Westelm Reviews 

still waiting for a reply about my returns. feels like a scam!

2751218

A situation still ongoing since March 2023 due to the total lack of communication from Westelm, but why am I surprised as their customer service and approach has been appalling from the outset of my complaint. I'm still awaiting the collection from UPS for the collection of x2 faulty Side Tables and until this takes place, a refund won't be processed - although I have my doubts that I'll ever receive a refund. I've attempted communication with Westelm, but with no response and the UPS team are just as bad - it seems there's x2 companies working together, both with poor working practices and an unprofessional approach. Totally disgusted with Westelm and would not recommend them as a supplier - the goods are shoddy and then they don't process a return or refund - don't use them!

Shocking all round, wrong lights received. Ordered a second time through the store, assuring they would be correct. Of course they were not, two lots of wrong lights. Have been refunded for one via store, rang requested a refund nearly 2 months ago for the others and just like others I have not received the money and am now having to go through the painful process of claiming via the credit card company. We use West Elm in the US all the time, in fact I am picking some items up next week in the US to bring home, but in the UK they are truly woeful.

We placed an order on line for a sideboard and bedside table 15 May 2023 and unbeknown to us when we checked the status of the order with Customer Service 27 May 2023 they had cancelled the order and admitted no cancellation email sent to us. They still have the payment £1,758.00 and are feeding us different stories each time we chase for our refund and have not processed our refund. I have had to pass the matter to my Credit Card company to now deal with as was getting no where. I am seriously thinking this company is a scam and I believe they are part of William Sonoma and Pottery Barn which have a good reputation but clearly they are in trouble.

I am so disappointed with the out come I’ve received from Westelm
Its unacceptable how customers can be treated in this way.
I ordered 1. expensive double bed frame and I also paid for the bed to be assembled.
Ordering was not a problem.
The problem started when I noticed defect legs on the bed and then bolts are damaged- installed by Westelm employees.
The Assembly is appalling defect the leg are squint, all bolts were improper insulation used the threaded hole that was forced now making the bed unsafe and unusable. I cant unscrew the bolts even if I wanted too.
I message Westelm and I did receive a response but not what I expected
I was told there return policy normally allows 30 days to initiate a return, as damages and defects are typically identified within that period.
Sorry but that isn’t always the case - the mattress was placed on top.
It’s shocking to think the customer is expected to remove a mattress to make sure Westelm had done the job properly
You would expect the bed to be assembled correctly, the fault/defect were made by Westelm team and yet they can not resolve and except the responsibility of the damage they have caused
I totally agree with so many other reviews So disappointed: (
Order number 2483706
Up Date -
I am pleased to say the bed frame has now been up lifted and replaced.

We love westelm products and have a number of their mid century pieces throughout our home. However the post-service experience is somewhat a bit of a let down.

For a company selling items into the thousands I'd have hoped/expected they would be able to advice on touch ups to minor damage.

When we enquired about our midcentury media console we were told spare parts weren't offered and touch up kits didn't exist. The only advice was to Google furniture medics in my area.

Accidents happen, the fault is my own. But the lack of help to even match a touch up is a real disappointment given the cost. Almost all other suppliers have spare parts or can advise on colour matching.

Having taken the due care to measure the clearance for the corner sofa I ordered, I was confident the expensive delivery would not hesitate to deliver my order to my home. The delivery was within five days of West Elm contacting me, so I looked forward to its arrival. I was away on the day of delivery, and my adult daughter met the delivery team. The sofa barely made it off the truck, and as the couch was boxed (my first boxed sofa delivery!) The delivery team refused to unbox it, so I had it returned. The delivery team had no idea who they were delivering on behalf of; the driver said I should "contact Williams Samona, Wayfair or whoever I bought it from". This was an expensive cash purchase; I was very disappointed as I have been a happy customer of West Elm in the US and UAE. I see several poor reviews on this site, and sadly, given my recent experience, I would say they are all similar, and anyone considering a West Elm should be mindful of these issues when making a significant purchase. The in-store staff and retail merchandise are still superb!

Update: after dealing with customer service for 17 working days, and having had several refund assurances, I am yet to be refunded. So the easiest way forward was to notify my bank. Truly frustrating experience so do think carefully before committing to a significant purchase with West Elm, you may never see a refund if anything goes wrong.

Great pre-sales customer service. Delivery, assembly and post sales service is shockingly poor. I took delivery of a beautiful Jensen glass topped table a month ago. However, there is a big gap where the two pieces of wood at the end of the table should be abutting and flush. Instead, a screw and a dowel are exposed and unsightly. I have tried several times to get this matter resolved. I am still waiting for the so-called 'eco team' to get in touch to put this right. If I wanted my table to look the way that it currently does, I could have saved good money and tried to put it together myself. I look forward to receiving a call.

I've tried to return a rug that didn't go with the room. Almost a month now and numerous phone calls and emails and still they have not picked it up. I'm really not sure what else to do but I would not recommend buying from this company.

Purchased a £400 mirror wall cabinet. The mirror has cracked a year after having the item outside of 30 day return policy, but the item is faulty….. I’m stuck with a £400 mirror wall cabinet that only lasted a year. Terrible products. I also have a light fitting that has sagged off the wall and looks terrible. DO NOT BUY.

Quick update; after not receiving my item I requested a refund which West Elm agreed to. However, they didn't actually do it, so my credit card company are doing it on my behalf. Oh, and as an extra surprise/bonus, out of the blue they tried to deliver the table again yesterday (two weeks after I cancelled the order and requested the refund).

This is a company that is definitely having problems. I really recommend avoiding at all costs - there is something really dodgy going on there.

I used to shop at West Elm when I lived in the US and it was great: nice products, reasonably priced, good service. Since moving to the UK I have been nothing but disappointed. The most recent issue was after I had a return approved but they have refused to send me a returns label, just delaying and delaying, saying it will come soon. It's now been nearly 3 weeks since my return was authorized and they haven't send the returns label. I'm appalled by this level of service.

Update (14th May 2023): I called the customer service on Friday (3 weeks after my original return request was approved) and the customer service agent said she was suprised that all of the items in my order were not as depicted on the website (it was mostly linens, curtains, a duvet cover, and napkins). Not the best service to be essentially accused of lying. I did think that we'd made some progress as she told me that the UPS label would be in my inbox within 24 hours and it was basically up to UPS and not West Elm's responsibility to get the label to me. Pretty sure I purchased inaccurately photographed items from West Elm, not from UPS. No label arrived, now 2 days later. It is one box.

UPDATE (15th May 2023): I spoke to customer service again last night, who said that my parcel actually had to be picked up and wasn't a UPS returns label return at all. So the person I spoke to on Friday was not only rude, but didn't know how to facilitate the correct return for me. The person I spoke to yesterday was polite and helpful and said that someone from the pick up courier service would call me to arrange pick up. Haven't received a call yet.

The customers service is appalling. I ordered several items of furniture in the shop using my online customer profile. The same day when I returned home I realised one item wasn't the item I wanted. I contacted Customer support to change the item. I was told it wasn't possible and the only thing I can do is to cancel the order and order again. I asked them to cancel the order but I was told that wasn't possible because it's with the distribution centre now and they cannot cancel it. After 3 weeks of waiting for the items, I contacted the Customer support team just to be sent a message saying that my order was cancelled. There was no apology for cancelling and for keeping my money for over 3 weeks. I requested compensation and was offered a 10% discount on the next purchase but would need to call them. This company is not suited to do business in UK. They do not offer digital and customer experience you expect from the high street brand these days. They have lovely products but the customer support and product distribution is letting them down. I will not shop with them again and don't recommend them to anyone!

I ordered a set of six dining chairs in early April. The delivery went smoothly and the delivery drivers put the chairs together. They noted one had a manufacturing fault and they'd contact West Elm for a replacement, but advised us to contact them ourselves if nothing had happened within 24 hours. Which proved to be good advise. When inspecting the remaining chairs, we noticed a second was also faulty, so mentioned this in an email which was never acknowledged. Then began a saga of trying to get the chairs picked up and replaced, which apparently can't happen simultaneously. Today, UPS turned up to get one of the two chairs, but couldn't take it as it wasn't boxed up. Perhaps that's obvious, but as the packaging was removed upon delivery, we had nothing to put them in. Called again to arrange for both chairs to be picked up, not holding my breath. It's very disappointing that a company that charges so much for delivery is making replacements of faulty products such a nightmare. Will go elsewhere for kitting out the rest of our new house.

Actually would give no stars. Terrible company. Returned an olive tree the day after I received it as wasn’t worth the money. Ordered via clearpay. Thank god as no refund after 25 emails. Do not order from this company. Customer service shocking! No thank you to your offer of trying to put it right I’ve wasted enough time on you bunch of unprofessional people. Will never order again. 😡 Thats not true how dare you lie clearpay refunded me as I had to raise a dispute with yourselves AS YOU DID NOT REFUND ME I have the emails to prove this. Don’t bother responding !!!!

So true what they say on these reviews. I ordered an olive tree back in Feb, asked for it to be returned. It got collected eventually…! I’ve been waiting over 3 weeks to receive the return, and the customer service seem clueless about the refund saying it’s been refunded. Even though no reflection in my bank account. I just want my money back!

My goodness, this has to be one of the worst companies out there.

I purchased a 3 piece set, bookshelf (narrow), bookshelf (wide) & desktop bookshelf. The desktop bookshelf was badly damaged out of the box. Wincnaton took it away and advised me to contact Westelm for a replacement. A replacement was ordered that they refused to assemble and said they only had time to drop it off (beware if you pay for assembly as I did, they don't like assembling furniture) I advised if you can't assemble please rearrange a delivery where they give you enough time to assemble as ive paid for assembly! Not a unreasonable request.

As its been 5 month since original purchase the price of the piece has gone up and now they wont supply it at all and our advising they can give me a refund only! Ive explained that would be OK but I have the 2 other pieces already that make the 3 peice set. They've now offered to take the other 2 pieces back that Ive had for 5 months already.

You couldn't make it up, they are a joke.

****UPDATED 09/04/2025 ORDER REFERENCE****
2666980

Another update as can not reply;

Yes, the would like the part delivered as it’s a set piece and I have two of the three pieces already! (As per the last 10 emails and phone calls)

UPDATE 2: After I finally managed to return the item, I received an email saying I had to update my card details to receive the refund. I did this, and waited 7 working days. On calling back, I was told my refund was never processed when I updated my card details. My refund has now been processed so I am now waiting another 5-7 days. :/

UPDATE: I am reducing my review down to 1 star as I still haven’t been able to return my item and get a refund because the collection date I was sent was incorrect and UPS had never received a notification for collection. I’ve tried three times now to arrange a collection myself but UPS don’t show up. This isn’t directly West Elm’s fault but they were dismissive when I called them about it.

I purchased a curtain rod from West Elm at the start of February. Delivery was fast so I was hopeful, but upon opening the package I was shocked by the quality. It cost £131.00 (which was actually a sale price too) but I would have been disappointed even if I’d paid £40. The brass finials were finished with gold STICKERS to cover screw holes. The shade of these stickers didn’t even match the brass colour and were already peeling, they looked awful. Conveniently the website photos do not show this part of the item. The wooden poles also had visible plastic rings where they intersected. The pole was advertised as extendable between 112-274cm, when in fact it isn’t physically possible to achieve all lengths within this range without sawing the rod.

Due to this, I contacted West Elm’s customer service email address on their website the day I received the order to enquire about a replacement or refund. I didn’t hear back for an entire month, so I instead called the phone number on their website. The customer service agent told me that I had emailed the wrong address, and gave me another email address that is not listed anywhere on their site. This email address appears to be a third party and there is no way a customer could know to contact this address.

Thankfully, my refund was honoured as I had originally emailed within my refund timeframe. I have given 2 stars rather than 1 because West Elm did not dispute refunding the original shipping as well as paying for a return label, so I won’t be out of pocket. HOWEVER the collection date I received from UPS is in July! That’s 5 months waiting for my £141 refund, which is appalling.

Based on this experience, I think I am unlikely to use West Elm again. I do not trust that the photos on their site are representative of the products they sell, and I have received better quality products from other stores at a quarter of the price. Whilst they have refunded me in full, I do not want to risk having to wait 5 months for such an expensive refund again in the future.

I received a poor quality product which wasnt up to the expected standard. Considering I paid quite a fair amount for postage, the least WestElm could've done is tried to resolve the issue. Instead they stated that they couldn't offer assistance because it was a 'final sale' item, even after it arrived damaged. I sent images of the product yet they were unhelpful. Be wary of orders for clearance items because the company clearly doesn't value their customers.

** Updated Order Reference - 2724598 **

Edit: WestElm Customer support contacted me directly and rectified the issue immediately. Hence the updated review. Still happy with my product purchase as it fits the home decor.

Too expensive for quality they offer, there are lot competitors out there who performs much better