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First a few words of explanation (because the blog was dormant for quite some time): We didn't exactly have the time of our lives! Many were worried, angry or actually sick. Comment sections of many other sites were closed or bursting with grumpy messages. My mood frequently fell in line and it seemed IT news in general was all about a single issue. But this blog is driven by simplicity, not calculated marketing genius, and there's no manager holding a gun to my head while I'm writing. I enjoy speaking my mind freely and my translator Manuel is always happy to work on a more casual text now and then, that's it. And since we have a number of loyal readers, this blog has been around since 2015. As my home office phase recently came to an end and we sat together, the feeling of normalcy returned–and so did this blog! We hope you're all safe and sound and will continue to stay with us.
Back on topic: While stores were closed, I needed a new pillow. My old one had turned to a mixture of dust and unsightly lumps. Since local retailers were out of the picture, I tried my luck online. The basic issue here is quite trivial: I sleep on the side and I don't exactly have the small shoulders of a 12-year-old girl. That meant I had to get a firm pillow that offered some degree of support. No big deal, right? That's what I thought! Things turned out quite differently.
One site had a special category for sidesleepers. Splendid! And the comments for that one pillow were euphoric. Like so many others, Frank (49) from Berlin praised the excellent price-performance ratio: "Wonderful sturdy and affordable pillow for me as a sidesleeper! My wife ordered another one straight away!" Since returning the item was not an issue, I ordered one for myself. Three work days later, it arrived. Picture a scrap heap of old tires in the scorching sun and you'll have an idea of the stench I faced when opening the package. The seams must have been made during an earthquake and the crackling surface crowned it all. Frank, you betrayed me!
If at first you don't succeed, try again–so I did. I switched to another vendor that presented a matrix comparing various aspects of its pillow, like height, firmness and softness. Everything was neatly listed, just as a I like it. After some careful studying, I opted for a model with a high degree of firmness and some height. Here was my ticket for a good night's sleep! When I opened the package a week later, there was no biting chemical stench from the pillow case. That's progress! Compressed to a small roll by vacuum, my pillow had to "breathe for an hour to fully expand" according to the description. It seemed, patience was the order of the day, so I left the bedroom. After 60 minutes, I found a Jell-O-like blob that started jiggling as soon as I kneed on the bed for a closer inspection. Had it smelled of cherries, the illusion would have been perfect. This was supposed to be a "wonderfully supportive gel pillow"? I could squash it with a single finger so I skipped the more lengthy test. The man at the post office counter strangely nodded as I brought it back.
So what to do now? Look to science, of course! The next site wooed me with the help of a "sleep researcher and orthopedist", the silver hair and sun-tanned complexion of whom signaled trustworthiness. I went for a lab-tested pillow designed by smart engineers and showered with design awards. Four work days later, this scientific masterpiece lay before me. Beautifully crafted, odorless– and hard as a piece of oak wood. I don't know which Dr. Frankenstein forced this pillow on some unfortunate subjects in the sleep lab or how many sleepless nights they spent with it. The glossy supplementary sheet had some words of sympathy, stating it may take a few days to get used to the pillow–along with a few illustrations to showcase its positive effect on my posture and sense of well-being. So I tried it for a whole week. Agonizing nights with an aching neck, disturbed deep sleep cycles and stifled curses followed. In the evenings, I looked at the pillow with death-defying courage, rested my head on what felt like a brick and hoped for the best, for me and my cervical spine. After eight days, I was back at the post office counter, bantering about soccer with the man like old friends.
Surrender is never a good option so I switched to Amazon next and kept looking. As always, I read the bad reviews first. They help you find out quickly whether people are just venting their general frustration, have overblown expectations to begin with or are offering justified criticism. After some research, I opted for a fairly affordable item that seemed solid in every respect. It was quickly shipped by an "international sleep specialist"–and it had obviously been used before. I don't want to get into the unsavory details but the pillow had definitely been tested intensively and there must have been a smoker in the bedroom. No handwritten note with little hearts could change my mind. So I donned some gloves, put everything back in the box and returned the item the same day. My frustration ran deep, not even the by now familiar chitchat at the post office counter (he wanted to buy a new car) could ease my pain. At night, I resigned to my old pillow and waited for retail to open again. Weeks went by.
As soon as my local bed store opened up again, I went there. I was welcomed by a visibly motivated employee, obviously happy about every customer. After a short talk, he returned with a dozen pillows for me to try out one by one. I could hardly believe my good fortune. Aside from a few short explanations, the good man just let me be. So I enjoyed the one thing the internet cannot offer: Being able to touch and feel the product and get instant answers for every question. It was heaven! I tried product after product and went from twelve items down to three until I had found my new pillow. There was no Frank praising every product sky-high, no scientists trying to convey to me the orthopedic benefits of a stone and no lofty promises that some oddly shaped piece of foam would change my life. With my spirits lifted, I went to the checkout, paid 10€ less than I would have on Amazon and slept like a baby that night.
What I would like to know: Which products would you never buy online?
Tghe famous C&A has no stock anymore! i went to 2 shops: one downtown and one in the shopping center complex. They said me to use their website and buy online.
just like you , Sven, for this type of products you want to try size and comfort.
Now 2d agogot me a pair of sneakers and it was send without extra shipping cost if i let it arrive in their shop. I fetched the way to big box filled up with expanded pockets and went home convinced the ordered 43 size would give me some more comfort than my normal 42 shoe size.
no way, it pinched my foot, have to return it next week and order a 2 size bigger than normal. What the heck can't they sell it anymore in their shop where i can try till found a match and go home happily???
No Sven, for clothes and the like i definitely prefer the age-old shop experiment. this is not electronics, it should fit you and noty a trial and error sending you back and forth to post office to ship it back
Love the Blog Sven ! But buying from Ashampoo is the best , no lumps there (lol) .
Cheers
K
Thank you so much! :)
Sven,, I would never buy shoes or clothes online I have had nothing but poor luck buying either of these online, Let me try them on or, I'm not buying
I have learned not to purchase from unknown online vendors. There are unscrupulous people who market a substantial product, but ship some scrap of cloth or a small plastic container. They use the shipping info from these bogus items to claim that they've shipped the product. I used to enjoy buying from international vendors... but no more. It's a pity
Hallo Sven,
Es ist mit großer Freude, Sie und Ihren Namen in meinem E-Mail-Programm zu sehen.Ich habe unsere regelmäßigen Artikel verpasst.
Wenn ich online einkaufe, ist es nicht oft und nur für ein Produkt, das ich nicht lokal kaufen kann und hauptsächlich Elektronik, da unsere lokalen Elektronikfachhandelspreise extrem viel höher sind als qality Online-Produkte.
Ich hoffe, dass die totale Gesundheit und Freiheit sehr bald für alle auf der Welt geschieht.
Vielen Dank für Ihre interessante Artikel, und ich freue mich auf mehr von Ihnen in der nahen Zukunft.
Mit Freundlichen GRÜßEN,
hx for your comment, John! Buying electronic devices from regional stores is difficult not just because of higher prices. I highly dislike vendors trying to sell me more than I had planned or pushing me to buy items that have been proven to be bad quality. If we had benchmarks for pillows, I would have never had that problem! ;)
I liked your story. I just have to say that I have bought about 50% or more of all your products. I really like Backup Pro 15, Uninstaller, Burning Studio 21, Undeleter, Music Studio 8, Soundstage Pro, and Stick Password among others.
Sticky Password is the best Password Manager I have run across.
Patricia Manroe
Our 29L fish tank became overfull after some of our Guppies decided on an extensive breeding programme. We searched on-line for a 50L tank and finally found one that sounded great. There were no reviews as the product was provided by a 3rd party through a major hardware chain.
It arrived within days -fantastic ! Assembly instructions consisted of a single sheet of paper with what looked like a drawing from a kinder-garden child.
What should have been a simple task took hours as the filter pump assembly required a contortionist to attach it to the filter tray. The cut-out in the tray did not match the pump and when fitted, the suction cups were 1cm away from the glass ! Despite everything, I finally got it working, only to find that the outlet from the pump produced a Jetstream strong enough to pin my poor guppies to the tank wall. I am now currently looking for a post installation method of throttling the Jetstream - wish me luck !
Welcome to the real world!! been there done that, I rarely buy anything online, but if I do I always use paypal, because, they do get you money back - merchants don't want a bad reputation with paypal.
I could have saved you all those troubles. An excellent store from Denmark has many locations in Germany. It also has online service. I managed one of their stores here and when comes to pillows they have the best. Even though I'm no longer with JYSK my purchases from them are great. Bed, blankets and pillows, especially pillows, that are the original slightly harder foam-jelly ones. It shapes to a side-sleepers neck immediately.
The only product I do purchase online are computer parts. I also purchase them online from a local company and one further away. When I attempted to buy food online locally their website did not have some of their best products and the prices were much higher. Lesson learned.
It's great to have you back with your insights Sven. What a nutty 18 months.
I have purchased a number of items online. Most from Aliexpress. Generally every item has arrived within a month but some never arrived. To be fair I was refunded for items that never showed up which were low value and not a concern
I purchased motorcycle helmets and and gear but they sent the wrong size. They would cost too much to return from New Zealand to China so I took the loss myself. Also ordered cellphone covers and pouches. Most were excellent but some arrived the wrong size.
Other online retailers have proved to be excellent.
What I do to prevent fraud is I have a separate debit card bank account and never have more than $200.00 in it. I use it for online payments and just transfer what is needed for the purchase into the account so that anyone who might be trying to defraud me can only get that amount of money.
Oh, I have also purchased a fair amount of excellent Ashampoo software online
Welcome back Sven! It's been awhile.
My perspectives on beds, sheets, and pillows:
I've got a split king adjustable bed and mattress I bought from FloBeds (.com), years ago. It wasn't cheap, and the adjustable bed hardware literally weighs hundreds of LBS (2x KG). The mattress was a hybrid where you assembled chosen firmness ratings for two parts of the top layer for each side. It worked well, after replacing one of the four top components for a different firmness. Years later, I'm still happy.
Sheets though are a problem. Until recently, the concept of a "Split King" size didn't exist. I just found and ordered that sheet size from the "My Pillow" guy, Mike Lindell. Jury's out until I get them, but they were a great deal on seemingly quality cotton.
I haven't tried his pillows, since I still love my two "instantly reconfigured on the fly" goose down pillows. (No pun there:) Everything's on sale for now from MyPillow (.com) , so I'd at least consider his pillows, and also because of this backstory supporting free speech:
His small company "only has +2,000 employees", so I figure their products must be fairly good, to grow that fast. And today, all his products are very inexpensive at 50-66% off, since he's being persecuted for speaking out on some political issues. Some "free speech" is no longer allowed here in the US, without being financially punished.
Check out the reviews, while avoiding some obviously fake extremely negative reviews placed for political reasons. Eventually the great deals will be gone, once they figure out that the cancel culture strategy won't work to stifle free speech, at least with brave private company CEOs.
I would never buy clothes online. Although I'm a relatively standard sized person, everything depends on the "average" person's size of the country where the clothes are made. Most clothes are now made in Asia (especially China, Bangladesh, and India) or South America. I bought XXXL T-shirts from China and they would not fit a 10 year old child in the US or Europe. Shoes are even worse. The sizes just do not match up no matter what country they are made in. If the website has actual dimensions of the clothing or shoes that one needs, then there is a better chancce that they might fit, but then the colors could present problems.
Big ticket items---appliances, tires, cars, furniture, etc. You didn't ask but what would I not buy online--BEFORE seeing/touching it in person; flooring, bedding, towels, shoes, clothing. However, if i know what it is, how it feels, what it looks like, I will buy it online!
I would never buy either a pillow or a mattress online unless I tried one first in a retail store (and retail stores can pass on lower shipping costs in the final price since they order truckloads of stuff at a time).
I tried lots of mattresses, but settled on a Sealy firm foam mattress and saved about $100 compared to the same mattress from a different store. I did have to order it, but I was able to lay on a different sized one in the store and knew it was just what I wanted--a mattress similar to what hotels have in their rooms, firm, but soft, all at the same time.
For a pillow, I was able to try some out in a retial store and bought another Sealy product, a little more expensive than I was prepared to buy, but I've had it for several years, and it is still firm enough yet soft enough for me.
Both of these have some sort of gel in them, along with standard foam.
I have a friend who bought a Purple mattress online and he hates it. If you're even thinking of buying a mattress online look for reviews and company ratings. You may find many dissatisfied customers and also find that what appears on the surface to be a generous return policy isn't really, and many were stuck with their purchase when they actually thought they would be able to try it out for a period of time and return it if they didn't like it.
Spare yourself the agony of a bad experience and at least find a place to try out exactly what you're thinking of buying before buying online. I buy many things online, but mattresses and pillows are not among those items.
I wouldn't buy furniture online again. In February, I ordered a bed and a mattress. It was "in stock" and should have been delivered in a week. In May, I still didn't have it after multiple assuring e-mails from the store that they're working on it. So I cancelled the order and they didn't want to return my money for multiple weeks. I had to contact a lawyer (thankfully have an insurance for that) and they managed to extract the money from that store in a couple of weeks. What a horrible experience. Now I'd definitely buy furniture in-store.