John Lewis & Partners — Local services in Leeds

Lovely cafe, wonderful coffee and attentive staff.

Men's aftershaves need a bit more separation and highlighting, because they were hard to find.

The IT section (From mobiles and headphones to pcs and TVs) worryingly small and there are no incredible bargains. It's concerning that, as one of the last department stores, it is also struggling to stay afloat and this is no more obvious than in IT, white goods and haberdashery, the latter of which is barely hanging on.

Tiny kitchen area, but with a lot of interesting stock. It's just expensive. In this climate, I can see things like the overpriced luxury espresso machines being the first white goods item to go. This is all very depressing, because there's nowhere else on the high street to look at, let alone buy these things. Even specialist white goods shops are struggling.

Mens clothes as usual, lack imagination and choice. It's the same stuff that was selling 40 years ago and unlikely to change. This is an industry issue. Men have jeans, slacks or business suits in uniform blues and greys. Shirts are white or beach/pub wear. That's it. However, I've noticed that the ranges for women are becoming dull and generic and the choice for teenage girls has worsened over the last decade. Once again, these are industry wide concerns that have grown worse over the last ten years. However, it might explain one reason why they can't compete with online retailers (which don't have the same warehouse costs and advance seasonal ordering complications. High street stores are also partly driven by lack of floor space to offer a better variety of stock, and soon lose touch with their customers as a result). I don't know what the solution is, all I know is that if the goods excited me, and the markups were lower, I'd buy a lot more from the High Street. Shareholders have to wake-up to today's world. Shoppers no longer have the money to spend. Shareholders need to cut their profits accordingly and plough it back into the business, with cheaper clothes and greater innovation. For too many years fashion has been a golden cash cow and they've grown complacent. One reason John Lewis is still hanging on is that they have tried much harder to offer shoppers better, more affordable ranges, because their staff are currently all shareholders (although not in any meaningful way in terms of having a say in the running of it).

The car park is good, a modern multistorey. The shopping complex John Lewis owns and which the shop is built within has rapidly shown the scars of the country's recession, with many of the exciting brands that were there on opening having now gone bankrupt, or closed its franchises there. It's a similar story with all shopping centers today.

They need better disabled parking opportunities around the site, but the location is good within the city center and it's...

Utterly shameful experience trying to order a new cooker from these muppets. Told in writing by their customer services that we had to order 'Premier Service' at time of placing order on the telephone in order to get installation of new cooker and removal of old one.

Told very firmly when trying to place the order that this 'Premier Service' could not be ordered from John Lewis. Had to be requested from supplier when they contacted us for a delivery date.

Against my better judgement I placed the order even though whole process was now starting to feel unsafe and frankly like a scam.

Spoke to supplier who stated very clearly that no, they cannot arrange 'Premier Service', in fact they are not in a position to take direct payments from members of the public and any fitting arrangements must come from re-seller, in this case John Lewis. Was told that JL regularly mess this up.

Raised complaint with JL who first wrote this:

'Hi Tim

Thank you so much for contacting John Lewis & Partners.

I am sorry to learn that you were having difficulty trying to have a installation and disposal service done. At John Lewis we strive to provide quality services and products and understand that was not the purpose on this occasion.

I have doubled check to see if any installation or disposal service comes with purchasing the Belling Cookcentre 100EI Electric Range Cooker With Induction Hob but can see that there are no services that comes with this specific item.

For any future purchases, please note that not all selected items comes with services, this is why we would advise our customers to contact the customer service team and speak to them directly so that we can check on an alternative system to confirm if any services are available with the item. If the services are not able to be located we would advise our customers they will need to find their own 3rd party solution.

Once again apologies for any disappointment this may have caused.

If there is anything else you need assistance with, please do not hesitate to let us know.'

Then this nonsense:

'Hi Tim

Thank you so much for your response to the previous email.

Once again apologies for any disappointment caused, in line with the matter this would be process on the items that does not come with any additional services, alternatively you can choose different item that will be suitable for you that comes with the installation and disposal service.

If there is anything else you need assistance with, please do not hesitate to let us know. Kind regards'

So no clue where this leaves a 100KG cooker or their customer and clear no interest in resolving the issue.

Bloody Useless - DON'T order your cooker...

Shoe Department first floor.07/03/2024 16.15hrs. I arrived at the shoe department about 13.30hrs; three female staff chatting behind the pay desk counter made no effort to stop their conversation and move from behind the counter to serve me, i assumed their supervisor maybe on late lunch, “cats away mice will play” so I left. Almost three hours later the same three staff had not moved and were still chatting. The shoe I picked up and moved hours ago had not been put back on display and fortunately it was my size, so I helped myself, it was a bit tight so I needed a larger size. At this point I decided these three shop assistants must be rooted to the floor, be chained to the counter and not have any peripheral vision. Moreover their conversation was more important than a possible sale. One boot off and to save me having to collect myself together and hop, my Fiancé took the shoe to the counter to ask for the next size, where he had to interrupt their conversation. At this point nobody volunteered to bring the shoes over to us so he waited for them to come out of stock and he did their job for them and brought the pair over to me, I tried them on and decided on my trial walk to the mirror they were too wide. Throughout this process not one of these three assistants stopped talking or moved from behind the counter. At the stage of putting my own boots back on and being left not knowing what to do with these shoes I didn’t want to buy, I looked for the self service signs and didn’t see any. Like a dog with a ball I took them to the counter, the three were now down to two, but their conversation still continued. Neither asked me how the shoes were. So I said; “Just to feedback when I buy expensive shoes I don’t expect it to be like a supermarket and have to help myself, or play chase like a dog with a ball in the park, and be made to feel guilty for interrupting their conversation and this would be the feedback I would be giving”. Obviously absolutely no customer loyalty and the thought of an apology never crossed their minds as one of them said, “That’s absolutely fine”. Well if it’s fine to ignore chat all day and not come out from behind the pay desk it’s not a shop to which I will return. I’m guessing if supervisors are remotely interested they can check store CCTV or maybe pop some self service signs up. Better still I’m sure you have plenty of mannequins in the stock cupboard who could do just as good a job, work longer hours without breaks and be more cost effective and less ignorant to your...