West Elm

Has anyone else ever dealt with this company? I ordered a sofa earlier this year--a friend's wife suggested them--and it's been a nightmare. Basic summary: 1) sofa doesn't arrive on scheduled delivery day, with no notification that it would be late; 2) another week of nothing happening, and I get them to agree (via e-mail) they'll waive the shipping fee; 3) another week passes, and they don't even seem to know where the sofa is; 4) I start looking around the internet (a little late, I know) and come across a Facebook page with one outraged complaint after another--really, it's something to see--and also two online pieces about how awful they are:

http://www.vox.com/the-goods/2018/10/12/17963892/west-elm-customer-service-couch-late-shipping
http://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/08/west-elms-quality-issues-dont-stop-at-peggygate.html

I've told them I don't want the sofa now and won't accept delivery, and all I get in response is robot-like assurances that the matter being "looked into." They have my credit card number but don't charge until delivery...I don't know what's next.

yeah we bought a ton of shit from there, including a bed and a whole set of dining chairs. no issues. But sofas seem to be problematic from anywhere; we bought one from Rejuvenation a year and a half ago and it was supposed to arrive in three weeks and wound up taking two months or longer, with giant blackout periods where we could not reach anyone in customer service and they couldn't figure out what was going on (it was on a truck, then a warehouse, then a truck...then the delivery people didn't contact us for some reason). Also most sofas have some degree of custom work done (upholstry choice or whatever) so that makes timing of delivery even longer, and it seems like 95% of them (unless they are cheap) come on a truck from West Virginia.

in Rejuvenation's case, we wound up getting not only free shipping but also another discount on top of the discount we had at the start and it wound up costing around half of what we would have paid. So in the end I didn't mind the delay.

I have had a West Elm sofa for several years. Delivery was fine, but it’s not a good sofa—rear cushions are basically sawdust at this point.

I think we had them pegged for shoddy quality right from when they opened a shop on 14th street in DC.

Have had great luck with sofas from Room & Board but that’s obviously quite a step up in price.

furniture is the only expensive thing I like buying so I'll probably replace my dumb sofa at some point

credit card companies help with these disputes. does not hurt to call credit card company ahead of time, not sure if they can put something in the computer to stop it before the charge shows up but they can at least document it before it's charged, may have to call back after the charge

i got mine from macy's. it was delivered fast and is not in bad shape after 6+ years except the damage caused by my bad cat.

yes call your credit card company and explain the situation, they will help you. it's almost to the point where i enjoy calling chase, because a nice person instantly picks up and helps me with my issue.

our couch is from article. we needed extremely specific proportions and they were pretty much the only option for us that wasn't north of 4 grand. i'm pretty happy with it and not overly upset that my cats have completely destroyed the underside.

I just searched for a comment I made on one of the I Love Style threads. Good to hear you were happy with Article. I like some of them a lot. (I think I have only ever bought light fixtures from West Elm.)

I have heard (from some friends) some of those Article sofas are very uncomfortable. I need sofa updates. I think I am going to commit to a green velvet sofa next year when I move.

― Yerac, Tuesday, 29 October 2019 13:24 (four months ago)

yeah, to be clear it's not like the best couch ever but it's comfortable enough, nice-looking enough, cheap enough, and it fits perfectly in our long and narrow living room. when we assembled it and first sat down i thought we were going to be returning it, but it grew on me pretty quickly.

i think when we buy a new dining room table i will be willing to drop some cash, but as long as i have pets with claws (and lord knows if we ever have a kid) i view sofas as things to not get very attached to.

our entire apartment is dripping in west elm stuff because I cannot pay thousands of dollars for single pieces of furniture. It looks ok, but the quality isn't always great. I've experienced late delivery, which was upsetting. However, I've also had a huge table replaced for free within a week because I noticed a small chipped corner. I think they can help you if they have stuff in stock. If they don't have it in stock, you are going to wait a long time.

This is all helpful. I've been in a panic because of the barrage of complaints on their Facebook page. I have contacted Visa, and they said that they can't cancel the transaction preemptively, but that if they charge me at some point, I can contest the charge; their online trail is so dismal, I'm prepared to take that chance. So I've made it clear to them I won't take delivery of the sofa.

This has dragged on for another two weeks, but I think it's finally over. From their latest e-mail--I understand what she means here, but I bet you can't.

"I have requested the request to reverse the return be cancelled."

Ti esrever dna ti pilf, nwod gniht ym tup
Ti esrever dna ti pilf, nwod gniht ym tup