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| [photo credit: west elm] |
The tale of the table and West Elm… Let me start this by saying we LOVE West Elm. Ok, now that that is out of the way… The chaos of buying a table has been weird and wild and annoying.
The Mr and I have loved the emmerson table from West Elm for a couple of years. We love the wood, we love the bench, we love everything about it. We love that it is sturdy and we love that it feels like an anchoring piece for our new home. Up until this point in time, we haven’t bought a table that could anchor our home because we haven’t owned a home and to both of us a table feels like a costly purchase that should be made with the home in mind.
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| [photo credit: west elm] |
As commonly known now, we have bought a house and we are currently furnishing said house. We have been debating the dining room table; high or low, square or round, maybe rectangular, wood or metal, natural finish or white. You see, the debate has been real. The debate has been challenging and the idea of a “family” table has been the one thing we need to fulfill for our family, but we have been putting it off.
Last weekend with so much of the major purchases fulfilled we started the table talks again. The Mr had been thinking, pondering and ultimately came to the conclusion that a round table might be best. We started researching at our favorite shops. If round was best, the emmerson was out. After a long busy weekend we stopped by our home to measure the space. No table could be purchased without the proper measurements taken.
Round tables would take too much dining room real estate. Square felt too bulky. Rectangular was just right. Buying the bench to run along the window and using our current metal chairs we have in our home and we would have the perfect “family” table.
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| [photo credit: west elm] |
So here is where the crazy journey begins… As with all stores, West Elm had incredible Black Friday deals. They had incredible Cyber Monday deals and online shopping last weekend was at a premium. Everything we loved was discounted by 25%. We noodled with numbers, we tweaked our perspective, we discussed purchase after purchase. And we came to the conclusion Sunday evening that we would simply wait. Then Monday rolled around and even better sales posted. Super Duper Sales. I got online and I noodled again, we wanted to see if the Super Duper Sale would create a price that was super duper hard to overlook. Enter human error and sensitive website. The table purchased as I was noodling with the code. Everything. The table, the bench, the whole shebang.
I immediately called. Hastily trying to cancel the online order. The Super Duper Sale was not going to be helpful so the savings were not what we had agreed would push us to the point of ordering. I spoke to a lovely lady 15 minutes after my order confirmation had been sent and after 11 minutes of waiting on hold. Due to the order processing, she was unable to cancel the order, but said she would check throughout the day. 10am rolled around and I was antsy, so I called back. I spoke to a sassy lady, quite rude in fact, who put me on hold frustrated and came back stating the order was cancelled and I would receive an email. I called the next day at 3pm because I had not received a cancellation email and again, was told the yes, the order had in fact been cancelled. The Mr and I saw a credit in our account and were satisfied. The next day the credit was gone and so was our money. I received shipping confirmation emails and chose to call again… Fourth time should be a charm, right?? A very lovely lady listened to my long winded story and patched me through to the furniture department, surely the fifth person I spoke to could help. He also confirmed cancellation and said all was great, check back on the 6th if we have not received credit… Yesterday was the 6th. No credit and a call to schedule delivery.
I am baffled. Yes, this is a table we love and want and our intention is to purchase in the very near future. Due to the fact that the sales were not monumental, we chose to ride the holiday wave and get through Christmas prior to pulling the trigger. I am not upset that we will be receiving the table, due to human error, a bit earlier than expected. I am utterly disappointed in the customer service experience I had. There should be opportunity on the website to cancel an order within 24 hours of placing it online. There should be an opportunity to cancel it through a phone call on the first try. The failure to satisfy my desire to cancel my order after five attempts baffles me. Despite three confirmations of cancelation, five phone calls and many retellings of the situation the table is ready to deliver to my house. Do we want the table? Absolutely. Do we love West Elm? Without a doubt. Did their customer service system fail? Clearly.
The saga continues as we have to schedule delivery or determined if in fact the order was cancelled one of the five times I called and one of the three times it was confirmed cancelled. I’ll keep you posted.