After shopping at John Lewis Oxford Street & Peter Jones for 40 years I am shocked at the deterioration in the standards of the sales staff and customer service generally, which used to be second to none. Your customers do not need gimmickry to encourage them into your stores all they need is good old fashioned, good customer service, experienced helpful sales staff that are intent on providing good service and who are knowledgeable about the products which they are selling, they most certainly do not need to attend acting school to connect with customers just well stocked stores with items that are available. Our recent experience when we visited your carpet dep., at Peter Jones last Sunday is an example. We were met with a dismissive, unhelpful, rude sales assistant, even though my husband and myself were the only customers in the dept., and so she was not exactly run off her feet, this is the second time that we have had the misfortune to have been served by her and all we were trying to do on Sunday was to give your company £6,000 to pay for the carpet which had been quoted for. Looking on this page I see that we `are not alone in recognising the deterioration of service in your stores and it is little wonder that customers are choosing to go elsewhere for better service generally. I have tried dozens of times to complain and try to give constructive criticism but that has not been taken seriously so may I suggest that you start to listen to your customers and save The Partnership going down the same route as House of Fraser.