It’s patio furniture, not the end of the world. #Perspective. I do feel sorry for that crib-less baby though.

Editing to add that there are very long delays in delivery of furniture from every company and store because of the pandemic. we ordered furniture from PB for a bedroom and it was months

before the stuff arrived. My daughter ordered a glider and ottoman for her baby’s nursery and the ottoman never did arrive. (She was refunded the money.) I am not trying to be glib or callous just trying to remind that this is the situation in the world right now. Pottery Barn is probably trying to do the best they can with their limited workers and delays.

Gee K, that's not nice. Did you read all the problems she had? I'd be upset too, patio furniture is a big deal to most of us and we stand by the front door in anticipation. Well, some of us do. lol

Mojo, it's got to be the people who work in the warehouse who do the shipping. Too bad you can't call them directly.

I did read it, Oakley. Please read my edit. I’m making a plug for perspective. Your husband has cancer. One of our guests for dinner tonight has had a recurrence of his cancer. Another friend just lost her husband. The pandemic, et al. I am just saying it is not the end of the world. Take a breath and realize that in the grand scheme of things this is a drop in the bucket. ❤️

Thanks Oakley, but Kwsl is right about perspective and I know the problem is in the warehouse. I am just not looking forward to another 45 minutes on hold with customer service tomorrow and the weather is finally nice and prime for deck living, Old furniture was removed in anticipation of the delivery and the dog wants his ottoman.

Edited to add: I was posting as Kwsl wrote her second post. So sorry about your husband, Oakley, and Kswl’s friends. I know all too well the helplessness one feels when a loved one has a serious health crisis and answers aren’t there. Especially this year.

But this is about customer service and a warning to others about a company that just can’t get its act together. Delays I can understand with the pandemic, but other companies I have ordered from during this time haven’t had these kinds of problems. Arhous was wonderful and Crate and Barrel has been slow, but without problems. It’s hard to mistake red for blue or an ottoman for a crib. The delivery drivers paperwork plainly said ottoman, but the box with my name on it said crib.

PB is a nightmare. I have no idea how they have the reputation they do. COVID or no COVID they have never delivered on time to me, have delivered multiple wrong items, never ever ever keep their word on what they are going to do to fix it. Drives me crazy - I no longer give them a dime.

“It’s hard to mistake red for blue or an ottoman for a crib.”

Lol, I’ll give you that, Mojo! Poor customer service is maddening, esp when it seems endemic in a particular company There is always grief and sadness in the world and it’s not right to conflate that with an annoyance any more than it would be to chastise someone for bemoaning a broken toe just because someone else has a broken leg. I apologise. 🌹

From our circle of friends, we are still hearing comments from business owners and employees that people are not showing up for work. This is has been going on for months, on and off as stimulus payments are received (this is not meant to be a political comment). Our FL pool cleaner said the company he works for is not firing no-shows because they cannot find people to hire in their place. Our AL favorite food server said they don't show up, get fired, but can get rehired elsewhere later (rarely, a few hired back). These are just two examples. I wonder if this has spilled over into the PB et al warehouse/delivery category, if temporary or newly hired employees are part of the issue. Who is to blame on your ottoman issue - the warehouse employee that pulled the item, the one that loaded it on the truck, or the one that delivered to the wrong house? Wondering what kind of check system they have in place to avoid mistakes. Whatever it is, it isn't working.

I can only imagine the look on your face when you saw the crib. What the....?! I hope the ottoman is still available so your dog can have his special place soon.

Sorry to hear that! I too have had numerous issues with Pottery Barn in the last year... things being ordered and canceled with no notification, the wrong things delivered, damaged items being delivered, etc. I never had an issue before this so I have to assume it's covid related. That being said their customer service has been fabulous about trying to rectify all of the above. I just ordered an in-stock leather chair and ottoman, fingers crossed it actually arrives in a few weeks.

I know how very frustrating this is but I will say I have had good experiences with Pottery Barn over the years and would continue to order from them. That said, I would not order a custom piece of furniture from them.

Mojo, thanks for the heads up.

Allison, so true about getting people to work now in certain fields.

I've not had an issue with either, but it is getting hard to get what you want as the plant shutdowns catch up with us.

KSWL, if I could only post on important things, you'd never see me. One of the things I like about posting here is that people will sympathize and chime in on the littlest of issues (my specialty). The rest of the world is like .. who cares what pillow? or ... whatever you serve I am sure will be fine. IYKWIM

I’d be very hesitant to order anything big from PB. Last year, they sent me the wrong rug. Luckily, I liked it better. :D But the one they sent wasn’t even on the website! Just some mystery rug.

Anyway, it made me think the quality control isn’t there.

A few years ago, a good friend ordered half her house from PB, never had one single issue.

Ever since PB deleted website reviews I've been leery of ordering from them. I'll buy in the store but would probably hesitate to order a larger item from them that I had my heart set on.

Pottery Barn Unstuffed - written by Smart Money back in 2006

My Towels were delivered in a luggage box. Since I didn't order luggage I opened it up. My towels were in there like a stockroom employee just grabbed a box and threw it in. It's like the Wild West! I think that was kohl's.

Please don't bring up my husband. This is about how some things in life are a big deal to us and when it goes wrong, well, it sucks. Do we have to play Pollyanna now because some people have it worse than we do?

This board would die a fast death. :)

I’ve had a couple small things from PB delivered quickly, but I was looking at a rug on their site that has a delivery date of AUGUST. Seriously.

Be aware that items coming from China are still being delayed. Besides the pandemic and the Suez Canal blockage of a few weeks ago, there is an actual shortage of shipping containers. Containers have to get back to China to be filled and sent back to the USA.

Customers should not be left to “assume” to know the Suez Canal blockage et al is why items being delayed. It should note that on their website. We will probably see the “pandemic” excuse for awhile. Some businesses will milk it until it’s dry.

Not PB but one of my friends has been waiting for a new shower curtain with a Koi design she ordered from Amazon. It arrived today, but instead of Koi it was a Boston Bulldog holding a drink in one hand a making the peace sign with the other! We've been trying to imagine just how disappointed the person ordering THAT one will be when they receive a Koi shower curtain, lol!

Not PB, but just last week I received a KitchenAid chopper instead of the vase I ordered. Customer service took care of the issue, but of course, I had to take the incorrect item back to the post office for the return. I think all companies are struggling with their warehouse workforces.

Olychick, that actually made me laugh. I love Koi. Not sure I would know how to incorporate a dog drinking instead. LOL. Now all I can see in my head are those old dogs playing poker photos which were tacky even 3 decades ago. 😁

Ordering online is rather an experience these days. Wal-Mart is actually kicking Amazon's behind for me lately. Had several issues with Amazon whereas Wal-Mart has been flawless.

I have not had issues with on-line ordering (it's how I shop all the time) until a recent order, which is taking longer to ship than usual. They company did notify me and so far it's not even that long. We'll see when I get it. I've had my usual excellent service and delivery time from Amazon. I do not shop Walmart. I've ordered two wedding registry gifts from Amazon recently - both delivered within 2-3 days and I received notification. I do suspect the warehouses are low on employees.

I’ve ordered two things from Etsy this week (two different sellers in different states) and they got here within days. I was expecting a longer wait.

I just opened a Sur La Table order and found they sent Cherry red; I ordered turquoise. Sigh...

Editing to add: I received a quick response from SLT offering me a refund or replacement.

Sorry to keep posting, but this was kind of funny ... I ordered Amazon Fresh this week, here are the bananas they sent:

They were so rotten, they fell off the stem when I picked them up. And the odor! I had to put them in the freezer until garbage day.

And instead of the cat FOOD I ordered, I got this cat litter (we don’t use this kind):

My husband worked briefly for Amazon at one of their warehouses. If you had any idea the working conditions in these places you would not be surprised. They are chronically short staffed even prior to the pandemic, and they literally work people to death. They don't give their staff enough time or resources to do it right/correctly so they just shove whatever they can wherever it will fit to meet their quotas. So this is the result. I've gotten a lot of incorrect orders from Amazon lately too. As the economy shifts to a warehouse and shipping model instead of factory showrooms, i imagine this will become a regular experience. It's why I loathe online shopping, particularly for clothes. I haven't tested the waters much with furniture. I ordered a small filing cabinet, the quality was low but it looked nice. Hubs had to put it together and he complained it wasn't made right. But its serviceable. But we had to build it ourselves . . . Luckily I don't need much furniture. Not sure what I would do nowdays if I did. i peruse the used ads mostly.

Looks like they sent the odor control litter to offset the smell from the bananas!

I don't have cats anymore, but I am appalled that even our pets are now being subjected to that awful, ubiquitous smell of fabreze! That cannot be good for them - it triggers an asthma response in me, even just walking down the store aisle. I had no idea they were using it in litter as well as in garbage bag liners.

Pink, I believe it. It’s really sad and wrong. I’m getting to the point of wanting to boycott Amazon for how terrible they treat employees ... yet don’t want innocent people to suffer. I have a lot of thoughts about it, but it would get this thread pulled. Anyway — thank you for sharing an inside look.

Pink, how long ago did your husband work at Amazon? We have a huge Amazon distribution building being built close by so there is lots of talk, good and bad.

I keep hearing conflicting stories about treatment of employees.

My only first hand knowledge is of a relative who started in a warehouse with good pay. She earned benefits and promotion. She is continuing her education while still with Amazon.

Would love to hear other experiences from those who have worked for them.

Oly, we ended up using the litter for drying up some old paint we had. :D

I don't know anyone who has worked at Amazon,but we toured a warehouse and it was so interesting!

I recently ordered a handmade wicker laundry basket from Prague, I believe. It will take a month to fill the order and probably two more to ship it.

I hope I’m not jinxing myself but I’ve had very good service from online orders.

Just opened our bathroom vanity box from Birch Lane and found a new kitchen faucet inside! Inside it's own box with all the hardware for it too. I gave it to our GC.

Having worked retail for many years through my schooling it fascinates me to think of people ordering so blindly on line. For all those years I experienced no one that would purchase a shirt on top of the stack..or a pepper from the front edge of the grocery shelf. No wants the box of cereal with the crushed corner. Quality will certainly be less of a goal for retailers that know no one is inspecting items before purchase. No one is as particular as the person buying for themselves so it is doubtful some kid getting paid minimum wage is going to choose the same banana you might. I really do not see the horror in your experiences. They really are to be assumed as a possibility. Human error is live and well and again NO ONE is as picky as the shopper purchasing for themselves.

My husband's experience in warehouse work was that it is highly controlled by computer systems. The problem is, the way it is supposed to work and the way the computers are working is not necessarily in sync with the real conditions on the ground. And there's no middle person who can adjust the two to each other. So there was the way it was supposed to work, they way they were trained to do it, and then the way it was actually happening on the ground, which was often way out of whack. No middle management to problem-solve Since folks were still being held to the time standards, they just had to improvise and do whatever it took to meet the time quota, there was no one to tell them what to do if the computer was wrong. Which of course meant misfiling things, moving stuff, and pulling whatever looked "good enough." Which of course got things way MORE out of whack as time went on. Employees were treated like cogs in a wheel, and no one to oil them. If they broke, the attitude was that there was always another cog in waiting. The staff turnover there was massive. Every day my husband went into work and watched people quit and do the happy dance on the way out. So that bunged up the system even further, the chronic staff shortages just ended up stressing out people who stayed on even more . . . Hubs got called back to his professional job so one day he was the guy doing the happy dance . . .

As to the constant staff turnover due to the unpleasant working conditions, I don't know if this was due to the local management or is an overall problem or a little of both. But that's why I'm not surprised that as more and more companies go to a warehousing model, more and more glitches will appear in a system that already wasn't very robust. I worked in a sporting goods warehouse as a summer job in college, and we spent quite a bit of time making sure things stayed organized and adjusting and readjusting the use of space. But hey, that warehouse was small and closed down long ago . . .

This happens in a lot of organizations that switch to depending primarily on machines and computers, without accounting for the staff or time to keep them running smoothly and jibing with real time events. AI can only take you so far. It's often way oversold. There is gads of research on how poorly technology is managed, I had to delve into it for my master's thesis on the use of technology in education, same scenario.

The fact that Amazon has no real people and customer service department speaks volumes. My latest is they are not crediting returns . . . which you had to return because they mis-filled your order . . . . which is why I have downgraded my Amazon usage. I still to ordering from companies that take customer service seriously.

Amazon is a mosh pit and one should not be surprised otherwise. As for Pottery Barn, well they look high end, but I suspect it's just on the surface. I used to save photos from their catalogs as decorating inspiration, but never was going to mail order home decorating stuff. Who knows how long I can live on hand me downs and flea market finds and stuff I just run across sometimes randomly. I got a fabulous wool Persian rug at some random sale day a a random Macy's and I didn't even know the store sold rugs. I was just out window shopping with a friend . . .ironically easier than sometimes the hours I spend online searching for some very specific item I want to buy, from the vast morass of the Internet . . .

Having worked in finance for years, I suspect there is a bit of evil intent with many of these incorrect shipments. Companies don't recognize revenue until an order ships (nor are they supposed to invoice the customer in most states until shipment). So particularly at end-of-month, end-of-quarter deadlines, a company may 'mistakenly' ship a wrong product because they are out of the correct product. It adds to their revenue numbers (satisfying investors), and improves cash flow. Before you say, 'no way,' I'll just say that I used to work for a Fortune 50 company in the hightech field, and it was commonly done. And these weren't $29 orders. They were often hundreds of thousands of dollars. This was the eighties, and I realize some things have been cleaned up. But it was against the law then, just as it is now, and still it happened -with regularity.

It‘s time for an update. Ii finally received the correct order several weeks ago. Quality is good and the delivery company‘s employees were great. The dogs are enjoying *their* new deck furniture.

@Keepthefaith MIGirl wrote - "My Towels were delivered in a luggage box. Since I didn't order luggage I opened it up. My towels were in there like a stockroom employee just grabbed a box and threw it in. It's like the Wild West! I think that was kohl's."

I'm not sure about other retailers but I do know that WSI has program that ships items ordered online directly from stores if it is not in the warehouse. The stores will often use boxes from other products to ship the items to the customer. Maybe that's what happened with your towels.

mojomom - Glad that your dogs are happy. So cute!!! Do they go in and out of that opened window?

@Keepthefaith MIGirl - Was your vanity inside the box?

My family and I have ordered tons of stuff from Amazon and never received the wrong item, that I can recall. We've also had to return items and never had a problem there either. Once, my son ordered a SS drive for his son's gaming computer and when it arrived, it was the wrong size ( product box was correct, but the label on the drive was different). He notified customer service about the error, and received a replacement the next morning, before he had even returned the first one.

I don't really like ordering from Amazon or other online retailers, but with my physical problems I don't have much choice.