best, a week at most, even if it's to say they are looking into it.......but to be still waiting a month on is unreasonable.

I remember buying a hob for delivery from JL, the customer service and poor reply waiting times was so bad I cancelled my order and vowed never to buy from them again. Bought from curry’s instead and had it delivered and installed within the week

I will never buy from JL again either.

Having delivered a misdescribed item, their customer service call handler was beyond rude.

Head Office dealt with it the end but it cost me a lot in time and stress.

JL know their customer service people are rude, useless and unhelpful. They've been told enough times.

I had an episode with them a few years ago that was quite funny. I ordered a pair of black shoes, they sent cream. I returned them and reordered, cream again. Sent them back and reordered - more cream shoes.

When I called customer services I spoke to a wonderful woman and we ended up howling with laughter and speculating if the shoes were all different or if I’d had the same pair three times. She ended up telling me to keep the third pair and refunded me as well.

but it cost me a lot in time and stress

That is exactly it. John Lewis must think we have boundless time to be used chasing them, going back and forth to their stores, emailing and writing to them, when all we want is the goods we paid for.

Somebody in the John Lewis chain of command surely must realise a poorly fulfilled order is a hassle customers can do without, that there are inconveniences and consequences when that happens and that adding insult to injury by not responding appropriately to matters raised is not the way to build a business or a reputation.

'I remember buying a hob for delivery from JL, the customer service and poor reply waiting times was so bad I cancelled my order and vowed never to buy from them again.'

I could have written that, but I bought my hob from them maybe 15 years ago. Service was diabolical, iirc they only delivered on weekdays and were booked up for many weeks in advance. I was asked to schedule a pickup for the faulty hob they'd delivered and a separate delivery for a new one, leaving me without a hob for weeks (or that's how I remember it anyway). Put me off them forevermore, at least where appliances are concerned.

After 30 years and thousands, probably tens of thousands of pounds spent there I will never shop there again.

Bought a very expensive TV. Paid extra for named day delivery. It was delivered broken. They said I had to prove that it was broken. I had to send them photographs. Eventually after several phone calls, and countless emails, they agreed to replace.
The rudest delivery person I have ever spoken to left me actually shaken after the encounter. It took weeks to get the money refunded. Even longer to get the delivery charge refunded.

At the same time, I bought something advertised as "artisan, made in UK" on website. It came with a "Made in China" sticker. I didn't have the energy to complain. Kept it. Less than 6 months later it has cracked and is not usable.

Fool me once etc.

Never again. Bye Bye JLs!

Oh I had a terrible experience with JL a few months ago. I ordered an expensive kettle and they sent me one that had clearly been used - and for some time, as it had limescale build up etc. I could only assume someone had returned it after about six months’ use. It was really weird and presumably not legally ok given that there are basic safety standards electrical goods need to meet when you sell them, and they appeared to have sold me someone’s old return. (How?!?)

I called to let them know and asked them to replace it - at which point they asked me to take the used kettle to the post office and post it back first so they could have a look at it and I made it clear that I wanted them to send me a new kettle straight away and they could take the old one away at the same time. Must have taken an hour on the phone to organise.

At which point they sent the new kettle to an address I haven’t lived at for 10 years and then tried to blame me for the mistake because I hadn’t updated my JL account details. (An account I hadn’t signed into for 10 years and which I hadn’t used when buying the kettle).

Took me another hour plus on the phone to sort that all out, at which point they finally sent me a new kettle to my actual house and took away someone else’s cast off. I had to drag a £20 goodwill voucher out of them.

All the electricals in our house are currently from JL. Cant see that continuing tbh.

JL started outsourcing everything, badly. Deliveries and customer service became particularly atrocious.

I think they ended the customer service contract with 'We Ruin Any Business Reputation, Guaranteed' CAPITA, but managed to retain the terrible staff / ethos somehow.

Which is why you have to go to head office to get anywhere. Or just avoid JL.

Well, I swore 'never again' a decade ago over the great Christmas dishwasher breakdown débâcle.

Waiting in for delivery of new dishwasher. Called away briefly and returned ten minutes before stated delivery time. They had been and gone. Replacement they sent was the wrong model. Re arranging delivery an utter nightmare.

However I returned to the fold, so to speak over lockdown and have been pleasantly surprised so far. The one complaint I had was swiftly sorted.

Re the 'made in U.K' 'artisan' furniture - I had an issue with similar but not through JL. Desk arrived broken, having spent three months crossing and re crossing the channel on a container vessel. And yes, made in China. Not sure how retailers get away with that one.

I also had an issue with an old address on their system I hadn't used for about 15 years. It was my parents' old address and I must have used it once to send flowers or something. Very odd.

They've decimated their head office of staff. Customer service was bound to fall.

I've used JL throughout lockdown in preference to Amazon (as I think soon it will be only Amazon and I hate not to have choice who to use) and everything has been great. Deliveries are much quicker than they used to be. Good service.

Sadly, I now feel the same. I bought a JL washing machine (Electrolux), the room shakes on the highest spin cycle, cycles stick & never finish, it doesn't look as if the soap is fully rinsed from the clothes. 'It's because it's on the floorboards'. Now, it's on an 18mm mdf board screwed into the floorboards as advised & to there's no real difference, but they're dismissive of my complaint. I used to love this store, but am now shopping elsewhere

Took them a year to resolve my case, first action was 11 months in after I copied in this person (customer service director) to my complaint. Thanks to Mumsnet user for giving me this address
[email protected]

And they're officially a bag'o'shite and I'll never shop there again.

Thanks for this email address @MenaiMna

Well, I'm pretty disheartened by all this.
I had to resolve things by getting a 'substitute' product as the product I was after was for immediate use. So I'm now stuck with the poor substitute - and it's not what I intended to have.

It's the fact that this matters not a jot to John Lewis. If I costed my time sending emails, calling and writing to them, plus my petrol costs and parking fees to go into the nearest store - I'm really out of pocket just for shopping at John Lewis!

I had a horrible experience with JL recently. During all my dealings with them I was unfailingly polite and stuck to the facts. The email I had from the store manager of one of their flagship stores left me quite shaken up.
It was badly written, words misspelt, poor grammar and no paragraphs. But it was the content that was quite upsetting. It was rude, accusatory and at one point implied they’d checked their CCTV and I was lucky they hadn’t take things further as “they take their staff well being seriously”. This was in response to me commenting that I had four members of staff surrounding me with no social distancing when I was trying to sort out a refund issue with them. I had been polite at all times!
The email left me with a bad taste in my mouth and did nothing to make me ever want to shop their again. In fact I met up with a friend yesterday who wanted to go to the JL coffee shop, I suggested M&S instead!

Yep, having the same problem (I'm not the person tweeting though ). They've gone massively downhill - their aftercare is basically non-existant now. Trustpilot reviews say it all.

It's such a shame because I feel as though in a year they'll go under and people will be saying, "how can a store with such great service be lost?"...….

I’ve just read some of the trust pilot reviews and noticed lots of replies from the JL manager who emailed me. Her trust pilot response is much better written and nicer! I feel like posting her response to my complaint on there which is the complete opposite of nice and helpful!

Yes their customer service has gone from good to awful.

They've clearly outsourced it. When you email, you get a 'holding' email in fractured English back, that sort of repeats your question but in a garbled way, and then says that they understand 'how important this issue is to you' - which suggests they've not read it at all, because sometimes it's just asking a simple question. I'd rather they save their understanding for the big issues, and instead just answer the question, or forward it on to someone who can. No need for this garbled reiteration of what you've said! And then when you do hear back, they hardly ever answer the real question anyway, and are much less likely to go out of their way to help - instead you just get a 'computer says no' type answer. They're not answered by people on the ground, who know the products or services.

It used to be that calling or using social media actually got better responses, from people who did know or would find out the answers, but no longer.

i've totally lost faith in their customer service dept now, and it's a shame, as that was their selling point. I've gone elsewhere now for big purchases that I would before have got from them because of the service.

Yes, Hazlenut. That's my feeling too. Their big selling point has been chronically downgraded. You can no longer rely upon the service you were once willing to pay more to ensure.