To be clear - this 1 star (wish it could be 0 star) review is based on this specific location in Manhattan. At the beginning of this week, I walked into the West 20th Pottery Barn on an impulse, because I had been searching high and low for a classic quilt to put on my all-white bed. The store is decorated beautifully, and when I entered the lower level floor with all of the bedding displays, I thought I had died and gone to heaven.
I found the quilt I had been considering immediately. I approached the saleswoman and asked for help deciding on what to get. It was a strange experience - while I knew I wanted what I had been looking at, she made it extremely easy for me to get the items in my hand (read: extremely difficult for me to walk away from a sale). I'm a big girl and knew what was happening while it happened, but I decided to make the purchase anyway, because the product solved my problem.
After spending $500 in record time, I came home and was thrilled to put the quilt and shams on my bed. However, today, I was browsing the Pottery Barn website and noticed that there is a 20% all bedding sale happening, so I was obviously interested in finding out if I could get a price adjustment, since it had only been 6 days since my purchase, and still within my 30 day return window. (Note: I didn't EXPECT this to be the policy, although ridiculous: I just wanted to be clear on the policy before making any decisions about keeping the items.)
I called the Pottery Barn customer service number, which was horrific. I got a woman on the phone who seemed nice enough, but kept claiming she couldn't find me in the system. After emailing her my digital receipt and reviewing the physical receipt I still had in front of me, she told me the price adjustment would be "no problem", and that she just needed to place me on a brief hold so she could get my order number from a different department.
I waited on hold for 31 minutes, until my call was DISCONNECTED. I couldn't believe it, so I called right back and got a different representative. He confirmed that I could get a price adjustment on my order, but told me that unfortunately, they couldn't see in-store purchases over the phone, so I would just have to call the store I purchased my items from.
An hour into this attempt, I couldn't find myself giving up, since I was looking at a $100 price difference, and I had been assured by TWO Pottery Barn customer service agents that a price adjustment was available in my future.
Then I called this store and spoke with Cynthia. When I explained that I had been tossed around already by the main customer service number, she aggressively said, "We don't do price adjustments." I obviously stated that I was confused because I had just been told by two reps at Pottery Barn customer service that they DO price adjustments. She had zero sympathy and very curtly said "we haven't done price adjustments in 2 years, so that's absolutely incorrect" - as if I had made this information up in my head.
Out of frustration, I asked Cynthia if she understood that I would then just be returning my purchase to the store and ordering the discounted items online, to which she abrasively said, "have a good night ma'am" and hung up on me.
As a last ditch effort to get some clear information, I called the Pottery Barn in Lincoln Center (Broadway and 67th St.) and reached someone who actually cared about being a decent human being. Joseph. Dear, dear, Joseph - who is a design specialist in this location. I explained the run-around and my horrible experience up to that point. He quickly took my information down from my receipt, put me on an ACTUAL brief hold, and came back saying, "I adjusted your price. To be clear, we do not do price adjustments any longer, but you don't deserve to be treated this way, and you shouldn't have to run all over Manhattan returning things just to purchase them again."
What Joseph didn't know, which I was happy to tell him, was that I am physically disabled and have been since birth (33 years). I have an autoimmune disease that causes arthritis in every joint in my body, that is treated by chemotherapy. Having to go all the way back to the store to return my items would be more than an inconvenience; it would be detrimental to my health.
Maybe I'm naive, but I think spending a quick $500 during my commute home from work is a lot of money, and I was so appalled by my treatment at the customer service number and most specifically, this store, that I was prepared to never purchase anything from Pottery Barn ever again.
If you are in Manhattan and you need to go into a store, I recommend going to the Lincoln Center location at 1965 Broadway and look for Joseph. He's the only person that seems to know how to treat customers at this company. read more
