west elm — Local services in Des Moines

Updated to one star: I have now had to call WE customer service back multiple times, spending hours on the phone because they cannot seem to figure out how to return my money to me. I returned the last of the table (the base) Feb. 27 and have yet to get my money back after calling in March and now three weeks later, on April 11. This is absolutely unacceptable and ridiculous. Never have I had a worse experience where I was spending over $2000 on one piece of furniture.

I have been a loyal West Elm customer for years now and have been so disappointed in their customer service lately. I initially purchased all new living room furniture and art from them in 2020 and had a great experience with an in-store designer who was so helpful and stayed in touch as I waited for delivery. (She even checked up on the order to see about having items sent out as they arrived vs. having to wait extra months for the full order to be delivered.) She must be a unicorn because after I placed my most recent order for a new dining room set I have had no help from the store. I placed an order in January 2022 and started with a 3 month wait for my chairs and table. Since then I've had THREE marble table tops show up cracked and broken. I even called the store after the 2nd one showed up broken and there was nothing they could do and had not heard of any issues with the table. I then had to wait another 3 months for each new one to be reordered and redelivered. So it is now over a year later and still no tabletop because they don't seem to have very good internal communication to ensure this does not happen to their customers. So I now have given up and will ask them to process a return so I can get my money back. I am beyond frustrated and disappointed. I would definitely look elsewhere until they get their customer service back up to the level it should be at, especially for the cost of their furniture and delivery charges. Also, notice there are no product reviews on their website. This product issue could have been caught and warned off others if we could share our experience with their products...

I was very disappointed in this location’s lack of basic customer service skills. I had recently purchased a set of West Elm wine glasses online and I had broke one glass accidentally. I looked to see if my local Des Moines store had the glasses in stock Online and they did and so I went to buy a total of 5 individual wine glasses (1 single glass and another set of 4). I did not see any on the shelf and had to find an employee to help me see if there were any in the back. Their inventory was set incorrectly and she first told me there were 8 glasses in the store when there in fact none. She told me I would have to order them online and I would have free shipping If I spent over $99. I asked her if I could order them to the store and pick them up and she said that would not be possible. I asked when they would be shipped into the store and they said they were not going to be receiving that particular glassware in soon and didn’t know when they would be getting it in next. I then asked that I only wanted one wine glass and a set and I could not order just a single glass from online. They then looked up the numbers of stores (outside of the state) so that I could look into it myself. I live an hour away and drove to this location specifically for these glasses and if I were in any other store, the store would have ordered these glasses in for me for in store pick up, would have secured a sale that evening and would have made the shopping experience convenient for their client. They have not only lost this particular sale this evening but the company has lost my business for lack of basic...

went into the Des Moines store on February 6th to exchange an item I had received as a Christmas gift. I don't live in Des Moines, so I came in as early as I could to make the exchange. However, I walk into the DSM store with my item in a box from West Elm and explain I want to exchange a gift and I don't have a receipt. Although the item I wanted to exchange was still for sale in the store (I visually verified they were still for sale before I went to the counter), the women behind the counter didn't even look in the box, had no idea what I wanted to exchange, and simply said holiday returns had to be completed by January 31st. I realize things go on sale after the holidays and would have been perfectly happy to exchange at the sale price, but that was not an option either. I've purchased a lot of West Elm over the years and have had quality issues with many. I think I've finally learned...