My girlfriend ordered a double mattress from Argos, and in preparation for the delivery we arranged for our current one to be taken away. However, the new mattress did not show up. We were never contacted about this; instead we had to chase the firm by phone and social media. We were then told it would come the next day which, when you’ve no mattress, is not ideal. It said it could offer us a blow-up mattress that we would have to collect from the store.
It turns out that the problems arose because the Argos drivers had exceeded their quota of legal driving hours. On its Facebook and Twitter accounts there are many people in similar situations. Argos doesn’t respond. Meanwhile, the customer services department sounds like robots reading scripts rather than having any empathy.
Argos needs to stop taking money for services it can’t guarantee to provide and stop ignoring its customers. MB, Raynes Park, London
The new mattress was a gift, so the payment was made by your girlfriend’s mother. She had to call Argos to give you authorisation to deal with the matter. In the end you were so frustrated that you cancelled the order and tried to get your old mattress back, which would mean paying the council for a second time.
Argos has now made contact and agreed to reimburse any costs you incurred. The company has apologised and says it will also send you a goodwill gesture to make up for the poor service.
One word of advice, though: perhaps you shouldn’t dispose of your old mattress before you have taken delivery of the new one.
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