Hi energizedchris,
When you first came to the site your first post included this ...
We purchased a bed a few weeks ago from a clearance center with a no return policy and it was too soft for me. My lower back pain came back just after a few nights on it. So we are selling it to a friend who prefers softer beds and taking a nice hit. Lesson learned.
This is a good indicator that a mattress that is too soft for you can cause you back pain and this is something that would be fairly normal for most people because the most common issue with a mattress that is too soft for the person sleeping on it is back pain. This means that a mattress that is a good match for you in terms of PPP would probably need to be a little firmer.
For Christmas we ordered the 12 in Bamboo Bliss in a King, cushion firm (level 5). We are side sleepers (although I find I end up on my back a lot). When the mattress arrived I was super impressed with packaging and how easy the setup was.
After asking some questions on the site you ended up buying a Bamboo Bliss from Brooklyn Bedding. While an online choice can be risky because you can't test a mattress in person ... in the case of the Bamboo Bliss you had many options available after a purchase to exchange the firmness of the comfort layer and even return the mattress so this lowers the risk of an online purchase significantly and you made a good choice because of the many options that are built in to purchasing a Bamboo Bliss. For some reason however it appears that you didn't take advantage of the options you had available.
For the first two weeks the bed was a dream. I have done a lot of research on this site and read where it was good to rotate the latex bed every few weeks to give an even break in period. So we did. One thing that we noticed is the firmness does not hold up. So I reached out to Brooklyn Bedding and they told me to remove the cover and that helped a little. We also flipped the top latex piece and for about 2-3 days it was perfect (no back pain) but then firmness weakens and back pain comes back. They then suggested I re-inspect my bases and they are solid and very level. All this to say my back pain is back again and we cannot find a solution. When I sleep on our twin firm mattress I do not wake up with back pain.
Let me know if anyone has any similar experience or suggestions. Had I known latex doesn't hold its firmness I would have sent back the bed or switched out the toppers.
As you hopefully know from the research you have done ... latex is the most durable foam material in the industry and while all mattresses will break in to some extent ... latex will soften less, both initially and over the long term, than other foam materials. There will always be some changes over the course of the first few weeks as a mattress breaks in and the cover stretches and loses its initial stiffness and the materials lose any initial "false firmness" (which in the case of latex is very little) and then things will stabilize. Once you have slept on a mattress for a few weeks if you were having back pain then it wouldn't be because the latex isn't "holding it's firmness" but because the firmness level you chose wasn't the best match for you in terms of PPP. Based on your history the odds are high that the mattress you chose is too soft (although a mattress that is too firm can also cause alignment issues and back pain). This also wouldn't be uncommon if the mattress you chose was "on the edge" of being too soft for you before it was broken in.
Because nobody can predict with 100% certainty whether any mattress you buy will be the best match for you until after you sleep on it ... this is where the value of a trial period and the ability to exchange your comfort layers comes into play. In the case of Brooklyn Bedding this is 120 days which would have taken you into April. Once a mattress has broken in after a few weeks if you are experiencing symptoms such as back pain when you sleep on it then the first thing to do is to pick up the phone and talk with the company where you purchased the mattress. What normally happens then is that they will make a few suggestions (as they did) to see if there are some simple solutions that will help you and if none of the more simple solutions works then the next step would be to exchange the comfort layer for one that is likely to be more suitable for you. This is the reason for the exchange option in the first place.
It seems that for some reason you chose not to do this and this is where you made your first mistake because this is the whole point of having a trial period and an exchange policy (or a return policy) in the first place.
After a few weeks if you were having issues on your mattress then had you exchanged your comfort layer for something firmer then you would have been able to find out whether this was the reason for your back pain. In most cases this would be the solution but in the worst case if it's not then you would still have options available and the "final option" would be to return the mattress because there will always be a small percentage of people where the reason for back pain on a mattress may be something else (needing a firmer support core or possibly a different type of mattress completely).
Brooklyn Bedding never answered my last email I sent to them back in July. They were very helpful until their quick fixes didn't work. Ultimately I am disappointed in the product and their service. I would say buyer beware.
I really don't understand the basis for your comments here and what you are saying makes no sense to me. First of all when you have more complex issues then emails aren't an effective way to communicate them and the thing to do is pick up the phone and talk with them. Second if for some reason an email goes unanswered then once again the thing to do is pick up the phone and talk with them.
You purchased your mattress in December and you first started noticing back pain a few weeks later during the initial break in period. This by itself isn't so unusual although it would be a minority of people but it's certainly the first indicator that you may need a comfort exchange. When you first talked with them they did exactly what they were "supposed to do" and what any good company would do which is to try some simple solutions first so you don't end up doing something that wouldn't solve the problem. When those solutions didn't work out for you then the the next step would be a layer exchange. Again for some reason you didn't do this. It is your responsibility to decide on this not Brooklyn Bedding's. Had you taken advantage of the options you had available then your issues would have been solved long ago by the end of the trial period one way or another either by exchanging the comfort layer and ending up with a firmness choice that works for you or by returning the mattress completely if there were no other options available to you.
If you were talking to them in July then your trial period would have been over.
The reason I am being so direct with you is so that others can learn from your mistakes and not make the same errors in judgement. Rather than posting "buyer beware" ... I think a more appropriate comment would have been "learn from my mistakes" or "take advantage of your options when it seems clear that you need to do so" rather than putting the responsibility for what you chose not to do on Brooklyn Bedding.
Even now if you were to pick up the phone and talk with them they may be able to offer you some suggestions that may help (even though your trial period has ended) but "warning" people about Brooklyn Bedding for mistakes that were the result of your own inaction or poor judgement or suggesting that latex (or any high quality material) doesn't "hold its firmness" after a few weeks when this certainly isn't the case and all that seems to have happened is that you chose a firmness that is too soft for you just doesn't make any sense ... and it certainly won't solve the issues you are having.
Phoenix