I have always loved Loaf. I am so disappointed in them now. I have just had an experience with them that left me in floods of tears and without a bed to sleep on for the night - on the day before my birthday!
Sorry, this post is long but I just wanted to share the full details so prospective Loaf customers understand what they might be getting into - particularly anyone who needs a cast-iron guarantee for delivery.
We moved into our new home 3 weeks ago and have been sleeping on our old bed until the new custom made Loaf one was scheduled to arrive yesterday. It’s not a large house and we don’t have outbuildings or a garage. So we arranged for disposal of the old bed yesterday morning to clear the space for our new Loafi one. We were so looking forward to the first good night’s sleep (the old bed was not great) in our new home.
However…no bed came!
Loaf’s delivery service Wincanton did not contact us on the day to set a precise arrival time or to check for any potential issues ahead of time.
We simply waited at home all day. Then at around 4.30 hubby got a call from Loaf to say the bed wasn’t coming. It wasn’t even a whole phone call because the woman who rang got cut off and didn’t then call back.
I then spent some time working out how to call back. Then Loaf’s automated phone service put me through to Wincanton. I asked them where our bed was and was told the driver didn’t deliver because he couldn’t park.
Our house has a double parking bay and we have had two enormous removal vans in them. We’ve had multiple other large items delivered such as a 10-seater garden furniture set - and even a big shed!
Wincanton said they couldn’t deliver because our house is near a zebra crossing. That is true, but the house is far back from the road.
No other delivery service has had an issue with this. As I was on the call hubby even saw the house opposite taking delivery of what looked like a really big sofa.
So I called Loaf again to inform customer services about Wincanton’s non-delivery and share the baffling explanation they provided as to why.
The woman who answered the phone was extremely apologetic but utterly inequipped by Loaf to do anything to help.
She said she was manning customer services all by herself. She revealed she had been given no process to follow in a case like ours of being left with no bed for the night.
We felt so stupid but also very let down. Our prior experience with Loaf had made us believe they would deliver without any issues. Wincanton told me their policy was not to stop vans near zebra crossings. But no-one at Loaf or Wincanton told us this beforehand.
And this is how we found ourselves building an IKEA bed from scratch until 01.30, having just about got it in the car (lovely journey scrunched up on the passenger seat with a metal bed bracket weighing on my neck).
My birthday has been wrecked too. We canceled the dinner with family last night and had meatballs in Wembley IKEA instead.
Silver lining: The IKEA bed is really nice and comfy actually, and looks good in the room. As long as the Loaf refund does arrive in time - before we have to pay a fee for taking our credit card over its limit in IKEA- we have saved £1200.
Makes me think Loaf’s high prices - partly for great customer service?? - just aren’t worth paying now.
AIBU?