When a customer signs off a letter of complaint 'yours sincerely,
a very irritated customer' you might think that the Company in question would tread carefully in it's reply..
But no, they send out a
templated apology saying how very disappointed they are and then go on to trumpet their mission to keep every customer exquisitely happy at all times -
my interpretation - and that my 'feedback' will be passed to 'the feedback team'..
Well isn't that just dandy, a feedback team indeed.
Of course, the response doesn't deal with the specifics of the complaint -
templates don't do that.
I really don't understand why a company thinks that this is the right way to deal with complaints about service but apparently it is; you only have to have seen a couple of episodes of the BBC's Watchdog programme where Companies caught in the glare of bad publicity all troop out the same type of trite meaningless twaddle. "
We are so, so sorry but 99.999% of our customers are ecstatic with our..."
So the specifics
On 25th October we ordered, on-line, a washing machine, a dishwasher and a tumble dryer from
John Lewis. On 31st October the washing machine and the tumble dryer were delivered as arranged to our boat builder's premises on an industrial estate.
On 9th November at 15.04 I received an e-mail from John Lewis's Customer Services Team stating..
I regretfully have to inform you that we have received an email form (sic) our supplier for your ordered Bosch XYZFX dishwasher informing us that the order has been canceled (sic). This is unfortunately because they are unable to provide items to trade addresses
The email goes on apologise for any inconvenience, say they cannot fulfil the order and that a refund is being arranged.
My reply concludes with the following..
I fail to see why a delivery company operating on John Lewis's behest can decide not to deliver items that have been paid for in full to an address that John Lewis are prepared to deliver to and in fact did deliver to. Furthermore, I was given no opportunity to do anything; fait accompli, order cancelled, money refunded.
This is simply not good enough.
And the response from John Lewis Customer Services
- They are sorry to hear about the problems I have experienced
- John Lewis is well known for its excellent customer service
- It is dissapointing to read about problems experienced by our customers
- We take all complaints seriously
- We endeavour to provide a first class service
- We want to renew our apologies
- If you want to discuss, give us a ring
- Your 'feedback' has been passed to our Feedback team.
Well that's sorted that then!
I feel another email coming on....
