I am in the middle of a nightmare with RH's customer service. Ordered the Lancaster couch in the supposed "stocked" color/fabric and two months later still no couch. shockingly poor customer service, unresponsive, clueless people on the phone with no information and they seem encouraged to lie & mislead about expected dates, etc. Four different people on 4 different calls said they would call back the next day with more info. They seem to have no insight into vendors/delivery times, and are very misleading about everything. Very, very frustrating. I was intending to buy matching pieces and other things from RH, but now won't and am strongly considering canceling the couch in a few days if i don't hear it is on its way.

meant to say "said they would call back and NEVER DID" in the post above.

I have to say I am very pleased to find this little beef session on RH. I worked for RH back when its founder was still at the helm. Store management was the, evidently omnipresent, twenty-thirty something clique then and I didn't last long, but the hardware was better and came with all those strange hole spacings you find on older pieces of furniture, the lighting and the furniture were made in America and the store sold a library of restoration products and books on everything from old house construction to how to grow a potager ... the store was very much about restoring and decorating older homes and educating consumers. The company was small, its business equipment antiquated, but it had a bright future, or so it seemed. Somewhere between then and my return the founder disappeared and a former CEO of W&S/PotteryBarn/C&B had become Resto's. I had returned as a part timer after being encouraged by an elder employee who didn't last the year as it turned out, few do. In five years I survived about 5 sets of twenty-thirty something gangstalking hens and roosters and their pecking cliques while in spite of my Ivy education and 6 figure student loan debt my part time wage never nudged over the $8.90 mark, the reviews I was given would have rated somewhere around a D no matter how poorly or well I performed, Very insulting and condescending to a former A student who in spite of it all worked very hard to put the idiots behind and the store mission forward and never once was voted title Real Hero. It occurred to me at one point that I was having to sign a good deal of intimidating legalese for an employee whose earnings were slightly above minimum wage. I even served an entire winter of all "on-call" shifts and no real ones while management scheduled themselves. The company is now gone private and our altered division now seeks to strip me further certain liberties I accepted as compensation for tolerating bad pay, ill treatment and NO future. More and more junk from China came rolling off the pallets, the American lighting manufacturer became history and certain pieces of furniture, even pieces the "American made" furniture ... made or assembled in the third world returning under the "Resto" label rendering manufactures invisible. The hardware has been size standardized, the restoration products all come in slick resto packaging, the library went missing and all those fabulous Iron urns and garden embellishments became things of the past. Outside of a slightly expanding pallet of colors and fabrics I sense that dumbing down the masses rather than educating them, became the objective. So much for the distinguishing marks of the enterprise. It had been rumored that they were threatening to take all of that Christmas junk away, but they came forward with more and more of it ... due to consumer complaints? Is there a holiday consumer out there who gets a basket shoved in the face upon entering lacking savvy to the expectation that it is to be filled up to the anticipated 3 to 500 dollar capacity, that secret shoppers are employed to ensure that baskets get shoved in faces to the tune of an obnoxious who, who and you? and that this is considered to be customer service? Devoid of the mission I think my 6 figure education had better move on to a place where it would be appreciated, if such a place exists in today's economy. If there is, I doubt it will be in retail. Antiquated cash registers remain the same as a decade ago though computer terminals have appeared in place of phoning an order to a real human being along with the advent of the nowhere zone called the SOC, uh which is not the catalog, has no location and no phone number, and accomplished little regarding too many numbers to identify one piece, depending on the source or having a sale by one source and not by another so that finding a price could be a thesis.

D. Lawless Hardware is another small operation from the midwest. Isn't it weird how little guys that nobody knows about can offer cheaper prices and better service than the big guys that offer neither? How'd they get there in the first place?

Don't order furniture from RestorationHardware.com if you actually want your furniture to arrive - or for customer service reps to tell you the truth. Over three months ago, we ordered two Lancaster sofas. In the meantime, though they say they won't charge your credit card until shipment, our card has been overcharged and we've made dozens of calls and website inquiries about getting credits and/or updated delivery dates. The reps seem to be trained to lie to customers that, a) the furniture "is on the truck will be delivered within a couple days," b) the credit will be posted "within a few business days" and c) I'll "follow up with you by phone tomorrow." Avoid this company unless you're a masochist.

I am 2 months into a horrible experience with RH.com. I ordered items online during the bath sale but when the backordered items shipped, I was charged the non-sale price, despite what my order confirmation had said. I called customer service and they said they would credit my card. 1 month and numerous calls later, I still haven't received the credit. In addition I return items on another order totally $1k and again, no credit processed. I am disputing with credit card now. I think the quality is good for the price, but I think the company lacks controls, has issues with inventory management/ordering systems and needs a major overhaul. For a different order I placed online the email confirmation came with the wrong prices and it took an hour on the phone with customer service to point out that the math on the email wasn't even correct. Looks like they were just bought out by some investment cap firms so maybe they'll switch things around. .

I have other outstanding orders with them that are scheduled for delivery this Saturday. My expectations are so low I'll be surpised if I even get all the items, let alone undamaged.

I advise anyone to not order items online until they get their act together, unless you're prepared to be overcharged, unable to get refunds, spend 6 hours on the phone with customer service, and get damaged items sent to you.

I probably should have searched out this thread BEFORE ordering lampshades online just moments ago. Whoops.

Fingers crossed that it all works out.

I order a Lancaster couch and chairs online 8 days ago. I'm enjoying the couch, beautiful and undamaged, as I write this comment.

Two days after I ordered online, I got a confirmation email (which didn't say much). Two days later, I got a call from the delivery company. Two (business) days later, they delivered. I'm 1 1/2 hours outside of NYC.

Maybe they got their acts together :)