In 2017 I bought a large, hand-tufted wool rug costing around £350. The description of the item caused me to believe that it was a quality item and, when it arrived, i was indeed delighted with it: it looked and felt great. Initially, there was some shedding but that was only to be expected in new wool carpeting. The shedding settled but what began to happen was that small tufts from around the edges began to come detached from the backing of the rug. I was mystified as the rug sits under a coffee table and the problem was occurring on the opposite side to where I sat (and thus the area had my feet on ), while the side with the problem was hardly walked on at all. I loved the rug so I routinely got down on my hands and knees and sewed the loose tufts back in. As time went on the areas of loose tufts have become ever larger and I can no longer manage to keep repairing it - especially as I have recently had a hip replacement and cannot get down on the floor! It occurred to me that this was not at all a normal occurrence. I have had wool rugs for years which have been subject to much greater wear and this has never happened so I contacted John Lewis about the matter. We batted messages back and forth for a while, with me sending photos, until eventually they concluded that this constituted "normal wear and tear". As I pointed out, normal wear and tear is flattening and maybe thinning or fading, or even staining - but not great clumps of wool coming detached from the backing. They countered this by saying that, as the rug was out of the normal returns period they were unable to do anything. The latter was very annoying as, of course, they were CHOOSING not to do anything: there is no law saying they cannot take a reasonable view of their own policies if an item is defective - which this clearly is. They then sent me a link to their complaints department. I sent them a resume of the complaint, with photos, some while ago and have not even had the courtesy of an acknowledgement. Basically, they have sold me a (very expensive) dud which will have to be replaced within the year because it is looking so awful with patched areas and more bits coming adrift every day. Their responses have fallen very short of the mark and, in terms of the complaint, they haven't even bothered to contact me at all. The item they sold me is clearly not fit for purpose and, for all their puff about selling quality items and being such a responsible retailer, they have certainly not lived up to their reputation.