RISTAC - My Personal Blog

It is a strange fact that as you get older good customer service becomes increasingly more important to you. When you are going through your late teens and early twenties you don’t give a damn about customer service, it is all about the cheapest possible, bargains and deals. Recently I purchased quite an expensive TV from John Lewis, it went wrong and their customer service was like none I had experienced before. My phone call went straight through no pressing one for this and two for that, the person on the other end was sympathetic and understanding and they arranged to drop a new TV off at the same time as collecting the old one. No waiting for it to be checked and repaired a complaint dealt with better than I could have imagined.

I was hoping to always shop at John Lewis after that experience and with their “never knowingly under sold” price promise I thought it would be a good idea to put it to the test. For those unsure what this is it is a price match promise, there are terms and conditions that apply but basically it is a promise to match anyone else’s price as long as it is in stock and that it isn’t an Internet only deal. I was after an LG belt drive washing machine, I had found one at £599 that I liked with an online company that also had a store 50 miles away. The same machine was in John Lewis priced at £750 so I filled in their online form and waited for an answer.

I received an email back with a code to use stating that they were willing to match the price, great I would give them a call and make arrangements. On making the call to place my order I discovered that first you have to pay the full John Lewis asking price of £750.00 and then when the item arrives you call them back and the money is refunded to your account within 7 days. On top of that they could not give me a delivery date, just that it would be at least 7 days but within 14. I asked the usual questions like you would but it was like banging your head against a wall. I called the original company who had it listed for £599 and a sale was made and the machine delivered less than 48 hours later.

I guess John Lewis don’t want to make the price match too easy to obtain but they might wish to look at it being called a “Never Knowingly under-sold” promise. Surely now that I have pointed out to them a competitor with a cheaper price John Lewis should reduce their price accordingly or it makes a mockery of the never knowingly statement?