Returning a Bed

Jellynailer

The dot com end to the company name surprised me so I checked Companies House on line. 

 

FAB FURNITURE LTD was registered in 2018 and (on 17/8/21) was taken over by one person who was then the only director; owned 100% of share; and changed the company address in Sheffield. 

 

The address was changed to Ipswich after an appeal to a notice of Compulsory Strike Off on 8/11/21.  The company was dissolved on 4/7/23 and struck off.

 

The company is now owned by Anglia Home Furnishings.  Latest accounts filed in Dec 2023 for year up to 31/3/23.  15 of the 17 directors at the time have all since resigned and replaced by new directors living in Australia: two in June 2024 one of who was replaced by another Aussie on 1/9/24.  Most of the stock is imported.  No mention of any UK factories owned by the company.

 

Nora Opco UK Ltd became ‘person of significant interest’ on 8/5/24 = over 75% of shares.  This company is not registered with C House nor with the Australian equivalent.

I hope a forumite with expertise in company law can say whether knowing the above could help your case.

user1977

Jellynailer said:

The dot com end to the company name surprised me so I checked Companies House on line. 

 

FAB FURNITURE LTD was registered in 2018 and (on 17/8/21) was taken over by one person who was then the only director; owned 100% of share; and changed the company address in Sheffield. 

 

The address was changed to Ipswich after an appeal to a notice of Compulsory Strike Off on 8/11/21.  The company was dissolved on 4/7/23 and struck off.

 

The company is now owned by Anglia Home Furnishings.  Latest accounts filed in Dec 2023 for year up to 31/3/23.  15 of the 17 directors at the time have all since resigned and replaced by new directors living in Australia: two in June 2024 one of who was replaced by another Aussie on 1/9/24.  Most of the stock is imported.  No mention of any UK factories owned by the company.

 

Nora Opco UK Ltd became ‘person of significant interest’ on 8/5/24 = over 75% of shares.  This company is not registered with C House nor with the Australian equivalent.

I hope a forumite with expertise in company law can say whether knowing the above could help your case.

I can't see any of that is relevant. The retailer is Anglia Home Furnishings Ltd, who are a live UK company:

ANGLIA HOME FURNISHINGS LIMITED overview - Find and update company information - GOV.UK (company-information.service.gov.uk)

cw8825

user1977 said:

Jellynailer said:

The dot com end to the company name surprised me so I checked Companies House on line. 

 

FAB FURNITURE LTD was registered in 2018 and (on 17/8/21) was taken over by one person who was then the only director; owned 100% of share; and changed the company address in Sheffield. 

 

The address was changed to Ipswich after an appeal to a notice of Compulsory Strike Off on 8/11/21.  The company was dissolved on 4/7/23 and struck off.

 

The company is now owned by Anglia Home Furnishings.  Latest accounts filed in Dec 2023 for year up to 31/3/23.  15 of the 17 directors at the time have all since resigned and replaced by new directors living in Australia: two in June 2024 one of who was replaced by another Aussie on 1/9/24.  Most of the stock is imported.  No mention of any UK factories owned by the company.

 

Nora Opco UK Ltd became ‘person of significant interest’ on 8/5/24 = over 75% of shares.  This company is not registered with C House nor with the Australian equivalent.

I hope a forumite with expertise in company law can say whether knowing the above could help your case.

I can't see any of that is relevant. The retailer is Anglia Home Furnishings Ltd, who are a live UK company:

ANGLIA HOME FURNISHINGS LIMITED overview - Find and update company information - GOV.UK (company-information.service.gov.uk)

where does this come into OP retuning a bed?
The bed was ordered instore at a UK branch

OP are the slots in the bed the correct distance part, as the mattress advert does state that could affect the use

You say it was a 'custom' order, was that for the be or the mattress

jasonwatkins

cw8825 said:

user1977 said:

Jellynailer said:

The dot com end to the company name surprised me so I checked Companies House on line. 

 

FAB FURNITURE LTD was registered in 2018 and (on 17/8/21) was taken over by one person who was then the only director; owned 100% of share; and changed the company address in Sheffield. 

 

The address was changed to Ipswich after an appeal to a notice of Compulsory Strike Off on 8/11/21.  The company was dissolved on 4/7/23 and struck off.

 

The company is now owned by Anglia Home Furnishings.  Latest accounts filed in Dec 2023 for year up to 31/3/23.  15 of the 17 directors at the time have all since resigned and replaced by new directors living in Australia: two in June 2024 one of who was replaced by another Aussie on 1/9/24.  Most of the stock is imported.  No mention of any UK factories owned by the company.

 

Nora Opco UK Ltd became ‘person of significant interest’ on 8/5/24 = over 75% of shares.  This company is not registered with C House nor with the Australian equivalent.

I hope a forumite with expertise in company law can say whether knowing the above could help your case.

I can't see any of that is relevant. The retailer is Anglia Home Furnishings Ltd, who are a live UK company:

ANGLIA HOME FURNISHINGS LIMITED overview - Find and update company information - GOV.UK (company-information.service.gov.uk)

where does this come in it OP retuning a bed?
The bed was ordered instore at a UK branch

OP are the slots in the bed the correct distance part, as the mattress advert does state that could affect the use

You say it was a 'custom' order, was that for the be or the mattress

I've just measured them and the slats are 7cm apart so easily within the 7.5cm recommended distance.

The order was for a 2 seater recliner settee which is perfectly fine, and I actually quite like that , the bed frame and the mattress.

At the time I made it clear that as I lived on my own in a first floor flat that i wouldn't be able to dispose of the original furniture myself and that I'd ideally need the new furniture assembling as well due to my litany of health issues.

This is when the salesman got in touch with a firm that he had used many times in the past and explained my situation.   A price was agreed for them to take away my old bed, including the mattress and divan base, and also my ratty old settee.  They would also assemble the furniture as well.

On the delivery date, the Fabb delivery drivers actually came early and delivered and assembled the new settee in the front room but I had to leave the old settee there as well until the other people came to collect it.

They clarified that they weren't there to assemble the bed and just left everything in the bedroom.

The other firm came later that afternoon and removed my old settee and then my old bed and they then proceeded to assemble the new bed frame and put the mattress on it.

It was only when they'd left when I raised the ottoman base to see one of the slats had been broken.  I accept I should have gotten straight on the phone to mention this but, at that point, I had no idea what the bed was going to be like when I actually slept on it.   Now that I have though, I'm quite confident in saying that this broken slat has had zero bearing on the problems I've been having.

I've just rung Fabb's customer support line actually and asked if there were any avenues towards making a change in the mattress and she rapidly rattled off their no refund or exchange policy so I've asked for the actual in-store salesman to give me a ring instead.

Ergates

It's unlikely that a single broken slat would be the sole cause of the sleeping difficulties you're having - especially as feeling too hot is one of them.

Also - if you raise the broken slat to the company, the obvious thing for them to do would be to replace that slat rather than take the bed back, so I doubt it'll help you get what you want anyway.  You *should* do that anyway however - if you're going to have to keep the bed, there is no reason not to have it fully intact.

Jellynailer

jasonwatkins said:

... if anyone has any thoughts about what, if anything, I could do if i need to make a change then I'd be very grateful.

The reason why I checked Companies House was because it is a dot com company and this raised alarm bells aa to whether it could be held to account for breaching any UK consumer law – noting that the owner is not registered in the UK or anywhere else that I could find.

The filings show that the Company has no Vision or Corporate Governance policies relating to customer care. My pocket geltex mattress manufacturer (Silentnight = SN) has both of these and this is reflected in its terms and conditions and its comprehensive mattress care advice contained in its guarantee booklet. https://www.fabbfurniture.com/pages/fabb-care-guide

When I searched for similar advice on the FF site, 5 different geltec mattresses are shown = all Silentnight mattresses; all showing the same image as your mattress; and close to half the price you paid for your 'Coolsafe' mattress! The 'discounted price you paid is shown on the website as time limited. It is the same price you were quoted in March.

The mattress care advice from SN is that the mattress needs to be rotated every week for the first 2-3 months and monthly thereafter. If you have been doing this, I suggest that you should not have the problems that you have outlined. I say this because I had similar problems because the mattress was too heavy (36 kg) to be rotated. Having finally got help to do so, I am back to enjoying the geltex function for a couple of weeks.

If you have been rotating, then I suggest that your mattress is a fake copy manufactured abroad given the long delivery time (compared with SN time of 24 days. Can you post photographs of the labels on it and say whether any heavy weight warning was provided. [NB at the top of the FF webpage there is a claim about quick delivery].

I looked at Trustpilot (TP) 1 star reviews for FF (it pays TP for a 'verified review service) and there are pages of complaints about FF refusal to redress product failings amongst an veritable avalanche of complaints about delivery delays for up to 5 months. FF responses to the reviews were summed up by one reviewer – sale made so go away.

FF's t&c are weird and do not, anyway, apply to products bought in store but do show that you would have been denied a return with refund from the moment you bought the mattress if you had bought it online. The section on complaints states that these need to be addressed to customer service and not sales.

If you want to try a complaint to the Furniture Ombudsman (FHIO) it is AHF that is the registered member an one of its larger funders given its (£40+ million plus turnover) but check 1 star reviews on TP before you do. It is mainly a mediation company with very few cases actually investigated.

Please can you write up everything you remember about your instore experience. Noting that you said the salesperson lied, I wonder if there are grounds for a criminal complaint of fraud.

HillStreetBlues

How about claiming mattress is faulty.
It states "never too hot or cold" & "with an infusion of cooling gel capsules."
If you've got too hot then there must be a fault somewhere possibly with the cooling caps.
 

user1977

Jellynailer said:

jasonwatkins said:

... if anyone has any thoughts about what, if anything, I could do if i need to make a change then I'd be very grateful.

The reason why I checked Companies House was because it is a dot com company and this raised alarm bells aa to whether it could be held to account for breaching any UK consumer law – noting that the owner is not registered in the UK or anywhere else that I could find.

Whether their domain is .com, .co.uk or anything else is irrelevant, websites can be run from anywhere in the world (and you're on a .com site just now which is obviously based in the UK). 

In this case the retailer is a UK-registered limited company. That's who the OP has their rights against, he can't start suing shareholders no matter where they are.

born_again

Jellynailer said:

Please can you write up everything you remember about your instore experience. Noting that you said the salesperson lied, I wonder if there are grounds for a criminal complaint of fraud.

Hate to say this but police will simply say this is a civil matter & not a criminal one.😶‍🌫️

jasonwatkins

HillStreetBlues said:

How about claiming mattress is faulty.
It states "never too hot or cold" & "with an infusion of cooling gel capsules."
If you've got too hot then there must be a fault somewhere possibly with the cooling caps.
 

I think this could be something to pursue.  I certainly feel there isn't "optimum temperature regulation" at all.

Jellynailer said:

Please can you write up everything you remember about your instore experience. Noting that you said the salesperson lied, I wonder if there are grounds for a criminal complaint of fraud.

I do appreciate your input, thankyou, but the salesman didn't lie.  I was given, and signed, all of the appropriate paperwork after I'd read through it.   That's why I wrote what I did in my opening post that I understand my options are extremely limited.