West Elm

I’ve been to many West Elm locations but this one is by far my favorite, the layout is better than other locations. The manager is so attentive and sweet. I was feeling overwhelmed trying to find things for my new place, and the stylist, Melissa, I think her name was, was SO helpful!

This is not the one to go if you need good customer service. I’ve called and been told they don’t have the items only to go to the weho store and be told they had 9 in the computer at Santa monica. When i go in person, there is no one to help you and they don’t know the merchandise well if at all. I have bought many many things at the store but not this one over the years. When i buy at this store it’s scratched, mis matched or defective and i have to take it back. It’s impossible to part with large items here. If you have to go to West Elm, i would go to any other possible store than this one.

Turns out the store never cancelled our order!!! We were charged twice for the same item since we placed it online (without headache!). BEWARE SHOPPERS! Management is very unorganized!!!
Worst home store I’ve been to! Too much product on the floor, hard to maneuver. Lots of items not shown but Manager helped us with dimensions of another similar product. We opted out and decided on a floor lamp. When we went to pay, we obviously had a woman who had just started. Their delivery system was very complicated. «Manager» Erika tried to help but kept blaming the new girl about messing up. It was actually her who messed up multiple times, charging us more than we agreed to and after several transactions we had to cancel. We received no apology or care about how long we waited throughout their mess ups and in the end still received no product. We could not wait for them to do very simple math and get us our money back. I had to do it myself and show her how wrong it was. She should not be a manager! Skip this store all together and order online! Not worth the headache!

It took 20 minutes to complete my purchase as there was only one woman behind the counter for most of that time. However, the troubling part was another sales associate yelling at a set of customers. In fact it made the people in line behind me leave the store with the girl saying she was so uncomfortable. I like West Elm, but I think I’ll be sticking to the catalog.

The only thing good I can say about this store is that, at first, our sales clerk was good.
Negatives —
1. Like so many stores today, they show a lot more products on their website than they have in the store. We picked out a large floor lamp online and then went to the store and discovered they don’t have one to see in person. If they had, we would not have purchased it (see #3).
2. We live in a condo, When UPS attempted to deliver the lamp, they would not leave it because no one was home at the time. I contacted West Elm and asked what to do. I was told they would contact UPS and change to an alternate address. They never did. I had to pay UPS to make the change. When I told West Elm, they did not even offer to pay the $ 5.00.
3. The supplied lamp shade is constructed in a way that allows the frame to be seen though it. It is ugly! We contacted West Elm and asked if we could exchange the shade for one that was constructed properly. We were essentially told our only option was to return the lamp and order something else.
We ended up going to another store and purchasing a properly constructed shade.
West Elm may have made a sale but they lost a customer!

wow. i am surprised by all the bad reviews! I have had GREAT experiences in-​store with the associates in Santa Monica as well as by over the phone by customer service where i needed to return a purchase. They were VERY accomodating and I appreciate it. Love their style. Tonight I had an AWESOME experience with Sonja! Ask for her– she’ll make you laugh and maybe you’ll buy a thing or two on top of it!

Their delivery service is terrible, they email you and then you have to call them back and wait on hold for 30 minutes. Then they give you a delivery window and if it doesn’t suit you, you have to «request» a new one and go through the same process again. They have the attitude, we have your bed, if you want it, do exactly what we say! I will never order anything again from West Elm.

Unlike some of the other reviews here, I had a good experience with online ordering, but absolutely not with the Santa Monica store. I had ordered a kitchen table for my new apartment in the store because I was interested in saving on shipping and was hoping it would be a faster process, since we are currently eating on the floor. We also had a housewarming party 2 weeks out from the table ordering, so I felt like it would be safe to have the 10 – 12 business day window. I was told 10 – 12 business days to pick it up. It has now been 17 business days since I ordered it. I called them at the 10 day mark to check in, and they said they were in the middle of inventory and it would be another week before I could pick it up. A week goes by and I called the store again to see where it is. They’re still waiting on the items and I need to wait again until Sunday to pick it up, making it 20 days since ordering in the store. I’m literally so pissed off, my boyfriend wanted me to cancel the order because this is outrageous. I decided to call customer support to see if they could solve it. Customer support told me they couldn’t do anything about orders that placed in the store, only on orders placed online. They suggested I call the store again, which was absolutely 100% useless. I left a negative review on their corporate survey asking them to get back to me with a way to remedy this, but haven’t heard back, so I’m leaving this on Unilocal.I wish I could cancel the order because this has caused me hours of annoyance and no one has gotten back to me. Never going to west elm store again, which is a total shame because I love their stuff.

Don’t bother – go to Crate and Barrel instead, where customer service is consistently better, their systems and operation is better, and their prices are better.
After an awful experience with their registry, where they sent me 8 individual gift cards in the mail (not so eco-​friendly), I ordered a bed on November 2^nd expecting delivery mid-​to-​late November due to a backorder on the frame. They pushed the delivery back week by week, until they finally tried to deliver twice in late January, failing both times because they accidently pre-​installed the legs (stripping the screws) and couldn’t get it into my apartment elevator, and failed to bring the entire order the second time. And they held onto my payment the entire time, so I’m sleeping on a mattress on the floor. Finally they just refund the payment, no explanation, no willingness to turn the gift cards into a cash refund.

The furniture delivery service of West Elm has been the single worst customer service experience I’ve ever had in my life. It’s mind-​blowingly unbelievable how bad it is. I ordered a bed from them online. There were so many occasions when I called the delivery service and got a busy signal, I actually had to go into the physical store to get someone on the phone. Then, on two separate occasions, I was given a delivery date and time window for my bed to arrive, and it never showed up. NEVER. SHOWED. UP. On both occasions, I was given no call to advise me that my delivery would not be showing up. On the second day, when the bed didn’t show up, I was actually given a confirmation call to make sure that I was home, two hours before my scheduled delivery window. Then, an hour after the delivery window, I called to see where the bed was, I was told that I wasn’t on the delivery manifest and the bed just wasn’t coming.
I’m normally a calm and understanding person. I don’t get mad easily. This company has turned me into a raging maniac. This same inept, dishonest delivery company is used for all West Elms in Los Angeles. Why anyone in the world would buy any furniture from this company, ever, is beyond me.

To echo many of the reviews already written, my review is for the West Elm company, NOT this particular store, but the ENTIRE company. The customer service is horrific. I ordered a bed in August and specifically ordered this bed because it was available within 3 weeks (I was sleeping on a mattress on the floor). The day my delivery was estimated for I had still not received a call to schedule delivery, so I called customer service to find out the status. It was at this point, not before, that they informed me that my bed was on back order for a month. I was upset that no one had contacted me and was told I would receive a merchandise credit gift card after the bed was delivered for their mistake. Fine.
In October, the week after they had quoted my arrival, I called again, having heard nothing. I spoke to 4 people and spent hours on the phone. I was told at this point that the bed was still on backorder, probably until January. I asked to cancel that order and choose another bed, one in stock. I agreed to pay an additional charge for the more expensive bed and was told it would arrive within a week. A week later the delivery was scheduled and I took an unpaid Friday off work to meet the truck. 15 minutes before my scheduled delivery they called to make sure I had the rails for the bed because they weren’t on the truck. I, of course, did not. I called and left messages for 2 employees who were managing my order, neither called me back. No one confirmed when delivery would happen. Monday, I spent 45 minutes on hold trying to see if I was going to get my bed. Delivery was scheduled and I received my bed in November.
Finally, a social media outreach employee discounted the bed so that I wasn’t paying anything additional for the much pricier bed. I felt better about everything but still didn’t want to shop at West Elm again. THEN, 2 weeks later I got a $ 300 gift card in the mail. I was elated and felt like they had gone above and beyond to regain my business. I drove to the store, across town, and spent an excited hour shopping & picking out bedding for my new bed. When I got to the register I was told that the card was deactivated. When I emailed the social media outreach employee she said that the card was a mistake and she tried to stop it before it went out, but didn’t get it in time. Then she said that the discount was my apology. Of course it was, and it would’ve been enough, I’m not greedy, but she easily could have emailed me to tell me that a voided gift card was in the mail and to disregard it to save me HOURS of driving to the store, picking out items, and then having to drive home LIVID that West Elm had f-​ed up, once again.
The bed itself is lovely. Truly a great bed. However, hardly worth the part time job hours I spent contacting and explaining myself to the truly incompetent customer service.
Get your customer service TOGETHER, Jim Brett (West Elm President). I asked several people if this whole thing was a practical joke. Nope. Real… insane.

I recently purchased a couch at West Elm. I called to calmly ask about a charge that was put on my card. The store manager, Adrienne, within 15 seconds of the start of the call snapped at me, talked over me, and when I asked him to stop interrupting me, hung up. I called back and asked for the store manager, again got Adrienne, who told me «I in no way gave you attitude».
There are a lot of furniture stores to shop. The customer service at this one has convinced me to shop elsewhere.

West Elm is a complete joke. As much as I love their pieces, the hassle you have to go through is just not worth it in the end.
This whole situation started just about 1 year ago when we ordered the Marble Box Frame coffee table. It was so long ago that I don’t remember all the mix-​ups that transpired up until the table being delivered, but I remember it wasn’t a smooth process. Once the table was finally delivered, the marble was cracked so we had them take it back right then and there. Getting the refund for the WHOLE amount — table, delivery, surcharge, etc. was a bit of a pain but they finally reimbursed us. We decided not to move forward with ordering a new one just because the whole thing had exhausted us for the time being.
Fast Forward to 1 month ago… At the end of October West Elm was having 20% off all coffee and side tables. We went in the store and we decided to give the Marble Box Frame coffee table another go (the 20% off made it pretty enticing and I do love the table). I have to mention that all the associates in the store are nice and helpful. Helen was the associate that helped us, she told us if we ordered right then and there that she would take another 10% off to compensate for shipping. This was because we asked her if they had any of the tables in stock at the store as it would be much easier to not deal with delivery etc. Obviously they did not and so the fun begins.
The transaction was finished, we received a PRINTED receipt showing the promotional 20% off, minus an additional 10% off for shipping with our grand total and the card we paid with… you know how receipts work. A couple days later my boyfriend notices that the first charge was reimbursed and there was a new charge from West Elm for the table without the promotional 20% off… about $ 180 more than it was supposed to be. He immediately calls customer service to dispute the charge… how can you retract a charge and then recharge someones card without their consent is what I would like to know? Customer service gets us NOWHERE. Literally it’s several days of us arguing with them about how we have a receipt in our hand showing a different amount and breaking it all down for them. They tried to tell us the sale on coffee tables never existed, however we have a dated email from West Elm marketing the sale and it was plastered inside the store and on the store windows… like what are you talking about, how is this even happening??? Did this happen to the other 25 people in the store taking advantage of the sale at the same time we were? Finally after several days they said we have to deal with it in the actual store, which isn’t super close by and is inconvenient overall. We go to the store the next day and the associate (don’t remember his name) immediately rectifies the situation within a matter of a few minutes, all the while being super apologetic and commenting about how ridiculous our experience must have been. Cool. We are happy.
West Elm calls us to schedule delivery. They need a 4– hour window for delivery so I make sure it’s a day and time I will be home. The day comes and they call to let us know that they have the marble top, but they can’t find the base. Seriously. Queue the freak out. They tell us they will call us in a few days to reschedule a delivery when they have the whole table.
Today is Friday November 20^th, almost a month since the date we excitedly purchased our new table, roughly 2.5 weeks since we dealt with the reimbursement debacle. We haven’t heard from West Elm, no delivery has been scheduled. I arrive home this evening to find a West Elm box leaning against our garage door. The plot thickens. I bring the rather light box in the house. Inside the box I find a table base which will have to be put together. No marble top. That’s cool, we just won’t actually put anything on the coffee table, we will just put the table base in the middle of the rug in front of our couch and tell everyone its sculptural art. I’m waiting for Ashton Kutcher to jump out any moment now because this has to be a sick joke.

If not for the delivery service, this would be a 5-​star review.
I really love the furniture and décor at this store. The staff was extremely nice and helpful. It is a complete shame that once an item has been sold that West Elm Delivery will make it IMPOSSIBLE to receive your furniture!!! I ordered (2) items: Modern Buffet Table (White) and the Mid-​Century Dining Table (Walnut).
This is why it is a 1-​star review for this purchase … prepare for me to rant:
With the buffet table, they gave me a date for delivery and told me that I’d receive a time window a day or two before (ex: 8am-​12pm), so that I can make sure that I’m home when they deliver. I received no such phone call so I assumed that the order must be delayed or something. I was certainly wasn’t going to wait all morning, afternoon and evening for them to contact me and tell me they weren’t coming. I did receive a call about 30 minutes before they showed up at my door and another call once they were downstairs at my building. But, that does me no good if I’m not home … So, I get on the phone and reschedule for another day for them to deliver (Several days later … no need to hurry up and return with my item, since you messed up with scheduling a time window).
Anyways, attempt #2, I was feeling a little better as the lady who scheduled the next delivery was very nice and said she would personally contact me with a time window. However, that day came and went and I received no phone call or email with a time window. So, I wasn’t going to wait around all morning, afternoon and night for this damn delivery. However, this attempt my husband happened to be in the house when we got our 30 minute advanced notice of delivery. It was only by chance that he was here. Otherwise, who knows when we would have gotten this piece.
So, I had to wait about a month or so to get the dining table, as it was back ordered. No biggie, I don’t mind waiting as long as they let me know. I received a call to set up a delivery date and did so. I was again told I would get a window of time when they would deliver and I made sure to mention that I WILL NOT BE HERE unless them schedule a window of time, and the customer service rep assured me I would get a phone call. Today was the day my dining table was scheduled to be delivered and guess what ??? No f***ing phone call for a window of time. So, guess what ??? I wasn’t here when they just showed up to deliver. Again! So, I called customer service who then scheduled the next available delivery date, which is on Thursday (4 days from now) and told that she personally will call to give me the time window of when to be here. This is exactly how the other delivery went, except I’m not holding my breath for this magical window of time phone call. I guess, they can keep sending delivery drivers to my house until someone decides to do what they say they’re going to do and CALL ME to schedule a freakin’ window of time to drop it off.
Sorry for the long rant, but this whole furniture delivery drama has been going on for quite some time now and is beyond exasperating. I’m so done.
So, if you cannot pay for it and take it out of the store, do not order from West Elm. However, If you can take it home directly for the store then it will be a 5-​star experience … too bad they can’t finish as strong as they start. It’s really unfortunate.

I recently moved to LA and searched a lot for furniture. West Elm was great but what made it more attractive was its customer care. The manager of the store, Stacy, was so kind and supportive. I spent weeks going to store to choose everything and it was so obvious that Stacy really cared about customer to make sure they pick the right furniture. She also gives great advice. The way she treated me made the beautiful west elm furniture much more lovely and desirable.

Yes — the stuff is super cute and I walk in wanting to buy everything. But let’s face it people, this place is overpriced and overhyped. And the customer service sucks.
The one star is really because if you EVER purchase something and want to cancel it — GOOD F*ING LUCK! I was in the store and asked one of their employees about the quality of a wool rug (whether it would clump or not). I saw that the sample had done so, and was really on the fence, but she was eager to put the purchase through for me and said it would not clump. She purchased the rug online in the store for me so fast… I should never have given her my credit card. My bad. She was nice, but I really wish she had listened to my misgivings (like a good customer service rep) before click click click and boom! — it was purchased already. When I looked again at the sample, I quickly realized it just wasn’t worth it. I didn’t really want it, and yet the order had already gone through. (I recognize my complicity in all of this, by the way. It was a stupid mistake.)
But I wasn’t worried because I thought — no biggie, I’ll just call and cancel the order. HAHAHAHAHA!!! What a dummy I was. Their customer service reps informed me that it was impossible to cancel orders because they were already «in process»… Ok, I had purchased the rug about 20 minutes before calling to cancel. Really? There is no way to cancel an order? I’m pretty sure that rug did not walk out of the warehouse immediately and start heading to my doorstep.
Anyway, 5 days and 15 calls later (not exaggerating) I was able to finally cancel it and confirm that it was in fact cancelled (no, according to them these are not the same thing). What was one fun evening out shopping and looking around ended up causing a week full of stress. It caused me so much anxiety, thinking I would have to pay to re-​ship the rug back to them. They kept no record of previous calls and were so unhelpful over the phone it was comical.
I honestly can’t believe they are so popular and yet seem so poorly run. I won’t ever shop there again. Not worth it.

Went to an interesting event where West Elm introduced several local independent business to our community. There were food items and home goods. We met the entrepreneurs and heard about their inspirations. And the store’s staff made the event both fun and interesting.

Although not a fan of Williams Sonoma after a few bad experiences, I just bought a new dining room table from West Elm and had a great experience. The staff was great, they have quality items and I was in and out pretty quickly.

This review is for the store manager, Reba, who has single-​handedly reinstated my faith in customer service.
For those of you who’ve dealt with the West Elm customer service call center (and judging by many of the reviews posted here, a lot of you have), you know that they are simply awful; «I don’t know,» «there is nothing we can do» or «I need to transfer you» seem to be all their scripts allow them to say. Having dealt with this extensively for about 6 months, all in an effort to use design dollars that were owed to me, I was frustrated, to say the very least. The final straw came when a code provided to me by customer service for said design dollars (which were finally issued 5 phone calls /​8 hours /​20-​something customer service reps later) did not work in-​store.
Enter Reba. Not only did she call customer service on my behalf, but she politely yet adamantly refused to take «No» for an answer. Although they tried to give her a run-​around, just as they had done to me so many times before, she advocated for me, and was ultimately able to get the design dollars re-​issued.
Thank you Reba, for truly being a customer service champion in going above and beyond to ensure customer satisfaction. I look forward to making all of my future West Elm purchases from the Santa Monica store.

Oh my goodness, I love West Elm’s aesthetic. If I could afford every last bauble, I would. Since we’re moving soon, we’re actually looking to upgrade some of our furniture, and the fewer things we buy from IKEA, the more adult points we get (that’s how that works, right?). I don’t know how much we’ll actually be able to afford from here, but I’ve got my eye on down-​free sleeper sofa.
We came in an hour before closing, the only free time we had together, and swamped a sales associate with all the questions we had. He was so honest and helpful, but most importantly, he had a TON of patience. We asked about sofas, dining tables, chairs, armchairs, dressers, ottomans, everything we’re hoping to upgrade, and he gave us the 411 on everything. He helped us pick out a few swatches for couch fabrics that’ll (hopefully) hide dog hair, and was honest about the quality of their dressers (not worth the splurge). We talked his ear off and debated the pros and cons of the Henry deluxe sleeper sofa (great but what do you do when the mattress wears out?).
We have a lot to think about and probably a few more couches to sit on, but we left knowing a lot more about what West Elm has to offer us.