John Lewis - poor customer service

Retty

vyle wrote: »

any quote not named is from the previously named poster.

Sorry if it doesn't read very well :-\. I must be more tired than I thought, but I didn't cut and paste anything, just quote and modify the tags (somewhat badly I guess). OP seemed to want a new car seat written off to be a loan, or just a new car seat, which were not things offered under the warranty.

OP was annoyed because of this and wanted a straight swap without the item being checked by the manufacturer.

I guess it's necessary for OP to drive her child around, but I don't have a solution to what she could do. People suggesting she half-uses the SOGA aren't being very helpful, though, because she'd still have 6 weeks without a car seat.

And I am genuinely interested in knowing how many car seats have gone wrong, if argos, mothercare and Asda have had to replace them, and how long it took for them to go wrong.

Yes, the department should have emailed back, and as a staff member, there's very little that annoys me more than finding a call centre note laying about in the office, because I dont know if it's been dealt with, and often call back or email the customer to check. The department failed on that count.

But I don't see how offering OP what she's entitled to under the warranty is bad customer service. She can claim the staff member wasn't bothered, but she has no way of knowing that, unless she expects tears and profuse apology, which would ultimately achieve nothing.

The examples of Argos, Mothercare and Asda weren't references to car seats but a few other things over a 20 year period where the customer service was excellent.

I wasn't complaining about the higher price charged by JL.

I was complaining about the customer service.

The free and informal legal advice I had some time after the problem with the car seat was that the 4 to 6 week turnaround period fractured reasonable expectations of a 2 year guarantee in respect of an essential safety item. It therefore was not a reasonable approach to the specific problem but it might have been a reasonable approach to, say, a faulty electrical heater in summer.

The refusal to replace the item just over half way through the guarantee is something I wish I had challenged more assertively.

I wonder what would have happened if the fault developed/was identified at the end of a journey near the store - would a return in those circumstances have left me with the option of buying a new seat there and then or, illegally, transporting a baby in a faulty seat (which of course I would not have done).

In other words, and again in hindsight, the approach to repair was probably a breach of contract (guarantee) in respect of reasonable expectations at least in some circumstances. The approach of the assistant was one of lack of concern about those circumstances and this is very poor customer service.

It didn't seem to be the first time that the assistant had faced this specific problem (seat breaking within guarantee and dismissal of concern that a 4 to 6 week turnaround would render the repair useless).

I was surprised to receive this response from a store which prides itself on the quality of its customer service.

Having read other posts here I see that my experience of JL customer service standards may not be as unusual as I initially thought.