Lousy service from Littlewoods Europe

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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.

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• 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.