Pottery Barn
Reviews and Complaints

I was a regular customer of Pottery Barn. In the past few years, I have witnessed a noticeable decline in the products, quality and service. We purchased a teak outdoor table and chairs. which has rotted despite being stored indoors during the winter and regular care. We purchased towels, which have frayed after a few washings and have purchased sheets, which have ripped and the the embroidery thread has unraveled. The worst part is that Pottery Barn refuses to stand behind their products. The customer service agents are dismissive and, while following corporate protocol of return periods, are not willing or able to make any exceptions. As a consumer, if I buy a table for over a thousand dollars I expect that it will last for more than the 30 day return period. After my most recent exchange with customer service after towels purchased for a guest bathroom unraveled along the edges and the quality was thin and coarse and could not be returned because they were monogrammed, I stopped being a customer of their store and all of their subsidiaries. I just wish they would stop sending me the catalogs.

I purchased a quilt on May 10 and tried to cancel the order, but was told it was too late. When I received the order I was unable to process the return online so I called customer service. I was told I could only return it as a UPS pickup and would be charged $13.50. The shipping date was May 19 and was received by Pottery Barn May 23rd. A credit was finally issued June 23rd, but not for the full purchase amount and tax. When I called customer service I was told I had used a rewards credit which was not true and can be verified by my bill. This is not the first time pottery barn has given me different answers and not given a full credit. I have been a devoted shopper, but have decided I am not willing to be treated in a dishonest manner any longer. This company can not be trusted and does not value its customers.

I purchased the Hudson Dresser and two 4 drawer bedside tables that cost over $2, 400.00. After one year the paint is peeling off in layers and you can see parts that haven't peeled yet is cracked. I contacted Pottery Barn and they said a QC person would contact me to look at the defect. Once they found out I had moved all bets were off. They do not cover defects if the furniture has n been moved. Everything else in my house looks great after moving, including 2 wood book shelves and TV stand purchased at World Market...all painted wood. So unless you never plan to move, Pottery Barn will guarantee or stand behind their products. I am very disappointed on the quality of this furniture...especially at these high prices.

I ordered a bed and dresser from Pottery Barn that clearly stated a certain sale price.I called and spoke to 4 different customer service representatives throughout my wait time from March 29-June 14.

Each time a customer service rep told me a different date that my furniture would ship. I never received my furniture (2 months later!) The last call I made on June 14 (almost 3 months after purchase), the supervisor finally told me that the price I originally paid was not correct and that it was a MISTAKE on their end! She told me that it was supposed to be more than twice the amount. She said I would have to pay the difference to receive my furniture.

I have an email and website statement that clearly states the original purchase and price. NOW they are trying to tell me that I have waited almost 3 months for furniture they were never going to send me! This has been a waste of a lot of time, money and overall aggravation!

THIS CANNOT BE RIGHT.My complaint has been filed with BBB.

I contacted PB today, thinking that this would be no problem...but I was wrong.
My two Charleston grand sofas were purchased years back. They were covered
in SAGE green velvet. I spent a fortune! These velvet slipcovers became discolored (on the cushions and seats only) very early on. They turned into a mustard green. (I really didn't know what to do. Busy mom of two kids at the time.) Then a few years back, I tried to order new slipcovers for the seats and back/side cusions only, and was all set to do so, but PB at the store level refused mentioning different dye lots. I assure you my sample of SAGE velvet was identical to the body of the slipcover
and it would have resolved this mess for me. I would have been happy with the outcome.
So all this time I have been irritated and frankly embarassed by the condition of the sofas.
We moved into a smaller home in 2013. It was my intention to sell the sofas
and replace with a sectional. Money is a factor. I could not find any sectionals I liked that I could afford. I still liked the idea of slipcovers, but did not want to deal with PB again. In the end, I contacted PB and after much haggling on my part got them to agree (there was a 20% off sale at the time) to an additional 5%= 25%
discount on ONE set of slipcovers (thinking I would part with the second sofa.
Now I have to tell you that I could not sell these sofas, no-one wants them. I decided one sofa was enough, that it was more affordable to just get new slipcovers. Only my daughter maintains that I need both sofas for enough seats.
So today I have asked PB to honor the arrangement we made and give me the same 25% dscount on a second set to make me, their customer, happy, especially in view of the deplorable original slipcovers.
I must add that the first set arrived here a few days ago. They are a far superior quality compared to the velvet covers, the seams are stronger, better fir, they go on well, and the zippers look stronger, unlike the velvet covers. I was told by PB that they now use a different manufacturer. Well...no wonder.
I called WB Customer Service after emailing back and forth. They flatly refused to honor the discount for the second set. I sent one more letter along, and copied it to the nice customer service rep who helped me back in April. I also stated that I would publish my unhappy experience on facebook and wherever I can, because
I am very angry. Now I will have to get rid of the second sofa, as I refuse to pay full price for the twill. PB prices are very high for stuff like this, which is why it took me all this time to bite the bullet and order new sets. I think the right thing to do is to honor the discount for the second set.

Never again will I buy anything from Pottery Barn. The customer service has just been horrible and the couch is really not that good for the high price (and I even got it on “sale”).

First, the service: I ordered a Pearce sectional couch (item 6705198) online after checking it out in the store. The store experience was pleasant but what has followed is a nightmare. After 6 weeks, they delivered only half of my couch and I received no explanation as to why that was, except one customer service representative telling me that they shouldn’t have done that and the couch didn’t pass quality control. During that delivery I noticed the two pieces didn’t have matching alligator clips to hold the sections together properly. Customer service told me that the delivery team was supposed to install them, and so they would send me clips to have ready for the delivery team during the second half of the delivery. I can’t even remember how many phone calls it took over the course of weeks to get confirmation that the clips would be sent and to find out when the other half of my couch would be sent, because apparently the furniture and delivery teams have serious communication problems. ANOTHER 6 weeks later the other half of my couch arrived and the delivery team was completely unprepared for installing the clips! They didn’t even bring a screwdriver. I let them use mine and they hurriedly installed the clips backwards and drove several screws into the fabric instead of the wood. I had them redo them which bothered them and I am still frustrated by the hole they made. This is the “white glove” service… just ridiculous.
Now 3 months later the corner cushion is seriously sagging, either due to a problem with the cushion or the underlying foundation. Getting resolution on this is turning out to be another disaster. Several phone calls over several weeks totaling more than an hour and absolutely no response from the “Delivery Quality” team. I sent photos, confirmed the email, asked for confirmation, sent photos again, called several times and each time got forwarded to the furniture (wrong) department. This issue is still unresolved. Let’s see how many more months of my life I have to waste on this company.

Now, the couch: In addition to the sagging corner piece, there are small knots of threads sticking out of many seams that are clearly due to improper sewing. The couch is lightweight and seems like it won’t last all that long. The back cushions reshape from a few uses and need to be constantly fluffed or turned. And, the cushions are incredibly variable in firmness from one section to the next. This is not how it felt in the store and I never would have paid this price if I knew it.

Bottom line: Find a cheaper couch elsewhere at a company that might have better service. You can probably get two or more couches of similar quality there too.

Let's just say that one attempt to modify the material for a furniture order resulted in the order being cancelled while I was told for months that the order had shipped and everything was fine. Finally the associate told me, "I guess everyone else you spoke to just didn't read the notes." Seriously?! Just a horrible experience from end to end. Ultimately I will just go to a furniture store, which is what i should have done to begin with, and get something probably nicer for half the cost.

Never...again...

I recently had a really bad experience in Pottery Barn store over in Naperville. I was shopping for some wine glasses and a woman (sorry to say Indian) got really nasty with me for moving the glasses around on a table. Then, a young lady was helping me also decide when the store manager came up and started chewing-out the young salesperson right in front of me. I like the items, but the store manager's behavior was really bad to her staff.

I walked into Pottery Barn, Pinnacle Hills, in Rogers Ar. I was ignored, treated as if I didn't exist and when I finally asked for help with a fabric sample was handed the sample and then promptly ignored again. I was prepared to purchase a sofa. The next day I called the store to complain to the manager, she was just as rude as her associate. I will never do business with Pottery Barn again. I would suggest they teach their employees customer service skills. This happened to me once before at the same store. I thought I would give them another chance because I like their products. NEVER AGAIN!

No wonder there are over 400 complaints about this unprofessional corporation and its representatives. Not only did we not receive the orders, even though we made special arrangements to stay home to receive them.. The customer service lady was talking over me the whole time and trying to refund a lesser value than what I had paid for shipping

I ordered a kid's table and chair set on Nov. 30th, 2015. We ordered for the purpose of having our grandchildren use the table & chairs while they were visiting over the holidays. Delivery was made Dec. 8 but only received the table. A call to customer service assured us that the chairs would be sent in a week. A week later another table arrived with NO chairs. Another call to customer service was made and once again they claimed we would be sent chairs in approximately 1 week. They also made arrangements to pick up the extra table. We asked if the chairs would arrive before Christmas and the answer given was it would be close. Dec. 29th, we received a call informing us that the chairs were no longer available in the color requested so I said I'll take white and was given a delivery date of Jan. 4. Today, the 6th I called to see why no chairs were delivered and was not given any specific reason but the new delivery date is Jan. 16. I asked to speak to a supervisor and was told if I gave my number, I would hear from someone within the hour. This was my first experience ordering from Pottery Barn and as you can imagine, it will be my last! Pottery Barn has had my money since Nov. 30th and I only have half of my order. Hoping I have chairs before next Christmas!

I ordered an item 11/27, and it stated backordered. I got a call sooner that it was actually available, for delivery 12/28. They never called with my delivery time as promised, so I called 12/26. They told me 1-3pm on 12/28. The driver called at 1020am to say "be there in 20". He was there in 40 and had 1 wrong item. He didn't know it was wrong, thank goodness I was there. He said warehouse would call me to correct, they did not. Warehouse called to ask how everything went, and I told them I didn't get a advance call for appointment window. They shared that no one did that day. I asked when my missing double glass door media piece would arrive, and I was told customer service would call me. No one has called. So, I called customer service 1/4/16 and waited on hold 28 minutes, hung up. Then again for 34 minutes, hung up. I tried again today 1/5/16 for 21 minutes and got through. Despite the warehouse telling me they have inventory, it will not arrive to their location until 1/8/16, and someone will call me 1/13/16 to schedule delivery. They only deliver in my area on Mondays, so I guess best case scenario I'm waiting until 1/18/16. THAT'S 22 DAYS TOO LATE. Can't wait to track down customer service because I bet they WON'T CALL the 13th either!

On December 10th I ordered a Christmas Stocking. I think it was an angel. First of all, it did not tell me how much the personalization was but AFTER I clicked to order, it said they added on an extra $9.00 for it. Pretty shady, if you ask me. Anyway, the stocking was to be delivered on December 18th. It never arrived. I called them and spoke with a very nice lady. She told me it was still "processing". I was in shock over this as it should of been on my doorstep on this day. She did suggest that I call back on Monday the 21st. I just did at 8:00 PM and I am told by another nice woman that it was "still processing". I told her that I no longer wanted the stocking as it is NO GOOD AFTER CHRISTMAS. I requested a total refund on my VISA immediately. She said it was already paid for. What the hell kind of company takes the money from a person before the item is shipped? She asked me if I was sure that I wanted to cancel it and I told her "absolutely". I mean come on, will it still "be processing in 2016". I told her I was disappointed with Pottery Barn and their sales pitch is horrible as they are still advertising these Christmas stockings. Well, I must say... these people do not keep their promises and have definitely let down a little girl with no stocking for Santa to fill. Bah Humbug. I will also be putting in a complaint with my VISA to let them know of this fraudulent episode. I wonder how many other people they have screwed for the holidays. SHAME ON YOU. Sounds like a ruse to me.

Ordered a bed from Pottery Barn and they are unable to figure out if they are even getting it in stock. Keep getting emails saying it is backordered. Meanwhile I currently have a brand new $3, 000 mattress on the floor which I am sleeping on with no bed in sight. Customer service is horrible. I'm put on hold for 10-20 minutes at a time while I get transferred around to different departments and the latest information I received is that the bed will be here soon. Who knows what soon means to Pottery Barn. One customer service rep told me I should start looking for another bed. This is after 2 months of waiting. I will never order from this company again. They do not care about customer service at all

I purchased a bag for my daughter. But, unfortunately, the bag was too small and we decided to return it. I've contacted them asking about the bag. They told that they received it, but it didn't come on time. Item arrived one day late. So that means that they will not give us a refund or another item. So it's a lost of almost $80. It was not our fault that the shipping took so long. Their return period is very short. And only because of that we lost our money. I don't know of any other company with such terrible returning period. It's impossible to ship something back in a week. Pottery Barn is a horrible service and they don't respect their clients at all. I probably won't purchase anything else from this site. I'll better prefer companies that understand that sometimes mistakes happen. But I expect a full refund and they will give my money back. It's not my fault the bag arrived one day later than it should have, it's only the shippers fault.

We had a horrible experience with Pottery Barn today (December 5, 2015). We bought a king-sized bed from them about 4 months ago, and all of the parts finally arrived. We scheduled a delivery date and timeframe, and during this delivery window, Customer Service called to notify us that none of the correct hardware had been placed on the truck to be delivered to us...e.g. the bed could not be set up. We had, as one would be apt to do, already removed our existing bed in preparation for the new one, so this HUGE mistake by the company is causing us to have to sleep on the floor tonight (and potentially many more days if the company cannot reschedule the delivery in time). This is absolutely horrible customer service, and demonstrates how weak the management and leadership of this company is. How can a mistake like this happen? Is there no one at the warehouse in the position to watch over and confirm that all pieces of a delivery are placed on a truck? Where are the checkpoints and safeguards? As of now, the company has not offered us any credits to account for the immense issues they're causing us. This should have been the very first comment out of the customer service representative's mouth (along with an apology) when she called today to inform us of the delivery issue.

I have placed several orders with Pottery Barn over the past several months. Two of those orders were considerably large—for furniture, placed on September 4 and September 7th. My credit card was charged for the majority of the furniture directly after I placed the order, showing in my account history that it had been shipped and on the way to me in the next few weeks. Part of my order included a couch and chair that was “custom” built. The couch and chair were not billed at the time of the order-expected to be delayed for several weeks. The remaining items were expected very shortly. I still haven't received them. Although I am paying for them. OVER TWO MONTHS LATER. In speaking with different representatives for PB, they have quite the system going. Initially I was told that these things take a while to deliver. Weeks? Months? Really? Then I was told that for my benefit, they were holding my items in my town so that I could have everything delivered together. Never mind that a couch and chair were being delayed for several weeks and they pre-charged me several thousand dollars on my credit card for the items allegedly sitting in a warehouse in my town. I have been paying for thousands of dollars in merchandise for over two months-merchandise that I don't even OWN yet. PB has my money, interest free, and I don't even have what I've been paying for. The last time I spoke with Pottery Barn a week ago, they assured me that my items were in my area and they were only holding them for my benefit so that I wouldn't have to have a delivery truck make more than one stop. Funny how I paid all those delivery surcharges on every individual item, but now they're looking out for me? One delivery but I'm paying how many delivery surcharges now? Funny how they charged my credit card on September 5, September 6, September 12, October 9, and October 11th for items I don't even have yet, but they're doing this for customer service? Funny how it takes four to six weeks to credit a return but they charge a purchase out months in advance of a customer even receiving it. When I asked Pottery Barn to please deliver the furniture that was already in my area, they told me just how sorry they were and that someone would contact me in three to five days to arrange delivery of my items. Nobody has contacted me. Where is my stuff, Pottery Barn?

5 months ago we have purchased outdoor dining set and a sleeping bed from pottery barn for a total of $4800. both items came defected. The bed arrived without its base and the dining set without its extension leaf. The installer promised us they pottery barn will shipped replacement items within 2-3 days but as you can imagine till today (5 months later) they didn’t. We have called so many times to their costumer servicer as well as have sent at least 15 emails to costumer series to report the situation only to received automated emails that a replacement items are on their way. Our frustration from pottery barn’s inferior costumer service is behind imagination. As a pottery barn loyal costumer who bought merchandise form them for many years I can now say this is the most horrible company to deal with.