I needed a Fridge. A tall free-standing one. We’ve got some work going on in the kitchen but it’s going to be quite a while before that’s complete so I determined, with a bit of persuasion of my wife, that we should just order a big temporary fridge… that, when everything is all finished, we can use in the garage for drinks and other things.
I was going to order via very.co.uk — I absolutely love them, particularly the manner in which they handle the ‘take 3’ credit payment stuff. Alas it was going to be a few days before they could get the fridge out so I thought I’d finally get a John Lewis account setup and try and give the ailing old favourite a shot.
I was pretty impressed with the nice looking website and I got the order processed in double quick time.
Unfortunately the standard reality of British business — the fulfilment — caused a problem. They were due to deliver on Tuesday morning. My wife waited in the house until just past midday before calling it quits. The usual story. She got a call from the delivery chaps who promised to deliver on Wednesday morning. Same old challenge. My wife waited until midday and… yeah… nothing. No call, nothing.
I looked at the John Lewis online order system and saw that the fridge was set to be delivered NEXT Tuesday.
I phoned up John Lewis — famous, apparently, for their brilliant service. I explained that I’d like to cancel the order because of non-delivery. I wondered how they’d react.
The polite lady promptly agreed.
Job done.
That was simple. She’s refunded the money. I was expecting some kind of rescue attempt from the famously helpful brand — but I was quite content that they just processed the cancellation efficiently.
Dear reader, I visited AO.com on my iPhone, found the same (or very similar) model and had it purchased within about 5 minutes of putting the phone down on John Lewis. In fact, the AO.com order confirmation arrived faster than the John Lewis refund acknowledgement!
I did this all on my iPhone. I cannot praise the AO.com user journey in more glowing terms than to say they have absolutely nailed it.
I think I was able to process the whole order in about 3 screens. I was pained at the possibility of filling in my credit card details on the iPhone browser, but actually, that only took about 30 seconds. Boom! Amazing. Absolutely amazing.
I’ve not used ao.com, so will check them out hearing of your good experience. Have you received the fridge yet? Be great to hear an update on the all important delivery.
Ah I should have posted an update. It arrived next day perfectly. The delivery people were excellent too.