I simply had to create an account to thank Phoenix and all the people who have helped me without their knowledge by posting on this forum. There is so much information here that I did not think of any questions I had that had not already been asked and answered here. What a great resource!
A few weeks ago my wife suddenly tired of the 20 y/o king mattress and box springs that we had, and she tasked me with finding a suitable replacement. I figured a trip to the biggest furniture/mattress store in our area lay in my future, but I hit the internet in advance. I really just stumbled upon this site and began reading. It didn’t take long for me to get the impression that a latex mattress was right down our alley. Neither of us had ever heard of latex mattresses. A quick glance at the website of said furniture store revealed they had no latex mattresses. My wife called a local “sleep store” which apparently sells only mattresses etc. She got a recording that all sales people were busy and to leave a message. She left a message asking someone to call her without saying that we simply wanted to know if they carried latex mattresses. No return call. The mattress business here must be phenomenal.
After more reading here, I began searching for the nearest location for us to see a real, live latex mattress. Alas, the nearest place with latex (not hybrid) mattresses was more than a 3-hour drive away. We planned the trip, but at the same time I was still trying to get my wife to read some of the information I had found about latex mattresses in order to avoid not only getting something we were not both happy with, but also my being to blame.
The place we were to set out to visit was Royal Bedding in Birmingham AL. I had seen it mentioned here with encouraging remarks by Phoenix but had not found any posts by customers. Our trip hit a few snafus, so we never got to “test-drive” a latex mattress, but my wife had done some reading on this forum and agreed that latex sounded promising. I pondered our options, but had become convinced that latex was the way for us to go. I was torn between giving Royal Bedding a go or ordering from an online outfit. I had an extended telephone conversation with Tom at Royal Bedding and came away quite impressed. He seemed extremely knowledgeable and was unimaginably helpful. It turned out that we were outside Royal Bedding’s “marketing” and delivery area, but Tom bent over backwards working with us for delivery rather than using freight shipping. If you can’t work with Tom, you can’t work with anyone. It was astonishing to see such customer service these days.
Tom asked some questions about our body types, sleeping preferences etc and recommended their Mountain Top Firm with a “soft” 3" topper. Coincidentally, from my reading here, before talking with Tom I had thought the Mountain Top Firm with a “medium” topper would probably be our best bet from his product line. I expressed some concern about the “soft” rather than “medium” topper, and Tom was able to explain why he thought that “soft” suited us better and assuaged my fears that it would be too soft. The mattress set also included a metal foundation. We took delivery today and are simply floored. We couldn’t be happier.
Everything looks great, and the guys had it set up in no time. Keep in mind that we had never been on a latex bed: we took turns lying on the bed and checking each other’s alignment. I don’t think we could have done better had we spent an entire afternoon in the store testing mattresses. Of course, the real test comes during the next few weeks as we sleep on the mattress, but it feels so comfortable to both of us that we are quite optimistic.
Thanks again to everyone for participating in this forum. It is much appreciated.
Edit: Royal Bedding’s location is actually in Pelham, but it seems like Birmingham to me.
