Well, I know West Elm is a low to mid-level chain retailer, so I didn't think I was getting the best of the best, but they do tend to have very modern curtain rods which are hard to find, that importantly are 1.25" in diameter for extra strength, and very beefy mounting brackets(which I need), so I thought I'd order a set of West Elm curtain rods and see how they were.

Now I know, and the reality is that they are absolute garbage.

Literally NOTHING is done well. The plating has bad spots all over, the pipe ends looks like they were chewed off by a drunken beaver at non straight angles and with dents and rough spots. There is some sort of gluey substance all over the finial ends(that I can't get off), and the metal finial mounts are set so poorly that as you can see in the picture below the modern finials can't sit straight in the tube. To top it all off the inner plastic guides came broken which is no surprise as they are made of the most brittle cheap plastic I have ever seen.

What a joke. Won't be shopping there for anything anytime soon.