Houston woman says she paid almost $4,000 for a couch. She ended up going back and forth with customer support for months: ‘This is ridiculous’

A Houston woman said in a TikTok video that she and her husband bought a couch from West Elm for almost $4,000 in June and still did not have it months later. True Hernandez Reavis, who posts as @true.hernandez.re, described the purchase in person at the Rice Village store and said the couch arrived damaged on July 30 while the ottoman was fine. The video gained hundreds of thousands of views as she detailed repeated contacts with customer support.

She stated that a representative first said they would order a replacement, then said Furniture Medic could fix the couch in their home, and then said the medic needed to take it away instead.

Reavis claimed they were told to keep the broken couch until pickup could be arranged because they had no other one, and that the company picked it up on August 22. She added that she was told the couch would be returned in about a week with an email and phone call to schedule delivery.

District managers arrange delivery after the original video spreads

By August 27, she said she had heard nothing and called customer service, eventually reaching a woman named Lisa who scheduled delivery for September 7 after checking that the company would not be closed. Reavis stated she received confirming emails with the date and a time window.

But on September 7, no one came during the two-hour period, she said. She described calling the scheduling company, being told the delivery was canceled and the item could not be located, and then being transferred only to have someone hang up on her.

Reavis said she next spoke with a helpful representative named Cassie, who connected her to a manager named Sandria. She claimed that by September 10 or 11, the company said it did not know where the couch was or whether it had been fixed and ordered a replacement expected in late October or early November. She stated that an email later offered to schedule the replacement, which she set for October 15 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., and that her husband took time off work.

On the day before that date, she said scheduling called to say the truck was full and moved the delivery to October 22 without giving her a choice of window. Reavis, who said both she and her husband are teachers, claimed she had spoken to 11 different customer service people for about 3.5 hours total, kept screenshots of calls and emails, and repeatedly asked for compensation.

She stated the company told her it would not discuss compensation until she received the item, and she described the overall situation by saying, “This is ridiculous.” She is not the only furniture shopper to be let down after a big purchase, as one woman bought a $3,000 couch from Ashley Furniture and was disappointed within minutes.

In a follow-up TikTok, she said that after posting the first video on Thursday, a Texas store’s district manager called Friday morning at 10:30 and told her the company had seen the video and needed to get the issue fixed. About 30 minutes later, she claimed, a distribution-center district manager called and said he had found a truck for delivery the next day. The couch arrived Saturday at 11:30 a.m., she stated, but the delivery crew broke pathway lights outside the house on the way in.

Roughly an hour after delivery, Reavis said a customer service representative she had never spoken with offered $750 in compensation, which she called ridiculous and rejected. She stated the offer then rose to $1,100, which she also declined while asking for a supervisor, but staff would not transfer her and said an internal email chain was handling the matter. She described calling both district managers again to mention the broken lights.

Around 5 p.m. that evening, she said a person identifying only as Supervisor called and offered essentially 40 percent off. Reavis claimed she told him the amount was insulting once he learned about the lights, and that he then suggested 10 percent off if she spent another $2,500 for a $250 credit, which she rejected.

She stated her husband mentioned he used to work for the company at a different branch, that the firm would not go above 40 percent, and that she accepted the offer pending approvals expected by Wednesday or Thursday, with an email confirmation she screenshotted.

Reavis said she was glad the couch finally arrived but frustrated that it took the video spreading on social media for action to occur. She relayed that company representatives told her they never give more than 40 percent. Her struggle echoes other customer service dead ends, like the North Carolina shopper who received an empty box from Target and was told nothing could be done.

Viewers in the comments section offered mixed takes on the long customer-service struggle. One person focused on what they saw as a lack of accountability, writing, “They lost your couch and nobody wants to own the problem.” Another said the video prompted an immediate change of plans, stating, “I just cancelled my order. We bought a couch last night. Called them right after listening to this.”

A third weighed in on how the situation was handled from the start, commenting, “I would never keep a damaged product. Refuse delivery, they refund or replace. These companies are so frustrating.”