Was looking for a gel foam mattress on Ebay and found a site that advertised what looked like a good buy to me.
Am I being foolish by dealing with sites listed on Ebay?
I was looking at the 'Boyd Gelrest 13" mattress on a site called âwhypaymoreâ.
Has anyone ever dealt with this outfit? Is that mattress anything like the Amazon Dream mattress?
Hi garyd8,
A mattress is only as good as the construction and quality of the materials inside it and without knowing this there is no way to make a meaningful comparison with other mattresses. The Boyd site lists some of the specs of this mattress here (the 1" layer of 7 lb memory foam and the 1" layer of 5 lb memory foam but doesnât disclose the quality/density of the gel memory foam or the polyfoam base layer). Their listing is also incorrect because the mattress is 12" thick not 13". The design is also too different from any of the Dreamfoam mattresses to make any meaningful comparisons in terms of how it may feel and the only clear similarity is that they are both in the memory foam mattress category.
I would also want to confirm that they were an authorized dealer for Boyd and that the mattresses they were selling were new and not any kind of returns, âscratch and dentâ, or had any other indication that they are not brand new from the factory and made recently.
In addition to all of this ⌠you also would need to know whether the mattress was suitable for your specific needs and preferences in terms of PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and Personal preferences) which means you would either need to test it in person (following the guidelines in post #1 here) or have a more detailed phone conversation with the retailer or manufacturer so they can give you some guidance about the suitability of the mattress. I would NEVER deal with a retailer or manufacturer that I couldnât talk with in person on the phone or if didnât have any information about who I was really buying from or their experience and knowledge about mattresses and materials. There are too many opportunists that will sell you anything they can regardless of whether it may be suitable for you or not. If a mattress isnât suitable for your specific needs and preferences ⌠then no matter what the quality or value it would have little value to you.
Finally there is always risk in an online purchase that you canât test in person ⌠especially with sites like ebay ⌠both in terms of the accuracy or specifics of the listing, and in terms of any recourse you have if you make the wrong choice for a mattress so the return policy and any costs involved would be an important part of your personal value equation with any online purchase. If the mattress isnât suitable then returning it would involve paying for the original shipping costs to you and the return shipping costs which together may be more than you paid for the mattress (you would have to return it with truck freight which is very costly)
Normally I would consider mattress retailers of this type that are involved in what I call a ârace to the bottomâ and sell based on price alone (with little regard to quality, value, or suitability and where you have no way of knowing who you are really dealing with) as being âbuyer bewareâ and I personally wouldnât consider them unless there was a particularly compelling reason to take that kind of risk. A mattress is one of the most important purchases you will make over the next decade or so in terms of its affect on your overall well being and you will have to live with the results of your decision for many years to come.
Phoenix