MY HORROR STORY - I WILL NEVER BUY FROM JOHN LEWIS OR WAITROSE OR ANYTHING WITHIN THAT GROUP AGAIN: Here's the story (names removed) This is taken from a complaint email I sent via John Lewis' online 31 Jan 17: Ordered £50 of shopping for my wife and daughter online from John Lewis' website. An email from Hermes suggested that they were supposed to deliver on Friday 3 Feb. In fact the email, sent at 11.51 claimed that delivery has been attempted by Hermes. I had been in all morning and my wife had been back since 10 a.m. Note that despite, John Lewis email of 2 Feb saying “Your order includes items that may be left in a safe location if there is no one available at the delivery address. Hermes will leave a card with further instructions if they're unable to complete the delivery or to let you know the item has been left in a safe location or with a neighbour” no note was left and although at least a couple of our neighbours were in and no attempt was made to leave any parcel with them. Also from the tracking information on the Hermes website it showed that the driver should have sent an email or text at 09:18 and that a delivery attempt had been made at 11:33. This was impossible as my wife had been in the kitchen preparing scrambled eggs at that time and the kitchen window looks out onto the front where the delivery van would have arrived. Even if the driver had missed the bell we would still have heard him knock and seen him. It is clear to us that the driver is mistaken about delivery to our house. At 12.21 I called John Lewis’ customer services number to find out what was going on and expected to receive the outstanding customer service that I had received in the past. Sadly not!. The John Lewis customer services attendant, only gave his first name which was okay by me as long as he could identify himself further which he did by giving me his employee id (fake I believe from subsequent conversations). He was flippant, totally lacking any empathy, unhelpful and unapologetic – in fact his tone was that these things happen and delivery would be reattempted the next day. He was not interested in the fact that the driver had obviously lied to us, Hermes and John Lewis. I asked to speak to his manager and he was resistant. In the end he said he would put me through to his manager. Instead he put me through to a totally different department - the Case Management Team. So here was another person in this delivery chain misleading me the customer. CASEMANAGER was a much better listener and did apologize but again did not seem to take the matter of the potential fraud committed by the Hermes driver seriously and said he could not guarantee delivery today. I explained that in my opinion given that the driver appeared to have simply lied and Hermes are John Lewis’ customer and we are yours, the least that Hermes should be liable to do is to immediately rectify the situation and deliver today. Again he said he could not guarantee this. I asked to speak to his manager who I was told is called XXXX and is on holiday. So I asked to speak to his manager’s manager and was told CASEMANAGER would fetch him and I would have to wait. I requested that CASEMANAGER speak with Hermes whilst I spoke to his manager and was told this would not be possible as I would be on the line. So I asked him to get his manager to call me back after listening to the calls and speaking with both CASEMANAGER and FIRSTPERSONISPOKETO. I asked for the name of his manager’s manager and was told that it would actually be another Team Leader – so it seems I had been misled. CASEMANAGER said MANAGER would be dealing with this. He would call Hermes and call me straight back in the meantime. I have had no call back from MANAGER. I wrote the above in a complaint letter as noted above and this is the response I got at at 23:30: “Thank you for your email regarding your customer service experience with John Lewis. At John Lewis, we aspire to offer the highest level of service and we are terribly sorry that, on this occasion, we have not met your expectations. Having reviewed your case, I can see that our Management team are currently investigating this matter. I can confirm that redelivery of your order was attempted at 3pm today and that another attempt is arranged for tomorrow, Saturday 4 February 2017. I hope this information proves useful. If we can assist you any further, please do not hesitate to contact us again. Yours sincerely, FIRSTNAME JohnLewis.com” In fact this is what happened: 13:04 CASEMANAGER 14:50 – 15:58 – I sat in the kitchen and worked facing the window in case the package arrived. It did not. 15:59 – I called the John Lewis customer services line and a lady took the call and said she would put me through to speak to CASEMANAGER whose extension I gave her – was on hold with horrid music for 12 mins. Ended the call and called back more music. 16:13 Called again – got a lady who was lovely and said he was only a couple of desks away and actually went over to him (without putting the horrid music on) and gave him details. She came back and asked me to hang up so CASEMANAGER could call me directly. He did about five minutes later and said he had spoken to Hermes and said they had said that they could not locate the new driver – had texted, emailed and left messages for him. 16.49 – Michael called again and assured me delivery would be made. This last call interrupted an important business call that I had already postponed by half an hour and which has not been finished as a result of having to speak with your offices for so long. 18:21 as no delivery had been made I called again and was put on hold again by ANOTHERPERSON while he transferred me to CASEMANAGER. Instead of transferring me he came back and said that he had been speaking to a manager about protocol – so again a lie – and that after putting me on hold for 4 minutes he needed to take some more information. I asked for the name of the ‘manager’ he had been speaking to and he said it was a large department and he did not know every manager’s name. I was waiting for a call from my wife so I did not have time to be put on hold again and cut the call short. 19:17 –I called again and spoke with YETANOTHERPERSON who refused to give me any form of identification other than her FIRST name and said that she was in customer services but would not say where. She also said that she would not give me her team leader’s name. She also made it clear that she was not aware of the calls are recorded and said that she did not give me a permission to record the course although I didn't say I was recording call I said that these calls are being recorded by which I meant that the recording what's been done by John Lewis she argued. 19:21 – FINALCUSTOMERSERVICESPERSON dealt with the call very professionally (except again refusing to provide more than a first name) – but I was kept on the phone for half an hour at the end of which all he could offer was that Hermes (who he had been speaking with whilst I held) wanted my number so they could call me to arrange delivery. He said Hermes had told him that the drivers only worked till 8 pm so unlikely the delivery would be made then as it was 7.45 p.m. and so it would be tomorrow probably. I reiterated that no one might be in – my daughter and I are going to London and my wife has a lot of things to do out of the house. I said that I felt I had given Hermes sufficient opportunity to remedy the crime committed by their driver and that I would need to refer the matter to the Police for resolution if they did not address the matter. I also suggested that the order be redirected to a Waitrose or John Lewis store for collection by us. I suggested that without prejudice you waive the order cost and give us a good will gesture on top. I asked that these matters be passed onto CASEMANAGER. I think it is shocking that a customer should be lied to and treated this way – I have shopped at John Lewis for many, many years and am an occasional Waitrose customer. I was about to get John Lewis’ broadband but had been put off by a lot of bad reviews – now I understand why. This is not the brand I grew up with and came to see as synonymous with quality and assurance. It is rather the brand that hates its customer and lies, is complicit in fraud and worse.