As anyone who works will know, shopping online can be a difficult and worrying process because of the delivery complexities – required signatures, packages left in inappropriate place etc. This was partly why I was so appreciative of John Lewis’ previously excellent Click and Collect service. I could collect from a Waitrose near my work during the week or, at the weekend, near my home. The delivery charge came as a bit of a blow as I had previously done quite a bit of impulse and last minute buying, which I will no longer risk as the charge is generally disproportionate to the value of the order. There are other less well publicised problems though, the first being that we are now required to return items to the store they were collected from – not convenient. The second problem is with the way the changes were introduced, staff were not properly trained and instructions to staff and customers about dealing with returns are not clear. I recently returned two orders to two different stores who adopted completely different procedures, neither of which corresponded to the procedure as spelt out in my documentation. In the first store staff had to refer to instructions as they were unsure what to do, took all my documentation and gave me a small sticky label with the date (no other information) written on it. On this occasion they did finally confirm receipt of my return - 8 days later - and assured me that my refund would USUALLY be processed a week later i.e. two weeks after my return. Considering that the return was made in person, in a store, I can’t see why the process takes so long. Other retailers manage this within 24 hours. The second store accepted my return three and a half weeks ago, less than an hour after I’d collected it. Again they took all my documentation but this time I was given a handwritten receipt on lined paper. I’m still awaiting confirmation from John Lewis of the receipt of this return let alone the start of the refund process (which I’m now told can take up to two weeks). I’ve emailed customer service 4 times, who have responded twice to tell me they will investigate and respond within 48 hours (which they didn’t) and head of customer services once – no reply at all from them. I’ve now resorted to posting to John Lewis’ facebook page. They have told me they will “look into it”. I’m not holding my breath. What happened to John Lewis? They used to be an exemplar for online and customer services, now they’re bottom of the pile for both.