New bed giving you sleepless nights? Here are your rights for getting it fixed

Seeing that you spend about a third of your life in bed, most people don’t mind paying a bit extra for a good one, which makes it even worse if your bed breaks and nobody wants to refund you or exchange it, even if it came with the best sales pitches, guarantees and warranties.

Guarantee and warranty usually mean the same and are used interchangeably, but the people who make beds interpret these two words very differently. Understanding what they mean will help you understand that you cannot claim a new bed every five years if yours breaks.

To start with: the duration of the warranty does not indicate how long your bed should last, but rather an indication of the quality of the bed. Therefore, a lifelong warranty on a bed indicates that it is of better quality.

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A bed with a ‘Guarantee‘

In bed factory speak, a “guarantee” usually means that the factory will resolve any problems that you have with the bed and carry the cost within the guarantee period.

During this time, which is usually a year or two, the factory will exchange the bed if you have a problem, but only if the problem entails the material or construction. Therefore, you cannot simply expect a new bed if you have a backache after sleeping on it.

The ‘Warranty’ on your bed

A “warranty” usually starts when the guarantee expires and can cover from one year to even 25 years or even be a “lifetime guarantee”, although we are not told upfront whose life we are talking about here.

If you have a problem with your bed within this time, the factory has to repair or replace your bed according to its own internal policies. You get a copy of the warranty when you buy a bed.

It seems that bed factories calculate how much you can claim by dividing the value of your bed by the number of years in the warranty to get to a pro rated amount that you can use to get a discount on a new bed or repair the bed.

Therefore, if you bought a bed eight years ago and paid R5 000 for a bed with a “warranty “of ten years and a “guarantee” of two years, your pro rata amount will be R2 000 calculated like this: R5 000 divided by 10 years = R500 x 4 years (10 years minus the 6 years of the “warranty” that has passed) = R2 000.

However, these warranties do not come without conditions, such as:

• No cover for normal wear and tear
• The factory decides if the bed should be repaired or exchanged, not you
• The bed will only be replaced with one of the same or similar model
• You have to use your bed according to user specifications. If your children jump on it or you are too heavy, your “warranty” will not be valid
• The bed must be clean, without any stains on the cover
• The bed must be properly maintained according to the manufacturer’s specifications, such as turning it regularly.

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What the Consumer Protection Act says about it

Your consumer rights in terms of the Consumer Protection Act (CPA) come first.

Section 55

Section 55 gives you the right to expect that the bed will be of good quality and that it will give you a good night’s rest. The bed must be in good working order, without any defects and you must be able to use it for a fair time before it breaks.

Section 56

According to section 56, your bed has an implied guarantee that it adheres to the requirements and standards of section 55.

The implied warranty covers your bed for the first six months after you bought it and you can return it within this time to the manufacturer on his cost and risk if it does not adhere to the requirements and standards of section 55.

The bed must then be repaired or exchanged, or you must be refunded.

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Section 57

If the manufacturer opts to repair the bed, the repair work will carry a guarantee of three months, according to section 57.

Therefore, if you find the bed still has a defect within three months after it was repaired, the manufacturer must replace it or refund you. This guarantee covers the material and labour to repair the bed.