Raw Deal: Blow-up mattress saga goes to Australia and back before we patch things up

Inger Watt and her husband Brian weren’t expecting such a rude awakening on the first morning after sleeping on their new inflatable bed.

During the night the airbed had sprung a slow leak. “Everything was fine when we went to sleep but when we woke up in the morning we were almost lying on the floor,” said Inger, 77.

“Most of the air had come out of the bed and there seemed to be something wrong with the stitching where the inflatable mattress met the rubber headboard. It was a total carry-on. It was almost comical.”

Inger had paid £89.99 for the bed from London-based online retailers Easylife.

“I only got it as a temporary measure while new carpets were being fitted,” said Inger, from Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire. “A lot of our furniture had to be piled up in the one room so getting an inflatable bed for a few nights seemed like a good idea.”

However, Inger ran into difficulties while trying to return the item to Easylife to claim a refund. Couriers turned up at her home three times but went away empty-handed.

It turned out that the couriers needed a unique printed label from Easylife to be displayed on the package before they could uplift it.

“Easylife kept saying they would send a printed label for the box to be returned to them but it always arrived the day after the courier had been, so they couldn’t take it,” said Inger. “The box with the bed in it would be sitting at the front door but the courier wasn’t authorised to pick it up because it needed some sticker on it.

“I was really annoyed because the item needed to be returned before I could get my money back – and I couldn’t send it back because the labels always arrived too late. It was a farcical situation.”

In desperation, Inger reached out to her son Brian for help with the issue. He lives with his family 10,000 miles away in Perth, Australia.

After he too couldn’t get any satisfaction from Easylife, he contacted Raw Deal in Glasgow by email for assistance. The long arm of Raw Deal soon swung into action and we asked Easylife in London to investigate.

The good news is that the company decided to refund Inger and also said it didn’t need the bed back.

Easylife said: “After looking into this I can see that our team have arranged three collections to get this item returned back to our warehouse. However, unfortunately the returns label which is required for the courier to scan has not reached the customer in time despite being posted out the same day collection was arranged. As you can understand there are still some delays with postal services.

“I have called Mrs Watt today to apologise for the issue with her collection.

“As a gesture of goodwill, we are overriding the returns process and have processed a full refund for her order without the need to return and have also provided a refund for the calls.”

Brian and his mum said they were grateful to The Sunday Post and the Raw Deal team for helping to resolve the matter.

“It was ridiculous that I had to step in to try to help from the other side of the world,” said Brian. “It is just as well I remembered about Raw Deal and you certainly came through for us.”

The house has now been redecorated, and Inger and her hubby are back in their own bed again.

She added: “We are all just glad to see the back of this. It was an extra stress that we just didn’t need.”