| Bob's Discount Furniture |
| Bob's Discount Furniture Bait and switch, failure to refund! Nashua, New Hampshire |
| 13th of Sep, 2011 by User659683 |
On June 1, 2011, after testing several mattresses, my wife and I selected the “Bob-o-pedic†mattress from the Nashua, NH store. My wife liked the feel of the plush version of the mattress, while I preferred the stronger support of the firm. So we selected the “Dual comfort†version of the queen size mattress. We also purchased a queen size bed at the same time, and, at the advice of our salesperson, we also purchased the “Goof Proof†total mattress encasement to protect our mattress during the 20 year warranty period.
As I was signing the credit card slip, I noticed that the price seemed higher than what I was expecting, so I asked to see an itemized receipt. Sure enough, we had been overcharged for our purchase; we had been charged for the mattress and foundation separately, rather than as a set. As a result, we had just overpaid $100. Our salesperson “Max†contributed this to a computer glitch, and we had to sign some paperwork to have a credit applied to my credit card. At the time, I did not think much of this first problem, but it has been compounded with several others since.
We set up a delivery date of June 8th, and anxiously awaited our new bed. When the bed arrived, the first issue we encountered was that the mattress cover delivered with it was not the total encasement protector we purchased, but the cheaper, less reliable one-sided protector. Upon calling customer service about this, my wife was instructed to drive out to the store where we purchased the bed to correct Bob’s mistake. I had to call customer service to explain why this was unacceptable to us- Having paid for delivery, it is not up to us to drive to the store wasting our time and gasoline to correct someone else’s mistake. Eventually, the customer service department decided to mail us the item we purchased, and had us use the one that was sent until it arrived.
We noticed immediately that the mattress did not have the same feel as the unit on the showroom floor. The “plush†side felt like the firm side in the store, and the “firm†side felt just better than a sheet of plywood. Upon reading the warranty pamphlet, I learned that we had to wait 30 days before we could make a claim on the “comfort warrantyâ€, so I waited until after the 30 days had passed. After the thirty days, we returned to the store to check on the mattresses again and resolve our issue. To our surprise we learned that this could not be done in person, but had to be handled over the phone with a faceless individual. So while we were at the Nashua store, we lay on the mattresses again, and again we found that the original Bob-O-pedic was the mattress we liked. As disappointing as this was, around the 2nd week of July, my wife called customer service to explain the situation; we liked the mattress in the store, but the unit we received was simply not the same.
The customer service representative took a report of my wife’s claim, and informed her that a mattress exchange would require us to pay a new delivery charge. Once again, I had to call customer service back and explain that we only wanted what we purchased, nothing more and nothing less. The customer service representative transferred me to a salesperson in the Nashua Store who had difficulty finding the report of the claim my wife made, and we had to do it all over again. Finally, the salesperson confirmed that Bob’s would consider the mattress ‘defective’ and exchange the mattress for the same model with no additional fee for delivery, and we would have an additional 60 days to return the mattress if we still were not satisfied.
I had been very concerned about ordering the same mattress as the first. If the mattress that was delivered to us is so much different than the one on the showroom floor, what reason do I have to believe that ANY mattress will be the same as in the store? How can I possibly pick out the right mattress if I can’t rely on the one I pick out being the same as the one delivered? Another point I would like to address here is that both the salespersons and the customer service representatives claimed that our mattress needed to go through a “breaking in†period of at least 30 days to achieve the real comfort of the mattress. I suppose I can understand this concept for a traditional innerspring mattress, however this co0ntradicts the very sales pitch given us by our salespersons. We were told that the reason for the 20 year warranty on the Bob-O-pedic mattress is that the foam will return to its original form EVERY time, guaranteed. If this is the case, it seems to me that it would be impossible for this type of mattress to “break in†at all- wouldn’t it defy the very principle?
So, we decided to roll the dice and request the same unit we originally selected, hoping it would be more representative of the unit on the sales floor. July 21st was the day that our replacement mattress was to be delivered. We received two reminder phone calls. My wife missed another day of work in order to be present for the delivery. The truck showed up as scheduled, only he had no mattress. He was only there to pick up the mattress we were returning. How on Earth could this happen? Was this another “computer glitch� What, pray tell, were we supposed to sleep on now?
We schedulede yet ANOTHER delivery date of Monday, July 25th, having to take yet ANOTHER day off from work to be present for the delivery. At this point in time, I wrote a VERY lengthy email and sent it to the website FAQ section, as surprise surprise, there is no email contact to be found on Bob's website.
We finally received the new mattress as scheduled, and to our dismay, it was the same piece of plywood feeling crap we were sleeping on. After the first two weeks, I had then gone TWO MONTHS without a good nights sleep, I told Bobs to come get their stinking mattress and give me my money back. I had had enough. They picked it up on Thursday, August 18th. The following week we had a new mattress delivered from Jordan's. One we've been quite happy with from the get-go, BTW.
So you'd think our problems with Bob's would be behind us, right? NOPE! Here, nearly a full month later, we still have not received our refund. I have been on the phone with them several times, and they have transferred me all over the place, oddly enough, back to the Nashua store (???), trying to get it resolved. Twice, I was told that the credit Memo had been issued and it would take 5-10 business days, only to see that time come and go. Somehow, it had disappeared from the system- another "computer glitch" maybe? They keep passing the buck from one department to another. Last week they told me there was an issue and they were only going to refund me $930. I hit the effin roof. That is less than what I paid for it! I got that straightened out, then they claimed the problem was that they needed to refund me the mattress cost and shipping cost seperately, and the credit memo tried to do it together. Like this is my g-dam problem??? At 4:55 Friday, they decided to transfer me to accounting, who had conveniently already left for the day. After raising hell with customer service (AGAIN), I was assured that things would be taken care of this morning, and got the manager's employee number to whom I spoke with. She informed me she would follow up this morning with a phone call after taking care of this personally. Wouldn't you know it, I never got a call? And conveniently this person could not be reached today?
What exactly is to be said about Bob’s business practices? Selling one quality of product, but delivering another? I am not sure if this is more indicative of poor quality assurance practices in the manufacturing of the mattresses, or bait-and-switch. Neither one sounds very appealing to the consumer. Normally I am reluctant to make any assumption of deceptive business practices, but what exactly would have happened if I had not caught the overcharge “error� If I had given the mattress more time to “break in†at the insistence of the customer service representative, what would happen if I had gone over the 60 days and still was not satisfied? All questions that begged to be asked under the given circumstances.
I was informed that the credit was applied to my card at 12:08pm Monday, 9/12/11. On Tuesday, I saw the credit appear on my bank statement. For $939, which is $120 less than what was owed me!! I (AGAIN!!!) called customer service, and was informed the balance would be refunded within 24 hours. That was yesterday. I am not holding my breath. I am absolutely disgusted with Bob's customer service and business practices. It seems as though they prey on people who are not willing to put up a fight to get what they have coming to them. I feel that I have been deliberately mistreated. I cannot believe that all of these problems are merely coincidental. They seem far to common, and far too methodic. |
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