Hi B4Bob,
I certainly agree with MattressToGo’s comments and I will add a few more of my own that are just as “direct” because whenever I read this type of review I cringe and think to myself “surely nobody would take this type of review seriously” … and yet some people do.
The types of people that tend to write these types of review tend to be those that have very little sense of personal responsibility about the choices they make in their life and the second they are disappointed about anything they scream “scam” all across the internet without realizing that their review says much more about them than the company they are dealing with and without any understanding what the word even means. They clearly just don’t like to be held accountable for their choices or for keeping to the publicly disclosed terms and conditions of a product purchase even though they were (or at least should have been) well aware of them when they made their purchase.
Their sense of “entitlement” tells them that when they make a purchase they should be given everything that they ask for after the fact no matter what they agreed to when they made a purchase and when they say “jump” that the only “appropriate” response from a business is “how high”. Anything less than complying with their “demands” is their definition of “poor customer service” and of course in most cases they will also try and “recruit an army” of like minded people that will agree with them to justify their thought process by writing reviews that have no basis in reality.
This review (and reviewer) in particular is a classic example of the worst type of review that has little to no value or legitimacy and I believe should be completely ignored. I will make some specific comments to add to MattressToGo’s comments as well …
The mattress they Purchased:
BB used to sell a range of mattresses on their website which included latex and latex hybrid mattresses that had a comfort layer that could be exchanged for a different firmness level if the mattress a customer chose was either too soft or too firm. You can see some of their previous latex component mattresses on the wayback machine here and you can see their previous return/exchange policy here that applied to their previous lineup. It’s clear that this customer purchased one of their previous mattresses so their review isn’t even about the mattress that they currently offer. The return exchange policy that they are “complaining” about was the return/exchange policy that applied to the mattress they purchased.
They have been working on a new mattress for some time now that is designed to compete with the new “breed” of “one mattress fits all” mattresses which they recently launched (see post #3 here) and their new mattresses has replaced the mattresses that they listed on their site previously (see posts #6 - #10 here). Their previous mattresses are still available with the same warranty and exchange/return policies but they can only be ordered directly on the phone.
Break in and adjustment period:
All new mattresses have a break in and adjustment period (see post #2 here and post #3 here) and one of the suggestions that can help speed up the break in of a mattress is to carefully walk on the mattress surface so they are “complaining” about a suggestion that is designed to help them which is typical of this type of reviewer where even helpful suggestions that are in their own best interests become a source of criticism.
Firmness choices:
There is no “standard” definition or consensus of opinion for firmness ratings and different manufacturers can rate their mattresses very differently than others so a mattress that one manufacturer rates as being a specific firmness could be rated very differently by another manufacturer. Different people can also have very different perceptions of firmness and softness compared to others as well and a mattress that is firm for one can feel like “medium” for someone else or even “soft” for someone else (or vice versa) depending on their body type, sleeping style, physiology, their frame of reference based on what they are used to, and their individual sensitivity and perceptions. This is all relative and is as much an art as a science. There are also different types of firmness and softness that different people may be sensitive to that can affect how they “rate” a mattress as well (see post #15 here). In other words you will always need to test a mattress for you to assess how firm or soft it feels to you regardless of whether it feels firm or soft to someone else or how anyone else may “rate” it.
Clearly this reviewer didn’t do their homework about firmness levels and how they can vary from person to person and they are also exaggerating what they feel when they talk about their mattress being “hard as a rock” for the sake of “making a very questionable point”. This is also typical of these types of reviewers who try to “pile on” every negative criticism they can think of in the hopes that at least some of their comments will become believable.
They seem to have also “forgotten” that one of the benefits of the mattress they purchased and one of the reasons they would have purchased it were because of the very exchange policy that they are now complaining about as well.
Reviews:
As MattressToGo mentioned … I would also be very cautious about using other people’s experiences or reviews on a mattress (either positive or negative) as a reliable source of information or guidance about how suitable or how durable a mattress may be for someone else and in many cases they can be more misleading than helpful because a mattress that would be a perfect choice for one person may be completely unsuitable for someone else to sleep on either in terms of suitability or durability (see post #13 here).
The only way to know whether any mattress will be a good “match” for you in terms of PPP (regardless of how suitable it may be for anyone else) will be based on your own testing or personal sleeping experience so if you can’t test a mattress in person then the options you have after a purchase and the return/exchange policy and the costs involved would generally become a more important part of the “value” of a purchase. With a free return policy there is very little risk in trying a mattress outside of the time you spend testing it or returning it if it turns out not to be as suitable for you as you hoped for.
In the end the BB’s new mattress is a great quality/value option for those that are looking for a “simplified choice” in a lower budget range that gives people the chance to test a mattress in their bedroom instead of a showroom and if for any reason it doesn’t work out as well as they hoped for then the only risk would be the time spent testing it or returning it.
They are also one of the members here which means that I believe they compete well with the best in the industry in terms of their quality, value, service, and transparency … unlike this review which is a good example of some of the “worst of the industry”.
Phoenix
PS: I also switched your post to a new topic of its own since the review you quoted wasn’t about the same mattress as the one that was being discussed in the original topic and I don’t wish this forum to be unintentionally used as a “tool for harm” that can hurt the reputation of a high quality manufacturer.