John Lewis gift list reviews please

My friends used them, but this was also a few years ago now - 2014. Personally I was never planning to use them for myself, but I did see a few things that put me off a little.

My friend didn't know what was from who, she had to go online to find a list as the packages didn't come with anything.
She also had something that was out of stock and ended up with vouchers I believe.
As a buyer, I didn't like that I couldn't get the gift delivered to me. I like to wrap gifts up and decorate them nicely, especially for a big event.

We used Amazon for our gift list which went really well for us. Guests can order items to their address or yours, whatever they prefer. Each package has a slip in it saying who bought it and if they wrote a message that was there too. Also gifts were posted when they were ordered, so no problems with stock.
I always find the range and pricing much better at Amazon anyway

We just scanned our list yesterday!

Everything gets delivered a couple of weeks after the Wedding. You can't scan clearance items but other than that you have free reign.

Some items may take longer to come in as John Lewis source them from abroad, but everything on your list should reach you as long as it isn't discontinued

The people at JL are really nice and will explain everything to you with no obligation

We looked at Honeymoon registries - you pay the balance 12 weeks before, and then get vouchers back afterwards which can be refunded to you or you can convert to spending money or something. I think every company is different.

x

My brother and his wife used JL and loved it - everything went very smoothly.

Based on their experience we're using them and have our scanning appt. in a couple of weeks - I'm very excited

I wouldn't recommend John Lewis for your gift list. We went round the shop and added things as well as online and it just seemed like a huge amount of what we picked then became out of stock. We would get an e-mail of a list of things which were then unavailable and have to change the list again.

The most annoying thing was the plates. We had picked a pattern line and had added 8 each of dinner plate, side plate and cereal bowl. The plates were fine but the bowls were constantly out of stock and when we queried this, we were told that the stock wouldn't be in until November (our wedding was in August) so we gave up and chose another pattern for the bowls. This again would have been fine if one (and its replacement) hadn't been smashed to hell when it was delivered. We ended up having to go into the shop about four or five times to address issues.

I would, on the other hand, recommend Amazon for the gift list - they were great for a range of more reasonably priced items and it was easy to administrate.

ETA - I would have happily just done a small list on Amazon of reasonably priced items but everyone seemed to assume that we would have a list at John Lewis. I wasn't that comfortable asking for presents but you get no peace if you don't have a list!

Hey Nicola, we did our John Lewis gift list last month. It is easy enough to just turn up and scan things that we wanted. Although even within only a month one of the things we ordered is out of stock. The big surprise for us is that John Lewis put gift vouchers as the number one thing on the list, despite us making it clear that we really don't want them. They make you sign something at the beginning saying that you are happy for the gift vouchers to be offered (or something like that). But I did not expect them to come in at number one on the list when our guests fist visit the gift webpage. I phoned up to try and remove it or at least put it at the bottom and just keep getting told 'its the system'. Unless you want John Lewis gift vouchers, or really like John Lewis, try another supplier. x

I went to wedding where they wanted contributions to the honeymoon. They used a travel consultant and had an online page where you paid money directly to their honeymoon fund before the wedding. Think it was open for about a week after the wedding as well. I think they then just had to pay whatever was outstanding once the page closed.

The JL gift list has been, by far, the most stressful element of our wedding prep!

Firstly, our nearest store wouldn't register us, and the one that would is London (we are south coast).

They then forgot they had accepted our list registration and we had to go to and fro over the phone/email for about a month for someone at JL to click the "computer says yes" button.

We made our appointment to scan in our nearest store, turned up, and the rudest of customer service advisers refused us saying they had no record of our appt or our list, even though I had the email booking confirmation!!

Eventually sent to start scanning, scanner didn't work. Back to customer services to change it, still wouldn't work. Swapped for a third scanner before giving up and manually entering product numbers. Some had been in shop floor so long the numbers were illegible.

Had our free tea & cake (the only positive bit) and returned the scanner. Gave up, left the store and finished it online at home.

That early August.

Had an email this week saying some of our items are now on their reduced list so we need to remove the items from our wedding list, recommendation to convert to vouchers. Some guests have already selected these items and paid for them, and even since then they have reduced and are no longer available!

I'm not holding out much hope for what or when gifts are delivered - we are getting married next week so it is supposed to be 2 weeks after that. I'm not holding out much hope.

Don't do JL.

We used JL for our gift list for our wedding in June and it was brilliant. Granted some things weren't in stock/redued and we coiuld get them. But other things which were purchased early on in the list being live, and subsequently went out of stock, still arrived which I was very happy with. It was a set of flamingo tumblers and I was convinced we wouldn't actually get them.

We did get some vouchers but that was down to people's preferecne. The only thing I found annoying was you can't use gift cards to purchase off the list and some people gave us them. I just used the quick codes off the list and purchased them on the JL webste for colelction next day at our local Waitrose which was fab.

I would definitely still recommend them regardless of a couple of hiccups we had.

Hello,

I know this reply is late and I hope you had the most amazing wedding in April and a great experience with the gift list ?

I'm replying to this thread because it's one of the first "John Lewis Wedding List" review pages that comes up. We got married in 2018 and had the worst experience with John Lewis. I have no idea how to let other brides know so thought I should try and post some reviews online.

At the start we thought the John Lewis gift list was amazing, it was great fun to go around store and select items and then have them automatically uploaded to a list. They also gave the option of vouchers and charity donations as part of the list which we loved.

However it's the delivery that made this whole experience awful (and I know other online reviews have pointed this out - but with different issues). We needed to get the gifts delivered to my husband's parent's house as our flat is tiny and we couldn't store them. We were only able to go to their house a couple of months later and we found that two items were missing. It's worth saying his parents are the sweetest most trustworthy people you could meet - you can imagine how they saw delivery as a massive responsibility and ensured everything went straight into secure storage off the delivery truck. However the two most expensive items on the list - a music player and a mini vacuum were missing. This was really distressing - our family and friends had clubbed together to buy these and they weren't there. It was really upsetting to find.

We contacted John Lewis and they sent a series of emails that basically quoted back T&Cs at us and said they weren't going to do anything as we hadn't told them this within two weeks (never mind it was physically impossible for us to check within two weeks!) and they wouldn't do anything about it - even taking a little time to look into whether they were actually shipped. It's worth noting that when the gifts were delivered they were collated in a load of big boxes and several of these had been damaged or had tape that had clearly been opened & then closed again beforehand. My husband's mum had taken pictures of these in case anything had been damaged - but she'd never imagined anything would be missing in a million years - this was supposed to be John Lewis service after all!

I guess the last thing that was really upsetting was how they genuinely didn't care. Because it was out of their two week window they washed their hands of all responsibility and effectively told us “sorry, it’s your problem not ours". I really wish we hadn't gone with them - they pretend care about service but it's just marketing. I hate talking about this but I've promised to write this review in as many places as I can, as I don't think it's fair they can do things like this and still be seen as the best wedding list provider - it's just upsetting.

I hope none of you get this experience. I used to love John Lewis but I'm definitely not going back again.

xx

Please understand this service carefully before you use it - I wish I had read earlier postings. They clearly have not improved their service in this time. We found the John Lewis Wedding List Service extremely poor. In our situation, guests purchased gifts, money was taken and the purchasers as well as the the bride and groom received confirmation that items had been purchased. However, on returning from honeymoon, my daughter was informed that several items were no longer available, including some items of matching dinner service so they are now disappointingly left with an incomplete wedding crockery set.

In John Lewis' explanatory letter to me they conceded that when someone purchases a gift item, they are not picked and kept safe for them at that time. Neither are "out of stock" items removed from sale or flagged (as it would be with most other on line services) but the Gift List Service continues to sell and accept money for items in the (vague) hope that they will become in stock by the time the items are packed to send. In my daughter's case, John Lewis simply decided not to restock the items that were purchased for her. My daughter didn't receive several items on her list, but she had already thanked the gift givers as she had been told items had been purchased - which has led to a very embarrassing situation. I had hoped that a reputable company like John Lewis would have purchased the missing items as an apology, since they are still available elsewhere, but they declined to do so - instead pointing out the small print on the contract that my daughter and son in law had signed - that allowed John Lewis to exchange any items for a gift card instead. I have found the whole experience has left me not ever wanting to purchase from John Lewis again, since in our experience, they fall very short of the value statements that they publish. Shame on a big company that places their business far above a young couple setting up in life together.