John Lewis - replacement outside warranty period!

Tigsteroonie

All I did was go away for a couple of days and hubby managed to blow up the microwave ... Actually, it was really strange. He powered the m/wave on at the wall but didn't use it. Then he heard pulsing whirring noises as if it had turned itself on. By the time he got to it, black smoke was pouring out ...

In case anybody's curious, it was a Panasonic NN-E255WB. We bought it from John Lewis in October 2006.

We knew the one-year warranty period had expired, but contacted John Lewis by email anyway to let them know about the situation, as we figured it had to be a fault rather than human error.

Today John Lewis called to say that, even though it was out of warranty, they would be replacing the microwave as a "goodwill gesture". Result! :T

They may not be the cheapest but, by'eck, their customer service is good.

dmg24

This may not be as generous as it seems. John Lewis were actually just fulfilling their obligations under SOGA.

superscaper

dmg24 wrote: »

This may not be as generous as it seems. John Lewis were actually just fulfilling their obligations under SOGA.

At the same time as not accepting liability by calling it a goodwill gesture. Had it been a more expensive item I suspect it'd be a different story. I've found their customer service to be extremely difficult, rude and ignorant. But that may have just been my personal experience unluckily every single time I've phoned them.

Tigsteroonie

I'm sorry if you guys expect this kind of service from your suppliers ...

Considering that the microwave was over 4 months out of the one-year warranty period, I was impressed that they have offered to replace it - without question, without me having to ask, without a fight.

Perhaps I have lower expectations.

moonrakerz

superscaper wrote: »

At the same time as not accepting liability by calling it a goodwill gesture. Had it been a more expensive item I suspect it'd be a different story. I've found their customer service to be extremely difficult, rude and ignorant. But that may have just been my personal experience unluckily every single time I've phoned them.

I had a similar experience with "a more expensive item", a washing machine was instantly replaced 3 months out of warranty, obviously it depends who and where you talk to.

superscaper

Tigsteroonie wrote: »

I'm sorry if you guys expect this kind of service from your suppliers ...

I'm not sure why you refer to "your suppliers". I was only posting on this thread with very specifically personal experience of John Lewis. It wasn't a general comment. I actually don't have such cynicism for other companies, this is purely about JL. I'm glad you had a pleasant experience but from knowing what their CS is actually like I wouldn't attribute any altruistic motivation behind it. Like I said if this was any other company I'd probably take it at face value.

superscaper

moonrakerz wrote: »

obviously it depends who and where you talk to.

Whenever I talked to JL tbh it didn't matter which branch I phoned or who I talked to, it was exactly the same every single time, very rude and curt. If it does depend on who I talk to then even if it was coincidence I just happened to phone the worst people in the worst branches each time then considering the number I'd say that was still quite bad. In one case a guy said "your case is resolved I'm not listening to anything you say". Maybe they're quite good with things only just outside of their warranty but when it comes to CS on anything else they're pretty abhorrent. In my experience they actually break their own contract/terms if it comes down to a large cost for them.

My last experience with them was about a year ago, from an optimistic point of view maybe they've vastly improved in the last 12 months. We ended up having to get the CEO's office involved.

But it is good for once hearing a company (especially JL) actually doing what they're legally required to do anyway.

more_money_for_me

John Lewis certainly seem to feature quite regularly on here for good service, and irregularly on the poor service boards, which would seem a good indication to me. I have bought from them and always been happy, certainly the Sheffield store that I have used staff have gone out of their way to be helpful. Of course good service is not altruistic, it is about a business using this to gain trade, nothing wrong with that in my book. Bad eggs in any business I guess, and I always make it a point to raise this with a manager if I don't feel that the company service level has been met. That said go in with a good attitude and you nearly always get further than if you start off with negative attitude.