Sleepy's False advertising, misleading/false information, lack of customer appreciation - Consumer beware of Sleepy's Bethpage New York

My Sunday paper contained an insert advertising a President's Day Sale at Sleepy's. I already had my eye on a Sealy Posturpedic California King mattress on sale, online, at Costco for $759, including shipping and handling. I decided to check out Sleepy's online and found a Price Guarantee of 20% less than any competitor's price for a comparable mattress.

This sounded like a good deal to me, so off to Sleepy's I went. The salesman was very nice and was amazed at the Costco deal. He said that the comparable mattress was the Gentle Tide which was on sale for $1200. He needed authorization to give me the mattress at the 20% below the competitor's price guarantee and called the district manager. The district manager told the salesman to refer me to telephone sales because the computer would not accept the discounted price.

I contacted telephone sales and explained the situation. The rep was uncooperative, so I asked for a supervisor. The supervisor told me that the Gentle Tide was not the comparable mattress. It was the Fabuloso. I questioned him about this and he said "You can call Sealy's to confirm it." He also refused to waive shipping and handling, which the salesman at the store calculated into the discount. The supervisor also said he could not give me the full 20% under the competitor's ad. First he quoted me $632.87, plus tax and shipping. I told him the Costco deal includes shipping and handling and he came down to $607.20 (the full 20%) plus tax and shipping and handling.

I hung up and called Sealy's to confirm the comparability of the mattresses but Sealy's call center is only open Monday to Friday (this all took place on Saturday, February 16, 2008). I decided to take the Sleepy's supervisor at his word and called him back to order the mattress set. I was willing to forego the free shipping since the bottom line was about $80.00 cheaper than the Costco deal when you factor in taxes.

We made the deal and I authorized a 50% downpayment via my debit card, which Sleepy's promptly claimed.

On Monday, I called Sealy's to verify the comparability of the mattresses and found out that there was a significant difference between the Costco mattress and the one sold to me by Sleepy's. The Sleepy's mattress was inferior to the Costco mattress. The Sealy rep explained that the three major differences are the coil count, absence or presence of memory foam and the comfort level.

The Costco mattress, Sedona Springs model, has 980 coils and the Fabuloso sold to me by Sleepy's has 919. The Gentle Tide has only 918. The Costco mattress has memory foam, the Sleepy's Fabuloso does not but the Gentle Tide does. The Costco mattress is Ultra Plush, the Sealy Fabuloso is, at best, a pillow top. The Gentle Tide comes in Ultra Plush.

I called Sleepy's and explained this to Supervisor and he said that's incorrect and offered to have someone from Sealy's call me back. I waited but no one called me.

I called Sleepy's and asked if they had any mattresses with a 980 coil count, memory foam and Ultra Plush. The rep said there were two, the Remington Park ($2999) and the Island Manor ($2499). Armed with this information, I confronted the rep about the misleading information I had received from the supervisor about the comparability between the Costco mattress and the one I purchased from Sleepy's. The response was that Sealy's installs components of a lower quality in matresses for some retailers. I immediately called Sealy to confirm this and was told that all Sealy mattresses, regardless of who they are manufactured for, contain the same quality components. The only differences might be the type of components in the mattresses, i.e., coil count, memory foam and comfort level. This meant that the Sleepy's sales rep flat out lied to me.

I decided to contact upper management and through the Sleepy's website found the email address for the Vice President of Customer Satisfaction on the Press Release page. I sent two emails, one explaining my dissatisfaction with the misleading and false information from his sales staff and a second to explain that I want to be reasonable and would not push for the Remington Park or Island Manor, but would accept the Gentle Tide with free shipping and handling. The logic is simple. Their price guarantee and the comparisons entitled me to the much more expensive mattresses but my fiancee and I tested the Gentle Tide and it was quite comfortable. I figured the Gentle Tide was half the price of the cheaper of the other two more expensive models and that would be a reasonable settlement. The man never responded to my emails.

I called the customer service number and was put through to his extension. I left two voice mails. The Vice President of Customer Satisfactino never replied to my emails or voice mails.

Today I Googled the CEO of Sleepy's and found Ripoff Report's website. I read some of the complaints lodged there against Sleepy's and realized I was probably in for a battle. I checked the Better Business Bureau (more on that later) where I was able to obtain the CEO's phone number.

I called the CEO's number and was told he's in a meeting, they are all in a meeting. I was transferred to the person who handles my complaints of the nature of mine and reached his voice mail. I left a message and then called the CEO's number again. The CEO's administrative assistant told me that the person she transferred me to did not come in until noon. I asked her to ensure that he returns my call and she said she would mention it to him. It is now 1:30 and I have not received a callback yet.

I checked the Better Business Bureau and the news is dismal. Sleepy's has an unsatisfactory record with the BBB. The BBB explained that in May 2007, Sleepy's agreed to pay a $200,000 fine to the NY Dept of Consumer Affairs for an array of bad business practices. The same Dept had sought $185,000 from Sleepy's and other furniture companies in 2005 for deceptive practices. And the topper of them all, in December of 2004, the Division of Consumer Affairs of New Jersey sued Sleepy's and they settled for $750,000 in fines and restitution. By the way, Sleepy's allegedly committed to "new policies and procedures to comply with local and State laws." That probably means they are working harder to screw their customers while keeping within the bounds of the law. False advertising, misleading information and lying to consumers does not seem the way to do that. I filed a complaint with the New York City Department of Consumer affairs today. I'll update this when I hear from them.

Ed
Staten Island, New York
U.S.A.