"Having just bought a new home and wanting to go the Mid-Century mod look, I took a pop into a few furniture stores, Ethan Allen and West Elm, with the kiddos. I liked EA A LOT, but to put a whole room together was 30% more than I wanted to spend. The sales team at WE were pushy and didn't even seem to know about the pieces I was interested in- because they didn't have the floor model? Although my EA bedroom set has survived 6 moves and is still gorgeous, I opted to cut my budget and give WE a try. I didn't order from them in store, but instead went home and placed my order online.
Thank heavens I sat on a few pieces, touched some tables and had my kids give the furniture the once over. I would have spent over $5000 if I had bought everything I was interested in, but instead spent only $1500. Going into the store first is a very good idea.
Our Austin chair & ottoman, sweater rug and lamb wool stool were delivered within two weeks. I didn't know why I have to pay so much for delivery, but c'est la vie with this company. The lamb wool stool does seem flimsy for the price. While I like it, I probably should have shopped around for that item a bit more. The rug is exactly what I expected and looks great. The Austin chair is SO COMFY. We all love it. My 10 year old chose it in the store. After 10 days of use, though, we noticed it was leaning to one side...a lot! So I called and asked for a new base. My comment was that maybe the delivery & assembly staff forgot to tighten a screw? The chair was awesome, it just needs a new base, which I'm happy to pick up in the store.
Customer service was great. They said they would ship a new chair and pick-up the old one (the already gave me a date), at no fee. They also said they would refund me the original delivery charge. Wow! Thanks! I didn't even ask for or expect any of that. That is great service!
20 years ago, the thought of ordering furniture online and having it delivered to your room of choice would have been laughed out of the room. Now, everyone is doing it and lots of folks are complaining about everything from "out of stock" to "poor quality".
Get up off your rear, go into the store and see if you like it. I'm glad we did and I'm looking forward to the delivery of my glider and ottoman from WE next month."
"I ordered a bed two weeks ago and it was expected to be delivered by late last week. No shipping notification at all so I contacted customer service. They informed me that it's in the shipping warehouse and someone from that department will contact me soon. After 3 more days, no call or notification, called them again and get the run around with no sympathy. Going to cancel my order and will never do business with them again! "
"Ordered a duvet cover and shams on line for a bridal gift. The shams came in an the duvet was back ordered to end of July Aug then October. Found it in a store which cost me 20 in shipping. When I contacted the customer service asking for it to be refunded I was told "They have nothing to do with retail stores". I was told by the stores that there mail order pulls from the store to ship to customers. The Customer service persons I spoke to were just rude.
If it wasnt for a bridal I would return it. I do not recommend this store (to order on line) at all."
"Now, I'm trapped waiting for my order. I've received a partial chandelier. I installed it and have not received the glass to go over the light bulbs. After one email, several phone calls, and being (rudely, I might add) bounced from person to person I ended up talking to someone in home delivery...for 3 small glass covers! They said they would call me back to see if they even had the order in the warehouse. What??? I ordered it weeks ago and why do they have to "home deliver" it? None of it makes sense. Their website gives incomplete and sometimes down right false information. Customer service is non-existent. How can such a high-end brand get away with treating their customers this way? I had the same issue with Williams-Sonoma 2 years ago and now I find out they're all owned by the same company. Ugh! Sadly, I am also waiting on a table from them too. "
"In this day and age it is amazing how bad the customer service is for West Elm. The voice response application, the knowledge of the reps, the processes, the billing approach the disconnect between people who do furniture, delivery, customer care..i could go on but why raise my blood pressure again this week. I will never do business with them again. "
"I ordered cotton canvas curtains, described as 108", and advertised as machine washable on warm. Upon receiving them, I promptly washed them according to manufacturer instructions and hung them. They were markedly too short, so I used my handy tape measure and they measured approximately 96" instead of the 108" that I had hoped. Thinking that some shrinkage may occur, I allotted for a couple of inches, but did not expect that curtains that cost $82 would shrink literally, by a FOOT.
Quite dismayed, I placed a call to customer service. This is where they lost me. I explained my situation to the seemingly nice lady, she documented and proceeded to place me on hold for about 10 minutes or so while she spoke with a supervisor. When she came back to speak with me, unbelievably, it was like I was speaking with a different person. She asked me why I washed the curtains. I replied that they are advertised as being machine washable and she proceeded to speak over me. She spoke and spoke and would not let me get a word in edgewise at that point. I said, "You are not letting me speak!", to which she replied, "I am still speaking!" And she kept right on speaking, I asked to speak with a supervisor, and she still went right on giving her obvious rehearsed spiel. This is the absolute worst customer service that I have ever received, no so much for the obvious faulty curtains, but for the disrespectful way that I was treated by this representative. West Elm, I would think that you would have more pride in your company than to allow your representatives to speak to customers in this manner. I'm very disappointed and for that reason alone, I will not be shopping with you further. "
"Cancelled both my orders I placed stating that item was out of stock. This is 8 days after I ordered the item. How can you not know that an item is in stock and allow customers to place multiple orders and then string them along? Customer service was a waste of time when I attempted to call to get an order update. "
"Oh how I am not surprised everyone is so upset with West Elm. I have had 5 months of NOTHING but multiple problems with west elm. I WILL NEVER shop there again.
I have never dealt with a bunch of terrible customer service reps as I have through West Elm. There is NO WAY this company will survive. Holy SH*T."
"I have had the worst customer service with West Elm. I often shop online and have and have never received such bad customer service. I went into a store in November to pick-up a Christmas Tree skirt. They were out of stock and recommended I order online. I then ordered it online and paid for rush shipping in order for it to arrive in 4 days. After 7 days passed and no item arrived I called customer service to check on the status. They informed me the item was on back order and would not ship out to me for another week (over 3 weeks after I initially was supposed to receive it).
When it again did not arrive I contacted them for a third time and was now informed that this item was no longer in stock they then informed me the company would never have it again. They were not apologetic about this nor did they offer any sort of compensation for falsely advertising something they could not full fill on.
What is most upsetting about this is the company never once contacted me to inform me of delay's or the fact they ultimately were never planning on sending me the tree skirt. And then were not only rude on the phone but also offered no sort of apology and explanation as to why they would sell something that they can't actually deliver on.
I will never be shopping here again "
"I received a few rewards card totaling about $300 for placing a number of orders with West Elm, plus a bonus "birthday" reward. I did notice they have expiration dates, so I began to try and use them up. My first order was for a $68 rug, so I used a $50 rewards card, and put the rest on a $150 card. What I didn't do was read the fine print. Unlike every other rewards card I've ever received, because I put $18 on a $150 dollar card, the card was now used up. In other words, you can only use each card once, no matter how little you put on it - so I lost $132. In fairness, it does explain this in microscopic print on the back of the card - but how many people actually read through all of that? At the very least, the salesperson on the phone could have warned me when I placed the order and gave him the rewards cards numbers. Seems like a very shady business practice, and does not inspire me to do further business with West Elm. "
"West Elm charged me again after reimbursement last week. It is a shame... I'm wasting my time with them since Aug 31th. The process is a mass, customer service is no sense and have no empowerment for getting solutions. The associates are darting but they suffer with the channels for problem resolution as well. After 2 visits, 4 calls and a lot of frustration, trying just to get it over. Terrible customer experience."
"I purchased this outdoor table in June 2014. A year later I contacted West Elm because the table has warped in many places, the "reclaimed" wood has chipped, the wood has separated, and it looks like a piece of junk. I spent $2,200 on this table and am so dissatisfied. I sent 8 pictures to the store in Westport showing the table, I received "this is normal wear and tear" from the manager of the Westport store. I find that disgusting of a store and would tell any of my friends not to buy from West Elm, Pottery Barn or Williams Sonoma (all part of the same company). "
"I ordered 3 items from West Elm in June.
1) My account has been charged for the items but I can get a delivery date
2) I keep getting the same answer its in transit.
3) I have spent a total of 4 hours on the phone in the last 5 days tracking my order
My advice don't buy from West Elm - Pottery Barn or WilliamsSonoma
"
"Worst Customer Service Ever experienced. Ordered a desk and chair in April 2015, the desk arrived but still waiting for the chair and we are in July. Have called customer service a thousand times and not once been offered any form of discount or apology for the delay. It would be fair to say that the people working in customer service would be better off not answering the phone, they literally have no clue what is going on. They can't tell you when to expect it, if its in stock etc. etc. yet they still make it available to buy online. Over three months waiting for a chair to arrive. I wish I had gone somewhere else as I never been so frustrated with a service. if I didn't have the desk (which I like) I would have cancelled. Seriously unless you are prepared to wait months and months for a delivery, avoid this company. The other reviews are so true. "
"Dear West Elm,
I shop online regulary and I have never had a more sour experience than I have had with you.
Item number 2115087 order number 138201 return authorization number 11343
I ordered my marble coffee table three months ago now, on 24th March. When the table was finally delivered, it was without any screws to construct it. The helpful delivery men at DHL found some spare screws in their truck and put it together temporarily and advised that I contact West Elm to follow up on having the screws delivered, and they would also report it to you. The screws were obviously not made for the table, so they stick out at the bottom and don’t fit it properly. If I was to ever try to move the table, it is not sturdy enough to do so, this was meant to be a temporary fix.
I then noticed that there was a heavy indentation in the marble on one of the edges, seemly a manufacturing fault of polishing off the edges into an oval shape. Between then and the 14th May I left three voicemail messages to the West Elm store requesting a call back, as every time I rang the customer service manager was unavailable. My first email on 14th May marked what was to be a lengthy process of talking about the problem with about 4 different people, I stated I had tried to call numerous times and I requested a callback. ‘Cheryl’ emailed me back to say she had tried to call me and couldn’t get through, I replied with photos of the damage. I then received a return email from Patricia offering 15% off for my troubles, with the very inconvenient catch that I would have to book a return, organize to stay at home from work to wait for DHL to pick up the table, wait for West Elm to refund me, (which could take up to 14 days) re-order another table, and then organize another day off from work to wait for DHL to deliver me a new table, hopefully without any faults and with the screws this time. I explained to ‘Patricia’ that this was not helpful to me, the 15% off was meaningless and it didn’t compensate for the inconvenience that I would have to experience as I would lose an additional two days from work just to receive the table I originally wanted, fault free without any damage to the marble and with screws, in attempt to make up for the hassle that West Elm caused me. I just wanted a hassle-free replacement within one day.
I received a generic reply email from ‘Stephanie’ to say that I should call you on a toll free number. I replied asking for management.
I then received another email from ‘Mary’ who confirmed she could combine the pick up of the faulty table and delivery of the new table into one day, so that I only needed to take one day off work, instead of two. That was what would have been the answer in the first place, but after not hearing back from West Elm, I received a call from DHL to ‘arrange a pick up’, when I questioned the delivery they who had no knowledge of bringing a new table at the same time and made a note on their system to wait to be advised of a delivery from West Elm.
I then followed up West Elm in regards to the DHL pick up on the 6th June by email to check what was happening. I received a response from ‘Patricia’ again, who re-stated that I had to return the table first, wait for pick up, then re-order another one and wait for re-delivery and that she would refer it to her ‘leadership team’ for review. Re-stating exactly what she said at the start which wasn’t helpful (taking two days off work), and totally contradicting Mary’s helpful customer service.
I never received any calls from the ‘leadership team’ so I followed up by email again on the 17th June. I still haven’t received a response.
After paying over $800 for a coffee table, delivered faulty, without screws and followed up with disgraceful customer service that has dragged on for months, I am now here on Facebook, absolutely fed up with trying to chase you for something with such a simple resolution.
I would never have ordered if I knew this was the kind of experience I would endure. I will never shop with West Elm again and will not hesitate to tell my friends of my experience.
I hope no one else has to go through the same dissatisfaction and frustration that I have experienced."