Hi BillC,
I had an interesting experience with them a couple of days ago. They come up from time to time in various areas where they have a store and I’ve listed them as a “possibility” in various lists (which like all possibilities I list in the forum is subject to the ability to confirm what is in their mattresses) so I thought I’d see if I could find out a little more about what was in their mattresses.
For their memory foam mattresses … they don’t list the density of the polyfoam base layers and since their memory foam is made in China I also wanted to check if it was made by one of the Chinese foam pourers that was Certipur certified (you can see my criteria for memory foam mattresses here) and I would make sure that you have also read post #6 here about mattresses that are imported from China. There are also a lot of Chinese memory foams that use cheap filler to achieve foam densities that make it look like they are better quality than they are. Without this information about any mattress like this I would pass them by. For their Naturally Bob’s latex hybrid … I wanted to find out the density of the polyfoam base layer and also find out the type and blend of the latex they use (which determines the quality/value of the latex). Once again … without this information I would also pass them by.
So I called a store to find out. They had absolutely no idea about any of my questions although I did talk for about 20 minutes with one salesperson who was interested enough to ask me a lot of questions and ended up being amazed at how little he knew (to his credit he wanted to know more about mattresses). He said he had never been taught any of this “stuff” about mattresses and all they know to do is to tell customers just to pick the most comfortable mattress and then they can exchange it if they don’t like it with the comfort exchange option they offer. Of course this would not be an option after 60 days so if the mattress used low quality materials and took longer than 60 days to soften too much this would have no value and like all warranties … foam softening and the loss of comfort and support that goes with it isn’t covered. He suggested I call head office to find the answers to my questions which I did.
Well when I reached their head office it turned out that they only have an accounting department and a bills receivable department and there is not a single person there that knows a single thing about the mattresses they sell. All they do is refer all customer service calls to a store. I was amazed and she repeatedly said the same thing and didn’t have a clue who I could talk to outside of a store. So I asked if she knew a store that may be able to answer my questions and she connected me to a store that may be able to help.
Of course this store also knew nothing about what was in their mattresses and after a short discussion (with a friendly enough salesperson) they also suggested I call head office. When I told them I already had he gave me a different number. I called this number and reached the same switchboard person (much to my frustration) and once again it was explained to me that nobody there knew anything about their mattresses. When I asked who the salespeople would talk to if they had a question they couldn’t answer she said repeatedly “I don’t know” but with no desire to find out. I was transferred back to another store with the same result and realized that this was just part of the culture and that the odds are very low that I would connect with anyone who knew anything meaningful about their mattresses. In the last call of several to their head office I asked specifically and pointedly if she could find out from someone … anyone … who their store salespeople would talk to if they had a question about their mattresses. She put me on hold for about 15 minutes and then the phone disconnected. Needless to say I gave up.
I guess the moral of this story is that I wouldn’t consider buying anything from them unless you are able to find out the information that I couldn’t so you can make a meaningful assessment of their mattresses and their quality/value. I will also link this post to any of the lists where they appear in the hopes that one of their stores has a salesperson who knows something about their mattresses.
Phoenix