What is going on with John Lewis aftersales service, returns and refunds?

qualitycounts

John Lewis after sales care is shambolic. Bought a phone online 17/7/25 which was faulty and immediately arranged a replacement which was also faulty. They have agreed to refund me but after hours on the phone to John Lewis (7 calls), complaints, escalation of complaints and also emails I still haven't received a refund and haven't been able to arrange return of the 2nd phone. Was told repeatedly last week by JL that as soon as the 1st phone arrived back with them I would receive a refund and could then return 2nd phone. They absolutely refused to let me return the 2nd phone last week or speak to a manager. 1st phone got back to them 4 days ago, no refund, and they now say I can return 2nd phone later this week and must wait another 14 days after that for refund. Don't be fooled, all Customer Care, Technical, Escalation depts are in a call centre in Morocco who don't seem to have the relevant information & keep asking you to go over the details again & again. It's an absolute nightmare. It is impossible to get answers to questions or speak to anyone in the UK who knows what is going on. It is impossible to get past the wall of ineptitude in Morocco. Almost 3 weeks since I purchased this phone and as per John Lewis it will now be another 2/3 weeks before I receive my refund. I have purchased from John Lewis over the years because of their excellent customer care but no longer. They are now a nightmare to deal with and I regret buying from them.  Has anyone any advice?

jaybeetoo

My wife had a similar problem getting a refund on some faulty earphones.  Their service doesn’t seem to be what it was, sadly.

Okell

The Consumer Rights Act 2015 does give retailers up to 14 days after agreeing to pay a refund to pay up.

When did they agree to refund?

screech_78

qualitycounts said:

John Lewis after sales care is shambolic. Bought a phone online 17/7/25 which was faulty and immediately arranged a replacement which was also faulty. They have agreed to refund me but after hours on the phone to John Lewis (7 calls), complaints, escalation of complaints and also emails I still haven't received a refund and haven't been able to arrange return of the 2nd phone. Was told repeatedly last week by JL that as soon as the 1st phone arrived back with them I would receive a refund and could then return 2nd phone. They absolutely refused to let me return the 2nd phone last week or speak to a manager. 1st phone got back to them 4 days ago, no refund, and they now say I can return 2nd phone later this week and must wait another 14 days after that for refund. Don't be fooled, all Customer Care, Technical, Escalation depts are in a call centre in Morocco who don't seem to have the relevant information & keep asking you to go over the details again & again. It's an absolute nightmare. It is impossible to get answers to questions or speak to anyone in the UK who knows what is going on. It is impossible to get past the wall of ineptitude in Morocco. Almost 3 weeks since I purchased this phone and as per John Lewis it will now be another 2/3 weeks before I receive my refund. I have purchased from John Lewis over the years because of their excellent customer care but no longer. They are now a nightmare to deal with and I regret buying from them.  Has anyone any advice?

Sounds poor OP, but this isn’t true. 

If you follow the link below and fill out the form, this will go to the customer relations team who are UK based and will get it sorted for you. If you don’t have a case number, just input 8 random numbers. 

https://www.johnlewis.com/customer-services/escalated-complaints

photome

I had the same issue as you with a washing machine, call centre is a waste of time.

I went in to a store and got it sorted instantly, refund was in my account straight away and machine picked up a few days later

If you can get to a store I suggest you do

its a shame they outsourced their call centre and you can no longer call an individual store

qualitycounts

I phoned John Lewis last week Wednesday 28 July to tell them the second phone was faulty.  They told me I would get refund as soon as the 1st phone arrived back with them.  I confirmed in a second call, they said I would receive refund when the 1st phone arrived with them.  Although I asked them to, they would not arrange a return of the 2nd phone until the 1st phone arrived back.  1st phone arrived back on Sat 2 Aug but now they say they will arrange pick up of 2nd phone this Friday and I will not get a refund until 14 days after it is picked up.  So I reported the fault Wed 28 July but by what they say I won't get refund until approx. 22 August (if I do).
They kept telling me to drop the phone into John Lewis of Waitrose and I had to explain AGAIN AND AGAIN that I live in N Ireland and we have none of these stores.  Phone calls, e mails - they just ignore them.

pinkshoes

qualitycounts said:

I phoned John Lewis last week Wednesday 28 July to tell them the second phone was faulty.  They told me I would get refund as soon as the 1st phone arrived back with them.  I confirmed in a second call, they said I would receive refund when the 1st phone arrived with them.  Although I asked them to, they would not arrange a return of the 2nd phone until the 1st phone arrived back.  1st phone arrived back on Sat 2 Aug but now they say they will arrange pick up of 2nd phone this Friday and I will not get a refund until 14 days after it is picked up.  So I reported the fault Wed 28 July but by what they say I won't get refund until approx. 22 August (if I do).
They kept telling me to drop the phone into John Lewis of Waitrose and I had to explain AGAIN AND AGAIN that I live in N Ireland and we have none of these stores.  Phone calls, e mails - they just ignore them.

Having TWO faulty phones is unusual...

It's also normal to send something back before being refunded. They have said they'll refund so just follow the instructions. The 14 days will be the maximum time and you may find you get a refund before this.

Its just unfortunate you have no store near you.

qualitycounts

I went through the escalated complaints link twice - it does not go to the UK, it also goes to Morocco and just gets ignored.

qualitycounts

Yes, TWO faulty phones is unusual and both with the same fault, how do you think I felt when the second phone was also faulty.  I had a very long phone call with the manufacturer trying to adjust the phone but the manufacturer told me to arrange a return to the retailer.

I tried to arrange a return and refund on the second phone a week ago but John Lewis would not let me until the first phone arrived back.

John Lewis REPEATEDLY told me over the course of two phone calls that I would be refunded when the first phone arrived back with them.  I actually queried this asking whether they would not need both phones back before a refund was arranged and they repeatedly told me I would receive a refund when the first phone arrived back and that then they would organise a return for the second phone.

They told me yesterday that the earliest they could arrange collection of the phone was tomorrow Friday 8 Aug.  6 hours after I was told this I had a delivery from the same company that it coming back on Friday and was speaking to the delivery driver who could not understand why he could not have been given information for the delivery yesterday instead of having to come back again in two days time.

How can I believe anything they tell me since they keep giving me totally incorrect information?

Also their collections and deliveries are so slow that the second phone may only arrive back with them 14 days after I requested a refund and they say:

Within 9 days: we'll confirm via email that we've received the items

Within 14 days: Your refund will be processed within 5 days after we receive yours items"

Yes, they keep saying I will get a refund but really.............................