John Lewis : most-reported complaints
Automated analysis of 817 public Trustpilot reviews published 2026-04-25 to 2026-09-26. TrustScore 3.9 from 105,698 total reviews — see the Trustpilot page. Quick answer: is John Lewis legit? Issues below reflect what reviewers reported, not findings of wrongdoing.
Reviewers most often report that customer support is unhelpful, with 268 complaints noting issues such as broken promises regarding callbacks. Support being unreachable was the second most frequent concern, cited in 172 instances. Additionally, customers frequently complain about delivery failures, with 142 reports of items not arriving or arriving damaged, and 126 reports of significant delays.
How to reach John Lewis
These are the contact details John Lewis publishes on its Trustpilot profile, as of our last check on 2026-09-26 — phone 03456 049 049, address 1 Drummond Gate, London, SW1V 2QQ, GB.
The company claimed its Trustpilot profile on 2013-05-04, uses Trustpilot’s paid features, uses Trustpilot’s AI-assisted replies, and last replied to a negative review on 2026-09-25. Trustpilot ranks it 15 of 21 in Department Store. We last checked this profile on 2026-09-26 and found 40 new reviews. These are facts Trustpilot publishes about the profile, as of our last harvest.
Forum footprint: 9,170 MoneySavingExpert forum discussions mention this company (browse). Roughly 2 of the top, relevance-sorted search results were posted in the last 90 days — an approximate figure by construction, not a true recency count. Recent thread titles: “E: 01/12 Win 1 of 5 £1,000 John Lewis gift cards + Sony Headphones (My John Lewis)”, “John Lewis extended warranty can be a problem”, “E: 31/01 Win £500 John Lewis vouchers (newsletter signup)”.
Elsewhere: 4.3★ on Google (9,910 reviews)
TrustScore over time
3.9 → 3.9 across 6 census measurements since 2026-09-10. Our own record, independent of Trustpilot’s display.
Reply behaviour over time
Solid: % of negative reviews replied to. Dashed: typical days to reply. Both as reported on this company’s Trustpilot profile, recorded whenever our census re-checked it and a figure had changed — the gaps between points are not equal: 2026-09-10 (88%, 0.6d) · 2026-09-13 (88%, 0.6d) · 2026-09-16 (88%, 0.6d) · 2026-09-20 (88%, 0.6d) · 2026-09-23 (88%, 0.6d) · 2026-09-26 (88%, 0.6d).
Severity: 17% of this company’s 744 graded complaints were classified as severe (money lost, an essential service cut off, or a problem unresolved for months). See the harm index.
Reviewers here waited a median of 3.9 days between the experience and publishing their negative review (781 reviews record both dates).
Independent findings
The Advertising Standards Authority has upheld a complaint about this company’s advertising:
- 2026-05-20 (Social media (paid ad)) — A paid-for Facebook ad and an online display ad for John Lewis made misleading savings claims.
These are the findings of the named independent body, reported here with attribution — they are not our conclusions and are separate from the review analysis above.
Measured reply time: across 597 negative reviews that received a public reply, the median wait was 0.7 days — the company profile reports an average of under a day.
Reply quality: of 597 company replies to negative reviews analysed, 47% engaged with the specific problem and 46% were generic templates.
Sector benchmark: support unhelpful makes up 36% of this company’s complaints vs a 18% median across 164 ranked companies in its sector.
Review velocity: 16,372 of this company’s 105,698 Trustpilot reviews (15%) were written in the last 12 months.
What are the most common complaints about John Lewis ?
Support unhelpful
268 reports · 36% of complaintsrising since 2026-08“promising call-backs and then leaving no record of that, and all in all having zero interest in solving”
3 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“she gave me false information, and every time I asked her something about what she was doing she pretended she hadn't heard”
3 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“It has taken them 1 month and my freezer hasn’t been delivered yet.”
The company replied on 2026-09-04: “Hi Nikita, thank you for your review. I'm so sorry that you've not received an update on when you can expect delivery of your freezer. To allow us to look into your order and advise further, please…”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
3 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
Support unreachable
172 reports · 23% of complaintsrising since 2026-08“Bosch engineer came said faulty machine”
The company replied on 2026-09-04: “Hi Lynette. Thanks for your rating and comments. I'm sorry about the issues you've had. I'll ensure your valuable feedback is passed on for review. In the meantime, I've located your order and passed…”
Our classifier read this reply as a substantive response.
It promised: to escalate.
4 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“it invariably takes between 45mins to an hour to get an answer.”
The company replied on 2026-09-22: “Hello SH, Thank you for reaching out and sharing your recent experience with our Customer Relations team. I am so sorry for the long wait times you experienced when trying to get in touch with us and…”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
4 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“promising call-backs and then leaving no record of that, and all in all having zero interest in solving”
3 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
Delivery failed
142 reports · 19% of complaintssteady“the next day delivery one never arrived and the delayed one finally did with damaged packaging a ripped item”
The company replied on 2026-09-24: “Hi Kerry, thanks for taking the time to share your review. I'm terribly sorry to hear about the poor experience you've had. I can appreciate how frustrating this must be! If you could please send us…”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
4 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“Unsurprisingly, they arrived damaged.”
The company replied on 2026-09-23: “Thank you, Tobiasz, for taking the time to share your recent experience. I am so sorry that both orders were poorly packed, causing the mugs to arrive damaged on each occasion. Please be assured that…”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
3 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“nobody will ever answer the phone regardless of the time of day”
The company replied on 2026-09-04: “Hello there Thanks for reaching out and providing feedback. I'm sorry to hear of the issues with order. It sounds both stressful and highly frustrating. If you'd like some help, please get in touch…”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
2 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
Delivery late
126 reports · 17% of complaintssteady“It has taken them 1 month and my freezer hasn’t been delivered yet.”
The company replied on 2026-09-04: “Hi Nikita, thank you for your review. I'm so sorry that you've not received an update on when you can expect delivery of your freezer. To allow us to look into your order and advise further, please…”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
3 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“It took speaking to four different customer service agents across three separate reorders”
The company replied on 2026-09-16: “I'm so sorry to hear about the ongoing frustration and confusion with your delivery as well as the mixed information you were given over the phone. Spending days waiting at home for parcels isn't the…”
Our classifier read this reply as a substantive response.
2 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“My delivery slot was long ago, but I dare not leave the house just in case.”
2 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
Faulty product
113 reports · 15% of complaintssteady“the next day delivery one never arrived and the delayed one finally did with damaged packaging a ripped item”
The company replied on 2026-09-24: “Hi Kerry, thanks for taking the time to share your review. I'm terribly sorry to hear about the poor experience you've had. I can appreciate how frustrating this must be! If you could please send us…”
Our classifier read this reply as a template response.
4 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“Bosch engineer came said faulty machine”
The company replied on 2026-09-04: “Hi Lynette. Thanks for your rating and comments. I'm sorry about the issues you've had. I'll ensure your valuable feedback is passed on for review. In the meantime, I've located your order and passed…”
Our classifier read this reply as a substantive response.
It promised: to escalate.
4 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“The Ralph Lauren jacket I bought was faulty. JL admitted this but would only issue a measly partial return.”
The company replied on 2026-09-23: “Hi there, Thanks for taking the time to share your feedback. I'm very sorry to hear about your experience with your recent Ralph Lauren jacket purchase. It's disappointing to learn that the item…”
Our classifier read this reply as a deflection.
3 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
Other
77 reports · 10% of complaintssteady“customer data is being shared or sold”
1 reader marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“Customer Service told me it's John Lewis' policy to allow dogs. I strongly suggest that they reverse that policy.”
The company replied on 2026-09-24: “Hello Mrs Dani Unwin, thank you for taking the time to share your experience at our Cheadle branch. Please accept our sincere apologies for the incident you witnessed and the standard of the floor…”
Our classifier read this reply as a substantive response.
It promised: to escalate.
1 reader marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
“I’ve just been a victim of the ridiculously easy fraud perpetuated against purchasers of John Lewis gift cards”
The company replied on 2026-09-18: “Hi Alison, thank you for taking the time to share your review. I am truly sorry to learn you have been the victim of fraud, and can completely understand how upsetting this must be. I would recommend…”
Our classifier read this reply as a deflection.
1 reader marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.
Compare John Lewis with…
Method: reviews are classified into a fixed complaint taxonomy by an automated reader; every category shown is backed by at least two verbatim quotes from distinct reviews. Trends are computed from dated review counts only. Negative reviews are deliberately over-sampled for evidence depth; headline percentages use an unbiased recent sample only. Report updated 2026-09-26.