West Elm

Full review
On February 19, 2008 I placed my first ever order at West Elm. My husband and I were in need of a new headboard and bedside tables. I also ordered a comforter and some small block shelving. The day after ordering these items I received notification that all of the items, except for the headboard which has a 3-4 week delivery time, had shipped. On February 22nd I received these items. I was happy with the quick shipment. But I didn't yet know the hassle I was soon going to be enduring.

Let me say that in the middle of the hassle I did receive my headboard in a timely manner and that there were no problems with that, other than that the headboard didn't fit my bedframe properly. But I believe that is a problem more with my frame than the headboard itself.

Anyway, there were no problems with the comforter or the shelving. As for the two Patterned Veneer Side Tables, which we had ordered as our bedside tables, this is where the problems began. These tables ship in two separate boxes each. One is the wood top. The second box is the metal legs. When we went to assemble the tables, we noticed that the legs were way too big for the tops. Th instructions inside stated that the legs were for the Patterned Veneer Coffee Table and NOT the Side Table. I immediately sent an e-mail off to Customer Service. The following day I received an e-mail from Customer Service. The e-mail stated that I could pack the legs back up with the return form inside and leave the boxes outside for UPS to pick up on February 25th. They also said that they had ordered new legs for me and even gave me a new tracking number.

I thought this would be the end of the problem, but of course not! UPS came on the 25th, but only picked up one of the two boxes of legs. I don't blame UPS for this. It was pretty obvious from the receipt they left for me that they only had an order to pick up one item. Why West Elm only ordered a pickup of one item is beyond me. I clearly explained to them, and they should be able to look at my order, that I had ordered two tables and both sets of legs were the wrong ones. So I e-mailed Customer Service again, telling them that they had to arrange another pickup. Well, of course this time the Customer Service person that answered my e-mail was a lazy one! Instead of simply arranging for a pick up like previous person did, they e-mailed me back and told me to call the 1-866 number! Can you believe it?! Why bother having an e-mail address for Customer Service if you're not actually going to do anything but simply tell people to call instead?

Life got busy and I still hadn't received my replacement legs. So I didn't call the Customer Service number right away. However, on February 28th I received two boxes of what was supposed to be my replacement legs. Well, don't you know that the legs are still the wrong legs?! They sent me coffee table legs again instead of side table legs. So now I had three sets of the wrong legs sitting at my house.

Irritated as heck, but remaining calm, I called and had to explain the whole situation to a Customer Service rep. She was seemingly nice. But either she also wasn't doing her job or UPS wasn't. I was told that UPS was going to pick up the three boxes of wrong legs on the 29th. Well, the 29th came and went and the three boxes still sat on my porch.

When I called, I had also explained to the rep that I believed that the problem with the legs was due to the fact that the outside of the box was labeled and said that it contained side table legs. Yet the picture on the box was of the coffee table. And when you open the box, the legs and instructions were for that of a coffee table. So I asked her if she could please, when re-ordering the legs again, specify to the warehouse that they double check the contents before shipping me yet a third set of incorrect legs. She said she would make a notation for this. But in all honesty, I wasn't even convinced that West Elm even had any of the correct legs in stock. It's obvious that their supplier mislabeled the boxes.

Anyway, after the three sets of legs were not picked up, I e-mailed customer service again on March 1st simply to arrange for another pickup. I also inquired as to when I might expect to receive my legs, if they were even in stock. I received an e-mail back, stating that pickup was scheduled for March 3rd. I was also told I should receive my correct legs in 5-7 business days, but no tracking info was given. The three boxes, that had been sitting on my porch since February 28th, were finally picked up on the 3rd, as stated.

After this I resumed waiting and, late on March 5th, a box arrived. And less me stress the "A BOX" part. Yes, you read that correctly. I got one box. Believe it or not, they were actually the correct legs. However, I needed two sets of legs! I was holding on to a bit of hope that perhaps they got shipped separately and the second box would arrive within the next few days. But they never came.

So I called Customer Service yet again. This part really boggles my mind. I asked the Customer Service rep if there was any way to look at the replacement order to see how many were ordered and shipped out and she told me no! She said that she could only see that there was replacement order, but not for how many or any other details. There is an obvious disconnect between the Customer Service department and the warehouse here. No wonder there are so many problems! Anyway, she said that she'd put in a request to the warehouse that, if they hadn't shipped me two sets of legs, that that they needed to ship me one set to finally close out this order. I was told, again, to expect the legs in 5-7 business days.

I patiently waited for the last set of legs to arrive. At the end of the time period I was prepared to call Customer Service again if I needed to. Well lo and behold, I arrived home the day I was going to call only to find a letter from West Elm in the mail box. The letter stated that this item was now out of stock, but that I could expect it to ship by late March (I forget the actual date). One thing that bothers me here, that I must mention, is that I find it ridiculous that they'd send out a letter, which takes longer to receive, rather than sending me an e-mail or placing a phone call to me. The day for resolution shouldn't have to come and go before they even notify me of yet another delay. On top of that, with as many problems as I've had with this order, you'd think that they'd at least try a little harder to be informative or courteous.

A week or so passed and I still had no legs for my second table. One day I went to my mailbox and found, again, a letter stating that the shipment of the legs was pushed back even more, this time to April 7th. The funny thing is, when you check the website for this item and try to order it you get this message: "The item can be placed on backorder for you. The item will be shipped on approximately 4/18/2008". Yet I haven't received another letter stating this third pushed back date. Though I suppose, since it's only March 29th today, they'll take their sweet time to send that letter since they haven't yet even surpassed the previously stated March shipping date. I expect the 3rd letter any day now. Why even still have the item on your website if it's clear you can't even ship it any time soon?

All in all, I've dealt so far with numerous screw ups on West Elm's part. I've had to repack several sets of table legs to include the return slip. I've spent a lot of time on the phone and sending e-mails. Yet I've been sitting here for well over a month now waiting to get the problem resolved. And from looks of it, it's going to be at least another 3 weeks (which will make it a full 2 months since the initial order), at the earliest, before there might be any chance of resolution. And at this point, I really have little hope that resolution will even come then.

And to add to frustration, West Elm gives you absolutely no information, via the website, e-mail or otherwise, as far as replacement orders and their shipment goes. Other than the initial reorder, in which I received a tracking number from the Customer Service rep, no one can ever give you this information and it isn't accessible online. I find this absolutely ridiculous. You're flying blind, as a customer, if you ever have to deal with a reorder/replacement from them. And unless you like having your stuff sit endlessly outside, while you are totally unaware that you even received a package, this is disconcerting. In this age of technology, I have no idea why they can't just send out an e-mail regarding shipment or update your account online with this information. Any other website I've ordered from and had to deal with a reorder or replacement does both. Generally, you receive an e-mail stating that the replacement has shipped and, often times, you even receive a tracking number. This information is repeated when you access your account online.

All this said, West Elm has had my money for these items since the order was placed. I haven't even unpacked the one side table just in case I have to send it back. This all seems rather unfair. West Elm has never once done anything to compensate me for the hassle that I've had thus far. They haven't given me a discount or a coupon or anything. All they've given me is more hassle. I've got half a mind to tell them to cancel the replacement order and to have them come pick up the table items that I do have. But then I kind of feel like I've come this far already and waited this long that maybe it will just end soon. I'm sure I'd enjoy the side tables if I could ever get the darn legs.

I will certainly update this to let you know what happens. But rest assured that with the terrible Customer Service, awful communication between Customer Service, warehouse and supplier, lack of compensation and just downright hassle, I will NEVER order anything from West Elm again. And that really is a shame since they sell a lot of decently priced modern items and I have a new house that I need to fill. But unless I'm ordering something custom, or know ahead of time that it's backordered, I really don't think waiting 2 months for an item (or possibly longer) is really worth it.

UPDATE: Today is April 16, 2008. Well, April 7th has come and gone and I still have no second set of legs. A quick check on their website now states that this item is backordered until May 7th!!! So I decided to call customer service to inquire about when I can expect to receive my ONE set of legs. Well, of course, West Elm can't do anything right. So they have two sets of legs on order for me. And there's no way for the customer service rep to fix this. Assuming I ever get any, this means that, yet again, I'll have to call and arrange a pick up for the extra set of legs. I guess too many is better than none, though! Anyway, the woman I spoke with today put me on hold for a bit so that she could call someone else that has magical access to a computer system that she cannot access. Her system only showed her the April 7th date that the legs were supposed to ship. When she came back on the phone she told me that, supposedly, the legs are in the warehouse but that she has no way of knowing when they'll ship. She did tell me that I was first in line for them. I said, "Well I hope so, considering I've been waiting for them for 2 months already!" She also claimed that she'd call me when the status changes. But I won't be holding breath. So I guess I'll just patiently wait some more. And maybe in another month (3 months time total since ordering) I'll finally get them. Then again, maybe not. Maybe that will be the time to cut my losses and look for some new bedside tables.

UPDATE: Today is April 23, 2008. Now West Elm's website says: "chocolate no longer available". So does this mean that they actually got smart and pulled this side table off of the website since the shipping date kept getting pushed back? Or does this mean that there's no hope of ever seeing these side tables? I'll be calling them soon to ask, yet again, about the status of these.

UPDATE: Today is April 24, 2008. Well, it seems that the Customer Service rep that I spoke to last time (Mary) is the only person at West Elm that knows how to do her job! I was going to call them today about my issue. But before I could do that, Mary called me. Shock! Apparently someone in the warehouse fed her a line of BS too. She told me that she'd been checking the status of my order every day since I called her last week. Well today when she checked she was told that the item was no longer available. So instead of telling me, "Tough luck, kid!" she decided to be proactive and called some of the brick and mortar stores to see if anyone had a set of legs in stock. Well, lo and behold, the Cincinnati store does and is supposed to be sending me my one set of legs! I don't want to get too excited now. But it seems as if I should have them some time next week. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed and will post here again with any updates.

UPDATE: Today is April 28, 2008. I received a letter from West Elm today. It states that they're "unable to fulfill (my) order". Hopefully this letter was just sent out as a standard thing and isn't actually indicative of the fact that I'm never going to get my legs. Oddly enough, this letter also states that they didn't charge my credit card for this order. Ummm, yeah you did. Two and a half months ago! I just hope that the legs do arrive from the Cincinnati store in a few days. If I'm never going to get them, I know that this is going to be a hassle and a half to try to get a refund etc.

UPDATE: Today is April 29, 2008. Miracle of miracles! It took 2 1/2 months, but today my set of legs finally showed up. Thank you, Mary! The side tables have been put together and are doing their job. I have zero doubt in my mind, however, that had I not lucked out with getting Mary as a Customer Service rep that I never would have gotten the legs. Because let's be honest, ANY Customer Service rep worth their salt could have called one of the brick and mortar stores months ago to resolve this issue. But like everything with West Elm, almost no one knows what they're doing. Their systems are inefficient, their suppliers don't pay attention to detail and the majority of their employees are untrained and/or lazy. After this (mostly) terrible experience, I am definitely considering writing a letter to tell West Elm exactly what I think and why I'll never shop there again. If I do, I will definitely make it a point to tell them that Mary should either get a raise or be put in charge of the whole Customer Service department! It's obvious that she's someone who cares and it's also obvious that they could definitel benefit from more people like her.



IN SHORT for those that don't want to read all of this: It took 2 1/2 months for my order, which was all supposedly "in stock" when placed, to finally be completed. Over the course of that time I encountered tons of incompetence, shipping of incorrect items, delay after delay and outright lies. West Elm made sure that they had my money for 2 1/2 months, yet they never once did anything to compensate me for all of the hassle and waiting. I received no discount, no coupons and no apologies. They were content to, after 2 1/2 months, just cancel my partially filled order, leaving me with a headboard and only one matching side table. The only saving grace was one customer service rep, named Mary, who went above and beyond to make sure that situation was finally resolved. I send my thanks out to her. But never again will I deal with West Elm in any capacity.