For Christmas, my brother wanted a gaming monitor from here, and asked us to give him gift vouchers so he could afford this item. The item is £379 in total, and we did give him some vouchers towards this. He received one card that was worth £300 and one that had £15 on it. This was his only gift this Christmas so after getting the cards he planned on purchasing the item the next day. The item was out of stock however he was told it was being re-stocked just after Christmas, which it wasn't. It's now available in other stores UK wide (Curry's, Argos etc) but our money was tied up in John Lewis and the promise that it was being re stocked - which it wasn't. He needed the item now but absolutely needs the item within the week however that has been deemed impossible. He expressed his upset to me that the item wasn't going to be with him for what he needed (and at this point wasn't even aware there may be a re-stock) so assumed that we have £315 pounds worth of vouchers that are useless to us. I called John Lewis customer services yesterday at around 1pm to see if anything could be done. Was hoping we could find one in store near us and collect or if not near us find one, then pay over phone with debit card for the rest of the amount and have sent to a store near us or pay extra delivery to come to us directly at home. Sounds simple enough right? John Lewis didn't seem to think so. 1st Person I spoke to - She said that there may be 2 available at Oxford (note, we're based in Stockport, so not close). I asked if we can pay over phone or have shipped and she seemed enthusiastic and said that it's up to the Oxford store. Asked for the number for them, the phone went dead. I called back and got the same lady who had no explanation as to why it went dead. Gave me a telephone number for that store and we hung up. I tried that number and it wouldn't even connect. Being naive I thought I'd noted the number down incorrectly and tried Googling the Oxford number to talk to them directly. Spoke to a 2nd person who was the rudest by far. She said that we don't have numbers for individual stores, and the tone she said it in implied I was stupid for thinking there would be one. I explained the issue and essentially said " We don't take payments on the phone with gift cards, it's debit only, there's not a thing we can do" and that was that. Unsatisfied, I spoke phoned the customer service number yet again and I explained the already long issue to a gentleman, who would be the 3rd person I'd spoken to in that 2 hour time window. I'm certain he said they CAN ship between stores because I actually made him repeat himself as I couldn't believe it based on what the previous lady had just said. He looked into it and again said nothing can be done, because WE WANT TO PAY OVER THE PHONE WITH GIFT CARDS. Repeat, gifts cards bought from JOHN LEWIS. Yup makes no sense. I had the day off work yesterday so I had the time to be on the phone while everyone else in my house including my brother (who is actually under the weather himself, hence me dealing with this) isn't home until around 5pm. At 5pm I explained this to my dad and he was furious. He wanted to log it as a complaint as if THIS is the John Lewis system it's poor. We called again and received the 4th person we'd speak to. Like the others he did try to help but basically said "Our system doesn't allow, it's not changeable. Only in extreme circumstances maybe". I CAN'T THINK OF A CIRCUMSTANCE MORE EXTREME THAN THIS. I don't waste hours of my time on the phone for the fun of it. He acknowledged it's a ridiculous system but said it's rarely changeable. Once we were told it wasn't going to be resolved we just wanted to log a complaint. We were told by that gentleman that they would have someone call us back within 24 hours (but did say this shouldn't take this long). Spoiler alert, didn't get a call back, had to call ourselves. The next day (today) while I was washing my hair the phone rang but hung up before I could get to it. Thinking the number was for John Lewis I called them to check if this was them and to see if the matter was escalated. I got through to a lady who was to be the 5th person I'd spoken to. She, in all fairness (Angela, actually tried to be helpful) was very understanding. She said she was going to speak to the higher ups and with Oxford and see what could be done. She called back saying she did try but it couldn't be done unless we paid all via debit. I kept repeating to EVERY customer service rep "How can I pay with debit card when all the spare money on that card went on the gift cards". She apologized and said the complaints dept would still be back to us by 5:04pm that evening. So I waited. At 5:30 today NOTHING. 24+ Hours later and nothing. I called them to see what the issue is and we keep getting told "It's not resolvable". I said " Can we go into our local store, pay with gift cards and debit and have sent here?" No. I said " Can we pay the £64 pounds that we'd pay via debit as a deposit and have sent to our nearest store then pay rest on cards in store?" No again. I offered every solution under the sun. They're quick to offer "sympathy" but when I finally asked "Listen, the gift cards are now useless to him can we please have a refund?" Hell no. Oh I'm sorry for offering up a way the situation can be amended and be shot down YET AGAIN. I can understand that the cards cannot be refunded as it DOES say this on the back and on site, but to my knowledge NOWHERE does it say you can't use the cards over the phone. You can use them online can you not???? To anyone from John Lewis who reads this and perhaps offers an e-mail address to look into the matter, honestly don't bother. Nothing can be done at this point and I'm sick and tired of wasting hours trying to resolve when being told "No" by you. Useless company and stone-age policies. We're in 2018 are we not? Yet you can't have this sent to a store or paid via gift cards from YOUR stores. I see no emotion from you or willingless to go the extra mile for the customer. All I can say is "Disgusting". Finally to any person wanting to shop here, stear well clear, even if a policy isn't made clear anywhere they still enforce it. We're out £315 and my brother now has no Christmas gift, he needs nothing else from this store and no one else shops at this store with this amount. What a waste, although I guess this is how their money is made.