west elm — Local services in Chicago

I ordered the Audrey mini desk back in early August for my daughter’s fist apartment in the city. This desk was supposed to be for her birthday in late September. I was told that the desk would be shipped October 3rd. No email and no updates as October 3rd came and went. I tried calling the stores only to get caught up in voicemail hell and when I got to a live person, I was hung up on three times. I decided to drive to the Oakbrook store where I was told to be patient and that the desk would be shipped October 23-27th. Again, we wait and no email, no call and zero updates. I try calling Chicago store where I got hung up on again. Now I drive to North Avenue store and they inform me that I had cancelled the order for the desk. I informed them that I did not cancel the order. I was then told that the manufacturer that made the desk was no longer making the desk and I was out of luck. This desk was the perfect size for my daughter’s apartment and she wanted the Audrey desk to complete her collection as she alre3ady has the dresser and night stand. I asked the clerk to check stock to see if perhaps another store had one. I was even willing to purchase the floor model at this point. The store clerk brushed me off and said she could not see another store’s merchandise – which is complete BS. I know this because I am a designer and shop at WE often when I do staging and design model apartments. In the last year and a half, I have purchased approximately $60K in merchandise from WE and have NEVER been treated like this before at any WE store. The story gets better (I know it’s long but stay with me).

Being the gift giver I am, I stopped at nothing to get this desk for my daughter. I started calling all WE locations and finally found one desk located in Denver, CO. I quickly ordered the desk and I was told it would be shipped in three – five days. I checked my credit card statement and noted they had charged me for the desk 3 times! I called customer care and they said there was nothing they could do and I needed to call the Denver store. I was like, “Are you kidding me? Aren’t you customer care? If I was in your shoes, I would call the store and clear this matter up”. She then gave me a number for corporate. I call corporate and receive a message that they are all working remotely due to the pandemic and I needed to go online and log a complaint there.

Fed up, I called customer care again. Finally, I get a decent human being to listen to me. Her name is Erin. We resolved the overcharge issue after about four days later. Low and behold it was the same day the desk was delivered. (Now November 11th) three months after the order was placed. My daughter was so excited! She came home from work and opened the box only to find the desk was destroyed! It was not just cracked, the wood was smashed in about four areas and it was crumbling and the desktop was warped. It was so sad to see such a beautiful piece of furniture in that condition! Customer care Erin actually called me the next day to see how the delivery went and I described the condition the desk arrived in. She told me she would send me a mailing label but if I had it shipped back I would receive only ½ of my money back as a refund because I had free shipping on the original order. I am like, “Whaaaaat?” She said she could give me a full refund only if I brought the destroyed piece to a store. I am like – unbelievable! I asked her, “So you want me to pay $90 to ship this piece of garbage back to you so you can just throw it away when it arrives?” NO. I took it back to the store and the clerks couldn’t have been worse. Now, they can’t find my order and told me I had to call Denver to get a refund. I called Customer Care Erin and she was finally able to help me get my money back. What...

My wife and I purchased a sofa, chair, and ottoman from West Elm in August, beginning a customer service nightmare that lasted almost 3 months. The store staff, who were very courteous, said that the sofa would be delivered in about 2 weeks and someone would call soon to schedule the delivery, but the chair and ottoman would take until Oct/Nov and be delivered separately, which was okay with us. No one ever called about scheduling a delivery, ever. After two weeks and no call, we tried calling customer service. We were bounced around to different departments, put on hold for 45+ minutes, prompted to leave voicemails with promises of returned calls (no one ever returned a call), and most of the time we couldn't even leave a voicemail because the box was full. This lasted a couple weeks.

When we finally reached someone, they said they couldn't deliver the sofa because they didn't have approval to do a partial delivery, as the rest of the order (chair/ottoman) wouldn't be available for another 1-2 months. They said we needed to go through a process of submitting a "partial delivery request" which, if approved, would make delivery possible. This was news to us and completely different from what we were told when purchasing at the store. So, many phone calls and hours later, we were able to submit this request. Then we heard nothing for weeks...crickets. When we tried calling to check on the status, we either couldn't reach anyone or those who answered didn't know anything about it.

To make matters worse, each person we were able to reach had a different understanding of which parts of our order were actually in and available for delivery. One person confirmed the sofa was available, another said the chair (not sofa) was available, and others said they weren't sure what was ready.

Then one day out of the blue, a large box unexpectedly was dumped in front of our building -- in the pouring rain. It was the ottoman of all things (??). No one from West Elm ever said this piece was available, called to schedule delivery, or even let us know it was coming. We were especially disappointed that the furniture was dumped outside in the rain because we paid $199 for white glove delivery.

Back to the sofa...we continued to get the run-around for weeks, never getting clear information. It was only when we went back into a West Elm store (in another town an hour away from the original store) that we got some solid info -- they told us our chair was going to be available within a week, so we agreed to wait a bit longer (ugh, it had already been 2 months) and have the sofa and chair delivered together. They said someone would call soon to schedule this -- no one ever called, shocker. We had to keep calling until we finally reached someone who was able to schedule the delivery. We were literally pinching ourselves when the furniture actually arrived in November, at long last.

To sum up, the furniture delivery system is a giant mess, the phone-based customer service is off-the-charts bad, and the in-store and phone-based staff do not communicate consistent information. But there are a few positives: The in-store staff and the guys who delivered the sofa and chair were great -- professional, courteous. And the furniture itself is what we expected -- no...

Only giving a One Star since negative stars are not an option.

Let me just say if you like to be lied to and deceived by West Elm employees about their policies and procedures, then by all means, shop at this location.

We purchased three items on a Saturday from Harris. Two of the items were questionable if they would fit in the room we were purchasing them for. He told us that when we got home, if they wouldn’t fit, would could cancel with no problems.

When the third item delivered several weeks later, it was damaged. The drivers tried to do an in home repair but made it worse so we rejected that piece.

A replacement order was placed for the damaged item.

In the meantime, our credit card statement arrived with the full amount for the third item due by 10/20.

Expected delivery for the replacement is in early November. So they expect you to pay for your purchase before it ever arrives to your home.

When this all started I called the store and found out the salesperson had quit. (No surprise) Got the managers name and she blew me off told me to call Customer Service. We did that and CS filed a dispute and said someone would call us back. After a week with no call, I called CS again. A kind lady named Marilyn sorted everything out. When we discovered we would be responsible for shipping charges on the items we never received, we canceled the replacement order.

They are not going to refund the shipping charge even though two of the items never shipped to our home and the third one was rejected due to damage.

To add to the insult, this is all billed on a new West Elm Visa card we signed up for that day. Going to file a dispute with them now as we are never going to pay the shipping charges they refuse to refund.

Please look at the reviews for this site. Actually we looked at reviews for locations near our home and they are not much better.

And do not pay for the White Glove delivery service. It is a couple guys who wrap, load and deliver the product. They blamed the warehouse for the damage and we found out they probably are the ones who scratched the surface up.

Worst furniture shopping experience EVER! It is not worth doing business with people and a...