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Mattress Warranties Can Suprise You

By Mitchell Endick

Republish: EasyPublish™ Published: 27Jan2008 Word count: 629 Viewed: 354 time(s) Get Free Content For Your Site

I am a mattress retailer. I have sold almost every brand of mattress built, including the major three s brands, Sealy, Simmons and Serta. There are a lot of misconceptions about mattresses and the warranty is one of them.

First I should mention that mattress warranties last way too long. You buy a tv or vcr and they give you a 90 day warranty and you are happy to get it. Buy a new $35,000 car and they give you 36,000 miles or three years. Buy a mattress for $500 and you used to get a fifteen year warranty from the majors and some sub brands gave you twenty years. Several years ago the mattress companies colluded or not, on mattress warranties. The result of this meeting that may or may not have happened, was shortened warranties. Presently, most mattress companies give five years give or take.

Some of the mattress warranties are five years but they qualify this with one year full warranty and four years prorated. The prorated portion, similar to the car tire warranty, is based on length of use and the suggested retail price. The suggested retail price comes into play with the proration potion of the warranty. The longer you have the mattress in the four year term the more of the suggested retail you will pay. The murky part of the deal comes to play in that the suggested retail is set by the manufacturer and has no relation to what you actually paid.

As a mattress retailer, I always felt that the warranties were too long. The mattress manufacturer knows that the mattress will only last seven or eight years. They are banking that the buyers loses their receipt, that the retail store the mattress was purchased from goes out of business or that you will forget about the warranty, or all three. The mattress manufacturer puts these warranties out there and then they sometimes give the retailer a hard time when he has to exercise it.

How did these crazy warranties come about? First of all a mattress is one item that you cannot peer inside of. You have to rely on the brand name, the reputation of the store and the salesman or all three. A long warranty was one way for the consumer to judge the worth and value of a mattress. The consumer often equates the length of the warranty to how long the mattress would last. Of course this is entirely false. Another reason the mattress manufacturers have long warranties is it helps them in selling their mattress lines to retailers. Retailers generally like warranties because their salesman can use the warranty as a crutch to help move mattresses. The third reason that warranties got so long was warranty inflation. Mattress manufacturers simply tried to outdo each other.

Most mattress warranties have additional clauses that can cancel the warranty. If a mattress is soiled, dirty, torn or ripped this often voids the warranty. Some people have an accident of a urine or other nature and no longer want the mattress or want a new one and attempt to use the warranty to get one. This becomes a health issue to the people who have to physically deal with this mattress. Almost all warranties forbid dirty or soiled mattresses.

One of the main reasons that a mattress is return is due to indentions on the surface. Most manufacturers allow at least a one inch indention leeway. You need to check your warranty to see how deep the indention can be before it is covered by warranty. Surface indentation will happen to a mattress so it is a matter of degree.

Well, now you know almost as much about mattress warranties as I do so good luck!

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