Ethan Allen — Local services in Jacksonville

Here it is.Back Story: It's been several years since I have purchased new furniture (a couch from Ethan Allen during Covid) and the rest long ago when my kids were young. I knew I wanted to return to Ethan Allen having had to order over the phone using visuals online and it went well, this time in person, and after meeting Julie Holland, I knew this is why I like doing business with Ethan Allen, consistency.

Julie, is what makes a fine furniture buying an experience; friendly, professional, many years in the interior design field, and a vast amount of knowledge to share. She is inquisitive, striving to select for you.  Her pertinent questions lead her to choose woods and fabrics from a wide variety on hand. You can tell, "This is her thing." Her enthusiasm is contagious and evident for you to find that spark and be happy with your pieces!

The Process: I conveyed to her that I had been scouring magazines and websites and what style I was leaning towards. I needed help putting it together. Clip board and phone with pics I shared treasured pieces we would be working with and adding to in the living room and where we were coming from, the current dining room which would be gone, a clean slate to work with. "I wanted a fresh new look, a revamp." Julie helped me explore various ideas to cement an overall flair reflecting me ---leaving the farm house feel and going "GLAM." These possibilities would lend a  polished and sophisticated atmosphere. Yay, I'm a grown up!

How'd she do it---Wood finishes, fabric, and overall cohesiveness of the room were achieved after she showed me some selections; grabbing table woods, fabrics for the chairs, and books with examples of the finished look. My dream, to fruition, was on its way. Oh, and we had fun, yes fun, doing this!

The Wrap Up: Capping the visit, the ultimate sales person, Julie, not only shared the sales of the time, presented zero finance, but showed me a room with sixty percent off. This is perfect knowing you just saved and can buy more, so I bought a gorgeous addition chair, one of my favorite purchases of the day.

In addition, I returned to Ethan Allen a few days later, and bought a beautiful leather (shimmering bone color), diamond tufted living room bench, trimmed in brass to use dually as a coffee table. Julie and I talked about additional seating and wow, this does both. My new dining room table has extensions. We are good to go now, six chairs and the bench.

I'm so excited about my purchases/orders. My family is grown and these new digs reflect what part of life I'm in now.

I've invited Julie to come to my home after delivery to suggest accessories, art and lamps. Julie is now my go-to interior decorator. ---Stay tuned for before and after pictures.

---So, yes, I highly recommend Julie Holland!

Please call her, and tell her...

Here is what you can expect as this was my experience: You will have to constantly follow up for quotes bc they are not provided timely or not at all. Kim S You will never be right as the customer. But you will be told “I’m sorry that you feel....” or some other version of an insincere apology. Your sales rep will not have your back and lie to the manager about what you said. Kim S They are not interested in your repeat business or happy clients. Jackie Jackie is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. They will be good at making you sign your life away so they can throw policy and legalese at you. But when it comes to being refunded based on policy you will have to constantly follow up bc you don’t matter and neither does your continued business. You will be told what your behavior or thoughts would have been or what they are bc they know you better than you know yourself and bc you are never right, they are. Jackie They will not fully read your emails and will bring things up that you had no issue with. Jackie They will be difficult and inflexible bc again, you signed your life away, and they don’t care about happy clients, repeat business bc you don’t matter. They are happy when you are pleased, but should you encounter a disappointment they could care less. If you are disappointed or have a concern expect to be ghosted or at the very least have to follow-up multiple times. If your furniture is delivered with a flaw and you bring it to their attention you will have to constantly follow up for resolution because again, they already got your money and they don’t care. There’s no such thing as being proactive. They are only reactive. Only expect the manager to respond when you include someone from corporate customer care. They will bend policy when it benefits them but not when it is in favor of the customer. They will refute what I have outline in this review because again, they are always right, not the customer, I’m.just a disappointed and frustrated patron who they don’t care about bc again, they already got my money and I signed my life away.

I have no issue with the custom items I received related to the home visit and 3 D rendering. You would have known that had you fully researched. Again, reply is on par with the level of service I have encountered bc my repeat business is not important to you after spending $15k...

In January we had a custom made bed delivered. The installers indicated that one of the bed slats was too short and wouldn’t work. We took pictures and made notes on the order. They took the slat with them and said they would “let them know” we needed a replacement. Before they left, fearing they wouldn’t follow through, I asked for a contact information for customer service.

That Monday I called and left three messages for customer service. I did not hear back. The next day I followed up with my sales rep, and she said she’d follow up. Still nothing.

After several more weeks, at a loss of what else to do to get a response from Ethan Allen, I left a dissatisfied review in response to an email survey they sent me.

That got a response. But ironically even those interactions still produced no results. Trying to get this slat was turning into a part- time job.

Last week I renewed my campaign to resolve this issue. I began, again, leaving messages. This time they were responded to, and it was claimed “my phone number I gave them didn’t work.”

That makes zero sense, perhaps they wrote it down wrong? If so, why didn’t they follow up with my sales person? Nonetheless I was happy they were finally responding. They set up a delivery window for 6am-9am this morning.

It is after 10am and they never arrived, never called, nothing. Unfortunately I’m not surprised by this, as Ethan Allen has repeatedly demonstrated unresponsiveness and lack of follow through. I am not in a position, however, to let this go. The bed needs to be, and should be, properly supported.

This four month saga is getting ridiculous, and not the level of customer service I was expecting with my first purchase from Ethan Allen. We started with just the bed, rather than getting the whole bedroom set, and I’m glad I did- I can’t fathom the nightmare adding more pieces to this saga would have entailed.

Ultimately the issue was finally resolved when I circled back to my salesperson. I should note that the sales team is worthy of praise as everything they did exceeded expectations. My issue was entirely with the ball being repeatedly dropped by the customer...