What is wrong with John Lewis?

I have been aware of the growing disaffection with John Lewis in Nottingham by my colleague Tim Garratt, and that John Lyle has recently beaten them easily on price with his new favorite Dixons. Up until today however I have not suffered at their hands, in fact our experience of their staff has been nothing but excellent.

Today however it all went horribly wrong for their relationship with the Dare family! The wife and I were in town doing Christmas shopping – a hateful task at the best of times, but we were well organised and had a ‘hit list’ of shops and items. Top of the list was an Xbox 360 for Sam, we had researched on-line and were aware of the best price on a 4GB unit. A quick visit to Game and HMV confirmed the prices, we then decided to go to John Lewis and, if they had one, to get it.

The assistant was as usual very helpful (no problem there) – but it appears the system was not on his side – the conversation went something like this;

• Do you have an Xbox 360 4GB in stock please?
• I will check – no sorry, would you like us to take your name?
• Yes please, does that secure one for us?
• No, but it tells us you want one.
• So we can give you our name and you will tell us when it comes in, but if someone else comes in they can buy it?
• Yes, but that doesn’t happen often.

So the bottom line is we couldn’t order one and pay and be guaranteed it – John Lewis didn’t want my money obviously!

In the end I went to Game – it was £5 more but was in stock and they were very helpful and knowledgeable.

Sorry John Lewis, you went way down in my list of favoured shops today.