Ballard Designs Reviews

My online shopping experience was a disaster, twice. Watch out for their shipping costs. I was charged $400 to ship two lamps and a piece of art, which was more expensive than one of the lamps itself. When you order, they quote a delivery date, but you don't get it, so you have to follow up. Only then do they admit it's on backorder for up to four weeks on top of the initial ten to fourteen day wait. The system is terrible and incredibly deceptive. I ended up canceling because the timing wouldn't work with a trip, and they'd only hold the order for 30 days anyway. This same situation happened twice. Their merchandise is nice if you can get it and have unlimited patience to keep checking in. I won't order online from them again. Unless I can buy something in their physical store and walk out with it the same day, I'm done shopping there. It's too much hassle and the shipping fees are outrageous for items that take three to four weeks anyway, longer if they're backordered. Waste of time and money.

Looking at their overall rating of 1.6, I'm not surprised after my experience. I've been a long-time customer and I'm shocked at how things have changed. The company clearly has systematic and operational problems. I ordered a rug at their West Palm Beach location. The salesperson told me I could track it online, but I never got an email with a tracking number. After weeks with no word, I called and got a number, learning the ship date was late February even though I'd visited in January. When I checked online near the end of February, it just said in process. I called again. First, their automated system said I didn't match my phone number even though it's correct in their database. When I spoke to someone, they said my order was canceled because of a credit card issue.

We were billed $2,650 for merchandise that never showed up, and nobody at this company could figure out where it went after the scheduled delivery fell through. For six weeks I asked them to simply cancel the order and refund the full amount, but my requests went ignored. Every time I called, I got a different person who didn't know anything about my situation, couldn't make any decisions, and either put me on endless hold or transferred me elsewhere. I got completely different stories depending on whether I was emailing or calling. When they misrepresented things to our bank, we got worried they'd charge our card again unexpectedly like they're known to do. We ended up canceling a credit card we'd had for 28 years because of this.

I ordered a vanity stool last June and it showed up broken in October. They dropped the ball on reordering, so now it's February and they finally sent a replacement, except they ordered it without fabric so it's completely wrong. Now they're saying it's a custom item so they have to contact the manufacturer before they can cancel it and process my refund. The real kicker? They sent me the wrong stool to begin with.

This place is a complete disaster. We ordered our sofa in late July and it still hasn't arrived. The first one was supposedly on its way in mid-September but vanished, so we placed a new order. Since it wasn't expedited, they said mid-December. We got a call today saying that one went missing too, and they've already started a third order without even asking us. They've had our money since that first shipment failed in September.

I purchased three bookcases totaling about $6100. The first shipment arrived damaged, so they took it back and promised a replacement. When that one came damaged too, I asked for a refund. They said I'd get one, but a month later I still have no furniture and no money back. Now they won't even take my calls.

I'm furnishing a new home and their website looked promising with lots of beautiful options. Unfortunately, I've never experienced a more buggy, poorly designed, and badly maintained website. The frustration is beyond description. I tried purchasing $5000 in furniture but couldn't complete the transaction due to constant glitches that caused the site to freeze. I called for help and waited an hour on hold, only to get disconnected. After spending over two hours just trying to buy two furniture pieces, I gave up. A company with this much potential is astonishingly poorly managed. There are other details I won't mention, but my strong recommendation is to shop elsewhere and save yourself the aggravation. Find furniture somewhere with actual competent leadership. I can't even fathom how bad returning something would be. Their incompetence has beaten me down, so I'll get my furniture elsewhere, probably cheaper too.

I ordered a nice cocktail table and they first lost my order, then suddenly found it. A freight company delivered it in a sealed box that weighed over 80 pounds and just left it on my porch. When I finally got it open, I was horrified to find it was a used table from someone else's return, not a new one. The surface is filthy with dark stains and it looks like trash. I've sent them detailed photos and tried contacting them over five times, but they ignore me. I paid $1800 for something new and got someone else's garbage instead.

I'd give them zero stars if I could. The ordering process and customer service are absolutely terrible, hands down the worst I've ever dealt with.

The delivery service said they could only deliver my bed on Wednesdays, which might work except it was going to my beach house two hours away in the middle of the work week. To make it worse, the first attempt only brought half the bed. The second time they brought the other half but didn't bring the first part with them. I needed three separate deliveries just to get everything. When I put it together, I discovered a big chunk missing from one side panel. Despite emailing and calling multiple times, I haven't gotten helpful support. I can't suggest this company to others.