Lousy service from Littlewoods Europe

Image via Wikipedia

It's now a day since I started my social media campaign to get a real response from Littlewoods Europe. It isn't easy.

Eight days ago I received an automated response warning me I'd have to allow "up to 48 hours" for them to get back to me. Maths was never my core competency but I'm pretty sure that there are more than 48 hours in eight days.

I certainly don't blame the staff. Earlier this year Shop Direct, the parent company of Littlewoods Europe, closed its call centre in Liverpool making all the staff redundant. Clearly the company sees communicating with customers is a waste of money.

Anyway, today I've flagged up my blog entry with a few Tweets mentioning Littlewoods Europe in negative terms. I've also started putting negative responses on the appropriate parts of its website. I'll keep on with that.

The idea eventually is to get some sort of article out of this fiasco. In the past I would perhaps have used my position as a journalist to approach Littlewoods' PR company and get them to kick the appropriate people up the backside.

This time I'm only going to use the online tools available to anybody who has been badly treated by a company. Unfortunately so far they don't seem to be having any effect.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Earnings rise by 182pc at Shop Direct (telegraph.co.uk)

Why buying from Littlewoods Europe proved to be less than a bargain

A number of British high street brands including Littlewoods, Argos and Marks and Spencer started to target British ex-patriates in 2009 via the internet. With the collapse in the value of the pound their prices look good in comparison with many local shops in Spain.

I noticed the difference when the back of my office chair collapsed a couple of months ago. The only replacements I could find in Ibiza were uncomfortable, badly made or over-priced, and generally a combination of the three.

At the end of a dispiriting day trudging round the shops I came across a link to the website for Littlewoods Europe. The link promised a 10% discount.

I love a bargain and the site impressed me. The range was a bit limited, but the prices were good. Now I wish I'd never discovered the Littlewoods Europe website.

My wife needed a new winter coat. She found one she liked the look of and I found a chair which had been well-reviewed.

I should have realised that Littlewoods' European operation wasn't up to speed when I started to try and place my order one Sunday evening in the middle of November.

It took a few minutes to fill in all the usual details followed by a click to confirm. The result was an error message clearly intended for the IT people who manage the database. I had a few attempts before I eventually gave up.

It seemed logical that the error messages would alert somebody in Littlewoods' IT department, after all, I probably wasn't the only potential customer failing to be allowed to make a purchase. A couple of days later I was able to make the order, except it wouldn't accept the discount any more.

I decided to carry on and get the stuff ordered as my wife wanted her coat sooner rather than later as it was getting cold. It was a slight disappointment that once the order was completed the tracking on the website said that the delivery would take nearly two weeks instead of the three days or so it suggested on the website. In retrospect it was another reason I shouldn't have trusted Littlewoods Europe.

The following day I emailed the company to ask about the missing discount and to check that it really was okay to have stuff delivered to a PO box. Many companies will only deliver to a physical address. As I live in the Ibiza countryside this often means directing van drivers with my appalling Spanish. No fun for either party.

Littlewoods Europe confirmed that it does deliver to PO boxes and said my query about the discount would be passed to the appropriate department. Of course I heard nothing more from them.

Meanwhile I checked on the order tracking page of the Littlewoods Europe website to see if the delivery was still due on November 30. I was greeted with a strange message: "Please call CORE_BUSINESS_PHONE." This was particularly difficult as there is no phone number of any sort listed on the website.

So I emailed again. A day or so later I was told that the appropriate department would be contacted on my behalf. I heard nothing.

As of today I have spent six weeks emailing Littlewoods Europe every couple of days. In response I have received polite replies and promises that somebody will do something.

The only change there has been is that the tracking page now describes the order for my wife's coat as "cancelled". I didn't cancel it and I certainly haven't received a refund of any of the money that was deducted from my credit card as soon as I made the order.

I really do feel I have more than exhausted the official channels. Now it's time to take action using all the tools available on the internet including Facebook, Twitter, price comparison sites and anywhere I can make a comment.

In the posts that follow I'll tell you what I'm doing. And please contact me if you've had similarly bad experiences the Shop Direct Group which includes Kays, Woolworths, Great Universal and Additions Direct as well as Littlewoods.

Ibiza villa for sale

We're selling our gorgeous Ibiza home. Why? You might well ask.

Both Barbara and I had lived all our lives in cities until we moved to Ibiza five years ago. Now we feel ready to return to a little of the noise, rush and buzz of an urban existence. In an ideal world we would keep this house and have a little apartment in Ibiza Town if the tranquility here got too much.

Unfortunately our combined income would not be enough to support two properties in Ibiza as well as our little dog Lilly after whom the house is named. Incidentally, the name 'Casa Lilly' isn't official. It's just convenient when selling a place to call it something when there is no street number.

You may well see the property on the websites of various Ibiza estate agents. We are, of course, more than happy to sell through one of them. They are all good and reliable.

In Spain, however, there is a substantial commission to be paid. The average is 5%. Yes, it is the seller who has to fork out, but what we are interested in is the final amount of cash we receive from the sale. So if you approach us direct without going through an agent there is more room for negotiation.

That certainly does not mean you should not employ a good lawyer. Spanish property transactions are complex and you really do need an expert to lead you through the minefield. The good news is legal expenses are generally reasonable in our experience.

Anyway, enough of worrying stuff. Most of the pictures on this site were taken in November 2009. So you'll see some flowers in the garden, but not as many as you would in spring and early summer. Still, I was wondering round in shorts and a t-shirt as I took the photographs, which certainly wouldn't be the case in the UK or anywhere else in northern Europe.

Also, I shouldn't really say this, but if we don't receive a reasonable offer to buy Casa Lilly before the end of spring 2010 we may well rent the accommodation on a weekly basis for the summer months. If it isn't available we would be happy to recommend a wide variety of other properties ranging from compact apartments to luxurious mansions. Just drop us an email.

More importantly, you know you want to buy our lovely house. It won't be available for ever so get in touch now.

How to get into VIP in Ibiza's clubs

At the beginning of the summer of 2008 I was commissioned to write this article about the VIP area

Image by Q-BEE via Flickr

s in Ibiza's clubs by the editor of a well-known Ibiza blog. Unfortunately she parted company with the company before the piece could be published.

Thw article was going to be so straightforward. It was planned as a basic grid with a list of prices, contact numbers and the benefits of VIP admission to Ibiza’s biggest and best discos. If only it had been that simple.

When I offered to write it I only had the vaguest idea of how VIP worked in Ibiza's clubs. I’d heard people paid 300 euros or so for a bottle of vodka which gave them access to nirvana behind the velvet rope. But that was the extent of my knowledge.

Of course I’ve been in the VIP areas of all the big clubs. But I’m a journalist. If I wanted to pay to get in anywhere I’d get a job which gave me sufficient income to buy a ticket. I do have some shame though. I’m far too polite to ask the punters sitting with their bottles of vodka how much they’d been charged.

Instead the answer, I thought, was to email the clubs and ask each of them how much it cost to get in to VIP. Only the very helpful Armando Daura from Amnesia replied to my enquiry. So I took the opportunity to go and have a chat with him and to see the new Amnesia terrace.

As we talked it quickly became clear that I was stupid to think there would be anything along the lines of a VIP price list for any club. Supply and demand is everything in Ibiza. You want a table near the DJ booth for Cocoon or Manumission in August? Of course it’s going to cost you more than a Fiesta de Agua in June.

In some ways VIP follows the flexible ticket-pricing policy that exists for ordinary club admission. Early in the season it’s easy to pick up free passes, especially if the night’s not too popular. Getting a few extra punters through the door to pay through the nose for drinks is better than nothing. And maybe they’ll encourage their pals to come the following week.

With VIP the position is more complicated because there are no published prices. Essentially you either phone the club direct or get one of the concierge services to do it for you. Explain what you’re after and they’ll quote you a price. As nothing’s fixed that means you can haggle. It’s up to you. But do call at least a day ahead.

Whether or not you accept the first offer you won’t get a ticket or be able to pay for your admission upfront unless you go through a concierge service. You reserve a table at a club in the same way as you would at a restaurant. Pay when you get there and make sure you have cash.. Credit cards have their uses in Ibiza, but those uses don’t always include paying for drinks or food.

Although the prices vary the package you get from each club is fairly similar;

• One bottle of vodka, whisky or gin plus five energy drinks or ten standard mixers between two people. Alternatively you can have a bottle of champagne.
• A table guaranteed for the night where you can leave those drinks while you head for the dance floor.
• A special entrance free from queues. (And, of course, they’ll have your name on the list.)
• Most importantly you’ll have room to breathe, no matter how rammed the rest of the club is.

Despite the similarities the actual VIP experience varies hugely from club to club. Sometimes the service is impeccable. A nod towards the attentive waiting staff brings perfectly-chilled drinks to you

Image by TheFalcon via Flickr

r table in seconds.

Equally, you can feel invisible as you try to get somebody, anybody, to bring you a bottle of over-priced, tepid liquid. Generous tipping, by the way, does wonders for your visibility. Don’t worry about staff sneering at ostentatious displays of cash. They’ll keep their contempt well hidden.

The other great variable from club to club is the celebrity count. Most people with tables in VIP have paid for them. (It’s a strange definition that makes a “Very Important Person” anybody who can spend 300 euros on a bottle of voddy.) The meaning of “celebrity” is equally loose. Perhaps if I spent more time watching reality TV shows I’d have more luck spotting them. But then I’m a VIP on occasion which shows just how lax the rules are.

Well not that lax. Before I get myself blacklisted by every club on the island I should point out that admission policies for VIP are stricter than they are on the normal door. Basically, if you turn up barely able to stand in your cut-off shorts and football shirt, you won’t get in. End of story. You won’t be on the list.

So now you know as much as I know about paying for VIP. Frankly, drinking the half bottle of spirits included in the deal would mar rather than enhance my night’s clubbing. But that’s me. On the other hand there are times when I’d pay almost anything for a little air-conditioned room to breathe.

Next time I’ll tell you about the secret uber-VIP rooms where celebrities snort lines of coke off the naked breasts of beautiful groupies. Or maybe not.

Seriously though. if you do want to get into VIP I do know all the right people and I should be able to get you as good a price as anybody. The charge will still be exorbitant, but you may feel it's worth the outlay for a special occasion.

I also have good contacts if you want to buy or rent a villa. Many of the properties here in Ibiza are beautiful, but there are more than a few sharks, cowboys and time-wasters in the estate agency business here. I can help you avoid them.

Finally, of course, I am a very experienced journalist, writer and author always on the look out for work. So if you need somebody to write about anything to do with Ibiza - from celebrities and nightlife to the spiritual and peaceful side of this beautiful island - please don't hesitate to get in touch.

Give me a buzz on 0203 039 2976. This is a UK number that should come straight through to me here in Ibiza.

Skype me by clicking on the button in the right-hand column.

Or email me at: ibizanick@nickclayton.otherinbox.com