Like Berkeley but would like a comfort guarantee

[phoenix]

Hi TomP,

Welcome to the Mattress Forum!

After reading a lot of great material on this web site we visited an Urban Natural store in NJ where we tested three Berkeley beds; the Astor triple coil, the Madison interactive coil and the Bedford all latex. The Astor triple coil was our favorite by far. We did not like the Bedford all latex at all.

I’m glad you were able to use the material here to help inform you as you begin your mattress shopping quest. As you’re already aware, Urban Natural is a site member here, which means that I think highly of them. And I also thinking highly of Berkeley Ergonomics.

Our concern is that Berkeley does not provide any comfort guarantee. You have 30 days to return the mattress and must pay a 35% restocking fee (restocking is an ominous expression, do they resell them).

Berkeley is not an online-specific retailer, and as such any return/exchange policies would be the decision of the brick and mortar store selling those items. Some retailers may offer to customize (if it’s possible) a mattress within a timeframe after a purchase (usually with a fee), others may allow for a return (also usually with a fee), and others may not offer a return policy at all. Charging a percentage for the return of a product is a manner that a retailer can attempt to recoup some of their cost instead of passing this along as a surcharge added into the price of every mattress they sell, where everyone essentially ends up subsidizing the very few who might return a product. Knowing Urban Natural as I do, I would not believe at all that they would be reselling used items. I’m not sure if they donate these or offer them to resellers who resell used items or if they have a return/clearance warehouse for returned items, of it they simply dispose of the item. You’d have to inquire with them about that.

Return/exchange policies are built in to the cost of a mattress and consumers that don’t return or exchange a mattress are the ones that pay for the ones that do. There is more information about return and exchange policies in post #25 here and in post #3 here ). While they aren’t as important with a local mattress purchase that you can test in person … with an online purchase they can certainly lower the risk of buying a mattress that may not turn out as well as you hoped for and a return/exchange policy can certainly be an important part of the “value” of an online purchase and each person’s personal value equation .

We see many other manufacturers such as Flobed (Goldilocks Guarantee) provide money back guarantees but we didn’t like the Berkeley all latex so I suspect we will not be very fond of a Flobed.

An all-latex mattress will certainly have a different feel as compared to something with multiple micro-coil units, but unless you were comparing the exact same Talalay latex layers from the same foam pourer with the same ILDs and the same covering, an all-latex mattress from another manufacturer will have a different feel from what you tested in person, but the feels can still be in the same “ballpark”.

[quote]
Is anyone aware of another manufacturer that makes a combination of triple coil with natural latex that would be similar to the Berkeley Astor in comfort and quality but also provides a money back guarantee
[/quote].
The Berkeley Ergonomics design of the mattress you’re considering is quite unique, and off the top of my head I’m not aware of another manufacturer that produces the exact same style of product. European Sleep Works makes some similar products. Spink & Edgar does something with multiple microcoils on top, but different toppings. You can look at the Naturepedic EOS. You may wish to contact a few of the online retailers listed in post #21 here to see if they would be able to configure a custom product like you desire. There may be more knowledgeable members who can come up with other options for you as well faster than I can.

There is more information in post #9 here about the different ways that one mattress can “match” or “approximate” another one. Every layer and component in a mattress (including the cover and any quilting materials) will affect the feel and performance of every other layer and component and the mattress “as a whole” so unless you are able to find another mattress that uses exactly the same type of materials, components, cover and quilting, layer thicknesses, layer firmnesses, and overall design (which would be fairly unlikely) then there really isn’t a reliable way to match one mattress to another one in terms of “comfort”, firmness, and PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and your Personal preferences) based on the specifications of the mattresses (even assuming that you can find out all the specifications you would need for both mattresses you are comparing in the first place).

Phoenix