Sleepy's NEVER BUY TEMPUR-PEDIC OR FABRICTECH AT SLEEPY'S!!! New York City New York

Four years ago my wife, generally a savvy, alert consumer, decided to buy a Tempur-Pedic mattress. She has serious spinal problems due to a genetic disease.

Years earlier it had been possible for us to buy a good, solid, simple, extra firm foam mattress on Canal Street, here in New York, from a store that specialized in this. Many types and firmnesses. A selection that far exceeds any bed store I’ve seen since. Excellent quality, proper support and comfort that lasted for well over 10 years for about $150.

But such stores can no longer exist in NYC. They've been priced out of the retail rental market, leaving the consumer with higher prices, less selection and lower quality in the sales force.

We have a couple of lumbar support and seating cushions for driving that contain Tempur-Pedic memory foam, and we rely on them and find them very comfortable. (She is unable to use public transportation, even to stand and wait for a bus to or to climb the steps. The mattress is a medical issue for her.) The Tempur-Pedic she tried at a Sleepy’s store seemed to suit her spinal problems well. But lumbar supports and seat cushions are not the same as mattresses.

Her orthopedist, a specialist in her type of spinal deformity and bone weakness, recommended a Sealy Posturpedic. But when she stopped in at a Sleepy's store on Broadway (2581 Broadway, NYC) she was sold on the Tempur-Pedic. (I subsequently started having back aches for the first time in my life, but it seemed OK to her -- more or less.)

More to the point, the salesman -- the Sleepy's salesman -- emphasized their 30-day "return it for any reason" guarantee, providing nothing whatsoever in writing. He also pushed the Tempur-Pedic 20 year warranty against any problems with the mattress (again, nothing in writing), which he said was only valid if the mattress was never stained. He provided no written documentation containing Tempur-Pedic's care recommendations or requirements to insure that the guarantee would remain valid. Only a verbal description, and his assurance that we should follow his instructions. The only document we ever received was the bill of sale. Little did we know there was a lot of documentation we should have received!

Then, he sold her on a Fabrictech mattress protector for about $70. They seemed to go together. (i.e. Buy this mattress but they want you to buy this thing to protect it, as if the two companies had some sort of connection. Maybe they did. Today, Tempur-Pedic makes its own mattress protectors. I wonder if Fabritech ever required distributors, like Sleepy's, to fully explain the terms of its warranty and to provide customers with written documentation on required care. It certainly was not provided then, for either company's product. But the essential reason both Tempur-Pedic and Fabritech have given us problems at this point is because of the deceptive, negligent sales methods of a Sleepy’s store. All is guaranteed, but you must protect it with this. It was never explained that the protector had to be maintained in a certain way in order for Fabritech to ever, ever honor their warranty – upon which the Tempur-pedic warranty would likely rest. Sleepy’s never gave us any documentation from either company. All we needed, they said, was to place a phone call in case of a problem, and claim the warranty coverage.

As far from the truth as you can imagine.

This must sound like some kind of idiot falling for a ruthless salesman. But it should be understood that she lives in constant pain. Just standing and talking to him was painful, and he had been informed of this. He had been informed that there was a major, serious medical component to this purchase. Clearly, he played on that. I’ve seen NYC salesmen who are very, very talented.

"If you buy this mattress protector," he told her, it would protect the Tempur-Pedic mattress’s 20-year warranty, since it would prove we had done everything possible to protect the mattress spills and stains. He actually said (and I quote verbatim) “Even if you never use it -- it could just sit in the trunk of your car. As long as you have proof that you bought this mattress protector [from Fabrictech], your protection under the Temper-Pedic mattress's 20-year warranty is guaranteed."

No joke. Those were the exact words of the Sleepy’s salesman: "You could just leave it in the trunk of your car..."

He never provided any paperwork for the Fabrictech mattress protector. All we needed, he said was the bill of sale, which we have kept these past four years. (It will be four years on July 27.) It’s in the “Mattress Warranty” file, along with all the other documentation pertaining to that purchase. It is a file with one piece of paper: the Sleepy’s sales invoice. I’ve received more and better documentation from cordless telephones.

Clearly, we knew the Fabritech mattress protector had to be used on the mattress. The Sleepy’s salesman told her that if there was ever a spill, just wipe it off. The mattress protector is waterproof. If we wanted to clean it further, it can be machine washed and even put into a dryer. The synthetic lining on the cover’s underside is heat resistant (which explains why it causes one to perspire so much while sleeping: it reflects all your body heat back up at you. In an air conditioned room you are cold on top and sweating underneath.

He never, ever gave us Fabrictech's full conditions of its own warranty: its "recommendations" for care (which are actually its requirements to keep the Fabrictech warranty in force), and its many, many, many limitations. We never knew such a document existed. He said if something spilled, it would wipe up easily, and we could, if we so desired, remove the Fabritech protector and wash and dry it. He never said that regular washing was recommended, let alone required.

Recently, she spilled some iced coffee.

I quickly removed the sheet, wiped off the Fabritech mattress protector and cleaned it gently with a clean sponge. Then I decided to completely remove and wash it, as the Sleepy’s salesman said could be done, if so desired. It seems counterintuitive to think that something essentially made of plastic could be machine washed and dried at a high temperature, but that’s what was said.

I immediately found that the spill had gone right through the mattress protector, through the Tempur-Pedic’s own zip-on covering and into the mattress. I washed all of those as quickly as possible also, with plain water and a little mild soap. This was a mistake: this violates Fabritech’s requirements for the use of their BedBarrier®, and -- I was told later on the phone by Fabrictech’s customer service manager -- a violation of the proper care of the Tempur-Pedic mattress. But we didn’t know it yet. We had done exactly what Sleepy’s had told us. We had, recall, nothing in writing from any of these corporate entities besides a sales invoice. No limitations on their parts, no requirements on our part, nothing. (“You could keep it in the trunk of your car.”) One can only assume Fabritech had never required that Sleepy’s must provide customers with their Bedliner Ten Year Warranty and Care Guide, a document we never knew existed, despite questions at the time of purchase. All was verbal, and grossly inadequate.

On removing the BedBarrier, the under-coating of the protector had, over the past four years, disintegrated into a useless bunch of plastic flakes.

I certainly understand why this was the first mattress in my life that made me sweat so much, but I could not understand why its functional layer had flaked off into thousands of pieces.

Sleepy’s was useless.

My wife called Fabrictech and spoke with someone named Kristina, who asked a few questions and was given as much information as my wife could give, not having recalled every detail, the precise time frame, and so forth. Nor did she understand the reasons for all the questions. Kristina never mentioned the Care Guide, which detailed their limitations and our obligations; never asked if we had it. She just asked questions, heard the replies – most of which were uncertain, though she wrote them all down as precise facts – and then asked that that we fax them a copy of the sales invoice.

What she had been doing was checking off every possible reason to deny the claim, but she was careful to never let on.

Five days later their response arrived in the mail. It took the form of an indictment against us. Section One: a summary of the claim, with their chosen “facts”. Section Two was the “determination”. We had voided the warranty. There was a list of our “violations”. “Warranty Violations (list): Stains must be reported no later than five business days after the occurrence. This warranty will be void if the customer attempts to remove stains through any other cleaners or with any other cleaners or stain removers other than those outlined in the warranty.” As if we had ever been given this “warranty” to read and study, or these terms had been told to us by Sleepy’s. Our experience there had been made clear to Kristina. “Do not attempt to clean your mattress with household cleaners as this will void theBedliner Warranty.” Really??? “Explanation of Outcome: Stains that have been present for an unknown period of time will permanently set into the mattress.” They seem to know a lot about a mattress they do not manufacture or sell. “Use of unauthorized cleaners, such as soap and water [!!!!?????!!!!], can set stains permanently…and are direct violations of the Bedliner warranty. Due to the above violations, the warranty has been void.” I think them mean “has been voided.” They could use a little lesson in grammar and usage. I’ve left out their other violations of the English language. Section 3 was “Consumer’s Responsibilities”: “Responsibilities and Recommendations: Fabrictech International will no longer service the mattress or Bedliner associated with invoice [Sleepy’s invoice #].” Etc.

I called them and was greeted immediately by a hostile young man named Chris, who eventually told me he was the customer service manager, and spent over half an hour berating me for all the things we had done wrong and all of our violations of some mysterious set of rules we had never heard, let alone seen on paper. He ignored my queries and our accounts, which I repeated, of the failures on the part of Sleepy’s – their retail distributor – which was ultimately responsible for selling us a sort of “blanket coverage” that led to his ability to deny his responsibility, and therefore, most likely any responsibility on the part of Tempur-Pedic, who we have not yet even contacted. Chris even went so far as to say (I paraphrase here) “we know exactly what you and your wife did and failed to do, and when these things happened because we record all calls for quality assurance.” (Quality assurance? Sounds like they record calls as a means of gathering evidence!) So, my wife’s phone call would be used against us, and had already been used against us. It seems they “recommend” that the Bedliner be laundered once a month. He also said that failure to follow this “recommendation” was a violation of the warranty agreement. Any stain, whether successfully repelled or not, MUST be reported to them within five business days. Failure to do so…etc.

He was remarkably hostile, like a district attorney prosecuting an alleged felon. (Imagine Jack McCoy putting you on the stand. “You have a driver’s license, so you must have taken a driving test and know you cannot drive on the left side of the road or park at a fire hydrant. Isn’t that right? You have violated the terms of your license, so we have revoked your license and will be impounding your vehicle.” That’s what the call to Chris was like. Seriously.) Looking at my phone I saw that we were approaching half an hour! I finally got him to admit that there was written document (which he would not even concede we might not ever have been given): the sacred warranty and care guide. (Mind you, I maintained my composure and remained polite the entire time in spite of his rudeness and hostility. Of course, if this call was recorded, I would love to get a copy of it to use against both Chris and Fabrictech. I’m sure that, in keeping with their policies, it has been erased, or altered to use against us. I’m also sure it is their policy to respond to calls following a claim denial in such a hostile, prosecutorial manner. I’d even lay odds that, having our phone number after our initial call and their “determination” mailing, their phone system was set to automatically direct any incoming calls from us to Chris, the modern embodiment of the Spanish Inquisition in Cedar Grove, New Jersey. Nevertheless, I made it clear to him that although their Bedliner was a crumbling piece of garbage and his company had failed us just as much as Sleepy’s had, I felt there was much blame to place on Sleepy’s, and finally got him to admit there was a document I should have, from which he was quoting like an automation (that’s what he gets paid for, right?), and got him to e-mail it to me.

It is quite a document, dated the exact year we bought the Bedliner, though it does not state what month it was authored. Perhaps it did not exist when Sleepy’s sold us our magic warranty-sustaining shield, the Fabrictech Bedliner. It completely fills an 8-1/2” x 14” sheet of paper, and refers to the company as “Fabrictech2000” – not Fabrictech International.

Had we ever seen this document, believe me, we would have studied it, copied it and kept it in many places, particularly under the mattress. (A careful reading shows that Sleepy’s grossly misrepresented the mattress warranty protective properties of the Fabrictech warranty. Had we ever seen it, we’d have probably never bought the mattress: the consumer is, for all intents and purposes, protected by nothing unless nothing purchased that day for about $1,800 is ever used. If you sweat while sleeping and admit this when Kristina asks you: VIOLATION!!! VOID!!!! Evidently the perspiration the Bedliner causes not only voids their warranty, making the mattress warranty void, Fabrictech’s Care Guide equates it with all other bodily fluids (and hair!), as well as “medical incontinence…unknown stains…harsh caustic acids, dyes…willful destruction; bleaches…” etc. etc. They only left out radioactive waste. And they do permit you to engage an “independent service agent” who may deem “the mattress unsanitary.”

Bottom line:

- Sleepy’s was grossly negligent and deceptive, and misrepresented the warranties of the products they sold, which ended up being a very expensive bunch of useless stuff. For us, this is a medically critical situation.

- Fabrictech permitted Sleepy’s to sell its product with grossly inadequate “recommendations”, making it impossible to adhere to the consumer’s obligations, as these were never made available.

- A rather expensive mattress – with a now unusable warranty – has been compromised by the failure of the Fabrictech Bedbarrier, following the failure of this consumer to follow instructions to which we never had access – until AFTER a half-hour, abusive phone call.

- Sleepy’s owes us much time, a new Bedbarrier (the one made by Tempur-Pedic is probably superior), and a new mattress).

- Chris owes us a lengthy apology, and should be fired after being forced to purchase all of the above, simply owing to his inexcusable hostility and dishonesty.

Stay away from Sleepy’s. Stay away from Fabrictech. If you buy Tempur-Pedic, get it somewhere else and do your homework first.