west elm — Local services in Santa Monica

DO NOT BUY FROM WEST ELM! Sure, their furniture looks nice. It might actually BE nice. But that only ever matters if you actually get the furniture in the first place. However, after ordering the couch in September 2017 (you read that right: a full 5 months ago!) I do not have the couch. And I no longer want it. Here's why:

Does it seem reasonable to you that a very well-known, high-end furniture retailer would routinely require customers to order furniture that won’t arrive for approximately 3-4 months? No? Me either. But I really wanted the couch, so I decided it was worth the ludicrous wait. At the end of the 4-month period, I hadn’t heard from West Elm at all, so I called them to find out when my couch might be arriving. At this time, they told me it would be delivered on Christmas Day. (Was it being delivered by Santa? I digress). However, Christmas Day the couch still was not here. I called again and was told the couch would arrive Jan. 5. Are you shocked when I tell you the couch didn’t arrive on Jan. 5? At this point, are you also shocked when I tell you I’d heard nothing from West Elm to explain or inform me of the delay? At this point, you shouldn’t be. But it gets worse. I began to email to complain about my experience and was contacted by several people at customer service, many who said they were sorry, but only one person offered to help and to compensate me for my trouble. After several back-and-forths, Christopher E wrote: “I have added your order number to my follow-up folder, so that I can credit you 15% of the order total, because of the inordinately long wait for scheduling and delivery.” After disrupting, and planned to address this amount when the item was ready to be delivered. Yesterday, Jan. 18 (I’ll allow you to note for yourself how far past Dec. 25 that is) I received a call and email that the item was ready to be delivered. Before I could even initiate a conversation about how to address all of the poor service outlined above, my credit card was charged for the full purchase price, despite Christopher’s promise. When I contacted West Elm to address this, Jamie said they would not honor even their initial, feeble offer of 15% to assuage my anger at this entire experience.

This is not the first outrageous story I’ve heard about ordering couches from West Elm. Waiting 5 months to receive an item seems absolutely unacceptable, but then not honoring the promised (and measly) 15% discount is just egregious insult to injury. Do not order from them unless you’d like a similar experience. Now, look at the invoice I received for a couch I have already cancelled due to the above. Look at the...

Dishonest salesmen Alde and Angel. Let me help you, don't buy any big ticket items at this West Elm, period.

I called and confirmed many (many) times that a select couch was in stock at LAX ("quick ship"). The rep Alde was friendly and confirmed it was and as such it would be able to ship out asap. We confirmed an estimated window. Everything. I asked about delays, he said it was in stock and plenty of them, no worries. I confirmed so many times - and he put my mind at ease. Weeks went by with the status update the same... I spoke to the manager Angel, he said that it was actually in transit to us and no worries.

Wrong. Lies. They simply took my credit card to make a sale, no true tie to their products whatsoever. The Sonoma rep claims they were wrong to sell in that manner. This is not shipping out of LAX for our location. It's not fully ready to ship anywhere in the US. It's not in transit. And there are indeed many delays and the quoted window is not even close. There is 1-2 months just for freight alone. Alde claims they don't have control after the sale, yet that's why I even ASKED to make sure ahead of time so this process would go smooth. Or I wouldn't have ordered. The in-stock/quick-ship is a complete lie and they know it.

Terrible experience. Not worth the chance if you're buying big ticket items out of this location. They just want to make a sale. Period. Look up West Elm...

This is my first time leaving a negative review in months, but I feel it's important to share my experience.

Yesterday, I visited West Elm looking for a bed. Jonathan, the advisor, showed me around the options on the floor. When I mentioned I was interested in a specific bed listed on their website, he informed me that they didn't have it on display and instead showed me another bed, claiming it was the exact same but under a different model name.

He mentioned that the headboard is slightly shorter and less padded, but the rest of the bed is an exact match.

However, when I got home and reviewed the images on the West Elm website, I realized the bed he showed me was entirely different. The headboard has a different shape, and the overall style is very different than the bed he showed me.

It's clear now why they have different names and prices for a reason. In hindsight, I should have been more cautious, but I feel misled. Was this intentional? I hope not, but customers should not be given inaccurate information.

What if I had made the purchase that day? I would have ended up with a bed that looks nothing like the...