Dreams bed Superstore??? Complaints?

Tim_Deegan

Googlewhacker wrote: »

All the above maybe true but for the majority of people they must do a good job otherwise they wouldn't be in business.

Plus you have a biased view as well

Just because they sell products to people who are happy with their purchse doesn't mean they do a good job, because most people don't realise that they could have bought a better product for far less money elswhere. All this means is that they are better at brain washing people (the power of advertising). This doesn't mean they are doing a good job for the customer, although they are for their share holders.

My comments on here are nothing to do with commercial reasons. They are based on a combination of what I know about them, and what 100's of my customers tell me about their previous experiences with them.

Googlewhacker

Tim_Deegan wrote: »

Just because they sell products to people who are happy with their purchse doesn't mean they do a good job, because most people don't realise that they could have bought a better product for far less money elswhere. All this means is that they are better at brain washing people (the power of advertising). This doesn't mean they are doing a good job for the customer, although they are for their share holders.

My comments on here are nothing to do with commercial reasons. They are based on a combination of what I know about them, and what 100's of my customers tell me about their previous experiences with them.

A good job is selling someone something they are happy with at a price the customer feels is reasonable. As long as this is met then the job has been a good one. It is irrelivant if they could have got it cheaper as the customer is satisfied with the transaction they took.

Tim_Deegan

Googlewhacker wrote: »

A good job is selling someone something they are happy with at a price the customer feels is reasonable. As long as this is met then the job has been a good one. It is irrelivant if they could have got it cheaper as the customer is satisfied with the transaction they took.

Utter rubbish. Customers only feel satisfied because they don't know any better. If they knew the truth then they would be furious. So in whos warped mind does this mean they have done a good job. The only good job they have done is to rip people off. If people knew the truth then they wouldn't be in business.........common sense.

Googlewhacker

Tim_Deegan wrote: »

Utter rubbish. Customers only feel satisfied because they don't know any better. If they knew the truth then they would be furious. So in whos warped mind does this mean they have done a good job. The only good job they have done is to rip people off. If people knew the truth then they wouldn't be in business.........common sense.

Well it's not and Dreams are one of the industry leaders so they can't be doing that bad for their customers.

Tim_Deegan

Googlewhacker wrote: »

Well it's not and Dreams are one of the industry leaders so they can't be doing that bad for their customers.

Self appointed industry leaders!!!!!!

As I said before, that is down to the power of advertising. They are part of a huge company with huge advertising budgets.

It's just like some of the huge bed manufacturers who convince people that their products are good quality by using the power of advertising, when the truth is that the quality and reliability is terrible.

It's called marketing.......don't be so nieve as to think anything else.

Googlewhacker

Tim_Deegan wrote: »

Self appointed industry leaders!!!!!!

As I said before, that is down to the power of advertising. They are part of a huge company with huge advertising budgets.

It's just like some of the huge bed manufacturers who convince people that their products are good quality by using the power of advertising, when the truth is that the quality and reliability is terrible.

It's called marketing.......don't be so nieve as to think anything else.

I'm not actually disagreeing that people could get the same product for cheaper, or a cheaper product that is superior. I am arguing the point that just because they sell things at a higher price does not mean they are doing a bad job and if they really were doing a bad job then they would be bust.

As the are the industry leaders they will outsell most stores by the thousends so it is expected that on a board you will get more complaints about them but their actual % may not be to differant to most other companies.

Tim_Deegan

Googlewhacker wrote: »

I'm not actually disagreeing that people could get the same product for cheaper, or a cheaper product that is superior. I am arguing the point that just because they sell things at a higher price does not mean they are doing a bad job and if they really were doing a bad job then they would be bust.

As the are the industry leaders they will outsell most stores by the thousends so it is expected that on a board you will get more complaints about them but their actual % may not be to differant to most other companies.

You are completely missing the point here.

The fact is that like many other big companies their customer service is terrible. For this reason their % of unsatisfied customers would be far higher than companies who actually care about customers rather than just profit.

One thing that goes in the favour of large bed retailers such as Dreams is that people don't buy beds very often. So if they have huge marketing budgets to convince people that they are good value and their products are good quality, then enough people will believe them. Those people only have to buy from them once in their lives to make Dreams the huge company it is. Granted some people will buy from them and believe that they got a bargain, and will never realise that they got stitched up, so they may return there just as oblivious and buy again.

What you have to remember is that the power of advertising brainwashes people. This is why when people think of buying a bed, they think of just a few companies including Dreams, Benson, Sleepmasters, etc..... This is down to advertising, and not because they employ good sales staff, or provide good customer service, or that they are good value.

They will also tell you that you must try a bed before you buy. However the truth is that you can only get a very rough idea by laying on a bed for 10 mins in a shop fully clothed. The only way to know for sure is to actually sleep on a bed for a few nights. So you will obviously need to speak to someone who listens to all your needs, and using knowledge and experience can come up with what is probably the most suitable bed for you, which you can try in your own home, and return it if it is unsuitable. This would be good bed retailing, but 99% of the bed retail industry don't do this.

Googlewhacker

Tim_Deegan wrote: »

You are completely missing the point here.

The fact is that like many other big companies their customer service is terrible. For this reason their % of unsatisfied customers would be far higher than companies who actually care about customers rather than just profit.

One thing that goes in the favour of large bed retailers such as Dreams is that people don't buy beds very often. So if they have huge marketing budgets to convince people that they are good value and their products are good quality, then enough people will believe them. Those people only have to buy from them once in their lives to make Dreams the huge company it is. Granted some people will buy from them and believe that they got a bargain, and will never realise that they got stitched up, so they may return there just as oblivious and buy again.

What you have to remember is that the power of advertising brainwashes people. This is why when people think of buying a bed, they think of just a few companies including Dreams, Benson, Sleepmasters, etc..... This is down to advertising, and not because they employ good sales staff, or provide good customer service, or that they are good value.

They will also tell you that you must try a bed before you buy. However the truth is that you can only get a very rough idea by laying on a bed for 10 mins in a shop fully clothed. The only way to know for sure is to actually sleep on a bed for a few nights. So you will obviously need to speak to someo one who listens to all your needs, and using knowledge and experience can come up with what is probably the most suitable bed for you, which you can try in your own home, and return it if it is unsuitable. This would be good bed retailing, but 99% of the bed retail industry don't do this.

I agree on most of the above points but we are seeing this from differant angles, I see it as good business as they are satisfying the majority of their customers and are one of the largest in the industry and you see it as being adequate but not excellant service.

Also the last bit you describe is not good customer service, it is excellant customer service but in my opinion whilst it provides a good niche selling point it is not required to sell beds (as you say is demonstrated by 99% of the companys online)

At the end of the day the vast majority of customers are happy with the service provided by the big companies which ultimately is good service (but maybe not the standard you provide as normal!)

Tim_Deegan

Googlewhacker wrote: »

I agree on most of the above points but we are seeing this from differant angles, I see it as good business as they are satisfying the majority of their customers and are one of the largest in the industry and.

Also the last bit you describe is not good customer service, it is excellant customer service but in my opinion whilst it provides a good niche selling point it is not required to sell beds (as you say is demonstrated by 99% of the companys online)

At the end of the day the vast majority of customers are happy with the service provided by the big companies which ultimately is good service (but maybe not the standard you provide as normal!)

How can you say that the vast majority of their customers are satisfied? Where do you get this information from? Even if they were satisfied at the time of purchase and delivery, how many would still be satisfied a few months down the line if they found out they were ripped off?

You have to remember that although Dreams have a huge number of sales, the complaints on MSE are only a tiny fraction of unhappy customers, who happen to be members of MSE, and who happened to stumble across this thread, and who could be bothered to write a post about them. For example I have had terrible service from various companies over the years but I haven't posted on MSE about it.

I understand where you are coming from, but a retailer that is doing a good job is not just one that earns share holders loads of money. But it is a company who builds up a good reputation with consumers through excellent customer service. You only need to look at what happened to MFI, they only managed to con the public for so long before people started to realise the truth. Dreams could go the same way they did.

Many maketing strategies are aimed at people of lower inteligence (fact). This is because they want to convince them of whatever the message of the advert is without them even questioning it. Many people who actually stop and think about it can actually realise that they are being ripped off by the big companies, and start shopping around.

Googlewhacker

Can you link me that bit of the marketing being aimed at lower intelligence, I am interested in that type of thing.

At the end of the day customers would not buy from these large companies if the service they were getting was crap.

I can say the vast majority of customers are satisfied because they would not be in business if the majority of customers were unsatisfied.