Ballard Designs Reviews 

We ordered a 60inch dining room table product from Ballard Designs on Feb.19. Getting the product has been slow, and the 3rd party shipping your company is outsourcing to (Fragilepak) is even worse: slow, incomplete, and honestly incompetent.

We ordered the Andrews 60in Pedestal Dining Table on February 19. Shipping code: xxxxxxxxx. It took Ballard Design until March 16 to bill for ½ of the table and then charge me the remainder on March 20! Why did it take a month to be billed and why not in one lump sum the day I ordered the merchandise?

We received announcements from Fragilepak for an order delivery on Thursday 3/26.
When the order arrived, (btw, they missed their designated 4-hour window) only to give me ½ of the table, and the actual tabletop location was unknown. They literally said... "well this is all we have".

Thursday 3/26 and Friday 3/27 I worked with customer service to identify where and how the table was separated, when it would be delivered and finally received a message that the table was in California (after mgt escalation) and they were working on resolving the issue.

Saturday 3/28, I was provided an order deliver date of Tuesday March 31. Finally! I scheduled a 4 hour window in the morning between 8 and noon.

Tuesday March 31, 2pm PST, called cusotmer tracking a 4th time to find out the unit was placed on a truck to my nearest large city (Seattle) and then would update once it arrived there (due to arrived Friday April 3.

How can you operate a business this way? It cannot possibly take 2 months to ship a table from almost anywhere! (Unless your chiseling out of wood first!)
This timeline is ridiculous and I cannot in good conscience recommend Ballard Designs. These schedules require time away from work and other activity to wait for a delivery that is late or never arrives.

Everything in your process at this point cautions me to poor planning, poor business practice, and even poorer shipping. You MUST do better, or your business will be in the dustbin of history

Terrible online experience, twice. Beware of shipping charges. $400 in shipping charges for 2 lamps and a piece of art. More than the cost of one lamp. They promise a shipping date at tine if ordering then you don't recieve it, so you have to call. It is then, and only then they tell you it is backordered for up to 4 weeks after already waiting 10 to 14 days. Terrible system and incredibly misleading. I had to cancel my order because I couldnt wait that long as we were traveling for 2 months when it was finakky due to arrive and they would only hold the order for 30 days. This has happened twice. Nice stuff if you can get it and have the patience to keep following up. Never again. If they don't have it in stock at their store and I can take it home with me same day, I will never shop online again. Complete waste of time let alone the gauging shipping costs to ship something within the US that takes 3 to 4 weeks if you are lucky it isnt backordered.

Just FYI - once you purchase on-line it cannot be cancelled - even moments later if you call them so be sure of what you’re ordering . If it’s a piece of furniture you would now have to return for additional hundreds of dollars if you decided not to keep. Probably many retailers are like this - just the first time I encountered

Given that the overall rating for Ballard designs on the site is a 1.6 given my customer experience, I’m not surprised. I’ve been longtime customer and am extremely surprised. Furthermore, it doesn’t seem like the company needs any advice since the rating is so incredibly low. I’ll see if this gives me a better outcome?!? I used to work for a big name consulting firm doing operational reviews of companies. This one has a lot of symptoms and cracks that should be looked at. Here’s my experience. I ordered a rug from the store in West Palm Beach. The sales rep there told me I could check my rug delivery on the Internet. I never received an email informing me of a tracking number so after several weeks, I called the store, was given one and told that the ship date was February 26 having been to the store in January. February 29, I checked the website and all it said about the order was that it was in process. So I called. The first thing the automated system told me was that I did not match my phone number but yet the correct phone number is in their system. So I spoke to a customer service rep and they told me the order was canceled. The reason being is that my credit card did not go through. I had the previous week had some fraud on my card and it was cancelled. Despite that happening, I received no email or phone call notifying me or to rectify the situation. When I spoke to the supervisor, he said invariably the email was in my junk or spam folder, and I told him that that was not the case. I receive tons of marking emails but yet not one on the status of my order at any time. The customer service rep said items now are on back order. however, the supervisor said they had a few in stock. I was put in the queue. I inquired as to how I could be put first in line in the queue given the situation and non communication. No can-do. This company needs to look at their operations and see where the cracks are and correct them. Very very disappointed.

I put an order online and I received an email saying that there was an error in my order and they canceled it, so a called at the next day, and talked to the customer service, but they couldn’t give e a reason or explanation of what happened to the order.

Charged $2,650 for goods we NEVER received which no one at Ballard could account for after a scheduled delivery attempt NEVER occurred. Multiple requests over a 6 week period to “simply” cancel order & issue a FULL refund were ignored.

Every phone call to Ballard is with an individual who has no idea what’s going on; not empowered to make decisions; puts you on hold for extended periods; & or transfers you to someone else for the run around to begin anew. You hear something completely different every time you’re in communication whether by email or phone.

Ballard misrepresented the situation to our Bank. We cancelled our credit card which we had for 28 yrs out of concern that Ballard will capriciously hit us with new mysterious charges which they’re known to do once your payment info is in their bogus system.

I have been a long time customer of Ballard Designs but will not ever order from them again. They have charged me for a cancelled item and will not return my money in a timely fashion. They continue to make excuses. I would not recommend purchasing from them.

Ordered an item in December after purchasing said it was back ordered until February still have not received. Deceitful marketing selling itmes they do not have in stock and never intend to ship. Beware !!!!

Ordered a vanity stool last June. It came broken in Oct. They forgot to reorder it so now it’s Feb but the best part is they ordered it with no fabric so it’s wrong! Now they tell me it’s a custom order so they have to talk to the manufacturer to see if it can be cancelled before I get my credit!! But remember it’s the wrong stool!

This place is a total excrement show. We ordered our sofa 7/22 and still haven't gotten it. The first one was said to be in route in mid-September. It went missing, so we re-ordered. Our order was not expedited, so we were given a delivery date of 12/16. We got a call today (12/27) that said the second sofa went missing, so they had initiated (without having contacted us) a third order. They have had our money since the mid-September shipping fail.

Big problems with processing orders and shipping.
Website is a bit vague on order process time plus. Plus the transfer of shipping large orders takes way to much time. Custom service reps on the telephone, but again, non committal on information.
They confirmed my order was in stock, but again, vague on processing and shipping.

I’m incredibly disappointed with my recent experience at Ballard Designs. I ordered dining chairs in person at the store, and the associate verified that they were in stock and available. Five days later, I received an unexpected cancellation notice with no real explanation.

When I called customer service to understand what happened, the only solution offered was a $25 gift card, which felt like an insult considering the inconvenience and the fact that I now have to start my search over again. To make matters worse, the exact same style chair is still available as an individual custom-order option — yet the company refused to offer any discount or price adjustment, even though the original in-stock set I purchased was canceled through no fault of my own.

For a company at this price point, I expected far better communication, accountability, and customer care.

I’ve been a Ballard Designs customer for years, but my recent experience was troubling enough that I won’t be ordering from them again.

I purchased a rug and paid through PayPal at checkout. The rug shipped directly from a third-party vendor, and everything appeared normal. Months later, I received an alarming email claiming there was a “payment issue,” asking for a cashier’s check or money order, and warning that my account might go to collections. The tone, formatting, and language were so unusual that it looked exactly like a phishing scam.

When I reached out to Ballard directly, their customer service confirmed that the internal payment authorization had expired on their end because the order shipped before they captured the PayPal payment — a situation customers have no way of seeing or knowing about. Despite this being entirely a backend issue, the company’s communication was vague, threatening, and lacked any secure way to resolve the situation.

Even after I reported that the initial message appeared fraudulent, Ballard did not provide a safe or verified payment link for a week. The burden was fully placed on me to untangle a mistake that originated in their own billing system.

The product itself is fine, but the handling of this situation — especially the misleading language, lack of clarity, and absence of secure payment options — was disappointing and eroded my trust in the brand.

It took a YEAR for my banquette to arrive. My salesperson quit returning my calls, so I contacted the store manager. She explained that they had a new manufacturer. I had asked for the banquettes to have storage but it was missed in the original order. Since the order had to be resubmitted, I asked that the storage benches be ordered. The manager said it couldn't be changed, but said after my order arrived, they would reorder the storage benches and switch them out when they were completed...Didn't happen and now no response to emails.

I redrew 3 bookcases from them totaling 6129.75 the first shipment arrived damaged they took it back and told me they would send out another set
They did and again it was damaged
I then asked for a refund
They told me I would get it
I am still waiting a month later no furniture and no refund and now they refuse my phone calls

I am decorating a new house and I have spent a lot of time on Ballard's website. They have beautiful things.
That said, I have never in my entire life experienced a more glitch-riddled, poorly integrated and maintained website. It is an absolute joke and the frustration that you get from using it will frustrate you beyond words.
I have never had more trouble trying to spend $5000 than with Ballards. I could not complete my purchase due to a website glitch that kept hanging up. I called and had to wait an hour and then suddenly I hear it hang up. I'm done. I've now spent more than 2 hours trying to purchase 2 items of furniture to no avail.

How a company with such great potential can be so horribly run is beyond me. I'm leaving out a lot of ugly details, but my strong advice to anyone wishing to buy anything from them...save yourself the pain and frustration and source it somewhere where the CEO has his or her act together. I can't even begin to imagine the frustration if you have to return something!
Their incompetence has worn me down and I will find my furniture somewhere else - - and probably a lot cheaper!

Was never informed an item that I ordered was not in stock. Then I had to spend 45 minutes on and off hold to cancel the order. Worst customer service experience ever

I ordered an Bunny Williams Cocktail Table - first they lost the order and then suddenly found it and it arrived by a freight carrier in a sealed box. It weighed over 80 pounds and was left on my door step.
After opening the incredibly difficult and heavy box I discovered they sent me a return of someone else's used table. It is filthy, covered in dark black blotches and looks like it came out of the garbage can. I have tried over 5 times to contact them with detailed photos and they have refused to respond. I spent $1800 for a new table and received used, damaged good that is worthless.

Only reason gave a 1 star is because there were no negative stars. Worst order process and customer service I have ever seen. Horrible!

The delivery people would only deliver my purchase (a bed) on Wednesdays which might be okay but it was going to my beach house-2 hours away and it's the middle of the work week. To make matters worse, the 1st time they showed up with 1/2 the bed. The second time they showed up with only 1/2 the bed (and did not bring the original half). So it took three times for the delivery to work. Then I when I went to put the bed together, there was a big chunk missing in one of the side boards. I have emailed and called and have not gotten a satisfactory response. I would never recommend this company.