ForLook Interior Design

I bought a few things online from John Lewis and the delivery took longer than it should have.
I sent them this email to express my concern:..

“Dear Sir/Madam,

Today I received a letter from Parcel Force telling me that a parcel was waiting for me to be collected at my local Post office. According to their letter, they had tried to deliver it on the 3rd January.

I was at home during the whole of the 3rd - in fact I took in another delivery (by DHL). I don’t think Parcel Force even attempted to deliver my order from John Lewis. There was no card left at my door - they put it into an envelope and sent it to me by post the next day.

Perhaps they delivered my order (amongst many other items, apparently) to the Post Office because they were running out of time. You probably have some sort of service level agreement with them and, by doing this, they avoided failing their contract.

Whatever the reason may be for their action, you should be aware of this as your customers are the ones who inconvenienced by the lack of proper delivery.”

I got this reply:

“Thank you for your recent email regarding order number xxxxxx.

Firstly, please accept my sincere apologies for the difficulties you have experienced throughout this order. The level of service you have received has not been of an acceptable standard, and I can assure you that I will be taking the appropriate measures with the relevant people accordingly.

Whilst working with a third party to whom we have divulged (sic - I think they meant devolved) responsibility, there are certain constrictions to which we are limited with regard to ensuring your consignment is delivered on time. However this should not detract from the fact that John Lewis Direct are ultimately responsible for your delivery, and I am disappointed that in this scenario we have provided an unacceptable level of service. Your feedback is greatly appreciated, and I hope we may learn some valuable lessons from this experience.

I have also spoken to the courier company involved and expressed are deep dissatisfaction that they failed to fulfill on our commitment to yourselves on this occasion.

As a result of the above, I would like to offer you a discount of £10.00 from an order totaling £20.00 or more should you offer us the opportunity to restore your faith in our service. If you would like to take advantage of this offer, please respond to this email directly quoting your new order number and I will ensure this discount is applied. I appreciate that this does not accommodate for the problems that you have endured; however, I hope this gesture reflects our regret for this situation, and our determination to learn from these events.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank you for your feedback, and whilst I understand that the support we have offered does not adhere to the standards we would both expect of John Lewis, I am confident that we may improve our service as a result of your comments.

Once again, please accept our apologies for the inconvenience caused

If we can be of any further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us at customerservices@johnlewis.com or please telephone us on 08456 049 049 anytime between 7am and Midnight, 7 days a week and a Customer Service Representative will be happy to assist you.”

WOW!!! This is what I call proper Customer Service. If all, or at least most, shops and stores took the trouble to apologize for their mistakes or hiccups for which they’re not really directly responsible; wouldn’t shopping be a better experience and the world a better place?

OK, this particular letter is a bit OTT and fulsome, but good in spirit - and most importantly I will shop more at John Lewis in future.

I encourage all our clients and readers to do the same.