Posted: Mon Nov 6, 2017 12:40pm
We have worked through a similar process of arranging things to happen for the limited time that we are there. It's challenging - particularly with builders.
It's not always easy because not everyone delivers when you would like them to! (Puede entregar esta semana?) We ended up hiring a large car (Zafira style), putting the back seats down and doing our own pick ups.
We ordered beds and mattresses from a bed company - I think it was Dormitienda - online. They were excellent - we were able to arrange delivery for when we were there - and they built all the beds for us in situ. They even had to use ropes to haul one of them up the outside of the building - and they took away the old mattresses and the like. (We gave the frames to a charity outfit.)
Ikea in Murcia were difficult - try as we might we couldn't arrange a delivery whilst we were in the UK - we spoke to the web support people on the phone - and they reckoned it was because our IP address was outside Spain - so we ended up ordering stuff that we would collect - and then driving down to Murcia to arrange delivery. We bought our sofa from Ikea along with a bunch of other furniture and stuff.
Conforama down in San Juan is another place to buy stuff - and Carrefour up in Finnestrat or in San Juan are another. Different Carrefour stores deliver to El Campello on different days - but you can't order stuff a long time in advance. There are a lot of other furniture stores and similar next to the N332 in San Juan. Aki (DIY) are next to Carrefour in San Juan and there's a Leroy Merlin in Finnestrat and another on the way into Alicante beyond San Juan (although a bit trickier to find.) Zara Home and Casa are also both in Finnestrat. (Finnestrat is 20 to 30 minutes drive up the N332, just before Benidorm.)
If you want more upmarket (expensive and slightly quirky) stuff, there's an Albir Colonial 2 minutes drive towards El Campello just past Aldi. There's a sofa shop on the opposite side of the road there that we haven't been into. (EDI Rentacar are there as well if you want an alternative to the standard airport guys - English owned and speaking, very helpful, although a bit more expensive than the Gold Cars and the like.)
Builders are a bit trickier - we've used the guys who have an office onsite - Molina. They do good work, but tend to be very busy and also a bit disorganised - typically not remembering details of things we thought we had agreed. They are friendly and helpful and ok to deal with - but by all accounts a bit expensive compared to others. Andres, the owner, doesn't speak a lot of English and our Spanish is still a bit limited. He tends to get his son, Raoul, to help with translation. They are not very good at committing to dates - and our initial enquiries by email got no response. Once we'd met them and had them round we managed to make progress - although if they say maybe regarding when they can do the work, we learned that that usually means no :-). As long as you can be patient it's fine. They can also arrange electricians and plumbers - their preferred plumber (Salvatore I think his name is) is very good in our experience. We needed to get the electricity supply upgraded because it kept tripping - which basically meant changing the main switch - but we had to supply a previous bill and I think our NIE number before this could be done. Otherwise it was straightforward. Andres phoned the electrician who came round the same day.
So - it can be challenging and patience and persistence are required :-).
Good luck,
Eric