I made the mistake of buying a tempurpedic Contour Select off of eBay. It arrived yesterday and everything appeared okay at first. It had a zip off cover that seemed clean enough and had authentic tempurpedic tags attached. However, when I unzipped the cover the foam was dirty (or maybe it is the fire sock that was dirty). Anyhow, the mattress was definitely used. Even more concerning is the fact that there is no identifiable tempurpedic markers visible underneath the somewhat transparent fire sock. This has me concerned that I bought generic foam in an authentic tempur cover. I did read somewhere that there should be serial numbers printed on the foam at the foot of the bed that are visible through the fire sock. I called tempurpedic though and they said that there may not be any serial numbers on the foam because the company does not want people removing the fire socks so the company does not print serial numbers anywhere but on the tag that is attached to the cover. This comment makes me think that maybe I do have a genuine (used) tempurpedic mattress because the cover did have a mattress tag that states a serial number, year, and model.
I have contacted the seller and he states I must pay to send mattress back which will be several hundred or they are willing to send me another one. I asked for pictures of this mattress and I have attached those pictures. I asked for pictures of any markings and this mattress does seem to have some numbers printed on the foam. This has me even more confused because the seller has stated that the first mattress and the second one pictured below are both contour selects.
So my questions are:
Since the first mattress has no marks is it a fake? Or could it be authentic?
Secondly, based upon the pictures, is this mattress authentic?
Could they both be authentic even though they differ as to markings?
Finally, I am a self avowed mattress novice as my screen name states so please give me any info you think might be helpful.
I wanted to reply so you didn’t think I was passing by your post even though my reply boils down to “I don’t know”.
It’s usually a “safe” working assumption that when you are buying a mattress from a seller that isn’t an authorized dealer for the mattress you are buying and when there is no warranty coverage that the mattress has been used in one way or another. This could include comfort returns or warranty returns.
Unfortunately in cases like this there is no way I know of to validate what you purchased or where it came from and with these types of purchases you are really dependent on your confidence in the “real world” honesty, integrity, and transparency of the dealer you are buying from which in most cases is difficult to know because they don’t give you much information about who they are in the “real world” outside of the closed ebay community.
I’m not familiar with any markings on the Tempurpedic mattresses or the foam inside but perhaps someone with a Tempurpedic mattress will read this and look at their own mattress to see if it has similar markings. They probably come from the foam manufacturer and some layers may have them and some may not depending on where in the foam bun they were cut from. It may also be worth calling some legitimate dealers that sell Tempurpedic to see if some, all, or none of their mattresses have similar markings.
Unfortunately … I don’t know.
They “appear” to be authentic (although probably used) and the odds are higher that they are if the fire barrier is intact and doesn’t show any signs of being removed and is the same as Tempurpedic’s but again there is no way to know for sure. This is part of the uncertainty of dealing with a seller that you can’t research outside of the ebay community. You could check with a local retailer that sells Tempurpedic and ask them if you could look inside their mattress to see if it’s the same.
I would think they “could be” yes … but again I don’t know for certain.
You may want to contact Temperpedic with the pictures to see if they have any information. If it turns out to be a knockoff, I’m sure that they would want to know.