MATTRESS SAGA
Buying…read morea mattress should be easy. Just look around Los Angeles and you will find more mattress shops than you can imagine.
Alas...my new mattress plan turned into an unpleasant month-long saga.
Happily, this tale has a happy ending. Read on.
I did my research and quickly found that Amazon had the exact mattress I wanted: Nectar Hybrid Queen 12" mattress. The price was competitive and they provided "white glove" service gratis.
A mattress, Amazon...what could go wrong?
In a word, everything.
The first delivery went well. Except, as the truck pulled away, I noticed that they had brought the wrong size - a Full instead of a Queen. Since the package had been opened, Amazon couldn't take it back, so I donated it.
Ten days later, the Prime truck arrived and before the men were about to carry the box upstairs, I noticed the word KING. Yes. They brought a King instead of a Queen. Bye bye second wrong mattress.
Even Customer Rep was shocked.
Another ten days, delivery day arrived and I felt confident. Lightning seldom strikes twice, let alone three times, but there it was - an email from Amazon, declaring the mattress had run into delivery issues and they had no idea when I would receive the mattress.
Several frustrating calls to Customer Service and Amazon Logistics and I was done.
The internet is a big place and yet luck was finally on my side.
The first store that showed up on my computer monitor was Sleep Cycle Mattress in Torrance.
I wrote a succinct, no-nonsense email: "do you have a Nectar, Hybrid, Queen, 12 mattress and can I have it by tomorrow?
Incredibly, the owner immediately responded with "yes and we can have it to your home in Santa Monica tomorrow by 4:30."
Seriously?!
I met Kevin (Barkiev) Jarliekian, the owner, at 10:30 on Saturday morning. The showroom was impressive but more importantly, Kevin was a most welcoming, no-nonsense gentleman. He quickly led me to my mattress and had me try it out. Minutes later while he was writing up the invoice, we chatted easily and the showroom started filling up with his friendly, professional staff as their day begun.
A half hour later, when I was in my car heading back to Santa Monica, my phone rang. It was Joe from Sleep Cycle, letting me know that he was in the delivery truck and would be at my home in 35 minutes.
Seriously?
I arrived home 5 minutes before the truck showed up and within 15 minutes, Joe and his partner had come and gone, having set up the mattress, removed the packaging and without scraping my newly painted walls and staircase.
A half hour later, I received an email from Amazon about the order I had actually cancelled before heading to Sleep Cycle - it was to inform me that the delivery was pending and they were unable to provide a definitive day or time.
And the beat goes on.
Do yourself a favor. When you or anyone you know is in the market to buy a new mattress, don't bother to research and compare.
Head for Sleep Cycle and speak with Kevin. You'll save yourself a lot of conversations from disinterested sellers of mattresses and Kevin's team with reward you with a good night's sleep.
HIGHLY RECOMMEND.