West Elm

I purchased a sofa 2 years ago from West Elm and the thing is falling apart. When I called customer service about this I was told that they warranty their furniture for 90 days. The problem is the springs are shot and it sinks horribly. I live alone and I am not overweight. There is no reason for the springs in this sofa to fail except shoddy craftsmanship. If I had purchased a sofa from IKEA and this had happened they would pick up the old one and replace it for free. It was a very expensive lesson — $ 1800 for the sectional. I wish I had known that they don’t warranty their furniture and they sell junk. I have a big gray piece of junk to give to Purple Heart that I’ve only owned 2 years & I saved up for 3 years for this thing. Heartbreaking!

Worst customers service ever. If I could give less than a 1 I would. I purchased new bedroom furniture and 2 of 5 pieces arrived damaged. One item I ordered and was told was in stock I found out 2 weeks later was back ordered for several months. Multiple phone calls to customer service (with different answers and no follow up) I emailed the ceo. Someone contacted me back and was very helpful but it took 2 re deliveries of my desk to get a piece that wasn’t damaged. I thought a was resolved 2 weeks ago but then Wednesday a 4^th nightstand arrived after I sent back the 3^rd one because all I needed was a tiny part. I have now emailed and called the contact I worked with previously and I have received not response. I guess I will sell the nightstand at least I can recover some money but it is hassle I do not need or want. I will never buy anything from west elm again. Their stuff is cute but not worth the trouble!

If you are checking out reviews for West Elm, chances are you are considering a purchase from them. I just want to share my experience, and hope that will help you in your purchase decision.
They have beautiful designs and most items are good quality. That’s about it for the positive side.
Here are some facts I learned, which you probably won’t be told by the store:
1. For many items you cannot purchase and pick up in store. If the store doesn’t have it, you must pay shipping
2. Shipping and processing fee is 15% of your purchase price
3. And they tax you on that 15% shipping fee
4. They don’t contact you to arrange delivery, it is your job to track your order and contact them if you want your furniture
5. If you contact the company, be mindful that they have 15 departments that you will be transferred around
I placed one online order in early March 2016. Have been charged over three grands since the order date and received no order update/​status email or phone calls. Still battling to get my items. Will come back and update!

Love the items, but the customer service is terrible.

I’m not someone who frequently shops at West Elm, but I was recently in the market for a simple but elegant upholstered bed frame without a nail head trim. I had been looking at the Platinum Sleigh Bed for some time, and finally decided to just bite the bullet and purchase the thing. I placed a call to WE at Tyson’s to ask about availability, and after being put on hold by an unidentified employee I was hung up on — twice. The third time I called back, an associate who, again, failed to give their name left me on hold for 8 minutes while she «inquired» about the bed. At the 9 minute mark she picked up the phone and rudely demanded to know who I was and why I was calling — even though she was supposedly assisting me just a few minutes before. Very unpleasant.
I initially went to purchase it online after learning that no stores keep it in stock, but the overall shipping was over $ 400 so I called customer service to see if it was possible to pick it up in store. I was told no by customer service and went into this store to not only see the bed in person, but also inquire about a store pickup. The store itself was clean and orderly when I stopped in around 7pm one evening, though there were few employees on the floor available to assist customers. Behind the check out counter I was helped by Courtney who was polite and courteous. She informed me that she arrange an in-​store pickup and answered all of my questions. Great! Told it would take 1 – 3 weeks for my bed to arrive, I went home happy.
Fast forward 3 weeks, I had received no word from West Elm and decided to call the Tyson’s location to figure out what was going on. Again, I was put on hold for over 10 minutes waiting to speak with an associate only to be hung up on. Accident or no, I was starting to really doubt purchasing something from WE if their employees are unable to professionally answer the phone. I called back, was put on hold again and after (only!!) 12 minutes I was in touch with an associate who did not provide their name. I gave my information and asked about the whereabouts of my bed, only to be told that it had been sitting in the store room for a week and a half!!! This was totally unacceptable. The employees had only one responsibility, and that was to call me when the product that I had already paid for arrived in store. It took 2 more additional phone calls to confirm that all 3 pieces had arrived. The first time, an unnamed employee assured me that she would call me back after she confirmed that all the pieces of the bed had arrived. 2 hours passed with no phone call and I (fortunately) got on the line with Courtney again, who professionally handled the issue and patched me through to April, the manager so I could inform her of the incredibly frustrating communication issue with some of the employees at WE.
The fact that for a week and a half the staff of this location failed to place a simple phone call just boggles my mind. The customer service here is abominable — save yourself the trouble, and venture to another location where hopefully the employees will not only do their job, but they’ll be professional and courteous as well.

I picked out a couch and two chairs online but wasn’t sure what color to pick. So I e-​mailed the store and requested in-​home design service so I could get some expert advice on what color would look best. I was told that I needed to come in to the store to have a consultation first. So, I went into the store and was told I needed photos of my room and needed to purchase the Items before someone would come out to my house. Huh? I explained multiple times that I needed help with picking a color to no avail. I even offered to buy the set without picking the color by giving my credit card and delaying delivery until a color was selected. The designer refused to make an appointment for me. Ridiculous. The «designer» was also really rude and annoying and spent more time bragging about her past working at the Smithsonian and her expertise in art history then answering any of my questions about the furniture. I went in ready to buy and in love with the furniture but the poor customer service killed it for me.

West Elm’s furniture is sleek and modern, just what my husband I were looking for to furnish several rooms of our home. Unfortunately, the positives of West Elm end with the look of the furniture. We have bought over $ 6000 worth of furniture since late October 2015 and since then, virtually ever piece of furniture we have ordered has been delivered or shipped to our home incorrectly.
We custom ordered a sofa in October that we have still not received the appropriate legs for, and it is now mid-​February. We have spent hours upon hours on hold for customer service, often to no avail, as they have no records of our previous conversations and we have to literally re-​explain our story to them each and every time. As of today, we still have no clear answer as to when we can expect the appropriate legs for the sofa we spent over $ 3000 for.
We are officially done purchasing another item from West Elm and we caution all other shoppers from doing so either until West Elm improves their shipping and customer service policies! Save your money for Crate and Barrel!

The only reason this store gets stars from me, is because I do love their products! It’s a gorgeous store, I will give them that, but it stops there. The customer service is terrible! I was last there on a Sunday (after Christmas), very busy day at the mall, and there were only 2 employees at the registers, and no one else in the store to help whatsoever. After waiting in a Long line, we were told they didn’t have the color product we wanted, and that we’d have to buy online and pay for shipping. Who wants to pay $ 30 for a light to be shipped? It doesn’t seem like they are interested in selling anything here.

Rude management, astonishingly poor customer service, lies across the board, and the worst part: cheap furniture.
I used to shop at West Elm when I was an emerging yuppie, looking for that modern look at half the price. I bought the Parsons table in 2007 and sold it to another budding yuppie in 2009, filled with furniture scuff conceal marker and uneven polished spots. At that point in time I swore them off. Until (embarrassingly) lately. Desperate for a set of velour curtains, I was lured into their shop with one of the 27 different spam emails I somehow still get every day: 20% off curtains. I walked in and bought one for every shade of velour and decided on the navy blue. Being that it’d be for my guest bedroom, the price was right and I didn’t care they were from this overpriced sweatshop. I went back the next day and bought out the navy blue ones, keeping the one I already had purchased. To my surprise, they were now 30% off. I asked the manager, Jim, for a price adjustment. With his hip to the side and his hands orchestrating his rant, he sang West Elm’s policy against price adjustments. So, I walked out of the store and walked right back in, this time to return the 20% off navy blue curtain and repurchase it for 30% off. He refused. Again, with his hands flailing in front of me, he told me about their price adjustment policy. Like a broken record, I tried to explain to him I simply wanted to do a return, but he refused. As a former ballerina, I have confronted my fair share of flamboyant men, so I stood my ground. The lovely chat ended with him escorting me out of the store. Simply because he refused my return. The other clerks stared at him in shock. I then emailed West Elm/​Williams Sonoma corporate. My email was forwarded to the real store manager Dannielle (turns out Jim was a loaner) and she apologized, offering me that price adjustment they so adamantly cannot claim to do. It’s been 2 months and still no price adjustment. Surprise surprise. Moral of the story: don’t shop at West Elm. The furniture’s noticeably cheap and the customer service is even worse.

1 star for my awesome storage coffee table… 0 stars for everything else, starting from our whole buying experience, the customer service, and physically getting our coffee table.
I’ve always admired West Elm’s storage coffee table and happened to walk through when they were having 20% off every coffee table so I knew that it was meant to be for us to purchase it for our new home. We waited for a sales associate to help us, but one was more interested in having a personal conversation instead of helping us, and the other two we found were busy at the register. After asking one of the associates (who also happened to be a manager) for assistance, she called on her walkie talkie for assistance and no one ever came, so she ended up helping us. We looked at the different colors of coffee tables and then we decided to pull the trigger. Unfortunately, there were none in stock at the store so they gave us a estimate of 1 – 3 weeks and said they would give us a call when it arrived. The sales associate who rung us up seemed to have no clue what he was doing and was bojangling half the time during our checkout purchase.
3 weeks had past and there was no phone call. While stopping by the mall to return another purchase at another store, we decided to check on the status of the coffee table… and they said the coffee table has been for for awhile. What happened to our phone call? Did a stock person just not care that this box was laying around the stockroom for a few weeks? When the stock manager asked us what type of car we had, he just said «No, that’s not going to work.» When we asked if we could see the size of the box so we can see if it would fit in our car, he just kept saying «No, it’s not going to work. No, no, no.» I didn’t understand why he would refuse to even let us see the box itself. The next day, we borrowed a friend’s SUV and after seeing the box, it could’ve definitely fit in our car. Annoying.
If I ever purchase anything from West Elm again (I really only wanted the coffee table), I’ll opt to purchase online and pay extra for the shipping instead of deal with the customer service at the storefront. I would hope those who drop thousands here have a better experience than I had.

I love west elm but the customer service at this location sucks! They give you the run around and put you on hold forever. Even when you’re there in person there’s some sort of issue or delay or the person you are looking for is never available and never gets back to you. Logan Circle location is much better!

I like their unique furniture and accessories. Great merchandise. However, The store seems mismanaged. The employees look like they don’t want to be there. There is a back room they all go to — i think its to hide. Unfortunately for them, I sense they are not very empowered to make decisions to help a customer. «We cant do that» is common.

Horribly managed. No one talks to you unless you go find them. They had no idea what they were doing. There were barely any customers in the store and it took minutes to find someone for help. We talked to three staff members including a manager, two of them just looked at us like they were gonna fall asleep when we asked them a question. The manager was horribly unpleasant and dismissive. What is going on guys?! Clearly you don’t want my 5 grand I was planning on spending here. As much as I love the hipster vintage chic theme, I’ll go pay more at anthropologie or something.

I have been here one too many times in the recent month because I just moved into a new apartment. I definitely am a fan of this location and the staff that work here. The staff is very helpful and the store is big and organized. West elm is awesome because there furniture is great quality but not too much money compared to other furniture stores! Highly suggest shopping here if you are looking for some new items for your household. I suggest waiting to shop until August time frame because that is when I have seen most of their promotions on furniture happen!

Let me save you a big headache with this location if you ask them to hold something. This store appears mismanaged, so when they tell you they have something in stock ask them to see if they actually have the boxes there before you drive into the Ninth Circle of Hell that is Tyson’s Corner.
But you’re not done yet! Make them open the boxes to confirm the product is inside and not a bunch of random vases because wasting your valuable time can be prevented. When they say, «we don’t have time to check,» tell them it happened to you before (it didn’t, but you can live vicariously through me).
Boom. I just saved you two hours of your life. You can use the time you saved to assemble your over-​priced furniture designed by someone who watches too much Mad Men.

Beware: Their free design services are worth what you pay for them.
I truly think there was a lot of potential here with west elm’s concept of helping you design a floor plan for free, with the notion that you’ll end up buying a lot from them. But not so in our case. It seems our case was handed off a few different times to different people (different person took photos at our house than did the floor plan), it took 6 – 7 weeks for them to finish (and only after I called back several times), and the day I went in to see the results, I waited an hour to see someone. The floor staff were dismissive and rude (e.g. walking away from me mid-​sentence…). They had clearly had a miscommunication and weren’t expecting me the day I showed up, but I had called a couple days before and they’d said I should come in. Finally, the finished product was hopefully incomplete, but it was basically: you could put a table here and some chairs there and some artwork on the walls. Thanks. Super helpful.
Now, my expectations were low going in — this is a free service they offer, after all. But it’s too bad they didn’t take it more seriously; I was prepared to spend several thousand dollars. I’ll be taking my business elsewhere now.

After running in circles trying to find the right sofa for our house, my wife and I stopped at West Elm. We were helped by Larissa, one of the Designers for the store and she just nailed everything we needed. We ordered the whole room. Sofa, coffee table, side table, rug and some pillows for decoration. The room looks great! We had some bumps on the way, with the delay of our side table and coffee table which were supposed to arrive in 3 weeks and it took more like 5, but she kept us in the loop and besides that the experience was fairly pleasant! 4 stars!

Great furniture, but everyone who works there is a complete idiot. I ordered furniture over 3 months ago (yes. MONTHS), and never got a call about it. Being curious as to why my living room remains half empty, I called the store and was told that my furniture arrived in January, and that they had tried to call me. That’s funny, as I had never received a call from these people (if I had, surely I wouldn’t still be waiting?). My voice mailbox has voicemails dating back to September, so I was able to confirm that they had never left me a voicemail either. After giving me the run-​around for about 10 minutes about how she was certain someone called me, I asked her «If I had not called here, my furniture would just have sat there indefinitely, correct?» Her answer: «…Yes.»
Huh?
Mind you, this was a (the?) store manager. I don’t think I need to add any comments or opinions, as you can probably draw your own conclusions from my story above.

Nothing to add, just read the other reviews, everyone working there are somewhat nice in person sometimes but that’s as far as it goes… besides the need to warn other furniture shoppers I really feel that I’m giving them too much of my time writing this… let me list some issues.
customer service ZERO! Bad Attitude, no follow-​ups, low IQ’s, carelessness.
I furnished my whole house from west elm and dealt with them for months, unfortunately I didn’t notice how bad their reviews were till after I came on here to give a bad review.
They will sell you something they have no stock of and tell you about it later, they will sell you a whole set with parts that are out of stock and tell you later, they will send you a single piece of furniture in multiple deliveries.
I’ve had extra pieces of furniture I didn’t order come and then when I ask them to pick it up they leave me for days with an unknown pickup time so I have to leave everything outside and they didn’t give a Damn about anything… oh and they definitely charge you for it… I’ve woken up with random charges to my credit card to that I had to block… the list goes on…
And don’t get me started on those so called designers, if you dare!, give them the floor plan and request a design. A child would certainly do a better job!
I would seriously like to know who the monkey running this whole circus is…
Vented!

I thought this West Elm location was nice. They have a larger selection of items in stock (in their warehouse) than the Georgetown location. This location is in the Tysons Commons.
The store layout was cute. It gave me some good ideas for how I wanted to arrange my living room. I picked out a beautiful coffee table and coaster set. The staff were helpful including the warehouse person. There did seem to be some «dramz» which they made no effort to hide. I guess that’s every workplace though.
I really like West Elm for the quality of their furniture, semi-​reasonable prices and fun/​funky designs. Their furniture is not afraid to be bold.
If you sign up for their email, you get an instant 10% off coupon emailed to you which is also good in their store. The store often runs good sales– like 15% off sofas, one day sales, etc. I would refrain from buying something full price.