US - Mattress

Full review
In anticipation of a visit from a friend and her young daughter at the end of May, I placed an order with US-Mattress for a Wesley Allen Daybed and a twin sized mattress on 4/5/09 for my 3rd guest room.  That's the last time anything went right with this purchase.

First, just so everyone knows, "Free Shipping" is not free. The shipper will basically drive it to your door, but somehow you've got to get it off of the truck yourself or pay an additional $50 to have it brought inside the house.  Whatever. However, there is no way to request this service in the check out process.

With this in mind, I put a note in the comments field that I did not need white-glove setup service, just someone to bring the thing in the door.  TWO WEEKS LATER, a US-mattress calls me to tell me that white-glove service is not available on Wesley Allen beds.  OK, thanks, I say, that's not what I asked for though.  I explained what I needed again. The rep agreed it had been misunderstood and said she'd process my order.  They charged me an additional $50 to have my items brought from the truck into the house.

I suppose that should have been my first red flag -- they hadn't even processed my order yet!

Approximately two weeks later, I received a call to schedule delivery.  The delivery truck arrived, and a big hefty guy brought the mattress inside. That's it.  Just the mattress.  Excuse me, the mattress?  I could have lugged that in myself. It was the only item in the shipment.  I placed a call to US-Mattress and encountered probably the rudest customer service agent at the place (most of them were in fact very nice, just utterly helpless), Marshall.  I explained to Marshall that I'd only received the mattress in a shipment that should have included a mattress and a daybed.  He sighed and huffed and said that I MUST have missed the part in the Wesley Allen description that says that Wesley Allen beds take 4-6 weeks to ship.  Well, I had.  And I still do. I don't see it anywhere on the website.  I asked him if I was going to be charged again for shipping -- he said "of COURSE not".  As if that was a stupid question. Was it?  OK, I can chalk this one up to user error.  I asked a few more "stupid" questions to which I recieved snippy answers. I asked for his name, he refused to give me anything more than "Marshall".  A truly charm-free individual.

So then, a couple more weeks later, (we're in early May at this point, and my visitors are due to arrive in just three weeks time), I get a call from the shipper to schedule the delivery of the bed itself. The day of delivery arrives and the shipper calls again to advise me that they only received 1 of 2 boxes from the shipper.  Did I want the 1 box delivered?  I told her I'd call her back, and contacted US-Mattress yet again.  This time, Beth was very nice, but couldn't seem to make heads or tails of the entire order.  According to one computer screen, it said that there were 2 boxes, but that the mattress was one of them.  On another screen, the bed itself was two boxes.  She said she'd call me back once she had it figured out, and that she'd also contact the shipping company.  I'm sorry --- is this their first sale??

Days later, no call. I called again, and spoke with another rep.  This rep saw the same SNAFU and connected me with Beth. Beth had managed to get a hold of the shipper and the shipping company. The trouble seemed to be that no one could tell what was in the box at the loading dock.  They wanted to ship me the box so I could open it and see what it was, and see if in fact it was indeed missing parts.  I agreed.

Of course -- you guessed it, it was not completel The box they shipped contained the bed frame only, but no bed base (all WA beds use the same base).  So, another call placed with US-Mattress.  This time I spoke with Pete.  Pete seemed cheered that WA would not charge additional shipping, nor would it take 4-6 weeks again to receive the pieces I was missing. I advised Pete that I was seriously running out of time and could he please impress upon the folks at WA that time was of the essence! He seemed a bit taken aback by that request since he thought he had such great news for me to begin with.  At this point this order has taken nearly two full months and I had just days left before my guests would arrive!  

In the end, the bloody base DID arrive, we contructed the bed (very easy) and my guests were none the wiser to my experience.

Should all of this been necessary?  I've literally never had such a stressful purchase experience. I would have gladly paid more money for the seamless transaction I should have had.   A few friendly reps and the ultimate arrival of the entire purchase in time not withstanding, I definely would not shop here again.