UPDATE: Sleepy’s reached out to me.  They are working with us and I will update post as needed

So we bought ourselves a new bed frame and mattress for Christmas.  The frame came without incident from Overstock.com – and they only had one delivery man on the truck that delivered.  And he bought every box up to the master bedroom cheerfully and carefully.  He was probably one of the NICEST delivery people I have ever dealt with.

The mattress experience was not so pleasant.  We ordered from Sleepy’s, which after my experience should be renamed Cranky’s.

As I told the Sleepy’s folks in an e-mail:

So we just bought a rather expensive mattress from you and the customer experience on delivery was enough to not ever use your company again and encourage others also NOT to patronize you.

The delivery was timely, but upon arrival delivery man #1 announced my new mattress was frozen, so it would not be able to take it up to the master bedroom (2 sets of stairs, 7 steps a piece).

What he wanted to do was dump my new expensive mattress in the front hall and block everything.

When he came into the house he complained about everything. Considering I was a paying customer I found that offensive. In another home when I used 1-800-Mattress they moved a bed frame, mattress, and box spring up an incredibly steep and narrow staircase and down a hall without a complaint.  And set everything up and removed another bed damaged in the move.

Your delivery man #1 then called your office, and basically I asked the woman what Sleepys was going to do for me and the answer was nothing.  “Well you got free delivery” she said in a horriblly accented voice like that should make it all better.

After much complaining delivery man #1 along with delivery man #2 (who was very nice) moved my new expensive mattress to the second floor hall.

Now while I get the gel stuff in the mattress caused it to freeze and couldn’t go up to master bedroom, the fact that I had to push to get them to do partial placement was ridiculous!

And I will note that I along with someone else had managed to move heavy dressers, a bed frame, and a large and heavy area rug up those two sets of 7 steps without complaint.

I have never seen a perfect mattress delivery, but at least my other experiences with other companies meant not feeling offended after spending a pretty penny. For the first time ever in my life I did not tip delivery personnel. But I was not going to tip after feeling offended and being given a hard time.

Again, I get the mattress was frozen and couldn’t be placed on the bed, but I should not have had to work SO hard to get the mattress part way to its final location when all I was talking about was a straight shot up 7 short stairs!

I have learned a valuable lesson that your company only cares about the customer up to the point you take our money.

A friend of mine who owns a business driven by customer service, and also offers delivery had this to say:

I will note that I think it’s ridiculous that they allowed your new expensive mattress to freeze.

You did not purchase a frozen mattress, did you?  So why did they allow it to become frozen before delivery?

The mattress should have been kept in temperature regulated storage before delivery, as I am guessing that the only way for it to become frozen is that they loaded the box truck the night before and left it outside.

These mattress are probably not tested to withstand freezing conditions so what if the gel foam substance is damaged from being frozen now?

How can you be sure that the mattress is not permanently damaged and will be less supportive as a result of poor product care prior to delivery?  I think they should refund half the cost of your new expensive mattress because of unsatisfactory delivery of a damaged product.

She’s not wrong, and I had not thought of that.  I wrote to them because the customer service to me the customer was not exactly what I was expecting. 1-800-Mattress is better, Overstock.com is better, Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s are also better.

I expect nothing more out of Sleepy’s as with them obviously customers are out of site and out of mind once they take your money.  Then it is onto the next sale. I think it is great they donated mattresses to Super Storm Sandy Survivors on the Rachael Ray Show but I think more of the credit there goes to Rachael Ray for arranging it.  After all, Sleepy’s corporate gets nice write offs for donations, correct?

I am thinking true customer service is a lost art unless you are patronizing smaller and more local businesses.

Lesson learned: if you purchase anything from Sleepy’s don’t expect much.  A good deal is not so fabulous when it comes with cranky customer service.   When it comes to them Caveat emptor. And when you can: shop local.