Mattress is faulty - FIRA says it’s not.

Gavin83

EdwardTeach wrote: »

And as for the manufacturing fault, what else could it be? Is it standard for a mattress to not last longer than a year?

This is all irrelevant. They've got a report stating it isn't a manufacturing defect so I very much imagine they'll brush you off. To have any chance of combatting this you'll need your own independent report stating it's an inherent fault. Even then it's not guaranteed as if it goes to court it'll be up to a judge to decide which report is more likely to be accurate.

In all honesty you shouldn't have used their engineer, but now your only option is to commission your own report. Or as I said before, just buy a new mattress.

neilmcl

Would you provide a link to this particular mattress please?

k3lvc

JennyLee wrote: »

If its still under warranty take it back and ask for a new bed, but first of all make sure you test out the bed first before even thinking of purchasing it like some bed shops offer a trial period in which you can test out the bed. Also, check out the reviews on different mattress brands and bed shops in your area and online. If a Silent Night is not the bed for you try a different bed brand. I would recommend a Sealy Posturepedic they will last for years up until you need to replace your mattress. Try purchasing from My New Bed their prices are reasonable and delivery is free of charge nationwide.

Seriously :rotfl::rotfl:

Have you even read the post and the fact that the engineer has said there's nothing wrong with the mattress ?

sheramber

Only link I can find is South African company.

askmeaboutsofas

OP:

A mattress with a five year warranty that fails after a single year of normal use, having been turned/cared for as instructed, should not be worn down or making "boing" noises! I mean, unless you sleep 20 hours a day, weigh over 18 stone or sit for long periods of time on the edge of the bed there's just no way that should be happening.
My opinion over the internet means precisely zip of course, so you should get your own independent report. A professional upholsterer or mattress manufacturer near you may be able to do a report for you for less, but I can recommend Homeserve furniture repairs (not the boiler people!). They'll charge about £90 + vat, and they'll produce a professional looking report stating what happened and whose fault it is. Be aware that, unlike FIRA, they're not particularly biased in favour of the person paying their bill, so if there is something you're doing wrong that caused the mattress to do that, they will tell you so.


JennyLee:
There are much better quality brands - and better value for money mattresses - out there. Also, for anyone looking to purchase a mattress, be very wary of any store or website that genuinely allows you to return a mattress that you've slept on in your home. What do you think they do with the returns?

Most furniture shops operate a no returns policy on mattresses, so as soon as the plastic packaging is removed, you can't take it back unless it's faulty. If you ask why, they'll say "hygiene", which is retailer speak for "I don't want to have to inspect my returns with a black light".

Try the mattress out in store, for as long as you can. Maybe bring a friend to distract the sales person if you have to, and just lie on the display until you're sure.

photome

Did you just buy a mattress or a base as well


The mattress may not be suitable for the type of base you have. Have you been sitting on the edge



On another note I can recommend a Vi spring mattress, bought one earlier this year best mattress i have ever slept on.


I do agree about FIRA, I have had them out and I dont believe they are impartial.

The_Dogs_Doodars

I am also have an Issue with a New mattress I purchased from Land Of Beds in Wigan. cost £1160.00
A Sealy Platinum Hybrid Geltex Mattress King size. The label that is stitched to the mattress says "No need to Turn or Rotate so has NO handles either side of the mattressand is very heavy . My wife is disabled and the side she sleeps on has dipped and the Geltex has now mushroomed and is hanging over her side My side also has dipped as well. The "Engineer" they sent out from Fira came out. lay down on both sides and admitted it was dipped on both sides with a prominent ridge in the middle the proceeded to do what he called a "shakedown test" lifting it up on its side beating and pummeling it back to shape (I took that to be an acknowledgement of a fault) I asked him how often would that have to be done as i could surely not be expected to lift this on a regular basis he said it would be ok now ? We slept on it again that evening and when we got up the next morning it had gone back to the same state as what we had complained about. I rang the engineer that same morning to tell him it was not right and guess what no response.



I have involved the local Trading Standards Office who are trying to sort something out but Land Of Beds just told them today they arn't interested ?



This is what I have since found out regarding FIRA see below It makes you wonder what this FIRA is about ?


I have since fund this on The Guardian.com web site !



"Many of Britain's big furniture retailers are members of an independent industry-wide scheme that promises to handle disputes. Typically, an independent expert is despatched to assess whether your claim has merit, and chances are you will be sent a technician from FIRA, which says it is "the world's leading independent furniture technology centre".
This fast-growing, £20m-turnover organisation, based in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, operates the "Furniture Ombudsman" – described as offering impartial dispute resolution – on the industry's behalf, and a separate division, FIRA Service Technicians, which sends out its experts when customers complain.
The Technicians service is marketed to retailers and furniture-makers across the UK on the basis that it improves customer service and cuts the cost of having to replace items.
FIRA boasts on its website that its staff have a "90% success rate of 'kept in home' results … because, if it isn't kept in the home, there is a direct cost to the business". In other words, it is able to make sure the customer keeps the item in the overwhelming number of cases. Of course, in many instances, items can be repaired to the customer's satisfaction.
FIRA acknowledges that in many cases it does not charge the retailer or furniture manufacturer if the job is "unsuccessful" – ie, where the item has to be sent back. Some would argue that this represents a conflict of interest that may encourage the independent expert to find in favour of the company rather than the customer.
Sheila Burke (not her real name) had expected that when she complained about her new £1,600 bed – bought from a small local furniture store – the independent expert sent by the manufacturer would turn up with an open mind. Instead, she says he took one look at it and told her that, given the make, "there can't be anything wrong with it". After that, she claims, he didn't want to hear what she was saying. "The mattress was really uncomfortable, which is why I complained. But the man who turned up didn't appear to be interested in hearing my complaint at all," says Burke.
Katy Burton tells a similar story after she complained about a Silentnight mattress bought from a high street retailer. Staff there had, again, arranged for an independent inspector to go to her home. She claims: "He lay on it for maybe 10 seconds, agreed he could feel the problem, but made no notes or took no actions that seemed to assess the problem. He then rotated the mattress, chatted to me about his dog, and left." When she contacted the store she was told he had found nothing wrong.
In both cases the stores declined to replace or refund the mattress, citing the findings of the independent expert.
Burton, who lives in Manchester, was left nonplussed. "I couldn't believe a man lying on a mattress for 10 seconds, taking no notes and chatting about his dog qualified as a professional assessment. I was told his decision was final," she says.
After Guardian Money intervened the store gave Burton a generous discount on a better mattress, and she is now a happy customer. Burke, however, is still embroiled in a messy legal dispute which will be heard in the small claims court next week.
Last year, BBC's Watchdog reported on the case of Pam and Geoffrey Benge, who had paid a big-name store £4,200 for a three-piece suite. After only six months the armchair was broken.
An inspector sent by the store/manufacturer – it is not known whether they were from FIRA or not – concluded they had done the damage themselves. They then paid for an independent report by the Furniture Ombudsman. That concluded that "all the joints on the backs of the chair and two sofas were defective", and only then did the store agree to refund the couple and pay for the report.
Guardian Money this week rang FIRA posing as a small bed retailer who was experiencing a high level of mattress returns. The person we spoke to recommended FIRA's Service Technicians, and gave us the impression that if we signed up this would enable us to put a greater proportion of customer complaints down to "wear and tear".
FIRA's chief operating officer, Jonny Westbrooke, told Money that consumers can be "absolutely confident" of its technicians' independence. He refuted the idea that the 90% claim was to the consumer's detriment. "The 90% success rate is made up of an average of a widespread number of inspections. Some clients [typically in the area of bedding] only achieve 60%, some achieve as high as 99.6%. This demonstrates our independence and fairness.
"FIRA Service Technicians incentivises its team to get it right first time and repair to the customer's satisfaction. We have a rigorous audit process to ensure technicians are taking the correct action.
"In order to make the service transparent, customers receive a copy of the technician's report, which is signed by the consumer. This states what the technician's findings were, and what action he took. There is a second section provided to the client which describes the assessment of the root cause of the problem."
He says questions of comfort are "highly subjective" and not always a sign of a malfunction. He also says the technicians have no financial incentive to side with the retailer as they are paid irrespective of what they find. The Furniture Ombudsman service, he adds, is completely independent.
"FIRA Service Technicians do not have members; they have clients who can walk away at any time if they are unhappy … our values, particularly independence, drive our business, and therefore, if our staff were to behave contrary to these values it would affect our entire business model."


Where do I go from here ?????
Does anybody know where I can get my own independent report from (i live in Cheshire)

theonlywayisup

The_Dogs_Doodars wrote: »

I am also have an Issue with a New mattress I purchased from Land Of Beds in Wigan. cost £1160.00
A Sealy Platinum Hybrid Geltex Mattress King size. The label that is stitched to the mattress says "No need to Turn or Rotate so has NO handles either side of the mattressand is very heavy . My wife is disabled and the side she sleeps on has dipped and the Geltex has now mushroomed and is hanging over her side My side also has dipped as well. The "Engineer" they sent out from Fira came out. lay down on both sides and admitted it was dipped on both sides with a prominent ridge in the middle the proceeded to do what he called a "shakedown test" lifting it up on its side beating and pummeling it back to shape (I took that to be an acknowledgement of a fault) I asked him how often would that have to be done as i could surely not be expected to lift this on a regular basis he said it would be ok now ? We slept on it again that evening and when we got up the next morning it had gone back to the same state as what we had complained about. I rang the engineer that same morning to tell him it was not right and guess what no response.



I have involved the local Trading Standards Office who are trying to sort something out but Land Of Beds just told them today they arn't interested ?



This is what I have since found out regarding FIRA see below It makes you wonder what this FIRA is about ?


I have since fund this on The Guardian.com web site !



"Many of Britain's big furniture retailers are members of an independent industry-wide scheme that promises to handle disputes. Typically, an independent expert is despatched to assess whether your claim has merit, and chances are you will be sent a technician from FIRA, which says it is "the world's leading independent furniture technology centre".
This fast-growing, £20m-turnover organisation, based in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, operates the "Furniture Ombudsman" – described as offering impartial dispute resolution – on the industry's behalf, and a separate division, FIRA Service Technicians, which sends out its experts when customers complain.
The Technicians service is marketed to retailers and furniture-makers across the UK on the basis that it improves customer service and cuts the cost of having to replace items.
FIRA boasts on its website that its staff have a "90% success rate of 'kept in home' results … because, if it isn't kept in the home, there is a direct cost to the business". In other words, it is able to make sure the customer keeps the item in the overwhelming number of cases. Of course, in many instances, items can be repaired to the customer's satisfaction.
FIRA acknowledges that in many cases it does not charge the retailer or furniture manufacturer if the job is "unsuccessful" – ie, where the item has to be sent back. Some would argue that this represents a conflict of interest that may encourage the independent expert to find in favour of the company rather than the customer.
Sheila Burke (not her real name) had expected that when she complained about her new £1,600 bed – bought from a small local furniture store – the independent expert sent by the manufacturer would turn up with an open mind. Instead, she says he took one look at it and told her that, given the make, "there can't be anything wrong with it". After that, she claims, he didn't want to hear what she was saying. "The mattress was really uncomfortable, which is why I complained. But the man who turned up didn't appear to be interested in hearing my complaint at all," says Burke.
Katy Burton tells a similar story after she complained about a Silentnight mattress bought from a high street retailer. Staff there had, again, arranged for an independent inspector to go to her home. She claims: "He lay on it for maybe 10 seconds, agreed he could feel the problem, but made no notes or took no actions that seemed to assess the problem. He then rotated the mattress, chatted to me about his dog, and left." When she contacted the store she was told he had found nothing wrong.
In both cases the stores declined to replace or refund the mattress, citing the findings of the independent expert.
Burton, who lives in Manchester, was left nonplussed. "I couldn't believe a man lying on a mattress for 10 seconds, taking no notes and chatting about his dog qualified as a professional assessment. I was told his decision was final," she says.
After Guardian Money intervened the store gave Burton a generous discount on a better mattress, and she is now a happy customer. Burke, however, is still embroiled in a messy legal dispute which will be heard in the small claims court next week.
Last year, BBC's Watchdog reported on the case of Pam and Geoffrey Benge, who had paid a big-name store £4,200 for a three-piece suite. After only six months the armchair was broken.
An inspector sent by the store/manufacturer – it is not known whether they were from FIRA or not – concluded they had done the damage themselves. They then paid for an independent report by the Furniture Ombudsman. That concluded that "all the joints on the backs of the chair and two sofas were defective", and only then did the store agree to refund the couple and pay for the report.
Guardian Money this week rang FIRA posing as a small bed retailer who was experiencing a high level of mattress returns. The person we spoke to recommended FIRA's Service Technicians, and gave us the impression that if we signed up this would enable us to put a greater proportion of customer complaints down to "wear and tear".
FIRA's chief operating officer, Jonny Westbrooke, told Money that consumers can be "absolutely confident" of its technicians' independence. He refuted the idea that the 90% claim was to the consumer's detriment. "The 90% success rate is made up of an average of a widespread number of inspections. Some clients [typically in the area of bedding] only achieve 60%, some achieve as high as 99.6%. This demonstrates our independence and fairness.
"FIRA Service Technicians incentivises its team to get it right first time and repair to the customer's satisfaction. We have a rigorous audit process to ensure technicians are taking the correct action.
"In order to make the service transparent, customers receive a copy of the technician's report, which is signed by the consumer. This states what the technician's findings were, and what action he took. There is a second section provided to the client which describes the assessment of the root cause of the problem."
He says questions of comfort are "highly subjective" and not always a sign of a malfunction. He also says the technicians have no financial incentive to side with the retailer as they are paid irrespective of what they find. The Furniture Ombudsman service, he adds, is completely independent.
"FIRA Service Technicians do not have members; they have clients who can walk away at any time if they are unhappy … our values, particularly independence, drive our business, and therefore, if our staff were to behave contrary to these values it would affect our entire business model."


Where do I go from here ?????
Does anybody know where I can get my own independent report from (i live in Cheshire)

You would be best placed to start your own thread with a SHORT concise account of the issue. Quoting newspaper articles in a lump of text is going to interest no one.

Cetshwayo

theonlywayisup wrote: »

Not all mattresses can be flipped (as in turned over).

Ergo cheap.

unforeseen

Or if they have a memory foam layer.