John Lewis - washer disposal failure!

vyle

I really do recommend asking to speak to the section manager, or department manager of the large electrical department. Take a picture of the machine, too.

I doubt the drivers did it on purpose, but they shouldn't have left the item there. The managers should be able to get it sorted.

As for why there's a charge, I guess it's because, let's assume they can fit 30 fridges into a delivery lorry... if they deliver 30 then drive back to the store, the load will have been lessened for each delivery, until it's driving back to the depot empty and that will use less fuel (not to mention simply unloading then driving off takes less time).

If they have to collect another fridge for each delivery, that's a lot more fuel being used, and twice as much time, meaning that they can also deliver less in a day.

CoolHotCold

Yes, report to the council and tell John Lewis this, nothing will make a company act faster then bad publicity and hefty fines.
Also yes, Dixons Group does allow you to give the delivery guys your old stuff for no charge, and PcWorld will allow you to take anything regardless of if your a customer or not to recycle, again with no charge. They don't however accept Car Batteries, but everything else is fair game.

Altarf

Forwandert wrote: »

Why did they charge you £9 to remove something they have to anyway under the weee directive? Funny how the retailers make it sound like they are doing you a favour by removing your unwanted electricals but they have to remove them if requested by you on a like for like basis anyway.

Wrong. The retailer does not have to remove the item free of charge.

The Waste Electrical and Electronic Regulations require retailers who sell electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) to ensure that their customers can return their WEEE free of charge.

The retailer does not have to collect anything, but has to either accept old equipment that their customer has brought back to the store for disposal free of charge. Alternatively the retailer can join a Distributor Takeback Scheme which usually involves a paying the local authority to allow items to be taken by the customer to the local authority recycling site.

Obviously a retailer can offer free collection, but they are not obliged to do so.

Mk14:37

vyle wrote: »

I doubt the drivers did it on purpose, but they shouldn't have left the item there. The managers should be able to get it sorted.

How on earth do you leave a washing machine behind by accident?

gravitytolls

They probably put the washer down to sort paperwork or something, got sidetracked, drove off without it ~ similar to purse on the roof of the car sort of thing.

You may laugh, but I once took the baby out of the pushchair, strapped him in, climbed in the car, realised upon parking in the car park that I'd left the pushchair at the rear of the car when I drove off. I didn't just do it once either.

blue_monkey_2

I left all my shopping at the side of the road once, got home and wondered where it was, drove back into town and there it was - sitting at the side of the road in the pouring rain. I felt a right plank for stopping, putting it in the car and driving away.....

zorber

Altarf wrote: »

Wrong. The retailer does not have to remove the item free of charge.

The Waste Electrical and Electronic Regulations require retailers who sell electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) to ensure that their customers can return their WEEE free of charge.

The retailer does not have to collect anything, but has to either accept old equipment that their customer has brought back to the store for disposal free of charge. Alternatively the retailer can join a Distributor Takeback Scheme which usually involves a paying the local authority to allow items to be taken by the customer to the local authority recycling site.

Obviously a retailer can offer free collection, but they are not obliged to do so.

Correct John Lewis have joined the Distributor Takeback Scheme which means they are under no obligation to take back weee from the customer what so ever. All they need to do is direct the customer to their nearest household recycling centre.
If Johnlewis do take back electrical waste it cost them then to dispose of it and looking at what they have charged, £9, this seems very reasonable as it around this price to then dispose of it properly.
I am sure currys charge £20 to dispose of washing machines.

John Lewis arent offering this service to make additional money and i am sure if you disposed of it your self but needed to call the council it could cost £30 to dispose of, that is if you cant get to the tip on your own.

January20

Well, it's gone! I wish I could say for sure that it was John Lewis that removed it but as they didn't bother to contact me I don't know for sure.

The response to my initial call was very promising but they were shockingly bad at communicating with me and in fact unless I phoned them myself they did not bother contacting me. I was thinking about emailing them to record my feelings about it but decided that as the washer was gone by 31/12 I wouldn't drag this into 2011.

However, this whole experience will make me think twice about using John Lewis in the future for large items like a washing machine. I'll look elsewhere first I think!

Salster278

January20 wrote: »

Well, it's gone! I wish I could say for sure that it was John Lewis that removed it but as they didn't bother to contact me I don't know for sure!

I was just about to comment that I was surprised it was still there! When my dishwasher broke, the plumber put it out on the drive and I was going to phone the council to take it away. However,in less than 10 minutes, a tatty white van drew up and as bold as brass, two lads came down the drive and took the dishwasher away! Saved me a tenner though so I wasn't complaining.

January20

Ah, they emailed me a customer satisfaction survey to complete :rotfl::rotfl: