My Sleepy’s Nightmare
On February 3, 2008, my husband and I went to your Sleepys store in Little Falls, NJ. We were in need of a new mattress and we saw an ad for mattresses that were on sale at Sleepys. We were looking to replace our Simmons Beautyrest mattress, but according to the salesman, anonymous, that mattress was not on sale. Being that I have a history of back problems, it is important that I have a proper mattress, and so we let the salesman, anonymous, know this. He suggested the Simmons Comforpedic mattress and said it was great for people with back problems. I questioned him about this, since the Comforpedic seemed very similar to the Tempurpedic, which I thought would NOT be good for my back because it seemed to sink too much when weight was on it. Anonymous agreed that the Tempurpedic would not be good, but that my concerns regarding the sinking of the mattress and been reworked and addressed in the Comforpedic mattress. He said it would be more supportive and sprang back easily into position when moving around in bed. He said it would be great for my back and the mattress was a big seller. He also said that although they had a Comfort Exchange Policy that would allow a dissatisfied customer the option to exchange their bed (within 21 days from purchase), he did not have one customer return the bed. We tried the bed, and for the brief time we were in the store, it felt comfortable. We also told anonymous that we were interested in purchasing a mattress only, since we already had another mattress and a split boxspring at home. He said that was fine. (He never mentioned, which was told to us later by another Sleepys store, that purchasing a different brand mattress than that of our present boxspring would void a warranty on our new mattress). We decided to give it a try. Our purchase was a total of $4018.19. The bed was delivered the next evening (February 4, 2008).
Between the time of the delivery (Feb. 4, 2008) and about March 19, 2008, my husband and I slept on our new bed. Remembering that anonymous had told us our bodies would need to adjust to our new bed, we tried to give the bed time. He had told us to give it a minimum of two weeks, to see how we adjusted. During this time and a bit after, both my husband and I were having trouble sleeping, and kept waking up tired in the morning. We both were experiencing some stress in our lives, so we initially associated our lack of rest with that. My back condition started to worsen, and I was starting to experience a burning sensation in my low back. In addition, my upper back was getting stiff. I didn’t think it was the bed at first, because anonymous had told us it was great for a bad back. I thought I was just having a flare up and that it would pass and my back would feel better with this new bed. I went for my usual physical therapy and my therapist was a bit alarmed at how I had worsened. Then for a few nights I slept on my couch. I began to notice that as I slept on my couch my back began to improve again. I started to put two and two together. The lack of sleep and regression in my low back must have to do with the new bed. The timing made perfect sense. I decided to call Sleepys and let them know what had transpired. I made the first call, on or about March 19, roughly 44 days post bed delivery. I explained my situation, and told the customer service representative about my bad back and the fact that I had spent $4018.89 on a bed, and I was now sleeping on my couch. She told me I was out of the 21 days allowable for the Comfort Exchange and there was nothing she could do about it. I again explained to her that I felt these were extenuating circumstances. She spoke to her supervisor who again reiterated what she had told me, no Comfort Exchange. The best they could offer was “accommodated pricing”, which meant they would give me a deep discount on a new mattress, but I couldn’t exchange the bed. I was told to go into any Sleepys store, and I would be helped. I was not very happy about the thought of having to pay for another bed after just spending a month’s salary on a bed already, but I was desperate for sleep so I went. That same day I made a phone call to Sleepys in Hackensack, NJ. I spoke with a gentlemen named anonymous. He seemed very sympathetic when I explained my situation. He told me that if I have a bad back, I should not have a Comforpedic bed. It said it was too soft for me. He told me that I would be better off with a Tempurpedic bed. (The exact opposite of what I was told by anonymous in the first store.) He said 21 days is not always enough time to tell how one’s back will react to a bed and that for some people it takes longer. He told me to come to the store when I had plenty of time to try out beds and he would help me. When I told him I had “accommodated pricing”, he told me to come in and they would do an exchange. I was a bit confused by this, because of what I had been told about being denied the Comfort Exchange. I wasn’t sure what to make of this, but I went to the Hackensack store that very night. When I got to the store I asked for anonymous, but he was busy. Anonymous, the store manager offered to help me. Once again I went over the whole story, including the phone call to Sleepys and the “accommodated pricing”. Anonymous told me that I needed to pick out a bed of equal or greater value and that I would pay the difference. I told him again, I had “accommodated pricing”. I wanted to make sure he knew that what I was told by your Customer Service Dept. was different than the Comfort Exchange Policy he was talking about giving me. He also told me that a Comforpedic bed was not good for my back and suggested I try the new top of the line Tempurpedic. I told Anonymous about how I was advised by the first salesman in Little Falls, not to buy a Tempurpedic. Anonymous seemed confused and disagreed with the first salesman’s recommendation. He didn’t know why the salesman would say that. I told Anonymous I was upset over the whole situation and was just now looking to replace my original bed, which I did not have trouble with, a Simmons Beautyrest. We looked at the variations of that bed and I found one that I thought would be good. Unfortunately, the mattress itself cost less than what I had originally spent on the Comforpedic, which was $3521.00 plus tax and delivery. In order to come closer or go over the amount originally spent so I could do the Comfort Exchange, I would have to purchase the mattress, and boxspring. I called my husband. He told me not to agree to buy anything until I found out exactly what it would cost me. I went over the pricing verbally with Anonymous. The difference between my Comforpedic and the new set was about $70.00, plus I would have to pay $399.00 for the destruction of the Comforpedic (king size), and a new delivery charge. We came up with roughly $700.00. I was not happy since I already spent so much on the mattress and I went home to think about it with my husband. Anthony said he would be back on Saturday if I wanted to come back in with my husband.
Saturday, Mar. 22, my husband and I went back to the store. I asked Anonymous to reiterate the policy with my husband and what the approximate costs to us would now be. Both Anonymous and anonymous seemed confident that we were talking about a Comfort Exchange and everyone seemed to be in agreement that we would be doing the exchange and my husband and I would be spending roughly $700.00. Again, we were not happy to pay anything else since we feel the first salesman misadvised us. Now we have been inconvenienced and have had our sleep disrupted for weeks. We sat down to finalize the exchange with Anonymous, another salesperson. As we were waiting for the final authorization to come through, Anonymous alerts us there is a problem. He said Sleepys would not authorize the exchange because I was approved for “accommodated pricing” only! We could not believe it. All this time I had been telling the salesman this and at the moment we finalized everything it was suddenly an issue! Now we are back to square one. Anonymous called to find out what kind of price break we would be given to purchase just the Simmons Beautyrest mattresss we had settled on. It came to $1999.99 plus delivery and tax. Another purchase of $2022.28. My husband and I were so angry. My husband wanted to go home and figure out what to do. They told us if we wanted to keep that pricing we would have to put a deposit down. We did and went home. My husband called Sleepys again, the main Customer Service Department and asked to speak to a supervisor. Surely he would care, especially with our extenuating circumstances. Boy how we were wrong. After explaining the entire story to the supervisor, including the misrepresentation of the first bed, my back pain and the total inconvenience, he said there was nothing he could do about it. My husband said he would call his lawyer. The supervisor told him to go ahead. We couldn’t believe the total indifference in the manner with which your company treats their customers. My husband and I decided that we could no longer continue to sleep on our current Comforpedic mattress, and although the last thing we wanted to do was to do any type of business with Sleepys now, we needed our sleep and could no longer go on in this position. We called the store and told them to go ahead with the purchase. The mattress was delivered that day.
Since receiving the new mattress (Beautyrest), my back has been improving. I have since gone to physical therapy. My physical therapist noted the improvement and commented on how malrotated my hips were the previous time I was there (when I had the Comforpedic). He told me that was the worst he can recall seeing me in a long time.
At this point, we have two king size mattresses, one of which is useable, the other which is standing in my bedroom taking up a lot of space. We spent $4018.89 on a mattress we can’t use, plus another $2022.28 for the one we want to keep. A grand total of $6041.17. We are seeking a refund for the original bed, the Comforpedic, which totaled 4,018.89. Looking for help.............
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