"Placed an order for a saucepan that was to be delivered as a gift within a week. Credit card was charged immediately. Have called two times to find out when it will be delivered. It is still being "processed". Was told it was expedited and would be delivered overnight. Still is being "processed" and they can't tell me when it will be delivered and also are unable to speak to anyone in charge."

"I have never ordered from Williams-Sonoma on line, but was under the impression that it was a quality company, both with merchandise and service. Therefore, I placed an order for 2 items to be sent as gifts to the same address. Immediately upon placing the order I realized my error in having the merchandise sent to me rather than to the gift recipient, since the site defaulted to the billing address.
Right away I placed a call to customer service. This department is obviously outsourced and not directly associated with Williams-Sonoma, since I was told that they were unable to change the shipping address and could only "email" a request for the change. There was no guarantee that the change would be made, but if it was, I should receive confirmation within a day. Since this process seemed less than adequate, I took it upon myself to respond to my order confirmation email and made another request to change the address.
2 days later I called customer service and they confirmed that the change still had not been made, but nothing had shipped yet. The outsourced department put in a second email request.
4 days later I received 2 emails stating that my gifts were on their way...to me!!!! (This is confirmed by the UPS tracking.) Since they are perishable food items, it appears that my family will be eating the gifts instead of my parents. It is extremely disappointing to find that with the current state of technology Williams-Sonoma does not have the capability to respond to an immediate request. Admittedly it was my error, but "customer service" that cannot access and service the order is not true customer service."

"I placed an order for a wedding gift on 9/3. It was on backorder until 9/17 which was fine. Today I get an email that says that it is being shipped (10/16). So it will be days before the newly weds receive it. I have never received another email in the mean time to tell me that the order was going to be later than 9/17; otherwise I would have ordered something else.

I WILL NEVER order from WS again. This was a wedding gift. Not only does this make me look bad since it is arriving long after the wedding instead of before but it really upsets me that I wasn't notified and given the opportunity to either order from someone else or order something else.

"

"I typically do not order from WM on line but I have on several occasions. If you order the food which comes from an outside vendor, things work very well. I have ordered chocolate truffles and the croissants which were both on time, well packaged and delicious. Anything else, has been a problem. I ordered a tea kettle on line a couple of years ago and I received one that had obviously been used and returned to the company because it was rusty inside. Really? This year on July 8, I ordered the WM sonoma outdoor pillow with one letter. The delivery date was estimated to be 3-5 days. It was in stock when I ordered it. Very soon thereafter, I was sent an email telling me it was backordered until July 23. I missed that email and so I called on July 17th to find out where my order was and the customer rep told me it was to be delivered on July 18th. By the 24th, I still had not received it so I called again. The customer rep Ron informed me that it looked like it was backordered until October 10. I had not been informed! When I asked to speak to a manager, I was told that the managers were all in a staff meeting and that they had just received 80 new employees. I have been a national customer service exec and when a customer calls and asks for a manager, they should be able to reach one. I asked him to have a manager call me and have yet to hear from anyone. Terrible service, terrible communication. I have lost all confidence in WM online. "

"Ordered a creme Brule torch for $49.99.. got it in the mail and a price sticker on the box said $39.99.. going to try and take it to the store and see why I paid more than the price sticker. It is a very high quality product though "

"So expensive and not worth it—I bought a dining set from here and a few days later decided to change my mind. Unfortunately, because it had already been opened, they couldn't return the item."

"Very slow to ship! I ordered from 12 stores on 12/5 (Wednesday) and 11 of them managed to ship the order by 12/7 (Friday). Williams Sonoma is the only one who won't ship until 12/10 (Monday). The other vendors ranged from Amazon.com to very small single-store merchants owned by a single person. I'm very disappointed in their ability to get my order out within the week. I guess you have to order on a Tuesday to make sure it gets shipped by Friday. "

"ABSOLUTELY horrible! Took 30 minutes for the regional manager who offered to help me to giftwrap some dishtowels. Then she was rude and snippy when I asked about the wait. You have got to be kidding me. I spent over $40 on freaking dish towels (because of a bridal registry, not because I'm crazy) then was treated poorly and left waiting with no explination. The typical staff was polite, but did nothing to speed up the process. I will NOT be returning."

"Beware of back ordered items. I placed my order on 12/8, and both items I ordered were on back order. The date they give you is the date they expect to receive it in their warehouse, not the date you will receive it, yet their website is not very clear on this. I have received one back ordered item, but they have now pushed out the date on the second item, and didn't notify me of this change until after the back order date on the website had passed. They are refusing to offer any additional discounts or an upgraded shipping method and are just blaming the supplier."

"I recognize in the comments about this being a less than welcoming place the Indianapolis Store I have visited. It's sort of ironic, actually. I mean they sell Nespresso machines, but it's not exactly the Nespresso boutique, Place des Florentins, Geneve. And, frankly, the staff aren't exactly culinary experts nor particularly well trained in the equipment they sell. The woman who sold me the Lattissima, for example, was eager to help, actually (I guess she assumed I had the money to purchase something), didn't really know very much about coffee, coffee brewing or even the machines in her store. She wrongly, for example, said that some Nespresso machines brew at 15 bars pressure. Not true. When I opened the box with my new machine I discovered it to be a used piece of equipment, with noticeable traces of milk -- and the distinct aroma of soured milk. So on what basis do Williams-Sonoma employees dare to treat anyone in their store as somehow undeserving of their best treatment? Frankly, I've found Target staff more impressive than the W-S staff I've encountered. "

"I am TOTALLY DISGUSTED by this over-priced, 'snooty' store that obviously catering to the rich (who also have no sense of value!). I was treated as a 2nd class citizen in the Bloor Street (Toronto) store yesterday. I guess I didn't spend enough; only $70 (on one item; using a gift card). This item, which sells for $39.50 in the US, was priced at $62 CDN. Meanwhile, our dollar is exhanging at about $0.95. Where do they come up with this arbitratry price? That's some serious markup and further profit for this store! The item is certainly not worth $62, but believe it or not, I couldn't find a lot that was less than $50 in this store! It's crazy! I'll be sure to tell my family and friends to never give me W-S gift cards. I'd rather shop somewhere where you get true value for your dollar. "

"the worst customer service ever from both Pottery Barn and William Sonoma. I even went up the chain of command in San Francisco, and nothing was ever done. All furniture items are delivered damaged and they pass the blame onto the delivery company. I am now on my third delivery for certain items and waiting another 3 weeks. Of course they cannot tell me exactly when. "