Bensons for Beds Discount Codes
A discount you cannot compare against anything is not really a discount, and that is the defining feature of shopping a big bed chain.
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Prices move, and the trial terms move with the ticket
Everything below describes how a chain's pricing and comfort guarantee work rather than promising a number that will still be live when you read it. Range prices and promotions change constantly, and clearance tickets change what you are entitled to afterwards. Ask which category the mattress is in before you ask what it costs.
The discount you cannot price-check
The big UK bed chains sell a substantial proportion of exclusive lines: mattresses made for them under their own brands, or exclusive specifications of a manufacturer's model under a different name.
That is not dishonest, and it has a specific consequence. You try something in store, go home to compare prices, and cannot, because the exact model does not exist anywhere else. There is no price to check against, so a percentage off it cannot be evaluated.
It also means a sale on an exclusive line is a statement about that retailer's own pricing and nothing more.
The defence is to take the specification away rather than the name. Depth, spring count for your size, whether the springs are pocketed or linked, whether the base is sprung or foam, and firmness. Those four travel between retailers where model names deliberately do not.
Use the showroom properly, because that is what you are paying for
The genuine argument for a chain is that you can lie on things, and it is the most wasted resource in mattress buying.
Ten minutes, in the position you actually sleep in, with a pillow of roughly the height you use at home. Ask for one. Fifteen seconds sitting on the edge tells you nothing except how firm the edge is.
If you share a bed, go together and both lie on it. A mattress that suits one of you and not the other is the most common bad outcome, and it is visible in a shop in ten minutes.
What a showroom cannot tell you is how a mattress behaves at month three, which is what a trial period is for. Use the shop for the question it answers and the trial for the one it does not.
What a chain genuinely gives you for the money
Since the price cannot be compared, be clear about what you get.
Delivery, room of choice and disposal. A council bulky waste collection typically costs 20 to 40 pounds and usually requires getting the mattress to the kerb yourself. A retailer taking the old one away has real cash value that never appears in a price comparison.
A real returns operation. Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 your statutory rights sit with whoever sold you the mattress, not the manufacturer, and you have up to six years to bring a claim in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, five in Scotland. A large retailer is frequently easier to claim against than a small one.
Someone to ask. A good salesperson will tell you what else on the floor is built the same way as the bed you walked in asking about. That is worth more than any code.
Read the trial terms before the price
A returns policy is not a sleep trial
A standard returns policy on an unused mattress means you can send it back if you have not slept on it. A sleep trial means you can sleep on it and change your mind.
Those are different products described in similar language, and since firmness is what buyers get wrong most often and cannot be judged in a week, that difference is the whole risk.
If you are uncertain about firmness, a direct seller with a genuine trial is worth paying for. Nectar's 365 nights is the longest in the UK mainstream and Silentnight's 60 night comfort exchange lets you change firmness rather than only return, both buying direct.
See the Bensons for Beds review and all retailer reviews.
The clearance ticket and the comfort guarantee do not overlap
The principle behind all of this, that a cash price is the only number worth judging, is set out on the discount codes hub. On a chain it has a sharper edge than usual, because the deepest reductions on the floor sit on exactly the stock the chain's own trial will not cover.
Bensons publishes its 40-night comfort guarantee with the exclusions in it. Refurbished mattresses, clearance items, ex-display items, sofa beds, guest beds, ready beds, futons and the free starter mattress supplied with some frames are all outside it. Those are the tickets with the largest numbers crossed out. So the thing that makes a showroom visit worth it, being able to change your mind after a month in your own bedroom, is the thing a clearance price buys you out of.
And where it does apply, read what it is. It is an exchange rather than a refund: if the replacement is cheaper you are not eligible for the difference, and if it is dearer you pay the difference. You must have slept on it at least five nights and no more than forty. You must have used a mattress protector to qualify, and the fire label must still be attached. You get one exchange. And there is a charge of 10 per cent of the original bed value plus a re-delivery charge, which is the clause that interacts with a discount: it is a percentage of the bed value rather than a flat fee, so a bigger purchase carries a bigger charge, and the discount you negotiated does not reduce it.
The guarantee behind the sale is worth the same reading. Bensons publishes a five-year guarantee on divans, frames, mattresses, headboards and bedroom furniture, with refurbished, clearance and ex-display items excluded again. Its separate Lifetime Guarantee is a declining credit scale rather than a lifetime replacement: 75 per cent of value in year one, 50 per cent in years two to four, 25 per cent in years five to seven and 10 per cent beyond seven, with Bensons choosing the figure within each band and its decision final, a £60 inspection fee that is refunded only if the claim is upheld, and no transfer to a second owner. How to read a scale like that is on mattress guarantees.
None of which argues against buying cleared stock from a chain. It argues for knowing which of the two things you are buying. Full-price range stock comes with a month to change your mind at a cost of 10 per cent; clearance stock comes with the ten minutes you spent lying on it in the shop. Spend those ten minutes properly and clearance is a good buy. Skip them and it is the least reversible purchase in the store.
Related guides
Other pages on this site covering the same ground.
Questions people ask
Why can I not find the same mattress at another retailer?
Because the big chains sell a substantial proportion of exclusive lines, made for them under their own names. Take the specification away rather than the name: depth, spring count, spring type and firmness travel between retailers.
How should I test a mattress in a shop?
Ten minutes, lying in the position you actually sleep in, with a pillow of roughly the height you use at home. If you share a bed, go together and both lie on it.
Is a returns policy the same as a sleep trial?
No. A returns policy on an unused mattress means you can send it back if you have not slept on it. Since firmness cannot be judged in a week, that difference is the whole risk.