Serta Beware Serta Mattresses Their warranty is void if you actually sleep on them! Alexandria Virginia

We purchased a queen sized, pillowtop Serta Perfect Night for $1400 in April 2007. After about three months the mattress began to develope deep, uncomfortable body impressions. We tried rotating the mattress as the manufacturer suggests but that did not help. Why would it, there was still a person sleeping on each side? Our mattress is supported on a good quality bed frame, with five support bars. Niether my husband nor I are overweight. After about 1 year it occurred to us that this problem might be covered under the 10 YEAR WARRANTY. After going to the website we discovered that body impressions could be covered. In May 2008 the retailer, Mattress Warehouse, sent out an independent inspector to measure the impressions. The next week we received a letter stating that "your bedding is stained, thereby voiding its warranty." Yes, despite using a mattress pad continuously since we purchased the mattress there are two small stains on our mattress. They sent us a copy of the warranty information (which we never received with our purchase). Under "IMPORTANT IMFORMATION" it does say that stains are not covered. No problem since we don't want them to fix the stains. On the opposite section under the section "mattress care" it says "Please keep your bedding clean and use a mattress pad. Stains of any kind or size will void the warranty..." What! Why wasn't that included under the "IMPORTANT INFORMATION" section of the warranty card. I think that's pretty important information to someone who wants a good warranty. The retailer certainly did not point this out to us when we purchased the bed but they were happy to highlight the information on the card for us now. So basically Serta advertises a 10 year warranty on this mattress. I wonder how many mattresses are unstained after 10 years. This wording basically allows them to void your warranty even if the bedding is in fact poorly made. And why? Do they resell ustained mattresses that are returned? I sure hope not! I called Serta's "customer service" line to find out more. No one actually answers, you have to leave a message. Today a woman called me back and assured me that it was useless to pursue a claim because "all the paperwork I received with the bed is clear that stains void the warranty." What paperwork? It obviously wasn't clear to us. If it was, we never would have wasted $1400 of our hard earned money on this horrible mattress.

Stephanie
Alexandria, Virginia
U.S.A.