Sleepy's not honoring exchange policy - best course of action?

[sjwaste]

I don't know how it works in the USA, but here you can take anyone to a small claims court where lawyers are not allowed to be present. The fee is tiny, and the manager of the store would have to be present. In this case, I would simply apply for a court date and present the summons. The store manager will almost certainly back down. Surely the US has a similar small claims process?

The US does not. Our individual states might.

 

[coxmaster]

-I don't understand what is so hard to understand about what the OP is saying, understand?

Chill man.. I get it now. I read it wrong initially..

And I agree. If i was the salesman in this case there would be no reason not to just charge the $100 difference +whatever.

The poorly worded policy is what caused the entire problem. It should specify which " regular everyday price" is/are being used.

Raise hell, thats your best bet in this case. Talk to corporate, it cant hurt.

 

[Lifted]

FYI, this is not an issue of a salesman and a poorly worded policy by some small store. This is the store manager and the largest mattress retailer in the U.S. Sleepy's owns 1-800-MATTRESS and other smaller retail chains at this point, so to assume this is some poorly worded policy that slipped by their legal department is a stretch. It's simply a manager that doesn't want to honor the policy.

The policy does state to contact customer service at their 800 number, nothing about going back to the store, so I guess he is free to be a prick. :\

Hopefully customer service will provide better service than he did when I call them in the morning.

 

[Mike Gayner]

It wouldn't matter if it were just a poorly worded policy - the policy forms part of your implicit contract with the vendor so they're required to abide by it anyway.

 

[Lifted]

Called customer service - they played hardball but I didn't give in. They tried

• You have to go to the store.
  • Your policy says "contact customer service".
• We don't handle Comfort Exchanges over the phone.
  • Your IVR stated "For Comfort Exchanges, press 4"
• Computer won't let us do that
  • Then I guess you'll have to do it by hand.
• We can't lower prices on Stearns and Foster.
  • Policy states I can't pay less than advertised price. I'm willing to pay advertised price.
• We can give you a price of $x,xxx, and that's the best we can do.
  • This isn't up for negotiation. Your policy states ...

Total of over 1 hour on the phone with them over 2 calls, half the time getting attitude from the supervisor/manager.

After I made it obvious I was recording the call, they came back on all super friendly and cheerful, and gave me a lower price than I was looking for.

The moral of the story is stick to guns with these used car salesman types and they may actually follow through on their own stated return/exchange policies.

 

[Capt Caveman]

Buy a memory foam mattress top, better than a pillow top mattress.

 

[Kyle]

Called customer service - they played hardball but I didn't give in. They tried

• You have to go to the store.
  • Your policy says "contact customer service".
• We don't handle Comfort Exchanges over the phone.
  • Your IVR stated "For Comfort Exchanges, press 4"
• Computer won't let us do that
  • Then I guess you'll have to do it by hand.
• We can't lower prices on Stearns and Foster.
  • Policy states I can't pay less than advertised price. I'm willing to pay advertised price.
• We can give you a price of $x,xxx, and that's the best we can do.
  • This isn't up for negotiation. Your policy states ...

Total of over 1 hour on the phone with them over 2 calls, half the time getting attitude from the supervisor/manager.

After I made it obvious I was recording the call, they came back on all super friendly and cheerful, and gave me a lower price than I was looking for.

The moral of the story is stick to guns with these used car salesman types and they may actually follow through on their own stated return/exchange policies.

Yeah good idea- don't buy from them anymore...that's shady

 

[kranky]

Good work. It's obvious they want to trumpet their policy to lure in customers, but make it as painful as possible if anyone wants to exercise the exchange privilege. I suspect their typical process is what you encountered, but if a customer doesn't bite they will just drag things out until the 21 days expires, then stand on that as the reason they can't do anything.

I bet they are pretty good at not making exchanges. They almost would have to be, given that the resale value of a used mattress can't be very high even if it was only used for a few days. I can't imagine they would try to pawn off a returned mattress as new - that would invite serious problems.

 

[AMCRambler]

You're saying that you can buy a mattress from them, sleep on it for 3 weeks and then bring it back for a different one? Do they re-sell the old mattress? If so then eww! Sounds like a good way to propagate those bed bug problems they're having in NYC. I hope they take the mattress you brought back and burn it. You may be a clean person, but what about every other Joe Schmoe that walks in there and buys one?

 

[SunnyD]

Called customer service - they played hardball but I didn't give in. They tried

• You have to go to the store.
  • Your policy says "contact customer service".
• We don't handle Comfort Exchanges over the phone.
  • Your IVR stated "For Comfort Exchanges, press 4"
• Computer won't let us do that
  • Then I guess you'll have to do it by hand.
• We can't lower prices on Stearns and Foster.
  • Policy states I can't pay less than advertised price. I'm willing to pay advertised price.
• We can give you a price of $x,xxx, and that's the best we can do.
  • This isn't up for negotiation. Your policy states ...

Total of over 1 hour on the phone with them over 2 calls, half the time getting attitude from the supervisor/manager.

After I made it obvious I was recording the call, they came back on all super friendly and cheerful, and gave me a lower price than I was looking for.

The moral of the story is stick to guns with these used car salesman types and they may actually follow through on their own stated return/exchange policies.

Enjoy your new freshly delivered contaminated with dozens of samples of bodily fluids mattress!

 

[JTsyo]

For $400 can't you just buy a separate pillow top that goes on top?

 

[Schfifty Five]

Called customer service - they played hardball but I didn't give in. They tried

• You have to go to the store.
  • Your policy says "contact customer service".
• We don't handle Comfort Exchanges over the phone.
  • Your IVR stated "For Comfort Exchanges, press 4"
• Computer won't let us do that
  • Then I guess you'll have to do it by hand.
• We can't lower prices on Stearns and Foster.
  • Policy states I can't pay less than advertised price. I'm willing to pay advertised price.
• We can give you a price of $x,xxx, and that's the best we can do.
  • This isn't up for negotiation. Your policy states ...

Total of over 1 hour on the phone with them over 2 calls, half the time getting attitude from the supervisor/manager.

After I made it obvious I was recording the call, they came back on all super friendly and cheerful, and gave me a lower price than I was looking for.

The moral of the story is stick to guns with these used car salesman types and they may actually follow through on their own stated return/exchange policies.

what did you use to record the call?

 

[darkxshade]

Yea what a BS policy... it's very one sided. If I were to buy item A at MSRP and decided I wanted to exchange it for something better only to find out they are having a sale during the exchange, they probably wouldn't allow me to exchange it for a better item B and give me some money back at the same time as a result of the sale.

 

[ultimatebob]

I'm very surprised they aren't meeting you on this. They have a huge markup on those mattresses and are most usually willing to do deals on the spot. If you are returning the mattress in good shape, there is no reason they shouldn't extend the same deal on the new mattress in addition to charging you to the exchange fees.

Umm... don't they have to destroy a mattress once it's been returned used? I thought that reselling used mattresses is verboten now, thanks to the bedbug scare.

 

[Lifted]

Yes, they made sure I knew 100x over that they can't resell the mattress (as if I'm supposed to feel bad for them - that's part of doing business)

Not sure if it has always been a law (in NY anyway) but at least now with the bed bugs they certainly cannot resell used beds. All beds must be brand new and delivered in sealed plastic.

They probably sell used mattresses to Nigerians, who then ship them overseas and sell them at a huge markup.

 

[Lifted]

what did you use to record the call?

Some old digital recorder I found around the office. I tried connecting it to my computer via usb, but it couldn't find any drivers for it and the driver disk only has Win 95/98/2000 drivers.