Warning: Pottery Barn Kids (long)

[cmferrara]

I just wanted to warn everyone that Pottery Barn Kids DOES NOT accept any gift cards other than ones that specifically say "Pottery Barn Kids" on them. I received a generous $200.00 gift card for "Pottery Barn" at my baby shower, the gift givers knew I was registered at Pottery Barn Kids and wished me happy shopping there. Today I went to take advantage of the registry completion program and to spend no small amount of money and was told that they would NOT accept my gift card and had NO way of doing anything about it, but that Pottery Barn had many nice things - after I had already spent $300.00!! I told them to hold the catalog order they were about to place for me until I could sort out the gift card problem. After calling the gift card number I was told by a manager there to go to the Williams Sonoma store (near by) and explain what happened and ask them to cash out the gift card for me. I phoned the Manager at Williams Sonoma and she is "looking into it" for me, she said the gift "card" was a new procedure and she was unsure how to proceed, but she would get back to me.

So just be warned that if any of you register for Pottery Barn Kids and receive gift certificates that have the name of any other Williams Sonoma company on it you can not spend it at Pottery Barn Kids. Get the receipt or tell the gift giver to keep the receipt they may be able to get their money back if you are unable to spend it or so I was told by the Pottery Barn Kids manager - after they asked me to call the gift giver and ask them for the receipt to see if Pottery Barn would return their money. As if I was going to be so rude to call someone in another state and tell them the generous gift they gave me can not be used!

I was completely appalled by Pottery Barn Kids lack of concern for their customers, they made absolutely NO attempt to contact their parent company or anything to attempt to resolve the problem and then were flabbergasted when I told them that if my gift card could not be redeemed I was going to return all of my purchases that I had no need to spend $200.00 on household items from Pottery Barn when I am preparing for a baby!

distressed mom to be..
Christie
Annapolis, MD

[mrmansmom]

I live in North Carolina and have never had any trouble using gift certificates from PBK, Williams Sonoma and Pottery Barn at each other. I've done it several times over the past few years. We even bought the PBK glider and ottoman with W-S gift certificates we got the previous Christmas. I think you should complain to the company- it sounds like they have a REALLY poor staff at that store. I can't believe they made you talk to the W-S manager. What a hassle! Those people were either really uninformed about their own company's policies or just incredibly lazy. I hope you're able to use the gift card (if you ever want to go in a PBK again:)).

[TandB]

That must be a new thing. I got a GC from Pottery Barn and was able to use it at Pottery Barn Kids. That was about 3 months ago.

[KMommie]

I'm so sorry you had such a terrible experience with PBK! That stinks that they made YOU run around. What terrible customer service! We've also never had a problem using W-S, PB and PBK gift certificates and cards interchangably. If it's a new policy, they better be ready for a lot of unhappy customers!

Jeannie
mommy to Kiki 4/18/03

[kaitlinsmommy]

I also just used merch. credit from Pottery Barn at PBK last week. It sounds like it is the store you went to.

[cmferrara]

6 phone calls and two trips to PBK later...
PBK registires customer service was very upset when I told them that I was not allowed to spend my "Pottery Barn" gift card in the PBK store while trying to complete my registry. The customer service representative actually called the Annapolis PBK store to straighten out the situation. So as it turned out the managers were wrong in my all of my previous conversations with PBK, Pottery Barn Gift Cards and Williams Sonoma store. This has been quite an ordeal! Apparently the confusion arose from the fact that "store credit" is not permitted across stores for example if you return an item and get store credit at Pottery Barn you can not then spend the "store credit" at PBK, however, the plastic "gift cards" are permitted across stores. The PBK registries representative called me back and I was told that she spoke with the manager here in Annapolis and that I could return to the store and complete my registry (which remained at this point a catalog order for the items the store did not have), that I should talk to the manager because she was instructed on how to apply my "gift card" and also to call customer service back if there continued to be a problem.

Needless to say, the manager at PBK store apologized for sending me on my way earlier and for the confusion with the "gift card". I spent another 45 minutes in the store while she tried to place my remaining catalog order - initially Catalog refused to apply my gift card to the order, however, after explaining what had happened and refusing to let me leave the store disappointed again the manager was able to get the credit applied to my order.

Overall I am happy that I was finally able to use my gift card - assuming that the credit is correctly applied which I will find out after I receive my credit card statement. I wasn't offered anything for my trouble though.. I guess everyone was simply satisfied that they so graciously accepted my gift card toward my catalog order. At least the PBK registry representative was genuinely upset at my treatment and took all the steps necessary to make sure that the store was informed and took corrective action, this at least tells me that someone in the company is looking out for their customers.

Relieved in Annapolis..
Christie

our son is due:
January 27, 2004

[cmferrara]

Well, folks it seems that everything has been worked out. I called the PBK customer service representative back on Monday to give her an update of what happened when I returned to the store to complete my registry. She thanked me for following up with her but was again appalled to find out that had I waited in the store 45 minutes for them to work out the logistics of finishing my order during my second visit. Apparently the manager was supposed to call her personally for instructions (unbeknownst to me).

The customer service representative issued me a $25.00 credit for all of the trouble I went through, which can be used either toward my existing order or future purchases. I have to say I was quite relieved that customer service was able to take care of everything, but dismayed that the local store was so incompetant, it really soured my whole experience and even though I've now got a credit I have absolutely no desire to revisit the store here :O(

Thanks everyone for your posts with your experiences you were all absolutely correct it was just a problem with PBK here in Annapolis, but apparently it also affected the Williams Sonoma store here as well. On the bright side, hopefully the PBK and Williams Sonoma managers here have been updated on their policies and no one else will have to experience what I did trying to complete their registries.

Happy Holidays to everyone!
Christie
Annapolis, MD

due January 27, 2004