MSE News: Flaw revealed in John Lewis 'Never Knowingly Undersold' price guarantee

Jennifer_Jane

Incidentally, I compared combi microwave ovens recently and JL came up with a pretty competitive price so bought that (others were online stores that I haven't used before so chose JL over them for the few pounds difference). 2 weeks later I 'happened' to be on the JL site and saw the oven was £20 cheaper.

One quick phone call and the £20 will be credited to my account.

Of course, I do understand that this is a different thing from Martin's point above, but just mentioning that it might be worth rechecking prices of things you've bought at JL under the 28 day 'Never knowingly undersold' rule. I was delighted with this.

I agree with Martin's point that it should be the selling price of the product, rather than the add-ons like delivery/extra guarantees etc.

verac43

I think John Lewis are perfectly justified in not agreeing to price match if they give a 5-year guarantee on TVs. If their competitors (e.g. Amazon) only offer a standard 1-year guarantee then the John Lewis TV offer is more beneficial and the products they are selling are not the same. If you want to extend your guarantee with Amazon to 3 years then you pay another £53, or to extend to 5 years you pay an extra £64.

The customer service/after-sales service that you get from John Lewis is far superior to most other retailers and I know who I would rather buy from.

verac43

There is a previous comment suggesting that extended guarantees (in this case the John Lewis TV 5-year guarantee) are unnecessary because faults are covered for a period of 6 years under the Sale of Goods Act. You can hardly compare the two.

Under that Act, during the first six months the trader has to repair the fault unless he can prove misuse or fair wear and tear. After that time, the onus is on the buyer to prove that the fault is not due to misuse or fair wear and tear. Furthermore the trader can refuse even to collect and/or inspect the product until the buyer has provided proof by submitting an expert opinion that it was an inherent fault and not due to misuse or fair wear and tear.

You can imagine how difficult it would be to prove that fair wear and tear or misuse were not involved after a period of 3 or 4 years, or even 4 years and 10 months which was the experience cited in a previous message. And if you did take on the trader under the Sale of Goods Act in the small claims court (which would involve you in much time and expense) and be fortunate enough to win your case, it is highly likely that a deduction would be made from the settlement for fair wear and tear during the fairly long period you had owned the TV set. Under an extended guarantee given by a reputable retailer like John Lewis, the matter would be dealt with quickly and efficiently and without cost to you.

Loz

Have to say I love John Lewis! Their customer service is second to none. The drivers always call shortly before they are due to deliver your order and deliver when they say i.e. a.m. or p.m. so that you don't need to stay in all day. They go out of their way to make sure that their customers are satisfied. I recently purchased a fridge freezer from them for £400 and later saw it for £335 on another site - like for like with the same guarantee of 2 yrs. Within a few days the difference was refunded back to my credit card - without any fuss or quibbling.

janner45

gt94sss2 wrote: »

Agreed - especially since expensive electronic items like washing machines and TV's will be covered for up to 5-6 years via the Sales of Goods Act - regardless of whether you buy it from John Lewis or another retailer - and regardless of whether they 'officially' have a 1, 2, 3 or 5 year warranty..

Regards
Sunil

I always understood this was correct,but you try and challange a retailer with this when they offer what they consider a good deal say two years, and they look at you as if your daft. Many retailers don't know the law.

andthethreebears

I love John Lewis and would happily shop there for all purchases we don't make online!

We used the 'never knowingly undersold' at Christmas to get a DAB radio at half the price they were selling it for. As other poster have said, they offered that I could pay for it and then claim the difference back OR I could give them the details and they would look into it and I could buy the item later that day!
So I gave them the webite / adress / phone number of an audio store (230miles away, incidentally!) who I had seen online - went back an hour later after a wander round, and got my item at the vastly reduced price!

They offer a fantastic service which I don't think is beaten by any other high street retailer.

phraggler

My wife was recently after a Dualit toaster and after seeing the one she wanted in JL for £175 I thought "NOT A CHANCE!"

Fenwicks Department Store had an identical model for only £75 so I ordered it from there. Anyway, I ended up going into JL just for the crack to see if they would do a price match. It turns out that they wouldn't because the price difference was so great they would lose money. Being the persistent type, I pressed them on their 'never knowingly undersold' policy and eventually they agreed to match it providing the model number was the same and the other store had stock.

Said toaster is product code 85525328 on their website.

So, the glamorous assistant went away and came back with some more info. To cut a long story short, the toaster was an exclusive to JL. Although it looked identical, and had exactly the same features, the product code was different to that of the toaster in Fenwicks by 1 character, thus no price match.

I've since checked out a few other products and found those to be exactly the same. Exclusive to JL - same product - identical in every way barring a product code. So, whilst I like JL and have picked up some bargains there and had great service over the years, I'm less impressed by the 'never knowingly undersold' promise.

Also, elaborating here on what mobeer said... If a JL employee finds out that a particular product can be had cheaper at a different shop, do JL then change their price to match the cheaper price? I think not. People who don't say anything continue to be knowingly oversold by JL!

Haffiana

Interesting re the Dualit. I bought one recently from JL after much shopping around. The one I saw in Fenwicks for around £70 was the different Dualit Lite model - very similar but it has no repairable parts, hence the price difference.

Sergihno

I think some of you chaps are just gunning for the big boys and, in a way, fair play to you for keeping them, and us, on our toes.

However, I think you are barking up the wrong wotsname on this one as price comparrison has surely got to be like for like or the limits of the promise simply do not exist and people could be making all sorts of tenuous links to get a refund.

Here's my experience:
I purchased a laptop well over a month ago from John Lewis and have just noticed that the price had reduced by £60 - not happy.

I called the generic number on the webpage, got through to a real person in well under 1 minute, explained my issue with them reducing the price, ready to explode with the fury of a thousand suns and....

...'no problem sir, I've just checked and that's fine, would you like me to refund the diffference back to your credit card?'

Email confirmation through immediately, all done in under 3 minutes.

This is sensational customer service and one that I would not experience elsewhere.

I shop by a balance of price and customer experience in equal measure. There are several store I will never go to again due to bad experiences. I shop at John Lewis because of this kind of service and am happy to pay a little more for it.

ttfn

mckay888

My partner and I tried this and although we found an item online cheaper and gave them all the necessary documentation they asked for, they still didn't match the offer... knowingly undersold should be their new slogan.