Design Within ReachReviews of dwr.com

Very disappointing experience with DWR. I placed a large furniture order and deliberately selected only items listed as in stock and ready to ship. I also confirmed the expected delivery timing before purchasing. Despite that, I had to repeatedly follow up on nearly every item. The worst issue was a Brasilia Lounge Chair that was shown as in stock when I bought it. Over five weeks, I was given several new shipment and delivery dates, none of which were honored. DWR ultimately acknowledged that the stock information at the time of purchase was inaccurate and then moved the estimated shipment date from August to December. Even after the matter was supposedly escalated with highest priority, a promised follow-up did not happen. I eventually canceled the chair after losing confidence in the order being fulfilled properly. The products themselves are good, but the fulfillment process and customer service were far below what I expected from a retailer at this price point. I will not purchase from DWR again.

I'm writing this on behalf of my employer, who placed an order with Design Within Reach worth more than $10,000. What followed was not a premium experience by any definition of the word — it was a masterclass in how a brand can talk about care and support while doing the opposite in practice, over and over again. The delivery date was confirmed in writing, not once but repeatedly: nothing was to arrive before September 22nd. I have that confirmation in emails from DWR representatives, sent after my employer personally called the delivery company and asked them directly not to deliver early. The responses were warm, reassuring, and completely worthless — the delivery happened anyway, on a day nobody was expecting it, causing real disruption for the tenant currently at the property, who had to scramble to receive and store items meant for a home that isn't ready yet. At no point did I receive a single text message or email to coordinate or confirm a delivery window. All I ever got were automated notices announcing that the order was already on its way — after the fact, with no chance to actually arrange anything. I wrote back, calmly and directly, asking for an explanation. First, silence. Then I called — and called again. Each time, the same pattern: a long hold, followed by the line simply dropping, repeatedly, from the same number I'd used to speak with them before. Eventually, a DWR representative did respond. He apologized, said he was investigating, and issued a credit as a gesture of goodwill. I want to be fair: that was the right thing to do. And then, days later, it happened again. Another package showed up at the property. No text, no email, no warning of any kind — shipped in direct contradiction of everything that had just been promised, in writing, by the very people who had just apologized for doing exactly this. An apology followed by the same failure is not an apology. It's a pattern. Over $10,000 spent, and this is what it bought: broken commitments, a phone line that hangs up on you, and a credit that changed nothing about how the company actually operates. If this is what "support" looks like for an order of this size, I have to ask what it looks like for someone spending less. Anyone weighing a significant purchase here should think carefully about whether this is the kind of treatment they're prepared to accept in return for their money. A company doesn't get to put "premium" in its branding and then treat delivery commitments as optional, even after admitting fault. Confirmations in writing should mean something. Right now, at DWR, they don't — not even the second time.

As many reviewers here have noted, DWR have severe and shockingly bad logistical problems with order fulfillment and delivery. We ordered a coffee table in September 2025. Three times DWR attempted delivery of this table - in Feb 2026, March 2026 and May 2026. Three times. they send the wrong item and we had to refuse shipment. After 9 months, with no guarantees from DWR that our table would ever arrive, we had no choice but to cancel the order. When we posted a negative review on the Design Within Reach website. they had the nerve to post a reply saying that we needed to have worked better with their delivery service. WHAT??? We spent hours and hours on the phone with the delivery service reps and with the DWR reps trying to sort out THEIR mess. Never again. Avoid buying furniture from DWR and spare yourself a mountain of headaches.

The delivery process was incredibly frustrating. I waited all day for an order that got close to my address and then was suddenly rerouted back. I was promised a quick replacement, only to later see an estimated wait of several months. Customer service wasn't much help either. After spending a significant amount with this company, I expected much better logistics and communication.

Ordered a shelf. It arrived two weeks late and damaged. I bent the components back into shape and installed it in a lower traffic area of the house. No discounts provided for the product or shipping issues other than a refund from the courier. I was sent a set of replacement parts ~2 months later. More than 6 months after those parts arrived, I received an email that went to my spam folder, saying that if I did not return the original damaged parts, I would be charged $485 plus tax for them. I was charged $519.28, and DWR will not reverse that charge until I return the damaged components. Nearly 36 hours later I haven’t received a resolution and am still having to follow up with the customer service team. Can’t recommend strongly enough to avoid this company.

We were told delivery would take 8 weeks; it took 18. We ordered in the summer of 2025, and it didn’t arrive until January 2026. Even then, the $4,000+ piece of furniture arrived with missing hardware, dents throughout, mismatched wood tones, and no soft-closing drawers as advertised. The product we received didn’t even match the online description—a total scam. It’s been another 17 weeks (about 8 months since our purchase date), and a replacement still hasn’t arrived. Despite countless follow-ups, the sales associate simply says it’s “out of his authority.” He keeps referring to the business as “the company,” as if he doesn’t represent it, and they consistently deflect responsibility. The store I made the purchase at is the DWR Palo Alto in California. Avoid this company; you can find most of their products elsewhere through third-party furniture stores.

I ordered a rug. It took 3 times as long to arrive. It arrived with one corner damaged. I was told to wait for a resolution. I waited. They stopped responding to my emails. The $3000 rug is pilling like crazy and has a damaged corner. I only gave two stars because the rug is a gorgeous design. Low quality customer service. Low to medium product quality. High quality design.

I ordered a Herman Miller chair online from Design Within Reach, and the experience has been exhausting and unacceptable. The chair was delivered twice, and both times it arrived broken — the first time the leg was damaged, the second time the arm was broken. After more than two months, the issue is still not resolved. Communication has been terrible. I sent six emails over 10 days and received no response. I finally had to call multiple times just to speak with someone. When I did, I was told they could send another replacement in over four weeks, with no real support or reassurance. What makes this worse is that I am pregnant and live on the second floor. I had to carry this extremely heavy chair up and down the stairs twice because of their repeated delivery of damaged items. This was physically difficult and completely unreasonable. After two broken deliveries, I also have no trust that a third one would arrive in good condition. For a premium brand with premium prices, this level of service is shocking. The time, stress, and physical effort this caused were not acknowledged in any meaningful way. I would not recommend ordering large furniture from Design Within Reach based on this experience.