Shorted on memory foam height?

Phoenix,

First, a HUGE thank you to you for this site and your expertise. I used this site extensively when researching different beds and vendors.

I’ll make a long story short: I ordered a rather expensive (nearly $2K) king sized memory foam mattress from one of the vendors you recommend. I won’t name them right now because I don’t want to disparage them. The mattress seems good so far and we are adjusting to it. However, I think they shorted me on my memory foam. I measured it when I first got it and noticed it was short but I also knew that I needed to give it time to fully expand. Well, here I am 4 days later and it is still coming up short.

I measured the layers with great care. I was especially careful not to compress the layers while I was measuring:

The mattress is supposed to be 12" in total. → It is very clearly 11"

There is supposed to be a 1.5" comfort layer. → It is only 1"

There is supposed to be a 2.5" comfort layer beneath that. → It is only 2"

It looks like they shorted me a solid inch on the two most important layers. What do you think? Have you seen this issue before? Is there maybe a special method of measuring the layers that I am unaware of? Please help.

Hi pascali,

It’s not unusual with foam materials for a mattress to have a variance by about an inch in a finished mattress but this would not be the norm with thickness as it would be width or length. It would also depend on how you measured because if the layers are enclosed and compressed with the cover they may be different on the edges than they are in the middle of the mattress (which of course you can’t measure through the mattress).

If you carefully measured the actual foam layers when they were out of the mattress and they were clearly thinner throughout (not just in one place which may not have fully expanded) and it was clearly unaffected by anything else then it wouldn’t be a matter of the cover compressing the layers and in this case it would be unusual to have two separate layers that were each 1/2" out of spec and I would question it.

What did they say when you talked with them about this?

Phoenix

Phoenix,

Thanks for the reply. I should have clarified: I unzipped the cover and peeled back the corner by about 2 feet so that I could measure the thickness of just the bare foam.

I just measured again- this time I peeled the cover almost half way off and measured dead-center at the foot of the bed- it is not compressed at all. I am still getting 1" for the top layer (should be 1.5") and I get just shy of 2.25" for the middle layer. I have attached pictures so you can see. All told: there is about 3 and 1/8" of memory foam when there should be 4".

I have not called the company, yet. I wanted to get your perspective before I called them with something like this. I will call them tomorrow and get back to you with what they say. I am very curious myself. This is 3/4 memory foam I paid for. :huh:

Hi pasacali,

I’m interested in what they say as well.

Phoenix

Phoenix,

I have an update and I need some guidance.

I finally heard back from the vendor regarding my missing foam and I think it’s time you know who it is: TEMPORARILY REDACTED

Here is what REDACTED said to me by phone regarding the missing foam:

The support layer (which is supposed to me 2.5" but is shy of 2.25") is about right. He was basically saying that it is within tolerance and that was that for the support layer. The comfort layer (which is supposed to be 1.5" but is exactly 1") is another story: The manufacturer was “having a hard time finding it” and they can “only get it in 1” and 2" thicknesses." He went on to tell me that 2" is too thick and probably uncomfortable. Additionally, he said they are changing their website to reflect the change from 1.5" to 1" of foam in the mattress.

The rep went on to tell me that the most important thing is for the mattress to feel good and to not worry about it. I told him that I agree that comfort is more important than foam thicknesses but that I bought the mattress based on the specs online and that I paid for the mattress knowing that the value was in the thickness of the top two layers- the ones that are short.

The rep did not make any overtures to offer me a discount or credit or anything. Additionally, this company will pay to have the mattress shipped back to them but I was told I need to go to Home Depot to pick up an enormous box. I can’t imagine that will be cheap and I don’t think it’s fair for them to misrepresent a product, have me find out about independently, bring to their attention politely and then have me foot ANY of the cost in getting it back to them.

What do you think Phoenix? I am really not feeling good about this and I am starting to worry that this will be an uphill battle.

EDIT: I’ve decided to edit my post to not name the manufacturer publicly, yet. I want to give them a chance to make this right, first. I’ve sent you a PM with their name, Phoenix.

Phoenix - Will we have the opportunity to learn the name of this company? Thank you

I really want to publish their name because I think that would be extremely beneficial for other users of this forum. I actually feel bad for not saying who it is. I feel like I am doing a disservice to you all by not saying who they are.

The stark truth: I am afraid that if I publish their name they will figure out who I am (they sometimes contribute to this forum) and refuse to help me.

Totally understand and very thoughtful of you to explain. I was just about to order online and your post is really making me think twice.

Of course, I am curious (and concerned) about who the company is. Think the company would recognize you via your mattress forum name?

Keep us apprised and good luck.

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

Phoenix,

I am so thankful for you taking your time to type all that out. It was a very level-headed reply and I like the perspective you’ve offered. I am still waiting to hear back from them and I’ll update when I do hear from them.

I have a different opinion on one aspect: I believe that the publishing of accurate specs is very important and we (shoppers) should be able to rely on those written descriptions to be 100% accurate. I don’t think that it is too much trouble to keep your product specs updated and, even if it is troublesome, it needs to be done for the customers’ sake. I have a website- you have one, too, obviously- and it’s not that hard to make changes. I’m a small business owner, I have a web guy who does the heavy lifting for me but I can make minor changes to my site within minutes. Certainly if there were a material change to my product/service specs, I would make that change right away so that customers don’t purchase something they will never receive.

When we shop online for a product that we cannot examine physically, we only really have 3 ways of “experiencing” the product: pictures, written descriptions, and reviews. The written description, for me, is the most important aspect. It tells me the specs of what I’m buying. I compare the specs of the different items I am considering buying and try to arrive at the best solution to my own value equation. When a vendor isn’t selling the same product as they are advertising- it undermines any work and research the consumer has done to select that product. To then ask that customer whether or not the product fulfills their expectations is immaterial to the fact that they didn’t get what they paid for.

To make two very clunky comparisons:

  1. I pay for a dozen roses and receive 10. The flower shop tells me, “We changed the specs. But 10 is just as beautiful as 12. You are really going to love the quality and beauty of our flowers.”

  2. I pay for a V8 engine and pop the hood to find a V6. The dealership says, “We changed the specs. But this V6 is great. It’s fast and powerful and you’ll love it.”

Maybe the flowers are beautiful and maybe that V6 is a great engine. The fact remains: I didn’t receive what I paid for.

At the same time, I understand that we are talking about layers of foam and that the most important aspect is, really, whether I am comfortable and like the mattress. So far, I do and I would prefer to keep it and not hassle with returning it and buying a new mattress.

But there is a really good chance that I wouldn’t have purchased this mattress if I had known it was only going to be 3" instead of 4". I was trying to get a mattress with at least 4" of memory foam based on what I had read online. I had actually canceled an order with Amerisleep to place this new order because of what I read here and because I was going to get 4" of better foam with the new order.

I am going to be reasonable about this but I do not feel good about what I see as a misrepresentation of product specs- unintentional, though it may be.

Very, very, very well-put, Pasacali. I hope the company will do right by you and that you can publish their name and cite their exemplary customer service and problem resolution.

Good luck and stay the course!

Hi pasacali,

Just to be clear … none of what follows is about your circumstances or actions because I believe that the approach you are taking is unusually balanced and reasonable and your complaint is justified.

It’s about the industry in general and the culture and environment of the internet combined with the tendency of people in general (not specifically) to pass on responsibility or “blame” for their decisions and actions to others. This is an ongoing topic of discussion I have had with some very good manufacturers across the country who face some difficult challenges doing business in more transparent ways in today’s environment and culture where consumers not only don’t have access to good information … they often don’t want it and prefer to have others make their choices for them.

I think that we are very much on the same page as far as the importance of meaningful and accurate specs when you are buying a mattress. After all it’s one of the fundamental premises of this site and one of the biggest reasons I started it so I am probably a bigger advocate of not only disclosing accurate and meaningful specs but also helping consumers to understand what they mean than anyone. Even on this forum though … the most common questions are often from consumers that would prefer that I or someone else make their choices for them instead of being given the tools to make them for themselves.

Unfortunately … the mattress industry as a whole is very unusual and the vast majority of mattress purchases are completely blind purchases. In most cases, even if meaningful specs were disclosed … the large majority of consumers have no idea what they mean anyway and may not even care. The sad fact is that in today’s market … consumers mostly prefer to be “told and sold” more than they like to be educated and responsible for their own decisions. This can be a very dangerous market for retailers and manufacturers who choose to educate instead of “sell” because they can quickly become the target of a backlash by people who are empowered by the internet and prefer to hold others responsible for what they buy. They will often tend to react emotionally and in many cases unreasonably with blame and anger when they make poor or ill considered choices. In other words they don’t want to learn foresight and then in hindsight they can become unreasonable. They tend to believe that their choices and the lack of research that led to them is someone else’s “fault” and often look to criticize everything they can down to the smallest detail to justify their main complaint instead of taking a more balanced and thoughtful approach (such as yours). In the internet world … this type of consumer can do a lot of harm to good manufacturers and in many cases their behavior is worse than anything done by the business they are complaining about in the first place. This type of criticism can also become “viral” because there are so many others that are ready to do the same thing and will start their own version of the blame game at the slightest provocation.

This lack of self responsibility goes along with the many pressures that major manufacturers and the market as a whole can bring to bear on smaller companies because consumers don’t hold them to account and continue buying their mattresses (based on stories that they continue to believe) so the pressures on a better manufacturer comes from both consumers that don’t want to learn, be educated, or be responsible for their choices and from the market itself where stories sell more easily than facts and the pressure to follow suit can be very strong.

I would guess that well over 90% of mattresses are sold to people who have no idea of the quality or value of what they just purchased and in effect have purchased an expensive story. I don’t know of another industry where meaningful information is less likely to be available or where consumers are more likely to buy something where they have no idea of its quality. This includes all the parts of the industry that dominate market share such as the chain stores locally and regionally, the big box stores locally and online, and all the major online retailers. Most of what they sell are larger brands that refuse to disclose what is in their mattresses in terms of quality so that marketing stories can replace factual information. This has been the case for so long that consumers have reached the point where they believe that marketing information or the comfort of a mattress is an indication of its quality or value. All you have to do is read the tens of thousands of glowing reviews (or negative ones) where people have no idea of what they are really reviewing … and then others use these reviews to make their own choices and the cycles repeat.

So this is the context and background of the industry that I look at and that this site is designed to help change. I completely agree in other words on the importance of accurate information (and I have done my share of overwhelming people with factual information) … but I also know that this is far from the norm in the industry and that better more transparent manufacturers face an uphill battle if they want to eat and provide for their family. Even this only touches part of the story of the pressures they are facing.

This is why when mistakes happen it doesn’t diminish the fact that accurate information is necessary and important or that buying decisions were based on information that was clearly not correct … but it does change the context of these types of mistakes and situations so that the few who do tend to provide more meaningful information and are able to help educate consumers about what they mean are recognized as bucking the trend and don’t get caught in a catch 22 where they are criticized more than the retailers that don’t provide any meaningful information at all or will say anything for the sake of a sale and can’t be “fact checked” so they are “safe”.

Even though they certainly do make mistakes … and some more than others … as I mentioned they are still head and shoulders above the rest of the industry and hopefully they will be given a chance to fairly correct what they have done wrong without being “harmed” by consumers that just lump them in with “the rest of the industry” and don’t realize that in today’s world … a single consumer that is determined to cause harm to a good business for emotional reasons they believe are justified can have a disproportionate effect on someone’s livelihood.

So none of my commentary was to diminish the fact that there was a mistake in the listing which affected your buying decision regardless of whether it was major or minor. This means that some recourse is also necessary which would hopefully include correcting the listing first of all so that others aren’t making the same decisions based on the same information. I think it would also be reasonable to include offering some kind of solution or compensation to consumers where the incorrect information was a large part of why they made the purchase they did in comparison to other mattresses in the first place.

My goal is always to encourage a balance between consumer advocacy (and in my eyes the customer is not always right) and the importance of good retailers and manufacturers that are often unduly criticized by consumers that don’t choose to be responsible for their choices and who then try to make sure that nobody else buys from a manufacturer or retailer that they are “mad at” simply because it makes them feel better about their own choices and actions.

It s a strange market … but this is the current state of affairs and the reason I defend the manufacturers I do when people make posts here that aren’t reasonable or balanced and only look to criticize instead of “recognize”. In your case of course your complaint is legitimate and not unreasonable at all but it can also become the trigger for others that aren’t as reasonable or balanced as you are to follow your lead and post criticisms that are based on their own choices instead of mistakes by the manufacturer.

So overall … thank you for taking the approach you have … and I wish that more would follow your example.

Phoenix

Phoenix,

I appreciate you taking the time to respond so thoroughly. The “customer service” from you at this website is outstanding. Thank you!!

I agree with most of what you’ve said. I am a small business owner, myself, and I know how detrimental negative press can be. I have no interest in harming anyone’s business. And there is certainly no benefit in that for me.

More importantly, here is the latest update: I received a call from one of the owners, yesterday, and we spoke for nearly 1/2 hour. He was quite candid about working with the local manufacturer and hitting some hiccups over the last few months. He pretty much offered any solution I wanted including: a large discount on the mattress I have, an offer to send my mattress back at no cost to me, and an offer to ship my mattress back and buy a different model at a large discount.

I think he was incredibly generous in both taking 30 minutes of his time on a weekend to give me far more information than I’d even asked for, and in the offers that he made to make me feel better. I am going to get back to him later this week with what we’ve decided.

Hi pasacali,

I’m looking forward to hearing about what you end up deciding and the resolution for the “missing foam”.

Thanks for keeping us up to date :slight_smile:

Phoenix