To think John Lewis have the worst customer services EVER?

[SwordfishSteak]

First world problem I know but I have just experienced the worst ongoing customer services experience.

Mattress purchase- we decided to splurge and buy an expensive one as we will be using it for a good decade.

After a couple of months (has to be made, apparently) they schedule delivery 2 weeks ago.
Never show up, never call. We have to chase, the order doesn't seem to exist anymore (???) then after more phone calls they find it again and reschedule delivery for 2 days ago.

They give me a time slot, it comes and goes with no contact. I call to chase and as I am on the phone the driver logs the delivery as 'refused'.
Apparently the street was too small?

They reschedule for yesterday with a smaller van.
This time the driver calls me directly and tells me no-one mentioned the street being narrow and he showed up in a too-big van.

Finally today at 2 they show up in a small enough van... and it turns out the packaging is torn and the mattress ripped.

Drivers call customer services who offer a small discount which we refuse. He then tells me they will call me with an update on a replacement.

Except they didn't and when I chased I was told said replacement has to be arranged through the store and I was given an effing time slot (!!!!!) in which the store will call me back tomorrow.
A four hour time slot.

Apparently messing up delivery 3 times and finally showing up with a ripped mattress doesn't even warrant a call back.

Is it me or is it the shittest service ever?

The guy tonight was lovely and tried calling the shop directly but couldn't get through because their number was disconnected... the whole thing has been a farce.

Anyway sorry for the rant, I was wondering if it had happened to others? I used to love JL...

I've been a loyal and usually happy John Lewis customer for more years than I care to admit to. I've just recently had a very positive customer service experience with them. An item bought for last Christmas developed a fault after 8 months. The manufacturer's helpline diagnosed it was a fatality and referred me back to the retailer - John Lewis - to ask for an exchange under the warranty. They took the details over the phone, sent out a replacement the same day and asked me to return the faulty item within the next 28 days reusing the packaging and free postage label from the replacement. It is not an inexpensive item but I wonder if I've done better because it is a smaller item and not a delivery issue? That said, I've had similar big problems to the OP and pps with the customer service, quality, delivery and recollection of large items with other retailers recently - Currys, Aldi, Charles Taylor Trading Ltd and Robert Dyas for example.

My only complaint with John Lewis is the closure of stores, including my favourite one. I still can't believe they've actually done that.

My DD had a poor experience, and the tech department were patronising on top.

Having seen the quality or lack of of an AnyDay piece of furniture, I would say you are probably better off with IKEA.

@MrsMackesy

I've been a loyal and usually happy John Lewis customer for more years than I care to admit to. I've just recently had a very positive customer service experience with them. An item bought for last Christmas developed a fault after 8 months. The manufacturer's helpline diagnosed it was a fatality and referred me back to the retailer - John Lewis - to ask for an exchange under the warranty. They took the details over the phone, sent out a replacement the same day and asked me to return the faulty item within the next 28 days reusing the packaging and free postage label from the replacement. It is not an inexpensive item but I wonder if I've done better because it is a smaller item and not a delivery issue? That said, I've had similar big problems to the OP and pps with the customer service, quality, delivery and recollection of large items with other retailers recently - Currys, Aldi, Charles Taylor Trading Ltd and Robert Dyas for example.

My only complaint with John Lewis is the closure of stores, including my favourite one. I still can't believe they've actually done that.

a Fatality?

YANBU to be annoyed with your own personal experience, but YABVVU to say John Lewis have the worst customer service ever. I've always found them to be fantastic - quick delivery and fast refunds if there's an issue.

Their customer service has been pretty awful for some years now.

When I moved into my current house 6 years ago I experienced very bad customer services from them when trying to buy a large dining table and 6 chairs.

Waited in all day for a non existent delivery, next day my delivery was still at the furthest part of the lorry so the promised early delivery never happened and I ended up waiting in all day again.

When the delivery didn't arrive again I contacted their customer service department.

After a lot of toing and froing and a customer 'care' department that made it very clear they couldn't care less about me and my delivery I cancelled the order.

A little while later there was a very long thread on here about JL and their awful customer service and there have been other threads since.

I had a similar experience when I order a vacuum cleaner from they that arrived damaged.

I try very hard not to order anything from JL now.

Whats the anyday stuff like, i haven't seen it yet

They’re appalling. I’ll never shop there again after they thought it perfectly acceptable for me to be GBP75 out of pocket and without the dishwasher I had paid for. They genuinely thought I was going to accept paying them for doing nothing. Insane. Such a shame because about twenty or so years ago Johnny Lou Lou’s was my absolute favourite shop.

IIIIIIIIIII

All I can say is that it's genuinely the worst customer services I have ever experienced, specially considering the value of the purchase.
From a lot of the comments here, it seems I am far from alone in my view.

For the record we are still waiting to hear further re a replacement date for the mattress that we paid for weeks ago.
They called us at 8.30 this morning to tell us they would find out and let us know, and then nothing.

If you think that it's acceptable, after countless phone calls and 4 delivery attempts, then I guess IABU!

They gave me the right run around a few years ago with some shoes for DD that I ordered in store. The details are lost on me now but involved a crappy ordering system that didn't actual end up with the shoes because they cancelled the order and didn't tell me. Had to escalate the compliant after first customer service person told me to just order them again and didn't acknowledge the hassle I had been through.

I've normally found our John Lewis great, but when my father in law had a problem with a new mattress that wasn't going to be solved in a satisfactory manner, I tweeted about it. All sorted very quickly with another, more expensive mattress. Also sorted out an issue with Bristol airport parking using tweets. Twitter is your friend...

I voted YANBU btw OP - sounds dreadful.

Irreparable @DynamoKev

I used to absolutely love JL. Am massively fucked off that they closed my nearest store (shortly after a massive re-fit) which has totally spoiled my days out. Nearest branch us now bloody hours away. Now I don't go into the city to go shopping as there's no bloody shops worth visiting. It's a first world problem, I know, but I used to love going to JL and now I'm stuck at home ordering stuff from them that I have to send back or simply doesn't turn up.

I love the shop, and generally the shop floor staff are great. But I have no faith when it comes to the customer service staff on the phones.

Indeed they do. I don't buy from them at all now due to this.

I don't mind if something doesn't work. I just need the retailer or manufacturer to own the issue and fix it. Timely. And without me needing to be over-involved.

JL customer service is shocking to the point that I will not order from them online at all. I can’t really understand why anyone would given that their own brands are generally not great and nearly everything one might want to buy can be sourced elsewhere. I did used to shop in store, but they have closed my local branch and to be honest, aside from the convenience I haven’t really missed it as I can order most things online from a more reliable source.

My only complaint with John Lewis is the closure of stores, including my favourite one. I still can't believe they've actually done that

Me too!

There was a homeware only store 28 miles away, but that never reopened post-Covid. The nearest ones are approx 40 and 60 miles away, and both are nightmare journeys that involve some dreadful traffic bottlenecks.

I would say from my experience that Robert Dyas has the worst customer service ever, so it would be a great shame if dear old JL has gone or goes that way.

They have the worst customer service, I bought a £280 mamaroo rocker that stopped working after 3 months, they were useless and didnt want to refund!

Useless these days.
We had trouble with a faulty laptop that arrived in resealed packaging. We also had fridge freezer that had to be returned after waiting weeks for delivery. The faff was unbelievable as I had immediately filled it with food and we eventually had to buy a cheap chest freezer to put in the garage to avoid losing all our frozen food.
I nearly ordered dining chairs recently, then our DD managed to source exactly the same ones from an online retailer for a fraction of the cost! JL wanted £900 for a set of chairs and she got them for £200. I've been into the store and they are identical.
DD works in customer services for The Hut Group and honestly can't believe how crap JL have become.
Also work with a young girl who was visiting JL to collect a Christmas order for her parents at Christmas and she had to go several nights as the queue was so long the shop closed before she reached the front. Some days she was banned from joining the queue because it was already too long. It was a running joke at work, people were bringing her in survival packs of sweets.

YANBU we ordered a mattress topper last year for our king size bed. When it arrived, it didn't fit. DH measured it with a tape measure and it was smaller than the stated dimensions!

He rang to explain this and organise returning it to be told they don't take bedding back

He pointed out that it wasn't sold as stated and having paid £300 for it, we weren't prepared to put up with an essentially faulty product.

It took some arguing but DH told them we were sending it back and expected either a refund or replacement.

Got a replacement in the end but would never order from them again.

Oh wow that does sound really shocking,

I've only ever had one issue with JL (car seat arrived damaged) and they were extremely helpful in resolving. Looking at the other comments perhaps I was just lucky.

I hope it gets resolved soon and you get what you've paid for.