English Elm

I received a sideboard from this company and the color was not even close to the photo or description. On top of that, one of the doors wasn't all the way painted. When I contacted them English Elm said that I couldn't return it and blamed the coloring on lighting of when they took the photo. I know lighting differences and this was not a lighting issue - more like a bad paint job. When I mentioned the "defective" door where there is missing paint they said that it wasn't considered a defect! Are you kidding me? Worst company ever and doesn't deserve any business. They are just out to scam people.

Saw so many mixed reviews about this place online. Good reviews on google and other places, and really bad stories here. The lady answered all my questions before ordering so that was reassuring. I only purchased because Wayfair was out of stock on it. Ordering was easy and English Elm were actually pretty good about updating me on the order itself. It arrived a little late but with covid it's about right. I was about to not order my nightstands because of the reviews here but I think it's a lot of disgruntled customers with horror stories (probably legitimate ones). In my limited experience, the order and communication was fine. Those are my two cents.

I ordered a desk on August 10. I understand with COVID and the USPS stuff, there was likely to be a delay. Then August 20, I was informed that my shipment would be "pushed back slightly to the middle to the end of September." At that point I was able to just find something local, so on August 21, I asked to cancel my order. I was then informed that English Elm would "try" but it might not happen. I then conveniently get an email on Aug 25 that my order has been shipped. That means that my refund will be short about $60 as the return is deducted from my purchase price, even though I requested cancellation up to 3 weeks from when I was told I would receive it. Do not buy from them. As others have said, they never answer the phone and their staff is incompetent.

I ordered a comforter set that seems to be very popular. I found that it was in stock here. So I ordered it on Sept 5th. Sept 7th I get an email stating the item is no longer in stock and will arrive to manufacturers warehouse on or around Sept 14th and will receive shipping details then. Sept 20th rolls around and I contact English Elm on status of my order. Sept 21st I am told my order will ship "VERY SOON". A few days pass by and I reply back as to what their idea of "VERY SOON" is. She replies back 'within the next week or two'. Mind you, it is now Sept 25th and my order was supposed to be shipped around the 14th. I asked for a managers phone number, and an explanation as to why it is taking an additional 2 weeks. I did not receive a phone number I can call and was told English Elm do not have control over the manufacturers timeframe. Even so, if they were off by even a week an email should have gone out advising this to me. I believe they did not place my order on reserve and gave it to another customer. Why else would the CSR Doreen tell me it is due to ship TO ME VERY SOON, yet in another email she states it will arrive at the warehouse in 1-2 weeks, then shipped TO ME from there. That's 3-4 weeks AFTER the initial shipping timeframe. Now, I'm reading these reviews about the quality and service of all the expensive orders and I think I might just cancel mine. These email responses just go to show how screwed up my order is, either that or this CSR does not know what she's doing.

UPDATE:
I responded and also noted I wanted to keep my order AND DOREEN CANCELLED IT ANYWAY! BBB here I come

Placed an order but cancelled it via email prior to shipping (no one answers or calls back on the customer service phone). No one got back to me for 3 days so I sent a follow up making sure English Elm cancelled it. Got 2 responses in 12 hours that they would go ahead, make sure it didn't ship and then cancel and get back to me and confirm. They shipped it 8 hours later (4 days after cancellation request) then said sorry it's too late. They are refusing to have it rerouted back to their warehouse which UPS only allows shipper to do. Saying if I deny the package, they will charge me $140 for RT shipping on a $220 item. Has taken them more than 24-48 hours to respond to emails so we could work this out. No email signatures. Not sure if real humans work there as they do not provide human to human interaction with customer service.

Be aware before you order from English Elm that you will not be refunded or treated well should you need to return a product. And it's VERY expensive to ship to California. I ordered a file cabinet that was delivered with right/left side panels that were the same so it was impossible to assemble it. It cost $107 to ship back to California and I'm being treated very poorly as I inquire if I'll be reimbursed. Unprofessional, accusatory responses to my email inquiries and no process to elevate concerns. I'm not even sure if I'll receive credit for my return, let alone the shipping I incurred to return it. BUYER BEWARE

We spent about a month getting our order right and finally paid the bill mid-January. English Elm predicted the furniture would be delivered in March. When we had no delivery date mid-March, they said the furniture was backordered to July (which is a lie because the furniture was supposed to be made from scratch). It is now May 10th and we just found out this week that English Elm is no longer carrying the company that makes the furniture we bought. I agree with their reasons for no longer using the vendor, but 4 months of holding onto our money just to say that makes this sound like A SCAM.

Do not order from this Chicago based company. English Elm will ask for a review when you place your order. Most all their reviews are from people who just placed their order. The problems begin once you order. Company is impossible to reach by telephone, and emails are not helpful. I was told that my items were in stock, and would be shipped in 7 business days. Later told that item is in the where house, but not enough trailers to ship? No tracking # provided. Did not ship within promised period. When told I wanted to cancel, English Elm claimed item is considered shipped, even though it hasn't. Very concerned with business practices, and many poor reviews about broken merchandise RCD, lon waits for orders, etc. Let the buyer be ware! I would never order from English Elm again!

I am disgusted and appalled at the lack of customer service I received. I ordered a table and it came to my house defective and damaged. I couldn't get through to them by phone so I emailed them and English Elm wanted proof that my item was damaged so I sent them a video. They offered me a discount to keep this damaged item, ARE YOU KIDDING! I have never heard of a company asking a customer to keep a damaged piece of furniture. They told me that I had to pay to ship the item back, so not only did I just pay for a defective piece of furniture but now I have to pay to ship it back to them, STAY AWAY, DON'T ORDER Anything, this is the worst company ever and they should be shut down!

Placed an order for a Safavieh crank umbrella for our patio table. Was really looking forward to eating outside with shade, and of course like the other reviews said it was not available. English Elm did notify me right away and I cancelled the order. Everyone one else was out of stock as well and I asked for a discount if I could order through them and they gave a 10% discount, which I was happy about and placed the order. Fast forward almost 7 weeks later and the umbrella arrived. To be fair, they did tell me it was going to be 7 to 8 weeks because everyone and their brother is ordering umbrellas because of this lockdown. I'm not thrilled that I got the umbrella when it's almost fall, but that's not really their fault as they did tell me it was delayed. Overall it was a pretty straightforward transaction.

I had a very good experience with English Elm. I purchased two counter stools and a counter height table by Safavieh and everything was fine. Sure, delivery was not like Amazon Prime, I did have to wait four days but the items were rather large and it was expected. I came to the ReviewFeeder and saw the poor ratings and ran right away, but English Elm offered a discount and so I gave it a chance thinking I could get a refund if things went south. Not only did things not go south the experience was BETTER than most other places I've shopped.

I ordered from this company, and a month later English Elm contacted me and stated that the item was on backorder and I was guaranteed a bed in the next shipment a month and a half later. I waited a month and a half, not only did I not receive the item they canceled the order and said it was due to insufficient stock. So they had my money tied up for over 2 months. I still haven't received my refund of almost $600. I'm telling you right now, do not use this company they are shady and horrible to try to speak with. No one answers the phone. They in my opinion suck. Stay far away. Run as fast as you can!

To all potential customers that are thinking about purchasing from English Elm... Don't. English Elm advertise HASSLE FREE returns, when in reality they should say "Non-A$$hole Free Returns". My current best friend and boss is now stressed out because she needed to return a rug and some dude named, Andrew (don't think he is real) threatened to sue her, over a rug. She asked multiple times for both a shipping label and where to return it, "Andrew" did not email back until after the "deadline" and now is sending her to "local authorities" for what reason? Yeah, a rug... rugs are lame anyway. DO NOT BUY from English Elm.

My order number was *******6284 so you know this is a real review. I ordered a sectional that ended up being to small for the room. Granted that was my fault for not properly measuring but when I asked to by an additional center section for the couch English Elm replied saying they didn't sell them. When I wrote back asking how they handled replacing pieces of the couch that were damaged during shipping they literally stopped communicating. How hard is it to sell me an additional section of a section when they have the ability too? Now I'm stuck with a couch that looks like a joke in my living room because it's so small. Never spending money with this company again if they refuse to help and I'm in the process of building 15 new Airbnb 4-5 bedroom houses that I will be furnishing…

This company advertises that items are "in stock" and then after you order them, English Elm send you an email that the item is a custom/made to order item and that production is pushed back a couple of weeks. They ask if this timeframe works for you, then a 50% non-refundable deposit will be used to start production. If you cancel any time after production has started, only 50% of your funds will be refunded.

The problem is that they keep sending you an email that the item is pushed back every 30-60 days. You never receive it OR your money.

Like I said, RUN!

I wish I had read reviews about English Elm before I bought from them. I was looking for an ottoman which was back ordered everywhere else, but English Elm's site didn't say anything about it being back ordered or out of stock, so I went ahead and bought it. I got a confirmation email but didn't hear anything else for 3 days. After 3 days I received an email saying that English Elm don't actually have it in stock and won't be receiving any stock until August and they wanted to put me on a wait list. Umm, no, I'm not waiting 5 months for something you told me you had now. I tried calling but never got through to anyone and they didn't call me back. I sent an email and cancelled my order and got my money back in a few days, so that's good I guess? So if you're looking for a company that will take your money for an item they don't actually have, ask you to wait an extra 5 months for it, not respond to your calls, but return your money in a somewhat timely manner, then English Elm is perfect for you!

Getting a desk right now is next to impossible with everyone working from home. English Elm had the perfect desk for my room, but the reviews here were pretty bad so I was hesitant. I spoke with "Doreen" and "Candice" prior to buying the item. Sure enough, it was out of stock, but you could still checkout, which was concerning. Doreen emailed back within the hour letting me know it is out of stock, but coming in a few days and was able to reserve it. Keep in mind this desk is out of stock everywhere, so I was thinking this is shady. I purchased and it came 5 days later. Felt I should give them some props for coming through. Maybe my bar was very low, but a lot of other places didn't even respond to my email asking if it was available.

I ordered 20 barstools for my restaurant and waited 3 months for delivery. English Elm finally arrived and they came in two pieces, a seat and a base. As I unboxed each one, it became clear they were all defective. The wooden pieces on the barstool seat were over 1" off from the metal base where they were to connect via screw. There was no way to assemble even 1 stool.
I contacted English Elm within an hour with a photo and they said they did not see how the stools were defective. I documented each stool base to seat in a photo, which shows that they don't line up and cannot be assembled. English Elm says that that manufacturer does not see how they are defective and will not acknowledge my claim. I have attached a photo here of #20/20 stools, all with the same problem.

I will do more research in the future and only order from reputable companies. I hope consumers see this review in time and think twice about doing business with this duplicitous and unscrupulous company.

I bought three chairs on May 8th and didn't ship them until May 12th. I sent them a message to ask when English Elm would ship the goods. It has my information on it. They don't query, they just say, "I don't understand what I'm talking about." normally, they can see the order by email. I'm really angry. Then they told me that the goods could only be ship out on May 28th. However, there is no email or reminder to inform the customer that the goods will be ship out on May 28th. The service attitude is very bad. When i ask refund and cancel order, they did not answer ~~~~
They are so unprofessional and bad at service, I don't know where good reviews come from. A lot of people make fake comments. We need good service to buy things. I've never seen such bad service in America
TERRIBLE!

I placed an order that was expected to arrive in a few days, but when I placed the order I received no indication of when it would be received. I reached out and English Elm informed me my order was actually backordered for weeks and if I wanted to cancel I had to reach out 7 days before it was going to be shipped (which according to them, was weeks away). I went ahead and cancelled the order and purchased something from somewhere else in it's place. 5 days later, the item from English arrived to my apartment and they are saying too bad there is nothing they can do. There was no apology, no attempt to make it right, and now I am stuck with a $200+ console table that is difficult to build and I have no where to put it. TERRIBLE 0/10 would recommend