Here is my rant on my latest dealings with John Lewis.
Yesterday my neighbour had a new tv and aerial installed. He bought the package from John Lewis under the misguided and outdated belief that their service was superb and friendly. Beware! JL has expanded so much and trying so hard to join up with the rest of the retailers and to save costs now outsource everything outside their shops to contractors.
There were two fitters who came to install the aerial. And as we sat down to lunch there was a God-Almighty crack as they dropped a bracket onto the skylight cracking the glass and shattering shards of glass all over the kitchen. It was a complete nightmare. Tiny splinters of glass all over the kitchen and front room. The guys were unsympathetic. I had to insist on an apology which one of them mumbled reluctantly. And they never came to my front door to apologise. I was absolutely furious and trying to maintain my calm over the garden fence!
In short, and to cut out a very boring and tedious tale of an afternoon spent on the telephone to JL customer service, then the next company who then finally referred me to the actual engineering company who had fitted the aerial. The solution to clean up all the glass was to send the Chuckle brothers over to clean up the mess. You can imagine my answer to that one.
I had to throw out all the food on the counter. I had to get on my hands and knees to clean up all the glass. And my top tip is to wipe up the glass with a slice of bread first and then hoover. Also I had to keep my 3 year-old out of the area. Not easy and then I had to shake out all the sewing fabric I had laid out on the floor to work on. So I didnt get to sew but I had to deal with a broken skylight and as we ran out of time no glaziers wanted to come out to board up the problem.
Four months ago we moved into this house. We decided to be very extravagant and bought a very expensive fridge/wine cooler/freezer combo exclusive to John Lewis. But it was made by Electrolux and installed and delivered by Britannia the well-known oven and hob people. Not known for installing fridges especially expensive ones said the fitter with a wink when he came over. That turned into a nightmare that lasted 5 weeks. Again the details are too boring to relate and I am sure that you are losing the will to read any more. But in short - John Lewis is not what it was. If you think you are buying into the service you aren't you, really aren't.
We always buy big electrical items from JL. But my partner has just bought our latest 40" tv from Richer Sounds. We had an issue which was quickly resolved with no hassle. It didnt even occur to us to try JL.