John Lewis - surprised at such bad customer service

gregg1

thriftymanc wrote: »

I have a couple of friends who work for John Lewis who say the bonus might sound large but it doesn't mean anything when they don't even get paid £7 an hour to begin with! If you're only being paid nine grand a year, a 15% or whatever bonus isn't as great as it sounds.

My heart bleeds for them. At nine grand a year it is still a bonus of £1,350 less tax! Its 15% more than the majority of other retail staff get. They also enjoy a near non-contributory final salary pension scheme. A scheme whereby employee and one other get 25% off JL goodss/15% off at waitrose, half price theatre and concert tickets, The benefit of five holiday centres run for the benefit of the staff at incredibly reduced rates, subsidies for whatever educational or lesire courses they may want to follow plus a range of sabatical and extended leave programmes, healthcare etc, etc, etc...

Your friends need to come into the real world if they think all that "doesn't mean anything" Most retail staff get minimum wage and NONE of those perks!

mzg

Update on the dishwasher. After emailing the customer service manager last night, I called mid morning today and she was just in the process of emailing me. She immediately offered a replacement and said that what had gone on was totally unacceptable. She said she will order a replacement today. Let's just hope this arrives and is working, and lasts longer than the last one. Credit to this manager for sorting out in five minutes what nobody else managed in two and a half weeks.

Elvisia

I do hope it all works out, can you put up another post and let us know what the result is?

thriftymanc

gregg1 wrote: »

My heart bleeds for them. At nine grand a year it is still a bonus of £1,350 less tax! Its 15% more than the majority of other retail staff get. They also enjoy a near non-contributory final salary pension scheme. A scheme whereby employee and one other get 25% off JL goodss/15% off at waitrose, half price theatre and concert tickets, The benefit of five holiday centres run for the benefit of the staff at incredibly reduced rates, subsidies for whatever educational or lesire courses they may want to follow plus a range of sabatical and extended leave programmes, healthcare etc, etc, etc...

Your friends need to come into the real world if they think all that "doesn't mean anything" Most retail staff get minimum wage and NONE of those perks!

I do get where you're coming from - I used to think that too, but as my friends point out if you don't get paid enough to have anything left over after bills and food it doesn't really matter what perks you get as you can't afford them anyway! I was just pointing out that people hear the large bonus percent and think it's great, but if you're on NMW it's not actually as great as it sounds. I think there's a perception that John Lewis pays its staff much higher than NMW but they don't (not all of them anyway) - that's more the point I was trying to make. A 15% bonus on NMW just bumps your annual pay up to a slightly more reasonable amount rather than a 'oh my god I get paid sooo well' amount. Not trying to cause any arguments, it's not a competition!

vyle

thriftymanc wrote: »

I do get where you're coming from - I used to think that too, but as my friends point out if you don't get paid enough to have anything left over after bills and food it doesn't really matter what perks you get as you can't afford them anyway! I was just pointing out that people hear the large bonus percent and think it's great, but if you're on NMW it's not actually as great as it sounds. I think there's a perception that John Lewis pays its staff much higher than NMW but they don't (not all of them anyway) - that's more the point I was trying to make. A 15% bonus on NMW just bumps your annual pay up to a slightly more reasonable amount rather than a 'oh my god I get paid sooo well' amount. Not trying to cause any arguments, it's not a competition!

AFAIK JL pay starts at nmw, and goes up a fair amount to £8-something if you're lucky (for basic shop floor people), but to get above £7 you have to demonstrate yourself to be a highly competent employee.

By comparison the entry wage for a job at carphone warehouse is £6.90 and you get team bonuses for beating targets.

Tesco pays two thirds of its staff over £7 per hour as a basic wage.

If you consider what people expect from tesco staff -- judging by some posts here, you'd be amazed if they could find their way to the till without causing serious injury to themselves and others --who on average get paid far better than JL staff, it is pretty low. I would expect JL staff pay to be on par with the Apple store which starts at around £8, and I know someone who works at an apple genius on weekends only who takes home £13k after tax. I'm sure the bonuses are nice, but who really accepts a job based on something that is not guaranteed. I turned down jobs at JL, Orange, and a number of other places for just such a reason.

They try to hire you promising "well, we got a 20% bonus last year" and I point out that my current pay where I am makes that irrelevant if I'm dropping £2.50 an hour or more to work there, and that bonus isn't even guaranteed.

Of course, money isn't everything, but you've got to be able to cover your bills.

Of course none of that excuses bad customer service. If you've said you'll call someone back, do it. If you have trouble achieving the resolution you've agreed with your customer, at least let them know what's going on. However, if your expectations on customer service are based on pay=performance, then swap your expectations of tesco and JL around.

gregg1

thriftymanc wrote: »

I do get where you're coming from - I used to think that too, but as my friends point out if you don't get paid enough to have anything left over after bills and food it doesn't really matter what perks you get as you can't afford them anyway! I was just pointing out that people hear the large bonus percent and think it's great, but if you're on NMW it's not actually as great as it sounds. I think there's a perception that John Lewis pays its staff much higher than NMW but they don't (not all of them anyway) - that's more the point I was trying to make. A 15% bonus on NMW just bumps your annual pay up to a slightly more reasonable amount rather than a 'oh my god I get paid sooo well' amount. Not trying to cause any arguments, it's not a competition!

i understand and I am not making it a competion! Merely responding to your post.. Lots of people are on minimum wage and would love to get even 15% of minimum wage. They don't have to be able to afford pension contributions anyway, nor medical cover, they get it contruibution free basically, so this really has to be taken into account as being part of their income which does take them above general retail salaries.

Disappointed_customer

I wish I had read the reviews about the John Lewis Call Centre before I bought a Miele washing machine (total cost £760) last week.

The installation team said the machine was faulty and that the Contact Centre would phone me the next day to arrange delivery of a replacemebt. No-one phoned. I phoned the Contact Centre myself and was fobbed off/passed around for two days - no-one would accept responsibilty for issuing a replacement machine. After two days of my calling the Contact Centre and going round in circles I had had enough and went to the John Lewis Cheadle store and got a refund of my £760.

I will never, ever, buy expensive items from John Lewis again. I have completely lost confidence in them.

Surely, the top level'management' (whoever they are - it's hard to find out who to complain to!) must know about the terrible service from the Contact Centre? I just cannot understand why they have not done something about it.

hillcats

I've also experienced really bad customer service from JL recently. I will certainly not be purchasing ANY appliance I may need in the future from them, as the wait times for delivery are completely unacceptable. I made the mistake of trusting the brand name and they failed 100% ! I cancelled the order with JL after a recommendation...

AO.com on the other hand, I ordered the exact same required appliance from them and it was being carried through my front door within 24 hours.

I recommend AO.com for superb customer service and prompt delivery !

***cupcake***_2

Another case here of surprisingly poor service from John Lewis.

I bought and paid for my order online, choosing JL due to their good name and 2yr guarantee. The 2 year guarantee is misleading.....having sent us major kitchen appliance that is faulty, never worked on delivery, they are messing about trying to pass the buck to the manufacturer. It should be a simple refund or replace.....but no. :mad:

I've spent 2 weeks on the phone to their 'technical support', a team which do not return calls, who promise to do things then don't, and who basically have given me the runaround at cost to myself in time, phone calls, and days off waiting for collections that have not happened. The guarantee is meaningless. The service is dire.

I'd never purchase from them again online, they just don't care. I've put my complaint in writing now, and will follow up.

I'd strongly advise others to beware of John Lewis online....fine when things go well, but when they go wrong......:eek:

jlts

***cupcake*** wrote: »

Another case here of surprisingly poor service from John Lewis.

I bought and paid for my order online, choosing JL due to their good name and 2yr guarantee. The 2 year guarantee is misleading.....having sent us major kitchen appliance that is faulty, never worked on delivery, they are messing about trying to pass the buck to the manufacturer. It should be a simple refund or replace.....but no. :mad:

I've spent 2 weeks on the phone to their 'technical support', a team which do not return calls, who promise to do things then don't, and who basically have given me the runaround at cost to myself in time, phone calls, and days off waiting for collections that have not happened. The guarantee is meaningless. The service is dire.

Actually, the warranty isn't misleading at all. The first year of the guarantee is covered by the manufacturer, and the second year is covered by John Lewis.

From what you have posted, it seems your product is within the DOA period, so therefore they would need to get in contact with the manufacturer to get an uplift number in order to replace the product - else John Lewis would be paying for what is most likely a manufacturing fault which wasn't even John Lewis' fault.



Also, if one more person says "I have been a customer at John Lewis for a long time" I will actually shoot a kitten. It is the most infuriating thing when people say that. It's not as if we are going to turn a blind eye because you allegedly have been shopping with JL for a long time - it makes no difference whatsoever.