To expect John Lewis to refund

[ChristmasKoala]

I bought my son a lovely waterproof coat from John Lewis at the beginning of October, after a few weeks wear the fabric was fraying at the seams in a number of places. I contacted John Lewis who refused to refund as I'd had the coat over 30 days. In the end I accepted a replacement of the same coat. Only now the exact same thing has happened again. I don't want the same coat as there's clearly a fault with the design and there are not any other waterproof coats in my sons size! Surely I should be entitled to a refund. I thought John Lewis coats would be good quality and they would have decent customer service!

JL days of excellent customer service are long gone.

They seem to be trying to save money by issuing no replacements over 30 days. I bought an iPad with a fault - it switched itself off - but it didn’t always happen so it took a while to be sure there was a fault. Anyway they said it was a known fault so no replacement after 30 days - they would only send it away to be repaired.

I said “You sold me a product you knew to be faulty?”

So I took it to an Apple store and they replaced it.

Amazon would have replaced it without a quibble.

I will never buy tech from JL again. I used to buy all my tech there.

The funny thing is I'm needing to replace our washing machine and I was looking at what John Lewis have as I thought their customer service would be good. Now there's no way that I'll be buying from them again.

This is why JL needs to be careful - if they want to stay in business they need to offer good service otherwise they have no USP any more.

I have had good experiences with John Lewis.

EG my Apple Watch Milanese strap (£100) started to discolour and was faulty. I ordered online, the online tech department asked me to bring it into store for a refund. Store refunded it without issue and booked me an appointment in their quiet customer service department area, I didn’t even have to wait into a queue at their normal tills and it was sorted very quickly.

I’m surprised you have had such an experience however as you ordered online, you can always open a chargeback with your bank.

Amazon would have replaced it without a quibble.

At this point, Amazon isn’t comparable to other businesses. They’re so successful that they haemorrhage losses without issue. They have a monopoly in certain areas.

JL in comparison has clearly been struggling over recent years with store closures and policy changes etc. Outside of JL, most retailers (especially brick & mortar retailers) will ask you to go to the manufacturer for a remedy.

Amazon’s returns policies contributed to their success.

Just as it used to contribute JL’s.

Agree their CS is going down the toilet. We spent £800 on a dining table and £800 on chairs which was a huge amount of money to us. One of the chairs had a fault so they offered us a tenner off to keep it, no alternative. I said given we'd just spent £1600 with them what I wanted was an as-new chair. The next chair they sent was damanaged too so it took a while to sort. I'm sure in the olden days we'd have been given the chair for 50% off or even free after we were messed about so much.

@Mirabai even Amazon is backtracking on their returns policy though, you only have to search online for refused Amazon refunds where Amazon didn’t send out the right item, or because they have en masse stated the wrong item was sent back. Instead of investigating, they just ban accounts.

Never had a problem returning anything to Amazon and I’m a high traffic user.

Same! I bought an item of clothing that turned out to have a fault just after the 30 days. I complained and they refused to refund - didn't have the same item in stock! In the end I received a replacement item in a different colour, £10 refund and a £10 gift card as an apology! It would clearly have cost them less just to refund (original item was approx £25). Idiots! It's one thing to have a return policy but that shouldn't include items that are clearly faulty!

Totally agree. JLP customer service has gone right down the pan. It was superb when Andy Street was in charge. I once had an issue with someone collecting my paid order from a London branch. I wrote directly to Andy Street and he got it sorted! Yesterday, I received a parcel from JLP which contained a smashed item without a delivery note. I managed to find a number to call to get a replacement but the telephone return service was absolutely atrocious. I had to pass the phone over to my husband as I couldn’t make any sense of the customer service assistant! I won’t be buying from them again. They truly do not care about the customer any more.

Don’t buy a washing machine from JL. I made that mistake. They supplied me a faulty one (as in faulty on day 1 - badly manufactured) and insisted I wait a couple of weeks for a Bosch engineer. For my brand new appliance! (And because the old washer had obv broken, I had washing backed up already). Got a local bloke to look at it, he told me JL legally have to take it back and that it was manufactured so badly that it’d never work. I’ve never bought an appliance from them again. I did eventually get the money back from JL but they dragged their heels picking it up and it was lucky I could afford to buy one from the local person in the meantime.

They really are not wanting to refund! I've had a reply from customer services still only offering a replacement (they don't have any other waterproof coats in my son's size so a replacement isn't even possible) or £10 so I can repair the coat! It has that many holes from fraying that it is beyond repair. I've emailed back but I'm honestly shocked that they can think this is acceptable customer service.

If it comes to it, start quoting the law / referring them to that extract about not having to accept a second replacement. Don't be fobbed off. Ask to escalate/ speak to a manager too if needed

I'm sure I read somewhere a few years back that clothes should last a minimum of 10 months.

Yep you should get your money back. I took DD's school shoes back to m and s in early December. I ordered them in august and she started wearing them at the start of the new school year so about 10 weeks. They were ridiculously worn out. The insole had come apart. They refunded me.

This is illegal ( see MSE, Martin Lewis has touched on this in the past). If the item is FAULTY you are entitled to a full refund regardless of the 30 day returns policy.

John Lewis customer service is very much not what it was. I admire their commitment to a higher purpose than profit but frankly if they make it too hard to do business with them (currently have been without an oven for six weeks because they can't get their act together to replace it) they won't have any money to keep paying their staff or suppliers and then all the purpose in the world won't help them.

I wouldn’t accept that.

I would email them explaining what’s happened and clarifying my consumer rights.

I think John Lewis are great in terms of customer service, so I’d be surprised if they don’t budge.

In store they are pretty good but online (for those of us without a store) are horrendous! They literally just parrot a script and will not look at individual circumstances at all!

They're trying it on OP. Ive found the first rung of customer services at JL pretty unhelpful and inept tbh. Escalate as a complaint.

You've given the opportunity to replace.x that has failed. You're with 6 months you're entitled to a refund.

www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/advice/what-do-i-do-if-i-have-a-faulty-product-aTTEK2g0YuEy#how-long-do-i-have-to-return-a-faulty-product