As a Tuft & Needle employee, I thought the delays I was seeing our customers experience wouldn’t happen to me. After all, I knew little tips and tricks to ensure that my mattress was delivered by the time I needed it. So when I moved from Arizona to Oregon in the middle of the pandemic, one thing I felt sure of was that there would be a mattress arriving on the same day that I did. I was so wrong. About 4 nights of sleeping on the floor wrong.

Though it can be difficult to see the behind-the-scenes reasons that the pandemic is still affecting shipping and delivery times, we here on the T&N Customer Experience team wanted to shed some light on why your delivery may be taking longer than expected.

Surprising to no one, when we were in the thick of the pandemic, people were spending more time at home than ever before. This led to an explosion of “home improvement” based orders, as we were all trying to make our homes as comfortable and calming as possible.

This sudden burst has taken a toll on our industry by eating up material supplies; manufacturers didn’t see this uptick coming and simply weren’t prepared to supply or create such a large increase. As a result, the materials we use to construct our mattress are taking longer to be made and then delivered to us.

Another factor has been the limitations placed on the workforce involved in the production of our products, from manufacturing to shipping to delivery. Unprecedented numbers of employees requiring time off from work due to illness and increased safety measures in the workplace have affected the pace at which our products can be made and delivered.

Additionally, there is congested shipping across the country, so many packages are getting stuck either in transit or at the delivery hubs where FedEx separates and loads packages onto trucks heading to different locations.

As a pretty active online shopper myself, I understand how frustrating it can be when you see your delivery dates constantly changing or when you don’t see any movement at all, so here are some helpful tips:

• If replacing a mattress, don’t dispose of it until you have the new mattress in your possession.
• If you’re concerned about your mattress arriving on a specific timeline, we recommend ordering as early as possible. Depending on your situation, ordering early or having it delivered to an alternate location (like a friend’s) will help prevent potential delays from impacting your schedule. Our mattresses are packaged pretty compactly, so moving them from place to place is entirely possible (I can fit the box in the back of my Fiat!).
• Stay on top of local FedEx delays by visiting their Service Delays page.
• Opt in to text updates on your order page in order to receive updates in real-time.

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