Interior Define — Local services in Seattle

Dealing with Interior Define has caused my wife and me a massive soon-to-be, year-long headache. The company has atrocious communication and delivered a product with subpar quality for the price we paid. We will never purchase from this company again and highly recommend others do not either.

We purchased a couch at the U-Village store in Seattle, WA in May 2022, with an estimated delivery window of September - October 2022. After updates on the couch production went dark in mid-august, with the last communication saying our couch had "arrived at the port stateside," my wife popped by the same store in late September and the employee assured her she would get a call within a couple of days for a delivery date. Like a lot of people here, the delivery window came and went without the product arriving and without any communication from the company. We called, emailed, and tried the online chat function. We got zero responses and noticed the reps we worked with had all left the company. At this point, we were very worried we would not be getting our money or the couch, and we were only halfway through this couch nightmare.

I went back to the store in mid-November and asked what was going on. I was told they were having "supply chain issues," and that I could cancel our order and receive a full refund, which I asked them to proceed with. The manager onsite told me we would get an update within 2 weeks about our refund. Another month goes by, no refund and still no couch, oh, and to no one's surprise at this point, no replies to any of our emails or voicemails. Come mid-December I managed to reach someone on the online chat function that told me refunds were taking 30-60 days to process, but that they would mark ours as a "priority". We waited until it had been 60 days, then tried to reach back out. At this point, the company had gone under and been bought out. The rep of the financial company that took over told us that no refunds would be honored and we would receive an update between February-March. Given what we'd gone through thus far with this company, we were at our wits' end. So, we filed a claim with our credit card company to try to get our money back.

To our surprise, February rolled around and we received an email from a non-descript delivery company to schedule a time to have "our furniture" delivered. The couch was delivered and looked to be in good enough condition, however, it is not very sturdy and is quite creaky in parts. Additionally, the fabric is similar to our far sturdier, less than a few hundred dollar Ikea couch. For something that cost $5k, I would expect it to be far superior quality.

Fast forward to today, our credit card company approved the refund and credited our account, however, since we've received the couch our bank now recommends holding onto the money in case the company comes back with a rebuttal on the chargeback. Apparently, this can take 30-45 days. So once again, thanks to how poorly Interior Define has handled communication and updates to customers, we are left in limbo.

In the end, although we still feel we overpaid for a subpar couch, if the company was more transparent and provided regular updates, the time we spent trying to get in touch, following up and sorting things out with our bank could have...

Good in-store shopping experience.

However, when couch arrived, we noticed it was ~2" shorter (width) than advertised.

We contacted customer support, who initially responded quickly, asking for photos. After that, it's been crickets, despite repeated inquiries (2+ weeks). In my latest request for an update, I suggested that they apply their current Summer sale pricing to our transaction, as a way of making amends and moving on. No response.

We were told that because the sofa is "handmade", there may be "variations". Really? I can understand variations in fabric, etc... but not when it comes to size. Seems like that's something you'd figure out at the start in the factory with your manufacturing setup, even if hand-made. Is it really the case that every couch is different in size? Do they not use a measuring tape?

You'd really notice a couch that was 2" shorter in height when you sat on it... but what's the big deal about 2" in width, you might ask? It's funny, but it was immediately noticeable in our space, and its really noticeable when you try to stretch out on it (you can't, it's 2" too short).

We wouldn't have bought the couch had the actual size been advertised.

So, beware. Seems to me that they apparently can't manufacture to their specs, and/or aren't able or interested in updating their specs to match what they're manufacturing, to fully inform the consumer. And they don't seem to care once the couch is off their truck.

Reviews for this company were pretty bad in recent years. Helpful sales person told us that after being acquired recently, they had fixed their supply chain/support issues. Recent reviews seemed positive. However, I now wish we hadn't taken that bet. This is a piece of furniture we had expected to own and enjoy for years.

UPDATE, 2023-09-05: Company did reach out (after initial review above posted). Offered 20% back to match current sale, and then 2 options: another 10%, or we could return the couch. Company acknowledged some fuzziness in their tolerances policy: it's actually 2" plus/minus from published specifications, for custom furniture (as opposed to 1" as published on their site).

They didn't request it, but I've upgraded this review from 1 stars to 3 stars based on this interaction. Still suggest "buyer beware", but they seem to...

BUYER BEWARE - This will be my first (and hopefully ONLY) negative review I will ever write - On April 12 of 2022 I purchased a sofa from Interior Define in Seattle, WA. I was told that the delivery was expected to take 22-25 weeks, which would put the delivery time roughly around the beginning of October. On June 8th I checked in on the order as I had heard nothing & was told, "This order is still estimated to arrive between the quoted timeframe of 22-25 weeks, which would put a delivery date around mid-September, or early October. However, once I receive confirmation of its departure, I'll have a better ETA." In July I reached out again to be told, "Exciting news! This order has finished production & has been assigned to a shipping container. It will now ship out to our distribution center in LA and I’ll have an ETA to LA to share with you when our team receives confirmation of its departure. In the interest of transparency, orders are typically taking about 8-10 weeks across the water & in transit to our warehouse due to current supply chain conditions & port congestion." Then nothing more....so I reached back out in October, well beyond the original delivery date & was told, "I sincerely apologize for the delayed response. Our backlog seems to be moving much slower than anticipated & we do not have an estimated delivery timeframe for your order quite yet. I can assure you that our products are tightly wrapped to withstand the elements during the shipping journey. " When I complained about the entire process I was offered either a discount if I could "just wait" or a full refund. Weeks later, on November 4th, I was told of another delay with an email stating, "We received news from our supply chain team this week & your new estimated delivery timeline is late January. I will share a tracking number when it becomes available." I asked for my full refund on November 4th, they sent me an email to open a "ticket" & as of today, December 26th, I have received no refund. Keep in mind, when I ordered the couch in April, it took a whopping 1 min to charge my card. In conclusion: They kept $5979.88 of my money. And in fact, wouldn't even respond to a complaint with the BBB. How sad. Buyer...