apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

If it's gone, no loss.

Hmmm ... they're asking you to send in your gift cards to get cash. That doesn't sound good.

I like some of their stuff, but they're just too damn pricey ... especially the delivery.

THE PROBLEM WITH BROCADE IS THAT IT CATERED TO A TREND..... THAT TREND ISNT PROJECTED TO LAST FOREVER!

GET OUT WHILE THEIR STILL AHEAD

They went offline literally the day before I was going to order a desk from them... Sigh.

Please do not leave brocade...I love everything!!!!!!

I liked the look of their products, but had a bad experience ordering from them - I ordered 2 sale items online, then got a message about 4 days later saying that they had run out of stock between the time I made my order and its fulfillment. If they're going out of business, I'm not surprised.

Does anyone know of similar sites that are actually still selling furniture?

I think they had great stuff at a great price and was definitely planning to buy something. But I have to move first, because I don't need anything right now. I don't think they were very well known, however. And I had a hard time remembering their name.

I think Brocade home had an aesthetic that was unique in the marketplace, but they charged too much money for middle-of-the-road furniture construction. Their customer service left something to be desired, too. I bought a headboard and frame from there over a year ago, and actually just sold it on craigslist for 1/4 what I paid for it. If Brocade had lowered the price point or raised the quality, things might be different.

I was very close to buying chairs from them, but I just couldn't get past the fact that even at 40% cheaper, they were still too expensive. The recent sale which was about 70% off (with 40% of the earlier 50% off), was amazing.

This is disappointing! I really like brocade and was hoping to order some shelves from them when they went on sale.

The furniture business is a tough balancing act - you really have to have a very clear, unique aesthetic, and one that enough customers connect with - not to mention all the business-related headaches that go into making a profitable company.

i thought they were going out when i saw just about everything marked down to 70% off with no new items ever arriving. i think they were a bit expensive for what they sold.

"...you really have to have a very clear, unique aesthetic, and one that enough customers connect with..."

And that's the point - their asthetic never connected with anyone but the teenage-girl crowd who didn't have the money to pay for the stuff.

West Elm started in a similar manner, but they adjusted their asthetic to fit a profitable target audience - and look where they are now: More profitable than their older corporate cousin, Pottery Barn.

I think their catalogs didn't offer enough diversity in photography to be compelling. Their pricepoints were too high. The look was (as someone said earlier) catering to a specific trend. Of all the home catalogs I get every month, it was the first one to get tossed out after a quick flip through. Nothing ever seemed different or quality enough.

i liked parts of their aesthetic. that dark victorian bed was awesome. if i had a bigger place, that is the one i would have bought instead of the cabriolet-legged platform.

Meh. They're just not that good. I won't miss it.

I'm surprised they lasted as long as they did, frankly, for all the reasons others have already mentioned.

I did love their tufted sectional sofa in linen, though. I kept checking to see if it would go on sale over the past few weeks. It didn't.

High priced!
Caters to a small group of people! Young female who lives in la la land! Wrose an older female who---you fill in the blanks!
Some really tacky stuff for sell !
Never even knew about it until about a month ago!
Trying to look classic and old world, but comes off like cheap and trendy!
Stop me now, I could go on for ever :-)))

I'm extremely worried about what is possibly going on with Brocade Home. I made an order 7/25 concerning bedding and pillows and I have yet to still receive my whole entire order. I have called several times to their customer service line and emailed once concerning my order. I first called because items were listing out of stock even though it was in stock when I made the order. I needed to adjust my order because many of the items were coordinating so if they didn't have a duvet cover, I didn't want to get the pillows. I had problems with this simple request until I talked to a supervisor to cancel certain items on my order. Then when our first 3 pillows finally shipped, we were charged the full amount instead of the additional 50% off sale price. When I called to get the price adjusted, I was told that we would get invoice would show full price and charge full price until we got to the actual correct price. So our order is originally $800, they would charge full price and stop at $400 at the 50% half off price. I thought it was a bit strange but because they are connected to Restoration Home I was convinced. But only after the supervisor promised she would explain their billing process via email so I have something in writing. This was 2 weeks ago and before the website was down.

With the current FAQ's on their new website concerning brocade home gift certificates, consumerist.com's entry on Restoration Home outsourcing their furniture line to China, I'm extremely worried. After talking to friends, they suggested they might even be preparing to file bankruptcy. Has anyone else had this problem? I've been reading about other complaints on orders and found out on June 18, 2008 Restoration Hardware was de-listed from the NASDAQ and ceased to be a publicly traded company. Although I'm dying to have our items, I'm calling my credit card company and cancel my order. I'd like to know if anyone else is having problems too?

UPDATE: I called this morning and they are not allowing any cancellations on any orders claiming all sales are final (even though the website said all items will be shipped out within 14 days). I called our credit card company to alert them of the store possibly closing and claiming bankruptcy and getting our charges fixed on the items that were sent out. I am disappointed and extremely irritated to say the least. Our credit card company will be denying all future charges and after we submit paperwork, will be following up with an investigation.

I never heard of them.

A few months ago, however, I called the Restoration Hardware store in Boston's Back Bay to check on their hours and went down there the next day and they had closed. So I wouldn't be surprised if they were shutting down subsidiaries. There is another RH in another part of Boston but it's a part I never go to.

1) There is a huge contraction going on in the home furnishings industry. If people can't make their house payments and can't sell their homes, you can bet they aren't out shopping for sofas and lamps.

2) Brocade's appeal was built on what will ultimately be seen as a short-lived interiors trend.

They weren't my style so I couldn't be bothered. Interesting that they're clearly not closing or admitting that they're closing. I think they're being restructured, redesigned, re-something. I bet the selection will change drastically and the styles will broader.

Someone hinted at this topic earlier, but Brocade is part of RH...and what do you think of Restoration Hardware itself these days?

It USED to be one of my favorite stores many years ago b/c of all the fun whimsical stuff i could find there. Great for gifts...and also really great hardware and lighting. These days their stores and their website are THE UTMOST in boring...and really high prices to boot. The boring factor is what really gets me though....they make Pottery Barn look like couture fashion. Their window treatments remind me of the Sears catalog years ago.

Oh yeah, and fyi...RH is having a huge sale right now too. Makes me wonder about more than just Brocade...

Well, I'm one of those lucky customers with outstanding orders. I've been talking to them every few days about my orders and there hasn't been any mention of closing, just that they're moving a warehouse to Ohio, but from the looks of it, it seems they're just closing down.

I wonder if I'll ever get my bed. :(

I used to work for RH part time before I had kids, and that place is the most mismanaged retail company that I could possibly imagine. Terribly inefficient and really bad customer service. The sad part is that even when workers in the stores are trying, their infrastructure makes it impossible for you to do your job well. Contrast that to Crate & Barrel where I worked full time right out of college, that place is run like a dream. All of the corporate people at that time were required to start at the store level and it showed. They knew what they were doing.

I've been assuming RH would go out of business for years. Too bad they moved away from their original focus. They were so unique and fun when they started. Now, so stodgy.

Oh, and on the topic, I am even less surprised about Brocade Home. Way too specialized. If you don't like that one look, well you're out of luck.

For those of you who hate Brocade Home's aesthetic, this will fall on deaf ears. I've ordered many things from them, mostly as gifts for my daughter and sisters, who are far from being teenagers. I've had nothing but excellent customer service, so I guess I've been lucky. And I've been pleasantly surprised by the quality of the items my family has received--my daughter has the velvet tufted chair above, and it is beautiful. As you can see from the bedroom photo on this website, a single BH piece can make a room.

My daughter is a designer; she is the person who referred me to the website originally over a year ago. She ordered pieces from them for her clients, usually as accent pieces, or one single dramatic piece to work around (like their laser cut queen bedframe). The reason her designs worked using BH is because she didn't "blanket" the room or home with BH pieces--she simply used them within the context of an overall design plan.

I couldn't see having an entire room decorated in BH, but I do love their pieces. Their catalogs just didn't do justice to the pieces themselves, esp. the large velvet ottoman which my little sister has as a centerpiece in her living room. It's really amazing. I'm just annoyed with myself because I didn't buy much for myself :-//. Too bad they're going out of business now.

I placed a furniture order with BH on July 22. I don't know if I should start looking elsewhere or if I'll get my piece!

The cache of brocadehome.com's shipping policy before they disappeared is here.

Quoting the site:

most purchases, except those requiring in-home delivery (HD) and (WG), are shipped to arrive in your home between 3 - 7 business days of order receipt. in the event of a delay, we will notify you by mail. items ordered together may not arrive in the same box. we regret that we are unable to ship outside the contiguous 48 states or to foreign countries at this time.

If you've got any sort of consumer protection organization in your state and have an order in with Brocade that they're not letting you know about, you should give Restoration Hardware corporate a call. "Please wait several weeks" isn't acceptable regardless of the magnitude of the corporate clusterfuck behind the scenes.

I called BH today about the (super-cheap!) duvet cover that I ordered on 8/4/08 because I hadn't gotten shipping or delay confirmation. The rep told me that they are far behind on orders due to the glut of orders and warehouse issues (?), and are currently shipping items from June. No one is getting delay notification, and she was unclear why. Apparently, all orders should be shipped by the end of August.

I'm not holding my breath, though!

@Renee

That's messed up; if they're breaking their advertised policy of shipping w/in 5-7 days (and informing you of shipping plans within 48 hrs), you should file a complaint with your state's consumer protection agency and call Restoration Hardware's corporate office if the Brocade customer service won't give you any answers. It's blatantly against the agreement you made with BrocadeHome when you purchased your furniture to sit on your credit card information for over a month while they decide to ship or not.

FYI, they aren't "far behind due to the glut of orders" ... that's plain BS. They cut their prices 50% overnight to make sure they could find buyers for all of their inventory and then shut down their website; now they're sitting on credit card information while they crunch the numbers to figure out if its less of a loss to charge and ship your order or to cancel it and claim losses on the unsold merchandise. It'll be disgusting if ApartmentTherapy ever approvingly cites Restoration Hardware again after they fucked people over like this.

@AlchemyToday

Thank you for your post! I'm pretty pissed off about placing an order with Brocade. I've been periodically checking and researching the web for some info. I'm wondering if some of the commenters are promise that "Brocade isn't closing" are just part of RH and BH press damage control. We tried to cancel our order but they refused stating all sales are final even after I replied that their website promised shipment within a certain timeframe. I'm most agitated about their billing procedures...what reputable company does that and why is it so darn fishy?

Although there wasn't much info about BH, I wish I did research on Restoration Hardware customer service. Boy, was the list long! I just went by appearances since it was such a high end store. That doesn't mean squat. I also hope ApartmentTherapy doesn't approve them. I'll be happy to show all my invoices and receipts to prove how shady they are.

All my designer friends were raving about Brocade as the best home furnishings vendor. I checked out the website and loved it so much that I put so many items on my registry. But now my guests can't place any orders and they and I are getting really mad at Brocade. Let us order right away and we'll forgive you!
Your loyal soon-to-be customers.

Brocade is the best!
Julia

@alchemytoday

I completely agree, and am pretty annoyed! I'd be more pissed, but it's not like this was a major purchase--still, I plan to file with consumer protection in the next few days. Restoration Hardware is on my list of strongly disliked companies at this point....

Well, Brocade is now not answering their phone or taking messages - it says the mailbox is full. I bet it is! At least they've never charged my card.

I'm pretty thrilled to read these comments. As an employee of RH for the past three years (I finally quit a week ago), I have been amazed at the crap customers have been willing to accept from this company.

The moment I knew it was time for me to get the hell out was the Brocade Home sale. I got the email alert about the amazing prices and I was thrilled. I was ready to make my purchase when I started to think about what I was doing. The website looked suspicious. And I've handled enough customer issues to know that there's no way the company has enough product on hand to handle the kind of demand that's going to come in. And it's ordering system will only update quantities every few hours so it won't have accurate inventory levels. Chances are, I'm going to buy something that's already sold out. And the company won't communicate that information to me because they suck at stuff like that. So I'll be sitting around a month after I place the order, wondering what the hell is going on and no one will talk to me because, judging by the shady website, the company will have shut down. And they'll probably have taken my money as well.

I knew that the company I worked for would rip me off and that I couldn't trust them enough to make a purchase from them.

the first and last time i ordered from BH was during the super clearance sale. i ordered a table, cube, chairs, and some other accessories. i like some items. found it overpriced for the most part, but the sale was pretty amazing. and so far the quality of the items i've rec'd are really good for the price.

the table came right away but everything else has been slowly trickling in. i am not on a strict schedule, so don't mind the delay but there are two things that really annoy me.
1) they don't always notify you when they ship.
2) they overcharged me for the table saying at the end of the day the amount charged for the total order will reflect the invoice amount. since it took them about a month to start shipping the rest of the order, i'd say they are totally overstating their accounts receivables.

In a marketplace overcrowded by knockoffs of midcentury modern austerity, their retro-modern theme was unique. I loved the aesthetic but was turned off by what seemed like overpriced Ikea quality. They should have priced their wares more affordably, for the younger, hipper West Elm/CB2/Tarjay customer. I would have bought a lot of stuff from them for my apartment had their prices been more reasonable. I am not surprised they are going under because they priced out their main demographic.