60 Days in & Mattress still feels nothing like the store

Discussions General Mattresses Questions
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I know Serta is not well-regarded here & honestly I am leaving the country in a year - so I mind that it won’t hold up. I purchased a Serta iSeries hybrid 300 from Mattress Firm & had it delivered at the end of December. It feels absolutely nothing like the one in the store. For a month, they kept insisting that I “break it in” and because “I am single and bought a Cal King,” so it could take “months to break in.” Well, thanks for evaluating my personal life, but it hasn’t changed whatsoever in 70 days.

They have sold 100s of these, and only one time something like this happened (where they exchanged it for the same model and the customer was happy - after complaining for a month).

So, they are going to exchange it for another mattress of the same type and size on Friday, but I am afraid it’s going to happen all over again because we have no idea why it is like this. So, I am curious to ask people here if you have any ideas & if I should return it rather than exchange it for the same thing. It is more firm than the one in the same series that is considered “firm.” I tested it in 4 separate showrooms, and it’s also extremely similar to the bed in the Bellagio hotel (in the showroom - not the one I got). Serta makes their beds as well.

I have no clue why this happened but my thoughts are maybe due to the fact it was a Cal King and they could’ve used the wrong materials or specs when it was made, on Dec 28, which is also right between xmas and new years and they might not have had capacity and were taking shortcuts or distracted. Who knows.

They happened to have a meeting with the rep from serta & mentioned this. She said a lot of things that don’t make sense like I still haven’t broken it in, I am experiencing the “showroom effect,” and so on. My salesperson asked if they could’ve used specs that were supposed to go to Macy’s or somewhere else and the rep admitted the same exact mattresses go to Macy’s and many other places - just with different covers.

Has this happened to anyone else or do you have any ideas about what is going on? I don’t want this saga to drag out forever so I might just return it altogether (and returning to Mattress Firm is harder than cancelling AOL in the 90s… but that’s another story). Thanks.

2

If the issue is being too firm and thought to possibly be a break in issue, ask whether it would be acceptable and not void your warranty to “walk” the mattress. I had a similar situation with a Nest Bedding mattress which felt so much firmer than their showroom display that I was sure they must have mislabeled it in manufacturing. They suggested that I either walk on it or crawl over the entire mattress surface in small steps, and repeat three or four times. Said they have to do this with all of their showroom models and it helps to break in and soften some of the foam layers. It made a huge difference and the mattress then felt like the one in their store. If they say it would be ok give it a shot, it might make the difference you’re looking for and you could avoid making an exchange.

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I think this should be posted in the main forum instead of here. Questions about latex mattresses are posted here. You will get more feedback on the main forum.

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Thanks Sweet Dreams, I did that a few times but it didn’t make much of a difference.

I posted in this subforum by accident. Is there a way I can move it?

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I think only an administrator can move posts to another forum.

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I asked admin to move it for you.

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Arizona Premium, sorry I wrote this in your mattress forum. I used this website a year ago & never had an issue posting & seriously cannot figure out why I can’t ask anything in the regular forum anymore…particularly about SSB products (and their ills), since this site is mostly dedicated towards better manufacturers, even more now.

Anyway, if anyone stumbles across this on google or whatever, mattress Firm sent another Serta iComfort 500 cushion firm today & it is completely different from my original one and exactly like the store. They botched something pretty bad. I wonder if that’s even legal to do with the tag saying that it contains certain materials in certain percents (which it likely did not contain in those percentages given how bizarre it felt). I was so uncomfortable for 2.5 months & wasted hours going to 3 separate mattress firm stores to test it out & more hours convincing the salesperson to do an exchange… all due to their mistake, but Serta just walks away from it.

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Hi aboutabed10,

How are you? Sorry about the confusion about where to post, we are doing some administrative updates on the thread management, I moved post to one of the General Mattress Questions subthreads.

That said thank you for posting this unfortunate situation regarding your Serta mattress purchased around Chrismas time. It really interesting, because many consumers face this issue as the mattress many many times feel differently when they get home, really a common occurrence for a variety of reasons, Which explains the people on the phone just repeating the same line over and over again. I am not saying this happens every time, but floor samples are laid on 100’s and 100"s of times, and shipped mattress have been laid on zero times.

But clearly you knew this was different, but it’s like no one could really listen. I can see easily why it played out this way. Well done in staying with it, because you were right with the new arrival, which I am so glad it really was some kind of “screw up” at the manufacturing plant.

Knowing a fair amount about this part of the industry, there are a number of factors, most of these process-oriented, i.e. production scheduling, labeling, quality systems, etc, etc that are probably at the root cause of this type of situation…which is clearly the “wrong mattress” or “wrong components” in the mattress were shipped.

Although I know no facts about this factory or anything about the manufacturing of the first delivery you received. I do know that probability of “what happened” is much more likely issue/mistake/problem that is less about Serta doing something illegal, and more about the overall control of the quality system. The specifics we will never know, of course.

I am happy the mattress feels like it is supposed to.

Oh my I loved reading…“canceling AOL in the 90’s” I totally know exactly what you are talking about, I think we may have just aged ourselves!!!

Thanks
Sensei

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Thanks Sensei. Thanks for moving my post too - I don’t know how it ended up in the latex forum actually.

MF doesn’t like exchanges or returns but they love advertising their 120 day policy… just trying to use it is another story. Macy’s is happy to accommodate you, though. The same bed is sold at Macy’s with a different cover (the Serta rep even admitted it), but MF seems to discount much more.

I bought this mattress because it felt identical to a hotel I go to sometimes (Bellagio in Vegas), and serta makes the same bed for them (well - very similar) - and walking into my bedroom after being in the hotel for the 2nd time (after it had 1 month of break in) - was an instant “wtf” moment. But then walking in the showroom - the bed was totally the same as the Bellagio. The tags even have almost identical percents of “gel infused foam” “polyester foam” and batting, etc…

The label tag laws in IL say it has to be labeled as new or used. Other states have laws about the specific contents (because in the early 1900s beds would be stuffed with gross things when sold as “pure wool” or whatever & so the government forced them to label this). Since I am in IL, the only law is the Safe and Hygienic Bed Act (410 ILCS 68/). CA would probably have more strict laws, but I can’t get Serta fined $10,000 - which is the penalty if they sold me a used mattress labeled “new” in IL. So there are some legalities around this but it stops at new vs. used here.

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Hey aboutabed10,

Thanks for the post. I just want to be clear, that it seems that Serta factory most likely made a production mistake, there is no information presented that says Serta “sold a used mattress as new”…in my humble opinion, there is no way that happened.

Serta/Simmons have lots of issues, but that is not one of them.

Thanks again,
Sensei