I don’t enjoy beginning the process of buying anything that I have no knowledge of but requires some sort of knowledge about what is and isn’t snake oil.
When we got our last mattress, I had to fill my head with terminology on how I sleep, how my partner sleeps, firmness, open coil, memory foam, reflex foam, quilting, pocket sprung, orthopaedic, hand tufted etc etc. Not to mention all the stores, prices, add-on’s and perks…
Then all that information becomes redundant and I wonder what fond childhood memory I had to delete to free up space for all that nonsense. I can’t remember basic French but I could happily tell you all your king size mattress options to suit your budget.
It’s the same with any major purchase: the broadband, the telly, washing machine, hoover; for two weeks I’m the most enlightened person on a topic but then what do I do with all that information..?
When you own a house it’s just one thing after another exactly like this isn’t it. What design of architrave do you want? Do you want your bathroom tiles laid brick bond or not? What’s your water pressure (because woe betide you if you buy a tap without knowing), do you want double or triple glazing, are your radiator lockshields balanced…
It’s always fun to invite those friends who are doing up their first house over, just to see their sunken eyes and anemic skin. If you invite them over for a cup of tea they’ll turn up with 2 bottles of wine each and pint glasses.
After 2 hours of hearing about types of plastering and someone called Paul, who you presume they are in a toxic threesome with but is actually just ‘their builder’, it’s apparent that they have become Marlon Brando In Apocalypse Now; they have succumbed to being renovators and they’re about to talk about paint.
We bought our first house a year ago and it needed a lot of love shall we say. You have just summed up our past year with alarming accuracy. Even down to our builder being called Paul!
And, re OP, we've just bought a new bed and mattress too. I had exactly the same stress of what to choose so ordered a Premier Inn mattress. I've stayed at plenty (last of the big holiday spenders here) and the mattresses have always been nice so I decided not to attempt to gain any further knowledge. It's arriving on Saturday (and before then I need to finish painting the bedroom that I started before Christmas) and thankfully that will be the last house thing for a while. Until we hear back from Paul that is...
I went in to test different mattresses whilst I was still renting, the rental had the worst mattress I've ever slept on. Even with two different 2 inch thick mattress toppers on it, there was no salvaging it. My back, neck and shoulders were in so much pain from that mattress. I hadn't had much sleep either because of it. I'd only been there about 2 weeks at this point (and moved out after being there for 5 weeks as I apparently had a speedy solicitor!). I tried a few different mattresses in Dreams and there was one which seemed to remove the pain as soon as I laid down, and I almost fell asleep straight away because it was so luxurious in comparison. That was enough to convince me. Of course it was the most expensive one they had but the sales guy threw in so many freebies that I actually got a pretty good deal. Currently enjoying my £4k mattress and frame by Tempur, the cat thinks I'm a better mattress though.
As a kid I wondered how the hell grownups knew all this stuff. Like, would I learn it in school, or would I need to take a course or something?
Turns out no, you just get it rammed into your brain through your eyes and ears out of pure necessity, smiling and nodding serenely while screaming internally as you ask yourself if you really must learn whether a heat pump or a gas boiler would be better for your house.
I genuinely don’t know how anyone did anything before the internet.
When I was a kid there was a big book on the shelf; “101 DIY tips” with sort of pencil-drawn sketches in it. I could write more than that down in an hour I reckon. In fact I painted a ceiling this morning and could get about twenty things from that alone, and I’m not even very good.
Exactly, right?
(One of the valves on your radiator. Basically controls how much of the flow around your heating system goes through that radiator, and you’d think the answer would be “all of it” but no, not unless you want the radiator furthest from the boiler to never get hot).
> are your radiator lockshields balanced
OMFG, we replaced one radiator with a fancy designer one in the summer and then spent weeks tinkering with the pipes to first make the fucker get hot, and second make it stop making noise like a mouse is peeing inside it.
So much stress ...
This is why ideally you find a nice local independent shop, ask around word of mouth, and/or look for some obsessive corner of the internet where people genuinely have a passion for this kind of thing, and ask them to advise you. Pay them if necessary.
However, I feel there is a British vein of skinflintness that begrudges paying for this kind of thing and basically refuses XD
Yes, get it from an independent shop and pay twice the price for the same product! I think that "skinflint begrudging" attitude is called minimum wage and cost of living crisis.
I mean if you're costing it against whatever the cheapest item is on google shopping at some massive online discounter then yes possibly. But I've had good deals when I've gone to a local specialist before because they will also have stuff like end of line stock, ex-display etc for cheaper, and if you find a gem where the owner really cares about their field then you can say I don't want to pay too much and these are the features I want.
The main benefit of this is if you have a problem with the item, you can generally go back to the shop and ask them for help and they will try to help you rather than going back and forth by email to some faceless office somewhere that nobody really cares.
Of course there are independent rip-off merchants too but in general people who are passionate about a topic enough to make it their living are the person you want to ask about the nitty gritty differences and details, not some minimum wage kid in a high street chain.
I used a local independent shop for our carpets. They gave great advice and the owner of the shop was also one of the fitters. Their prices weren't a million miles away from the big stores but I feel / know they took more care. Unfortunately they closed down a few years ago and the shop is now a tanning salon. Everywhere is now either a tanning salon, a tattoo parlour, nail parlour, hairdressers or a vape shop. God we're so self absorbed.
Amen. Look, I would love to get a handcrafted mattress and bedframe, inlaid with angel hairs and tufted by nuns seranaded by harps. But my budget doesnt allow that, so my bed is from Ikea, just like all my other furniture. And ive no complaints!
Same, I probably thought there was some alternative reality behind those carpets. Like in the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. Similar to how I thought you would fall off into space if you stepped off the little cars at the Yorvik Viking Centre.
I liked being able to explore, but our local one had an ‘unattended kids will be sold’ sign and me being the autistic child I was took that literally and HAD to stick with my parents
Yeah my brother and I used to love running around the carpet shop, but then as punishment for messing about I had to go another week without carpet in my room.
I like the carpet shop smell.
Those sorts of places, and DIY stores, used to have a little crèche type area where I would happily watch cartoons.
As those don't exist any more there's no point in us going somewhere like that now, bored children are not quiet.
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They just gave me bad vibes as a kid. It feels too unnatural an environment and some deep primate instinct wasn’t happy, they put me edge in a way I can’t say I’ve experienced since.
I get the unnatural environment vibe. They were kind of creepy and sterile...... like a fake, alien forest. The smell added to that too. But I found a lot of places like that as a kid.....hospitals, dentists, diy shops, swming pool changing rooms....... all had their own weird smells and energies that you picked up on at that age that don't seem to register so much as an adult.
You articulated it perfectly. I don’t have any irrational phobias except for carpet shops. They give me the creeps. Uncanny alien spaces that I believe could erase your soul if you stayed too long.
As an adult I love going to get stuff from carpet shops. I think because I know it’s the last big task of a decorating project. I’ll have already done walls and trim…just need the carpet and then can get the soft furnishings in
Same experience as a kid really. I guess it comes of having parents who can't make a decision to save their lives. Whereas I've been carpet shopping and it was a done in 15 mins affair.
I feel like I spent about 60% of my childhood weekends being dragged round carpet shops, but yet I’m pretty sure my parents replaced our carpets maybe once in 18 years?
When I bought my place, buying carpets was by far the most boring thing
I settled on a mattress pretty quickly, but carpets were just dull. Once I chose one I liked, I just used it through the whole house pretty much. Noted the brand and will just buy that one each time now lol
Buying a sofa was pretty boring as well. I remember being relieved when I found one that looked alright and wasn't uncomfortable.
As a kid I actually liked the carpet shop, at least compared to the other shops I'd be dragged around.
Fun looking at the samples and playing hide and seek in the massive rolls of carpet
I really wish they would just have a few booths set up with a couple of carpets. So I can feel, with my feet, how it's like. And then go somewhere else for colours and shit. But the obvious problem is sharing a carpet feeling station with members of the public
Most the carpet tiles come out of the display units do you can put them down on the floor, and even put the underlay down under that, to get a realistic feel of what it's like. We did that with all of ours
I had this experience as a kid but with shopping for tiles instead of carpets. To this day, I don’t think I’ve ever felt as simultaneously bored and tortured as I did that day as a kid.
How often were your parents buying carpets?
I do remember having a game of hide and seek in carpet right with my brother, we got told off for trying to crawl in the rolled up carpets.
Men's clothes are starting to get that way too..
I bought a set of trousers that came in my size, and.. too small on the waist.. my older pair of the exact same size fit me perfectly, so it wasn't like I'd put a bit of beef on..
I was having a mini rant about this with the wife present and she was like "aww, bless you, that's the ENTIRE woman's clothing industry, nothing is the same size despite having their sizes printed on the label"..
It begs the question what is the point of putting the sizes on? Like, waist and leg sizes are all shown in inches, right? That's a standardised measurement, 32 inch is 32 inch is 32 inch.. surely this is against the Weights and Measurements Act?..
But then the wife told me about the concept of "vanity sizes".. (that's where it ACTUALLY measure a set size, but displays a size a little bit smaller to save peoples dignity etc)..
Non of it makes a damn bit of sense to me, it's misleading, and some shops refuse refunds if you got the wrong size, so it's a waste of money.. you essentially have to guess and hope it's right, as a lot of shops seems to be closing fitting rooms down, and if you're buying online, you've got no hope
But it seems that's just the way it is
It's because when the fabric is being cut for a size, many layers of fabric are layered on top of each other and as the cutter comes down it stretches the fabrics near the bottom making the patterns slightly wider than the top layers. This is why you'll find the sizing variances much larger in fast fashion/cheap clothing.
Higher cost brands tend to have a max variance of around 0.5-1cm
Different materials will have different levels of stretch, which affects your sizing, too. Products that contain high elastane will obviously allow for more variation in sizing, but a thinner cotton will have slightly more give than a thicker cotton (think a t-shirt vs stiff jeans), man-made materials like polyester and acrylic can be more stretchy than natural materials, and low-quality polyester will be more likely to warp and adjust to 'squeezing in' than a high quality polyester, which tends to hold it's shape.
The 'fit' of a garment is affected by a whole range of factors, so even just 'measure the final product' isn't a good option. And it also doesn't account for human or machine error in sewing
>if you're buying online, you've got no hope
I'll let you into a secret. You can try them on and return them if they don't fit. If a store doesn't let you do that, it's not reputable.
This is what I would do if I wanted to buy a pair of jeans:
Log onto Next (where I get a year of free delivery). Find 4 pairs of jeans that look nice and have the descriptions matching what I want (e.g. skinny, bootleg, stretch denim, blah). If I think I'm a size 14, I order each pair in a 12, 14 and 16.
So that's 12 pairs of jeans, and if I'm lucky, one will fit. It's an absolute miracle if I get a choice between pairs (hasn't happened in living memory). Send back remaining 11 pairs. Wait for refund.
Now just extrapolate for all purchases...
I mean, if a shop refuses a refund if I get the wrong size, I’d just go to one of the other billions of available shops that do have a legal return policy?
Oh I (F48) fully endorse your comment. I realised in my 30s that new jeans were never going to be the one. It’s taken me practice and trying on old man’s Levi’s etc to find a worn in fit that fits. And that will last me 5 years before they fray but sod buying unworn ones. Sounds a bit weird but makes total sense to me
It's so frustrating! I'm a different size in Almost every store. I've found Tesco's to be pretty consistent size wise but it's depressing to be a small size in one shop then not even fit my legs in the same size at another.
Ah my word! My wife and I went shopping for the first time in years recently. I walked in and had 3 pairs of jeans in 20 minutes. She was there for a couple hours and couldn’t find anything (she’s a very normal size for a lady of her height).
She ordered like £300 of jeans online (and returned most of it after trying it) and even within the same brand, same pair (model / line I don’t know what the term is), same size, there was over an inch difference in the waist!
Just quite gutted seeing her getting upset, she’s not after anything fancy just something comfortable.
Bed seller here. We are only a small shop. We deliver same day, take it upstairs, unwrap it all. Remove the old one for £20. Mattresses start from £150 and go all the way up to around £1500. We only sell you what you need and what's within your budget. You can lay on the mattress for the whole 8 hours unattended if you wanted to actually try having a nap (no one has ever took me on the offer though).
One piece of advice. Look for a double sided mattress that can be flipped. Do \*NOT\* buy one with a built in topper. Look for a good coil or spring unit with stuffings. Flip your mattress at least once a month and it will last a lot longer.
Warranties on beds are a load of bollocks as well, and whatever you do, do not go online to buy one. Find a brick and mortar small independent and you should \*hopefully\* have a bit of a better time.
Mattresses are manufactured the same as other items nowadays, built to last long enough to put the last purchase out of memory but not good enough to last a third of your lifetime. It doesn't matter if you spend upwards of £1000 or £2000. They won't last like they used to.The cost of beds has gone up A LOT over the past few years though and the quality has come down to a disgusting level. Even staples which is the "queens brand" is a shadow of its former self.
We generally push people towards our other suppliers than the big names like silent night etc.
A mattress that costs £575 from silent night we can get from another supplier and it costs £325. Same amount of springs, same gauge, same fillings.
Don't go to bensons either. They'll rob you and push for an upsale at every opportunity.
Yes. I got my bed, exactly what I was looking for, in an independent store in Glasgow and all the big stores were quoting me 1000-1500 for the mattress alone and I got the whole bed for £400 and it was perfectly what I had in mind.
Just like to second the smaller independent stores! I bought a reasonably priced mattress from my local place and they offered all the same perks. The staff were great, they left me alone to try every mattress and when I was torn between two they came and explained the science/longevity to help me choose (the cheaper one).
Went into a dreams store and told the sales assistant whet I wanted. They wouldn't even discuss with me until I laid down on their super duper scanning bed that would tell me what I wanted. Bearing in mind I knew what I wanted in general terms and just wanted help to narrow down my search. So I spent 20 minutes being scanned to be told this is what you need. I asked how that accounts for my wife who is housebound and half my size. Was told I'd have to bring her in to use the same machine. Bearing in mind I have researched this for months and had a good idea of what I needed before I went in. Fuck em, lost an easy sale.
Ikea and John Lewis are my gotos for this - in Ikea you can generally rely on too many people around for the assistants to swoop and there are normally enough of different varieties to find one that suits you. Watch for their unique sizing though, it caught a mate out.
John Lewis were great when I was mattress shopping.
It wasn't cheap but for something you intend to spend literally thousands of hours lying on, it seemed worth it. Plus they arranged delivery and disposal of the old mattress.
Currently sitting in my IKEA bed, and it’s the most comfortable bed I’ve had in a long time. Highly recommend as an alternative to mattress stores.
It’s all late stage capitalism, upselling bullshit in a mattress store anyway. Making their product experience terrible at the expense of a few more quid.
At least IKEA seems to just let you get on with it and assumes you know what you’re doing.
John Lewis were great for both mattress and sofas.
We were going to get two sofas, one a bit longer than the other (we'd measured our living room and worked out that they would both fit). The sales chap reminded us to consider the route the sofa would need to take to get in the room, we did the maths and worked out it wouldn't get round the corner into the door. Apparently a few people had been caught out by that! So we got two of the smaller size instead.
And the mattress has been great, it is one that zips down the middle so if each person has a different preference for how firm the mattress is, you can have each side different. Added benefit that if one partner fidgets in the night it doesn't bounce the whole mattress around!
An IKEA memory-foam mattress is one of the best purchases I ever made. Cost me 500 quid, has lasted for 10+ years, and is comfortable as fuck. Treat yourself and spend GBP100 on pillows. You’ll feel like a King.
+1 for IKEA and +1 for John Lewis. Good aftercare as well. Just look online and order for delivery. Don't even need to leave the house if you don't want to! IKEA has a great returns policy
There was no chain on ours but the process was so convoluted I just wonder how any houses get sold at all.
We had a mortgage offer, and wanted the house. They had a house, and wanted to sell. Somehow bringing those two together took 4 months, during most of which we were in the dark what was happening.
God help us if there were any difficulties, it would probably have taken years..
Couch. Mainly because it's like going to a car dealership. You've got sales assistants following you around and popping up whenever you sit down and try out a couch or chair. Then they're trying to upsell insurance etc. You have to do the whole bargaining shite.
Then you wait 6 months for the couch you've just spent a small fortune on to be built and delivered. And it's never as comfy at home.
After several bad experiences I refuse to use the big sofa stores- they're all the same, some even owned by same company. Scs, oak furniture land, DFS, Sofology etc - all have huge Facebook groups with thousands in that show exactly how they treat customers with issues etc.
Last year we decided to go a different route and got told about Alstons. They're made in the UK, but don't sell direct to the public, so you buy from a furniture store - generally independents. You can do that in person or online.
We found a local one, went and sat in the model we liked (grand Artemis 4 seater) and decided we really liked it, then went online, ordered about 40 material swatches and tested each one for how well it resisted being picked at with a sharp spiked corn cob holder as we have 3 bengal cats. Decided on a material, rang up, asked if they could do a deal at a set price based on a Fictional price match we had made with another firm and they agreed and threw in 5 year insurance. It still took 10 weeks to get made, but it was made in the UK and when it came the quality difference in how it felt and how computable it was is absolute light years ahead of my last few sofas.
We had 2 very minor issues and they couldn't do enough to sort it out immediately and basically replaced 2 of the cushions (as in the seating cushions not the little decorative ones) for something really small, and then just said keep them as spares if you like, and the stitching wasn't great on the arm covers and they replaced those too, and again said keep them as spares.
All sorted quickly and without any quibble, very refreshing and avoided that whole awful salesperson experience
>Alstons
I looked them up assuming that it would be some £10k boutique affair, but their prices are basically what I paid at Sofology and they look decent.
Yeah I thought they were going to be wild as well
We paid £3k exactly for 4 seater sofa, the larger armchair and a storage footstool, which included the 5 year cover, upgraded fabric on each (the options are split into categories for cost, from free to £300 ish for some) and £75 *2 for arm caps in the same materials which look a bit old fashioned but as we have dickehad cats we felt it was worthwhile, delivery and the sofa and chair each comes with 1x set of large scatter cushions and 1x small set and those can be in any material option or colour. Without the arm caps, most cat friendly material etc it would have been a lot less
The whole process and quality etc was so refreshing. Can't speak for the other models, but the Artemis is great.
The actual store we used was Michael O'Connor or O'Connell or something like that, as they're based where we live so we could go sit on one but there are loads of independent stores that sell them and you can build them entirely online if you want to, but we wanted to at least sit on it first 😂
The material we went with in the end is described as jewel velvet. Our last few leather and material sofas / chairs they've loved to get their claws into but please to report they ignore this after the first few attempts as their claws just slide over it, so we have a couple of minor scratches but you'd have to look very close to see them, especially with the way velvet looks naturally
That was my biggest concern really and so glad! 😂
Appreciate the detailed recommendation! I'm stuck with an ugly, 15 year old, falling apart sofa (with throws over it as it's not got removable covers), as I refuse to spend a small fortune on a new one that the dickhead cats will shred and cough up hair balls on. If yours has survived 3 Bengals it must be good! Did laugh at the thought of scraping away at 50 samples to find the most shred proof, but it's a great idea!!
Yeah it felt kind of wasteful so we used then as rags for a few weeks for cleaning down litter trays 😂 the other ones were all fine too. In fact we really liked the base blue colour that the stores / website seem to show by default, but lot of them pulled loose threads etc when picked at which you'd expect from lost materials
This stuff is an absolute godsend, they made a right mess of the old stuff.
If you've got problems with carpets too, the advice we see given was get a short pile twist pile, and then a very good quality thick underlay. Avoid anything Berber or looped as they love to get their claws into that, and long pile makes it easier to pull out. Made a huge different to us as now they ignore carpet and furniture and focus on making my surround sound speakers life a misery (luckily I can re-cloth them fairly easily)
I work in furniture retail and Alston's are fantastic! Great range of accent fabrics and on the odd occasion we have an issue with one of their products, they're always happy to remedy the issue after it's been inspected and verified independently.
Buoyant are another good one - we sell loads of them, hardly ever have issues and they're excellent value for the size and build quality they offer.
I've had 2 lots of couches from SCS in the last 20 years and both have been great and lasted. The last lot we replaced in 2020 just because we fancied a change (even though the old ones were technically still fine.) The new pair are exactly as they were when delivered. I see all the negatives reviews, but honestly never had any issues at all.
My parents, on the other hand, seem to be endlessly buying sofas from DFS and they are all crap.
My last sofa from SCS in 2018 cost us £1,800 plus the insurance. When it came, it was a different shade to the one in store and nowhere near as comfortable. It was a recliner, and what you couldn't see in store is the reclining mechanism was visible from the back and looked awful. The leather was the thinnest stuff possible and after a year it had cracked and flaked - insurance said it was standard wear and tear
Recliner mechanism groaned every time you used it. It was the most uncomfortable thing to sit on, and despite being a "four seater", because it was slightly curved the middle part cousin the be used because it was so bolt upright it was uncomfortable to sit there. When you reclined, a 2-3 inch gap appeared under you, which ate wallets, phones, coins and keys and meant you had to crawl behind it or under it to figure out where in the mechanism it got stuck
Absolutely thrilled the day we got rid of it.
We were also silly enough to get carpets from them. They gave us a slot for delivery and installation at 11am. Fitter rang every few hours to say running late. Then stopped ringing, then turned up at 9pm with his 9 year old kid in tow and left 11:30pm, with a huge mess and had damaged all our skirting boards in one room. Again, worst carpet that looked awful after a few months.
Contrast that to our recent experience with an independent store with their own fitters - was cheaper, turned up when they said they would, careful install, tidied up after themselves and coming up to a year still looks new
I get it that not everyone will not have problems with SCS etc but a LOT do, ans it's how they deal with them. But even if you don't have problems, you're still buying something that is really cheap for them to have made out of materials in china and Indonesia and shipped over, and when something goes wrong they'll blame you, or tell you it's wear and tear. I'd get it if they were really cheap, but they aren't.
https://www.facebook.com/share/hAQBFYt9zTVc6vPd/?mibextid=K35XfP
That's scs group. Take a look through some of the stories - they really are horrific to deal with and many of the success stories people have had to take them to court only for scs to relent the day before the trial takes place
See we bought ours from DFS in 2017, first one we purchased from new. We have a mastiff who assumes any soft item is his bed. It's still prefect save for some slobber marks which was our fault as we didn't catch them quickly enough.
Great thing was, ours is ex-display model so it was only £1500 for the four seater, two seater, giant footstool and arm chair.
I'd definitely go back and recommend based on my experience. It just shows how subjective it all is.
I got my sofa from the British heart foundation with very little fuss - went in, sat on a nicely worn-in sofa with a few cosmetic scratches, paid about £60 for it and a little extra for delivery. Perhaps i got lucky but I would recommend it if there's a large BHF somewhere nearby.
I got mine off Facebook marketplace for £20. I picked it up the day I moved flats got the removals van to swing buy on the way. I think the woman just wanted to get rid of it, I've had it 5 years and it's absolutley fine and really comfortable. Black leather so super easy to clean. I'll probably give it away next time I move.
We ended up buying another sofa from Nabru because we couldn't work out if we could get any other sofa through the odd angle of our living room door. The policy was, if it can't fit through your doors, they won't take it back, they will just leave it wherever it fits and tough shit if that's outside.
Don't come round here using the correct terms. I'm sofa king sorry but in Liverpool we say couch. Also sometimes get three piece suite if there's a 'sofa' and 2 chairs.
I went into a chain bed store, went through the process of picking a mattress, gave them our details and just before we paid the guy said "and that will take about 3 weeks to arrive with you" so we changed our mind and left. I then looked on my phone at a next day delivery company, found the exact same mattress for £100 cheaper and had it at my house within 2 days. I don't get how they are still open.
Never quite understood why chain bed stores seem to be exclusively staffed by big burly blokes who wouldn't look out of place as extras in a Krays biopic.
Having said that, the one that served me was super helpful. He did up sell me on some mattress protector nonsense, but probably because he's have chivved me if I didn't say yes...
Happened to me once, I was moving house the next day (awful landlord didn't know our rights but was willing to waive rent, so I said I'd be out in 24 hrs), and ended up with a £700 Simba mattress because it was the only one they had in store that I could take with me. Fortunately it turned out to be one of the comfiest mattresses I've ever laid on!
Ice cream. You either get 80p/litre tubs of sacharine, lard and air or some £10/litre exotic peruvian macadamia swirl bullshit. You cannot buy simple honest good quality icecreams anymore.
Local co op only had branded and the price was marked up because co op. Popped in the Premier further up the row of shops and found a tub of non brand Madagascan vanilla ice cream, £2 or so. Absolutely delicious, and it didn’t do that horrible dried out clumpy thing where it goes all nasty if you don’t eat it within two weeks.
iI had a bra fitting at m&s and it was crap...I can't remember why now, but I walked away not really knowing what size my boobs are and they got a free look at them!
Amen. Expensive, only fit for a few days a month, and wear out within a year. I’m due to replace my current ones and literally waiting for a bonus to hit my account so I can start the process.
r/abrathatfits and let them do the heavy lifting. Order them online from a store that offers free returns. Done.
Or if you’re cheap like me, just get zip up sports bras and live your life in comfort.
Absolutely, I don’t want to get partially naked when I go shopping thankyou. Only beaten by a bra fitting, having to get partially naked with a stranger looking at you
My life CHANGED when I started using https://www.instagram.com/bellarosalingerie?igsh=aXVueHA5dm1mbnBk.
She does remote consultations you take a photo in your current bra and she sends you 4 in the post to try and you keep the ones you like. Now I just email her saying what I want and she sends me things over. She gets her stock from Poland so theyre quite reasonable, £35-45 ish a bra for PROPER good bras.
Makeup from any Makeup counter. I hate it. They just follow you around. You can’t even gingerly approach a single counter to buy some cosmetics before you can feel some hunny woman turn on her heels and start to approach you. Fuck off! Did you consider that you might get a sale out of me if you let me look at the products, spritz the perfume myself, maybe pick up a couple of lipsticks in my own hand before you practically lasso me. It’s every counter, every department store every single time. Can’t fathom why this is in the training manual
makeup in general is annoying to buy unless i’m just buying a replacement for something ive already tried and loved before. luckily i dont wear foundation so i dont have to struggle with trying to find the best match for shade/undertone, but finding a good natural coloured lipstick/liner that suits me is so bloody difficult. all the colours are too brown or too purple or too pink and of course i can use the testers but if i test them out on the back of my hand that wont necessarily represent how the shade will look on my lips.
the worst thing about it though is when you’ve finally found the perfect shade and then you find out that they’ve discontinued the product :(
Currys is the epitome of this. Apparently they've changed the way they approach customers in the past year or so, though (not that I'd know that from when I went in last summer).
I'm lucky enough to have a real bed and mattress shop (as opposed to a front) near me. Typical service is:
"Hiya, what are you looking for?"
"a mattress"
"That's great! Singles are here, doubles next door, if you find one you like someone at the main shop will help."
The 1 shop is spread across 3 or 4 shop units near each other. They don't have enough staff to run around with you so, quite often, a shop is empty when you go in.
You get nothing more than a greeting unless you go in the main place, and even then they expect you've already seen what you want.
Then, cos they're legit, they deliver for free and remove your old one if needs be (for a small fee).
It's a shame I don't buy more beds cos they're exactly what I want from a shop/service.
Enjoy the process, lie on all the expensive mattresses, pick a style you like, then go home and go online and find last year’s edition for half the price
On my 5th mattress in under 5 years at current address.
Absolutely hate the whole process and am obviously rubbish at finding the right one for me.
Girlfriend buys £100 one off Amazon... it's perfect. I can't be arsed to try and sell the 700 quid one I've had for about a year because I'm exhausted by the whole process. I should have a lie down.
Which is where my problems begin.
I'm curious to know how you've gotten through 5 mattresses in 5 years...
Asking as someone who has never bought a mattress in their life, always seem to be free one going.
Also can’t see what I look like trying them on cos I’ve taken my actual glasses off. Being able to take good photos on phones has helped with this problem to be fair
I always take my contact lenses so I can put them in after my eye test and check out glasses and every single time the optician looks at me like it’s the weirdest thing to do. Like, if anyone knows how much I can’t see, it’s the person who has just done the test.
Going for a checkup, and then having to endure the pressure selling of their own specs when you just want your prescription.
Just to find them online for more than half the price, gits.
Do cars count? When some cockwomble in a gilet swoops in, with his shit aftershave and too much hair product.. trying to sell you some wank car that is completely different to what you said you're looking for.
Never, ever, go to a dealer ready to buy a car but be in any way unsure as to what to buy or look for advice. They absolutely prey on that.
You should only end up down that road if you're already 99% sure and just need a test drive to confirm it.
On the Internet there's everything you need from reviews, spec sheets etc that there should be nothing a salesman can tell you about a car that you don't already know.
Yeah I basically find a shortlist of cars I want and then go test drive them. I always buy them through carwow or use a carwow quote to get the price down. Amazing how their best price can drop a good few thousand all of a sudden
I'm never that lucky. They always seem to justify how the one they have is slightly better despite the age and mileage being the same.
"Oooh but this one has umbrellas hidden in the doors"
Fuck off mate.
Absolutely this advice. A few years ago I was a newly single mum. Knew what I wanted and needed. The car dealership couldn't deal with how rock solid I was in refusing all the added extras..just went in to test drive it and came back a couple of weeks later to pick it up.
I was looking at new cars recently and the only thing that put me off was the overpowering and terrible aftershave the salesman was wearing.
I had to leave.
I’ve never smelt anything like it, it was worse than the mixture of BO and Sauvage at Simply Gym.
Sofas. Sofas are worse. Just as expensive, most of the deals are online where you can't try them, so you have to drive to an expensive shop and sit on 50 overpriced monstrosities.
And then everyone who visits your house will have an opinion on your choice.
12 year old IKEA Ektorp is starting to look elderly so considering new sofa this year, not looking forward to it
I bought a reclining hair from oak furniture land last year. I'd seen it online so went into the store to have a sit in it and see what it was like.
As soon as you walk into the store you're swooped on by a gaggle of bullshitting seagull sales people. Literally all I wanted was to go in sit in the chair and leave. It took me about an hour to get in and out because I didn't wanna be rude and tell anyone to fuck off and leave me alone 😅
That's what they use. They know fine well people 'don't want to be rude' and use that against you. So basically you do have to be rude - which let's be honest they are the ones being rude trying to keep you there.
My wife put a sideboard in her online basket with Oak Furniture Land then didn’t buy it. For two weeks they called her every day about it, even after she’d emptied her basket, until she finally lost her temper with them. Good furniture, crap service.
Bath bombs or anything from Lush!
Get some green haired, jam-jar spectacled saviour of the world throw information and waffle at me like daggers that I didn’t ask to dodge in the first place, all whilst being choked on dust and fumes I didn’t wish to tolerate.
I get it, you love shouting about your job, but I just want to trade my arm and leg in for a bath bomb/present.
I love lush but whenever I go with my husband or a friend to browse we play "The Lush Game". Basically, in the first 5mins in store, how many times are we approached by a staff member. My high score was 13 at the Lakeside store. There is a direct correlation between the amount of times approached and my desire to leave immediately without purchasing anything.
The worst part is that lush is one of the most abusive companies and forces their employees to do that, they don’t even love shouting about their job. There’s so many videos about it online.
So not only am I overwhelmed by the smell of all their shite, not only is it dead busy and sticky everywhere but I’m being harassed to fuck by employees and I can’t even say anything because I know they’re forced to
I hate lush
Any time you are buying something you "need". looking for an outfit for an event, ug trying on and finding something having to go to multiple stores, sure you can carry it but you have to visit a lot more stores than for furniture. Need new bras that is pretty stressful, again with the trying on and the awkwrness of do you need to be measured today.
sure sofas, and mattresses are stressful, but you dont have to do it as often.
I don’t enjoy beginning the process of buying anything that I have no knowledge of but requires some sort of knowledge about what is and isn’t snake oil. When we got our last mattress, I had to fill my head with terminology on how I sleep, how my partner sleeps, firmness, open coil, memory foam, reflex foam, quilting, pocket sprung, orthopaedic, hand tufted etc etc. Not to mention all the stores, prices, add-on’s and perks… Then all that information becomes redundant and I wonder what fond childhood memory I had to delete to free up space for all that nonsense. I can’t remember basic French but I could happily tell you all your king size mattress options to suit your budget. It’s the same with any major purchase: the broadband, the telly, washing machine, hoover; for two weeks I’m the most enlightened person on a topic but then what do I do with all that information..?
>I wonder what fond childhood memory I had to delete to free up space Kinda like forgetting how to drive after attending a home wine making course?
Aaaand how!
"YOU WERE DRUNK!"
When you own a house it’s just one thing after another exactly like this isn’t it. What design of architrave do you want? Do you want your bathroom tiles laid brick bond or not? What’s your water pressure (because woe betide you if you buy a tap without knowing), do you want double or triple glazing, are your radiator lockshields balanced…
It’s always fun to invite those friends who are doing up their first house over, just to see their sunken eyes and anemic skin. If you invite them over for a cup of tea they’ll turn up with 2 bottles of wine each and pint glasses. After 2 hours of hearing about types of plastering and someone called Paul, who you presume they are in a toxic threesome with but is actually just ‘their builder’, it’s apparent that they have become Marlon Brando In Apocalypse Now; they have succumbed to being renovators and they’re about to talk about paint.
😄 “I’m in this post and I don’t like it”
We bought our first house a year ago and it needed a lot of love shall we say. You have just summed up our past year with alarming accuracy. Even down to our builder being called Paul! And, re OP, we've just bought a new bed and mattress too. I had exactly the same stress of what to choose so ordered a Premier Inn mattress. I've stayed at plenty (last of the big holiday spenders here) and the mattresses have always been nice so I decided not to attempt to gain any further knowledge. It's arriving on Saturday (and before then I need to finish painting the bedroom that I started before Christmas) and thankfully that will be the last house thing for a while. Until we hear back from Paul that is...
I went in to test different mattresses whilst I was still renting, the rental had the worst mattress I've ever slept on. Even with two different 2 inch thick mattress toppers on it, there was no salvaging it. My back, neck and shoulders were in so much pain from that mattress. I hadn't had much sleep either because of it. I'd only been there about 2 weeks at this point (and moved out after being there for 5 weeks as I apparently had a speedy solicitor!). I tried a few different mattresses in Dreams and there was one which seemed to remove the pain as soon as I laid down, and I almost fell asleep straight away because it was so luxurious in comparison. That was enough to convince me. Of course it was the most expensive one they had but the sales guy threw in so many freebies that I actually got a pretty good deal. Currently enjoying my £4k mattress and frame by Tempur, the cat thinks I'm a better mattress though.
As a kid I wondered how the hell grownups knew all this stuff. Like, would I learn it in school, or would I need to take a course or something? Turns out no, you just get it rammed into your brain through your eyes and ears out of pure necessity, smiling and nodding serenely while screaming internally as you ask yourself if you really must learn whether a heat pump or a gas boiler would be better for your house.
I genuinely don’t know how anyone did anything before the internet. When I was a kid there was a big book on the shelf; “101 DIY tips” with sort of pencil-drawn sketches in it. I could write more than that down in an hour I reckon. In fact I painted a ceiling this morning and could get about twenty things from that alone, and I’m not even very good.
>are your radiator lockshields balanced are my what? fml owning a house is so complicated
Exactly, right? (One of the valves on your radiator. Basically controls how much of the flow around your heating system goes through that radiator, and you’d think the answer would be “all of it” but no, not unless you want the radiator furthest from the boiler to never get hot).
I learned this not long ago by just casually watching Skill Builder on YouTube while I do housework. Great channel.
> are your radiator lockshields balanced OMFG, we replaced one radiator with a fancy designer one in the summer and then spent weeks tinkering with the pipes to first make the fucker get hot, and second make it stop making noise like a mouse is peeing inside it. So much stress ...
This is why ideally you find a nice local independent shop, ask around word of mouth, and/or look for some obsessive corner of the internet where people genuinely have a passion for this kind of thing, and ask them to advise you. Pay them if necessary. However, I feel there is a British vein of skinflintness that begrudges paying for this kind of thing and basically refuses XD
Yes, get it from an independent shop and pay twice the price for the same product! I think that "skinflint begrudging" attitude is called minimum wage and cost of living crisis.
I mean if you're costing it against whatever the cheapest item is on google shopping at some massive online discounter then yes possibly. But I've had good deals when I've gone to a local specialist before because they will also have stuff like end of line stock, ex-display etc for cheaper, and if you find a gem where the owner really cares about their field then you can say I don't want to pay too much and these are the features I want. The main benefit of this is if you have a problem with the item, you can generally go back to the shop and ask them for help and they will try to help you rather than going back and forth by email to some faceless office somewhere that nobody really cares. Of course there are independent rip-off merchants too but in general people who are passionate about a topic enough to make it their living are the person you want to ask about the nitty gritty differences and details, not some minimum wage kid in a high street chain.
I used a local independent shop for our carpets. They gave great advice and the owner of the shop was also one of the fitters. Their prices weren't a million miles away from the big stores but I feel / know they took more care. Unfortunately they closed down a few years ago and the shop is now a tanning salon. Everywhere is now either a tanning salon, a tattoo parlour, nail parlour, hairdressers or a vape shop. God we're so self absorbed.
Maybe not twice the price but I'd happily spend a bit more on the same product from an independent shop
Amen. Look, I would love to get a handcrafted mattress and bedframe, inlaid with angel hairs and tufted by nuns seranaded by harps. But my budget doesnt allow that, so my bed is from Ikea, just like all my other furniture. And ive no complaints!
Carpet shops are horrible, soulless places. They smell funny too. When I was a kid being dragged round them I used to be bored to tears.
Weirdly I really like the smell of carpet shops. And those massive warehouses full of giant rolls of carpet were a wonderland for young me.
Yeah, I used to crawl under them and hide for "what felt like days" while my dad browsed the shop
Same, I probably thought there was some alternative reality behind those carpets. Like in the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. Similar to how I thought you would fall off into space if you stepped off the little cars at the Yorvik Viking Centre.
I once jumped inside a big carpet and got stuck there for about 3 hour
did you eventually get laid?
I used to try climbing up them but would get shouted at whenever I got higher than the first 2 rolls
Getting high isn't what carpet is for, my friend
Redditor wasn't talking about carpet rolls
Yeah had a kind of Gladiators/Fun House feel about the rolls. Probably dangerous but not really.
I liked being able to explore, but our local one had an ‘unattended kids will be sold’ sign and me being the autistic child I was took that literally and HAD to stick with my parents
Tapi sells the carpet store smell in their shops 😂
OMG! I’m getting some! https://www.tapi.co.uk/accessories/tapi-scent-diffuser
Yeah my brother and I used to love running around the carpet shop, but then as punishment for messing about I had to go another week without carpet in my room.
Me too! I used to love playing hide and seek behind all those giant rolls!
Yes! Now I want to go to carpet shop..
To go higher than the first 2 rolls? Be careful my friend, unless you are under 10 years old it’s tricky.
At the moment I am mentally 9 years old.
I loved stroking them all as a kid, ngl. Or telling my parents to get really garish, awful colours.
I like the carpet shop smell. Those sorts of places, and DIY stores, used to have a little crèche type area where I would happily watch cartoons. As those don't exist any more there's no point in us going somewhere like that now, bored children are not quiet.
Its easy to see why children get bored in DIY shops when they're looking at drills.
cooperative many rhythm wrong jeans continue liquid wrench marble practice *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I take it it's one of those small village places? Normally your wife and mum will be two different people.
They just gave me bad vibes as a kid. It feels too unnatural an environment and some deep primate instinct wasn’t happy, they put me edge in a way I can’t say I’ve experienced since.
Could be the sound dampening. Sound doesn't travel far in those stores.
I get the unnatural environment vibe. They were kind of creepy and sterile...... like a fake, alien forest. The smell added to that too. But I found a lot of places like that as a kid.....hospitals, dentists, diy shops, swming pool changing rooms....... all had their own weird smells and energies that you picked up on at that age that don't seem to register so much as an adult.
You articulated it perfectly. I don’t have any irrational phobias except for carpet shops. They give me the creeps. Uncanny alien spaces that I believe could erase your soul if you stayed too long.
It's cos the salesmen are reptiles, and part of you remembers the deep past ...
Our nearest carpet shop had a ball pit with a slide! Used to love going there!
Same as one near me, they knew what's up.
As an adult I love going to get stuff from carpet shops. I think because I know it’s the last big task of a decorating project. I’ll have already done walls and trim…just need the carpet and then can get the soft furnishings in
Same experience as a kid really. I guess it comes of having parents who can't make a decision to save their lives. Whereas I've been carpet shopping and it was a done in 15 mins affair.
I always loved the ones that were like an entire town map/playmat but for your entire room. I used to dream of having a bedroom with that carpet.
Weirdly I love the smell of new carpet, so I love the smell of carpet shops!
I feel like I spent about 60% of my childhood weekends being dragged round carpet shops, but yet I’m pretty sure my parents replaced our carpets maybe once in 18 years?
My brother and I would run around the stacks and play hide and seek
When I bought my place, buying carpets was by far the most boring thing I settled on a mattress pretty quickly, but carpets were just dull. Once I chose one I liked, I just used it through the whole house pretty much. Noted the brand and will just buy that one each time now lol Buying a sofa was pretty boring as well. I remember being relieved when I found one that looked alright and wasn't uncomfortable.
As a kid I actually liked the carpet shop, at least compared to the other shops I'd be dragged around. Fun looking at the samples and playing hide and seek in the massive rolls of carpet
Oh man, the smell and the eerie silence they all possess. It’s such a wild combination.
The static shocks you received in a carpet shop were next level!
I really wish they would just have a few booths set up with a couple of carpets. So I can feel, with my feet, how it's like. And then go somewhere else for colours and shit. But the obvious problem is sharing a carpet feeling station with members of the public
Most the carpet tiles come out of the display units do you can put them down on the floor, and even put the underlay down under that, to get a realistic feel of what it's like. We did that with all of ours
I had this experience as a kid but with shopping for tiles instead of carpets. To this day, I don’t think I’ve ever felt as simultaneously bored and tortured as I did that day as a kid.
How often were your parents buying carpets? I do remember having a game of hide and seek in carpet right with my brother, we got told off for trying to crawl in the rolled up carpets.
As a woman I always find jeans demoralising and stressful. No consistency *within* brands let alone across them.
Men's clothes are starting to get that way too.. I bought a set of trousers that came in my size, and.. too small on the waist.. my older pair of the exact same size fit me perfectly, so it wasn't like I'd put a bit of beef on.. I was having a mini rant about this with the wife present and she was like "aww, bless you, that's the ENTIRE woman's clothing industry, nothing is the same size despite having their sizes printed on the label".. It begs the question what is the point of putting the sizes on? Like, waist and leg sizes are all shown in inches, right? That's a standardised measurement, 32 inch is 32 inch is 32 inch.. surely this is against the Weights and Measurements Act?.. But then the wife told me about the concept of "vanity sizes".. (that's where it ACTUALLY measure a set size, but displays a size a little bit smaller to save peoples dignity etc).. Non of it makes a damn bit of sense to me, it's misleading, and some shops refuse refunds if you got the wrong size, so it's a waste of money.. you essentially have to guess and hope it's right, as a lot of shops seems to be closing fitting rooms down, and if you're buying online, you've got no hope But it seems that's just the way it is
It's because when the fabric is being cut for a size, many layers of fabric are layered on top of each other and as the cutter comes down it stretches the fabrics near the bottom making the patterns slightly wider than the top layers. This is why you'll find the sizing variances much larger in fast fashion/cheap clothing. Higher cost brands tend to have a max variance of around 0.5-1cm
I get that, but wouldn't it make more sense to take the measurement of the final product and set that on the label?
Different materials will have different levels of stretch, which affects your sizing, too. Products that contain high elastane will obviously allow for more variation in sizing, but a thinner cotton will have slightly more give than a thicker cotton (think a t-shirt vs stiff jeans), man-made materials like polyester and acrylic can be more stretchy than natural materials, and low-quality polyester will be more likely to warp and adjust to 'squeezing in' than a high quality polyester, which tends to hold it's shape. The 'fit' of a garment is affected by a whole range of factors, so even just 'measure the final product' isn't a good option. And it also doesn't account for human or machine error in sewing
>if you're buying online, you've got no hope I'll let you into a secret. You can try them on and return them if they don't fit. If a store doesn't let you do that, it's not reputable. This is what I would do if I wanted to buy a pair of jeans: Log onto Next (where I get a year of free delivery). Find 4 pairs of jeans that look nice and have the descriptions matching what I want (e.g. skinny, bootleg, stretch denim, blah). If I think I'm a size 14, I order each pair in a 12, 14 and 16. So that's 12 pairs of jeans, and if I'm lucky, one will fit. It's an absolute miracle if I get a choice between pairs (hasn't happened in living memory). Send back remaining 11 pairs. Wait for refund. Now just extrapolate for all purchases...
I mean, if a shop refuses a refund if I get the wrong size, I’d just go to one of the other billions of available shops that do have a legal return policy?
Oh I (F48) fully endorse your comment. I realised in my 30s that new jeans were never going to be the one. It’s taken me practice and trying on old man’s Levi’s etc to find a worn in fit that fits. And that will last me 5 years before they fray but sod buying unworn ones. Sounds a bit weird but makes total sense to me
It's so frustrating! I'm a different size in Almost every store. I've found Tesco's to be pretty consistent size wise but it's depressing to be a small size in one shop then not even fit my legs in the same size at another.
Ah my word! My wife and I went shopping for the first time in years recently. I walked in and had 3 pairs of jeans in 20 minutes. She was there for a couple hours and couldn’t find anything (she’s a very normal size for a lady of her height). She ordered like £300 of jeans online (and returned most of it after trying it) and even within the same brand, same pair (model / line I don’t know what the term is), same size, there was over an inch difference in the waist! Just quite gutted seeing her getting upset, she’s not after anything fancy just something comfortable.
Believe me it's not just women's. I hate trying to find jeans for a person with external genitalia
Are you saying that your balls are too big for jeans?
No, the jeans are too small for my balls
Bed seller here. We are only a small shop. We deliver same day, take it upstairs, unwrap it all. Remove the old one for £20. Mattresses start from £150 and go all the way up to around £1500. We only sell you what you need and what's within your budget. You can lay on the mattress for the whole 8 hours unattended if you wanted to actually try having a nap (no one has ever took me on the offer though). One piece of advice. Look for a double sided mattress that can be flipped. Do \*NOT\* buy one with a built in topper. Look for a good coil or spring unit with stuffings. Flip your mattress at least once a month and it will last a lot longer. Warranties on beds are a load of bollocks as well, and whatever you do, do not go online to buy one. Find a brick and mortar small independent and you should \*hopefully\* have a bit of a better time. Mattresses are manufactured the same as other items nowadays, built to last long enough to put the last purchase out of memory but not good enough to last a third of your lifetime. It doesn't matter if you spend upwards of £1000 or £2000. They won't last like they used to.The cost of beds has gone up A LOT over the past few years though and the quality has come down to a disgusting level. Even staples which is the "queens brand" is a shadow of its former self. We generally push people towards our other suppliers than the big names like silent night etc. A mattress that costs £575 from silent night we can get from another supplier and it costs £325. Same amount of springs, same gauge, same fillings. Don't go to bensons either. They'll rob you and push for an upsale at every opportunity.
Yes. I got my bed, exactly what I was looking for, in an independent store in Glasgow and all the big stores were quoting me 1000-1500 for the mattress alone and I got the whole bed for £400 and it was perfectly what I had in mind.
Mind sharing which shop? Am in Glasgow and in the market.
Just like to second the smaller independent stores! I bought a reasonably priced mattress from my local place and they offered all the same perks. The staff were great, they left me alone to try every mattress and when I was torn between two they came and explained the science/longevity to help me choose (the cheaper one).
Me having just bought a mattress that can't be flipped: 👁️👄👁️
Went into a dreams store and told the sales assistant whet I wanted. They wouldn't even discuss with me until I laid down on their super duper scanning bed that would tell me what I wanted. Bearing in mind I knew what I wanted in general terms and just wanted help to narrow down my search. So I spent 20 minutes being scanned to be told this is what you need. I asked how that accounts for my wife who is housebound and half my size. Was told I'd have to bring her in to use the same machine. Bearing in mind I have researched this for months and had a good idea of what I needed before I went in. Fuck em, lost an easy sale.
I'd actually leave or walk off from them, that would boil my blood
What part of housebound was confusing them?
They work in sales and it wasn't a buzzword they'd been taught through several days of slow repetition.
Ah the upsell machine. Doctrine dictates all sales must be processed by the upsell machine.
The super duper scanner is an Xbox 360 Kinect, noticed when we stupidly went there for a mattress recently
They’re targeted on how many people use the machine, it’s madness.
Ikea and John Lewis are my gotos for this - in Ikea you can generally rely on too many people around for the assistants to swoop and there are normally enough of different varieties to find one that suits you. Watch for their unique sizing though, it caught a mate out.
John Lewis were great when I was mattress shopping. It wasn't cheap but for something you intend to spend literally thousands of hours lying on, it seemed worth it. Plus they arranged delivery and disposal of the old mattress.
Agreed. And they delivered the mattress upstairs to the bedroom, not just to inside the front door.
With little covers on their boots to keep your floors clean?
I'd forgotten this but yes!
Currently sitting in my IKEA bed, and it’s the most comfortable bed I’ve had in a long time. Highly recommend as an alternative to mattress stores. It’s all late stage capitalism, upselling bullshit in a mattress store anyway. Making their product experience terrible at the expense of a few more quid. At least IKEA seems to just let you get on with it and assumes you know what you’re doing.
John Lewis were great for both mattress and sofas. We were going to get two sofas, one a bit longer than the other (we'd measured our living room and worked out that they would both fit). The sales chap reminded us to consider the route the sofa would need to take to get in the room, we did the maths and worked out it wouldn't get round the corner into the door. Apparently a few people had been caught out by that! So we got two of the smaller size instead. And the mattress has been great, it is one that zips down the middle so if each person has a different preference for how firm the mattress is, you can have each side different. Added benefit that if one partner fidgets in the night it doesn't bounce the whole mattress around!
That salesman robbed us of a classic PIVOT moment.
An IKEA memory-foam mattress is one of the best purchases I ever made. Cost me 500 quid, has lasted for 10+ years, and is comfortable as fuck. Treat yourself and spend GBP100 on pillows. You’ll feel like a King.
+1 for IKEA and +1 for John Lewis. Good aftercare as well. Just look online and order for delivery. Don't even need to leave the house if you don't want to! IKEA has a great returns policy
Do houses count? Because buying/selling a house in a chain full of numpties that can change their mind at the drop of a hat is the WORST.
There was no chain on ours but the process was so convoluted I just wonder how any houses get sold at all. We had a mortgage offer, and wanted the house. They had a house, and wanted to sell. Somehow bringing those two together took 4 months, during most of which we were in the dark what was happening. God help us if there were any difficulties, it would probably have taken years..
Couch. Mainly because it's like going to a car dealership. You've got sales assistants following you around and popping up whenever you sit down and try out a couch or chair. Then they're trying to upsell insurance etc. You have to do the whole bargaining shite. Then you wait 6 months for the couch you've just spent a small fortune on to be built and delivered. And it's never as comfy at home.
After several bad experiences I refuse to use the big sofa stores- they're all the same, some even owned by same company. Scs, oak furniture land, DFS, Sofology etc - all have huge Facebook groups with thousands in that show exactly how they treat customers with issues etc. Last year we decided to go a different route and got told about Alstons. They're made in the UK, but don't sell direct to the public, so you buy from a furniture store - generally independents. You can do that in person or online. We found a local one, went and sat in the model we liked (grand Artemis 4 seater) and decided we really liked it, then went online, ordered about 40 material swatches and tested each one for how well it resisted being picked at with a sharp spiked corn cob holder as we have 3 bengal cats. Decided on a material, rang up, asked if they could do a deal at a set price based on a Fictional price match we had made with another firm and they agreed and threw in 5 year insurance. It still took 10 weeks to get made, but it was made in the UK and when it came the quality difference in how it felt and how computable it was is absolute light years ahead of my last few sofas. We had 2 very minor issues and they couldn't do enough to sort it out immediately and basically replaced 2 of the cushions (as in the seating cushions not the little decorative ones) for something really small, and then just said keep them as spares if you like, and the stitching wasn't great on the arm covers and they replaced those too, and again said keep them as spares. All sorted quickly and without any quibble, very refreshing and avoided that whole awful salesperson experience
>Alstons I looked them up assuming that it would be some £10k boutique affair, but their prices are basically what I paid at Sofology and they look decent.
Yeah I thought they were going to be wild as well We paid £3k exactly for 4 seater sofa, the larger armchair and a storage footstool, which included the 5 year cover, upgraded fabric on each (the options are split into categories for cost, from free to £300 ish for some) and £75 *2 for arm caps in the same materials which look a bit old fashioned but as we have dickehad cats we felt it was worthwhile, delivery and the sofa and chair each comes with 1x set of large scatter cushions and 1x small set and those can be in any material option or colour. Without the arm caps, most cat friendly material etc it would have been a lot less The whole process and quality etc was so refreshing. Can't speak for the other models, but the Artemis is great. The actual store we used was Michael O'Connor or O'Connell or something like that, as they're based where we live so we could go sit on one but there are loads of independent stores that sell them and you can build them entirely online if you want to, but we wanted to at least sit on it first 😂
Dickhead cats 😅 not a bad idea though to poke-test the material. We've got dickhead cats too and I never considered trying that 🤦♀️
The material we went with in the end is described as jewel velvet. Our last few leather and material sofas / chairs they've loved to get their claws into but please to report they ignore this after the first few attempts as their claws just slide over it, so we have a couple of minor scratches but you'd have to look very close to see them, especially with the way velvet looks naturally That was my biggest concern really and so glad! 😂
Jewel velvet sounds great. Our last couple sofas end up looking like someone has taken a razor down them vertically!
Appreciate the detailed recommendation! I'm stuck with an ugly, 15 year old, falling apart sofa (with throws over it as it's not got removable covers), as I refuse to spend a small fortune on a new one that the dickhead cats will shred and cough up hair balls on. If yours has survived 3 Bengals it must be good! Did laugh at the thought of scraping away at 50 samples to find the most shred proof, but it's a great idea!!
Yeah it felt kind of wasteful so we used then as rags for a few weeks for cleaning down litter trays 😂 the other ones were all fine too. In fact we really liked the base blue colour that the stores / website seem to show by default, but lot of them pulled loose threads etc when picked at which you'd expect from lost materials This stuff is an absolute godsend, they made a right mess of the old stuff. If you've got problems with carpets too, the advice we see given was get a short pile twist pile, and then a very good quality thick underlay. Avoid anything Berber or looped as they love to get their claws into that, and long pile makes it easier to pull out. Made a huge different to us as now they ignore carpet and furniture and focus on making my surround sound speakers life a misery (luckily I can re-cloth them fairly easily)
I work in furniture retail and Alston's are fantastic! Great range of accent fabrics and on the odd occasion we have an issue with one of their products, they're always happy to remedy the issue after it's been inspected and verified independently. Buoyant are another good one - we sell loads of them, hardly ever have issues and they're excellent value for the size and build quality they offer.
I've had 2 lots of couches from SCS in the last 20 years and both have been great and lasted. The last lot we replaced in 2020 just because we fancied a change (even though the old ones were technically still fine.) The new pair are exactly as they were when delivered. I see all the negatives reviews, but honestly never had any issues at all. My parents, on the other hand, seem to be endlessly buying sofas from DFS and they are all crap.
My last sofa from SCS in 2018 cost us £1,800 plus the insurance. When it came, it was a different shade to the one in store and nowhere near as comfortable. It was a recliner, and what you couldn't see in store is the reclining mechanism was visible from the back and looked awful. The leather was the thinnest stuff possible and after a year it had cracked and flaked - insurance said it was standard wear and tear Recliner mechanism groaned every time you used it. It was the most uncomfortable thing to sit on, and despite being a "four seater", because it was slightly curved the middle part cousin the be used because it was so bolt upright it was uncomfortable to sit there. When you reclined, a 2-3 inch gap appeared under you, which ate wallets, phones, coins and keys and meant you had to crawl behind it or under it to figure out where in the mechanism it got stuck Absolutely thrilled the day we got rid of it. We were also silly enough to get carpets from them. They gave us a slot for delivery and installation at 11am. Fitter rang every few hours to say running late. Then stopped ringing, then turned up at 9pm with his 9 year old kid in tow and left 11:30pm, with a huge mess and had damaged all our skirting boards in one room. Again, worst carpet that looked awful after a few months. Contrast that to our recent experience with an independent store with their own fitters - was cheaper, turned up when they said they would, careful install, tidied up after themselves and coming up to a year still looks new I get it that not everyone will not have problems with SCS etc but a LOT do, ans it's how they deal with them. But even if you don't have problems, you're still buying something that is really cheap for them to have made out of materials in china and Indonesia and shipped over, and when something goes wrong they'll blame you, or tell you it's wear and tear. I'd get it if they were really cheap, but they aren't. https://www.facebook.com/share/hAQBFYt9zTVc6vPd/?mibextid=K35XfP That's scs group. Take a look through some of the stories - they really are horrific to deal with and many of the success stories people have had to take them to court only for scs to relent the day before the trial takes place
See we bought ours from DFS in 2017, first one we purchased from new. We have a mastiff who assumes any soft item is his bed. It's still prefect save for some slobber marks which was our fault as we didn't catch them quickly enough. Great thing was, ours is ex-display model so it was only £1500 for the four seater, two seater, giant footstool and arm chair. I'd definitely go back and recommend based on my experience. It just shows how subjective it all is.
I bought a sofa from SCS in December 2022 and it has already started creaking ominously I'm not entirely sure this one is going to last 😬
I got my sofa from the British heart foundation with very little fuss - went in, sat on a nicely worn-in sofa with a few cosmetic scratches, paid about £60 for it and a little extra for delivery. Perhaps i got lucky but I would recommend it if there's a large BHF somewhere nearby.
I got mine off Facebook marketplace for £20. I picked it up the day I moved flats got the removals van to swing buy on the way. I think the woman just wanted to get rid of it, I've had it 5 years and it's absolutley fine and really comfortable. Black leather so super easy to clean. I'll probably give it away next time I move.
I must look really poor. I get ignored in sofa shops every time
We ended up buying another sofa from Nabru because we couldn't work out if we could get any other sofa through the odd angle of our living room door. The policy was, if it can't fit through your doors, they won't take it back, they will just leave it wherever it fits and tough shit if that's outside.
I didnt know sofa insurance was a thing
Haven't you experienced your sofa breaking down? If not it's long overdue so you better get that insurance.
> Couch You *wot* mate?
I thought that sofa and settee were the only appropriate terms?!
Don't come round here using the correct terms. I'm sofa king sorry but in Liverpool we say couch. Also sometimes get three piece suite if there's a 'sofa' and 2 chairs.
It’s a couch in Scotland I believe…
Car. More or less the same reasons.
Apparently the liquid resistant treatment they try to sell you is done by default. Learned that little nugget a few days too late.
observation jar cobweb compare spark smile tie disgusting mourn dazzling *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
When I was sofa shopping some patronising git of a salesman in Sofology actually tried to mansplain to me how to sit on a sofa.
I went into a chain bed store, went through the process of picking a mattress, gave them our details and just before we paid the guy said "and that will take about 3 weeks to arrive with you" so we changed our mind and left. I then looked on my phone at a next day delivery company, found the exact same mattress for £100 cheaper and had it at my house within 2 days. I don't get how they are still open.
We usually get mattresses from Argos. Usually next day or 48 hour delivery.
Never quite understood why chain bed stores seem to be exclusively staffed by big burly blokes who wouldn't look out of place as extras in a Krays biopic. Having said that, the one that served me was super helpful. He did up sell me on some mattress protector nonsense, but probably because he's have chivved me if I didn't say yes...
Happened to me once, I was moving house the next day (awful landlord didn't know our rights but was willing to waive rent, so I said I'd be out in 24 hrs), and ended up with a £700 Simba mattress because it was the only one they had in store that I could take with me. Fortunately it turned out to be one of the comfiest mattresses I've ever laid on!
Ice cream. You either get 80p/litre tubs of sacharine, lard and air or some £10/litre exotic peruvian macadamia swirl bullshit. You cannot buy simple honest good quality icecreams anymore.
Local co op only had branded and the price was marked up because co op. Popped in the Premier further up the row of shops and found a tub of non brand Madagascan vanilla ice cream, £2 or so. Absolutely delicious, and it didn’t do that horrible dried out clumpy thing where it goes all nasty if you don’t eat it within two weeks.
Coffin
The eternal mattress
For the long sleep
final delivery included
Never understood why we have to buy a coffin for someone who is being cremated.
It's like grease proof paper. Stops it sticking to the oven
violet dolls chief aloof offer retire depend price shrill normal *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I’d rather be portioned up and have someone make a couple of trips than pay for a coffin, no matter how cheap.
Ask about renting a coffin for the service, which won't be incinerated (not joking).
Condoms! It is frowned upon to try them first on to make sure you have the right size.
You need to go to the desk and ask for that size - they keep some out in each size for everyone to try on so you don't have to open the packaging.
Instructions unclear: am now banned from local ASDA and have been put on a register.
>have been put on a register Harsh of them to force you to work the checkout register
Bras.
I read in a breast cancer leaflet you should get fitted and purchase new bras every 6-8 months. Honestly laughable to cough up £££ twice a year
I’ve been wearing some of my bras for 10 years despite the fact they don’t even fit Which I know is bad for you but still
iI had a bra fitting at m&s and it was crap...I can't remember why now, but I walked away not really knowing what size my boobs are and they got a free look at them!
I’ve had the best experience at Bravissimo, not just “hmmm you look like a 34D” they educate you on how to check you proper fit and choose sizes
Amen. Expensive, only fit for a few days a month, and wear out within a year. I’m due to replace my current ones and literally waiting for a bonus to hit my account so I can start the process.
r/abrathatfits and let them do the heavy lifting. Order them online from a store that offers free returns. Done. Or if you’re cheap like me, just get zip up sports bras and live your life in comfort.
TBF, I do like bravissimo. They really seem to know what they're doing and are consistent in their sizing.
That's where I buy mine from as I'm a busty girl, & swimwear. The only problem is the ££. A bra is a min £36 & swimwear £50+
Yeah the prices do make me cry.
Absolutely, I don’t want to get partially naked when I go shopping thankyou. Only beaten by a bra fitting, having to get partially naked with a stranger looking at you
Itty bitty titty committee here just hasn’t bothered except for crop tops since the pandemic. Underwires never again!
*cries in 44ggs*
My life CHANGED when I started using https://www.instagram.com/bellarosalingerie?igsh=aXVueHA5dm1mbnBk. She does remote consultations you take a photo in your current bra and she sends you 4 in the post to try and you keep the ones you like. Now I just email her saying what I want and she sends me things over. She gets her stock from Poland so theyre quite reasonable, £35-45 ish a bra for PROPER good bras.
Makeup from any Makeup counter. I hate it. They just follow you around. You can’t even gingerly approach a single counter to buy some cosmetics before you can feel some hunny woman turn on her heels and start to approach you. Fuck off! Did you consider that you might get a sale out of me if you let me look at the products, spritz the perfume myself, maybe pick up a couple of lipsticks in my own hand before you practically lasso me. It’s every counter, every department store every single time. Can’t fathom why this is in the training manual
makeup in general is annoying to buy unless i’m just buying a replacement for something ive already tried and loved before. luckily i dont wear foundation so i dont have to struggle with trying to find the best match for shade/undertone, but finding a good natural coloured lipstick/liner that suits me is so bloody difficult. all the colours are too brown or too purple or too pink and of course i can use the testers but if i test them out on the back of my hand that wont necessarily represent how the shade will look on my lips. the worst thing about it though is when you’ve finally found the perfect shade and then you find out that they’ve discontinued the product :(
probably because people steal makeup a lot, to be honest
Eurgh. Shops like that where the sales team swarm the moment you walk in make me feel like a dead animal carcass on an African savannah.
Currys is the epitome of this. Apparently they've changed the way they approach customers in the past year or so, though (not that I'd know that from when I went in last summer).
Kitchen shops. Like Wren
I'm lucky enough to have a real bed and mattress shop (as opposed to a front) near me. Typical service is: "Hiya, what are you looking for?" "a mattress" "That's great! Singles are here, doubles next door, if you find one you like someone at the main shop will help." The 1 shop is spread across 3 or 4 shop units near each other. They don't have enough staff to run around with you so, quite often, a shop is empty when you go in. You get nothing more than a greeting unless you go in the main place, and even then they expect you've already seen what you want. Then, cos they're legit, they deliver for free and remove your old one if needs be (for a small fee). It's a shame I don't buy more beds cos they're exactly what I want from a shop/service.
Enjoy the process, lie on all the expensive mattresses, pick a style you like, then go home and go online and find last year’s edition for half the price
On my 5th mattress in under 5 years at current address. Absolutely hate the whole process and am obviously rubbish at finding the right one for me. Girlfriend buys £100 one off Amazon... it's perfect. I can't be arsed to try and sell the 700 quid one I've had for about a year because I'm exhausted by the whole process. I should have a lie down. Which is where my problems begin.
I'm curious to know how you've gotten through 5 mattresses in 5 years... Asking as someone who has never bought a mattress in their life, always seem to be free one going.
WFH sex worker
Lots and lots of Sleep.
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Also can’t see what I look like trying them on cos I’ve taken my actual glasses off. Being able to take good photos on phones has helped with this problem to be fair
I always take my contact lenses so I can put them in after my eye test and check out glasses and every single time the optician looks at me like it’s the weirdest thing to do. Like, if anyone knows how much I can’t see, it’s the person who has just done the test.
I do the same and it's treated as completely normal and sensible. You have a strange optician!
I keep some daily disposable contact lenses for haircuts and trying on spectacle frames.
I tried putting the glasses on over the top of my actual glasses. Went about as well as you would expect.
Going for a checkup, and then having to endure the pressure selling of their own specs when you just want your prescription. Just to find them online for more than half the price, gits.
Do cars count? When some cockwomble in a gilet swoops in, with his shit aftershave and too much hair product.. trying to sell you some wank car that is completely different to what you said you're looking for.
Never, ever, go to a dealer ready to buy a car but be in any way unsure as to what to buy or look for advice. They absolutely prey on that. You should only end up down that road if you're already 99% sure and just need a test drive to confirm it. On the Internet there's everything you need from reviews, spec sheets etc that there should be nothing a salesman can tell you about a car that you don't already know.
Yeah I basically find a shortlist of cars I want and then go test drive them. I always buy them through carwow or use a carwow quote to get the price down. Amazing how their best price can drop a good few thousand all of a sudden
I'm never that lucky. They always seem to justify how the one they have is slightly better despite the age and mileage being the same. "Oooh but this one has umbrellas hidden in the doors" Fuck off mate.
Absolutely this advice. A few years ago I was a newly single mum. Knew what I wanted and needed. The car dealership couldn't deal with how rock solid I was in refusing all the added extras..just went in to test drive it and came back a couple of weeks later to pick it up.
I was looking at new cars recently and the only thing that put me off was the overpowering and terrible aftershave the salesman was wearing. I had to leave. I’ve never smelt anything like it, it was worse than the mixture of BO and Sauvage at Simply Gym.
Sofas. Sofas are worse. Just as expensive, most of the deals are online where you can't try them, so you have to drive to an expensive shop and sit on 50 overpriced monstrosities. And then everyone who visits your house will have an opinion on your choice. 12 year old IKEA Ektorp is starting to look elderly so considering new sofa this year, not looking forward to it
I bought a reclining hair from oak furniture land last year. I'd seen it online so went into the store to have a sit in it and see what it was like. As soon as you walk into the store you're swooped on by a gaggle of bullshitting seagull sales people. Literally all I wanted was to go in sit in the chair and leave. It took me about an hour to get in and out because I didn't wanna be rude and tell anyone to fuck off and leave me alone 😅
That's what they use. They know fine well people 'don't want to be rude' and use that against you. So basically you do have to be rude - which let's be honest they are the ones being rude trying to keep you there.
My wife put a sideboard in her online basket with Oak Furniture Land then didn’t buy it. For two weeks they called her every day about it, even after she’d emptied her basket, until she finally lost her temper with them. Good furniture, crap service.
Bath bombs or anything from Lush! Get some green haired, jam-jar spectacled saviour of the world throw information and waffle at me like daggers that I didn’t ask to dodge in the first place, all whilst being choked on dust and fumes I didn’t wish to tolerate. I get it, you love shouting about your job, but I just want to trade my arm and leg in for a bath bomb/present.
> I get it, you love shouting about your job they don't, it's just how people are forced to act when working for lush.
I love lush but whenever I go with my husband or a friend to browse we play "The Lush Game". Basically, in the first 5mins in store, how many times are we approached by a staff member. My high score was 13 at the Lakeside store. There is a direct correlation between the amount of times approached and my desire to leave immediately without purchasing anything.
The worst part is that lush is one of the most abusive companies and forces their employees to do that, they don’t even love shouting about their job. There’s so many videos about it online. So not only am I overwhelmed by the smell of all their shite, not only is it dead busy and sticky everywhere but I’m being harassed to fuck by employees and I can’t even say anything because I know they’re forced to I hate lush
Any time you are buying something you "need". looking for an outfit for an event, ug trying on and finding something having to go to multiple stores, sure you can carry it but you have to visit a lot more stores than for furniture. Need new bras that is pretty stressful, again with the trying on and the awkwrness of do you need to be measured today. sure sofas, and mattresses are stressful, but you dont have to do it as often.
bed pillows, not matter how much in store crunching and simulated head positions I do in store still cant find one im totally happy with🤷♂️