My husband and I are checking out a local place today. My hope is that someone there can REALLY help us find the right mattress for how we sleep. I am, however, nervous because this place does not offer any returns or exhanges.
Also, how do you get rid of your old mattress if they don’t remove it? Will trash haulers take them?
Trash haulers/waste removers will normally take a mattress for an additional fee.
However, i would think a reputable retailer would provide that service as part of the buying process. Personally I would look elsewhere. No return policy and wont’ remove the old mattress? More than likely will tell you anything just to get you to buy something. After all, what do they care. You won’t be coming back either way.
Hi DarlingPetunia,
Welcome to the Mattress Forum! 
Hopefully you’ve taken the time to read the mattress shopping tutorial here which includes all the basic information, steps, and guidelines that can help you make the best possible choice … and perhaps more importantly know how and why to avoid the worst ones. Also, make sure that you find out information listed here so you can compare the quality of the materials and components of any mattress you are considering.
While nothing has a 100% success rate … with a local purchase for the majority of people … careful testing using the guidelines in the tutorial rather than just testing for the more subjective “comfort” of a mattress (which often won’t predict how well you will sleep on a mattress or how it will “feel” when you sleep on it at home) and some good guidance from a knowledgeable and experienced retailer or manufacturer will usually result in a mattress choice that is well inside a suitable comfort/support range and will generally be “close enough” so that if any fine tuning is necessary it would be relatively minor and involve different mattress pads, sheets, mattress protectors, or perhaps even a topper if a mattress is too firm (see post #4 here and post #10 here).
One of the advantages of trying mattresses locally is that you can try many different types and styles and combinations of materials and components and firmness levels and compare them to each other in “real time” based on your actual experience rather than just “theory” instead of trying one online mattress at a time and not knowing how it compares to the other mattresses that you could have tried or purchased instead.
Some good local testing will also give you a much better sense of the many different types of materials and components that are used in mattresses and some reference points about the types of mattresses (see this article) and general firmness levels you tend to prefer which can help you narrow down your choices regardless of whether you end up purchasing locally or online.
If a comparable value is available locally that you can test in person, then this is the “safest” way to go and an “expert” can help you better in person than over the phone when they can see how you respond to a mattress with their actual eyes and hear your feedback in real time. Many local manufacturers and some more specialized retail stores may also offer greater levels of customization in terms of both different layer thicknesses and firmness levels as well and provide great after sales service. Because there can be more uncertainty and risk with an online purchase and because the personal attention that is available locally is certainly worth a reasonable premium … if the price difference between a local choice and an online choice of a similar mattress is in the range of 20% or so I would treat them as roughly equal value because of the “value” of some of the benefits that can come from dealing with a local business.
Most local trash companies accept a mattress, although they usually prefer a phone call beforehand to let them know of an “oversized” item. Some may want you to put the item out on a different day when they have a separate team pick up these odd items. My local trash does not charge for these items, yours may. So just phone them.
One thing to note. If you live in California, Rhode Island or Connecticut, there are some new mattress recycling laws in place, and you may have to dispose of your product in a specific manner. There is more information about the Mattress Recycling Council here.
I’m interested in learning about your shopping experience and any decisions you make.
Phoenix
Hi Aimless1,
I appreciate your input, but I have to admit I don’t share quite that degree of cynicism nor necessarily agree with this viewpoint.
There are many retailers who don’t offer delivery, set up or removal, and this in no way is a reflection upon the level of their knowledge, quality of product, or service/concern for their clients. It’s a common business model used when a retailer is attempting to keep their overhead as low as possible, and quite often reflecting that in the lower prices that they are able to offer their clients.
Regarding the ability to return a product, as you can see in my reply in post #3 in this thread, I personally would place less of an importance on the ability to return and exchange a product when I was able to try it out in person with the help of knowledgeable and experienced local retailer or manufacturer. It’s also important to note that the inclusion of a mattress exchange plan is an extra fixed expense that a retailer passes along to every consumer, with the “many” effectively subsidizing the “few” who will return a product.
With that being said, one’s own personal value equation is paramount and there’s nothing wrong if delivery, set up, removal, and the ability to exchange are very high on someone’s list of priorities. Some people don’t have the ability to dispose of an old mattress (or donate it), and others know that they have a difficult time finding a mattress and are closer to the “Princess and the Pea” in that spectrum, so the ability to return/exchange would be very important to them. While these items might be high on their list of priorities, I would remind them to make sure that they don’t supplant the guidelines outlined in the mattress shopping tutorial, but are instead in addition to those guidelines.
Businesses survive not only upon their quality of products, but their reputation. There certainly are stories of businesses offering poor service and still surviving, or opening and closing stores every few years to get away from their own poor operating practices, but those situations aren’t the norm and generally an unprofitable way of conducting business. That is one area where reviews can be valuable and offer some insight into how a business conducts itself. But such a broad brush viewpoint wouldn’t be accurate of the majority of businesses out there (at least not if they want to stay in business :cheer: ).
Phoenix
Well, we have a new mattress coming!
We went to Magic Sleeper in Pottstown. The woman helping us asked about how we sleep (both prefer sleeping on stomach) and said what I had guessed: we need a firmer mattress,
Everything there is marked with a number: 1 being the firmest, 10 being the squishiest. The first one we tried was a 3, and it was okay, but we both said, “Show us a 1.” She took us to the “Forever Firm” which is one of the locally made, Amish ones, and we climbed in, thinking it was going to be an uncomfortable rock. Well, I immediately said, “I actually like it,” and surprisingly, my husband, who usually likes a slightly softer feel, liked it as well. I should add that we wanted an innerspring mattress that could be flipped.
After that, we tried a slightly plusher one and didn’t like it, and then we tried a tufted one that was still very firm. I liked the tufted one (especially because there was very little bouncing when my husband got in) but it was getting out of our price range. The woman spoke with my husband about the specs on the Amish one, and he liked what he heard regarding the wire gauge, etc. I have to admit I wasn’t listening. It just seems like a good, basic bed that is well-made and will hold up, so we bought it.
Hi DarlingPetunia,
Congratulations on your new mattress! :cheer: If my memory serves me, the Forever Firm uses Talalay latex and a very heavy-duty spring unit. There are no lower quality materials in that mattress.
As you probably know Magic Sleeper is one of the members of this site which means that I think highly of them and that I believe they compete well with the best in the industry in terms of their quality, value, service, knowledge, and transparency.
I’m looking forward to your feedback once you’ve had your mattress at home and have been able to try it out for a while.
Phoenix