Dr. Mattress
Nov 21 '00
Let me start off by telling you I do not have a doctorate or Masters degree in mattresses. Unfortunately. You should have one when you go out to purchase a new mattress. The enormity of the project is beyond anything that your average couple should be confronted with. The subtle nuances of style and construction are endless and the assorted names of each make comparison shopping nearly impossible. I also always seem to be working on a limited time frame and this one was for our home in Florida so we had a limited time frame for delivery since we were just there to prepare the house for our winter stay.
Knowing the bare minimum I started out checking out the ads in our local paper with price being fairly important. This was a mattress for my Mom's caretaker. In a rush when we first furnished this house I ordered a "we can be there today" mattress from Bed By Phone for her room. They delivered immediately, the cost for a double set was nominal and we were happy campers. We left the house knowing it would be ready for our return and everyone would have their proper bed. We didn't return for 6 months and after Harriette (the caretaker) had slept on the bed for 3 months it developed a slump. Naturally this was after the warranty expired and on checking out the mattress thoroughly we realized it was foam, no springs, explaining the great price. Now we were back in a time squeeze, out our initial money and back on the road again looking for another mattress for her that needed immediate delivery. This time we did some footwork.
As I said, every ad had wide ranges of styles and prices that were almost impossible to compare. Every store and brand have different style names. Fletcher Ultra Plush Pillowtop, Brookmere Plush, Sealy, Serta, Hotel, Hillbourne. Its endless.
You can spend $2,899 on a Kingsdown Handcrafted mattress set or $399 for Sealy Posturepedic Hotel Deluxe. You can go to Rooms To Go Outlet Center ( Serta Queen Set $195 limited quantities)or Mattress Giant and get an Angel Rest(??? Never heard of that!) for $189 for just the mattress. There's Mattress Discounters, Dial A Mattress and every furniture and department store.
We went to all these places and finally ended up at Burdines since they were offering 15% off if you opened an account that day and an additional one day shopping discount of 15%. We also felt comfortable with the fact that it was a well known store similar to Macy's in our area. We picked out a Sealy Firm for $169 for the mattress only since we felt the box spring we had purchased was basically brand new (the usual advice is against this but we'd already lost money and didn't feel like spending more.) With the discount things looked good but once they tacked on delivery we were in the $200 range. But we felt buying in a known department store would be worth the extra cost and actually the cost seemed about the same barring the fact there was no REAL comparing. Confusing, huh? Well that's the general feeling we had, we were struggling let me tell you. They could deliver in 2 days and since that worked into our stay that was a plus. Also, we were just plumb worn out.
I really don’t have any solution to making a choice with the dizzying. array of names,stores, types and prices of mattresses out there. You just have to check around and stick to a reliable store. We lay down on dozens of mattresses, asked a lot of questions but basically we were just "kicking tires". We were at the mattress genie's mercy.
The things you need to pay some attention to are the amount of coils (400-600 is good)and avoid foam that’s just my opinion. We were charged delivery but if you spend enough you get it free. They would have taken away our old mattress but we decided to donate it). The rest of the bells and whistles are options you have to choose or not choose yourself.
Well, don't sleep on any peas and happy hunting.
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Member: Susie Antonelli
Location: Florida / New Jersey
Reviews written: 947
Trusted by: 280 members
About Me:
I'm a Wildlife Rescue Person, artist, avid gardener, scuba diver and Nana to 5 grandchildren.
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