west elm — Local services in Austin

Customer service at this location is absolutely dreadful and I would give 0 stars if I could. The store manager acted more like a third-party subcontractor/glorified credit card reader than someone who actually works for West Elm. I think I had a better customer service experience with an Amazon Prime chatbot.

I ordered a custom-made modular sectional. The sales associate who took the order said it would be delivered in 5 weeks. Supply chain issues. Fine.

4 weeks into the order, I got a call from a West Elm corporate customer service rep (not the store) telling me that my order was actually canceled because of a SKU number error, and that they canceled the order as soon as they found out. I asked when they realized the error, they told me it was actually 10+ days prior. Slightly peeved that it took them 10+ days to tell me, but whatever. I reminded this customer service rep that I am still charged for this couch, and they told me that I should be refunded within 7-10 business days. I waited a few more days, but the charge still remained.

I call the store to tell them I am still charged for an order that was canceled 10+ days ago (assumed they canceled it when they found out the error), so I would like a refund because I don’t want to be charged twice if I were to order it again. The store manager first said ‘oh i see that you canceled the order (not true); there is nothing I can do because there is nothing TO refund. It was never shipped, therefore you are not charged.’ I said that I understand that that is how it is supposed to work, but the reality is that I was and am still charged for an item I am never receiving and I don’t want to put in another order until I know I won’t be charged twice. I asked her how someone could potentially be charged if the item never shipped. She responds ‘I don’t know, you should talk to your bank. It is placed on hold until shipment, and each bank is different on how they process a hold.’ She does not attempt to look into it and was very quick to dismiss as a credit card error.

Thoughts in my head: In what universe does a credit card company charge a card without action from the vendor? Also, can she at least attempt to find out what actually happened instead of giving a generic answer? The sale authorization occurred at your store. It was not an online order.

I was extremely annoyed at this point so I recapped the situation very bluntly to highlight the absurdity. She responds ‘I don’t know, I don’t work for a credit card company.’ I just didn’t buy that this was a credit card error, so I kept asking her to explain to me how west elm could potentially charge a customer before shipment. Like, what are the scenarios? Can you really make a custom couch and ship in two days? She attempted to hang up saying that this is not a productive conversation and I think I squeezed in ‘what CAN you do, then?’ She says she will call customer service for me. Surprise! She never actually called back.

I called my credit card company right after this frustrating phone call and asked how ‘holds’ work. They don’t charge unless there is action on the vendor side. So whatever triggered the charge, it did not happen automatically. I also asked if there was a refund in progress- they said no. So I asked them to put in a claim, and that is the only reason why I got a refund in a timely manner. Only then I received a notification that the order has been canceled. 5 days after when I got the initial call. Only after my credit card company took action on my behalf.

I finally got to the bottom of what happened, no thanks to the Austin store personnel. The corporate customer service rep I spoke with told me that all store managers have the same information available to them. This store manager just couldn’t be bothered to help. Seems like the store manager is either utterly incompetent or blatantly ignorant. Both traits make her extremely useless in a retail setting. I expected more from a store manager at a high-end retail store. I will be following up with a...

Visited this location twice now. The expectation was to purchase a large sectional for our new home.

The first time: We’d been keeping an eye on an urban sectional online and we finally had the time to go in and view the one in display. We went thinking that someone would answer our questions, and expecting to walk outta there, confident with our purchase (as this is our first west elm purchase). Sadly, in our 45 mins of walking around and trying to get an employees attention, no one noticed us. No one asked how we were doing. No one asked if they could help. We left disappointed however, we gave them the benefit of the doubt and said they’re probably very busy with other customers.

Two weeks later I decide to make a design consultation hoping that this would be the best approach to have a conversation with an employee and having their professional opinion in our purchase. When we arrived, I was told our person would be Lee. Lee was busy with other customers so we worked with someone else. I was severely disappointed with the overall experience. The person we ended up with didn’t express any genuine opinions on the fabric selection. We showed her our color scheme of the open space and even reassured her the reason we came is to not only select a fabric and purchase but also open to receive feedback/ opinion. We even asked her about pros and cons of fabric and didn’t really provide any solid facts other than “the dark colors won’t show stains” ( well duh). And then once we asked for swatches she said “oh this is a performance fabric.” Which we asked, what’s that? She said the fabric is good for not taking in so many stains. In my mind I’m like, great, would’ve nice to know this BEFORE we just started picking up dark colored fabric And when we asked about the fabric details. When we asked for more swatches, she seemed rushed and eager to stop talking to us. We wound up taking up the swatches and walking out of there to make the purchase another time.

In conclusion, as this is my first purchase with west elm, and that I’m looking to spend a hefty amount on a sectional, I don’t really feel I received the customer service I was expecting to receive. Kinda iffy now on the purchase as the two visits to this location left a bad taste in my mouth. Maybe they’re more catered to people who are looking to purchase beaucoups of items to furnish an entire house and would rather not waste time on helping someone select the right fabrics and size of a sectional? I get that, but it’s not cool to turn your back and dismiss people like me.

TLDR: this...

Two stars because I love their furniture, but their delivery system and customer service is CRAP. Ordered an out of stock couch here on March 25th. They let me know it would take a while to come back into stock, but that they wouldn't charge me until it shipped. Okay, cool. That's fine. Flash forward to the end of May. The full price of the couch is gone from my bank account, no warning. I had expected to at least receive an email saying "Hey, your couch is shipped." But no, nothing. I checked the Tracking info for my couch, it says it's at their warehouse. But on the same page says "en-route to our warehouse." Which is it? So I email their CS line and get an automated response "We email back within 48 business hours..." Okay, fine. TWO WEEKS go by, nothing. No response. So I call their CS line and ask where my couch is because hey, you charged me, which you said you would only do once the couch ships. What do they tell me? "Oh no, we consider it shipped when it leaves the vendor and comes to our warehouse. But it's not ready to be shipped to your house as the vendor forgot to include something and it'll be another 2 weeks before we can schedule delivery." Wow. Okay, great. More waiting. Fine. Then I get an email today saying "Your couch is at the warehouse and ready to be delivered. Please call to schedule a delivery" Awesome! We're finally getting somewhere...or so I thought. I called their line and the lady proceeds to tell me that "Oh your couch is at the HOUSTON warehouse, and they don't deliver to the Austin area. So we'll have to redirect it to the Dallas warehouse and THEN we can schedule a delivery. Sorry. It'll be at least another two days." ARE. YOU. KIDDING. ME?! Why even send it to the Houston warehouse at all?! Why email me if it's not ready for pickup? Why did my phone call have to be what caused you to realize it needed to be redirected to a different warehouse?! Shouldn't you know that? And don't tell me you won't charge me until it ships when you really mean you won't charge me until it comes back in stock. No one else in the world considers it shipped unless the purchase is on its way to the customer. Very, VERY unimpressed and disappointed. I love their stuff, but if this couch comes in and is literally anything less than perfect, my husband and I are returning it and will not be ordering from them again. Very poor...