to think John Lewis Partnership is going down the swannee?

[suedonim]

I really used to like JLP but I've had nothing but bad service of late.

Earlier this year I bought a large amount of goods to be freighted abroad to where we live as expats, which was to go direct to the shippers. Next morning, our postman arrived with all our goods, which JLP has posted to us. Not only that, the goods weren't even wrapped securely, they were in loose carrier bags! It was days before JLP could come to collect it again, during which time we were having to clamber over and around piles of stuff.

In April we ordered a Mont Blanc pen for ds2's graduation, to be engraved with his initials. First of all, I ascertained that the pen we received would not be the display one as it was scratched. When the pen arrived (having had to change the engraving because the one we chose wasn't compatible with that particular pen) it was obviously it was the one that had been on display. Another pen had to be ordered but by then, it was too late for ds's gradution and we had to make do with a facsimile which dd2 printed off the internet.

I recently arranged to have a quote for carpets from JLP. When the guy arrived the shop had failed to tell him all the details so consequently, he couldn't quote for all that we wanted, meaning I didn't get a full costing.

Yesterday I bought a new kitchen bin (exciting, I know!) from them. When I opened the box at home, it was the wrong bl%dy colour - red instead of cream! So now I have to make another 40 mile round trip to swap it.

So, have I just had an unusual run of bad luck with JLP or are they now rubbish??

We have just had a Shiny brand new John Lewis built in our town..cant wait for it to open

I've had a couple of annoying experiences with them.

A wall cabinet from the Bristol branch just never arrived, and then we had a palaver over a wardrobe from Southampton. The wardrobe was a particularly hideous farrago - twelve weeks after we ordered, when we asked where it was they claimed it had been discontinued; we asked if we could have the showroom model for a discount; they said yes in principle, then iffed and offed for weeks, then finally (four months later) located a pristine wardrobe in the corner of a warehouse in outer Mongolia or somewhere and sent it at last.

Irritatingly, they never took the discontinued wardrobe off their website; it's probably still there now (this was 2003 though).

Hmm.
I took MIL into Kingston specifically to look at gas cookers in JL. They only had two on display, and wanted top charge £100 extra to get the white model, rather than the display which was brown IIRC. So we went to Bentalls where the the saleswoman knew her products, offered to sell at the sale price, even though the sale didn't start for another two days, free next day delivery, and £50 cheaper than JL for all colours, so £150 less than the JL price for white. I was so impressed I let her sell me a dishwasher too

Second gripe: I was making a roman blind, and had to go to a different floor to get the matching thread and other bits and pieces after buying the furnishing fabric. This is a real PITA at Kingston because the store layout is terrible.

A friend is having huge problems with one of their kitchens. Paid about 10K for a tiny kitchen and half of it is missing, bits don't fit ...... problems getting hold of people. I was completely at the price, could have had better quality at a fraction of the cost IMO.

That's Kingston too

They are not as reliable as they used to be.

I bought an ex-display sofa bed last month and when it was delivered, the side and the back of it had been ripped off. They weren't at all bothered. So I got a refund and ordered one from another company.

And I got lino fitted by them at the beginning of the year as I was so pleased with their service years ago. It was badly fitted, a plastic bag was left underneath and they had to get it completely re-done.

The harder-to-control parts of their business are slipping.

Waswondering, are you a name changer? Am home for the summer. We arrived back in UK on 28th June and go back on 1st Sept.

I just remembered what happened after we returned our cutlery. As we had returned it we had a load of gift vouchers, and wanted a tumble drier. We liked the look of the JL one, but wanted to look at other shops to check prices etc. Realised that the Zanussi one was EXACTLY the same, just said Zanussi instead of JL and was £60 cheaper everywhere else. We asked to price match and they admitted they were the same but wouldn't price match. I couldn't bring myself to chuck away £60 of wedding gift money so we didn't buy it in JL. I has those vouchers a long time before we eventually spent them on a cot.

I bought some bed linen and pillows in the sale recently. Shit quality, sent them straight back and got much nicer in TK Maxx.

DC were given a JL brand sweatshirt each - both shrunk badly. Didn't think to return them, but I would've done if I'd bought them myself.

I do really like their children's clothes range. And I could spend hours in their wool department and their kitchen department. And I continue to think Ocado is one of the best companies for customer services I've come across (not exactly JLP but obviously selling their products). And the personal shopper at the JL in Richmond managed to sort out my great aunt with an outfit for her 90th birthday party within an hour for which she deserves a medal (said aunt is very short and very fussy)

But...

...the children's shoe department in Peter Jones is rubbish and always overstretched, and the range is pathetic (I am still smarting from a moonboot incident earlier this year). And there was a ludicrous mix up when they delivered some furniture the other week - I only realised after they'd driven off that they had delivered 5 rather than 4 boxes, but the effort I had to go to in order to get them to come and collect the box that didn't belong to me was extraordinary.

I've remembered now that we'd 'met' before, WW.

Re Ocado, it annoys me intensely that JLP sometimes has the Waitrose in store - but our nearest Waitrose is 125 miles away. That's just a mean thing to do, dangle goodies in front of us then snatch them away!

suedonim no our John Lewis is no longer Jessops

They keep feeding rumours of a Waitrose but it doesn't happen. I probably wouldn't go though as I'd have to pass about a million supermarkets to get there. It'd be ok for picking up a few bits when in town though.

Maybe they should go into competition with M&S Simply Food stores - now they are a fab idea IMO.

Those M&S Simply food stores are popping up everywhere (except where I live ). I was in Yorkshire recently where there's one right by a town centre carpark in Skipton and another in the railway station in Ilkley. I bet that one does a roaring trade!

I swapped the kitchen bin today. The new one's the correct colour but has a bash in it. I think I'll learn to love it as I can't be bothered to go back yet again.

Weirdly, I was just thinking the same myself earlier this week. I was in the John Lewis Oxford St branch in the nursery department, and the two staff on the till seemed really really slow and bored and no hello or thank your or anything. I queued for ages and ages too, while another two staff stood around chatting and ignoring us. It was quite odd; I felt like I had been taken out of John Lewis into another store entirely.

However....
Their baby and kids clothes are lovely this season btw. And you can get free baby food (Hipp Organic no less!) in the cafe when you buy a drink and cake there. I think I will still retain a desperate and slightly unreasonable attachment to JLP.

Sorry, no sympathy MrsMuddle over the Freya bra- you're bonkers to put an underwird bra anywhere near a washing mashine, whatever the cycle. Quite apart from knackering the bra, it can snag in your drum and bugger the whole washing machine.

I love them

They got something wrong on our wedding list though but we got a blanket instead of a molton brown body lotion (that I had cheekily snuck on there!) and DH was more than happy with the blanket instead!

I only eat at our JLP if desperate because their food is dire. The cold offerings like sandwiches wouldn't fill a flea, they're so small, and the cakes are always dry and the coffee is titchy and tepid. It used to be really a good place to have lunch. Otoh, dh and dd discovered a 'secret' loo in the coffee bar (as opposed to main restaurant) which is jolly useful.

Our JLP food is great. DD asks to eat there regularly - she particularly likes their soups.

Their sarnies are over-priced IMO but their hot food is usually well-presented, tasty and reasonably good value for money - I paid £6.95 for tomato, courgette and basil quiche with new potatoes and salad last week.

The cakes are DIVINE!

The hot foods are best value, I agree, if they haven't run out by 12.30pm. The cakes here are weird. They don't look real because each is identical to its neighbour and the sliced cakes look as if they're made of polystyrene. The dryness means you have to get another cup of coffee to wash it down - good marketing trick, huh?

To add to my woes, detailed further down, the carpet fitters have turned up today but sans the hall carpet. When they unrolled it to pre-cut it, there was a big black mark across it so it has to be reordered. You'd think someone at the factory would have nooticed! At least the sittingroom is being done, I suppose, even if it means I'm trapped in my kitchen with the laptop.

Ha, I'm not unreasonable, I'm not! A friend in Kent has just been bemoaning JLP and yesterday a complete stranger in the hairdresser's was ranting that she'd had to cancel an order (for what, I've no clue!)with them because they'd made so many mistakes. So it's def them and not me.