Today I woke up from another bad night of sleep and decided that’s it. We are going to find a new mattress. The past two mattresses we have purchased have been great in the beginning and then wear out to dips. It basically makes for cracks in your back and tossing and turning.
We knew we were going to have to swallow some credit card debt and I figured it would take about $3000-$4000 to get a mattress that lasted for the next 10+ years. At this point anything that allows me to sleep would be a good fit. I cant exactly take a sleeping pill anytime I want rest, kwim?
So we went to Rooms 2 Go first. They had a pretty good selection and we were able to test out TempurPedic, Sealy, Simmons, BeautyRest, and a ton of others. For the most part all of them felt pretty much like our current mattress except for Temper-pedic. When it comes to Chris and I, he likes a firm mattress and I like to sink into one like a pillow. Its hard to get us to agree.
We both settled on a Tempur-Pedic and with a 20 year warranty and a 90 day trial period, we figured it just might be worth the $3100 price tag that followed it. I swear I owe that much on my SUV though. It’s a big chunk of change and I don’t take the purchase lightly or quickly.
Before we made the decision, we really wanted to test out a Sleep Number mattress. They advertise that one side can be hard and one side soft, so if we found the right overall feel, it may be a good decision for us as a couple. We went over to the mall where I knew for sure they had a Sleep Number store.
When we walked in, the employee on duty (later to learn the manager) said hi but walked off. He did not ask us what we were looking for, attempt to give us any information, and left us basically blind at the front door. Its not that I needed help, but since these mattresses are supposedly better than other ones out there, a little customer service would have been a nice start .
Nonetheless, we laid down on the first bed and Charlotte hopped on the bed next to us. She loves to test out mattresses and we had been doing it all day so she knew the drill. On the bed that she was on, it had a very very large stuffed dog laying on the entire bed. Charlotte crawled up and laid on it hugging it and was giggling. She was not upset, yelling, jumping, or being inappropriate. Just hugging the big stuffed animal dog and giggling.
Dh looked over and made the comment that Charlotte found the mattress she wanted.
As I am standing up from the 1st mattress, the employee walked by and told me to tell her to get off. I was pretty taken by surprise by the sense of attitude. I said Charlotte, get off the bed. She started to protest for a minute and I told her to get up and that we were leaving. She got off immediately and walked over to me and we left and went to the Disney store.
Standing in the Disney store I started to get a little heated. We came all the way to the mall just to test out Sleep Number. Charlotte was NOT doing anything wrong. She was hugging the stuffed animal dog on the bed. SMILING. She was being quiet.
HELLO. That’s not exactly easy to say about a 4 year old.
I decided to walk back to Sleep Number to get the managers business card. I really wanted to express how I felt about my negative experience. I go back (alone) and the guy was sitting at his computer. I could just tell he knew why I was walking back in. I asked him for the managers card. He said “I am the manager”.
What? You cannot be serious.
What exactly are the qualifications now a days? Speaking English?
I sat down at the table in front of him, explained to him we came in to attempt to purchase and I wanted to know exactly what Charlotte was doing wrong that she had to get up.
He said “She was laying on the display”.
I said “It was a stuffed animal. On the bed. She was not jumping up and down. She was laying there.”
He said “She was on the display”.
I said “It was a STUFFED ANIMAL.”
Then he said something that really pissed me off.
He said “You didn’t care what she was doing.“
EXCUSE ME. YOU SAID WHAT?
Oh, now you done pissed off a mom.
I think it made me so mad I started to shake. I said “That is not true. We were testing the mattress RIGHT NEXT To her and she was laying on the bed there. She was not doing anything inappropriate and the SECOND you said something to me I asked her to get up and she did.”
The guy just shrugged. I seriously could have smacked him.
Sales people like him drive Kias. Till they die.
Now let me ask you, should a company be held responsible for its employees actions? I know I am held responsible for mine on the blog. If I blast someone or something or use some sort of language that a company judges me over, I lose my business with them. If I have an opinion on something that a visitor doesn’t like, I run the risk of them never visiting me again.
I say yes, they are indeed responsible.
I was not only disappointed, I was irritated that this asshole could have the audacity to make those statements when they were not even close to being true. I would challenge Sleep Number to pull the security tapes to find a well behaved child hugging their “display” but I mostly challenge them to start training their employees on the art of basic customer service and courtesy.
If I would have been “shopping” the store, he would have failed miserably. Hell, it was worse then shopping the store. I was looking to PURCHASE and he failed miserably.
If you really think about it, what would a stuffed animal, a LARGE stuffed animal, be laying on a bed that you are supposed to test period. Since it was the 2nd in line of the mattresses, clearly our next test would have been on that one and we would have had to throw it on the floor. If it was such an important “display”, it seems to me it wouldn’t be where anyone could touch it at all.
It was a $50 stuffed dog. In the mall.
This wasn’t exactly Tiffanys.
If you want to know the truth, what I think really happened was that we walked in wearing jeans, T-shirts and sandals and the guy thought we were not worth his time. Surely we couldn’t afford a mattress. Too bad behind the jeans and t-shirts was a perfect credit history and ability to pay cash if we wanted.
I would say Sleep Numbers $3000 mistake, was Tempurpedics $3000 gain.
Here is the store you go to if you are willing to be insulted, talked down too, and helped worth a shit.
And bring all the neighborhood kids.
~Trisha
FAIL!!! I think you are right they judged a book by its cover and decided you were not worth the effort of CS. That is crappy! How are you enjoying the Tempurpedic?
Wow! What an asshat! Seriously, who talks like that to customers? Reminds me of Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman. You should go back in there with a picture of a $10,000 bed and ask if he works on commission and then show him the picture and say, ‘Big mistake. Big. HUGE! Well…I have to go shopping now.’ lmao
Glad I don’t live there. That’s one bed we have on our list of ‘wants’.
That’s insane! I can’t believe he was so incredibly rude … but actually I guess I can. Most sales people are simply just like that, and it’s sad he lost out on your sale … I am a HUGE customer service type person and willing to pay a little extra if I am getting the customer service I feel I deserve!
As for Charlotte, I mean seriously she could have been doing far worse, I have seen kids act so bad in the stores before and what she was doing def sounds like not a big deal at all!!
Hugs to you!
Good to know. We are in the market for a new mattress set for our master bedroom and plan on buying one within the next month. Thank you for sharing your experience.
That guy was not only rude, he was an idiot. Especially in today’s market, a company better have exemplary customer service if they hope to compete.
Customer service obviously means nothing these days. So sorry for your bad experience. But from the sound of it, you did better off by not purchasing one.
All it takes is one person with horrible customer service like this to ruin a business. I would have been so angry myself and I applaud you for standing up for yourself as usual!
Trisha,
This is Sarah Panus from Select Comfort’s corporate headquarters. On behalf of the company, I want to personally apologize for your family’s less-than-positive experience in our store. We really appreciate that you took the time to share your experience — it helps us make sure we’re offering the best possible customer experience in our stores and everywhere else across the company. I’d like you to know that we are looking into this situation with the store you visited. If there’s anything else you’d like to share with me, feel free to email me at sarah.panus@selectcomfort.com. Again, I apologize.
thank you sarah. I hope that the man involved receives some customer service training so no other consumer has to experience how I felt.
I apprieciate the apology and its accepted.
Trisha
How funny! Not that it happened to you but we too bought a tempurpedic after experiencing the Sleep Numbers less than desirable customer service. The woman that ‘helped’ us was so annoyed that after an hour of listening to her ’speech’ and hard sell that my husband wanted to go to dinner and not buy it right then and there. Her disdain was quite clear.
I even tweeted with Sleep Number before, during and after the experience and didn’t feel like they really cared that we walked out because of the sales person and they lost the sale.
I have been in a couple of Sleep Number stores and can say I have never been offered assistance. It was always pretty much a “hi” and then they walked away. We tried the mattresses at the stores and they seemed great, but when we actually spent the night on one (at a high end hotel), we HATED it. I am glad to hear that you like your Tempurpedic as that is what I think we are going to buy with our tax return.
I hate, hate, hate, bad customer service! And the best way to get back at them is to (a) not buy anything and (b) tell all your friends (and the online community) about the horrible way you were treated so as to get others to not go there. So I think you’ve shown them. UGH. That just irks me how rude he was!
Lack of or bad customer service is something my husband and I don’t put up with either. We have walked out of restaurants, movies, department stores, etc. We usually try to find the manager to speak to before we leave. We are not the kind to give anybody a hard time so we expect the same in return.
It seems like a lot of employees can be like that and the companies should know about it. If they want people like that working for them, then they obviously don’t care about the customers.
When you go into a store, you should be greeted with a smile and a hello, but that is rare nowadays!
That is absolutely awful. Terrible that you had to experience that. I really hate horrible customer service, especially after what he said about Charlotte.
I’m upset FOR you!
Wow, this guy must not have kids…..or he’s just a jerk! I wouldn’t have given them my business either. That was an expensive butt-munch moment.
Trish you need to send this to the top! So because you wore jeans they figure you cant afford it? Kind like in pretty woman eh? What a joke the way the economy is going these retailers need to bust as to make sales not chase them away!
I agree. Sleep Number needs to either invest more in their employee training or realize that they are going to be losing business because they are hiring assholes. Geezus!
having worked in customer service for 20 years, i would send a copy of your blog to the ceo. somehow, i think that manager might not last long. the ceo really does need to hear this as what is broke can’t be fixed if it is not known!
That sucks that Frank Coleman Jr (I hope he googles his name some day) was an asshole….because Sleep Number beds R O C K! My hubby and I have had one for about 10 years and comment more mornings than not ((STILL)) that we love our bed.
I think it is absolutely ridiculous how less and less customer service has become. I’ve been in Sleep Number stores before and well, I’ve felt quite the same way but obviously never to the extent you were treated with.
They lost out on a customer big time. And yes, companies should be held accountable for their employees. It’s part of RUNNING the company. If they are unwilling to hire employees with work ethic, their sales will crash (apparent by the incident you experienced) When I was a mall employee, I knew darn well that my performance would be graded, whether by customers, secret shoppers, or other co-workers. People just dont care anymore and Sleep Number definitely=FAIL.
You did the right thing getting the Tempur Pedic. Their mattresses are awesome and they last for a really long time. Too bad about Sealy. My son goes just about everywhere with me so it would be hard to visit a store that was not child friendly.
I can’t believe that he even said that to you. Horrible customer service is a turn off for you and everyone else that you share your experience with. I just don’t understand how he got to be store manager unless he is two faced.
Um yeah…that guy is a jerk. That’s putting it mildly.
I for one LOVE my Tempurpedic mattress.
And…I also drive a Kia
(which I also love) LOL
What ever happened to The Customer is #1 & is Always right???
This is someone who doesn’t need a job. In this economy esp. any sale is important & every customer should be treated as they are important. I used to work in sales , customer service & and lastly owned & operated my own retail store. I had lots of breakables for sale & lots of kids that entered every day… If one was acting wildly I might of said something, but most behaved well, as I treated them a regular customer, and even small children can sense that…
I would be contacting the next chain of command & so on , even up to corporate… Someone is interested in how their customers are treated & why there is no sales… And what someone is wearing does not make or break a sale or common courtesy.
Heck I have gone shopping after a day of working in the yard all dirty & gungy… If I would of been treated like that my business would go & never come back, and be yelled from the roof tops.
My husband lets me do all the dealing esp in big sales.. as I am a hard buy. If you don’t answer my Q’s or treat me like I am the one with the buying power or look for a “man’ to give the okay, you lost a lot of sales.
Customer service & Satisfaction is the key to success, or has the corporate big Guns forgot that….
see, i dont expect to always be right, but be treated FAIR.
I didnt mention before, but we were the ONLY people in the entire store. It was us and him.
Yeah, I’d be finding out who his regional manager was and start going up the chain from there.
I also would have told the guy to fuck off.
But that’s just me.
What a jerk. If there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s crappy C/S.
Trisha,
I know first hand that the Select Comfort company has reached out to a number of moms in the blogging community to get the word out about their product. (We’ve had a King size sleep number bed for 11 years and LOVE it.) And my 3 kids each have a twin sized mattress.
Anyway, I love this company. I hope you don’t mind, but I sent the URL to this post to the folks that I know at their National Headquarters. I thought they should know. We’ll see what happens now.
I dont mind. I want the company to know my experience and hopefully correct with other potential buyers.
While he really is an asshole, I really don’t think your missing much on the mattress. We bought the top of the line model as it was supposed to be great for my husband’s back. HATED that bed from the moment it came in the house. The air pump died which left us with no bed for almost a week. We suffered through one year and when tax time came we got a new bed so we could sleep.
Im slowly feeling better w/ all these comments. You are the like 2nd or 3rd to note that here.