I placed an order in the Milton Keynes Branch just after Christmas for a new bed, my sales assistant was called Donna (very helpful). A delivery date was given to me of 31.01.19. Once I was home I noticed that on delivery instructions it didn’t say that the bed needed assembly, the bed does assembly as it is an electric ottoman bed. At this point I called customer service to discuss. From this conversation with them it was decided I needed to pay an additional charge to secure a am delivery and then arrange assembly forsame day pm. A new delivery date was given to me of 6th February 2018 – today. Also for your information I am a blue badge holder – registered disabled, this will become relevent further in. At 10.20am this morning the delivery driver called me to say my delivery would be between 1pm & 3pm. I explained that this wasn’t what I had paid for, here are just some of the phrases I can quote you from this driver: “Aint my problem love” “Nothing to do with me” “I just turn up to work of a morning and deliver beds”. “theres at least 10 drops before you and Im not changing it” Even after I explained to the driver that the fitter had advised me that if the bed delivery was going to be this late he can not assemble it today, he response was “not my problem”. At this point my old bed was outside in the rain as I had paid another additional charge for the old bed to be taken away by delivery. As I had received a text Monday 4th February confirming delivery was indeed going to be between 7am & 1pm today we had cleared the room of the old furnishings early this morning and placed it in the green bag as instructed. Customer service conversation 1 With these points in mind I decided to call customer services, this was at 10.25am. After queuing in the automated phone system for 45 minutes I was put through to yet another charming member of your staff. As I followed the automated instructions I had assumed I was connected to customer services but somehow I was connected to the warehouse/distribution. I explained my issue for the second time and his reply was “not my problem Im not customer service” “ you may need to just sleep on your matress”. Im sure you would agree this is not an appropriate response. He went on to say “ sigh, hang on love I’ll transfer you”. I then waited in the automated queue for a further 15 minutes. I was then connected to a third employee of Benson Beds who I explained my complaint to for the third time, she had several things to say in response: ​ “Yeah well these unforseen problems happen all the time”. “Delivery is nothing to do with me, nothing I can do” “Its just one of those things” After I pointed out AGAIN that I could not be left with no bed to sleep on tonight and that I am registered disabled and that I cant sleep on the floor due to medical conditions, she replied with “why don’t you ring the store”. After I had expressed this was not good enough she offered to go away investigate and would call me back by 2pm. I informed her that this too was not good enough, she then assured me she would call back sooner. Store Manager Call In the meantime of this return call I received a call from the Branch Manager of Milton Keynes (covering manager for today), This had been instigated by customer service. The manager went on to advise that all he can suggest is that I call the fitter once the bed had been delivered and try to persuade him to come later. If this wasn’t sucessful them there wasn’t anything else he could do. His responses to me were; ​ “Well madam you have changed the delivery date previously so that is why there is a delay today”. (Just to remind you I had to change the orignal date because the store had not requested am delivery/assembly). “I don’t know what you want me top say madam, the fitter doesn’t work for Bensons” (Just to remind you the issue wasn’t with the fitter but with the delivery). “I don’t know what else you want me to say, there is nothing else I can do. Go back to customer setrvices”. Please also note this manager had a very heavy accent and he was extremely difficult to understand or to communicate with. Customer Service Call 2 Whilst waiting in the automated queue for customer services the first time I had also used my mobile to request a callback. A third member of staff called me in response to this request. I explained that a member of the customer service team were already dealing with my complaint did he still need to continue the call. He asked to explain my problem, so for the third time I explained the circusmtances. After a very lengthy conversation, he suggested that I may have to use just the mattress until the fitters were available. Although this chap was not rude his manner was very relaxed and not appropriate for a professional environment. At the end of the call he still had no solution other than maybe I should call the store again. Customer Service Call 3 At 12.20 (nearly 2 hrs after I first contacted customer services) I received a call from the first customer service employee. After reapeating the same responses as per our first conversation. She said that if I wanted to call the Store Manager of Milton Keynes he would give me another contact for yet a different assembler. I said I was not calling him again after the first experience with him and I suggested she get the number and call me back. I pointed out that surely it is not for me to be making all of these calls and doing all the chasing when it is Bensons’ responsibility to resolve the matter not mine. It is currently 14.59 pm, I have just been delivered half a bed, so still no bed for the night and therefore no solution. After reading this list of incidents of this morning, Im sure you can only agree that not only is this level of service (or lack of) not acceptable but it is quite unbeleive that one company can mess up one delivery so badly. This list of events are quite atrocious, it is appalling to treat ANY customer in this way but in my case I am disabled and it is very important to sleep in a supportive bed. Here is a list of my concerns: • Aftersales provide a virtually non existant sericve to customers. • Sales staff may well be abliging and polite etc but are let down by the remainder of the process. Surely no customer brings Bensons return business after being treated in this way. • After having spoken to several members of Bensons staff not one person wanted to take resposiblity for the errors created by Bensons. • Only one of these several staff members were actaully even polite. • Nobody has actually even apologised. • Nobody could offer me a solution. Other than, for me the customer, to make all the calls and do all the chasing. • Its quite apparent that customer service have a script to follow and when given a question/problem that could mean them actuially thinking for themselves or even showing compassion they just pass the buck to somebody else. • Having to make all these calls and have these conservations today has dramatically impacted on my working day. • I had arranged for a family member to be at my home this morning take to delivery/assembly of the bed as I was in the middle of a very tight dealdine at work, I am in education. This family member is self employed and has now last a whole days earnings. • My employer would most certainly not accept me applying the Bensons attitude to my daily work duties. I feel that the service I have received from Bensons is so below what is expected by me a customer, that I know I will not be bringing any return business to your company. I find is quite disgusting that any customer is treated how I have been today but to actually disregaurd a registered disabled customer in this manner and leave them in this mess is morally wrong. I feel if any employee of Benson Beds were to have been put in this position that would then see how unacceptable the service actually is.