Williams-Sonoma — Attraction in Millburn

I visited Williams Sonoma in short hills, NJ four years ago and I have been waiting for this long before I post a review because I don’t usually post negative reviews that could hurt the retailer’s business. My experience with Williams Sonoma and their associated retailers have been consistently bad over the years that I have decided to speak against their racism. Let me start with Williams Sonoma in short hills. I visited the store along with my 2 yr old kid and my husband and we were the only colored family who were at the store at that time. We could immediately sense the salesmen getting wary of our entry and we could see them alerting each other with eye contact. To make things worse my toddler who still didn’t have a good balance knocked on a stainless steel item while toddling around the isles which made a noticeable noise. I could clearly see a salesperson alerting another to keep an eye on us and the salesman who was appointed with the task started following us wherever we went. Under the disguise of fake politeness, he made sure he did his part to make us feel very uncomfortable. Needless to say, that was my first and last visit to Williams Sonoma. Though it felt very insulting to see someone assume that we are there to steal something just by our appearance (we were in appropriate attire for a store and in fact my husband was in informal business attire), we decided to let it go.

Few months later, we went to Crate&Barrel and experienced the exact same thing (salespeople hovering all over us leaving everyone else in the store alone). Trust me, if they had treated us the same way they treated all other customers at the store that time, we would have bought a $5000 solid wood breakfast table we loved in that store. Our experience in Pottery Barn hasn’t been so bad but West Elm showed their elitism. My intention here is not to brag about our affordability, we would fall under upper middle class category and we are a family of engineers. We have no reason to steal anything from these stores. Their well hidden racism hurts and we have decided NEVER to shop in these...

Absolutely unacceptable customer service experience at the Short Hills Williams-Sonoma this afternoon. My fiancé stopped at the Short Hills mall while at work this afternoon to pick up a KitchenAid as a gift for me.

Upon entering the store, he could immediately sense that the 3 female sales associates were alert & wary of his presence. The one associate that did approach him was very cold & off-putting, didn't seem happy to help him (while having no issue assisting the other customers), and just overall kind of aggressive. After retrieving the item he requested, she placed it on the counter & instructed him to grab it, rather than handing it to him/interacting with him. He continued to browse through the store, but felt as though the associates were keeping an eye on him & hovering, as if he was going to slip something into his pocket. Unfortunately, he was only able to get the name of the cashier that rang him out & not the associate that was assisting him (if you want to call it that). I hate to bring race into any conversation, but he was the only person of color in the store at the time, the associates & other customers in the store were Caucasian & were very obviously not receiving the same treatment.

We will not be returning to this location in the future or giving them our continued business. There are plenty of other, more pleasant Williams-Sonoma locations closer to our home. I would rather place an online order & wait to pick up in store than have to experience the lack of customer service at this storefront in the future just because they had stock...

I brought holiday gifts here to exchange, and the cashier honestly made me feel like I was trying to scam him. The boxes were clearly from W-S, and they were shipped to me the same way I brought them back. I had an emailed gift receipt. Once he finally agreed to process the return for store credit (they didn't have the Le Creuset color I wanted for either item), he says to me, "Oh I have this name on the order, but I assume that's not you." What? Yes, it's me. I just told you they were gifts sent to me. I showed you an email gift alert with the order number. Why wouldn't my name be on the gift receipt? Then he tells me he's sending the credit as an e-gift refund. I ask if he needs my email address. "No, it's in the system." He tells me it's processed, but he has to go get the receipt printout from the back. In the interim, I check my email looking for the gift card. Nothing. He comes back, hands me a paper receipt for the refund. I ask, should I have received an email with the e-gift return you just processed? He tells me no, he can't do anything with it, and it will be sent physically to me in 14 days. What? I drove here intending to exchange these gifts, or spend whatever store credit I ended up with, and now you're sending me away with a piece of paper and 14 days to wait? I left the store, annoyed, and by the time I get to the parking garage I have a text and an email with my e-gift credit. Unbelievable. He either has no idea how returns operate or just wanted me out of the store. It was really inappropriate. I expected...