West Elm Sofa Review – Why You Should Never Order a West Elm Couch

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

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!