West Elm

Terrible customer service and return policy. The return policy on registries is a joke. It’s completely not organized, to where they have to find your registry by phone. It takes about 30 minutes to return an item here from a registry. On top of it, W.E. offers you the return sale price instead of how much it cost on the registry. This has happened to me twice now. Can’t even get a damn sorry either from the employee. Not happy.

Not the best experience and wouldn’t recommend shopping here unless it’s for small items. Considering the price and how they market their brand, I expected far better service than what I had received. I went to the store to purchase multiple furniture items (i.e. dining table, console table, coffee table, lamps, and a side table) so it was a bit of a hefty sum.
The good:
— Sales persons were nice and attentive (with some caveat at the bottom).
— Nice furniture designs.
— Quality seems solid (though, I just had most of them delivered so we’ll see).
— They help you design your space.
The bad:
— The sales person we dealt with was Kendall. She was great in that she helped us pick out pieces that same day (instead of having to come back for her to do the design). But even though we had explicitly asked her to hold off shipment until two weeks out, she didn’t do that. She instead told us to call customer service — which then said there was nothing they can do about that. This is where our entire ordeal started. It seemed like she was in a rush to make the sale and was helpful up until then. After which, she became dismissive/​not as responsive or helpful to our follow-​up questions.
— HORRIBLE customer service (I can’t emphasize that enough). Call the 1800 number and you’re on hold for at least 15 minutes. They then immediately pass you on to another department without asking details of your issue. You’re again on hold for another 15 minutes. UPS (which delivered the non-​white glove items) told us to have West Elm call them to redirect delivery. Apparently it was easy as that but we had to argue with West Elm for them to even consider doing that. We spent a good 5 days of going back and forth with West Elm and UPS for something that could have been easily avoided at the point of sale. In the end, West Elm refunded us the cost of shipping.
— Another note on shipping/​delivery. They charge for every single item unlike others (like Room & Board) that charge you a flat fee for the entire purchase. So it may seem slightly cheaper but the cost quickly adds up with shipping and white glove service.
— White glove service was ehh. Delivery guys were friendly but were late. Had to cancel an appointment to wait for them. The dining table was missing some hardware so I had to refuse delivery. I had a media console delivered from Room & Board and it was a completely different experience. Guys came in on time, were very knowledgeable about the furniture (e.g. gave tips on maintenance, instructions on how to take it apart if we needed to), and reassured us that if we had any issues with it, they’d be happy to come back. Didn’t get any of that with West Elm’s delivery.
— Two of the white glove items were back ordered until July/​August (it’s currently June). They were apparently going to hold off delivering the other 4 items that were already ready until the other two arrived (makes no sense!). Had we not called customer service (time spent: 30 minutes) and the delivery company, we would have been waiting for our stuff to arrive until August!

Don’t buy furniture form this company!!! Warming!!! It breaks — they will not replace it and they have horrible customer service!!!

Amazing customer service.
I put a coffee table on hold and went in to pick it up yesterday. Every person I talked to was super friendly and helpful. The entire experience was easy, fast and refreshing. Not often I see such great customer service. I will definitely be coming back in the future.
Also, the coffee table is awesome.

I am in love with their beautiful things so I was a little scared when I read all the not so great reviews before I ordered our sofa and a console table… and curtains… and curtain hardware… and curtains again and flatware…
Every time I ordered something online or at the store my experience was outstanding. The people working there always were very nice and the customer service (via e-​mail and phone) has always been very helpful — even when I had a quality complaint. The exchange of the defect furniture was problem-​free, nice and easy.
The delivery times also were okay. The sofa even has been delivered earlier than expected — so no complaints here either.
I am a happy customer and will keep shopping here. Next item on the list: Side tables!

My experience ordering a (semi) custom piece from West Elm’s sofa/​chaise collection was similar to many other reviewers’. We ordered a single left arm chaise back in December, with a deliver-​by date in March. We get tracking details that show the chaise making its way to West Elm’s Richmond warehouse. Deliver-​by date comes and goes. First call to the store. They’ve lost the chaise, it made it to the warehouse; it’s location now is anyone’s guess. A week passes, no news. Second call to the store. They’re still looking, unclear whether anyone noted or acted upon last week’s call. No news for another week. Third call to the store. Chaise is miraculously found — we set up deliver for the following week.
Two very nice gentlemen arrive for to deliver a completely different piece from West Elm’s custom collection — apparently our chaise was never found after all. We refuse delivery. More calls to the store. We’re hoping to get purchase amount refunded. Initially we were told we could get a full refund, but no refund processed yet and on «transfer» to manager our call was disconnected. Called back, left message asking about refund. The saga continues. Hoping purchase price will eventually be refunded, but after waiting four months while West Elm held our money and thinking chaise would be here in time for upcoming recovery from minor surgery, we would have definitely gone a different direction if we’d realized all the similar recent problems other reviewers have experienced with this company.

Very disappointed in my overall experience with West Elm. This review is directed towards the lack of customer service both in stores and in the offices. The furniture is beautiful but heaven forbid something goes wrong because it will never be resolved. Ever.
I ordered a couch and the buttons fell off within the first week and the leg was crooked and after 7 months of trying to resolve the issue I’ve given up. I will never purchase another item from this company or refer them to anyone. I’m sad because I was so excited about their selection and I did tell several close friends and family members about them and all of them ordered a lot of furniture because of my excitement– regretting now. You get what you pay for.

So it’s not like our experience has been has been completely great, and we’re not out of the woods yet, but we definitely went into it with eyes wide open. Ordered a sectional and a couch in November after much hassle — the chaise part only came as a left-​hand layout in the fabric we wanted, not as a right-​hand. Why? It’s custom furniture, not an unusual fabric, but no one had any reasonable explanation and no one anywhere up along the ordering chain could resolve it. I even left a message with William Sonoma corporate «customer care» — total joke. The guy called me back the next day but could have cared less and wasn’t the least bit curious about why their system was not working. When I said that our couches were expected in late January, he said, and I quote, «I wouldn’t bet on it.» OMG. No wonder the company is such a mess. Anyway, we were fine not having couches for a few months, anticipating big delays. So yes, couches didn’t come until the beginning of February after one no-​show delivery (which they compensated us $ 150 for as my husband took off work). And yes, the chaise is damaged so we’re waiting for a replacement. But they let us keep the damaged one, called us within a day to verify the problem and go through the resolution, and they immediately took the charge off of our account. That seems unusual in terms of the WE/​WS customer experience. Not sure what made the difference in our case. Maybe because we opened a WE account. Maybe because we ordered through the store and not online. Who knows.
The new chaise is supposed to come in April. We’ll see. So far we are very happy with the couches. They look great, clean up easily, and the cats can’t get their claws into the performance velvet, which is a huge plus. I’d say construction is fine — not top of the line, but honestly I thought the WE couches were much more comfortable than the Room & Board couches, although they probably won’t last nearly as long. But I will say that they compensated us financially for every problem we encountered, so the couches wound up pretty darn reasonable cost-​wise and if we have to replace them in a few years, it won’t be a total bust.
I would say that if you know what to expect and don’t care how long it takes to get a your furniture, go ahead, but be prepared for things to be a mess for awhile. Hey, it’s only furniture.

I’m pretty unhappy with how West Elm handled my order. i ordered 2 items, both in stock as a birthday git. I ordered it on 2 – 18, and was told it would arrive on 2 – 25. 3 weeks later, my friend still doesn’t have her present, i have called west elm at total of 8 times, and been told 8 different things. I requested that they re send the order to a different address, which they allowed me to do, but would not pay for expedited shipping. Who knows when my friend will get her birthday present now– if ever. When i finally got the USPS tracking number and called them, they told me that the order had never even shipped. West Elm purports to be a quality company with quality products, neither promise was delivered. I will not be ordering from them again.

I purchased a sleigh bed from West Elm; it was delivered last Saturday (2÷27÷16) Sunday morning (2÷28÷16) the foot of the bed was loose; I emailed West Elm on Monday 2÷29÷16 and they assured me someone would call me in 24 – 72 hours. Friday night (¾/​16) it completely fell apart. I emailed West Elm again. They said in two separate emails that I would be CALLED on Wednesday 3÷9÷16 and Thursday 3÷10÷16. I don’t even know when somebody will actually come to look at the bed, fix it and/​or replace it. Meanwhile I have a broken bed occupying more than half of my room with a mattress on the side.
I called West Elm today Saturday 3÷5÷16. They said I would be called back in 15 minutes. No call. My beds from Ikea have been more solid than West Elm, not to mention terrible Customer Service and absolutely no follow up. This is my last purchase with West Elm and I hope potential customers will read this before throwing their money away.

What can I say? I hate this company with a passion. I don’t care if it’s the retail store or the online store, they are one and the same as both should be a reflection of the brand name. Save yourselves the TROUBLE of buying anything online that can’t be delivered via mailman because you may end up like me. Let me explain my situation.
I bought the Peggy sectional Jan 11, the order was in processing and for a whole month they would take money out put it back in take money out and put it back in. I was so annoyed at how they handled this but I was fortunate enough to get the furniture dept manager to cancel my order. I thought that was the end of my nightmare only to find out I was sucked back into it today! My bank statement showed a west elm purchase of $ 3011.58 for the couch that I had cancelled almost a month ago! Are you serious? Of course this would happen again, I mean, WHY THE HELL NOT? Now I’m left with a balance of $ 0 in my checkings account waiting patiently for my bank to give me temporary spending money for you know things like commuting to work food gas parking bills etc. I can’t forget to mention the 20 – 30 min wait times on the phone, getting transferred to 3 different departments and having to explain the situation over each time, getting HUNG UP on, and getting the rudest customer service reps and managers.
But to make things worse? I was stupid enough to make another purchase for a bed, dresser, and media console. Delivery date was set, no one came, no one called… Only to find out they couldn’t locate the headboard for the bed so they decided not to deliver the other 2 pieces for 2 weeks! They were looking for the headboard for 2 weeks… Luckily they have a reimbursement program for not on time delivery items. Which goes to prove that this obviously happens frequently enough for the company to realize that they have a problem they can’t fix by simply resolving whatever the issue is at hand but rather amend the issue after the damage is done. Fix the problem, not the symptoms!
So I thought, ok maybe buying something IN STORE would be better. I got a u haul and headed to the west elm in emeryville to get the emmerson dining table and bench. I found an employee willing enough to help me and he actually ended up being the store display manager. Cool! Not cool! I pointed to the table that was, and still is, on display and he said that it was the 62″ table but there were none in store so I said ok I’ll order it online through you and have it delivered to my house. As he was doing so I walked over to the table and saw that it definitely was longer than 62″ and asked him if he was 100% sure 3 times and each time he said YES. The last time I asked him he rolled his eyes and grabbed a tape measure to the table and… It was indeed longer…72″! So I almost made the mistake of buying the wrong size table! And is guy is claiming to be the display manager? I’ve lost all hope.
But wait!!! To put salt and vinegar and alcohol on my wound!!! This was seriously the cherry on top. If any of you who are reading this are in the Bay Area and are interested in the mid century bed dresser wardrobe and nightstand there’s a store called LIVING SPACES that sells THE EXACT SAME THING for A ¹⁄₃ OF THE PRICE. I REPEAT!!! A THIRD OF THR PRICE. Take a look at the pictures yourselves. And last but not least, BUYER BEWARE.

The store is slightly bigger than the one in Palo Alto, which is nice. I think they have more things to show as well. It just hurts the wallet knowing how everything is so darn experience. I used to work here, so the discount was helpful, but now I rarely shop here.

These guys don’t know how to run a business.
We ordered a chair in store two months ago. They said we would get it in two weeks.
Its been 3 months. No chair. 10 hours on the phone, no resolution.
The worse part is that their system has no memory.
Every customer service agent goes back to square 1 and you lose any progress you have ever made. At times I feel like the customer service agent because i give them the updates.
I have my own notes in an excel sheet.
Their sales rep in the store is so good at pushing you to buy things. Zilch when it comes to delivery.
They suck your time on the phone with no progress on the order whatsoever.
At some point it starts to feel like borderline harassment.
You CAN’T get the item. You CAN’T get a refund.

I drove here from San Francisco today wanting to return my online purchases at the store. I have been reading all the reviews, and all of them are true about their customer service! TERRIBLE! I called them a couple of days ago just to make sure I can return my online orders at the store and after waiting for 20 minutes, I finally got an answer, which was YES! Anyway, I went to the store today, and guess what? They were closed today for inventory! Seriously!!! Who does this on a regular business day? Why can’t they restock items early in the morning or after the store closes. Ugh, I was so frustrated! Sorry, I needed to vent! Thanks for listening, Unilocalers!

I think West Elm needs to be investigated by the BBB. I will never order anything from them ever again. I ordered 3 rugs and in the end, really only liked 1 of them, so I decided to return the other 2. Their customer service is laughable. When you call them, I promise you will have a wait time of 20+ minutes. I had to experience this for each of the 3 – 4 times I had to call them.
The first call — I was told someone from the furniture department would call me within a week to schedule a pick up of the rugs I wanted to return because they’re too oversized for an in store return. A whole week went by and the furniture department NEVER called me. I called them again, waited 20+ minutes to talk to someone, and was connected to a very awkward service rep. After giving him the needed information, I kid you not, he spent about 7 minutes heavily breathing on the phone, not saying a word, while typing the information into the computer. Took so long and I just had to hear him breathe the whole time. At least put me on hold again — jeez or tell me why you just stopped talking all of a sudden. It wasn’t until I said «Hello???» that he told me he was entering information into the system.
Then he gave me a return authorization number and directed me to call another department to schedule the pick up — I did and the pick up was scheduled for December 30^th. They came on on the scheduled date/​time — wow! And picked up the rugs. Now it’s January 31^st (one month later) and we have yet to see the $ 1000+ refund.
West Elm has just scammed us. We actually called a week ago and the customer service rep said she’d put a «note» on our order to have accounting look into it. She assured us we’d hear from them within 3 days. It’s been over a week and not a peep from them. No update. No email. No call.
Just keep scrolling thru the reviews and you’ll see that many people have experienced the same thing as me. It’s not bad luck — their customer service is just non-​existent. Thanks for stealing $ 1000+ from me, West Elm!

Customer service is nonexistent, which is pretty ridiculous for a supposedly higher-​end brand. You would think that when their customers are willing to scarf out hundreds or even thousands for their furniture, that they would be more attentive and understanding. But no.
My housemate had ordered a couch for our apartment to replace our old ones about a month or two ago, and they literally just came this morning. When we asked if they could take our old couches away, they responded by saying that they probably could but would charge $ 20. We were considering that option, but one of the guys then mentioned that it’d be $ 50, not $ 20, since that was the usual price to remove one couch, and we had two. He also added that they already had another couch in the back of their truck, so they probably wouldn’t be able to take take them.
To be honest, my housemate and I just wanted to get rid of our old futon couches so we asked if they could just help us move the couches down to the first floor so that we could throw them out. They then declined our request, saying that that would require extra time from them and put them behind on their delivery schedule.
I understand that asking you to take our extra couches and load them onto your truck may be a bit much, but when a paying customer asks for 5 – 10 minutes of your time to assist them in merely moving two couches down, especially when they’re two small girls and you have you and another 6’2″ male friend, the least you could do is spare some time to help them.
So yes, this is the last time we’ll be shopping at West Elm for our furniture. Congrats on losing yet another customer.

I was attempting to purchasing an item online. During check out i received message that the item is not available for shipping until (2 weeks out), and I proceeding with check out. Received message «not available.» I googled the item, still listed on website as available. I called customer service, it answered but I am on hold forever, no answer.
Very frustrating… I took a lot of time picking out this bed spread by the advice of my daughter. Now I can’t get it???

DO NOT SHOP WITH THEM — HORRIBLE SERVICE!!!
i rarely write reviews but this experience was so bad that i do not want anyone else to go through it.
I’m sure the store is ok but we bought a bed online and the customer service was the WORST I EVER experienced. They took our money on 8÷24÷15 and here we are 10÷16÷15 and we are still dealing with a return. we still do not have the refund!!! we are SO frustrated and will never ever use them again and have not been recommending them to anyone else around us when they are interested in buying things for their home.
i think we have been on the phone with them so many times and nothing is happening from their end to get us our money back.

STAY AWAY if you buy something that requires delivery. Repeat — STAY AWAY. I ordered a number of items, and the ones that have arrived 3 months later are fine. But many haven’t arrived. They were all supposed to arrive within a week, but there have been a wide variety of failures, excuses and miscommunications in the intervening 3 months as to why I’m still waiting.
I have had 6 scheduled deliveries in that time. On one occasion they never showed up (and I took the day off to be present for the delivery!). On two occasions they called an hour beforehand to cancel (also took day off for this — these guys are wasting my vacation time). They canceled because they lost the items somewhere «on the loading dock». Go figure.
The last scheduled delivery was last Saturday. They were supposed to deliver two items, but only brought one. The reason they gave? Couldn’t find the other item in the warehouse. I’m still waiting for it…
Do yourself a favor and shop somewhere else, unless you plan to pick up large items yourself. These guys are absolutely THE WORST company there is when it comes to delivery. Look at the other reviews here and you’ll see I’m not exaggerating. If you have them deliver, YOU WILL be disappointed. Just turn around, walk away, and shop elsewhere.
Update:
It’s perhaps a month since I wrote my initial review, and as of yesterday I still hadn’t received my last item (a small night stand). West Elm did not call me or contact me in any way in that time. No update as to when they can deliver, etc. Had to call them and harass them to get answers. In the end they said the item was basically lost after a «loading dock search».
I find this very confusing, since they have a number of these exact night stands available in the local store. Why not just ship me one of those? This company is so dysfunctional it’s hard to wrap my head around.
They get two stars instead of one, because after complaining, they did offer to let me come directly to the store and pick up one of the night stands they had in-​store. It barely fit in my car, and only after removing it from the box. But I got it, and they were kind enough to credit me for it. Don’t expect them to do this for you though, since my company buys tens of thousands of dollars of stuff from them every year, and they obviously want to keep us happy. YMMV if you try this approach.

Store is great. People at the location are great and friendly.
Furniture is great… if it ever arrives!!! After talking to others, missed delivery dates and 3 or more months of delay is a COMMON issue.
Customer service is awful for the amount of money you’re spending. High-​end furniture and low-​end services does not pair well. IKEA is more helpful than this.
Wife ordered some furniture early September, and it was supposed to arrive late September. Now, the status is uncertain. No empathy, no explanation, and no indication of when these items will actually arrive! No explanation of our options (e.g. can we cancel the bed so we can buy elsewhere and stop sleeping on the ground?), no support, long waits just to talk to anyone or get a response. Wife called and wrote in a few times.
A friend had ordered furniture ahead of time for Christmas 2014 and got the items in March.
Just awful.