Would you pay £999 for a mattress?

Yes I will report it online in our area.

If you Google it, you'll find this scam dates back at least as far as 2011.
You should probably phone the police if it happens to you, if only to make them aware it's happening in your area.

I think these things are on the increase. Next time I shall go into the road and take a note of the van number and tell the police.

I'm amazed that anyone would fall for something like this. I mean - what is the logical conclusion ... do you say "Yes please, hang on a sec, I'll just get my cheque book"? Or do people have that sort of money lying around in cash? And does he then take the money and disappear to go and fetch the supposed mattress and just doesn't come back?

I'm a bit thrown by this TBH because the day this man knocked at the door, I had just got out the bath and only had a towel wrapped around me and spoke to him through the second floor window. We live on a very quiet corner in a cul de sac. I often don't lock the front door when I'm in the bath during the day ... I'll certainly do that from now on (it was only a couple of weeks ago).

They were probably stolen. It sounds to me like a classic con. I would not buy anything from anyone just knocking at the door. I would want to try it in the shop first. Our most recent silentnight divan was from our local family owned carpet and bed supplier. They are the best carpet fitters I have ever seen.

A friend of mine bought a Kirby many years ago and it is still working. I find it incredibly noisy.

These are all con men we came across them when living abroad,they stopped outside our restaurant and came in and asked the English who lived in the area if they wanted to buy 3 piece leather suites which where supposed to be a cancelled order/or been used for a photo shoot needless to say the leather was paper thin and the dye ran with the first contact with liquid and they did not hold any fire retardent labels.
These matresses will no doubt be very dubious as to them being genuine and I would not expect them to be any good in any way at all the driver will be laughing all the way to the bank if he sells any.

Yes I would spend £1,000 on a mattress and have done several times but definitely not from someone who knocks at the door.
People do not just happen to have mattresses spare in the van, unless they have stolen them from the shop they are delivering for.

This morning I was looking at beds on the internet, so was interested to see this thread. I would never buy anything like that from someone who knocked on the door.
I was confused, though, researching beds, because of the vast price differences.

The mention of back of a lorry reminded me of a friend of my mother who used to always have plenty of cubed sugar which 'fell off the back of a lorry'. When she offered some to my mother, mum said to me that she 'didn't fancy the sugar at all if it had been in the middle of the road. Even if it is still in boxes, dear!'

I would like to try the mattress in a reputable shop. I would not buy anything for a fiver at the door so there is no way I would be parting with almost £1000. A con man.

No...

jane I had that and I thought it was really weird that some random person would arbitrarily come and enquire whether I needed a new mattress? So my face must have said it all because he didn't linger or persevere. But the same story about having just sold one to my neighbour. So now I'm thinking. great big con.

Kirby vacuum cleaners, there`s a blast from the past! About 30 years ago, daughter number 3 worked for them on tele sales, on a YTS scheme, she was responsible for the sale of one machine, and for her bonus she asked for a suede jacket. I can remember being absolutely horrified at the cost of them, and amazed that anyone could actually afford one.
As for mattresses, I recently bought a new memory foam one from Amazon, single size, for £66, and thought it was enough to pay.

I might - from a reputable shop selling brands such as Hypnos or Vi- Sprung. But from a man at the door??? No way - not with the proverbial bargepole!

Ive had that happen a couple of timew jane. I was even walking to the shops one day and a van stopped and the driver said he had a spare mattress and would i like to buy it!

Never in a million years.

Agus, I agree - would never buy of the back of a lorry. Someone somewhere is losing out because of it.

I have just been - and she has. Oh dear. BUT she didn't tell him to come to me! How awful. First the £40 boxes of frozen fish, now mattresses.

Yes, a friend of mine bought one of those vacuum cleaners. She said they were good but extremely heavy. She sent the salesman around to us - poor people desperate for a job, and I seem to remember the cleaners cost not much less than £1000. £700? She had a huge house, and as soon as she could afford one, she handed it over to a cleaner to use it! I have to say, it is still going strong 20 years later. And they are still selling them I think, another friend phoned a couple of years ago to ask if we would see her OH. We refused. I couldn't sit through that again.

As for getting her money back - she has NO paperwork. I told her to cancel her cheque, but was stunned because she said she is fine with the mattress. Some people definitely have more money than sense. I feel quite cross because she gives people like him the incentive to carry on.

Was just thinking, with a dual-sided mattress you can't turn it, can you. Unless you take turns to have a bad back.

It's more a case of, I would never buy anything that 'fell off the back of a lorry' scenario which will undoubtedly be stolen goods.

I do think though that a good quality mattress is one of the most important pieces of furniture I would buy so would pay a justifiable price for what suits us.

Once had a presentation of around four hours in my home by a salesman trying to sell me a kirby vacuum cleaner. Didn't but one , could not have afforded it then and still can't . As for the mattress don't think I would be able to resist just popping along to the neighbour......just to see if she has bought one.

No way on the doorstep. 4" memory foam? You can get a genuine 10" deep memory foam Tempur mattress for that, with a 15 year guarantee. I got discount, too, because Tempur asked me if I needed the mattress for health reasons (after surgery). They have a policy of not charging VAT if you buy on health grounds.

I definitely wouldn't!

We spent more than that for our mattress but from a shop! I'd never buy anything like that from a random knock on the door!

Rem - did anyone else buy a Kirby vacuum cleaner?

BEWARE!!! There was an article on Radio 4 a week or so ago about bogus mattress sales. They are sometimes recycled (yuk) and recovered mattresses, and when customers have contacted the manufacturers about a fault they have been told the items are not genuine. Mattress manufacturers sell though reputable retailers.

You could go along and ask whether she sent him along to you or whether he was acting off his own bat, and then steer the conversation to the mattress and the price of it. Legally she has a set length of time to change her mind, so she might be grateful to you.

A bit of Googling beforehand wwouild give you a reasonable price for what you are describing.

I would be suspicious of where a vanful of mattresses to sell on spec had come from, no matter what the price!