My most anticipated post of the past 2 years is finally here. And it’s a good one – my West Elm Sofa Review AKA Why You Should NEVER order a West Elm Couch…are you ready?
Furniture shopping is HARD guys. And furniture shopping during a pandemic is even harder! Not only were shipping delays and inventory issues an absolute nightmare, there were months where nothing was open. So you couldn’t go into a store and see anything in person.
If you follow me on social then you KNOW why I’m choosing to dedicate an entire blog post on my West Elm sofa review. But just in case you don’t here’s why…
West Elm Sofa Review – Why You Should Never Order a West Elm Couch
In Spring 2020 after spending more time in my apartment than I’ve ever spent in my life I finally made the decision to start looking for a new couch. If you know me then you know it’s nearly impossible for me to make a decision. And a big, expensive home decor one like this takes a LOT of internal deliberating, research and online window shopping.
Personally I like to start my furniture shopping by scouring Pinterest and Instagram. And saving inspirational photos of rooms and pieces that I like. Then create a few mock ups of the room I’m decorating or redecorating. And then after narrowing it down I start shopping – online first to save time. Then in person if possible because I need to see and touch and sit on. For a piece of furniture like a desk or dining room table or nightstands, I can go without seeing the item in person. But for something like a couch or chair I definitely want to sit on it to make sure it’s comfortable before committing to it.
After mocking up my living room redesign I knew I wanted a white or very light colored couch. And I wanted something larger than a traditional sofa and decided a sleek L shaped sectional or sofa with a chaise would fit my space better AND would provide more seating in my living room.
Another thing I also knew was that I wanted to make an investment in this piece of furniture, my first BIG (read: expensive) purchase of my adult apartment. So instead of shopping at Raymour and Flanigan, Bob’s Furniture (where my old couch was from), Ashley HomeStore, etc. I was looking at more quality furniture from stores like West Elm, Restoration Hardware, Williams Sonoma, Crate & Barrel, Pottery Barn and Arhaus.
After doing a considerable amount of browsing online I had it narrowed down to the West Elm Harmony Modular 2-Piece Chaise Sectional, West Elm Haven 2-Piece Terminal Chaise Sectional, Restoration Hardware Cloud Modular Sectional, Restoration Hardware Maxwell Sectional, Arhaus Kipton Two Piece Sectional with Chaise, Anthropologie Saguaro Sectional and a few others. I quickly ruled a couple out because they were a little too expensive for me. And ruled out a few more because they were a little too big for my space.
Once I narrowed it down it was time to visit a few stores, so that I could actually sit on the couches. And get swatches to pick a color and fabric.
West Elm sofas were always on my radar. And ultimately it came down to me deciding between the Harmony sofa and Haven sofa. Despite the somewhat dicey reviews on West Elm’s Instagram I figured there was enough good reviews to outweigh the bad and took a chance. Both of these couches were in my price range, available in a color and fabric that worked in my apartment. Were smaller scale sectionals that fit my space, were often on sale and overall I liked the look of both.
West Elm Harmony Sectional vs. Haven Sectional
Harmony Sectional
- Dimensions: 122″w x 65″d x 38″h
- Available in 2 depths (40″ & 44″)
- Available in both right and left chaise configuration
- Pillowy soft cushions
Haven Sectional
- Dimensions: 106″w x 87″d x 33″h
- Available in 2 depths (39″ & 45″)
- Available in both right and left chaise configuration
- Terminal chaise is larger and has a back. So it’s more of an L than a chaise and has extra side pillows which translates to more seating
- Firm cushions
The West Elm Haven 2-Piece Terminal Chaise Sectional ended up as the winner though. I picked the Eco Weave fabric in the color, Oyster. The perfect soft white (but not too white) shade that would really brighten up my living room. Ultimately I picked it over the Harmony style. Because while the Harmony was very comfy it was a little too soft for me. And I preferred the more structured style of pillows that the Haven had. The slightly smaller width of the couch fits my space better (I do envision an extra deep couch will be in my future when I get a bigger apartment) AND the terminal chaise that has a back with pillow which makes it more of an L than a chaise was really appealing.
My Honest West Elm Sofa Review
Now this is where the fun starts…
I called the store to order my couch on August 25th of 2020. I wanted to place an order through a local store with a sales person instead of online. Because I know how important it is for physical stores to make sales in order to store open. And I’d hate for furniture stores to slowly become extinct.
Unfortunately right off the bat my experience was less than ideal. Because when I called to place the order the salesperson informed me that the sale West Elm was having ended 2 days prior and the couch was back to being full price. Luckily they were able to offer me a portion of the original discount. But to say I was annoyed was an understatement.
Once the order was placed I received a confirmation that my couch would be delivered between October 19th and November 2nd. While I definitely didn’t think the timing was going to be correct given the delay in production from COVID, I was ok with it. And assumed my delivery date would be closer to the beginning of December.
I was correct because my sofa was delivered on November 28, 2020 just 3 months after I ordered it.
The delivery men unwrapped and assembled the sofa in my apartment, which by the way they did great, and left. And I couldn’t have been happier with my choice. Until my mom, who was there with me, noticed that there was something wrong with the couch. The seams of all the cushions were completely different from one another. On half of the cushions the seams were sewn out and on the other half were sewn in. And we realized that the filling in the sofa portion of the couch felt completely different than on the chaise portion of the couch. Which made us realize that the 2 piece of my sofa were from 2 different couches.
I called customer service right away and let them know what happened.
And they were extremely accommodating and immediately placed a new order for replacement. I was actually a little surprised that they didn’t ask me for any photos or anything like that. But wasn’t going to question it. I received a confirmation email with the order details for my replacement which was set to be delivered between February 8th and 22nd (another 2 months). And the same delivery men would take away my current couch when they delivered the new one.
February comes along and I check the progress on my couch. And I notice that the delivery time changed from February to May. I try not to freak out because I know warehouses are severely delayed still because of COVID. And it’s not like I’m living without a couch. I call customer service and they assure me that while it was delayed everything is fine.
Fast forward to May and I check the progress again and notice that while the delivered date hasn’t been delayed any further I also noticed that the couch hasn’t actually gone into production. Which would make it impossible to be delivered by the day it says it will. I call customer service again and learn that, I’d been calling the wrong customer service department the entire time. And not only was my couch not in production, but my replacement order WAS NEVER APPROVED.
Not only was it not approved, but I was never notified that it wasn’t approved.
I freaked out on the CS rep on the phone because literally 7 months had passed. And no one notified me that my order was never approved via email or the 3 times that I called and spoke to someone. During that time I even called the sales person that I placed the order with to see if she had any information on why the order was so delayed and she couldn’t help me. The CS rep agreed that it was West Elm’s fault and that she was trying to expedite my order. But wasn’t sure if she could and honestly I was so tempted to cancel the order, but I didn’t.
After a week of calling them back everyday for updates I was informed that they could expedite my order. And that my new couch would be delivered in June. During that phone call I also asked them about how they would be reimbursing me for all the trouble and lack of communication. But they wouldn’t discuss it at all until the new couch was delivered.
On June 23, 2021 (5 weeks after the replacement was approved) my new couch was finally delivered. But of course the appointment didn’t go smoothly.
The delivery guys came in to wrap up my couch to take it away and one of them asked if the new couch was supposed to be the same color as this one??? I said yes and they said they didn’t think they had the same color couch on the truck. I of course heard a horror story from one of my followers that West Elm delivered them a couch in 2 different colors. So I made the delivery men unwrap the couch outside in the parking lot before they brought it into my apartment to make sure it was correct. It was, but better safe than sorry.
Once the correct couch was delivered I now had the pleasure of spending the next 3 months calling customer service practically everyday in order to get some sort of compensation for being given the run around for months. They initially wanted to give me $200 to which I literally laughed out loud at. Then a $500 gift card which was also useless because I would never shop at West Elm ever again. But after 3 months of going back and forth and having to explain my situation to new reps everyday I gave up and settled on getting $700 back. I wasn’t happy with the offer. But I’d wasted so much of my time on the phone with them that I couldn’t spend another second arguing with them.
Now that I have the couch that I actually ordered (10 months after I initially ordered it), I’m happy with it. BUT the process I went through to get it, dealing with customer service and the lack of care they seem to have for the quality for their products and communication I can never in a million years imagine spending another cent there or recommending any of their products to anyone.
This was my first big furniture purchase of my adult life. And after all the trouble I really wish I would’ve just spent the extra money and gotten the Arhaus Kipton Two Piece Sectional with Chaise. My brother got it a few months after me and dealt with a great sales rep in the store that made the entire process seamless. And he received his order earlier than expected with zero problems.
After posting my West Elm sofa review on my Instagram I can’t even explain to you how many people reached out with horror stories about their own West Elm furniture. Some even worse than mine. Actually now that I think about it I don’t think I heard from one person that had a pleasant experience with them. Moral of the story, while West Elm’s mid century modern furniture is beautiful. But I wouldn’t take a chance ordering from them ever again.
Do you have a West elm sofa review? I want to hear it! DM me on Instagram so I can add your story to my highlight!
Want a peek at my old living room? Check it out here!
The title of your post (“West Elm Sofa Review – Why You Should Never Order a West Elm Couch”) implies a review of the *quality* of the couch, not your bad experience with the shipping department of west elm. I suppose the more honest title, “My Bad Experience With The Shipping Department of west elm” wouldn’t get as many site visitors.
The shipping department isn’t to blame here. I would never recommend anyone purchase any sofa or large piece of furniture from West Elm because the lack of communication from ALL departments is what made my experience so bad. The year of aggravation and misinformation and general lack of communication from the instore sales associates, managers and customer service are why I would absolutely never recommend ordering from them. And after publishing my experience and hearing from a multitude of people with the same OR WORSE experiences I feel pretty confident about writing this post on why you should never order a West Elm Couch. The shipping department isn’t to blame here, the company’s lack of care for the customers is who to blame.
I had a similar issue with a dining chair. I got 3 pretty quickly Nov 2020, but somehow the 4th chair order was lost twice. I had to make multiple calls and finally got it in march 2021. At least they were nice about it.
Hi, would like to 2nd that. I googled “review of Haven West Elm” couch, and this was one of the first results, though it gave me no helpful information about the quality of the couch.
Regardless of the quality of the couch I would never recommend anyone purchase a large piece of furniture from West Elm. West Elm’s lack of care for their customers is enough for me to steer clear of them, there are plenty of other furniture companies that produce quality furniture and have far superior customer service.
I get what you’re saying, but perhaps you should have titled the piece “Why I would never recommend anyone purchase a large piece of furniture from West Elm (hint: the customer service stinks),” or something like that. Or, at the very least, you could keep the title as written but state at the very outset (perhaps in the first paragraph) that this review is about the customer service, not the quality of the couch.
When most people google couch reviews, we want to know what people think of the COUCH; the customer service department is a secondary (though still important) consideration.
In any event, thanks very much for your review.
There is a review of the sofa, i.e., mismatched seams, etc., then the negative return experience.
Seems like most people are glazing over the review instead of reading the entire post! Thank you for actually reading the post!
REGARDLESS! The couches are substandard. I myself purchased one. The Haven to be exact. Customer service is responsive on the phone but that is it. My couch fell apart within 1.5 years with little use. It’s just me and my husband who like to lounge. And before you reply,
We weigh 275 between the two of us with no pets..
Very deceiving title, not helpful at all.
Sorry you see it like that, but I had an issue with the quality of my first sofa, the fact that I was given 2 separate sofas by mistake and then a huge customer service and communication issue. ALL of these are factors in a review and in my reason why I would never recommend a west elm couch to anyone.
I work at west elm and I think the title of this is just fine. Think about it, folks. The original issue here was how the sectional was made and that she needed to get a replacement. I also own the Haven and while it’s a nice looking sofa, I don’t see it lasting longer than 5 years with average use. This is not heirloom quality furniture and really isn’t considered high end by people in the furniture business. West elm is only selling you an aesthetic and it’s really overpriced for the quality. Come to think of it, all of the Williams Sonoma brands are overpriced – not just west elm.
Meanwhile, the customer service issue here is all too common. There is almost no communication at all within this company and you’ll never get the same answer twice no matter who you deal with. Whether it’s customer service, store associates, store managers, etc., nobody in the entire company really knows what’s going on and nobody really cares. Needless to say, I don’t think I’ll be working for them much longer. I have no faith in the products or the service anymore.
Thanks so much for this response Lynne, I couldn’t agree more with everything you’ve said here. There are so many things that should be factored into reviewing a large ticket item furniture purchase. The quality of the product and customer service issues are huge factors when reviewing a product that every here seems to be forgetting about.
And thank you for your comment and I hope you find a great place to work with products you believe in if you do leave West Elm.
Thanks for sharing! What brands would you recommend?
I would probably buy from Pottery Barn, Crate & Barrel or Arhaus next. Or a local store.
Pottery Barn has the same customer service as west elm as they are part of Williams-Sonoma brands. I’ve had nightmarish experiences with Williams-Sonoma (food delivering spoiled twice despite expedited shipping), Mark & Graham (christmas gifts bought on black friday coming in January without notice at checkout) and west elm (gifts bought on black friday coming in January without notice at check out, plus poor quality for the Harris sectional (fabric and construction). Fingers crossed for a seamless Pottery Barn delivery this week… that one was backordered as soon as I ordered it (again, no notice at checkout that this was the case) and the original delivery date range shown was unrealistic given the backorder status.
Pottery Barn is part of the same larger company as West Elm (Williams Sonoma Inc). Don’t do business with any brands in that entity. I’m a designer and went through 3 different sets of two matching sofa orders (the originals and 2 replacements, first 2 WE, the final, PB) and by the end I was dealing with upper end trade (designer) corporate people, and it took a YEAR, and even the delivery was botched, and the corporate people were huffy when I pointed out that even the last mile was a disaster. Their warehouses are also a mess and their delivery people are also a mess. The story is so long and full of so many unbelievable moments, I can’t even explain it.
Pottery barn is a Williams Sonoma brand like west elm. There’s a chance the same thing will happen with them.
I’m giggling bc I’m shopping for a new couch for my family room and looking again on West Elm’s site. I ordered a few swatches and then was contacted by my store, saying we have swatches here and the Haven couch on display, I had ordered online.
Anyway I told the guy that I liked the look of the couch but there weren’t great reviews, he was surprised, long story short I was also looking at a great couch at Crate and Barrel and it had horrible reviews, there were no reviews for the Haven couch. So I googled in and you popped up and I’m so giggling bc of what I have gone through with every piece of furniture, every piece of artwork, it’s insane. First of all my living room couch, with is really great, it’s the Harper, but it was delivered w/out legs, so yes I waited 6 weeks to get the legs and then a few more to get them put on, my couch looked like a car w/out tires.
But again the CS was so poor omg, every time I have to call them it’s a flipping nightmare and of course same thing w/a compensation for my troubles, had to wait until I got the couch, or whatever. Even my fireplace screen that I purchased and picked up at the store, I asked them to unbox it and put in my car, you would have thot I was asking them to come home with me and paint my house. Anyway they are horrible absolutely horrible, I could go on and on but I will stop, I would love to share my story about the recent artwork I bought, but I will stop, so why am I looking at furniture there again, I don’t know!!
I so appreciate the effort you took to explain all of this. I did/ do everything you mentioned about research , design – everything- I went to west elm- I picked it out- furnished my whole room. I didn’t buy it- I sat on it for months. I just now began my research up again- everything again led me back to west elm- then I found your article. And guess what! I’m NOT buying from West Elm, pottery barn, or RH. Back to the drawing board. I’m going to look at that other one you mentioned. THANK YOU!! Love your living room though!
Hi Sonya, why wouldn’t you buy from RH out of curiosity?
I bought a West Elm Haven leather sofa and ottoman. I had the opposite experience. The cross bar broke the week it was delivered. I should have asked for my money back and returned it because although the customer service was good and they replaced it, I hate it. It looks beautiful but it’s not comfortable at all. It would be ok for a room that is just for looks. It’s a couch no one should sit on to relax. The cushions need constant fluffing and squish down so you end up laying against the hard sofa back. I regret this $5000 purchase dearly. Buy from somewhere else!
Oh no. I wish I’d read this before I ordered from them. After 5 months, my bed, new couch and chair were to be delivered. The delivery company lost my bed and now I’m waiting another 4 months for the bed to be replaced and they won’t tell me what the compensation will be; the chair was left behind …and the couch is hard as a rock and almost 4 inches less deep than it’s supposed to.
I’m now going to be chasing them down on the replacement as i haven’t received the email they told me was coming a week ago. I regret not just cancelling everything after reading this but I literally have no furniture now but for this awful small hard couch.
I purchased the Haven couch and it arrived with defective cushions (both of them) upon delivery, and there is no warranty. Very poor quality and unfortunately, the customer service does not have the power to resolve quality-related issues or call and dispatch a maintenance team to your home.
I own a West Elm Andes sectional and love it. Delivery was seamless, and I had no issues with the service. My sectional is still in great condition almost three years later with daily use.
The title of this post is clickbait. It’s also a trivial, one-person experience. Assuming all orders from them will end this way is and pushing the public not to purchase from them?
Not helpful.
I’m very happy for you and wish I had this experience. As you can see by multiple of the comments here and many private messages I’ve received I’m definitely not alone in my experience.
I don’t think the title is deceiving at all. She stated that… “The seams of all the cushions were completely different from one another. On half of the cushions the seams were sewn out and on the other half were sewn in. And we realized that the filling in the sofa portion of the couch felt completely different than on the chaise portion of the couch.”
The cushions were the reason that she had to place a reorder in the first place. That’s not a customer service issue it’s a quality of the couch issue. It sounds like an all around bad experience so the title is pretty accurate to me! Also I ordered a couch from WE in November and it’s almost march and still no couch. I will never order from them again either.
People really love to complain before reading lol. I received a defective couch and it took months to get a replacement after getting the run around from customer service. If that isn’t a reason to not buy a piece of expensive furniture from a company idk what is.
I bought a west elm dalton modular piece for my small apartment, I sat on it in the store and it felt fine there but after sitting on it for a couple of months when I got it, it was destroying my back. I soon figured out that you have to be a basketball player in order for this couch to be comfortable, it is so deep that you have to jump up into the couch just to get your back to rest against the back cushions, and even then the back cushions are too soft and cave in which gives very little if any support at all. I don’t know, I just expected a better quality product. I bought it as an “open box” sale so I was initially unable to exchange/ return, however west elm and I came to a compromise and I’m satisfied with the end result tho I’m still left without a couch and am very weary of buying anything now because of this experience.
I agree the quality isn’t there, so many of my friends and family have other brands of couches around the same price point that are way better quality than mine.
So what is a good sofa to buy? Can we have recommendations?! :))
I would probably buy from Pottery Barn, Crate & Barrel or Arhaus next. Or a local store.
Pottery Barn and Crate and Barrel are just the same as West Elm!
Your title is correct.
If I had a blog I would title it West Elm has scammed us out of $3,000
And here is why:
We purchased the Shelter Sleeper Sofa and after patiently waiting through multiple delivery delays and then a reorder of the sofa because the first one they sent was so damaged that the driver wouldn’t take it off the truck… our couch finally arrived months after the scheduled date.
Then after a few months of use the sleeper sofa broke. Then began the saga of submitting it for repair, weeks of ignored requests and then ignorant relief that we were still within the return/refund window.
West Elm was able to promptly pick up our couch without issue, but now after two months we have not been refunded. I have spoken to dozens of people and wasted hours getting the run around.
It’s a total racket and completely unacceptable. Don’t buy from here.
Interior designer 30+ years here. Upholstered furniture from West Elm is poor quality, especially in cushion construction. In shopping for upholstered furniture, you want a hardwood frame and tied spring construction, but the upholstery and cushions are what makes a piece look and feel good. Give the arms a hard massage- can you feel the wood frame through the upholstery? If so, expect to see it poking through the padding in a couple of years. Put your weight on the top of the back cushions and push. Did they go flat? That’s how they’ll look permanently in no time.
The best cushions have some sort of stable core (foam) and are wrapped with a soft material. For seat cushions, that could be dacron or a down or feather/down mix. Back cushions should be made similarly, but more comfort-to-support ratio. The back cushions from W Elm are filled with some kind of cheap polyester- they may look and feel fine at first, but will collapse and look like crap in no time, and no amount of fluffing will cure the problem. As stylish as these may look, they are poor value for the money. I begged my daughter to get a better sofa, and gave her all the warnings, but she didn’t want to spend the money. After a couple of years of living a normal life on her W Elm sofas, she had to send all the cushions to an upholsterer and have new inserts made, to the tune of practically the original cost of the sofa. (Always listen to your mother)
Sadly, furniture of this quality (not to mention everything from Ikea) ends up in a land fill in just a few years. It’s a much better value to get a quality piece. Get a classic style with neutral upholstery and change it up with pillows and accessories as you go forward. I like to shop consignment furniture because I often find extremely high quality pieces for a fraction of the cost. Maybe you’ll get lucky.