Mattress Scams And Industry Tricks: A 25 Year Bedding Industry Manufacturer Explains How To Avoid Them
Without knowing it, you’re probably up against a variety of mattress scams either from online stores, or in mattress showrooms. While not all mattress retailers are trying to pull a fast one, there are some common mattress scams that online stores and retail showrooms have used for years.
I know. I was in the bedding industry as an executive for 25 years. I worked my way up the food chain from sales person then designer, then and owner and CEO of one of the first and largest e-commerce bed in a box retailers. I’m going to tip you off ahead of time, because I guarantee you, that even before you get started shopping, you’re already being scammed.
Remember one thing. The mattress industry is steeped in old school values and traditions, and the sales techniques used today are no different than they were decades ago.
Dishonest companies fall by the way side, prices are FAR more competitive, quality is very important, because no manufacturer or retailers want crappy reviews, and things like trial periods, faster delivery times, and easy returns if you hate your new mattress, are easier and more efficient.
I’m going to lay out the basics and preface everything by telling you the biggest secret of all. Whether you are in a brick and mortar retail store, or shopping online for a bed, always ask for a better deal. If you ask, you can get additional discounts or freebies like sheets, pillows, mattress protectors, or more.
If you are shopping online, get in a chat and ask for daily specials to help close your sale. If you are in a retail store, press the sales person, respectfully of course, to do better. Consumers generally expect a mattress sales representative to have 10 qualities in them to help close a sale and make them comfortable with their purchase and have no remorse afterwards.
I would cut deals routinely for any customer that ever walked into my retail stores or chatted with my team online. EVERYONE got something extra.
Want to cut to the chase and see the best options for great mattress deals, right now? Visit our Trusted Dealer page, and get a bed at a fair price, hand selected by Marc Anderson, an industry veteran with 25 years of mattress design and industry experience: a mattress maker and creator, not a digital marketing nerd who’s part of the manufacturer and review site conspiracy.
That isn’t to say you can’t find the mattress that you want and also get a good price. But your chances of getting both the right mattress for you at a great price will go up drastically if you come armed with the rarely revealed information from this page.
On this page we will lay out the 5 Common Mattress Scams that you’ll come across when shopping.
Take my advice- being an educated consumer will elevate you to an equal playing field with even the most seasoned hovering mattress sales guy around.
Whether you are online or in a mattress store, remember that employees generally have vast knowledge about their product, and while they want to sell you a mattress, they are also there to educate you- so be nice.
To get started, we will focus on what I think is the biggest mattress scam that is worth being aware of. Fake reviews, or highly impartial reviews, may be limiting your awareness of other brands or mattress types. Let’s take a look!
1. Mattress Review Sites Are Often Owned By Mattress Companies
There is a vast selection of really great mattress available online, especially since the bed in a box perfected the process of engineering and shipping a bed that will simply re-inflate itself once it arrives at its destination. In fact, there are over 250 online retailers all competing aggressively for your business.
As the industry grew in the last five years, so did the online mattress review industry, critical in driving traffic to the retail sites. Within a few years, starting in 2016, when well funded online mattress companies disrupted the industry by claiming they had invented the “bed in a box” concept, mattress review sites who receive affiliate commissions began to prosper. I mean, really prosper.
Huge commissions are paid by the mattress retailers to these review sites when a customer clicks on a buy button and a purchase is made. Some of these commissions- for one mattress- can be as high as $300!
Soon, mattress retailers began to buy up review sites, or fund them, and while they tried to keep it all under the table, much of it became mainstream news when court cases such as the case involving Casper and a review site called “Sleepopolis”. At the time, Sleepopolis tried to maintain its true third party integrity, but Casper sued claiming that Sleepopolis’ failure to rank their mattress higher than other brands was costing them millions in sales.
Many review sites are actually heavily influenced or owned by the big retailers, offering reviews that are biased and not truly “third party” or authoritative in nature. In fact, the reviews themselves are typically written by content writers, software engineers, or influencers with zero industry experience or manufacturing knowledge.
Here is a link to our page which provides a list of mattress review sites either directly influenced or owned by the very mattress companies they promote.
This web site, as an aside, is owned and managed by an industry pioneer with 25 years of industry experience designing, building, testing, and inventing state of the art mattress products. You can visit Marc Anderson’s LInkedIn.Com page to view his credentials and background.
2. Brands Often Change Mattress Model Names To Confuse You
I love this one. This is a classic maneuver employed by most mattress manufacturers and retailers. This has been going on for decades, and is a basic way mattress retailers try to keep customers from comparison shopping. It involves many brands purchasing mattresses from a single source, but simply installing different logos, trim, and outer coverings to make them appear unique or proprietary.
Here’s the deal – while all mattresses of a particular name brand manufacturer are usually made at the same factory that other companies use to manufacture their mattresses, the factory will put different names on the exact same mattress that is going to different retailers.
That way, if you shop for a mattress with a particular dealer, you will find that you can’t comparison shop the same mattress (by name) with another dealer. So, even though the other dealer will have the exact same mattress, they will have it with another name (and perhaps a different outside cover as well, to better throw you off).
This little trick protects each retailer and also allows them to try to sell you on their own “personalized” line as somehow better than the identical mattress from their competitors. Since it has a different name, the consumer usually has no idea.
In fact, manufacturers will create exclusive names and slap a label or sew the name of the model right on to the top of the mattress so it appears as if it were totally different than an identical mattress sold up the street, either for a few dollars more or less.
The first thing to remember is to simply forget about the outside of the mattress, and try to make an educated purchase based on the internal components of the mattress, the return policy, the warranty, and third party reviews found online.
Another trick of the trade which can frustrate the heck out of you is the tendency for brands to make up or create complex and appetizing names for the ingredients, or layers, inside their mattresses.
3. The Mystery Components Scam
With competition so fierce, especially on e-commerce sites, companies that use almost identical materials in their beds are doing anything they can to differentiate their product from the competition.
One popular company, as an example, markets a polyurethane foam line of mattresses, and recently added to their one mattress lineup by creating their so-called “Mint” mattress, and uses a green colorant in one layer of their foam to give it a unique look, and to enhance the fact that the material is different as well.
Other companies have had to employ creative design and marketing techniques to stretch the use of polyurethane foam, which is fairly ubiquitous in the industry, and really doesn’t vary much in feel or comfort or support. It’s also so damn cheap, you wouldn’t believe it. The markup on foam beds is extraordinary.
It’s the primary ingredient used in 98% of the most popular brands of bed in a box foam mattresses, including Casper, Tuft&Needle, Nectar, and many others.
It can be dyed, cut into waves, made softer or firmer, and is considered the chameleon component of the bedding world. Not really much of a scam, but it is stretching the reality and limitation of materials that you can use to create only so many models and designs.
Be aware that when you are shopping for foam mattresses, virtually all of the material that can be used to create a comfortable bed, is essentially identical.
It might be infused with charcoal and colored grey, or it may have a unique pattern molded into the material, but when it boils down to it, it’s all the same, petroleum based, extruded foam.
The bottom line is, if you are buying a mattress and have no idea what is inside of the bed, and you really aren’t that concerned about it, and are really just interested in the overall comfort and durability of the mattress, just make sure you get a decent trial period and a solid 10 year warranty out of the deal.
With a foam bed, I always suggest making sure one of the layers is latex, if at all possible. If you need pressure relief, look for memory foam that is at least 4lb density, instead of the inferior and less reliable 2 lb or 3lb density material.
So now that you are a bit up to speed about the brand name scam, and are aware that across the board, the recipe is pretty much the same regardless of the cake, you can relax a bit, and figure you are going to spend about $800 for a queen, or $1,000 for a king mattress, from a company that has lots of third party reviews, a high BBB rating, and a strong web presence.
With innersprings and digital air bed mattresses, you do your research, and you know to look for a particular coil count, check out the layers of good quality foam or maybe even latex or memory foam.
You quickly learn to buy 4 lb. memory foam vs. 3lb, if you are shopping for a memory foam mattress, and to buy natural latex vs synthetic, if you are considering a latex bed. If you understand a few basic technical details, you come in strong to the game.
Ask a question like, “so what’s the density on the base layer of foam on the bottom of this model?”, and you OWN the sales person. Deals and extras are going to start dropping out of the sky, and if you are online, you’re gonna get deals, especially if you are looking for more high-end models say above $1,000 for a queen.
Read through our page on mattress types, to learn about the options available to you, the materials used, and how each kind of bed can help you. We get seriously into the details regarding components and what to look for, as well as red flags, tricks, and douchebaggery.
You can read more about the individual components to look for in many specialty mattresses simply be reviewing the other pages on this site which focus on the most popular types of specialty mattresses.
I say do not do business with any mattress company less than 10 years old, simply because you want them to be around long enough to insure they can handle a warranty or return issue.
So, you quickly find yourself drowning in a bunch of mattress mumbo jumbo. For example, if you ask about the foam used in a mattress, you may be told that the foam is “medical” grade – whatever that means. Be wary of terms like “therapeutic” and “recommended by chiropractors”, since this typically involves simply paying a fee to get the practitioner to parrot whatever the mattress company wants them to say.
Or, you could be told that it is their special, proprietary “super soft cell” foam. As opposed to their “super hard cell” foam, that no one else on earth can sell you. And, it just goes on and on. If it sounds like something you could have made up just as easily, it’s probably total nonsense.
It’s often difficult to get a straight answer out of a typical mattress salesman to basic questions that might allow you to compare one mattress’ ingredients to another. When I asked a salesman about the density of the foam used in their memory foam pillow-top mattress, for example, he looked at me like a deer caught in headlights. After 15 minutes of him looking in the mattress retailers “selling tips” notebook, and calling their main office, he finally told me he’d “have to get back to me on that”.
Being unable to get the basic specs on a mattress’ innards just makes comparison shopping about impossible. But even if you somehow can pry the information out of them, you run into the next hurdle…
4. The “Comfort” Layer Scam
If you are lucky enough to get the details on a mattress’ construction, the next step would be to lie down on some mattresses to see which one might be comfortable for you. But, again the mattress industry is ahead of you – unfortunately, for many mattresses, the feel and comfort of the mattress in the store just isn’t what you can expect on that particular mattress in your own home.
This seems to make no sense – why would a mattress feel different in the store than in your own home? Here’s the inside scoop:
What you need to realize is that you can only tell so much about a mattress in the showroom – and that the feel of the mattress at home may be very different. This means that it really is vitally important to be able to try the mattress in your own home, in your own bedroom’s environment, to really know if the mattress will work for you or not.
Since it may take a bit of time for the different layers to break in, you need to be able try it out for a period of time – it can take a month or even two for some of the denser core foam layers to really break in. But that isn’t a problem, right? The retailer always has a “money back guarantee”. That is where they get you with the next one…
5. The Money Back Guarantee Scam
So, what you thought was your perfect mattress suddenly is no longer comfortable after two weeks. You can take it back to the retailer and get your money back – right? If only it were so. In most cases, what you will find instead is that the dealer will let you exchange the mattress for another of equal value. You may have to pay delivery charges all over again or you might get a store credit if no other mattress suits your taste.
But in many cases, you will not get your money refunded to you. It has just been one of the bedrock principles that the mattress industry has been built on – there should be no money back trials on a mattress. For most dealers, the idea of a money back guarantee is almost physically painful. What would they do with the mattresses that came back? It is best not to get them back- and avoid the whole thing. And that, for the most part, is what they do – a money back guarantee is simply something most retailers don’t offer.
More and more though, this is beginning to change due to fierce internet competition, so make absolutely sure you can take advantage of a return process of some kind.
So ask upfront – can I get my money back if I don’t like the mattress? If there is a chance that they would offer this, ask if they would have any fees they might take out such as a restocking fee, or any requirements about the mattress such as it has to be in new re-sellable condition, which in reality means they will never take it back (since a dealer can’t legally re-sell a used mattress).
Bottom line – you really need to watch your back on this one. I’ve talked with lots of people that ended up eating the cost of their mattress, and sometimes more than one, when their new, expensive mattress ended up being uncomfortable.
When you get a new mattress home, use a mattress protector, in the event you need to return it, so it stays in pristine condition, with no scuff marks, stains, or other signs of use or wear.
Have a delivery crew bring and set it up for you if you buy locally so that the store and its delivery crew will be held responsible for any damage or mishandling.
GETTING TO “THE CORE” OF THE PROBLEM
In my research, I was surprised to find out that the fastest growing segment of the mattress industry in the last 10 years has been what it termed the “specialty mattress” segment. What is this? The specialty mattress term encompasses the latest technologies in the bedding industry: memory foam mattresses, latex mattresses, gel foam, hybrid mattresses, and digital air beds.
While these specialty mattresses do differ greatly from each other in both construction and what types of sleep issues they may work best for, they share one common bond. Unlike the innerspring mattresses, they are comfortable at their cores, that is, from the bottom up.
That is to say, while you wouldn’t find it comfortable at all to sleep on just a bed of steel springs, sleeping on a mattress just made of foam, latex, or air is astonishingly comfortable.
The foundation, or bottom section, of these new generation specialty beds just offers a huge improvement in comfort over steel springs, and so this comfortable core means that you can add highly specialized materials on top of them to create unique mattresses that truly offer variety and durability, since many of these foams are made using more advanced materials designed to resist packing down and rutting.
That isn’t to say all memory foam mattresses, latex mattresses, hybrid beds, and air beds are alike. These different groups of specialty mattresses offer a wide array of comfort levels, designed to appeal to a broader market.
And with an aging population showing much more wear and tear with back and neck problems, and just the effects of gravity over time, more buyers are willing to be more adventurous, and trade up their traditional innerspring mattress for something more high tech, using newer, more beneficial ingredients.
Memory foam is still one of the hottest segments in the mattress industry today, even though it’s been around now for a good 25 years, and for good reason. The unique way that memory foam cells spread pressure and conform to your body make memory foam beds a good match for those with sleep problems, pain issues, or those looking for a mattress that custom molds to their shape.
Memory foam mattresses can be very comfortable, but there are huge variations in the feel of different manufacturers’ memory foams. And the quality of memory foams used in mattresses vary dramatically as well.
Nowadays, you will likely find memory foam infused with gel foams to help with heat dispersion and to provide a spongier, softer feel that helps with pressure points, as well as other unique materials that make these mattresses sleep less hot, and last much longer.
Natural Latex mattresses are a great alternative for those looking for a livelier, more supportive and more responsive surface, that doesn’t have that highly body conforming feel that memory foam tends to have.
Further, they are also a terrific choice for those looking for an environmentally safe mattress, since a natural latex mattress is made using strictly plant based materials and no volatile organic compounds.
To my surprise, I learned that not all latex mattresses are the same. It is a little told fact that most latex mattresses actually are made of a combination of real latex (made from the white fluid collected from the bark of the rubber tree) and artificial latex (made from petro-chemicals). But, you can buy purely natural latex mattresses from several respectable online stores, and in some brick and mortar stores.
I never got a great answer to why many latex beds are made of this blend of artificial and natural latex. The best I came away with was that this is just how it has mainly been done because of cost. It is much cheaper to make a synthetic latex blend.
But I found the natural latex to be much more comfortable, and as long as you are paying for latex, you might as well get the real deal. Of course, if you are wanting the environmental benefits of sleeping on latex you will want to make sure that what you are looking at is made from all-natural latex.
If you think latex might be the solution for you, please check out our Trusted Dealer page where we offer only a handful of latex mattresses out hundreds sold online.
You need to ask for natural latex, usually sold in the form of Dunlop latex, although hybrid versions of synthetic and natural latex can be comfortable, durable and long lasting.
If you think latex might be the solution for you, please check out our Latex Mattress Review Page where we offer only 6 outstanding latex beds carefully vetted out of hundreds of options sold online.
Finally, air beds are a nice option for those who want to be able to adjust the firmness of their mattress to their own unique preferences. Make sure you get an air bed with a dual chamber if you sleep with a partner – this will allow you to each individually adjust the firmness of your own side.
Like all other mattresses, there are lots of ins and outs of buying an air bed. One thing that I came away with was that, if possible, to get an air bed that has a top layer of memory foam or the pure latex.
A good quality air bed will likely have more than one layer of different foams on top of the air chambers below. In most digital air bed systems, the pressure can be controlled within the air chambers to make the underlying support of the bed feel softer or firmer on either side.
These beds are great for couples who prefer different degrees of softness or firmness, and they can sleep on the same bed, while customizing each side.
The air chamber is the support layer – the core of the bed. Think of it this way – the air chamber replaces the springs. So you can tweak the air chamber to be fairly firm and supportive, or softer and cushier.
This is why additional comfort layers, like memory foam, latex, or other softer or firmer layers, can make an air bed much more adaptable and versatile. It lets you use the air chambers as the support layer, and the memory foam, latex, and other foam layers provide the cushioning and comfort for the mattress.
Unfortunately, it can be very expensive to get an air bed with these comfort layers, especially the big name brands who have a lot of overhead to support. But there are smaller boutique size companies that custom build them at much lower prices. They also back their air beds up with a money back guarantee, so you won’t get burned.