Waiting for a refund for over 2 months. Issue not resolved despite frequent contact with customer service

Waitrose online delivery - I am writing this review as I have been waiting for my refund for over 2 months. I have been waiting patiently up until now, however after speaking to the customer service centre for the 8th time, I am extremely unhappy with the way this situation has been handled and am unsure that this issue will be resolved in the near future. I have listed below, my recent communication with the customer service centre, after I was offered a refund for damaged produce (rotten vegetable) and a substituted item which was charged at a higher price.
1. 15 March 2013 - online grocery order delivered on time. Emailed Waitrose regarding the above and included a photo of the rotten vegetable
2. 17 March - Received an email from Waitrose confirming that a refund will be issued.
3. 28 March - spoke to Waitrose customer service to enquire about the status of the refund. Was informed that the issue will be looked at by the accounts/back of house department
4. Mid April - called Waitrose customer service to enquire about the refund. Was told that the issue has been brought to the attention of the back of house and that a note will be made that I enquired about it
5. 2 May - called Waitrose customer service to enquire about the refund again. A very helpful lady said she would look into the issue and would get back to me.
6. 2 May (same day) - received an email from the customer service lady who investigated the matter and confirmed that the money had not been issued into my account . The email noted the following "[we]... regret to inform you that the refund although showing as processed on our administrative system does not appear to have been sent to your account"
7. 3 May - received a phone call from Waitrose customer services asking for my card details so that the refund can be issued. I provided the details over the phone.
8. 5 May - received an email from Waitrose customer service requesting my card details. I called the customer service on the same day and provided my card details for the second time. I explained that someone else from Waitrose had already asked for my card details two days earlier, however the lady informed me that they did not have a record of this conversation taking place on their system.
9. 7 May - I received an email confirming that the refund had now been processed. However the amount noted in the email was INCORRECT and less that that noted in the initial email dated 17 March 2013. I called Waitrose customer service to clarify the situation. The lady I spoke to said she could see the error and would get someone to rectify it. No refund has yet been issued.
10. 14 May - called Waitrose customer service about the status of my refund. I am told by that it is being issued. I ask when it will be issued and I am told it will be issued soon
11. 19 May - received an email from Waitrose confirming that a refund is due however they would require my card details
11. 20 May - I call Waitrose customer service to provide my card details for the 3rd time. I explain that the refund has been due for over two months. The lady is very apologetic and says she will speak to the relevant department.
Since then I have had no communication from Waitrose, no refund for any amount has been issued, and no one seems to be able to fix the problem. This is highly unacceptable from a company who prides themselves on their customer service. Although some of the staff at the customer service centre have been helpful, this issue has still not been resolved. I am not sure if this is a problem with the head office, the branch or other departments, but I am sure Waitrose would find this completely unacceptable as well. Please look into this matter urgently.

Best grocery store

I have been shopping in store in waitrose since 3 years. But whenever I go to store, I am looted by the prices and zero offers. I then thought of using their online shopping system and the option of free delivery for orders over £50.00 saved my life and guess what, I saved so much of money because of offers that once a month, I order grocery from here and save more than £15 each time. I love that mostly all products are delivered and there are rarely any substitutions. Their refund speed is also good. Overall, great experience.

Disgraceful Customer Service

I did my weekend shopping on Friday 26th at 5pm . I bought a chicken for Sunday lunch. When Sunday came around the chicken was off - stinking. When I looked at the date code it was use by 26th. When I contacted the store I was told they frequently sell chickens in the main fridge (this was not the reduced area) that have to be used that day. So if you did your shopping at 8pm you have to use it before midnight. I pointed out that I don't think it is unreasonable to be able to purchase a chicken on Friday that is still fit for use on Sunday lunchtime. I was informed by the manager that it was up to me to check all the dates on every product that I buy in store to make sure they are suitable for me. He then asked me 'what do you want me to do about it?"

Appalling customer service

I have had an appalling experience with online delivery from Waitrose. The worst thing is a complete lack of interest in apologising or rectifying a situation.

I have been a regular Waitrose customer and love their products. However when experiencing a new driver, twice he left half my groceries in the van before driving off. Complaints to the customer service line the first time led to a phone call and a reluctant return of the driver at an unspecified time over 4 hours later (which he was reluctant to do as he was busy) and the second time with the same driver who assured me he had double checked everything no phone call until over 2 hours later and then turning up 5 minutes after. No Waitrose acknowledgement or apology.

Then last time they did not even bother to turn up. Ridiculously I waited patiently beyond the designated time, sure they were just running late. But after 2.5 hours I rang the customer service line to be told they were on the way and they would contact the store to confirm. The store called 45 or so minutes later to say delivery was attempted in the time window, the door was not answered, they called my mobile number to inform me and left a message.

Pretty outraged at this point as I had been waiting in my lounge about a metre from the front door - facing the street you have to drive down to get to my house (which strangely no waitrose van had been down). More specifically they do not even have a mobile number for me. Such blatant lies were followed by the information they would be too busy to reattempt delivery and if I could wait in all the next day they would attempt delivery at some stage.

Appalling customer service with no real avenue for complaint. They obviously do not care what sort of treatment their customer receives. Will never use again.

I wonder why more companies cant be like this?

I've had the occasional problem with Waitrose, but they always rectify them with minimal fuss. Their staff always seem to be over trained, which is a positive surprise. Great company, great products and their delivery service is also superb.

Service used to be first class, now average

Over the last 4 years, I've cheerfully accepted my weekly email to Customer Services reporting missing items. Waitrose products (and the delivery drivers) are of a very high standard.

Come on Waitrose, please modernise your systems and match Ocado's efficiency. You've descended from my previous 5-star rating (just a couple of years ago) down to 3-stars after your perfunctory and unsatisfactory Customer Services response to my recent email about the complicated substituted Sensitive Laundry detergent issue...

I reluctantly experimented with Ocado, which sells most of Waitrose's products (except the freshly baked bread rolls) and am happy that I did. I've now switched to Ocado.

The Ocado drivers are equally pleasant and the Ocado iPad app makes ordering so much easier.

Best of all, I'm yet to have a missing items experience (or substitutions). Ocado sends text messages confirming the delivery, driver name, vehicle details, whether there are unavailable items and count-down prompts for your last chance to make changes to your order.

I'm a longstanding Waitrose and John Lewis fan.. but inevitably, inefficiency reaches a point where even your most loyal customers will be tempted away.

Very variable service levels

West Byfleet store is struggling to maintain stock levels of perishable foods impossible to purchase a weeks shopping due to short use by dates. Over the last six + months the store has deteriorated from good to extremely poor.
Visiting relative in East Sussex shopped at the Hailsham store excellent service all the advertised special offers a complete revelation how can the management be so variable?

Delia Smith replaced by Pippa

Have loved waitrose forever and use it as my main grocery supplier.
But now you have replaced Delia with a lightweight who may know about children's parties .
You have replaced substance with style. Shame on you! It's really affected the way I view my shopping and will certainly not be reading the waitrose magazine anymore

What can I say, Great place to shop

Love the food
Love the staff
Love the shops
The prices are fair for what you get. I always believe you get what you pay for, well most of the time..

Don't change a thing please...

AVOID Waitrose Raynes Park Store – shopping there is horrible!

The manager/director of this store has a very crude method for implementing monitoring and security procedures. On the occasions that I visited the store, an overzealous staff (or the manager/director himself) would tail me as if I will shoplift something. It is extremely uncomfortable, verging on insulting.

Sometime ago, I visited the store to grab a couple of items quickly as I was cooking something in the oven (I am a local resident of Raynes Park and live just across the Waitrose store). The manager/director aggressively chased me around the store. As I approached a sales assistant, standing at the vegetable section, to ask where I can get some radish, the manager/director tried to block me forthright. He was probably thinking I was going to run for the exit, which was a distant 10-15 meters away.

I see no way that this behaviour, can be justified, even more so from a senior manager. It is both brutal and absurd. The only time a store staff can chase a customer is when the person walks out the store (not within it) without paying. I can only think of this manager/director as rough (a scum in a badly fitting suit and cheap looking shoes, perhaps more accurately) as he certainly has his own version of creating an unforgettably unpleasant customer shopping experience.

Excellent.

In store and on,ine I have been a Waitrose convert for years. And I will never go back. We used delivery once. While it isn't as slick as Ocado (more a local alternative to going to the store than a national delivery network) it was still a flawless experience.

Disgraceful and unprofessional

Do not use their online delivery service!

I have been a regular customer of Waitrose for over 2 years and the treatment I received from them over my last order was appalling.

My boyfriend was at home waiting for the delivery and I was at a work function. At the end of my function I saw I had a voicemail from Waitrose which stated that the driver had been to my flat and that I was not there so unless I was home in 2 minutes they would leave and I could phone customer services to rearrange delivery. The call came in before my delivery slot was even scheduled and even with the 2 minute warning this was at least 10 minutes before schedule. During this time my boyfriend was home the entire time and no one came to the door for the delivery.

He phoned customer services to enquire where our delivery was and they agreed that we had not been treated very well and that they would contact the London branch. We waited all night for Waitrose to call back and let us know where our groceries were but never received a call. I then phoned Waitrose again today and they said that they would phone the store as it appeared it hadn't been done last night to find out where my delivery was. This is now 6 hours after my second call and I am still waiting to hear from Waitrose.

The customer services line took 32 minutes to get through the first time, 15 minutes the second, and I am still on the line for the third attempt.

Clearly Waitrose do not care if they retain customer support and will resort to leaving bullying messages when they have made a mistake by employing lying drivers.

Julia Beath tyckte detta omdöme var användbart

Old School Service

Old School Service with a smile. Good quality food and great customer service. Community Projects are great. Helping the local community is a fantastic incentive and a great example.

Good products, customer service unacceptable

After more than 20 online orders,
last one was
- the order was delivered by a taxi driver 2 hours late at 10pm
- I had to carry whole order by myself upstairs (including 10 packs of water)
- they charged me 2 items more
- after 1 month I still did not get a refund - after numerous calls and emails

Very dissatisfied with that one.

Edit: Got a two times larger refund in vouchers after almost 2 months of calls.
It depends on a person in customer service.

1 out of 23 orders bad experience, 22 out of 23 good.

Edit 2: Next order, we used this 25 pounds voucher and again bad experience, we were overcharged, the voucher was not counted...
Pretty bad, if you ask me.
Then the customer representative called accusing me that I was using swearwords on people in their branch...
They record their phone calls, why they don't provide an evidence?
Because it never happened, my phone records all of my calls...
The customer service representative then confessed in the phone that he accused me without having any evidence!!!
When I confronted him that I have the recording of that call, he was not interested in it - to find out the truth so Waitrose will find the culprit and improve their customer service, instead he threatened *us* that it was illegal!

It is unacceptable for customer service to use such intimidation tactics on their customers.

We decided to avoid them in the future.

Julia Beath tyckte detta omdöme var användbart

Fantastic service when I had a problem

Having finished a long day and done a weekend shop at the super new store in Staratford upon Avon, I discovered I had left me credit cards at home in my briefcase...nightmare on a Friday night at rush hour! The young lady on checkout trusted me to go and talk to customer services, the young man who was honest enough to say he did not know company policy on this matter but would find out how he could help and then the absolute courtesy of the manager who totally empathised with my situation , understood my tiredness and was sensible to obtain security information and get card details from my husband to enable me to continue, was exemplarary to customer focus and and understanding
I have many supermarkets to choose from in the llocale and have used waitrose since opening...after this experience I will use them whenever I can....the manger was first class..and I would employ him ( my company records 5 star customer satisfaction and 98 % customer referrals so I know what counts)
Well done
Mrs Parry Stratford upon Avon

Poor customer service.

I tried Waitrose deliver because I was sent some money off vouchers with my partnership card (John Lewis credit card). The problem I had was when I ordered 21 of an item instead of 2, my own fault but the way you have to order didn't help. The driver said this was no problem he would take them back and I would get a credit. This took three months and nine phone calls! Each time I called the customer service people were very polite and apologetic but didn't do what they said they would do. Also I didn't get the right amount of credit.

Excellent Service and Comparable Prices

Stores well laid out, staff helpful and nothing too much trouble - beats getting grunted at in M&S as I was recently (they have gone downhill) - excellent selection of goods that are hard to beat - shopping can be as cost effective as you choose - many labels comparable to prices in tesco etc. but they also do 'finer' brands for larger budgets. The meat counter is excellent - I dont often eat meat but when I do I want a good piece, the best take away curry for 2 at £8.50 (Nan, rice, 2 curries and veg side) I have tasted. Fruit and veg fresh and long lasting.
I have shopped here sticking to my normal brands for a comparable price to Tesco/Sainsburys but beware of being tempted away from the budget !

They do what they say. At a price!

Good quality products and service.

Shame the prices are so high.

Good but not as good as you were

The Nottingham town centre store is always busy with a nice atmosphere BUT the wall behind the cash tills is really dirty and terribly chipped and scraped. It has been this way for over a year in spite of my writing a personal letter to the General Manager 4 months ago, and also a letter to Customer Services over a year ago. I mentioned it to a lady on the tills recently and she said "Oh I know what you mean - we keep complaining about it but nothing is done" Even when writing a personal letter to the General Manager (by name and marked personal) I only received a photocopy of a photocopy of a standard letter. Just not good enough Mr Waitrose and certainly not Partnership. This wonderful company is "owned" by its employees. Too bad that there are a few who are letting down the founder - Mr Speedon Lewis I think. Come on Waitrose! I spend over £25.00 every day in your store so the profit on my annual purchases alone would pay for a decorator. .

Staff always lovely at my local Waitrose

Whilst Waitrose isn't perhaps the cheapest grocer, its definitely worth doing your shopping as they are really polite and helpful. Its a little more relaxing shopping experience I think as well. I never feel harrassed when I'm in Waitrose.

Splendid

Wonderful range of products I can't find everywhere, including fresh local ingredients. Always happy to find a Waitrose wherever I go and I make a bee-line for it!

I Love Waitrose

Pretty much hooked on Waitrose.

Very good but not perfect

Clean, well-laid out stores. Reasonable value but, in attempting to compete with the Sainsburys and Tescos they've lost their USP of hard-to-find ingredients. For example, they used to sell unusual cuts of beef, which seem to have disappeared from the butcher's counters I've seen in local stores and in the SouthWest in recent weeks.

My local Waitrose ran out of salad greens a few weeks ago at 3:00p.m. On a Friday. No apologies, just a chain of blame. That said, they seem to have learned the lesson and it's not happened since.

Not quite the "must-go-to" grocery destination it used to be

the top supermarket

Reliable for fresh produce, quality dry goods and best of all any waitrose product is guaranteed non GM marvellous ...... shop there approx twice a week

Top in cleanliness and tidiness

Amongst the supermarkets Waitrose has the tidiest and cleanes look. No other supermarket comes close to Waitrose on aesthetic appearance. It is myth to believe that one can not get value for money at Waitrose. Quality is an important indicator that goes hand in hand with the price.

Only the best for Waitrose.

Excellent food and service.

You can see John Lewis at work here!

Love Waitrose! Most of there stores are really nice, and I actually enjoy shopping in them. I especially love the new Canary Wharf store, although they could use some help with keeping the shelves stocked. Given my experience with Ocado I am now going to give Waitrose a try and I expect to be impressed given my history with Waitrose.

QUALITY!

COMPETITIVE COST< QUALITY UNSURPASSED< CANNOT FAULT THEM

A little bit of what you fancy?

Lots of nice luxury items but not really for me as my weekly shop normally is all kids items which waitrose lack on a little bit

Why can't other organisations provide this level of service?

Always friendly, polite and helpful. Quality products

Nice people to shop with

Only place to shop

Love the products and wines especially.

Always know where to go and find my bottle of Cloudy Bay, if not they always suggest something that is as good as.

Real quality produce

Maybe I am biased because I am used to appalling rubbish in Hong Kong supermarkets (except when they also stock Waitrose "Essentials") but it was a treat to be in the UK and able to shop at Waitrose

Always a great selection

It's a real treat going to Waitrose but they make everything look so tempting that I always end up buying much more than I planned.

Generally good but...

Fruit and veg sections need overhauling. When a cheapie supermarket like Morrisons has a better F&V section and sometimes better quality produce it's time to overhaul what you offer.
We have 2 Waitrose stores near us, both need to raise their game.

Always on time, great service!

Simply cannot fault waitrose. Friendly delivery drivers and store staff. Makes me proud to be British!

absolutely fantastic

i love thi they hs store to death, the food is fantastic and reasonably priced. the staff are really helpful too

A GOOD QUALITY SERVICE PROVIDER

I HAVE JUST STARTED SHOPPING AT WAITROSE ,AND TO BE TOTALLY HONEST I AM IMPRESSED. GOOD QUALITY PRODUCTS WITH A DIFFERENT LINE OF PRODUCTS FROM THE OTHERS.

Choice & Quality but Pricey & Poor Checkout

We enjoy the shopping and the choice and quality. The floor staff are very helpfull as are deli, bakery and butchers. However, checkout is dreadful. Many staff will not even start until one is poised to start packing their own groceries. Plastic bags are hard to open. Checkout staff actually sit and lag and are not even ppolite (Barnet - Spires). As a business process expert, I could improve your checkout by 150% and lower your cost by 30% within a year with improved customer service

Excellent

Waitrose quality and service straight to your door - and NO delivery charge! What not to like?