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What happens to a mail-order mattress after you return it

fivethirtyeight.com

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Re: What happens to a mail-order mattress after you return it

#101

Post by ghaff »

simonsarris wrote: post #95
Johnny555 wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I purchased a Purple 3, thinking that if I loved it, I'd just stick with it. I did love it, but I couldn't justify spending $2k on a twin I don't understand this -- you loved the mattress and you knew the price when you ordered, so what other outcome did you expect if you couldn't justify the price to yourself even if you loved it? It seems that you'd have been better off going with a more affordably priced mattress…

1. Testing cars you can't afford is awesome. Knowing the full range of experience in a good can be very enlightening. How much better is a $10,000 camera from a $1,000 camera, or $400 wine from $4? I used to run a tasting group which is basically a way to pool money and try liquors that are vastly out of our individual price range and I highly recommend it. You can try expensive cars and mattresses for free, that's e…

>What's wrong with thinking "Well it is great, but its not $2000 great." You aren't beholden to the thoughts you had about how worth-it it might be before you tried it.

Nothing. But I read the GP comment more along the lines of "It was as great as I imagined it would be but it was still too much money"

Sure, if you can, if something expensive is good but not as great as you hoped it would be for the money, return it. But it's a bit hard for me to see buying (not test driving) something that, however great it is you're not keeping it.

Re: What happens to a mail-order mattress after you return it

#102

Post by three_seagrass »

hombre_fatal wrote: post #62
sauwan wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't they set up an offsite hotbox to get rid of the bedbugs before it gets onsite? Surely someone could set up a mobile truck that can come, park, and heat up 15 mattresses for the few hours it takes to kill or drive off the bedbugs, no?

One simple option is to immediately insert the mattress into a bed bug cover upon pickup.

Bug covers for mattresses need to be of the right type and installed properly. Doing it upon pick up only increases the risk of damaging the cover and ruining any utility it has. They're not designed for durability and it takes only a pinhole puncture to ruin the entire cover.

Re: What happens to a mail-order mattress after you return it

#103

Post by mherdeg »

bsanr wrote: post #30

I'd thought I'd get around the madness of mattress shopping by using just the technique mentioned in the article here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22377160 At least, until I found something I liked. I purchased a Purple 3, thinking that if I loved it, I'd just stick with it. I did love it, but I couldn't justify spending $2k on a twin(!). I returned it, and purchased from another company for ~$700. I didn't…

There was a pretty popular recent post on reddit's /r/unethicallifeprotips about this recently.

It's beginning to become common knowledge that paying for a mail-order mattress is often optional. By choosing not to request a refund (and keep the product), you are subsidizing the purchases of everyone else who does.

If you squint this kind of looks like the CyberRebate business model and I wonder how much longer it'll be sustainable.

(The industry also has amusing quirks like https://www.vox.com/2017/9/23/13153814/casper-sleepopolis-la... )

Re: What happens to a mail-order mattress after you return it

#104

Post by giarc »

wycy wrote: post #39
bsanr wrote: post #30

I'd thought I'd get around the madness of mattress shopping by using just the technique mentioned in the article here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22377160 At least, until I found something I liked. I purchased a Purple 3, thinking that if I loved it, I'd just stick with it. I did love it, but I couldn't justify spending $2k on a twin(!). I returned it, and purchased from another company for ~$700. I didn't…

Part of the crazy markup in the mattress industry might be in the non-returnability of them. Manufacturers need to price in the fact that some % of them will be returned (read: given away for free) because no one wants a used mattress that might have bed bugs or other unknown substances.

But I wonder how many people buy a mattress, never open it, "return it for refund" then just resell a "unused, unopened mattress"?

Re: What happens to a mail-order mattress after you return it

#105

Post by ska »

sauwan wrote: post #50
fwip wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's risky for the charity. For instance, if the mattress has bedbugs, it stands a good chance of contaminating everything they've got in storage, requiring them to purge their entire inventory, sanitize, and build up from scratch again.

Can't they set up an offsite hotbox to get rid of the bedbugs before it gets onsite? Surely someone could set up a mobile truck that can come, park, and heat up 15 mattresses for the few hours it takes to kill or drive off the bedbugs, no?

Is setting this up worthwhile for a general charity? Would it be better for them than say, working out an overstock donation?

Re: What happens to a mail-order mattress after you return it

#106

Post by Stratoscope »

ghaff wrote: post #83
blackearl wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well according to some of the other comments you can shop around for a "free" mattress because it's not worth returning. Just make you destroy it by leaving it somewhere, maybe like a vacation home.

I'm not sure I would count on that :-) I'm also not sure how I feel about the foam mattresses. That's one type of mattress I don't have a lot of experience sleeping on and my initial reaction in the store was it was "different" to a degree that I wasn't sure what to make of it. Also, I tend to be hot generally including when sleeping. From what I've read, a foam mattress may not be a great choice given that.

If you sleep hot, memory foam is what you want to stay away from. You sink down into it and it molds around your body.

Non-memory latex foam lets you sleep much cooler because you don't sink into it so much. I also tend to be too warm and have used latex foam mattresses for the last 20 years. They have been fine, unlike memory foam.

Re: What happens to a mail-order mattress after you return it

#107

Post by ska »

clSTophEjUdRanu wrote: post #70

I love this. I've always thought their guarantee was meaningless because almost nobody is going to actually mail back a mattress.

Some of the guarantees, at least when I looked a few years ago, include pickup for return. Presumably (cf article) not to original location; but still, hard to image something more zero risk than this.

With something like a 120 day no-questions asked, no risk return I think they are more relying on you getting used to it in that amount of time. And huge markup means they can eat quite a few too, I suppose.

Re: What happens to a mail-order mattress after you return it

#108

Post by pastor_elm »

tenpies wrote: post #5
madengr wrote: post #2

Mattress shopping is almost as bad as car shopping. I'll buy a used car to get around the sleazy car sales people, but the wife absolutely won't go for a used matresss. I'm sure the mattress markup is astronomical, and I'm sure most brands come from the same factories.

I'm also somewhat suspicious that foam mattresses are quite bad for your health, not necessarily from a sleep mechanics perspective, but from an air quality one. I mean you are literally sleeping on a piece of plastic that is optimized for surface area. You then squish it constantly while using it and inhale those aerosolized plastic particles for about 8 hours per day.

Mattresses have been sprayed with flame retardants for decades. Supposedly, many of these new-age foam ones don't contain them.

Re: What happens to a mail-order mattress after you return it

#109

Post by giarc »

reaperducer wrote: post #58

This isn't exclusive to mail order mattresses. I went to a big-name department store just last week and bought a mattress. For the first time, I chose a "memory foam" mattress because I liked how it felt in the store. (Thought the traditional spring mattress felt more familiar and "right," there's something about the foam that was nice.) When the giant delivery truck arrived three days later, there was the usual box…

Be careful with brick and mortar mattress stores (although you said department store). Many will have "restocking" type fees for returning a mattress.

Re: What happens to a mail-order mattress after you return it

#110

Post by Wohlf »

pathartl wrote: post #67
mech1234 wrote: post #53

Get a firm or very firm innerspring mattress from IKEA. You can do this for less than $300 and it will fit in the back of a sedan in it's roll-up-package. Sleep on it for a bit. If you don't like the feel, which you probably won't, add a memory foam mattress topper for ~$50. Use a thicker or thinner topper to suit your needs. Congrats! Because your mattress is firm, its foam will not break down for a long, long time.…

Not sure this is good advice. I like a firm mattress, but IKEA mattresses are absolutely terrible. I also cannot sleep with a foam topper on any bed. They're hot and screw up my back beyond belief.

I feel the same way about foam toppers, and foam mattresses are exactly the same.
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