Remember the good ‘ol days of customer service? Friendly staff. Plush showrooms. People who actually knew a thing or two about what they sold?

It seems with each passing year staff get ruder, less knowledgeable, and more remote.

Quick poll, have you ever:

1. Asked a question in Dixons/Currys/Comet/PC World/Homebase and received a knowledgable reply?
2. Phoned up a retailer/business regardless of industry, and gotten someone who could help without you demanding to speak to a supervisor?
3. Bothered to learn Esperanza?

No on all counts? Same here. So, think the days of good customer service are long gone? Think again.

Enter, John Lewis. John Lewis for the un-initiated is an employee owned retailer in the UK. Unusually, and crucially, these employees actually seem to enjoy working there. I’m sure there are loads of scientific barometers you could use to determine what is good customer service, but I’m going to focus on the most important, returns. Buying something is easy, what’s hard is dealing with the store once there is a problem.

So, here are actual situations where I’ve had to return something to John Lewis and how they responded:

1. Showed up with a broken le creuset ceramic cooking tray. No receipt, no original packaging.
Result: Swift exchange for a new one.

2. Phoned in a problem with a 1 year+ crystal chandelier (out of warranty).
Result: Swift exchange for a new one.

3. Phoned in a problem with a cushion on a hand-made sofa we bought. The manufacturer disagreed with us that the cushion was faulty.
Result: John Lewis sided with us and forced the company to make a new cushion.

4. Phoned in a problem on a different chandelier that had one of its glass bezel’s chipped in transit. A bit finicky as we had already installed it (we noticed the problem after the fact).
Result: Shipping us a new bezel.

5. Bought a roasted chicken from John Lewis’s grocery store, Waitrose. The chicken had been undercooked, pretty badly actually.
Result: A manager drove to my house to collect the chicken, armed with a refund and an appology. A few weeks later got vouchers worth £40 and another appology.

It’s important to note that John Lewis is not the cheapest retailer in the UK. But the old adage “you get what you pay for” applies. Simply put, my wife and I shop as often as we can at John Lewis. We know they don’t sell junk, and we most certainly know that if we have a problem it will be put right.

You can’t ask for more than that, especially in light of today’s anti-customer climate exhibited by most retailers.