MY STORY - Why I went to LX Direct -------------------------------------------------
Last October I moved from Essex to Cornwall, I live in a small village just outside St Ives. This year we needed to by a fridge freezer, there were two issues preventing this 1) Money 2) Where would we buy such a technologically advanced thing. My Grandmother came to the rescue, why don't I sign you up to my catalogue that way I'll get a free gift and you can order your fridge through them. Great thinking! A debt granted but it solved everything.
She made the call and the following day the LX catalogue was on our doorstep. I picked through the catalogue and found a reasonably priced fridge freezer. I'm not sure why, but something in the back of my head told me to check online. Exactly the same fridge freezer was £50 cheaper online through the LX Direct Website. So I filled out the online form and requested it be put in a credit account.
Later that day I received a phone call to say that my order had been accepted and that the fridge freezer would be with me within 4 days. Sure enough on day 4 the fridge freezer arrived. On arrival I heard rather a loud bang which sounded like the fridge being dropped. When I enquired about it the courier explained that the drop down part of the truck had a fault and it made that bang when it lowered to the ground. I thought nothing more of it.
A month later the fridge side was no longer cool, I contacted LX and they told me that I needed to contact Hoover / Candy. Which I did, a chap came round a week later and installed a new motor. All seemed well then 4 weeks later the same thing happened again. When the engineer came around I told him about the bang during unloading. He suspected the couriers had dropped it and said I should contact LX Direct. I rang them and the lady I spoke to explained that the fridge (only a cheapy £130) was no longer available. She said she would need to make some enquiries.
A few hours later she came back, almost with a questionnaire of things to ask, including how many days I had stayed at home to receive the engineer. I explained that I worked from home so it was no big deal. The phone call ended with me none the wiser but she did explain that I had been more than reasonable. A bit later the same day she contacted me again, she explained that she had made some enquiries and asked if I had any objections to a Hoover fridge (the one before was a Candy) I said that to me a fridge is a fridge. She explained it may be a bit bigger and asked if this was a problem. I replied that unlike cash one thing I was not short of was room.
The following week the replacement arrived, it was a good three foot taller in its packaging and possibly wider too. They took the old one out and left us with the new one all boxed up. We were told to let it sit for 16 hours before turning it on. Rather eager to see what I had received, I carefully unpackaged the fridge. When I opened it I was taken aback. The model we received was far superior to one that had just left us. The old one was a basic fridge freezer. This new model included a wine rack, drink dispenser and a funky ice cube maker. In the Freezer side there was a quick freeze section and instead of two drawers there were now four. I shuffled off online and learned to my surprise they had sent us a model worth £399.
FURTHER ADVENTURES WITH LX ------------------------------------------------
Since buying the fridge freezer I have bought a variety of other items from LX which includes an entire new wardrobe and a mobile phone.
My big shopping adventures began when I was looking for some shorts. I live about 5 minutes walk from a beautiful sandy estuary and I walk the dogs there daily. Trouble being I would return home everyday looking like I had been lost at sea. The dogs would persuade me to go on a big adventure with them. And I'd end up soaked. I decided that although it was a scary prospect I needed to get my legs out. In the Catalogue the shorts were £14.99. So you can imagine my surprise when I checked online to discover they were £3.49, I assumed they were a discontinued line. Before you know it I was off. Designer shits were £12.99 some of which had been reduced from £50. It was then that I realised I was shopping during the LX Spring Sale.
I spent £160 and bought a combination of branded and unbranded stuff. The following day everything arrived. I was like a child with a new toy. This has led to a further 28 shopping sprees of clothing, but I feel that it was worth it.
LABELS DONT ALWAYS GET THE ATTENTION ----------------------------------------------------------------
LX have there own brand "Cape Point" which at first look does not look too crash hot. However some of the stuff was so cheap even if I wore it for decorating or housework I would not be upset. The first venture into Cape Point proved to be both sad and very rewarding. One item that looked amazing turned out to be quite nasty. However the rest far surpassed expectation, in particular one shirt. I wore this shirt the same day I bought it, and I was told it suited me. Having ran around in Ben Sherman, Calvin Klein, and FCUK for weeks to hear that the cheap £4 shirt really suited me was very interesting to hear. Now I specifically look at the Cape Point stuff before the brands. Ben Sherman sell a Graphite shirt with pink stripes this is £39.99, Cape Point 6 months before the Ben Sherman one came out did a similar shirt. At the time it was £16.99 today it was £8. I bought both and the cheaper of the two is far better in both look and quality. If someone comments on what I'm wearing it's always the cheaper stuff labels. My first thought was that they were taking the pi$$ however this was not the case. Upon further thought it could be that you see everyone walking about with labels, so you get to see the same items on different people. Maybe because the cheaper brand is different people like it. Some people even assume it is a designer label.
DELIVERY --------------
My one grumble is that you pay a £3.95 delivery charge, however this is regardless of how much you order. So I try to order in amounts of £100-£150 this way you can say that it's worth the cost. When you buy you are given a delivery date. On the day of delivery you can click on the order tracking screen to see if it's out for delivery. Sometimes it will tell you if delivery is due a.m. or p.m. Mostly it just states "out for delivery". This is where we reach the downside the delivery companies performance is not as good as the Catalogue companies. The courier company employ a lot of foreign workers to sort goods in the depots. The trouble being is that for the most part they are convinced that everything south of Birmingham is London. Which can at times lead to the items arriving a day later than expected. This has happened to me three times out of a total of thirty orders.
CREDIT & PAYMENT -----------------------------
When you originally receive the catalogue they have a chain of credit that they offer. People with a low or negative credit score get £100 credit. And then it scales up to £400. But it seems that everybody gets the chance to use them, I have referred several people of varying credit status, and this is how I have found out about both the low and higher levels of credit. During your initial 3 months they monitor your account payments and begin to adjust your credit limit accordingly. You can force the issue buy spending slightly over your credit amount i.e. if you had £250 I would spend £260 at it would push my limit up to the next level. Go over £25 higher and they reject the order. When I began my Credit Limit was £250 and now sits at just under £2000. If you keep up your payments you are well rewarded, and news of your good payments goes to Experion. So if you have poor credit using LX Direct can help you increase your credit rating. When I first began using LX half of everything credit related I applied for was rejected. Now it appears nothing is.
When it comes to payment you can purchase goods by three different methods:-
You can pay the whole amount. You can pay a minimum interest free amount You can pay a minimum amount.
The Minimum interest free amount is about a third of your balance. The minimum amount is 5% of your balance, however you are charged interest.
How I pay is possibly different to any normal person, I find that I get a bit of a high when I order things so I like to have 2 or 3 shops a month. I pay the minimum interest free amount by direct debit. Then I knocked my daily vice on the head, when I go to the post office I would buy chocolate. Now I only have chocolate on a Saturday, and the pound I would spend each day during the week gets sent daily via internet bank payment to my LX account. This way it ensures my credit limit increases monthly. I don't use much of my credit limit, but I try to keep it rising as you never know what disaster could be waiting round the corner so I figure if its there and my PC or my TV pack up I have the available credit to get another. Or if a funky new toy comes out I don't have to feel left behind due to lack of money. (I LOVE TOYS ME!)
You can pay your LX account by Credit or Debit card (they don't take solo or electron), by going to a bank/post office and paying via a giro slip, Cheque, Direct Debit or bank transfer via the internet.
ABOUT LX DIRECT --------------------------
LX is what used to be the INDEX arm of the Littlewoods mail order catalogue chain. LX offer more agreeable payment terms than any of the other Littlewoods catalogues. So consider them before the other companies in the same catalogue chain. The sister companies are Littlewoods, and Sport-e.com. Littlewoods despite rumours is a family run company.
You can contact LX direct by the following options:-
Telephone: 08705 99 11 11 Lines open 8am-8pm Website:- www.lxdirect.com
Littlewoods Finance Company, 100 Old Hall Street, Liverpool, L70 1AB
IN SUMMING UP -----------------------
I would recommend LX Direct to anybody, I have enjoyed the experience and have been rewarded time and time again, in additional items, value for money, the way they handled my complaint, and as an overall buying experience. So when shopping around for electrical items, gifts or clothing online give LX a try you'll be very pleasantly surprised.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Nov 7th, 2005
exceptional by (10%):
very helpful by (88%):
helpful by (3%):
