One would think that if an item is advertised as a 'Storage Bed' and you go to purchase said item... it would come with all of the parts needed for the 'storage' aspect of the bed. Not so much. After a valiant study and research effort to find a bed frame that both my husband and I could agree on appearance and function... we set out to West Elm this past weekend to purchase their Storage Bed. Apparently a very popular item this bed has become since being introduced over a year ago. We were interested in purchasing the king size storage bed. The bed and the headboard were both on sale! Of course they are, everything is. We thought that we were winning already. Mary, our lovely sales rep came back to us after about 10 mins to tell us that she had some good news and some bad news. This was interesting. So, what? They had the bed and not the headboard? Nope. They had the headboard- check, the bed- check, BUT NO DRAWERS FOR THE BED! WHAT? Mary, in her calm, lovely voice proceeded to tell us that she was calling the other stores in the area to find the drawers for the bed and then disappeared. We, mainly me, remained calm... but I mean really? Where are the drawer? If you have the bed, where are the drawers? It's a storage bed, that's how it comes? In my world, that's like selling a belted dress and not having the belt to go with the dress. So where did the drawers go? You have 3 king size storage beds and headboards in stock and no drawers? Ok. What now?
Scene #2: We are now walking around West Elm (we have not reached the real depth of disappointment yet) for about 45 mins waiting for the lovely Mary to find us the drawers... that don't exist. We go to the checkout counter where she is on the phone and has the store manager with her to find out what the hold up is. Bottom line is there are no drawers in the tri-state area and we will have to wait until June 15th for the drawers to come it. Now, they did find the drawers in Florida if we would like to pay to have them shipped to us. So, we are at a flagship store, where we are picking up the bed in our own car so that we don't pay the $125+ in shipping cost to bring our items 3 blocks. We are getting ready to spend a significant amount of money in this store and we are supposedly in a 'recession'. I asked if they would be able to do an in store transfer of the drawers to save us the $400 on shipping so that we would be able to pick up the drawers at their store... the store manger (whose name I will leave out, because she is not worthy) launched into a 5 min dissertation about freight forwarders and suppliers, and how shipping works within warehouses, blah, blah, blah. Awesome. I looked her in the eye and calmly told her that I was leaving my name and my phone # with them and when she decided what the right thing to do was to make this purchase easy for my husband and I, to call me with her best offer. I thanked her and we left... with no storage of anything. (PS- my husband is standing over my shoulder shouting at them that we are just going to go Pottery Barn! Nice, since they are owned by the same company... thanks husband).
We received a phone call about 15 mins later, to no avail, they did not solve any of the issues regarding the drawers. The lovely Mary said that she would continue to do her best in trying to find these items for us, but will not be able to wave the shipping fee for us and would understand if we would like to take our business elsewhere. I further explained my disappointment with the company policies given our long and extensive search for the 'perfect bed' and explained that we would still be purchasing the bed and headboard and that she should deduct the price of the drawers from the purchase, yet honor the sale price once the drawers become available in June and document this all in writing.. and thank you!
So, my feeling about West Elm... To (West) Helm and I have to go back... in June! I am really perplexed about where the drawers could have gone though. Am I alone in this? It is advertised as a Storage Bed, so why would there be no drawers to go with all of these frames? (As I sit here and shake my head)
PS- the bed frame chipped when we pulled it out of the box... we super glued the chip back into place.
