My husband and I purchased a king size Sealy Halsey Gallery Ultra Plush Euro Top mattress from Ashley Furniture Homestore on March 3, 2007. The mattress was in good working order for a short time; however, after three months of use, I began to notice that I increasingly felt like I was lying backward (head down) and that the mattress seemed to mound in the middle, making it impossible for me to sleep without feeling as if I might roll off the side at any moment. Within having the mattress 6 months, I began to sleep in the guest bedroom on our old Simmons mattress, just to be able to get a good night's rest. My husband began to complain about soreness in his back around the same time, but continued to sleep on the mattress until just recently, saying his back pain upon waking is simply unbearable. He has been sleeping on a camping cot in our living room for the past 2 weeks.
At this point, we took out all of our Sealy paperwork for the mattress to determine if we could get the mattress replaced. We were surprised to find that our mattress has a 10 year warranty. Following the directions given in the warranty paperwork, we contacted Ashley Furniture, who had a mattress technician (Rick Bandy) visit our home and inspect the mattress on 7-18-08. He agreed that the mattress was defective, noting that the inner springwork was protruding 1-2" from the side and bottom of the mattress and that the pillowtop materials had curled under themselves, creating ridges and bumps. He stated that the mattress was definitely off-center, a condition that would be impossible to achieve with regular use, and hypothesized that the mattress may have been "banged" in shipment to create such an effect.
My husband spoke with Rick B. on the following day over the phone, and was told that we simply needed to return to the store and pick out another Sealy mattress, and that Ashley would pick up our old mattress and deliver the new mattress free of charge. He told us to speak with Dennis D. or Joe O. when we arrived at the store for assistance. We visited the store that day, 7-19-08. Dennis D., the store manager, told my husband that he was completely ignorant of our situation and that no one had informed him of our claim under the warranty. He asked that we wait and speak with Joe O., the manager of mattress sales, who was at lunch. We perused the store and waited for about 30 minutes before Joe O. arrived. Mr. O. told us that he had talked with Mr. B.
We first asked if our mattress was still carried by the store, to which the answer was no. We then asked which mattresses were comparable and at the same price as the mattress we originally bought. We were told that there were none. Mr. O. then proceeded to tell us that we should move into the next line of Sealy mattresses, the Posturepedic line, and insisted that we should get a pillowtop again. When we noticed that the least expensive of these mattresses was not a pillowtop and was $200 more than what we paid for our mattress, we referred to the Sealy warranty, which states that "if identical materials are not available at the time of product service, Sealy reserves the right to substitute material of equal or higher value, or, at [their] option, provide a refund."
We expressed that we felt having to pay more for a mattress after having been sold a defective one which had become unusable, simply because Ashley and Sealy no longer made that particular mattress, seemed to add insult to injury, and seemed unfair to us as consumers. Mr. O. replied that it was standard procedure to offer another mattress, and that if the price was more than the original mattress, to have the consumer pay the difference. We agreed that this was reasonable if the consumer chose to take a different mattress, but that it seemed poor business when the consumer had no other option but to take a different mattress. He replied that they may be able to "work with [us]" on the price and proceeded to try to have us begin trying out mattresses. I declined, stating that I could not shop wisely before knowing how much they could "work with us," and I asked to be told which mattresses they could "work with us" to get to the original price that we had paid before we began trying out the mattresses.
Mr. O. skirted my request by telling us about the construction of the posturepedic mattresses, again trying to have us begin selecting a mattress. I again stated that I would not try any mattresses until I knew which ones would be in the price range of the one we had originally purchased. Mr. O. again told us that Ashley had no mattresses in that price range, at which I reminded him that he just said that he could "work with us," and I asked once more to know the exact amounts and mattresses we would be considering. He began to explain that the Posturepedic was a higher line mattress than the one we had originally purchased, and once more began to try to have us shop the mattresses.
At that point, I directed him to another area in the mattress showroom where I had seen (during the 30 minutes we had been waiting for him) another Sealy mattress, which was not a Posturepedic, labeled as a Halsey Gallery II Ultra Plush Euro Top, with a price that was $200 more than the original mattress we had purchased. I asked if he could "work with us" on this mattress, since it was nearly identical to the one we had purchased and was just an updated model. He answered that this was an inferior mattress to the Posturepedic and that we really needed to go with the Posturepedic. When I asked again, he said that he didn't think he could get the price down on that one. He then took us to the children's bedding area of the showroom and showed us yet another Sealy mattress that was not a Posturepedic, but which was obviously not of the quality of the mattress we had originally purchased, and which was still more expensive than the mattress we had originally purchased.
Again I asked Mr. O. to tell us how much he could "work with us," explaining that I was aware that there was a substantial mark-up on mattresses because Mr. B. had mentioned during his visit that he was able to get an expensive Sealy foam mattress at a fraction of the cost directly from the warehouse. He again led us to the Posturepedic mattresses and said that we would have to pick out a mattress, because the amount he could "work with us" would be dependent on the particular mattress, giving as an example that the higher end foam mattresses were marked up much more than the others. We randomly chose a lower end Posturepedic mattress that had no pillowtop and was priced at $1199. 00, a difference of $300 more than our original purchase. Mr. O. left us and went to a phone near where we were, where he talked for about 10-15 minutes, and where I overhead what seemed to be a personal call complaining about what Mr. B. had mentioned to me.
Upon hearing this, I went to the sales area the rear of the store and asked the two women were there if I could have the phone number of the regional or corporate manager of Ashley. One of the women began to give me the number of someone named Mark before the other woman cut her short and told her not to. That woman proceeded to question me, rudely, about why I needed the number. When I explained to her our situation, she said that there was no district or corporate manager, only the store manager to whom we had originally spoken upon our arrival.
At the same time, the other woman handed me a number for Sealy. I said that I really needed a number in case I called Sealy and they needed to contact Ashley regarding the warranty, at which the first woman handed me a number for Ashley customer service.
When I returned and Mr. O. realized that I was within hearing distance of his call, he quickly ended the call and said he would be right back, then hurredly left for the sales area at the rear of the store, where he could not be followed. After another 10-15 minutes, he returned and said that he could give us the mattress at a price of $999. We declined and said that we would follow up with Sealy and Ashley customer service to try to get this resolved, at which he told us that he would be unavailable the following week because he would be on vacation.
Incidentally, while we were waiting for Mr. O. to return, we happened upon a Sealy mattress in a bedroom ensemble on the general showroom floor, which was not a Posturepedic and was very similar to the one we had purchased (though under a different name) which was priced at exactly $899.
Today is Monday, 7-21-08. I called Sealy this morning and was told that all warranty issues must be handled by the retailer, that the retailer is in control of all options regarding the replacement of our mattress. The customer service representative insisted that my mattress only had a 3 year warranty, even though I told her the exact name of it and I have the paperwork indicating a 10 year total and repair/replacement warranty. She said that Sealy would only "step in to assist" with the warranty if the retailer no longer carried their line of mattresses or if we had moved and there was no retailer in our area.
As I write this, I am on hold with the Ashley customer service number given to me at the store. I have been on hold, hearing a recorded message telling me that my call is important and that someone will be with me shortly, along with several Ashley sales promotions, for 2 hours and 45 minutes. Meanwhile, my husband called the Ashley store on my cell phone and spoke with Dennis D., the store manager, and was told that we can choose a Sealy mattress and pay the difference or receive a store credit to use on anything in the store.
After this experience, I have determined that if Ashley will not allow me to choose a Sealy mattress from their least expensive price range (with a 10 year warranty to match the one I had originally purchased) at no extra charge, to replace the defective one it sold and delivered to me, I expect to have a refund of my entire purchase cost, including delivery fee, so that I may patronize another mattress retailer with my business. We are unable to sleep in our master bedroom, we are out of $899 for a defective mattress, we do not want to be charged additionally for a new mattress