You may be protected under the Distance Selling Regulations. You have even more rights than when purchasing from a high street store. I would suggest googling this and hopefully the rulings will be helpful.

Personally I can't see any problem in using your own courier - the point is that you are returning goods which were not as described therefore this should suffice, as long as you package/protect the item in a similar way to when received.

There may be deadlines for return of goods so I would seriously look up Distance Selling website asap. Good Luck.

i purchased a new mattress online rather quickly as i had guests coming around in the week
very stupidly i purchased what looked like a good budget mattress for £89
now i understood that price is very low for a good mattress so expected a basic product

however what i got was just the most shocking product ever made. theirs just no padding what so ever. just a thin piece of foam with very hard metal springs which you can feel as soon as you lie or sit on it. just from lieing on it for ten minutes my back is in pain!!
its just shocking. might as well just sleep on the floor it feels the same and their is no metal spikes digging into your back.

i phoned the company up and they offered a refund but only if i pay £50 for a delivery van to pick it up (being it only cost me £89) it doesn't seem worth it.. however i can find my own courier and have it sent back to them in Kent which is very far away.

do i have any kind of other option? or do i just have to chuck it away or send it back and lose £50 and remember the old phrase "you get what you pay for"