A letter to Littlewoods Direct. Or why you’ve got to read the small print

People who follow my tweets may have already heard my moaning about Littlewoods on Friday, but I’m still hacked off about it enough to post about it here too.

I have written them a letter (in the perhaps misguided belief that paper letters get more attention than emails). The contents are posted below to share my ranting and whining more widely.

Comments are very welcome… am I being too ranty and unreasonable? How much responsibility do we consumers have for reading small-print?

Dear Sir / Madam,

Last week, I received a gift voucher for Littlewoods Direct. It promised £30 off for new customers making an order of £60 or more. I needed to get some Christmas presents, so thought I’d give you a try. At first, all seemed well – I signed up, made the order, entered the voucher code and got what I thought was a good price for the presents I was buying.

Things started to go wrong when you delivered them.

We were out when the delivery arrived, so your driver helpfully left them in our front garden. On a day of heavy rain. The boxes were pretty much destroyed – the cardboard being so sodden that you poked your fingers through it if you weren’t careful, and all the paperwork that came with it had turned into a papier-mache-style mush.

I dug out your customer services number, and rang to get this sorted.

A customer services person arranged for new items to be delivered, and a date for the damaged ones to be collected. They apologised, and sounded very polite and helpful. I thought this was all resolved, and hung up a happy customer (if a little unimpressed with your drivers).

Then I got the email confirming the new delivery. You had charged me another £3.95 for delivery – which seemed unreasonable considering it was your fault that I needed another delivery in the first place.

And you hadn’t included the £30 off voucher. So even after I claim back the money you charged my credit card for the original order (which you still refuse to let me do until you get around to collecting the items on Friday) I was being asked to pay an extra £34 because your drivers screwed up.

I phoned again, assuming this was an oversight.

It wasn’t – it was intentional.

I spoke to a different person this time, who explained that I wasn’t actually elegible for the voucher code. When I pointed out that I was elegible for the voucher the first time I put the order through, he said I hadn’t been, and that even my first use of the voucher would have “been bounced” eventually.

I learnt that your system is set up so that it lets all voucher codes through at the point of sale, and that transactions where vouchers are used are manually verified after the sale has completed. Any transactions where a voucher was used by a customer not entitled to use it are then charged the cost of the voucher.

So, to be clear, at the point of sale, you:

  • Verified and accepted my voucher code (I typed it into a text box on the web site, and you verified it as a valid code and deducted the voucher amount from my bill accordingly)
  • You charged my credit card
  • You delivered the items (albeit incompetently)
  • And then at some future date (presumably once I’d already opened and discarded the boxes, making it impractical for me to return them) you were going to charge an extra £30 to my credit card

The customer services person I spoke to was a little vague on whether this is done because it’s too complicated to verify voucher codes fully at the time of sale and/or because it helps not to “scare off” new customers by rejecting their voucher codes.

Either way, it’s appalling.

The reason I wasn’t elegible for the voucher is because I set up a new cash/credit-card account, rather than a new Littlewoods Credit account. Fair enough – I can appreciate that you will generally make more money from credit customers and will want to incentivize them accordingly. I don’t have a problem with not being allowed to use the voucher.

What is unacceptable is that you wait so long to point this out.

The customer services person said that this is stated in the voucher’s terms and conditions, and true enough, buried five paragraphs down in a sea of small print it does say:

If, after accepting your order, we find that you were not entitled to use the code or did not meet all the terms and conditions of its use, we may reverse the benefit that you obtained. If you transacted on a cash basis e.g. by a debit or credit card, we may take a further payment, equivalent to the value of the benefit obtained, from the card used.

That is bad.

I don’t care that it’s in the small print. Let’s be honest – we don’t all read a page of small print when completing an order. It’s not unreasonable for me as a consumer to expect that the onus is on you to decide whether or not to let me use a voucher.

Particularly in this sort of case – by the point I’m entering the voucher code, you already know that I’ve opted to create a cash account, rather than a Credit account. So you could have easily rejected the voucher code at that point, rather than accepting it (without any on-screen warnings that I was liable for future charges to my card when you finally get around to doing a ridiculously simple rule check).

In a way, I’m actually quite thankful to your delivery driver. At least this way, I found out about your voucher policy early enough to be able to cancel my order and make a new order with another retailer. When you finally get around to picking up the items on Friday, I expect a full refund and that will be the end of this whole waste of time. But if they hadn’t screwed up, causing me to make a manual order and find out about all of this up-front, then I would have had a nasty surprise when I saw a £30 charge on a future credit card statement.

As customer service policies go, it’s short-sighted. It might help you avoid scaring off potential new customers, but it certainly wont help you keep the ones you do get!

Please review this policy. Please update your systems so that they check voucher codes properly, or stop applying conditions to vouchers that your systems are not smart enough to check without manual intervention. Please stop relying on “it’s in the small print!” as a way of justifying poor retail practices. (Oh – and please explain to your drivers that cardboard is not waterproof).

Finally, please be aware that I have also posted this letter to https://dalelane.co.uk/blog and any response I receive will be similarly shared.

Kind regards

Dale Lane

Update (4th Mar 2009): Despite sending this both by post and email, Littlewoods never replied.

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37 Responses to “A letter to Littlewoods Direct. Or why you’ve got to read the small print”

  1. caveat emptor! 😉

    But yeah, I’ve heard of quite a few similar experiences with Littlewoods. Also beware their sister company Marshall Ward. They tempt you in with a good one-time voucher like that ?30 off a ?60 spend one, but end up messing you around in some way. I look forwards to reading their response (if any).

  2. Rolo says:

    Sounds perfectly reasonable and not-at-all-ranty to me. Having said that, I’m partial to a bit of a rant myself. Maybe I’ll share the email and (soon to follow, when they don’t reply to my email) angry letter which I had to send to iFlorist. Hint: the pink posy I ordered, which appears pink enough on their website should not be virtually entirely green on arrival and still almost entirely green several days afterwards. Have the flowers opened yet? Of course not and they’re probably in the bin.

  3. Anton Piatek says:

    From what you have posted above I do no believe they have the right to charge you extra after accepting the voucher. Further to that I believe you have the right to refuse to pay for damaged goods, and are not required to pay for any extra costs the retailer may incur as a result.

    If you do not get a full refund, I would write to your credit card company and ask them to block the difference on the payment.

    I find that printed letters get more attention, and if I don’t get a response I send a second one, recorded delivery, with the threat of legal followups if they do not respond. Of course you should be prepared to follow through, but in this case that should be no harder than telling your card company to withhold payment.

  4. Graham White says:

    I thought you restrained yourself quite well, I’d have gone for a much more bad tempered approach I think. However much you complain though, it does seem they had the right to charge the extra money to your card in this instance; but the way it’s done is disgusting.

    Well done for putting this up on the web. Now they don’t just lose one customer they nearly hooked but they’ll definitely lose any business I might ever have given them. That is, unless they send through the satisfactory response we all doubt you’ll get.

  5. Pete Verdon says:

    Unfair Terms In Consumer Contracts Act, surely? In a contract with the general public you as a business can’t just write whatever conditions you like and expect a court to uphold them.

    Even prior to UTICCA, there’s Common Law on this kind of thing. Afraid I can’t remember the case name (it was about conditions on a hotel room booking, displayed on a small, hidden sign) but the judge said something along the lines of “not one customer in a hundred reads the small print” and ruled that unexpected and unusual conditions had to be pointed out specially.

  6. ffac says:

    this is a well known problem – check out forums like MoneySavingExpert before you order and you’d see they’ve been doing this for years

    isnt unusual for them to take 2 or 3 months before they charge for vouchers like this

    they’ve had lots of complaints and just send back a short statement saying they do it because their terms & conditions say they can. and that its a customer’s responsibility to use voucher codes to which they are entitled.

    you’re better off out of it, but dont waste any more time trying to complain about it, cos its already been done. they never listen

  7. Anthony says:

    Dale

    Hello, my name is Anthony from Shop Direct Group, the owners of Littlewoods. I’m really sorry to hear about your experience. I’ve forward this on to our Executive Complaints team who will be in touch.

    Anthony

  8. David Lockie says:

    Hey Dale, got link from your twitter post, met you @homecamp.

    I say that letter’s fair enough, very reasonable.

    Littlewoods have just lost another family of potential customers (plus any other potential customers I can manage to put off).

    We are a small start-up web business who have built our own site from scratch. It may not be perfect, but you know what? We have a real-time validation voucher redemption system.

    Selling unsustainably-sourced consumables and giving poor customer service, Littlewoods? Haven’t you heard there’s an enviro-economic crisis happening? Only the leanest and greenest will survive…

    Hope you get it all sorted.

    …must get round to ordering some presents myself

  9. dale says:

    Thanks for the comments, everyone.

    It was particularly nice to get a comment from Anthony – refreshing to see that Littlewoods (or it’s parent company) would be progressive enough to monitor blogs for feedback, so thank you for that.

  10. dale says:

    Update: I got an email from someone who read this post who suggested that I ask Consumer Direct whether this sort of behaviour was legal. Consumer Direct is run by the Office of Fair Trading, and offers consumer advice.

    I had a reply from them this morning, and they said

    …vouchers and special offers of this nature are solely subject to their terms and conditions. Regrettably, if the terms and conditions of the voucher or offer state that the consumer is responsible for ensuring that the voucher can be redeemed and that they can rescind the voucher at a later date, then this will be the case. In addition by using the voucher the consumer is agreeing to be bound by its terms…

    Disappointing to hear this, but I was impressed that there is an easy way to ask this sort of question. I’d not heard of Consumer Direct before, and it’s pretty cool to have this service available for consumers to bounce questions off.

  11. dale says:

    It’s been a month since I emailed and posted my letter to Littlewoods. There was no reply.

    The only thing I’ve had from them since was a letter a few weeks ago saying that they noticed I have not used my ?30 voucher for new customers, giving me the voucher code again (same code that I used before) in case I had mislaid it, and encouraging me to use it.

    Nowhere on the letter did it mention the requirement for opening a credit account.

    I could phone them to try and chase up a reply, but I suspect it’s fairly pointless.

  12. Stew McNorton says:

    Just got off the phone after 40 minutes speaking to “Customer Services”. Ordered 2 Duvet covers with an instruction to be delivered to partner’s work address as no-one would be at home. Partner chases the order, told they’d been delivered and told to home address. OK, get home, nothing delivered, no card etc. Call “Customer Services”, been told they’d been pushed through the letterbox – 5 inch letterbox, Duvet covers? You can do the maths. Why don’t we check with the neighbours? On an estate? (BTW, workmen doing the rooves on the street next to us, overlooking our garden. Anyway, told the only solution would be to re-order and then eventually (7-10 days) we’d be credited for the 1st order. If the 1st order hadn’t arrived is the 2nd order technically correct? Cut to the chase, why pay twice for something you haven’t received in the first instance? The “Customer Service” take was that as we were ”cash” customers they couldn’t help/be arsed (take your pick). They then wanted to know if we wanted to upgrade the account to “all-inclusive”whatever that is, i.e. treat you like vermin then tie you into a long-term relationship! Cancelled all other outstanding orders (c. 500GBP) and asked for a written explanation of their policy to cash customers. Breath is not being held, will never deal with Littlewoods again. They just don’t like people and would probably be far happier with no customers. Not a happy bunny

  13. darren says:

    I became involved with Littlewoods when I found out my mother in law owed them over ?3500 and was unable to make the minimum repayments, along with 3 other creditors. She asked me to handle her finances when her husband passed away and I have been in contact with the creditors. The 3 other creditors have all been very helpful and have accepted that I can act on my mother in laws behalf, Littlewoods have done everything in their power to not let me do this. All the other creditors have now stopped charging late payment fees, admin charges to make it easier for her to repay the debts, Littlewoods continue to charge ?24 per month in late fees. I swear they make more money from their finance arm than they do from actually selling goods which are vastly inflated compared to internet stores/Tesco etc. I cannot comprehend why they continue to do well when other companies are failing.

  14. darren says:

    Me again, I have a right bee in my bonnet with Littlewoodsdirect. If you go to their website now they have an offer of ?10 off a spend of ?25 or more. Click on the terms and conditions and you get this,

    Quote code ZG561 at the checkout when you place your order.

    This offer can only be used once to obtain ?10 discount when you place your first order of ?25 or more. Promotional codes are codes that enable customers to obtain benefits such as discounts, free delivery and free gifts. These codes are non-transferable so may only be used by the person to whom they are issued and must only be used in accordance with their terms and conditions of use. Returned goods, financial services products and delivery charges will not count towards the value of the order. If you use a promotional code to claim a promotional benefit, you must first check that it was issued to you and that you are eligible to use it. By using it to claim a promotional benefit you will be confirming that:-

    (i) you are entitled to use the code;
    (ii) you meet all the conditions that apply to its use;
    (iii) you agree to the terms set out below.

    If, before accepting your order, we find that you are not entitled to use the code or do not meet all the terms and conditions of its use, we may reject your order or alternatively process it without the promotional benefit being applied. If, after accepting your order, we find that you were not entitled to use the code or did not meet all the terms and conditions of its use, we may reverse the benefit that you obtained. If you transacted on a cash basis e.g. by debit or credit card, we may take a further payment, equivalent to the value of the benefit obtained, from the card used. If you transacted on a credit basis, the value of the benefit obtained may be charged to your credit account.

    That’s all there is. I have nothing which states this code has been issued to me with my name on it so they could recind it at a later date and charge me !

  15. Nikki Selfridge says:

    My complaint has nothing to do with voucher codes but I saw this site and thought Good, someone else has a gripe with Littlewoods. I bought a DVD player from them last year and it packed in before I’d even finished paying for it. Almost finished paying for a camera and hey presto it’s knackered too (i’d only used it twice.) I’m absolutly spitting and don’t know what to do. Can i send two products back within the space of 6 months?

  16. Andy Jones says:

    @Nikki

    Don’t get me wrong. I hate Littlewoods as much as the rest of you (for reason’s that are too tedious to go into here).

    However, unless they manufactured the DVD player and/or the camera I don’t think it is their fault that these have malfunctioned. I would suggest contacting Littlewoods and waiting until they fail to deal with the situation before criticising them.

    Most electronic items have a 12 month guarantee. So, if Littlewoods won’t sort it out you can speak directly to the manufacturer for advice.

    With regard to the number of products that can be sent back in a given time frame; if everything you ever buy from Littlewoods breaks, through no fault of your own, you can send them ALL back within the time frame defined by their terms and conditions and your statutory rights.

  17. Amanda says:

    Hi,

    Sorry to hijack this thread, but was just wanting some advise.
    I have joined the Littlewoods team recently and purchased a pair of jeans from them. When I recieved the Jeans they were too small for me. I returned them and they told me to make another purchase of the same pair and I would not be charged for the original one, about 2weeks later I still had not recieved the refund and i got in touch with them. They told me that I had been charged sur-charges and the jeans had been “Returned” to me and that I would have to pay for them as there was a “mark” on the end of them, and the tags had been removed. I told them that I only wore them once while trying them on and i had not left the house with them on. When the delievery drive who was totally rude and abrupt took the jeans off me they wer not in a sealed bag, so anything could have happened to them. I rang them a few weeks ago asking where the Alledged jeans the sent me where, and they said i takes up to 14 working days to get to me, after being told i would recieve them a week 2 weeks before i rang them! Now 1 month later I still HAVE NOT recieved the jeans and they are still wanting payment off me.

    Any Advise on what I should do would be very much appreciated….

    Kind Regards,
    Amanda

  18. Mohammed says:

    I’ve recently purchased an xbox 360 from littlewoods, i’ve had my voucher refunded of ?50, but im afraid that after reading all the other stories they will just retract the voucher after a few months… I’m thinking of getting on to the bbc watchdog about littlewoods and there irrational voucher policies, does anyone think they would offer there story, or would watchdog actually take this seriously, because i think it’s a bloody breach of my consumer rights, if i’m being made to believe one thing while being taken for a ride..i’ve not really had much experience of littlewoods and would have taken it for quite a respectable company, but its almost worse than other cowboy traders by fooling customers into givin away their money..

  19. Sarah says:

    Hi Mohammed,

    I think sm1 has to take initiative against such organised cheating.
    If you can do something, please go ahead and keep us informed.

  20. Pravin says:

    You will be amazed with my Littlewoods shopping experience. I have ordered a single item on their site for THREE Times.
    First time: I have ordered an item on their site. Delivery expected after 2 days. The next day I have received a call from Littlewoods when I was driving so I was not able to take a call. When I called them next day, they said everything is all right. u should receive it after 3 days, else call back after 3 days. I did not receive anything. When I called them, they replied to me “You canceled the order.” I was shocked. As I did not attend the call they canceled my order. They apologised and redirected me to re-order department.
    Second time: they said as you have ordered on phone there will be no check from littlewoods and item will be delivered after 3 days. The representative also add this on their communication log. I was very happy but not confident so called them next day. They said that everything is all right and also gave me HDNL tracking number. Next day I was waiting for delivery. meanwhile I add a “Account query” on their site as “Item is not yet delivered and tracking number is not working.” I got reply from Littlewoods as “Unfortunately, we have been unable to receive the necessary authorisation so we cannot send your order.” NOT AGAIN…. I called them they said they tried to contact me but I was not able to reach so they cancelled it. How can they ignore the notes on the item that “it is verified. No need to call a buyer.”
    As usual the lady apologised and took a re-order.
    Third time: The lady has entered a log as 2 times order has been cancelled without buyer’s wish.
    I have not seen such a BIG-communication-gap within their departments in any other company…
    I wish this time they delivery the product to me without any more problems.

    Please count me for “BBS Watchdog”.

  21. silvia says:

    I`ve ordered a phone back in April, had £30 off when you spend over £60. Didnt get the phone yet. Every two weeks i had a letter with a new delivery date.On august 3rd my husband called littlewoods( now is called very) because we have been billed for the phone without getting it. Customer service said the phone would be delivered that day.
    We were happy, but not for long. Guess what when we got home in the evening there was no phone or card to say they missed us. Decided to wait a couple of days and called again. Customer service said it had been delivered and was signed for. Impossible we were not home, hang up the phone and lets ask the neighbours, no was the answer. called again and asked:
    – who signed for the parcel?
    -whats the name of the delivery company?
    -is it possible it was delivered in our old address?
    The answer was always no, they couldnt give us any details, we would have to send a copy of the passport to compare the signatures or we would have to pay for the phone. If not we might end up in court.
    Today in the morning we found out the name of the verys delivery company and called them. They were very helpfull and said the phone was delivered in the old address, was not their fault because littlewoods never forward the new address. We moved 4 months ago.
    Its sad that after talking with the saff and the manager not even one had a spare minute to try to solve the problem. they didnt even called the delivery company, because maybe we were telling the truth. I hope to get my phone in the next few days and a apology , but ill never buy anything from them again. They were the worst i had to deal with.

  22. olufemi alade says:

    i odered for a shoe dating back four to five months ago, what you people are doing is charge me more than the value of my order so right about now i want you to terminate my contract with your company and send my money back because i am paying you almost £60 ,pounds in total i have been trying to get in touch with you for the last three months , the is no complain form on yiur web site which is bullshit and very complicated and sicknening please send me back all my money that i have paid to you immediately or i will sue you and stop sending me bills that i do not owe

  23. jenny says:

    just found this site, my husband and i ordered a patio set about 2 weeks ago , the delivery man rang and said it wouls be with us between 1.30pm and 17.00pm on Tuesay 25th, because we both work, my husband booked half a days holiday, when i returned home at 17.00pm- no table and chairs, we then recieved a phone call at 17.30pm saying the van had broke down, we would recieve a phone call today(26th) nothing as of yet! The bloke that rang said it should be with us either Thursday or Friday, which means 1 of us will now have to book another half a days holiday and we need the table and chairs by Sunday 30th for our daugthers bithday party! It’s not our problem the van broke down and we are are now in limbo as to weather or not it will be here in time and will have wasted 1 days holiday by the time it does get here.

  24. Mo Holt says:

    My issues are firstly inadequate service both through the internet service and the telephone service. My first issue is difficulty I had ordering on line because I had previously (once) ordered via my husbands email. So I tried to set up an email in my own name which was impossible I emailed the on line help service twice, waited over a week for the first response. Followed instruction surprise, surprise it didn’t work. I emailed for assistance again.Once again followed instruction and it didn’t work again basically no support. To add to this I wrote to Llittlewoods to inform them of a new direct debit address/account on the 30/04/2010 to debit funds from the 01/06/2010, old account still active until 11/06/2010. Final straw, charged £27.00 for failure of payment! I am amazed, surely even Littlewoods can work out change of accounts as I gave sufficient notice! What a shame is I spent a lot of money with Littlewoods. Needless to say I have closed my account, Littlewoods are the ones who have lost out!
    Needless to say as of today’s date I have had no response from Littlewoods.
    They are obviously above us lowly customer!
    Mrs Maureen Holt Devon

  25. just remember that everything in littlewoods direct, littlewwoods.
    most products they sell at the price range of the likes of washing machines, tvs, fridges, sofas ect are £50 cheaper in gratten.
    littlewoods seem to add £50 to every product right across the board.
    and they love adding charges to your account at every chance they get.
    dont answer your letters and trying to complain to the is a nightmare, thats if they give you the right address! since this company was taken over by the yanks it has been a nightmare. so my advice would be avoid this company at all costs.

  26. Janet Carter says:

    I have been a customer of Littlewoods for many years and have had a number of problems with them in the past, but the most recent instance has proved the final straw. I went on holiday at the end of June and unfortunately forgot to make my monthly payment to them (£8.83). When my statement arrived I had been charged the sum of £12 – which was fair enough as I had forgotten to pay them. The statement included a letter detailing this charge as well as numerous reminders about late payments and a warning that failure to pay the amount owing by the 31st July would result in further charges.
    This was perfectly clear to me but then the following day I received a letter from the collections department informing me in bold red type that I owed the sum of £8.83 and containing dire warnings of what would happen if I failed to pay by the 31st July (this was about the 15th July).
    Then on the 20th July I had 7 missed calls on my phone and a message which consisted of just background noise. When the phone rang again that evening it was Littlewoods informing me that I had missed a payment. I told the woman that I was aware of this, that it was a mistake and that I had every intention of making the next payment before the 31st July (by this time they were asking for £29.90). She became quite aggressive and tried to insist that I make the payment there and then, I refused to do this as the money wasn’t due for another 11 days.
    When I went to make a payment online a few days later I was stunned to find that they had charged me another £12 and when I rang up to ask why I was informed that it was an admin charge in respect of a phone call – so they charged me bacause I answered the phone!!! I was furious and told the unfortunate man exactly what I thought of Littlewoods and that I wished to pay my account in full (less the £12 charge) and then close the account, he agreed to this and I paid the outstanding £53.02.
    That was on the 26th July, this morning I received a letter from Littlewoods, dated 3rd August, headed: ‘YOUR LAST CHANCE TO AVOID CHARGES’ which states in bold that: Unfortunately we still have not received the necessary payments and again your account has gone into arrears.
    However it seems that as a gesture of goodwill they have refunded the £12 charge (why, if they’re saying I still haven’t paid them?) so my online account now shows that I am £12 in credit. Bearing in mind the amount of money I have spent with them over the years I think these strong-arm tactics are totally unreasonable, as are many of their other policies (I was once a couple of days late sending stuff back and they returned it all to me and insisted that I paid for it). My advice would be to avoid them like the plague.

  27. johnny scoots says:

    any one wanting to know the right address to complain to littlewoods cataloge, it is as follows:

    littlewoods shop direct
    home shopping ltd
    skyways house
    estuary commerce park
    speke
    L70 1AB

    good luck!

  28. Apparently, lots of other customers experienced similar issues with their Littlewoods catalogue orders – did you ever obtain a satisfactory resolution?

  29. dale says:

    Helen – Nope, they never replied.

    From what I’ve since heard, this isn’t unusual. Now I just avoid Littlewoods Direct (and all the other Shop Direct brands – very, additions, woolworths, etc.) as it served as a warning that if you get into difficulties, they will just ignore you until you give up.

    Shame. 🙁

  30. Marcin says:

    ive registered with Littlewoods.ie, got 350€ credit so ordered item for 190€ and after 2 days credit rejected – why? i dont know. ive rang to customer service and…everything ok but after 1 day i was rejected again before even chance to pay for goods ordered. Whats wrong with them?,they dont need new customers? so ill b back to argos and currys 🙂

  31. Dave says:

    I have been trying to return a broken item to Marshall Ward (owned by Shop direct group). First I was told that I couldnt return it but had to order replacement parts and that someone would ring me about it (surely this is breach of my statutory rights?! and I was well within my 14 day approval period to return the item). I went along with it but no one ever rang. I rang them a number of times and was eventually told by someone at their end not to bother trying to get the parts afterall because they probably would not turn out to be available anyway and that some one would ring me to arrange collection and I could re-order. Again no one contacted me. I rang them yet again and again no one calls me to collect. I have wasted at least 40 minutes on the phone and its about 4 weeks later and I am still trying to get the damn thing returned. I did a letter of complaint two weeks ago which hasnt been responded to despite their own Complaints Publication Report saying they will acknowledge feedback within 5 working days! Have tried another written complaint but not holding my breath for the courtesy of a reply. I dont know how these cowboys remain trading in these difficult times when they treat customers so poorly, surely the customer is the life blood of the company?! I will avoid all shop direct firms in the future, not worth the hassle, just awful.

  32. claire says:

    ohh my god,after reading all this i sure hell wont be getting anything off littlewoods…thanks for the tip off and i hope everyone here got sorted….claire

  33. Mary says:

    I will never use Littlewoods or their sister company Very again..

    Few days late on a payment and they put you a month behind on your credit reference file. Very sneaky in the way they invoice every 28 days knowing that most people get paid on a set date so when it runs just over til you get paid they pile on the pressure and slap it on your file.

    Dont use them…. vile !!!

  34. Margaret says:

    I have been a customer since ’92 and usually pay by cheque. This year I decided to pay by standing order I phoned and asked how much I should pay and after a couple of months received the Insufficient Minimum payment charge of £12 When I contacted the girl agreed to refund the fee as it had not been explained to me that as I should have been paying every 4 weeks not monthly as this would cause a shortfall. I tried to set up a direct debit but it would only accept payments with the £12 charge added . So I made an additional online payment to make sure I was ahead. The following month I was again charged £12 even though I was ahead in my payments. Phoned again got refund and again made additional payment online.
    AGAIN this month was charged £12 …To date I should have paid £46.40 but have made payments of £60
    THIS TIME I was told I should never had been refunded money and the charge stood. The manner was very aggressive and despite my attempt to explain the situation she did not wont to know and told me I could not speak with a supervisor but someone would contact me re my complaint.
    Someone phoned the following day when I was out shopping but left no name,when I phoned the male I spoke to was extremely unhelpful and even told me that I could be Blacklisted. I have found the hole thing very distressing and can hardy believe their attitude.
    I have decided to clear my outstanding balance and pay the thieves the £12
    NEVER AGAIN WILL I SHOP WITH THEM

  35. Ashley says:

    Hi guys. Nice to hear you’re not alone with the problems with LIttlewoods. I’ve been a customer for years and have ordered reguarly from them and paid and everything has been fine BUT i recently ordered a very expensive mattress from them and waited 4 weeks for a call to say it was being delievered between 8am and 12pm on Friday 13th May. I arranged for my local council to uplift my old mattress on the morning of the 13th May (2011) and waited patiently for my new one after taking time off work. The delivery men turned up at 12.40pm and before bringing the mattress in told me that it was the wrong size they had been given and that they had would cancel my order and i was to call Littlewoods and explain what happened and re-order. Now bearing in mind i have got rid of my old mattress the morning my new one was due i now have no mattress in my 1 bedroom flat. I contact LIttlewoods customer service 3 times between 1pm and 4pm and everytime was given the same pep talk from various idiots and told there was nothing they could do and that i had to reorder a bed that would be with me on the 25th June 2011 at the earliest/ Bearing in mind this is the 13th May, 4 weeks after i ordered the first bed. I asked to speak to a manager or supervisor but as usual they are on ‘ converence’ calls and not available but they would call me back. I accepted this but i said to them that i wanted the money for my bed credited to my account and that i will never be ordering again after many years of custom and will be closing my account and they didn’t not reply with any interest.
    LITTLEWOODS IS A SHOCKING COMPANY WITH NO RESPECT FOR HARD WORKING PEOPLE THAT TRUST THEM WITH THEIR HARD EARNED MONEY. STAY WELL CLEAR. IF YOU HAVEN’T HAD PROBLEMS YET I PROMISE YOU WILL AT SOME POINT. I HOPE LITTLEWOODS READ THIS.

  36. mark says:

    ive had the same problems, and waited 3 months after i cancelled an item before it arrived at my parents adress as they was told they must sign for it or they will lose their commission for it,then i have it for a week and get told i have a week to start making payments which falls the day before i get my monthly pay, so far still waiting for my 5 manager call backs and apparently even a manager cannot change the payments days, i feel that their customer services is non existant the whole company is rotten and i wish i had read all of these statements first then i wouldnt have spent hours on the phone to try and resolve this to get no where, please do not use littlewoods and get a poor service like the rest of us.

  37. Philip says:

    My wife has been dealing with littlewoods for about 20 years and never really had any issues until recently. She has always maintained her account perfectly, paid for items she kept and returned items she did not want. In the past few years her orders have been left at neighbours houses which was ok because they always left them in with her but the past 3 have just been dumped at the back of the neighbours houses without any request for a signature. She was due to receive an order at the start of April but it never arrived. We rang and reported it and were told to wait a few days and it should arrive but alas no parcel. We rang again and were told that delivery had been confirmed and the parcel signed for. We told them that we did not receive the parcel so they said she would have to send in a copy of her drivers licence and passport to prove her signature and they would then investigate what went wrong and where the parcel was. Reluctantly we sent the photocopies in and then received a letter saying the signature on the past three orders matched so therefore the charges would stand. Even though we said that the orders have been delivered to different addresses for over a year, they said that as that had never presented an issue before and as the signatures matched, the charges would still stand. Their stance was, ask you’re neighbours. I suggested that it was my opinion that the driver had signed for the past few deliveries but they said they could not accuse the driver of this, ok though to say we were lying and has the goods. Their customer service to this point was none existent and we have been treated like criminals. I decided to have a look around the back of the neighbours house this evening as they no longer live there and what did I find dumped in their shed, the parcel, looking a little worse for wears from spending 2 months in a damp shed. I think there are grounds for fraud as her signature has been forged on at least 3 occasions.

    We are going to send the unopened parcel back to littlewoods