What if this pillow isn't right for me?

What if this pillow isn't right for me?

by David Smith

How does Down & Feather continue to support customers long after the order is "complete"? Discover our 30-night guarantee, perfect pillow policy, and refurbishment after 1 year or more from purchase. What makes our support program different? How can you benefit from the ongoing support from Down & Feather's programs?

In this episode of Pillow Talk, you learn:

✔️ Our 30-Night Guarantee (first 30 days after date delivered).

✔️ Perfect Pillow Policy (first 365 days after date ordered).

✔️ Refurbishment (day 366 and beyond after date ordered).

Everyone's got a return program, right? So if you buy it, you don't like it, you can return it. 

But what makes a support program different, and how can you benefit from the ongoing support from Down & Feather's programs?

It was probably 13 years ago when I was looking through returns. We had a reason code for why the returns were coming back because we wanted to keep track to see what was going on. Why would you return a pillow that we made for you by hand that we thought was going to be perfect? What was the reason? So we’d see people write: 

✍️ "Hey, it was a little bit too thick.”

Or

✍️ "Oh, I need this to be a little bit thicker." 

Those were the two primary reasons for returning something. I was sitting there with their pillow, and I was thinking, 💭 “I've got seamstresses sitting here on my production floor, why don't we just open it and either add a little bit of down to it or feather to it, to make it a little bit thicker? Or, let's take a little bit out and make it a little bit thinner, and then we'll put it in a box and send it back to them.”

That's how the perfect pillow policy came about. And so I thought, 💭 “Why don't we just make the return 30 days, but we'll do the adjustment for a full year?”

POINT #1: 30-Night Guarantee

If you don't like your pillow in the first 30 days and it's just clearly not working out for you, can you send it back and get a refund?

Yes, you return it for a refund. We have a refund and return center link at the bottom of the website. It's a customer-driven process. You're in complete control. You don't have to talk to anyone to get approval. You don't need an RMA number. You don't need anything. If you don't want it, it's fine, absolutely. Fill out the refund and return center, and you're done.

POINT #2: Perfect Pillow Policy

Let’s pretend it's day 31, and you like your pillow but there's something about it. You just can't get comfy. But, you know that you've got the right one because you have a down pillow and you like to sink in it, so then what? That's the perfect pillow policy?

Yes, that’s right. After the 30-night comfort guarantee expires, then you've got the option of sending it back to us under our perfect pillow policy, and have it adjusted for free, so the pillow fits you better. That's also a customer driven process. It’s pretty easy. You just use the pillow adjustment center link at the bottom of the website. You tell us what you want us if you want us to make it a little bit thinner or a little bit thicker. Your only responsibility under that program after the 30 days is that you send it back to us. We pay to adjust it. I have seamstresses on the floor, we open it, add material or remove material, and then we ship it back to you for free. 

We do that for a full year from the date of purchase. Pillows sometimes have a tendency to change as a function of all the compression cycles, meaning you sleeping on it, you having pillow fights with it. Whatever you're doing to it, right? You're using it, and by definition they might change. Therefore, I wanted to take care of those pillows that changed and make them perfect for those people who are willing to send it back to us to make it right.

And you've got one year from the date of purchase to utilize the perfect pillow policy.

POINT #3: Refurbishment  

Let's say it's day 366, and you don't know what to do or it's year two, then what? What are your options?

After 366 days, we have a refurbishment program where we will basically rebuild the pillow, but it is a small additional cost where you have to buy a refurbishment program for your pillow, depending upon the size. You pay for the refurbishment program, you send us the pillow, and then we take the down or feathers that you had originally purchased, clean it, add whatever extra we need to get it back to its original weight and thickness, put a brand new shell on it, box it up, and send it right back to you. 

I remember one of the first times we did a refurbishment for one of the down pillows. I got the call that day and our customer said, "Hey, I got my new pillow." I said, “Oh, that's fantastic.” 

She said, "But it was a refurbishment." 

And I said, “Okay, so it's a refurbishment, not necessarily new.” 

She said, "No no no, I don't think you refurbished it. I think you just sent me a brand new pillow."

And I said, “No no, I promise we took the down that you had originally purchased, and then we cleaned it, and then we added whatever down we needed to to get it back to its original fill weight and thickness, and then we put a brand new shell on it and then we boxed it up and sent it right back to you. So for all intent and purposes, it's a brand new pillow but it's the original pillow that you sent us.” 

And she said, "I still think you sent me a new pillow." 

And I said, “Okay, that's great. I appreciate the kind words, but I promise you that we refurbished it.” 

It looks and feels new which is the whole point of the refurbishment, so perfect.

Fortunately, not many people use the refurbishment program. Because of the way that I designed the pillows and because of the materials that I use and the fact that we really try to remind people to use a pillow protector, less than 1% of the pillows that we ship come back for a refurbishment.

A note about pillow protectors: They have zippers and pillow cases don't. They really extend the life of a pillow and keep it performing the way it was originally designed. And they keep it from needing to be refurbished. 

Moreover, if you go look at some of the reasons for refurbishments, like probably 7 or 8 times out of 10, it's not because of a human being doing something to the pillow. It’s due to pets. - Usually, something has happened from another animal in the house, from either bodily function or tearing it up. Cats are a big part. It's not usually the dog. 

Another note about the refurbishment program, it’s only for pillows purchased at Down & Feather.

It's really hard when people call in who didn't buy their pillow from us. They find out about the refurbishment program and they want us to refurbish their pillow. I don't like saying “no,” but I have to if it's not our product, if it's not my textiles, if it's not my material inside. I can't refurbish something that I didn't make. They call, but I have to tell them “no.” It's got to be something that we designed, that we manufactured, we shipped, that we make.

REVIEW: 

✔️ We have the 30-night guarantee during the first 30 nights from the date you receive your pillow. Again, that’s from the date delivered. We want you to have it for 30 nights. However, pillows are so personal that people know very, very quickly. Then once you use it and need to send it back, you use the refund and return center link, which generates a return label for you via email, you get it an email, you slap it on the box, you send it back.

✔️ Perfect pillow policy, is from day 31 to day 365 of the date ordered, so you have a whole year. The reason is just because some people during the first 30-night comfort guarantee take advantage of the perfect pillow policy because they love the pillow. They just know they ordered the wrong thickness. So they just send it in to get it changed. Again, that's one free adjustment, one up or one down.

In other words, if you get a medium and you need it to be firmer, we can go firm. We don't go in between thicknesses or in between densities. You can go one density higher or one density lower than the original order.

If you order a medium, you can go to soft. If you order a medium, you can go to firm. But you can't order soft and go to extra firm. And you can't order extra firm and go to soft. That doesn't make any sense.

✔️ Refurbishment: And then after day 366, you can refurbish your pillow and that's unlimited, so if you bought it from us 10 years ago, you can refurbish your pillow.

Here’s another customer story. This happens a lot. People call in and ask about having their pillow that they bought from us refurbished. They say,  "Hey, I took my pillow to the dry cleaner "to have them clean it." Or whatever they did after however many years they'd had it. 

They were really frustrated and upset because they found out that the dry cleaner actually gutted the pillow. The dry cleaner re-shelled the pillow and put unknown material back in it. He's definitely not putting in ultra premium Hungarian white goose down like we use. That's frightening.

Because they bought the pillow from us, all they have to do is pay for the refurbishment and we fix it.

We’ve had many customers be very disappointed with someone putting inferior material inside that shell and then replacing that shell with, they don't even understand what happened to their pillow.

Again, you've learned what to do if the pillow is not right for you. 

✔️ You've got a 30-night guarantee when you can return for a refund. 

✔️ You've got a perfect pillow policy so free adjustment for one year.

✔️ You’ve got refurbishment where we fix up your pillow (purchased from us) from day 366 and beyond..