west elm — Local services in Houston

While shopping for replacement sofa after Hurricane Harvey flooded our home in Aug. 2017, interaction with this store ended up being a very frustrating experience, which added to the already stressful flood recovery process.

On 11/26/17, my wife and I placed an order at this store for a replacement sectional. At the time, we knew reno would not complete until about Feb. 2018, so we accepted the est. delivery timing between 1/30~2/13 (more than 2 mos. from order due to optional fabric). The store rep placed the order through their system, processed our west elm card payment, and gave us the order conf. printout.

On 1/19 (Fri), we decided to go to the store to check the order status since we were nearby. When the store rep checked the status, it was noted that the est. delivery timing was somehow delayed additional 2 mos. to Apr. 2018 (nearly 5 mos. from initial order)..

When we asked the store mgr (Jon Crowley) why west elm had never contacted us to inform and explain the delay, he simply apologized, and first tried to ask us to call customer service to find out, but when we asked him to find out and email or call us, he told us he will contact us within a day or two. With that, we left the store to wait for updates and resolution.

The mgr never contacted us since.

On 1/22 (Mon), I called the store to find out why we had not received an update, and I spoke with the store rep (older lady) who rudely addressed me such as "just a sec babe", "hold on honey", even when she knew I was calling about an order complaint. I asked to speak with the mgr, and a different store mgr told me that she will find out from The other mgr and will call or email back with updates within the day.

Once again, the store did not follow through.

On 1/23 (Tues), we went to the store again to find out what is going on. We patiently and politely spoke with another store mgr on duty that day (Alison Valvo) to explain the situation, and she told us that she was the one I spoke with over the phone the day before. She stated that she had sent me an email, but I checked both my inbox and junkmail to confirm the email was not sent.

Since west elm still had no answer, I told the mgr we wish to cancel this order and place an order for another sofa with shorter lead time.

This time the mgr stated she will have to talk to another mgr the next day to process the order cancellation since she is still new, and asked us to let her know the other sofa to order. She promised to do this the following day (by end of 1/24), and make the cancellation and reorder process as seamless as possible, and also honor the original 30% promo discount to be applied to the other order. We asked her to email the cancellation and reorder conf. when this is done, and she asked to make a copy of our original order conf. printout which showed my email and cell number.

Again, we did not receive contact after we left the store.

On 1/27 (Sat), I called customer service to explain the entire situation, and found out from the rep that there had not been any contact from the store to the main ordering system, and there was no indication of order status inquiry, no sign of order cancellation request, and no reorder of the other sofa being registered.

Then they transferred me to the furniture department, where the rep here was finally able to process the cancellation, but stated the reorder will have to wait for credit of the original order charge if I wanted to use the west elm card, because the original order had already been processed and the reorder will go over the credit limit. After all this, I still have to call back again to process the reorder.

I spoke with the store GM to tell him that the least the store could do was to follow through with status updates. And all he did was to send the first email I received from the store, with simple apology and an excuse telling me of the "other email", which I had already told him we never received. He should have made the other mgrs email apology for not following through.

This store does not cover the basics of...

Terrible customer service! my worst experience ever! Never buy a custom made order from West Elm! 2 months delay in the delivery of a sofa, lots of worries and inconveniences for me, and no satisfactory compensation. Don't trust this store!

I ordered a sectional and two tables in December 2019! There were plenty of fabrics available for the sofa, but because I wanted to have my sofa soon, I skipped my favorite option, and Briana helped me to choose a fabric that was supposed to be delivered in February. The delivery period was February 7-21. About February 14, I noticed that the status of the sectional is still "Custom Build Scheduled," meaning that the building process had not started yet! I called the customer service, and I was told that probably it's only a system issue, and I should wait until the end of period. Later that week, the delivery time was updated and pushed for one whole month!!! I shocked and called the customer service again, but I was told that it's beyond their control. I talked to several people, customer service, delivery service, warehouse, and even Briana at Houston store, but no one assisted me properly. Everyone kept saying that it's not under their control, and they will make some calls and return to me, which didn't happen. The only thing they did was sending the tables (which I could have a month before if there was no sofa!) that I ordered and were kept for the sectional and waving the shipping cost. The tables could have been delivered at least one month earlier if they knew about the delay in building the sectional. I even asked them to cancel my order if they cannot guarantee that it arrives by the new estimated time, but they told me that it is a custom made order, and I cannot cancel it. Finally, I could contact Carolina, who is a supervisor in customer service. She told me she would investigate the case to find out what is wrong and when my sectional will be delivered. On March 12, she called me and told me that the item will be ready in a week and will be in the delivery center one week after that (March 26). Next week I called the delivery center, they told they have the sectional and they scheduled my item to be delivered on March 31. But later, I received a call from the delivery center saying that the item is still at the distribution center, and they canceled my scheduled appointment. The estimated delivery date also changed for the 4th or 5th time, showing that it will be delivered from April 2 to April 16. I called Carolina again, and she told me that one part of the sectional had arrived, and the second part is in Georgia and will arrive soon. I waited for one more week and contacted the delivery center again; they told me they could schedule an appointment for April 9 because the second part has left Georgia and will arrive at the delivery center soon. However, on April 8, they called me and mentioned that the second part had not arrived yet, but they can deliver one part only. That was my only option, so I accepted it. The second part was delivered on April 16, which was exactly two months after the initial delivery time. During these two months, I contacted people in West Elm about 30 times. Every time I was told that they could not do anything and I need to wait for the sofa to be delivered for the compensation. They kept saying that the delivery time was estimated and not guaranteed. But this extremely wrong estimation convinced me to purchase my sofa from West Elm, shouldn't they accept their fault? They even didn't notify us by email for most of the delays, and we had to check the status of the item every day! I expected reasonable compensation that can mitigate the significant inconvenience that I have experienced during these months. I contacted Carolina on April 16, but she didn't answer my call, I contacted her again on April 17 and talked to her for more than an hour. She told me the most she could do is giving me $275 on top of the $237 that was issued before (overall, about 20%). The discount that they gave me already can be found on...

I bring a disheartening review of my wife and I’s experience during our first time setting foot into this location. My wife and I drive across town to see an item to ensure we like it instead of placing the order online and picking it up in-store. We arrive at the store and we hunt down an associate. She radios someone to pick it up from the back of the store and disappears. We wait over 10 minutes and when I find her and have to interrupt her, I follow up about our item. She informs me that the item has been at the front register. This was a bit frustrating that this was not clearly communicated. When arriving at the register we wait a few minutes for the cashier (Jordan?) to make eye contact and we ask if he is open. Once he does inquire about our item, he has no idea where it is and radios the same woman who told us that it was ready at the front registers. Once he brings the item to the counter, I notice the box is heavily taped. I ask if the item has been returned and he says "yes, it appears it was an order that was cancelled online." My wife and I request to open the box and inspect the actual item. Well, the item is defective. We ask the cashier for another one, he slowly radios to see if they have another. After we ask the cashier several times with not response, he says they do not have any more. We request the possibility of purchasing the floor model. The cashier states that only the items in the “flea” section can be sold from the floor. If that is a reference to my wife and I being under 30 and shopping at west elm, that is very discourteous and disrespectful. The cashier does not know anything about me, my wife, her family, my family, or our background. What if we were Williams-Sonoma Inc. representatives coming in for a surprise visit. We proceed to ask for a manager. Then we ask again because the cashier does not radio for them. The manager then arrives and right in-front of our eyes, opens a register, rings up another customer, then seems to suddenly remember that we have been patiently waiting. After asking over four times he finally gave us his name- Hemal. He stated that he was the only manager and he was the store manager. My wife explains the situation, Hemal provides no solution, advice, or possible alternatives. We kindly request from Hemal the possibility of buying the floor model since the only one in stock is defective. My wife and I both clearly understand that stores have to have uniformity of their displays and oftentimes cannot sell the floor models, but doesn’t the customer always come first? If a model can make its way to the “flea” area, can it not ultimately be sold to improve customer experience? Hemal refuses to order it in-store and have it sent to directly to our home. To be clear, we definitely wanted to purchase the floor model, we would have been thrilled & completely satisfied, however Hemal would not even consider it. We were not looking for discounts, incentives, freebies, or flea items. We were only looking for one item that was actually in-store and instead ran into this awful experience. An amicable solution between Hemal and my wife and I would have been perfectly acceptable vs merely turning us away. If nothing else, let this be a lesson to all of Williams-Sonoma Inc. to treat all persons with respect and dignity. My wife and I both know that sharing this scenario to all those involved and any others that may read this, that it may provide some hope for the future of this West Elm to better educate their employees on overall customer service. We wish the best for these employees who may not have taken their training seriously and may be treating numerous customers this very same way on a daily basis. We believe that these misguided employees can improve themselves for the better and personify valued employees of this West Elm storefront and Williams-Sonoma Inc. In closing, my wife and I can firmly state that we will never set foot in this West Elm...