Dreams, the bedroom store have taken discriminated against the disabled?

[MrsjREwing]

I have complex disability. I wanted to order an electric bed from the dreams sale, I wanted this bed due to disability issues.

Long post don't want to dripfeed, any ideas how to get money back?

I ordered the bed from X at a branch. X was putting in the order when I was filling out the VAT form. Y the manager on 15 September waded in, and took my card, I have cognitive issues, I was filling out a form and Y took card payment from me. After card payment was taken X said he input wrong info on the system and couldn't change it. I thought it was odd, said I wanted my money back Y refused said he couldn't give me money back. I said how do I get it back Y said he will do it Monday. In the carpark I phoned my bank who registered a dispute with Visa debit. I thought dreams would give money back, not been well, banking has not been top of my list.

Just got a call from Dreams, asking for Miss J Ewing, said he tried loads of numbers as number wrong on system, when do you want delivery Madam, I said I am not Madam as you have my name please use it, he kept calling me madam, eventually he called me Ewing, I said I am Mrs Ewing, he said ok Madam.

Anyway I then rang trading standard which put me through to consumer something or another whi want me to go to the postoffice or CAB. I explained I lost my blue badge and DLA being looked at again, I would have to go to carpark, get ticket, go back to car walk to postoffice, que and go back, the same for CAB, ablebodied people have no clue, next can someone do it for me, who would that be the invisable man? I said no. I said I will try to email dreams headoffice to get my money back. So I was given 08442259259 to ring to get email for dreams headoffice, was continually engaged up to point of this post.

Feel taken advantage of due to disability by firm that sell beds for people with disabilities.

I lost most people in my life through various ways, I had a very busy sociable life, I then began to go downhill and it coincided with other things, some toxic people by choice are gone. I am exhausted and my life is very small, it is all I have energy for, my priority is making sure we are ok and happy.

Maybe all refunds have to go through their head office, was it a Saturday? Despite the fact that shops are open everyday head office staff usually work Monday to Friday, so that could be why he couldn't do it.

Possibly then, it could be that once an order is being processed, nobody would be able to access it to change it. An incorrect address would be a problem, but I doubt that a phone number would have caused any issues.

I do feel that maybe you could have been a bit bolshy with the staff in the shop, and I am basing that on what you have posted, and also the bit about being so irate because you were addressed as madam, which really is polite and general courtesy from someone, yet you have taken offence at that too.

I wouldnt say that the shop has been disablist in any way. It sounds to me like a complete clash of personalities between you and the sales staff, and they were probably perplexed as to why you demanded to cancel the order so abruptly as an incorrect phone number would not affect the delivery and could have been rectified on the monday when the office staff could change it on the system.

I wasn't bolshy at all in the store I was quiet and intimidated. I don't get bolshy in public infront of dc. I was annoyed the bed was being delivered and that the money wasn't returned today, it is a lot of money to me.

EDS 'brain fog' is well attested to.

I think it possibly went like this:

The salesperson made a minor data entry error on the form.

OP noticed the mistake, in a situation where she was anxiously trying to track one person doing the ordering & another putting through her payment, & due to some cognitive confusion this upset her. Where someone unaffected by EDS might have seen it as trivial, OP was distressed that things were 'wrong' & wanted them put right. She might not have communicated this clearly because of the brain fog.

The staff fobbed her off - if they couldn't change the details on the processed order they could certainly have cancelled the whole deal & started again.

But because it wasn't important to them, & probably because OP was appearing to be confused & anxious, & there was commission at stake, they were dismissive of her concerns, eventually feeding her a line about refunding on Monday in the unscrupulous hope that she would forget she'd wanted it cancelled.

Sounds v dodgy to me...I suspect YANBU.

Ravenak, if the staff genuinely couldn't do it for whatever reason then they weren't fibbing her off. If you can't do something you can't do it.

OP, what day did you go into the store? Was it on a weekend?

Can you just go in and insist on a refund. Keep banging on about it while the customers wait. Don't leave and wait at the desk, asking and asking. They should have cancelled your order or at least refunded it.

Bluesky if email doesn't work, I will look at a complaining letter or getting StepDad to come with me to the branch, I hate asking I feel I am using an old Man.

Agree with Raven's analysis - that seems most plausible to me. I get the feeling there was definitely some fobbing off being done by Dreams.

Presumably if the paperwork for the order isn't signed, then the order shouldn't be considered complete? And therefore no attempt at delivering the bed?

FWIW I also thought the and the comment about not shopping on your own was pretty offensive. Seem to be quite a few wrinkled noses on this thread.

They should not have taken the money before the order was sorted. Sounds like it was "Just pay us and we'll sort the details out later".
It's a good idea not to commit to stuff when you're feeling confused.

nancy75 It seems very unlikely to me that the manager was unable to issue a refund. What if they'd keyed in the wrong amount for example. I very much doubt the customer would just have to lump it for a few days?

Some people on the thread have cognitive issues of their own.

"cognition is a group of mental processes that includes attention, memory, producing and understanding language, solving problems, and making decisions."

Mumto, I should imagine the paperwork is done on a pc, sent through and then printed off for the customer to sign. It may be that store staff can't change completed orders or security reasons? The customer could walk out and they could then go back and change the address and have the goods delivered elsewhere. It is also not unusual for high value items to only be refunded via head office.

I'm sorry for offending you LRD. I should perhaps have been more considered and diplomatic in my response but as usual I was doing 6 other things at the same time as posting and if I was prepared to concentrate that hard on one thing I'd use my evenings for something more productive than this!

I don't think blindness is a good analogy here because it is pretty obvious when someone is blind and most people understand blindness as a condition. In this situation it clearly was not obvious what Mrs Ewing's needs were and what the staff would need to do to support her, and I think this is why things went wrong. I don't think the shop have deliberately "conned" her to take advantage of her brain fog issues; there's been a communication failure coupled with generally poor customer service, which has caused stress to Mrs Ewing that could have been avoided had she had someone with her at the shop.

That's really kind of you to say holla. I'm sorry I got so upset.

I do agree the shop may not have done anything deliberately (I'm not sure here ... being a suspicious type I worry they did try to con her).

I am reading in from my own experiences, sorry.

I do take DH to do bank stuff with me because I can't do it, and I am reading it, but it is incredibly humiliating when you suddenly feel there's something wrong but you know your issues mean you can't quite understand what it is. So MrsE's description really struck a chord with me. And sometimes you don't have an option - you can't take someone with you.

I hope it all gets sorted out, and you get the money back, MrsE

Sorry I can't help but I was a bit annoyed, went to dreams store but could only see a fraction of beds due to loads of stairs and no lift. They offered to describe a bed to me as I can't walk!

I don't think we can answer whether or not the OP was discriminated against because of her disability. The only answer to that would be if someone without her disability would have been treated differently and we can't know the answer to that.
I'm sorry that you have gone through all this OP, I think at the very least you were given very poor customer service.
I hope you get it sorted out to your satisfaction.

Oh meant to say if someone reapeatedly calls you Madam despite you asking them to call you something else and then calls you by your surname without a title it either indicates a language barrier or deliberate rudeness.

Don't shops HAVE to have lifts? If they have merchandise on more than one floor, I mean...?

Picture, dreadfull accessability.

LRD, thinking of you.

MrsjREwing - hey, the last thing you need to do is think about me! I'm really sorry, I didn't intend to get so personal on your thread. I do sincerely hope you can get it sorted out (and I do kinda hope maybe people will think twice about 'invisible disabilities' such as you have). Best of luck.

I'm not really sure if YABU or not but I think you need to get all mentions of the employees you hav referred to by their first names taken out of your posts.

I know it's not an uncommon name but there can't be that many Xs who are branch managers of Dreams stores in the country - you've pretty much identified him.

i am really sorry you went to dreams they have an awful reputation. i have posted before about how they massively mark up beds and call them a different name then say " you wont find this bed cheaper anywhere else" actually you will - it just be that ...name!

i would contact watch dog - tell them that - tell them you have a friend at BBC who has said there have been lots of complaints about them - email everyone you can from head office - and kick up a stink.

Are you telling me you have inside knowledge that Watchdog are doing an article soon on Dreams?