Pottery Barn
Reviews and Complaints

Pottery Barn Kids delivered bunk beds without the hardware in August 2010. It is now December of 2011 and they have yet to deliver the hardware--finally we asked for a full refund, and they complied. Then they gave our old address (from sixteen months ago) to their delivery/pickup company, so on the day we'd scheduled they went to our old home and called our old phone number when they couldn't find us. This is Pottery Barn's fault, which it has been since day one. We have spent roughy $10, 000 at PB and PBK in the last couple of years, and they would have gotten more money as our kids grew up and as we replaced furniture--now, I will obviously never buy another piece from them again. Terrible customer service, terrible response time (when we even got a response), and after over a year, still no usable bunk beds.

I love Pottery Barn’s furniture and when I finally had enough money to splurge, I did. I spoiled my youngest daughter with a brand new bed! It was $1000 and back ordered a month. I figured that was fine, she didn’t need it tomorrow. So we went home and got her room all set up to have a larger bed in place.

When the bed arrived in the warehouse the day after promised and I was told that it would be sent out the next day! Perfect! My daughter was so excited. After a week had gone by and still no bed I got worried. I waited another day or two just so that I didn’t jump the gun on it.

I called customer service to find out what is going on with the bed and why its still not in my daughter’s room yet. Well since it had been shipped from the warehouse but it couldn’t be tracked because of it being furniture. Now I find out that its going to take another 4-6 weeks before its delivered! Completely outrageous.

These fools are quick to do business and have beautiful furniture but they don’t ever expect to deliver it to you on time! I will never do Business with a shady company like Pottery Barn again! I might love the furniture but its no good if I can never use it!

My wife and I purchased $200+ of lamps from Pottery Barn (100 miles from our home) on the weekend. On Monday, we received in the mail a Pottery Barn 20% off coupon. My wife called Pottery Barn to see if they would honor the discount on the lamps (also wondering why the sales clerk didn't mention the 20% discount was coming up). They would NOT honor it, unless we brought back the lamps to return them. Then re-purchase the lamps using the coupon! Target, Kohl's, Macy's and probably a dozen or more other large stores would honor such a deal. Why not Pottery Barn? Service like this, certainly won't bring return customers - especially during this recession. Public beware!

Pottery Barn Kids customer service department has the worst customer service. They CHARGE MY CREDIT CARD $ 1, 677.33 FOR A BEDROOM SET I DID NOT AUTHORIZE TO ORDER. Thank goodness, I was randomly checking my email when this incoming message pops up in my inbox “Pottery Barn Kids thanks you for your order #XXXXXXXXXXXX”. Furious, I immediately called customer service and CSR who answered the phone was absolutely no help whatsoever. Hang up, same thing, second CSR was no help. Finally, I demanded to talk to a supervisor (Marsha Womack) after waiting 30 minutes. I explain my situation on what had happen and the supervisor said she would cancel the order but it was only like a 98% chance the unauthorized charge would cancel. She had left her phone number, but want return calls now. It originally starting when I was trying to get a 10% off promotion code I received in their latest catalog to work online. I was trying to do a cost comparison between two different bedroom sets I was thinking of buying for my son. So, I called the PB customer department on 8/24/2011 to get some help on getting this promo code to work. They instructed me to enter the source code on the back of the catalog. That didn’t work, so the CSR rep said you could get me a total, but needed my credit card number to run by processing to get a total. I made it very clear I just wanted a total and didn’t want to purchase the bedroom set. I just want a grand total with taxes, shipping, surcharge after the 10% promo code has been applied. She told me it was just needed to get the total, but no purchases would be made. LIE, LIE, LIE, LIE! It didn’t happen that way, the CSR created the order without my permission. THAT IS FRAUD, Right? I really hope Pottery Barn taped my conversation, because this is just insane! I have been on the phone for over 4 hours trying to straighten out this mess. The worse part is….I still don’t know if the order is even cancelled. My credit card says pending and supervisor says I need to call back tomorrow morning to confirm if the cancellation request worked or not. Please, DEAL WITH THE STORES ONLY! THE ONLINE POTTERY BARN CUSTOMER SERVICE IS A JOKE!

Complete idiots run this store, so just go to the location in UTC and save yourself the time and aggravation. When the UTC location called them, while I was standing there, they said they had the two products in stock...gave them my name and cell phone number and they said come on down. That was someone named Becka. After a nice drive and 45 minutes trying to park, I get there and Becka says 'the manager decided not to sell these last two' but we'll order them for you - which I could have done an hour and a half ago in UTC. Call to the manager - Lisa Mota - who immediately throws Becka under the bus...'first I heard of it'. So, thanks Lisa, now I know that at least one of you lied to me. (Time for your management training refresher course, Lisa) Hey, a little common courtesy here! Just call me back and say you ain't GOT IT. How tough is that? These people just don't give a #$%@ about you, so don't bother the ###s at the Fashion Valley location and I suppose they won't bother you. Where I work, you lie to a customer and you get fired. Pottery Barn Fashion Valley? Not so much. I'm sure that Lisa and Becka are still sitting there, filing their nails and ignoring customers like a couple of French waiters.

Bought a table lamp for $100 that started sparking at the switch. Brought back to Pottery Barn after 30 days but before the 1 year warantee and was given a store credit for $40 less than I paid as it was now on "sale" I did not want a replacement lamp as the one I had almost caused a fire and am now out the money. I will use the store credit and never buy from them ever again

Heather Gillespie had been selling handcrafted junks using the trademarks of Pottery Barn Kids, Olive Kid, John Lennon, and other Brand new proudcts. On february 2007, Ebay made criminal like Heather sign an agreement not to sell trademarkk infringement products, but for some reason Heather was even able to sell with more than one ebay accounts. The two accounts she used to sell her poorly made trademark infringemnt items are known to Ebay as sister's store. I guess Ebay keep allowing for criminals like Heather Gillespie to continue. Why? Heather is a gold member of Ebay which mean she makes between 10K and 25K per month. Ebay do not want to loose this kind of revenue from Ms. Heather Gillespie AKa Heather Kemmelmeier AKA 3buttonsN2hbows.

Not only is Heather a super evil and unethical creature, she is also the biggest lair, thief, and cheater of the 20th and 21th century. None of the craft itmes she mades is her orignal idea. She stole it from over 20 former ebay sellers. She is shameless and claiming most items are her original. How can a mom claim to care for her 5 kids spend so much time crafting away day and nite? She cares more about money than her kids. She lies to some of her customers she is single mother and on welfare to gain their sympathy when she cannot ship items out on time. In 2005 she hired hired ilegals to help her wih her ilegal business. She sells thousands of junk a month and cares nothing about her children. Now this make Heather a lair, cheater, theif, and an employer of ilegals. The list can growing. Check out all her unhappy customers. Ebay had helped her to remove hundreds of negative feedbacks cuz they don't want to want to loose the high fees that Heather paid them. I feel bad about htose that lost hundreds of dollars by the hands of this super evil double faced woman. If you write her a check, she can just steal your money, so better go through Paypal if you want any of her poorly made junks. Some are even made her her children. Now this mean Heather is not only a theif, lair, cheater, employer of ilegals, but also using child labor (this is ilegal). Can anyone meet anyone that have all these great and wonderful quality as Ms. Heather Gillespie Kemmelmeier. And yes, this most ridiculous woman is married to her partner in crime named Markus Kemmelmeier ph.D. of University Of Nevada at Reno. He does all the shipping of her Trademark Infringement junks to her customers. After knowing this, I would never allow my children to be enroll into any of assoicate professor Markus Kemmelmeier's classes. I don't want my children to be taught by this person that don't know right from wrong.

Well, I should congraduate Ms. Heather Gillespie for her legal union with Markus Kemmelmeier in april of 2005 or was it 2006, after the two conceived a son and a set of twin daughter while Heather was still legally married to her former husband.

I bet the Pottery Barn Kids stockholders and Pottery Barn kids executives really love people like Ms. Heather Gillespie and Markus Kemmelmeier for making hundreds of thousands of dollars using their brand name. I know Ebay love her . Ebay allowed her to sell trademark Infringement products since November 2003 to present.

Ordered over $500 of linens mostly based around a new comforter, bedskirt, etc. PB immediately sent out sheets & other extraneous items but after several weeks, I called to see when the comforter would arrive & was told it would never be available. Now this was an order placed in September from their October catalog!I sent everything back & I have been playing h*** trying to get my refund. Multiple calls & emails have gotten me promises but no action. Five month later I am still owed $, It was not my fault that the items shown in the catalog never really existed in inventory to be sold! Cannot believe PB values its customers so little.

I was 5 months pregnant in May 2010 and had been dreaming of the Pottery Barn “Darcy” crib for my new baby boy. My mother, mother-in-law and I went to Pottery Barn Kids near my home to buy (and pay full price for, being $1, 100) the beautiful crib. I called prior to leaving to make sure they had it in stock. I was told there was only one Darcy crib left and that it was the floor model. I was told we could buy it for a discount which was very exciting to us, being $300. We arrived at the store that day and spoke with the manager. He informed us that they had the Darcy dresser/changing table AND the Darcy crib floor models available for us to purchase at a very discounted price. We immediately bought the dresser/changing table for a discounted price of $200 and an entire set of crib bedding, pillows, books, other toys etc. The crib was not available for us to buy at the moment because they needed to order a new set of hardware from the manufacturer. We agreed to keep in touch with them until the hardware came in and we’d pick up the crib at that time. Months went by. We were constantly in touch with the manager, who was very nice and kept us informed of the situation. The corporate offices would not give him a solid “yes” or “no” answer as to when or if the hardware was to come in at all. We decided to wait until the hardware came in because this Darcy crib was the only one left and was my dream crib. Months went by. He had spoken with the corporate offices many times (as did we at this point) to no avail. They would not give a definitive answer. Finally, the store manager told us he didn’t think the hardware would come in. At this point my baby, Oliver, was almost 4 months old and had been sleeping in his Pack ‘n Play since birth. It had been 7 months since we first walked in to Pottery Barn for the Darcy crib. He felt awful for the situation we were in and with the approval of the Eastern Regional Manager, Linda Carstenson, agreed to sell us another crib for a discount ($500 instead of $1000). We chose the “Larkin” crib (obviously not as cute as the Darcy) instead. I just wanted a crib for my son. Enough is enough. Well, it just so happened the Larkin crib was on backorder. We were informed that the Larkin crib would not be delivered for a month. FINE. WHATEVER. What’s one more month? This was getting more and more ridiculous but I wanted a nice piece of furniture for my son! One that I could afford! We agreed to wait ONE MORE MONTH for this crib. We agreed to these terms: once the crib was delivered, the full price would be paid for by credit card (my mother-in-law’s). When the delivery company set it up, I would call Pottery Barn and tell them I was satisfied. If I was, the discounted price would be adjusted on the credit card, and I would have my crib. If I was not satisfied, the company would disassemble it, take it back, and the money would be refunded immediately. I received a phone call from Pottery Barn’s delivery company, Excella (I’m not positive of the spelling). The truck from Pottery Barn had not made it to their warehouse yet so they did not have the crib to deliver to us. It would be a week late. ANOTHER WEEK. Are you KIDDING ME? I called the Eastern Regional Manager, Linda Carstenson immediately to discuss my concern. I am appalled at this service. I am appalled at this company. I had to leave two messages on her voicemail before she had the poor store manager call me back. He could do nothing in this situation. All he could do was apologize. This had nothing to do with him anymore. He had already done everything he could do and I wanted to speak with someone higher up in the Pottery Barn chain. I asked him to give me Linda’s boss. He gave me the name of Doris Simms (another Regional Manager, higher up). I called her and left a message the same day. Another point to be made: he had a different delivery date in his computer than what the delivery company told me. I spoke with the manager and left the message for Doris on Friday, January 28. It is now Monday, January 31 and I have not heard back from Doris or Linda. I have left three messages on each of their voicemails since Friday. Today, my mother-in-law checked her credit card statement to find $936 charged from Pottery Barn Kids. We have no crib. We have not received a phone call back from a Regional Manager in weeks. I don’t know what to do at this point. All I wanted was a nice crib for my son and now he will be 5 months old in 12 days. This is the worst service I have ever encountered. THE WORST.

I am a former employee of Pottery Barn. I worked there for a few months and it was horrendous. I will never work for them again. The treatment of employees is awful and they overwork you without providing adequate breaks. The managers are poor quality and stand there and criticize you. They don't provide ANY type of training from day 1, and when you try to ask an associate for help, they walkie-talkie you and tell you to go "do a once around and greet people" or stop talking...so there is no way to learn or get help. Every second is like walking on eggshells. I've never been so stressed out in my life and I can honestly say that it is not worth the hassle. And most of the people who shopped there were snotty, wanna-be rich people...hello, all the crap is made in INDIA or CHINA...save your money, go to the Dollar Store.

I received my Pottery Barn catalogue and the next day I tried to order a metal folk art weathervane and I was told I couldn't order it because they didn' t have any. I couldn't believe it. I told them I just received my catalogue the day before but they couldn't do anything for me. If this company were like Nordstroms they would've offered a replacement item for the same price as the weathervane. I bought a hurricne lamp that cost more than the weathervane, guess that was kind of stupid. I had just had surgery the week before for invasive skin cancer and the weathervane was supposed to be kind of a get well gift from my husband. Pottery Barn blew that one. It's the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard of, receiving a catalogue but not being able to order from it. I think it is false advertising which Pottery Barn should take a good look at.

I purchased a Seabury sofa from Pottery Barn in 11/08. The sofa was fairly expensive and described as one of the “finest we’ve ever offered”. The couch was supposed to have a clean, modern lines, but within a month of purchase I noticed the cushions starting to sag.

I placed a call to Pottery Barn customer service was told there was nothing they could do and instructed me to follow their upholstery instructions, which I do.

I have to rearrange and fluff the couch cusions after each use. I almost cringe anytime someone sits on it knowing I will have to make adjustments as soon as they leave.

An upholstery professional came take a look to see if there was anything that could be done. He opened up the cushions and said the foam core is lowest density foam available and the overall construction was sub-par.

It would cost me hundreds to try to fix the couch so it's probably going to end up going to the dump sooner than later.

Warning to those thinking about buying a Pottery Barn couch or any other piece of furniture from them. Don't do it!

My son had been eyeing furniture on PB Teen for 2 years. I thought it way over priced for a 12 year old's room. Finally one day they sent an offer of 10% off total purchase. To increase the savings, we ordered a "set, specially priced if you buy multiple items at once Don't ever buy a set from this Schlock outfit. It's a lie! We ordered the Stuff-Your-Stuff platform bed system - a bed, two bookcases, a desk and a shelf- and on the same invoice, we ordered a matching dresser, the cushions that go with the bed (which must be ordered separately and custom fit the side and back supports), and an under desk cart.

At the time we placed the order, the bed and the dresser were back-ordered. My invoice states "Available for delivery September 11th and 13th (set and dresser, respectively). Concerned that we would wind up with part of a room, particularly if they discontinue the remaining items, we called the customer service representative prior to placing the order and she assured us that 1. this was their most popular line and would not be d/c'd, 2. they had a contract with the manufacturer to supply the items and they were on order scheduled for delivery on September 11 and 13th; 3 we could arrange with the shipped to have them all delivered at the same time. So now that we have sold my son's old furniture to make room for the new furniture we expected to be delivered this week, we're told it's now b/o'd until December! Turns out that they don't stock "sets" exactly. They ship your set from the available stock of individual pieces. So now they have the bed back in stock, but the bookcases and shelf have sold out and are back ordered, so the entire "set" is back-ordered. When asked to ship the pieces they had and send the rest when available, the *** as dirt woman on the phone told us that they can only ship the set as a whole and that if even one of the pieces is b/o'd, the entire set is b/o'd. So, in other words, if they get the bookcases in from the manufacturer (scheduled to come off b/o Oct. 1) and then get the shelf in (scheduled to come off b/o in December), they might be able to ship the "set". but if, in the meantime, the desk or the bed sell out, then the entire set will become back-ordered again, indefinitely, ad nauseum...

This has all the elements of common law fraud: a promise that was intended by the offerer to be relied on by the recipient(we didn't go out an buy other furniture), was relied on (my son has no furniture) to the detriment of the recipient (did I mention my son has no furniture? - and by the way we have these useless bed cushions and under desk trolley with no bed or desk), and the offerer breached the contract! FRAUD! FRAUD! FRAUD! I am sure that what they are doing is illegal in at least one state and I have a good mind to contact the Attorney General in each state to suggest they pursue legal action against PB.

I have purchased numerous silver items from Pottery Barn, including jewelery boxes and picture frames. Within a fairly short amount of time, the silver items started to turn pink despite following the cleaning instructions not to use any chemical, but only soft cloth.

When I phoned Pottery Barn and spoke with Jeanette, she indicated they had no remedy for this problem and they would provide no recourse. Don't waste your money on their product.

I have previously purchased many items through Pottery Barn and am disappointed in their product and service. I will no longer be a customer of Pottery Barn.

I ordered a large size Logan entertainment center from Pottery Barn online in June, 2010. After a week or two I received notice that my item was scheduled to be shipped on July 2. On July 1 I received a phone call from someone at PB telling me that my entertainment center had color irregularities and would be rerouted back to PB. I would be receiving a new entertainment center to replace the damaged item.

A few more weeks went by. I emailed customer service and was told that my item had already been shipped. I responded by calling the customer service number listed on the web site and was put on hold for something like 30 minutes--had to listen to same annoying 50's scat music over and over. At this point I was so angry I wanted to cancel my order. when an attendent finally came to the phone, he told me that he would provide me with a 500.00 credit to my credit card if I would keep the order open. I agreed. A week later I received a call that my order would be shipped. when the truck showed up it contained an incomplete order--it was just a small piece of the logan entertainment center. I am tired of being put on hold for long periods by customer se4rvice and being jerked around while PB gets interest off my 3000.00 payment. The shipping vendor blames it on PB and PB blames it on the shipping vendor. I am the fool left holding the bag in the middle.

I won't order from PB again.

My husband and I move onto a house from a smaller condo and decided to redecorate our living room. We searched high and low for the perfect couch, and ended our search with a design consultation at Pottery Barn at Lenox Mall in Atlanta. The designer was lovely and spent almost two hours helping us pick chairs, accessories etc.

Weeks went by, and we received a call that our furniture was ready for delivery, almost three weeks ahead of schedule. I was thrilled, until I got home from the office. My husband had taken delivery of a solid WHITE couch. (We ordered the white herringbone which is more tan than white.) At this point, I was disappointed, but thought perhaps they had just delivered the wrong couch. I called the store to inquire, and was told "no, you ordered white, " to which I replied "no, I ordered the herringbone and I am holding the receipt with the sample fabric stapled to it, it's not white!"

I'll save readers the pain of the next few hours, but I'll sum it up by sharing that I was told the sofa I selected was not available in the herringbone fabric and unless I wanted to pick a different one, I was out of luck.

Remembering that I originally selected the sofa, and fabric, out of a catalog I went in search. Having just moved, the catalog did not turn up so I decided to check the Pottery Barn website. There next to a number labeled "Pottery Barn Design" were the words "ANY couch available in ANY fabric." I called and was told they could have me my couch, in my fabric (at the original selling price no less) in six weeks. Frustrated and confused, we called the store back again.

This time, we were connected to a women named Jen, who tried her best to help us. The last message we received from Jen stated we could keep the wrong couch (kept us from sitting on the floor, since the old couch was donated to make room for the new ) and that they would rush order the new couch.

That was about two weeks ago. Yesterday, July 30th - nearly three months from our original order date - we got a message at home stating we either have to return the wrong couch or pay for the correct couch - BEFORE Pottery Barn would make this right for us.

I admit it, I flipped out and called the women back at the store in a less than tranquil state of mind. To her credit, she apologized and said she understood our frustration. At the vortex of the issue is apparently Pottery Barn Design, who is unwilling to proceed with constructing the new couch without the old one or the money.

Pottery Barn - if you are listening (and based on the messages I am reading you should be) you customers DO NOT CARE if your company has multiple P&L's and/or you are "not allowed" to work across different divisions. At this point, we have no idea if we'll ever get the couch, but opinion of your company has been forever damaged.

Finally, to all you employees on the frontline at PB stores - I applaud you because it is very clear your organization does not make it easy, or in this case even possible, to offer the level of customer service you promote.

I purchased Pottery Barn outdoor furniture two years ago. I do not live near the coast and I covered and stored the furniture as recommended during inclement weather. The fabric has faded so significantly that the color is not recognizable. The brass screws are rusting and working out of the wood. The "real wood" is chipping and breaking apart. One umbrella I have is not functional. It is the most beautiful, most expensive but cheapest quality furniture that I have ever purchased. So, if you are looking for quality for your money, I would look elsewhere. You will pay big bucks for poor quality.

My opinion? Pottery Barn Kids is terrible. I bought 3 Madison touch lamps and 2 out of three stopped working within 2 years. Since the "warranty" was 1 year, they won't do anything to either replace their worthless product or refund it. I'm sure I'm not the first one to contact them about the problems with the lamps since 2 out of 3 of mine had the issue. If they wanted to build customer loyalty they would have exchanged the lamps -- $250 is nothing to them but means a lot to an individual customer. Don't shop with them!

First of all, my husband and I spent over $4000 on a bedroom set from PB. To waive the delivery charges for the nightstands we decided we would purchase them directly from the store. When we got the nightstands home and unwrapped, one of them was badly damaged. PB asked no questions when returning it, but charged us an additional $68 to order a new one as they had no more in stock.

This is ridiculous - The customer should not be charged additional because a store does not have an item in stock. Unfortunatly we had no other option than to pay the additional money in order to complete our bedroom set. I love PB furniture, but unfortunalty will never purchase anything from them again.

I am writing into their main office to let them know of this issue. They deserve the right to know the reason they are losing a valid customer.