The worst experience I’ve ever had, was an interaction I’ve had with “VERLO”. “Custom made” was so seductive. Julie, wanted my money and she sold and sold…until I was dry, and the options were exhausted. The salesperson, franchiseee, AND the people at the corporate headquarters had clear priorities. Not me. The Mattress came to me defective, and uncomfortable yet NOT DEFECTIVE ENOUGH. The debt lasted longer than my comfort. They showed no interest in my satisfaction, and they were right. I was not satisfied. No repair, replacement, or refund was possible. They were neither rude nor interested.

Yes, it is poor taste to test the feel of a mattress in a mattress store and then buy it from Costco. The customer doing this is causing the sales person that helps them to miss a potential sale while he/she is helping the shopper and for what? To educate them while he/she has absolutely no chance to paid for the time spent with the customer? This type of behavior is disrespectful of the sales associate. AND what about the customer that saw the mattress at Costco for $600 and asks the mattress store to match the price when the store’s wholesale cost was $550. The sales associate that helps that customer is going to make absolutely not one dime and will have to go to the bottom of the list and work through the rotation of all the other sales associates before getting another opportunity to try to earn a living. If customer likes the price at Costco, they should buy the darn thing there. If they are going to the mattress store because the service is better, they get free delivery and the sales staff is more knowledgeable, the customer should have to pay extra for those amenities.

I think all foam mattresses are basically the same so try one out at a mattress store. Just make sure to tell the salepeople you’re just browsing so as not to lead them on.

Have you tried sleeping on the floor with just a blanket below you? This also is OK with me.

Regards,

Satej Datar.

My next mattress is going to be a organic wool one with no VOC’s so I it’s going to cost a pretty penny, but that’s why I’m already saving for it.

Wow- so many people interested in how you sleep, J:D

Yes, you can test a mattress for 90 days and bring it back for a full refund if you don’t like it. It was a main reason why I bought there, but I am very happy with my Latex mattress from there, so I didn’t had to use this offer anyway.

The Sleep Number bed by Select Comfort is definitely the way to go – do not buy a mattress until you at least try out the Sleep Number one (go through the whole demonstration at the store).

We have three mattresses in our home – my daughter’s bed (formerly ours) is a very good ‘conventional’ queen-size mattress – no-flip pillow-top style (it was not cheap to purchase). If I were to lie down on it right now, it feels wonderful – HOWEVER, if I were to sleep on it night after night, it would quickly “sag” or “hammock” – not good. This type of ‘wear-in’ is inevitable in my mind with any ‘conventional’ mattress. (Perhaps buy two beds and alternate sleeping on each one? )

My son’s bed (ours before the other one) is a mid-range “conventional” queen-size mattress purchased at a warehouse club and since upgraded with a fairly nice memory-foam type topper. Everyone in our family agrees that this is the worst of the three. Although I have not tried a “real” Tempurpedic, my experience with the relatively thick foam topper on my son’s bed leads me to think the Tempurpedic would be more of the same, and I dread the ‘frozen in place’ feeling from the deeper foam (as well as ‘heat’ issues). Also the foam inevitably breaks down in the key support areas where weight is concentrated.

My wife and I sleep on a king-size Sleep Number bed by Select Comfort. This bed is one of the best purchases we have ever made – if anything would qualify as ‘life-changing’ this bed would come close.

The adjustability is great: a) side to side, his vs. hers; b) over time you can compensate for any ‘wear-in’ of the pillow top; c) special situations – rough day and you want it extra-soft, home sick and reading in bed sitting up and want it firmer, ‘extra-curricular’ activities, or just want to try a different setting for sleep.

Be sure to get the demo and also read every word of the instruction manual – when i tried out the bed without guidance, I completely missed the concept.

If you understand it and use it correctly, this bed opens up amazing possibilities for restful sleep (hint: explore softer settings over time than you are initially comfortable with). There really is less tossing and turning all night, and I go to sleep EXTREMELY quickly when I hit this bed.

I spent more than I wanted to on this bed, but gritted my teeth and bit the bullet and would not go back now.

We saved a little bit of money by not buying Select Comfort’s platform for the bed – instead we kept our old king-size box springs and I cut pieces of 1/2″ medium-density fiberboard to cover them – this gives you the totally flat and firm surface required for the system to work correctly. (We tossed the king-size mattress we had used for only a couple of years which was a disappointing warehouse-club purchase.)

Pay attention to the pillow you use as well; I paid relatively good money for a real down pillow that I can ‘adjust’ (I’m not a fan of the foam pillows that they sell at the Select Comfort store).

Believe me when I tell you that I am as/more frugal as the next guy, but a bed is an excellent place to splurge (and also a place where you can throw away a lot of money if you’re not careful). Go with the Sleep Number!!!!

David

My husband and I bought our first mattress for our first home not long ago and found some fantastic ways of saving big bucks in the process.

First up, we opted for a platform bed. Actually, because my husband is rather clever with materials and had a good idea, he built the bed himself out of salvaged, beat-up plywood. A bit of time and some very inventive staining techniques resulted in a gorgeous (and extremely sturdy) bed that people thought we purchased in a modern artsy furniture store. More importantly, platform beds preclude the need for a boxspring. I dislike boxsprings, the very concept of them seems wasteful in terms of money and materials.

Next up, we hunted down our mattress. We visited a whole bunch of stores, and when we went into one of the mid-to-high end stores, we hit it big. The sales lady asked us where else we were looking and why, and we told her straight up that we were on a pretty strict budget. She then said to try out the mattresses in the store and find one we liked, and she would see if she could find that mattress in the warehouse listed as “unsellable.”

Why are they unsellable? Because if the mattress has a smudge or a mark on it – probably caused by a hole in the plastic packaging that let in a bit of dirt – it cannot be sold on the salesroom floor. They end up getting rid of them by offering them at steep discounts.

We found a mattress we loved, and to our luck there was one with a tiny smudge in the warehouse. Hey presto, we got our brand new mattress at a 55% discount! This is an excellent brand name mattress that is unbelievably comfortable, and would have been out of the price range we were looking at had it not been for it’s status as “unsellable.”

I had to look REALLY hard to find the smudge, and a damp cloth and careful dabbing removed it. Granted, the store didn’t make nearly as much profit off my sale, but I’ve since sent two other people there and they’ve each bought mattresses from that store.

So yes. Find a reputable mattress stores and ask them about damaged, smudged, imperfect, or otherwise “unsellable” mattresses. It’s remarkable how much can be saved.

Also, in terms of comfort, we found that pocket coils were heads and shoulders above anything else we tried. They really do have better support, and we can hardly feel one another moving and flailing during the night (we are both…uh…active sleepers).

My first experience – I was railroaded into trying and ordering the top of the line special before I even knew what features I wanted or needed. Called to cancel my order because I realized my gullibility that same day, and, without any prompting from me, they literally dropped the price by $800 so I wouldn’t cancel. If it was that quick, they must still be making a handsome profit.

http://www.denvermattress.com/

I really like that IKEA sells the mattresses and pillow tops separately – you can pick out which combination you like best, everything can be flipped and rotated, and if there’s an unfortunate messy accident, you can get away with keeping the mattress and replacing the pillow top.

We’d tried to fix the problem with new mattresses. Over time we’ve had the no-name cheapy, the Sealy, the Simmons and the 100% Latex. None of them solved the problem. We were constantly exhausted, running on fumes, even with adequate quantity of sleep, we were not getting any good quality.

Throughout our quest for good sleep, we also tried just about every mattress “topper” product on the market. We had baffles, feathers, down-alternative, memory foam, high-loft, prima-loft, egg-crate, rejuvenators, multi-zone…you name it.

We have a set of high-quality fleece sheets which were damaged beyond repair with less than 6 months of use (pre-Tempurpedic), simply because I would toss and TURN (essentially rotating 360 degrees multiple times each night) and I stretched them out beyond what they could recover from. Every morning I’d wake up with a pile of fitted sheet scrunched up underneath me from the turning, whether the sheets were fleece, flannel, silk, satin, cotton or bamboo.

Essentially, we threw money down the drain on just about every product possible just to AVOID spending money on a Tempurpedic.

Tempurpedic has a “line” of different beds just like most other manufacturers, but it’s not so much about “the-pricier-the-better”, but rather different styles that fit you. We went to our local stores to try them out, and even tried the same model at multiple stores to see if it really was the one we wanted. In the end, it was the free-trial that convinced us to actually take the plunge. What other mattress company allows you to sleep on their product for 90 days, then will happily take it back if you don’t like it? It’s an amazing offer that says a lot about the faith the company has in their own product. I’ve purchased electronics equipment with shorter a WARRANTY than the bed trial.

This is definitely the ONLY bed I’ve ever slept in well, as an adult. (we went with the Rhapsody bed) No more never-ending spiral of money down the drain for every new promising product. We sleep well. And when we don’t (let’s face it, if someone tells you they sleep great all the time on anything, they’re lying), it generally is either because we didn’t go to bed early enough or because we’re having problems that we worry about instead of sleeping. But since we got our Tempurpedic 3 years ago, not once have I had a bad night’s sleep because of the BED!

Jennifer (looking forward to yet another restful night, sinking into my cuddly Tempurpedic Rhapsody)

PS – One more quick thing. I suffer from unbearably hot feet. I can sleep if any other part of me is hot, but when my feet get hot, I am MISERABLE! I have had this since I was a little kid, and the only way to get around it was to stick my feet out of the covers, where they’d eventually cool off and I’d go back to sleep…then they’d get COLD and wake me up and I’d have to start all over again. That is one more problem eliminated with the Tempurpedic. Not once have I suffered a “hot foot” episode, which used to occur several times a week at least.

I ended up buying a similar style mattress & box spring mail order from Pottery Barn. They delivered the new one, put it on the bed, and they took away the old mattress & box for the same price as what HOM wanted. It was sooo nice to avoid that horrible salesman!

I think the key is to visit mattress showrooms enough to discover what kind of firmness you want and whether you like the pillowtop style or not.

Then just buy one of reasonable quality and expect to spend around $1200 for mattress+box. Figure on buying another in 10 years because no mattress will still feel great after that.

I hate memory foam. I slept on it once at my in-laws’ house; once it “memorizes” your shape you’d better not move! I am a wiggler so it’s no good for me.

Our current mattress came from a furniture liquidator. It was a hotel mattress for 1 yr and cost us $99, king size plus box spring. 4 yrs later it’s still great. However that liquidator is closed – plus I think that was a one-time deal – so we’ll have to come up with something else next time. I shopped around for a mattress when I moved out of my ex’s place, and I hated it; too many choices, prices through the roof, annoying salespeople. I love both Ikea and Costco so would probably go with one of them in the future. Limited selection is a good thing in my book!

1. Look at Latex mattresses…they are a little expensive but last,last, and last. They are incredibly supportive too. They don’t transfer motion like spring mattresses either. Natural is best but synthetic are very, very good too.
2. Don’t get Tempur Pedic….too hot in summer…rock hard in the winter…hard to move around on one…they are just odd.
3. Don’t pay full price…mattresses are like used cars…use the same tactics. It’s crazy but true.
4. Comparing styles is somewhat difficult because different stores rename the mattresses. However, my last purchase…Sterns and Foster Latex comes in something like 4 types, firm, plush, ultra plush….etc…just ask which one is the plush and it shouldn’t matter the name.
5. Buy a good pillow too…here, tempurpedic do ok…still can get hot though…but it’s not your whole body.
6. Get a King Size bed if your room allows…you wake up less with your spouse in the bed…I’m a light sleeper so this is a must. Spend the money now instead of later.
7. Don’t get a crazy pillowtop mattress…they crush down…form body molds…
8. Get a latex mattress…yea, it’s worth repeating.

A matress is probably one of those things where you should buy an average model which will be comfortable enough, and expect it to last only 5 years or so and then replace with another.

One note, before that purchase I had got a pillowtop Sealy locally. I lived to regret that purchase. After about a year my shoulders started hurting. Since I travel a lot I noticed that didn’t occur in most hotel rooms. Turns out that since I’m a side sleeper with my arm typically up under my head the pillow top was throwing off the angle on my shoulder. Got the new mattress from 1800mattress without a pillow top and shoulder problems disappeared within a week. Yah!

And I agree with everyone that say a good nights sleep is a cure all.