|
About Us
Shop with
confidence at The Well Appointed House!
 The
Well Appointed House, LLC is a New York based company that was
founded in 2001 by Melissa Hawks, while she was working as a young,
advertising executive in Manhattan. She wanted to bring the
unique decorative accessories and latest home design trends readily
available to the local design trade to a broader audience and hence,
The Well Appointed House was born. Over seven years later, the
company has grown to include case goods for every room of the house,
items for the patio and garden, gifts for adults, children and pets
alike! Melissa splits her time between Manhattan and
Westchester with her husband and children. As the mother of
three children under the age of three, she has first hand knowledge of how to make a house a
home in a way that incorporates the entire family. Her latest
addition arrived in October!
Our team is dedicated to providing customers with the finest home furnishings and accessories
currently available on the Internet. Our selection of over 6,000 products combines classic furniture designs of the past with fresh and lively accents. Whether
searching for a hand-painted demilune, a pair of polished brass sconces or even a silk flower arrangement to complete a room...you can find it here! By browsing the
various sections of The Well Appointed House, you may find yourself thinking of new ways to refresh existing rooms by simply
adding two or three new accessories.
 To complement our extensive
product selection, we have implemented a gift registry that can be used for
weddings, housewarmings, birthdays, baby showers and holidays.
Use it for your holiday wish list! Be sure to check delivery times on all
items before adding them to your gift registry for a special event. Many
of our items are custom made or specialty goods that may take 4-6, 6-8 or in
some cases 10-12 weeks to arrive! Please be patient with delivery
times on those items. We will do our best to accommodate you. We
also have many "Quick Ship" items which have delivery times of 5-7 days, if not
sooner.
If you need quick gift ideas, please contact
customerservice@wellappointedhouse.com
Philanthropy
We are a socially conscious
organization and have donated money, our time and/or goods to the following
organizations. A large percentage of the money raised by The Well
Appointed House is given away. We feel that nothing creates a warmer home
environment than when its inhabitants care about those around them:
-The New York Junior League
- supporting programs for women and children in need in NYC
-The Ronald McDonald House of New York
- supporting a home away from home for children with cancer
-The Central Park Conservancy
- supporting the restoration and preservation of Manhattan's Central Park
-The Children's Cardiomyopathy Foundation
- supporting the search for cures for pediatric cardiomyopathy
-Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital of New York-Presbyterian
- supporting the annual Heartbeat Cabaret to raise money for pediatric heart
care programs
-Women for Women International
-Memorial Sloan Kettering
-The Greenwich Riding Trails Association
-The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society
-Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation
- supporting the search for a cure for breast cancer
-Wildlife Conservation Society & the
Central Park Zoo
-Main Line Animal Rescue - This
animal rescue facility saves hundreds of dogs from puppy mills in the Lancaster,
PA area. Please click here to read more and make a donation. It
touched our hearts. We love animals!
-American Museum of Natural History
-Children's Hope Chest -
Helping children and families of the NYC area in need
-Westchester Children's
Museum -
The Westchester Children’s
Museum will be a vibrant new learning center that will nurture curiosity,
enhance knowledge, and ignite imagination in our children as they explore the
history, arts, environment, and cultural diversity of their local and global
communities.
Sign Up For Our
Insiders Club 
Sign up here to receive special coupons and savings sent via e-mail to club
members. You can also register to receive our new catalog. In July
2009, we will hold a drawing and award one lucky recipient a $2500 gift
certificate to our site.
Customer
Service Contact
Information Product questions, order status
inquiries and requests to be added to our newsletter should be directed to us via e-mail. Please include the product name and item number
if you are inquiring about a product. If you are checking the status of an
order, please include your name, zip code and order number if you have it handy. We will
respond to your questions within 24 hours. Send your requests to
customerservice@wellappointedhouse.com
Our Customer Service Manager is
available via phone from Monday through Friday from 8:00AM to 1:00PM EST.
She can be reached at (914) 400-4360.
Media
Contacts:
Media inquiries for print and television should be directed to
Melissa Hawks
New Business
Companies interested in having
their products showcased should contact
Melissa Hawks (Owner and Head Buyer) or
Jan Minot (New Business).
Product
Selection & Prices
We strive to carry
unique items that you will only find in specialty stores and boutiques. Our
prices reflect the fact that many of our products are either handmade or
imported from artisans overseas. We do not carry many of these products in stock,
in order to offer the largest possible selection. Most orders are special
orders with merchandise shipped directly to you from the manufacturer. If you are looking for a
specific manufacturer that you do not see on our website, feel
free to send us an e-mail to find out if we can order the item for you. We
have additional items available that are not on the website. Prices on the
website are subject to change at any time.
Facebook
We are now on Facebook!
Go to Facebook.com if you are a member and add yourself as a "FAN"
of our page (look up The Well Appointed House in the search box or
simply click on the Facebook icon above and log in. If you are
new to Facebook, you will need to register for free) to
receive special insider discounts, notice of interesting new
products and receive early notice of sales.
Checkout & Order Confirmation
Order
confirmations are automatically sent by our system to you as soon as
we have received your order. You will receive an electronic
receipt via e-mail to the e-mail address you have provided to us. Your credit card is
approved upon checkout and then we manually charge your card when we review
your order and put it in for either shipment or creation (if it is a
custom made to order items). We check to see that the item is still available
and that the price was correctly listed. Occasionally, due to
a programming error, a product may be listed with the wrong price or
with no price at all. We cannot honor incorrect orders and
will immediately inform you if there is any problem with the order.
We also evaluate the shipping cost of items shipping via freight
truck. The system estimates a shipping cost and then we get
the actual shipping cost when manually processing your order.
Due to increased gas prices, freight shipping is much more expensive
than it was this time last year. We will contact you with the
actual freight shipping cost before charging your card to get
approval.
Please contact us if you are having a problem with a drop-down menu
or getting an order processed - we can usually fix it very quickly
so that you can order the item. By checking out, customers are
agreeing that they have read and familiarized themselves with our
Ordering and Return Policies.
Gift Registry
We have a gift registry, which can be used for weddings, birthdays, baby
showers, housewarming parties and bar/bat mitzvahs. You can visit our gift
registry
page
clicking here
Return Policy
Decorative
Accessories: Due
to the custom nature of most of our products, combined with the fact that most
items are special ordered and not kept in stock, The Well Appointed House
accepts returns of decorative accessories for merchandise exchange or store credit
only. (Please note that this policy does not apply to any decorative
accessories that are noted to be "CUSTOM MADE" - please refer below to the
policy for custom or hand painted items. If you are thinking of ordering a
BULK QUANTITY of more than 5 of any one item please refer to the BULK RETURN
POLICY BELOW). Decorative items that are not
custom made to order can be returned within 7 days of the ship-to date in the original packaging for
a store credit less the cost of shipping and handling. Item must be packed in the original box, must be in original condition and
returned to The Well Appointed House prepaid and insured. Shipping is
nonrefundable and no COD returns will be accepted. Damaged returns will not be honored.
If an item is returned to us damaged, the customer is responsible for collecting
the insurance reimbursement from the shipping carrier they chose and our
responsibility for the transaction is thus terminated.
PROCEDURE: Please contact us to
let us know that you plan to return a purchase prior to sending it to obtain a
Return Authorization. We will provide you with shipping directions and a
RA#. Once the item is received and logged at The Well Appointed House, we
will issue you a store credit shopping code for you to use towards your next
purchase. Exchanges are considered 'final sales'.
Please be aware that if you do not follow our Return Authorization procedure and
just return items to the return address on the box, we will have no way of
logging the item back into our system since many items ship from different
locations. We will not be held responsible for any customer who returns
items without first contacting us and following our procedures. We are
happy to accept returns but must be able to track them and check them as soon as
we receive them to give store credit back. There have been instances where
a customer returned a box to one of our vendors warehouses and the item has no
way of being found or traced and therefore we cannot issue store credit.
This can easily be avoided by following the Return Authorization procedure!
Furniture: We
do not hold any furniture stock, all pieces are special ordered. Custom
made furniture may not be returned for any reason. Contact us prior to making your purchase if you need clarification
on whether or not your furniture can be returned. Some smaller case goods
pieces like tray tables or side tables can be returned. Those items
usually ship UPS and we will accept them back. Most
custom made items have a notation in the product description.
If you received damaged furniture, please see our "Damaged Merchandise" section
below.
Personalized
Items:
Due to their custom nature, no personalized or monogrammed items may be
returned for any reason unless it arrived damaged.
Custom or Hand Painted Items: Any items listed as "Custom
Made to Order" or "Hand Painted" are exactly as implied - made to order.
They may not be returned.
Pet
Merchandise:
Pet merchandise may not be returned.
Damaged
Merchandise:
All merchandise is inspected and sent damage-free to your home. If an item
arrives damaged, it is the customer's responsibility to notify the carrier and
The Well Appointed House within 48 hours of receipt. The Well Appointed
House cannot send replacement merchandise or issue any sort of store credit
until the claim is made with the shipper and the item is picked up by the
carrier for inspection. Be sure to keep your purchase in the original
packaging so that it can be repackaged and picked up by the shipper for
inspection and insurance evaluation. Once The Well Appointed House receives
notification from the shipper that an evaluation has been performed, we will
immediately replace the merchandise (provided a replacement is available) or issue a full refund. If for any reason a customer does not
allow the carrier to pick up the damaged merchandise, this will prevent a claim
from being processed and this customer is not eligible for replacement
merchandise or store credit. This also applies to customers who do not respond to carrier phone calls in a timely manner to allow damaged merchandise to be picked up.
If the carrier makes three attempts to inspect the merchandise and the customer
does not comply. we cannot issue a refund. If merchandise is damaged
within a customer's home after the item was delivered, the shipper and The Well
Appointed House cannot be held responsible. The following are contact numbers for some of
the shippers used by The Well Appointed House:
UPS:1-800-PICK-UPS
(1-800-742-5877)
FedEx: 1-800-GO-FEDEX (1-800-463-3339)
United States Postal Service: 1-800-ASK-USPS (1-800-275-8777)
DHL: 1-800-CALL-DHL (1-800-225-5345)
Plycon Transport Group (Freight/Furniture Deliveries): 631-269-7000
Bargain
Basement:
The sale of any merchandise from our "Bargain Basement" is
considered a final sale. There are no returns or exchanges on Bargain
Basement items. DO NOT ship back Bargain Basement items as you will not be
given store credit. We heavily discount this merchandise to make space for
other items.
Bulk Orders:
If you are a designer, hospitality company, hotel or
even just a regular customer ordering a quantity of more than 5 of
ANY ONE item (for example, 20 non-custom wastebasket sets for a new
hotel), you MAY NOT return these items for any reason once
the order has been put into production and the order has been
received. If you think you are interested in ordering a high
volume of any item, order ONE FIRST to see it and be sure that it
fits your project needs and then order the rest.
Please be sure that you
have read and understand our return policy prior to placing your order.
Call or
e-mail us with questions. Your satisfaction is very important to us.
Order
Cancellation
Since we strive for excellent customer service, orders coming in through the
website are often put in and shipped out immediately. Sometimes, even
items that may say "Usually ships within 2-3 weeks" are available at the time of
order and are shipped right out. If you would like to cancel an order, we
can honor the cancellation request provided that the item has not yet shipped.
If you try to cancel the order, but the item has already shipped out and is on
its way to you, it will be handled as a return and you can refer to our
Return Policy section on guidelines for returning items. You are
responsible for the cost of shipping the item back to us and will receive store
credit. We will gladly assist you with a merchandise exchange.
Items that are being handmade or custom made to order can usually be
cancelled within 24-48 hours of order receipt. However, there will be
exceptions to this if work has begun on an item before we hear from you.
If you are on the fence about ordering a custom made to order item, wait until
you are sure you want the item before putting your order in as we cannot always
promise that the order can be cancelled. We always try our best to
accommodate our customers!
ALL order cancellations must be made in writing to
Customer Service. This way we have a
record of when the order was cancelled.
Shipping Within
the United States
We ship anywhere in the United
States.
Please note that shipment of goods to United
States states or territories outside of the continental mainland such as Hawaii
and Puerto Rico usually incur additional shipping charges above what is quoted
in the checkout process. We will contact you with the up charges prior to
charging your credit card and processing your order.
Freight Shipping of
Furniture: Our website attempts to calculate the shipping of items
when they are added to the shopping cart based on a system that is in place
primarily for items shipping via UPS and other carriers. However,
furniture shipments require a quote from a freight shipping company and there
may be up charges above what is shown in your shopping cart for furniture
orders. Due to increased gas prices, freight shipping costs are much
higher now than they were this time last year. We make every effort to use
the most efficient carriers that will handle our furniture with the utmost care. If you would like a shipping quote prior to placing
your order, please contact us for that
information and specify if you want inside delivery. Inside delivery is
more expensive. Carrying furniture up stairs usually incurs an up charge
of about $25 per item. If you are purchasing a crib from our Children's
Collection and it is shipping via freight (some are flat packed and can ship via
UPS) you may be eligible for crib assembly by our shipping folks. There is
a $50 charge for crib assembly if your item if it is going on a furniture truck
and not via UPS. You must request this service as it is an additional perk
but is not included in normal shipping fees.
*A Note About Free Shipping
Offers: Please note that if an item is offered for sale with free
shipping and the customer decides to return the item, they are still responsible
for paying the return shipping of the item back to The Well Appointed House.
Also, for furniture items that are being offered for a special free shipping
offer, please note that this is for free curbside shipping only. If any
customer wishes to have the furniture brought into the home, up stairs,
assembled and packaging removed, there is usually about a $150 upcharge for
white glove delivery. Contact
Customer Service to arrange this.
International Shipping
We have ceased shipping directly to customers abroad but we will ship to any
reputable freight forwarding service in the United States. Please
note that international customers do this at their own risk and expense. We
suggest that international customers establish an account with Access USA to
obtain a U.S. shipping address and we will gladly ship merchandise there. Their website is
http://www.myus.com/
Please note that there are no
returns on international orders.
Delivery Time
Our product
selection has been created to cater to customers serious about decorating their
homes. With over 6,000 unique luxury products, we are unmatched on the
web. Our products have been featured in many home design magazines.
We look for specialty items that will add a special touch to your home. Several of our
selections are handcrafted by top artisans in the United States and Europe and may take
many weeks to
arrive to you, so please allow plenty of time for delivery. Please check
the availability listing associated with each item.
Contact us if you
have an immediate shipping need and we will provide you with an estimated delivery time.
Occasionally, items are backordered. If this is the case, we
will contact you immediately to let you know. Engraving time varies depending on volume, so please let us know if you have a deadline.
If you are expecting a child and ordering items for your nursery, please note
the estimated delivery time listed with the product you are ordering and enter
your due date into the "Notes" section of your order upon
checkout. We will flag the due date on your order and will give you an
indication of whether we feel that your order will not arrive in
time. Every attempt will be made
to get purchases to you as quickly as possible!
Secure Ordering
Our online store
is hosted by Yahoo's secure, reliable servers. Our credit card orders are
processed by Paymentech. We accept MasterCard, Visa and Diner's Club.
CORPORATE DISCOUNTS, HOSPITALITY & CONTRACT ORDERS
We routinely work
with some of the largest contract, hospitality and hotel companies
from around the world. Our stylish, luxury accessories provide
a nice alternative to some of the rather drab contract pieces
that you typically see offered for hotel companies. Where else
will you find over 7,000 decorative accessories on the web?
The Well Appointed House is a unique shopping destination for
hospitality companies. For example, we recently worked with a
luxury hotel in Bermuda on supplying wastebaskets and bathroom
accessories. Large contract orders are given special volume
discount consideration and must be paid by check. We will
not accept returns on these large orders, so we suggest that you
order one of each item of interest before placing a large order with
us to be sure the items will be appropriate for your project.
We will work with you to ensure that lead times align with your
project needs.
Privacy
We will never
sell, distribute or publish mailing or e-mail addresses. This also
includes telephone numbers. Any information our website gathers about our
customers is used for shipping and internal marketing purposes. We send a
monthly newsletter to our existing customers with new product additions and
discount coupons. If you wish to stop receiving these newsletters, please
respond to the 'unsubscribe' link at the bottom of the newsletters.
Photography
All original photos used on this website are strictly the property of The Well Appointed House and cannot be copied or duplicated for use anywhere, anytime without permission.
Copyright protection of The Well Appointed House website is currently under review by the Library of Congress Copyright
Office. If you
are not familiar with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, signed
into law by President Bill Clinton, it might be helpful to read it
on-line. It can be found at
http://www.loc.gov/copyright/legislation/dmca.pdf
We enforce copyright protection of our photos and of original text. The majority of photos on
our website are copyrighted and owned by the manufacturers and artists we work
with. Those are all protected and therefore no photos should be removed from this website without
permission. All photos are Copyrighted by either The Well Appointed House
or our vendors. Bloggers or other websites should not use our photos
without permission.
Frequently
Asked Questions
Do
you have a catalog?
At this time we do not have a catalog, though we will take your name, address,
and e-mail to add you to our list for HTML newsletters and mailings. We
routinely send out important new product updates and coupons. A catalog is
in the works, though!
Can you order designer
fabrics and wallpaper for me?
Yes, we have accounts with most of the major "To-The-Trade" designer fabric
houses such as Scalamandre, Brunschwig & Fils, Kravet, Osborne & Little, Lee
Jofa, and many others.
E-mail us for a quote.
Can I use custom paints with
your items? Some
of our items such as select furniture, patio items, bed coronas and more can be
painted using Benjamin Moore paint colors of the customer's choosing.
There is always an up charge for this to cover the cost of additional labor and
paints. Contact us when making your purchase to inquire about this -
up charges range from $50 and up depending on the item.
Is
it safe for me to purchase on-line?
Yes, it is very safe. We are a Yahoo! Store. Our
online store
is hosted by Yahoo's secure, reliable servers. Our credit card orders are
processed by Paymentech. We accept MasterCard, Visa and Diner's Club.
Can
I place a phone order?
We always suggest that you
order on-line so that you are entered into our secure ordering system and can check the status
of your order and receive e-mails from customer service. A phone order gets
manually entered by an employee into the same system and therefore we prefer to receive orders
through our secure website run on a Yahoo platform. If you are having
trouble ordering, please send us an e-mail so that we can correct any bugs or
errors on the website.
Are your products always in
stock? Most of our
items are specialty items and are special ordered and custom made for each
individual customer. We prefer to carry items that are unique and
therefore most items are custom made to order. For example, we are happy
to offer over 200 beautiful wastebaskets. Each wastebasket is custom made
once we receive a customer order. This is why the delivery time is 2-3
weeks on this particular item. We can assure you, it is worth the wait!
If we were to stock them, we could only hold a few styles at any given time.
We are a shopping destination for buyers serious about decorating who will wait
for the right item!
Will
you accept a personal check or money order?
For large furniture orders, that is perfectly fine. We will deposit your
check and wait for it to clear before sending out the merchandise. Call us
to arrange payment.
Can
you wrap gifts?
Unfortunately at this time, we do not offer a gift wrap service universal to the
website but will try our best to accommodate special requests, which will incur
an additional fee and additional time for handling. We can send a gift notification in the mail for any gifts ordered. This can include a personalized message to the gift recipients. If you wish to utilize this option, please enter your message in the NOTES section upon checkout.
Is
it possible to get coupons for The Well Appointed House?
We offer incentives and coupons from time to time. The best way to receive
savings is to subscribe to our newsletter. We also offer special
incentives to reward our return customers. Also - peruse all the
sections of our website. We often hide coupon codes in different sections
of the website! If you are on FACEBOOK, you can look up The Well Appointed
House and become a "FAN" of our page and receive insider updates on sales and
discounts.
I am a designer, can I order through your website and receive a discount?
Yes! We routinely work with some of New York's most famous design firms
and have assisted in getting products for many designer show houses.
Contact us for information if you are a designer. However, we must warn
you that we screen carefully, we will check references and require a minimum of
three trade accounts along with a TAX ID and a business card. We will not
accept personal orders and all orders must come through on a company card.
Please do not fax orders to us as they will not be accepted. Contact us
with your credentials to receive a code to use on orders.
I am working with a charity and want to solicit goods or services from The Well
Appointed House.
We are currently very
involved with New York City charities and are not
currently accepting requests for donated items. |
