Spring Air Back Supporter mattress - in 7 years it is bouncy and spongy - can't get 10 year warranty honored

# 14 for July 2, 2003

Complaints.com received the following on July 1, 2003:

From:

RE: Spring Air Back Supporter mattress - in 7 years it is bouncy and spongy - can't get 10 year warranty honored Our expensive lesson:

Maybe we had a lemon, but we spent $1,100 for a Spring Air Back Supporter with a 10-year, non-prorated warranty. In 7 years it is bouncy and spongy. Wife is 110 pounds, I'm 185, and our backs hurt in the morning. So we put the Spring Air in the garage and put up our old queen Serta until we found a new mattress.

We shopped for a new mattress and a Spring Air dealer told to pursue the warranty, so we did. Initially, it seemed like Spring Air would make things right. The mattress was inspected, and we were told the inspection report stated the mattress set showed no signs of abuse but the box springs were failed. What about the mattress?

We explained that the slightest pressure makes the mattress sag to the point our backs hurt, way beyond 2" (we slept "jackknifed"). We were told the sag is within 2" (NOTE: The fabric on our Spring Air is not quilted, so the real sag is hidden to a tape measure) and to Spring Air that means it's still good, and if we wanted the new box springs, we had to return the old ones to the factory or get charged, but we would not get serviced on the mattress. We dealt with 2 factories, each saying the other has the authority to authorize any replacements, and neither would go beyond the box springs.

To get second opinions, we spoke to five area mattress distributors (two of which are Spring Air distributors) and they ALL said if the box spring is gone then Spring Air should replace the mattress. A call to Spring Air corporate went no where because Spring Air factories are independently owned. Calls to the factory manager were not returned. Our older queen Serta is still in great shape and our backs don't hurt in the morning anymore.