Wednesday

I’m quite knackered at the moment, so in the morning I watched a video about a new way to abstract code in Scala, fascinating stuff for me but probably not for you. I also did the walk of shame and finally went to the gym.

At the gym they punish you for absence by deactivating your gym machine key and then making you explain yourself to the personal trainer. Promises of better attendance did the trick and I chucked some weights about for forty minutes. The knee I knackered doing the One True Grit challenge is considerably weaker than its counterpart and could only manage 7kg leg extensions, compared to 22.5kg - so some work to do there.

In the afternoon it was more coding and video hangout meetings with colleagues. At 5:30pm Julia comes into the study (mid meeting) to tell me the washing machine isn’t coming. The washing has been steadily breeding and what was a small pile is now a mountain. She’s not happy, I’m not happy and seemingly John Lewis isn’t happy but as the depot centre is having technical problems they can’t reschedule at the moment. We chose John Lewis because we didn’t want to be dicked about - we could have gone to Currys for that.

Thursday

It’s another scan day, so we drive back to Spire Harpenden for 9:30am. We arrive early, so Julia suggests we chill in the car for a bit. I call John Lewis to ask about the whereabouts of the washing machine. I make it clear I’m not happy and they go away and find out what’s what. Then they can’t speak to me about the new delivery date as Julia ordered it - data protection and all that. They tell Julia the next they can deliver is in 8 days time, Julia responds:

“Thats just not good enough, I have breast cancer, a 5 year old son who is so worried he has started wetting the bed and no washing machine.”

She’s had enough of them and tells them to speak to me as she has to go into the hospital for her scan. It’s a bit of a bombshell to drop on the customer service lady and she promises to do her best.

They call back telling me that 8 days time is the quickest they can deliver. I flip and even offer to pick up a machine from a local store: I just need an f’ing washing machine. She says she’ll callback. Well this is getting us nowhere fast - time to publicly shame them and use twitter:

Appalled by @johnlewisretail now without a washing machine. wife has cancer, son wetting bed with worry and the best new delivery is 8 days

— Ross Lawley (@RossC0) November 7, 2013

I ask my colleagues to retweet and I get a response:

@RossC0 Extremely concerned to read your tweet. Please: email_us@johnlewis.co.uk with your details and I will assist. Thank you, Aimee.

— John Lewis (@JLcustserv) November 7, 2013

I get a call from the customer service lady saying there is no stock locally, so they can’t deliver the washing machine and tumble dryer until the 15th November and that she is very sorry but theres nothing else she can do. I’m so pissed off I can’t agree to that, so I emailed Aimee and she promised to sort it out.

A few calls and emails later and the washing machine and tumble dryer will be delivered and installed at 10am tomorrow morning. Result!

Why the f*ck I had to call them to find out how they were going to sort it and why someone inside John Lewis cancelled yesterdays delivery for no reason and why I had to resort to naming and shaming them in publicly, I don’t know. But I do know that twitter is the best way to get action from complaints.

Aimee is even sending Felix a parcel as good will gesture and once its installed they’ll look to compensate Julia for the stress caused. So lets hope it all arrives nicely tomorrow!

Time for a beer, cheers.