Complaint Review: Sleepy's - Haverford Pennsylvania

If you only remember one thing from this review, let it be this: Do not shop at Sleepys. But here is the good news: I have been looking for a worthy new year's resolution and thanks to my experience with Sleepys, I have found it--launching a class action suit for each and every person who has ever experienced the consequences of their sleep to live mattress, the scam of Sleepy's "comfort exchanges," the scam of their receipt accounting practices and other unscrupulous practices of Sleepys that I have committed myself to researching which include, but are not limited to reselling used mattresses, refusing exchanges due to imaginary stains that do not actually exist on the mattress but that Sleepy's headquarters invents to avoid upholding warranties, fraudulent advertising, and misrepresentation.

I purchased a Kingsdown "sleep to live" mattress in July 2011. I specifically asked the sales rep at the Haverford, PA store if "there were any major issues reported with the "sleep to live" mattress that I should know about," since I had never heard of the brand before. His reply was that "this is one of our top brands and customer favorites." In order to get the bed warranty, I was required to purchase the "sleep to live" box springs in the amount of $765.32 along with the $2,000 bed.

After sleeping on this bed for just a few months, my husband and I have developed serious back problems that have required medical attention. The sleep to live beds are defective. The sleep to live bed is one of the greatest scams to have hit the mattress industry. The bed looks impressive, thanks to its impressive height, but there is nothing inside the mattress to support or evenly distribute the weight of the human body. Try flipping it over--the opposite side looks and feels like lightweight cardboard. Precisely why there is a sticker on the opposite side that states this is not a sleep surface. Well, that sticker should be placed on both sides of the mattress. This mattress is not a sleep surface! It sags so much that there is virtually no support for our lower backs, it is impossible to sleep in an ergonomically correct position.

I have never in my life experienced a bed like this. Every night, my husband sleeps on the couch because the bed causes so much pain, and I have to leave my husband and my six-month old son to sleep at my parents' house. I actually have to leave my family at night so I can sleep on my 15-year old childhood bed--which, may I add, is still so comfortable because it was a great quality mattress purchased at Bloomingdales.

The sleep to live bed has caused us so much pain and it has torn our family apart at night. Any positive reviews of the "sleep to live" mattress were likely written by the manufacturer, impersonating itself as a buyer. The company only plans to refund me the price of the mattress if and only if the mattress fails their inspection. Here is the kicker: the inspector who comes out to check the bed does not actually examine what happens to the bed when a person is laying on it. How can someone examine the integrity of a bed if they do not examine what happens to the bed when an actual person is laying on it? Is it possible to determine cause of death without doing an autopsy? No. Is it possible to predict the integrity of a mattress without laying down on it? Of course not!

Shame on you Sleepys for taking advantage of us. Sleepys has a responsibility and obligation to refund me for the entire purchase including the box springs, regardless of inspection, since not only was I forced to buy the box springs in order to get the warranty but I am now in serious pain as a result of the defective bed. There is an army of people in the United States who have posted on the Web this same exact situation with their defective Kingsdown "sleep to live" mattress sold at Sleepys.

While I made a good-faith purchase, Sleepys knowingly sold me a product line that has been causing serious pain for its prior customers. Thanks to the Internet. I will have no problem rallying up the people who were scammed by Sleepys. In the past 24 hours, I have already spoken with five friends and family members who were scammed by Sleepys! There is an army of people waiting out there for their voices to be heard, and I will fight for our justice.

My goal is to get the unscrupulous business practices of Sleepy's exposed on Channel 10 news. I also plan to stand outside of the Haverford, PA Sleepy's store with flyers listing these practices to consumers who don't know better. If I don't get a full refund for both the mattress and box springs, I will pursue a class action lawsuit against Sleepy's in January 2012. And with the army of people who find themselves in similar situations to mine, we will have no problem presenting our case against the crooks at Sleepy's.

I have already contacted the BBB, but that is only the beginning of my fight for justice. Buyers, beware: the "Sleep to Live" Mattress (manufactured by Kingsdown) is made from the poorest quality materials I have ever seen on a mattress. After just one week, the mattress was sagging and my husband and I started waking up with aches and pains traveling from our lower backs to our neck. We have had no history of back or neck problems until this bed entered our lives. Here is what I gathered from my fact finding so far:

1) Sleepy's allegedly resells used beds. The investigators they send from "Bed Check" can declare a bed defective. But Sleepy's will declare the warranty void due to alleged microscopic stains on the bed. Why, you may wonder, does Sleepy's care about a defective bed having a 1 millimeter stain on it? It's because they sell these used mattresses to unsuspecting consumers. Evidence of this is that many customers have bed bugs in the "new" beds and box springs delivered to them. And Sleepy's forces you to buy a mattress protector as part of their "comfort exchange" policy, so that if you do switch out the bed in 21 days, they can resell it.

2) Sleepy's uses sneaky accounting practices when it comes to pricing items out on sales receipts. Items that are "thrown in for free" (such as sheets, bed frames, etc.) are then listed on the receipt as having actual prices. The sum total of these "free" items is deducted from the price of the mattress on the receipt. This way, if you exchange your mattress with the comfort exchange policy, you actually are getting less money applied toward your next purchase than you had spent on the first mattress. Thanks to the "price" of the mattress listed on your first receipt. This also explains why they inflate the cost of box springs (since when are box springs 800 dollars?). They inflate the cost of the box springs. So, even if your mattress is defective, you are now out 800 dollars. This means Sleepy's never loses money on these "comfort exchanges" and actually profits no matter the outcome. Buyers, beware: if the mattress you buy is 2,000 dollars, make sure your receipt states the mattress in the same dollar amount! We will pursue these fraudulent accounting practices as well as their other unscrupulous sales practices.

3) The beds on the showroom floor in no way depict the quality of the bed that actually gets delivered to your door. Evidence of this: many customers including myself find that the bed we tried on the floor was much more comfortable than the bed in our home. Sleepy's excuse is that the beds in the showroom are broken in. Why then is every single bed I have ever purchased from (((competitor's name redacted))) always great quality, the same quality as the one in the (((redacted))) showroom? It's because Sleepy's allegedly has their manufacturers make beds of higher quality for their showroom and the manufacturers make inferior beds for the actual sales.

4) The prices of Sleepy's beds are more arbitrary and unpredictable than airline prices. Take a look at the "Sleep to Live" mattress. Customers who purchased my same mattress have paid anywhere from $2k-4k for the same exact package. They also inflate their prices for their "big sales events", so they can "slash" their prices down to what appears to be 50-75% off. But in reality, it is still a very inflated retail price. And you can't compare shops because they allegedly invent complicated names on each mattress. Even though the same mattress is sold down the street, it will have a different name so you can't truly compare prices.

5) Sleepy's will work at all costs to avoid upholding their warranty. How can a bed inspection take place without the investigator examining what happens to the bed when there is an actual body on it? The investigations are a joke at best. And even if the investigations prove a defective bed, and even if Sleepy's can't find a stain and is therefore forced to do an exchange, Sleepy's still profits. Just read the guidelines, loopholes, and fees of their "warranty". In my pursuits for justice, I will have saved at least one person from shopping at Sleepy's. And at best, I will have reached the masses and Sleepy's will forever sleep in peace in the grave that they have dug for themselves.