I purchased a Kathy Ireland mattress in Richmond, VA recently, but after looking at the reviews online I canceled my order. The salesperson however told me that the review I read was not the same Twilight Skies and was made by a different manufacturer than they used. He also showed me that the ones online with bad reviews had hourglass coil or continuous coil while his design was individually wrapped coil. How is this possible with all of them carrying the same name?
This question is related to Kathy Ireland.
asked
Sep 30 '15
Anonymous968
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Thanks for your question -- this is a great topic for mattress shoppers to understand. First, to answer your question: yes, what the salesperson told you is indeed possible. The reason this can happen is that many mattress brands are "licensed" to multiple factories across the country (called "licensees"), rather than being owned and manufactured by a single company. This includes the Kathy Ireland mattress brand, which is owned by Therapedic. In most cases, a brand will have anywhere from 5 to 15 licensees, with each licensee being given a specific territory. This system allows the brand to more easily achieve and maintain national scale. On its own, the licensing model is not necessarily a problem -- many licensed brands have good, consistent products across their licensees. The problem comes when licensees go "rogue" and start doing things like coming up with their own unique specifications for models that are sold under the same name in other regions. This happens more than you might think, and you are 100% right to be indignant about it. At worst, it is deliberately misleading to consumers. At best, it is an archaic practice that has absolutely no place in the modern (internet-enabled) era -- where consumers rightfully expect to be able to find unbiased information about products before they buy them. In your case, as you found out, there is no way to get the real story on products like these. The salesperson with whom you spoke may be extremely knowledgeable (and honest) about what is really in the product you are buying -- as well as what may or may not be in all the other versions of that product that are out there. But then again, they may not be. Fundamentally, your choice is whether to buy a product for which you can get adequate unbiased information -- or whether to buy a product for which the only information you can get comes from the salesperson. |