My Pillow

I first noticed the TV commercials for this product in 2012 but just didn't get inspired to buy it despite respecting highly that it is made in America with materials from here as well. 

In 2016 they had a buy one get one free ad on TV and a friend wanted to try it, so I got my chance to try it too.

They give you 60 days to try it.  The thing is, I don't see why anyone needs to take that long to figure out if a pillow works for them given that it is used every night; so although that is very nice of them, it seems unnecessarily long. 

Which makes me wonder if it is done with some psychology behind it in that people tend to think "Oh I've got PLENTY of time to return it!" and then forget when the cut off is and oops, it's been 63 days now and is non-returnable. 

Or if they have it long enough, even if not crazy about it, they feel bad returning it and/or if perhaps some just get lazy and don't.

They have a four question "sizing chart" that I found quite odd.

Its first two questions I sort of understood.  Are you man, woman or child and do you sleep on your side, back, stomach or multiple positions.  Not it's third one though, "What size t-shirt do you wear?"  If this was one of those full body pillows then that would make sense if they needed to know how wide a person is but I couldn't see the connection between the product and the question.

Their fourth question was if you currently sleep on a down or feather pillow?

I can only surmise that this last question is asked for them to use in a study to further promote that these types of pillow users switched successfully to them.  I don't know, it doesn't matter.

When I first laid down on it, I did the usual adjusting of myself and the pillow to try and find my "sweet spot".  I have to say, I couldn't because the pillow was very soft and "shifty".  If you could feel one, you would immediately understand.  To try and illuminate what I mean, it felt like it was filled with giant lumps of cotton balls. (Which made me wonder why it is so expensive...)

I was also surprised by the fact that despite how bulky it was, my head seemed to sink it in and hit the bed, making it very flat, leaving my cervical spine, unsupported.  (Though I have been called a fat head in my life, it was meant figuratively, not literally...)

When it comes to a neck as damaged as mine, I need unfailing support from a pillow because just one minor shift in my sleep that leaves it unsupported and I can be awakened by excruciating pain.  Thus, I need a firm pillow to ensure no unsupported shifting.

This was all the more disappointing as well as surprising given that its creator speaks of how frustrated he used to get with pillows that go flat. 

Thus, I just settled in the middle and hoped for the best. 

The first night I woke up about 4 hours after I fell asleep to go to the bathroom.  When I got out of bed, I had a quick but noticeable pain in the left side of my neck. 

Now mind you, I have had debilitating pain on the left side of my neck in the last 10.5 years, but all 5 of the herniated neck discs were worse on the RIGHT side, so it is far more common than not, for my right side to hurt.

I went back to sleep and when I got up the next day, it was gone and I was grateful. 

The second night that I used it, I had no kink when I got up in the middle of the night again, but when I woke up the next morning, I had that same left sided pain again but this time, it was not fleeting.  

Thus, I was done with My Pillow because thanks to bad physical therapists, I learned years ago, the immense difference between "productive pain" and "unproductive pain". 

Meaning that when dealing with severe injuries, you have to suck up a lot of pain when doing beneficial efforts to regain your strength but the end result is that it is and SHOULD ALWAYS BE "productive pain". 

However, sometimes you get a P.T. with a body builder background who has NO CLUE what it is like to be disabled by extensive injuries and flared easily into pain hell due to inappropriate exercises for a person's particular injury status. 

They wrongly push a person until they experience unproductive pain, that just takes more days and often, weeks out of their life. 

When you have severe chronic pain for years, you lose so much time out of your life that you can NEVER get back, it is VITAL that you learn to recognize the difference between these two pain types and as much, to SPEAK UP FOR YOURSELF. 

Thus, I will no longer give anything a try to my detriment as I did for far too long in the first six years of injury/pain of listening to "experts" vs. my body. 

When you learn to listen to your body, you recognize when a tweak of pain is the kind that is not a big deal or if ignored, will turn into pain hell.  The tweak I felt after the second morning, was the latter and its warning was enough.

Based upon my severe and extensive spinal damage, the majority of which is cervical spine (neck), I personally can't recommend My Pillow for chronic pain users.  And if you don't have such challenges, you can buy just about any pillow in any store for $10 and be fine, as I used to be, pre-injuries.

However, as I say repeatedly throughout Spinal Trap, pain is personal and two people with the same damage will not necessarily respond the same to the same efforts.  Thus, all you can do is try it for yourself and form your own opinion. 

On that note though, if you are strapped financially,

I would hesitate to order it simply because

the company is cheap in that

they DO NOT refund ANY shipping

for receiving the product and they

MAKE YOU PAY FOR RETURN SHIPPING AS WELL. 

Thus, a $140 purchase got reduced

to only a $108 refund. 

Given that most companies make a profit off of shipping, that is very nice for them but not for the unsatisfied consumer!

I was also dissatisfied that they take

up to 30 days to refund you! 

Click this link to see for yourself:

http://www.mypillow.com/warranty.html

When every single company gets your money immediately, it is really offensive to take that long to return it. 

I don't know if they take that long because they use it in some capacity to make money off of it before they return it or if they just get so many returns, they don't have enough staff to keep up proper and timely returns processing? 

I do know that if I return something to Sam's Club today, my money is back in my account TOMORROW. 

Ditto every other physical retailer that I patronize; and when I have done returns to my online supplement providers, they may take 7-10 days, but that's a lot more acceptable than 30 days. 

I can't help but consider that this is a calculated decision because they have such a tiny niche market that they realize once a person returns their product, (unlike Sam's Club or other retailers with  thousand of products from which to choose), they very likely will never be a customer again. 

Thus, maintaining a good relationship doesn't appear to matter. 

Hence the lack of them paying any shipping and taking so very long to process refunds.

I am grateful to have fairness be my best asset.  Thus, I always give credit where it is due and will say that Courtney made the return process hassle free. 

However, prior to reaching her by having to pull up the website and find a phone number, the one listed on the packing slip to call to initiate a return, did not work.  I kept getting a fast busy signal.  That just seemed a little sketchy since people may give up and then forget to initiate the return before the 60 days are up. 

To me, the lack of paying any shipping either way, indicates that they do not have the faith they claim in their TV commercials for it to be "the most comfortable pillow you'll ever own" or they simply realize that "comfortable" is so highly subjective they don't want to reduce profits with shipping returns. 

Regardless, I don't believe in wasting money and throwing $32 down the toilet for their shipping fees was exactly that. 

Thus, if wasting money doesn't bother you, then this should be a non-issue; but if you run a tight budget, then think long and hard about what else you could do with $32 that will benefit you such as fill your gas tank, buy a few days worth of food, pay extra on a bill, etc...

UPDATE: Although they say it will take up to 30 days to refund returns, I am pleased to report that the refund was actually received about 8 days after the pillows were dropped off at the post office. 

That is not a bad refund time frame by any means and one that I can only is their average.

Be Grateful, Be Well

Grace Kelly, CHLC, CPLC