December 12th, 2024

My terrible experience buying from Mattress 365

I recently moved to a new place and started looking for new furniture. I didn't want to order online, so I decided to walk to a brick and mortar store instead, and by chance, that ended up being Mattress 365 in Kitchener.

The store

From the outset, visiting a physical store proved to be effectively the same as buying online. Their store just didn't really have much inside, and the owner convinced us to buy from their catalog instead.

I ordered a sofa, a dinner set (table + 6 chairs), and a coffee table set (a coffee table plus two end tables). I have family visiting for Christmas, so it was important for me to get the items before then, and seeing how it was still November, we had plenty of time. The owner reassured us that they had stock and it wouldn't be a problem. In fact, he said the sofa would be delivered to my home by next weekend, with the rest coming a little later.

The issues start

The first sign of trouble was that the sofa did not arrive next weekend. We called the store and they said they were working on it. Another week passed and we called again. Now, they said that actually, the sofa would take 6-8 weeks. Also, while the dining table and coffee table were available, the chairs and end tables were not. For the tables and chairs, we agreed to split the delivery in two, and they arrived soon after. I asked for a refund on the sofa, and the owner wanted me to go to the store to process it. I don't want to have to drive somewhere just to get my money back, but they were adamant about it. I ended up going to the store after getting the first shipment of tables, more on this later.

The tables arrive

The owner of the store personally delivered the tables to my home. His attitude was best described as casual micro misogyny. See, I'm not very good at hiding my emotions, and it was clear I was upset. He made some comments to my boyfriend in this sort of "man to man" tone, looking at me and saying "Oh I understand, believe me, my wife is the same". I wasn't very happy about this but didn't feel like calling him out.

Anyway, he left the furniture but it was up to us to assemble it. And after we did, we noticed something:

I still had to get my refund anyway, so I chose to wait until I was at the store again to tell him about the scratch.

Going to the store again

I got to the store. First, the owner was just not able to process the refund. They kept getting an error that suggested that the refund exceeded their daily limit, and that it couldn't be overridden because it didn't match the exact amount from a previous purchase. To solve this, they called the help line for their payment processor company and I had to sit through an excruciating hour while they struggled to enter 2FA codes, figured out how to enable remote access to their PoS machine (!!!), and asked to increase the refund limit to a value that would not cover the total for the sofa. Why they asked for that I'm not sure, but they were only able to refund me part of the sofa, and wanted me to come again. They refused to refund me in any other way that wasn't the same credit card: no cash, etransfer, or anything. After much... deliberation, they did agree to e-transfer me a week later (but I'm still waiting for it). Now, I'm sure this has something to do with credit card processing fees. But I don't care: this was the store's problem to solve.

As for the table with the scratch, they agreed to get it exchanged, but it was up to me to disassemble it and repackage it back in its original box. They also did not budge on this point. I decided to use putty and a marker to hide it instead rather than keep dealing with them.

Why did I take the time to write this?

I don't know. I have a space on the internet that's mine and leaving this here feels good I guess? I don't expect my post to show up when people look up the name of the store or anything.

Oh, also, I ended up buying a sofa from La-Z-Boy. Significantly more expensive, but also very hassle free, good quality, and no BS service. I'd recommend them.