John Lewis rejected my TV price promise claim - as it disagreed with my definition of 'seven days'
Updated:
I purchased a TV from John Lewis online on 18 March, paying £2,999.
Noting the John Lewis price promise at the time of purchase, I made a note to check the price seven days later - the time limit for making a claim.
I found the same TV being sold by Fenwick for £2,699.
I submitted the price promise claim, but it was rejected. John Lewis said the request was made outside of the seven day time frame.
The purchase was made at 10:31pm on Tuesday 18 March. The price promise claim was made at 3:48pm on Tuesday 25 March.
I assumed John Lewis would allow a full seven periods of 24 hours. But is it counting Tuesday as one full day, even though I purchased it at night?
The terms and conditions of the price promise don't seem to state the definition of seven days anywhere I can see, it just says 'within the last seven days'. R.W
Never knowingly undersold? Our reader's price promise application was rejected because they submitted a price promise request six and a half days after making it
Helen Kirrane of This is Money replies: I must admit this is a really strange situation.
John Lewis's price promise means it will refund you the difference if you find the same product at a cheaper price.
It often describes this guarantee with the phrase 'Never knowingly undersold'.
The requirements for this to be honoured are that you need to submit a request within seven days of purchase, and the cheaper version has to be from an approved list of 25 competitor retailers which you can find here.
Fenwick is one of the retailers John Lewis says it will honour a price promise for, so you were fine on that front.
Where the issue arose was in the timing of the price promise request application. I think most people would reasonably assume this should have been made within seven full days - as in, seven periods of 24 hours.
By that logic, you had up to 10:29pm on Tuesday 25 March to submit the claim.
But when I looked at the fine print of the price promise, it is not made clear how John Lewis defines 'within seven days'.
When you asked John Lewis why your price promise request had been rejected, you were told that, despite the purchase being made at night, John Lewis's position was that Tuesday 18 March counts as 'one day', so any price promise claim needed to have been made by the end of Monday 24 March.
John Lewis therefore does seem to be counting Tuesday 18 March as a full day, even though you bought the TV with only one and a half hours of that day remaining.
This seems unfair, as there is no mention of this unorthodox definition of seven days in the terms and conditions. I think they should really be made clearer.
I asked if John Lewis would look into your case and whether it would reconsider if your purchase should have been eligible for the price promise.
I'm pleased to say it has now refunded you the £300 difference between the TV you purchased, and one being sold at Fenwicks.
You told me it has also offered you a gift card as a gesture of goodwill.
A John Lewis spokesman said: 'Our price promise ensures that customers are getting the best prices when shopping their favourite brands with us in-store or online.
'We recognise this customer's frustration and have refunded the price difference.'
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