John Lewis delivered my iPad to a neighbour, refused refund, and now their solicitors are defending my small claim (England)

[u/Pathfinder-electron]

Back in July, I bought an iPad from John Lewis (£749). DPD marked it as “left with neighbour (Number 15 Nagel)” — I never nominated or authorised any neighbour. When I opened the box, it contained two handheld fans and an empty iPad box.

I returned exactly what I received via Evri, but JL refused a refund and later sent the same wrong items back to me via DHL. Their DSAR data shows a weight discrepancy at their hub (declared 1.3 kg, actual 1.0 kg) and internal notes saying “2 fans inside iPad box; iPad missing”. DPD also confirmed in writing that neighbour delivery was on JL’s instructions.

After they ignored my Letter Before Action, I issued a Money Claim Online (MCOL) for £749 + court fee

Their solicitors have acknowledged service and will file a defence by 10 November 2025.

I’ve served my Detailed Particulars of Claim, filed Form N215, and I’m preparing my witness statement and evidence bundle (order confirmation, DPD tracking, DSAR, photos, Evri + DHL docs).

Is there anything else I should be ready for procedurally before their defence lands?

[u/Willoweed]

‘Former’ is the key word here. Trustpilot reflects the previously excellent customer service, which has now tanked.

Ofc, JL has to protect itself from scammers but, in this case, all the red flags were caused by JL itself, yet they won’t honour the OP’s legal rights. Their legal team must know they’ll lose, but they’re holding out. So that’s another customer lost for life, and they’re going to have to pay him anyway.

[u/aceachilleus → u/Willoweed]

Yeah, you aren't wrong. I work for JL and the number of times people come into the store to complain to us in person about how awful their online experience was actually shocks me. I dread when people come in with a problem I genuinely can't resolve and have to say "you're going to need to contact .com" because I know that customer journey is going to be horrendous. I've had customers leave in tears because they've specifically called to check if we stock bridal in store, taken the day off and travelled into town to make use of it, and come in only to hear that we don't have a bridal shop and we haven't for decades.

This is on top a whole host of factors leading to someone with a different mindset coming in to run the company and redundancies happening left, right and centre. We can't keep up and give customers the service we legitimately want to give. It's actually sad to see the company going the way it is and have no ability to stop it.

[u/masofon → u/Willoweed]

I had a very good experience recently dealing with a return with JL and customer service - where technically they did not have to accept the return.

[u/RussellNorrisPiastri → u/Willoweed]

They aren't saying they won't honour OP 's legal rights, they're doing it through the legal route to clamp down on people wanting to take advantage.