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Dreams Bed Superstores? Dream on!

My new Dream bed was just a dream

Our correspondent writes ...

I ordered a new bed and mattress from Dreams Bed Superstores PLC because the item was guaranteed in stock and could be delivered within 7 days. The actual delivery date was fixed 8 days from purchase  - the earliest available slot. Less that 24 hours before the due delivery date, the warehouse phoned to say that when they went to load the delivery vehicle with my order they suddenly realised that they had "run out"!

How a multi-national company ever conducts an audit with such terrible stock control is beyond me but, to add insult to injury, this person had absolutely no idea when this bed might come back into stock and suggested I rang customer services to acquire an approximate date.

I did just this (at national call cost), and was on hold for 10 minutes before I could explain the situation to the operator. She assured me she would find out immediately and mumbled a very insincere apology.

5pm came with no phone call. The insincere operator had now gone home for her dinner.

I still had no bed so I decided to phone the store from which I bought the bed. I asked to speak to the manager. "He's gone home for his tea," I was told.

Supervisor? Nope. He too has gone home for tea.

So who's in charge? "Er no one. It's 6pm, so we are running on skeleton staff."

Funny that. On the Bank holiday Monday when I ordered the bed, there were salesmen queuing up to take my money.

So buyer beware. They may say they it is in stock but what this actually means is: 'We have some stock, we don't keep track of how many we sell and we have a tiny bit of small print to cover ourselves and avoid being caught out by trading standards.'

Still, seeing as I had booked the following day off work to wait in for the delivery, I had plenty of time to go in to the store and demand my refund.

Editorial comment:

This correspondent's experiences don't exactly match the delivery promises made on the company's website but we perhaps shouldn't be surprised. It's very often the case that a large company's employees don't all sing out of the same hymn book which rather makes a mockery of the government-imposed standards that are supposed to protect consumer rights.

Anybody else had similar experiences with Dreams Bed Superstores?

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