DO YOU KNOW YOUR CONSUMER RIGHTS? This maybe another negative review about John Lewis (JL) but if you take anything away from my review, make sure you know your consumer rights! There is an important and powerful law that is called “The Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013”, this piece of law came into force in June 2013 and merged together other previous laws. One of them was the Distance Selling Regulations which was designed for Online transactions. In summary your consumer rights falls under 3 category, 1) Off Premise – This is when they come to your home and sell you stuff (e.g. Conservatory), 2) On Premise – This is when you walk into the shop 3) Distance Contracts – This is when you purchase an item online and has the most protection. In our digital society we are increasingly buying items online which falls under 3, there are certain exceptions (some listed below) but essentially you have 14 days to cancel and request a refund. (Technically you have 14 days to notify them that you want a refund then another 14 days to return the item, once receive they have 14 days to give you the refund) Some exceptions when you cannot get a refund a) Customised & bespoke items b) Perishable goods c) Faulty item that is known before purchase d) Health reasons like underwear e) no longer want an item (e.g. because it’s the wrong size or colour) unless they bought it without seeing it Distance Contracts give consumers the most protection and I suggest before you go down this route check the “exceptions” and that it is classified as online transactions. Some useful websites that I have found listed below https://www.gov.uk/accepting-returns-and-giving-refunds Government website telling you your rights, although it does not mention the consumer contracts regs you can see it has been incorporated in the advice https://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/regulation/consumer-contracts-regulations Which website explaining your rights https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/template-letters/letters/cancelling-goods-or-services/letter-to-cancel-or-return-goods-bought-online-over-the-phone-or-by-mail-order/ Citizen advice Bureau giving same advice plus a link to a letter template if required. My experience with John Lewis I have been shopping with JL for many decades and have always valued their good customer service and rate JL as one of the best retailers in the UK. I have read the increasing bad reviews that started to appear about them and I was in denial for a long time, I am now one of the people putting up a really bad experience about JL and I am very saddened and disappointed what JL has become. 26/05/19 – Ordered a Dyson Fan on their website for “Click & Collect” 29/05/19 – Picked up the item in their Bluewater branch 03/06/19 – Went to the store to get a refund. The fan I found to be noisy contrary to the description of the fan on JL website saying that it was quiet. The manager refused the refunds as it has breached their refund policy on 2 counts. 1) As I had turned on the fan, it was now classed as “Used”. 2) As I did not return the item without the clear shrink-wrap plastic film around the box it was deemed “Not original packaging” and hence it was not resalable. The manager did not even open the box to examine the parts and had deemed the item not resalable. These conditions were printed in the small terms and conditions on the back of the invoice that came with the fan and is their company policy. At this point in time I did not know my rights and was really fuming, I rang their customer service that same evening and stated that I was very unhappy with what happened. The customer service representative rang the store and told me no one was there and that it was closed, she said she spoke to the cleaner. This was at 8.36pm and the store is scheduled to stay open to 9pm, do you think a big departmental store would close early in the Bluewater shopping centre??? The customer service representative said she would get someone to ring me back from the branch the following day. Nobody rang me back. I then did my research and found out my rights, I also rang up Citizen advice Bureau to verify my rights. The piece of advice that I was given was to check that “Click & Collect” is classed as online transaction as sometimes they will have something in the small print somewhere. 05/06/19 – Email sent to customer service with letter (based on Citizen advice Bureau link) requesting refund under “The Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013”. Letter sent for “Next day signed recorded delivery” by royal mail for back up. 07/06/19 – After a few emails I was asked to bring back the fan for a refund. This was from the duty floor manager at JL at Bluewater. There was no apology from JL, for not returning the call, not about their refusal for the refund. Let’s be clear about something here people, JL knows the law and what our consumer rights are. However they will still not honour this and refuse the refund. This is the most disappointing thing, I have had to threaten to use my consumer rights just to get a refund.