Stearns & Foster review: Unethical business practices

Stearns and Foster dba Cocoon International-unethical

My husband and I are elderly and on a fixed income. He is a disabled ex marine. Both of us have back issues and it was time to replace our 12+ year old king size Stearns and Foster mattress with a new one. We called Stearns & Foster on 9/30/23. We were delighted to hear from the salesperson that there was a promotion offering a $400 gift card upon delivery of the mattress and were told the gift card would be sent via email. We placed the order over the phone with the sales person. The mattress was delivered late October. No email ever arrived with said gift card. I emailed and called customer service only to be told “the gift card was never added to our order there is nothing we can do.” :

Clarke G. (Stearns & Foster)

Nov 8, 2023, 3:42 PM EST

Hi there,

 

We are happy to hear you are loving your mattress! I have looked into your order and it does not look like the gift card was added to your cart when you purchased. Unfortunely, it has been over a month since your purchase so we are unable to offer the gift card. We are very sorry for the inconvenience! 

 

Please let us know if you have anymore questions and we would be happy to help!

Best,
Clarke G

I and my husband find this unacceptable and frankly shady behavior of the company. This was their error and they refuse to correct it citing 30 days too late from the 9/30/23 order, especially as we were told the card would be emailed upon mattress delivery!

Update-

My husband called Stearns and Foster Saturday 11/11/23 and talked to a representative about returning the mattress as the company was refusing to honor their promotional gift card offer. The representative said please do not to return the mattress and said that he would open a new ticket about this and we would hear back early the next week. We just heard back via email -

Venessa (Stearns & Foster)

Nov 15, 2023, 11:06 AM EST

Hello,

 

Thank you for contacting Stearns & Foster Customer Support.

 

We have reviewed your request to apply a promotional price to your order. Unfortunately, we are only able to apply the discounts if they are requested within 24 hours of the promotion starting. 

 

We apologize for the inconvenience. 

 

Best Regards,

 

Venessa C

So the company again refused to honor the promotion!

Per my husband- “And the story keeps changing! Initially we were told we would receive the emailed gift card upon delivery of the mattress, then we were told last week that we should have requested the gift card email within 30 days of the order - not after we received the mattress, and now they told us 24 hours! Also now they’re telling me they’ll pick the mattress up but they’re going to charge me $175 for that. They won’t return my old mattress. This is a scam. I hope other people read my letter that we’re going to put on American Express, the Better Business Bureau and on their website as a review. I told the woman today come pick my mattress up; she wanted to make up a ticket for me and I said why make up a ticket you lied to me already two times why would I believe that ticket’s going to make a difference because I only have 30 days I was told before I can return the mattress. She said no sir you’re allowed 90 days and then we can pick the mattress up if you want. So I’m filing this with everyone so they can see. It’s still within our 30 days from when the mattress was delivered. I am a disabled United States, Marine Corps, veteran; my wife and I are both senior citizens on fixed incomes. And we both purchased this mattress because we believed the salesperson when we bought this over the phone from Stearns and Foster was telling us all the truth. But we found out this was all lies. She told us there was a $400 promotional giveaway that we would receive after the mattress was delivered.

When we called today checking on the $400 credit card that we were promised we were told sorry you had to notify them within 24 hours, which was a lie. We were never told that. Then we were told another story on the phone about the rebate, which was another way. And now the best part , now they’re going to charge me $175 to come pick the mattress up cause I told him we want to return it and have a credit on our credit card for $3,374.95 - the price of the new mattress order. I said I want my old mattress back - they said sorry. So now my wife and I have to go back and buy another mattress from somebody plus absorb $175 that we were never told about. I just don’t want this to happen to other retirees or disabled veterans.”