Shopping for a mattress is an absurd frustrating experience
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We have started to search for a mattress and it is the most frustrating experience I may have ever had in my life! If other big ticket items were not comparable from store A to store B, people would go insane. Imagine a base Ford Focus at one dealer has an entirely different name at another car dealer! It is what the mattress retailers do and get away with it. I had one retailer say and this is a quote, "it is done to really protect the stores from a shopper going from store to store trying to negotiate the best price." What!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Isn't that what happens in a capitalist business model? My customers are always shopping me. Thirty years ago I had a client that owned a mattress making shop. He told me that the time to make a mattress was minimal and the raw materials cost was minimal. So why am I seeing $2,000, $3,000 or higher mattress pieces? High prices and you can not even comparison shop. This is a rigged game from the get-go and I am not enjoying it .....nope not one bit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
Re: Shopping for a mattress is an absurd frustrating experience
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Welcome to the club!<BR>Trust us, we all feel your pain, but this isn't new, its been like this for at least the last 20 years or so. <BR><BR>You have barely touched the surface of the scams. <BR>Don't forget the bait-and-switch advertising,<BR>the never ending sales that are always ending tomorrow unless you act today,<BR>the $800 dollar mattresses that are sold for $3,000 just by adding $50 dollars of foam and calling them "pillow-top" so they can then be sold at a "50% off" deal,<BR>the complete lack of quality (Just try to buy a two-sided mattress with a box spring that contains real springs!),<BR>the contracts with mile long fine-print that guarantees you will never be able to return the mattress even if they have an exchange (and if they do have an exchange, beware of getting someone else's instead of new),<BR>the snake-oil sales tactics,<BR>the don't tell the customer that "high-end" mattress like Stearns & Foster and Chattem & Wells are not really companies that compete with, but are just divisions of Sealy and Spring Air. (maybe they will remember S&F's glory days and not notice they went out of business years ago)<BR>and my personal favorite the "one stain and your out" rule that voids your warrantee by "protecting" the delivery people even if it has nothing to do with your "mattress failure" and even though their delivery people had no problem taking your old filthy mattress away when you bought the new one.<BR><BR>It's sad to say the car companies are no better. You did know that the Ford Fusion, Mercury Millan, Mazda 6 and Lincoln MKZ are practically the same car, so are the Chevy Malibu, Pontiac G6, Opel Vectra, and Saab 93. They know how to play the name game as well.<BR><BR>I could go on and on, but the question remains, what to do about it? <BR><BR>Most folks who come here end up going in one of four directions: <BR>they make their own custom layered latex mattress (most popular, using companies like Flobeds),<BR>they buy the cheapest firm (as close to foam free) mattress they can find and then buy toppers for it (I don't recommend this but others have had some success),<BR>they try one of the really expensive European brands (Hastens, VI-Spring, Relyon, Dux and Hypnos that can cost as much as a car but can be very well made),<BR>or they luck out and can try the solid local companies like McRoskey in California, C.H. Beckley in New York State or Gardner in the New England area.<BR><BR>I do wish you luck and please don't give up the search and don't buy a mattress that is filled with cheap foam, starts with an "S" or "K" or is sold off the back of a trailer. Simple advice, but you would be surprised how well it works. This message was modified Aug 21, 2008 by IanS
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Re: Shopping for a mattress is an absurd frustrating experience
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So you've noticed what a racket mattress sales is. Frustrating yes, but you can shop around and negotiate price to a degree. As you're shopping you may find yourself gravitating to one mattress line and one comfort level in particular. Find out as much as you can about that mattress. Ask about construction. Coil count, steel gage, comfort layer construction. Ask to see a cut-away if there is one. Take notes. On the salesman's business card. Finally ask what his best price is. Don't settle for the sale d'jour price. It changes every week. Then go to another store that sells the same line. The cover may be different and the name will vary but you will probably find a mattress with a similar construction. Get their best price. Then on to the next store. At the end of the day you can compare the specs and prices. Then just as you would at the car dealer, play one against the other. Or just go back to the store you liked the best and ask them to beat the best price you have on a similar mattress. Right now merchants are eager to deal. Of course, you're still going to pay a lot more than the mattress is worth, which is why so many people on this forum have turned to mattress kits or to building their own mattresses. You get more quality for your money and can more easily customize the materials and comfort level. Whatever you do buy the most supportive mattress with the least amount of crappy PU foam you can find and add your own comfort layers to suit. All those big cushy beds that feel so good in the store last for about 5 minutes when you get them home and before long you are left with a lot of soft, sagging foam that really make you resent the ridiculously high price you paid for this junk in the first place. In today's mattress market place the rule of thumb seems to be "Pay more--Get less!" A lot less. This message was modified Aug 13, 2008 by cloud9
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Re: Shopping for a mattress is an absurd frustrating experience
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urdrwho wrote: Thirty years ago I had a client that owned a mattress making shop. He told me that the time to make a mattress was minimal and the raw materials cost was minimal. So why am I seeing $2,000, $3,000 or higher mattress pieces? High prices and you can not even comparison shop. An industry insider recently referred to those dedicated mattress stores that have the prices you mention as "home run" stores. He told me they only have to sell one mattress per month at those prices to keep the lights on. I got *so* frustrated at not being able to know what was inside the mattresses so I could compare apples to apples. I'm an engineer and I want to know details! Yes I realize "feel" is subjective, but there are still objective reasons why one kind of spring would be better than another, for example, in terms of support, longevity, and separation of movement. One thing that got to me was this whole "no flip" thing for inner spring mattresses. I was curious enough to look up the patents (I found three) because the patents say *why* the idea is believed to be a good idea by the person claiming it. They all speak about cost savings to the manufacturer because they only have to put comfort layers (and now fire retardant layers) on one side, without one word about improving longevity. It's possible they could use the money freed up from the extra comfort layers to, say, improve the quality of the metal, but I didn't find evidence of that happening in real life. I concluded no-flip mattresses caught on in the industry because they cost less to produce, unless they double the "comfort layers," or the additional layers of other stuff between the springs and the cover. However, since the no-flip mattresses are in general thinner than the flippable ones, I guess they do *not* double the comfort layering. At the same time, they charge more, because there is a higher perceived value. People think somehow the mattresses are engineered to last longer while not having to flip them, since the warranties no longer specify flipping them, and their willing to pay more for the convenience. The reality is the spring part is made no differently. And in the end, they have "planned obsolescence" so they're only expected to last about as long as their warranties no matter what, so people will come back and buy another mattress in 10 years. Now *that* is a racket. Those are big reasons I decided to get a foam latex bed instead, bought online. For even less money, I could get something that would last twice as long. Plus I don't have to flip it. *grin* |
Re: Shopping for a mattress is an absurd frustrating experience
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I had the same thought: Buy a latex foam mattress. Unfortunately it was incompatible with my spine and I had to go back to an innerspring. I'm now at the point where I'm about ready to perform mattress surgery to remove the layers of PU crap and replace them with latex and memory foam. I knew when I bought this mattress the foam would have a very limited life, but I made sure the spring unit at the core would last for 20 at least. That's really the ironic thing about these no flip mattresses. The springs last as long as they ever did. The comfort layers not so much. You kind of wonder why they bother? |
Re: Shopping for a mattress is an absurd frustrating experience
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IanS wrote: <BR>the $800 dollar mattresses that are sold for $3,000 just by adding $50 dollars of foam and calling them "pillow-top" so they can then be sold at a "50% off" deal... I've only been shopping for a new mattress for 2 days, but this has become a pet peeve as I shop. WTF is it with this trend of foam pillowtops? I don't get it. With people complaining in various reviews for years now (that I've found, reading up), these foam pillowtops do not last. I bought a "traditional" pillowtop 10 years ago, it was filled with just some kind of soft material (NOT memory foam) and while I was worried it wouldn't last and would indent or compress, it never did. And now most companies don't make this kind anymore? This is insane. |
Re: Shopping for a mattress is an absurd frustrating experience
| Sure. They want to knock your socks off with something that feels heavenly in the store. And then when you fall for it they want to sell you another one in a few years because they've designed it to be serviceable for a fraction of the time a mattress used to be. Someone in marketing figured out that they weren't turning a big enough profit selling realistically priced mattresses that last for 20 years. |
Re: Shopping for a mattress is an absurd frustrating experience
| Ah yes, the "Bill Gates" method of business. Keep improving and build in a kind of obsolescence so people have to buy more often... |
Re: Shopping for a mattress is an absurd frustrating experience
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Here's the facts: PU foam dies. IME, within about three months, if that. It might look okay, feel okay to your hand, but it is not supportive anymore. 10 years out of a mattress? I wish!!!! Best option(latex mattresses don't work for me either...they are too boingy)is to find a reputable, independant, quality mattress maker and have one made. Ideally the foam will be removable if you have it in the bed. They make mattresses with cotton batting these days too, like they used to. If you have a mattress you like, but it is worn out, you could try cutting it open and finding out what's inside... what works for you. There are several different types of springs, different box springs, and layers above. I have cut my latest mattress open and exchanged one foam for another repeatedly. I think my problem is the springs are individual marshall units, and they don't seem to support my heavier butt as well as I need. Last night I put a rather firm piece of plastic on top of the coils only in the middle. Not so much back pain, but my hips didn't appreciate it. Sigh. One day I will figure this all out. I did just speak with a nice man in Santa Cruz at Bay Bed and Mattress. They might be able to help me. kait |