I’d like to add another angle to this discussion on Urban Mattress: what happens when the bed you buy/get delivered feels noticeably different than the demo on the showroom floor? And I mean softer, so not a break-in or temperature issue?
Before I get into describing our (ongoing) buying experience with Urban Mattress (Colorado), let me point out that they are being very responsive to our issue with a newly delivered “Wonder” mattress (called Virtues Wonder in the online description). Without over-examining our perceived difference, they immediately ordered us another “Wonder” without cost, and preserved our right to a future free-swap if the “Wonder” doesn’t work out for us. Unlike Ostic, we’re not located in TX: we’re working through the Urban Mattress store in Centennial, CO. (owners also own a Denver franchise store).
The longer story. Having done the big retail chain purchase of three prior mattresses, we did a good amount of online research - especially Phoenix’ site. After wasting a lot of time reading about online mattresses (more than 30!), we decided to look into the local/regional mattress operation after encouragement found on this web site. That led us to a nearby Urban Mattress store where we were pleased to be able to try a good number of beds using latex (one of the things we had a lack of knowledge/familiarity). Like Ostic, we liked the “Wonder” bed. It was also nice that the specs were readily available on the company’s web site and a cut-away of the innards was also available in the store.
I should mention that the store buying experience was very laid back and tended towards providing useful information. Free coffee or craft beer was available (yes, it would have kept us in the store longer). I would say that the salespeople hired by this two-store franchise of Urban Mattress are sociable and biased to selling the reduced risk of buying through them. Free swap if the purchase doesn’t work out, and a 10-year satisfaction guarantee that was intended to be more useful than typical manufacturer warranties. I’ll provide a more in-depth review of Urban Mattress when our buying experience is truly complete (issues resolved) but I can clearly state that they enable there in-store personnel to act and resolve customer issues, not argue about entitlements.
When we took delivery of our new “Wonder” king, it was immediately obvious to both my wife and I that it had a softer feel than the demo we had tried out in the store. This was unexpected as we thought it would be harder initially as it was not yet broken in. We returned to the store the next day to see if we still perceived a firmness difference between the store demo and the unit we received. We did feel there was s noticeable difference, though the store unit was a queen and our purchase dunit is a king, on new foundations. Our home unit also uses a metal frame to put the foundations above the floor, which differs from the store. While we’ve been told this is not significant we have to wonder about the source of the perceived differences.
While we might have been worried about getting into a conflict with Urban Mattress about manufacturing consistency (unit-to-unit variations) or possible manufacturing errors or differences in foam batches (latex, gel memory foam or polyfoam) or some other variants…they simply asked if we’d like them to ship a different “Wonder.”
The manufacturing source of the mattress is local: Old West Mattress (Denver, CO). Urban Mattress basically told us we’d get a new mattress in less than a week, regardless of what was causing the difference. You have ot like that.
Additionally, purchases from them entitles a free swap regardless of reason (no refund). Any subsequent swaps would incur a 10% restocking fee but not the first swap. In our situation they simply augmented our entitlements to not sacrifice the free swap with the exchange of the “Wonder” for another one. Like I said: very customer-oriented.
We had also opted for low-profile foundations with the original “Wonder” purchase, and it turns out my wife did not like the lower altitude. Urban Mattress offered to swap the foundations out while replacing the mattress, without cost.
So while we are still waiting to see if the “Wonder” is truly the right bed for us, I have many positive things to say about Urban Mattress.
I don’t see much on this Mattress Underground site that speaks to manufacturing variation, so I don’t even know if we should be considering the OEM manufacturer (Old West Mattress) as possibly being in this equation. What I do know is that Urban Mattress will place our returned “Wonder” next to a store demo and see for themselves - along with factory reps being present - if they perceive as significant a difference as we do. While we immediately feel a hammocking kind of difference with less firmness. Perhaps Phoenix will want to comment about that. As I said above, many variables might contribute to why a difference might exist.
The “Wonder” from top down is:
- Two 1.5" layers of poly foam (2.1 lb/cf)
- One 3" layer of gel memory foam (3 lb/cf)
- One 3" layer of latex (firm at 36 ILD)
- Over a support layer of 6" latex (form at 36 ILD)
For people who like to sink into their mattresses more, Urban Mattress makes a variant of this bed with the latex levels being 19 ILD, and call that bed the “Unity.”
I should be able to follow-up wiht more info on our experience next week, as we get the replacement “Wonder” tomorrow.
