To never buy anything from John Lewis ever again?

[Grrrrrrrrr8]

Anyone else wondering what's going on with customer service at John Lewis?

It's taken me months to sort out a simple exchange. I speak to a different person each time who tells me something different. There seems to be lots of hoops to jump through. Totally fed up, I don't think they're worth it anymore. Recently bought a TV from a smaller retailer and they've been so much better when it developed a fault.

I am with you OP. I got some uniform from there and it has been horrible quality and was falling apart in 2 months. After endless customer support calls I have given up and mended it myself. Tesco uniform is far better and they would exchange if similar happened. Never going back again.

I got an exchange on a faulty lamp, 2 years old and under warranty, arranged over live chat and ready to collect from store the next day. Great service!

The failure of Debenhams and BHS was literally nothing to do with customer service. They were bought, asset stripped, loaded with debt, resold on the stock market and collapsed. Has John Lewis been bought by private equity investors?

I believe they used to have an excellent in house team for delivery and installation of white goods but that is no longer the case.This has been outsourced and this explains the difference.

I would suggest that anyone who is having problems with John Lewis customer services submits a Subject Access Request to them. Turns out they are not always truthful in the information they record about your interactions, particularly on the phone or in person where you are unable to provide evidence to the contrary. I will never use them again.

Can’t say I’ve noticed. Last year bought a relatively expensive wheelie cabin bag as a present - the handle broke the first time it was used. Took it back, refund, no question.
Also last🎄ordered a big requested item as a present for a dd. Ordered around 8 pm, was delivered to her by 11 am next morning!

We had a very good experience with them when some expensive hard flooring was badly laid. They came to inspect it (or rather sent the sub contractor) and it was all taken up and replaced.

The one thing that I really miss is being able to be connected to my local stores to check on stock or just ask for advice (on household items.)

My entire house is almost furnished by JL and over the years I've missed being able to talk to Mr/Mrs X on flooring/ soft furnishings/electrical.

The call centre in Glasgow (?) is hopeless on the whole and if there is an issue, you're passed from pillar to post having to start the whole conversation from scratch. That's a REAL issue- not being able to speak to the same person about the same issue.

I was just about to say that I bought a washing machine and tumbler dryer from. AO recently and the young men who delivered were lovely. My home ( Victorian) is a bit of a pain to get large items into, but they were great. They removed the old ones, hooked up the new ones and tested them. They really were 1st class.

I used to always buy white goods from John Lewis, even if they were more expensive as I wanted a smooth customer service experience. But then they outsourced their delivery and the experience was terrible. Never again. I too use a local independent retailer now who are brilliant.

Have you been into the store? We had a much better experience doing that. Although we got fobbed off by the nursery department who said we needed to contact the manufacturer, we went upstairs to customer services. After politely explaining that we really couldn't be without a car seat they were great! They gave us each a voucher for tea and cake so we could go and have a coffee whilst they sorted everything out. Fast forward an hour and two members of staff met us in the customer collections department, inspected our car seat in our car and agreed it was faulty. They then ordered a replacement to be delivered to the store the next day and processed the exchange. We came back the following day, picked it up the new seat and they removed the faulty one to go back to the manufacturer.

It was a pain because we needed to arrange childcare for DD as we couldn't take her in the car because of the seat, but they sorted it out so smoothly once the ball was rolling.

The baby car seat we had when DD was a baby also developed a fault whilst it was under warranty. I brought it into store and as they had it in stock they swapped it then and there.

We commented at the time it was old school John Lewis!

I agree, they are awful now.

We have a John Lewis credit card that we use for all purchases, so get JL vouchers to spend there. So I keep going back, but every single time seems to be a bad experience lately.

The electronics department at my local JL is like a depressing wasteland. I went in trying to buy a product that cost around £300, and could find nobody to help me, despite wandering around for ages. I gave up, and bought the item from Amazon in the end (they actually have great customer service).

We’ve decided to save the vouchers to buy Christmas food, but I’m considering switching credit cards actually, as even getting the items “free” I’m finding it too much hassle.

I had a crap experience the other day, which actually led me to having an argument with the cashier I’m embarrassed to say
I was stood in a queue for over 20 minutes ( first in line ) whilst cashier no 1 tried to get somebody already at the till to sign up to the John Lewis card, and she just couldn’t do it, and the other two cashiers were chatting over a till trying to sort something it seemed
A Lady comes over and asks for help to find bedding - one of the chatting cashiers goes to help her then brings her back to the till and serves her
I’ve got upset and said excuse me we have been waiting in line for over 20 minutes get this lady just walked over and you have served her whilst we are just standing here
she should’ve asked her to wait at the back of the queue with her shopping
met with some nasty comments from the cashier,then shouted she was meant to be on a break
I was already hot and tired, and couldn’t leave the queue because I was purchasing something on behalf of a friend’s grandmother who couldn’t get out
theur stores are also boiling hot, no air-conditioning, and their customer service has definitely gone down as of late !

This looks like a haiku 😉

The customer service department was outsourced a while ago to an outside company. This is when it started going downhill. Employees of JL were hired and retained for their work ethic and loyalty, and vested interest in customer service as it could affect the yearly bonus they receive as ‘partners’ in JLP. The outsourced company do not have this incentive.

I had a horrible experience with them last year trying to get a refund on a faulty item. The man I dealt with made me feel dreadful. The item was faulty and I had the receipt. But he was so condescending and nasty I almost left without the money. He then got another person over and they kind of ganged up on me. I held my ground and despite having a massive hot flush managed to be very determined.
It made me see the shop very differently.

I don't work for JL neither am I defensive but I accept that I find it odd that an adult would need to ask the internet if they should to stop going to a particular shop.

If I get bad customer service I dont go back, as they say, simples, no?

We stopped after we wanted to buy a camera that was £400 more online with John Lewis than with a camera store online. John Lewis refused to price match. Why would I pay £400 more for exactly the same item and a worse guarantee?

Same. Drum went within 2 year warranty period and it was a nightmare getting it sorted. I only did because I was persistent at my end, but I shouldn't have had to do as much as I did for them to uphold their end.

Never had problems and still our go to place. Do people complain to JL afterwards about their bad experiences?

I recently received someone else’s order, presumably they received mine. I buy pretty much everything online and have never had that happen before. Very odd.

I've never had anything other than exemplary customer service from John Lewis.

DH bought a merino wool jumper from them in February. By the end of March after only a few wears, a hole appeared in the armpit (on the seam). He contacted them ask for a repair or replacement and they said no, as it had been washed so was probably our fault. I think we’d washed it once, exactly as described on the care label!

We were really disappointed as it wasn’t a cheap purchase, and had heard so many good things about JL customer service.

We had a similar experience about a replacement item that was damaged - took weeks of talking to different customer service people none of which could read the chain above, so was just me repeating myself to different people.

I like JL when they work well but this has put me off.

I also had appalling in store "customer service" and left with nothing.

Ordered from ao.com and have never looked back-they are fantastic.

John Lewis rode it's reputation for years but the reality is that service ethic is long gone

*edited to say I have no idea why or how ao.com turns in to a hyper link when I just typed in the name. Scary!!!

We won't use ao . com again, either. I know a lot of people rave about their customer service, but it's only excellent if the appliance you buy is in good working order. If it's broken/faulty, they're a nightmare. We didn't want a faulty/broken new dishwasher and wanted it replaced, as was our right under consumer laws. They wanted to keep trying to 'fix' our brand new dishwasher. It was quite the battle. We won, but my husband won't use them again.