Happy and surprised My order was a little delayed though their customer service rep was great. When my chair arrived, it was fantastic. They followed up on my order and even gave me some credit. I wasn't expecting that.

The merchandise itself is good, BUT The merchandise itself is good - once it finally arrives! Shipping estimates are always wrong, add two to three months minimum to what they list. It's a dark pattern, they have been in business long enough to have data that would allow for a truthful estimate. They certainly should have the capacity to proactively communicate delays. Sorry the essential, you've fooled me more than twice now - shame on me.

Terrible customer service well for a very short time this company seemed to get its act together WRONG. Placed last order on July 31 today is Sept. 14 contacted CS and after a late reply no dry ice really nothing listed on website. Finally shipped and tracking says damaged sent back. Now zero communication from CS cant call it customer service. What a shame good products crap for service. What could they do better well try customer service.

Misleading ship times, poor communication I rarely write poor reviews, but in this case I felt I had to as I've had multiple negative experiences with this company. I placed an order for 2 standing desks in May 2023. The website said the ship time was 2-3 weeks. I had to wait FIVE MONTHS for the desks – which ended up shipping separately, weeks apart. Throughout that whole time I was consistently told (over 7-ish different interactions) that the desks were "still 2-3 weeks out". Had I known how long the desks were going to take I would likely have cancelled the order or not placed the order. The same issue happened when I ordered 2 desk lamps, they took months instead of the advertised 1-2 weeks to ship. So misleading and so frustrating. I also think it's telling that in their marketing emails they display their Trustpilot rating as 4 stars – when it is currently 3.1 as of the writing of this review, and many recent reviews reflect the same issues I had with them. They are clearly not addressing serious operational issues and continuing to misrepresent lead times on their website and disappoint customers.

Products are unreal and I save… Products are unreal and I save tremendous amounts of money AND TIME using The Essential. I buy >50% of my housewares from The Essential.