Just wondering what I can do about this…
Went to Forty Winks and told salesperson I wanted a soft mattress. She said I should use the store mattress matching system for the best suggestions. Had my doubts but said I’d give it a try. Came up with only firm and medium mattresses. Expressed my doubts again but was told it’s a very successful system. Anyway I tried everything on the list and ended up buying the softest medium mattress on the list, probably because it felt soft after all the firm ones! And without even trying any soft mattresses (I know, my bad 
).
The mattress I picked up was significantly harder than what I tried, neither of us could stay on it for more than 3 hours. I emailed them with the issues stating I would return it the next day and they reluctantly swapped it for the floor model.
Can’t spend more than 3-4 hours in bed still, even though it’s a bit softer than the first and my husband can manage to sleep. They’ve pretty much washed their hands off it saying that I can’t exchange for a soft mattress and it would be at my cost to get the manufacturer to adjust the comfort level.
Anyway I’ve emailed them both this morning, hoping for some resolution as I wouldn’t have even tried the mattress but for their advice, and I’ve been awake since 2am again, because I’ve got pins and needles in my back through to my scalp. I think it’s insanity to expect people to sleep on a mattress that causes so much pain for 30-90 days.
I’ve also put a report to the ACCC (probably wasting my time) and I’ll call Consumer Affairs today too.
Welcome to the Community @CatJ
First off the demo mattress has been well used even though they rotate them out every few months so a new one will usually be firmer than the demo - unless you tried the demo shortly after it was rotated into the show room.
Read your rights under the Australian Consumer Law. You can find many posts here offering advice in the how to’s, but your next step would be to write a formal Letter of Complaint. This link is an intro. Basically you were sold an inappropriate product. Your letter needs to reflect appearing before a magistrate who knows nothing, starting with a review of your experience and statement of your rights, what you want, and by when.
and one of the many,
Please let us now how it goes.
Thanks for your reply. I had sent an email before I saw your response just outlining the issues (again) and asking for an exchange to a soft mattress or refund. No time frame.
I told them that I also sent it to the manufacturer and ACCC because I has already been dealing with them over the original mattress and the seller was pretty uncompassionate that I originally wanted one thing and ended up with something else.
I did say to the young man that I understood the concept of the computer match as I have bought a couple of different pairs of shoes at The Athletes Foot, used their computer thing and been very happy with my shoes, which btw, I did not have to wear in, and I can happily wear all day.
Funnily enough, this morning I looked on the manufacturers website and they had a matching questionnaire, and after answering the questions, the resulting top 2 or 3 were plush and the medium one I got was at the bottom (5/6) with no firms on the list at all.
Anyway, I’m waiting for a reply from any of them.
There is a difference between a formal Letter of Complaint that includes all the issues and your rights, and what is essentially an informal request.
If you get knocked back compose a formal Letter of Complaint. There is a lot of assistance in the how to on the Community, Choice main website, and the ACCC web site.
Note Forty Winks is a franchise operation and you are dealing with a specific franchise, not a national company. This page reinforces that the store you purchased from essentially ‘owns’ your problem.
If they suggest you had a change of mind always push back and restate you were sold an inappropriate product based on your original ask.
BedMatch also provided an inappropriate product based on your original ask and whether it is a ‘very successful’ system or not, it apparently failed in your case and is thus irrelevant as a ‘defence’ that you were sold an inappropriate product.
If you bought a Serta note the 90 day satisfaction program.
Oh thanks. I’ll give them until the end of the day to reply and then compose a letter of complaint.
It’s a King Koil by AH Beard
See pages 8-10. Note the King Koil range is not explicitly mentioned, but regardless Forty Winks is the responsible party under the ACL and they cannot fob you off.
As a ‘nice to know’ if the Forty Winks franchisee tells you it is not their problem and refers you to AH Beard, HN franchises tried it and this is how that went for them for misrepresenting consumer rights.
It should be under their 30 day comfort guarantee. Allegedly. That’s what I was told when I picked up the original mattress and then when I picked up the swap over, they said that one wouldn’t be.
However I was also told that because I returned the first mattress before 30 days, it wouldn’t be covered either.
I can’t see it written anywhere on the paperwork
They also say that the mattress is custom made, which it isn’t. It’s not made to my specifications, it’s made to the manufacturers specifications. They just make them as required due to storage requirements.
Their 30/90 day comfort guarantee appears to be offered on Serta and Silent Partner mattresses, and not on King Coils.
I was told there was (verbally) when I picked it up because I asked if there was a 30 day period.
They were annoyed that I took the mattress back before the 30 days.
I seriously cannot sleep on it. I’ve still got pins and needles in my scalp. Sleeping on the lounge until I get this sorted.
That has been their response
Include that in your letter of complaint along with your rights and their responsibilities. If you have that in writing/email (or even if you do not) you should make a formal complaint to the ACCC that they are misrepresenting their obligations and your rights under the ACL. If it was verbal ask them to send it in an email with a required time frame. If they decline include that in your ACCC report.
It will not hurt to cc Forty Winks in your ACCC complaint as it could ‘wake them up’.
After another more formal email this morning, this is the reply I’ve finally got.
Option 1 means they are still assuming it is a faulty mattress
Option 2 assumes it’s a change of mind.
So I’m just going with 2 and I’ll just have to choose one as close to what I spent
This will be my unsent yet reply
Buying a mattress can be a very difficult and challenging process. Usually testing the mattress in store is only for a few minutes to try and gauge whether the mattress is comfortable. In reality, one spends about ¼ to ⅓ of their live on a mattress. Comfort is important but often can’t be ascertained in a in store test.
I feel for you and think that you may have run out of luck with Forty Winks. The reason I say this is you bought the mattress based on what you tested in store. You appear to have accepted the softness of the one on display as being acceptable and why you ordered.
On receipt of a new mattress from their warehouse, you found it harder than the one in store (possibly because it has been soften by being broken in by customer’s testing the mattress). Forty Winks then replaced the delivered mattress with the display one you tried in store, but then you also found after lying on it for a number of hours, it wasn’t comfortable.
Based in this, I am unsure whether your complaint will progress much further as Forty Winks has tried to resolve your problem by providing you with the mattress you tried in store as at the time of purchase it was seen as being acceptable. On this basis, the complaint could be seen as a change in mind.
I fully appreciate that Forty Winks has some fancy matching system…but this is irrelevant as you tested the mattress in store and found it acceptable enough to purchase. If it was found to be hard in the test, there was the opportunity not to proceed with the purchase but try other mattresses or take your business elsewhere.
What you have highlighted is the inability to adequately test a mattress for comfort in a short period in store. This in effect is something you are challenging as being unacceptable. Whist I agree that current methods for buying mattresses isn’t satisfactory, I don’t know a good solution.
It would be great if a store could loan a mattress, say for a month, to test it before purchase. Or being able to exchange mattresses until one is found that is comfortable. Both are problematic as it would mean that there could be a large number of mattresses which float between homes costing the business more (and costs will be passed onto the consumer). Some would also not like loans/exchanges as there are many who don’t want to buy something which has been used by others.
I wish you all the best on pursuing your complaints and hope you do get a satisfactory resolution.
If there is no further resolution, maybe try a mattress topper to see if this improves comfort, This unfortunately comes at an additional expense and may or may not provide you with a perfect result:
Edit: I see that you posted a email from Forty Winks just before the above post. I hope that Forty Winks has a mattress which is suitable for you. If they don’t or the replacement mattress is still not what you find comfortable after a number of hours/sleeps, possibly look at getting a mattress topper.
Look I can understand from their point of view.
Unfortunately they’re supposed to be the experts on whom customers rely, and that expertise didn’t come through.
As I had said to them, I went along with their advice because I thought they knew what they were talking about.
The final one I tried in store was at the bottom of their list of recommendations and of course I thought it was more acceptable because all the previous ones I tried were even harder. What with all the sales pitch chat, I didn’t even remember to try a soft mattress.
I wonder how often they calibrate the machine because when I did the questionnaire on the manufacturer’s website, it’s top recommendation was a plush mattresses, whereas Forty Winks was firm. Totally opposite.
It’s really ridiculous to tell people that they have to potentially allow several months to get used to a mattress.
We drive trucks for a living. If we have an accident because of extended periods of sleeplessness or excessive back and neck pain, due to a mattress bought on a salesperson advice, I guess we’re at fault? And obviously extra trips to the chiropractor to try and reduce the pain are just a cost to be borne as part of getting used to a mattress?
Anyway I’m going with option 2 as offered.
Forty Winks seems to be doing a wink wink to the ACL. Regardless you specifically told a sales person what you wanted. They did their song and dance and sold you something inappropriate for your need. Some of it may be debatable or even argumentative, but you have been done because they purposefully seem to have avoided the reality of their failed sales process.
Regardless that you accept their offer of ‘b’ in your situation I would still file a formal complaint with the ACCC. It could be binned, upheld, or since you accepted a ‘remedy’ no action taken, but if not reported it never happened. It could happen to someone else and a historical file remains a file to substantiate a pattern of behaviour.
Forty Winks offer that you pay additional but get no refund for the replacement is pretty special in itself. This is a business I would never patronise by the experience you described.
I depends if you wish to take ‘b’ and how much into getting your rights is worth in the circumstance. If I were you and satisfied sufficiently well and chose not to fight, I would take a new mattress to assure they would not renege on their offer, and then make a complaint stating you took ‘b’ under duress/need.
You also might note this is a public forum 
Mattress comfort is a personal preference and they won’t be experts in exactly what a customer needs. They can listen to the type of mattress a customer prefers and try and match up the best they can with these preferences. Even this may not be the perfect mattress as different retailers sell different brands and construction types which may nor may not be suitable to an individual customer.
The ‘proof in the pudding’ is sleeping on it. As indicated above, this isn’t possible and the only testing available before purchase is lying on the bed (in clothing) within a store for a short time to see if one thinks the bed is comfortable.
Information from Choice testing can also be useful, but, Choice tests based on what they think is a good mattress not necessarily the perfect mattress for every individual.
From what you have said is you did test out the mattress as you indicated that the new one from the warehouse felt different to that you tested in store, and hence their offer to replace the store test mattress with the new one which was delivered.
This is why it could be easily be seen as a ‘change in mind’. A change in mind as the mattress was tested in store, was acceptable and you bought it on this basis. If for example, Forty Winks didn’t replace the new warehouse mattress with the test mattress (which you indicated was marginally softer), then you would have grounds under the ACL to request a refund or replacement. This is because the test mattress didn’t represent the one which was delivered to you.
It is worth noting that some mattress retailers do offer comfort guarantees, particular some of the online box type mattress retailers as often if isn’t possible to test before buying. Not being able to test is a high risk to the customer - and why comfort guarantees are provided. If they weren’t provided, I suspect that many of their customers would buy elsewhere.
It is good that Forty Winks are using their goodwill/find a path to resolution to try and keep a customer happy. They potentially could hold firm and say it falls under the ‘change of mind’ - they potentially could have been in their rights to do this. Hopefully you are able to find an alternative mattress they stock which is more suitable - and you can have a good nights sleep.
I should also say that running an accommodation business, a lot of feedback on our accommodation is on the mattress comfort. We have some that say the same mattress is slightly too soft, others stay it is slightly too firm and other say it is a very comfortable mattress to sleep on (we call it Goldilocks effect - as long as there are a range of views, we possibly have got the balance right). We also use mattress toppers to try and make the mattresses more comfortable/plush for our guests.
I am fully aware of the shortcomings of being able to find a perfect mattress, especially when buying in store with quick tests and the potential pressure of making a quick purchase decision.
These are all reasonable arguments and one can get grouchy when there’s a lack of sleep and pain especially after the high hopes of a good night’s sleep. 
I’ll just add one further thing, not only did I say I wanted a soft mattress, I also told them that we’re both side sleepers. According to their own website, plush mattresses are recommended for side sleepers, yet their computer didn’t recommend a single one.
