Whatever you read – be warned – don’t buy from them

“Whatever you read – be warned – don’t buy from them ”

Written on: 27/02/2012

I purchased a bed for my son and I was told that it would take 2-4 weeks; the store manager took our order and he said that the bed was not the problem at all as it was on stock, but the headboard had to be made to order. Three times they cancelled the delivery on the day before it was due to arrive, because apparently the bed had not been delivered by the supplier to their warehouse. When the bed was finally delivered to us, it did not fit up the stairs because the divan split was east to west as opposed to north to south; I had asked about the divan split when talking to the sales assistant at the store and I had made it clear that we needed the north to south split...yes, you guessed it! She couldn’t recall the conversation! The store was extremely unhelpful; they were very happy to get my business but very unwilling to sort out any mess...in their own words, they were “far too busy” to spend a long time trying to get through to their own customer services department. The store was unwilling to help unless I paid an additional £150; customer services were also most unhelpful once I managed to get through to them, after holding for at least 30 minutes each time that I called; finally their own director of customer services could not personally reply to emails and those replying on his behalf were just as incompetent missing the whole point of the matter. Be warned! I had paid 10% deposit and in between all my complaints, they refunded £50 (shows how bad their service must have already been by then...); when I told them that I wanted to cancel the order because I had enough, those writing on behalf of their customer services director insisted that they would retain the £28 they were still holding; they said that they would normally keep 20% but since they only had £28, they would be keeping it...what that tells you! I ended up buying the bed from an independent retailer; placed my order on Sunday and had the bed delivered on Friday! They gave me a two hour delivery window but they actually turned up 15 minutes earlier than the estimated time! Very polite, no hustle...ah! on top of that they made the bed with the split that I needed, they were cheaper, they threw in the headboard and they still delivered it within 5 days! If a small retailer can do this, why doesn’t Dreams? Perhaps it is a case of just pure incompetence and actual contempt for their customers.