Very disappointing service from John Lewis delivery. Our washing machine ceased working after 15 years, so we decided to order online from John Lewis, thinking that such a renowned high street store would give us decent after-sales service. How wrong we were! First off, although the Bosch washing machine we ordered was in stock, the earliest delivery date they could offer was 8 days after the purchase date. We decided to accept it despite the laundry starting to pile up... On the day of delivery itself, we were told they could arrive anytime from 14:00 to 21:00. They couldn't be more specific than that. My partner and I had to take turns staying at home to ensure that someone was at home when the delivery people arrived, but we waited until nearly 8pm before they phoned us to say they were on their way. So the men brought the washing machine up into our flat and proceeded to try and disconnect the old one. Within minutes, they told me that they couldn't proceed with the work because the waste pipe was "behind a panel". This panel was under my kitchen sink, affixed with screws, so I asked them to remove the panel but they said it wasn't their job to do it. When we said we'd do it ourselves, they said they didn't have the time to wait for us to do it!!! Although they could see the waste pipe, they couldn't see the outlet itself and so it was apparently against John Lewis's Terms and Conditions. They actually wanted to dump the new washing machine at my place, without removing the old one, and kept insisting I had to call in a plumber to do the connection. Instead, utterly exasperated, we requested that they took the new washing machine back! They weren't the least bit happy about this but had to do what they were told. As they were removing the new machine from my premises, I managed to pull out the waste pipe - it was in fact, connected to a waste extension with a simple clip. I called them back and apprised them of this fact, but they kept insisting they could not do the job, they were not "trained" to connect a waste pipe to an extension, and it would violate my washing machine warranty with John Lewis, etc. It was the first time I'd ever heard of something so ridiculous. Anyway they tried to tell me that having an extension would shorten the life of the machine, and I had to get a qualified plumber to do the connections etc. Utter nonsense, and I requested a full refund from John Lewis. Of course I still had to phone them a week later to actually process the refund. I ended up buying the machine from an online company and delivery and installation went without a hitch; the waste extension wasn't even mentioned as a potential problem. I imagine most London flats have waste extension pipes connected to washing machines. I can't imagine John Lewis can be very profitable if it keeps having these machines returned by irate customers!!!