Mattress Escapades

HAHA! Not *that* kind of post, people!

Back in May of 2009, we bought a new bed. The whole works: frame, headboard (no footboard; I didn't want one), pillowtop King mattress, the two twin boxsprings, new bedding, and a special waterproof mattress pad (heaven forbid Ace sweats on the damn thing; staining negates warranties!). Our queen bed was sent off to mom's beach house.

Two years later, we realized the pillowtop was sagging... so we rotated. And continued rotating every month or so; we also swapped sides for a bit - a couple of times. Finally, mid-December, I called the customer service hotline and complained. By this point, both of us had screaming back pain and Ace had missed three days in a row of work.

The representative gave me detailed instructions on how to measure the sag in the mattress; I came up with 1 3/4" on Ace's side and 1 1/2" on my side. Seems the minimum it can be is 1 1/2", so, just to be safe side, she was sending an independent evaluator to our house. She made an appointment for the Wednesday before Santamas.

The evaluator came about 1030am; she was great. She's an older woman, & was slightly chatty, but friendly. She took her measurements (she came up with 1 3/4" on my side and over 2" on Ace's side!) and photos required, had us sign the documentation (this is why you don't remove some of the tags, and make sure you don't stain the mattress, folks!) that we'd followed all the rules. As she left, she said that the company would call within 5-10 business days.

Saturday morning, the 24th (remember, this was only 3 days after the evaluator was at our house), the phone rang with a 916 area code. Figuring it was one of my sisters, I answered the phone. Nope; it was the rep from the mattress company. She basically said that since we had an "obviously defective" mattress, they were giving us credit in the full amount we'd paid (2 1/2 years ago). We had 30 days to use the credit.

There was some child-related drama over the next couple weeks (blog about that coming soon), so when it calmed down a bit, we finally went mattress shopping. We laid on four different types of mattress; all in the same brand (so as to retain our warranties) -- the whole process kinda reminded me of "Goldilocks"! Anyway, we chose a medium-firm mattress, with the agreement to try different toppers until we found one that was right for us.

Two days later, we went to Costco and picked up the Gel Memory Foam Topper by Novaform (with instant in-store rebate, it was only $124.99). The first night, we both slept horribly; possibly nothing to do with the topper, though... we were both still dealing with back pain and some stress from the child-related stuff going on. The second night, much better; although the paint smell, I could do without (if you get one of these, [a] read all instructions BEFORE trying to set it up, and [b] if you have space, you may want to think about letting it air out in another room for a few days/a week).

Day three was last night; even better. We both slept all the way through (highly unusual), and the smell is starting to dissipate. You really have to get used to no bounce, though... it's a bit strange. All in all, though, I'm so far happy with this topper. We'll see how long it lasts, and either get another one then, or try something else. Regardless, no more saggy mattress!