West Elm customer waits nearly an hour to be greeted by staff

When you enter a store, the first thing an employee will probably ask you is if you need help.

However, TikToker @huhawokay says she had a very different experience when she walked into a West Elm store with only the intention of purchasing a sofa.

After waiting about 15 minutes for someone to speak to her in the store, she recorded a video to talk about her experience in the store, where she stated that the sales associates seemed to actively ignore her.

She pointed out that there were “two employees” at the furniture store and that she was the only customer in the store. After waiting so long without help, she questioned whether she even wanted the item anymore and explained that she is not a fan of bad customer service.

In another section of her video, which she recorded from a couch in the store, she shows other customers coming in and being ignored by an employee working on the computer.

Although she said she could “understand” having to wait for service when the store was “super busy,” she was baffled that the employee did not at least say “hello” or greet herself and the other customers visiting the store.

Later in the video, she films another employee seemingly ignoring her presence as the employee up front continues to not greet other West Elm visitors. At this point, @huhawokay points out that there are three employees but only one customer (not including herself) and she still isn’t receiving an outstanding customer service experience.

At around 6:15 p.m. (the TikToker says she arrived at the store at 5:37 p.m.), one of the previous customers she had on camera approaches her to chat. That’s right—a customer approached her to talk to her before any store employee did.

The TikToker tells them how long she’s been waiting there and says she decided to take a seat and wait until an employee noticed her presence. The two chat a bit about the sofa she’s sitting on and that she was planning on buying it in dark green. However, the TikToker tells the other customer that she has no intention of buying it in that store.

In fact, she says she’ll probably drive across town to buy it at another store instead of shopping here. The two shoppers continue to chat for a while, with the TikToker mentioning that she noticed the store employees also ignored the other customer when she came in.

After waiting for about 40 minutes, an employee named Josh finally approaches the TikToker and asks if she needs help. She tells the man how long she’s been waiting for help, while also pointing out that there are three employees in the store and not a single one has approached her and asked if she needs anything.

He told her that the same thing had happened to him the first time he entered the store, to which she replied that she was shocked that he had not done anything about it because he had “experienced it first hand.”

Josh admits that the store definitely needs improvement, adding that she realizes the problem isn’t just with the service she received, but that other customers, like the woman she just spoke to, have had the exact same issue.

She then asks who the “management” of the store is, to which Josh replies “yes.” She then invites him to sit down and “discuss” the situation. The TikToker explains that she came to the store to “buy” the sofa and not just “sit” there.

The TikToker then goes on to explain that she won’t claim it’s a “race thing” because she saw another customer, a white woman, also being ignored by store staff. She also added that she wasn’t upset with the employee specifically because it seems to be a cultural issue with the store overall.

As the video continues, she tells the man that she will not be buying the sofa from that location, but from another store. In a text overlay, she writes that he is still trying to sell the sofa to his friend and asks him if he can call the other location first to let them know that he is sending the TikToker to them.

However, she explained that it would not work that way because she wanted to go into the store and see if she would be earned through good customer service or if she would be treated the way the staff at that store would.