Filling in some ‘healthy’ mattresses may surprise you

If you’re shelling out big bucks for a mattress, you might want to ask more questions about what’s in it. Natural and organic are attractive slogans to bring you in the door but consumers can get confused by the terms.

A couple of viewers reached out to CTV News after paying thousands of dollars for their mattresses, because they weren’t happy with what they got and weren’t satisfied with the response they got from the company.

Mark Alltree was attracted by the words “natural memory foam” when he bought his new $4,000 Plasmabed memory foam mattress but he couldn’t stand the smell. He exchanged the mattress twice but he says the smell didn’t go away.

Laura Gillanders was drawn to the words “100 per cent organic dunlop latex” in a newspaper advertisement when she chose her Yoga Fit mattress. Gillanders thought she was getting all organic latex and was upset to find foam in her mattress.

Both mattresses were purchased at Sleep Mart in Richmond and both Alltree and Gillanders wanted their money back but there was no return policy.

A Sleep Mart salesperson told CTV News that it sells all latex mattresses but also hybrid mattresses with a layer of natural latex over soybean foam.

Sleep Mart took Gillanders mattress back but charged her $450 in restocking fees. When we spoke to Alltree, he was still trying to get his money back and was concerned because he didn’t have a warranty.

In an email response, Sleep Mart says it makes some of its beds and all are made in Canada. It says it uses bio-based foam and 100 per cent organic Dunlop latex -- meaning without chemicals. The company says that every mattress has some smell and recommends you air it out.

Sleep Mart said: “We constantly test and implement new technologies and production methods so that we may provide our customers with state-of-the-art products.”

After we got involved, Sleep Mart refunded Gillander’s restocking fees and took Mark’s mattresses away and sent him a full refund.

Sleep Mart also changed its advertising.

Regarding Laura’s Yoga Fit mattress, the website used to say: “the organic latex mattress from Bodyworks offers the perfect harmony of natural components and cutting edge technology.” Now it says: “It is our entry- level hybrid latex mattress…with a cushioning layer of Dunlop latex on top of a Conforma HD foam core.”

And the words 'natural memory foam' and 'all natural’ promoting the Plasmabed appear to have been removed.

In the end, Sleep Mart reimbursed the customers but the experience left them wanting assurances before they buy natural or organic mattresses again.

According to Consumer Reports, there are no standards behind the term natural, but there are some for organic. There are standards for the term “Dunlop Latex.”