There are some rather polarizing reviews about the business practices of Select Foam. I am hoping that someone could lend some insight to the credability of this company. I know that they are a member to the website, but there seems to be some communication issues from them. I sent them an email asking a couple questions and they never responded. Their website has sales and offers that do not show up in your cart when you put an item in for checkout.
Are these problems made more visible by the “vocal minority”, or are these valid concerns from other forum viewers?
As you know … Select Foam is a member of this site which means that I think very highly of them in terms of their quality, value and service. They are certainly not perfect but I pay more attention to what a manufacturer does about any issues they are facing than on the issues themselves. I have had many conversations with Matt and the other key people at Select Foam and they are the first to admit that they have had some issues but I am also impressed at the directions they are taking (and have already taken in most cases) to resolve them. Relative to the volume they do … the number of issues they have had are small and relatively minor with one exception in the case of a manufacturer that was making one of their mattresses that changed the specs without letting them know and which unfortunately is now a matter of litigation.
I don’t know of any issues they have had where a phone call wouldn’t resolve it (vs email) and I don’t recommend communicating with any manufacturer through email anyway unless a simple one sentence or “black and white” answer is enough and there are no “it depends” in the answer. Of course many people prefer email anyway but typically this is the slowest form of communication when you are dealing with smaller manufacturers that don’t have whole “departments” to talk to customers and where written communications are usually much slower than verbal conversations.
As far as their “sales” … I tend to agree with you that “perpetual sales” that change in details but not really in substance can be confusing and I personally would prefer that each manufacturer had a base price without the marketing added but this is part of the business plan and choices of each manufacturer. The other side of this same coin is that there are so many chain stores and online merchants that offer ongoing “discounts” that if consumers don’t see this type of promotion they will often believe they are overpaying and it can cost a business sales. It’s always a fine line and has as much to do with consumer perception (or mis-perception) and the current state of the industry as anything else.
I just went to their site and added one of their mattresses to the cart and it did show the current discount and it also indicates that customers have the choice between a bedding bundle or free financing. Of course the discount for The Mattress Underground is not listed on their site and this would have to be done outside of their online system on a phone call or email
Which of their current offers wasn’t showing up in your cart?
In any case … in spite of some of their feedback … I think there are far too few high quality manufacturers with the integrity and the desire to improve on any mistakes they make and based on the many conversations I have had with them (including about some of the issues they have had) I continue to think highly of them and the underlying integrity of the people behind them. In the end they will do right by their customers IMO and there is no doubt of the quality and value of their mattresses.
Of course each person always needs to decide for themselves what they are most comfortable with and which of the many options they have available best fits their “personal value equation”.