John Lewis Kitchen faulty - 3 years in to a saga! Seeking advice and anyone else affected?

askingforadvice1925

We purchased a new fitted kitchen from John Lewis in early 2022. As you would expect, it cost tens of thousands of pounds and was a big investment for us as a family. We chose John Lewis as we expected that if anything went wrong (as things sometimes do), we'd have great customer service to sort it out. 

It's been horrendous.

3 years in I am at my wits end and see no end in sight. Would value any advice anyone has on how to handle from here. 

I also know we're not alone as they have told me many customers have this issue from the range, and perhaps others have had more luck getting sorted. 

Some details:

• Issues appeared quite soon after installation, with cracks and warping on the doors
• I spent about a year trying to get anyone to even engage with us. Some complaints were deflected to sub contractors (e.g. dishwasher company), whilst literally 10s of emails were simply ignored and unanswered. When it was finally picked up the case handler said they way I'd been treated was completely unacceptable and he'd sort it from here. 
• John Lewis accepted our kitchen was faulty under warranty, and they would replace it back in 2023
• It's been one saga after another ever since and I don't think a single step has gone to plan. Everything from refusal to send more than 1 sample (for an entirely new kitchen!!), sending us on wild goose chases to show rooms who had never heard of the range, expecting us to measure our own kitchen, saying they were too busy with xmas promotions for us, etc etc 
• They refuse point blank to escalate the case any further - apparently I am with the most senior team, although given I'm not speaking to the CEO or an exec I struggle to understand how - and say there is no option to complain about the service I'm getting with this team. 
• The latest is that they took away a specific door which they said could not be fully replaced, and needed to be re-skinned. I was told it would be c3 weeks. 4 weeks later I chase (of course I have to chase!) and I'm told it'll now be a further 10 weeks - 3 months total. They agree they should not have taken it, refuse to bring the old door back, and won't explain why it's so much later or why the door is now being sprayed separately to the rest of the cabinets (they took it to do everything at the same time...). So now I have a faulty kitchen and a double cupboard without a door! What a mess. 
• They won't talk about compensation until it's fixed but say it will be "low single digit thousands" which to me seems wildly unreasonable to me for even the time I have spent, let alone having had a faulty product for 3 years. 
• They told me if I start small claims proceedings they will stop work on the case entirely, which I obviously want to avoid.