John Lewis price match

livewire100

There was a story in the paper today saying that John Lewis's "Never knowingly undersold" pledge will now apply to bricks-and-mortar outlets up to 8 miles from John Lewis stories.

The company says that until now it has varied store by store -- some up to 12 miles, some only four.

At least we know for certain where we stand now.

zappomatic

Actually to get a price match the shop can be anywhere in the UK provided it meets certain criteria, but the actual price on the shelf will only change if it's a national competitor or, as you say within a distance which varies by branch.

This change hasn't been implemented yet but is about to be trialled in the three Scottish branches - it's not yet concrete.

zappomatic

This was communicated to Partners yesterday:

Over the last few days, there has been press reporting of our value trial in Scotland. The coverage has been misleading and inaccurate so I would like to set the record straight.
Our customers trust John Lewis because they rely on us to sell merchandise at the best price in the market. We remain utterly commited to our established pricing policy which is enshrined in the slogan Never Knowingly Undersold.
The trial was prompted by feedback from customers that they sometimes find Never Knowingly Undersold hard to understand. For clarity, the main features of the trial are as follows:

1. Clearer communication of the Never Knowingly Undersold promise in branch.
2. Rigorous price checking of national competitors, with additional central resource to reinforce our commitment to robust price matching for all customers across the country.
3. …freeing up local price checkers to focus on local competitors.
4. We will test not taking undersales from independent competitors that come from more than 8 miles from our branch.

It is this last point that journalists have used to suggest that we are reducing our commitment to Never Knowingly Undersold whereas in fact, we have increased our focus on delivering value to customers.
The trial started on 1 October, so this is early days, but results so far show an increase in the number of undersales in the trial branches. This is beginning to show that for the vast majority of customers in the trial areas, our value delivery has improved.
The trial will run through to January and we will then evaluate it carefully. Customer feedback will be key to deciding which aspects of the trial have been successful in strengthening our commitment to Never Knowingly Undersold.

Andy Street
Managing Director, John Lewis

angeleeyes

The only reason i use john lewis is because of free delivery, good warranty and quidco gives me 8% cashback..

You cant price match online... But it gets it within £10 usually, which when buying expensive items, is worth it for warranty

italiastar

In my experience over a number of years it tends to depend on individual partner's. Some accept verbal proof, some match internet and some make you jump through hoops. My best two stories are 1) when they finally reduced the price after a week, they'd sold out and didn't have any to sell to me. 2) I tried to get them to match a washing machine price from a local small retailer - I'm not sure what they said to him, but when they contacted him, he quoted a much higher price. When I phone him again to query the price he'd quoted me - he asked me if I was the person who'd tried to get John Lewis to price match, as if it was I was wasting my time. I eventualy bought it from another local Euronics dealer who was even cheaper and more importantly delivered a couple of day's before Christmas and by this time our previous machine had completely broken - with 4 kids this wasn't fun. In the end I couldn't be bothered with John Lewis's pricematch and they lost a £750 sale.

Just in case people think I'm negative about JL, far from it - I've been shopping with them for most of my life and still regard them as the ONLY high street department store. Most of the "rank and file" staff work very hard under sometimes difficult conditions for the sucess of this partnership. I just wish they could smooth the rough edges and in-source the .Com side, as that is their future.