You know who they are. They have websites dedicated to telling you which mattress to buy. The create interesting video reviews of online mattresses and many of those companies give them nice rewards for their reviews. Only one problem though. They are just a few years older then your teenage son. How can you, in clearn conscience, take advise from someone who got their drivers license a few years ago? My answer is simple. You don’t. You come here to the mattress underground and pour over the vast amount of research and documentation that Phoenix has made available to all of us. That’s why I love that this website exists. Sure, I know some of those reviews go a long way to provide exposure to some new retailers and I understand the importance. However, as I continue to do my research I have found one thing that rings true for me. I’d much rather hear how and why someone here picked a mattress that they’re sleeping on and if it worked out for them. I’d rather watch a video of someone on youtube that is not offering a discount coupon during their testimonial. That sort of blows the point of the whole review to me because it’s an indicator that this person who is giving the review will get something in return for that referral. I’d rather see a review from someone because they love their mattress so much they just want to shout it from the rooftops! Does this make sense?
Anyway, I’m sorry if this post offends anyone and i hope it doesn’t break any rules. I intentionally left names off because I don’t feel a need to single any one company out. You know who they are. And, if you follow any of these mattress companies like Company X, or Company Y you probably see them mentioning a great review they got from this so-called expert. I just find this all very curious. Like I’m having a bad dream and every time I wake there’s as 25 year old bedding expert telling me how great company X or company Y is.
Again, my apologies if this breaks any rules. If it’s inappropriate please delete it. I won’t be offended. I just needed to get this off my chest tonight.
Thanks Phoenix. I was actually starting to worry that I might offend someone but I had a few additional comments to add.
First is this. I probably wouldn’t have been motivated to create this post if these guys/gals weren’t all in their twenties. Heck, I have socks older then these folks. Now, give me these same people twenty years from now when they’ve earned a few battle scars and I would be more open to listening to what they have to say. Although, as you, Phoenix, have said so articulately, only our bodies can really tell us what works.
Two, If my son does a review of the mattress I buy for him in a few months, it will only be because he loves it. Not because he’s an expert or because he’s receiving any compensation from the company we purchased his mattress from.
I saw a review the other day for a mattress and it was one of the most honest reviews I had seen. It was on facebook and the bed owner had made a mistake with his first mattress that he called Crapva (rhymes with) He probably made this mistake from listening to one of those experts on youtube. Then he did his hopework. Possibly from information he gathered here and he made a great choice the second time. Therefore, it made his review honest and truthful.
Thumbs up! While age isn’t necessarily exclusive of knowledge, you are correct tin pointing out the lack of objectivity of those sites. They are de facto marketing arms for the products they review, with some of these companies hiring writers to attempt to control the online dialogue about their products and create articles that purport to be objective reviews or science, when in fact they are paid editorials endorsing their own product. Let the buyer beware.
I second Jeff’s “Thumbs Up” on this topic. The industry is full of marketing savvy (and now green-washing too). That’s why TMU is of such importance to educate folks about the quality of what’s inside that mattress, who’s behind making it as well as proven durability and comfort. This is NOT the place to come if you’d rather buy a mattress with a catchy headline and cool people laying on beds (or should I say cool little rectangle boxes). LOL
I discovered that there is a new site with “experts” on the web now. I don’t have a link to the website but it appears to be slightly more honest. However, even though the website is supposedly run by people of different ages we never see those people. Instead, they are represented by colorful, cartoon like avatars that are created to represent the age and shape of the so-called expert. What this says to me is that this website is probably run by two or three twenty somethings that want to appear as more seasoned so theyv’e created all of these alter-egos. This way the 60 year old couple may be relatable to someone who is 60 or 50. It’s a very interesting blog but it didn’t fool me as soon as I saw the avatars I knew there were probably just two people running the site.
Just found a link. Take a look at tell me if you don’t feel there’s something fishy going on?
I will say this in Mattressis’ defense. it is quite possible that i may have been a bit too harsh with them especially after reading this post. However, I still say there are probably only two people behind the curtain.
Mdgail1. Wish I read your post many years ago! We were much younger, and fell for the good line this the Best Mattress from a Store, we only went to one, huge mistake! Had to exchange and they gave us something I could never ever sleep on, neither were good Mattresses, they gave us no choice on exchange,! To be able to get any Sleep at all, we had to get 3"Latex Mattress Toppers for 2 Beds. At the time it hit our pocket hard, but so needed!
Our Son has learned as well . as the 3 other’s grown Children, and some friends and family learned about Mattresses. And Toppers! I am so so Thankful we found This Forum and Phoenix, now I know so much more I can share.
Thankfully there is so much more professional advice like reading here, and good Companies that truly stand behind their products.
Phoenix has opened a positive Forum, with the most quality and qualified advice we all need when buying several brands of great Mattresses’s, Latex Toppers, Talalay Toppers, Comfort Foam Toppers, Latex Pillows, Latex Covers , tips on almost everything we need. This is a Touch of Perfection for each of us and all the Companies here too!
I would not fear following Phoenix advice ever! That says it all, Integrity, Trust and Honesty.
Phoenix deserves a Great Reward
Bunny, we all learn from our mistakes. LIke you, I’m thankful for this forum. The sheer content alone is enough to give anyone a strong base. Yet Phoenix is always around to answer our endless loop of repeat questions and it makes the whole process of deciding much easier.
I think that one of the most unfortunate parts of using many of the new so called “expert review sites” (that seem to me to be more “opportunistic” than anything else) as a reliable source of guidance for choosing a mattress is that you will find that there will be many people that have a similar body type and sleeping style to one of the reviewers that recommends a mattress that won’t sleep well at all on the same mattress. Conversely there are also many people that are sleeping very well on mattresses that one of the reviewers that has a similar body type and sleeping style doesn’t recommend at all that would have avoided the mattress they chose if they had listened to a reviewer.
I would be very cautious about any site (whether they have one or many reviewers) that claims that they have some kind of crystal ball that can predict how any individual person will sleep on a mattress with any certainty or that encourages people to choose a mattress based on mostly subjective reviews or “ratings” that may not reflect their own sleeping experience. These types of sites are generally designed to take advantage of consumers lack of knowledge as a means to earn an income and do very little to educate consumers about “how” to choose a suitable mattress.
In most cases they also say little to nothing about the quality and durability of the materials which are also one of the most important parts of the “value” of a mattress purchase and their “ratings” are mostly subjective and provide very little in the way of more “objective” criteria.
They also tend to focus on online choices and completely neglect the large majority of consumers that will buy their mattress locally (which is probably about 90% of mattress purchases in the industry) and some of the best quality and value mattresses in the industry are made by local or regional manufacturers that are sold either factory direct or through better sleep shops across the country.
I also can’t help but notice that the large majority of the mattresses that are being “reviewed” by these so called “expert sites” are online choices that provide referral fees in exchange for reviews and there is very little information about the majority of mattress manufacturers or retailers that don’t provide referral fees in exchange for reviews.
I also wonder how many free mattresses they have been offered or opportunities to earn referral fees they have actually turned down
The pic in this link is priceless. I almost wonder if it is BrooklynBedding/DreamFoam’s factory. (To be honest, I almost hope it is, as there’s worse manufacturers than them that could be making these mattresses.)
Anyway, in fairness, Phoenix has already said that only a few of them actually have their own factory, so this shouldn’t be news to us.
In this case it isn’t Brooklyn Bedding but a particular foam fabricator which makes “cut and sew” mattresses and which are fairly common manufacturers of many of the “simplified choice” mattresses.
@mdgail1 & @Phoenix. - Love the site. I just wanted to comment back on review based sites. We were frustrated by them as well which is why we started mattressis. We do not accept beds for free and the offers we post are the same as you’d find on the actual bedding websites themselves. Our reviews are not typical. We do actually have an opinion and some of them are less than savory. We believe in having more than one perspective…as much like Phoenix has posted…it is impossible for one person to tell you whether or not your going to enjoy a bed. Their body is probably not similar to your body…and the wear and tear they put on their muscles and joints could be very different than what your currently putting on yours. We just try to give a perspective from multiple body types / points of view…and hope consumers find it helpful.
mdgail1 - Our site hasn’t been fully rolled out. It is still very very very new. We added photo’s of ourselves under the “Meet The Experts” tab. Do not laugh at them…most are from our fantasy football draft. We have an incredible illustrator here and thought the cartoon theme of the site would be putting their skills to use. (I assure you…we are much older than your teenage son…even through most of us probably wish we weren’t)
Thanks again for blazing the trail in mattress research Phoenix.
Thanks for taking the time to add your comments on the forum … I appreciate it.
If you intend to be taken seriously with your project by the more knowledgeable and experienced parts of the industry I would probably re-think some of the pages of your site (such as the mattress battles) which turns your site into more of a game than a reliable source of information. Some of the reasons that one mattress “wins” a round over another one are completely meaningless (such as adding any weight to a trial period that is one day longer than another just for the sake of choosing a “winner” for the round) but the problem is that consumers that don’t know any better may take the “game” you are playing in that part of your site or the ratings or “winners” that derive from them much more seriously than they should.
I would also avoid using “ratings” which are meaningless (either from any individual reviewer or especially taken as an “average”) so that consumers don’t fall prey to the idea that a mattress “rating” done by someone else that they may perceive as knowing more than they do will have any real relevance to them.
I would also take the time to learn a little more about the different materials that are in the mattresses you are reviewing and also to learn about the pros and cons of different types of mattress designs and different types of foam materials because some of your comments I read yesterday about some of the foam materials in the mattresses you are reviewing that you appeared to know little about and some of the comments about how certain combinations of materials (such as having memory foam underneath latex) somehow “cancel out” the benefits of each really don’t make any sense.
As your site currently stands … and like many of the other “professional review sites” which I see as being very similar (outside of the number of reviewers) … you are probably doing more of a disservice to consumers than you are helping them IMO by trying to be a “mattress picker” for the sake of referral fees more than a mattress “educator”.
Anyone that has been in the industry for a while will understand that even if body types and sleeping styles are similar that the same mattress may not be the best “match” for two people that “appear” to be similar because of all the unknowns and variables that can be involved with choosing a mattress and the underlying premise behind “recommending” specific mattresses for specific people is basically flawed.
Thanks for clarifying. It is quite refreshing to see a response from you as I found myself going back and forth on the see saw. On one side I saw a few things that made me feel verys skeptical. On the other I saw a review of a mattress company that is the darling of the memory foam mattresses and you basically trashed it. That wasn’t something new to me because I have done my homework like most on this site. And I know you didn’t do it to be mean either. You were simply being honest.
Phoneix your so wise and so truthful and knowledgable! One must be cautious and all need to follow our own feelings about Dunlop Latex, Talalay Latex, Toppers & Complete Mattresses and your research as to what you have shared with us is extremely well! And your 100% right, lean on the side the will be best for you, not exactly what others might experience. We are all different!
And dbgail1 lets both agree to those Ten Thumbs up for Phoenix’s Wisdom!
Phoenix again! Thank you for always thinking deeply with everyone’s insight on what their prefererences are! Good Guidance is what makes you so intelligent, your mind is open and always thinking wisely.
Bunny
Just to bring some of the recent comments in this topic up to date … mattressis.com has now been taken down which is great to see because of the very questionable legitimacy and ethics of the people behind the site and some of the very misleading information that it contained.
