I am in need of help. After tossing a 30+yr old mattress that had been causing me great pain, I went in search of a new mattress. I looked around some of my mattress shops in town and was trying to decide between pillow-top or a foam mattress. After shopping for two days with a toddler (mind you I only made it to a few stores), I was debating between 1 pillow top, temperpedic cloud, or the i-comfort. Went in to sleepys to compare prices and ended up being talked out of my ideas and was persuaded to buy the Dr. Bruese Monagram Gold (plush). After paying and going home I felt like I had made the wrong choice but decided to try it out. The mattress came the next morning and felt nothing like the store model. It is hard as a rock and sleeps “hot”!!
The mattress was sold to me as a natural latex mattress, when in fact it is 75% polyurethane foam and 25% unnamed latex. I am extremely disappointed after spending $1998 w tax (way more than i ever intended to spend) on a mattress that is definitely not worth it. I am taking the mattress back and am going to argue their exchange fee and that the next mattress has to be the same price or higher. Do you have any suggestions of a mattress that is supportive yet soft? Or the best way to approach the return? I am 5ft 9in around 140lbs with I a good bit of back pain and it takes me hours to fall asleep.
I am grateful for finding your website, if you are able to give any advice it would be greatly appreciated. on a side note they were also trying to sell the comfor-pedic plush, is that mattress durable and how does it compare to others that Sleepys might offer. I highly doubt I can get them to refund my money so I could shop online or local (though I will try).
Hi TD … and welcome
I can certainly sympathize with your circumstances and I have seen so many others who have been completely mislead about the Dr Breus mattress … especially by Sleepy’s. I believe what they are doing is completely unethical when they call this a “latex” mattress. They even have the nerve to list it under latex mattresses on their site when as you mentioned it is mostly polyfoam. This is an example of one of the biggest reasons I developed this site to help people avoid these traps.
The Dr Breus mattresses and the places that sell them are among the worst offenders in terms of “selling stories” rather than being open about the materials they use. There is nothing particularly special about the materials in this mattress and these materials are available to any mattress manufacturer (Celsion latex which is the “phase change latex” they use and the ticking which uses one of many newer materials which helps with heat regulation). The stories they are selling are unfortunately designed to completely mislead people (and extract way too much money from their bank account) and I have heard way too many stories about the sales people there making claims that are completely unfounded and can be proven to be wrong by looking at the law tag. The “truth” and outlets like these are not friends 
.
I personally believe that their claims (and what their salespeople are taught to say about them) are so bad that I would approach them on this basis and do everything I could to get a refund. I would take a firm but adamant approach and go as high up as you need to to “correct” their misrepresentation … including letting them know that you are not adverse to speaking your mind on forums like this one, complaining to the BBB,or approaching other consumer advocacy sites or state consumer protection agencies. My goal would be to be clear that giving you what you want (a refund) would be far less costly than “trapping you” into buying another mattress with poor value. Their “exchange policy” is unfortunately just as big a trap as there is not a single mattress that they sell which I believe has good value. The best mattress they sell IMO is Pure Latex Bliss (which I like in terms of its quality) however even here it is possible to purchase a similar mattress with functionally the same construction and same materials from a local manufacturer or online for significantly less. The PLB Pamper with a 6" firm latex core and an inch of 19 ILD soft latex over it is $1799 in queen and but would likely require a 2" or 3" topper to be a good “fit” for most people. Of course I would purchase a latex topper elsewhere for the best value. The Nutrition (queen) with 10" of talalay latex is $2429.
The Simmons comforpedic plush has 2" of 3.5lb memory foam (low quality) over 1" of 5.5lb memory foam (high quality) over 1/2" of slow recovery latex (likely nuform from latex international which you can read about here) which is too thin to be meaningful, over a polyfoam support core. IMO it has poor value as there are much better memory foam mattresses in this price range or lower that use higher quality memory foam.
The best value at Sleepy’s may be this “all foam mattress” which might provide a firm base which could be used under a high quality topper purchased elsewhere but even here they don’t give the specs of the polyfoam so it’s impossible to tell how suitable it would be for a base.
Overall I believe you would be much better served by Sleepys giving you a refund.
If you let me know your normal sleeping positions I can give you some general guidelines that may help you and if you are able to get a refund as an “exception” for goodwill … if you let me know the city you live in I may know of some high quality factory direct manufacturers or better retail outlets that are near you.
Good luck
Phoenix
Just a side note–I’ve been doing a lot of research as I’m on the point of buying a Dr Breus from Sleepys. The internet is full of people saying they were really misled. Our sales guy, however, was CRYSTAL clear that latex was only a component of the mattress, and used the fact that it was layered of different materials as a selling point. Plus, the documentation provided by the manufacturer and easily available to flip through also makes it pretty clear…I know there are shady sales people out there but I’m glad we dodged that bullet. And it seems like a certain common sense level of research before such a big person would also have gone a long way towards preventing this nightmare of a situation.
I know this isn’t helpful to your case, but I wanted to combat some of the very negative stuff about Sleepys and this bed out there: my experience was that we had an intelligent, thoughtful, very un-pushy salesperson who educated us correctly on the nature of the mattress at hand. Good luck with your exchange!
Hi Jennetj,
It’s certainly nice to see that there are employees at some of the “mass market” outlets who are more open about the materials inside the mattress. I doubt though that they would have shared with you the actual layer by layer construction of the mattress and the materials in it and it seems that you may also be purchasing a mattress based on misleading marketing stories rather than the actual materials of the mattress itself.
If they did show you this … then the layers of inferior materials in the Dr Breus mattress would be quite obvious (such as low density polyurethane) and these could not in any way have a “benefit” story attached to them that they were somehow an advantage. The selling points/stories of the Dr Breus are based on some of the materials in the mattress (such as Celsion “phase change” latex or temperature regulating tickings) that any manufacturer can put inside their mattress as the supplier of these materials will sell the same materials to any manufacturer.
Sleepy’s as a store will have good and poor sales people … but either way they are limited to passing on what they are told and “taught” and have to function inside a corporate culture which is very different, less service oriented, and less knowledgeable than most smaller sleep shops and independent manufacturers.
If you were told the layer by layer construction of the Dr Breus mattress and then compared it to other mattresses that used the same or better quality materials and type of layering … you would quickly recognize that the best price you will receive is much higher than a similar purchase made through many or even most independent manufacturers.
IBC itself is a “top 10” national manufacturer doing over 100 million a year in business and if they want to grow their business and market share through their business model … they need to convince the owners of the mass market retail outlets of the profit margin on their mattresses and the effectiveness of the marketing stories they provide. The stories that they attach to their mattress are just a side effect of the need to maintain profit margin and what the manufacturers call “differentiation”. They are not intended to hold up to close scrutiny or meaningful comparisons.
This is not to say that the Dr Breus is a “bad” mattress … only that it is significantly overpriced based on the materials that are in it and that “in general” it is being sold through misleading stories … including that inferior materials are somehow a “benefit” when you purchase this mattress. There are far higher quality mattresses … that have the same or better benefits as the Dr Breus (as are shown here and here) available for a much lower price.
A quick look at the law tag will confirm the amount of polyurethane and latex in the mattress (and this is by weight not layer thickness which would make it even worse). While polyurethane (“soy based” or otherwise) is appropriate in a “budget” mattress … it is the cheapest of all mattress materials in the grade that is used in these mattresses … and in no way justifies their price. This is a marketing story used to justify a higher profit margin and using an endorsement of a “sleeping expert” who is using his name to “expand his profits” and clearly seems to know (or care) little about mattress materials and construction … and even less about mattress value. Note too that the warranty exclusion on the entire Dr Breus line is 1.5" impression … indicative of low quality materials used in the comfort layers of these mattresses.
I understand that you are appreciative of a “better” salespersons efforts and that the use of lower quality materials doesn’t mean that the mattress can’t be very comfortable in the store or for some time after … but any close look at the “facts” of its construction will show that these are mattresses that only look like good value when they are compared to other national brands that use the same lower quality materials and stories and are just as overpriced.
I’m glad that you found a mattress that you liked … however I’m also sad that these types of materials and stories and the advertising that is attached to them still dominate the market and that consumers in general are so unaware of the choices they really have when buying a mattress.
Phoenix