Crate & Barrel continues to drag out their customer service complaint process which my wife and I made with their delivery of a flawed Eiffel Chair ($2000) and just a plain bad-egg Streeter Chair ($1200) that sits horribly and is completely unlike (in basic comfort) than any Streeter Chair we tried in both Pasadena and Rancho Cucamonga stores.

They finally sent out an "inspector" who said there was nothing wrong with the Streeter -- so my wife and I are of course totally "wrong". As I previously states, but for emphasis I repeat myself: this chair doesn't feel or sit like any other Streeter chair we've sat in, but we have been "wrong" in our judgment of that. That's a great response to a customer complaint. So now, if we want to return it, it will cost us $250 in "restocking fees."

(I forgot to say in my Yelp! review that the Streeter looks like it was made out of pig hide. They never do tell you what the hides are in their description. My muslim friends might share my concerns.)

The inspector agreed that the dye/hide flaw on the Eiffel chair looked unusual, but he deffered judgment to the opinion of his superiors who will only see the flaw in digital photographs, not in person. Needless to say, hey haven't got back to us on this, yet. :)

So far Crate & Barrel has wasted hours of our time and weeks of having furniture in our living room which we can't sit in while the complaint process drags on.

It feels like they are just trying to "wait us out." Maybe we'll just get tired and go away? I don't think so.

What is even more amazing is that we wanted to do quite a bit of further business with them. That's highly unlikely to happen.

I'm floored by Crate & Barrel's impersonal and inconsiderate customer service. How do they stay in business with "policies" and customer service like this? They were very quick to take our order, but unconscionably foot-dragging and demeaning in handling our complaint.

My name is Chris Moran and I'm a _former_ customer of Crate & Barrel.