What to Do If Your Mattress Arrives Damaged: A Step-by-Step 2026 Guide
If your mattress arrives damaged, don't panic and don't throw anything away. Photograph the damage before you do anything else, keep the packaging, report it to the retailer in writing within a few days, and don't sleep on it until you've been told how the claim will be handled. Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, goods must arrive in satisfactory condition, and a damaged delivery is the retailer's problem to fix, not yours.
Here's exactly what to do, in order, from the moment the box looks wrong.
Step 1: Check the Packaging Before You Sign
Damage claims are strongest when they start at the doorstep. If the box is torn, crushed, wet or punctured, say so before the courier leaves. Many delivery apps and handheld devices let you mark a delivery as damaged at the point of signature, and a note made at that moment is far harder to dispute later.
If the courier won't wait, photograph the packaging on the doorstep with the courier's van in frame if you can manage it. You're building a timeline, and the earlier it starts, the better.
Step 2: Photograph Everything Before Unpacking
Before you cut a single strap, photograph the box from every side, including the shipping label. Then photograph each stage of unpacking. Vacuum-packed mattresses expand once opened, so damage that's visible on the roll needs capturing before expansion changes its appearance.
Take more photos than feels necessary. Wide shots for context, close-ups for detail, and something for scale next to any tear or stain. Good light matters, so move the mattress near a window if you can do so without making the damage worse.
Step 3: Identify What Kind of Damage You're Dealing With
Not all arrival damage is equal, and naming it correctly speeds up your claim:
- Transit damage. Tears, punctures, crush marks or dirt from handling. Usually visible on the packaging first.
- Water damage. Damp patches or watermarks, often from storage or a wet vehicle. Never sleep on a mattress that arrived wet.
- Manufacturing faults. Split seams, misaligned covers, lumps or hollows apparent as soon as the mattress expands. Technically a defect rather than damage, but the immediate process is the same.
- Wrong item entirely. Wrong size, wrong model. Simpler to resolve, same first steps.
One caveat on expansion. A rolled mattress can take up to a few hours, occasionally a day, to reach its full shape. A slight curve or a soft edge in the first hours isn't damage. A tear, a stain or a hole is damage regardless of timing.
Step 4: Report It in Writing, Fast
Contact the retailer through a channel that leaves a record. Email or the official contact form beats a phone call, and if you do phone, follow up with an email summarising the conversation. Include your order number, the delivery date, a clear description of the damage, and your photographs.
Most retailers ask you to report transit damage within a defined window, often 48 hours to a few days. Report it the same day if you can. Speed removes any suggestion that the damage happened after delivery.
Step 5: Don't Use It, Don't Bin It
Two mistakes weaken otherwise straightforward claims. Sleeping on the damaged mattress lets the retailer argue you accepted it, and can worsen the damage in ways that muddy the evidence. Throwing away the packaging destroys the proof of how it arrived. Keep everything as it is until the retailer confirms next steps, which will usually be a replacement, a repair or a refund at your choice within the first 30 days under consumer law.
If you have nowhere to sleep in the meantime, say so in your report. Reputable brands prioritise replacements when the customer is without a bed.
A note on tone, because it genuinely affects outcomes. The person reading your email resolves dozens of these cases and responds fastest to clarity: what arrived, what's wrong, what you'd like done. Attach the evidence, state your preference for replacement or refund, and skip the essay. Firm and factual gets escalated. Furious and vague gets queued. And keep every reply in the same email thread, so the full history travels with the case if it changes hands.
Step 6: Know the Timelines for Resolution
For a standard stocked mattress, a replacement typically ships within days of the claim being accepted. Made to order items run differently, since your replacement has to be built rather than picked from a shelf. It's the same principle as made to order bed frames, where each piece is produced to your specification: the resolution is just as certain, but the clock runs on manufacturing time, so ask for a realistic date in writing.
If the retailer stalls, cite the Consumer Rights Act 2015. Within 30 days of delivery you have a short-term right to reject faulty goods for a full refund. Beyond that, you're entitled to repair or replacement, and if that fails, a refund with at most a reasonable deduction for use.
How We Handle It at Simba
We vacuum-pack and box every mattress specifically to survive the journey, and the overwhelming majority arrive exactly as they left us. When something does go wrong in transit, we ask for photos, we don't quibble, and we arrange a replacement or collection quickly. Delivery is free to most UK postcodes and returns are free, so a transit problem costs you time, not money, and your 200 night trial and 10 year guarantee apply in full to the mattress you end up sleeping on.
FAQs
Report it as soon as possible, ideally the same day. Retailer policies often specify a window of a few days for transit damage, and your strongest statutory right, the 30 day short-term right to reject, starts at delivery. Early reporting keeps every option open.
Yes. If the packaging is clearly compromised, you can refuse the delivery and it returns to the retailer. Photograph the box first and notify the retailer immediately so they know why it's coming back and can arrange a replacement.
Yes. Internal damage that packaging concealed is still the retailer's responsibility. Photograph it as soon as you find it and report it straight away, explaining that the exterior packaging showed no sign of the problem.
That's your call, and it can make sense for purely cosmetic damage like a small mark on the underside. For anything structural, a tear, a hollow, water damage, take the replacement. You'll be sleeping on this for a decade, and a discount fades faster than a fault does.
It shouldn't, with any reputable brand. At Simba, a damaged arrival is resolved as a delivery issue, and your 200 night trial and 10 year guarantee apply in full to the mattress you keep. Keep your claim correspondence with your order records just in case you ever need the history.
