First, thank you for this site. It is very helpful, and given that the mattress industry in general does not seem to want consumers to have too much information about the products it has been very helpful in educating me to know what to ask.
My comment on the shopping process: I am in the market for a natural or organic, low emissions made in the USA mattress, so the on line direct to consumer companies have looked like my best bet given that there are almost no such options available in local stores which are all big box types. I had settled on a Saatva, but had a bizarre and emotionally distressing (really, it felt abusive) interaction with their customer service. I was not happy with some of my interactions with their on line chat support, and when asked for feedback I gave negative feedback. Then they called me up and told me that they felt bad that I was not happy…so they were going to refuse to sell me a mattress because they don’t want unhappy customers !!! No attempt to make me happy, just wanted to get rid of me. When I told them I would post negative reviews based on this experience, they replied with a seeming “threat” that they would defame me by telling people I cursed at their staff (not true). The conversation was so bizarre and creepy that my partner now calls them the “Kafka mattress company:” And I realized their Web site’s reviews which are all glowing are filtered in this way. Believe me, these are not nice people and I feel like I dodged a bullet not buying from them, because if I had a problem with the product I don’t know what that would have been like to deal with.
So…beware those in house posts of reviews. Look to Amazon, look here, look where you can for unfiltered unedited consumer comments about the companies. When dealing on line one really has to be careful. I feel like a fool for letting their slick website suck me in.
Since this experience, I have found My Green Mattress, which provides a similar product for a similar price with better shipping and better guarantee, and is a smaller company. I called yesterday to check out the vibe because of my experience with Kaafka/Saatva , and the owner answered the phone and was so sweet and helpful. He offered to customize a mattress to my needs for not additional charge and no delivery delay, and was courteous in answering all my questions I will be ordering from them today.
Thank you. It is a shame that some of the largest companies in this industry aren’t as transparent as we’d like them to be about their products, but at least it makes it easier for you as a consumer to differentiate between them and those companies who truly craft a superior product and take the side of the consumer.
I’m sorry that you had some unpleasant interactions with the representatives at Saatva (you can read more about Saatva in post #1 here or just perform a forum search on Saatva). It’s unfortunate when that happens. I certainly understand that people can have bad days (I even have a few here on the Mattress Forum!), but it still is disappointing when it happens to you.
As I think you are already aware, I always suggest being 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 you will feel on the same mattress or how suitable or how durable a mattress may be for you and in many if not most cases they can be more misleading than helpful because a mattress that would be a perfect choice for one person or even a larger group of people may be completely unsuitable for someone else to sleep on (see post #13 here ).
Most consumers also don’t have the knowledge or expertise to be able to assess the quality and durability of the materials in a mattress and often mistake the “comfort” of a mattress with the quality of the mattress so even though they may be well meaning … they end up recommending lower quality and less durable mattresses that will soften or break down much to quickly just because it happens to be comfortable to one person. Most consumers aren’t really aware that how a mattress feels to them has very little relevance to anyone else and they don’t have the knowledge or experience to recommend a specific mattress for anyone else.
I have seen ebay mattresses for example with 10,000 plus reviews that are 99% positive but have little meaning because they are just a way that people congratulate themselves and justify the “deal” they think they received and less than 1% or them even realize the quality or real value of what they purchased … or what they could have purchased instead.
I am happy that you had a more positive experience with My Green Mattress. They are a member here, which means that I think highly of them and their products and knowledge. I’d be interested in learning about what mattress you chose when you made your purchase, as well as any comments about your mattress once you’ve had a chance to sleep on it for a while.
