Hi consumerM0del,
Most of the people who come to this forum would realize to avoid major brands completely (see this page) because they either tend to use low quality materials or they are not particularly good value compared to other similar mattresses. They would also realize that if you aren’t confident that a mattress will be a good match for you in terms of PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and Personal preferences) then knowing the exchange and return policy of a retailer you visit is an important part of the “value” of a mattress purchase. The mattress factory is quite clear and transparent that they don’t offer a comfort trial and the reasons why on this page so any consumer that buys from them would hopefully have done their research and know this before making a purchase and would have factored it in to the risk of their purchase decision so there is nothing to “blame” them for in this regard. The cost to a manufacturer of offering a “comfort trial” is built in to the cost of a mattress as a hidden cost so that people who don’t exchange a mattress end up paying for the ones who do. As they also mentioned on their page in some cases comfort exchanges are resold as new mattresses when they are used mattresses. There are many people who have done careful testing on a mattress that are confident about their choice in terms of PPP and are quite comfortable with buying a mattress that they can’t exchange. This is all part of each person’s personal value equation and the options that are available after a purchase may be more important to some people and less important to others.
If you do end up buying a mattress that isn’t a good match for you then as you discovered a mattress that is too firm is a much less risky choice and is easier to “fix” than a mattress that is too soft. There are many good sources for high quality toppers that can add the additional softness and pressure relief that you need to a mattress that is too firm but it’s much more difficult to “fix” a mattress that is too soft because this would involve removing and replacing layers in a mattress rather than adding layers on top of them. Different people can also prefer different types of toppers.
Here again you may not have done the best research. Novaform uses lower quality/density materials than I would normally recommend (see post #4 here) and I would always make sure you know the density of any foam topper you are purchasing. For most people a Novaform topper wouldn’t be a particularly good quality/value choice when there are so many better choices available but at least it’s only a topper so it can be replaced if it softens or breaks down prematurely without having to replace the entire mattress. You also had the foresight to buy from a store that has a good return policy just in case the topper you you chose didn’t work out as well as you hoped. I would keep in mind though that a topper that works for one person or even a group of people may be completely unsuitable for someone else to sleep on because which topper works well for any particular person depends on their body type, sleeping style, personal preferences, and the mattress that it’s used on (the specific mattress can have a significant effect on the feel of a mattress/topper combination).
[quote]So the most important question is if I were to do this again what would I do.
- not buy at Mattress Factory. The customer support is horrible. Neither the 800
number or the store manager were helpful at all. I felt like they had played a cruel
joke on us. We can’t help you because we don’t sell toppers. Here’s an idea
you’re in the mattress business … be knowledgeable about it. There are thousands
of people like us looking for support. Tell us what our options are, what are the
differences between toppers, how about a big discount on another mattress at cost
to keep the customer happy[/quote]
While I would agree with you about buying at Mattress Factory … it would be for different reasons. The mattresses that are sold by Mattress Factory are all major brands where it would be unlikely that you could find out the type and quality of the materials inside them and this alone would be a good reason to avoid them (or any store that sells mattresses where they can’t provide the information a consumer needs to make an informed choice or make meaningful comparisons to other mattresses). For some people the lack of exchange options may also be a reason to avoid them but for others that have done careful testing or are confident that a mattress is a good match for them in terms of PPP it may actually be a reason to buy from a store where you wouldn’t be paying for other people’s exchanges.
[quote]2) Look for a hybrid Gel memory foam mattresse with coils. The best of both
worlds.[/quote]
There are many people who don’t like memory foam (with or without gel added) or innersprings and the choice of materials is strictly a personal preference. A material that one person loves may be a material that someone else hates and each person can have very different preferences. All materials though (including gel memory foam) come in lower quality and less durable versions and higher quality and more durable versions and no matter which materials you tend to prefer it’s important to make sure that it’s a higher quality version. There is also no such thing as “the best of both worlds” because there are many more types of mattress categories or materials than just memory foam or innersprings (or the lower quality/density polyfoam that is in the upper layers of your mattress) and each person will have their own preferences that may be very different from someone else. There is also a lot of misinformation in the industry about gel materials or gel memory foam as well (see post #8 here and the posts it links to) and while it can be cooler initially than some types of non gel memory foam … once temperatures equalize then it can still sleep warmer than many other materials or types of foam because it is still primarily an insulating material.
[quote]3) Find a mattress store with good customer support and read the small print. We
don’t guarantee comfort is pretty weak when your back hurts and you just spent
a lot of money to get a good nights sleep. [/quote]
The most effective way to have the “best of both worlds” (meaning in this case a mattress that is a good match for you in terms of PPP without the hidden costs of a return policy built into the mattress) would be careful and objective testing on a mattress using the testing guidelines in the tutorial post but for those that still aren’t confident about the suitability of their choice then I agree with you that it would be important to make sure you are comfortable with the return and exchange policies of any store you decide to purchase from. Where we disagree would be that this would be a reason for everyone to avoid a store that didn’t have a “comfort guarantee” since each person may have a different opinion about the pros and cons of any policy and have a different set of circumstances or risk tolerance than you.
I certainly appreciate that you weren’t happy with your mattress purchase but different people will have different criteria about which purchase is best for them and good research is always an important part of any mattress or topper purchase so there are no unexpected surprises after a purchase when it may be too late.
Phoenix