Bed Recommendations

[KronoRed]

I got a sleep number almost 3 years ago. The first 3 weeks were heaven, but I have hated it ever since then. I just cant seem to find my "ideal" number, or it changes too often or something. Seems like it dips to the middle also.

This has been my experience as well.

[Roy Tucker]

Context-sensitive ads have this thread nailed.

[FlightRick]

Three years ago -- also due to a declining lower back -- I bit the bullet and upgraded my mattress. I also took about 3 weeks to do it, starting with reading a crapton of often contradictory "hints and tips," and then making multiple rounds of several stores to uncover the specific specs of all the mattresses I was considering. It wound up being worth it.

The reasons it was such a pain is because the first thing you learn is: you can't go into one store, shop the "Snooze-i-nator 5000 by Serta" and then go to a second store and shop the same mattress. The industry are a bunch of damned sneaky sons of motherless goats, who evade federal collusion and price-fixing laws by supplying a "different" mattress to every retailer. Sears will get the "Snooze-i-nator," Macy's will get "Dreammaster," Best Buy will tech the "Nightynight," and so on and so forth and THEY ARE ALL THE EXACT SAME MATTRESS, just with slightly different cosmetic features and a different name. And they change those names every other year, too.

This prevents consumers from shopping based on price, and makes it so that different retailers have no incentive to discount prices. The majority of big retailers will flat out refuse to haggle, because they think you are stupid. They will simply insist that the "Dreammaster" and the "Nightynight" are TOTALLY different, so no, they will not drop the price. Some stores will have a very rigid semi-haggle, where you get $100 off or free delivery or something, if you sign up for a store credit card, but that's about it. I'm not saying you'll have to haggle, but if you do the research to learn which mattresses are the same, you can leverage that knowledge into some savings by avoiding the big department stores, and negotiating a discount AND still getting the free delivery or whatever.

At this point, I'll mention that this was the starting point of my reading, three years ago, and it was very helpful: http://mattressscam.com/

I concur that the starting point is deciding the features/price range you want to be in, and then shop exclusively within that range, until you know the exact name of all the different Sertas/Sealeys/whatever that are actually all the same mattress (or roughly equivalent, if you want to keep shopping between different brands). I decided to simplify my decision after "test napping," by focusing only on Serta's firmest iComfort models. I gave OMF's equivalent a quick consideration, but they wound up not really being a good fit on price/value.

I wound up figuring out that Sears had one name, and Macy's had another. But then I read about how manufacturers also change the names to the same retailers every 2 or 3 years, or so, because extra stock ends up at Big Lots or Overstock.com, and Serta doesn't want you to know that the mattress that's $300 cheaper at Big Lots is the EXACT SAME THING as at Sears, just manufactured 18 months ago. So I went to Big Lots, and sure enough, they had the "Davidson" or whatever Macy's version USED TO be. Macy's wanted $900 for the mattress/foundation/delivery, Big Lots was a shade under $600 (but delivery extra).

I went back and forth between Sears and Macy's to see if anyone wanted to make a commission by dropping the price or adding in any bonuses. Nobody really did. Macy's offered the $100 off if I signed up for their credit card, and I think Sears offered to upgrade me from the crappiest frame to the middle quality one. So I was just fine saving upwards of 25% by shopping at Big Lots, and screw my pride. My spine said it was the same mattress, and my research confirmed it.

Then, a wrinkle, as the same strip mall here in south Dayton had a Serta Factory Store or whatever they call it. It was just a guy with a storefront, and a few test models, and if people just went to serta.com and wanted to shop from them, they'd point customers to his little store. I figured that would be the last place where I'd get a deal, but since it was right there next to the Big Lots, I figured I'd check in.... right off the bat, he was willing to sell me the model I wanted (mattress/foundation/delivery) for $800, when I told him about my various adventures with Sears and Macy's... and when I mentioned Big Lots, he didn't bother lying to me; he said yeah, that was pretty much the same bed, but I'd have to pay for delivery... I told him I have a pick-up truck... he came back with a $750 offer, and all of a sudden he was making it close... I'm not saying it was worth $150 to me to avoid schlepping a mattress up some stairs, but hey: part of the reason why I was getting a new bed is because my back sucks...

I let him know this, to see if there was anything else he could do, and he made a big deal about how his store doesn't just do free take-away of old mattresses, but they refurb them and give them away to St. Vincent de Paul... OK, nice touch... and he finally broke down and offered the super-sturdy bed frame, which was supposedly an extra $80... I was very proud of the deal... but then, I started telling the guy that this was pretty much all the stuff I wanted at the price I wanted, and I also answered his questions when he asked about my specific wants... I left myself open to an upsell, because this OTHER MATTRESS over here was everything I wanted and more, and it just so happened to be marked down to $1495 THIS WEEK ONLY, from $1795!!!

To humor him, I laid down on it, and dammit, it WAS noticeably more comfortable. I told him so, but also told him point blank that I didn't have $1500. He said, OK, because Macy's also has the same $1495 sale price, and what have we already learned about his wiggle room versus theirs? He was basically inviting me to name a price, based on my understanding of the Mattress Pricing Game. I didn't think he'd go any lower than $1200, and for a while, he wouldn't... but he'd already given me the $750 deal, and I was gonna take it, because that's my price range.

Then all of a sudden, he asks, "What if I do $1100, for everything, mattress, foundation, delivery, take-away, sturdy frame? Mattress pad, too; I'm supposed to charge $50 but these things cost us $10." I was confused and did a double take, because once again, he'd made it close. My inititial shopping had sort of turned that $900 figure into my upper limit, but the bed he was offering was easily worth $200 more than that (and only $350 more than the lesser model's discount price)... I was trying to think on my feet if this was worth it, and the guy eventually said that at $1100, his margin (as a percent) was less than if I bought the $750, but bigger as a bottom line dollar figure... he would probably never have gone that low if I'd come in shopping for the more expensive bed, but once he backed himself into the $750 corner, it was worth it for him to sell me the iSeries "Applause" instead of the iComfort, since it still made him an extra $15 or something and he could tell I would benefit from the better mattress and yadda yadda yadda.

Needless to say, I wound up VERY happy with my mattress shopping experience; I got the perfect mattress at an awesome price. Also needless to say: that guy's store went out of business about a year later. D'oh.

I can't promise that you'll be able to pull off the entire "deep discount, upsell, into deeper discount" trick, because that was predicated on me stumbling into a decent and honest sales person... but I think if you heed the advice of that website, do your research within a single product range, and don't let yourself get bullied by department store sales associates, you should be able to get the whole package (mattress, box spring, delivery, good frame/mattress pad, and takeaway) for a single, consolidated price that's easily $200 or $300 less than whatever you get initially quoted at Macy's or Sears or Mattress Firm once they get done adding all the extras in. And the higher quality the mattress, the bigger that differential should be.

Good luck...

[dabvu2498]

Rick -- Just for future reference, if you're in the Dayton area, or even in Cincy, once you pick a mattress, call a place in Camden called Trader Tuck's and get their price. They get factory overruns and seconds and sell them for virtually nothing. I paid about 400 for a king sized iComfort two years ago. They don't have a fancy website and their hours suck and you may not get evening or weekend delivery. You also don't get a warranty. But you do save enough money that if the mattress you buy mysteriously falls apart, you can afford to go buy another. They're also willing to do some bartering if you go with other folks who are also buying a mattress.

[RedEye]

I keep reading the title of this thread as "bad recommendations" rather than "bed recommendations."

[westofyou]

I keep reading the title of this thread as "bad recommendations" rather than "bed recommendations."

I got a bad recommendation

[Beltway]