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mikebass2

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Review of the John Lewis, Partnership Card:

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Update - a standard letter not worth its postage

Having complained by letter to JLP card on 19 Oct about having a payment rejected and late payment fee and interest imposed, I have finally had a response today. I had very low expectations indeed, so I was not unduly disappointed to get a standard letter with my surname misspelled saying that my "comments are extremely valuable" and that I could expect to hear the results of their investigation "within the next eight weeks". So it's scarcely worth bothering to write to Customer Complaints, the "secure message" system is still down (deliberately, to avoid the deluge of angry complaints?) and those patient enough to endure the long wait get what many here describe as an arrogant brush-off from the telephone call handlers. Bravo, John Lewis! It's hard to imagine how you could have done worse. Reviewed on: 3rd November 2016

Review of the John Lewis, Partnership Card:

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Update - no apology and blaming the customer

You emailed and asked for an update; here it is. I complained by letter on 19th October (the “secure message” section of their website still isn’t working as I write), and have had no response except to receive this month’s statement complete with late payment fee of £12 and £9.03 interest. I’m not surprised at the lack of an immediate reply; there must be thousands of unhappy customers who have had their stress levels increased by the rejected payments and unfair imposition of financial penalties, and their blood pressures raised by time wasted hanging on the phone line. Meanwhile the “improved” statement is only better if you want huge print which means what would previously have fitted on a single side of A4 now stretches to five. On the last of these was a “Default sum notice” which claims that there has been “a breach of the credit agreement by you”. When the dust settles, it will be interesting to have a measured, independent view on who was actually at fault here. (Well done on your Blog summary, by the way.) So far, JLP has apologised only for the delays caused by “high call volumes” on its phone (note that, very revealingly, it’s the customers who are blamed for ringing up in such numbers, not JLP for having such hopelessly inadequate provision to answer the calls generated by their own bungling). My current feeling is that, even if JLP had responded to me apologetically rather than punitively, I couldn’t continue as a customer of an organisation which is so extraordinarily inept. Reviewed on: 23rd October 2016

Review of the John Lewis, Partnership Card:

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A mess of their own making

JLP card has undergone a disastrous revamp which makes it no longer recommendable. Like others here, my monthly payment for 12th October was rejected by JLP but I was not informed that this had happened - I found out on the following Sunday in a routine check of my current account. Two attempts to pay manually while online were rejected with messages to contact the recipient. I then discovered that the website was closed and all I received was an error message 6006 telling me to contact Customer Services by phone immediately. After a total of over an hour that night and next morning listening to a recording asking me to hold the line, I rang my bank. Fortunately, they answered immediately and were very helpful. Having registered with JLP's new "improved" site, I find that I still cannot send them a message, but that I have been charged a flat fee for late payment and interest on the outstanding balance. JLP should not have made alterations to their system for accepting payments without warning their customers; they should have in place a way of notifying people whose payments have been rejected; they should not close down their website without warning; but if nevertheless they think it's a great idea to do all of this all at once they should at least ensure that they have a telephone service capable of handling the predictably huge number of calls. It's astonishing that a company which prides itself on serving its customers well (and spending megabucks on sentimental Christmas adverts) should have made so many basic mistakes which employing a reasonably competent IT specialist could have prevented . Reviewed on: 19th October 2016

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