JL Partnership Card - 'Technical fault'

vanillamonger

Hello
I'm wondering if anyone else has run into an issue with a 'technical fault' on their John Lewis Partnership Card which has disabled the ability to login online much less use the card for any transactions. I know this was an issue a couple of years ago when JL Partnership was updating their software or some such business, but this seems to be a new situation.

I've been unable to use my card for the past seven days and after three phone calls to Customer Services am no closer to receiving any answers as to why this has happened. Customer Services deflects to their unreachable Technical Department and neither department is willing to provide a timeframe as to when the 'technical fault' (which has been blamed on Black Friday!) will be cleared and the piece of plastic otherwise known as the JL Partnership Card will be functional again.

At least two Customer Services representatives have told me that I won't be charged any overdue fees despite my payment deadline fast approaching, yet given the current inaccessibility of my account, I don't necessarily trust that this will be the case.

When I tried to cancel my card to get out from the situation altogether, I was told I'm unable to do this. Does anyone know if there are legal grounds by which JL Partnership can deny a customer's request to close his/her account? And how long can they feasibly allow customers with this issue to carry on without the use of their credit card? No alternatives have been suggested much less support and/or updates being provided. It's frustrating to say the least!

Any advice/commiseration is appreciated.

agrinnall

Cancelling the card would make no difference at all. I suggest you get something in writing to confirm that no additional fees or charges will be applied, and use another card until the JL issue is resolved.

Chino

vanillamonger wrote: »

At least two Customer Services representatives have told me that I won't be charged any overdue fees despite my payment deadline fast approaching

Have you asked a CSR to advise you of your balance over the telephone? Then you could at least pay your balance and avoid the hassle of having to recover the late payment fees and interest that you will inevitably be charged, despite the CSRs' assurances.

vanillamonger

Thanks for the advice, agrinnall.

Understood about how cancelling the card won't solve anything. I just want the situation to be done with as I worry I could be forever stuck in this holding pattern without the JL card. At least if it could be cancelled and a new card issued, I could still have use of the card from a service that I've not previously had issues with.

vanillamonger

Chino, my hesitation in paying off the balance is I have ZERO transparency in knowing where that money is going to (to be fair in doing everything online these days, you don't really either, but even the false sense of checking my account is more assuring than NONE AT ALL). Maybe I'm being paranoid, but in not being able to access my account detail online, I have to take it on total faith that my account it being paid off in full - and without any additional charges.

Gers

vanillamonger wrote: »

Chino, my hesitation in paying off the balance is I have ZERO transparency in knowing where that money is going to (to be fair in doing everything online these days, you don't really either, but even the false sense of checking my account is more assuring than NONE AT ALL). Maybe I'm being paranoid, but in not being able to access my account detail online, I have to take it on total faith that my account it being paid off in full - and without any additional charges.

Could you at least do a part payment though if you do it over the phone then you won’t be overdue.

18cc

yes i would definately pay the minimum payment - use faster payments from your bank account or call jlp and pay by debit card

agrinnall

If you can get the confirmation that no fees will be applied and that no late payment marker will be sent to the CRAs then I would not make any payment at all until advised to do so. I think there is a distinct possibility that payment by any means will not get to the correct card account and will end up in the collection account as an orphan payment and you'll then have an additional battle to locate it in the future.

Missus_Hyde

I've just logged into our John Lewis Partnership a/c without any problems; I've tried the app and the online banking and both seem to be okay. We have a DD which takes the full amount around the 25th of the month, which worked perfectly well this month.

I haven't used the card itself for the past week or so (it depends where we do our shopping) so can't comment on whether it's working at the moment,

Their website is a bit clunky at the best of times and I've found that although they're quite helpful if you can pin them down, the customer services don't seem to be particularly knowledgeable about how the thing actually works.

Like you, Vanillamonger, I would be a little concerned about paying money to them, without knowing exactly where it might end up in cyber space.:cool: