Bensons for Beds / avoid this costly and frustrating company!
Bensons for beds - Kingsgate East Kilbride branch.
My experience with Bensons for Beds is very similar to the other complaint about their lack of service and faulty goods on this site. I only wish I had read it before making a purchase at our local branch.
We paid in advance for two sets of bedside drawers which were to be collected from the shop. On the day - 22nd May 2007 I went in to pay the balance and was told that my husband could collect them from the back door but to come upstairs (Bensons is on the first floor of a Harveys shop) to the desk in the first instance. When my husband arrived he was told by the manageress that she had arranged for the goods to be brought upstairs (why?). Both boxes were clearly marked 'Two Man Lift' 'Heavy' 'Beware of back injury'. My husband was told to check with the Harveys Store Manager to take the boxes down in the lift. The Harveys Manager refused saying that the lift was for use by the disabled and people with children in buggy's. The Bensons Manageress then told my husband that there was nothing she could do and my husband and his friend had to manhandle the boxes down full flight of stairs on an open staircase right through the middle of the store.
Once we had both boxes home we opened the first to find the side panel had a wide gap from the main part of the casing and would not sit flush. As a result the drawers could not fit onto the runner. By this time we were pretty fed up with Bensons and I telephoned the store and advised the Manageress that the goods were faulty and we were rejecting them. I also said we wanted a full refund and for them to collect the faulty goods from us. She gave me the telephone number of the Customer Services department in their Head Office and said the store did not handle complaints. Next day, Customer Services said that only the store could handle refunds and directed me to them again. I explained my frustration and she said she would speak with the store and get them to ring me. After many phone calls and another visit to the store I was told that only an Area Manager could authorize a refund and they would try to get a hold of them and let me know. A week after the original complaint, I was called by the Manageress to say that she had told the Area Manager everything and "unlucky for me, he has decided not to give a refund". No reason was given and she advised me I should write to their Head Office. I declined and told her that I would be contacting Trading Standards.
Trading Standards have had absolutely no response what so ever from Bensons for Beds to three letters they have sent to them and we are now in the process of raising a Small Claims Action against them. Now five weeks later, I still have their faulty merchandise sitting in my garage and they still have myA3300 with no end in sight to this frustrating experience.
Please think very carefully before dealing with this company as if any problems occur with any goods or service they do not appear to have any mechanism or staff trained to help customers or deal with complaints, refunds or give any kind of satisfaction. I will never have any dealings with this company again and wish to alert as many others as possible so they can avoid this costly and frustrating experience.
Sincerely,
Lorraine
More Bensons for Beds Complaints & Reviews
- Sleep to live mattress from Bensons Beds - mattress is rubbish [17]
- Bensons for Beds - poor customer service & broken promises [9]
- Bensons for Beds - bensons for beds scam
- Bensons for Beds - disgraceful customer service [3]
- Bensons for Beds - pocket sprung mattress [4]
- Bensons for Beds - mattress [2]
- Bensons for Beds - bed and mattress
- Bensons for Beds - change of price over the easter weekend
- Bensons for Beds - mattress
- Bensons for Beds - unreliable company
Date
I'm currently dealing with Bensons and endorse all I 've read from your two complainants.
We ordered a double hip hop bed on 31/12/09 explaining we needed it so I could take care of my girlfriend at her home after she had a major operation.They gave their word it would be delivered on time or before. They have treated us with contempt. New delivery date of 03/02/2100...two weeks too late. All attempts at talking to them met with rudeness and total distain. They truly are an awful company and have left us shattered and my girlfriend upset just before she has to go into hospital.Shocked a company like this can exist in this day and age. Have nothing to do with them.
(Update on above for Bensons for Beds).Well the day has come for the delivery of our bed...again. Its been a long haul over a road of rudeness, incompetence, lies, delays, and downright rudeness. i recived a call yesterday saying the bed would be delivered today between 8am and 1pm. Having suffered the incompetence of this company being in my life since Dec 31st I repeated the deliverey address to them...of course they had the wrong address. They say thay can still deliver it but can not now give me a time...they have given me their word it will arrive...which of course means nothing. I hold out little hope.I cann't even get angry with them anymore. Keep away from this company. Seriously its just not worth it. You have no idea how just ordering a bed from them can take hold and eat away at your normal life. They will leave you feeling powerless, drained, and totally exasperated... and theres nothing you can do about it.
Bought and paid for an orthopaedic bed on 25 August 2010 for disabled wife. Delivery to be 13 September 2010, told to ring day before to confirm time. In meantime decorate bedroom, new carpet, addition sockets for bed while wife in hospital. She came out 10 September looking forward to a good night's sleep soon to come.
Ring day before, not on computer for delivery. They need to ring warehouse tomorrow and will let me know what problem is. I end up chasing them and their head office. One says bed is discountinued, other that they no longer wish to use supplier but upshot is no bed. They do have new models coming out but cannot guarantee delivery for at least 3 weeks and they are much dearer.
Contact head office to speak to customer service about refund AND compensation but supervisor too busy to speak to me. Need to go back to Bolton store. They have to speak to area manager. Ring late in the evening to say will refund but no compensation for taking day off work or interest incurred on credit card.
How do I feel? Annoyed that nobody had the balls to contact me when they knew there was a problem, disgusted at the way they have treated a disabled and very sick customer and determined to expose their dodgy dealings to others who wish to avoid dealing with such a bunch of charlatans. They have not heard the last of me, even if I have to stand in their new Middlebrook store when it opens and tell potential customers of my problems.
Like others who have posted before, I wish I had looked at this site before!
Bensons for beds - stay away from them. I bought a non-turn Orthopaedic bed from them - paid cash. Eight months later the middle of the bed has 'sunk'. The bed is under a one year guarantee, but Bensons won't replace the bed or refund me. Apparently, even though it's a non-turn bed, I needed to turn the bed every two weeks to prevent it 'sinking' in the middle. How was I supposed to know this as there was no care leaflet explaining this. All I received was my invoice and terms and conditions. So, I'm stuck with a bed that has only lasted eight months and is now not fit for purpose.
I've just sent this email to Watchdog:
Dear Watchdog
I watched with interest your story about Comet not fulfilling their obligations in relation to expensive extended warranties.
In September 2009 I paid £699 for a new specialised orthopaedic mattress that was supposed to be good for people with low back problems. I was assured of the following:
1: This mattress will never have the problems often associated with other mattresses in that there would never be any tilt or rolling after any amount of use. In other words, the mattress would not “sink” (for want of a better explanation) towards the middle after a certain amount of use, due to the specific way it was “built”.
2: On spending £90 on a 5 year “Care and Protection” 1000 Plus warranty I was told by the salesman that if there were ANY problems, the mattress would be replaced immediately with no quibble whatsoever.
3: He also said that if I had an accident, such as spilling a hot drink on it, or putting my foot through it, even something like that would cause the mattress to be immediately replaced with no quibble.
I asleep alone.
In my case, I have had no such accident but I recently found out that the mattress was faulty. I slept on it for two years with no problem and then decided to rotate it as a “dip” was forming where I was lying, despite the assurances I was given, that this would not happen.
On going to sleep on the “new” side, I found it tilted towards the middle. Nobody has ever slept on that side of the bed.
I have a long history of low back problems which can be evidence by my GP if necessary. I have had years of physiotherapy and also spinal injections. If I do not sleep on a flat mattress then I get a tugging sensation in my lower back which causes pain the next day.
I contacted the company via the telephone number provided on the warranty. Somebody eventually came out to see the mattress. He used some sort of “red string” and a card which did in fact indicate that there is, indeed, something wrong. However, when I said to him something along the lines of “I’ll be glad when it has been replaced because I could use a good night’s sleep” he said something like: “it won’t be replaced as it is not damaged enough”.
Apparently the “tilt” has to be 3.5cms before they will replace it. The “tilt” on my mattress was, as I recall, 2.5cms. Not that that matters. It should have been flat.
Therefore it seems Bensons for Beds will only replace a faulty mattress if it conforms to their idea of what is not acceptable, regardless of the fact that I have long standing low back problems (which is why I bought this mattress), and I was assured that this super-duper mattress that was never going to “tilt”, but it has done, or rather it has always had the tilt as nobody has ever slept in that bed apart from me.
Plus I had been assured that if ANYTHING went wrong then it would be replaced immediately.
The assertions made to me by the salesman was the selling point. I now feel that I have been sold two items under false pretences:
The mattress would never tilt
The warranty ensured that the mattress would be replaced without quibble.
I feel cheated by Bensons for Beds because they have sold me something that cost £699 that does not do what I was told it would and clearly it has a fault and also I was conned into spending £90 on a warranty that will never be honoured.
It looks like I will now have to go to the added expanse of getting a good quality mattress topper – certainly I will not be going to Bensons for Beds for that.
I wondered if Watchdog has had any other complaints in relation to this company and the warranties not being fulfilled.
I have copied this email to Peter Neaves of Bensons for Beds, who arranged for the technician to visit. I emailed him after the technician departed and although he clicked the receipt for my email I have never had a response back.
Thank you for your time
con men
They have now come good and I expect the faulty mattress to to exchanged with one that is not. I had to approach a solicitor to write to them first, though.
I bought and paid £1600 for an ex-display king size bed from Benson, the salesman boasted about it being one of the best. When I finally got it home it gave me nothing but back ache they weren't interested in my complaint being genuine, even though their salesman had lied to to get a sale. Very dishonest company! Avoid. There must be loads of better Bed companies out there.
I have asked them to remove it but still no reply. Rubbish Company!
Spent £2000 on new bedroom furniture from Bensons for Beds. When it all arrived 6 weeks later and after disposing of the old furniture to make way for the new, 1 item was a wrong unit and was not in the catalogue or the showroom so would have to wait 6 weeks for a replacement. Next box I opened couldn't be completely put together as there were missing items so would have to wait another 6 weeks for replacement, the next box had 5 drawer handles missing but they could get new handles to me in a couple of days. The next box had a damaged item in it so again would have to wait 6 weeks for a replacement and the final straw was when the people I had to pay to build the wardrobe arrived, they said they couldn't move the units upstairs as they were not insured. Please not, I asked the delivery men to take the wardrobe pieces upstairs ready to be built but they refused and said to leave it to the people building it. Phoned customer services who suggested if I keep it all they might offer some compensation when everything was eventually sorted out. As the wardrobe could not be moved upstairs, there was no point in keeping it in my garage. They did not offer to move the wardrobe for us but agreed to take it all away. I sent a letter of complaint asking for compensation as we now had no furniture in our bedroom and all our clothes were in boxes around the house and of course it was now going to take another 6 to 8 weeks to get replacement furniture. All that the people in the shop were bothered about was losing the commission on the sale. There is one easy way to deal with that and that is to make sure the customer gets what the customer ordered in a timely fashion and fit for purpose.
Absolute Cowboys - Head Office staff rude, uninterested, one even sighed because I didn't have an order number, because I HADNT BEEN GIVEN ONE! Spent a lot of money on a bed - wish I'd read reviews first. Avoid like the plague.
I ordered 2 tempur mattresses. They done my ikano wrong, I had to go back the store sorting that out. Then got delivered the wrong ones! Back Into the store sorting this out!
Time and stress!!!
Got promised from Kingston store manager Mark a good discount (which he gave), free re-selection, free delivery or refund if I didn’t like the new mattress which were being delivered and up to 60 nights trial. The new manager agrees to offer the same. I am not happy with the new mattresses. Instead he says-" I don't know, call customer service! In other words sort it out yoursel[censored] Spent nearly 2 hours talking to customer service, called twice. They are telling me to read my terms and condition, forgetting what the store manager promised me. Telling me I should read my bed time reading! Is this a joke? lets see if there are any happy endings... only they have the power to make their customers happy.
When a store manager promises you something then you believe it! I feel betrayed! All the stress this is causing me, time, travelling around. I am a very angry upset customer.
Do Not Buy from this company. Awful. Truly Awful.
The Guardian newspaper wrote about the Bensons For Beds scam in 2012 and sadly we had not read it. Look up 'Bensons for Beds mattress guarantee is giving me nightmares'. You'll find it online.
In essence, we fell foul to the same. Complained about a mattress we bought. B4B sent an 'independent' evaluator. He said that my son had sat on his bed. Shock horror! Whatever else. He may have even slept in it at one point!
That was their reason for not changing the mattress. It was 12 months old. My son has had to have chiropractor sessions to sort out his bad back. Not something a 14 year old should have to endure.
Avoid this company at all costs becasue their independent evaluators are not. Even when we approached the furntiure ombudmsan, they say that B4B cannot be evaluated independently because they are already independent. Eh?! Makes no sense. We then tried section 75, through our credit card, to get our money back. They wanted us to pay £250 for an independent evaluator. The mattress was only worth £330. There is basically no recourse.
3 words of advice; Avoid, Avoid and Avoid.
Does everyone here complaining not want to start a campaign or something about this so called award winning abysmal company??
I have purchased a 2 and a half THOUSAND POUND BED!!! I've had it 13 month's and the mattress is dipping! I have stopped the payments as you get no where with FIRA, CUSTOMER SERVICE @ BENSONS FOR BEDS or THE OMBUDSMAN!!!
They shouldn't get away with this!!!
My email lisa311984@live.co.uk
07983680596
lisa
I bought a King size bed with headboard. When I put it together the headboard was for a double. When I complained about this, the manager said the headboard was free. Does that make the headboard fit?
I was talked down to by the manager of Blackburn branch and she said I was desperate for the bed, that's why I bought it! How rude. Then she gave me 2 options. Get a full refund if I take them back ( then I wouldn't have a bed) or pick another headboard. Mmmmm a headboard that fits the bed, that sounds promising, oh but I have to pay for the headboard. Thought there was a catch.
I'm now pursuing complaints toward the company for the unprofessional way the manager spoke to me and that I still have a headboard that doesn't fit.
The after sales of this store is well below average and I defenatly will not shop there again.
I chose a mattress on Easter Monday, when the shop was very busy - so busy that the salesman asked me to sign the order without me having seen a copy of the Terms and Conditions. I queried this and was told they were 'the usual thing'. The bed was duly delivered today, on time, and I find the mattress is of such a depth that it is higher than the window frame. So ... it's unused, but I was sure I would be able to return it either directly or on the 40-day plan for exchange at 10% of the initial cost, as was the case with the previous bed we bought from Benson's 6 years ago. However, I now discover that the mattress is not returnable once it has been delivered, and it's also not eligible for change under the 40-day plan because it was bought without a bed. I am very disappointed; I appreciate that part of this is my fault, but the salesman was clearly just pushing orders without providing necessary information. I have been advised to call customer services, but am unable to get through. I have no problem with the product, but the sales staff need to behave in a more honest and open manner - I doubt I would use Benson's again.
l am presently in dispute with Bensons concerning the deliverer charge imposed by one of their branches for the delivery of a mattress. I was told by their salesman that the delivery charge was £50 .I immediately disputed this charge but accepted it thinking that it was Benson's normal delivery charge although I only live about 6 miles from the store.
However on reading the rules concerning their delivery from a booklet they gave to me at the store. It said that everything purchased at Benson was is delivered free. I rang the salesman to ask him why he was charging me £50 for the delivery of the mattress when according to the company's policy it should be delivered free.
He then advised me that that particular branch has its own delivery scheme and their charges are £50 for delivery on a Saturday and £20 for deliveries made on Mondays to Friday. This conversation took place on Monday 16th April 2018. I asked him why I have then to pay £50 when the mattress is being delivered today (Monday). He said I had two choices either to collect the mattress free but if I still want it delivered I must pay the£50, which I agrred to do. The mattress was delivered by a private removal company.I then sent a message to the CEO at Bensons stated what had happened I was not at all happy with making a payment of
l am presently in dispute with Bensons concerning the deliverey charge imposed by one of their branches for the delivery of a mattress. I was told by their salesman that the delivery charge was £50 .I immediately disputed this charge but accepted it thinking that it was Benson's normal delivery charge although I only live about 6 miles from the store.
However, later on reading the rules concerning their delivery from a booklet they gave to me at the store. It said that everything purchased at Benson was is delivered free. I rang the salesman to ask him why he was charging me £50 for the delivery of the mattress when according to the company's policy it should be delivered free.
He then advised me that that particular branch has its own delivery scheme and their charges are £50 for delivery on a Saturday and £20 for deliveries made on Mondays to Friday. This conversation took place on Monday 16th April 2018. I asked him why I have then to pay £50 when the mattress is being delivered today (Monday). He said I had two choices either to collect the mattress free but if I still want it delivered I must pay the£50, which I agreed to do. The mattress was delivered by a private removal company.
I then contacted the CEO at Bensons stating the details of the event. I complained to him that I was not at all happy with having to pay a private company £50 for the delivery of the mattress which is contrary to Benson's delivery policy.
As there was a delay in his reply so I past my complaint to Resolver an organization that deals with such complaints. I did receive a reply but not directly from the CEO but from someone at the customer relations section, who was in full support of the payment and action taken by the salesman at the Benson store.
I responded to him as expected and sent a copy of my letter to Resolver and at this moment is still hoping for a favorably out come of either a full refund on a refund of £30.
However, on reading the complaints listed above and the results of such complaints it would appear that Benson beds are inflicting problems on themselves thus tarnishing the image of their company by allowing salespersons at their outlets do as they please and is being supported by their customer relations staff without any hindrance.