Courts

Discogod

do NOT buy from courts..... here is my letter of complaint to them, i'll keep you guys posted:

I write to you regarding my purchase of an ‘Amazon 4 Drawer Diven bed’, for the price of £295.99, on 31st May 2004 from your Nottingham branch. The approximate delivery date given at the time of ordering was 6-8 weeks. On 12th September 2004 I cancelled this order after being given my third delivery date of 20th September 2004. This date being a full 16 weeks from the date I placed my order.
I am disgusted at this extremely poor level of customer service provided by Courts. It is a disgrace that I was forced to contact your company each time to enquire about the delivery date, only to be given poor excuses for the delay. I do not believe that the circumstances causing this problem were unforeseen and feel that the company should have at least warned me in advance that there would be delays. My custom was given in good faith. I truly regret this decision whole-heartedly.
The move into my new home was delayed because of your company. My home was mine to use, I had council tax to pay yet I couldn’t use my own home because you had not delivered in good time. After the first delay, I bought an air mattress thinking this would only be a temper situation. I cannot begin to tell you how uncomfortable this experience has been. I do not appreciate being deprived of a good night’s sleep and waking up with body aches. An air mattress clearly does not support the human body as well as a proper, firm mattress. Based on your delivery dates, I have invited friends to stay for the night. Unfortunately, due to your incompetence, I have had to inconvenience my family to borrow spare mattresses & duvets. If you insist on blaming your suppliers for the delay, it merely highlights the appalling relationship you have with them.
I have since purchased a bigger, better bed from a different company. Delivery has been quoted at a maximum of 13 days. Yes, THIRTEEN DAYS, nowhere near the last date of Sixteen weeks offered by yourselves. This bigger bed of course comes with the inconvenience of already having incorrectly sized bed linen, now I must go to the unnecessary expense of buying some more.
You can be rest assured I will not be purchasing from you again. I shall also of course have no problems telling all I know of my terrible experience with you. It’s such a shame I heard how others I know have faired with your company only after I placed my order with you. They certainly had a number of negative stories to reveal to me.
In view of the disgraceful service you have provided by breaking your contract with me, and also for the inconvenience & extra expense I have been through, I demand due compensation from you. I look forward to your speedy response.

chowster

You tell them!!! Its a disgrace..keep us updated with a reply...........hopefully they will at least do you the courtesy of that!

16011996

oooh, you're scary. go for it though. i only spent 3 weeks on an air matreess once, but you may as well sleep standing up for all the comfort they are.

COS

do NOT buy from courts..... here is my letter of complaint to them, i'll keep you guys posted:

I write to you regarding my purchase of an ‘Amazon 4 Drawer Diven bed’, for the price of £295.99, on 31st May 2004 from your Nottingham branch.  The approximate delivery date given at the time of ordering was 6-8 weeks.  On 12th September 2004 I cancelled this order after being given my third delivery date of 20th September 2004.  This date being a full 16 weeks from the date I placed my order.
I am disgusted at this extremely poor level of customer service provided by Courts.  It is a disgrace that I was forced to contact your company each time to enquire about the delivery date, only to be given poor excuses for the delay.  I do not believe that the circumstances causing this problem were unforeseen and feel that the company should have at least warned me in advance that there would be delays.  My custom was given in good faith.  I truly regret this decision whole-heartedly.
The move into my new home was delayed because of your company.  My home was mine to use, I had council tax to pay yet I couldn’t use my own home because you had not delivered in good time.  After the first delay, I bought an air mattress thinking this would only be a temper situation.  I cannot begin to tell you how uncomfortable this experience has been.  I do not appreciate being deprived of a good night’s sleep and waking up with body aches.  An air mattress clearly does not support the human body as well as a proper, firm mattress.  Based on your delivery dates, I have invited friends to stay for the night.  Unfortunately, due to your incompetence, I have had to inconvenience my family to borrow spare mattresses & duvets.  If you insist on blaming your suppliers for the delay, it merely highlights the appalling relationship you have with them.
I have since purchased a bigger, better bed from a different company.  Delivery has been quoted at a maximum of 13 days.  Yes, THIRTEEN DAYS, nowhere near the last date of Sixteen weeks offered by yourselves.  This bigger bed of course comes with the inconvenience of already having incorrectly sized bed linen, now I must go to the unnecessary expense of buying some more.
You can be rest assured I will not be purchasing from you again.  I shall also of course have no problems telling all I know of my terrible experience with you.  It’s such a shame I heard how others I know have faired with your company only after I placed my order with you.  They certainly had a number of negative stories to reveal to me.
In view of the disgraceful service you have provided by breaking your contract with me, and also for the inconvenience & extra expense I have been through, I demand due compensation from you.  I look forward to your speedy response.

At least you have the sale of goods act on your side and also Credit Card rights if you paid by this method.

Do you have the change of dates in writing ?

Discogod

At least you have the sale of goods act on your side and also Credit Card rights if you paid by this method.

Do you have the change of dates in writing ?

no it's all verbal unfortunately, and i paid by debit card (cash up front argh!)

had a letter this morning basically acknowledging my letter & they'll get back to me after investigating. Perhaps before Xmas if i'm lucky

mek_2

If it's any consolation - I'm now on letter 3..... the 1st was very long, the 2nd very rude, and in the 3rd I have taken the liberty of including translations in French, German and Spanish lest there be any further barrier to understanding!!

I am astonished that I can be sent by this company 2 separate letters thanking me for my letter advising they'll be in touch, separately I have faxed a copy of the 1st letter and Courts' reply to the store in Croydon AND STILL THEY DON'T REPLY!!!


The Aussies have a great way of putting this: STREWTH!

bridiej

They are on my top three list of companies I would never, ever deal with, which also includes:

Allied Carpets
British Gas

Discogod

OK - update. Actually sorted this out last week but you'll find out more later:

after not hearing a sausage from Courts in 28 days from my letter to them, i decided to ring up their customer services department at head office. I ask them of their service leval for complaints & they tell me 8 hours. I tell them of my situation & they told me they had something on their system. It's a copy of an email from the manager of the branch in nottingham to customer services. The basic message is:

gibberishgibberishgibberish, offer the customer £25 of courts vouchers gibberishgibberishgibberish.

Unforunately, no-one actually did this, they said tehy couldn't call me because i didn't put a number in the letter (yet the nottingham branch have my number already) Also, heeeeelllooooooo, how did i get this info to them? yes........ i wrote it in a letter, couldn't they like... write back? hmmm..... ???

So anyway, the lady in customer services didn't have a clue what had gone on with my order as she didn't have a copy of my letter to hand, or on their system... so i had to read it out over the phone to her.

She then told me that she'd email & call the manager at nottingham & get them to call me back the same day.

Later that day, someone called me from Nottingham. It's a different manager to who was in before, he explained he's just been brought into the job & so isn't aware of my situation. So, i read the letter to him again...... he then offers me approx £25 money back (basically 10% of my order, that's what their T&C's state). I say to him, it's not just about them breaking a contract, but all i stated in my letter. I also said they offered me £45 off when i first had my complaint of delivery date. SO he says, OK, i'll give you £45 money back now. So i give him my card details & be done with it, couldn't be arsed with it anymore.

In addition to these problems, on about Oct 6th, they credited the value of the bed into my bank account (just under £300), only to take it back out a couple of days later!!!

So, earlier in the day, my mum called me to say i'd got a letter from courts that morning at my old address. I asked her to open it & it said some stuff about the bank error: it told me, sorry blahblahblah, for the inconvenience we are giving you £50 of courts vouchers. These were attached to the letter.

So, i say to the Nottingham manager of this, i told him that vouchers are completely useless to me since i won't be shopping with them again. Also, the expiry date was January 2005!!!!! how often does ANYBODY shop at courts? perhaps once every 6 years or so as they want to buy a bed or sofa. He says to get in touch with customer services regarding this.

So, taht is what i do, i call them up again. I spoke to the same lady as earlier, she now seems a bit irate (was perfectly nice earlier). She explains this letter was personally from the MD of the company & she can't do anything about it. I carry on complaining cos really..... they are useless to me! (dont really want to sell them either as someone else will then buy from courts..... why would i want that? ???) So, she says the only thing she can do is put my thoughts onto the file & i can write to the MD if i wish. So that is what i do & here that is:

I write to in reply to your letter received on Friday 15th October 2004 at my old address (xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx).

In your letter you sent me a £50 gift voucher for Courts with an expiry date of January 2005. This was offered to me because of a bank error on your part; £295.99 was debited & then credited to my bank account without my knowledge & consent within two days of 6th October 2004. This obviously caused me added distress & confusion to the problems that I already had with your company.

Had it not been for the previous problem I had with you, which is now thankfully resolved after a lot of hassle & chasing, this gift voucher would be a satisfactory resolution to the problem. However, I have a number of points regarding your offer:

a) In view of the problems I have had with Courts, I will never be purchasing from you again. The circumstances detailing the reasons for this are explained in the enclosed copy letter dated 16th September 2004 to your customer services department. In addition to this I can update you that I never received a letter or phonecall regarding my complaints. Once again, I had to chase your company a month after my letter in order to sort it all out. This taken into account, the voucher is useless to me.

b) Even if I was to accept the voucher from you, there is an expiry date of January 2005 on it. I suspect the average person will order a bed or sofa perhaps once every 6 years? So, what good is a voucher with an expiry date that soon?

I would appreciate it if you would consider an alternative form of compensation for the bank error.
I look forward to your speedy response and trust I will not have to chase this one as well. I am certain the BBC program Watchdog would love to hear from me with all of the problems I have encountered with you.

watch this space........ the saga continues!

webmasterpolo

Did the MD's staff write back to you yet?

Discogod

aha! yes they did!

he wrote back quickly (well, someone else did for him) Rambled on about customer satifsaction & not knowing my previous greivence with them & said a cheque for £50 will follow in the post. A few days later it arrived!

so, all is good.

I sold my voucher on ebay for £14.99, so it's plus all round really.

still, dont buy from courts!!!!