John Lewis in Trouble

[TrainedByCatsToBeScathing]

John Lewis are struggling, even the Waitrose side of things. 11,000 out of a workforce of 80,000 is a lot, I’m sad for their mostly female sales force and there’s many reasons for their problems particularly with them not adapting quickly to the challenge from online sales.

However I was a very regular shopper in my local John Lewis and I stopped completely after their patronising offensive response to my query about single sex changing rooms a few years ago. I’d buy furniture, white goods, kitchenware, electronics, carpet, clothes, toys, haberdashery, cosmetics, shoes even jewellery (I was shocked when I realised how much I defaulted to John Lewis as it took a little while to switch to alternatives some of my loyalty was convenience). Obviously I’m just one shopper but it never seemed a good idea to piss off loyal customers as when trading conditions are challenging you need those customers even more.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13082653/John-Lewis-threatens-staff-disciplinary-action-unacceptable-comments-internal-intranet-retail-giant-considers-cutting-11-000-jobs-bid-recover-230m-losses.html

I have been a loyal and happy customer of both John Lewis and Waitrose for decades.

Recently having a bad experience with my weekly Waitrose delivery i rang the local store trying to get more informaion on when it might turn up.
The person I spoke to was incredibly rude. There was no need it was just a question.
I told her I was going to speak to the manager, and she replied she was the manager.
I then said, ok i will be making a complaint about your attitude.
I did and while I received a Gift token to soften me up I still felt I was being treated like a nusiance which is not the best way to talk to customers.
In all these years I have never needed to complain before.

@tinkerella1 I was pleased the thing I wanted to buy had a tag on as I thought - great, I won't have to use self service! But no. It's just shit really. And because "more people" use self service, you get more and more of the terminals. But it seems staff are told to direct you to them. It's all been gamed.

M7S food is pretty poor- all pre processed with loads of sugar and salt. The fresh unadulterated stuff is generally quite poor and over priced- you get better and cheaper at a deli or farmshop

Waitrose fresh food is much much better. It is a shop for chefs rather than microwavers (unlike M&S)

The ham in Fortnum and Masons is better than either of them and cheaper.

Over time I think that customer services at JL has gotten worse. I purchased a quite expensive TV and had issues with it. I called to arrange a time when someone would call and fix it. They did not turn up. I called back and they said someone would contact me that day. They did not. I called the next day and asked to log a complaint. In particular to understand why they had not called back and why the repair co did not turn up. The operator then asked if I was interested in "nit picking" or getting my issue sorted! I did get some response from a letter, but sadly now Amazon has better service.

From what I gather, JL have outsourced their customer service to the Philippines which would, in part, explain the shoddy service.

If you can’t buy the basics the store is in trouble. It’s my Tights knickers and toasters test

Interesting to hear this @tinkerella1. I wanted to buy an ordinary round hairbrush - nothing fancy. Popped into JL as it’s on my route to work and that’s exactly the sort of thing they used to stock.

I could have bought a glitzy hairdryer for £300 but no hairbrushes. They did have one online but it was £76 (!!).

Left empty-handed. I think eBay got the money in the end.

Madness.

I shop with Ocado and have done for years. When Waitrose left I stayed with Ocado happy to buy nice M&S bits instead. I don't really understand who instigated their split with Ocado but I think that must caused a reduction in revenue at Waitrose.

Oh, and DH and I have virtually stopped shopping at Waitrose, the former one and only destination for all our groceries. We spent loads there. But it’s just too expensive now and the choice is often very poor, shelves looking bare etc. Aldi is where we tend to go now, sometimes Sainsburys.

After reading what James Esses posted, I’m happy to continue avoiding JL.

DH & I got married 17 years ago and were very kindly gifted a very generous amount of JL vouchers from relatives. We used them to purchase lots of lovely items for our first home together (moved in 10 days before we got married). As time went on, it became our default store to head to for purchasing most things - white goods, appliances, electronics, decorative items etc.
I was so excited when our area opened up a large JL/Waitrose. Unfortunately the store was a huge disappointment. There were virtually no staff, and those who were there were rude & dismissive. The items stocked were very uninspiring, lots of the same items in slightly differing colours / designs and the prices were eyewatering. It closed shortly after Covid.
Our more recent experiences of purchasing from JL have been extremely sub-par. I bought a lamp from the store, got it home and it was cracked. Took it back to exchange it but the replacement had a faulty connection. The store ordered one in for me and when it arrived it had red marker pen dawn all over it. Each time I took them back I was made to feel like I was making a fuss over nothing and was just being awkward for the sake of it! Went to B&Q found the exact same light at 30% of the JL price!
The lovely bedside table lights that I bought from JL after we moved in to our current house stopped functioning properly after 12 months and JL couldn't have been less interested.
We bought 3 mattresses and all of them went saggy & lumpy within a couple of years.
Needless to say, we no longer shop there.

I like JL . I bought a rug recently, I checked before I ordered it and it wasn’t in the sale , but when it was delivered I checked that the one delivered was the one I ordered( poor memory) and found it had been reduced by £90. I phoned ( took ages to find a number btw, that is something they could remedy) and the customer service person I spoke to immediately refunded the money.

They also do really good triple cooked chips in their cafe, well my local one does anyway!

Yes JL do refund the difference if something reduces in 28 days, I think it is, I have used it a couple of times recently and been refunded very quickly. There is a form online to fill in for it.

I have stopped going into JL stores. There's usually bugger all to see. There's been a few large household items we've been interested in buying recently but the online stock checker has said none of them have been in stock in store in order to look at before ordering. Therefore we have chosen not to buy from JL.
Recently I wanted to buy a longchamps handbag and went to a large JL branch. There was virtually nothing to look at it. I went to Fenwick and they had loads to look at so I bought one from there instead.
Waitrose is overpriced. I am starting to get really fed up with the attitude of the employees in the two stores near me. The assistants at the checkout don't even make eye contact and sometimes have conversations with each other while serving. That kind of thing comes from how they are managed. Next time that happens, I am emailing Waitrose about it. I do feel JL and Waitrose do deserve their declining fortunes at the moment.

I used to love JL - so much so, that when I moved up North, it was a family joke that I'd only done so because a John Lewis had recently opened nearby.

I still default to going there because its the easiest parking for the town centre, but despite browsing the whole store have not been inspired to buy much. The Anyday brand in particular feels like a complete misstep - cheaper but poor quality, when JL used to be about little luxuries.

We'll be going again at the weekend, hopefully they'll actually have baby sleepsuits and toddler shoes but I'm not holding my breath after their complete lack of stock last time.

I had an absolutely horrendous experience with a dishwasher fitter. I complained and had CCTV evidence of him waving his fist in my face and being very aggressive and threatening (there was a problem with the narrow road and the width of the wagon and I had SPECIFICALLY warned about this but they did not pass it on to him.
His crew mates even had to pull him away from me at one point, it was frightening. When I complained I was told they had 'investigated' and I was found to be have behaved unacceptably. Apparently I had accused the man of being a 'rapist' - I have literally no idea where this came from - and even thou his crew mate said he did not hear this and there was zero evidence, and significant evidence of his aggression, a witness to what caused the problem etc they took his side and barred me as a customer. Utterly weird.

If you can’t buy the basics the store is in trouble. It’s my Tights knickers and toasters test

Very interesting. Me and DH popped into the Exeter shop soon after we moved into our new house wanting to buy a kettle - they had some on display but not the style we wanted as we wanted it to match the other things we have.

They had the toaster we already had in the style we wanted, but not the kettle. We left empty handed.

On another occasion we wanted a kitchen bin - actually we went in for something else but while there we saw the bins and decided one of the models on display was exactly what we wanted. The assistant couldn't work her hand set and couldn't tell us if it was in stock at the branch or not. She asked a colleague but they were "too busy" to help.

We ordered one online in the end.

I’ve just bought a new cooker. I looked in John Lewis first, the model I was interested in was, wait for it, £1100 more expensive in John Lewis than the exact same one in ao.com. I was shocked. I have found this to be the case with other things, their prices have risen a lot and are no longer competitive, although none as dramatic as the cooker price!

YES!!!!
I took a cup without a lid there {Couldn't find my usual cup} and was roundly told off by a person young enough to be my son.
Duh, I know how not to spill a coffee, thanks..I don't need to be told off in Public.
Grrrrr.

''Never knowingly undersold''

That used to be their catchphrase.

No longer, it seems.

Great shame.

I did buy a very good hemp and wool mattress from JL. English made and not too expensive. Still firm and solid after several years. {Back pain means I need a firm mattress}

That is where I had a great experience with AO. Bought a coffee machine during one of the lockdowns, which was £329. Colleague asked me about it a few days later, sent him the link and it had gone down to £259. Rang up AO, sent them the link and they immediately refunded me.

Since the pandemic my local Waitrose is a bit of a mess. The cafe area was closed and the the tables removed, it's now a dumping ground for trolleys, so that's a couple of hundred square feet of retail space not being used. The roast chicken counter, which was very popular, was removed and replaced with sushi, and I've never actually seen a customer there. And they definitely seem to have supply issues; often shelves are empty.

Next time that happens, I am emailing Waitrose about it. I do feel JL and Waitrose do deserve their declining fortunes at the moment

I can tell you (personal experience) that the customer service won't be bothered and won't answer; and I was told that by a member of Waitrose staff.

She was right. They didn't care and they didn't answer. Only when I complained on Trustpilot did they bother to respond, and by that time I wasn't writing a third email about the issue.

They care more for rewarding Evri than getting their customer what the customer ordered. I’m another lifelong fan - taken to George Henry Lee by other when I was getting married to open an account.wonderful service and when I had a baby the baby department rang up to see if I was ready for the next stage of car seat etc. all white goods from there, kitchen and carpets beds,cots . Last spring my microwave went ,I saw a white one ordered and paid. Evri lost it. John Lewis girl couldn’t explain and said no more white ones so made do with the silver. Nothing appeared despite phone calls over several weeks. Then the silver one came- horrid silver plastic but thought I would make do.following day the white one came so I wanted to return silver one. No not allowed as I had opened the silver one and plugged it in. Tried a letter to Dame Sharon . No joy. Said ok return it and resigned myself to the silver one and a box by the door for several weeks waiting collection. Within half an hour Evri turned up! They said JL would reward them for speedy returns. I need a new fridge freezer. Not from JL . Their own delivery men were always great,above and beyond what they were supposed to do.

No, you didn’t.

I used to love Waitrose, absolutely my fave (also got their stuff from Ocado for years, I always joke that my DS was actually made of chocolate custard as I got almost daily deliveries of Waitrose chocolate custard throughout my pregnancy). I loved the feel of the shops, the products etc. Even when ready cash was a bit tight at times over the years I would go in for a treat.

I left the UK in early 2020 and for obvious reasons didn't travel back for quite a while. When I was there last year for work I was staying near a Waitrose, and when I saw it I had a real thrill of nostalgia and almost ran into it . It was SO disappointing: dirty, poorly stocked, untidy, confusing, smelled funny. Very much the opposite of what I remembered it being. That's sad.