Thread by @smjpepys

1/ 4 Months ago my fiance and I went into @JohnLewis to start our gift list. From the beginning we've had shoddy, outdated service that has ruined what should be great customer service. Sit back kids, and learn how the @JohnLewis gift list deserves to be consigned to the bin.

2/ It all started in store. We went into the shop and up to the gift list service desk. We were looking forward to going around the store and picking out all the wonderful things we’d want post-wedding. We were handed something that looked like an early blackberry.

3/ What’s this? We asked ourselves. The kind woman at the desk attempted to turn it on. It didn’t work. She fetched another one. No battery. At the third attempt she found one that would turn on. She showed us how to scan an item.

4/ Weird we thought, since I can shop at Waitrose using an app on my phone, but fair enough. What’s a little old technology when we’re going to have EXCELLENT CUSTOMER SERVICE. So young, so naive.

5/ We started wandering around the store with this strange, clunky device, scanning items, excited to be picking out dinner services and tea pots and more. Suddenly though, there’s a funny noise from the blackberry. It won’t scan anything anymore. HAVE WE LOST OUR GIFTS?

6/ Concerned, we went and asked the nearest member of staff we could find. HELP US, OUR GIFT LIST IS LOST! We said. I don’t know how to use the devices, she said. WHAT CAN WE DO? We said. I dont know she said. So it begins.

7/ 2 trips to john lewis, and 6 devices later, we have FINALLY completed our order on John Lewis. It was painful to get here, but we’re about to get married, and everyone will buy our chosen gifts and it will be great. So hopeful, so naive.

8/ Then things start to go properly wrong. It’s pre-wedding, but people are buying gifts off the list which aren’t available via the gift list. John Lewis get in touch; they can convert these gifts into vouchers. We can then use the vouchers to buy the same gift FROM JOHN LEWIS.

9/ Why can’t the gift list buy gifts from John Lewis? We ask. No answer does there come. The system doesn’t work that way. Computer says no.

10/ Well, at least I can go online, get the vouchers and then buy the gift, right? NO. To spend a voucher from the gift list, the following must happen:

11/ i)Someone buys you a Lampshade from the gift list. ii)John Lewis contact you to say the lampshade isn’t on the gift list, but it is available online. iii)They convert the lampshade into a voucher. iv)They send you the voucher in 5-10 working days...

12/ v)then AND ONLY THEN can you use the voucher to buy the lampshade SOMEONE HAS ALREADY BOUGHT YOU.

13/ At which point you login to see which was the lampshade they bought you so you can get like for like, AND THE SYSTEM WON’T SAY WHICH GIFT WAS CONVERTED TO A VOUCHER!

14/ This is annoying alright, however the wedding is rapidly coming around now, and MOST of the gift seem to have been successfully bought. Annoying service so far, sure, but not the end of the world. We’re going to get married

15/ At this point we arrange an early delivery of some specific items on the gift list to enjoy on our honeymoon. We’re really looking forward to enjoying these gifts, and doing so on our break will make it all the better.

16/ I book an early delivery with a pleasant woman on the phone. We'll dispatch those items for you sir, no problem sir.

17/ two weeks later, a delivery note is put through the door. Please go to your local post office to collect your items. So off I skip to collect our items, looking forward to having our first WEDDING GIFTS. So young. So naive.

18/ I collect a single suspiciously small box from the post office. Inside are half the items I'd explicitly arranged delivery of. I phone up @johnlewis and another perfectly pleasant lady explains that there were apparently two boxes.

19/ so where is the second box? I ask. Let me check, she says. It's been delivered, she says. No it hasn't I say. But the system says it has, she says. I assure you it hasn't. She proceeds to give me two tracking nos, which she has but which they don't pass onto the consumer...

20/ I go back to the post office, and have to beg for my second parcel. Ah, we get this a lot with @johnlewis, he says...

21/ at this point alarm bells are ringing, but the wedding is only days away. I'm sure it will be fine, we tell each other.

22/ the wedding itself is a triumph, the sun shines, everything goes to plan, and it's the perfect wedding day we've always wanted. We take a week away afterwards for our honeymoon in the Yorkshire dales.

23/ while we're there, we get prompted by @johnlewis. Now you're married, time to book your deliver. Great we think, the EXCELLENT CUSTOMER SERVICE we've been expecting finally appears to be kicking in.

24/ we'll get it delivered the first weekend we're back home, easy. NO, says John Lewis. You can't have a delivery slot. You're outside the delivery catchment zone. We live 9 miles from the John Lewis store. I can drive there in 15 minutes.

25/ because we're outside the delivery zone, we'll have to put you in touch with our mysterious 'delivery partners'. Okay… We Say. How do we contact them? We ask. Oh no, they'll contact you, they say. When? Oh, expect it to be about two weeks.

26/ two weeks comes and goes, shortly after which we get a call from the mysterious delivery partner. They want to arrange a delivery, for a weeks time. Can you tell us what time you'll deliver, we ask. No we're told. The excellent customer service really shines through.

23/ so the big day rolls around, D-day, delivery day. It feels like we've been waiting forever for this. In truth we've waited 27 DAYS FOR THIS DELIVERY, having been shuffled between numerous different partners in the @johnlewis labyrinth

24/ it's fine though, they'll deliver our gifts and this excruciating experience will be over. At least we'll be free of this mediocrity. So young, so naive.

25/ the delivery man calls, he's 30 mins out. Keith was his name. He pulls up in a John lewis van (the mysterious delivery partners remember which are the reason the store themselves can't deliver)

26/ Keith starts unloading the boxes from @johnlewis. There are 4 of them. For the whole wedding list. This can't be everything, we think. It isn't everything.

27/ We phone @johnlewis, some of our gifts are missing, we say. Oh no, how strange, they say. THEY MUST HAVE BEEN ORDERED LATE, they falsely claim. We correct them of their blatant attempt to deny responsibility for OUR MISSING GIFTS

28/ Where are our gifts, we ask? They appear to not have been sent. Obviously. Because we clearly only wanted delivery of one third of our gifts…

29/ We then ask the killer question. Which of our gifts do you still have, can you please send us a list to confirm all of the gifts will be delivered? The system doesn't work that way, but just for you, we'll try and work it out

30/ the next day, they send us a list of our 'undelivered' gifts. Except it isn't a list of our missing gifts, it's a random list of some of our gifts, BOTH MISSING AND DELIVERED.

31/ Can you tell me what you did deliver last time, we ask? no. Can you tell us what is coming in the next delivery? No. Can you tell us when the next delivery is coming? NO. ITS WITH OUR DELIVERY PARTNERS.

32/ When will we hear from your 'Delivery partners'? Oh, sometime after TWO WEEKS.

33/ So here we are, FORTY ONE DAYS, since we were married, and @johnlewis can't tell me when my gifts will be delivered, what will be delivered nor which gifts they've managed to lose along the way.

34/ Where are our wedding gifts @johnlewis? Where are they? What is this hell hole of a customer experience we're trapped in, always hoping for but never receiving our gifts?

35/ why have you let this happen @johnlewis? Why? If I go online and buy all of these gifts, they'll be delivered within a week. It's been FORTY ONE Days and counting.

36/ and yet, every complaint we raise goes round in some tortured circle, doomed to wait two weeks for a delivery partner to fail to deliver our gifts.

37/ so ends this sorry tale of a defunct service that needs to be out of its miserable, sorry existence @johnlewis - you've RUINED this experience, and we will never shop with you again.

38/ @weddingmagazine @youyourwedding @countyweddings @ultimatewedmag a cautionary tale for your readers! Please share this story, so other newly weds don't have their gift list experience ruined like ours!

39/ @milesbrignall @tony1hazell @katiemorley_ consumer champions, are you able to assist with this and get @johnlewis to deliver the gifts they owe us?

40/ @whichuk @bbcwatchdog what are our consumer rights here? Surely @johnlewis can't just lose our gifts, fail to deliver and nothing happens as a result!

41/41 sorry for the very long thread. If you made it all the way, you're a hero. If anyone has any advice on how to get @johnlewis to deliver our gifts, we'd love to hear! They're ruined this for us!

@threadreaderapp unroll

@jlandpartners @jlandpcustserv just been made aware that this outdated company doesn't even own @johnlewis. Can't say I'm surprised!