Has anyone heard about The Original Mattress Factory?
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Hello all. I don't know if you remember me, but I have been in the mattress industry for the past 14 years on the retail sales end. I have recently decided to get away from selling the Sealy, Serta, Simmons national brand concept as I just don't believe they are giving my customers an acceptable value. I have researched many other mattress companies and found that all of the retail stores are the same when it comes to philosophy. They all believe cash is king and sell your customer at all costs. I am a Christian, so I have a problem with selling products I don't believe in and I have an even bigger problem trying to push a person into making a decision they aren't ready to make. For 14 years I have been questioned every time I allowed a customer to "walk" without buying anything and I simply can't take it any more. After looking into The Original Mattress Factory, it seems to be a company that holds the same values I do. Good quality products. Exceptional value. No, and I mean NO, pressure. Above all, honesty to the customer. (Apparently, they never have "sales" which is a good thing as in 14 years of retail sales I have yet to see a "sale" with any real savings). They actually have the statement "We will not compromise our integrity for any reason" in their philosophy! Do any of you realize how casually the word "integrity" is thrown around in this industry by people who have absolutely no idea what "integrity" really is? I actually had one boss tell me, "Don't drop the price too much or we will lose integrity"! So, all SEEMS well, on the surface. I am writing this to ask about your opinions of this company. Have any of you dealt with them? Had any problems with them? If you had a problem, how was it taken care of? What do you think about their product? Basically, as I have been lied to and tricked WAY too many times, I am trying to cover all the bases before I accept a position with this company. I LONG for a product I can stand behind again! I am tired of the nationals taking out more and more components to save money and make better margins! Did you know that Sealy trains their salespeople to sell the name before the product? They actually tell you, "75% of people would pay more money for a Sealy brand mattress than another name of the same quality". They brag about how high their margins are! The "new" no-flip mattresses today are a complete JOKE! They say they have been re-designed but, as someone who sold the "old" two-sided mattresses, I can't see how they re-designed a thing! they added a foam that looks like styrofoam to the underside of the mattress and now it's "no-flip"! What about when Sealy was making fun of Simmons and their One-sided efforts? Sealy said they had tried to make a 1-sided mattress in their R&D lab and IT COULDN'T BE DONE! When Sealy saw Simmons wasn't losing money but MAKING MONEY, Sealy jumped on the band wagon as well! It all boils down to, "How can we make our mattresses look better, feel better, cost less, and offer better margins?" THEY ARE OWNED BY A CAPITAL FINANCE GROUP! WHAT SHOULD I EXPECT? Anyway, sorry I got off on a tangent but I am a bit bitter. If I can't find a company who makes QUALITY before MONEY, I am going to have to change careers in the middle of a career. So, any feedback you may have on The Original Mattress Factory would be appreciated! Moderators, if you find this is too inflammatory, I understand your editing or deleting it. Thank you all for your time! |
Re: Has anyone heard about The Original Mattress Factory?
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Hello again, All! Thanks to the people who answered my query and invitations for any and all others to share their knowledge of this company with me. To BeddyBye, I appreciate your well wishes and your input. It sounds like your friend was in the same boat I am in now. I am simply tired of sitting by and watching the quality of mattresses go down, expectations go down, durability go down, and prices go up! How long has your friend been in business? I know the factory direct approach has worked in many other retail industries but I am not so certain of the feasibility of it with mattresses. The Original Mattress Factory (from this point on, for the ease of typing, I will refer to it as OMF) has been around since, I think, 1990 and is owned by Ron Trzinski (sp?) who was the president of the Ohio Mattress Factory (SEALY). They definitely have a lot of pluses, on paper. Reading up on this company and its founder, OMF looks like the perfect company for me to land in and begin to grow back to the position I am trained for. My hesitancy comes from the rampant part-truths, mis-truths, sleight-of-hand, and downright lies that have so defined this industry over the past 10 years. This business has always had its crooks but, here in recent history, it is getting worse and worse! It isn't only the salesperson who is lying now, it is the manufacturers! Oops, sorry! I wasn't going to go on another rampage like that and I apologize. The long and short of it is I am looking for any and all information anyone may have about OMF, good or bad. I have no problem getting a job at any one of the big retailers and the job I am considering with OMF is slightly more than half of my most recent DRAW! I only want to work with a company where I can be PROUD of what I am selling! I am a VALUE kinda guy! My definition of VALUE is how much BANG you get for each one of your BUCKS! I haven't been able to sincerely say I was selling VALUE for the past 5 years and I haven't been able to feel good about what I sell since all the companies went 1-sided. I just want to be able to sleep at night without feeling I have done someone wrong. SO! Anyone who has any information about this company, their products, their service, their VALUE, PLEASE post here! To Sabra. First, LOVE the name! I am not flirting here but that really is a great name. Second, 4 SONS! WOW you are such a brave woman! Kudos to you and your family. I hope your sons understand how lucky they are to have a mother willing to have 2 sons and want more! I would like to address the statement you made about the refund. Unfortunately, in North Carolina (where I see we both are) the health department has made it illegal to sell used mattresses. Their definition of "used" is "any product which has been inside the consumers home." This means that any company in NC who is willing to offer a refund can choose to A. loose the cost of the mattress or B. break the law. There are companies who will donate the returned mattresses to various charities but please understand there is a limit to how much a company can donate for tax purposes within one year, and the maximum is small! Without naming any names, I personally know, from FIRSTHAND experience, of 3 major retailers and, roughly, 2 dozed who choose to break the law every day! If you think about it, it makes perfect sense! Here is a scenario. You buy the mattress Serta Perfect Sleeper "Midnight Jewel" (old name not in use anymore) from Billy-Bob's Mattress Universe. Let's say the mattress was "on sale" for $2399. Unless this guy is just an absolute rip-off artist, he is going to have a maximum profit margin of 60%, but more likely 50%. (Most retailers like to hold the "dead fifty" margin) That means he has roughly $1000 in that mattress. I know it sounds like a huge profit but, take it from someone who has seen the numbers, it isn't! Now, lets say you want to return this mattress and get a refund. If Billy-Bob does give you a refund, he is not only handing you a check for $2400 but also he is watching $1000 worth of a mattress that, according to NC law, he can't sell. Billy-Bob looks the mattress over and sees there is no hair, bugs, tape, stains, or anything like that. If you were Billy-Bob and you owned this mattress store and you had sunk everything you had into this mattress store and you were looking at a perfectly good $1000 COST mattress you were about to lose, what would you do? There are right at 700 manufacturers of mattresses in the US. There are tens of thousands of retail stores that sell mattresses. I can't speak intelligently about retailers elsewhere but, again not even insinuating any names here, in my experience there are FAR FAR more retail stores that will choose to sell that returned mattress rather than dispose of it. It is plain I am from NC but I have worked with retailers in a few other states and my findings were the same. Some stores choose to sell the majority of returns as clearance of damaged but I personally have not found a single company who has a return or exchange policy and does not, has not, and will not sell used mattresses! To be VERY CLEAR! I am speaking only of MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE and I am not insinuating there are no honest companies. I am only saying I have not found one YET! I am holding out hope that I will find a mattress company who holds to Christian values and actually live for more than to make money! I do not know what the comfort policy of OMF is but I will try to find it and post it here if you wish. When you say you had heard, "over the last year that they have had the same problem with their pillow tops all other manufacturers have had", I am guessing you are speaking of body impressions THE BANE OF PLUSH MATTRESSES EVERYWHERE! Unfortunately, all mattresses padded to be soft will show body impressions. There is simply no way around it! The more padding you have on a mattress, the more noticeable the impression will be. Even harder mattresses will show an impression, only less of one. Beyond that, I am not aware of any industry wide phenomenon affecting pillowtops of all brands. I will say that the few companies who still put cotton in their upholstery have, in my experience, less impressions. Finally Sabra, I am thrilled to know that your mattresses purchased from OMF are still kicking! I am even more thrilled to find OMF still has the SAME MATTRESS! That tells me that they believe in what they sell and don't need to re-invent every other year! If you can remember, and you don't mind, could you tell me the name of the ones you bought then and how much you spent? WOW! Looks like I have written a frickin BOOK! Sorry to take so much of all of your time and I greatly appreciate your input here. I have decided, just now, to take this job. They seem to be good enough people and, on paper, the company looks great. I can only pray they practice what they preach and they really do care more about their customers and employees than they care for the almighty dollar! I will leave myself an escape route, but I desperately hope it will not be needed. Thank you all, again, for indulging me here. |
Re: Has anyone heard about The Original Mattress Factory?
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He's had his own store now since 1992. I bought two daybed mattresses from him back in '95. My daughter still sleeps on hers and she'll be 16 in August. I have his zippered, latex and coil model. THEMATTRESSMAN wrote: Hello again, All!<BR>Thanks to the people who answered my query and invitations for any and all others to share their knowledge of this company with me. <BR>To BeddyBye, I appreciate your well wishes and your input. It sounds like your friend was in the same boat I am in now. I am simply tired of sitting by and watching the quality of mattresses go down, expectations go down, durability go down, and prices go up! How long has your friend been in business? |
Re: Has anyone heard about The Original Mattress Factory?
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Hi, The mattresses we bought our kids were "Regency" in the "better" category at OMF in Charlotte, NC. We ended up putting HR foam toppers ago on them about 3 years ago when I discovered an outlet in Asheville, NC that has amazing quality eggcrate toppers, not available in stores. They didn't really need them as there were no complaints from my young men but wanted to add the padding anyway since the mattresses are on the firm side. Hope that helps. Sabra |
Re: Has anyone heard about The Original Mattress Factory?
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PS Don't know how much I spent but it was by far the best value at the time. You can check their website for a description and picture--they still look the same as well. This message was modified Jun 13, 2008 by Sabra
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Re: Has anyone heard about The Original Mattress Factory?
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I don't know anything about OMF but I welcome any attempt to make the industry better. I certainly welcome your efforts and reasons. I always forget how to link to the old site, but there was information about OMF there. Best Wishes, Ian |