Waterbed company upsets customers

Press, 8 December 1988, Page 7

Waterbed company upsets customers

By

SARONA IOSEFA

A mobile waterbed company from Auckland, Designer Waterbeds, frayed Christchurch consumers’ nerves when waterbeds that many had paid cash for two weeks before were not delivered.

Promotions by the company in Christchurch newspapers and on radio stations from November 19 to 26 hailed a weeklong sale of double waterbeds ranging from $199 to $799. Designer Waterbeds sells throughout New Zealand but uses its Auckland headquarters as base. Christchurch buyers became agitated when waterbeds that they had paid cash for at the sale did not arrive and they discovered the company was no longer trading in Christchurch. Telephone calls to the transport firm that many had paid to deliver their waterbeds, were also fruitless. According to the office manager of Designer

Waterbeds, Ms Leane Chadwick, about 300 waterbeds were sold in Christchurch, 180 of which had not been delivered because of a transport hitch. Ms Chadwick said six containers of waterbed components had been sent to Christchurch, but only four had got through. The other two containers had been sent back to the firm’s factory after industrial action and a derailment on the main trunk line held them up. However, a staff member at Railfreight, Christchurch, said that all six containers from Designer Waterbeds had arrived in Christchurch. The delivery contractor for the waterbeds proved

or going to the Commerce Commission over the matter, said the contractor. “The beds should be delivered soon, it’s just a matter of getting the rest of the components through to Christchurch, and arranging to provide mattresses,” said Ms Chadwick. The complaints officer for the Consumers Institute, Mr Maurice Smith, said buyers should be wary of mobile firms that came to sell and left again. “It makes it difficult, because if they are dissatisfied with anything, it can be difficult to get any help from a firm that is not based in the same town,” Mr Smith said.

more difficult to contact. While he owned and ran his own business, he used another transport company as a base. Confusion was such that another transport firm trading under the same surname received several calls from irate waterbed buyers. The delivery contractor for Designer Waterbeds did not want to be named, but he assured “The Press” there had been a hold-up because one container had not arrived in Christchurch, and* bladders for the beds had not been sent. Some people who had bought waterbeds from the firm in Nelson and Blenheim were thinking