Emma Mattress return

User482950

Our Emma mattress was delivered in April and I have gone on the website to return it, as after going on holiday and sleeping much better, I realise the hip and back pains are due to the mattress. However, the online returns portal says that we are out of time and we need to phone them, even though we havent had it for 200 nights..  You phone them and there is a message saying there is a 774 minute wait for the call to be answered.  I have emailed, put a note on X, Facebook and had no response.  What do I do next? I looked at citizens advice but that seems to be quite restrictive to certain businesses and Emma isnt covered by an ombudsman as far as I can see.  I've been trying for 3 weeks to contact them, and we had had the mattress for 137 days when I started this process off.   I did get an email saying that they would come back to me. 

born_again

Try calling when they 1st open. As staff will be waiting for calls.

If it still lists a wait, then I just put phone on loudspeaker & carry on with what I need to do till they answer.

Ergates

If it's a freephone number, put your phone on speaker, dial the number, put your phone in your pocket and get on with something else whilst you wait.

User482950

born_again said:

Try calling when they 1st open. As staff will be waiting for calls.

If it still lists a wait, then I just put phone on loudspeaker & carry on with what I need to do till they answer.

12 hour wait! My phones wont keep charge for that long! it said a 774 minute wait. 

User482950

Ergates said:

If it's a freephone number, put your phone on speaker, dial the number, put your phone in your pocket and get on with something else whilst you wait.

774 mins is 12 hours to wait....my phone battery wont last that long ! thank you though for your comment, much appreciated. 

Badboi

Did you buy direct from Emma? 

born_again

User482950 said:

born_again said:

Try calling when they 1st open. As staff will be waiting for calls.

If it still lists a wait, then I just put phone on loudspeaker & carry on with what I need to do till they answer.

12 hour wait! My phones wont keep charge for that long! it said a 774 minute wait. 

At best it's a guesstimate. Or a put people off holding. As there is n way a system can know exactly how long a call will last. Mine can go from a minute to a hour 🤷‍♀️

A_Geordie

I agree with born_again, I don't think Emma has a sufficiently large customer base to warrant a 12 hour wait, unless they have one person manning the whole customer service department?!

You can of course keep pestering them until they decide to come back to you but given that you have already contacted them several times using various methods and still haven't had a reply, if I were in your shoes I would be inclined to take the initiative and send them one final email to come and collect the mattress. The contents of your email could include one or more of the following points: 

1. You've already contacted them on X dates using social media and email to return the matter but have no reply other than an email to say they will get back to you, which was 3 weeks ago. When you try to call you are told that the wait time is circa 12 hours which is wholly unreasonable for someone to wait on the phone for that long. 

2. You now require them to collect the mattress by X date (14 days should be reasonable) otherwise you will consider your options and take further action, which may include legal proceedings against Emma.

3. (Optional) You could enclose within your letter a "Torts Notice" which is a notice under Section 12 of the Torts (interference with goods) Act 1977 that says if they don't collect the mattress within a reasonable period, then you will look to sell the mattress and deduct any costs you incur whilst handing back the remaining proceeds. If you do a bit of online research you will be able to find template notices that you can fill in yourself. 14 days is considered a reasonable period, even more so when its been 3 weeks since you first informed Emma of your intention to return the mattress.

4. (Optional). In addition to a Torts Notice, you could also tell them that if the mattress has not been collected by the required time frame given in your email, then you will consider Emma as trespassing on your property and you could seek to charge Emma a reasonable fee for it to remain on your property until collected. The legal terminology for this is mesne profits which is typically used in landlord and tenant cases but can also be applied to other situations like this. A reasonable fee could be anywhere in the region of £10-£30 per day but you may have to base that sum on something such as how much it would cost to store the mattress with a third party. 

You could even combine both a Torts Notice and the chargeable fee for trespassing together in your email to Emma but if you do, then you may need to give Emma 3 months' notice before attempting to sell or dispose because the Act says if someone owes you money before the notice is given, you need to give 3 months notice to collect. I would err on the side of caution and give them 3 months notice if you are wanting to charge them for storage. You will more than likely have to start legal proceedings to recover that sum of money even if the mattress was collected so that's something you would need to take into account and whether you are comfortable going that far.

sheramber

Did you use the direct  message  on Facebook? 

Ergates

User482950 said:

Ergates said:

If it's a freephone number, put your phone on speaker, dial the number, put your phone in your pocket and get on with something else whilst you wait.

774 mins is 12 hours to wait....my phone battery wont last that long ! thank you though for your comment, much appreciated. 

It should be sufficiently obvious that the actual queue isn't 774 minutes long because, as you point out, that is over 12 hours, and nobody is going to wait 12 in a phone queue.  Ergo it's obviously an error, ergo you wouldn't have to wait that long.

HillStreetBlues

Ergates said:

User482950 said:

Ergates said:

If it's a freephone number, put your phone on speaker, dial the number, put your phone in your pocket and get on with something else whilst you wait.

774 mins is 12 hours to wait....my phone battery wont last that long ! thank you though for your comment, much appreciated. 

It should be sufficiently obvious that the actual queue isn't 774 minutes long because, as you point out, that is over 12 hours, and nobody is going to wait 12 in a phone queue.  Ergo it's obviously an error, ergo you wouldn't have to wait that long.

Want to test that theory?