The-Bed-Shop.com

MichaelLB

Hi everyone,

I'm glad the customer in question has come back on here with their verdict, as you can see, the delivery company we used to use were awful, as a result we obviously found a much better one who are also used by major high street retailers. I will be the first to admit we had issues a long time ago regarding delivery/refunds but this has now been totally cured and we are now actually thanked by our customers for being so efficient and understanding of our customers needs.

I'm confident in saying we're a changed organisation!

hollydays

scrummy51 wrote: »

Hi, I;ve been trying to get some info on The Bed Shop, Liverpool and noticed your comments on this forum. I started reading your predicament and couldn't believe what I was reading. It's almost exactly what has been happening to my daughter with her order she placed in April this year!

She paid for a headboard, asked when it would be delivered and they started mucking her about with delivery dates. Then they said they would definitely deliver on a date - she took time off work and they didn't turn up. When she asked what was going on they siad the headboard was out of stock!

it went on like this for weeks and weeks and she eventually cancelled the order as she was sick of their unkept promises and no product. It's now the last week in August and she is still waiting on her refund. They decided to pay up (thro Paypal) when we sent recorded delivery letters threatening court action but they had the cheek to charge her an administration charge on the amount. She declined that amount and after talking to Paypal, they advised she decline it too, and advised telling them they had sent her a payment and not a Refund, hence the reason why she was charge the fee.

That was about two weeks ago now and we have heard nothing back. I've tried phoning and it's always engaged, and their website is a waste of space as you can't get to the 'small print' the check out anything 'legal'. She can't even go through her Credit Card company as she paid by Debit Card!

My husband rang trading standard who said they can't do anything, and if she goes down the 'small claims court' road, she has to pay £100 odd just to take them to court - and then they probably won't bother paying up!? I feel so sorry for her, she's just moved into a flat and trying to get it together, made redundant last month - What next? I can't believe a business can treat people so badly. Anyone got any ideas - legal ones that is!!!!!!!!!!!!!??????????????

This poster hasn't replied though.

sarchasm

Update time!

Last time I posted I mentioned nothing had been taken from my account in payment for the (now cancelled) item. A couple of days later, the money had indeed been taken from my account (fair enough), so it was then a case of following the instructions in my automated cancellation email:

the-bed-shop wrote:

Your refund has now been accepted and will be completed within 30 days as per the Distance Selling Regulations. Please do not call chasing up your refund as it will definately be completed before the 30 days expire and we will not be able to help you as it has now been passed over to our independent Accounts Dept.

Well, it's now 30 days since that email was sent to me...and the money still isn't in my account. A couple of days ago (i.e. on the 28th day) I flagrantly disobeyed the request not to chase up my refund and reminded the-bed-shop that the 30 days were about to end. I informed them that if my money was not refunded, I would be making a follow-up post here and contacting the Office of Fair Trading to make a complaint. Within a few hours I was contacted by one of the staff asking for my order number and was informed that my refund would be processed as soon as I replied. The day after my reply, my order was upgraded to "Cancelled" and I received another automated email:

the-bed-shop wrote:

Your refund has now been completed and will appear in your account within a maximum of 5 working days.

While this is certainly progress, it strikes me as a little odd for a couple of reasons:
1. A member of staff on the team was able to respond to my 'reminder' and do the refund almost immediately, despite the original email telling me "we will not be able to help you as it has now been passed over to our independent Accounts Dept".
2. Nothing at all happened until I sent my 'reminder', which makes me wonder if my refund would have been processed at all had I not said anything. Given that the turnaround time for replying to my email and doing the refund was very short indeed, why did I have to wait for so long before it happening in the first place?

I have no idea whether the-bed-shop's policy is to only give refunds to people who remind them to do so, or whether it is to hang on to the refunds as long as possible before sending them out (extra interest, anyone?). In any case, the Distance Selling Regulations are quite clear:

Distance_Selling_Regulations wrote:

You must refund the consumer's money as soon as possible and, at the latest, within 30 days of receiving the written notice of cancellation.

Given this, I suspect that the-bed-shop may be in breach of Distance Selling Regulations. If "refund the consumer's money...within 30 days" is defined as "it being in the consumer's bank account" then they are certainly in breach; regardless, my order was not refunded "as soon as possible" since the member of staff who dealt with my 'reminder' seemed capable of processing the refund immediately. I therefore see no reason why this couldn't have been done on the day of my request.

I will be waiting my five working days for the refund to be credited to my account. If it is, I will consider the matter resolved, and readers of this thread can come to their own conclusions about the service of the-bed-shop. If it is not, I will be contacting the Office of Fair Trading. I will post again on the 06/11/08 at the latest to report on the success or otherwise of my refund.

sarchasm

Just a note to say the refund arrived in my account today, so I'm considering everything resolved.

ChadH

We're having an issue with The Bed Shop, too. Based on our experience, this company needs to be avoided like the plague!!

We ordered a bed back in September for our 6 year old son, and as a result sold his existing bed - we thought it would be OK for him to temporarily sleep on an inflatable bed. Three to four months down the line, and he is still sleeping on a blow up mattress.

Despite many phone calls, we're getting nowhere with them. Fortunately, we paid by credit card so will be disputing the transaction. In the meantime, here are a few replies to Michael's comments.

MichaelLB wrote:

As for your emails not being replied to, I can assure you that you will now receive a response within 24 hours, put us to the test!

We have emailed many times, and we have telephoned many times. Emails have been ignored, and despite being promised several times that somebody would phone us back, this has never happened.

MichaelLB wrote:

We did let you know immediately of the stock situation and have now put in new procedures with our suppliers to ensure stock levels are constantly monitored and relayed back to us to pass on to customers.

I think your new procedures are failing! We were told on many occasions that the bed would arrive very soon - we were promised that it would absolutely be there before Christmas. Like I say, your new procedures for monitoring stock levels are crap!

MichaelLB wrote:

All in all I can guarantee everyone that our customer service is now excellent along with our delivery service and I encourage everyone to put us to the test!

You failed the test!

MichaelLB wrote:

I know the 2 customers who have had bad experiences with us as to be fair they are rare at our company and when they do happen everyone knows about them.

We telephoned again today and were told that customer service was no longer provided over the telephone, and we should email. In my experience, companies that are inundated with telephone complaints to the point where they can no longer handle them are the only companies who decide that email support is a good idea.
They are of course still perfectly happy to take sales over the telephone!

MichaelLB wrote:

I'm confident in saying we're a changed organisation!

Changed for the better or for the worse?!?
As I said previously, this company no longer provides support over the phone. You be the judge of whether you want to give them your business!!
If you are prepared to take the risk, make sure you pay by credit card and not debit card so that at least you stand some chance of getting your money back!

I am quite happy to discuss this matter further with a representative from The Bed Shop - just not by email!

ChadH

Our most recent email has been replied to with the following:

Hi

I am really sorry for the time you have waited on this item as we can only go by what our suppliers advise they have further delays of the end of this month please advise if you wish to cancel or would like a full refund

With Kind Regards,

Kerry (Customer Service)

The Bed Shop,

We have advised them that we would like a refund, and will post with the outcome.

Whilst this matter may have been resolved (still don't know for sure!), it still stinks of a complete lack of customer service; I personally would advise against using this company.

RushieScoresOne

Hi all. First post on this forum but I have been reading for months....one of the most useful sites on the net.

Really glad I found this thread, as I have had very similar problems with this company, to the ones listed in this thread.

I won't go into detail just yet, as I want to take time to compose my post and figure out exactly what I want to say.

What I will say is, as an up to date alert, if anyone is currently considering purchasing from this website...DO NOT.

RushieScoresOne

Hi again.

So, my dealings with this company.

I ordered a bunk bed for my children in October. It took over two months to arrive. I was told to expect a call from the hauliers confirming when they would deliver. They phoned around 9pm one night wanting to deliver the next day! Great prior warning, I thought. They arrived around 7am the next morning, delivered it and were in a rush to get off.

After inspecting the bed later, the packaging appeared damaged. Upon opening the bed, it appeared one of the pieces was indeed damaged and several other pieces were poorly finished, or at least not to the 'laquered finish' that was advertised.

I emailed immediately stating all of this. This is when the seemingly neverending email dialogue began. I was told to give photographic evidence of said damage. I thought that was odd, but did it anyway. Being an all-white bed, the poor finish was hard to make out on a washed out image. In any case, the damaged piece was clear to see, so I thought that would be enough to get my refund. Apparently not.

After sending the photos, I was told they weren't up to sufficient quality and was given advice on how to configure my camera?! This despite the damaged piece being clear to see, if the other pieces less so. I couldn't believe it and at this point I was fuming. I've waited almost three months for a bed whilst my small children sleep on the floor, it finally gets here, damaged, and I want a simple refund as I am simply not prepared to wait another quarter of a year for a replacement.

I explain all this, but they're still insistent on more photos. If anything, it should be up to them to come and see the damage.

So I want to know what to do next as we're at a stalemate.

I paid by credit card, so have a degree of protection, I hope.

Is this what one would advise...to try and claim back off the credit card? Or do I have other options?

If I were to go the credit claim back route, could I use an online template (assuming there are some) with my case details edited in?

One thing I am worried about is the credit company want photo proof as well, I have a photo of a clearly damaged piece so am hoping that will be enough but I don't want to do this and go around in circles.

Many thanks for reading and for any replies.

Vivergo

I also wished I'd come across this thread. We placed a bed order back in August and are still waiting for delivery dispite been promised the bed for Christmas. I even contacted Joeseph International to see if the beds were in stock. I've just been told they are so I've contacted the bedshop (again) and I'm awaiting a response. Hopefully MichaelLB is still around and can intervene.

Here's what I've had back from them so far.

31/08/2008 Pending- If not in, please leave with a neighbour.:rolleyes:

01/09/2008 Paid :T

01/09/2008 Issue - Your order is currently out of stock with our suppliers who are the sole suppliers of this product to the United Kingdom. By keeping your order with us, we can guarantee that we have the shortest lead time in the industry and can deliver your order to you immediately after it arrives back in stock. Can you please advise whether you would like to continue with your order. New stock is arriving: End of Sept. Kind Regards,The Bed Shop. :mad:

01/09/2008 Issue - Your card has already been debited. if you are not happy with this, please contact us via email and we will arrange for a credit on your card and debit it again once your goods are in stock. Kind Regards The Bed Shop

21/11/2008 Dispatched - Your order has been confirmed with our suppliers (Joseph International) and they will be delivering your purchase direct. Joseph International will be in touch when your order arrives into stock (see date shown below) to arrange a delivery date with you. Their delivery service is guaranteed within 14 working days (not including weekends and bank holidays) of new stock arriving. Please note that your purchase has not yet been dispatched, only confirmed, and will only be dispatched once delivery has been arranged by Joseph International over the phone. If Joseph International have not been in touch within 14 working days of new stock arriving then please contact us. Please do not contact us before the 14 working days as we will not be able to help you. Expected Stock Arrival Date:
late nove/earlydec Kind Regards, The Bed shop. :mad:

02/12/2008 Dispatched - Fortunately we are now in a position to give you some good news regarding your order for bunk beds! As you are well aware there has been delay after delay on new stocks of these bunk beds arriving which has caused little less than murder! The new stock has now been guaranteed to arrive this coming weekend and the despatch of these bunk beds will then commence on the Monday and carry on right throughout December with oursleves and Joseph International working around the clock. We can absolutely guarantee the arrival of your order before Christmas but it should be well before this. With regards to delivery we will call you 2/3 days before to arrange a date and time slot, etc.
We kindly request that you refrain from contacting us regarding your order unless it is to cancel it. We can guarantee you that we are very aware of your order and doing our absolute upmost to deliver it urgently. If you contact us regarding delivery we won't able to say much except that your delivery is going to be delivered before Christmas. We very much appreciate your business in this challenging financial climate and thank you for so far continuing with your order, hopefully there will be no need to cancel as delivery is imminent.
We would finally like to take this opportunity to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year (with your shiny new bunks beds!).
PS: If you have already received your bunk beds, please just disregard this message. It has been sent to all customers who have ordered bunk beds recently. Kind Regards, The Bed Shop. :T

06/01/2009DispatchedYour order is expected into us around the date shown below. This is an approximate date and it is not unusal for your order to arrive a couple of days earlier or later than this date. There is nothing you need to do at this stage and we will contact you via email after your order arrives to arrange delivery with yourself. Date Expected: end January Kind Regards, The Bed Shop. :mad:

marleyboy

Absolutely outrageous, and UNACCEPTABLE, I have no doubt MichealB wont be popping his head up in here again, bleating his "oh we have improved...honest we have" BS!!!.