Emma Mattresses are currently one of the most popular brands of mattress in the UK. They've been having quite a few issues lately though. So, should you still buy an Emma Mattress in spite of these issues? Here's what happened when I tried to buy an Emma Mattress. Frankly, it might put you off.
Our bad experience with Emma Mattress
Seeing as it was recently my birthday, my parents very kindly offered to buy me a new mattress as a present. My old mattress is sinking and sagging, and it's been doing my back no favours for months now. So, when we saw the Emma Mattress was 30% off in the sale the other week, they placed an order for me.
It stated that the Emma Original Mattress was in stock and that it'd be delivered in 2-5 working days.
It was due to be delivered on the 12th August at the latest. When it was nearing that date, I started to get a little worried. I had seen mixed reviews on their Trustpilot page, but hoped we'd be in with the lucky ones (how silly of me, eh?)
Firstly, the tracking didn't update. It was stuck for days on 'order confirmed'. They took the total of £349.30 within two hours from my parents' bank account. By Sunday 11th, I thought we better reach out to them as there'd been no communication from them since the order was placed. We emailed (via their contact form) asking if the mattress was still arriving on time and if we could have a little clarity. There was no response. They still haven't replied to said email.
On Monday itself, I hopped onto the live chat and thought I was getting somewhere. The chat bot said something along the lines of 'you'll get your delivery date when your courier has received the parcel', so not at all what their website and tracking system was saying. When I asked for assistance, they said someone would be in touch via email in 1-2 business days...
We weren't really satisfied with having to wait even longer without information, so my Dad rang them. Astonishingly, he got through to the call centre quite quickly. Within a few moments on the phone to their customer care team, we found out that there are no Emma Original mattresses even in stock at the moment, and they have no idea when they'll actually have any back in stock.
The only options were to wait for an indeterminate amount of time, or to cancel and get a refund within 14 days. We opted for the latter. Many Trustpilot reviews are from people who are waiting weeks for refunds they were told they'd get within days. Thankfully, for us, it only took two days. So that's a huge relief that we don't have the added stress of having to fight for a refund, like others are unfortuantely having to.
Should you buy an Emma Mattress in 2024?
Would I recommend that you still buy one? No, especially not directly from Emma themselves. They might be the cheapest option compared to retailers like Argos, but their service is so terrible, I couldn't recommend them to anyone.
I really expected better from a German company. They're supposed to be the epitome of efficiency. Emma appear to be trading on the good reputation of German goods, without providing a decent service for their customers. They are really letting people down, and I genuinely feel sorry for a lot of their customer service staff, who are no doubt overwhelmed with the amount of dissatisfied customers and their frustrations.
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| Screenshot taken on 13/08/2024 - a day after we were told they had no stock of this mattress for the foreseeable future |
Emma are selling stock they know they don't have
Another thing that really surprised me is that the same mattress is on their website right now saying it'll be delivered in 2-3 weeks.
Why on Earth are they advertising a product for sale when they know full well that they don't have it in stock? Why are they taking peoples' money? And why aren't they telling their customers that this product isn't currently in stock? People do deserve to know that they're probably going to get screwed over at the worst, or have quite a long wait, at best. They also need to know before they order, not days or weeks after they've parted with their hard-earned cash.
The sale we took advantage of ended last Tuesday (6th August). There's already another sale - which started on 13th August. The two sales were only a week apart. I pity the poor people who've paid £499 for a mattress that's very often £349.30. Their sales seem to rival DFS in their frequency.
It's also worth noting that Emma are currently being investigated by the Competitions and Markets Authority in the UK (see here), and their Australian equivalent too. (See here). They could soon be taken to court in the UK for their advertising practices.
Emma are also accumulating quite a shocking number of one star reviews on Trustpilot, because of these delays, but also because of their lack of transparency and customer care. The bad reviews are increasing every day at the moment, as more and more customers express their frustrations (and I'm not even one of those who's taken to Trustpilot - yet!)
"No matter what's going on behind the scenes at Emma Mattress, there's no excuse for treating their customers so poorly."
The lack of communication is making customers worry about losing their money. Some are questioning whether it's all a great scam.
Mattresses are considered purchases for a lot of people, and 350 quid is a lot of money to spend. Many have spent considerably more than that; some into the thousands! When Emma fail to communicate with their customers about delays, any issues in their supply chain that they might be having, or the length of time a customer might be left waiting, it understandably winds people up. No matter what's going on behind the scenes at Emma Mattress, there's no excuse for treating their customers so poorly.
In the end, we opted for the British-made SleepSoul Heaven 1000 mattress from Mattress Next Day, which was delivered the next day. And it was a hundred quid cheaper too. Take note, Emma.
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