Pottery Barn Kids — Local services in San Diego

The unfortunate situation about Pottery Barn kids, as was evident from a recent experience of ours, is that while the customer service in the store is pretty good but the establishment and associated processes is all in shambles and is getting worse. I would have to think that they are surviving solely due to the good folks at the stores.

We placed a recent order consisting of a couple of pieces of bedroom furniture recently, only to find a day before delivery that PB had decided to cancel items in the order without consulting with us.

Come delivery day, one of the beds arrives without a foot-board and the delivery guys dutifully installed it all without the foot-board and the sideboards hanging onto the headboard.... leaving me, the customer wondering, if it is even safe to leave this hanging on a couple of screws.

The quality of the bed is nowhere near as good as I had hoped for and definitely not worth the premium charged. Calls to customer service center were left unanswered on an occasion and unresolved on another. It must be pretty funny for the folks at PB to have a customer hanging around with a bed with no foot-board !!!

The only way I could move the resolution to the situation forward was to visit a store and beg the representatives there to explain to me why part of the order was unilaterally cancelled and part not delivered as promised. The poor representative at the store had to struggle with PB corporate/customer service over the phone to avoid recharging me for shipping of the missing items.

The initial option provided was to have the item shipped by UPS and that I should assemble everything, even though I had initially paid for white glove service. After significant back and forth there was a promise made to refund new the shipping charge at a later date!!

Even then, the foot-board is expected to arrive only a couple of weeks later and the rest of the order, a month later. What a brilliant way to treat a customer looking at multiple future purchases !!!

Asking around a few friends, it seems these kind of experiences is what made them not go to Pottery Barn and instead get better quality products with MUCH better customer service and ethical operations at other local competitors.

There is nothing that I see with these folks that I can recommend in a positive light. They definitely have lost a...

Pottery barn kids has really cute stuff for kids, but their customer service in person just sucks. Horrible. This is not the second time I had issues with them. First was my son’s blanket, which I ordered couple weeks before Christmas. During the time of pick up, they couldn’t find my order and had been lost in store. I tried following up multiple times esp it was his Xmas present. They told me they will be calling me back and keep me updated. NOTHING. NO CALL NO UPDATE. The manager that time told me they were going to make another order and should arrive little after Xmas. I waited, called after Xmas, turned out they never ordered. It was so frustrating. Eventually I got my blanket month later lol. All that back and forth phone call and arguments.

Now, fast forward, I bought lunch box and had it monogram with them. They clearly told me “do the monograms here it’s way better.” The name doesn’t even look like my son’s name and spacing is off. I asked them if they could fix it, she said depends on the person who does monogram OR I BUY A NEW LUNCH BOX AND THEY CAN DO FREE MONOGRAM. What the hell??????!!!!! They want me to buy a new item when it’s them that messed up? I guess once you sign off, it’s game over. But again it’s their work?? My sons name is REMI, literally the I looks like a P. So it looks like REMP LOL. I wish there was a different pottery barn kids in San Diego. For a store that’s expensive and they preach to have excellent quality, not...

There is a very unhelpful and snooty middle-aged female salesperson/manager at this location. As we walked in, looking to buy a birthday gift for a relative’s daughter, she was literally sitting on a chair near the store’s entrance (a first—never have seen retail employees leisurely sitting on store furniture as they greet customers). She asked if we were looking for anything in particular. Why yes, we were looking for a gift, such learning toys. Her response, with a snooty tone, “well, they’re all over the store so you’ll have to look.” Thanks for telling us the obvious! Finally, when ready to purchase, we asked for a gift box and ribbon—since we were in a hurry, we didn’t opt for them to gift wrap our items when told it would take 20 minutes. Her response, again in a snooty tone, “Well the ribbon is for gift wrap, that is something you NEED TO PURCHASE,” and she looked at me up and down with disdain. Interestingly, at sister-stores we frequent such as Williams-Sonoma and Pottery Barn, employees have offered gift boxes and ribbon upon learning the items we purchased were gifts, without us even requesting them. Then, the woman walked away with her nose in the air, leaving her younger, much nicer colleague to finish ringing up our purchase. I even had to bag the gift myself. Not returning to this store. This is the shopping experience one can expect here. No wonder customers are turning to...