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Sleep Number Mattress: FAIL!

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 crap.

sleepnumber

And bring all the neighborhood kids.

~Trisha

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Comments

  1. I hate that happened to you. My husband and I had a VERY similar experience with Serta the other day. The manager actually said there was nothing we would like there (we had just walked in ) and for us to go look at their “bargain” department called Five Star. we just went elsewhere.

  3. 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?

  4. 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’.

  5. 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!

  6. 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.

  8. 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!

  9. 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 [email protected]. 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

  10. 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.

  11. 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.

  12. 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!

  13. 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.

  14. 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!

  15. 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!

  17. 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!

  18. 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!

  19. 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!

  20. 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.

  21. 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.

  22. 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.

  23. 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.

  24. 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

  25. 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.

  28. 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. 🙂

  29. 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.

  30. Yeah I would have not taken to kindly to this treatment. I would have flipped the F out then tweeted my displeasure for sleep number. They have Twitter if you want to bash them to feel better. LOL. That always makes me feel better. Sucks people still give treatment like this and are willing to lose a 3k sale. I hardly doubt Charlotte hugging an animal was that big of a deal. What a Douche!

  31. Good for you for going back and confronting him. I know personally I probably would have fumed and not gone back, but if something like this happened to me and my family, I would probably have more courage now. That manager was completely out of line.

    • you would think i am a confrontational person, but usually I am not. I usually just walk out and get pissed off. But i could NOT STAND the thought of not knowing what exactly she did wrong.

  32. Something tells me Mr. Asshole is going to get what’s coming to him when headquarters sees this. Good for you for standing up for yourself!

  35. Ahhhh! I would have been completely pissed to! The point of mattress stores, especially that much money being spent on one, is to test them out! Someone commented before “about decor”, exactly true! We don’t purchase expensive mattresses for decor reasons, its how it feels when we lay in it! Dumb ass manager.

    And I agree with judging your wallet from looks. They do that to us all the time. It drives me crazy!

    I have a tempur pillow top, best money we EVER spent! You will love yours! I heard sleep number sucked anyways! What sucks for this company is now we will pass the “word of mouth” all around, and this one sleeze ball has ruined the company, or lost them several thousands!

    • I am really really picky. I tried out three tempurpedics and found one that i think was great. Like i said….the cost is super high, but if it has a 20 year warranty, dh and i both love it,a nd we get some sleep, money well spent. Ill let you know after we have it for 3 months.

  37. I can certainly see why you would be upset and corporate should be upset as well.

    Yes, I do think companies are responsible for those they hire. The customer service I receive plays a MAJOR role in my choice of using that particular brand ever again. When I read things like this about a company, even if it wasn’t my own experience, it taints the brand as a whole. Not a good thing especially for families like my own that are on the hunt for the perfect mattress.

  38. I have a Tempurpedic….one way or the other you have gone the right way. Crappy sales people suck.

  40. What in the WORLD ever happened to good customer service? That is just awful. Way to go, posting this and calling him out on this – using the blogging universe for true word of mouth opinions!

  41. WOW!! Thats all i can say! I agree with you, the company should and I believe they are responsible for the MANAGERS of their store. I would contact sleep number directly and explain the issue you had with their manager. Besides, in a mattress STORE there are no displays…just mattresses you lay on! Gimme a break! Not like it was a real furniture store.

    • yes! Managers should be held above everyone else. This guy was basically a dud. I even said that I didnt think their PR was going to appreciate this when i called and he just shrugged. He really had no care for the company at all.

      I wish i had my video camera w/ me.

  42. I agree with your actions. Bad customer service equals one companies loss and another companies gain. I have been in management and everywhere trains you that you will never hear much from a happy customer. A unhappy customer will tell a minimum of 10 people about their experience. Now the one customer you treated like crap just turned into 11. Well, us bloggers tell way more than 10 as you can see.

  43. The lack of simple, decent, courteous customer service nowadays is appalling. And in this economy? Losing a $3000 sale on an item that (1) for most is considered a luxury rather than a necessity (even though for health standards it should be considered a necessity); and (2) usually follows word-of-mouth recommendations, is akin to professional suicide for stores like these. And to lose it because a child was testing it? What the hell is the stuffed animal on the bed for? Like Trisha said … adults are going to toss it on the floor or on another bed if they want to test the mattress, so exactly who is the stuffed animal for? Who do stuffed animals appeal to? Children.

    I’m willing to bet Trisha was right in her assumption that the manager didn’t think they represented a sale based on outward appearance. I have experienced this personally so many times and it’s so frustrating. Do we actually have to paste money on our foreheads to get any decent service?

    I hope the district manager or whoever else supervises this guy learns a lesson from this. A very expensive, $3000 lesson.

  44. Yikes, he wouldn’t have liked me then. When my mom went mattress shopping she took Johnny. I remember going to meet them there and wanted to hide while she let him jump from bed to bed to bed. HAHA! I was mortified it was my son. It was at Macy’s so it was a HUGE selection.

  45. Oh wow what a jerk. I hate stores like that and people that think they are better than others just because of what they are wearing.

  46. That’s exactly why I go shopping for large purchases before I’ve showered for the day and with my 3yo in tow. If a salesperson can be kind and courteous to us when we don’t look like we’re paying cash then I will purchase from them. It’s not just sleep number sales people. It’s also car salespeople (yes the women do it too), furniture stores, and realtors. In fact the realtor we chose for our first home, and then subsequent sale of that home was strictly because she was the only one willing to give a young woman on the phone the time of day.

    Customer service all over is lacking, and if you want to get ahead, the best way is with great service. I’ll even pay more for an item if I know the service I will receive with my purchase is excellent.

  47. This sucks. As an owner of a Sleep Number Bed, we do love it. We tested it out in a store that was very helpful, and then bought it online for a better deal. I think you can’t necessarily blame the whole company for 1 employees mistakes, but you can choose to go elsewhere and this just may be what you need to do. Forward the info to the district manager and move on.

  48. That is ridiculous behavior.

    You guys should check out the place where we got out mattress. It is the BEST mattress we have ever owned. sleepez dot com – they deliver it your house. I want to replace all of mattresses in our house with the ones from this company!!

  49. WOW! That is crazy. And, it totally reflects poorly on Sleep Number. I can’t believe that guy was 1) so bad at his job and 2) such a jerk.

    I hope he feels like a total tool knowing he lost a good commission.

  50. WTH …It’s not like she was rolling around on luxury linens, with an ice cream cone.

    I don’t like to be haunted when I am shopping, but if I walk into a specialty store, I at least expect to be told “Just let me know, if you need some help.” Poor service in a weak economy, is a great way to put yourself out of business. Never mind a Kia, this guy will be walking, with that kind of salesmanship.

  51. Wow. A $50 stuffed animal is much more important than a $3000 sale of a mattress. What a jerk. Not to mention if he doesn’t want to deal with children…find a new job because (manager or no manager) customer service isn’t the right fit. I’ve tried a sleep number mattress too by the way…was NOT impressed in the least. And if I had to deal with this guy….sleep number would NEVER get my business.

  52. Isn’t the purpose of the display for the customers to test out? Shit like that pisses me off it is like you all was a burden to him and he has to actually work, oh wait he didn’t work he acted as if you all wasnt there until your daughter was testing the display. In my opinion he should face serious actions for this. Like you said if you said something ill on your blog you would be held liable. Asshat if i seen one lets prank him.

    “yes I was calling to see if you had a stuffed dog for sale, oh you do? Whats that a little girl was showing it love oh nevermind then” pfft

  54. It is such a sad thing. I love my sleep number bed, but we ordered ours online. Customer Service like that would have made me mad too but it would have sent my husband through the roof. Don’t they know that your purchase goes towards their paycheck!

  55. I am totally appalled. People are such jerks ( politely) sometimes. Really. Good for you for marching back in there and giving him your mind though it doesnt seem to have done any good. An apology and discount would have been the right thing to do!

  56. Ohhh no, no, no, no. I would’ve flipped out as well. Isn’t that the point of a having mattresses on display? To lay on it? No one wants to just look at a mattress to see if it will fit their decor. What an idiot. Customer service is a HUGE selling point for me. Thanks for sharing your experience with us!

  57. Oh wow! I took my daughters with me to a furniture store and the sales man told us it was fine that my 3 year old wanted to climb the furniture. UMM NO. She isn’t allowed to do that at home so she isn’t allowed to do it here. But she did love testing out couches and all sorts of furniture with us. That sleep number guy is just an ASS HAT.

    • Exactly. We went to a furniture store before and she was testing the beds. But we monitor her to not get out of our site, she wasnt allowed to jump on anything or be obnoxious. In fact, chris corrected her attitude at Rooms to Go for something. We have zero problems walking out and going home and we have done it before.

      Her age is not an excuse to be a brat.

      ITs because of that when she IS being good that someone comes along and tries to reprimand me as a mother and her as a child, when there was nothing wrong.

      Im sorry he works in the mall and hates it. But now he can work in the mall, hate it, and not have sales.

  58. If they put the stuffed animal on the bed that you test out, I think it is implied it might get laid on.

    What a horrible experience, and good to know because we will be needing a new mattress…like 2 years ago….

  59. OMG Thats just awful! Thank you for letting us know that. I was actually looking into buying the damn sleep number because the call center I work from home takes these calls for the free info they send out and everyone i talk to seem to love them and are repeated customers But if a sales manger or employee is allowed to act like that I would refuse to give my hard money to them.

    I don’t see what the difference is that you and your husband could test them out but she couldn’t.