Appalling service throughout and a terrible customer experience. Firstly, I'd just like to say that, like many people, I held John lewis in high regard for many years. That was until my recent purchase for my business of a Dell Inspiron 13 5000 Series Convertible Laptop. I now feel the opposite and have no faith in their customer service at all. I actually now think they have a disdain for their customers and are confident they'll keep coming no matter what. Well I won't now and this is why. I have 2 main complaints. One relates to my in store service, the other relates to my treatment by technical support. Complaint 1) - In March I purchased the laptop. In June I was in a business meeting displaying our portfolio of videos to a client. (The laptop in question is designed to rotate 360 degrees into a tablet. However, I must have used that function two or three times in less than 4 months, preferring to use the standard laptop functionality. In that time it received the best care, being kept in the office the majority of time and when it left the office it was transported in a high quality case). As I closed the laptop, to my surprise it closed on an angle. I thought that's strange for a laptop that has been well looked after. For a laptop that should rotate 360 degrees I was shocked at how flimsy the hinges must be to malfunction in that way. It made me think that the laptop was not fit for purpose and John Lewis would fix it under warranty or replace it as there was clearly a fault. I phoned the number on my guarantee. This was the only point I received good customer service from John Lewis. The call centre advised me to attend my local store at the Trafford Centre where the Technical Support department would handle my problem. On arrival at John Lewis, I was met by a customer service representative called Jackie. I told her about the problem and her immediate response was to tell me that I must deal with Dell directly and Dell were not known to be accommodating when it came to damage. I was taken aback by her response, one because of her tone and two because it felt like John Lewis were already washing their hands with me, despite me buying the laptop off them in the first place because of their customer service reputation. I told her that I had been told by her own colleagues at the support number to come down there and speak to somebody in technical support. At this point she began to backtrack and at least started to take down some details. During the conversation she asked if I had any important files on the laptop and I said I had but I was going to buy a USB drive from the store and, if it was ok, I would transfer the data in the store as it was a weekday evening when there was no one there with many chairs for me to sit on whilst I did so. To this she replied that she would prefer that I did the transfer outside of the store as I may be taking up a seat of a potential customer. I was very angry with this as there was literally no one around and I had to leave the store. Thanks John Lewis! Love you too! I reluctantly left the store, still buying a USB drive on the way (as it was the only option) and went into the Starbucks outside where I had to purchase a coffee just to do so. On my return Jackie had conveniently vanished. I complained to the other manager there who repeated that it is company policy but she should have shown some discretion. However, she didn't and I felt pretty worthless to them as a result. At that point I decided not to hand them my laptop as she gave me no confidence that they would deal with the situation properly. I decided to go home and make a complaint online. I received a response fairly promptly saying that it most certainly wasn't John Lewis policy (apparently) and that they were very sorry. Could I bring my laptop back in at a time when Jackie was not working. I thought fair enough, they've dealt with it, so I was willing to look beyond the incident if my laptop repair was dealt with properly. It most certainly wasn't and herein lies complaint number 2! Complaint 2) As mentioned previously the laptop is supposed to rotate 360 degrees to form a tablet. I therefore believe it should have durable hinges. Never was the laptop mishandled and it spent most of the little time I had it sat on my desk in the office. It was always handled with care and transported in a high quality laptop case. Having returned to the store with the damaged laptop they took some details and sent the laptop off to Dell. I didn't hear anything for a few weeks but they tried to contact me when I was on holiday. On my return I received an email saying that the laptop damage was not under warranty and that I was liable for a repair bill of £368 - this was well over half the price of the original amount I paid! I was disgusted by the insinuation that I had damaged it and that it was not a defect and the ridiculous repair bill only served to rub salt in the wounds. They sent photos which didn't prove anything other than that the hinges were broken which I already knew full well. I am not disputing that there is damage to the hinge, that is why I brought it to John Lewis for repair. As explained before the hinge broke whilst I was utilising the laptops hybrid function from a tablet to closure. I was not applying excessive pressure and I was carrying out normal functionality. The reason I brought it to them is that a laptop should not break so soon after purchase whilst being used in the way in which it was intended. There must be a fault with the design or the manufacturing for a laptop to break whilst being used as intended. If Dell had evidence that the laptop was being used in any other way or that excessive force was used I would be interested to see it but so far none has been put forward. However, John Lewis's attitude is to not question their suppliers nor find a resolution. I didn't buy the laptop off Dell, I bought it off John Lewis and there was no aftercare whatsoever. Consumers have no protection whatsoever in this situation. I am now left with a damaged laptop that I don't believe is fit for purpose and the prospect of spending £368 repairing something of such poor build quality is unappealing in the extreme. My advice to anyone buying a laptop off John Lewis is don't - they endorse poor quality products and offer you no protection when they go wrong.