John Lewis’ PR is awful?

[HelenaHandcart0]

Just received this in an email from JL saying they are ditching the ‘never knowingly undersold’ promise. Sadly I feel this could be the beginning of the end for them (I hope not) but what an awful way to communicate it!

It said:

..’we will be retiring our Never Knowingly Undersold policy this summer. Established back in 1925 and a hallmark of trust for nearly a century, we recognise that this policy is no longer serving you in the way that we would like, as it doesn't allow us to match prices from online-only retailers’

AIBU in thinking their PR is awful in communicating it this way?

And I don't get the sense that head office sees their future in spatulas and curtains either; I get survey after survey about financial products and home insurance and credit cards.

I had an email off them saying I didn’t shop as much with them too.

They closed my closest store though 🤷🏻‍♀️

Everytime you went buy something in the store they said they'd have to order it online & get out their ipad - I could have done that from home. Nothing was ever in stock. I bought a few big items from them (furniture so picked the fabric etc) and they were all delivered in something completely different, twice - and I had to wait 6 weeks for my money back twice , plus the time waiting for them to pick the items up
Absolutely shoddy service and the only purpose built JL near us that was absolutely rammed all the time has closed down
Who is actually running it now?

Yes, got the same email. Their customer service has dive bombed recently and I certainly don't rate them as I used to. Waitrose is pulling some of its advantages/incentives now to. Shame.

I've had the same email. No explanation of how their investment of millions is actually going to help the consumer or replace the policy. Whoever came up with the wording needs to think again

@HelenaHandcart0

Just received this in an email from JL saying they are ditching the ‘never knowingly undersold’ promise. Sadly I feel this could be the beginning of the end for them (I hope not) but what an awful way to communicate it!

It said:

..’we will be retiring our Never Knowingly Undersold policy this summer. Established back in 1925 and a hallmark of trust for nearly a century, we recognise that this policy is no longer serving you in the way that we would like, as it doesn't allow us to match prices from online-only retailers’

AIBU in thinking their PR is awful in communicating it this way?

Well it's not their PR team. They should have been consulted, but it would have been led by commercial.

JL mucked about with their Peterborough store for a year while they spent £££squillions on a super refurb, it opened fully for a few months in 2020 but now has remained permanently closed. Surely you’d open it up again to get some value out of those shiny new countertops and escalators?

Having shopped elsewhere in 2019 I now… shop elsewhere.

I strongly suspect the CFO is in charge at JL which is why they’re a) spending no money on the customer experience b) spending no money on the customer experience.

They have definitely had atrocious marketing recently. I used to think of them as associated with quality but they are now putting out confused messaging which just seems to say "we don't know who the hell we are or what we represent". The camp little boy smashing up his family home while treating his sister and mum like crap was the worst ad I think I have ever seen. It just seemed to say "our advertising is led by gay men who don't give a fuck about women". What the hell has that got to do with retail? Except to alienate the very people who do the most retail shopping in the UK, WOMEN. They seem to have lost the plot. It definitely doesn't encourage me to shop there.

I was a big JL fan (and also worked for them for a bit). I thought the Never Knowingly Undersold had pushed the legal limits for a long time.

They're selling a tv for £999, you tell them that it's £899 at Curry's or wherever. If it meets the various hurdles (often checked some time later which frankly isn't helpful if it goes out of stock by then), you get a price match. But they stopped reducing the selling price. So, if they were still selling it for £999, it was knowingly undersold at that point.

I used to buy there for their customer service. Except it's nothing like it used to be and I struggle to find staff, even in the Oxford Street branch which is supposedly their flagship.

I got this email too, accompanied by details of a ghastly cheaper range of stuff that looked as id it had come out of the pound shop. Yes, their days are numbered.

John Lewis' arrogance is starting to piss me right off. Time and again their service is touted as being "great for you, the customer" when actually it works in their favour. And I wish to fuck they'd stop wanging on about the shift to online shopping - yes, that's because there was a fucking pandemic when online was the only way we were allowed to shop AND you keep closing stores!

...accompanied by details of a ghastly cheaper range of stuff that looked as id it had come out of the pound shop

The "Anyday" stuff? The branding for that is naff and cheap, goodness only knows who thought it was a good idea.

@DuaLeaper

And I don't get the sense that head office sees their future in spatulas and curtains either; I get survey after survey about financial products and home insurance and credit cards.

Yes I received an investment circular from them today

I agree. I think it’s a form of disingenuous communication that seems pretty prevalent at the moment- let’s pretend we are doing something good for your benefit.
Would prefer it if they said “ times are tough so we are having to give up our NKU pledge “ as part of a business rescue strategy.”

There's no unsubscribe link in that email either.

@ChicCroissant

There's no unsubscribe link in that email either.

its right at the bottom, it is on mine anyway

I had a similarly stupid email from Celebrity Cruises which read "Congratulations! We're moving your boat to the Caribbean" by way of cancelling my European cruise.

A more honest version might have been "We're really sorry to make you lose money on the hotels and flights you've booked around your cruise. But, we've realised we can make far more money in the Caribbean than your shitty little European cruise so please forgive our greed." I'd have had far most respect than the irrational nonsense they sent.

I think it would be a tough pledge to maintain and remain viable .
It's difficult to sell products at same price when there overheads must be astronomical .

its right at the bottom, it is on mine anyway

No, mine only has a privacy notice and a option to view the email online. No unsubscribe option.

Oh, that's bad, mine has all three things

It's along the same lines of Waitrose telling me that I'll no longer get a free newspaper when I spend over £10 but I can get 50p off Bonne Maman rice pudding every so often, even if I'm not planning on buying rice pudding.

I got this email as well. And was

They have really gone downhill. I'm a lifelong JL loyal customer but things have changed. I know I sound really old fashioned but their in-store customer service is terrible now. I used to work for them as a student in the 90s. We had to wear uniform and the dress code was so strict you weren't allowed to wear suede shoes on the shop floor, they had to be leather. How you approached and served customers was quite formal and many staff members had been in their departments for years and were real experts in their products.

Now? Uniform has been abandoned. Staff look scruffy, unprofessional and uninterested. No product knowledge. If you ask them a question they offer to look it up online for you. I don't know how some of them ever got their jobs. Standing around having a conversation with colleagues while customers are waiting is NOT the excellent customer service that I had to deliver in the 90s.

I think they have tried too hard to keep up with the times. I think they should offer something different eg a traditional department store with old fashioned values.

Yes their Anyday range has just been taking lessons from EasyJet - orange and cheap and nasty!!

I go to JL for quality and did used to go for customer service and product knowledge, but they really don't have that any more. The staff just look things up online, and don't have any particular training in their area, and trying to get help online is appalling. The customer service and knowledge used to be their USP and people didn't mind paying a bit more for that as it was seen as worth it. They've really lost the plot now.

They've closed lots of useful departments and replaced with more cafes and bars, including departments where they were one of the few places in town to get such useful but boring things. I'd often end up browsing other departments at the same time, so they've lost out doubly on customers.

It's fair enough that they stopped it but to try and pretend they are doing it in their customers interests is really bizarre. Do they think their customers are that stupid 😅😅. I feel insulted.

It's like when they drone on about how green they are then package things in ginormous wasteful packaging to try and trick their customers. It's all about profit to them. Which is fair enough I suppose but don't try and pretend otherwise.

TBF I'm going to their price match. I loved getting things cheap from them. I used it all the time and rarely paid their full price for branded items such as electronics etc.