Sunday morning went to the Dreams store at the local retail park to seek advice about types of bed and mattress for our new home, for which we have recently placed an offer. As such we did not plan to place an order for furniture yet, since the moving in date is still not known. When we entered the Dreams stores, we were greeted by a very talkative saleswoman, whose intention was not to help us, but rather to get our signature on the sales agreement. In fact she barely gave us a chance to say a word! Eventually, and after politely asking this lady to slow down a bit so that we can do some thinking, we saw a bed we liked and a mattress we found to be comfortable. We said we will be back when we have a moving in date, but she would not let us out of the store without extracting our signature on a contract. We were reluctant and stood our ground, but she became rather agitated and ascertained us that the items are in stock and will have our names on them once we place the order and we could have it delivered any time, and if we changed our mind, all we needed to do is to cancel the order at any time. She said it's the last day of sale (a lie because the prices are still discounted today) and we only pay in six months time, interest free etc etc. We were promised that since we are new home buyers we could cancel the contract at any time (no time limit!) even though the small print emphasised that rder could be cancelled only within 24h. Do not worry, we were told, trust me, just come into stores and we can cancel, change your order etc without incurring any extra charge. We thought there's nothing to lose, if we change our mind we simply cancel the order. Don't bother about the small print said the sales lady and store manager - those terms and conditions do not apply in your case, the manager came and put his initials on the contract to show that this is the case. We went home and thought that this was a very bizarre experience, and the store saleswoman and manager behaved rather unprofessionally (why don't you buy this too? because we already have a wardrobe we answered... well buy it and sell it on ebay!!!). Why did they not give us a copy of the T&C applying to "our case" ie cancelling whenever we wanted if we chose to? We realised that this was a scam and the safest thing to do was to cancel ASAP. We went back to the store the following day (well within the 24 h time frame) to cancel the order. The mood of the salespersons soon changed when she realised our intentions: we cannot cancel the order in store (so they had lied the day before!) you have to call customer service. Monday - customer service not working because it's a bank holiday. Tuesday morning - called at 9.00am to cancel the order, was kept waiting for 20 mins on a premium rate phone line. No one answers. Called again, kept waiting indefinitely. Same for about 2 hours - they somehow recognize the number I'm calling from and realize I'm calling to cancel the order (my right, and well within the 24 hour timeline). Then called from skype so that they cannot decipher the phone number, someone answers the call immediately (they don;t take your call if they know you're calling to cancel, and keep you waiting at a premium cost until you give up). They say they'll call back to see what can be done - what can be done about what - you just feel so helpless you cannot do anything about it because no one in stores will help and customer service is so appalling! I simply need to cancel an order! Finally they promise that they set off the cancellation process (which takes up to 48 hrs) So we still do not know whether they'll cancel it (these people cannot be trusted).
Please please do yourself a favour, even if tempted, do not go into these stores. Dealing with customer service is a nightmare (this was a simple order cancellation - most companies allow this online! - imagine if this was something more complicated e.g. making a claim under warranty) and very expensive (several calls wasted to get to speak to someone, on an 0844 number). They get your money and then they don't care at all. The staff in stores was extremely unprofessional and unhelpful. I would advice even my worst enemy to not even consider using this company.
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