NOTHING was easy about replacing the chandelier

Yesterday I was so excited to show you my new West Elm Chandelier. Well, unfortunately this chandelier installation was not all unicorns and roses.

I’m here to tell you what really went on behind the scenes. And maybe offer some tips so that you can try to avoid these hiccups for yourself.

If it could have gone wrong, it did. I don’t even know which angle to start with, so I’ll just start at the beginning.

Drama part 1:

On Memorial day we drove to West Elm in downtown Austin, TX to purchase our new chandelier; one that I’ve been coveting for months. It was the first time I’d ever actually stepped foot in a brick and mortar West Elm. When you buy a large item you check out and they give you a receipt to hand to the guys working behind the building in the loading and shipping area. We got our receipt and drove around back to retrieve the new chandelier. I knew something was up when it took them a good 5 minutes to even open the door after I rang the buzzer. But finally, someone opened the door. He acted very “odd” and jittery, and was mumbling about how he “only opened the package to check to make sure everything was okay and nothing was broken.” He kept talking about how nothing was broken and it all looked “great” while he taped the box shut.

My BS-meter was set off, but I ignored it assuming that, though it was odd, maybe this is just how West Elm handles their product – maybe they open each package to check to make sure things are in order. It was just odd how he was acting about the whole thing; almost guilty-like.

I took the packages and we went home. Mistake #1.

The next day I opened the new chandelier so I could install it. The smaller box housed the bulk of the chandelier while the large box housed the shade. I opened the smaller box and was immediately bothered that everything looked tampered with.

Every Single Package wrapped in plastic had been opened and was covered in fingerprints. The instructions packet and screws had been opened – and several screws were missing. As I took the bulk of the fixture out of the package I was disturbed at how filthy dirty it was. It was truly disgusting looking. Then I grabbed the cord; it was a mangled mess and only about 2 feet long (it was cut and a good 3 feet shorter than it should have been) – obviously it had been installed previously. And finally, the dead giveaway – the part that attaches to the ceiling was actually covered in Sheetrock dust.

I wish I was kidding. I had just purchased a BRAND-NEW chandelier for a whopping $300 and was instead given a USED one. It wasn’t even a mistake – the person that gave it to me even told me he was “checking to make sure nothing was broken”. He actually checked this package, and still gave it to me.

“PISSED” would be an understatement. I was livid. Not only was it totally unprofessional, but for me to drive back to West Elm in downtown Austin was going to be an absolute huge inconvenience because I live far out in the suburbs.

I called the number on their website and sat for several minutes until finally the operator came on. She was apologetic but had to transfer me to the correct department to handle complaints. I sat for at least 5 minutes or more waiting for the next person to get on the line. Finally the 2nd person answered and I re-explained the situation. After hearing me out she told me that she was for online orders only and that I’d have to call another number to talk to someone else. I think I had fumes coming out my ears by this point.

I called the number and again waited for the third person to answer the phone. By this point I told my story a third time, and she was EXTREMELY NICE and apologetic. She then apologized profusely because she was going to have get the regional manager for Texas to call me back; the regional manager is over all the stores in Texas and would want to know all the details so he can figure out what on earth was going on with his stores. I was obviously irritated that I would have to talk to a FORTH person, but the lady was so nice that she was able to diffuse my frustrations and I hung up feeling much better.

The regional manager called me back within in about 20 minutes or so and was mortified when I told him what had happened. He said he was going to look into the matter, figure out who signed the slip when I picked up the fixture, and “deal with that employee accordingly”. He then told me that even though it was already after 4pm, he would try to have the UPS guy come back so he could get the fixture in the mail overnight to me, but at the worst, the chandelier would arrive two days later.

He also told me to KEEP the first fixture because he was going to have to throw it out anyway. This might not mean much to many people, but for me, I was THRILLED. I am if anything, extremely handy, and I knew right off that I would be able to clean up the fixture, rewire it, and have it good as new in no time. {We will probably sell the fixture on CL to recoup some of the $300 we spent on it.}

I hung up a happy camper. They were so nice on the phone that I couldn’t help but feel better. And you know what? The very next morning at 10am my doorbell rang. I opened the door and found the UPS guy delivering my new fixture. Are you kidding me?! Seriously. The fixture arrived 18 hours after I called. I was floored. That regional manager not only did his job, he did his job very well.

In the end I received my chandelier only one day after I called, AND I got to keep the first one. West Elm came through in the end and worked things out. They really stepped up when a customer complained, and I’m tempted to think that maybe that employee who gave me the fixture in the first place probably got fired.

My first experience wasn’t a pleasant one, but at the end of the day they worked it out and left me happy and ready to go back for more shopping.

And now…

Drama part 2:

This part is called “constructive feedback” for West Elm…

The instructions that came with the chandelier were horrible. The only thing worse than the instructions it came with would have been including no instructions at all. I recommend that West Elm put a little more effort into explaining how to install this fixture.

I am very good at figuring things out. It’s one of my talents. I can look at something and figure out how to take it apart, put it back together, fix it, or simply how it works, in literally a minute or less. Even with this skill, I had a hard time installing the fixture. I think most people would be beyond frustrated and the chandelier would be thrown through the window before the day is over.

My biggest frustration was that it came with several extension poles, but absolutely no indication as to how many to use based on ceiling height. All it said was to use them as needed. The wiring has to be totally installed and the fixture 90% installed before you get a good visual of the height of it, so if you guessed wrong it would require removing the fixture from the ceiling, pulling the wiring through the poles, adding more poles, and rewiring the fixture. Big PITA IMO. It wouldn’t be that hard for them to give a general guideline in the instructions. For example, if you ceiling is 9′ tall, you will probably want 2 long extension poles and 1 short one. I had already removed the old chandelier before I realized I didn’t have a clue how high to hang the new one. Fortunately I’m a blogger and actually took photos of the old fixture next to a tape measure. This photo was the only reason I could even guess how many extension poles to use. Most people don’t generally take photos of tape measures before removing old fixtures.

Of course, knowing how many inches from ceiling to bottom of fixture only helped so much as West Elm didn’t include how many inches tall the actual shade was once installed. I had to eyeball it and guess how thick the shade was going to be. Thankfully after some math I was able to guess that I’d need 2 long poles and 1 short one (in addition to the one long pole that came attached to the chandelier).

These are both issues that people just don’t think about until they are ready to hang the new fixture, so adding this basic info to the instruction sheet would help immensely.

And one more thing that really wasn’t that big a deal; the instructions had the wiring labeled “hot”, “neutral”, and “ground” instead of “negative”, “positive”, and “ground”. I was fairly certain what that meant, but I did a quick google search just to verify – you know, so I don’t burn my house down.

Those are the only West Elm issues I had. Maybe these insights will help someone else out. The rest of the issues were basic stuff that I didn’t anticipate having to deal with, but I think most projects have set-backs… at least all mine do!

Drama part 3:

I took the old fixture down and was greeted with the Barney Massacre.

Just a small reminder that my entire room use to look like this! I’m talking walls and ceiling. It was a sight for sure!

So I had to bust out the ceiling paint and paint over that mess. That wasn’t something I was planning on dealing with and set me back several hours (waiting for the paint to dry). Once the paint was dry it was finally time to hang my fixture!!! Yay!

Oh wait… there are now holes the fixture isn’t covering up. UGH!

This fixture is going to kill me. KILL ME I’m tellin’ ya. So I bust out the spackling.

And wait for it to dry. Tick tock. Then I have to paint the spackling. Tick tock. And finally, I can move forward with the installation.

(This is where I realize I have no clue how high to hang the fixture; see Drama part 2 for those details.)

And ta-da! The fixture is hung.

I then spend the next HOUR unwrapping each of those little plastic baggies that are holding all the capiz shells. I’m glad they packaged the fixture so well, but my arms were really done by the time I had that last wrapper unwrapped.

I was going to count how many wrappers there were, but I was so over this install by that point. Let me just say that there were a lot. A LOT. (Hey West Elm, that would be another great fact to include in the instructions! How many wrappers and shells are on the fixture!).

Believe it or not, after three full days, I finally had the chandelier installed and looking fly.

Things are not always as they appear on blogs. You get to see lovely before and after pictures, but many times, more times than not actually, there are lots of hiccups and obstacles in my way for most projects I do. This chandelier was one of the most dramatic installs to date though. I’m happy it’s over and I’m left with a pretty fixture.

* West Elm has no idea I’m writing about them. This post is my own opinion and is not sponsored in any way, shape, or form. I just thought I’d tell you about my experience.