My partner and I had decided to finally buy a new mattress and we already knew the one we wanted at Back to Bed in Lincoln Park in Chicago. We went there during their Memorial Day sale, with a flier in hand that had a price, a 20% off coupon, advertised free delivery and 4 yr. 0% interest financing.


We were helped by a salesman who seemed nice enough. We had a little confusion at first about whether the box spring came with the mattress or not, but we finally said okay, we want the set and gave him the 20% off coupon. He gave us a price of about $800 and we were happy. He even said he'd give us free sales tax because the store was busy.


It all got shady and slimy from here. In fact, it was like playing a shell game con.


Our salesman handed us off to the "manager". He started ringing us up and I had a feeling that this was going to become shady...just gut instinct. Sure enough, they tried to give us the mattress only, no box spring for the stated price. I corrected this and they said "oh it was just a miscommunication". Yeah, right. As it would turn out this was the entire game. Move us from one person to the next, each person would try to scam us in some way, and if I caught them they'd say it was just a mistake.


Next they told us delivery was $50. We said the flier showed free delivery and they said that was only over $1, 000 and since we used the coupon that wasn't valid. Exasperated we agreed. Next they gave us a total that was $100 more than the original quote. When we pointed this out and said we had the 20% off coupon, a "VP" in the store said that coupon was included in the price on the mattress and that our salesman had made a mistake. So now we're up $150 more than where we started. We should have walked away but we just wanted the damn thing at this point.


But wait there's more. They told us we couldn't have the 4 yr 0% financing because that was for purchases over $4, 000. Now let me point out that NONE of these specifications were shown on the flier we had, not even in the fine print and, in an act I found hilarious, one of them realized that (out loud) and promptly took the flier away from me...destroying the evidence.


When we finally got 1 yr financing, put down 10% and got the final receipt, the third guy handling our transaction forgot to credit us the 10% downpayment and we had to go back and get that. And finally, to make this a complete joke halfway home we discovered they charged us the sales tax they promised to pay as well.


I've called and written the company and they've ignored me completely. This place is a total scam from beginning to end and I will never, ever, ever set foot in one of their stores again. As we were leaving we even heard a sales guy more or less threatening a couple because they'd "wasted an hour" of his time and weren't planning to buy after all.


I've filed complaints with the BBB and I'm contacting the Illinois Attorney General as well. Stay away from Back to Bed.