At the end of September I paid £500 for a mattress at the St Helens branch of Bensons for Beds. Later that night I researched the mattress online and the reviews were terrible. Bensons said I could change to another which I did the next day, paying an extra £200.
Within three weeks, it started sagging. Bensons said it would send a Furniture Industry Research Association (FIRA) technician to look at it. He appeared to confirm it was dipping below its tolerance.
I recorded our entire conversation. I told him I had two slipped discs from an accident years earlier and chose this mattress with great care, thinking if I paid more it would be a good, long-lasting mattress.
Bensons now says his report claims there was no manufacturing fault and the mattress is performing as it should. It offered to exchange it under its 40-night comfort guarantee but there is a 10% admin fee, plus re-delivery, so all together it would come to £104. Why should I pay more? AD, Liverpool
This letter is strikingly similar to cases we have reported in Guardian Money before. As soon as a customer complains about one of its products, Bensons’ response is to send a technician from FIRA, which says it is an independent organisation.
But your case matched the experience of previous readers – in that the technician was sympathetic and agreed there was a problem (caught on tape in your case) – but then filed a report which said there wasn’t a problem. It’s worth noting that in the past FIRA’s marketing materials (aimed at the retailers, who pay the organisation) used to boast how it could reduce the number of returned items, although this has now gone from its website.
Bensons employed the technician because the Sale of Goods Act assumes that any defect that shows itself within six months of purchase is assumed to have been there at the time it was bought, unless the retailer can show otherwise.
We asked the company about your mattress and it has blamed the “dip” on the bed that the mattress is sitting on and the fact that you failed to rotate the mattress on a weekly basis, as it instructs. “We are very sorry that AD is unhappy,” it told us.
“We want to help, so we have offered a range of alternative solutions over and above our obligations, which include sending a different technician at our cost or providing an alternative mattress.” It also offered to upgrade the bed base with £400 in vouchers.
FIRA has told us it stands by the impartial report. It says: “As well as explaining the report, the technician provided advice on how to care for the product and rotated the mattress to help even out the settlement.”
Having spent even more time online reading reviews of Bensons for Beds, you say you have now lost confidence and just want your money back. Bensons has refused a refund. You have since gone to your credit card provider and asked it to intervene.
In your shoes we would take the replacement mattress and see whether that is any better and, if that fails too, commission your own technical report and take action based on its findings – going to the small claims court if required. If you do get a refund, perhaps head to John Lewis or Loaf next time.
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