So, we've been had: we did buy the mattress that Pixel Organics advertises, but we got something completely different that's not even close. This is bait and switch, not green-washing or other light stuff.
Take a look at the picture above, that shows on the left what's advertised and on the right what we got in the box: the mattress comes in without any certification or warranty, we read the compulsory labels to find that it's made by a
company that's 35 years old and makes truck mattresses; not 90 years old and they don't claim to make any organic mattress. It is labeled as an
Ecobaby or Pure Rest mattress. In summary: not certified, no manufacturer's warranty and not 90 year old tradition. A mattress manufacturer that matches that description is
Vivetique, meets all the claims but Pixel Organics is not even
listed as a dealer.
We contacted CSN Baby (where we bought it) and told them about the scam; they fixed their page to a certain extent (see picture to the right)
![](http://docs.google.com/File?id=dhdcxv2m_25dwb8mzhr_b)
, and offered a full refund for return; we did return the mattress and we're looking for one with less "creative" salesmanship...
But it bugged me that such a blatant bait and switch scam is possible: you advertise a nice product, with fine craftsmanship and you swap it with something with much lower quality. I googled left and right and found no-one that complained about it. Then I wrote to the owner of Pixel Organics (which contacted us for the original post to tell that we got the manufacturer wrong...) Here's his response:
"The mattress you received was from a manufacturer Pure-Rest uses
(Flexus). I purchased the mattress from them because my supplier was
out of stock. It is a very very very similar mattress. We are trying
not to do this but supply is not meeting our demand from our preferred
vendor."
Does this sound like "We're trying not to deceive people, but we do"? I wonder if anyone
ever got the real thing, because in my 2
experiences the mattresses were Pure Rest and not the advertised one (remember the store where we kept on saying Pixel and they kept on saying Pure Rest? that's the 2nd one.). So I did write to Chris about it, here's the whole, unedited thread:
ABunchOfGreens: "No matter the explanation, it's still bait and switch and deception;
Vivetique has indeed 90 years of experience and certifications, and...
and... (all the good things that make customers buy their mattress),
and they do buy, but they get instead a mattress made by a fine
establishment that makes truck mattresses. I can go around town in the
stores that distribute pixel mattresses and see how many are
knock-downs and how many the original.
Here's an analogy: you go and choose a BMW X5, you're charged $80,000
for it and you get this in return:
http://carscoop.blogspot.com/2008/06/toyota-rav4-bmw-x5-chinese-clones-go-on.html;
the CEO of BMW assures you it's a very very very similar car and he
tries his best, but the Munich plant was busy for you.
Hope you see my point; when can I get my BMW mattress? (The clone is
still in the box, you can make still it right). The mattress I've
selected and I've already paid full price for it was not delivered.
Getting anything less is deception and maybe even fraud.
Regards, etc..."
Chris: "Of coarse I see your point. We should be able to replace your mattress
next week with as you call it" BMW Mattress"."
So I contemplated the idea of arguing about shipping, replacements, the possibility that I'll get yet another deceiving product (what's the probability that someone that lied twice will lie again? Huge, I'd say.) So I decided I don't even want to do business at all with Pixel Organics. We returned the mattress and we're looking for a "real" one in store, any other brand. I'm no
Erin Brockovich to dig the fraud and save the world, I just hate being lied to.