Hi pasacali,
I have no issues first of all with you mentioning names and I sincerely doubt that it will (and certainly shouldn’t and wouldn’t in my experience) make a difference in how they treat you (or if anything it would be a positive difference) or in what they would do or not do for you. I think though that as you read the rest of this that they will probably appreciate that for now you kept the name to yourself so others don’t immediately rush to judgement or start condemning them about a relatively minor issue that they may be happy to correct but having said that … it may also be a good idea to let others know who they are so that they can take things into account in their own decisions.
These kinds of things though can easily and often do get blown out of all proportion on the internet where it’s so easy to believe or pass on the worst about anything or anyone and “negative” criticism often takes on a momentum and life of its own where it’s easier to criticize someone or something that has already been criticized or to turn relatively minor issues into major ones. This is a phenomenon that I have seen often. In this case … they are a reputable business run by people who have made some mistakes (more than I would like to see) but are still head and shoulders above most of the industry. It would be silly and quite frankly against their own self interest and they would be shooting themselves in the foot to seek some kind of retribution against a customer saying they were unhappy if the reason is legitimate. This would be particularly true if they are a member of this site and if anything it will help them improve. It may also motivate them to go through their website to correct any other instances of incorrect descriptions that may be there.
In any case … here are some thoughts including what I would probably do in various scenarios …
First of all … my perspective is a little different from most people because I have a larger view of the industry and from my own experience it’s not unusual at all for manufacturers to make relatively minor changes to their specs or designs from time to time for various reasons ranging from improving the feel or quality of the mattress or finding better ways that are more cost effective to achieve the same thing (for example they could change the foam in their mattress to another manufacturer and find that they need to make relatively minor changes to reach the same “feel”). These changes are often not reflected on their website or it may take some time for the website to show them. Even inaccurate information for other reasons is relatively common.
Of course I’m not condoning this but it’s the reality of the industry and I see it often even with good manufacturers. These are manufacturers who are already much more open and transparent about their specs than the vast majority of the industry but they often don’t have the resources or time to change their website each time changes are made or sometimes these types of details get lost in the shuffle because they consider them to be a relatively minor issue which is lower on the priority list and can easily get forgotten. While it’s not the same thing … I have had examples of things I have written on the site that are clearly incorrect that I didn’t catch till someone mentioned them months or in some cases years after they were originally written and that I didn’t even know were there until someone pointed them out (and I was surprised that nobody had noticed earlier)…
Don’t forget the concept of even looking at or disclosing specs to the level of detail that this site encourages is something new in the industry and most manufacturers are not used to being exposed to the level of scrutiny that the members here can put them under. I have seen many other similar examples throughout the industry with smaller manufacturers where changes have taken months or longer to appear on their website. Sometimes holding a manufacturer to public account for something they are already doing better than most of the industry and which may also have other ramifications with past customers who may use something as a precedent to “demand” that they too receive some benefit that someone else received can cause unintended harm. This can turn a relatively minor mistake into something which has much bigger ramifications which can affect them much more that a larger manufacturer with more resources. In effect they are being penalized for doing things better than most but not reaching 100% or 90%. This can be particularly discouraging for manufacturers who could lose their incentive to put accurate specs on their website at all (which in today’s market where blind purchases are the norm probably wouldn’t affect their sales much at all because consumers as a whole don’t pay much attention and most don’t understand them in any case) or just include “fuzzy” specs where changes wouldn’t matter which is all the majority of the industry does anyway. It can be somewhat like penalizing a child for doing better than most but getting a B+ or a B when you believe that only an A is good enough.
Having said that … you do have a .5" discrepancy in your mattress (the other one would reasonably be within tolerance) which is not a major thing but it is also different from what you thought you had purchased. So what would be reasonable in this case?
What I would personally do would depend on how I felt about the mattress which would affect how I would approach it. My goal (from my own perspective) would be to correct the issue in a way that left everyone satisfied and didn’t cause “harm” to a good manufacturer that has made their share of mistakes but is working to improve them over time.
If I was happy with the mattress and it was just a matter of the missing .5" (which would make little difference in the “value” of the mattress because an extra .5" of memory foam is not a significant part of the cost of the mattress) … then I would call them and tell them that you are happy with the mattress but you are also unhappy with the missing foam and it has left a bad taste in your mouth because the specs were a significant part of your decision in the first place. I would ask them specifically what they thought would be a reasonable way to make up for their mistake in the listing. If they suggest a solution that seems reasonable to you either in terms of some small compensation or a product that would be useful to you along with a correction in the listing … then the problem would be solved.
If on the other hand you are not happy with the mattress and you genuinely believe that you would have made a different choice if you knew ahead of time that one of the layers (and to a small degree the other one) was “short” … then things become more complicated because it can be tough to separate “what you would have done” from the motivations that come from “what you now want to do” and this can then become an issue about what really is the “right” thing to do . These types of questions can be difficult to answer when the “normal” tendency in many cases (this is not about you but about what the majority of people usually do) which is to choose the option that has the most self benefit and then justify it by circumstances regardless of any harm it causes. Almost every manufacturer I know has stories of this type of thing that has caused them harm (in some cases fairly serious harm) because a customer didn’t understand the reality of the industry, treated something relatively minor as being bigger than it was, was unreasonable in their “demands”, or treated them as a faceless corporation instead of real people that owned a business and wanted to be “fair” but not unreasonable.
In this case though (where you would be returning the mattress) … I think it would be reasonable for a relatively minor issue to ask them to do what it takes to provide the means that a return would cost you nothing such as including a reasonable cost for a box or plastic to wrap the mattress for the return trip (or any out of pocket expenses for whatever they instruct you to do) in the amount they refund you.
Regardless of which of these options you decided was best for you (keeping the mattress or returning it) … I would personally feel it was important to let people know that they “did the right thing” (assuming they do) because anyone can make a mistake or any customer can buy a mattress that ends up not matching their needs or preferences but if a company does the right thing and corrects any mistakes they made or provides a reasonable solution to these kinds of issues … then I think it’s important to let others know that at least they “fix” what they have done wrong in a way that you are happy with so their reputation can be enhanced through how they dealt with the circumstances or mistakes instead of causing harm to a manufacturer that offers good quality and value products (when there are few enough of these as it is) but hasn’t yet developed all the support systems that match the quality of their products.
So I guess it would be fair to say that with the overall perspective of the industry that I have and my knowledge of the people involved … I am a bit more tolerant than many others may be that may have a little narrower view … even though the complaint itself is certainly warranted.
Of course there are limits to my tolerance as well and they may be stretching it a little more than I would like to see but the fact remains that they have very good quality and value products and there are not enough of these in the industry as a whole.
I hope you have been in contact with them (or will be in contact with them) so they have a chance to correct this and that you will also let us know the outcome and hopefully how it was resolved.
Phoenix