For the last 15 years I have slept on an air mattress in a California king, water bed frame. It was mostly out of laziness that I did not get a new mattress before. But, two weeks or so ago my air mattress began leaking air. My Scottish Terrier, Sammie and I began waking in the middle of the night to find ourselves surrounded on all sides by mattress and blankets, and feeling the plywood base beneath us. Restful nights were a struggle anyway, on an air mattress. Neck and back pain was common for me. But, each time one of my friends got a new bed or mattress and the price they quoted me came in just under, or over, a thousand dollars, I figured my air mattress was good enough for a while. But then the mattress made the decision for me.
Being one who wants to know if what I think I am looking for even exists before making trips to several stores, I made some calls. First up,
Sleep Country, who immediately lost my business because no one answered the phone at the locations I called. In fact, I was greeted by what sounded like an answering machine, with tape and everything. This made me suspicious of the quality of service I would get if they weren’t even advanced enough to have voicemail.
I next called Mattress World. I was put off by the forced cuteness of their commercials, with the one kid shushing the viewer while his baby brother pretends (I am assuming) to be asleep Those commercials always made me feel sort of icky for unknown reasons—as if someone had tied me down and poured a whole bottle of Saccharin into me on an empty stomach. But because commercialism works, and because you can’t miss all commercials, even with a DVR, it was the next company to pop into my head. So I called them.
A woman at the Grand Ave store told me she had a king mattress for $100. She assured me that it was not a “good” one per se, and that she would much rather sell me a $395 mattress. I was told delivery would be $60 additional. This sounded not too bad, and I could always buy a pillow-top cover, or an egg crate cover for it. I thanked her and went, instead, to the store nearer my house, the Mattress World “clearance” store on Beaverton- Hillsdale Highway, by the Hwy 217 Fred Meyer. There I met Mark, a 50-something, seemingly disgruntled employee, who seemed unhappy about something, sighing when I approached the desk. He and a younger man next to him were talking about some even which had transpired between this other man and another, something about the way one or the other of them had been spoken to.
Mark informed me right off that he had no $100 mattresses. He was curt and dismissive and I felt as if I were a bother to him throughout most of our interaction. Clearly I did not want to spend enough money because I had told Mark upfront that I wanted a very inexpensive mattress (again citing the $100) and very soon—as in immediately. I explained my situation and what kind of bed I had. I told him what the lady had said at the other store. He checked: out of stock. This, “out of stock,” quickly became a theme as well as Mark’s inability to remember that I had come in with a $100 mattress in mind, as he continued to tell me about $1600 mattresses which were a great deal because they were marked down from $4700. He continued to forget what size of bed I had. Nothing I wanted or needed was available, or not in my price range, anyway. Finally I ended up with a $499 mattress (because that is the cheapest he had, apparently) and would have to wait until Sunday for delivery. Oh, and it was “strongly recommended,” that I get a mattress cover because any color fading or stains would nullify my warrantee. Just another $149. He actually quoted me $139, but he had again forgotten that I had a California king, not a queen, and had to raise it. To his credit he did lower the price of this cover by $10 because I they did not have my mattress there (they don’t seem to have mattresses you can actually take home with you, in the store). So I would have to wait until Sunday. I left with buyers remorse over the amount I had spent, but with the belief that I would only have to pump up my bed throughout the night for two more nights. Mark had assured me that I would get a call Saturday evening, informing me of what my two-hour window of delivery would be for Sunday. No such call came.
I called the store and spoke to Mark when they first opened at 10 AM on Sunday. He had to look me up. Then, said that he had just noticed that I was on his list to call that morning. “You’re not going to get it today,” he told me. He went on to explain that apparently “someone” had made some mistake and the mattress had to come up from Salem and would be going to the warehouse instead of my house. Why? I don’t know. I didn’t really understand why the delivery could not have just come from the warehouse. But, I was pretty insistent that this was not okay so he conceded to make some calls. He called back and confirmed that my mattress was on the truck and said the driver of the truck was checking his schedule, maybe it could be delivered after all. He would get back to me in an hour or so.
Four hours later I had to call again because Mark did not call me back. No, I was told again, I was not going to get it. I expressed a great deal of dissatisfaction and told him I was going to be a very vocal critic of Mattress World. He offered me free pillows. I told him I was more interested in getting the mattress. I had been firm all day that I did NOT want to have to take time off on Monday to sit around an wait for a mattress I had been very clear about needing immediately from the very beginning. He apologized in the “mistakes were made,” manner, not saying who made those mistakes. I said I thought it reasonable that I be the very first delivery in the AM, then, to minimize the chances of my having to go to work, then come back home, then go back to work. He said that was against company policy. Apparently customer service is not company policy.
Finally he made another cal, then called to say they were going to break company policy (again because mistakes were made) and that I would be the first delivery, but that it could be between 8 AM and 10:15 AM, “But in all likelihood around 9 AM.” There was no further mention of free pillows.
While I was expected to take my mattress whenever they got around to finding and delivering it, Mattress World was very quick to run my credit, charge me the $574 for the mattress, and get their end all tied up. They told me about all that was required of me: repayment within 12 months or suffer an inflated interest rate; that any blemish on the mattress would result in a nullified warrantee, etc. Their business model is a little skewed. All about them, then you get what you get, when they get around to getting it to you. Mark had seemed irritated serving me the first day and frustrated with me on Sunday when I still had no mattress and was not just being okay with that. And, I know I paid too much for one California King mattress. No need to let me know that. But, it was at least a very comfortable mattress in the store, though the one I tried was a twin version so I could not buy that one and have it delivered right away.
Complaints about Mattress World abound. A Google search of “Complaints about Mattress World,” produced a long list of just such complaints. Try it yourself. And not surprisingly there are a number of them which sound as if they were taken from my experience.
I can only guess that “It’s Not To Late To Sleep Like A Baby,” the Mattress World slogan, is really a warning to the consumer that as long as you have not yet died of old age by the time you finally get your purchase, you still have some time to get a good night’s rest.
