Crate & Barrel — Local services in Westport

My husband and I recently bought a dining table and six chairs from Crate and Barrel for our new home. The table in the showroom was a wood slab with natural edge and a beautiful light stain. Of course we know not all wood is the same so we knew it would not be exactly the same. However, the version that arrived was dark and completely sanded with veneer. This table was nothing like what we saw between the finish, details and color regardless of the light.

When I visited the store later the day of our delivery arrived to explain my concerns, the associates explained it is wood and it won’t look the same. However this was not even close, they organized for the table to be picked up and another delivered. They explained they could not have the warehouse send us a picture of the table before it was delivered so we wouldn’t waste their time, but they said they added notes. Needless to say it arrived yesterday and it was a replica of what arrived the first time.

They convinced us to arrange a third delivery, but when we took the steps to do so we were subjected to an hour long call with customer service and placed on hold multiple times (not that it is customer service’s fault, just the brand’s processes). Eventually we got someone on the phone who saw our pictures and they confirmed the tables look absolutely nothing alike and shared this happens all the time and that nothing that we get delivered will ever look like the showroom version. I appreciated the honesty!

In short, do not order furniture from this brand. At the very least do not sign up for their store credit card and use your own credit card if you can so you can dispute the charge with your bank if they give you a hard time with cancelling your order.

What they have in the showroom is not the same as what you’ll get delivered. They very clearly showcase a very nice version in store, but cut significant corners during production and hope when the crappy replica of the showroom piece is delivered people won’t notice or they will not want to go through the effort of sending it back. We returned everything and we will not be buying from Crate and Barrel again. The brand not only wasted our time and energy, but tried to pull a fast one and wasted the efforts of their...

Buying from them can be the worst customer experience! Since delivering defective products, missing parts and pieces of your new purchase, up to having to deal with a non responsive customer service team when you need to ask for product support.

But things can be even worse… they came to pick up two chairs, that you can not seat due to poor pillow quality, and ended not delivering the new replacement. There are feathers coming off and they are very spike… so ai asked the pillow replacements. See the pictures… people over the phone even said that this is 100% normal. Really?! Well, try to seat there and good luck with that! It is so annoying.

The interesting part is that Crate and Barrel does not know what happened and they call and ask me! Really?!

Anyway… part of the problem was the outside table glass that shattered by itself and took them 45 days to agree that needs to be replaced.

Luckily in the day 45th, I got a Customer Service that did a great job and proceeded with the replacement. She also mentioned that this a problem that happens and I should have had my problem addressed from the 1st call that was 45 days prior.

For sure a company that I will not do business again at all. There are other companies in the market that can serve a customer...

Problems happen. It's how you deal with them that sets you apart.

We furnished almost our entire apartment during one visit with Lynette Huinker. She was amazing - listened, offered advice, diligently provided alternatives to make sure we were happy with the order. And, in fact, we were - the dining table, the accent chairs, the media cabinet, the bed, the side tables and the dresser - they were all great. Delivered close to expected date, good condition.

Except...the custom sofa. What was supposed to be a 2 month delivery stretched into 3...then 4...enter Lynette and her boss, Sebastian Viggiani. They refused to accept our discontentment. They arranged a loaner sofa, and when the manufacturer made and shipped the wrong sofa, they took even greater pains to keep us onside and happily (if somewhat impatiently) waiting. The sofa finally arrived, and we are happy. It was worth even the extended wait.

Crate and Barrel has many interesting pieces. But in this case, it wasn't just the products that made our day - it was the people. Thank you, Lynette...