John Lewis ran an offer in which customers could get a £125 electronic gift card on purchases of more than £1,000 in August. This coincided with my purchase of six items of bedroom furniture totalling £1,200 on 3 August.
Since then, I have been trying to claim the card via the My John Lewis scheme. I input my customer reference to no avail – a message says it is not recognised.
I called the helpline on several occasions and waited at least 20 minutes each time, eventually getting through to a third party company called Blackhawk. I was told it has 300 outstanding cases in which it has not received the necessary purchase information from John Lewis to proceed.
I have sent three emails, with each reply suggesting I call the helpline. The situation has not been resolved or explained.
PMcA, Edinburgh
We can understand your frustration. As you discovered, John Lewis outsourced the handling of the promotion to a specialist firm. It says in an online article that a similar scheme with John Lewis led to a 30% uplift in sales over four weeks. For that reason, it is very disappointing when a company is unable to deliver.
John Lewis says: “The promotion proved overwhelmingly popular and we had more interest than anticipated. We have apologised to PMcA, and this has been resolved.”
You have, indeed, received your card, and we hope everyone else has, too.
We welcome letters but cannot answer individually. Email us at consumer.champions@theguardian.com or write to Consumer Champions, Money, the Guardian, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU. Please include a daytime phone number. Submission and publication of all letters is subject to terms and conditions
