Williams-Sonoma Natick

If I could only give it zero star rating, I would! Came to the store to return two products I bought back in December, all in their original cartons, one unopened and with a receipt in the bag… After fiddling with a register for a while the salesperson — who must have been training — told me that he can only issue a store credit for the items. He told me that the receipt in the bag was a gift receipt. I argued that I never needed a gift receipt as me and my husband bought the items for the home use. He continued to argue and I asked for a manager. She came out and told me the same thing — that I MUST have had the other receipt given to me and just lost it. The whole argument continued and started to feel for a while I was trying to return things to Ocean State Job Lot or Tj’s or something — and then she suggests that maybe the receipt was e-​mailed to me — and OF COURSE it was — never had been given anything but a gift receipt I never asked for. Without even an apology, they quietly printed out my return receipt and then i left feeling like they just threw the money back in my face. The whole experience was so disgusting, so unlike the image they try to project — I will not buy anything from them for very very very long time… If ever. Nice job turning away one of your very faithful customers who spent so much money with you over the years… Yuk.

Now this is where you wanna go if you have a couple of grand and really wanna uplift your kitchen. The stuff here is really high quality. It’s organized really well so that you can compare multiple brands at once. They a great selection of spices, oils, cooking books, and etc. The staff is also really helpful. Plus point: they have live cooking lessons that they do right by the register, which is really cool.

With a little persuading, I was able to trade in Dad’s broken steel from his set of Wustof knives that my brother and I purchased for him in 2000. At the time of purchase, they came with an unconditional Lifetime Warranty, but I found out today that the policies have changes at WS. (This includes the warranties on All Clad, Calphalon, Dualit, etc, etc)…
The exchange policy used to be that you brought your damaged or worn, or whatever, product back to any WS and the item would be switched out for the same one or whatever was closest in stock. In Dad’s case, he has a Wustof knife block if 18 knives. Back in 2000 we paid over $ 900.00 for the set, but you do ‘get what you pay for’ and with the lifetime warranty it was well worth it. In 10 years, he’s never had to bring back or swap out any of the knives because 1. He knows how to keep an edge on them using the steel, and 2. He takes care of them… hand washes them, keeps them in the block, etc.
I was surprised that when we went into the Natick store today (where I purchased the set) we were told that the policy had changed, and that we needed to call Wustof for help, and they did not guarantee that we would get a replacement at all. ??? The handle had merely separated itself from the steel this weekend as I was sharpening a Chef’s knife… I thought I could bring it in, no problem.
While Kent agreed with me, as he knew that Dad’s set of knives DID come with the old guarantee, he could not honor it. I nicely explained that we did in fact have the right for new product, as the new policy really didn’t apply to us. He gladly rang up Dad’s new steel at $ 59.95, then immediately discounted it 100%. He did the right thing, and we really do appreciate it.
As a former Manager of WS, I did see lots of abuse of the old policy, as people would bring in once beautiful All Clad pans that clearly were misused (like they ran over them with their SUV’s or some shit) and I would gladly hand them over a new pan, new knife, new whatever, no questions asked. No receipt, no proof that it was actually purchased at WS… that’s just how it was. I have my own set of gorgeous All Clads, and although they are 10 years old or so, I never imagine bringing them back for really no reason, just to get myself a nice new set??? I just don’t think that way. I guess too many people did, and this is why the policy had to change.
Back in the day, you could only buy Wustof at WS and *maybe* C&B, but the fact that Target sells a lower grade, I think WS just has to protect themselves from getting one of those knives back instead of the ones they sell. I get it.
Great customer service at this location, and a heads’ up to all who may have purchased kitchen goodies under the old guarantee. It is now null and void. :(

This is one of W-​S larger stores. Nice selection of cooking implements and tools of the trade. Staff members really do like to cook. Lessons are available too. I will have to come back to check this out.