John Lewis price match explained: How to bag a Christmas bargain from one of Britain’s biggest high-street retailers
Here's our handy guide on how to use John Lewis' price match service
John Lewis’ price match promise is a bold one, and can be neatly summed up by its famous slogan – “never knowingly undersold”.
In simple terms, if a product is being sold cheaper by a rival high-street store, John Lewis will match the price of the same item on its own website. You can find John Lewis’ full lowdown of offers, including special offers and sales on selected lines, here. Simple, right? Well, what you might not realise is that a large chunk of the price-matching legwork isn’t actually done by John Lewis. Instead, it’s done by the consumer themselves.
If you find a product to be cheaper elsewhere, you can submit your own price match claim to John Lewis. The process is relatively simple, but if you’re wondering how to go about this, I’m pleased to report that you’re in the right place. Here’s our step-by-step guide on how to use John Lewis’ price match service.
John Lewis price match explained
First of all, the easy bit: finding John Lewis’ dedicated web page for submitting price match claims. That’s right here.
At this stage, as the website itself handily points out, you need to make sure the retailer you’re reporting has a high-street shop and is not online only. Sorry folks, no price-matching on Amazon.
If you haven’t yet purchased the product
If you haven’t already purchased the item from John Lewis, you will then be asked where you found the product to be cheaper, whether it be from a competitor website or a physical shop. You’ll be given a handy drop down list and asked, if possible, to provide a link to the relevant web page or shop address.
After this, you simply have to fill in a section entailing the product’s details, including the John Lewis product name, price, product code (which can be found in the product description), and competitor’s price.
A few arbitrary details (name, email address, phone number etc) follow, and then you’re in the clear – your John Lewis price match claim can officially be submitted. It really is that simple.
You might be wondering what the point of all of this is. After all, why wouldn’t you just purchase the cheaper product as soon as you see it?
Well, over the years John Lewis has gained quite a healthy reputation for itself in terms of excellent customer service.
John Lewis also tends to offer much longer warranty periods on its products than its high-street competitors. This is definitely something you’ll be wanting to check out in advance, particularly when purchasing more expensive products.
If you have already purchased the product
In this case, you’ll need to make sure that you have your order details to hand, and that you bought the item within the last 28 days, with a valid receipt.
After this, the process is almost exactly the same, with one difference. You’ll be asked at the start of the form if you bought the item in store at John Lewis or from the retailer’s website.
Unfortunately, the price match service currently only applies to the latter, but John Lewis will kindly refund you the price difference if you happen to fall into that bracket.
Of course, there are some terms and conditions involved, and John Lewis will take a number of things into consideration when deciding if a product is eligible for a price match, such as the service conditions that are offered by both John Lewis and the high-street competitor. You can find more information about the conditions for price match, including precisely what is meant by terms such as ‘high-street competitor’, via the John Lewis website.
So, there you have it. With this guide, we hope you’ll never be undersold by John Lewis. If you act quick enough, you might just be able to secure a bargain in time for Christmas.