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$89 “pillowtop” mattress feels more like boxspring

Posted on May 26th, 2008 – 8:08 AM
By James Shiffer

Our consumer reporter John Ewoldt gives some cautionary tales on sales with prices that are too good to be true in Monday’s Star Tribune, and how the Better Business Bureau tries to police the unruly world of retail. Here’s John’s account of what he found out when he looked into the case of the pillowtop mattress whose price was a little too soft:

When consumers see a rotten deal, most of us just walk away. Less than 10 percent of us take any action. That’s why businesses are often the ones who complain about unfair practices committed by their competitors.

Steve Butwinick, who sells furniture in a small space in the What Not store in Fridley, objects to classified ads with mattresses and furniture at remarkably low prices, including an $89 queen pillowtop mattress.

“Those ads take business away from me,” said Butwinick. The cheapest, legitimate queen pillowtop mattress set available start at $165, dealer cost, said Butwinick and Dave Smittkamp of Dave’s Furniture World in Bloomington, another mattress seller. “You can’t manufacture a queen pillowtop mattress set for less than $100. Anyone selling it for that is either taking a huge loss or doing a bait and switch,” Butwinick said.

The ads can be found in the “Furnishings” section of the classifieds in newspapers and Craig’s List. Consumers should be cautious of businesses that don’t list a name, only a phone number, making it appear that the ad is from a private seller. Furniture Clearance uses two different phone numbers (612-559-3277 and 763-355-4161) in its ads.

The BBB did not feel the $89 queen pillowtop could be considered a pillowtop when it secretly shopped Furniture Clearance Center earlier this month. The bureau asked the retailer to remove a reference to pillowtop in its advertising. Furniture Clearance center owner Travis Vannatta said that he is considering doing so, but as of last week, no change had yet been made.

Vannatta said that the mattress’ tag indicates that it is a pillowtop, which is true. I was shown the $89 pillowtop mattress set with a white tag on it that says “Chiro pillowtop.”

As I told Vannatta, labeling it so doesn’t make it so. The $89 model is 6-inches thick with a smooth top and hot air balloons printed on it. I felt and heard springs when I pushed down gently on the top.

What makes this suspect is that Vannatta also sells real queen pillowtops by Simmons and other makers for $700 to $900. The fact that I had to ask the price of each item (all unmarked) also made me uncomfortable.

Several of the bedroom sets and sofas had information sheets printed from Furnitureontheweb.com. Furniture Clearance Center salesman James Ross said that the prices on the printouts were not the same as the clearance center’s, since the items were similar but not identical. When asked if a sofa was from Pottery Barn since the printout was from Potterybarn.com, Ross said no. A large sign on the door said “All sales final.”

Shoppers must make an appointment to visit Furniture Clearance Center. Despite the pressure that Ross exerted to “buy it now,” I’d shop around before buying. I’ve found that some of the lowest prices on mattresses locally can be found at Dave’s Furniture World in Bloomington.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 26th, 2008 at 8:08 am and is filed under Buyer beware. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

11 Responses to “$89 “pillowtop” mattress feels more like boxspring”

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Jeremy H. Says:
May 26th, 2008 at 11:49 am
You get what you pay for. Simple as that! As a shopper, you must make the choice, not the other way around. Don’t get taken.
BarnardGumble Says:
May 26th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
Exactly…if you’re a big enough sucker to pay $89 for a hot-air-balloon mattress and expect it to be halfway decent, then nobody feels sorry for you.
CRM Says:
May 26th, 2008 at 2:27 pm
It sounds to me like some very simple marketing strategy would help explain Vannatta’s tactics. The mattress is a loss leader. Butwinick may just be afraid to advertise a loss leader and use this strategy. The practice is perfectly legit. As for the consumer, as previuosly stated TWICE, consumers get that for which they are paying. Some people might actually want what is offered at $89. They are entitled to their own choices. What’s the point of this aticle again?
Jerry Clark Says:
May 26th, 2008 at 3:17 pm
I believe that it was PT Barnum who said: “There’s one born every minute”. There are better and more productive ways to spend government money than protecting us from ourselves. We can be our one worst enemy. The age old warning: “Buyer Be Ware” holds true. If there ever was a case for government oversite it is the farms operated by Burger King in Florida. This large corporation uses slaves (indentured servants) to raise and prepare their beef for prosessing for their “Whopper” burgers. If we want government to be into our lives on a daily basis we then must accept the consequences - increased taxes and a focus on trivial matters.
ConcernedCitizen Says:
May 26th, 2008 at 6:13 pm
The $89 pillow top ad is ILLEGAL. It is bait and switch advertising, which is ILLEGAL. Loss leader advertising is completely different - you advertise something that actually EXISTS when employing the loss leader technique. Get you facts straight CRM - your position is wrong!!
Pillow Top Scam Says:
May 26th, 2008 at 6:20 pm
This Travis Vannatta character will get ehat he deserves - a bad reputation. what goes around comes around.
ed chaser Says:
May 26th, 2008 at 6:42 pm
we visited a lot of stores before we bought our first real pillow top from daves furniture world - like the reporter says, davesfurnitureworld.com is the best.

plus he gives cheap delivery and has been in business for a long time, almost my whole family sleeps on his beds - real pillow tops

too bad there are all those liars/posers/pretenders around.
Rick Says:
May 26th, 2008 at 6:56 pm
A lot of what Dave’s furniture world sells is warranty and comfort returns from the major manufacturers. We bought a mattress from him and found out later that his mattresses didn’t carry a warranty. This was about 1 1/2 years ago. How can a guy who sells mattresses out of one store buy enough quantity to offer lower prices than large chains. Just as Walmart offers the lowest prices because of their buying power, Mattress Giant has much lower prices than 1 little guy.
Mikey Says:
May 26th, 2008 at 8:46 pm
Mattress giant is a rip off. They mark there stuff up more than anyone. you actually can save more goin to a small store - just one owner - only one guy making money off the sale. the big stores spend a fortune on advertising and staffing, so they have to charge more. economics 101.
shortygirlk2 Says:
May 27th, 2008 at 9:34 pm
Aside from the fact that “if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is”, that is false advertising. Unless of course I’m missing some fine print…