You will not believe what you just spent $1600 for!
Written: Mar 25 '04
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Pros: Not a bad concept, I wish I thought of it first!
Cons: Queen with two bladders is unusable for big people, incredible cost vs. what you get.
The Bottom Line: The twin air chamber queen is useless you think you can sleep on a 24 inch wide bladder of air. Hope you know a good chiropractor or massage therapist.
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| trguy's Full Review: Select Comfort Mattress Sleep Number 5000 |
My wife and I went to the Select Comfort store in the local mall. We were greeted by a great salesman, not pushy, took the time to really answer all our questions and have us try every bed on the floor. He told us of the 30 day return window, but I admit I never asked what the actual return policy was.
Funny, every bed in the showroom was a king size. We wanted a queen size for our guest room, where I end up every night because my wife's snoring.
There was a store promotion offering free delivery and set up, so we took advantage of that. Bought a queen size, dual bladder with a wireless control. When they came to set it up, I was shocked to see each air bladder is only about 24 inches wide. The bladders are separated by a thin foam strip, and surrounded with foam.
I'm a big guy, and usually sleep in the bed alone. Since the bed is in the guest room, we wanted the dual air chambers, as two people on one chamber makes the bed excessively hard, and requires playing with the control to reach some compromise.
After the first night's sleep I knew I was in trouble. I found myself waking up in the middle of the night with incredible back pain because I had rolled off my tiny air bladder into the valley in the middle of the bed. I tried to roll back onto the bladder but it feels like you are trying to roll yourself uphill, it was work to get situated back on one bladder! I called the Customer Service people, they have a name for it, they asked "Does it feel like you are trying to sleep on a dome?" Great description, they know the problem. They suggested a lower "sleep number" but anything lower than 55 was really uncomfortable. No matter how hard I tried, I ended up rolling off the dome into the middle of the mattress, between the two bladders. There was no support whatsoever for my hips, and I woke up with back pain unlike any I had ever experienced.
I fought it for 2 weeks and my back got worse and worse. I gave up and called for them to pick it up. I got the expected resistance, they offered to swap out the dual bladders for one large one, I told them that really defeated the whole purpose of having an adjustable bed. Of course, they had no response for that. They agreed to accept the return without much drama.
That's when I was informed of the return policy. I was required to pack up the bed and ship it to Minnesota, at my cost. They would provide 4 prepaid UPS tickets at a cost to me of $100, or 4 preprinted labels for me to use with any carrier I chose. Since I had the bed delivered, I had no boxes and they were no help whatsoever. They did say they would come and pick up the bed, but that would cost $150. Given the fact I had no boxes, I imagined more hassle if something did not get back to them in one piece, I opted to have them pick the thing up. The additional $50 was well worth it.
What did I learn from this experience? First of all, the guy who figured out this scam is brilliant. We got us to happily fork over $1600 for a queen sized 5000 series bed. I have no doubt the cost to manufacture the bed was less than $300. The crew who came to pick up the bed said the cost was considerably less. All you get is a cheezy plastic foundation, a bunch of foam, a couple of air bladders, a decent pillow top mattress cover and a little compressor. I was mad at myself for not asking for the details of the return policy. If I knew it I would have insisted on keeping the original boxes just in case. That would have saved me $50. I should have listened to my gut feeling when I saw the tiny air bladders and refused delivery.
At 250 pounds, it is not possible to sleep on a 24 inch wide pillow of air.
Recommended:
No
Mattress Size: Queen
Mattress Firmness: Extremely soft
Amount Paid (US$): 1600
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Epinions.com ID:
trguy
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Reviews written: 3
Trusted by: 1 member
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