Experiences with Wayfair or other online furniture places?

[Janeway]

I have seen some things that LOOK very nice on Wayfair and Amazon. Does anyone have any experience with either of these places or any other places for ordering furniture online?

[QueenCat]

We've bought headboards for our guest room and ds' room from Wayfair. I've been pleased with the quality. They were mid-range price (around $200 each). There were cheaper options but they didn't look as nice. 

[Spryte]

My Wayfair experience is hit or miss. Ditto Amazon. Read reviews carefully, and if you can look the products up and find reviews elsewhere, read those as well. You can usually find the actual product name somewhere fairly easily. We have had both good and bad experiences, so read the return policies. 

We have had some extremely good luck with a few online places, in addition to those two, depending on what you want. Maybe we need a separate thread for that topic!

[MrsMommy]

I bought a beautiful vanity from Wayfair, and it's a lovely piece of furniture, except it arrived damaged. In the end, they let me keep it for free, so I can overlook the ruined corner.

[Storygirl]

I've used Wayfair twice -- both times for beds. We bought cast iron twin beds for one room and an upholstered king bed for our bedroom. We have not had any issues.

When I bought our king bed last year, I searched through dozens (very likely it was hundreds) of options on Wayfair. It was not really fun! But I was looking for certain parameters and paid attention to details. I read all of the dimensions and details, as well as the reviews. I found there were some clear differences among headboards/beds that looked the same in photos, so reading the details was important.

I love our new bed, and it was much cheaper and nicer than options that I saw in person in furniture stores around here. We had started by buying from a chain store and had issues and rejected that delivery and got our money back, so Wayfair was our second try. Other than taking time on my part for the research, it was a better experience than dealing with a furniture store in person.

[Spryte]

Oh! I just reread and you asked for other online places. We love, love, love our leather couch from Poly and Bark. I’ve been happy with all Poly and Bark purchases.

We recently bought two washable Classic lounge chairs from Levity (I like washable options). They look really nice, and comfy, too. We will see how they hold up.

We did not love our sectional from Home Reserve. The fabric was meh. It served it’s purpose while we had a rescue dog prone to chewing though (you can replace piece by piece, much better than replacing an entire sectional! Pup had just eaten a cushion on our beloved leather couch, so Home Reserve was perfect for our needs). I was happy to let that one go, though.

Costco has been mostly good for us.

We also have a mid century accent chair from Amazon that everyone finds comfy. It’s one of my favorites. Cute, too. But we also made a horrible mistake buying a terribly uncomfortable couch, and it’s still in our garage. Ugh.

Edited September 12, 2022 by Spryte

[Katy]

I ordered a sectional. It arrived with the frame broken and let’s just say the customer service left a LOT to be desired. I had to call about 30 times to finally get something that wasn’t dangerous, and they expected US to pay for disposing of the broken piece. Then they gave us a “credit” to cover the $150 fee for that, but it expired in less than 30 days. The people I spoke to were nice and tried, I truly believe they were given false information as many times as we were. I had to threaten a chargeback with my credit card to get it fixed, and it took months, and the final resolution wasn’t what they claimed it would be. I did end up with a nice custom fabric sectional for far less money than I would have gotten locally though, and frankly I’ve heard similar stories lately from every major furniture store. Including a custom sectional with mismatched fabric from Pottery Barn. 
 

IDK if I would do it again. Maybe. But don’t get attached OR SIGN ANYTHING re accepting delivery from the freight company until they unwrap everything and you verify that you got what you ordered AND it’s in acceptable condition. 

[Storygirl]

I agree with inspecting before the delivery people leave. We've had damaged furniture deliveries to deal with three times, but they were deliveries from regular furniture stores, not online. One store handled it well, and another did not. The third was a mattress and took awhile to get the replacement and was annoying, but the people were fine to deal with.

OP, you might google other reviews of Wayfair as a company, in addition to looking at reviews of the products.

Edited September 12, 2022 by Storygirl

[Carrie12345]

Hit and miss.

 I’ve just done a ton of Amazon, Overstock, and Wayfair, along with IKEA. All are functional. Some are unimpressive.   
But I can say the same about IRL furniture stores. Love my Ashley sectional. Hate my R&F bed.

One item’s instructions were worse than IKEA’s and I had to take it all apart and figure it out myself. 
But I’m in love with my accent chairs from Amazon. 

[MomN]

I bought a bunk bed and a king-sized headboard from Wayfair and both are beautiful and of great quality.  No complaints.  

[Amethyst]

Ugh. I had one experience with buying a kitchen table with Wayfair. Never again. It was a table and the way we were told to assemble it, the top of the table was upside down until the very end. When I turned over the top to put it on, it was sooooo cheap looking. Absolutely horrible. Nothing like the lovely looking table in the picture. So, I would be very hesitant to use Wayfair (and probably any other  company) for a significant piece of furniture. 

[J-rap]

We've had good experience with both.  Just read reviews and descriptions carefully.  They will have a mix of very nice and very cheap furniture.  I often look up the same furniture sold at other sites for even more descriptions and reviews.  (They'll sometimes have the same name, but sometimes not...  usually you can find a way to find the same piece if it exists on other sites by putting in a specific description of it.)

There have probably been a few times when we were disappointed, and we returned the items.  Always keep the boxes and packing material until you know for sure that you're keeping it.  Sometimes, the expense of a free return is more expensive for them then just having you get rid of it/donate it, so they'll tell you to do with it whatever you want and will still credit you the cost.

We got a nice coffee table once (from Wayfair I think) and it was one that "pops up" so you can eat from it or use it as a desk.  The pop-up piece had been attached backwards, so we wanted to return it.  They told us just to keep it and dispose of it or give it away, and they credited us the full cost.  We ended up giving it to our dd, and her dh was able to figure out how to take it apart and re-attach the pieces correctly.  It took some work but heck, they got a nice coffee table for free!

[mommyoffive]

We got a kitchen/dinning table from Wayfair and it is beautiful. 

Got beds from Amazon and they are all good.  Much better than I was expecting. 

Got a vanity from Walmart and it is nice. 

[madteaparty]

I ordered a trundle bed from wayfair and it came in so many small pieces I don’t think I want it anymore. I’m going to IKEA it. Not sure what to do with this thing now. The bath filler and towel warmer I got from there seem to work for now. 

on the other hand, ordering (a brand name) bathtub from them was kind of horrific. They show in stock, then push out delivery date by months after they’ve charged you the few thousand this bathtub was. They did this no fewer than three times on the same product. Did not get from them in the end because it never would have arrived.

on the other hand, I’ve ordered various upholstered chairs from world market and they’ve all been shockingly great. I don’t get it. 

Edited September 13, 2022 by madteaparty

[almondbutterandjelly]

I have ordered from Wayfair and have been mostly pleased by my purchases.  However, I only ordered various kinds of shelving and a couple desks. Fairly cheap materials, but look okay, and I had very specific dimensions that I needed.

For better furniture, we went with local stores.

[TechWife]

I’ve had a good experience with Wayfair. We ordered a bed for ds and it worked out great. We ordered a raised garden bed and it had a small dent in it. They credited me the full amount and told me to keep it. The dent isn’t actually visible & doesn’t affect the function, so I consider that a win. I would order from them again. 

[plansrme]

Be sure to check measurements--every measurement--very carefully to ensure that it will fit in your space. I bought 2 arm chairs that were way too deep for my living room and 2 client chairs for my office that sit a wee bit low. I checked width for both but not depth or seat height. I ended up giving away the arm chairs, but clients in my office just have to get used to looking up at me because the chairs are otherwise perfect. Wayfair is good that you can filter by measurements.

[kristin0713]

I've had good luck with wayfair and amazon actually for random pieces of furniture - tv console, sofa table, nightstands. The quality is not amazing, but the thing that I've found is that there is no middle ground anymore for furniture.  The quality stuff would be thousands and thousands of dollars to furnish a house. The cheaper stuff is still expensive - not Ethan Allen expensive but definitely more expensive than I think it should be for what it is. For example, I'm looking for ottomans and everything I like is *at least* $100 an ottoman, which I think is a lot for a "cheap" ottoman. But when I priced them at a furniture store, it was like $600 an ottoman. We have had to buy a LOT of new things for our house since we sold or got rid of a lot when we moved. So Wayfair, Amazon, and Target it is. 

[Kassia]

Ds1 and his gf got a sectional sofa from Wayfair and are very happy with it.  It looks very nice and is comfortable.  

[Forget-Me-Not]

Against my better judgment, I fell in love with a dining table set at Amazon.  It had great reviews so I was thinking about giving it a go.  In the meantime I discovered Target sold it (online only) for about $150 less and would allow me to return it to a store if I hated it, so I went for it.  We ended up buying matching chairs from the same company at Amazon because Target didn't sell them and we've been super happy with the whole thing so far.  Nice and sturdy and the whole set is IMO really cute and solid.  People are surprised when I tell them I got my dining table at Target, but there you go.  

I haven't purchased anything at Wayfair (though I actually got on to shop there for lamps and actually have another tab open, LOL), but my mom and a friend have both purchased from them and been happy.