The Container Store Reviews

Absolutely dreadful customer service. Don't waste your time. You'll just sit around waiting endlessly. Had someone come out to do a closet design consultation and they told me the estimate would come back in a couple of days so we could meet right after and lock in the sale with their current promotion. Nothing came back for over three weeks. I've sent multiple emails and texts and still nothing.

Elfa used to be considered the best shelving out there, something that would last forever. The Container Store has basically destroyed that reputation. They stopped making the original Elfa top track and introduced a 'new' version that doesn't work with anything customers bought over the past several decades. What this means is all that money people invested, sometimes thousands and thousands, is now worthless overnight. This isn't an improvement. It's a ripoff. The replacement track is thinner, weaker, and lighter. It's technically worse but they're marketing it as better, on purpose forcing people to start over with new systems. They didn't make Elfa better, they broke it intentionally knowing customers would have to buy new stuff or just give up. That's not smart business, that's betrayal by the manufacturer. The Container Store decided making more money was more important than keeping customers loyal or being trustworthy with the people who made their brand successful. They threw away decades of customer loyalty for a bit more quarterly profit. Once you see a company willing to do that, believe them that they'll do it again. If you're thinking about Elfa, I'd reconsider. You'd be buying something that could become useless without any warning. If they could do this to compatibility once

Really let down by how my shoe organizer held up. Bought it about 30 days ago and by day 26 the door mechanism broke. Several of them failed within just a few weeks of purchase. Doesn't add up at all.

Their advertising is deceiving. They advertise a 25% off deal on name brand stuff just to get you to click the link, but then you get to the website and the discount doesn't actually apply. It's clearly fraudulent marketing that they apparently know about and just ignore.

I purchased 4 Cambridge Drop Front storage boxes and when they arrived they had an overwhelming chemical smell that didn't fade even after sitting for a week. I called customer service and spoke with a supervisor named Mike who brushed off my concern, saying the odor wasn't really that bad and he didn't believe me without seeing it in person. He told me I'd either need to cover return shipping costs or drive an hour and a half to their store. When I questioned whether it was reasonable to make a customer travel that far for a defective item, his response was just 'Well, that's why we have a 120-day return policy.' If I'd read the reviews first I would've seen loads of other people complaining about the same smell issue, which would've made it simple for Mike to believe me. I'll never shop with them again based on this.

This company is NOT honest. A store associate promised me he'd cancel an online order I'd placed, and I bought the item in the store instead. Before I left he said he'd taken care of the cancellation. Next day a store manager tells me they can't actually cancel web orders from the store location. I can't cancel through their app or website either. So it's going to ship and they're charging me to return it, or I have to haul it to the store myself. Plus there are way too many complaints about products arriving damaged, which means dealing with the whole process all over again. The company is not being honest and is poorly managed. I'm done shopping with them.

It's not surprising that this store is struggling like most other retailers. The problem is always the people working there. I stopped by the Northwest Highway location today and nobody in the Elfa section wanted to help me with questions about shelving options. With the premium prices they charge, you'd think they'd have staff that actually cares, but it's just the same unengaged twenty-year-olds and a handful of burnt-out long-timers. Pretty sad honestly.

I discovered after purchasing two large items that they don't accept online returns at all. They don't even give you a return authorization number, so if you managed to ship something back on your own dime, you'd have no documentation of it.

A huge problem with this store is they DON'T handle returns for online orders! There's no return request option, they don't authorize returns, and they absolutely DO NOT give you prepaid return shipping labels. So if you're not near one of their locations and you need to send something back that you bought online, you're stuck. You'll have to figure out and pay for shipping on your own, and since there's no official return authorization, there's zero guarantee they'll give you any money back. In this modern age of online retail, this is completely unacceptable!

Had a terrible time at the LA Century City location picking up some Elfa shelving. Went to the help desk asking for assistance getting my items to my vehicle and they pointed me toward a pickup area without any real guidance. I had to follow vague email instructions to find some blue phone that wasn't even there, so I sent my family in to track down my order. They were stuck searching for over half an hour even though I'd confirmed everything just minutes before, and the staff kept stopping to help other shoppers instead. After waiting nearly an hour, I had to go back myself to speak with a manager who said they'd reach out but never did. They just dropped off my shelves and took off without getting my contact information. The whole experience was messy and unhelpful.