Frances B.

Artful Home is a middleman business. It's sort of online gallery, for the most part, although they do carry some mainstream retail items that are (I assume) drop shipped from the manufacturers. So when you buy something it is shipped by the maker, artist or manufacturer, not from a warehouse. I have made a few good purchases from the site, but only for items that are on hand and ready to ship.

The business falls apart when something is made to order or backordered, because AH takes no responsibility for the transaction. I purchased a $600 article of clothing made from a hand-dyed textile, and was told it would ship "on or before X date." The item was paid for, in full, up front. The maximum fulfillment date was six weeks out. I heard nothing from AH for six and a half weeks, and when I contacted them I was told that the textile artist had been "inundated" with orders and was trying to catch up. The customer service agent said that AH considers orders to be "commissions" and that's why customers are always charged up front for all items. So? I was not complaining about the way they take orders, but about not being informed about the delay in fulfillment. This woman made a lot of excuses, but pointed; y avoided the fact that AH had not bothered to inform this customer there was no way in hell the $600 item was going to get to me within the fulfillment deadline, and that AH had no idea when it would be shipped. I repeat: she said that they could not commit to a shipping date!

The truly obnoxious part of this is that she was placing the blame entirely on the artist, not on AH. It's a dishonest take on how these galleries work, too. They take the full payment and do not pay the maker or artist for their portion (minus a hefty commission for AH, of course) until after the "commissioned" items ship and are accepted by the buyer. That's a long ride they take on a customer's funds. I would love to hear what the makers and artists think of AH. I don't think AH is doing their producers any favors. I canceled my order and requested a refund of my money. Why would I let AH sit on my $600 indefinitely, with no firm fulfillment date? That's nuts.

I have purchased several items on 1st Dibs textiles, framed art, and decor. I have bought items sourced both from the US and internationally. I have had mixed experiences. It is important to check of the individual seller before making an offer. Look at all of their listed items, assessing them for consistency and quality. See whether they also have a bricks and mortar shop or gallery (that is a positive sign). I made the mistake of buying an item in haste from a seller that I later learned was also selling many ridiculously priced garage-sale junk pieces (calling this junk "vintage collector's items" or something similar). I had not taken the time to look though his full listings because I was in a hurry. That kind of flea market stock list is a huge red flag. Avoid those shops.

The bid process is pretty good on the site, although I once had a seller try to deny that he had accepted my lower bid when I who had not seen his acceptance mistakenly accepted his higher counter offer. Not sure how that happened, but I won that argument. If you tag an item as a favorite and wait, the seller may send you a discount offer after a time. The website also holds sales featuring several shops at a time, and will notify you if a shop you liked is included. Be aware that some 1st Dibs shops post prices that are hugely inflated, expecting the price to be bid down. If you do your research and you know the going price of what you are buying, this is a safe place to shop.

The review is for S&L pricing only, as I have never purchased from the site. I do a lot of online shopping, and sometimes I see the same merchandise sold by different vendors, at wildly different prices. This is the case with S&L. A Moroccan pouf that they currently sell for $498 is available on Amazon for $169.95. It is the same item, I know, because I bought it from Amazon and I recently saw the S&L one at a consignment shop (the shop notes the source of their consigned goods on the tags). I've suspected this of S&L before, but have not had proof, before now, that they were selling and marking up the exact same goods as other vendors. Now I know It's true. Buyer beware.

Update: A week after my Chat interaction with customer service, UO had not followed up (no surprise there), so I phoned them. I was told that the "lost package request" had been denied, and the items would not be reshipped because UO would not be reimbursed for the lost package. It doesn't matter that I had never been informed the shipment went out (so I would know to expect it) and had never been provided a tracking number or proof of delivery. It did not matter that I am a longtime customer and that the missing items were a minor part of a larger order. The UO rep dug in her heels and refused to reship or reimburse me. Nice way to do business. And the cost of the missing items? A total of $52 plus tax. They lost a customer and incurred all of this ill will over a lousy $52 (retail) worth of merchandise.

After weeks of waiting for backordered merchandise (I received several of the items in my order shipped one at a time, in that period) I realized that some of my items were still missing. I used Chat to report this, and was told that all of the missing items were shipped together, and that the package was noted as delivered. But, I said, I did not receive it. Too bad, said the agent, there is nothing I can do but report this and request a refund, because it is outside out X day limit for reporting lost packages. I asked whether they could just reship. No. They don't reship "lost packages." I was told to wait three days for a response to the request.

I have no proof that UO ever shipped these items. If I check my order on their website, it shows as delivered or complete, but shipments (multiple, because that is how they manage fulfillment) are not itemized, and no tracking numbers are provided.

So, UO stole from me. I have no confidence that I will get my refund.

Do not order online from this company. Purchase in a bricks and mortar store, if you must. I won't buy anything from them again.

Bluefly has a 14-day return limit, after which their site will not generate a return label, and the customer has no other recourse because they have zero phone support. I ordered an item that took more than two weeks to get to me, so it was past the allowable window for return when I received it. Default final sale, possibly by design on Bluefly's part. And I am out almost $400 because it is too large for me. Steer clear of this company! They are extremely dodgy.

Hammacher Schlemmer pushes their "Guaranteed for life" mantra, endlessly. It's featured prominently on every item listing page. But the claim is purposely misleading. You have to click through to their "Lifetime Guarantee" page to find out the cost of shipping and a handling is on the customer: "Should any product fail to meet your expectations, we will replace it or refund the cost of the item less shipping and service fees." Shipping and service fees. So if your purchase breaks, is defective from the get-go, or just does not meet expectations, you will have to pay (currently HS's flat-rate return shipping fees are either $11 or $15 depending in weight, but they used to leave it to the customer to pay the full market rate, which could be as much if more than the cost of the item)) to send it back. Hammacher Schlemmer knows this, and they know many buyers won't bother returning items when they have to pay to do so. Furthermore, they do not allow every buyer to write a product review. No wonder most of the product reviews on their website are positive! Deceptive practices.

All of this is particularly galling because if the "honest, old-fashioned American company" image HS promotes. It's a false front. They are as cynical in their business practices as any company out there.

Do not sign up for this website! I wish I had not fallen for it. To begin with, they require that you share excessive personal information to get on there, which raised a red flag for me, but I signed on anyway for the crime alerts in my neighborhood. What I did not realize when I signed up is that they display your home on a map on your profile page (you can hide your actual address, but are required to use your real name, so you are easy to locate either way). They preset most of the settings for who can see your information (another red flag). No privacy choice there.

I was warned ahead of time that there were a lot of petty people nattering away on Nextdoor (that is true), but what I found on the site was far worse than pettiness. There are people on there who are just bat-shyte crazy. And they can find you. I made the mistake of getting involved in a couple discussions about local issues. I had to mute a couple people who kept trolling me, and I flagged several posts that contained abusive or profane language (some posts aimed at me, some at others). I don't know whether someone I reported flagged me back in retaliation, but out of the blue my account was suspended. When I went to the website a banner came up saying I was suspended and could sign in after 15 days. Suspended for what? There is no contact information provided. No one to ask. Just a link to a page of rules for the site, and something about being "kind." Huh? Who was not kind? I reported the bad behaviors of others. And I am being slapped on the wrist for that?

The 15-day thing is weird, too. It's like some weird kind of training program. Like an electric shock collar for dogs. Come back in 15 days and try again and see whether you can avoid getting shocked again? No thanks. Why would I want to?

And it gets even worse! Because of the suspension, I cannot sign in to delete my account. So it will sit there for 15 more days. Fully visible to all the crazies.

Now I am stuck wondering what Nextdoor sociopath has my address. I am genuinely freaked about it. I wish to God I had never signed on to this horrific website. They take zero responsibility for the safety of their users. They just want your information, like all social media. But they disguise their data mining operation behind thos fake neighborhood watch and block party facade. Don't buy it. It is a lie.

DO NOT GIVE THESE PEOPLE YOUR INFORMATION! They will placed you in danger. I cannot emphasize that enough. THEY WILL PLACE YOU IN HARM'S WAY. I have purchased security cameras for my property because of this website. Huge mistake joining up.

Update: I had a good laugh at the company's snotty reply, below. What a great way to win over customers! Glad I stopped shopping the site. They suck. I've figured out what the rush of rave reviews is about. HerRoom is forcing customers via a pop-up window to post a review here in order to complete their transactions and get an order number. Awful company.

I count 22 HerRoom full-star reviews in a row, all arriving together on the same day (today), all from reviewers with just one review on file. Shame on you, HerRoom. Yours is a business that I used to support. I've placed at least a dozen orders with you, over the years (the last one in 2018), and perhaps more. Now you have lost me. I hate it when businesses have their employees flood review sites with fake reviews. (Since you need an order number to review for HerRoom, how did those fakes get in, hmm?)

My ordering experience with HerRoom was always unpredictable. They would draw me in with a sale item that they did have in stock (emails announcing that brand X is on sale), but most of the time anything else I added to the order would be backordered. Sometimes the backorders were for many weeks. I'd often cancel items that kept getting delayed. I kept returning to the site because they carried so many brands and had good sales, but overall I would say that order fulfillment was terrible. Finally, I started buying my lingerie elsewhere.

As proof of their backorder habit, here is an excerpt from a 12/2018 HerRoom email:

"We have not forgotten you! The items you selected which were on back order have arrived and we are prepared to ship them to you immediately. In order to complete the shipping process, we will need to update your payment options. Orders paid for with PayPal cannot be resubmitted after a 30-day lapse, but you have several options..."

The results are in. I filed a dispute with my credit card bank, and in the interim Ivan at Chairish issued me two $25 apology reimbursements. My dispute was approved by the bank. So unless Chairish comes back within X days with a viable argument to show why I wasn't cheated (not going to happen), the remaining charge (minus the reimbursed $50) is forever negated. This is precisely the reason most credit card contracts include at least some degree of consumer protection! Even PayPal has a buyer guarantee. I encourage abused consumers to fight the good fight. It may take a lot of time to present your case, but it feels good when you win.

I ordered a linen-covered X-bench from Ballard, and received a bench so poorly executed that I donated it to a charity shop. I had opted for an upgraded fabric and studs on the bench, so it was one of their more expensive offerings in that line. Not a sale piece or a second, but fully custom. The fabric that covered the legs on the bench I received was buckled from being stretched unevenly, and was obviously creased and loose (it should have been taut and completely smooth). The padding on the seat was uneven higher on one side. The cording around the edge of the cushion was wonky and uneven. The entire thing was just slapped together. The company said they would take it back (no help on how I was supposed to pack up this very heavy bench, since I had to tear apart the box it was in to get it out), but only to remake the order. They refused to give me a refund. Given the poor quality of the example I had before me, I passed on the second try and just donated the thing. Even looking at it made me angry. The icing on the cake was that when I wrote a negative product review on their website, Ballard killed the review!

I noticed that six days had passed since my high-value item shipped, and I had neither received it nor gotten any updates from Bloomingdale's. This is not the kind of merchandise that usually goes out on "slow boat" shipping, so I am concerned. I use the link in my "item has shipped" email to go to the Bloomindale's website, to track my purchase, but their system won't let me check my order. So I phone customer service and get an automated response telling me that UPS has not provided updates "in a while," but that it "sometimes takes up to 48 hours" for them to update. That is just not true, FYI. UPS provided real-time tracking. I get an agent, finally, and she provides a projected delivery date: Ten days after shipping, twelve days after order.

Not good enough, Bloomingdales's. I will not be shopping here again.

I received two (non furniture) items that we're damaged (worst packaging I have ever seen). I live nowhere near an Ikea, so tried to deal with the matter by phone. Get a phone menu, offering options 1 to 3. Three is what I need, but system won't accept it. Try option 2 (order tracking) and am told I will be transferred to the right department. I get automated message about high call volume and they "cannot answer right now." Click. So I try the email contact form online. Options under "about my order" are "business customer" or "order cancellation." Nothing else. Another dead end. What the heck is a customer supposed to do? Phoned again and tried option 1 (new orders) and the agent is now trying to get through to the right department. I am listening to screeching "music" and repeating recorded messages. My life is passing before my eyes. Never ordering from Ikea again.

I am torn about giving RL even three stars because I think their web platform can be misleading (the way the automatic counteroffers work can be wonky), and because when I have complained to RL about problems I've experienced, their customer service department has been rude and dismissive. However, I have purchased several high-quality pieces of jewelry from one long-term seller on RL, and I am quite pleased with them. The seller is easy to work with, the jewelry is as described and shown, and the seller even adjusted the price of something down when I had second thoughts about the purchase. I think that RL suffers from not being choosy enough about who sells on the site. I agree with the other reviewer who says it can look like a junky garage sale. But there is at least one really great jewelry seller on there, who gets repeat business from me and (if you trust the transaction reviews) other buyers. Just be careful who you deal with.

(Update: I did, finally, receive the replacement battery pack. Took about six weeks to get it.)

I have had three Dyson upright models, over the years, and I now own an upright and a Dyson Animal V8 stick vacuum. The uprights have had to be replaced because crucial (non-replaceable) plastic parts eventually break on them, while the motor on the vacuum still works perfectly well. Dyson offers a generous trade-up program, to get customers to purchase the newest models. I strongly suspect that this planned obsolescence is part of their business model: make a vacuum with a great motor but choose other materials that have a short lifespan. Since they can't milk you for crazy expensive vacuum bags and filters, like other companies do (Miele, for instance), they get you to replace your expensive vacuum every few years.

Their cordless vacuums are built using a plastic-encased battery pack that costs around $100 US to replace. The battery pack on my V8 died after less than a year of light use. It is under warranty, and Dyson told me that a replacement had been sent, shortly after I requested one. But it's been almost three weeks and I have not received it, nor have they given me the tracking number I requested. At first they told me it would arrive in 7-10 days. When I complained about the delay, they changed that to, "It generally takes 10-15 BUSINESS days" to arrive. Three weeks? I don't believe they have shipped it.

I would never purchase the stick vacuum again. It's obvious I am going to have to pay for battery pack replacements every year or two, after the warranty runs out. I will stick with the upright models in future.

HEADS UP on this company: I was surprised to receive a Guideboat catalog in the mail, in 11/2019, since this company officially folded in 2918. The company J. Peterman was handling the liquidation of Guideboat Co. Inventory for some months. But now Guideboat Co. Seems to be up and running again, with no evident relationship to J. Peterman. When I tried to research company ownership, I got nothing. When you call the Guideboat phone number, the call is now answered with the company name rather than J. Peterman. So who owns this company? Is it J. Peterman under another name? It's very strange for that to be so opaque. I'd steer clear.

Original post: Phoned them on a Thursday to ask why I had not been credited for my return by the previous Friday, as I was promised. The customer service rep said she was looking at my file and saw that my return was processed and that I had indeed been credited a week prior. I asked her for a transaction code because I knew that this was not true. She said she could request that a transaction record be sent to my email. I have received that transaction record. Date of transaction? Today! The day after my last phone call asking why I had not been credited. They just can't stop lying! It's almost funny... but, not.

Sometimes you just get a sense something is wrong about a company, and that is what happened with Signals. I placed a large order (between $700 and $800) for several garden items. The next day I got a phone message from Signals saying that they were "having trouble processing processing" my credit card. Checked with my credit card bank, and saw that they had placed a hold in my card for possible fraudulent use. They often do that for an international purchase, but it is extremely unusual for a domestic transaction. So I did a quick check online for complaints about Signals and their group of companies (Acorn, Bas Bleu, etc.). I found nothing substantial, and I confirmed that it is a privately held company in the USA. So I cleared the hold on my card and phoned Signals to tell them to run the card again. The agent, who did not listen to me, asked me to run through my full identification info, and then asked me for a credit card. What? I had instructed her to run the one I submitted. Why would they not have that on record? Something told me to cancel the order, so I did. I cannot out my finger on what felt wrong about this, but I went with my gut. So, fair warning on Signals.

I used to buy household goods from WS and WSHome fairly often, and I thought they were a reliable company. But a couple weeks ago I ordered a small appliance for Christmas delivery, and it didn't show up in time. Not a huge deal, but I just tracked the order and found out that the projected delivery date is eight weeks from the order date! And no one at WS informed me of the delay. When I made the purchase it was listed as I stock and available to ship. That is not the way to treat customers if you want them to come back again, WS!

(Just found out that item was still on backorder, and the delivery date was pushed back even further than the projected delivery window mentioned above, so I phoned WS and canceled the order. The galling thing is that I found this out only by checking tracking on my order. Williams Sonoma did not notify me of the change, again. Terrible way to do business! The current predicted delivery window not guaranteed, mind you was approaching 12 weeks from date of order.)

After waiting weeks for the missing parts needed to assemble my expensive purchase, I received a shipment that was again missing parts! I should have been sent twenty pieces and received 15. So I have a pile of useless parts siting here and am out of pocket for more than $425. Idiots! I do not recommend this company for anything.

Update: Super slow return processing! I contacted the company to ask about my return, which tracking showed had been delivered five days before. The response was this: "Please allow 2-3 weeks from the return shipped date for your account to be credited. Depending on your bank, it may take 1-2 billing cycles for the credit to appear on your statement." Two to three weeks to process a return? Never buying from these people again!

Johnny Was is one of those companies that makes you pay for return postage. They sent me an item of clothing that was defective a quilted piece with broken threads in a prominent place. So I emailed them and asked for a return label. Usually when a customer receives a damaged or defective item, a business will send out a prepaid return label when that is requested. But what does JohnnyWas.com do? They demand photos to prove that the customer isn't lying:

"Please attach photos of the damaged item to this email. Once we receive your photos of the damaged item, a prepaid shipping label will be sent to the email address we have on file."

Really? I understand when companies do that for things damaged or broken in shipping, since they may have a claim they need to document and they need to instruct their warehouse employees on how to pack shipments. But for defective clothing, which was packed and shipped in that condition? It's insulting. It doesn't matter whether this request for photos is based in mistrust (I assume it is) or whether they want a record of the flaws for their quality control department (they can take their own photos when the item is returned, so I'm not buying that excuse). I won't be shopping here again.

Another update: Nordstrom has begun issuing some refunds as e-gift cards, even to longtime Nordstrom card holders! They don't tell you why a particular return will not be credited back to your account. They just make that decision when they receive the item back. And you cannot apply the amount to your account: you have to use it for a purchase. This is a blatantly dishonest and non-transparent way to do business! Truly awful company!

Update: I discovered after Christmas that an item I'd purchased online never showed up. Tracking said it had been delivered. I sent an enquiry to Nordstrom and was told it was too late to look into this. No accommodation because of my long relationship with the store. Just a giant Eff you. So, right back at you, Nordstrom! You lost a loyal customer. The company has totally lost sight of what made them stand out among deportment stores. It's idiotic to throw away a reputation that was hard earned, by your daddy... or was it granddaddy? The spoiled offspring of the late Nordstrom patriarch have squandered what the founder worked so hard to build for them. Shame on them.

Another annoyance: I received a $55 lipstick that was broken (the stick of lipstick was snapped off inside the case). I arranged the return on the website, but contacted customer service through Chat for assurance that the mess of a lipstick would be accepted for return. The assistant was nice enough, but could not guarantee that I would be refunded. Really? I have never returned a cosmetic item in three decades of shopping Nordstrom. And they cannot trust me in this? I detest this store now.

Original review: I have been a Nordstrom/Nordstrom.com customer and account holder since the 1980s. I am now a Level 3 or 4 member, so you know I buy a lot of merchandise from Nordie's! I am so frustrated with them lately, though, because their once high level of service is now absolutely terrible. In the last couple years I have received too many expensive items that were simply thrown into a box with no padding (arriving damaged and scratched, or so rumpled they needed to go to the dry cleaner), and shopworn items that are soiled and smelly. When I complain about things like this I always get a boilerplate "sorry" email, but that's it. No apology credit, or immediate return credit to my account so I don't have to wait for the returned items to arrive in the warehouse (that immediate credit was the practice in the old days, for long-established customers, but no more). The most recent annoying thing was a $300 pair of earrings, which had been backordered for some time, arriving scratched up and destroyed because they had been bashing around the box in shipping (due to stupidly poor packaging). The earrings were sold out by that point, so they cannot be replaced. I shipped them back using a Nordstrom label, and ten days later they are still tracking as "in transit"! I am still waiting for my money. The customer service communication stinks these days, too. A month ago I returned a $1100 designer coat by mail, and never got an email confirmation (usually they send out a "we have received your returned items" email). They never notified me that the item had been processed. I had to follow, up on it myself.

They are falling apart, slowly, it seems. It's very sad because this used to be a family-owned company that cared about loyal customers and maintaining the highest standards of service.