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.
2 comments:
you arent alone - i have had to respond to 18 robot generated emails, i have phoned the uk at my own expense, i have been told i cant have my order, i have also been told its been despatched!! i have been told to phone uk call centre to place the order by phone. i have been told by the call centre they dont except orders by phone, only on-line. all i wanted was 80€ worth of clothes -
ive lost the will to live.
i placed an order in the UK on behalf of my mum in spain who was having problems having her spanish credit card accepted. at no point was i asked for a delivery address, merely a billing address for my card. order completed i was told the order would be sent to the uk. i called to change to the spanish address. was told i couldn't. i asked to cancel the order, was told it had been cancelled 5 days previously (clearly littlewoods have mastered the art of time travel). I filled in an online cancellation form complete with every item catalogue code (there is no generic "cancel my entire order" button)but 2 days later have been told my order has been dispatched and i have been charged for it. I too have lost the will to live. I don't really care if my mum goes naked now.
Post a Comment