Dreams - 'Promised' bed would fit, doesn't

poissonchat24

Greetings to the forum,

My fiancee and I purchased a bed around 4 weeks ago from Dreams. When discussing the selection with the sales people, we suggested that we might like to buy a superking sized bed to spread out a bit, and made it abundantly clear on several occassions that _we live in a terraced house_. Living in east Lancashire, there are many, many terraced houses and they vary little in design. Having asked the sales staff "will it fit?", we were told that "yes, no problem, we rarely get issued with fitting them, we just take out the windows etc at the absolute worst case", and "our delivery guys are experts and can get the beds into any home" and "I haven't had a problem with one going into a house for two years+" - you get the idea.

We were confident it would fit. They were confident it would fit. Everyone was happy, so we signed off on the order and paid in full circa £1000 on a credit card [section 75 protection].

At 10am this morning I got a call from my fiancee to say that the bed certainly wouldn't fit, and even the delivery drivers were puzzled as to how this 'ole house would take the mighty load, and quite why they even suggested it might.

I asked the store manager today in person what Dreams intended to do about this, the bed is back in their depot somewhere. He didn't want to be pinned down on any specifics and told me to ring customer services, which I intend doing tomorrow.

The T&Cs on the back of the order state that "Goods cannot be refused if they do not fit". It also states "The customer is also responsible for checking the dimensions of any goods purchased and ensure that it will fit into their property (in particular... checking the height of doors etc)". The T&Cs were never pointed out or made clear during the purchase.

In my opinion this is a clear 'unfit for purpose' episode, in that we were sold something that was clearly inappropriate. A nearby bed shop found it amusing that anyone would try to sell a bed to someone living in such a small house.

Had I known how incompetent the staff would be, I would never have entertained this or entered into a contract with the company. I would have done it myself on Google. I went to them as _professionals_ as they are supposed to be experts in selling the APPROPRIATE bed. What a mess.

How would I stand on ending this whole sorry business and getting a full refund?

Thanks for your patience,

barvid

Goods are perfectly fit for purpose - maybe you made an error in buying without measuring, or maybe you were mis-sold, but that doesn't affect the bed's ability to be used as a bed. Personally, having just bought a bed and carefully measured the room to make sure it would fit and there would be room to walk around it, I can't understand why you would take a salesman's word over what your tape measure tells you.

Flyboy152

Did they ask how big the room, door, windows etc. were?

Forwandert

They didn't sell you the wrong size bed, you purchased the wrong size bed. How are dreams going to know the dimensions of your rooms and windows, did you take measurement in with you?

Flyboy152

Forwandert wrote: »

They didn't sell you the wrong size bed, you purchased the wrong size bed. How are dreams going to know the dimensions of your rooms and windows, did you take measurement in with you?

They could have simply asked.

Esqui

True - OP should have measure up and let Dreams know if they could. However, Dreams did say it would fit, leaving the bed 'not as described' (not unfit for purpose).

But, it's only your word against theirs - see what customer services say, and suggest an appropriate compromise.

d.ross_2

Outpost wrote: »

And these professionals didn't know the exact dimensions of the interior of your house!? :rotfl:

No, but they would sell to many people who live in similar properties. If they had been professional (which most of their staff aren't), they would have advised the customer to check the dimensions.

What the OP should have done is searched on mse for dreams, and they would have found that many people have experienced staff who are only interested in a sale, and not what is best for the customer.

As the OP mistakenly took advice from the sales staff, because they mistakenly thought they might know what they were talking about, then it appears that they were wrongly sold the bed. So this is the avenue to go down, rather than unfit for purpose.

You will probably have to go to trading standards before they will budge though. After all, why do you think their managers never deal with complaints, instead they tell you to call customer services.

poissonchat24

The 'not as described' route sounds sensible.

It is a question of due diligence, in that they should have asked for measurements but have instead taken the 'buyer beware' stance of simply hoping it would be right. I can see the argument from both sides, we should have checked, however when repeatedly asked would it be appropriate for a typical house of this type, which is extremely common in the area, they said it would and required no further information.

Aside from Trading Standards the is the amusing sounding 'furniture ombudsman' (I couldn't believe it exists) of which Dreams are a member.

meer53

Esqui wrote: »

True - OP should have measure up and let Dreams know if they could. However, Dreams did say it would fit, leaving the bed 'not as described' (not unfit for purpose).

But, it's only your word against theirs - see what customer services say, and suggest an appropriate compromise.

How can the bed be not as described ? They got what they ordered ! It's up to them to make sure it will fit, not the salesman in the shop.

poissonchat24

hcb42 wrote: »

take the windows out.................

come on!

The windows, although large, are solid wooden frames. The bed will need to be removed again in six months.

Hmm... we're hypothesising whether to get a house to fit the bed?

Interesting.

Esqui

meer53 wrote: »

How can the bed be not as described ? They got what they ordered ! It's up to them to make sure it will fit, not the salesman in the shop.

No, I agree. If the OP was going to try and use the law, then 'not as described' would be the best they can try. But like I say, it's a very long shot.