Anna Hezel just saved us from an inadvisable couch purchase with her horrifying article, Why Does This One Couch From West Elm Suck So Much?
…the couch began to disintegrate in small ways. We would scooch across a cushion at the wrong angle, and a button would pop off, leaving a fraying hole behind. We would lean back slightly too far, and all of the cushions would shift forward and over the edge of the couch in unison.
…
Since West Elm doesn’t have product reviews on their website, there is no real reason to know how widely disliked the Peggy sofa is until you buy one and then join the strange ad hoc community of Peggy truthers on the internet. As far as I can gather, the Peggy sofa has been on the market since 2014, which means that three years of consumers have been buying it and then immediately trying to warn others against making the same mistake.…
I asked what the expected lifespan is for a West Elm couch like the Peggy. Both store employees told me that between one and three years was normal for a couch with light use.
If West Elm's own customer service line is that their furniture is expected to last as little as 1 year, just imagine what total garbage it is under the upholstery. How do you even make things out of wood that fail so quickly? Do they use plastic screws? School glue?
Westelmed adjective
The feeling of complete defeat experienced after buying superficially premium furniture that is in fact of markedly lower quality than Ikea.
Update: the couch has disappeared from West Elm:
Some personal news. The Peggy sofa has completely disappeared from https://t.co/QdaNx0ADfI. ?
— Anna Hezel (@HezelAnna) February 20, 2017
