Terrible experience with Select Foam

[phoenix]

Hi JeffR,

I appreciate your feedback but there are a number of things that you mentioned that are incorrect so I thought I’d make a few comments to clarify some of the issues you raised in your post.

[quote]When I was placing my order I saw that I was unable to choose the size foundation I wanted to go with the bed. I assumed they would naturally match the correct foundation size with the bed size, but I called them just to confirm. I was told that they would definitely match the sizes and that the bed would be shipped in three days.

What I was not told was that the bed would come in pieces, with the foundation being sent in three days, the metal frame sent a few days later, and the mattress itself sent almost two weeks after the order had been placed.[/quote]

Their mattresses are made to order and their normal waiting period is 10 working days (about 2 weeks) so they normally send out the foundation and frame faster because these don’t need to be made first. Most people don’t seem to mind because both the foundation and frame are fairly compact and can be easily stored until the mattress is delivered.

The foundation was sent in wooden pieces that you had to construct yourself. The included instruction page had been hastily copied and the image on the paper was at a large slant that looked very sloppy. While assembling it I realized that it was designed with wooden slats to hold up the bed instead of a flat surface. Since memory foam contours to the surfaces it is placed on, having a “ribbed” foundation like this is incorrect for the bed and compromises its sleep quality. This is why quality brands provide foundations with flat surfaces over any slats for memory foam mattresses.

This actually isn’t correct from several points of view. A memory foam mattress uses polyfoam in the support layers (not memory foam) which is a firmer and stiffer type of foam. A slatted non flexing foundation is actually preferable to a solid surface foundation because a mattress needs to breathe to help with moisture retention and reduce the risk of dust mites, mold, and mildew. There is more about the pros and cons of a slatted vs a solid surface foundation in post #10 here and if you do a google search on Tempurpedic mold you will see the results that can happen in some cases with a solid surface foundation.

Your foundation is what is called a KD (Knock Down) foundation and the reason that online companies use them is because a normal foundation can’t be shipped through courier and would require common carrier which would add a significant amount to the cost of your purchase.

The foundation you have is perfectly suitable for any memory foam mattress.

[quote]That was not the worst part though. Despite confirming the size over the phone, they still sent me the incorrect size. I ordered a queen size bed and was sent a king size foundation that juts out over the side by a about a foot and a half.

When I called the next day, I was told that they would not take back the foundation or do anything to resolve it until the 30 days had passed.

I’m not sure what I’ll do with such a large foundation for a bed size I don’t even own, but apparently that is my problem and not theirs.[/quote]

This is also not correct and I think there has been some misunderstanding here. If they ship you a foundation that is the wrong size then they will replace it immediately and there is no 30 day wait. I called them to confirm this.

As for the bed itself, it is far below the quality of Tempurpedic or Serta models which Select Foam has compared itself to. The memory foam barely contours to your body, and as a result the bed is far more similar to a normal midgrade spring mattress. At the price I paid the quality was simply not there, and the difference compared to the Rhapsody Breeze and even my wife’s off-name memory foam bed showed this bed to be vastly inferior. With those brands, from the second you lie down there is no question you are sleeping on a memory foam bed. I would not have known the select foam bed was even memory foam if it hadn’t been for the name.

You are confusing the quality of the materials with “comfort” here. In fact … the quality of the materials they use are the same or higher quality (foam density) than both Tempurpedic and Serta … especially the Serta.

Comfort or “feel” though is a completely different issue from the quality of the materials. All new mattresses will go through an initial break in period where the foams will soften and the cover materials will stretch and lose their initial stiffness. You will also go through an adjustment period with any new mattress. There is more about this and some suggestions that may be helpful in post #2 here. The break in and adjustment period is the reason that most companies don’t accept returns until the mattress has had a chance to break in and you have gone through the initial adjustment period because how any mattress (including Tempurpedic) feels when it is new will be different from how it feels in a month.

If you still aren’t happy with the mattress after 30 days then of course you have their free return policy as your backup which is one of the best return policies in the industry. It’s never a good idea to assess a mattress after only a few days sleeping on it but of course you may not have been aware of some of the differences between a floor model that has already been broken in and a brand new mattress.

So overall you certainly have a mattress that uses the same or higher quality materials than the mattresses you were comparing them to and a suitable foundation so outside of sending you the wrong size foundation (which should be corrected quickly) the only remaining issue you have are “comfort” issues and if the mattress still isn’t what you hoped for after 30 days then you have the option to return it.

Phoenix