Ballard DesignsReviews 60

I ordered three vigneto shelves from Ballard Designs in March, over three months ago, and each time the estimated shipping date arrives (originally it was 5/27), the third and last shelf gets delayed and I get an email saying the new estimated delivery date is JUNE 28th, well today I got an update that the date has been pushed back to JULY 28. I have been waiting with two shelves in my closet sitting there so I can finally hang them up in my dining area. For months when people come over I have had to explain and will have to explain "there are supposed to be shelves there, and the full set of three still has not arrived since March." My wall where these were meant to go has been bare since March, when I moved in, so I am literally waiting for Ballard Designs so I can be finished decorating my place. It has been three months. Oh, and if you were to place the order for the shelf I am waiting for today, the estimated shipping they give you would be the same as the estimated shipping for mine that I ordered in MARCH. What was the point?

I purchased two very small, lightweight rugs. The quality was very poor. I returned the products which I had paid $95 for and they refunded me $65. Shipping charge $30! I've shipped things much, much heavier and it never cost that much! I will never purchase from them again.

It is so hard to find great bedding but when I ordered Ballard Design Toile bedding it was adorable. Plus the price is great.

I think Ballard does it right! When you call there is no wait and a friendly human answers the phone. Customer service is excellent if there is an issue.
Their upholstery is made in the USA, I think, because the quality is so much better than what many catalogs offer which is usually made in India.
Their regional shippers are courteous and I've never had a problem with damage.
Ballard does an exceptional job with packaging!
I highly recommend Ballard's, especially for case goods and lighting.

I ordered over $5,000 of furniture from Ballard Designs in Charlotte, NC and both chairs in my order were delivered in the wrong fabric. I called the store they apologized for the issue and reordered for me, however it has been 6 months and I still have not received the correct chairs or even gotten any compensation for their mistake or additional time this has taken. I highly recommend if you need furniture especially anything custom go somewhere else! This is NOT a reliable business.

We ordered a 60 inch bench and a bench cushion from the King of Prussia store in this specific color we liked. Several days later I ordered the same fabric from their website to make matching pillows myself. When the cushion arrived it was a 48 inch cushion. I called customer service (which wasn't so apologetic) and was told that they don't even have a 60 inch cushion in that color. And they told me fabric isn't returnable but she put in a note to stop the shipment and cancel the order. The bench arrived cracked... Called again to return the bench and make sure I won't receive the fabric, it was their mistake after all. I also emailed them only to get a "sorry fabric cannot be returned" email. Emailed again, explaining one more time that this stemmed from their mistake and it is just not fair for them to make me buy this fabric. No response. The fabric got delivered, I was charged the amount. Now I am disputing the charge with my credit card company and going on every social media channel to talk about my negative experience. I can't believe Ballard Designs wasn't able to make up for their mistake and lost a customer over $65.

I ordered 2 upholstered chairs and they were never delivered. After 3 calls to customer service and false promises I cancelled the order. A Ballard rep had the nerve to say they would need verification from the delivery company before they can credit my account. Their delivery company, JB Hunt, was impossible to reach. I notified my credit card company to reverse the charge and my account was credited by the credit card company the next day. Do not do business with Ballard Designs.

I purchased 3 pendant lights from Ballard Designs. When the eventually arrived, the were't the right size so I followed their return procedure. Two weeks after Ballard had received the lights (according to UPS tracking), I called to find out about my refund. They said they had only received one. After giving them the tracking information they "found" the other two. Their agent said I would receive a refund of $626.46. I only got $595.05. I called again and wasted another 45 minute phone call. They told me their figure was correct, which it was not. I would recommend you by you home products elsewhere, as Ballard Designs is not honest.

Ordered a gift for my girlfriends bday. Next day I recieved a noticed that the item was in back order until 10/20. After waiting for the new date. Item continue to be in backorder and kept on getting new dates everyday until 11/3 when I finally canceled the order. Wasted my time waiting for this. Customer service kept on telling me that it was going to ship the next day. They even told me who gave me the information for the previous date made a mistake. And that the follow ship date would be the following day. No one gave me a straight answer on when the item was actually available. I see that the item is still listed on the website! Buyers beware! Check out another site. Don't order from ballard design online site.

I have been a Ballard Design customer for years and that stopped today. I ordered a rug in May of this year. After waiting for months for its delivery, it was finally delivered by truck (which added in a huge charge). Well the delivery guys left and I opened my highly anticipated rug only to find that they sent the wrong one. I immediately contacted Ballard and told them they sent the wrong rug. Well to this day, I am still waiting on the correct rug to be sent. Called Customer Service to just cancel my order and they refused to issue a refund until the incorrect rug was picked back up. Since I never received my correct item ordered, I don't know how they can legally do this. In any event, now I have to wait for who knows how long to get the incorrect product picked up and then wait weeks yet again for my refund of the purchase I never received. Bad form indeed. I will not be back! Ballard is historically known for selling items that they do not have in stock. Be prepared to wait forever for you item to show up.

I love Ballard designs decor. It is beautiful. Quality is pretty good and while it is pricey I will splurge at times. I purchased a hanging light fixture back in March and had it shipped to the store. Unfortunately their stores shut down about the same day my item arrived at the local store. I was told it was there and I could get it once they reopened. Fast forward to August 1. I finally found out they had opened again. I called to confirm the item was at the store and it was. I arrived today at 12:30 pm( they open at 12) to pick up my item. What I saw was a line of about 10 people to get into the store. No big deal because many other stores are functioning the same way. BUT After 30 minutes only 3 people had entered the store. After 45 min only 4 people had entered the store and I was still 5th in line. They let one person in for every person who came out. Again this is fine BUT... the store is very large. I saw at least 6 employees wandering around but only saw about three customers and I was looking!. Why do you have so many employees if you aren't letting anywhere near that number of customers in the store? Several people got in line but walked away after they realized the line wasn't budging at all. They did let the Chik -fil-A guy right in with the employees lunch order though...
After an hour wait I gave up. I had another scheduled task and was going to be late.
I respect we have pandemic going on. I will wear my face mask, keep 6 foot distance and clean my hands to protect others. What makes no sense is to have so few customers in a large store( less than the number of employees) and large areas of the store completely devoid of a single person.
I just want my light fixture that I ordered 6 months ago. I won't be shopping at Ballard for awhile at least in person. Most of the other people in line with me were just as frustrated and puzzled by the ratio of employees to customer as I was.

I will be arriving before the store opens tomorrow to get in line so I can retrieve my item. After that it may be quite awhile before I go back.

I received an email from Ballard Designs that said "Email Exclusive - just for you. 30% off* full price items - take an extra 40%* off all clearance when you shop through this email. Offer ends 6/27. Exclusions apply". I've attached a copy of that email. I noticed there was an * after the word "off" so I read the small print which said, "Additional 40% off clearance offer valid through 11:59 PM EAST, 6/27/19. Discount reflected at checkout when you shop through email or after entering code. Offer not valid with any other offer, unless specified. Cannot be applied to previous orders or gift certificates." It said it didn't include shipping charges, had no cash value and was void where prohibited.
There were 3 items I intended to purchase as a result of this: one at regular price and two that were on clearance. Accessing Ballard Designs online through their email as directed, I placed the three items in my cart. As expected, a 30% price reduction was taken off the one item with a regular price. However, the "take an extra 40% off all clearance" was an ABSOLUTE FALSE STATEMENT. In the example below, you see the Due North Wall Decor was listed on clearance for $83.99 but when you go to order it, it is listed as $71.99 rather than $50.40 which is an extra 40% off the clearance price. This was also encountered for the second clearance item I had in my shopping cart. When I called their customer service, a polite woman placed me on hold and went to check on the situation. She returned and informed me that rather than using the currently listed online clearance price, they were taking 40% off the last crossed-off amount listed. In the photos below, you will see that was $119.99 rather than the $83.99 as it was listed. That does NOT meet the definition of "take AN EXTRA 40% off all clearance". There was a total of $83.98 at issue in my order and I left both a concern about this misleading advertisement as well as my contact information for a promised follow up call. At this point, the offer has expired and no one called. My order was for $1500 and I'm so glad I didn't place it! It doesn't matter that they send very attractive catalogs listing desirable items - they are going straight to the trash in my house and I blocked them as junk mail in my email.

This is an update to my previous review. I upgraded Ballard Designs to a 4 star because of the exceptional customer service, I received. UPS lost or damaged one of the pieces and Ballard sent me a new one very quickly. I did not give a 5 star because the description of the color is wrong. It is not antique silver as described, but it is really antique gold. If you are a painter, you can very easily paint this metal- framed mirror like I did. The mirror sections are very heavy, so it is better to call a good handyman to hang it for you and to get it hung straight, which can be tricky with 3 sections. All the hardware molly bolts are provided. It looks great to fill larger walls.
I am very happy with the look of the mirrors.

I ordered a linen-covered X-bench from Ballard, and received a bench so poorly executed that I donated it to a charity shop. I had opted for an upgraded fabric and studs on the bench, so it was one of their more expensive offerings in that line. Not a sale piece or a second, but fully custom. The fabric that covered the legs on the bench I received was buckled from being stretched unevenly, and was obviously creased and loose (it should have been taut and completely smooth). The padding on the seat was uneven higher on one side. The cording around the edge of the cushion was wonky and uneven. The entire thing was just slapped together. The company said they would take it back (no help on how I was supposed to pack up this very heavy bench, since I had to tear apart the box it was in to get it out), but only to remake the order. They refused to give me a refund. Given the poor quality of the example I had before me, I passed on the second try and just donated the thing. Even looking at it made me angry. The icing on the cake was that when I wrote a negative product review on their website, Ballard killed the review!

Ordered tv stand from them, expensive one, almost $900. Came relatively quick, box looked like it's been on road for 365 days. Dents, scratches, stains, tape like it's been opened and resealed. Well,? It looked pretty depressing. I opened small part to see right away crack and didn't bother to check any further. I contacted them and complained. The customer service lady right away set up UPS pick up next day and reorder new item. It was on back order but whatever, I was in no rush. Next box arrives, looking worse than the first one. Ups guy tell me: "I remember picking up your return, this box doesn't look good either, if it's damaged maybe you should not order from them." I was very suspicious opening the box. Everything inside looked broken and ripped. I almost stopped but gave it a chance. Surprisingly the stand had no damage, and what I liked the most it was already put together. I didn't have to assemble, just attach the shelf. The quality turned out to be good too. I am satisfied with the product.

I have ordered several custom upholstered pieces from them since buying my home and I am very happy with the quality/price/lead time/etc. I also purchase a lamp, which arrived broken and I was able to make a super speedy (and easy) exchange with them for a new one.

My only complaint is that they can't customize upholstery a bit more. I really wanted to add trim to one of my sofas and they said they couldn't do that, unfortunately. But I was able to have it added by someone local.

Overall, a great experience!