You know what’s great? Buying a mattress without having to deal with a mattress salesperson. No bullshit, no haggling, no obfuscatory and deceptive pricing, no lying to trick me into buying the extended warranty—just me, paying for a thing at a reasonable price. The idea of buying a mattress without a shitty vampire middle-man is in fact so attractive that I just dropped $750 on a king-sized mattress from Tuft and Needle sight unseen.
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LOL.
Buying online is a lot less hassle. I know that we’re supposed to buy local, in order to support the local job market and economy… But I would rather slam my dick in a door than deal with salesweasels who don’t listen to what it is I actually am looking for, make lots of claims about the product that are gross exaggerations or just plain not true, and then pretend I don’t exist as soon as they are reasonably sure their commission check is in the mail.
I can return items bought online a lot easier than purchases made locally. Amazon et al. doesn’t need me to find my receipt - they already have it. Local stores also have my receipt already (if they have equipment manufactured more recently than 1990), but expecting them to look it up themselves is, you know, like, unfair.
Online retailers are also happy to provide you with a shipping label that has the shipping fees already paid (by them). I’ve seen local retailers refuse a return because the shrink-wrap on the outside of the box is missing.
On the downside, receiving can be a pain. Amazon has lost three orders before they even got filled, in the past six months (customer service assures me this never happens, but they are looking into why it happened and making sure it doesn’t happen in the future). A recent order from a seller off Amazon was lost by the post office - twice - and even the post office was surprised when it was delivered (two days late).
Sometimes you will get something that isn’t what you ordered ( or looks or works much different than described or pictured). Most online retailers that I have seen will try to make it right (third parties, however, do not always do this - and some get downright nasty about a negative review).
The difference is that online retailers seem to want our business. Local retailers just want our money.
But I like my Serta iComfort mattress. I even liked my sales guy, I didn’t get high pressure sold and it took us 6 months of coming in and wandering around to pull the trigger.
I also paid over 4 times what you did. I have nothing to compare my price to except other similar prices. If everyone is selling high end beds at 3k, why would I look for something cheaper. It appears I’m ignorant and need to be educated.
Interesting info and read, @Lee_Ars .
I need the firmest mattress available, which has led to me sleeping in the other room. My wife likes her mattresses super soft but memory foam holds too much heat and with a PMW (Pre-Menopausal Wife) the marital bed is too hot for me with her in it…I never figured that wold be a problem, innuendo intended.
I love you just the way you are, @Woodman 
Can’t speak to anyone else’s experiences—just my own. And my own mattress buying experiences have been universally nightmarish.
The blog entry does have kind of populist screed feeling to it, but I’m so excited at the idea of kicking over the traditional middleman stranglehold anthill here. I’ll happily jump in anywhere I can give the middle finger to shitty salespeople and awful haggle-based “deals.”
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I did some additional reading and I can see what people are talking about now. The guy I worked with was great, in fact so great that he’s been promoted from our out in the middle of nowhere store to the busiest in the area.
I can see where I might have overpaid, but hell, with nothing else to compare it to you really don’t have any idea. It’s like shopping for jewelry or medical care. No one really has a baseline, you start at “Fuck, I’m not paying that much” and end up at, well, this 3k bed is much more comfortable than that $500 bed so I guess it is worth that much.
Let us know how the new bed works out. I love helping people like that out, and at that price range it fits the “Get the fuck out of my house” present range for children. Or even the “I’m going to pretend that I don’t know you are going to have sex with my daughter on this” wedding present range.
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Keep us updated on how it works out for you! Our mattress is in need of replacing, too, and this sounds perfect – though out of our price range at the moment.
Two weeks and change, and we’re still pretty happy with it. The mattress smelled very slightly “industrial,” sort of (a very faint almost chemical smell from the foam—not offensively chemical, but noticeable) for a couple of days, but that’s basically gone now.
The literature said it would firm up over the course of a week, but I haven’t noticed any real change in its comfort/firmness level since we got it. It’s still slightly firmer than our coil mattress, which according to the label was a Simmons something-or-other, but not, like, really firm.
I like it. Pretty sure we’re gonna keep it. Which is good, because the old mattress is propped up in the hallway and it’s really inconvenient to walk around.
I’m glad you replied, because I was just about to ask how you guys were doing down there. I was hoping this wasn’t a post about how your brand new mattress ended up being wrecked in a flood.
Good to know! 
Hah! No, it honestly didn’t do more than rain a bit in our corner of town. We might actually have to go water our plants tomorrow if it doesn’t give us a little more today.
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Oooh! You actually get to do that?
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Proper planning for environmental factors and investment in unsexy structural improvements allows people to do lots of things. See also; charging what a commodity is worth reduces waste. I still can’t believe CA has some of the lowest water fees in the nation even after decades of actual or near drought conditions in a desert climate.
That being said, I’m avoiding Arizona for the next 50 years. All those old people are going to dry up into dust. Why people insist on moving to climates that can’t reliably sustain life and demanding the same environment they had back home I don’t get.
And on topic, I’m sold on the online bed and when munchkin graduates it’s likely a mattress is in her future. At that point I expect there to be multiple strong options as well.
On topic - I’m thinking I’ll go that route next time around, too. Thanks for the info, @Lee_Ars!
Off topic - I’m on the other end of town and got plenty of rain. Where I live, work, and in between hasn’t been really flooded, but the drainage has been stressed. But whenever I didn’t absolutely have to be out & about, I was sensible and stayed inside, working or playing Xbox between power interruptions. 
Oooh, and speaking of Tesla… I saw @Lee_Ars’s new article. Nice. Holler if you need help playing with the next one they lend you!
Swing by and pick me up too.
I’m only across town from him… cross country is a bit more than swinging by 
Still happy with it?
Yeah, still totally happy with it. Zero back or neck issues or anything like that. Totally comfy.
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Hate to be a stalker, but I’m looking at these. Still holding up?
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Yep, still very happy with the purchase. Going to probably buy a second one for the guest bedroom soon.
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