Hi Paul -- Thanks for your question. For its first 2-3 years, the WinkBed was shipped in a full-size box without being rolled or compressed. But in the past year or so they have switched this and started shipping them compressed and rolled like most of their online competitors. You can see how the WinkBed Plus arrives in our full video review of it here (this link will take you directly to the unboxing section of the video):

WinkBed Plus Mattress Review --> Unboxing section

In terms of your concerns about this process damaging the springs, FWIW I actually don't share that concern at all. Mattress makers figured out how to design spring mattresses that can be safely compressed and rolled several years ago and have been doing so consistently in very large numbers ever since.

What gives me more confidence though is that we really haven't heard of many (if any) complaints from consumers about this. And given GoodBed's very large consumer review platform, we would certainly be on the front lines in terms of hearing about any issues or problems that resulted from this.

Furthermore, even if neither of those considerations gives you confidence, I would still take reassurance from the point that even if damage were to occur in the compression process, it would ostensibly be the type of thing that would reveal itself very soon after unboxing the mattress, if not immediately. As you probably know, most online mattress companies, like WinkBed, offer a very generous return policy. So even in that rather unlikely scenario, you would be well within the return period and the company would either refund your money or send you a replacement mattress.

Lastly, even going out in time beyond your trial period, you would still have the warranty to protect you. If you've watched or read our reviews before, you probably know that we generally discourage mattress shoppers from putting much (if any) stock in mattress warranties. The reason is that most of them, no matter how good they sound, do not cover the most common issues that occur with mattresses, like body impressions. Rather, they are written in such a way that they only cover catastrophic failure or other obvious defects, which are quite rare. That said, in the extremely unlikely scenario where the compression and rolling of mattress caused an issue, and that this issue didn't reveal itself for more than 3 months after your purchase (ie, after your return period ends), this does seem like exactly the type of defect / catastrophic failure that mattress warranties actually are designed to cover.

In closing, there are many people in the industry who believe that at some point in the not so distant future, nearly all mattresses will be compressed and rolled, simply because it is a more cost-efficient way to transport them. And even now, it has become common enough that many people (including myself) no longer consider the compression and boxing of a mattress to be a significant characteristic of that mattress.

I hope that's helpful.