Ethan Allen

After purchasing a house in April, 2015, my partner and I went into the local Ethan Allen to see what might interest us for the new place.
While there we saw many things that were great, but what hit us was a round light fixture in the front of the store. We were quickly helped by an amazing in store sales person named Cynthia.
She was incredibly helpful, a real pleasure to work with. We ordered the light fixture and paid in full. This was on ⁵⁄₁ While in the store, she peaked our interest in several other items, and even gave us some design advice that we thought was so smart, and actually applied to our new home renovation. She was just fantastic.
Let me say, if my entire Ethan Allen experience had been as enjoyable as shopping with Cynthia, this would be a very different review.
10 weeks later — Close to a QUARTER of a year we still did not have the light fixture. I find this a bit shocking unto itself, especially in the age of Amazon, One Kings Lane, etc, and things arriving in 2 – 4 days. But I try to understand. Circumstances happen, items sell out. I get it. True that I had a custom made King Size bed made in a ¹⁄₃ of the time with another company, but that is another story. We tried to be patient, and wait, and wait, and wait.
Honestly, the real issue was how the 10 weeks were handled, that is where the true challenge with Ethan Allen has been. In those 10 weeks we did not received a single phone call, we did not received a single update, we did not receive a single Ethan Allen initiated communication that was not a response to us asking about the light ourselves! NOT A SINGLE ONE! Postponements, delays, back orders and not a single form of communication from the company! Do you find that as shocking as I do?
We would call to find out an update, they would never give us a straight answer.
No one could let us know more than a vague time period of possible arrival. (But not guaranteed)
FINALLY on one of our check in calls we were told it had arrived in the warehouse the first week of July and that we should expect a call to arrange delivery the beginning of the next week. The next week came and went. — NO PHONE CALL. After waiting for 10 weeks, is this not a priority? Apparently not. I was informed 3 months is the standard arrival time for orders from Ethan Allen. Really? This is not a custom item people.
In frustration, I called Cynthia to beg for help. Which she did with the utmost of charm. She gave me the direct number for the warehouse to arrange the delivery myself.
I called the warehouse and got Matt on the phone who at first told me the earliest they could deliver was a full week later. I lost it! After this entire ordeal, the fact they Ethan Allen is not scrambling to expedite this order was flabbergasting! And I told him so. He understood, and very politely told me he would see what he could do. A couple hours later I received a call that my lighting fixture would be delivered the very next day. In actuality, it was 2 days but still arrived.
The truth is we love the light fixture. It is great. And maybe even worth a standard 3 month wait to be ordered. But come on Ethan Allen, get with the 21^st century and get automated! Do not leave people in the dark, having no idea WTF is going for 3 months. The world does not work like that any more.

The showroom was absolutely beautiful! Great pieces! I’m a fan of showrooms that have actual rooms set up and they do! The prices were very reasonable.
So why only 3 stars? I walked in with my 3 kids and the sales woman was slouched down in a chair near the front counter speaking with the woman behind it. I was never greeted just told «if you need something let me know». She stayed in the chair the entire time I was there. I’m not about pushy sales people so I was rather glad that she didn’t follow me around the store BUT it looked extremely unprofessional that she was slouched down in a chair and never even bothered to stand up.
I will return to buy furniture because of the actual furniture but not for the customer service.