This is not the first time I have written about John Lewis. A British retailer recognised by many as the epitome of a people (customers and employees) focused brand, their challenge for a long time has been to maintain their position as a Customer Experience leader for others to look up to and admire.
Founded in 1864, the perception of John Lewis as a brand you can trust has been built over many years of hard work – hard work in adapting to the world around it and the ever changing needs of its customers. With its well know ‘Never Knowingly Undersold’ slogan, the retailer will still pay you the difference if you can find an item you purchased from them cheaper elsewhere.
If you have turned your customers into loyal fans of your brand – if they have ‘fallen in love’ with your Customer Experience, it takes a lot of hard work to maintain that love – to maintain their ‘fandom’ and loyal custom. Even if something goes wrong, it is unlikely that your customer will fall out of love with you – especially if you are able to put it right quickly, efficiently and without too much effort.
John Lewis are by no means perfect – like all organisations, it is impossible to get things right 100% of the time, but in general they are well known for dealing with issues in a professional and consistent manner. However, in January 2015, John Lewis’s challenge seems to be getting ever tougher. The challenge for all businesses to maintain our undivided loyalty is becoming extremely difficult as we become ever more demanding. When you are a John Lewis, the expectation is remarkably high.
So the big question in this post is this – is it possible that the British consumer could ‘fall out of love’ with John Lewis? Could a brand with such a strong heritage and reputation lose its differentiation as a Customer Experience leader? In April last year I wrote a post that suggested the ‘omni channel Customer Experience’ is John Lewis’s greatest challenge of the moment. The story I shared demonstrated the risks John Lewis face in failing to connect the different customer channels in its business. The story I would like to share today highlights the significance of this problem once again. Will this be the experience that sees me personally falling out of love with John Lewis?
On the 5th January 2015, I ordered a ‘Luxury Memory Foam Mattress Bed Topper’ from John Lewis.com. I immediately received an email confirmation advising me that the item would be delivered ‘within 5 working days’ of me placing my order. I was very happy with this as the item was intended as a birthday present for Mrs Golding whose birthday was on the 13th January! Unusually for me, I was working ahead of time with a little leeway!
Two days later I received another email. Entitled ‘Back Order Details’, things did not bode well. In fact I was actually quite astonished to open an email from John Lewis advising me that the item ordered was NOT available for delivery. The ‘call to action’ was for me, the customer, to make all of the effort and contact John Lewis by email or telephone to ‘cancel the order’!! Alternatively I could just wait for it to arrive, or have my order cancelled in 4 weeks.
Sadly this type of ‘broken promise’ event is pretty common with online retailers – the problem is that I have higher expectations of John Lewis than I do of other retailers. I was NOT impressed. As I did not want to have to email or telephone, I reached out to Twitter to vent my frustration:
A broken promise of delivery of a birthday present and the first suggestion from John Lewis on Twitter was for me, the customer, to contact my local store. I was starting to get a little hot under the collar now. This is really not what I expect from John Lewis. There was no other option but to pick up the phone and speak to them.
On the 9th January I called the John Lewis.com contact centre – more of my time, effort and cost in telephone calls. For the first time during the transaction, I spoke to someone who gave me faith that I was really dealing with John Lewis and not a bogus website! Zain, the contact centre agent, was excellent. Very apologetic, he did everything he could to understand what had happened and what he could do about it. I was impressed. Zain confirmed the weakness in John Lewis’s operating model. The online business did indeed not have any more of the item I had ordered in stock. The item was due into their warehouse on the 5th January but had not arrived yet. The online warehouse is NOT shared by the stores – they have their own separate stock pool. Zain had to put me on hold while he contacted the stores contact centre to see if they had any of the item available. Still with me?!
If you are confused, I will just clarify that John Lewis is not a joined up, connected, omni channel business. Its stores and online propositions might look the same, but they are separate and disparate. I was suffering as a result. The only solution Zain could come up with was to cancel my online order and reserve the item at my local John Lewis store in Chester. I then had to telephone my local Chester store to confirm my reservation. The whole experience was long winded and ridiculous. I had got to the point of almost no return!
The following day (10th January) I received a message from the Chester store advising that the item had come in to stock again – hurrah – three days before Naomi’s birthday – I could get them to send the item by next day delivery and still have it in time…………or NOT! When I called the store and suggested that they send it by next day delivery, I was advised that this was not an option. I could either have it delivered to home in five working days, or collect it from the store on the 13th January. The back story of the order was irrelevant – the fact that John Lewis were affecting my ability to get my wife her birthday present on time was not important – the computer said no (albeit very politely).
So 7 working days after I placed my online order; three phone calls and one drive to a store later, I arrived at John Lewis Chester to collect Naomi’s birthday present. Amazingly, no apology for the debacle was given by anyone I interacted with. Naomi was with me when we collected it – no-one even had the courtesy to wish her a happy birthday. To say I am unimpressed by the whole experience is an understatement.
The problem with bad experiences is that it only takes one for a customer to choose to fall out of love with a brand. There were so many failings in this experience from a retailer I once trusted implicitly that I have made the conscious decision NOT to use John Lewis online in the future. I will still visit their stores. I still believe that they have an excellent proposition and wonderful people. Yet until they join their channels together, I will shop elsewhere via the internet – this experience has left a sour taste in my mouth.
So is it possible for the consumer to fall out of love with John Lewis? You bet your life it is – they can and must not ever rest on their laurels.
Update – 15th January
Having read this post, I was contacted by John Lewis on Facebook and twitter. This morning I had a telephone conversation with a very nice lady from the customer service team. Not only did the lady acknowledge all of the issues in the experience (without excusing them), she confirmed that they would be addressing the issues with the relevant teams to mitigate the issues in the future. This is further demonstration as to why it is important for organisations to readily accept feedback like this and seize on the opportunity that comes from bad experiences. If good comes out of bad, I am always very happy with the outcome.
If you have two minutes, please take the time to complete my 2 question survey to find out your personal #1 brand for delivering consistently good customer experiences. I also want to know what makes the brand your #1! The research will be used for an upcoming blog post – many thanks for your time!
You can complete the survey by clicking here
Hi Ian again for your thoughtful comments. On this occasion I have to say – You bought your wife a what for her birthday? Almost as bad as my (ex) husband buying me an ironing board. I can give you the names of some excellent jewellery stores!
I was waiting for someone to comment on that Laurie 🙂 My only explanation is that it is a sign of age!! You are right though, I need to change my present buying approach next year! Thanks again for taking the time to read my work!
Until today, I have always thought of John Lewis as a store that fosters loyalty by offering a high level of customer service and taking customer concerns and complaints seriously. However, the customer service I received over the last ten days from all levels of staff, including members of the senior customer complaints team managed by Andy Street – who provided me with John Lewis’s final decision today – has left me disappointed, infuriated and absolutely sure that John Lewis is not the company it once was.
Six months and nine days ago I purchased a John Lewis own brand integrated larder fridge (product number: JLBILIC07 for £650). Ten days ago I woke to find the fridge had stopped working. I tried all the necessary troubleshooting as outlined in the manual and then called John Lewis customer service for assistance. They informed me that I would have to contact a recommended service centre in my area, which I did. The service centre informed me I would have to wait five days and could not give me any idea as to whether my call out would be a morning or afternoon appointment. As a result, I had to book the whole day off, only to receive a text the evening before to say it would be from 12pm, however by the time this text arrived it was too late to reschedule the leave with my employer. When the engineer finally arrived he informed me the compressor was faulty/broken and would have to be replaced. As it transpired manufacturer reported that this particular part was a low stock item and at that time they did not know how long it would take to arrive ( I now know it will be a minimum of ONE month). Without any repair date on the horizon, I called John Lewis and this is where their lack of customer care became ever more obvious.
Since the engineer left on Tue afternoon I have spoken with at least fifteen customer service agents, including those at a senior management level. I was given promises of call backs that never materialised and when I called to chase I was informed that calls are made up to ten at night, so to be patient – it later transpired that when I was told this the department that would have called were already closed as they closed at 6pm. At every stage, I had to chase, prompt and instigate all contact only to be fobbed off yet again.
Regardless of who I spoke with they all informed me that whilst they agree a fridge is an integral part of the home it is felt that one month is not an unacceptable timeframe in which to wait for a repair; in fact, they said that as a gesture of goodwill, if the part had not arrived in ONE month time they would reaccess the situation and at that time consider other options!
Unable to wait indefinitely I informed John Lewis that they were leaving me with no option other than to purchase a new fridge from Curry’s and pay for their faulty product to be removed. I was told “that is completely your decision madam. Can we help you with anything else today?”
So, as a result of this extremely poor service, I will no longer shop at John Lewis or Waitrose and neither will any of my family. I do not own any social networking accounts, but as a direct result of this, I am in the process of setting them up so that I can get this story out there and prevent this from happening to someone else because a £650 fridge has ended up costing me £950 through no fault of my own – money I don’t have.
If John Lewis’s new mission statement is to work towards purging themselves of loyal and long standing customers, congratulations are due because they are superseding all expectations.
John Lewis are rapidly going downhill since outsourcing their Customer Service to Capita plc which explains why you have had appalling and incompetent experiences; I found out just how awful they were in January 2015 and they broke so many of their promises so I will not use John Lewis again until they break free from the wilfully negligent and uncaring Capita!
“The following standard delivery product(s) will will be delivered within 5 working days (includes Saturdays) of placing your order…” Did a human being write that or was it a corprobot? Language like that makes customers feel as though they’re being processed, not served. Bad luck, Ian – and happy belated birthday, Naomi!
So true Mark and a comment I should have made in the post – thank you as ever for being the guru of all things customer communication related!
i work for john lewis and im afraid we are failing on all fronts. The new dbs booking system is great for booking but not for actually delivering the goods. 4 mins to deliver an item 8 minutes to deliver a sofa. we are not robots and to achieve these times in any city is impossible. outsourcing is also killing us slowly, 96.5 million to capita for customer services in Scotland and there shocking.
My experience with John Lewis online was nothing short of appalling! The people at their call centres were uncaring and did nothing to hep with a failed click and collect ‘non delivery’ to Waitrose regarding a NutriBullet…in the end I had to write an email to the CEO of both John Leiws (Andy Street) and capita plc (Andy Parker) making a formal complaint about their incompetence, complacency and alck of coutesy in dealing with my situation. Turns out that Capita plc are the problem as they are claiming they are John Lewis partners when they are in fact Capita plc so that in itself was totally baffling?? The people you spoke to Ian were NOT employees of John Lewis they were employees of Capita plc so that is where all of these problems have stemmed from…John Lewis putting their good customers in the hands of a sub standard organisation like Capita!
*Apologies for the grammar errors in previous post!
I agree with your points Richard about Capita, but it seems JL partners no longer care. My issue started with Capita, but was given the brush off by JL even when the issue may have given rise to a hazardous issue for my son. They don’t care any longer as they have the market dominance and perception of excellent customer service. However it seems this facade is starting to drop. The only way they will take note is if people shop elsewhere. Many of their items can be purchased from the supplier and with a bit of huptzpah they would either charge you the same or less, as they cut out the middle man
As a long standing John Lewis partner, I can categorically state that not caring is not the problem. Partners as being systematically demoralised and coerced into meeting set KPI’s, the Partnerships focus on theses KPI is a ‘Bums on Seats’ get through the numbers rather than solve the issue approach. The managers in the Partnership who are forcing this approach through pay lip service to the JL principles that rule the partnership, but show little care for their more junior partners. The Partners are struggling and if you receive jaded or poor service it is because they are working with poor systems (I have 14 different systems to log into each day, with different passwords, none of which communicate effectively with each other) and poor management.
Here is my issue which I had to deal with:
If only I could score a 0. A company who does not care for my child’s health, is that an ethos?
I write this review with a heavy heart; being a loyal customer for many years, in part via John Lewis (JL) being a co-operative, and my family always seeing you as a staple store, I have been treated with the worst customer service possible. It has now put me as well as other family members off the JL/Peter Jones/Waitrose brands for life, and should be a warning for all; as when there is a serious problem JL can’t and don’t want to handle it. To be honest, I am alarmed at all the below reviews (TrustPilot)but it is all clearly indicative of something rotten within the current operational structure. Obiter, from the agents, is that a lot of them are not happy with being TUPE’d to Capita; I think this may well be a factor for the sub-standard customer service experienced by me, and other individuals. Could the main issue be that the agents concerned no longer care about the accountability or the brand of JL as they once did when they were partners, as it does not serve them anymore, other than hitting their individual KPI.
It all started with a laundry bin, and ended with a MD, Andy Street, disregarding a child’s health (allegedly as advocated and alluded to by the Customer Service Manager for JL online – a FM). Clearly, children, and their protection, are not a top-priority of JL.
The above-mentioned item omitted a strong odour – it was akin to a stale urine, and a very potent one at that; it was that bad it permeated all our clothing and damp towels. On smelling this, I contacted JL customer service. My concern was that after I inspected the material within, there was no visible marks/staining. This led me to the reasonable belief that the odour was from vermin, such as a rat (which contrary to the JL customer service managers understanding of rats, but they do affect every part of the UK, and it is via their urine (and other animals) that Weils disease or the milder Leptospirosis are passed onto humans – unless JL have a patented rat repellent and a piece of technology which cleans rats urine). The main issue at this stage was the protection of my son, who has been diagnosed with several health issues (as well as being severely allergic to most broad-spectrum antibiotics, hence my heightened concern) as well as being only 5 years old. It is from here it became a crusade to get any support and advice….. In short this leads me to the belief, JL, is now about getting their money at the outset (short-term Win-Win) and foregoing any logical, practical and safe customer service thereafter, even if an issue could be considered an issue hazardous to health.
It is when I contacted the JL customer service the fun really starts… On calling, I spoke to a lady, called Tanja. English was clearly not her first language, however, insults and defamation were definitely her raison d’être. Without going through it all, the lady subsequently informed me it was me who urinated in it. I warned her explicitly to stop defaming and insulting me, but she continued and started to shout at me. I made her aware that this was distressing to myself, and that her behaviour was inappropriate and confrontational. I had to put the phone down as my wife had to leave the room crying and clearly distressed on hearing this rant from your agent. This complete episode of abuse lasted circa 45 minutes. During the call, I asked to speak to a manager; Tanja informed me her manager, Joanne, would not speak to me, yet she never went to ask her and heard her laughing with a colleague.
Anyhow, I called back and spoke to a lovely lady, who then went to ask Joanne, but she would not take the call, and instead asked one of her supervisors to call me. This chap took the call, and promised me he would extract the call.
On retelling this tale about JL that night, I was contacted in the morning by my lawyer, who asked me to speak to a JL employee directly (rather than a Capita Agent) and asked them to extract the call, and for them to inform you of their findings. I spoke to a lovely partner the following morning, who explicitly said that all the calls are recorded, and that via the nature of this complaint, it would be escalated in the most urgent terms, and someone would be in contact by 14.00. Well that never happened… I then contacted JL again, and this time spoke to Aimee. She informed me that I would receive a call back from Tanja’s manager at 20.00, and she would contact me the next day to see how it went. Well 20.00hrs passed, and at 21.00hrs I contacted JL again. Who said customer service and courtesy was a JL staple?? I was then put through to the Capita Call Centre in Bury, and here I spoke to two lovely managers, who could not be any more helpful, and even agreed the process seemed skewed; this was the first time I had a source of a sincere apology. They saw the booking for 20.00hrs on Joanne’s diary, and explicitly stated that they could not understand why I had not been called back. Both of them explicitly stated that they actually found it highly unusual that the manager of the individual (yes, this Joanne) would be investigating the individual given the gravity of the situation. Hey-ho, this is the new JL. Again these two reiterated all calls are recorded and the person would be dealt with accordingly. It is worth noting here that the two Bury Managers tried to get through to Joanne in Sky Park for near enough 40 minutes, and they were unsure why she was not picking up given that her shift was from 18.00 – 00.00 hrs. They even emailed her to make this point.
So the next day it was a surprise to hear that call was not recorded – it seemed to be contrary to what all colleagues (be it a JL partner or a Capita employee) understood the process to be. I was livid to say the least. Here I encountered the manager of the call centre for the first time. He knew I could not bring a defamation suit, as the recording did not exist, nor could he or Capita discipline the employee either. It is worth noting here though, when I contacted Capita Head Office, they are under the belief, that all their agents calls are recorded. So clearly there is some miscommunication, or is someone trying to hide something, namely, the explicit defamation. As a gesture of goodwill, he offered me £100, this was up from a derisory £50 for the whole episode of the bad customer service. I am thankful for this, and have donated this accordingly, because as I said earlier, I could never shop with this group again as if something goes wrong look at the debacle what ensues.
The laundry bin was then picked up, and the delivery driver commented on the smell, and said it was revolting. It was then examined by JL, who then contacted me and informed me it was a manufacturing issue, as the strong smell was via a lacquer to preserve it. As a result of this, I then contacted JL to organise the compensation for the clothes and towels (for me, my son and wife – and the very reason I got this bin in the first place) which I had to throw out. However, after being promised several manager call-backs again, I never got any, this is despite that after speaking to FM, who ensured me that he would personally look at why there was no call-backs from managers during this case, clearly, nothing has changed. Therefore, JL, are a company of giving customers lip service, as opposed to learning from mistakes. All I wanted was a proper apology, and to be put back in the situation before this terrible mess, i.e. having unspoiled towels and clothing, is it too much to ask??? Well clearly it is, as according to Andy Street, MD, via FM! I should not be compensated as I should have washed them. Well no!!! Completely not reasonable! Nor was I afforded this advice at any avenue. Should I have exposed myself, my wife and our son to the potential harmful bacteria (as it could have been at that time as it was not clear what it was) (moreover, what degree should it have been washed at??) (if there was transfer, and my son can’t have antibiotics are they willing to accept putting my son at risk – as his GP has confirmed today, if there was a transfer, even with the mild Leptospirosis, the choice would have needed approval from Leicester in our area as the only antibiotic available for him would have been a Carbapenem (as never had that before, and is literally the last line of defence in medicine) – using this needs to be documented with PHE; on informing why I needed the information he could not believe what he was hearing and was so gobsmacked at a company he thought was a leader in the market-place. Therefore, CAN YOU TELL ME WHY this was not taken seriously, and it should just be washed, especially relevant given that if it was rat pee we would be having a very different conversation.
What a disgrace of a company, and when something goes wrong, and they accept that it was the suppliers fault, it is beyond belief they can’t compensate me to how I was prior to this manufacturing defect (specific performance), not asking got anything else, but rather it would seem that JL wants to cause me undue anxiety and stress and damn the health proclivities of my son!
IN SHORT, ITS NOT WORTH SHOPPING WITH A COMPANY WHO CANT RESPECT INDIVIDUALS OR PROTECT THEM FROM HARM!!!
The care-free response is as follows (and shows support from the MD and chairman according to FM):
Further to my letter of 28 July and our telephone conversations prior to this date I wish to reiterate that the odour from the basket you purchased from John Lewis was related to the lacquer used to preserve the item and did not pose any health risk.
During our conversation I accepted the service you received from our online contact centre was not to the standard I would expect and as a token of my apology I offered a gesture of £100 which you accepted.
Following receipt of my letter I understand you now wish to claim compensation for clothes you feel you had to destroy, it is regrettable that you did not discuss this with me in our telephone call last month.
As I advised, John Lewis can not be held responsible for any decision you took in relation to the destroying of your clothes.
l understand you have written to the Chairman, our Managing Director, and parties outside John Lewis, please be assured that the Customer Relations Department deal with all complaints on behalf of our Chairman, Managing Director.
It is always disappointing when we are unable to reach a conclusion that is satisfactory for our customers but occasionally this is unavoidable. I am sorry that this has proved to be such an occasion and whilst I regret you may remain dissatisfied, I feel we have responded fairly and appropriately to your concerns.
John Lewis will not correspond any further on this matter.
THEREFORE IS IT REALLY WORTH SHOPPING WITH JL as customer safety is not a priority.
Hi Paul – wow – what a story. Thank you so much for taking the time to share it. It certainly does not represent what many people THINK John Lewis represents. Their greatest challenge is maintaining and sustaining the legacy that many years of great customer service has built. As you may have read in my articles on John Lewis, they will need to overcome a number of challenges to ensure that they still perceived in the way they would like on five, ten, fifteen years time and beyond.
What is most disappointing is the lack of empathy and ‘humanity’ in the way the situation has been dealt with. It is therefore important that stories like yours are shared so others can learn about the consequences of treating customers in a manner that is no acceptable.
I was very interested to find your article online after my recent experience of John Lewis. Unfortunately I don’t have a Twitter account so I’m unable to tweet about it.
My husband and I went to the JL store in Milton Keynes yesterday. We were astonished that, despite many staff wandering around in all departments, most items we looked at were unpriced. Some were on stands with a stand up card price list, such as the Le Creuset, but where oh where was the price for the lovely Cafetiere? Others were on displays ranging from teddy bears (ground floor: the fifth bear we checked was priced) to clothing (some reduced items were marked with the new price, most were not) and cushions (some items not priced).
One of the computers where we should be able to check stock was out of order and responded in a strange manner so after a few minutes we found a member of staff who told us it was out of order – where was the notice to save us wasting our time if the staff already knew of this problem?
In the toy department, where we were helped by a lovely member of staff, we were subsequently made to feel unwelcome by a staff gathering, which appeared to be some kind of staff training, in the aisle of toys we were checking out. The person in charge only moved when absolutely necessary. Couldn’t this have happened in private? Or at least they might have moved sooner in a more subtle fashion.
Finally I purchased several items, including a reduced White Stuff dress. When we got home later that night I tried the dress on, only to discover that the security tag had not been removed. After a phone call this morning with a helpful customer services advisor I will have to drive back to the store, which is not local to me, and pay £2/hour premium MK parking to return to the store and have the tag removed. I was going to wear the dress today so that is a further disappointment. I was promised a contribution to cover my travelling expenses or an offer to post the dress back to have the tag removed by the advisor after I remonstrated over the inconvenience.
It is probably nearly two years since I shopped in this John Lewis store and yes, we both feel more than a little out of love over our visit.
Hi Carol- thank you so much for sharing your experience – it absolutely highlights the challenge that John Lewis and any other organisation has as they grow. Sustaining a focus on the customer is tough – even John Lewis need to continually work harder to do it!
I went to John Lewis Chester with a friend a week ago so that she could give us suggestions as to what she would like family members to buy her for Christmas. She selected a few items from the Denby Imperial blue range. We were given the prices for these items both verbally and they were printed. five days later I went to order the items that we wanted that is four mugs, two small bowls and a cereal bowl. All were priced at £5.55 at the time.
I went online yesterday to order these items to find that they were now priced at £7.40. I telephoned John Lewis and was put through to the Chester branch and was given the impression that although it might of been a mistake by member of staff there was very little that would be done about it. At this time I am waiting for a manager to investigate and to call me back.
Many thanks for sharing your experience Kim – fingers crossed they fulfill their promise to you!
Had recent issues with getting a sale chair delivered from Oxford Street store.
Many phone calls to Customer Services and to Oxford Street proved to be of no use.
My last phone call told me that the chair had been lost.
After sending copies of what had happened to both the Managing Director of John Lewis and to the Oxford Street Manager thing began to happen. A professional young resolved the issue and the chair was delivered within the week.
Followed up by another call to check that I was happy.
Contact details are as follows;
John Lewis Managing Director andy_street@johnlewis.co.uk
Oxford Street Store Manager simon_fowler@johnlewis.co.uk
Same basic problem for me. Promised delivery for important deadline missed leading to me having to do chasing, driving miles to a store, expensive parking, endless arguments online with customer services not really that interested in helping out. In my case they promised to cancel the online order and let me buy from store, then went ahead with online order and removed a further (large) sum of money from my account.
After what was allegedly a thorough investigation, I was offered £20 as a goodwill gesture for my inconvenience. Bearing in mind that they’d done pretty much the same thing two years ago, I’ve recently told them that this is a bit insulting now that they’ve chosen to value my inconvenience and their performance (or lack thereof). Have cc’d Andy Street to see if any opinion is ventured from higher up the food chain.
I too am very disappointed with John Lewis – ordering from their website using free delivery is very slow indeed – about a week from order to receipt for an in stock item – worse than that they use the crappy Hermes courier which bashed my parcel around and damaged it and are a bunch of amateurs compared to professional couriers who keep you informed by text of when you item is out for delivery and give you a 1 hour delivery window. Amazon (Prime) deliver next day for free. JL is really falling behind the times and is no longer my go to option for purchases.
Agreed! JL have let themselves down time and time again with me and you need to know the truth that the online orders are handled by Capita plc who are partners with JL but do NOT share the same values and I wrote to Andy Parker about this also the head of JL’s customer service and remain bitterly disappointed in the way my complaints were dealt with!
I have waited in all day today after being promised an engineer from Samsung would visit to look at our microwave oven which was bought from John Lewis, suffice to say it was a pointless wait as no engineer has turned up, I have an email as proof that one was supposed to visit.
So I have emailed them regarding this, it’s a pain to put it politely.
Now when calling the customer service team they also expected me to call Samsung direct, I pointed out consumer law and that John Lewis were responsible and that they should call on my behalf, to be fair they agreed without making a fuss about it, but how many people know consumer law, how many are being told they must do all the running when guarantee rights are exercised, the customer service rep said the first year guarantee is under Samsung with the second year being under John Lewis, nope I replied, both years are under John Lewis, consumer law on this is clear.
I just hope my overheating microwave gets fixed and I am not given the runaround, they have started badly by not showing up today, hopefully I do not have to run through rings to get a repair.
Just thought I would share my experience with others, do not let them away when they say you must call the service centre, that is their job, your contract is with John Lewis under any guarantee.
Here’s my 2p worth:
https://uk.trustpilot.com/reviews/59b67cf5d2c875078491dcc1
https://uk.trustpilot.com/reviews/5a37b857a5b3290a603ea797