Misled over mattress disposal service

Wightpants

Hello,

I recently bought a new mattress from originmattress.co.uk . So far the mattress seems good.

When I was looking at purchasing it, I noticed they had a mattress disposal service for £54. The check box option at checkout said 'One mattress disposal'. As I am in the process of moving house, I actually had four mattresses I wanted to get rid of. As it would be convenient to get rid of them at the same time as the new one was delivered, I contacted the online chat agent and asked them if they could take more than one mattress. Transcript below:

• Have you already bought an Origin product?
• Not yet, can you tell me about the product?
• Hello. How may I help you?
• Hello. I have some questions about the 'Mattress Disposal' option.
• Hello! Sure, I'd be happy to help you with that. What would you like to know about our mattress disposal service?
• Can I only have one mattress disposed of if I'm only buying one mattress or is it possible to have more than one disposed of?
• We're happy to collect any old mattress for recycling, no matter the quantity. You can dispose of more than one mattress as long as the disposal service is available in your area and selected during checkout. Just make sure it's available for your location on mainland UK!
• Excellent. So I take it the disposed mattresses don't have to be the same size as the one I'm buying, e.g. I could buy a double size mattress and you could take away a king sized one?
• That’s correct! You can dispose of any old mattress of any size, regardless of the size of the new mattress you are purchasing. As long as the service is selected during your checkout, we'll take care of it.
• Ok, thanks. I have some questions about delivery too.
• Will I be given a time-slot for delivery or receive some kind of message when delivery is imminent?
• Yes, you will! After placing your order, you should have received an email with an estimated delivery time and a shipping tracker.
• On the morning of the delivery, you'll receive a text message with your time slot. Additionally, our delivery drivers will call you 30 minutes before they arrive to ensure you're ready to receive your order.
• Is there anything else I can help you with?
• Sounds great! I don't have any more questions at the moment.
• Thanks for your help.
• Wonderful! If you have any more questions in the future, feel free to reach out. Have a great day!

As you can see, they made it quite clear that they would take any number of mattresses away as long as I selected the option and the service was available in my area. So I went ahead and ordered the mattress with the disposal option. I even added a note into the notes box saying I had several mattresses for disposal.

Guess what? When the guys turned up, they refused to take any extra mattresses. They would only take the one that was being replaced.

I would never have booked the option for mattress disposal if I'd known they would only take one. I've since discovered that my local council will take up to eight mattresses for half the price that Origin were charging. Though the convenience of Origin taking them all when they delivered might have been worth it.

I have exchanged a few emails with Origin but, so far, they are refusing to offer a refund despite that fact that I was grossly misinformed by their agent. This is from their latest email:

• We understand your concern regarding the disposal service. As mentioned on our website and in your order confirmation email, the £54 fee covers the disposal of one mattress. We regret that there was a misunderstanding regarding the number of mattresses to be removed. Unfortunately, as the service has already been completed by our delivery partner and the fee has been processed, we are unable to refund the disposal service charge. We sincerely apologize for any frustration this has caused.

Can anyone offer any advice on what I can/should do next? The 'misunderstanding' was entirely on their agent's part, not mine.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

eskbanker

It doesn't read to me that they committed to dispose of multiple mattresses for that £54 fee?  The fact that the online checkout process only allows selection of one mattress for £54 would perhaps endorse this - I can understand your interpretation but see the other side of the argument too....

Wightpants

eskbanker said:

It doesn't read to me that they committed to dispose of multiple mattresses for that £54 fee?  The fact that the online checkout process only allows selection of one mattress for £54 would perhaps endorse this - I can understand your interpretation but see the other side of the argument too....

Thanks for the reply.

As the agent said:

• We're happy to collect any old mattress for recycling, no matter the quantity. You can dispose of more than one mattress as long as the disposal service is available in your area and selected during checkout. Just make sure it's available for your location on mainland UK!

I can't really see any other way to interpret that. The mattress disposal service was available in my area and I selected it during checkout. Am I missing something?

eskbanker

Wightpants said:

eskbanker said:

It doesn't read to me that they committed to dispose of multiple mattresses for that £54 fee?  The fact that the online checkout process only allows selection of one mattress for £54 would perhaps endorse this - I can understand your interpretation but see the other side of the argument too....

Thanks for the reply.

As the agent said:

• We're happy to collect any old mattress for recycling, no matter the quantity. You can dispose of more than one mattress as long as the disposal service is available in your area and selected during checkout. Just make sure it's available for your location on mainland UK!

I can't really see any other way to interpret that. The mattress disposal service was available in my area and I selected it during checkout. Am I missing something?

I'm assuming that their argument is that they will dispose of more than one mattress but for a higher fee than £54?  At checkout you selected an option to 'dispose of one mattress for £54', was there definitely no option to choose disposal of more than one during that process?  Even if there wasn't, it would still seem that you ordered disposal of one mattress for £54, regardless of the lack of alternative options presented, and this is what you received - I'm not necessarily saying that they're right and you're wrong, and you've obviously got more of the trail than you've shared, but it doesn't seem clear-cut to me as an impartial observer....

pinkshoes

Wightpants said:

eskbanker said:

It doesn't read to me that they committed to dispose of multiple mattresses for that £54 fee?  The fact that the online checkout process only allows selection of one mattress for £54 would perhaps endorse this - I can understand your interpretation but see the other side of the argument too....

Thanks for the reply.

As the agent said:

• We're happy to collect any old mattress for recycling, no matter the quantity. You can dispose of more than one mattress as long as the disposal service is available in your area and selected during checkout. Just make sure it's available for your location on mainland UK!

I can't really see any other way to interpret that. The mattress disposal service was available in my area and I selected it during checkout. Am I missing something?

Seems straight forward. If you want 4 mattresses disposing of then you pay 4 disposal fees. So £54 x 4.

You only paid one lot of £54 so they took one mattress.

What they said is correct in that they can take several. You've made a really wrong assumption that they'd take all for £54. 

I think it's quite clear as that is per mattress.

Most councils do offer bulky item disposal. Usually upto 4 items for a fixed price.

born_again

I think it's a case of mis communication.
As it is clear when purchasing

Shipping + One Mattress Disposal: £54.00

ThumbRemote

The usual responses from "the customer is always wrong" brigade, making up absolute rubbish.

They were told that more than one mattress could be sent. It's not complicated.

eskbanker

ThumbRemote said:

The usual responses from "the customer is always wrong" brigade, making up absolute rubbish.

They were told that more than one mattress could be sent. It's not complicated.

I was clear to state in my post that I wasn't necessarily siding with the vendor, but simply trying to highlight to OP that it isn't as clear-cut as they seem to believe, at least not based on what's been posted.

Nobody is disputing that they were told that more than one mattress could be disposed of, but there hasn't been anything shared thus far that clarifies that multiple mattresses would be included for the same price as one.

Hoenir

ThumbRemote said:

The usual responses from "the customer is always wrong" brigade, making up absolute rubbish.

They were told that more than one mattress could be sent. It's not complicated.

There was a caveat. 

You can dispose of more than one mattress as long as the disposal service is available in your area and selected during checkout. Just make sure it's available for your location on mainland UK!

Only option available on checkout. 

Shipping + One Mattress Disposal: £54.00

All in plain written English. As you say straightforward. 

Baldytyke88

Wightpants said:

Thanks for the reply.

As the agent said:

• We're happy to collect any old mattress for recycling, no matter the quantity. You can dispose of more than one mattress as long as the disposal service is available in your area and selected during checkout. Just make sure it's available for your location on mainland UK!

I can't really see any other way to interpret that. The mattress disposal service was available in my area and I selected it during checkout. Am I missing something?

Since you just selected 1 mattress to return, returning more was unavailable.

Wightpants

Thanks for all the responses so far.

There was definitely only the one option on checkout which said 'One Mattress Disposal'. That is precisely why I messaged them to ask about other options.

I didn't want to clog up the OP with the full email exchange but here it is, minus the original complaint I posted in their chat. As you can see, they have admitted they were at fault:

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Agent 2 (Customer Support Team) Dec 17, 2024, 2:55 PM GMT+8 Hi Wightpants,   We’re very sorry for the confusion and inconvenience caused. As stated on our website, the £54 charge for mattress disposal is for the removal of one mattress, and only one mattress disposal can be added per order. We sincerely apologize for any misunderstanding.   We suggest contacting your local council for the donation or recycling of your old mattresses, as they may offer a collection service.   Once again, we apologize for the inconvenience, and we truly appreciate your understanding.   Kind regards,  CC
-----

Hello,

It certainly is stated on your website that the charge is for one mattress noly. However, your agent, Alyssa, made it VERY clear to me that you would be happy to take any number of mattresses from me if I paid for the service. I know that I can pay for the council to take them away and they will do so for a smaller charge. I only selcted the option on your website as I thought it would be a convenient way to have several mattresses removed at the same time as having the new one delivered.

I would never have selected the mattress disposal option if I had been told that only one would be taken. As I have said though, Your agent made it very clear that you would take any quantity of old mattresses from me.

I have included a transcript of the conversation below.

I look forward to hearing from you.

-----

Agent 2 (Customer Support Team)

Dec 18, 2024, 6:06 PM GMT+8

Hi Wightpants,
 
We sincerely apologize for the confusion and the misinformation you received from our agent. We have taken note of this error and have informed the live chat team to ensure this does not happen again. We completely understand your frustration, and we are very sorry for any inconvenience caused.
 
Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We truly appreciate your understanding, and we’ll make sure to correct this moving forward.
 
Kind regards, 
CC

-----

Hello,

I am glad to hear that you have taken steps to make sure this doesn't happen again. However, it has already happened to me.

As you have admitted that the fault was at your end, I would like the £54 I paid for the service to be refunded. As I said, there is no way I would have booked the service if I had known that only one matress would be taken.

As well as being given the wrong information by your agent, I entered a message in the 'notes' section of my order that I had multiple mattresses to remove. Yet no objection to this was raised prior to delivery.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Thank you.

-----

Agent 2 (Customer Support Team)

Dec 24, 2024, 2:31 PM GMT+8

Hi Wightpants,
 
We sincerely apologize for the confusion and inconvenience caused.
 
We understand your concern regarding the disposal service. As mentioned on our website and in your order confirmation email, the £54 fee covers the disposal of one mattress. We regret that there was a misunderstanding regarding the number of mattresses to be removed.
 
Unfortunately, as the service has already been completed by our delivery partner and the fee has been processed, we are unable to refund the disposal service charge. We sincerely apologize for any frustration this has caused.
 
Thank you for your understanding.
 
Kind regards, 
CC