The Littlewoods current advertising campaign is keen to make us believe that Littlewoods Would, due to my recent experiences with this store I feel that a more appropriate slogan for Littlewoods advertising campaign would be Littlewoods Won't, don't and couldn't care less anyway.
Before I begin I must apologise if this opinion is in the wrong place - You see my nightmare experiences began when I opened an account with the Littlewoods Index mail order catalogue, although my more recent problems have been with the individual stores and the Head Office. About 3 years ago I made a purchase in my local Littlewoods Store in Portsmouth and was offered a mail order catalogue and a form to complete to open a Littlewoods Flexible Account, at the time I purchased a lot of items in Littlewoods and decided it would be a good idea to open an account especially as they were offering 90 days interest free credit on the account.
For about 2½ years I had no problems with the account - other than the fact that like many others I found it very easy to spend now and worry later, as a result of this my account was no longer proving to be a valuable asset as I was paying interest on the balance. A word of warning interest on this account is very high with an APR of around 29%. As a result of the high interest being charged and due to the fact that I had a nasty experience in the Portsmouth Store just before Christmas last year, which I have explained in more detail further down the page, I decided to close the account.
I sent a cheque for £847.00 to Littlewoods along with a covering letter explaining in great detail that I was not happy with the level of service I had received from the Company and the reasons why, and as a result I wished to close my account with them. The enclosed cheque was for full and final settlement of my account and I advised them to confirm in writing that my account had been closed and that I would not receive a new account card when the existing one expired. About a week later I received a letter from Littlewoods Claims Investigation Department requesting that I telephone them, on a National Rate Telephone Number I might add. I telephoned the number on the letter which turned out to be the telephone number for the Littlewoods Fraud Prevention
Team. I explained to the assistant that I had received a letter and that I had been asked to telephone them - I also explained that I had no idea why I had been asked to ring. The assistant took some details from me and made a note of my account number and then proceeded to ask me a series of questions in relation to the account, ie how long had I had the account, what was the amount of the last payment etc. At the end of this extensive questioning I was advised that I had been asked to contact them as I had paid my account balance in full and they needed to check to make sure that the payment had been made by me and that my account wasn't being run fraudulently.
As you can imagine I was furious, I could understand being contacted by the Fraud Prevention Unit if the account was being ran up in an erratic manner which was not in keeping with the way that it is usually ran, but to be contacted because I had paid the balance in full and asked to close the account was bordering on ridiculous - WHO in their right mind is going to steal a charge card and then pay the outstanding balance off in full and send an accompanying letter with their payment explaining their intentions! I only wish that somebody would! My husband came home from work, read the letter and asked me about it - I explained to him what had happened and he found it very difficult to believe that the Fraud Prevention Unit would be contacting people who had paid their accounts off - whilst he believed what I told him I felt that Littlewoods had put me in a very difficult situation, indeed if I hadn't experienced this situation myself I have to admit that I would find it hard to believe either. I was still fuming that evening so the next day I took the letter to the Littlewoods Store in Southampton and showed it to the manager there. The Manager took the letter away to photocopy it and then came back and told me he would contact the Head Office to find out why they had sent it, he would then write back to me and let me know why I had received this letter, he apologised on behalf of Littlewoods Index and said that his thoughts were that it was probably sent to me to find out why I wished to close the account - somehow I doubt that and even if it was why would it be sent to me by the Fraud Prevention Unit.
Three weeks later I had not heard anything, as I was shopping in the Portsmouth Store I asked if they had a contact name and telephone number for the Manager at Southampton so I could chase the matter up. I was informed 'no we don't have the telephone numbers for the other stores try directory enquiries they'll tell you'. I am not stupid I know that directory enquiries will give me the number, however I have already wasted money when I had to ring the National Rate number as requested in the original letter, I had no intention of spending more money by telephoning Directory Enquiries. I explained this to the assistant and eventually after much huffing and puffing the assistant went off and came back with the information as requested. I telephoned the Manager at Southampton who told me that he had spoken to the Head Office and that they were going to write to me that same day, some three weeks ago. He said he would chase them up and apologised for not contacting me himself but he felt that the matter was now closed. The Manager at Southampton wrote me a letter and by way of an apology he enclosed a £20 gift voucher. To this day, nearly three months later I have still not received an apology from the Head Office. I wrote an e-mail to the Head Office but even then I had to send it three times before they replied and when they did reply all I received was a standard reply which basically advised me that they had acted upon Company Policy.
On top of this nightmare experience I also experienced a nasty incident with the Manager at the Portsmouth Store last December. I had purchased a sparkly top for Christmas but got it home and didn't like it on - all the labels were intact but I couldn't find the receipt. I took the top back to the Portsmouth Store and an assistant advised me that as I didn't have a receipt I would could only be given credit vouchers, I said that was fine and she went off supposedly to find the book of credit vouchers. About 5 minutes later she returned with another assistant who also explained that I could only have credit vouchers - I said that I was quite happy with that. I was asked to step to one side while the second assistant went to get the credit vouchers. Approximately another 5 minutes later the second assistant came back with the Manager. The Manager asked me when I had bought it and where I had bought it as they needed to check back on the computer system to check that the information I gave matched the computer information. I explained that I didn't remember exactly when I had purchased it but it was approximately 3 weeks earlier - I also explained that I had purchased it using my Flexible Account Card and it may be easier to trace the transaction that way. Immediately I mentioned the words Flexible Account Card, the Manager couldn't have been more helpful - 'oh' he said ' you should have said you have a Flexi Account - that's fine we'll credit your account back with the money.' No further questions were asked and no checks were made to see when and where I had actually bought the item. I was questioned in front of a lot of customers who along with the Manager probably thought that I was a shoplifter. I was very upset when I left the store and felt totally humiliated by the intimidating questions I was asked , in fact I didn't bother to carry on with my Christmas shopping, I went straight home and spent several hours searching for the receipt - until he learned that I held a Flexible Account the Manager had quite obviously thought that I had stolen the garment, although I cannot see why as an account holder I was considered not to be a shoplifter, I'm sure that there are account holders who are shoplifters although I am not one of them. I was determined to prove my innocence and when I eventually found the receipt I took it back a couple of days later and presented it to the Manager. I explained to him how humiliated I had felt and how very upset I was by the whole episode. He told me that he had never once thought I had stolen the item and had no idea that I felt so humiliated by the experience - I strongly believe that he did think I had stolen the item as he wouldn't have wanted to check back through the computer records to see if and when it was sold otherwise. I have never been asked these sorts of questions elsewhere when I have returned items without a receipt. Eventually the Manager apologised and when I said I would be closing my account as a result of this incident he offered me a £10 voucher. I have absolutely no faith in this company any more and am disgusted with their attitude to customer relations - I only hope that my situation is isolated although somehow I very much doubt it.
As a point of interest, Littlewoods have never acknowledged my letter where I have asked them to close my account - indeed they are now sending me lots of junk mail offering me discounts if I spend more money with them - something I definitely won't be doing. 
06.05.2002 20:39
Very practical op. Avril
05.05.2002 19:13
What a rotten way to treat an honest customer! I will be sure to avoid them even more assiduously in future, Cazz xx
05.05.2002 11:28
I'd never buy anything from a company that uses Graham Norton to advertise itself.... ;O)