Mattress Base

This fall my wife and I began shopping for a new bed. As a chiropractic physician finding the perfect mattress was quite important. My wife and I had researched many beds but were still undecided. Then one day I heard about the SAM Mattress. As I read more about the mattress it seemed to be just what I was looking for. I called the toll free number listed and was connected to Kevin Dyevich. At the time I did not know how small this company was and that Kevin was the owner. I spoke to Kevin in detail about the SAM and all of its functions. He led me to believe the SAM bed was being used in all of the orthopedic hospitals across the country. This was the first of many lies Kevin would tell. I told Kevin many of my patients ask me my recommendation for a good mattress almost daily. I then told him if this mattress did everything he claimed I would be glad to recommend it.

We bought our Nautilus 4 years ago. We have never regretted it since. I have had back surgery, and was replacing the $2K mattresses every two years. Manufacturers told me that 1 1/5″ sag was normal wear - not a defective product. Well, my back could not take the sag - hence - constantly repurchasing beds.

UPDATE: Have changed air mattresses to new type and spouse states he does not wake up with pain anymore. Now that I think about it, the soreness in my right arm and hip could have been from sleeping on the old mattresses. I am happy with the new air chambers so far. They appear to be much more durable than the old type. The memory foam does not seem to be necessary for comfort. And no more lumpy bed!! American National Mfg. also adjusted air compressor and now bed inflates quickly. Perhaps we can keep this bed for a few more years after all.

Original Review:

Have owned the California king size of this system for 6 years. Purchased for spouse with back problem. The first 3 years of owning product it had problems with the air pump twice and it was replaced with no problem. Then the air chamber got a leak on the seam and was replaced under warranty.

I never even pondered sleeping by number. Still seems to be a strange concept. The Select Comfort 4000 ended up being exceptional with unexpected results. I use to sleep on a fluffy pillow top and it had to be top of the line. Frankly, I felt like the Princess and the Pea. By Hans Christian Andersen having to be so fussy when it came to a bed.

However, I am very common but my body is not.

Why I needed a new bed

My husband and I bought a select comfort sleep number 7000 about 11 months ago. It arrived in a number of boxes and my husband put it together by himself while I was at work. This whole time it seemed strange to me that the mattress top was so flat. It has a zipper around it and it seemed like there should be something in there. I finally went to the select comfort site and discovered that we should have received a 3 inch layer of foam to go into the mattress top. I immediately sent an email to customer service and the reply I received pretty much said too bad, you should have received 6 boxes and should have contacted us sooner to report that one of the boxes did not arrive. Well, I can’t remember how many boxes we received, nor does my husband but it is clear that we did not receive the 3 inch layer of foam that forms that top of the mattress. If we now want the missing part it will cost us $438 plus tax. Well, after paying almost $4000 for the bed, I don’t see why I should pay them for something they never sent. I just want people who are considering buying one to be very, very careful because once they have your money, they are not interested in helping you any more.

And to be honest, I don’t think it is all that comfortable. Maybe it is the missing foam or maybe it is just that they are not all they are advertised to be. If I had the choice to do it over again, I would have bought a high end regular mattress and probably saved myself a lot of money!

When we upgraded from a queen-size bed to a king-size, my husband talked his then-pregnant wife into “just looking” at the Select Comfort store in our local mall. Well, put a pregnant gal on any mattress that she might be able to sleep on without 15 extra pillows, and she’ll say “Sold!” just a loud as I did.

The Select Comfort salesman answered all our questions, and we weren’t pressured at all. He showed us prices and options and let us mill around & try beds as long as we wanted without bothering us.

It was time for us to get a new mattress. Our old one was seeing it’s last days. The springs were coming through.

Our old one was an Englander.

When I seen this one it looked nice and felt nice. Nice and firm. Well made. Said it had Back Guard, something we had been having problems with lately. Plus it was on sale.

Waking up in the morning these days, I have to pinch myself to make sure I’m not dreaming. No sore back - hard to believe after tossing and turning for months, trying to get comfortable so my sore back wouldn’t keep me awake.

After blaming my aching bones on age (don’t want to admit that!), perhaps too much exercise, or sometimes the lack thereof, I finally came to the conclusion that the less than 2 year old Spring-Air ‘Back Supporter’ mattress (must be a joke) I’ve been sleeping on might be the real culprit.

My husband and I purchased a new Serta mattress and loved it for about a year and a half. Then it slowly developed a 4 inch sag in the middle. We had the Serta inspector out to determine it was defective. Then the nightmare began. It took Serta 2 weeks to even respond to us that the mattress was defective. Another 2 weeks for them to determine what they would do. We were told that the mattress was over 1 year old so could not be replaced, but would be repaired. As we were going to be sleeping on the floor until this repair was made and shipped back to us, we asked Mattress King, the retailer we bought the mattress from if there was someone at Serta we might talk to about this. Mattress King washed their hands of the whole deal and would not help us at all, just kept saying that Serta made the product, they would take care of the warranty. We were given the name of someone to call at Serta. After one month of no response and no returned phone calls, we faxed a letter to Serta customer service headquarters. Two weeks now later, still no response. In talking to a friend about the mattress, we discovered a friend who sells mattresses and they are going to display our defective mattress at their store as a reason not to deal with Serta products. We are now going to have to pay for a new mattress after only 2 years, and you can bet IT WILL NOT BE A SERTA.

If you are considering buying a Serta mattress, you are going to want to take a look at the pictures I have posted at http://sertasucks.hopto.org first. We purchased our Serta mattress from JCPenney (it was made at the Serta plant in Vacaville, California) and it was delivered on 11/18/2005. Within LESS THAN 2 MONTHS it had a 2.5 inch sag on my side of the bed and Susan’s side sagged more than 1 inch. We are not overweight people, I am 6′1″ and weigh about 200 lbs and Susan is only 4′ 11″ and weighs 110 lbs. Take a look at the pictures, you won’t believe it! We complained to JCPenney that we wanted our money back, but they refused. They did arrange for Serta to replace the mattress, but we have zero confidence that another mattress from Serta won’t do the same thing. We are planning to take both JCPenney and Serta to court if they refuse to refund our money and this review and the photos will remain posted until we get our money back. JCPenney and Serta should be ashamed that they manufacture and sell garbage like this. You should also know that a furniture delivery guy from a local store told us that the store he works for is constantly getting complains about Serta mattress’. He said that he has had to pick-up a several of them in the couple of months and that they seem to be the worst. So take a look at the pictures http://sertasucks.hopto.org (just cut and paste the link into your browser) before you decide to buy Serta and DON’T buy a mattress from JCPenney. Please let us know if seeing this message made you decide not to buy from Serta or JCPenney.