Benson's For Beds

rollonsummer

Hi I really hope someone can help & advise.

We visited Benson's last Fri, ended up (stupidly) signing up to 0% finance on.a new bed and paid £300 deposit. The bed was £1300 in total.

A few days later we googled reviews of the bed and of the appalling customer service record of Benson's and decided we wanted to terminate this sale.

We checked our paperwork which states we only have a 24hr cooling off period. If we decide to terminate the contract after this time but before the bed is delivered they will charge us 20% of the total sale to cover their costs!

If we had bought the bed online we would have been covered by a 14 day cooling off period. How is this right? That if you buy in a shop you have basically no right to a cooling off period.

We could kick ourselves for our haste last Fri but now find ourselves in the unenviable position of wanting to terminate this contract. The bed is not due to be delivered for another 4 weeks and no finance payt has been taken out yet. All that we have paid is a £300 deposit. We want the finance agreement terminating and the £300 deposit refunded back to us so we can put the sorry situation behind us and go.elsewhere with our money. From all the negative reviews we've read online I believe this is going to be a nightmare.

The other issue we noticed is that the sales agent charged us for a mattress and divan plus another bed frame. We only wanted the mattress and bed frame so have been overcharged.

Any advice on how to proceed? Anyone with a similar experience at Benson's? I can't believe in today's climate they can get away with such dreadful customer service and because we walked in to store on that fateful day we have no rights to change our mind...if we do they want nearly £300 from us!!!!

Thanks for reading

SHAFT

The time to do your research was before paying, you've no rights to a refund for a change of mind.

pinkshoes

rollonsummer wrote: »

Hi I really hope someone can help & advise.

We visited Benson's last Fri, ended up (stupidly) signing up to 0% finance on.a new bed and paid £300 deposit. The bed was £1300 in total.

A few days later we googled reviews of the bed and of the appalling customer service record of Benson's and decided we wanted to terminate this sale.

We checked our paperwork which states we only have a 24hr cooling off period. If we decide to terminate the contract after this time but before the bed is delivered they will charge us 20% of the total sale to cover their costs!

If we had bought the bed online we would have been covered by a 14 day cooling off period. How is this right? That if you buy in a shop you have basically no right to a cooling off period.

We could kick ourselves for our haste last Fri but now find ourselves in the unenviable position of wanting to terminate this contract. The bed is not due to be delivered for another 4 weeks and no finance payt has been taken out yet. All that we have paid is a £300 deposit. We want the finance agreement terminating and the £300 deposit refunded back to us so we can put the sorry situation behind us and go.elsewhere with our money. From all the negative reviews we've read online I believe this is going to be a nightmare.

The other issue we noticed is that the sales agent charged us for a mattress and divan plus another bed frame. We only wanted the mattress and bed frame so have been overcharged.

Any advice on how to proceed? Anyone with a similar experience at Benson's? I can't believe in today's climate they can get away with such dreadful customer service and because we walked in to store on that fateful day we have no rights to change our mind...if we do they want nearly £300 from us!!!!

Thanks for reading

Because online you can only see a picture of them, whereas in store you can actually try the beds, so therefore they do not have to give you the right to cancel. Offering 24 hours to change your mind is more than they have to...

Why not see if you can swap your order for a different bed? Phone them up, tell them you can see the online reviews for this bed are horrendous, so can you swap to XXXXXX instead?

Or accept the £300 loss and buy from a decent local independent store.

Aylesbury_Duck

I agree. See if you can swap to a bed with better reviews.

I don't see what "dreadful customer service" you've experienced. You said yourself you acted in haste, did your research afterwards and actually read what you'd signed after you'd signed and paid. That's no fault of Bensons.

You'll have to decide whether it's better to proceed, take the £300 and run or see if you can get them to apply your deposit and arrange finance for a better product .

born_again

Given you must have tried the bed/mattress instore and must have been happy at that point. What is it in the reviews that made you change your mind.
Remember that most people only post about bad things. Very rarely if they are happy with products.
We have been very happy with our bed from them for the last 5 years.

rollonsummer

In terms of poor customer service we weren't told at point of signing up that we had a 24 hour cooling off period. It was handed to us in a booklet titled "bed time reading" so we weren't instructed to read it before we signed nor told verbally by the sales agent.

When you Google Benson's the mattress reviews are that it leaves bodily impressions after a very short usage time which doesn't return to it's usual shape. These become worse over time and renders the bed extremely uncomfortable. The mattress have a raised ridge in the middle.

Once you've encountered a problem with your mattress they send an "independent inspector" from FIRA who, from what I've read is anything but. The furniture companies pay into FIRA. So how they can be independent is anyone's guess! They will then basically make it extremely difficult to accept the mattress is faulty/poor quality. That leaves you stuck with a mattress. If you Google Benson's for Beds reviews you will see thousands of people are in this position. Once they have your money they don't care. If you try to phone them it takes on average 50 mins for someone to pick up the phone. Then the run around comes....we will call you back...whuch doesn't materialise shock horror. There's a Facebook group called Benson's For Beds Victims and if you go on actual Benson's For Beds Facebook page, whenever they post an advert for a particular bed it is full of comments from very unhappy customers who are getting absolutely nowhere with them. It's a dreadful situation, like they have trapped you and there's nothing you can do about it. We want out before the bed even arrives in our house. It's not due to be delivered for another 4 weeks

GrumpyDil

Well as everyone has said you either cancel for a loss, accept the bed or try to swap for a different one.

You've now learnt that there is no right to a change of mind refund for goods purchased in a shop so the time to check their refunds/cancellations policies is before completing the purchase or signing any documents.

A difficult lesson but one that will hopefully help in future.

Aylesbury_Duck

rollonsummer wrote: »

In terms of poor customer service we weren't told at point of signing up that we had a 24 hour cooling off period. It was handed to us in a booklet titled "bed time reading" so we weren't instructed to read it before we signed nor told verbally by the sales agent.

When you Google Benson's the mattress reviews are that it leaves bodily impressions after a very short usage time which doesn't return to it's usual shape. These become worse over time and renders the bed extremely uncomfortable. The mattress have a raised ridge in the middle.

Once you've encountered a problem with your mattress they send an "independent inspector" from FIRA who, from what I've read is anything but. The furniture companies pay into FIRA. So how they can be independent is anyone's guess! They will then basically make it extremely difficult to accept the mattress is faulty/poor quality. That leaves you stuck with a mattress. If you Google Benson's for Beds reviews you will see thousands of people are in this position. Once they have your money they don't care. If you try to phone them it takes on average 50 mins for someone to pick up the phone. Then the run around comes....we will call you back...whuch doesn't materialise shock horror. There's a Facebook group called Benson's For Beds Victims and if you go on actual Benson's For Beds Facebook page, whenever they post an advert for a particular bed it is full of comments from very unhappy customers who are getting absolutely nowhere with them. It's a dreadful situation, like they have trapped you and there's nothing you can do about it. We want out before the bed even arrives in our house. It's not due to be delivered for another 4 weeks

I don’t need to google or check their Facebook page because I’m not planning to spend £1300 with them. The point is, you haven’t experienced dreadful customer service. Yet.

They haven’t trapped you. All the information you’ve now discovered was readily available and you could have asked about cooling off periods in the store. You don’t need to be told to read guidance before you pay, you could have done so yourself. I suspect you walked into the store voluntarily, too, or is your next point going to be that they grabbed you as you walked past and forced you to buy a bed under duress?

You have a way out. It will cost you I’m afraid, unless they do something out of goodwill but suddenly realising they might not be the best retailer after doing comprehensive retrospective research does not absolve you of responsibility for your own decision.

JJ_Egan

<n terms of poor customer service we weren't told at point of signing up that we had a 24 hour cooling off period>


Thats up to them the 24 hours is not a legal requirment .

rollonsummer

Well luckily for us it's all been sorted! No need for a condescending tone. Experience has taught us now and we now know what to do in the future!

Aylesbury_Duck

I suspect any condescending tone to answers was in response to your rather hysterical overreaction and accusations of dreadful customer service, being trapped, etc. rather than looking at yourself in the mirror and realising you'd mucked up. It certainly was from my point of view.

So you've now experienced very good customer service, haven't you. How times change!