To Whom it May Concern;
I am writing to dispute the determination based on the mattress inspection performed by your representative Roy Jasinski at my residence dated October 22nd 2007. During the inspection I observed, I witnessed Mr. Jasinski video record himself measuring a three inch depression in the pillowtop portion of my mattress. He openly discussed the body impressions he observed with me.
Your company has determined that my warrantee is void due to a small, and barely recognizable stain on my mattress. As you can see from this photograph (please refer to exhibit A) body impressions on this mattress are clearly recognizable from across the room. Yet, your company has voided my warrantee for a stain that is extremely hard to see (please refer to exhibit B). I am hereby stating that your determination is unfair and unreasonable.
The problem with my mattress is the body impressions created from sleeping on the mattress for the last three years not a tiny stain left by my infant daughter.
It is morally irresponsible for your company to deny coverage of a matter that is clearly a result of poor workmanship and bad design. In fact, it is my understanding that Simmons Mattress Manufacturers no longer make the Drucilla Mattress I was sold on 12/06/2004; and with good reason these mattresses cause back pain.
I was advised during my first pregnancy by my chiropractor in the Fall of 2004 to purchase a new mattress. The Simmons Drucilla Mattress I purchased from Sleepys worked wonderfully for about two years. However, this style mattress is only designed to be flipped head to foot/foot to head every so often, you cannot flip it over completely, nor can you turn it side to side because the mattress no longer fit the box spring if you do. What ends up happening is that body impressions form in the pillowtop portion of the mattress that cause neurological symptoms in persons with back injuries.
There are mornings when I wake up with pins and needles in hip and thigh from the impression my hip has left in this poorly crafted mattress. Fortunately I am pregnant once again, unfortunately it is medically indicated that pregnant women sleep on their left (or right) side to provide better blood flow to the developing fetus. Sleeping in this position with the depression that my hip has caused bilaterally in this poorly crafted mattress is causing me significant pain.
I paid a total of $2,234.80 for this mattress on 12/06/2004, which came with a ten year warrantee. I made the purchase satisfied that the cost was worth the benefit for the health of my spine and my baby girl. The cost of the purchase is $18.62 per month when averaged over a ten year warrantee period. In fact, this mattress only lasted two and a half years, so at 28 months of pain-free use, that amounts to $79.81 per month for this mattress set. I cannot afford such a poor investment of our hard earned money.
It is not surprising that Sleepys is currently celebrating the opening of its 600th store; they are cheating their customers and that makes for big profits. They are sneaking out a back-door loophole that allows them to deny well-documented defects in the mattresses they sell that are a detriment to the persons sleeping on them.
It makes me wonder how many people suffer needlessly from this warrantee loophole your company relies on as a way of shirking their corporate social responsibility. I wonder how much health insurance companies have to pay out for medical services needed by persons forced to sleep on a defective mattress (after all it is much easier for us working class folks to come up with a few twenty-dollar co-payments a month than to find room in our budgets for a new mattress costing thousands of dollars).
In fact, the more nights I toss and turn on my own poorly designed mattress, the more I think about what I will do with the two months I will have to myself before my son is born and I wont have any homework (I will be taking a one-semester break from graduate school to give birth next Spring). Perhaps Ill give myself a self-assigned project and write to every health insurance company I can find an address for on the internet to find out if they think your definition of a warrantee is fair, and if they think it is worth investigating mattress stories from their own back pain clients as a way to save on their own costs.
I also start to wonder if any Washington public healthcare lobbyists would be interested in my thoughts as well. If the government protects the public from the injury due to lead paint and recalls toys, perhaps they will feel it is socially responsible to recall mattresses that cause back pain as well regardless of whether or not they are stained.
I am forwarding a copy of this letter to the Better Business Bureau, the New York State Division of Consumer Affairs, The State Attorneys Office, Congressman Bishop, Senators LaValle and Clinton, My Chiropractor, My Health Insurance Provider, and my Attorney. I am prepared to do what it takes to get a fair deal in this matter.
Your company should not be allowed to deny warrantee coverage on grounds so completely irrelevant to the problem your defective merchandise causes. It is clearly an unfair business practice that needs to be addressed.
This issue is about a large, deep body impression in my mattress, not an itty bitty tiny stain.
The moral of this story: Don't trust Sleepys - you won't rest the rest of your life!!
Warrantee warrior
East Quogue, New York
U.S.A.