"We ordered an outdoor umbrella from Ballard Designs and WE paid $30 for shipping. Ballard shipped both packages thru UPS & then sent one of the packages to USPS for the Post Office to deliver 4 DAYS LATER. Both items could have been delivered by the same UPS driver but no, Ballard shipped both to UPS & then UPS shipped one package to the Post Office for them to deliver 4 days later. WHY? The second package was small, the package UPS delivered was large, they were coming to the house anyway??? I would like Ballard to refund my shipping costs since we had NO say in how the item was shipped. We even called UPS to stop delivery to the USPS 4 days before it was delivered, they refused to go on the truck going to the USPS, get the package and hold it, EVEN THOUGH ON THE UPS WEBSITE IT SAYS YOU CAN HAVE THEM HOLD THE PACKAGE AT UPS FOR PICKUP. Don't buy at Ballard Designs unless you are willing to wait forever to get your item. And to be clear, Ballard Designs NEVER told us they were shipping the umbrella by two different delivery companies. WE even called them when they sent the shipping notice by email, 2 days AFTER they shipped, only to be told both items were coming by US mail. They don't have a clue on how to run a company . AND, we purchased another umbrella, exactly the same, 2 weeks before, as a gift, it was sent to our house so we could assemble the umbrella before we gave it to our son. BOTH PACKAGES WERE DELIVERED TO OUR HOUSE ON THE SAME DAY BY UPS! Go figure."
"I ordered pillows on 5/20. I called customer service 6/17 because I never got them. The woman I spoke with said they were being shipped 6/20. Annoyed, but whatever. 6/30 I still have no pillows. I call again and find out my order mysteriously was cancelled. I feel under such situation they should over night an order to make things right, but no I'd have to start all over and the order would take 10 business days. The summer would be over practically..."
"# Ballarddesigns #Ballard quality on 500. Item awful. Upon unpacking , It was falling apart and poorly constructed . Materials very cheap . Worse than Walmart quality .Tiny staples for heavy- 53 x 83 inch chalkboard . Frame separated from chalkboard . I could talk to no one that had shred of emphathy for my situation, all fault of Ballard. Delivery via Ballard by JB Hunt took from 4/28/17 until June 22/2017. Ballard refuses to refund my money until JB Hunt picks up (months from now?) . I find this unacceptable . This company , Ballard, appears to be somewhat of a #fraud misrepresenting quality and customer service , which is unfortunate as I had high hopes for the 5,790 SF new home I am building . However it appears I would be very unwise to do future business with them. "
"Sadly, I am another customer who found out too late that there is no customer service or company accountability on the part of Ballard. When I tried to give an honest review of a product I received on their website, they told me they would not post it as it spoke to shipping issues and they apparently don't count or they won't deal with this failing in their organization. I ordered a product early this winter and learned within a week or so that it was backordered and would not ship until May. In April, they pushed that out to mid June alerting me with an email; yet the very next day I got snother email from Ballard stating the item just shipped and I would be contacted to arrange a delivery date from their contract shipper. When I called customer service at Ballard to let them know that a fsmily emergency took me out of town and I would not be able to be home for any delivery, I was first told, don't worry, it will take weeks for the delivery still. Yet the next day I was contacted by the shipper telling me that I needed to set the delivery date and if I did not, they would return the item to Ballard. Further calls to Ballard were fruitless and frustrating- I finally got bumped to a customer relations person who just arranged a delivery date in June with the hope I would be home to accept it. Well, the item was delivered this past Friday. The delivery company never called to confirm the delivery so when it became 1 hour from the end of the 4 hour window snd they still were not there, I tried to get in touch with both Ballard's rep and the delivery company. They confirmed it was going to be delivered; the delivery team then called and said they would be at least an hour beyond the window they promised. And that white glove service? For the $100 plus extra charged, the delivery is to your front door only. Really? Even the delivery team was embarrassed and did bring the Huge box over the threshold. I still had to unpack a box bigger than me and get the item into my home. The actual product after all this? An uncomfortable Thurston wing chair with stiff cushioning and poor quality upholstery. So my recommendation: don't buy anything from Ballard Designs and tell the company thar owns them, HSNi Cornerstone, that you won't accept this lack of quality by also refusing to buy anything fro their other vendors - Frontgate, HSN, Grandin Road, Garnet Hill and Improvements."
"Horrible experience with supposedly high-end Casa Florentina line. Waited 6 months to get my kitchen hutch and the top hutch was completely damaged (see photos), likely due to the far insufficient packing. They offered a replacement with ANOTHER 6-month wait, or I could keep it with a discount that would void the 1-year warranty as to the entire product (including the base which was not damaged). Avoid Casa Florentina!"
"I ordered a beautiful duvet cover and shams. The quality of the material was way better than expected especially for the price. I also receive my order within two days. I will definitely recommend this website and will be ordering from them again!! "
"We are in the process of furnishing a home. In one room, two of the three pieces were ordered from Ballard. Both arrived damaged. Two times in one month we ordered from them. Two times we received damaged items. In return for your privilege of ordering damaged goods from them, you get to spend your time boxing it back up and waiting at home for UPS to pick it up and then wait again for a new, hopefully undamaged replacement to be shipped once the original is in their hands. Or, if you want a replacement sooner, you get to pay for BOTH the damaged and undamaged item, until they get the damaged item back and then they will issue a credit. In addition to these privileges, you get to deal with customer service people who operate like used car salesman that you have to drag information out of and treat you rudely. It's a shame because when I placed my order, the person was very pleasant and helpful. I will be sticking with Pottery Barn. Bye bye Ballard. "
"Be aware if you order outdoor furniture from Ballard Design, they advertise that they come with "basic cushions included." The furniture actually requires "replacement cushions" - at the cost of hundreds of dollars. This is very unclear in the description. Ballard won't allow me to post my negative review on their website. (There are zero reviews of the furniture we purchased - the Maison collection.)"
"Ordered 5 items for my daughters apartment in December. Ordered was officially place 1/4/17. Seems easy right? Nothing has been easy. Every step of this order has been unprofessional, unreliable and late. Out of the 5 items, an end table was shipped separately by UPS.. I had no knowledge that this was being shipped and it arrived and was stolen. 2nd end table was shipped and waited all day to sign for it but did receive it. The others items were being shipped only to arrive 5 days past original date and not all 4 pieces were in the order. One of the pieces is now on back order until April. Really!! How could Ballards not know this in December when the original order was placed. A lot of my time has been spent on phone calls, emails and staying home just to receive shipments that should have all been shipped together in the first place. (By the way, a 3rd end table show up too.) Ballards, I'm not sure how you manage to completely screw up order after order after order but it seems that some reeducation on how to properly run a catalog business is needed. Just look to Lands End and LL Bean as a starting point. It can be done people, it really can!!!"
"Ordered a mirror and concerned about shipping, decided to upgrade to Ballard's in home delivery of $25.00 additional shipping. Where product would be unpacked and inspected. Delivery team contact me for delivery, I need to be home for delivery, delivery team arrive drop off package and want to leave. I explain they are suppose to open it and see if it is broken and unpack, they very politely explained and showed me the freight bill/instructions which don't say that. I call Ballard, the first of 3 reps (each escalating in rudeness and disdain) say I didn't get charged for it. I explained, that while I appreciate that I needed it done, so can I add it on, the Delivery team will take care of this if I can add it on while there. NO! that is not going to happen. I was told because I was upset and confused not to treat them in a way that upsets them. I was given to a rep that constantly mispronounced my name and used disparging remarks and told that "he was sorry I didn't know what I was doing when I ordered the item, but nothing he could do now" I was given to yet a different person, who told me that I should be happy I had such low shipping (Ballard had a promotion on shipping) and be grateful for that. It was never about the cost, I needed the help to unpack and insure that if damaged they could return it. All I wanted to do was spend an additional $25.00 for upgraded shipping. What I ended up with was 1) rude, obnoxious people that don't care if they have customers (guess they might when they start cutting people) 2) It is my fault that this occured 3) I closed my account, which they wouldn't even help me with, told me I had to contact the bank that handles their in house cards. I bet they don't think people will follow through, but I did. Closed my account with a 5 digit limit over $25.00 that I wanted to spend.. They are a trash company. Nice products, but the people aren't worth it. I feel like I cheated on Pottery Barn"
"I recently ordered a chair and X bench in matching fabric. When they arrived the fabrics were different dye lots and clearly different colors. When it was brought to their attention, the response was less than desirable, Nnd clearly not in my best interest. Never again will I do business with this company."
"I should had know when I first called to place an order what type of company this was. The item I had ordered was in there Catalog at one price but when I called to place the order the rep told me another price which was 100$ more than what was quoted in the catalog. He then proceeded to tell me that that price was a sale price for the spring (it was May when I purchased the item, just saying). So after much debate on my part and noting but an "I'm sorry mam" on his part I went ahead an ordered anyway, clearly I wasn't getting anywhere. A week later the shipping company calls me to schedule a delivery and what I learn from them is they just come and drop it in my door way without setting up or even taking it from the box, mind you at this point I've spend 1600$ with a 200$ delivery fee! I called to see what could be done given I am quite a small women and how on earth was I going to lift this item to its proper place in my home let alone put it together. After talking to the customer service rep for twenty minutes explaining to her that it was completely misleading and that I should has been told that the item would had just been left under a covered spot on my porch. She then transfered me to a manager who did nothing but say that if I paid another 100$ on top of the 200$ delivery fee already that they could take it out of the box but will not set it up as they are not insured for that. I was beside myself!! Oh and the repeated "I'm very sorry" but nothing else honestly he was quit rude. For a company who sells a large amount of large items one would think that they have proper shipping methods and insurance in place...I will never purchase from then again! "
"I have ordered from Ballard Designs a few times in the past and like the items in the magazine and went to make a significant purchase (over $600) but by the time I got online to do so (because of a reconstructive knee surgery) my coupon had expired 2 days prior. I called to see if there was anyway they could honor this since like I said I had quite a few things to purchase and customer service couldn't offer me anything. You would think this store would want my money and be willing to honor the code or a manager or someone could give me a new code or take my order over the phone and do something to help their customer. This was not the case and is very disappointing since there were a few things that I really liked, but I will shop else ware from now on unless I can get the 20% off. "
"I ordered a settee and two side chairs back in September and it's December 14th. I still don't have my order. When I placed the order I used a total of four $500 American Express gift cards over the phone as well as my debit card number for a small amount. In November I received an email saying my credit card was DECLINED! I had already received a confirmation email saying that my order was scheduled for delivery on December 7th so I called to see what the issue was. There was NO RECORD of me using the gift cards. I was mortified. I kept the used cards for a few weeks but I thought surely after over a month went by I was holding onto them for no reason and trashed them. So I had no way to tell them what the numbers were. After sending the confirmation email to the rep I had spoken to on the phone, I get this response...
Ballard: Dear Jennifer, Thank you for contacting Ballard Designs. I have received your email and have attached your confirmation to the order for review.
Me: Thanks Andrea, My bank is going to forward me Septembers statement and... you said you found one of the gift cards? Just one, not all of them?
Ballard: Hi Jennifer, The gift cards that I have is the one that you gave me on the phone yesterday ending in *7804 exp 12/22 and the one that we were able to locate on the order ends in *6098 exp 12/23.
Me: Can you tell me the status of my order? If you even found one of the cards you should have all of them. I called and gave them ALL over the phone at the same time.
Ballard: Jennifer, The Estimated Shipping Date has not changed on the 2 Hayward Side Chairs and the Hayward Settee, they are showing Dec. 7, 15. The order status email that you received was an email showing that we shipped the selected fabric to our Vendor to cover the items. I do apologize for any confusion this has caused.
I just got off the phone with them AGAIN. I got the same story as I got last week from a different rep. They can't tell me anything!! I am having family in town this week and we have nowhere to sit around my new dining room table. I will NEVER order from Ballard again. The girl I spoke to today said it will be two days before they can tell me where my furniture is. TWO DAYS.
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"I ordered an item for a Christmas gift and shipped it to another address due to it being for my wife. Item was shipped correctly, but then a thank you came to my billing address. My wife gets the mail as I am at work, so she knows what she is getting for Christmas now. "