Lies on the Internet

One of the things that aggravated me the most on the sales floor was the flat out lies on the Internet. Customers would come into the store hanging on to one thing that they read online and believe that i was lying to them if I didn't agree. The crazy thing is that a lot of the the time I would even be able to explain why and show them an example, but they still didn't want to believe it. Let's talk about Tempurpedic for example.

Tempurpedic is a MAP(Manufacturer's Allowed Pricing) product. This means that every retailer of Tempurpedic agrees to retail the product at the same price AND often even uses the price tags provided by Tempurpedic for credibility. The only exception to this pricing rule is floor models, damaged goods, or comfort exchanges.

I had a guy accuse me of lying to him because he saw a Tempurpedic on Ebay discounted. I tried to explain the pricing rules to him. He didn't care. I printed out the letter provided to us by Tempurpedic explaining that NO ONE on Ebay was selling new product in perfect condition. He didn't care. I went so far as to use my phone to pull up the listing he was ranting about.

Here is an example of what is being sold on Ebay right now. I took this from a listing currently active:

"Factory 2nd mattresses come back to the manufacturer for a number of different reasons. The single most common reason is freight damages or scuffs. When we say “damages”, we are talking about purely cosmetic blemishes, maybe a minor tear or scuff on the side from dragging or snagging etc. So yes, the majority of factory 2nd mattresses are going to have extremely minor cosmetic flaws. We NEVER sell any mattresses that are used. Rest assured, 100% of our mattresses have gone through a 10-point inspection from the manufacturer, and we will NEVER offer mattresses where the structural integrity has been compromised. EVER. ALL Mattresses that we list online are only the top 1% we get in, so many won’t have any issues other than maybe the original factory bag was ripped in transportation; in which case even in those will go through full inspection as well as fully steam cleaned and re-bagged for sanitary reasons."

All you save is $350 on a $3100 mattress to go through all this trouble, really? On top of that, delivery is to the curb only, so you have to lift a huge mattress into the house and place it in the bedroom while getting rid of the old one on your own.

Long story short, I offered to help this guy doing everything I could under the MAP pricing guidelines. He had already made up his mind that I wasn't giving it to him straight because it was on the Internet. He had seen the truth! Please let this be a reminder to all out there that the Internet is a fantastic price comparison tool, but at the end of the day no one is getting a deal that even the #2 retailer of mattresses IN AMERICA can not offer.

*At the time this customer came in, Sleepy's was the #2 retailer of mattresses in the United States behind only Mattress Firm. Remember, full disclosure.