While Sue and I were at the Manchester Caravan & Motorhome Show this year, we dropped by the Jonic stand to have a look a the bedding. We had wanted for a while to get a set of bedding that fitted the cut off corner mattress installed in our Sterling Celebration 550. Having looked on-line at three companies that offer bedding – Jonic, Raskelf – Duvalay & Ship Shape Caravans we had sort of plumped for Jonic as they had the set and colours we wanted.

We placed an order at the show on Thursday morning for a bed protector, bottom sheet, 10+5 duvet and a duvet cover with a matching pair of pillowcases…. the chap from Jonic asked us for our caravan make and model as they knew the sizes. We stressed that it was a Celebration 550 and therefore had the upgraded thicker mattress. Everything totaled it was a shade over £179. A bit of a hiccup paying, as someone had forgotten to bring the chip & pin machines with them but our card details were phoned through to the office and our order taken. This also ment we had no receipt for our order or even a copy of what we had ordered. We were told that expected delivery would be two to three weeks.

Three weeks on to the day, I gave Jonic a ring to check on the progress of our order, and was told it was due out the next day (Friday) so would be with us Monday or Tuesday. A short while later Sue got a call to let her know our order was being despatched that day and it would be with us the following day. Great as it was Sues weekend off, we could get the new bedding washed dried and ironed and on Saturday go and fit it ready for our trip in a couple of weeks time.

The courier delivered the box from Jonic on the Friday. The box was a bit bashed about, but as it was all soft contents, nothing breakable, I signed for it. We opened the box and checked the contents… the mattress protector was missing and it became obvious that a gash on the bottom of the cardboard box had opened up the bottom edge of the box. A quick call to Jonic to let them know and I was told they would check with the courier and call me back. (Saturday PM… not heard anything). Sue put the bottom sheet, pillowcases and duvet cover in the washer and by Friday night we had the bedding washed and dried ready for the following day.

This morning we set off up to the caravan with all the freshly washed Jonic bedding. We decided to leave our old mattress protector on pending the update from Jonic. Putting fitted sheets on the mattress is always a bit of a struggle in the caravan and the best way we found is to slide the mattress off the bed and stand it on its edge. We tried the fitted bottom sheet… nope would not fit so we took it off and tried again. I checked that the two corner seams that were closest together were at the bottom of the bed where the cut off corner was… yep but it still would not fit. The elasticated bottom edge would only just wrap underneath the mattress. The length was not as bad, but width wise, it was too small. Hmm. As we had washed the bedding, so according to the details printed on the packaging sw could not return it. We knew this when we opened the packaging, but who would open the packs, test the fit, then take it off again to wash it?

So, with the judicious use of two ‘Clingon‘ clips and a length of soft nylon cord I clipped the long edges of the bottom sheet together and laced them under the mattress. We put the mattress back into position and moved on the the quilt and quilt cover. We opted to buy the 10+5 quilt. Two quilts – one 10 TOG and one 5 TOG that clip together, so we can vary the quilts as weather dictates. The idea is great and we think will work really well. The cover for the quilt is shaped for the bed, with the corner cut off, but unfortunately the cover seems too big for the quilt. With both the 10 and 5 clipped together, it is quite baggy, so what it will be like with just the 10 or 5 on its own! I think we might end up with quilt rage in the middle of the night!

The pillow cases seemed fine and had good deep end “pockets” to tuck the pillow inside so should not pull open at the ends.

Wether we were expecting too much and hoped, unrealistically maybe, that the bed would look like beds made in show caravans I’m not sure, we did however expect that it would at least fit better than the bedding we had been previously using which was made to fit a standard double bed.

There is not much we can do about the bedding as we have washed it and accept that, however if the mattress protector is made to the same size as the bottom sheet, we decided that it would not be worth getting, so I’m going to send off an email (and ring them on Monday) to Jonic asking not to send the missing mattress protector but refund the cost of it.

We were both disappointed with the fit, if the mattress had been half the thickness it is, maybe the bottom sheet would have fitted. One thing I hate is when the corner of the bottom sheet comes off the mattress and wraps itself round your feet. The test of that will be in a couple of weeks when we are away. We have put on hold our idea of ordering a spare set of bedding for the moment.

S

UPDATE – 09:30 Monday 11th Feb.

After sending in my email on Saturday, I was going to follow it up with a call to Jonic. However they (Jonic) beat me to it!

I received a call this morning from the MD. She asked me about the condition of the box and said they had checked with the courier, who denied knowledge of the damage, but they would send out another mattress protector.  I then started to explain about the fitted sheet size problem and the fact we had the upgraded mattress as it was a “Celebration’ dealer special and she said it was possible that we had been sent a fitted sheet for a normal mattress, so she would arrange for the correct one to be sent along with the mattress protector and they should be with us tomorrow.

Now that is good customer service!

S

UPDATE – 14:00 Tuesday 12th Feb.

Just received a parcel from Jonic… one mattress protector and TWO fitted sheets. We will go and try one of the sheets in the next couple of days (before washing) and see how we go. Now that is customer service at it’s best!

S

UPDATE – Thursday 28th Feb.

I posted the following in A couple of updates and a problem…

Something else we need to update you on as well is our recent purchase of Jonic bedding. After our initial problem (“Things that make you go Hmm…”) we received a replacement mattress cover and two replacement bottom sheets. Not wanting to wash the sheets first in case we needed to return them, we took one of the sheets with us to check to see if it would fit. We compared the corner seam on the Jonic sheet we had fitted against one of the replacement sheets. There was an obvious difference. The replacement sheet corner seam was about three inches longer which ment the fitted sheet would wrap nicely under the mattress. So a huge 10/10 for Jonic’s customer service! We also have to report that the 10+5 duvet, even though light in weight, kept us warm even when the outside temp was down to 1 or 2 degrees at night.

So our issues with the bedding have been sorted out and I have to say it was done without any hesitation from Jonic. The quality of the products is very high. If you are looking for fitted bedding for your caravan, motorhome or boat, well you couldn’t do much better than Jonic and if there is a problem, I’m darn sure their customer service will sort it.

S

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