The most frustrating customer service experience I have ever encountered. First call cut off. Can you imagine spending £2.5k at a company that will not let you speak to the department? Refuses to let... See more
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The John Lewis Partnership's Partners own the leading UK retail businesses - Waitrose, John Lewis and Greenbee. Our founder’s vision of a successful business powered by its people and its principles defines our unique company today. The profits and benefits created by our success are shared by all our Partners.
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United States
- www.johnlewispartnership.co.uk
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Shockingly bad customer service
Having been a John Lewis customer for many years I am so disappointed with their service. I ordered and paid for new bed online in October this year and the confirmation stated delivery was within a month and then amended to within 12 days (inexplicably that confirmation was altered back to 4 weeks but no new email was sent) . On Nov 8 I received a very curt email telling me the item was out of stock. Since then I have heard nothing. I checked on line on Saturday and the bed was in stock and the information on the website said delivery in two weeks. I was so pleased I took a screenshot. Two days later it was out of stock again. So I have spent an arduous two hours on the phone to their customer service call centre whose only advice is to cancel the order as they can’t tell me when it can be delivered. I am nearly 70 and have been sleeping on a mattress on the floor for the last two months. This is not customer service. It is shockingly bad. Perhaps if they had told me this over a month ago I might have been able to order something elsewhere and have a decent nights sleep. Now we are approaching Christmas I doubt I could get much before the New Year anyway wherever I went. I hope John Lewis will respond to this and explain how they think this is acceptable as it is not the John Lewis I grew up with .
Absolutely disgusted with customer…
Absolutely disgusted with customer service
Placed an order for Christmas presents…
Placed an order for Christmas presents on the JL website and was waiting for the confirmation email. When received I was astonished to see that the order had been cancelled by JL saying that I hadn’t passed their internal checks. When I called to find out what had happened I was told by JL customer service that PayPal had cancelled the transaction. When I spoke with PayPal they said that they could not cancel my order and that it was JL so I called them again. This time I was told that there had been fraudulent activity and that my bank had cancelled the order. All very odd because I had used a credit card from another provider for the purchase. This was even more odd because a few days prior to this I had successfully purchased £2000 TV from JL which had just been delivered. After numerous calls with various so called customer agents and various emails the excuses still kept coming so I left it for a couple of days and replaced the order using a different credit card and hey presto the order was again cancelled by JL. I wonder what excuse they’ll give me this time.
Dreadful customer service
Dreadful customer service
Really hard to get hold of and when you do, I found somebody who could hardly speak English unacceptable !!!!
The app rewards doesn't like transfer…
The app rewards doesn't like transfer over to in-store, the in-store and app don't make sense together. Please fix! would like to use in app and in store for the same information.
I have shopped at JohnLewis for many…
I have shopped at JohnLewis for many years but my recent experiences with Customer Service call centre is leading me to look at other options. I can only say that it has been an awful and confusing experience and definitely not the standard I expect from John Lewis. When you call Customer Service the automated message says that they want you “to be delighted” . Well, I am anything but delighted . Is this a joke? Delighted? By extremely poor customer service? John Lewis please return to the company I knew and loved who could sort out any issues with care and attention.
One other thing, on two calls there was a lot of shouting going on in the background and on another crisp or sweetie packet rustling. The agent told me they were trying to keep me as long as possible on the call. Why? Oh dear. All very unprofessional and so much so that I have felt compelled to write this review. I only complain when it is very, but very, bad. Please sort it out John Lewis. I do still want to remain a customer but not with this fiasco going on.
If only I could give zero stars?
If only I could give zero stars?!
Firstly, calling the 'customer service' is almost incredibly difficult - terrible connection, awful sound, the agents don't speak English particularly well and making the problem understood is nigh on impossible. The calls (of which I had to make seven! to even get close to a resolution) were all 15-20 minutes in duration. That's just ridiculous - the error was JL's end with an incorrect return. The system is clearly broken and whatever savings they are making by outsourcing to offshore contact centres, I would imagine is being offset by the loss in their once loyal customer base. I have used JL for years and am no longer prepared to shop with a company that clearly have any regard for their customers. Shameful.
What on earth has happened to John Lewis Customer Service?
I have always shopped at John Lewis and have trusted them completely. Having contacted customer service this week, I have come to the awful realisation that I can no longer shop with John Lewis with with the same degree of confidence. It’s OK unless something goes wrong, then I feel you’re on your own. Dealing with customer service was a nightmare, being placed on hold for long periods, false assurances that my issue would be dealt with and of course speaking to someone whose accent made it very difficult to understand what they were saying. All in all, I’m just so disillusioned and disappointed. John Lewis , what are you thinking treating your customers like this?
Poor Customer Service Line
Ironically, I phoned JL to complain about an experience in my local (Horsham) store, but now end up documenting my poor experience with the customer services line.
I don’t really care where JL base their customer service phone teams - as long as they can speak to me in clear English, happy to speak to someone in SA. However, I spoke to a lady who had never heard of my first name and no matter how many times I tried to explain it or spell it, couldn’t understand. And therefore, could not find my JL account. In the end, when she finally worked out my email address, rather than explain the details of my complaint to her, I cut my losses and just asked her to get the Horsham store to contact me directly.
I feel for anyone who has a complaint re an online order. I learnt years ago - NEVER, EVER ORDER ANYTHING FROM JL ONLINE. They simply do not care. Shop in store or do click & collect for smaller items.
Customer service South Africa appaliing
I love John Lewis , their products and stores are brilliant. I have recently had cause to call their ‘customer services’ to say I was shocked is an understatement. I was put through to South Africa , they are just very rude. The first time I called I had a complaint about a Waitrose delivery and they were rude. The second time I did not have a complaint just a simple query regarding a John Lewis order refund and straight off the bat the person was rude and condescending, I felt like I was a nuisance and I was being made to feel stupid for daring to enquire. Yet there is a message before you are put through asking that the caller is respectful, fair enough but shouldn’t that work both ways?
This is not the standard that John Lewis customers expect or should receive.
John Lewis sort it out before your customers leave. John Lewis always has such a good reputation for their customer service, now it would seem that is being destroyed.
The bare bones of the matter is that a call centre outside of the UK will not care about John Lewis and its reputation and they definitely don’t seem to care about providing good customer service. All the big stores have gone and John Lewis was the only solid dependable one left now that seems to on the decline too. What a shame.
John Lewis spammed my email inbox…
John Lewis spammed my email inbox something like 25 times with unwanted ads for an oven. I suspect JL or their agents have been spying on my internet activity.
I emailed JL customer service 3 times about this: no reply or even acknowledgement other than the automated one.
I was a happy customer of JL for 60 odd years but never again ........... goodbye and thanks for the Christmas adverts
Please don’t buy from John Lewis
I only gave JL a 1 star which is 1 star more than they deserve. Ordered a wardrobe in June with a 12 week delivery window , it arrived a bit earlier but was missing a mirror door, then waited another 5 weeks only to have a blank door delivered.
It’s now December with no door in sight. JL blame everyone except themselves, they make promises to call you back THEY NEVER DO, they blame the manufacturer, they blame the delivery company. My contact is with JOHN LEWIS no one else.
PLEASE AVOID THIS COMPANY, THEY WILL TAKE YOUR MONEY AND IF SOMETHING GOES WRONG THEY DONT WANT TO KNOW.
Go to Sharps for a wardrobe.
False advertising to make profit
After years of loyalty to John Lewis, it’s astonishing how quickly they proved that customer loyalty means absolutely nothing to them. This company has gone from a trusted British retailer to a shameless, misleading, customer-ignoring mess.
We deliberately chose John Lewis over cheaper retailers — including Amazon, which offered guaranteed next-day delivery — because John Lewis proudly advertises free next-day delivery. What a joke. The order went through, money taken instantly, and then the next day we receive an email informing us delivery will actually take up to a week. So the “next-day delivery” claim is nothing more than a bait-and-switch tactic to trick customers into placing orders.
When we contacted them, the agent couldn’t care less. Their attitude was basically: Tough luck, your order is placed, wait a week. No apology, no attempt to fix the issue, and not even the slightest hint of accountability. And when I explained why next-day delivery mattered?
The agent simply stopped responding and ignored me. Completely unprofessional, utterly disrespectful, and totally unacceptable from a company that pretends to uphold high standards. I have screenshots — so don’t even bother denying it.
John Lewis has clearly decided that misleading customers is easier than honouring their own delivery promises. They’ll happily take your money, provide false information, then vanish the moment you challenge them. It’s dishonest, it’s insulting, and it shows exactly how little they value the people who keep their business alive.
If this is the “new” John Lewis, then it’s no wonder the company is declining. We’ll happily shop elsewhere — get the item cheaper, delivered faster, and without being treated like an inconvenience.
John Lewis: hang your heads in shame. You’ve lost our business permanently
Dreadful experience with delivery …
Dreadful experience with John Lewis delivery. Driver refused to deliver washing machine this morning saying he couldn’t park anywhere- we gave him 3 options & he refused them all & drove off with the washing machine! Complained to John Lewis who eventually offered to re deliver in 3 days time between 10am & 9pm ( couldn’t be more specific) Very disappointed - no washing machine but John Lewis have our money.
Terrible customer service and WhatsApp…
Terrible customer service and WhatsApp system when trying to return item. Never again.
The CEO office…hung up on me. Shocking
Escalated a complaint to the CEO office and they hung up on me (and no I wasn't shouting or swearing) A lady called sushnee or something similar. I called back and spoke with Sharon who also made it clear she would not help despite a genuine complaint. I'd also already tried the customer services number (in South Africa) could hardly understand the lady but when asked to speak to a manager she said. "they are a bit busy" and that was that. Wow. Avoid John Lewis at all costs.
Call centres don’t work for damaged goods
Terrible service. Received a table lmao today and it was broken in two. No return label or invoice . Call centre abroad told us to contact the branch it had come from but when you ring the number you are back at call centre based abroad telling you to contact your local branch. Lamp too big to take back ! Eventuality through using what’s app for JL they emailed the local shop who got in touch and arranged a pickup return.
Delivery was missing half of the order
Delivery was missing half of the order. Phoned customer service and, while I got through relatively quickly, I struggled to understand the person on the end of the phone. It was very embarrassing as I had to ask her to repeat herself many times. I was on speakerphone and my husband also couldn’t understand the person due to her thick accent and muffled delivery.
Unbelievable incompetence
Ordered a £1400 American fridge freezer. Told they would request payment when the fridge was received from the manufacturer. When it was delivered I realised I hadn’t paid for it. It then took over 4 weeks for JL staff to create the paperwork to accept payment. When making the payment with a JL credit card, the request was flagged as fraudulent and my card was blocked. Had to get JL Finance to unblock it 3 times. The order didn’t appear in my online account and I had no guarantee and it took 10 hours spread over 4 weeks of talking to an overseas customer care service to resolve it. It is very embarrassing to have to ask people to repeat what they’ve said 4or 5 times. Simply terrible and incompetent. I won’t buy further from John Lewis.
THE WORST OF THE WORST
It’s been ONE WEEK since I’ve been trying to get information about my iron and I still have NOTHING. ZERO. Nobody seems to know anything, everyone acts like it’s their first day there. On top of that, the communication is terrible: they donmt speak english, their accent is terrible!! I can barely understand the customer support because the company hires people who clearly aren’t trained to speak clear, understandable English. English isn’t even my first language but I can speak clear and good to not be asked: sorry what you said every 2 seconds as I did calling you!!!
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