Comments on: Should Pottery Barn Give Us a Refund?

By: jose

jose — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 18:05:27 +0000

ive always had good service at pottery barn last time i was in i saw a lady returning some sheets that had dog hair all over them the clerk was very polite and returned them i guess the person didnt even have them that long im sure the items cannot be resold im sure some of the high prices are because people have taken advantage of their good service there is a price to pay for that you probably wouldn’t dare to try the same thing at walmart or other places

By: Minority Fortune

Minority Fortune — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 22:44:28 +0000

We always, always, always advocate calling. Nothing’s guaranteed, but we’ve seen policies overlooked dozens of times for the sake of good customer service. It was definitely a good move to call them.

By: Mr. ToughMoneyLove

Mr. ToughMoneyLove — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 17:48:41 +0000

Let me see if I can summarize the “logic” of kathleen the Pottery Barn defender. (1) she buys an overpriced product from Pottery Barn. (2) she misuses and damages the overpriced product from Pottery Barn. (3) she convinces Pottery Barn to take back the product damaged by her misuse. (4) Pottery Barn continues to overprice its products so that it can continue to refund money to customers who abuse and then return their products. And this is why I should buy overpriced stuff from Pottery Barn?

By: Financial Samurai

Financial Samurai — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 00:48:10 +0000

So long as the product is not damaged, they should follow the Nordstrom’s model and deliver high customer service and take it back.

Otherwise, influential personal finance bloggers like yourself will bash them! :)

By: Lazy Man

Lazy Man — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 21:18:14 +0000

It’s two boxes because I purchased two of them. However, yes, they are quite, quite large. Even with the shipping charge the quality is up there with ones that we found for $200 each, so the $250 for the pair would have been well worth it. (Of course if you find better, let me know :-) ).

They didn’t refund the shipping, but left it kind of ambiguous ending the conversation with a “call me back when they pick it up and I’ll take care of you.” Either shipping refund is on the table or I’m about to get an indecent proposal from Jill in customer service ;-).

By: Debtress

Debtress — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 21:04:14 +0000

The part that gets me is the $100 delivery surcharge. I imagine that the box that it came in was probably quite large, but that definitely offsets the 80% discount being offered on the item.

Did PB refund all the shipping charges?

By: kosmo @ The Casual Observer

kosmo @ The Casual Observer — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 01:42:45 +0000

Speaking of your images … they also don’t appear (any of them) for me in IE6 (hey, work computer, I have no control). But if I go to the single post page (to make a comment) the images DO appear.

And then they become cached, and appear on the main page as well :)

I’m not sure if that’s something you can actually fix, but it might be fun to watch you chase your tail …

By: Four Pillars

Four Pillars — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 00:03:46 +0000

I really think you should get the refund based on the product info box alone. That’s where you go to get the nitty gritty data like sizes.

Sure, there were some clues in the other parts of the page but the product info was completely misleading.

Mike

By: bromoney

bromoney — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 22:10:50 +0000

I think you deserve one and glad to see you’re getting one. Most companies will give in if you are just the slightest bit persistent.

By: Lazy Man

Lazy Man — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 21:44:42 +0000

Nope, I’m not logged in and just tried it on Chrome and it worked.

By: QA

QA — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 21:17:38 +0000

Are you logged into WP when you try it? I’ve tried IE8 and FF. both produce the error.

By: Lazy Man

Lazy Man — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 21:05:20 +0000

Thanks for letting me know. Unfortunately, it works for me in Firefox, so I don’t why there’s a problem.

By: QA

QA — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 20:56:31 +0000

Error when trying to access the larger image

Forbidden

You don’t have permission to access /wp-content/uploads/2009/10/potteryBarnChaiseCushions.png on this server.

By: kathleen

kathleen — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 20:01:47 +0000

Pottery Barn delivers quality product that lasts way longer than anything you can get at Walmart or Lowes. With Pottery Barn (and other stores like Williams-Sonoma) you are paying for a product as well as a service. Pottery Barn and its affliates provide some of the best customer service in retail.

They will own up to mistakes and always refund a product. I know first hand they take back product ruined and mistreated by the customer and still refund or replace it. How many stores give you that kind of service?

By: Lazy Man

Lazy Man — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 19:47:37 +0000

Jessica, we thought that the double applied to the pattern (hence the “double stripe”). We had never heard or seen such a big chaise lounge (though I do notice and image of one there now).

By: Lazy Man

Lazy Man — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 19:44:51 +0000

I agree Pottery Barn is overpriced, but I don’t think that’s a reason why they should take back the stuff.

I think that at 80% off, Pottery Barn loses it’s “paid too much” tag for that item.

By: Jessica

Jessica — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 19:42:06 +0000

To be fair, it does say “Double” everywhere. I think the onus is on the customer to check things before ordering and not just look at the picture.

By: Mr. ToughMoneyLove

Mr. ToughMoneyLove — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 19:32:24 +0000

I think Pottery Barn should take everything back because even on sale, all of their stuff is overpriced. Just like Restoration Hardware, Pottery Barn is another way to spell “paid too much.”

By: Lazy Man

Lazy Man — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 18:24:45 +0000

I think my wife did call. However, this was before I saw the Product Info page specifically mentions a size that they didn’t deliver.

By: Amber Weinberg

Amber Weinberg — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 18:18:07 +0000

Have you tried calling and complaining? Most companies will refund the item, even if the site says it won’t, to keep the customer happy. Trick is to be nice, respectful, but very firm. Tell them you were mislead and point out where and why.