Metro mattress Four Months, junk beds, no sleep Rochester, New York

The day after this complaint posted, the Director of Service and Procurement, Mr. Bell, called and offered to refund most, but not all of the money spent at Metro Mattress. He did ask that we remove this post, but unfortunately we are unable to do that. For the sake of accuracy and integrity, I will clarify a few points that my husband made when he posted his complaint, since I have been the one dealing with the situation while he is at work.

First, let me state that we may or may not have any tangible proof that Metro Mattress and Mr. Bell are "shuffling used and defective mattresses." As for attention to detail, a few corrections need to be made.

The salesman who sold us the bed secured the sale by offering us a refund within 30 days, which is against store policy, and we, as consumers, should have read the fine print. The salesman did inform us of a warranty policy, but it turned out not to be consistent with our experience.

In response to a BBB complaint I filed, (which yielded nothing) Mr. Bell sent out a single employee from corporate office to inspect the bed, instead of a third party, as the salesman had told us, prior to purchase, was the company's practice regarding warranty claims. This inspector arrived in a brand new unmarked Nissan Van and parked awhile in our driveway before coming to the door. He said he had been looking for a tape measure and asked me to provide one, which he did not use. He brought in a camera and nothing else. When I inquired about the inspector's methods, or the lack thereof, Mr. Bell told me there is no instrumentation to determine whether or not a bed is defective. This inspector was courteous, but did not find fault with the bed. (A Simmons inspector later approved the warranty.)

At no point has there been any admission of wrongdoing on the part of the company, or its employees, except for the Warehouse Manager in charge of delivery, who apologized for the mysterious delivery cancellation call, and who promptly rescheduled delivery of a bed he assured me would arrive in good condition. Unfortunately, this second attempt at warranty replacement resulted in another bed with the same problems as the first, only worse, and with a tell-tale ridge down the center. Curiously, the Metro Mattress tag's manufacture date is different than the manufacturer's date by one day. And both presumed new Simmons mattresses we have been given have had plastic tag attachments on the mattress sidewalls where no tags are affixed.

To my knowledge, Mr. Bell did not scold the "chatty" delivery person, but merely referred to one of the delivery employees as being too "chatty" and unqualified to determine whether or not a bed was truly defective. It is a fact that a delivery person asked if I had cut a tag off the bed after he inspected it thoroughly. I replied emphatically, "no," and he believed me. The delivery person merely mentioned that sometimes mattresses are defective at the point of manufacture, as appeared to be the case. This was on our original purchase, a Therapedic, which we were compelled to exchange (at added cost) within two weeks of our first purchase. (Within a week of receiving the Therapedic, we requested a refund from the salesman who made the offer for a refund within 30 days, but he refused to honor the verbal offer he had made at the final point of sale. Furthermore, he steadfastly denied that he had ever made such an offer.)

Since then, we have jumped through countless hoops to get our "upgraded 'Comfort Exchange'" replaced on warranty for being defective, and the two subsequent replacements were no better, in fact, worse than the first. I must also mention that it has been intrusive and inconvenient to have had a parade of delivery personnel and inspectors in the privacy of our home and bedroom while we have attempted to secure a decent bed, although I have no complaints about any of them personally.

I must also clarify that Mr. Bell has made great outward strides to perform good customer service by returning all my phone calls and attempting to maintain a decorum of professional conduct. Unfortunately, it has been abundantly clear to me that Mr. Bell has not taken our concerns seriously until now. He has also made it clear that I am a thorn in his side. We are even more eager than he is to resolve this matter. Unfortunately, my husband, who submitted the complaint, advised me to write this update and remind Mr. Bell that after four months of mutual aggravation, less than the total money spent is a poor offer. Furthermore, possessing the bed is the only leverage and evidence we have, so we will need a more suitable offer that does not involve any trust on our part.