Help please with online furniture shop!!

Ravengirl

Hi

I ordered a bed yesterday from https://www.bestchoicefurniture.co.uk after having looked around and found them to be very quick with delivery. I was let down by another bed supplier and needed to get a bed quickly as my daughter is sleeping in a travel cot at the moment.

I paid online via world pay with a visa debit card and got a receipt saying that they would be in touch very soon to arrange a delivery date. I tried phoning them yesterday afternoon but every time I tried it was engaged. I sent them an email too but got no reply to that. I have been trying to phone all day today but it is either constantly engaged, goes to answerphone where I have left a message or it just rings and rings.

I am desperate to sort this out, I'm on benefit and have been saving hard to be able to afford this bed and now this happens, my poor daughter is sleeping in a travel cot.

Can anyone please offer me any advise on what I can do to try and get my money back.

Thanks

chillitotes_2

Contact your local trading standards office to see if they have any information on this company. You can find your local office details by entering your location on their website http://www.tradingstandards.gov.uk/. You can usually e-mail them your query/complaint.

chillitotes_2

You may want look at my post on a similar issue http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=41018

I have e-mailed and posted where ever I can to highlight dodgy trade. I think you should let as many people as possible know about your plight maybe then you will get somewhere.

Did you pay by Visa card or Mastercard (not a debit card) and was it over £100? If so I think you may have some come back with the credit card company.

Good luck

Ravengirl

I paid with a debit card and it was for £85.49. I have emailed my bank but there is no way of cancelling the payment once it has been taken. I sent the company an email last night saying that I will give them till monday to get back from me, just to give them the benefit of the doubt. If I still get no response then I will get on to Trading Standards and watchdog on monday afternoon.

World Pay got back to me today saying that they have contacted the seller on my behalf and that they told them they have to contact me in 5 working days, so we will see if this has any effect.

Thanks for all your help, I'll keep you posted on the situation.

travelchick

If you do decided to cancel your bed go to kiddiecare.com I got my sons starter bed from there for £60 with matress and PP they delivered within 3 days and there customer service was great
Trav
x

Ravengirl

Well it looks like the problem is resolved, the company eventually phoned me at 4pm today wanting to know if they can deliver tomorrow afternoon, I didn't get an apology or anything when I asked why they hadn't replied before, the guy just changed the subject.

I won't get too excited just yet incase it doesn't turn up but here's hoping!!!

April2

I was going to reply last week with an, "Aren't you going into panic mode a little early?" comment but decided to wait and see.

I'm very pleased there appears to have been a rapid result (Tuesday delivery of a bed ordered the previous Thursday is still pretty good).

Ravengirl

I wouldn't usually panic like this but the web site offered next day delivery, this and the fact that there was no contact whatsoever, and all their phones where either off or just ringing or engaged, and no response to any of the emails I sent them started alarm bells ringing.

Well the bed didn't arrive but I did get a phone call about an hour ago saying it will be here tomorrow, the driver didn't get time to do the delivery today aparrently.

Ravengirl

It has arrived!!!

I would just warn everyone about the lack of communication from this company, when you dn't hear a word from someone that you have paid good money too it's easy to start to wonder if it's a legitimate business or not. If the communication was good then this would be an easy company to reccommend because of the good prices and quick delivery times but when you sit trying to phone them for a delivery slot for 3 days it's easy to become a little worried!

Thanks for all your help anyway, panic over.

mrcow

Glad to hear that it (finally) reached you.

ken_1969

Hi,

I had a bad experience with this trader also. We ordered a divan bed from them back on 16th January, and they agreed a Saturday delivery. We phoned them that Saturday lunchtime to double-check that the bed would definitely be delivered, to which they said yes (although any time up to 10pm). So we dismantled our old bed and waited. And waited, and waited! 10pm came and went and still no bed.
Called the next day and no answer - fair enough it was Sunday.
Then at 11pm that night we get a call from their driver, sounding like he was in the pub, telling us we would have the delivery at 7am the next morning. His attitude was terrible, and as it was already after 11pm we said there was no way we could take delivery at 7am. He got very stroppy so we told him to cancel the order and take the bed back.
10 minutes later we got a call from the shop, a young lady (Lisa) who was very conciliatory, so we agreed a delivery date of the following Wednesday (25th Jan). I had to take time off work to wait for delivery, but again, the day went by and no delivery!!
At that point we had enough, and phoned up next day, spoke to Lisa again and she agreed to cancel the order.
We then ordered a new bed from Argos.
My wife then got a call from a driver saying he was about to deliver our bed from Best Choice Furniture! She told him we had already cancelled the order, and even if we hadn't, there was nobody home to take delivery anyway.
Then my wife got a call from Ian, a manager at BCF, who told her that as she had "refused" delivery twice we were giong to be charged 20% of the order value as delivery costs! In both instances, it was a failure on their part, so we refused.
This went back and forth all day and in the end we were asked if we could take delivery that evening after work. We agreed as long as it was between 6-8pm. We then cancelled the bed from Argos (which they were very polite and helpful about).
The bed arrived at literally 8pm on the dot, but then there was a set of wheels missing. Without the wheels the bed just sits on the floor, meaning the draws built into the divan cannot be opened.
The driver promised to have the wheels posted. Next day we phoned Lisa again at BCF just to confirm she had got the message about the wheels. That was Jan 27th.
By February 2nd, still no wheels. My wife phoned again and as her name was mentioned heard in the background someone loudly saying "she's not complaining again is she?". However, she still politely asked if they could just send the wheels so we could actually use the bed properly.
By February 9th, still no wheels, so we wrote a letter to the owner of the company detailing the history and asking for our wheels yet again.
We were "guaranteed" we would have the wheels by that Saturday - 11th Feb - but guess what? Still no wheels!!
It is now 22nd February. After consulting the Trading Standards web site I called again myself, spoke to Lisa and requested a full refund as the goods were not as described and not fit for the purpose intended. She told us we would have to pay delivery charges, both for the original delivery and for picking up the old bed. I told her that was not acceptable as they had not actually delivered goods that were fit for the purpose or as described.
She then spun me a tale of how their office boy had been given the wheels twice to take to the post office and they must have gotten lost and so on and so forth - that she would walk over to the warehouse, put the wheels in an envelope and take them to the post office herself right now.
I told her fine - as long as the wheels arrive by the beginning of next week (I figure I will give it til Tuesday) - otherwise I will phone back and cancel.

This company obviously have some customer services issues and I think you just need to be aware of your rights and be firm with them. They will quote their terms and conditions to you - which actually if you read the small print let them get away with a lot - but as I pointed out their terms and conditions do not affect my statutory rights as a consumer.
Hopefully we will get the wheels and the problem will be solved. I will post a reply either way next week!