Hi catemarie,
I switched your post to a new topic so your questions wouldn’t get mixed in with another member’s topic … and I also deleted your second post which was a duplicate of this one.
These are all part of the “risk” and “risk management” that is involved with the purchase of any new mattress whether it is locally or online. Just in case you haven’t read it yet … the first place I would start your research is the mattress shopping tutorial here which has all the basic information, steps, and guidelines that can help you make the best possible choice.
There is more about the different ways to buy a suitable mattress (either locally or online) that can help you assess and minimize the risk of any mattress purchase in post #2 here. There is also more about the most important parts of the "value of a mattress purchase in post #13 here that can help you make more meaningful comparisons between mattresses. There are many people that are quite comfortable with an online purchase and there are also many others that will only consider a local purchase. There are personal choices and there isn’t a better or worse choice … only a purchase that is inside your own personal risk tolerance.
There is also more about the pros and cons of an online purchase vs a local purchase in post #2 here and this topic.
An exchange or return policy is built in to the price of a mattress and there are many people who would prefer to pay less for a mattress than have the cost of a return policy added to the cost of their mattress. With return or exchange policies the people who don’t return or exchange a mattress pay for the ones that do and there are many people who are confident enough that they won’t need to return a mattress that they would rather not pay for the ones that do.
Many people that are committed to a memory foam mattress wouldn’t have an issue with no return policy if a manufacturer or retailer has many other good options available in different firmness levels because with their exchange policy the only real issue would be whether one of the Christeli mattresses would be suitable for them and finding the one that is “right for them”. If the first mattress turns out not to be a suitable choice then you would be able to use it as a guideline for choosing another mattress that was either firmer or softer and would be a better match for you in terms of PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and Personal preferences). They also list which of the Tempurpedic mattresses each of their mattresses are closest to so you have the chance to test a mattress that has a similar firmness level locally before deciding on the one that has the best chance of success for you. Again though … these are all part of each person’s personal value equation and risk tolerance.
While I would certainly want to know the terms of a warranty before a purchase … I would also keep in mind that a warranty only covers defects in the mattress and materials and not the gradual loss of comfort and support that is the main reason that people will need to replace a mattress. Warranties longer than 10 years are more about marketing than anything else and a warranty is not a reliable way to assess the durability or useful life of a mattress or how long you will sleep well on it before you cross the thresholds between sleeping well on a mattress to sleeping “OK” to “tolerating a mattress” to finally deciding to replace it. There is more about mattress warranties in post #174 here and there is also more about the most important factors that can affect the durability and useful life of a mattress relative to different people regardless of the length of the warranty in post #4 here.
If these numbers are accurate I think that most manufacturers would consider this to be a good return rate and would be happy with it and for the 3% that aren’t happy they still have the option of exchanging their mattress for another one.
I’m not sure why they would be defensive when this is just one of the many tradeoffs that are involved in how any manufacturer or retailer decides on their return or exchange policies. It’s also possible that you misunderstood an explanation for their policies as being “defensiveness”. Some return or exchange policies will be more attractive to some people and others will be more attractive to other people. There are many manufacturers for example that allow a return but their customers would pay for the shipping costs which may be a significant barrier to returning the mattress at all (especially if the cost of returning it is close to the cost of the mattress itself) and there are also many companies where any sale is final and they don’t have any return policies at all although this is less common with an online purchase.
First of all it’s important to be clear that you “won’t” get your money back so that you have no expectations that this would be possible. If you aren’t happy with your mattress then you would need to exchange your mattress for another one of their models that was a better match for you in terms of PPP. If for some reason the second mattress also wasn’t a good match for you in terms of PPP (which would be even less likely) then as long as you made sure that it wasn’t too soft then you could add a topper to the mattress to add any additional pressure relief or comfort that you needed (it’s much more difficult to “firm up” a mattress that is too soft than to soften a mattress that is too firm … see post #4 here).
I would be very cautious about using reviews (either positive or negative) as a reliable source of information about either the suitability or the durability of a mattress and in many cases they can be more misleading than helpful because a mattress that would be a good choice for one person may be completely unsuitable for someone else to sleep on (see post #13 here).
If you follow the steps in the tutorial post one at a time you will have the best possible chance of making the most suitable, the most durable, and the best value choice that is the best “match” for all the criteria that are most important to you regardless of whether they are the same as anyone else’s criteria.
Phoenix